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The Pinball Show Ep 15: Blinded By The Light Of An Auctioned-Off TWIPY

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 27m·held·May 25, 2020
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Pinball manufacturers ramp production post-COVID; new games, personnel moves, and online multiplayer tech dominate industry updates.

Summary

The The Pinball Show 15 covers industry news from multiple manufacturers during the post-COVID reopening period. Key updates include Ken Cromwell joining Jersey Jack Pinball as communications specialist and launching a new podcast, American Pinball preparing Hot Wheels release pending Illinois Phase 3 manufacturing approval, Spooky resuming limited production, Stern ramping factory production with Heavy Metal and rumored TMNT in the pipeline, and Raymond Davidson (ranked #1 competitive player) hired as Stern software engineer. Multimorphic demonstrated successful online head-to-head connectivity for Cosmic Kart Racing with beta features and privacy protections.

Key Claims

  • Ken Cromwell will launch a Jersey Jack Pinball podcast in June with exclusive insider access

    high confidence · Ken Rudberg correspondent report, stated as official announcement

  • American Pinball's Hot Wheels release is pending Illinois Phase 3 manufacturing approval from the governor

    high confidence · Brian Costner (Kaz) correspondent, citing Joe Schober programmer at American Pinball

  • Stern is planning to release Heavy Metal followed by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

    medium confidence · Craig Bobby correspondent report; TMNT described as 'rumored' and 'yet-unconfirmed'

  • Raymond Davidson, ranked #1 competitive pinball player, was hired by Stern as a game development software engineer

    high confidence · Craig Bobby correspondent report, presented as confirmed news

  • Multimorphic successfully demonstrated online head-to-head gameplay for Cosmic Kart Racing on P3 machines

    high confidence · Zach Minney and Dennis Creasel discussion, corroborated by social media reports and Pinball News interview

  • Online connectivity for Cosmic Kart Racing is being released as free software, not paid DLC

    high confidence · Zach Minney citing Jerry (Multimorphic founder) in Pinball News interview

  • The P3 system can detect and track playfield angle, flipper strength, ball speed, and machine behavior, with capability to handicap machines for fair competition

    high confidence · Jerry (Multimorphic) via Pinball News interview, cited by Zach Minney

  • Stranger Things received code update 0.92 with redesigned upside-down mode and new light show experiences

    high confidence · Craig Bobby correspondent report

Notable Quotes

  • “starting in June Ken will be back with a Jersey Jack pinball podcast promising exclusive insider access to the goings on at Jersey Jack pinball”

    Ken Rudberg (correspondent) @ ~11:00 — Announces Ken Cromwell's return to podcasting after joining JJP as communications specialist; signals increased industry transparency

  • “The team has been very busy polishing the code, and a lot of team members have been busy working late nights to have it up and ready”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~12:30 — Indicates American Pinball's aggressive preparation for Hot Wheels release once manufacturing resumes

  • “strange lights and noises can be heard coming from the Stern factory as our sources confirm that the Stern factory is in fact gearing up its production”

    Craig Bobby (correspondent) @ ~14:00 — Indicates Stern production restart; uses dramatic language reflecting community excitement

  • “I cannot confirm nor deny. Stay tuned.”

    Raymond Davidson @ ~20:30 — Davidson's response to Zach's question about future game design philosophy; suggests measured approach to public communication

  • “if you've ever played Lexy Lightspeed - Escape From Earth from Earth with the glass off, you've probably had it call you a cheater”

    Jerry (Multimorphic) @ ~48:00 — Demonstrates P3's advanced detection capabilities for fair online play; suggests machine learning/behavioral tracking

  • “Cosmic Cart Racing online connectivity is free”

    Jerry (Multimorphic) @ ~51:00 — Confirms no paywall for online features; important for community adoption of platform

  • “It goes Data East, Sega Pinball, Stern Pinball. It's all tied.”

    Dennis Creasel @ ~27:00 — Clarifies lineage distinction between Stern Electronics and modern Stern Pinball via Data East/Sega; addresses historical accuracy

  • “he said exactly what Zach Sharpe says. I cannot confirm nor deny. Stay tuned.”

