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2016 In Review, and More

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 1m·held·Dec 19, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

2016 pinball review: digital platforms and emerging cabinet tech drive hobby growth.

Summary

BlahCade podcast hosts Chris and Jared discuss 2016 year-end highlights in pinball, including gift ideas for pinball fans, major digital platform releases (Stern Pinball Arcade, Pinout), digital cabinet partnerships (Arcuda, VB Cabs), and standout games like Zen's Alien three-pack. They cover emerging trends in digital pinball adoption, VR pinball innovation, and the growing ecosystem of platforms bringing pinball to broader audiences.

Key Claims

  • Stern Pinball Arcade will receive CAD assets directly from Stern for current tables, resulting in crisp in-game graphics

    high confidence · Jared discussing Stern Pinball Arcade development and Farsight's partnership with Stern

  • Arcuda, an Australian digital pinball cabinet company, has partnered with Farsight for Pinball Arcade licensing

    high confidence · Chris and Jared discussing new digital cabinet manufacturers and licensing partnerships

  • Stern Pinball Arcade will enforce minimum system requirements (RAM, OS versions) for mobile versions

    high confidence · Chris and Jared advocating for and confirming Farsight's decision to set hardware minimums

  • Ghostbusters will be released on Stern Pinball Arcade with premium version features including ghost slings and sub-playfield locks

    high confidence · Chris noting Twitter notification about Ghostbusters coming to Stern Pinball Arcade with LE features

  • VB Cabs partnered with Zen for digital pinball cabinet production

    high confidence · Jared discussing multiple digital cabinet manufacturers and their respective platform partnerships

  • Arcuda cabinets will use physical pop bumpers, flipper coils, rumble, and a physical plunger

    high confidence · Chris citing Arcuda press release details about physical components and features

  • Jeremy Williams created a stand-up controller for VR pinball that significantly improved the experience

    medium confidence · Chris mentioning Jeremy Williams' VR pinball controller innovation and community response

  • Zen released an Alien three-pack in 2016 including Aliens, Alien Isolation, and Alien vs. Predator

    high confidence · Chris discussing Zen's Alien three-pack as a top 2016 moment

  • Farsight has been historically quiet on cabinet support before announcing Arcuda partnership

Notable Quotes

  • “Romanian gypsies are prevalent over there [Paris]. And they are pretty much in all the major tourist spots. And they can be there at any time of the day, early in the morning, like peak time, late in the evening. They're just ever-present.”

    Jared @ early segment — Personal anecdote about phone theft during trip to Paris; sets context for discussion of tech gifts

  • “I think that as pinball evolves and the idea of pinball opens up to more people, having apps like Pinout, which are a different take on pinball, essentially an endless runner for pinball, makes people think about pinball differently and gives them a gateway into the hobby.”

    Jared @ top five moments — Identifies Pinout as significant for broadening pinball appeal beyond traditional machines

  • “Stern Pinball Arcade... broadening the scope of pinball to not just digital pinheads, but the wider Stern-loving community... it also acts as a pretty powerful marketing tool for Stern as well.”

    Jared @ top five moments — Highlights significance of Stern Pinball Arcade as both product and marketing vehicle

  • “Pinball cabinets, like pinballs in general, they tend to like to have friends in the same room with them. So you should never buy just one. You should always buy one and give it a friend to play with.”

    Chris @ digital cabinet discussion — Humorous but represents philosophy that multiple machines create better community experience

  • “The recipe is right. They got it right on both counts. [on VR pinball with physical controllers]”

    Chris @ VR pinball discussion — Emphasizes community enthusiasm for VR pinball as next-generation platform

  • “I don't think we got that with Big Shot. I don't think we got it with Central Park. Those need some serious tuning... they don't feel like how an EM should.”

    Chris @ EM games discussion — Critical assessment of earlier EM implementations vs. 2016 releases on Pinball Arcade

  • “The Aliens table for me is spot-on. It really raises the bar for when I eventually get the chance to play the Alien table that Heighway Pinball has put out.”

Entities

Chris FriebuspersonJared MorganpersonJeremy WilliamspersonBlahCade Pinball PodcastorganizationStern PinballcompanyFarsight StudioscompanyZen StudioscompanyArcudacompanyVB CabscompanyHeighway Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern Pinball Arcade launching with current Stern game library and direct CAD asset integration; marks major shift toward digital adoption of modern machines

    high · Chris and Jared extensively discuss Stern Pinball Arcade as transformative for digital pinball; confirmed Ghostbusters release with LE features

  • $

    market_signal: Multiple digital cabinet manufacturers (Arcuda, VB Cabs) launching in 2016; indicates growing commercial viability of digital pinball hardware

    high · Chris and Jared discuss two new cabinet manufacturers in single year; Arcuda partnership with Farsight; VB Cabs partnership with Zen

  • ?

    design_innovation: Jeremy Williams' custom stand-up VR pinball controller significantly improves user experience; community widely adopts approach

    medium · Chris notes community posts consistently praise stand-up controller as game-changer; multiple users report improved immersion

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: 2016 EM releases (El Dorado, Fireball, Centaur, Jax Open) on Pinball Arcade achieve improved authenticity vs. earlier EM implementations

    high · Chris and Jared agree 2016 EM releases 'finally got what it is about how EM plays' vs. earlier Big Shot and Central Park implementations

  • ?

    product_strategy: Farsight and Zen pursuing exclusive cabinet partnerships (Arcuda/Farsight, VB Cabs/Zen) rather than unified digital platform ecosystem

    high · Chris and Jared discuss limitation of not having all pinball in one cabinet; note users may need to buy multiple cabinets

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.184

0:00
This is the Blockade Podcast with your hosts, Chris and Jared. Ho, ho, ho, and a merry pin miss you are listening to the Blockade Podcast. I am your host, Shudder Trap, a.k.a. Chris Frevis. Joining me, as always, is my co-host from halfway across the world, down under, Jared Morgs. And a merry pin miss to you as well. Have to be very careful how you say that.
0:50
So, apparently it's food time for me and Jared as we both just got done shoving food down our gullets as fast as we could. I myself had a meatball panini, and Jared apparently shoved down some chicken curry of some nature. Yeah, it was good, but I ate too fast. So there were probably lots of burping in other restaurants. I was just going to say, so if we get the inappropriate burp going on, you'll know why. That's right.
1:20
Oh, boy. Jeez, it seems like ages since we've done a thing, but it hasn't really been. To me, it seems like we just did one, and then I was like, wait a second, we did not record last week. I don't know about you, but this holiday season has more than just snuck up on me. It's given me a jump scare. Yeah, totally. Me too. I don't know where the time is going, but it's just racing past.
1:43
Well, it doesn't help. Normally in our industry, everything shuts down the week before Christmas. Yeah. the show that I am currently on, we're going all the way up until the 23rd.
1:57
Wow. On Friday, and then get off and have Christmas Eve on Saturday, and then Christmas on Sunday. So it's like,

medium confidence · Jared noting Farsight's silence on cabinet support prior to Arcuda announcement

Chris @ top five moments — Zen's Alien table sets expectations for upcoming physical Highway Pinball Alien machine

  • “Zen really seems to have turned a corner because now we've got the Bethesda pack... I don't think that they would have gone to the extremes that they did with the Bethesda pack.”

