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The Pinball Show Ep 145: Shark No Eat Ball

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 21m·analyzed·Jan 16, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Jaws analysis, Stern production updates, shark mechanics debate.

Summary

The Pinball Show hosts Zach Minney and Dennis Creasel discuss Stern Pinball production updates, including imminent releases of James Bond Premium, Jaws Pro/Premium/LE, and Stranger Things Premium. They extensively analyze the Jaws gameplay video and the viral community debate over why the shark doesn't eat the ball, featuring engineer insights from the official Stern Insider Pinball Podcast. They also tease an upcoming Alice in Wonderland game discussion for club members.

Key Claims

  • Stern Pinball is shipping Godzilla Premium LE machines this week with James Bond Premium and Jaws Pro following

    high confidence · Zach Minney as a Stern dealer providing production scheduling information

  • Jaws Premium LE will ship mid-February 2024 with Premium following late February/early March

    high confidence · Zach Minney citing dealer scheduling from Stern

  • Jurassic Park Premium has jumped to number 2 on Pinside Top 100, surpassing Medieval Madness

    high confidence · Zach Minney referencing current Pinside rankings

  • Harrison Drake (Stern lead engineer) stated the shark eating ball mechanic 'sucked' and was 'basically a moving scoop'

    high confidence · Quote from Stern Insider Pinball Podcast featuring Jaws development team

  • Jaws Premium model features upgraded side rails mimicking previous LE models with straight-edge lollipop design

    high confidence · Zach Minney noting detail from Jaws Premium product pictures

  • Keith Elwin added two up posts to Jaws to compensate for lack of up post in Godzilla

    medium confidence · Dennis Creasel discussing Keith Elwin's design preferences based on Godzilla and Jaws comparison

  • A heavily rumored Alice in Wonderland pinball game is being discussed as possibly releasing this year

    medium confidence · Mentioned as topic for Pinball Show club members' in-depth discussion; listener noted as rumor

  • Stern is preparing another run of pinball alley/game room signs for 2024 with improved packaging to prevent damage

    high confidence · Zach Minney discussing Stern accessory production updates

Notable Quotes

  • “Baby Yoda doesn't move. The hell if he doesn't, he will move. Just like that shark will eat balls.”

    Dennis Creasel @ ~7:40 — Humorous skepticism about the community's obsession with the shark eating the ball mechanic

  • “Why does the shark no eat ball?”

    Zach Minney / Community @ ~48:30 — Central viral meme/debate point within pinball community about Jaws design

  • “It sucked... It wasn't a moment. It was much more pronounced now that it is a bash toy than when it was basically a moving scoop.”

    Harrison Drake (Stern Lead Engineer) @ ~51:00 — Official explanation from Stern engineering for why shark eating mechanic was removed from Jaws

  • “I'm wondering if maybe that's what that is versus the enthusiasm that you sometimes see. I personally think this was a better approach.”

    Dennis Creasel @ ~45:00 — Defense of pre-recorded gameplay video approach vs. live reveals prone to technical issues

  • “You may be 80% plus of the market, but the arrogance to have your podcast not available through RSS is shocking and inappropriate.”

    Dennis Creasel @ ~54:00 — Criticism of Stern's proprietary Stern Insider Pinball Podcast distribution strategy

  • “There's nothing like that feeling. Whoa, whoa. Okay, all right. I'm ready.”

    Zach Minney (bidet tangent) @ ~42:00 — Comedic transition back from extended personal hygiene discussion to pinball analysis

  • “The video assets are what tickled my fancy the most, though. I'm so glad to get all of those video assets. I just don't care all that much about the video assets.”

    Zach Minney vs. Dennis Creasel @ ~40:00 — Contrasting perspectives on Jaws video assets and importance to gameplay experience

  • “The proof is in the play, not in how he talks about it.”

    Dennis Creasel @ ~46:00 — Defense of Keith Elwin's flat affect in gameplay presentation vs. actual game quality

Entities

Zach MinneypersonDennis CreaselpersonStern PinballcompanyJawsgameGodzillagameKeith ElwinpersonHarrison DrakepersonJames Bondgame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern's distribution strategy for Stern Insider Pinball Podcast lacks RSS feed, limiting accessibility; Dennis criticizes as arrogant given Stern's market dominance

    high · Dennis statement: 'the arrogance to have your podcast not available through RSS is shocking and inappropriate'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Widespread viral meme/debate about 'why shark no eat ball' across multiple Discord communities; community creating visuals and hashtags around the mechanic debate

    high · Hosts discussing viral nature of discussion across TPS/TPN/EGP Discord channels and community engagement

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball producing higher-quality gameplay reveal videos with professional editing (Elton John example cited as superior to Stern's approach)

    medium · Hosts discussing Ken Cromwell's editing approach with dynamic shot highlighting vs. Stern's simpler presentation

  • ?

    content_signal: Stern shifting from live gameplay reveals to pre-recorded, edited video format to avoid technical issues and provide controlled narrative; hosts prefer this approach

    high · Dennis praising pre-recorded approach and noting problems with live reveals; discussion of Keith Elwin's 16-minute Jaws video

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Shark eating ball mechanic was prototyped and built but removed because it functioned as a 'glorified scoop' and created no meaningful gameplay moment; bash toy implementation superior

    high · Harrison Drake quote from Stern Insider Pinball Podcast: 'it sucked... basically a moving scoop... wasn't a moment'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.246

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:11
The Pinball Network is online. Launching The Pinball Show. We are going to flush out your system with the amount of infotainment in episode 145 of The Pinball Show. Dennis and I provide you updates to Stern Pinball Production. We chat about a Christmas gift that'll keep on giving all year long. There's more Jaws pinball to discuss, like the recent gameplay video and the ever-simmering Why No Shark Eat Ball discussion. We chat Looney Tunes gameplay video, Pedretti getting into the remake game, upcoming American pinball games, InDisc and Pinberg 2024, pinball market trends, and the Pinball Show official club members get an in-depth discussion about the rumored Alice in Wonderland game releasing this year and our breakdown on what you need to know about the project. We've got the seat warmed up for you. Take a load off and enjoy.
1:15
Pinball is a game of skill. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle. It's time for the Pinball Show. It's pinball with personality. She calls out to me. It's episode 145. It's the Pinball Show. It's Zach Minney. It's Dennis Creasel. It's everything that your little heart desired since we spoke with you, what, a week, week and a half ago, Dennis? Yeah, around that. We're back at the real schedule, the regular schedule. You know, Zach, I'm a planner. I know. I hate deviations from the plan, and the last episode was deviation. I understood why we did it. I mean, Jaws, you know, people wanted to know about that shark. They wanted to know how many times it would eat the ball. Does it eat the ball? You know, in the video, I didn't see it, but surely the community hasn't Baby Yoda movie hand rallied around this shark thing, right? They haven't just decided to make this a thing for no other reason than they're bored and for sport, right? Baby Yoda doesn't move. The hell if he doesn't, he will move. Just like that shark will eat balls. Did you miss these people, Dennis? I did. Did you really? No. I'm saying this for content. Well, you missed him so much that two days after we spoke last, you got on Eclectic Gamers podcast and did a whole big old Jaws episode as well. I recommend people going over and listening to that. That was a good analysis over there between Tony and yourself. We decided to not go ahead and discuss every single shot like we did on this episode.
Jurassic Park Premium
game
Stranger Things Premiumgame
Pinside Top 100organization
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Ken Cromwellperson
Alice in Wonderlandgame
Nate Shiversperson
Rick Nagelperson
Elizabeth Geiskeperson
Zach Starkperson
Jerry Thompsonperson
Flippin' Out Pinballcompany
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Keith Elwin's design preference for up posts over scoops; deliberately added two up posts to Jaws to compensate for lack in Godzilla

    medium · Dennis discussion of Elwin's scoop avoidance pattern across his recent designs

  • $

    market_signal: Jurassic Park Premium jumped to #2 on Pinside Top 100, surpassing Medieval Madness, indicating strong secondary market value and collector preference; Stern scheduling additional March production run

    high · Zach Minney citing current Pinside rankings and confirming continued production demand

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jaws Premium upgraded with side rails matching previous LE models; straight-edge lollipop design mimics Avengers Infinity Quest approach

    high · Zach Minney noting detail visible in official Jaws Premium product pictures

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern Pinball production schedule confirmed through dealer: James Bond Premium/Jaws Pro (this week), Stranger Things Premium (through month end), Jaws LE (mid-Feb), Jaws Premium (late Feb/early March), additional Godzilla Pro and Jurassic Park Premium runs in March

    high · Zach Minney citing dealer scheduling information from Stern

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Alice in Wonderland pinball game heavily rumored for 2024 release; Pinball Show planning club-only detailed discussion

    medium · Zach mentioning rumored Alice in Wonderland game and noting club member discussion pending