Entities

[name withheld pending review]personRaymond DavidsonpersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyMultimorphiccompanyHot Wheels

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern factory gearing up production post-COVID with Heavy Metal and rumored TMNT in pipeline; Spooky resumed limited production; American Pinball awaiting Phase 3 approval

    high · Multiple correspondent reports confirm factory activity and production preparation across manufacturers

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Raymond Davidson (ranked #1 pinball player) hired by Stern as game development software engineer

    high · Craig Bobby correspondent report; explicit confirmation of hiring and role

  • ?

    business_signal: Ken Cromwell launching dedicated Jersey Jack Pinball podcast in June after joining JJP as communications specialist

    high · Ken Rudberg correspondent report; announced as official initiative with June start date

  • ?

    code_update: Stranger Things code 0.92 includes redesigned upside-down mode, new light shows, and bug fixes

    high · Craig Bobby correspondent report with specific version number and update contents

  • ?

    technology_signal: Multimorphic successfully demonstrated and released beta online head-to-head connectivity for Cosmic Kart Racing; free software feature

    high · Zach Minney and Dennis Creasel discussion of successful demonstration; corroborated by Pinball News interview with Jerry and social media reports

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.262

0:00
The Pinball Network is online. Launching The Pinball Show. Pinball is a game of skill. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle.
0:20
It's time for The Pinball Show. It's pinball with personality. episode 15 is the name and dennis and i are all about that entertainment information game here on the pinball show what what an intro a little jumbled there how are you dennis i'm good yeah what are you uh you found some news we got stuff we do we got pinball stuff the world is opening back up our country anyways and uh it's terrifying to me but it seems very very much the norm for the rest of the country hmm yeah well i'm seeing some number increases but i guess i guess things are trending up and maybe not always positive way oh man i heard the music there nicely done dennis yeah our country is not skirted anymore no no i i saw my favorite was a meme one of those Baby Yoda memes. I'm sure you've seen them before. Chicky Nugget, yeah. Yeah, yeah, the Chicky Nugget style one. So there's often one where Kylo Ren is explaining to Baby Yoda inside side panels how to say words. So it's like, we're loosening, and Baby Yoda says, we're loosening some restrictions. Baby Yoda, some restrictions. So Kylo says, we are loosening some restrictions. And Baby Yoda goes, pandemic over.
1:45
Well, that's America right there. That's America. We had a neighborhood get-together yesterday. Oh. I thought, man, timing-wise, this may be the... Block party. It was the worst idea ever. Not only that, but we all crowded together at the end of the cul-de-sac in a shaded area, sweating and exchanging probably bodily fluids. Yeah. Great idea, right, Dennis? What sort of block party was this with all this fluid exchange? Well, you know, everybody's sweating and stuff. Is that a sweat of bodily fluid? Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Perspiration. I don't know how you were exchanging it, but.
2:28

Zach Minney @ ~21:30 — Humorous observation of Raymond Davidson mirroring evasive response style; suggests inside joke or shared communication pattern

game
Heavy Metalgame
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesgame
Stranger Thingsgame
[name withheld pending review]game
Ken Rudbergperson
[name withheld pending review]person
Craig Bobbyperson
Zach Minneyperson
Dennis Creaselperson
Jerryperson
Zombie Yetiperson
John Borgperson
Joe Schoberperson
The Pinball Showorganization
Pinball Newsorganization
TPN (The Pinball Network)organization

design_innovation: P3 system features patented technology to detect playfield angle, flipper strength, ball speed, and can actively handicap machines for fair online competition

high · Jerry (Multimorphic) quoted via Pinball News interview discussing Lexi Lightspeed detection capabilities and machine matching

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball Hot Wheels release bottlenecked by Illinois state manufacturing restrictions (Phase 3 approval pending)

    high · Brian Costner correspondent report citing direct communication with American Pinball team

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Stern Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game rumored based on Zombie Yeti art post and John Borg design attribution; described as 'yet-unconfirmed' with 'smart money' favoring this title

    medium · Craig Bobby correspondent report; artist sketch posted; speculation about production order vs Heavy Metal

  • ?

    community_signal: Social media reports of successful player participation in online Cosmic Kart Racing matches; community enthusiasm for online multiplayer feature

    medium · Zach Minney references seeing positive social media feedback; Jerry did not stream official demonstration but private testing reported successful

  • ?

    operational_signal: Manufacturers implementing social distancing protocols and phased reopening; Spooky reports sufficient parts availability and workforce capacity for limited production

    high · Multiple correspondent reports confirm production resumption with operational constraints

  • ?

    product_strategy: Multimorphic positioning online connectivity as free feature to encourage platform adoption rather than paid DLC model

    high · Jerry explicitly stated to Pinball News that connectivity is free; Zach Minney emphasizes this was 'promoted with the cosmic kart racing module' at release