    Chris @ concluding thoughts — Indicates Zen's growing confidence and willingness to take creative risks post-Alien pack

    • Wizard Amusements
    company
    Pinoutgame
    Stern Pinball Arcadeproduct
    Pinball Arcadeproduct
    Alien (Zen three-pack)game
    Ghostbustersgame
    Medieval Madnessgame
    Double Dangercompany
    The Pinball Arcadeproduct
    Bethesda packproduct
  • ?

    community_signal: Digital pinball expansion (Stern Pinball Arcade, Pinout, multiple cabinet manufacturers) indicates broader mainstream adoption of pinball beyond traditional players

    high · Jared emphasizes Pinout and Stern Pinball Arcade as 'gateways' expanding pinball to wider audiences; Chris notes unprecedented digital cabinet manufacturer growth

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Zen Studios licensed Alien trilogy and planning Bethesda pack; indicates expanding IP licensing strategy for digital pinball

    high · Chris details Zen's Alien three-pack; notes company 'turned a corner' and willing to take 'extremes' with Bethesda pack

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Host attitudes indicate VR pinball and digital cabinets shifting from novelty to legitimate competitive platform for serious play

    high · Chris describes VR pinball with physical controllers as 'perfect pairing'; hosts express excitement about digital cabinet adoption

  • ?

    product_concern: Earlier EM games (Big Shot, Central Park) on Pinball Arcade lacked authenticity; required significant tuning for later releases

    high · Chris explicitly states earlier EM releases 'don't feel like how an EM should' and 'need serious tuning'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Arcuda cabinets implementing 3D head-tracking perspective (possibly Xbox One camera) to overcome standard cabinet 2D perspective limitations

    medium · Chris discusses Arcuda potentially using 3D perspective to solve persistent '3D pinball looks slightly off' problem on cabinets

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball fan merchandise market expanding with custom plungers, themed apparel, backglasses, playfields as collectible gifts

    high · Chris and Jared discuss extensive gift options: custom plungers (Wizard Amusements), Double Danger apparel, backglasses, used playfields, LED backlighting kits

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Stern providing direct CAD assets to Farsight for Stern Pinball Arcade; represents unprecedented digital licensing collaboration

    high · Jared confirms 'Stern has been pretty generous to Farsight' with CAD assets for current tables; explains crisp graphics result from direct file access