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Stern addressing packaging damage issues with pinball alley signs; modifying manufacturer packaging for next production run to ensure better protection

    high · Zach noting higher damage percentage than desired on first run and confirming Stern implementing new packaging

    • 2:50
    As fun as that was. Tony was thankful for that. I'm sure. You know what we didn't do last time? We didn't discuss, I love Christmas, but we didn't discuss in its entirety all of the features that we had for Christmas. And I found something very interesting, listener, that I forgot, I think I forgot to share. If I already discussed this, my apologies. I don't think I did. I found it odd and interesting at the same time that this Christmas, Dennis, Nicole, my wonderful wife, and I purchase, you know, we do the purchasing of gifts for one another. and we've been together so long, it's getting really tough. And it's like we spend so much money throughout the year. Do we really need? So we try to get a little something. So can you believe, listener, that Nicole and I purchased gifts for one another and they were the same gift, the same thing? Uh-oh. How crazy is that? And the other thing that's crazy is this item was not on our Amazon wish list. It was not something we even discussed in detail as we wanted or didn't want. It was honestly just not a topic of discussion, but damned if we didn't buy each other the same type of gift. Any guess as to what that might have been?
    4:13
    An air fryer? You know what? Damn good guess. Really good guess there because that is something that we could both use. No. We and... Oh, man. This thing has changed my life. We both got one another a bidet. Do you know about these bidets? Yes. I guess a European thing. The U.S. is more of a rip and scratch kind of people over here. But it's taking the country by storm, I'm hearing, a trending item. And maybe that's why we both – what are the odds that we both get one another a bidet? What was that? Well, I don't know. Numbers don't lie, but I've never run a statistical analysis of that. I wonder if the Google spy bots, if they just kept feeding bidet ads to both of us, and maybe we were like, you know what? I would like a clean asshole. So, yeah, we both got one another a bidet. We kept hers because she got the one that looked like it belonged in a museum, and it opens up right when you walk up to it. It's like the Johnny Five of toiletry.
    5:26
    And, Dennis, you sit down, and it even has a warm seat. It preps you a warm seat. It's got a little glow light for night times. It's got a little fan, warm water hitting your buttholage and your tainage. I'm telling you, what do you think the percentage of people in the United States that own a bidet are? Oh, it's got to be under 5%. Yes. And you know what? That's a disjustice. We are doing a disservice to our bungholes. And it's even got a little, for the ladies, it's got a front wash too. Eh, press that button, it goes up front. I thought it might hit my sack a little bit, so I tried it. Didn't really do that. But have you ever used a bidet? No, I have not. I strongly recommend it. I really strongly. I thought, I'm a wiper. I'm a heavy wiper. It's squidgy.
    6:16
    Oh, Christ, I'm getting all emotional from it. And I thought, there's no way. This is just going to car wash me. I'm still going to have to go to town wiping. I'm open with you, listener, because I think it will change your life as well. That's why I'm being so open about all of this stuff. But personal hygiene is a big thing for everybody. And, man, no big wipeage needed after cleaning house down there. It's got that little heat fan, too. Man, you might blot yourself dry a little bit. You're good to go. I'm telling you, by the end of this year, Dennis, even Christmas time, maybe you'll receive a bidet.
    6:55
    Wow, that's quite touching. Possibly, literally. Incidentally, listeners, Flippin' Out Pinball is now an official distributor for the following five major bidet manufacturers. The odds of us both buying a bidet when neither one of us have ever used one, some call it fate.
    7:15
    That does remind me once. I can't remember what holiday. Maybe it was Valentine's Day or something when I was younger. My dad and mom got each other the same exact card.
    7:25
    Really? Wow. It's Twilight Zone, man. Every time a bell rings, a butthole gets a clean. Did you just soil yourself?
    7:35
    Maybe. It did sound a little wet, didn't it? Right at the end. Let's have a smell, all right? I'm telling you. Just try it, people. And it's not, you know what? Pretty efficient. Not, I thought those things were for rich people. No, no. Pretty cheap. Just a seat add-on that you can, it's very affordable. I think my folks have one in one of their bathrooms. Interesting. Okay. So see, they're probably, right now if they're listening, they're like, absolutely. I am pro bidet. Don't cheap out on one. Get a nice one. Weird transition from this to giving a shout-out to one of our listeners. Maybe they have a bidet. But I wanted to give a shout-out to Chris out there, Dennis. he messaged us with something very i won't get into the details of it something very heartfelt and uh thanking us for the content over the last handful of years um yourself uh and the rest of our crew like we got a crew right uh man he has been fighting um fighting a just a really nasty mean disease since in his 20s, daily battles, physical therapy, exhaustion, but some of the podcasts and things that we do, Dennis, help him look forward to each of those sessions that he has to do that, keeping him laughing and entertained. I just wanted to especially say thank you to you, Chris, for listening, for supporting, for following, and hopefully you're not working too hard right now in your physical therapy. Hopefully, like, sitting and waiting for McKenzie to come call you back or something. And then he said, looking forward to hearing your thoughts about the heavily rumored pinball machine based on the film Kramer vs. Kramer because divorce is a perfect theme for pinball. JK, he says. That was clever. I like that. Yeah. That might be an American pinball theme. No, wait a minute. It's licensed. Never mind. Nothing more American than divorce. Speaking of licensed pinball themes, we've got to talk about Stern Pinball. Let's talk about all those production updates from Stern Pinball. This past week, arguably the greatest pinball machine ever made, the Godzilla Premium LE, that was on the line last week. A lot of those shipping out across the country, across the world. This week for Stern Pinball, I believe, this is a total guess, but based on the information that they've given us recently, James Bond Premium this week alongside Jaws Pro, which is going to go on the line at the end of this week. So I would guess next week we're going to start to see those lands, probably at the end of next week, start to see those land in arcades and dealer showrooms across the country and world. Wow. That fish will swallow you whole unless you're a ball.
    10:22
    He's suspended up in the air on the pro one. I'd like to see a ramp come up and try to hit it in his mouth like a Demi Gorkin. I want my shark to. Yeah, because the Demi Gargan worked so great when that came out. I know. That's why I think Keith Elvin was like, meh, on second thought. Hey, John, can you give us some tips on a bash toy? What is a shark swallowing a ball if not just essentially a scoop? And we know he doesn't care much for scoops. You know what? And we'll talk about that. That's a good point. Oh, we will. Yes, that's right. So I think we're going to see maybe some James Bond premium and Jaws Pro this week, and then a slight shift to Stranger Things Premium sometime between now and the end of the month, and then they're going to keep cranking out those Jaws Pros. Mid-February, we're going to see Jaws LE online, and then late February, early March, as we've said before, Jaws Premium. One slight update, additional information we have been given. We've been given a lot of, as dealers, scheduling from last year into 2024, saying Q2s, Q3s, Q4s, not as specific maybe as we would want. We did get some updates for specifics of March, March of 2024. We're going to see another run of Godzilla Pro. Oddly enough, probably the only title that a lot of us dealers don't have in stock. I sold out of all of our Godzilla Pros a couple months ago, and it's like, well, damn.
    11:43
    It's hard to get those right now. And then also in March, they're going to do another run of the loved Jurassic Park Premium, the game that still sells great. That and Godzilla Premium. I don't know if they're slowing down those two titles. And if you look at the Pinside Top 100 right now, I don't know if you've seen, listener, Jurassic Park has made a jump up past Medieval Madness to land in that number two spot. Wow. Right behind Godzilla, which is great. I think, if memory serves me correctly, Jurassic Park Premium LE is even ranked on the Pinside Top 100 higher than Godzilla Pro. So all of that stuff is very interesting. And then we have our, I've already reported two Q2s, Q3s, Q4s of this year. No big changes there. And let's see, accessories, no big changes. We're still waiting for the January run of Stranger Things accessories, including UV kits, topper, art blades, shooter rod, et cetera. Q1 2024, still supposed to see another run of Iron Maiden toppers. I guess one small update to the accessories. We talked about them selling out of that first big run of pinball alley signs, game room signs. Dennis, remember those? Yes. So they're prepping in 2024 to do another run of those. They have made some modifications in the way they're shipping them, packaging them from manufacturer. Because we had a couple of them get damaged, more so percentage-wise than we would have liked to have seen, compared to other products such as games or accessories. so they're packaging them, working on packaging them a different way so that they can assure that there's no damage whenever they do land, especially on their next run here. But I don't know when that run is. All right, let's talk about Jaws Pinball. Holy moly. We had our big Jaws Pinball episode in 144, but we will continue with the leftovers in 145, which is what, most of Quint's body?
    13:37