  • ?

    content_signal: TPN expanded correspondent network providing manufacturer-specific updates; Ken Cromwell's new JJP podcast represents insider media partnership

    high · Multiple named correspondents (Ken Rudberg, Brian Costner, Craig Bobby) delivering structured updates; Ken Cromwell's hiring and podcast launch announced as strategic move

    • Close proximity. You just like shake your head like a dog getting out of a pond, just flinging it everywhere into everyone's mouth and eyes.
    2:38
    Yeah, I don't. It was questionable, but if I would have. Did you invite them all in your 21-foot pool? Oh, God, no. If I would have said something, though, my wife would have been like, you're just trying to get out of it like you try to get out of everything with strangers. And I'm like, well, that's accurate as well. Did you sell any pinball machines to him? You know, a couple of hard sells. But I've got some appointments for them to come down to the game room and take a look. Already paying dividends. These people have money. They can buy some. Yeah, you ain't in no low rent neighborhood. Come on. And the worst of it, so if that was not bad enough, listener, they had everybody brought their own homemade dish. Oh, no. And then you saw that none of them knew how to properly shape plates. Indiana, what is wrong with you? No, everybody, that was one of the contingencies. Everybody brings their own silverware and plates. Oh, because that's going to help as you hand mold the meatloaf, Barb. Yeah. Oh, also, for the listener, two broken things on my end this week. One was a good thing. One was a bad thing. Dennis, I broke, I don't know if I broke my keyboard. My Mac keyboard broke, and I can't use the K button or the apostrophe, so I've been going nuts lately with my editing or typing. I've just, I'm losing it. Yeah, without the apostrophe, your ability to convey possessiveness is challenged. Oh, it's bad. I think people are like, man, this guy's an idiot. He doesn't know how to do that. But I do. I'm the guy that usually says it's an issue. And the other broken thing this week was the good one. Today marks the day that we have broken ground on the new flipping out pinball slash the pinball network slash straight down the middle studio in my home. Wow. Recording studio has broken ground. Coming very soon. We're going to get even better podcasting experiences, better video experiences, better streaming experiences from yours truly. So stay tuned for that. But you do commit to the same old terrible takes. And people like consistency. So you are the vanilla bean of pinball media. Hey, if I'm going to go ice cream, I'll go vanilla bean and I won't look back. I'm not going to eat chalky chocolate. That's for sure. Man, all of these ice cream makers, none of them come close to the taste of chocolate. Ugh. Ow. You're probably a chocolate lover, aren't you? It's not my preferred ice cream, but I think when they make it with chocolate, it tastes like chocolate. You probably like avocado and baklava. My favorite is strawberry, Zach. Okay. We've discussed that. Followed by pistachio. There it is. That's right. So actually one of my favorite types of ice cream is Spumani. Are you familiar with Spumani? I don't know what you just called me, but I'm taking offense. It's a three-flavor kind of like Neapolitan, but the flavors are different. Instead of being strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate, it's chocolate, pistachio, and like a dried cherry. Oh, good Lord, man. It's very good. I don't know if I've had cherry ice cream. Yeah, it's – well, yeah, you don't – they do sell it separate. but some brands do. But yeah, you can ever, I think Edie's makes a Spumani. You might try it out. You might want to skip the chocolate layer though because you apparently have a strange bias against it. The pistachio would really be bad as well. Pistachio is one of the best ice creams.
    6:16
    You want to talk about some news and listen to these beautiful correspondents? Yes, I would love to hear the correspondents and their wonderful news.
    6:24
    It's time for TPN Industry News. Hi, this is Ken Rudberg with your Jersey Jack update. I think everybody listening to this podcast knows that Special Win Lit and the pinball show alumnus Ken Cromwell dropped off the podcast landscape when he started as a communications specialist for Jersey Jack Pinball. This makes sense from a conflict of interest perspective, but it also meant that his podcast talents were going to waste. Until now. starting in June Ken will be back with a Jersey Jack pinball podcast promising exclusive insider access to the goings on at Jersey Jack pinball I for one will be glad to have him back on the air and I'll be listening to his 30 minute podcast closely hoping to find out what will be the next new title along with the rest of you I encourage all of you to give Ken's new podcast a listen and want to wish him the best of luck for the pinball show this has been Ken Rudberg with your Jersey Jack update.
    7:30
