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Episode 36 – Texas Tornado

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Mar 30, 2017
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Texas Pinball Festival coverage: new game releases, announcements, and gameplay impressions from Ron's attendance.

Summary

Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discuss their experience at the Texas Pinball Festival in Frisco, covering numerous game announcements and releases including Houdini (American Pinball), Jetsons (Spooky/Pinball Company), Alien (Jersey Jack), P3 (Multimorphic), Total Annihilation, Aerosmith (Stern), and announcements of Elvira 3 and Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. The festival is positioned as the new equivalent to the traditional Expo, featuring vendors, announcements, and extensive playable game lineup. Ron provides detailed gameplay impressions and critiques of multiple titles.

Key Claims

  • Texas Pinball Festival is becoming the new Expo equivalent with vendors, announcements, and many playable games

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing the festival's role in the industry

  • Houdini (American Pinball) is very early but playable and already better than Magic Girl

    high confidence · Ron's direct observation at the show

  • Jetsons costs $6,200 and is sold by Pinball Company (not Spooky directly), made to their specifications

    high confidence · Ron discussing Spooky's Jetsons game

  • Alien has fixed the left ramp stuck ball issue from Expo, but has left ramp feed inconsistency to slingshot/out lane

    high confidence · Ron's gameplay experience with Alien

  • Alien standard edition is $6,450 and 35th anniversary edition is $8,150

    high confidence · Ron providing pricing information he looked up

  • P3 (Multimorphic) had 8 different units displayed with various game modes and configurations

    high confidence · Ron's observation at the show

  • Dialed In has three wizard modes currently in the game with talk of an uber final wizard mode

    medium confidence · Ron referencing Jack's seminar information

  • Stern Aerosmith LEs have started shipping and some have been delivered

    high confidence · Ron's direct observation at the show

  • Flash Gordon star Sam Jones was at the show booth and received a Flash machine as partial payment

    medium confidence · Ron heard about this at the festival

  • Elvira 3 is being attempted with backers including one current and one former Stern employee, unclear which manufacturer will produce it

    medium confidence · Dennis Norman announcement during Elvira seminar at the show

Notable Quotes

  • “It's becoming the new expo. It's like the expo, like it has all the vendors and all the announcements, but it actually has like a shitload of games.”

    Ron Hallett @ early in episode — Establishes Texas Pinball Festival's emerging role in the industry

  • “I tell everyone, don't put your money down yet. But let's keep an eye on American Pinball. They look like they have some good people there who are trying to.”

    Ron Hallett @ discussing Houdini — Cautious but optimistic assessment of American Pinball; hints at broader concerns about pre-orders

  • “It didn't feel that much different [from Domino's]. Similar feel. And how much does Jetsons cost? I think $6,200. Wow. Yeah. Just, no. No?”

    Ron Hallett @ discussing Jetsons gameplay and pricing — Critical assessment of Jetsons value proposition relative to Domino's

  • “I would actually be interested in that. I'd be interested in it. I don't know if I'd actually buy it, but I would think that a good game could be made of it. For me, that was the most interesting game of the whole show.”

    Ron Hallett @ discussing Total Annihilation — Identifies Total Annihilation as standout game despite reservations about actually purchasing

  • “The thing was rock solid. Both games were up the whole time. Never had an issue. The thing was rock solid at Expo 2. I mean, really, the only issues I've heard are the wear around the magnet.”

    Ron Hallett @ discussing Dialed In reliability — Stark contrast to other machines' issues; establishes Dialed In's durability reputation

  • “It's like if you took an old game and souped up the sound system and put a display on it.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ summarizing Total Annihilation's aesthetic — Captures Total Annihilation's retro-modern design philosophy

  • “Hit the left ramp. When the ball comes down, it doesn't, like, feed the in lane directly. It kind of feeds, like, the top of the slingshot and falls into the in lane...But when I played, it kept falling into the out lane, which was kind of annoying.”

Entities

Texas Pinball FestivaleventRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonHoudinigameAmerican PinballcompanyJetsonsgameSpooky Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival in Frisco emerging as equivalent to traditional Expo with vendors, announcements, and extensive playable game lineup

    high · Ron: 'It's becoming the new expo. It's like the expo, like it has all the vendors and all the announcements, but it actually has like a shitload of games.'

  • ?

    announcement: Multiple new game announcements at Texas Pinball Festival including Houdini, Jetsons, Alien, Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle, Elvira 3, and Total Annihilation

    high · Extensive coverage of multiple game announcements throughout festival

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern Aerosmith LEs have begun shipping and customers are receiving deliveries

    high · Ron: 'The LEs actually started shipping and actually delivered so far. People are actually getting LEs.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Alien's signature ball lock feature (alien head mouth grabbing ball) not functioning properly during Ron's play session

    high · Ron: 'The alien head opens its mouth, and nothing happened. Fail. It didn't grab the ball. The ball just, the multi-ball just started.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Alien has inconsistent left ramp ball feed causing balls to drain to out lane instead of in lane, particularly problematic during multiball

    high · Ron: 'When the ball comes down...it kept falling into the out lane, which was kind of annoying...During multi-ball, I must have hit it like four straight times, and it went in the out lane four straight times'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.257

0:00
Welcome to Driver's Ed. I'm required to tell you that the film we are about to see contains actual footage of gruesome car crashes. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Multiple car pilots.
0:20
Flat. Yeah. Flat. Yeah. Whoa. His brain fell out. This is your brain. This is your brain on the street. Any questions?
0:37
Oh, cool. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Prince Baron, you may call me. That's because this is episode 36, The Living Daylights, the debut of Timothy Dalton as James Bond. Yes, who is, in my mind, Prince Baron from Flash.
1:24
He'll always be Prince Baron, okay. And it ties in with this week's theme very well. Yeah, I met Flash. Yes. I met the man himself.
1:39
What else about? Who did the theme music for that? Was that A-ha? I'm going to look right now. I think it was A-ha. They did one of the Timothy Dalton ones. You know, the Take On Me people? Yeah. Take on me. take on me I oh sorry it is uh huh so what do you think of the movie I only saw it once yeah I only saw it a couple times not bad not great you know for his first one it's not too shabby he does I think two total though doesn't he yes he does two total the story is Pierce Brosnan was supposed to be the next James Bond. Yes. But he still had a contract with NBC. Yes. And even though Remington Steel ended, they forced him to do Remington Steel made-for-TV movies. So he kind of got screwed. Yes, he did. Stephanie Zimbalist also got screwed because she was supposed to be in Robocop as Lewis.

Ron Hallett @ describing Alien left ramp issue — Identifies specific mechanical/flow problem with Alien that persists despite other fixes

  • “I purposely have avoided playing it since putting in my pre-order because I don't want to see any of the new stuff. Because I didn't want to cancel his order.”

    Ron Hallett @ discussing Dialed In new code — Reveals pre-order anxiety and concern about seeing new content potentially triggering cancellation

  • “The alien head opens its mouth, and nothing happened. Fail. It didn't grab the ball. The ball just, the multi-ball just started. Magnet released the ball. So I don't know if I just got the one that wasn't working or it's not working totally yet or whatever.”

    Ron Hallett @ describing Alien ball lock feature malfunction — Identifies potential mechanical failure in Alien's signature feature

  • “No more old guys on pinball. Sorry, Alice Cooper. As last week, we said how much we liked Aerosmith. Hypocrite. Hypocrite. I like Aerosmith because at least they had some hits.”

    Ron Hallett @ discussing Spooky's Alice Cooper announcement — Reveals Ron's conflicted stance on nostalgia licensing and artist hit record standards

    • Alien
    game
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    P3game
    Multimorphiccompany
    Total Annihilationgame
    Dialed Ingame
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Aerosmithgame
    Elvira 3game
    Dennis Normanperson
    Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castlegame
    Cassandra Petersonperson
    Sam Jonesperson
    Greg Ferrisperson
    Ed Robertsonperson
    Tim Ballsperson
    Mark Ritchieperson
    Steve Ritchieperson
    ?

    product_concern: Jetsons game appears difficult and challenging in play, potentially affecting casual player appeal at $6,200 price point

    medium · Ron: 'It doesn't play easy...It plays hard' and 'for $6,000, no.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Ron and Bruce disagree on value of 'Fail' message display for incomplete modes; Tim Balls criticizes this as poor design

    high · Ron cites Tim Balls' criticism then states 'I like that' while disagreeing with the design philosophy

  • ?

    machine_intel: Dennis Norman announced pitch-and-bat games with baseball ($4,200) and zombie themes ($4,500-4,600); unclear if Stern will manufacture

    medium · Ron: 'Dennis Norman...had two during the weekend. Number one was a pitch and bat with two variations'

  • $

    market_signal: Clear pricing spread across new games: Jetsons $6,200, Alien $6,450-8,150, Aerosmith LE, Total Annihilation ~$3,700; customer sensitivity to value at $6K+ tier

    high · Multiple specific price points discussed throughout episode with Ron's critical assessment of value

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Ron displays anxiety about pre-orders and avoids seeing new Dialed In code to prevent cancellation impulse

    high · Ron: 'I purposely have avoided playing it since putting in my pre-order because I don't want to see any of the new stuff. Because I didn't want to cancel his order.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Total Annihilation features mini flipper on upper playfield area with unique ball-up-the-lanes mechanic, drop target ball lock, and retro System 11 aesthetic with modern LCD graphics

    high · Ron: 'the upper part of the playfield where you have the reactor...the mini flipper and you can actually hit it up through the lanes...drop targets for the ball lock where the target comes up and traps the ball'

  • ?

    product_launch: Multimorphic P3 displayed with 8 different game variants and configurations including networking, pitch-and-bat, mode-based games, and interchangeable physical backends

    high · Ron: 'They had a ton of different models there...at least five to seven different units...eight, actually. With different games? Okay, eight.'