    • 2:05
    work, work, work, work, work. Holiday. It's really blazing up fast on me, much faster than normally would happen, because there's just no time for me to go, oh, well, I can take care of that once I'm off. Nope, I can't. That's right. Yeah, it's a bit the same for me as well. I've got, you know, I'm working right up to Friday this week.
    2:29
    And yeah, it's sort of weird to be doing that and not have some sort of buff for either side. And I won't be taking any holidays during that sort of week period between Christmas and New Year's either. Because I burned up on my leave, you see, on a certain little trip. Yeah, a certain little trip. so yeah uh it'll be me in the office with all my friends which is probably not very many i feel bad for my kid and i do remember when i was a kid i hated it when uh when this happened with christmas and that is he gets all next week off so he's got an entire week off before christmas now to a kid that is just pure torture um it's also kind of torture to the parents.
    3:15
    Everyone has pain. Yeah, it's especially torturous for the kids. And then, of course, they only get a week afterwards to mess around with all the new stuff that they had.
    3:27
    And then it's right back to school. So it's kind of brutal on everybody this time period. Quit doing this, Christmas. Quit showing up on days like this, or on the weekend like this.
    3:37
    It's bad. But the good thing is you get two days, what we do here in Australia, we get the Boxing Day holiday and the Christmas Day holiday on Monday and Tuesday after. So that's kind of cool. Yeah, we don't do Boxing Day here in America.
    3:54
    Okay. So it's just, that's what Cyber Friday is, Black Friday is. It's probably for you guys, it's probably like all the sales happen online. But for us, it's Boxing Day, everyone goes to the supermarkets after being totally over, being home for just one day and eating too much turkey and food and saying, we need to go and have some different food and also spend all the money. No, we do the great American tradition of go get in the return line and return.
    4:26
    Oh, we do that too. But it's balanced between all the people buying stuff so they can then go and return it later. Right, right. What's really funny is, of course, you know, a lot of people get gift cards for the holidays. And I know, especially in our targets, you go to the toy section, cleaned out, nothing there. And it's not because, now if you went on Christmas Eve, still fully stocked. It's literally they pull the merchandise off the shelves and go and hide it. So that you can only purchase with your gift card the dregs that they weren't going to sell anyway. And then they'll put back out the full stock later. It's really kind of bizarre, kind of mean. And again, because it's like, no, you must hold on to your gift card. But anyway. Yeah, I know. It's a big foot problem. Why don't you tell us the story? We didn't get a chance to get to this last time. Jerry was talking about his trip. Yeah. And he never got to get around to the unfortunate business that happened on the trip. That being his phone getting stolen by a gypsy. Yeah, that's right. I got gypsied when I was over in Paris. Romanian gypsies are prevalent over there. And they are pretty much in all the major tourist spots. And they can be there at any time of the day, early in the morning, like peak time, late in the evening. They're just ever-present. And unfortunately, I let my guard down one morning when it seemed really quiet and there were only Parisians running around. And then all of a sudden, I just got accosted by these two. And they do this thing where they shake papers in your face to try and distract you and say, oh, sign this, sign this, sign this. and they're constantly talking and constantly making noise and the other off-sider is basically lifting all the shit out of your pockets. Wow.
    6:14
    So they're very good at it and it was my own stupid fault because I had my phone in this little pouch in my bag and they would have seen it from a mile off and they went, right, this guy, we'll have him. They tried to get into my bag as well, but they soon realised that my bag has two big strips of Velcro on it, so if they started to frack around with that, they would have made a hell of a racket and then I would have turned around and strangled them. which is what I felt like doing after. The only reason I knew exactly where they stole my phone is because my Pebble watch is paired to my phone and it started to vibrate shortly after walking away from them. I said, oh, it's unusual because it has been dropping connection a little bit occasionally. Usually it just means I need to restart both the phone and the watch. And I thought, oh, no, that's interesting. I started tapping away where I usually keep the phone. Oh, you little.
    7:02
    And realized at that point they got it. And by that point, I didn't even know where they were. They just disappeared. Right.
    7:09
    So luckily, because Google is Google, all my photos were backed up to the cloud, so I didn't lose any of those. But I kind of did lose the ability to take my own personal photographs from that point on in the holiday, which was about three days left. And it was okay because Kim had her Galaxy S7 with her, so we sort of shared that and used that as to take photos.
    7:35
    for the remainder of the trip. So, you know, it wasn't great, but, you know, it happened. And I had insurance for the trip. Yeah, I had insurance for the trip, so I ended up getting about $650 back. So I just made up the difference and got myself a brand-new Google Pixel instead.
    7:51
    So there was a silver lining to it, although I got to upgrade my phone. And I'm really enjoying the Pixel, so I guess you've got to take what you can out of it. And it was a bit serendipitous, I guess, but frustrating at the time. Now, you mentioned the Pebble, and I just read that Pebble is going kaput.
    8:08
    What does that mean for your Pebble? Not much at the moment. Fitbit is acquiring Pebble. They bought them for a steal at $40 million, which they got offers a lot higher than that about two years ago when they were in the height of their popularity.
    8:26
    But what it means is that the Pebble Time 2, which I got onto the Kickstarter for, had been discontinued. I was a bit concerned that I may not get my Kickstarter entitlements back, but Pebble were actually really good and they looked after us and I got my full refund back, which timing-wise was great because it meant I could update to the larger version of the Pixel phone, which was, again, serendipitous, really.
    8:53
    So, yeah, they will not discontinue support for Pebble. They're going to distance themselves from the cloud services that Pebble relied on and sort of work those out of the Pebble's ecosystem, which means that, you know, we won't have all the sort of cloud-based stuff that maybe things like voice dictation won't work on the Pebble in coming months, or they might find another solution they can just plug in. but you know overall I think that the watch is still going to work we should still be able to sync it to our devices like iOS and Android devices just fine so it's not going to be like instantly disabled or crippled in any way it's still going to work it just means that it probably won't receive any major updates moving forward alright well this kind of leads me into what our first topic of the day is going to be because one of our listeners emailed us, Grand Best, a whole bunch of topics that, you know what, we're going to spread out through many podcasts because they're rather good topics. But one of the things was Christmas gifts for the pinball fan.
    10:09
    And so knowing about the pebble and knowing about your phone getting lost, and I thought, you know, the pinball fan doesn't just need pinball-related items. He can, you know, typically like tech stuff, gizmos, what have you. So I thought we might touch upon some items, but just in general, if you're listening to this, that means you are the pinball fan. So I guess you know what you want, but here are some suggestions in case people are going, well, what do I ask for? I don't know, I kind of came up with a couple of things that you might think about for giving a fellow pinball fan, if you will, or something like that. Jared, you can chime in if you've got anything for yourself.
    10:52
    I thought I might start off with, hey, you know our sponsor, Wizard Amusements? He does these cool pinball plungers.
    11:00
    Even regardless of if you have a pinball table or not, they're pretty trick-looking things. Sometimes people like to decorate their desks with little items or trinkets about things they like.
    11:14