    Hey, this is Kaz with a quick American Pinball update. I reached out to programmer Joe Schober, and the team at American Pinball is eagerly awaiting the governor of Illinois to move to Phase 3. That will allow non-essential manufacturing to resume so that Hot Wheels can be released very soon. The team has been very busy polishing the code, and a lot of team members have been busy working late nights to have it up and ready. And also, Houdini and Oktoberfest code updates are coming soon. For American Pinball, this is Brian Costner.
    8:02
    Hi, and welcome to this week's Spooky Hackers Industry Talk update. The only real news is out of Spooky that have recommenced limited production with enough parts available and enough social distancing at the workforce to allow some production to occur. Some games are going into boxes, including a nice butter game for one gentleman in New York whose name shall not be spoken. We all know who he is. And you'll both be glad to know I'm working on another quiz. And it'll be even harder than the last one. Another quiz.
    8:42
    That's it for now. Catch you next week. The factory is firing up. Stern hires number one. Zombie Yeti posts a beauty, code updates, and the Stern Pinside Top 100 gets a do-over. Hey everyone, Craig here again, the pinball show's Stern News Correspondent. Well, a busy news week as much of the U.S. begins its non-essential reopening protocols. Meanwhile, strange lights and noises can be heard coming from the Stern factory as our sources confirm that the Stern factory is in fact gearing up its production. So stay tuned to your podcast and Twitch streams, as we may hear of breaking Stern news soon. Ooh! Now, as previously stated, we can only assume that the schedule of new production titles will be Stern's contracted game Heavy Metal, followed by a yet-unconfirmed new title, which the smart money currently has on the Zombie Yeti John Borg title of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And speaking of Zombie Yeti, the famed artist posted a brilliant rough line sketch of what could have been the start of an Evil Dead Translite, causing the pinball community to salivate at the prospect of seeing more of his rumored work on the upcoming TMNT. And in other news, Stern announced this week that they have hired the world's number one ranked competitive pinball player, Raymond Davidson, as a game development software engineer. Hopefully the hiring of Davidson continues Stern's streak of hiring highly ranked and talented players to help design and code its future releases. But we shall wait and see. And lastly, another big code update for one of Zach's favorites in Stranger Things with Code .92, which includes a redesigned upside-down mode, new light show experiences, along with additional bug fixes and polish. And lastly, a big thanks to Dennis Creasel last week for pointing out some inconsistencies with my Stern Pinside Top 100 choices for what I considered a Stern pinball machine. So to keep it simple, I've decided to redo my countdown on a future episode using Dennis' always-sound polymorphic logic, noting only the company names of Data East or Stern Pinball. But that's all for this week. For the Pinball Show, I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side. Always great to hear from the correspondents there, Dennis. Let's jump into Craig Bobby's submission of Sir Craneball News, your favorite buddy. I want to apologize, Zach, to Craig Bobby. Well, that's nice of you. Because I feel I wasn't clear enough.
    11:23
    It's clearly on me. It's clearly my error. I thought I meant, and perhaps I just completely misspoke, to clearly convey that it was Data East to Sega to Stern Pinball. Yeah, that's what I heard. So with him indicating that he was going to leave out Sega a major chunk of years in that lineage of the now existing Stern Pinball's entire lifeline, or I should say entire lifetime, it's like, oh, that wouldn't actually be accurate. So I need to – clearly, I apologize for not being articulate enough to explain what I had tried or had hoped to explain, which was it goes Data East, Sega Pinball, Stern Pinball. It's all tied. That's all the same thing.
    12:11
    Okay. Do you think we're going to get another correction on the next correspondent? I don't care. I'm just – I want him to succeed. I love – do you think it still includes Stern Electronics? No. No, there is a gap between the Stern Electronics and the start of the Data East Pinball division. I understand why it's confusing because Stern Pinball today, Stern – they both have the name Stern. Gary Stern was involved with both. I understand the – but it's not technically the continuation of the same company. That's my only point. But Data East to Sega to Stern Pinball is. What do you think Craig thinks, though? Do you think he thinks still that Stern Electronics, Data East, then Stern Pinball? Or do you think he's going to – I think he thinks that he just wanted to do things with Stern and that I should have just shut up. I don't know. I don't know what he's going to do now. If I were him, I think that's what I might think. You would just pull a market trends and throw it off a bridge. No, no, no. I mean – Oh, start on fire. He can design his system however he wants. It's just what logic he implied he was hanging his hat on doesn't