    I guess. Yeah. That was a brutal death. It was. That was a rough one. Very violent. I did want to say, I forgot, Dennis, last episode when we did this full big analysis. If you haven't listened yet, listener, go back 144 and consume the hell out of that. That was some juicy, bloody stuff. But I forgot to mention, I noticed on the premium model of Jaws, and I've not heard anybody talk about this, the premium got the upgraded side rails to mimic those of previous LE models. So almost like the Avengers Infinity Quest had these. They're like a straight down lollipop 2.0 kind of thing where you don't get the full lollipop loop, but you get like a straight edge kind of thing, very sleek and more modern. I noticed on the pictures that the premium is getting those. So I thought, you know what, I'm going to mention that because any time a manufacturer does something that we approve of, we want to reinforce, you know, that's psychology. That's how that works. When somebody does something in your life that you really like, you reinforce that so that they continue said behavior. You extinguish what you don't want or you have consequences for behavior you don't want replicated. So, damn it, Stern Pinball, thank you for the upgraded rails for the premium. I would love to see upgraded rails on premiums moving forward.
    14:58
    Do you think that would potentially hurt their armor accessories, though? Maybe. Maybe a little bit. Yeah, because I think that the accessories, I don't think people are putting the armor on their games as protection. I really don't. I think it's just more aesthetics and the look of it. I don't know what they're going to do with that, but that's cool. Did you see the gameplay video with Keith Elwin, the prerecorded gameplay video, rather than that live stream that they have done in the past? Yes, I did. Oh, we haven't talked about that yet, have we? No, we have not. Okay. It was a 16-minute video. Keith Elwin went through one pretty full big game, explained what he was doing throughout the game. The big surprise, I think, to everybody, Dennis, was the assets that Stern Pinball was able to get. I mean, what's his name? Roy what? Oh, yes. Wait. Correction. It's Scheider, not Schneider. I added an N because I didn't check it because it wasn't recording at my proper time. Well, because I've never heard of anybody named Scheider. Come on. Well, anyway. I think they were probably Schneiders, but they dropped it. And I had heard that they had the full video assets. Yeah. And I remember hearing his line, you're going to need a bigger boat in one of the trailers. Sure. But this did confirm, like, while in the art, they don't have any pictures of his face in the video stuff. It's, yeah, he's present. He's fully there. He's ever present. So that was great to see. Any other first impressions you had when watching this video of Keith Elwin playing this game? because the community had mixed reactions following the consumption of this video. I mean, I thought it looked like it played really well. It had some fun combo shots like you'd expect out of an Elwynn game. And there's a lot that obviously there was a certain amount, I feel, of depth that's not programmed in yet. So it felt like, well, I wasn't too surprised with the 16-minute video, but sort of a there was a lot of things to start, but we didn't really see very much depth into any of them. I agree with that. I'm not surprised at that either, given where it's probably at in code and the fact that not everyone wants to see you go all the way through when they're watching a reveal like that. They want to experience it themselves. So I thought it looked like a pretty fun game. I'll repeat what you said. I think it looks like a blast of a game. I was hoping for no bad surprises. Sometimes you get good surprises, but I was hoping for no bad surprises. and to my delight, I didn't see any bad, nasty surprises. Everything in the photos and in the sizzle reel was showcased here with more detail, but nothing bad. I didn't see anything bad, which I was really, really happy about. It looks like a blast to shoot. It looks like there's a lot of ways to shoot it. Just like you said with Keith Elwin, that's what I look forward to the most. It's Keith Elwin. It's Jaws for me. That's pretty much a hit. The art doesn't suck, so I'm thankful for that.
    17:54
    Some of those shots looked a lot more fun on the gameplay video than they did on the sizzle reel, especially with that upper play field. People are saying that that is a tough shot. I mean, I don't know. It didn't look tough to me. It looked like the left orbit on Godzilla, which I love, so it didn't look tough there. I like the use of that upper right flipper. I'm not a little flipper kind of guy, but we'll see how that plays out. It looked like fun shooting to the left side of that play field. And any time you go east and west on a game, you're going to Pat Lawler tries to get you to drain that way. So I think that will lead to a lot of difficult play, which I always welcome, especially in some of my most favorite pinball machines. The video assets are what tickled my fancy the most, though. I'm so glad to get all of those video assets. I just don't care all that much about the video assets. I don't play the screen. The complaints that people took away were it felt dry. The video felt dry or the gameplay felt dry.
    19:01
    Yeah, that's what some have said. Didn't have much excitement. Well, I mean, it's condensed and edited. So I'm wondering if maybe that's what that is versus the enthusiasm that you sometimes see. I personally think this was a better approach. I can't say every time, but almost every time we see a live gameplay reveal, and not just from Stern. Stuff just goes wrong. There's all this downtime. The live chat's either whining because the game's not being explained, or they're whining that there's too much time being spent explaining the game. It's like you can't win for losing. The only thing that really stood out to me, and this is more of a feature thing when you mentioned everything you saw that I didn't care for with it, was this whole, yeah, we're shipping 3D glasses.
    19:48
    Oh, yeah, the 3D video mode. That's just too hokey. I would have killed that in the writing room. But the video mode itself looked kind of cool. Yeah. Someone had messaged me before I had seen the video. but the shark hunting thing is straight up homage to the very brief arcade game you get to see in the first Jaws movie where someone's shooting a shark. Yeah, from the early 70s there was an arcade game. That's real. A real arcade game. So that was, yeah, and it looks very much like it. So that was very cool. When it looked like the, what's that game that, because the sharks go across the screen but you only have three directional shots that is left flipper right flipper probably in between Yeah that the one that homaging the arcade game But it reminded me of like what that submarine Seawolf or something where you have to shoot a bullet in the distance? That might have been it. I don't remember. We don't want to get it wrong. Yes, we don't want to get it wrong. It was probably Schneider Wolf.
    20:45
    You're going to need a bigger sub. Probably. but I like that it wasn't like Brom Stoker's Dracula where the wolves or the dogs, they're coming up, but they're always in the same spot. These sharks were crossing over into shot patterns that you cannot hit until it gets to that right pattern. So I think now the video itself, Chuck Ernst and team maybe work on a little bit, not the sexiest looking video mode, but the actual gameplay of it looked very, very fun. Yeah, 3D, take or leave it. I think it's a cute little wink to Jaws 3D, the film. But the video mode itself. I don't think any winks were needed, Zach. No winks? We don't need to reference that movie. They were like, hey, this is from Jaws 3. I saw, I did see in some of the video clips, I think to mix up the shark attacks and stuff, they did definitely have some from Jaws 3 in there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I could see that because there's really not very many shark attacks in the first Jaws. If we're talking about why it may have felt dry, I think it could have been, like you said, some of the code maybe has more room for fleshing out. And Keith Elwin is really good about coming out with a game that the structure and the foundation gives you so much to do at launch, but then he just decorates it and details it and colors it more and more and more, which makes it an instant classic that all of his games become. Avengers Instant Classic.
    22:16
    Maybe not. The other thing could be because Keith is the host of the video. Keith doesn't exude high emotionality when he talks about games. Let's be honest. He's pretty flat. I've heard people say that they always feel like he sounds bored.
    22:34
    And it's like, well, I mean, that's just his personality and the way he talks about the game. The proof is in the play, not in how he talks about it. So I guess I could see where people would possibly say it was dry, but I don't. But that's about the that's about the video. It's not about the game to me. I think he did his job and he did it very well. If it felt a little dry, I'm just so glad that they did a produced pre-recorded video that keeps us wanting more without two hours of live gameplay for something to go wrong. or for just, it's a bad idea. So I'm glad that they've positioned themselves to move towards that. I would like to see in the future, I would love to see a gameplay video such as this, whether it's with Keith Elwin or whoever's designing it. I think the onus kind of goes on the editor and the person producing this piece because take a look at like Jersey Jack's Elton John while people had complaints about, you know, rules discussion and confusing them. I love that, I think it's Ken Cromwell I'll edit that piece together where they used editing for different cuts of shots to do a full screen, to do a highlighting, Photoshopping highlighting of the shots whenever they were talking about the code. Hey, here's the arrows you want to highlight that and the dark and everything else. Those are the production pieces that take so much time to do but pay off in the long run where if they were to do some more fancy editing and stuff, then maybe we wouldn't have felt it to be a little bit dry. It would have felt more wet, like you're in the open sea.
    24:18
    You want to feel a jolt of wetness, like that bidet on my booty hole. There's nothing like that feeling. Whoa, whoa. Okay, all right. I'm ready. Did you listen to the podcast? No. They need to add an RSS feed. I will not go to a website to listen to a podcast. For those unaware, it's the Stern Insider Pinball Podcast. And you know what? I think this was, who's the host? The host, the host is... It's Nate Shivers, isn't it? Okay, thank you.