    You can't get much more pinball than a plunger, right? No. A custom plunger. And they're not exactly on the expensive side either, so it's certainly one item that you could go, one direction you could go.
    11:30
    Pinball t-shirts. Oh, yes. Google them. My favorite. Right. they're out there and there's quite a variety to choose from different people as pinball has gained popularity obviously people are catering to that there's heaps out there exactly pretty much all pinball podcasts have a shirt of some description don't they Chris they do as a matter of fact I wonder whose website yeah this isn't one giant sponsorship people literally there are some really cool shirts out there. Jared has talked about them in the past, some of the ones that he's got. I've seen them on. The ones from Double Danger are great. I've got the Danger Danger on the front and the Tilt on the back. That's a great shirt from Double Danger. They've got all sorts of really cool merch. I'd recommend them. As a pinhead, I'd be happy to receive any of those. Right.
    12:24
    If you want to go the little more expensive route, you can always find a Translight or a Backglass. or even a used playfield that has been completely depopulated to hang on the wall. Yeah, that's right. Show your love for all things pinball. The great thing with a used playfield is they don't have to be in perfect condition at all, and that's why people are selling just the playfield. And they've got real character when they're used as well. You see the age. and, like, you know, some of the, on the older plate, they'll just see the lacquer is a bit sort of feathered and stuff like that, and they look really good. And if you're a bit handy with LEDs and low-voltage wires, you can actually backlight all the inserts as well with LED strings. So that's pretty easy to do.
    13:17
    And then the last idea that I kind of came up with that's totally pinball-related is, well how about buying a season or a couple of packs of pinball from tpa or zen uh you know why don't you give zachary a pinball to somebody uh you know there's there's many things of that nature you know if you know the person's on steam and if you don't know if they play it or not you maybe they only play on mobile well hey you know gift them it for steam or vice versa maybe they you know they only play it on steam and would love to throw it their way on mobile you know So it's one of those things where not all of us, and I certainly am not this way, I may have three or four different devices that could play Pinball Arcade, but I only have them on two of them.
    14:04
    Yeah, that's right, because you can't really buy them all. But if someone gives you the gift of Pinball on a mobile device and you're maybe only playing Steam, that means you can be mobile and enjoy it while you're out. Exactly. I mean, for instance, I only have Zen on Steam. I don't have Zen at all on my mobile. So, yeah, I've what I'd probably suggest there, too, is if it works a bit differently on iOS and Android where you can't really give people. So the best thing to do there is to actually just buy them some place to credit or iTunes gift card. Exactly. And just put like exactly. And even on the gift cards, if you really want to get fancy, you can actually, you know, put pictures of stickers of pinball stuff on it or like print out a pinball machine and stick it onto the card. and sort of customize and give them a suggestion that perhaps they might want to use it on pinball, you know? Right. There's plenty of cool things you can do. Easy.
    14:57
    Absolutely easy. Now, shoot, just go on eBay and type in pinball and you'll find all manner of, I mean, everything from keychains that go on the end, you know, the door keys for pinball machines. You know, they'll have the art, playfield plastics, all sorts of really cool interesting things that you can snake and put that away You can even get these items for the house You can get these really cool lamps that are made from pop bumper housings and all these cool little playfield toys that everyone uses. And it looks really, really good. And I would be happy to have one of those in my room, particularly if you've got a den with lots of pinball machines in it. They look amazing.
    15:41
    Well, as far as the person that has lots of pinball machines already, neon sign, right? Yeah, that's right. Or like a cool topper for the pinball machine. Huge of those are available now, and they're actually pretty affordable for a non-pinhead to get a pinhead. They really do look cool if you've got a games room.
    16:02
    So anyway, there you go. There are some gift suggestions. I know Christmas, by the time you listen to this podcast, it's going to be too late to buy any of these things, but next year! Or for the person's birthday! Or Valentine's Day or Father's Day or Mother's Day because we know that there's a female.
    16:21
    Jared, edit that out. We know that there's female. We know there's some gals out there that play pinball.
    16:32
    They are a rare breed, but yes, thankfully they're getting greater in numbers, which is good. So a lot of places do the annual countdowns, you might say, or year-end summations, and we're no different.
    16:51
    Just that also. So let's present to you our top five and worst five. Well, maybe not worst five. I didn't come up with five, but worst and best moments of pinball in 2016.
    17:05
    Okay, let's kick it off. Do we go any order? Jared, how about you? We're going to do the top five. We'll save the worst five after. Jared, why don't you kick it off and let's hear what you have. Okay. Well, I think probably one of the top five for me was actually an app release, and that was Pinout.
    17:27
    I think that as pinball evolves and the idea of pinball opens up to more people, having apps like Pinout, which are a different take on pinball, essentially an endless runner for pinball, makes people think about pinball differently and gives them a gateway into the hobby. And I think the more games like that we have, the better for the hobby. So that was a real highlight for me.
    17:56
    The fact that it also comes with a soundtrack, an actual soundtrack that you can buy on iTunes and Google Play is also very interesting as well. it's not often that I actually buy a video game soundtrack but the music from this game is so good that I went, you know what, I'm going to do this pull the trigger on the soundtrack, so there you go so that was one highlight of course the obvious highlight which hasn't quite come to fruition yet on mobile but I understand it's pretty close is Stern Pinball Arcade that offering, again, it's broadening the scope of pinball to not just digital pinheads, but the wider Stern-loving community,
    18:40
    which is good, you know, every aspect really. It means that pinheads that don't have access to good tables get to play those tables. It also acts as a pretty powerful marketing tool for Stern as well. So, again, using Stern's marketing machine to drive digital pinball adoption, smart move. I'm going to piggyback on that because that was also on my five moments.
    19:06
    And specifically, I wrote down what it means to pinball. So you really touched upon that. And that is, yeah, bringing absolutely current tables to the digital market. And like you said, for those people that don't have access to it or it's a trip to get access to something like this, it really helps bridge that gap and also feed the fire for any of these. We just got a notification of on Twitter, somebody being really excited for the fact that Ghostbusters is coming out on Stern Pinball Arcade. And it's like, yeah, and not only that but the fact that you'll get to be able to play the premium version of it with the non-slingshot what do they call those? The ghost slings. Ghost slings, yes.
    19:57
    Give it a play with that. It's going to be cool. Typically, I'm sure that if you find it on location, you're going to be finding the pro version. Yeah, absolutely. Certainly here, you would most likely find the pro. And from what I've heard, the pros have played surprisingly well. But, you know, those ghost slings are a real game changer. And the sub-playfield lock with the ramp actually goes underneath the playfield and back up again. Like, that sort of stuff, it's cool. and it's one of those things that you just don't get to experience unless you know probably a mate who has an LE or you have a very rich operator that doesn't mind throwing money at pinball machines, right? So yeah, even though you and I have not gotten our hands on it yet, plenty of people have, and it's one of those things that I see the potential that Firesight can run away with this with. probably will want to do it too, and that's to really give a deep dive into the history of Stern and touch upon all these things, their massive back library when you include data eastern Sega tables.
    21:05