    • 2:44
    Oh, wow. And she had to also do the same Remington Steel movies. Wow, that sucks. Neither were very happy. So that's our show tonight, and thank you and good – oh, shit, I forgot about our news. News. Most of the news is all based around the Texas Pinball Festival. What's that? That's the show that's becoming like the new expo. It is becoming the new expo. It's like the expo, like it has all the vendors and all the announcements, but it actually has like a shitload of games. Well, the thing is – the good thing about this is I know why the Chicago people want to go down there. They don't want to be in Chicago in March. They want to be in heat and warmth and get away from everything instead of October Expo and going, gee, it's getting cold out. Gee, another thing to remind me why I'm stuck in Chicago. Well, we had a tornado warning on Sunday night. I got to hear the storm siren.
    3:51
    It's like, oh, what the fuck was that? What's going on? Oh, yeah, the whole sky was lit up, and it hailed like crazy for like two minutes. Then it rained for maybe another five minutes, and then that was it. But it was impressive. It was very impressive. I was trying to sleep, of course, but then I told my father, it's like, you can stay up here if you want because we're on the fifth floor. If a tornado's hitting, I'm getting down to ground level. I don't want to be up on the first floor. Dive, dive, dive. Dive. Oh, wow.
    4:27
    What video game is that in? Video game. That's in a video game. Yep. I was doing Flash Gordon. Yes. That song is in a video game. Is it? Yep. I don't know. Venture.
    4:42
    Is it? Yep. Wow. That's where I heard it. And actually, when I heard it in the movie, I was like, I've heard that before.
    4:50
    It's like they ripped it off from a video game. Well, no, actually, it was the other way around. Of course. I doubt they paid any residuals for that, but yes. Wow. So, Ron. Yes. Let this be your show. I'm going to go take a nap for a few minutes. Tell us all about Texas. So you can yawn even more? Yes. Okay, excellent. Yes, the Texas Pinball Festival from Frisco, Texas. at the Embassy Suites Frisco. So let's just go over the whole thing. You landed Monday morning, had Monday off. You went to work Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in Massachusetts, right? I was in Massachusetts Wednesday, yes. Wednesday, okay. And then Thursday you got ready for your adventure, and then Friday morning you wake up and you brought somebody with you, and it wasn't your little buddy. Oh, it was my dad. It was my little buddy. Yes. You'll be my bigger buddy. Oh, I am. Although he is getting heavier. All right. Good. Dad needs to gain some weight. No, he doesn't. Yes, he does.
    5:54
    The plane flights were a little less eventful this time. Good. Very good. Everything was on time. We got in there. We get there, and it's going to be three or four hours until the show starts. We're open, so we're hungry. I want to eat somewhere. And they got like this sports bar like across the street. It's like just a sports bar. You got to go just call it Wild Pitch. So it's like, okay. So I'm sure everyone's familiar with Hooters. Yes. And if you've been to Expo, you'd be familiar with Twin Peaks, which is basically a Hooters clone. Yes. Wild Pitch was basically, it's the step between Hooters and a strip club. Oh, good. I would have loved that place. Sign me up next year for Texas. You walk in, and basically they're all in their underwear.
    6:46
    Oh, my. Are they playing with bats there? The funny thing is the food was actually quite good. Oh, wow. See, you got to hook them.
    6:57
    Yeah. I was just like, really? Wow. Okay. And being in Texas, they had a sign right in the front door, no weapons allowed in this establishment. Of course. God, I love Texas. So the show starts, and luckily we were there Friday, so we actually got to play without too much of a crowd. Got very crowded on Saturday. Played in the tournament.
    7:23
    Made a tactical error of not playing enough on Friday, but frankly I was tired because I had to get up like at 3 in the morning because we had early flights. Fail. Yeah, I ended up finishing 23rd, with most of my best games actually being EMs of all things. So if Bruce was down there, you would have been qualified, right? Yeah, if you were there, I would have qualified. That's correct. Yeah, similar situation to last year. Two entries left, I needed a killer game on something, and I would have been in. But it didn't happen. Oh, well. Of course, I should have played like Scared Stiff or Metallica again, but I just didn't want to get in the queue because it was just a long queue, which is stupid, but I'm just impatient. I guess a tactical error. What can you say?
    8:16
    Fail. First yawn. There's number one. Wow. Early. Man, come on. It's got a lot to go over in this show. I know we do. So Friday we got to see Flash arrived.
    8:29
    Flash. Sam Jones himself of Flash and, I guess, Ted fame. Yes. And that dude's big. Yes, he is. I thought he was actually standing on a platform when he was at his booth, and I walked over there. I was like, oh, no, he's not. He's got to be like, I'd say 6'4", 6'5". And the dude lifts. Oh, yes, he does. He's quite jacked. Not unnaturally steroid jacked, you know, like Sylvester Stallone is now, but like normal jack so uh he was he had a pretty good line going at times he was he was signing selling a lot of stuff and he i heard he got the the flash gordon machine he was next to he got for free there that's partial payment oh they did okay yep i didn't hear that but yes there was a uh flash machine next there yep and that was his now okay interesting so pretty cool did you get a flyer signed because that's what I would have you should have got your big buddy that since I have the Flash Gordon soundtrack on my iPhone yeah so do I but I know I I didn't because I didn't I didn't want to pay anything yeah fail 20 bucks you could have got him in the hallway sorry could have got him in the hallway all right so um his line was nothing compared to Elvira's line oh of course Cassandra looked great. She was there Saturday.
    9:52
    They were lining up long before she was there. She showed up and signed for, I can't remember how long it was, maybe an hour or two or whatever. Then she had to leave to go to the seminar, and the line stayed there waiting for her. Then she came back and signed some more. How long was your line at the booth for where you were signing? It was quite long. Really? Good. Yes.
    10:15
    Let's talk about some games that came out down there. Games, yes. The reason I say it's more like the Expo is because just announcements galore. And the first one was from Dennis Norman. Actually, he had two during the weekend. Number one was a pitch and bat with two variations, one on a traditional pitch and bat, and the second one, a zombie theme with zombie league all-stars.
    10:42
    And the pitch and bat, I think the baseball one was 42, and they were talking about the Zombie one being $4,500 to $4,600. And who's making these? They didn't really talk too much about it, but maybe Sterl will make it. They have a good relationship. Okay. Yep. But it looks like an old-style pitch and bat for the baseball. It has the movable guys up top that spin around for your first bait. The running man unit, if you will. Yes, like the Williams of old. It looks really cool. even as a side window on the side of it, like a flipper, so you can actually look into the side of the machine. I actually thought it looked really good. I was really intrigued by it. So kudos for Dennis' first announcement of the show. And the second announcement came during the Elvira seminar. The Elvira seminar, where it was him, Greg Ferris, and Elvira, and guess what's coming out? Uh-huh, an Elvira game? Yep, Elvira 3. No real information except for that they're trying to make it, and who knows if it's going to be a limited run, big run. We don't know nothing. But they do have backers, you know, it sounds like, and with one current employee at Stern and one former employee at Stern, you would think it would kick back to possibly being manufactured at Stern, so anything's possible. Yeah, I thought Stern was making it. I thought it was going to be a Stern game. I didn't know exactly. They didn't say that exactly. All right. They never stated that. They just said they're making it. I don't know what it could be under the whiz bang, could be under anything. We don't know. So I was listening to the interview today.
    12:29
    Oh, yeah. Where were you listening to those? I was trying to find where the seminars were. I thought they streamed them and I can't find them anywhere. I found it this afternoon and I can't find it again this afternoon. Fail. Well, I think they took them down. So we'll see. Well, yeah, I found the Texas Twitch page, and I noticed they had no videos on it. Yep. So, because I wanted to hear the Jersey Jack one again that I was at just to... Confirm some things? Confirm some things.
    12:56
    Houdini was next, which you got a great picture of. Saturday morning you released it on our Facebook slam tilt. Slam tilt Facebook page. Also, a video of it is on our YouTube channel. So, enjoy. And please, follow us on Facebook. Email us with your questions, always. Always. We got a lot of emails the past week, and we're going to go over them later on. But tell us what you think. Tell us what you want. Tell us what you want to hear. But also, you know, we like hearing from our fans. You make us, man. Oh, man.
    13:36
    Houdini, I did not get to play. Okay, you did not flip. It was flipping. Yep, the line was too long. It took four months from where it was when Joe Bowser came in to present. What's his name? Joe Bowser. I say Bowser. That's probably right.
    13:54
    And it had, I mean, I saw some instances where they had to reboot it and things like that. So it's very early. But, I mean, it was flipping. It was flipping. So it's already better than Magic Girl. So it was actually playable. Yes. It looks good. The cabinet is a little weird. It reminds me of a little bit of the head like an early ballet, like the two rounded edges. But I liked it. I like the artwork.
    14:23
    I like the – You like the death eyes of Houdini there? No, no, no. It's not the death eyes. It's Mortal Kombat eyes. If you see it, like his eyes just are like glowing. Like Raiden. Yeah.