    24:50
    It's not Ricky Gervais, Zach. In your head, when you think of host, it's got to be somebody else. It's the guy that did Fast Five Thoughts. He does the coast-to-coast thing. Nate Shivers. I've got beef with Nate Shivers. yeah you heard it here exclusively not on but on the pinball show not the fake virtual pinball the pinball show yeah nate shivers he gave a shout out to he said zach initially for calling it the sip podcast i said oh okay great he said he said zach sharp what what wait a minute that was our thing dennis you did the wrong zach nate oh well i listened to this podcast of course you did you consume all media i consume all stern pinball bye bye bye i don't have the jurassic park sweatpants yet though have you seen those no i have not i want some so bad all right whatever one is discussing in the hobby over the last week because they really are having a hard time finding things they don't like about Jaws Pinball, but you know all the negative little shitheads out there. We've got to find something that we don't like. Hey, I hear there are LEs plentily available. So it sounds like people are... Plentily? Plentily.
    26:08
    Plentily show me where I can buy some and I'll buy some. Plentily. I can get one today. Why doesn't Shark eat ball?
    26:17
    That's the short of it. They line pinball. Why no Shark eat ball? I understand. I understand it's just like, I don't know. This is just as an aside. I just, I'm amused because it's both so obvious and so obvious that it's like, why do you want something so like, I totally understand why people would be like, if you start talking about, hey, well, how can we do a pinball machine with Jaws? People would be like, a shark should eat the ball. I also think about people being like, well, what's the most like if you were the most basic person coming up with a game, how would you do Jaws? And to be like, oh, the shark's got to eat the ball. I'm just kind of like real. I mean, is it that big of a deal? It is super. It's both super obvious. But I don't know. Maybe it's a contrarian in me that also is like, isn't that maybe too obvious? I thought you would love the viral meme stuff within our community about everybody talking about why shark no eat ball. People are taking time to create visuals. They're hashtagging. There's nothing else to talk about. Always remember that this is the – and some of the discords, I don't remember if it was our TPS discord or the TPN discord or the EGP discord or probably on all of them, quite frankly. Discord, yeah. It's like what's the most favorite thing pinball people do? And it's talk about the next game. It's not – once you get the reveal, people are pretty much done with the current game. They really are in terms of conversation, other than those who are buying it. But a lot of these rumors have been rumoring around for a while. Shark, no eat ball, wallet safe from purchase. Another thing we do is, of course, we critique the games that have been revealed. And you've got to find something. There's always something with every game. Remember with Godzilla? You said number one on Pennside. The Godzilla toy looks dumb. He doesn't look like Godzilla. The art isn't. Even I was on the art pack. It's like, yeah, the art package is good, but it doesn't look like the style of Godzilla art that we've come. Well, it was like the posters, but it wasn't like what a lot of the really hardcore Godzilla artists do, where it's far more aggressive and a little more washed out, more watercolor sort of. More rubber suit.
    28:34
    There's always something. James Bond. Well, everything about the reveal that James Bond was wrong. Elton John, why is this guy flying away? Oh, yeah, Bond did have the bouncing dildo. Yeah.
    28:47
    People wanted a Groot. People wanted a T-Rex. We want when toys eat balls. That's our favorite thing in this industry. People always think. That's what I got to point out. People always think that they want super interactive toys. But as you and I have discussed before, Maverick, you've got to be careful because people forget that in the 90s, so many of these really cool visual toys made the game suck to play on replay. It was the novelty wears off. Don't believe me? Go and find Ultraman and ask Ultraman, Hey, Ultraman, how are your servos doing elevating up these balls? Is this super exciting on game number five? No, it's not. So that's the big debate right now. We were referencing the Stern Insider Pinball Podcast with Nate Shivers. he was hosting featuring the Jaws team, basically. Keith Allen, Harrison Drake on engineering, Rick Nagel, and Elizabeth Geiske, I believe. Sorry, Elizabeth, if I was wrong. Elizabeth Geiske on rules code and Zach Stark on some of the animations art and Jerry Thompson on sound. A big, nice group there. Good discussion overall. When talking about why shark not eat ball, Sips Harrison Drake, Stern's lead engineer for this project, talked about them actually building a mech for shark eating ball. And he said, quote, it sucked. He went on to say, quote, no, it ate. It didn't suck. He said it wasn't a moment. And it was much more pronounced now that it is a bash toy than when it was what Keith Elwin later called in the episode, quote, basically a moving scoop. And it just wasn't interesting. Yeah. No, that was no. That's obvious. Any sort of ball thing is basically a glorified scoop. So when you said that, I'm like, yeah, Keith Elwin himself is a moving scoop. Keith's fairly well known for not liking scoops. It was very surprising to people when they saw it on Godzilla. but it's really only used for select things where you want to stop the ball, namely choosing kaiju battles, changing cities, and powering up Godzilla. And he does that oftentimes with posts. Yes, and usually that's his, clearly it's his favorite way. In fact, he went back and he added two up posts to Jaws to make up for the lack of one in Godzilla. Absolutely, he did. But, you know, I would, and I didn't hear this because, as I noted, sorry Stern. Wait, Stern. Uh-oh. This is Dennis here. You may be 80% plus of the market, but the arrogance to have your podcast not available through RSS is shocking and inappropriate. You really need to just go ahead and put it out like every other podcast. You're not that special. So get over yourselves and do that. Thank you. Hashtag numbers don't lie. Yeah, but I do disagree with Harrison. I do think that the mech eating the ball would be a moment. It was just a bad moment. Oh, okay. Yeah. They both were like, no. They said, I'm paraphrasing. They said, yeah, when you do Jaws, okay, the first thing you got to figure out is do we need to get this shark to eat the ball? He eats bodies. He eats the big old barrel thing. And he said, so we did it. And it just sucked. It wasn't fun. And then Keith Allen was talking about, like, then you're going to have to have a subway system. If you've got it low to the ground, it's, you know, eating the ball. And then do you want a subway? So they were really happy with trying it and much more happy without it in there. So they made it a more pronounced bash toy that comes out of the play field. I do like that when it does come out of the play field, it looks like the movie poster. I like that. I actually don't like that. I do like that. I think it looks hokey. I actually like the way it looks much better when it just sits there static on the Pro. I don't like them. And here's why. I looked at it and I was like, because from the side, I actually think it looks okay. But dead on, like how the player sees it, I get it. It's supposed to look like the poster. To me, it looks like Left Shark from the Katy Perry Super Bowl. Yes, I know. Yeah. That's what it looks like. So to me, it looks too cartoony. It kind of does. It's a mild complaint. But hey, remember, we have to pick apart these games. So there you go. Ultimately. I don't want no Left Shark bash toy. Ultimately, do I? Oh, my God. Recently, podcasters and people on podcasts have done this whole thing where they ask themselves questions, and it's really annoying the fuck out of me. Do I like this game? Yes. Am I going to purchase this game? Maybe.
    33:34
    Would I have liked to? I hate that type of technique in broadcast. Really? It's sloppy. I think limited, it's probably not too bad. I almost did it, so I stopped myself. It's too long, didn't read. a way to do that. I get annoyed, so I'm not going to do that. I almost did it. Okay.
    33:53
    Well, yours would be super boring. Am I going to buy this game? Yes, because I'm Zach and I buy everything. It would be an alley. Yes, because they're easy to find, as Dennis said. No, they're not. They're sold. We're sold out. We're gone. I want more. When I hear these guys talking about it, ultimately I am glad that I trust their design capabilities. and if they tell me that the mech that they built, eating ball, is not as good as not eating ball, bash toy, I trust them and I believe them. Having said that, do I believe that, do I want the shark to eat the ball? I really do. This is such a pedestrian desire. I think that their explanation is true to their situation.
    34:50
    But I think that they could have maybe went back to the drawing board. You know, if there was maybe more film materials. Does it really make that much of a difference to Hungry Hungry Hippo, this play field? That's what I say. Ultimately, it doesn't.
    35:05