    Well, that's right. There's unlimited possibilities, and from what I understand, I think Stern has been pretty generous to Farsight, and they've actually got some of the... I know with all the new tables they've given them, they direct CAD assets for the tables. So what you're seeing in-game is the reason why they look so crisp is they've got all the current assets for the games. Now, I'm not sure how that's going to translate for some of the older Seeker titles and all those ones, but the CAD files are probably no longer openable in the later CAD packages, but you never know. They might be able to do something that allows them to upscale the graphics, right? absolutely and who knows with with stern maybe they go back and do it themselves for the fact that they want to re-release some of these tables because they certainly have uh you know the fact that i know they're not the ones paying for it but they're the ones building it the medieval madness uh machines um you know it's one of those things that it opens up a lot of possibilities for for where they go with it and certainly for every uh table that they produce going forward it's exciting because we pretty much know it will be coming to this. The other thing that I like hearing something we've been advocating for Pinball Arcade for some time and that is there is going to be a cap for what the minimum system requirements are. Yes, that's right. Particularly mobile. You better be up to speed now with your device otherwise it ain't going to work. you've got to have a minimum RAM requirement you've got to have pretty much the latest operating system both on iOS and Android and it's like too bad if you don't and that's absolutely required because you know we can't keep supporting the lowest common denominator we have to go look if you want this game it's demanding and you need to have the right hardware for it right and of course that means there won't be any skimping we would hope on the mobile versions in terms of graphics. Hopefully not. Let's see what they can do with lighting with a custom engine, and let's see if they can really push the boundaries of what's possible in mobile.
    23:20
    Bring it on. I can't wait until I see the mobile release of it. It's going to be great. So something else that excited me that neither of us have gotten our hands on, and that's the proliferation of the digital pinball cabs.
    23:33
    Oh, geez. There's one, Arcuda. Arcuda? Yes, it's based down here. That's someone, an actual partnership with Pinball Arcade. I find it interesting. That's the newest information, yeah.
    23:45
    It's really interesting to me with them being in Australia. I'm wondering how that's going to work for sales. It is unusual, isn't it? Yeah, are they going to be having a localized building of these machines in the States and in Europe? Or is everything going to be shipped from Australia? But it truly is exciting that they partnered with Farsight. Now, we should clarify. They partnered with Farsight for Pinball Arcade, not for Stern Pinball Arcade. That's correct. And I think it's quite interesting that Farsight have been quiet on cabinet support leading up to this announcement. And have a look what we have now here. Cabinet support from a party. It might tick off a lot of cab builders out there. They've been screaming for this for so long. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, wait a second, I have to actually purchase this person's cab to have it fully licensed and functional. Because it seems by the press release that Farsight has worked out with them so that it does all the cool, you know, uses actual pop bumpers, uses flipper coils, uses rumble, uses a physical plunger. and they said in terms of visuals, it's not just going to be camera angles, but they said there's a possibility of the 3D aspects, which makes me wonder, are they using the Xbox One camera to do that head tracking? Well, I think they probably have to if they're doing that without any goggles.
    25:14
    That's very interesting there, right? This is the sort of stuff that's always lacking in a cabinet. You get your screen aligned right, you get everything dropped in the cabinet that theoretically will make it look real, but there's just that little thing that looks slightly off when you're looking at the play field. And it just makes it look like, it's like, you know, when you're watching a sports game and you see the pitch decorations, like all the responsive ads, and then they switch to a new camera angle and everything's stretched out really, really, really far. It's a little bit like that with 3D pinball, isn't it, when you're playing on a cabinet. it just looks slightly wrong so not only do you have Arcuda doing pinball arcade you've also got VB Cabs who we talked with in a past podcast and of course they partnered with Zen to do all that so now on the one front it's like what a bummer that you're not going to be able to have all your pinball in one but then again well now you have maybe buy two cabinets because you know it's more fun to have more right? Why not? Pinball cabinets, like pinballs in general, they tend to like to have friends in the same room with them. So you should never buy just one. You should always buy one and give it a friend to play with. Otherwise, they'll start howling and carrying on. It's very annoying. So I really do. Like I said, I've not yet gotten my hands on any digital pinball cab to date. I don't know what it feels like to play on one of these cabinets. but I do love the fact that there's two companies at least out there. I know there's a third company that we've mentioned before, name escaping me,
    26:59
    that well, then you got typically your virtual pin cabinets also, but the fact that they're that in, in one year we've had two companies come out with it. It just kind of goes to show the, the popularity of pinball increasing and that's always a good thing. I think most importantly the popularity of digital pinball, which you wouldn't have seen this back three or four years ago. No one would have gone, oh, yeah, let's actually produce a product that will run visual pinball, like VPN MAME or those sort of things, and mass market it, which is essentially what they're doing now. Right. Because we have things like Zen and we have things like Pinball Archeage. It's a real turning point for the industry, I think. All right, your turn.
    27:47
    Okay, so we've done Stern, Pinout. I think the really positive thing as well is that we, Stern players, not Stern players, Steam players, have the option to play Zachariah on their platform.
    28:03
    Zachariah was a mobile-only release for a while, and it's an acquired taste. A lot of people go, yeah, I like it, but I don't know, Sometimes I don't really get into it as much, but the ability for them to play it on Steam and, you know, really, they've done cabinet support out of the box for it. So that's another one you can actually add to your virtual pin cabinet as a really solid contender for sort of IRL play. speaking of uh more things that i've yet to get my hands on another uh moment for me that i it excites me all the same virtual reality pinball but specifically what uh jeremy williams had done when he built his own stand-up controller uh for doing the vr pinball because that apparently made all the difference in the world now i keep on seeing posts of people that try virtual pinball for the first time, and it always comes back the same. Oh my god, this is how it is to be played. Whether they're playing it Farsights or playing Zen's versions of it, everybody raves about it. It's like the perfect pairing for what is a physical media into the VR world. The recipe is right. They got it right on both counts.
    29:30
    Alright, I've only got two more. How many more do you have? I'm running out. I'm trying to think digitally the good things that have happened. But I think I might be getting low in the barrel. How about yours? Okay, so here I'll rattle off my final two top fives.
    29:47
    First one we're going to talk about is the EMs on Pinball Arcade. Talking about El Dorado Fireball, Centigrade, and Jax Open.
    29:58
    I'm not a fan of EMs in real life. I mean, you give me the choice between playing an EM and playing a System 11 or a DMD machine, I'm going to go for those almost every single time. But within Pinball Arcade, especially when playing on mobile, it's so satisfying to just get in a quick and easy, I shouldn't say easy, but a quick game that you know is not going to, you know,
    30:24
    you're not going to barrel along on it for 45 minutes. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I agree. There's something about EMs in the digital form that, surprisingly, it's a strange juxtaposition, isn't it? Because EMs are the furthest away from electro like you know digital that you can get Yet in a digital medium there something about them that really works