exist in the way that a lot of people, I think, think that it might. He still failed you. I don't view it as a failure on his part because I'd have to re-listen to the episode to know how perhaps I failed him. So maybe this time I was more clear. Or maybe I should blame you. Maybe you edited out the part where I explained it all really concisely. I'm pretty sure I heard that as well as the listener. Okay. Craig, look, you gave it a good old college try, buddy. You got one more in you. Let's see if you can get it. You get one more try, or else we'll be finding a new Stern correspondent. But we'll have to wait and see. Don't give up, Craig Bobby. No, we believe in you. Craig Bobby reports that his sources are saying that a breaking news announcement of Stern Pinball opening production very soon is imminent. he said he hears uh strange sounds from the factory well i didn't realize he resided so close to there we might not we might not be able to replace him if he's basically living at the factory it might have been an exaggeration or no no but as was that uh so it looks like we're going to start seeing we're going to start seeing the factory lighting up now we have rumored Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and we know Heavy Metal.
    14:42
    He's reporting that Heavy Metal and then Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But if TMNT is in fact true, I think that with this lag time, Dennis, they're going to bump that. They want to start getting that money flowing again. That would be my guess. Sure, but they wouldn't have to have a, even if they do, quote unquote, reveal Heavy Metal first, it wouldn't have to be a big one. I mean, heavy metal is a boutique thing. I mean, it's not even like an Elvira. It's ultra. It's like the Primus thing. There's hardly going to be any market for it. They could knock it out in two days. Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't be. It's like when they did the Star Wars Home Edition, and it wasn't much of a delay before they did Jurassic Park after that. Yeah, very true. I think it'd be like that. Stern Pinball also hires the number one ranked pinball player in the entire world, and subsequently he's also the pinball network streaming affiliate in Raymond Davidson. They hired him as a game development software engineer. So your hypothesis on this being a farming unit. We're a farm team. A farm team over here at TPN. I don't know. There's more data points to suggest that you're trending correct. You know, I didn't know that Raymond was a software engineer. I didn't either. And they talked about his work with some of the previous companies, Amazon and stuff he's worked for. I didn't either. I messaged Raymond to congratulate him. You know, me and Raymond are kind of tight, you know, not really. But I said, Raymond, I just, I hope you don't forget about us moderate skilled players that want pinball moments. And what did he reply? Damn, he said exactly what Zach Sharpe says. I cannot confirm nor deny. Stay tuned. No, Zach. I wanted to say, no, Zach, the moments are dead. There will be no moments. There will be only scoring purity.
    16:41
    He says, you know what? Ray, Ray, Ray Day gave me the coveted thing that I hate the most, Dennis Creasel, that f***ing thumbs up. Oh, I love a thumbs up. As you know, I am a fan of thumbs upping. Cool. And then he did message me, not to put his info out there, but let's just say he's a fan of you and I's show. Oh, well, that's nice of him. I don't know if I shared that with you, but he's a fan of our show and our camaraderie.
    17:12
    Well, it's entirely faked. So it means we're doing a good job, or as John Lovitz would say, acting. Hashtag fake love. Stranger Things got a code update, Dennis. 0.92. Ooh, we're getting close to 0.1. Or 1.0, sorry, 0.1. We're going back in time, Zach. It's terrible. Soon there will be no lights. We still have a hefty 0.08 left. Oh, the wonders that can be in that 0.08. Redesigned upside down mode. That sounds like it means dramatic changes to how it functions. I've not updated my game yet, but in the readme file, it talked about their switching up. Like, okay, so you'll have that traditional upside-down mode where you're going for drops and stuff. I think that's even tweaked. But then it'll alternate. Another upside-down mode may be more ramp-based. Oh, differing upside-down modes. Okay. Kind of like, you know, I'm going to do a Star Trek analogy and say kind of like the differing away team missions. I think so. Though obviously started in a completely different way. Also a Lonnie Ropp game. Mm-hmm. So that's interesting. new light show experiences more true than even i realized interesting it's this is true do you like light shows because this has new light show experiences yeah yeah i i think uh i i can't say light shows are underrated i think a lot of people are really focusing on them a lot and like that's a thing that jersey jack for example is really known for is having really good light shows that's one of the people who even don't like the gameplay tend to like on total nuclear annihilation is the light show that's true there's a difference between light shows and flash