    But I need the shark eating the bull. No, you don't. I really want the shark to eat the bull. Okay, you do want it. I do. I didn't care. I know. I know that with those big brains that team has, they could have done it. Yeah, but why shoehorn yourself so severely into we got to do this one thing? Why? Because it's super. No, because it's super predictable. I haven't got tired of the T-Rex eating the ball yet. The T-Rex just sort of flings it. I haven't got tired of Bruce eating the ball. Well, yeah, but do you want to do it in a way that it feels like – I got tired of building going down to Godzilla. If they did it either of those ways, the complaint would be, look at Keith Elwin recycling all his toys or recycling Borg's toys, recycling Stern's toys. It's already bad enough where they're like, look at all the leftover Mick on the stick mix they used for the fin. Okay. Look, given their resources and their time considerations, very likely, I agree, the right move. i'm not i'm not like pro like or i should say i'm not anti-shark eat ball personally you're not anti-shark eat ball no i'm not i mean if it was there i i would hope they would have been integrated well but i just i i just think it's interesting and i haven't consumed as much of this as you in terms of just seeing how many i've seen a number of people referencing this and i just think again my comparison would be like when mandalorian came out and the yoda and people just for whatever reason decided he was supposed to move and like they were they got really worked up that stern didn't figure out a way to make baby yoda move his little arm or something example and i just was like i get it but it's also in a way so unimportant like because we're getting into things that i don't in in that case in particular i was like i don't even know that really changes the gameplay the shark eating the ball could but i mean the only way i would readily think about doing it would have been probably like groot and then it's like okay well then it needs to be a ball lock system or something and then it's gonna everyone's gonna look at it like i mean like this is groot why is elwyn cribbing from borg and i and i just don't see how that like if you want that by guardians i so that's where i get and as greg bone has told me in private discussion my buddy he said look the other thing is you don't want you don't want the shark to be seen uh as much as you do like on the pro like it should emerge that should be a moment where you're seeing shark for first time um so if they did do a ball locking system or ball shark eating ball you don't want just a standard group like figure always there ready to open mouth for ball so and i get that too what i would have loved to have seen and i gotta put it out there just because i i have no clue how to engineer or design games so armchair quarterback here that's what i do at a podcast i would have loved to have seen you hitting that boat as we are accustomed to uh and a post go up because elwyn loves us so much to capture a ball boat lifting up in the front end back end going down shark coming up you see the perspective of back of shark uh the post goes down ball rolls into shark's mouth just like on the movie and then goes back down so you could still do a bash toy if you want to in the in the hind quarters or anything but ball falls into mouth rather than ball shark eat ball well what i would have wanted to see then i don't know how you would have engineered it but i would have wanted to see in an instance where there was the shark you'd raise the shark possibly but it had to always be up maybe on the pro model that would be okay too And then there would be a shot, and the shot would move a scuba diving air tank toy into the shark's mouth. And then you have to shoot the scuba tank once it's in the shark's mouth to actually defeat the shark. That's what I would have wanted. Shark eat tank. Shark eat tank, not ball. Ball hit tank. Ball is bullet, but shark doesn't need to eat no bullets. Pinball moment. All right. Okay, so that's shark eat ball. Thank you. Did you know, I heard this on Jaws was designed before Elwin designed Bond 60th. I found that interesting. I didn't know that, but I'm not surprised.
    39:23
    Because Elwin had already noted that Bond 60th kind of came about while they were working with the licensor. That one seemed more rapid. Sure. And he talked about kind of having a big old timeline for this game. So there were numerous iterations to the design that in other games he's not had the time to do. So he was really happy with how this one turned out. They talked about the shark fin target that comes up that you hit that goes down. They talked about the uniqueness of that, how that's not been done before. It is similar to certain iterations on different games, but nothing that's moving and going onto the play field and whatnot. Everybody was like, oh, why isn't it just a shark fin-shaped target? Why does it have to be a square target with a decal that looks like a shark fin? And they said, look, they tried that. Of course, why wouldn't they try that? So they tried the shark fin shaped target, but that would make, they said, for a great slingshot airball ramp. It doesn't matter how they designed it. Yeah, I guess because of the point, you'll never get it sturdy. It just flung that ball to the glass, and it was a mess. So they did indeed try that. It just didn't work.
    40:32
    There's five or six wizard boats in this game. We don't know. Is it five or is it six? Keith Elman said five or six of them. So, I don't know. You should figure it out. Those are like mini wizard modes. And then he said the final mode, smile, you son of a bitch, that doesn't even have an insert in it. So, I have to go through all the others. No they were supposed to have the air tank idea but it died If you guys want to see Jaws live you can do so tonight January 15th at 4 p Central on Stern Pinball YouTube Go check it out live there. So I like that. We still get our live gameplay stream tonight. So I like the... They're really buttoning up these launch reveal type of products or launches for these products, and I'm loving the direction it's headed in. Okay, so based off of everything you've seen, And heard now. Thanks.
    41:25
    Here's my question for you. When it's all said and done, in the Pennside ranking, where does Jaws end up shaking out versus relative to all of Elwynn's other games? You want a specific number? I want you to look into your chum-filled crystal ball. No, I don't want you to predict a number. I think that's too short. But basically, I want to know, like, where does it fall? Like, does it displace Godzilla as is seen by by Pennside, by the Pennside rating system? So factor in all its flaws as the number one game of Elwin. Does it come in dead last behind Avengers? Where does it fall? Or maybe Bond 60th is his last ranked. I don't know. I think easily, easily it's in between. Just based on the information I've seen without playing this game, it falls in between Iron Maiden and Jurassic Park in that three spot. Okay, that's where I've been thinking as well. And here's another big, big prediction. I think that within, I'll go six months of reveal, so January, that puts us in summer. By summer, you will see this knock off the number five spot on the Pennside Top 100. You'll see it knock off number five Deadpool to cement itself into the number five spot right behind Attack from Mars at four, Medieval Madness at three, Jurassic at two, and Godzilla at one. and that's where you'll see it for quite some time throughout 2024 it's going to be that good i'm basing it off of sales so no that's fine i think that's where it's going to be speaking of sales sales are really good for elvira her house of horrors so much so that they're having this month's quest on insider connected elvira's haunted capture quest yes i heard about that People are already getting badges like the Lyman F sheets badge and more. So I think all month of January almost would make sense for flipping out pinball to start streaming that game. Listen, but which one?
    43:19
    Oh, so the big topics this week in pinball from hobbyists were shark, no eat ball. And how is J-pop going to fuck us over again? So, yes, back from the proverbial depths of hell comes John Papaduke once more.
    43:37
    Alice in Wonderland is making its return from foamcore to realcore for the hardcore hobbyist and enthusiast, mostly collectors.
    43:49
    The big talk is that Alice in Wonderland is back. It's being brought back by Dutch Pinball in a very limited fashion and a bunch of other details, including things like when is it being released? Who's doing the artwork? Wasn't that zombie yeti artwork? Is he going to be on that? Some of the game features, the red flags, the red flags that are going to come up with this. How are they going to do this? Is it going to include so much information, Dennis, that we get to discuss? exclusively on the pinball show club membership a patreon pay wallet yes oh all the nitty-gritty when it comes to what i have always i've i've got a soft spot for that foam core alice in wonderland oh my god you always have a soft spot for j-pop stuff but he burned me on magic girl not not that i yeah i didn't think you bought one he burned me on the idea look i've he i want I wanted that game. I loved the looks of that game. And then I played it. And then things. So we've got all of that. We've got a lot of opinions. We've got a lot of information. It can be listened to right now exclusively on the Pinball Show's club membership. Exclusive content. All you've got to do is go to patreon.com slash the pinball show. Sign up. Lowest level is a $10 official member. you get the exclusive content as well as an exclusive discord channel for all of us to chat with him you jump up to the nordman 25 level you get all of that in addition to decals picking topics for the show getting to hang out at our live monthly hangout which is coming january 24th at 8 p.m central and then you jump up to the hundred dollar club membership you get your own nickname you get private correspondence with dennis and i for the juiciest of you get the paywall polo coming you get to come on the show all types of benefits and perks there so go sign up today to listen to that exclusive content regarding alice in wonderland and what may or may not happen with this upcoming rumored release a little over a week ago dennis exclusively people part of the membership, the pinball show. You got to listen to our discussion about the Scooby-Doo Topper accessory release from Spooky Pinball. Ruh-roh. Yeah. If you guys want to see a, they have a launch video, official launch video out there. You can go to their website, their Facebook socials for Spooky Pinball or straight down the middle. We assisted with that. The Topper is $969 plus shipping. It's motorized. It's interactive. Overall, we liked it. It's cool.
    46:42