    30:49
    And Farsight managed to – it was with these four that they finally had got what it is about how EM plays. I don't think we got that with Big Shot. I don't think we got it with Central Park. those need some serious tuning yeah they don't feel like how an EM should and although I'm still not 100% on the tuning that Fireside has done in general it still captures the spirit rather well with these last four EM releases so I really that was kind of a highlight for me in 2016 because all of these were released in 2016 yeah that's right except for the really really early ones but yeah all those four, it was a packed year. It was a packed year for EMs.
    31:41
    I agree with you on those. They add a nice variety to people like Hate in that you have quick plays and you have the long marches like Twilight Zone and all those ones that gives you variation and that's good. Last but not least for me, it actually might be my number one moment of 2016 regarding pinball and that is Zem's release of their Alien three-pack. I loved the heck out of it.
    32:11
    The Aliens table for me is spot-on. It really raises the bar for when I eventually get the chance to play the Alien table that Highway Pinball has put out. That's what I'm going to be comparing it to, because they hit upon every moment and notion that I absolutely wanted them to hit upon to capture the atmosphere perfectly. It tells a story. It just really does interesting gameplay. And I say that also about Alien Isolation. I think they did a bang-up job on that. And I've said that I'm not the biggest fan of Alien vs. Predator, just because I don't think it captured the spirit of the movie and it had the god-awful voice acting. But plenty of people have wound up saying that's their favorite of the packs. I mean, it's no slouch at all. It's just in comparison to the other two. The refinement of Aliens in itself is, yeah, like it's the worst house in the best street. Right. You know? And the other thing that I can't help but look at is with the Alien pack, Zen really seems to have turned a corner because now we've got the Bethesda pack. Yeah. And I don't think that they would have gone to the extremes that they did with the Bethesda pack. I mean, it's kind of risky what they put out in terms of is this what a Pimble player wants or not.
    33:43
    Especially when you compare that to the Balls of Fury pack, which was Family Guy, Bob's Burger, Archer, and American Dad. Those seem more like the, hey, let's just slap a license on top of a table. and it's not really thought out, you might say. There's interesting looks, but it doesn't really capture through and through the feel. No, it's a little bit. You kind of really have to be a fan of the franchise to really get those tables. And I'll admit, I really touched them. Even though I bought them, I kind of regret that I did, which is a bit of a shame. Right, so that's what I'm saying. The Alien Pack, they really started something here. They went a little bit outside the pinball box, and then that, to me, has begot the Bethesda pack, which is way outside the box. Yeah. I've actually had time to play that now, and I've got to say I'm having a really hard time putting down Skyrim.
    34:41
    That table is almost like a grudge play to me. I finish it because I get just nearly to the end of a mission and I don't quite get the mission done and then I actually end the game I go you and rage start another game to try and get to the end of the mission I'm actually up to the point where I've got the Elder Scroll and I'm now trying to fight the dragon and the last one is pretty hard because the dragon doesn't hang around for that long so you've got to be quick I think I'm still trying to work out what I need to do on it but yeah the last round where you face the really mean dragons I don't know what the Elder Scrolls is all about so I don't know the plot but I think they've actually stuck to the plot pretty strongly here and it's yeah it's like you're right your summation of it last episode where you said it's an RPG but with flippers is really accurate. Like, you get that feel. And, like, even you go to the inn and you spend some gold and you can actually turn the game from day to night because you actually sleep and the table goes into night mode. Like, it's those little touches that up until recently, up until the Aliens pack, like, we really hadn't seen that type of deep-level integration, that deep type of storytelling from Xen. And here we are. It's like they have ended with a bang. Right. Doom is another one that's, like, very atmospheric and one that you almost have to play with your headphones because the animal, like, the demon sounds are so loud in it and so spooky that it sort of freaks out the rest of the family if I'm playing it.
    36:36
    So, yeah, it's a dark and gruesome game, that one, and it kind of really fits the theme of Doom. So the other one, Fallout, I'm having a hard time getting into that.
    36:49
    I think it's... I don't know what it is. I'm having a hard time working out how to get caps, which seems to be integral to the game to buy things. And I think without caps, the game really doesn't go anywhere. So perhaps... To me, I thought that that was, in my limited play, that was the weakest link of the three. but again I'm going to put it in the Alien vs Predator category where it's weak because of what it's been paired with not because itself is a bad title I'm sure if I had some more time and I go and actually read the tutorial for it I'm sure I'll get what I need to do and then I'll enjoy it more it's just that it doesn't seem to be so readily accessible as the other ones like the whole concept of doing is it not factions but it's like you've got to go again i i don't have not played fallout so i'm sure if i played fallout i know exactly what to do um but you know it's like one of those things you just got to give it a bit of time and let it sink in i think all right so anyway those were our top moments for 2016 within pinball let's touch upon some of our worst moments that we think i'm going to start this off with the obvious. Goddamn Gottlieb's premieres in Pinball Arcade.
    38:06
    Yep, terrible. Get rid of them. Yep, do not want. I don't think we need to say anything more than that, except get them out.
    38:14
    If I see another one and if I see this level of proliferation of Gottlieb premiere in season seven, there's going to be hell to pay. Yeah, I just... It's very frustrating considering the pins that are out there that we so much would rather have. And we can only speculate to the reasons why Farsight has been dumping these on us.
    38:41
    And hopefully things will change. But, ugh. Yeah. It's, yeah. The only saving grace for this season, really, I think, is the EMs. And that's kind of it. And maybe Doctor Who, like if it lands. Well, and I said, an 8-Ball Deluxe is no slouch. 8-Ball Deluxe is good. Yeah. And I really enjoyed Indy 500, but the premieres are just tainting the entire season for me. They really are. Yeah, they definitely are. Another worst five, and this is only by hearsay for me. Again, no personal experience with this, but I thought it was rather shoddy that this was happening. Apparently, the Stern Ghostbusters, the actual physical machines, they've been having playfield issues. with the clouding of inserts and the delamination. That's really, really sad when you dump that much money and have that happen. Now I know that Stern is doing replacement programs, but, I mean, come on. It was a bit of a PR disaster for them. Right.
    39:46
    Because they, like, Pennside was lighting up with this. And actually, Jeff from the Pinball Podcast actually pulled the trigger on an LE and got affected by the bubbling issue. And he is like, right, you know what? Never again. I will never again buy a new in-box Stern game ever based on this experience that I've had. And, you know, they weren't like, a lot of people were saying, why aren't they handling this publicly and making a statement about it? But I think Nate from the Pinball Podcast who nearly joined Stern as an employee but decided to go and continue his work with Taylor Guitars at one point. He was sort of discussing the business behind it and saying, look, in the grand scheme of things, the amount of people who are experiencing the bubble playfield issue is small compared to the people who aren't. So for us to make a big song and dance out of this and publicly apologise and do posts and all that sort of stuff, it's not worth the trouble. We're happy to deal with the fallout from a few individuals, a few hardcore pinball fans, and take the hit, essentially. But it doesn't really fill you with confidence when you're sinking, for us down here, $13,000 on a piece of arcade furniture. Right. And you have bubbling, and you go, what do I do now? There was no way you could really understand what you needed to do next. It was terrible. Yeah. And that leads me into my last worst, and that is, I don't know if I'm just noticing it now, but this year it seemed like there's a huge rising cost in pinball in general for buying these machines. you know the fact that what is it the Batman 66 that they were selling one for was it $13,000 $14,000 um that was a limited number and you had to send in a an application for it yeah it's like wow you know and then this isn't a Maserati it's a bloody bimbo machine Right, and you're starting to cost that of a very inexpensive car, but it's like, whoa. And it isn't just relegated to a new Jersey Jack pin or a new Stern pin. It's also relegated to these pin cabs.