    14:37
    It's like an X-ray vision Houdini. Yes. And I like the pop-up because they had chains on them. Yes, which is cool, too. I thought it was a really good first thing, you know. And guess what? I tell everyone, don't put your money down yet. But let's keep an eye on American Pinball. They look like they have some good people there who are trying to. Don't put your money down? We'll get into that. No, don't put your money down on anything anymore.
    15:02
    Even some other machine from next year. Oh, hi, Ron. Shut up. We'll go over that. So then we had – so, okay, we did American Pinball. Now, Spooky, they brought some Jetsons there. Yes. And I actually got to play that. And I heard the sounds on it.
    15:29
    Okay. Tell us your thoughts. Well, let's put it this way. It had the – was it Domino's game next to it? Okay. Yeah, Domino's. Domino's was next to it. and it didn't feel that much different.
    15:42
    Similar feel. And how much does Jetsons cost? I think $62. Wow. Yeah. Just, no. No? Sorry, I wasn't feeling that. Not for that price. Yeah, that's a shame. But they say they have a different market for this game. Luckily, Spooky does not sell these.
    16:01
    It's actually sold by the pinball company, and they were made all for contract for that company. So, you know, I guess in some way, you know, they made it to their specification what they wanted. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't play easy. I'll tell you that. If they wanted to make it play easy, that didn't happen. It plays hard. It looks like each shot is associated with a Jetsons character. Yes. And the one character, I could not figure out what the hell, who it was. I thought I knew all the Jetsons characters. I mean, George Jetson was like, he was Targets. That's spelled like Jetson or George or something like that. He had Elroy, Judy, Jane. Jane, his wife. Astro. Okay. Rosie. And then some other character I've never heard of. And I'm looking at it like, who the hell is that? Was it the repair guy? No, it wasn't Henry. Okay. And it wasn't, you know, I mean, it wasn't Jet Screamer. It wasn't Spacely or any other Cosmo Cogs? Nope. It's on the video. Was it Gazoo? Maybe it was Gazoo. Who the hell is Gazoo? Gazoo is a space alien from Jetsons and from Flintstones. Green helmet? Green helmet with antennas? Yeah, that might have been it. I don't remember ever seeing him in an episode. Gazoo was on both of them. Really? Yep. All right. Look up the great Gazoo. I know what you're talking about. I don't remember him being on. I remember him being on the Flintstones. I remember him being on the Jetsons. I actually watched the Jetsons. I don't... Weird. It's looking right now. A great... Oh, God. ...gazoo. No, I trust you. No, I'm making sure. Oh, yes, because our listeners are like, I just... Oh, they've got to be right on this. They've got to be yelling at me. They've got to be right on this. Well, they yell at you anyway. No, they don't. They love me. Sure they do.
    17:50
    Yeah, and the thing is, like, if you remember, Astro was not on the show originally. Like, originally Astro was not on the show and Rosie was not on the show. They came in later. Like, eventually they got Astro. Maybe it wasn't on that one. Maybe I might be wrong. I seem to remember seeing a character like that in the artwork somewhere. Okay. But I could be wrong.
    18:13
    All right. So we're going to do an edit here because I'm going to look it up right now because this is bothering me. Yeah, because I'm looking right now. Yeah, hold on.
    18:21
    All right. After careful research, it was not that character. It was not Gazoo. It was Orbity. He was the second pet of the Jetsons. Yeah, like, who the fuck is Orbit-y? Well, yeah, he was on in the 80s version. That's why I don't remember him, because I only saw it... I mean, I only saw the original one. He only had one cameo in the third season. Yeah. I think I'd rather see Spacely Sprockets. Well, he's not on there. I mean, they're on there, but it's supposed to be like the Jetsons family is the characters, the shots you're hitting. Spacely and Cogswell are on there. Mm, gotcha. okay so so jesse wasn't it was only on one season according to this no but it says the second and third seasons were on uh we're in the 80s well maybe wow it's only one really all right but uh Yeah, Orbity. So George, Judy, Jane, Elroy, Rosie, Astro, and Orbity. So it didn't play that well. I didn't say that. It's just for $6,000, no. Okay. And I got to play the Rob Zombie game. Yeah. That was just confusing. I started some kind of multi-ball and had like freaking eight balls going all over the place and had just no clue what I was supposed to hit or what was going on. The left orbit, which is like the mode start shot, is really tight, really hard to hit.
    19:56
    Other than that, I mean, it has all the extra kickers all over the place, so the ball is always out of control. Great. Well, some people see it as a good thing. I mean, definitely they have all these kickers and, like, the up kickers and stuff, they had are ridiculously strong. I was never impressed with the game. So if you want power, you definitely get it with their mechs. That's for sure.
    20:21
    So Bruce ain't a fan. And the dominoes they had there. Yep, the dominoes. They had a whole row. So that was the spooky story. And they announced their next game, an actual spooky game. So I guess this would be like, what, their third game? Yes, their own game. Their own game, which is going to be, what's it going to be, Bruce? No more old guys. No more old guys on pinball. Sorry, Alice Cooper. As last week, we said how much we liked Aerosmith. Hypocrite. I like Aerosmith because at least they had some hits.
    21:00
    He had at least two. Okay, back to the videotape for this one now. No more Mr. Nice Guy, 18. There was another one. Oh, the school's out for – so that's three.
    21:15
    I think he had at least – oh, Welcome to My Nightmare. Come on. Okay, here we go. What Were we looking up his hit parade Yeah his hits Okay Okay He only been nominated for two Grammy Awards That means nothing That stupid Led Zeppelin was never nominated for anything. Well, they suck, too. Okay.
    21:39
    He doesn't have any top 10 songs. He doesn't have any top 40 songs. Yeah, how many top 10 songs does ACDC have? Hold on, let's see. I believe the answer is one.
    21:53
    So I don't go by any of that. Okay, he's like he had poison, which hit number seven. Either way, what's the actual full title? It's like Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. Yes.
    22:11
    Yes. I can save my money for that now too. Not. I think he's a little bit of a pinhead, and they're probably easy to get the license. I'm thinking that's one of the reasons they got that title. Yeah.
    22:25
    So, let's see what they can do with it. Bruce is not enthused. Not at all. Next, we had Alien. Alien? They brought three of them there.
    22:39
    One of them was down most of the show. because during transport, the top glass was broken. Which happens. It sucks. It's been most of the show trying to get all the glass out of the game.
    22:53
    That sucks. That was unfortunate. And that had, I'd say, between Houdini and Alien, believe it or not, and a third game we'll mention, they had the longest lines by far. Yeah. I'd say Alien had the longest line, especially when they only had the two games up. So I got to play Alien. Nice, nice. And?
    23:14
    Well, that's why I asked how much the Jetsons cost. Yeah, why? How much does Alien cost? I don't even know, actually. I thought it was like $6,500, something like that. Well, I thought that was the first buy-ins. I think if you go to Highway Now, I think it's... I'm sure someone will correct us, and I'm sure we should be better informed for having a podcast and all. No, no, no. But I think it's still like $6,000, something like that. And this thing, it looks great. Looks fantastic. And it plays good? They got rid of the left ramp issue where at Expo, you would hit the left ramp, it would go up to the top and just keep getting stuck.
    23:51
    So that's been corrected. That's good. The only issue I have with it is still with the left ramp. Hit the left ramp. When the ball comes down, it doesn't, like, feed the in lane directly. It kind of feeds, like, the top of the slingshot and falls into the in lane. At least that's what it's supposed to do. But when I played, it kept falling into the out lane, which was kind of annoying, you know, to hit the left ramp, which is supposed to be the controlled shot and keep losing the ball. During multi-ball, I must have hit it like four straight times, and it went in the out lane four straight times from the ramp hit. That kind of annoyed me. I would think that could be adjusted.
    24:28
    The other disappointing thing was I wanted to see the frigging alien head. You know, I wanted to see the tongue come out and lock the ball. So, and I shot for that, and actually I hit the lock area, and it's cool. It's like the way the targets are. They're like translucent, and they turn green. Like, ooh, okay, so maybe that means it's ready. And sure enough, I hit it again, and the magnet stops the ball. The alien head opens its mouth, and nothing happened. Fail. It didn't grab the ball. The ball just, the multi-ball just started. Magnet released the ball. so I don't know if I just got the one that wasn't working or it's not working totally yet or whatever ok $64.50 for the standard edition $81.50 for the 35th anniversary edition the LE but definitely best bang for your buck of any game at the show that I saw for the price definitely I mean even with everything else it's a unique layout it's not the typical layout It has things that kind of throw you a little bit. Like, it's got the upper right flipper. So you're just trained to think that you hit a left orbit, it's going to come around to an upper right flipper, and you're going to hit a shot. But that's not how it flows. It's different. So it is different. It's got a more unique play field, I think, than the usual stuff. Okay. So I like the package.
    25:58
    I mean, I still don't like – I'm going to go with our friend Tim Balls. Tim, right? Yes. Yeah, he had a whole rant on how it's stupid to put things in games like that that say, fail. Like, you start a mode and you don't complete it, and it actually just says, fail.