    Even if you get a topper by default from buying the Scooby-Doo game, this is for those individuals who want even more interactivity and cool-ass toppers. So I get that. So I would say the third main newsworthy thing that happened this last week in pinball was that Spooky Pinball launched a gameplay video for Looney Tunes. It's taken a little bit more time to do so because of what they called waiting for licensing to approve stuff. So we got the Looney Tunes gameplay video. Did you get a chance to watch this yet? No, it's in my feed, but I've not watched it. So it plays, surprise, surprise, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yeah, I kind of figured I might be okay. No, the code is different. So you'll see the ball doing different things with magnet. It is a different experience altogether. I will agree on that. Different rules team. So not surprising. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. What I will say is that Looney Tunes, this gameplay video, really went over well with those who consumed it. I thought it would go over well because it's Looney Tunes. It shoots well. It's a cool game. But we've seen much more even renewed interest. Usually gameplay videos don't – they really don't bump a lot of interest. Sometimes they hurt interest, actually. Usually either they hover around. Yeah, that's what I thought it would be. Or, man, that's not like that sizzle reel. So they don't help significantly, typically. This one did. This one, people are raving.
    48:14
    I think people were hesitant about getting any video assets from Looney Tunes. I think they were really hesitant, and that's why people love that theme so much and, as a result, want to love this game, hesitant about that. And they saw not only was there just a bountiful amount of video clips from the most classic episodes of Looney Tunes, but they were all synced with modes. It's just really well done. And I hate to say it. I don't know if Spooky Pinball wants me to tell it. The code's not done. So it's going to get even better than that. I like that people are now discussing, is Looney Tunes kind of the darling of 2024, even over the likes of Keith Elwin's Jaws?
    49:01
    No. I find that, yeah, no. No, it's not. No, no. Don't be silly, guys. But, you know, this could be the community's little Rick and Morty here. It could be. It's possible. It is. People are liking this. People liked Rick. They might like bugs. They might. Pedretti Gaming, we also discussed last week, exclusive for those members, some of the securing of Bally Williams licensing in collaboration with Planetary Pinball, Pedretti Gaming. Euro Pinball Corp, still very confusing to me. What I found out this last week, because I was asking questions, basically, Pedretti Gaming and Pinball Brothers, I don't know if they merged, but they came together to create Euro Pinball Corp. Now, why that's relevant is Euro Pinball Corp is where Pedretti and Pinball Brother games are manufactured. Okay. But Pedretti is the one that announced that they are securing the licensing to these remakes. Okay. So I still don't know who sells these games. I don't know if there's Pedretti dealers that sell these or if it is Pinball Brothers or now that they've merged, it's going to be a Euro Pinball Corp. Just conglomerate. I don't know how that works. But you and I talked about what titles it could be. We talked about the thoughts of what we thought about this, good moves, bad moves, some of the things we're really excited about, some of the things we are questioning still. So go listen to the exclusive content. But since then, Cary Hardy did a video, Penfluencer Cary Hardy from YouTube. And Cary Hardy announces that the first remake is going to be at Texas Pinball Festival here in March 2024. Now, that's pretty quick. Yeah. So he said they've been working on their first remake all of 2023.
    50:58
    And they're going to unveil it. Or I don't even know if they're going to unveil it there, but it will be at Texas Pinball Festival. He also said that he is now under NDA with Pedretti and is going to be working with them on some stuff. A paid voice. Oh, I know. Poor Kerry. Welcome. Just wait, Kerry.
    51:22
    Kerry tried to get out unscathed, too, at the end of the video. He's like, now look, this doesn't mean that I'm not going to be honest. you know that's why pedretti reached out to me to partner up with me will always be there i thought it was so cute the suspicion will always be there sweet i was like oh carrie's getting his nda wings and they're gonna clip them the public's gonna clip your wings carrie oh don't think you're gonna say anything without people coming back and saying you are paid full of shit even the lovable texan in you is going to be humbled by that very, very shortly. Kerry Hardy also claiming that when it comes to which games Bally Williams is going to do, he said, you know, he's under NDA, but he can say a couple things. He said everybody on Pennside and the forums are listing, you know, their top picks on what they would like to see being remade as a Bally Williams game. And he said take, like, some of the top couple picks out of a choice of five or so, and that's what's going to be produced by Pedretti Gaming. He said a couple of those are just kind of the top of what everybody wants. So I found that interesting. Well, I mean, come on. What a shock. I mean, they're going to make things people want. Well, you know what that tells me, though, listener? It tells me that they're going to be remaking 90s Valley Williams. Nobody's going to. The consensus is not going to say, no, damn it. We're wanting that 80s. Swords of Fury. Well, I mean, that's the space that Haggis is in right now. Sure. But so is Chicago Gaming in 90s. but I think it's still going to be 90s. But Chicago's too slow. We all know this. I think we're going to see the likes of things like, and we've talked about it before, Theater Magic is kind of the one. Theater Magic, Twilight Zone, I think, are there too. Yeah, at least that trunk eats the ball.
    53:14
    Kerry Hardy's also going to have early access to these games. He's going to present his review of the quality, et cetera, in the future. So go check it out and subscribe if you haven't to Kerry Hardy. But Kerry, those wings. Those wings. snip snip a wingsectomy this is what that cat's about to get princess bride get a little sneak peek of the bride i've heard you're supposed to wait for her at the altar dennis i had an email over on eclectic gamers podcast uh a little bit and i thought it was just for us originally because we had had an episode where we had just talked about how in tony and well maybe not so much tony's opinion i guess my opinion princess bride would have been a better thing for barrels of fun than labyrinth which i know you disagree with uh but then we get this email princess bride is coming i thought oh a listener's trying to i you know i figured it was fake whatever but that's and then i learned everyone else got emails too but that's the only email i've like they have not mystery pinball accompanied me i've received nothing else since i think you had to sign up to it after that though oh okay that was too much trouble yeah well i don't do that yeah they haven't shown me enough for me to sign up for anything but the rumors are and we talked about it more exclusively and in more detail uh in our patreon stuff but the rumored manufacturer to make princess bride is multimorphic at this point so there you go i mean i think them going and doing another licensed game is smart i think it's very smart and if multimorphic can get that i think it's a perfect fit for them i think it's good congratulations if true because people love that theme american pinball speaking of loving themes boy oh boy next game is going to be released shortly. I know that because I listened to the Super Awesome Pinball Show where they interviewed some manufacturing heads such as American Pinball's very own Dave Fix. Oh, fascinating. I've not heard him before. He's new to podcasts around the community. But he said there is a new game being released shortly. So it feels like February, March to me. And the rumor is it's going to be Barry Arsler's last designed game. But we're really unsure if that is that food truck or is that the other one that he kind of proto. We don't know. But it's going to be kind of maybe single level. Barry Osler's last design game. So I haven't heard this. So was there any other than shortly? Was there any context like it'll be at Texas or anything? OK, I said very shortly. And then it said another game coming later this year. OK, well, OK. So I guess, again, looking into your chum filled crystal ball. That's right. Zach, do you think that, are they going to get the thousands of GTFs that they need to build done by the time that this new game will come out? They reminded people how small they are as a company. Dave does that every time he goes on podcast. Look, gee golly whiz, we're just a small little family run company. And boy, oh boy, we're not the likes of Stern Pinball or Jersey Jack. We're just, you know, we're just doing what we can. So I think they've built all the galactic tank forces they need to build. Oh, okay. I wasn't sure. I've heard different numbers in terms of how many they've sold. That's why I threw that out there. I do not currently have any more GTFs on order at this time, and I have them in stock. So I don't see them needing to make any more. They made their little runs of Houdini, so that's kind of done. I don't know how they're doing it. I don't know what they're doing. But another game later this year as well. So we'll see. Maybe that's the sequel prequel to Whitewater by Dennis Nordman. Maybe it's not. I don't know. But whatever it is, it's not Mystery Castle. Maybe it is. Oh, Mystery Castle. Maybe it's Mystery Castle. The only reason I bring that up is because Indisc happened this last week. A very popular tournament. It never drains in Southern California 2024. Did you watch any of this? No. I did just because I'm much more of a competitive pinball player connoisseur than you are. Yes, that's true. Now I just watch the finals. Oh.
    57:20
    That counts for something. You ain't first, you're last. And the last final finals didn't last long. I do like their bank that they used. Still not as heavy as I'd like to see in the new stuff. But you know what? At least it's more well-known. The first game was Whirlwind. Okay. Nice competitive game. Good game. I think something that in the future could even be remade. James Bond 007 by Stern was the second game, which makes sense. You're giving a Stern game away. Nice job. Nice job, InDisc, for putting that sponsor right there. Nicely done. And then third was Hoops.
    57:57