    42:20
    You want all the bells and whistles on your pin cab? It's going to cost you more than a brand new inbox Stern. Now, again, yes, you're going to get it licensed with all these other tables and stuff, but it's still not... It's not within the realm of Joe Everidge, is it? No, not at all.
    42:40
    The other thing... If you came up with a pin cab that was two to three grand, now you've got people that are going, you know what, it's still a lot of money, but it's within the realm of possibility. Maybe I save up for a few years or something, or really put aside something, and go ahead and pull the trigger on something like that and get it. but the minute you start talking about nine grand for one of these things, it's like, ouch, that's the realm of most people. And there's to some degree, a lot of that's to do with the stuff that goes inside one of these things. Like, yes, you've got to have fairly high spec, everything in it to make it work. So you, when you build that out and then you have to add in, you know, what is essentially, you know, uh, a cost to produce and then a cost to maintain your business. Yeah. The truth is that I don't think they're making a great deal of profit on them, to be honest. Yeah. I mean, it's unfortunate. I don't know what the solution is, but it's also, like I said, it just seems this year that the prices for these things got just higher and higher. And I was like, whoa, there seems to be a jump. And it leads me to think that I would rather dump my money into VR and have a stand-up cabinet, mini cabinet or whatever, and go that route and enjoy PIN that way rather than… You're looking at maybe three, four grand maximum to get fully kitted out with a great computer, good quality VR equipment.
    44:11
    That's a lot cheaper. Much smaller footprint. Much smaller footprint, yep. you can you know tuck everything away in a cupboard somewhere and wheel it out when you want to you know yeah it's yeah maybe i'll change my tune once i get my hands on one of these uh you know and try it out for my show but look if i had 10 grand man i'd love to throw it out of a vp cap but you know if i was able to get one yeah sure i probably get a vr as well you know why not um But, yeah, having to describe that, yes, I would like to take up a big footprint with this in the home somewhere, as well as a cost, it's a pretty tough sell for most people.
    44:53
    All right, so those are my worst. You got any worse for yourself? I think the only other worst thing that I've seen this year, and this is maybe just personal opinion, but the, as soon as, um, decision to release another, the pin pinball machine. Don't know if you've seen these things, but they're like, I know what you're talking about, but I didn't realize they were releasing a new one. Yeah. They released one. I think it's the, the new Spider-Man that they redid. Um, they've created a, the pin version of that. And look, I'm sorry, but I, I get what they're trying to do. they're trying to make a pinball machine affordable for someone who perhaps isn't fully into pinball.
    45:39
    That would be one of the worst presents you could get a pinhead, one of those, because they're going to look at you going, F off, I don't want this. This is not pinball. This is kiddie pinball, you know.
    45:52
    So, no, I don't know if that's a really good direction for them. but look I not stern but I certainly would not be paying for one because the cost of them I think they about three or four grand Yeah So why not just get a pro I think you know it funny because I never heard any talk of them ever anywhere. I don't hear about it on our forums. I don't hear about it at my league nights. I don't hear anybody. I've never seen one.
    46:21
    it's just, that's why I'm really shocked that they released that. You're saying they released another one. Cause I thought after that initial volley, they were like, yeah, okay, we're done with this. Like imagine, right, you're at Christmas and your partner, whose well-intentioned goes, hey, look, I know you like pinball, so I got you the Spider-Man pin. And you go, oh, my God. And then you see this thing and you go, F you.
    46:47
    It's the – so when I was a kid, this is going to be a tangent. when I was a kid all I wanted was Star Wars action figures right that's all I wanted on Christmas in my stocking there's no it wasn't a stocking thing it was a gift thing anyway I get the gift in my hand I feel a present I feel the cardboard backing I feel the casing on the front of the thing oh yeah here we go Star Wars rip it open and it's a freaking Battlestar Galactica character now Now, here's the thing. If it hadn't been a Cylon, hey, you know what? That's pretty cool. It isn't even a Cylon. It's the freaking alien dude, the supreme commander that sat in the chair. He's literally purple. He has a purple afro. He doesn't come with a weapon. He's got little hands that are molded together that do nothing. It would be the same as being gifted E.T. It's like, oh, boy, exciting, right? I mean, it's absolutely the worst. Then I open up another one, and I'm thinking, oh, please be Star Wars. Crack it up. No. It's once again Battle Star Galactica, except for this time it's some dude in a robe, and he's got like a crystal dome head like he's some kind of a conehead that's see-through. Again, the weapon history doesn't even have hands. He's just got robes that flip up. That's it, right? Super lame. Right. So it's that thing of, and then, of course, Mom's reaction is, well, but you wanted action figures and these are Star Wars-y like, right? And you're like, no.
    48:30
    Welcome to the pin. Yes, that's my base model version of yes, if you were gifted the pin instead of an actual pinball machine.
    48:40
    Yeah, you might as well have just gone to Toys R Us and bought the $100 Star Wars pinball plastic thing and, you know. Yeah, it probably would have been more fun. But I guarantee the reaction would be about the same, except for at least with that one, they knew that you didn't waste your money on it. Yeah, you would have been going,
    48:56
    I hate to be that guy, but how much did you spend on this? Exactly. Okay, do you still have the receipts? Can we go and talk to the dealer?
    49:08
    Of course, don't they sell the pen over Amazon? Amazon's really good about their return policy. Yeah, that's right. I think they do.
    49:14
    That's the idea of it. It comes in a box, and And I think that's the reason why it's so small, so Amazon can actually ship it. I'm going to have to go look this up now. Yeah. Just like a laugh. Yeah. So, yeah, that was probably the low light of the year for me, some actual pinball.
    49:35
    Let's move on to one more area. And that is, again, a suggestion by one of our listeners. and that is most desired pin for 2017 to come out on Pinball Arcade that probably won't happen. It probably won't happen. So pretty much anything licensed.
    49:58
    Okay. I'm talking about one of your most desired. Indiana Jones. That one's obvious. Indiana Jones is an obvious one.
    50:04
    I think Star Wars. Now, what's interesting is I've never really enjoyed the Star Wars pinball machines that have been out there. I don't think they've nearly captured the license at all the way it should be captured, but it is one of those things where it's kind of like, well, we've got Star Trek out there. Shouldn't we have a Star Wars pinball? But it's more than likely not going to happen. No, way too expensive for licensing. That would be the Kickstarter that would probably make ACDC blush with how much it would actually be So, yeah, no way. Yeah, my most desired that, I mean, there's a slim margin of it happening, but I really think it's going to be a small miracle if it does. And that's NBA fast break. Yeah, that's just too embroiled in so many different license things, like players, teams. And, yes, you know, NBA does actually hold all the licenses for the teams, but player likenesses, you'd have to, like, fester everything in it. that's the worry is that you'd have to fester everything so it makes me wonder well I mean how much would it cost to make a deal with the Players Association would you know I don't know it's one of those things where I really don't know what the numbers are and that's why I say it could actually happen but I don't think it's going to and it's going to be a forever disappointment to me you know what would be kind of cool though if they were doing it rather than making actual teams up with the player likenesses, they actually use, they actually kind of use Kickstarter. So you can actually pledge and get your face in the game. They actually digitize a photo of you and they go, Morgan to the key.