    26:16
    How, like, in his opinion, good games don't do that. Like, the mode will just end. It's not going to come out and just tell you you failed. You suck. You're basic. Yeah. And Alien will do that. You get a mode. If you don't finish it, it'll just say, fail, on the screen. I like that. Bruce likes that. I like that. I don't like that. So that was Alien. Man, a lot of new games. That was Alien. P3. P3, they came guns a-blazin'. Because they had to because we've been waiting for five years. Because it's Texas, you know, I had to say guns a-blazin'. They had a ton of different models there. They had, like, a networked game. They had, like, a pitch and bat. They had, like, a mode-based game. They had, like, at least five to seven different units there. Yes, eight, actually. With different games? Okay, eight.
    27:04
    And I got to see one of them apart, how they do it. Like, they just changed the – for those who haven't seen these games, they basically have a screen that you play on. You actually play on the display. And the back of the game – and it has real flippers, though. And then the back of the game is the physical part, which is interchangeable. You could take it out and put, like, another back part of the play field in. So I thought that the pitching bat was pretty interesting. I mean, play just like a pitching bat where the ball gets pitched, it's a pinball, and it comes down, and you get one flip, just like you would on a pitching bat. That's cool. And it goes into, like, things in the back, actual physical things, just like a pitching bat, so, you know, home run, single, whatever. Plus they had a head-to-head game. Well, the other thing, pitching bat, it'll get harder. It'll have things that pop up that say out,
    27:52
    and there'll be more of them that pop up as you go, so it's harder to keep getting hits. Yep, they had a network game. So, yeah, they came all out. So you canceled your order on dialed in and played that? No. What about that? No. I found it interesting. And next to that, there was a whole roll of all that. They had the P3. And then next to that, they had the, what was it? They had a Doom game, which I never saw actually play.
    28:22
    Wizard Blocks. Yeah, the Wizard Blocks looked really good. They put artwork to it. They actually look like they're getting it done. We actually got a nice shout-out from the guy posting the picture. You did? Yeah. I think when I tried to play it, it didn't have credits in it or whatever. It didn't start. So I didn't actually get a chance to play. I saw people playing it, so I must have had bad timing. They had a Total Annihilation was there. Oh, yeah. So, well, hold on. Let's go first to the new games before we go to the other stuff, unless you want to go to Total Annihilation first. Well, that is a new game. Yeah, well, okay. I don't know if it'll get made. I've seen it, I like it a lot, people are criticizing my price quote of $3,700, what did you think of the game first Ron? I liked it was good it felt like you were playing some like mid 80's System 11 game which is good with really cool music, the music is excellent and the upper playfield which is not really an upper playfield, the upper part of the playfield where you have the reactor or whatever it is where you got the mini flipper and you can actually You hit it up through the lanes.
    29:27
    You know, usually the ball goes down the lanes. You can actually hit it up the lanes also, like your lanes on the top.
    29:34
    And the ball lock thing is very cool. These drop targets for the ball lock where the target comes up and traps the ball. Then you get another ball, and you'd have to see it. It's hard to explain how it works. You really have to witness it in action. and it's got like a LCD with full graphics package going on it.
    29:57
    It's definitely the music. Definitely music is the appeal. The music is kick-ass on that. Now, if they do make that, would you be interested in that?
    30:04
    Would I be interested in that? I would actually be interested in that. I'd be interested in it. I don't know if I'd actually buy it, but I would think that a good game could be made of it. For me, that was the most interesting game of the whole show. Watching the videos and watching people's reaction and seeing some gameplay video of it, I was more interested in it now than ever. Yep, Total Annihilation. And it even has, like, I don't want to say System 11, but it has more of the score displays are more like a System 7 game. They're like, you know, old school displays. Even though I'm sure they're LED displays. But, I mean, they're old school, that kind of display.
    30:40
    Definitely a good retro feel to that. Cool. It's like if you took an old game and souped up the sound system and put a display on it. Nice. Yeah. Very cool. So that was that game. Now you have two more, at least. Two more? Okay.
    30:56
    What's one of them? The new code undialed in. I know you didn't play it, but people were talking about it. More disasters, more fun. Yep, they had two of them there. Huge lines.
    31:07
    I had a picture on our Facebook page of Ed Robertson of Bare Naked Lays playing it. Yeah, I mean, I purposely have avoided playing it since putting in my pre-order because I don't want to see any of the new stuff. Because I didn't want to cancel his order. Stop. But you couldn't help but watch it. You could see there's a lot more shit in there now. How was Jack's seminar? Well, we'll get into that. But we have one more. We got one more. But, yeah, it looked good. I mean, the thing is rock solid. Both games were up the whole time. Never had an issue. The thing was rock solid at Expo 2. I mean, really, the only issues I've heard are the wear around the magnet. Yes. And that's literally the only real physical issues I've heard about the game, which is saying something. I mean, the play field is rock solid. It's all a matter of just how much software they're going to put in. Per the seminar, supposedly there's three wizard modes that are in the game right now. Nice. With talk of eventually putting a, like, uber final wizard mode in. Go, Keith. Go. So that's where Dialed In stands. And what's the last one you're thinking about? I know what I'm thinking about. Yeah, what are you thinking about? I don't know what you're thinking about. I think I got them all. No, you did not. I did not? What is it? Stern. Aerosmith. Oh, Aerosmith. Truly coming out, yes. It's because we played it. I'm thinking of it like it's already out. The LEs actually started shipping and actually delivered so far. People are actually getting LEs. They actually had the shortest line, but that was because they had a huge Marco booth. Yep, that's the one we saw. They had Aerosmith, Batman, Aerosmith, Batman, Aerosmith, like all the way down. with actual tables where you can kind of hang out while waiting to play. So it was like a whole huge area. So it made the lines shorter there. So actually my father got to play it. And he ordered it. He gets his endorsement. He liked it.
    33:01
    Now, what other seminars did you go see? The only seminar I went to see was the Jersey Jack one. Okay. I am very, very, very disappointed in you. why are you very, very disappointed in me? No, very, very, very. Oh, very, very, very disappointed in me. There was one seminar I thought you would definitely go see. And what is that? The Mark and Steve Ritchie Growing Up Ritchie one.
    33:29
    Well, no, not for Steve. For Mark. Mark is not as common as Steve. For those at home wondering what he's talking about, at one point I had, what, 99% Steve Ritchie games? Yes. to a ridiculous degree. Yes. Like, literally, that's all I had. Now, how many Mark Ritchie games do you have? None. Thank you. I'm sorry. I actually had more Mark Ritchie games than you. I've owned four. I still have one.
    34:00
    Indiana Jones. Yes, you got it. Small Adventure. Can you name the other ones I owned? Let's see. Oh, you? Yes.
    34:07
    Name the other... Firepower 2? Nope. I'll just start naming it. Fishtails? Nope. Never had a Fishtails, really. Nope, never had a Fishtails.
    34:17
    Oh, Taxi. That's two. Diner. You had a Diner at one point. I don't know. Am I just supposed to start naming all his games? No.
    34:27
    I would have liked to have seen you a lot, because Mark, I heard, is actually a very good interview.
    34:33
    And, you know, I would have liked to have seen your thoughts on that one. Sorry, I was too busy playing games. Yes, and failing in the tournament. Oh, that's rude. I finished 23rd of 150 people, dude. Come on.
    34:51
    I'll get at least one or two points maybe. You were 16th, so you were the eighth biggest loser or seventh biggest loser. Hell, if I wasn't restricted to A somehow, I would have been in B. I would have made the B finals. I have no idea how I'm restricted to A. I guess maybe it's 500 and worse or something like that. I don't know. What was the best part of the show for you?
    35:14
    Playing Dragon Fist? Yeah, playing, having a Dragon Fist and Sea Witch next to each other, both with clear-coded play fields and playing the shit out of them and getting the high score on both. There you go. That's a good thing. That was the highlight. That was my highlight.
    35:30
    New to me games, there was an EM, a Zachariah EM, called Combat. Yes. That I played a ton of. It's brutally hard, but in a good way. So I was enjoying that. Seeing another Freedom, your ultra-rare prototype, which I walk up to the thing like, uh, hey, look, there's another one for an ultra-rare prototype. No, it played better because it was gorgeous. It was like a restored game. It was probably, Zach would have been jealous of this one. okay that's good yeah so oh it's just a good show it's it's it is like it's the better expo now yeah it's it's it is i mean it's becoming the one where the news happens and and there's way more games than an expo the weather's better was it crowded uh it was crowded saturday yep i mean that's that's the price you pay for the popularity oh of course you know but i i'd say Expos got to step up their game. No, they won't. They won't. Because they're in Chicago. They just assume everyone will just go there. Yeah. Which, that's why, one of the reasons why we don't go anymore, we saw the attendance going down every year for the pinball lifter company. Yep, for you as a vendor. Yes. Yep. I haven't gone there in three years. Yeah, it kind of, they had a renaissance when they did the 30th one. They had way more games there than they usually had. That was excellent. But then the next year it went right back down. It went down nothing, I know. I agree.