    Let's shoot some Hoops. The darling Gottlieb Hoops. Your favorite. Is that the most popular? Could be remade any day. I think it's the hottest Gottlieb right now is Hoops. Hoops has always been a little bit of a competitive darling. Because it's one of the few Gottlieb Premier games with balanced rules. Yeah, and it's fun to shoot. So that was the last three. I think statistically, after James Bond, Zach McCarthy was going to win regardless. Nobody else could catch him on hoops, but I think it decided second, third, fourth kind of stuff. So Zach McCarthy did win. Young Boy Scout Zach McCarthy. How old is he? He's like 17, 16, 18. He's young. he's half my age which is bullshit he also won back in 2022 at indisc so congratulations speaking of competitive pinball papa oh little papa wants to find his papa pinberg is returning 2024 we talked about this in more detail on our last episode uh membership content but i wanted to mention it again dennis had some strong takes on pinberg so it's worth a listen yeah Yeah.
    59:07
    Yeah. Essentially, you said, here's the things that make it, eh. And overall, I think it'll be a, eh.
    59:16
    That's my synopsis. Okay. My cliff notes. I don't want to cliff notes the next people, because they're the screaming goat club members.
    59:25
    No, we like them. We've got to fully thank them and embrace them, like the strong, warm stream of the new bidet that I got. I don't know how it does it. And it even flushes with force. You don't have to do it. He's even got a button you press that the seat goes up and down.
    59:40
    You can control the power of the stream, the heat intensity, even the directional. You're going a little bit too far back, a little too far forward. You love this so much that if we get a 10th Screaming Goat member, are they going to be the bidet? They may. They may bidet. They may.
    60:01
    Make my bidet. so don't miss out on that exciting thing we joined today maybe well we're talking about thank yous I just wanted to thank my wife for getting me that bidet I gotta have more butt spray thank you Rodney because you're the bobcat do you think you could hold a bobcat down to get a bidet oh shoot that fucker I'd hate to see the reaction of it if you were to wash it if I was a bobcat and I had that much fur down there a total i wonder if they make pet bidets that would totally make sense all of you pet owners out there especially dog owners they go out and have a nasty poo and get all over their fur and you're like oh my god how am i gonna clean this i gotta get wipes out uh and then some of you are smart enough when you take them to the groomer that you get a little and shave around that butthole so you don't have to clean as much i think any any fur creatures out there would very much welcome the bidet say yay to bidet thank you steve for being a bumblebee wouldn't go to go with a bidet squirt him out of the sky i can just picture shia labeouf though do it bunghole b i'm trying to think trying to think something this is so bad i know we gotta say thank you to the panther rob i bet rob has a bidet you know what Out of these screaming whales I want to hear which one of you email us or you can text us on our private exclusive one chat if you own a bidet And then if you do, if you're pro-bidet or not, or if it's just something your wife likes to use. The Kineticist.
    61:46
    Colin, speaking of trying to spray away shit. Oh, my gosh, Colin. You're getting through it. I will give a reference to go check out this week in Pinball and the Kineticist for an exclusive story on a recent Brian Soares custom game in the Goonies. Huh? How about that? They had a really cool story in depth on that. So there's my plug to you column. I enjoyed it because I love the Goonies so much. I love it. And they rethemed a Cactus Jacks. Do you know why Goonies prefer bidets? Oh, man, don't mess with my Goonies. Why? Because Goonies never say ply.
    62:38
    Especially one ply, man. Oh, that's the roughest. That's the stuff that corporate buys. Yes. It'll make you a believer. The only thing with the bidet, people, you have to have a plug-in around your toilet. We were lucky enough to have one right behind the toilet. But I'm telling you, it is worth hiring an electrician to come in there, put you in an outlet. That's what Dennis is going to have to do for his Christmas present this coming year, but get you an electrical because electric and water are great. Thank you, Frank. Thanks for being a supporter of the Screaming Goat Club membership. The Falcon. Ka-ching! And thank you to Dave, our shaker motor. I wonder if a toilet seat would ever need a shaker motor. I can't imagine why. Sometimes you got hangers. I'm just saying. The Fox. Thank you, Fox. How did this turn into a shit podcast?
    63:32
    Stern's got, we've got the Fox. Thank you, Joe. I don't know if Joe Fox has a bidet. I'm friends with him, but I'll have to ask him. I know Greg Bone doesn't. I know you don't now. All the other penfluencers out there, are you pro bidets? Charlie, ring that bell because every time a bell rings, a bunghole gets its clean. We learned that earlier this episode. I know Charlie's got a bidet.
    63:58
    I don't know why. It's not Charlie, but I just pictured somebody like, do you have one of those water picks?
    64:06
    No, no, no, I don't. Not having a water pick flosser, so they just smile right in front of that bidet squirt and just clean that front grill.
    64:15
    What about the dude? The dude too busy to douche. Thanks, Will. That's so bad. What are you, a fucking park ranger now? No, I'm just trying to offer. You give a shit about the fucking marmot. Oh, man. But you know what? A big toilet scene in the Big Lebowski. That's true. Absolutely. Absolutely. He gets a face full of toilet water. Poor dude. He got close to a ferret bite, though, didn't he? I love the scream and wail of Jeff Bridges as that ferret is submerged underwater when he's in that bathtub.
    64:57
    Oh, there's nothing better than that. As a reminder, the next live pinball show happy hour is January 24th, 8 p.m. Central. So be there, and we can all talk about whether or not you have bidets. Am I even pronouncing it correct? I think so, but, you know, after the Schneider for Scheider, I don't know anymore. I know. We're going to get emails. Yeah. I get a lot of emails, mostly to tell me, you know, how correct Dennis is and his takes are great and mine are not. But most all of them say, don't worry, Zach, because the one thing that we love more than anything in all of pinball podcasting is pinball market trends. I like your style, dude. And you guessed it, Dennis. Training up is the bidet. Yeah, what a shock. No, it's not a shocker. It is just a straight stream right in there. And you got to watch yourself. If you're not prepared, you'll get a wet whistle. That's all I'm saying.
    65:59
    Oh, baby needs to call me, please. training up is my wife's choice in gifts. Also training up this week is a little darling, Looney Tunes. I said Looney Tunes by Spooky Pinball. Everybody's talking about it. They like the stream. They like what Spooky's doing. They like the shop paths. The assets. I don't know if they love the orange ramps. They love most everything else about that game. And right now numbers don't lie. orders are pouring in for looney tunes uh you know what statistically data wise sales wise for those of you who give two squirts uh we are selling looney tunes nearly two to one to texas chainsaw massacre i don't think that's surprising didn't we predict that i think we did i think we did and it's it's right it's right there i think spooky told me their sales were closer to a 50 50 with still Looney Tunes being the preferred. But yeah, ours is a distance quite a bit more than that. Yeah, no, I think it makes sense. But the toilet seat that goes up, better go down whenever you get done paying, gentlemen. And turning down this week is Stern Pinball's Ghostbusters. Who are you going to call? Should have sold it six months ago.
    67:18
    Ghostbusters, I've seen the numbers start to kind of, I had to comp a pro out last week as a trade-in. I was surprised to see that the numbers have fallen significantly since the summer. So much so that pros right now, a Ghostbusters pro, I can't remember, Dennis, the last time a Ghostbusters pro fell in the upper 7,000s, lower 8s. That was a $9,000 game all day long. Maybe 10 if it was just ahead of the top and everything like that. But upper 7s, that's pretty low. Even the premiums, in the tens now. That was $12K all day six months ago all the way to two, three years ago. $12K for a premium all day. Clean $12K premium. Boom. No, they're in the tens now. Do you think that's the fear that with Seth Davis' comments that this one might get remade? I think some of that is, yeah. I really do, especially whenever they double down and said some of these white starts are not going to be as easy to make. Some of these other games are quite a bit easier. But a Spike 1 like Ghostbusters? Super easy. What other Spike 1 do people want? I've heard rumblings of like a Kiss. Yeah, Kiss is the only other one I can think of maybe. But Ghostbusters far and away is the biggest. Kiss is one of those things that it's popular now because they finally get the rules good enough. It's not crazy town awesome rules still. But it's a rarity. That's why it's kind of still sought after at this point, I believe. Simmons of Kiss with a two out of two out of ten impression on my final tour by my game that is no longer made I thought it went to Captain Kirk there for a second yeah allow myself final tour fight the Gorn and triumph over evil I just watched Star Trek Beyond for the first time I like the new series of the Star Trek films I had not seen Beyond I gotta say I'm not uh not beyond impressed it was good a solid but it fell a third place in the new series it just it was no con it was no you know uh their first film jj it just wasn't not enough lens flare for you boy they really love that's a jj abrams thing he loves lens flare okay so trending down is ghost But LEs are holding better, though. They're at 16,000 without a topper, 17 plus with a topper. So numbers have not fallen quite as much on the Ghostbusters LE. But the Pro Premiums, I don't even know whether I would recommend buying one yet. I'd still hold out. I would hold out for a while. All straightening down this week is the temperature in the United States. Damn, it's cold outside. Burr. Oh, are you not freezing? You got hit with snow over there? I have my space heater on. You see, I use an infrared space heater, so it doesn't make sounds, so you don't hear it. What? Yeah, it doesn't heat the air. It's like those warming lamps, basically. It's like Grandma's hair