    52:02
    That'd be awesome though, right? Yeah. They'd have to come up with 28 teams worth of, uh, worth of stuff. And then, well, the other thing is that they, they'd have to license the team names. I don't want to play NBA fast break and it's going to be instead called what's it? Street ball. You know, where it's where we've got the seventh street ballers going up against. No, I don't want to play playground basketball. I want the NBA teams doing their thing because I'm only going to be playing the Lakers.
    52:37
    Another one that I... You mean the Lakers? The Lakers, yeah, exactly. Yeah. I think another one that falls in line with NBA Fast Break, that small miracle if they pull it off, and that's World Cup soccer.
    52:52
    Oh, yeah. That's going to be practically impossible. Good on you, FIFA. Yeah, exactly. Good luck with FIFA.
    53:01
    There's plenty of video games out there that use FIFA licensing, so the precedent's there. But, you know, we're talking about the software houses that produce those games are EA. and Ubisoft. These guys aren't short of a buck.
    53:17
    So, yeah, I don't know if... I mean, unfortunately, it's not like Stern has the NASCAR table, which, ooh, licensing, and then they have Grand Prix, which is the exact same layout, smart move on their part, easily making it generic.
    53:35
    They still have the terribly digitized version of Sammy Hagar's I Can't Drive 55 in both versions, and it's horrible. They should have just not bothered.
    53:49
    Are you saying it's not ECDC quality music? Oh, it's just indistinguishable. It's like bad MIDI track? Oh, it's bad MIDI track with bad vocal because I don't even think it's Sammy Hagar. Of course it wouldn't pay for Sammy.
    54:04
    Yeah. You got any tales or shall I rattle off the other ones that are my most desired? No, I don't. Let's see if you... My last two, I think, are more in the realm of possibility.
    54:23
    They're certainly on my most desired list. We'll see if they can do that. First one is Big Bang Bar.
    54:29
    Oh, yeah, that'd be nice. I think the most difficult part of that is just them doing a Capcom table. Pure and simple. It has nothing to do with... There's no licensing involved. It's just getting a hold of one and creating the emulation for it. Yeah. Although they did it with ElvinG and Co., apparently. Like, we're going to be getting some ElvinGs in the near future. So that uses their own sort of emulation framework. Right. So it's possible. It's possible. you know, there's certainly getting more into the realm of, eh, that probably could happen so, if it happens in 2017, I certainly would be stoked about it Yeah, it's a great table, but it's totally not G-rated, even with family mode on, I don't think you can even get it past G-rating, or PG It's definitely PG Yeah, I mean, it's a PG-13 table but I don't think it's again, I don't think it's any worse than Medieval Madness or any worse than Scared Stiff. And I saw plenty of Scared Stiffs not in family mode in the arcade back in the day. I've played heaps of them as well, and no one cares. But, you know, the ESRB does. Yeah.
    55:47
    My number one most desired that fingers crossed it actually does happen, but there's still roadblocks preventing it from happening, and that's Roller Games.
    56:00
    Yeah. It's now my most desired game. It's been my most desired game since Pinball Arcade came out. The first time I ever went up and visited Farsight, which was during their first season of Pinball Arcade, I talked to Bobby and I was like, you do know about Roller Games, right? And at that time he was like, I'm not sure I know that one. And I was like, you know, vocalized it. And every single time I've talked to the guys at Farsight, I mentioned Roller Games. It's my number one. That's my holy grail, you might say. Absolutely. I'm lucky enough to already have my holy grail, which is Space Cracker. It will be really good to get that one in because it's one I've never played before. It'd be great to give it a go. We're going to let you get out of here in just a quick jiffy. A couple of notes of business to take care of first. Hey, have you followed us on Twitter? Then why don't you do that? Follow at Blockade for the main show notes or follow us individually. I am at ShutYourTraps. He is at JaredMorgz.
    57:02
    You can also drop us an email to the show. It is blahblahblockade at gmail.com. Why don't you visit our website, blockadepinball.com?
    57:17
    I personally am on Instagram. I don't post many pinball things on Instagram. I post a lot of work stuff on Instagram. um if you were following me you would have seen my we just went to universal studios again yesterday we visited a lard boy donuts where we purchased a donut that's the size of my son's head
    57:38
    this this is sounds pretty good i had a cookie this morning that was almost as big as my head it would make cookie monster very proud it's up on my twitter if you want to have a look in addition where I'm going to be posting what our holiday wreath there's a holiday wreath contest at the show I'm on all the departments are making their own wreaths and ours for the camera department is pretty spectacular if I do say so myself so those are the kind of things that I post on Instagram I'm at again just look up shut your traps or Chris Frevis either or and you'll be able to find me go ahead and view some of the pics follow us that way I don't know Jared are you on Instagram? No I'm not on Instagram I've already got enough things that I'm on. Exactly. We don't have enough things. I figure enough people hate Twitter, maybe they're on Instagram and they can do it that way. There's one thing for sure. You definitely won't find me on Facebook. Well, I'm there, but I don't do anything. So much so that I've actually got notifications turned off. So, yeah.
    58:37
    Really, I don't even know why I'm still signed up to the service. Yeah, I do Facebook all the time, but I don't accept people that I don't know. because there's been some instances in the past where I think, Jared, you were brutalized by certain people that started spamming you with very hateful things. Oh, yeah. Yeah, they got blocked pretty quickly. Yeah, but none of us want to have to deal with blocking that. It's a pain in the butt. Yeah, that's right.
    59:09
    Beyond that, folks, regarding the show, as you may guess, it's the holidays, so we're going to be skipping a week yet again. Yes. We may do a New Year's show. May or may not. Who knows? It's going to be New Year's. It's going to play it by ear. Exactly. So for that, regardless, this is our last show of 2016. We do really want to thank you all for listening. We completely appreciate it. We love doing this, and we would do it regardless of whether you listened or not, but it does make it more fun knowing that there are listeners, And we love the interaction when you guys have contacted us, given us show ideas, made suggestions.
    59:52
    Absolutely. Thank you so much for your support throughout the year, just with your comments and everything. Like Chris says, it makes it fun to keep doing what we do. So thanks again.
    60:04
    Absolutely. Okay. So with that, we're going to let Jared actually go to his job. Do some work. I'm going to enjoy the rest of my Sunday evening.
    60:14
    and thanks for listening so we'll talk to you again in the new year bye bye wizardamusement.com the site to visit for custom pinball shooter modes easy to install totally unique mention blockade podcast for 10% off your order wizardamusement.com sales, restoration, customization don't forget to leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast hosting service that blockade is delivered to you can't improve unless you tell us how. Now stop listening, play some pinball.
    60:49
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    61:04
    I'm sitting in a meeting room at the moment. It's getting towards the end of my allotted time in the meeting room and a couple of these people are walking past the room giving me strange looks because they want to get into the room just because they want to throw me off the game. It's not working.
    61:22
    He's maintaining his composure.