    37:10
    It's a shame. I think a lot of people get rubbed the wrong way on that show. And they don't want to bring games. And we know why. We know why. They run things. And it's just, you know, people say, you know, the vendors, all that, or the people who bring games don't get treated right. Yep. And that's the kind of thing that happens. It's a shame. Because really, that should be the main show. I agree. I mean, since Chicago, that should be the pinnacle. The pinochle, if you will, of shows. Wow.
    37:41
    Trump. Yeah. Trump. What? Trump. Pinochle. Trump card. Don't say Trump. Ugh. Sorry. You're going back, of course, next year again, of course. Yep. I'll go back. The travel sucks, but, I mean, it really sucked this time because the two consecutive weekends was too much. Yes. I am totally burned out. I don't even want to see a pinball machine for a little bit. But you will in two weeks. I will? What's in two weeks? Two weeks is Papa. Oh, God. Oh.
    38:17
    Overload. Oh, my God. Oh. Yes. It's too much pinball. It is possible to have too much pinball. It is. What was I going to say? So I went back to the seminar. I went to the Jersey Jack seminar. Yes, sir. And see, I wanted to see the replay of it to confirm if my memory was failing me. But I believe he said it was going to be like another month of Hobbit, and then the dialed-in is going to start. But it's going to be all the Australian and European dialed-ins first, followed by the collector edition dialed-in.
    38:52
    And then he didn't say anything else. So it's like, I probably should have raised my hand. And the LEs will be when? How about the standards?
    39:01
    You would assume they're going to be after that. Yeah. So I'm thinking spring ain't happening. Yeah, I don't think so either, buddy. Told you.
    39:11
    Told you. I didn't say you were wrong. I never said, like, you're totally wrong. Nope, it's going to be completely on time. There will be no issues. But they did mention, like, the – see, not having any other Jersey Jack games, I didn't realize all the light board issues. Oh, yeah, they've had a ton of light board issues with that. But I guess it's totally redesigned now, and with, like, all the new Hobbits and Waz's now, they have these new light boards. We forgot one more game. Oh, yeah, I'll get to that. They're a story on themselves. Oh, gosh. So at Expo, a certain pinball company did not show up. Yes. But they were there at Texas.
    39:56
    And it gets even more ridiculous. What company was this, Ron? I believe it was the Don't Pre-Order Company. Oh, no. DP. I mean, Dutch Pinball.
    40:08
    Yeah, people got DP'd. Yeah, they got DP'd. They got fucking double penetrating the ass. it just it just it was so for those at home big lebowski the game news are supposed to be making they well they stopped shipping after they shipped what 30 of them or i can't remember how many it was i mean they started shipping them and then it stopped and then the line was it was a board issue of course it is but as it turns out it wasn't a board issue nope it was the fact that company they have building the games for them is saying they haven't been paid. So they're not making the games. Well, they have them hostage. Yeah, they have them hostage. So you have first lie.
    40:55
    You say there's a board and it has nothing to do with that. But I'll almost give you a pass because if the other company that's making them is truly screwing with Dutch Pinball or if it's a situation Dutch Pinball thought they could settle it quickly,
    41:10
    you would lie. you know just just to like because if they started making them again there would never been an issue this would have never came up but as it turns out it has become an issue so you have the basically the one side says we haven't been paid so we're not we're holding the games we're not going to ship them you have the dutch pinball side saying they raised the price we have a contract you contract pricing and they went above that so we're refusing to pay them which i don't believe because they've lied to us so much times. Well, okay, say they're telling the truth. Say, okay, we're not going to pay them. So we're going to go to Texas and announce another game. For more money, more money. Bride of Pinpot 25th anniversary.
    41:56
    For which they want how much, Bruce? $12,500. And how many units do they want? 25. Yeah. Sounds like they need an influx of cash to me. Yeah.
    42:09
    The old trying to get the money to pay for the other thing. What's it? Robbing Peter to pay for – how does that go again? Yes, it is. That's exactly the title, you would say. And you get the usual pin side. Let's sue them. But if we sue them, we'll never get the games and back and forth.
    42:27
    My prediction is they'll be out of business before the end of the year. Oh, I'm thinking if they don't get this resolved in the next month to two months, They'll be out of business by my July 4th date that I've stated months ago that some companies will go out of business. I mean, we don't want this to happen, folks. No, we don't want this to happen. We just realists here Yeah I mean lying It not like we saying hey look at this Lying multiple times Yeah You lose a lot of face And then people can't get their refunds. Yeah, except for if you're going through Cointaker.
    43:06
    Cointaker had an agreement where he doesn't pay them. He just orders them and then when they get shipped, so it's actually all the Cointaker money is an escrow. Supposedly. So if you bought it through coin taker you're okay you could get a refund yes okay so if you bought it through another distributor you're screwed maybe i don't know i don't know how did that distributorship works but i know through coin taker but when i when i saw that when i was there i'm like really yeah it's like we can't we can't fulfill our orders so here's our new game yes more money like are you fucking kidding me really i don't know if they you know maybe our european listeners We have them that maybe they think differently in that country. Maybe it's – I don't know. I mean there's different customs as you found when you had your trips over there. Oh, my God, yes. But the thing is this. We go back to the subject of truly do not prepay for a pinball machine. Let it get built. Then buy it. Or if you're going to put a deposit down, put a small deposit down. Like $250. Like what you put down. Yeah. anybody putting anything over $500 deposit is a bunch of morons.
    44:18
    And we forgot one more game. We forgot about the AFM. Oh, okay. Yeah, I got to see the Attack from Mars remake, which I didn't bother playing because I played Attack from Mars a zillion times. I'm assuming it plays the same. That's what people said. The big display is pretty cool. The pricing? I thought it was incredible. It was, yeah. I mean... Hold on. Now, what would you rather buy now if you had the three in a row? Aliens for $6,450, the classic AFM for $6,500, or the Jetsons for $6,500? Or you could rob Zombie. Oh, attack from Mars. Thank you. I go with it. Well, it's the known entity. Well, not even that. I think it's going to – you're not going to lose money. Well, you're not going to lose money maybe on Alien either if it comes really good with the rules and everything like that. But I thought the price points were perfect on that game. $6,500 for the regular, $72.95 for the middle of the ground, and then $79.95 for the LE. Home run. Yeah. It's basically the price of like a premium. Yep. For Stern. Home run. And a known entity, a known game, known awesomeness.
    45:33
    Yeah. I have to agree completely there. I mean, when I saw the pricing, because they had the pricing right on the games, I was like, huh, it's not bad. So how much do you want for your AFM, Bruce?
    45:44
    I'm not buying a new one. Oh, you're going to buy an LE with my number because I can still get my same number. What do you mean your number?
    45:54
    My limited MMR has a number on it. That's right. Isn't there some kind of deal? If you buy it before April 15th or April 30th, the LE, medieval madness number, will be the same as your... Was there any kind of price deal for if you had been a previous... Nope. Okay. Nope, they still go dry on that one. All right. So you're going to buy me my new AFM LE, and I have to give you my AFM?
    46:26
    There you go. Is that what you're saying to me? That sounds reasonable. So you go, okay, start buying my AFM LE.
    46:35
    Start buying it. Yeah. How much was that again? $8,000. So you're going to buy me my AFM LE now? I got $9,000 I got to spend and dial it in, man. I can't be buying these. You got to sell that other turd you have. What turd do I have? Oh, you know the turd. It's upstairs in your learning room right now. Well, who are you going to call? Turd busters.
    46:59
    Funny thing, the whole time I was there, I never played a game. I wouldn't either. Poor Ghostbusters. I would not either. No, I spent most of the time playing the Sea Witch and the Dragon Fist. The funny thing is, I will say this past week, since I really haven't talked to Ron except for going to the show, I've had a lot of people emailing me and texting me saying, I got a Quicksilver, I got a Stargazer. I've had three people in the past week come up with machines. any any movement i've had i've had some no i've no the numbers are way too high somebody offered me okay i'm gonna lay a deal out that somebody offered me and i like the guy and i'm not naming names okay he wants a quicksilver and a stargazer for an aerosmith le so you must you have to buy an aerosmith le and then trade him yes the uh okay and how much does the aerosmith le cost i think $8,000 right around there, $85,000, $83,000. So Stargazer and Quicksilver are worth $4,000 a piece. Yeah. No. I love the guy. He's a great guy. No. I will say we have a certain listener and former guest of the show, a certain guest who's really into programming, Scott, who I believe still owns a Dragon Fist. So if this certain person is getting tired of his Dragon Fist and possibly would like to let it go, you know, to get more room. To get more room. You don't even like it. To get more room. So I have trade bait with Ron. No, to get more room in his very crowded basement. We have a very interested buyer right here on this podcast. If your girlfriend's listening, I have the Scared Stiff ready for your girlfriend to trade for that Stargazer and that Dragon Fist. Don't listen to him, Scott. You know, I'm a man who can treat the dragon fist right. I appreciate dragon fist. Ron, take the fist. Yes, take the fist.