dryer at the salon? I'm like your McDonald's french fries. Ah. Does it work? Yeah. Do you feel like that direct heat? Yes. You have to be directly in front of it, but what it does is instead of warming the air, it warms the object that the light strikes, which in turn warms the air over time. That sounds too science-y for me. No, they're just as, they're like the same price as regular space heaters. I need a new space heater, so that's why I'm asking. But they don't have a fan, so they don't make sound, so I can use it while I record. I bought it last year. It's very nice. Okay. It's basically the bidet of space heaters. Okay. I think I might get that, because I always have to turn it off, and by the time we get done recording, I'm cold again, like granny. Yes, all right. I feel your teeth chattering through this headset. I need my blankie. But yeah, the temperature is trending down in the United States. Oh, it's so nasty. It's so cold. But, guys, we're not out of it for a while. Even those in Florida are like, damn, it's 50. We're not used to that. They got their winter parkas out. That's right. January and February is kind of the bitch of the year, isn't it? For us here in the Midwest, absolutely. It's just the mean bitch because you're not looking forward to Christmas and it being cold because it's that time of the year. It's the most horrible time of the year. Of the year. Yeah, January and February just suck. And it often leads to like seasonal mood episodes. The previous psychologist in me wants to remind people, stay warm, not only externally, but internally in your heart. Stay balanced. Stay well. And always reframe, put things back into perspective. If you're falling into one of those little slumps that oftentimes people do in January, February, the easiest thing to do is anxiety technique. But do the whole, what's the worst that could happen? Do the whole, what are the things? It could be a hell of a lot worse. Right. For those of you who can walk, hey, at least you can walk. For those of you who can masturbate, at least you can masturbate, right? Hell yeah. For those of you who are still able to eat a cheeseburger or pizza, that's pretty awesome. That's badass. For those of you who enjoy Netflix or television programs or music, if you're still able to experience those, like depression sucks and life sucks, but damn, at least you've got that. there's so many wonderful things that you do have that we take for granted and we're just like yeah but pizza's pizza no dammit pizza is pizza to us but to a lot of the people in the world pizza is oh my god pizza is fucking pizza find those things that tickle your balls and lean into them if there's consent just don't buy yourself a bidet people save a paycheck and buy a bidet it'll get rid of your seasonal depression and we got to save a buck or two in this week's deal of the week is from Flippin' Out Pinball it's the Alien Pinball Highway Edition uh oh the pricey edition oh boy, trending down is the price Ellen Ripley was all like get away from the highway edition you bitch Ripley, fuck this thing and she used her little loader device and she threw it out the airlock where it's overpriciness just sits in space now I will say that I was quite caught off guard with some of the features that Highway did put on those games. Whenever I set it up, I was like, okay, the LV pinball brother is still going to be more beautiful with the blue powder cone stuff. There was some cool stuff like how dynamic that 27-inch screen is in the back of the head.
    73:49
    When you see the face hugger scenes, that's pretty badass. I'm not a big playfield monitor type of guy, but when I was playing, I was like, it's still pretty damn cool side panels that light up on the cabinet still pretty damn cool a lot of people like the rarity of this original highway edition the price is not suggesting they do because i didn't know how to comp these things out they never come up for sale i've got a super nice one that i first priced at 14 999 it was my throw it out there i have no clue what people will pay for these things because i i mean i don't think they've been for sale in like a year nobody sold one. Then I reduced it. It wasn't selling. Reduced it to $1,3499. It's a $1,500 cut. For our listeners here, deal of the week, pinball market trends, I'm knocking it down another $1,500.
    74:39
    So $3,000 for the original price, and now it's $11,999. Buy, buy, buy! For a very collectible piece of pinball history. Buy, buy, buy. Please. How low do you think this thing will go? I bet you could move it at $9,000. I sure hope so. Shit.
    75:00
    If I had to move it at nine, that was a bad trade. Or to quote your comment section. You'll be lucky to get half of what you're asking for. Oh, my God. Yeah, that's right.
    75:10
    My comment section. People. Oh, pinball bounty. We marked Dolly Parton off the list. Are you after hoops now? Not yet. It just don't line up well in the lineup.
    75:22
    Still looking for a nice radical. Not that that lines up well. still looking for a really super minty Congo, and I am no longer looking for a Lord of the Rings. I'm not going to say who, but maybe one of our Screaming Goat Club members reached out and said, I'll help a guy out. I've got one. Don't play it very much. And I've really been eyeing that Looney Tunes. So they're going to get a Looney Tunes, and I'm going to get my brother. Swear to God. We swears on the precious. Swears it doesn't have Shooterland rare. Who says this is my impressions of 5 out of 10?
    76:02
    I still think I'm going to do a custom art package and stuff for it. Franchi, come on. Make an exception. Does he really like Lord of the Rings? I've never seen him do that more fantastical style. No, he doesn't. That's why he won't do it. Even paid. Well, let him be true to himself. You know what might get him? What? Hey, Franchi, if you're listening, I bet Michael Barnard would do a custom Lord of the Rings package for me. I bet Michael Barnard would. I bet Jeremy Packer would. I bet they would be awesome too, Franchi. Twippy worthy packages.
    76:36
    I'm hoping that lures them in. Okay, damn it, I'll do it. Only if you show it off to the world, which I will. Look here, people. I'm just here to report the facts. Numbers don't lie. Neither will I on pinball market trends. Dennis, it's closer down Alright, well, folks want to reach out to me they can email eclecticgamerspodcast.gmail.com You can reach out to both of us at thepinballshowatgmail.com I'm the one who checks those emails but I can always forward over messages for Dennis as well Sign up to the Pinball Show Patreon Club Membership patreon.com slash thepinballshow It's very, very much appreciated for that support as well as Facebook Like us, follow us on Facebook YouTube-age TPN TikToks Instas Straight down the middle Like and follow That video series too That I do And we gotta throw love To our sponsor Flippin' Out Pinball When I buy my pinball Shit I buy from Flippin' Out From toppers Or play studios I've got it figured out Flippin' Out Figured out When I take a pinball I think Flippin' Out Figured out When I buy buy buy I buy from Flippin' Out Buy buy buy Product showcase this week is Godzilla Premium. They did that most recent run last week, and we wanted to stock up on our best-selling game in our company's history. You know what? We're getting ready to celebrate, I believe, our five-year anniversary of Flippin' Out Pinball. Wow. Has time flown? Ca-ca. That's right. Ca-ca. The humble beginnings of a small little dealer. Hopefully the humble endings.
    78:14
    Retire into the sunset. When can I retire, Dennis? I'm not aware of your investment portfolio, so I can't really advise you. It's not strong. It is not strong at all. I'm just hoping I can live on much less. Elton John, we've got a Platinum Edition. Ready to go. Turtles Pro and Premium. Elvira, Blood Red, Kiss Edition. Star Wars Pro. I've got one left. Guardians of the Galaxy Pro. Last time we were doing them, I think. Venom Pro. Venom Premium. New and used. James Bond Pro and Premium. I got one 60th anniversary left. Avengers Pro and Premium, Foo Fighters, Iron Maiden, Jurassic Parks, GTFs, Ellie's, Hot Wheels Classics, Queen, Star Wars Comic Home. I got one left. Toy Story 4 CE, down to one. Toy Story 4 Ellie's, Ultraman. I still got a couple Ultramans. Led Zeppelin Pros, Alien LVs. I ordered more Ripley's, so those should be here in February. Get yours now because even those are going quick. Rush Toppers, Avengers Toppers, Insider Connected, Shaker Motors, Banners, Raw Thrills, Arcade Machines, Golden Tees, Escaleras, Tilt Tables from Escalera, as well as the Stair Climbers, Dust Covers, Player Mats. I don't have sweatpants yet for Jurassic Park from Stern. Flippin' Out with Friends. Joel just has been streaming Alien Pinball by Pinball Brothers. He's got a new Stern game that he's going to be streaming this week. So go follow, like, and subscribe to Flippin' Out Pinball's YouTube, as well as Facebook and such, too. We give away stuff on the Facebook. So do that Instagram too. TPN last week, Dennis, what did we have? Well, only Triple Drain, Pinball Podcast episode number 47. Why no balls in mouth? Oh, clever. Very clever. What are we going to call the title of this episode? The other Big Jaws episode? Bidet.
    80:01
    Bidet. Just title it Bidet. Oh, can we not get a Beetlejuice game? Maybe someday. Yes, we are going to get one. But that's for a future Patreon episode. teach these people something. Folks, if the five references to it weren't sufficient, or hopefully were sufficient, and you've decided you now want to have a bidet, I would say turn to who I turn to for all my bidet needs. Spritzing out. Oh!
    80:29
    When you push one out, are you spritzing out? Oh my gosh. Where's that song, Jason? Well, I buy my squirts and That's squirts and flushing out. Flushing out. Number twos are easy to.
    80:50
    Flushing out. Figure it out. I thought you were going to say flush taker. I'm a flush giver.
    81:00
    Their version, the red trimmer. Shake those dingleberries. Always practice safe, pinball. and contact me if you're in the trademarking business or the engineering inventing business because i want to make the first pet bidet i think there's something there just people will spend more money on their pets than they will themselves so they may have crusty buttholes but damn it that labrador will be clean as a whistle
    81:39
    I would die today Just by Paranormal I would die