    49:07
    I love games. I mean, Bruce Lee's on it. How can you miss? How can you fail? Oh, and it was like an NOS clear-code play. It was ridiculous. Ridiculous. I think they're both Bill Morrison's games. They're right next to each other. It had like a clear-coated sea witch, which I like. He made a little modification to it, which I think I'm going to do to my father's. Unless I didn't say mine. What he did is the post that you can move, the adjustment post, he swapped it instead of like the regular post. He made it a skinny post with the rubber on it.
    49:45
    And it played harder. Obviously, he had more drains. Yeah. But I liked it better. Because Sea Witch can, even if you put the post all the way, unless you pull the post completely, of course, can play a little bit on the easier side. The ball times can be a little longer than what I like.
    50:03
    That game, I felt like I was in a battle. I mean, not to Star's level, because that's kind of a level on itself, but it definitely felt harder. But Dragon Fist was even harder. That thing was ridiculous. Take the fist. Yes. Yeah, Scott, I will take the fist.
    50:21
    Wow, that sounds screwed up. Yes, it is. So that was the Texas Pinball Festival. A fun time was had by all. I recommend it. And Ron will give us a show report in two weeks again.
    50:33
    Oh, from Papa. Yes. And then after Papa, we have a very special guest coming up. Well, I'm thinking for Papa, maybe we can get Steve and Tim Balls and have like the Papa Tournament Edition. I think we're going to have to for beforehand to prep us. Yeah, to prep. To prep. We need pop-up prep, and we need real tournament players. Yes. So we're going to actually ask – I'm going to tell you to get the two people because I have a lot of crap going on this weekend.
    51:02
    Like what? Oh, I can't tell you yet. Porn shoot. Well, that's close. No. Repairs. Did you do any repairs this week? No, I did not refer to it. I was at a show.
    51:18
    Fail. Fail? You didn't buy anything at the show? I didn't buy anything at the show. Nothing. Not a single thing. Not a... I know, another fail. I didn't buy any mods. I didn't buy any parts. I didn't buy anything.
    51:34
    I actually got a game and posted the pictures on... You got a game. I did get a game. Another game. Well, no, no, no. I traded. You traded. Yes. Yes, but this is a game that was my original recommendation. Yes, it was. Well, Freedom. You will no longer hear about Freedom Firewood because Freedom Firewood is taking a trip.
    51:56
    It's gone. But it is gone. And I got me an eight ball champ. And that thing can talk your freaking ear off. And it's heavy. And it's freaking heavier than a freaking Scott Leap System 3, which has all the relays on the bottom of it. Scott Leap System 88, Twilight Zone.
    52:21
    This thing is just a dead weight tank. It actually, when I put it in the back of my car, my car doesn't usually squat. This one squatted a little bit.
    52:31
    It made my car squat. It did, but... You finally took my recommendation. And it's all LED'd up for me. It is terrible. Bruce posted a picture and the thing is like glowing. It looks like it's radioactive.
    52:50
    It's a radioactive game. It really is just like... You may want to decontaminate that, man. This is why you do not LED old games. And isn't it... Do they do the different colors? Yes. See, that's it. And doing the LEDs with, like, all the different colors, different sections. Like, this one's green. This one's blue. And it's strobing, too. Yes. Because it's not meant to have that. You got it. So.
    53:18
    Yeah, bad. Very bad. But 8-Ball Champ, great game. It talks to you, actually, if you don't plunge the ball. Quit stalling. Yep. And start balling. Start balling, big boy. It doesn't say that. But so that's one that's coming. Oh, oh, you say that you you said coming. So you are going to a porn shoot. I knew it. Yes, I am.
    53:45
    Oh, my. So Ron's going to go two weeks from now. He'll be going to Papa. So we'll get the show report from him. I will not be going to Papa again for the third year in a row. Total fail. Fail. Total fail. You call yourself a tournament player. so we'll get Tim Balls on hopefully and we will get Steve hopefully both on to talk about how real pinball players play pinball so what else we got we gotta get Zach in here sometime I mentioned already I mentioned Zach when we were talking about the Freedom Prototype I know he doesn't listen to us anyway bad game we have let's go for some emails yeah we got we got mail You've got mail. You've got porn. Oh, my.
    54:35
    I'll go for the first one. You like our new closing song? I loved our new ending. And now that you heard the song, what do you think?
    54:44
    When I heard the song, it's like, okay, I've heard that before. And is it fitting? Oh, it's fitting. You made a perfect cut on it. And it was a hit song. It was. Hopefully it doesn't get us pulled somewhere. Oh, my, my. Oh, bye-bye.
    55:01
    First is we're going to go to the e-mails. Yeah, but we have a name for that. We don't call it the e-mails. You have a ridiculous name for that. You know I'm going to call it by your name, the Slam Ball Bag. Okay, there you go. But I call it the Mail Ball Bag. The Mail Ball Bag.
    55:17
    It's full with chock full of good things. Well, Ryan C. emailed us. Hey, good night, mate. And he asked us about any inside info on Spooky No. 3. Yes, it's going to be Alice Cooper's.
    55:33
    Go back in time when we go back in time. I have no contact that spooky except for one person, and he knew nothing about it. And I didn't even ask him because I didn't want to have the wrong information. But it's Alice Cooper. It's Alice Cooper. That's our guess. Hopefully we will turn out to be correct. Yeah, I hope so. God. The next is from Ryan Cooper.
    55:58
    K-U-I-P-E-R, which I always butcher names. Yep, you always butcher names. Just a call for Ryan from Wisconsin. Yes, sir. What pinball-related shows would you recommend that are worth the trip? I've only been to Expo and Midwest Gaming Classic, which are local to me. I'm looking to hit up some more shows. Texas Pinball Festival. Now, if you want to travel, definitely Texas Pinball Festival. If you want to trade or, like, go buy games...
    56:28
    I have to say Allentown. Agreed. Allentown, you'll have an outside vending area, an inside vending area. You've got to drive a car there. You can go halfway across, but well worth it.
    56:40
    What else is there? I would say if by show you're looking at stuff that's like Expo and Midwest Gaming Classic, I would definitely say Texas Pinball Festival. You can even go to Kalamazoo. That's a smaller show, not as big, but a good show. You can get some deals there sometimes, too. But if you're going for big shows, Texas Pinball, if you're going for playability, also Texas Pinball, you can go California Extreme or you can go into Arcade Expo in the winter.
    57:10
    And isn't Pacific Pinball going to be having another show? Yeah. Well, actually, I don't know. And also in Michigan, you can go to, if you have VFW for Clay. We're just gaming like every show. There's also Replay FX.
    57:24
    Yes. It all depends on what you're looking for. It really does. Are you looking for vendors? Are you looking to buy games? Or are you just looking to play a shitload of games? Yeah. It depends on your – if you want to be more specific, you can ask us. Email us back. Yeah, email us back. What are you looking for? We're here to help you. What are you looking for in a show? Do you not care about buying anything? Do you want to buy stuff? Do you not care about tournaments? Do you care about tournaments?
    57:54
    Tell us more. It really depends. We'll figure it out. Now I get the next email to say, it's Ryan C again. G'day, lads. That's right. Love that you guys talk about so many pinballs I've never played. When you talk about the Stern Stars, I go and look up videos on it. When you talk about 24, I look up your YouTube videos on it. Now when you talk about April O'Neil, I had to lock myself in a room, do some serious research for many hours. There was white on the whitewater and everything else in the room. I swear to God, that is a true email from one of our listeners, Ryan, and I applaud you. I actually said, best email ever.
    58:35
    Very freaking cool. Another one, Jim Burrell. Burrell, Burrell. He was very happy to answer this question on episode 35 about the Bobby Orr power play, and he looks forward to our upcoming report on TPF, which Ron loved. Yes, and Jim, if you could email us back, there were two Bobby Orr power plays at the show. I think one was there on Friday, and then the second one arrived on Saturday. I'm just curious which one was yours, because I played one on Friday, and it had the settings that we recommended on it.
    59:14
    And I was like, I wonder if this is his power play. And then Saturday, the second one showed up, and it's like, oh, I wonder if this is his power play. and that one I didn't get a chance to play so I'm just curious so then we have and this is the actual tagline possibly the longest slam-tilt email ever and honestly too well written for our podcast this honestly is something that should be in like an actual publication actually you know what I want to do I'm putting it out and Ron doesn't even know I'm going to say this Uh-oh. I want her on.
    59:52
    You can do that. I want her on. If she would be interested. I am putting the gauntlet down saying. Well, let's see. Maybe she'll come on if you can say her last name right. I have to look at her pronunciation when she said it. Oh, I tell you how it's. Guide-uh. Yes. Guide-uh. So, see? So, there we go. I got it. But if I'm not going to name her by name, I'm going to actually say the way she said it. And if player number 31915 would like to join us on our Slam Tilt podcast in three to four weeks, you are honored. We'd be honored to have you.
    60:35
    You would be honored to be on our show. Yes. She sent, like, the funniest picture, too. Oh, yes. Well, she takes Scorpion over Algar. So already she's on my side. No, she didn't take Scorpion over there. Is she dead? No, no. If I had to choose between Scorpion, Algar, I would choose Speed Tweet in the middle. And then she sent a picture of Scorpion and Algar with stars in the middle. In the middle of it. She never picked which one. Did you notice the game on the right of Algar? Yes, Blackjack. Yes. It's like shit, awesome, shit, awesome. That's almost unfair. Great.
    61:15
    Okay. And awesome. Oh. So you may now talk about her email. I'm just – I wonder how much – Don't worry at all. We got time.
    61:27
    It's written too well. It really should be in a publication. She says that she likes that we talk about Upstate New York, and she knows us both. We've actually played with Steph, I'm going to say, in Orange County Pinball. Well, now that you basically said her last name and her first name. Yep.
    61:47
    So, she has the idea of modding a... Oh, Toten. What's that again? Oh, Tales of the Arabian... I really should know the abbreviations. I'm going to do a Spaceballs for more ideas. See, the lightning lamp replaced by a spinning comb to comb the desert, and the genie replaced by a giant yogurt statue or by a toy of Lord Dark Helmet.
    62:11
    Yep. She actually did not lose 3-0 to you. Yes, I'm wrong. I apologize. I'm wrong a lot. I'm sorry. And she beat you on Metallica?
    62:24
    She must have beaten you on Metallica, as I said. Let's see. And then you chose Iron Man and crushed her. She's got to have pride, she said. During I Buy That segment, during episode 33, you guys brought up a Gottlieb selection of Bruce's that was never named. Good job, Bruce. Yeah, I know. I couldn't remember it myself. I even went back and listened for it. Yep. but it was something that made me insatiably curious again written way too well for our podcast she did picked about a new city she made it made fun of us a new city what i said new cities by long island it's actually close to the new jersey yeah yeah bruce get it right that's still quick silver she enjoyed she saw it at our chuck webster's wicked piss a pit i was drawn to it enough to blindly pick it during the sweet talker tournament and let me tell you i was not disappointed. It didn't hurt that Chuck takes extraordinary care of his games. Actually, British accent works well for this kind of prose. It does. But I chose that on a whim, and by ball three I was in love. It gave me a similar feeling of exhilaration to when I play on stars, but a significantly less intense feeling of impending doom. It was so, so fun to play, and I probably would not have been drawn to it without listening to you guys on that.
    63:39
    And she agrees with her police force. Yeah, it sucks. It sucks. And she likes our suggestion to expand the games we like, games we hate, and to propose somewhat of a barnacle games, the games you hate at first, and then they grew over you at a time. Okay, I got one. I got one already. Okay, what's that? Iron Man.
    64:02
    You hated it in the beginning? First time I ever played that game was at Allentown in the tournament, and I fucking hated it. I hated it. Okay. What game did I not like in the beginning and now I like This is going to be tougher for Bruce I think Walking Dead Walking Dead Okay Because the pop bumpers I still hate them John Borg two things he cannot do or he does maybe too well maybe makes Stern more money, is his pop bumpers always go out and drain a lot of times. Well, you want everything to feed it back to you? No, no, no, not that. But it shouldn't drain in right down straight down the middle. And it does a lot of times. Okay, how should it drain? Outlanes instead? No, no, no. But it seems like always when you make your plunge, you get the perfect skill shot, it'll go into pop-ups for a few seconds, hit the pop-up or lower left one, and straight down the middle. And you're sort of going, what the fuck?
    65:00
    Or you get bored, as you call Avatar'd. Yeah, Avatar'd. The two things you get from board games. Okay, now the opposite. it?
    65:08
    Traitor games. As in games that you used to love and ended up loathing. Twilight Zone. Ghostbusters.
    65:23
    We both, everyone in the podcast who's listened to the podcast knows the reason for each. So, let's see.
    65:31
    We're still going through her email. Oh, yes. She hated stars originally. and then realize the brilliance of it. Yes. I draw the game because the shots are fun and challenging. These instances where you keep control of the ball enough to hit the starlit spinner are just glorious.
    65:49
    And then as a casual affair, she was drawing a roller coaster tycoon because it's pretty. And it's bright and it's... What's it called? The rolling lamp and, you know... What would you call that thing? Like the bottom ramp, you know?
    66:04
    Almost like a hurricane ramp. Yeah. I loved the theme. I'm a huge fan of computer games now. I stare at the troll dummy and consider my life choices when I play because it's really not that fantastic. And then the worst letdown for her was Carhop. Which I hate, too. It's a terrible game. I was immensely excited to play the game when I first learned of it. And when I finally got to play the Pinburg, I was beyond disappointed.
    66:31
    Oh, I love it. but you're like how bored i got playing it oh man now she's recommending that we talk about games that would be good for a beginner i would say uh for beginners i always use the same thing world cup soccer yeah everyone loves world cup soccer everyone can understand world cup soccer there's a goal there's a goalie you shoot a goal the guy from nba jam says goal and everything's great. Everyone can get that. Back when Sean Papaduke actually made games that flipped.
    67:06
    Dead silence. So then she talks about of course how OCPC was one of the members was diagnosed with cervical cancer and the community down there actually, one of the members from upstate New York donated a pin bot down there and whatever it sold for, they donated the money towards the fund for that. And all the money coming from that game for the next two months goes towards that fund also. Very good. Sort of caring fund for Dahlia. Yep, Dahlia. So, yes, and what we'll probably do is I'll put a link to it. Yes. When we post the podcast. Yep. And all the money from Stern Kiss Pinball Machine during two months will be also going towards it. So it's a great thing. cancer is very close to me and I don't want to see anybody ever go through it and people unfortunately do every single day of their lives and you know it sucks it really does you know she likes our shenanigans we do shenanigans? I don't think we do shenanigans with Tim Balls and with Steve and the trio of Eric Russells and familiar or unfamiliar voices which probably was Scott and a couple others we've had you know she put 1,800 words in this email. So thanks, Steph. We weren't going to mention your name, right, Bruce? No, I said player 31915. Yeah, well, first you said her last name. Then you said her player number. Then you said her first name. Very good, very good. Her social security number is... So our invitation is open at any time. Yes. So we have three invitations going out there now. This is the invitation show. Maybe I should make that the title. Yeah. Come one, all. Come one, come all to the show that never ends. In balls? We're delighted you could attend. Come inside. And we also have a special guest after Papa already reserved. Locked in. Locked and loaded. It's going to blow the roof off, man.
    69:12
    So, segment time. Segment time? What segment? What's my favorite segment lately? Oh, we'd buy that? We would not buy that. We have both. Oh, we have both. Okay, let's go. Let's get going. The game I would buy, ticket number 162-443-429-221.
    69:41
    It's a bally. Black Pyramid, which I played one at Texas. It actually played well, but I kind of sucked at it. Then I didn't try it again.
    69:52
    Yep. $999 $990.99 So you're a fan of this game? Not a fan but it's a good game if you're going to be a beginner also Yeah because you can tell them to shoot the left and right orbit all the time so get that down and you can rack up big scores on this and then you sell the game and be done but it looks like it's not in bad shape that cool target thing that moves back and forth don't even bother ignore it completely
    70:23
    But it's not bad. It's got a little wear to it. But for $9.99, good, solid game. They don't break down. And, of course, it's in New Jersey. Yes, it is, of course, New Jersey. Oh, and before I forget, I'd like to thank the listeners who stopped me during the show. How many stopped you? 20, 30, 50? Two.
    70:46
    We had two. I'd like to thank them for, especially since I forgot to put my name tag on the second day, so they recognized me anyway, which is kind of disturbing. Hee, hee, hee. But one of our listeners wanted to know, what part of Jersey are you from? Because he knew you were from Jersey because he recognized your accent. I don't have an accent. Yeah, well, he said you did. Now, if you hear my wife ever, she has an accent. Well, what part of Jersey are you from? I am from northern Jersey. I was actually born right outside of New Jersey in New York City, but I grew up right by Patterson, actually, in Prospect Park.
    71:24
    And then I moved up from Prospect Park to Vernon when I was six. I lived in Vernon for 25 years of my life. I was born in Albany. I have a very thick Albany accent. I just can't escape it, as you can tell.
    71:39
    Next game? Segwayed really weirdly out of that. I know. Next game. That flowed great. Next game. Okay, is this something I should buy or not buy? Buy. Okay. It's a little high in price, but it looks in nice condition. What is it?
    71:54
    142, 321, 960, 766. Harlem Globetrotters, 1450. A little high. Very, very nice. Not just very nice. Two very. Very, very. Very, very nice. and it is located in Ohio. All right, let's take a look. What do we got here? It looks really clean. No wear around the, looks like it was Mylar. Mylar, yep.
    72:25
    Yes, very nice. Cabinet's got some nice colors to it, nice stenciling still. All tech board in there.
    72:34
    Okay, what's, the coin door's really weird. Yeah, what's, it's got a button in the coin return. Yes. Uh-huh. It's like giving you credits in no possible way. They took all the mechs out of it.
    72:47
    We don't want to modify the cabinet, so let's get it in the coin door somehow. Yeah. Weird. Yeah, but it's not bad, actually. It's a little high in price, I will say that.
    72:59
    But $14.50, if you're looking for one really nice, it looks nice. It's actually nice in mine. Nice in yours, I think. The head definitely is less faded than the body. Well, the one side. Or it could just be the camera. It could be just a camera.
    73:14
    Oh, okay, yeah. Now I see the other side of the coin door. Yeah, they took all the mechs out. So it'll be a very light coin door when you open it. Yes, it will be. This is another rare one. Ticket number 112-348-337-379.
    73:39
    U-Boat 65? Yep. What the hell is that? It's a bell game. Bell. Now, if you look, you actually get to see what the bell games look like in the back box, which is really weird. A lot of ribbon cables.
    73:52
    What the hell? It's got a steering wheel in it. No, that's the light. I know, but it looks like a steering wheel. Holy shit. Looks like that's how you steer to Uber. The fuck? I guess it's easy to remove. You just grab on it and pull it out. Yep, alphanumeric. Weird fluorescent light, man. Yeah, Alphanumeric.
    74:13
    Wow. $13.95 for a rare game that's in California. What year did this come out? I think it was 86. Is this another country or is this the U.S.? Yes, Bell is another country. All right, I'm about to say.
    74:28
    Although it did have credits on it, and they didn't look – oh, okay, yeah. Adriano Nardi. Sounds Jeff Douglas. Wait a minute. That's not his real name. Interesting. Okay. The one we'd buy, and this will be one that Ron will approve of, I think. Ticket number 282-411-882-303.
    74:56
    Firepower. Got it. It actually looks pretty nice. Four viewed in the past hour. Yeah, $9.99. Buy it now. In Colorado. Okay, the planet looks good. And if you look at the game next to it, which is a jungle lord, that is the blue cabinet. Guess what they didn't take off when they took the pictures?
    75:23
    The back glass. The playfield glass. The back glass has been duct taped in the background to keep everything together. It's the only bad thing about it in my book, but the playfield looks pretty nice. Coin door looks good. Yeah, I actually thought for $999, this is a good deal.
    75:44
    Let's see. What are we – what is that? The battery was – okay. Nice, nice. They put like a – oh, yeah, capacitor. Yep.
    75:53
    Displays and – oh, what the hell? Yeah, they put like masking tape all over the back glass. Yeah, keep it probably. Keep it from falling apart. You got – Instead of just using like triple thick or something. Yep. Okay. All right. now we're going to start the ones you don't want to buy start okay there's more than one oh we got a lot of them 182 503 217 301 load the description for this one used pinball machine oh come on of course he picks it because it's a gottlieb wipeout Yep. Come on, only $900. Why would you not buy this? I would not buy it because it sucks, but if somebody wants a beginner game, it is a pretty good game for them.
    76:45
    Well, okay, is it buy it or not? For more people, maybe, but for me, no fucking way. Okay, don't listen to Bruce. It's a $900 DMD game, so if it works, you can give it a try, man. This would be a good starter game. Colorado.
    77:01
    Of course it's in Colorado. It's got a ski lift. Yep. Second yawn. Okay. Second yawn. Third yawn, actually. Next one. Ready? Ready. Waiting for it to come up. 252-833-010-400.
    77:21
    Valley Playboy machine. $1,250. At least the picture I see has no back glass. It has no back glass. It was broken.
    77:31
    Oh, but it's free local pickup. Yes. In where? In Arizona. Yes. I can't zoom in on any of these. You can't zoom in on any of the pictures.
    77:44
    All right. The colors on the cabinet don't look that bad. They don't look bad, but trying to find a back glass is going to be really hard. And for that price? Yeah. And you don't see it powered up working either. That's true. It's got an original manual, though. Oh, wow. That's at least $20 for me. At least $20 right there. One more? One more.
    78:06
    162. 446. 125. 455. This one I'm going to say is a buy. You're mixing the we wouldn't buy that with we would buy that. Oh, I just saw it just now. Oh, Bally. Oh, of course. A Bally Strikes and Spares Spinball Machine. Yep. $600 starting bid. Yep. I just found another one too. Now at $850. Free local pickup in Michigan. Seven people are already watching it, so it's already hot. And it's got some wear on the play field, but for $600 starting bid, I'd go for that. Back glass looks good from what I can see. It's not like illuminated.
    78:51
    Oh, okay. Yeah, they did a reverse of the back glass. Back glass looks excellent. It does. The back glass alone. Oh, yeah. You might want it for the back glass alone. Now the play field is worn. Yeah, it is. But for a beater, first game. For a beater, first game with a great back glass, there you go. One more I just found.
    79:11
    This is not what we're going to buy. All right. 282-406-938-425. Bally, okay, Bally Pinball Machine, the 1978, you know, the old one, $2,900, almost three grand. It's got to be because it's got LEDs in it.
    79:37
    No, clearly there has to be another reason. No, it just says LEDs. Yeah, it does. LED. You can't zoom in on any of the pictures. No.
    79:50
    Okay, there's not a single close-up of the back glass or the play field. Yep. There's underneath the play field But there's no actual shot of the play field You know, close up at all Yeah Wow $2,900 Glendale, California Have fun Good luck with that one Good luck So fail on that one Well, let's see It's one of Valley's most desirable games It is It works 100% It has awesome gameplay Awesome shots Great ball flow Does anyone know what ball flow means?
    80:22
    How is that as ball flow? You hit it in the grotto and it fires it out over and over and over. How is that flow? Yeah. Now, the games we talked about a couple weeks ago, Time Machine, $2,036. People are on crack in this country. So it did sell. Oh, it sold big time. Yeah. The Galaxy. Remember the project machine we had last week? Mm-hmm. Guess what that sold for? I don't know. How much? $500. There you go. One bid.
    80:54
    So that was pretty good. And the one you and me talked privately about is still on there, Ron, and it actually lowered the price.
    81:02
    Okay. So that's just between me and Ron. We like to leave these tidbits in there, but that's the one I'd still want to buy. We like to troll our users. Yes, we do. I mean, our listeners. And screw them up a little bit and say, yeah, this is what we're going to buy. Yeah, yeah.
    81:18
    High five. Told you it was a long show. Yeah, it's a long show. I think it's time to pay the bills and stuff. it is uh www.pinballlifter.com we are going to be at allentown you can buy your lifters your wheel kits your helpers your tilters guess what use your brain not your back don't try to lift a machine when you don't have to especially if it's an eight ball champ it's a really heavy so ron which pinball show you're into this weekend? None. I'm staying home. There's actually none showing up, but I do have good news. Okay. We have our final setup for Western New York Pinball.
    82:01
    And guess who's driving the bus? Eric Russell. Nope. Zach. Nope. Oh, sorry. Really? Yes. I'm driving the bus.
    82:17
    Really? I'm surprised. Zach almost caught me, though. One point behind. And Eric is third, and Jason Plourd finished fourth, the top four. Just pretend you're playing me when you play them. You'll be all set. I'll be all set. Other than that, there's no tournaments coming up for this week or next week that I know of except for the local ones in Syracuse, New York.
    82:40
    I think that's about it for that stuff. Don't forget my stuff that we sell, the www.pinballlifter.com. A. Yeah. Oh, okay. Is that for our Canadian listeners? A. There is some stuff coming up. I actually got invited to at the end of April, but I'll wait till later. Oh, wow. Until we get closer to the event. I cannot go to that one. Another Catskill classic, if you will. I cannot go to that because that is the Buffalo Spring Pinball Open, which I have been. Which sold out in a week. Tell you, man. Western New York hotbed. It's hotbed of pinball. I have to defend my title. uh most annoying person no most annoying podcaster most hated podcaster that definitely there you go no i am the two-time winner i'm the two-time defending champ of the buffalo pinball open that nick lane nick lane hosts two-time one for each butt cheek yes you may kiss them if you like no thanks okay but yes so uh you know that's you know that's i think that's that's about it i think you got enough editing i think that's about it i think that's yeah i think are we gonna have our theme music at the end though theme music i hope so i hope so i'm not changing anything good so thank you everyone this has been episode 36 the living daylights which also saw the debut of another Moneypenny, too.
    84:07
    Moneypenny. Yeah, it was a new, much younger Moneypenny. They booted the old one out, too. Yes, because the other one was so old and haggard. The other one was old. Yes. It was like popcorn. Oh. So.
    84:20
    So thank you, everybody. We can be found on Facebook. Just search for Slam Tilt Podcast. Check out our YouTube channel. Search for Slam Tilt Podcast. I put some footage up of, I believe, Houdini, Jetsons, and Alien up in our podcast. on our channel. It's out there now. And if you want to send us correspondence, tell Bruce how much you love him or hate him. Yes!
    84:45
    Send to slamtillpodcast at gmail dot com. Say goodbye Bruce. I'm just going to say, instead of saying goodbye, because it is truly a goodbye for this person. My original, my first boss ever, Ward Huey, passed away actually today. So it was kind of a sad day today and I feel bad for his family. so he actually gave me a second chance after I had cancer and gave me my first job after having cancer so Ward I'm thinking about you I'm thinking about your family too bye Ward
    85:35
    Bye.