shows though that's true well i mean a flash show is is a form of light show but i do think when people say light show they mean something much more comprehensive than just creative use of the flashers telling the story with the use of rgb bulbs a lot of times i don't know if i'd go that do you remember the time where the magenta told us about the teal no i'm i'm not sure what you mean by storytelling through light shows but uh it sounds pretentious so please no on see jersey jack pinball whenever it starts up the wonk evader multiball hey look skittles candy equal light yeah okay so there you go you have a point there taste that rainbow with your eyeballs what i like light shows i even like dwight sullivan flash shows for me it's blinded by the light. Wake up like a douche. It always sounds like that, though. It's a douche.
    19:51
    Holy crap. There is your douche, right there. I have no muffler. I guarantee you that guy was listening to a little blinded by the light. Are you thinking of that song? Yeah, I do like that song. There it is. Wake up like a douche. Who did it, though? what's the band slither of the night i don't know siri who sings blinded by the light blinding lights is by the weekend not no it's not even the right song why why are you so inarticulate with siri blinded by the light siri's been a shithead Not a motion picture.
    20:40
    That might not be the name of the song. I know it's not. But she should know better. She should know. She should. Bruce Springsteen. No, it's not Bruce Springsteen. No, it's not Springsteen. No, it's a band. Oh, there we go. Yeah, Manfred Mann. There we go. Manfred Mann? Yeah, Manfred Mann. What's the song called? It's called Blinded by the Light. No, it is. Yeah, okay, so it is the song name. Then why would they ever... And Bruce Springsteen did write the song. Apparently, as a song facts thing is telling me, you would hardly recognize Springsteen's version if you're familiar with the Manfred Man's one, which is what I'm pretty sure is the only one I'm familiar with. God, Siri blows.
    21:23
    You leave Siri alone. When you hear blinded by the light, just that phrasing points to one place. And she fell. Winding Lights by the Weaves or whatever. The Weeknd. How do you not know The Weeknd? Siri, play a song by The Weeknd. Let's see if you can fuck that up. We're on a timetable here. We can't be having Siri sing all this crap.
    21:47
    I trying to put you in the worst mood P1 greener than your church shoes Really point to just to hurt you All red lamps to tease you Siri, play Outkast.
    22:00
    That is the hip-hop you know. You leave Outkast alone, too. Oh my god, I know about Outkast. I don't know what he's saying, but... I often don't know the name of the bands for songs, though. As I proved with Manfred Mann. New light show experience as well as bug fixes and polish. So if you've got a Stranger Things, go ahead and update that bad boy today. But what if I have a P3? Well, unfortunately, if you have a P3, you can update the code, but the only update that you're going to get is probably the new heist as well as the newly announced introduction to head-to-head gameplay over the internet with Cosmic Cart Racing. That sounds like a pretty significant update. This is big news. They've been pushing, making some moves over there in Texas. Now, this past Saturday, Multimorphic actually demonstrated this technology. Gameplay, head-to-head. Remember, listener, Cosmic Kart Racing is very akin to your typical arcade racer, like a Mario Kart, where you're battling and you get power-ups and you can hurt the other opponent. But now, pinball can do that online versus somebody across the country or across the world. wow i sure would like to hit pinball players with blue shells and then make them lose oh do you think they could make a mario kart now that if they pitch this to nintendo oh that'd be awesome it's me mario who are you and mario kart which guy did you always pick toad i'm the best you went with toad huh toad yeah you like that low profile fast and double the The one I mostly played was Mario Kart Double Dash, and Toad, and Toadette for that matter. They had, everyone had their own custom power-ups. You know, you had your usual stuff like that. He always just did the mushrooms. Yeah, he had the mushroom that you could repeatedly spam, the gold mushroom. So, he could just keep spamming speed boost. Oh, okay. And so I would just do that, and as I passed everyone, and I do it couch co-op, because I'm really obnoxious, as you know, Zach. As I passed everyone, I'd just go, I'm the best! You're the worst! and I'd just do my Toad impression the entire time and then I'd come in 6th anyway. Thanks, lightning power-up that shrunk me. I was already the smallest character in the game. I think I've just fallen in love with the new character. Get in the back seat, 4-inch Creasel clone. I've got the Din Din Toadstool.
    24:29
    That's so stupid. Which makes it endearing. I regret sharing as I often do. Less control with Toadstool, though. Less control. he had like a like well you know by default he'd be in a light cart for example and like faster had faster acceleration but a lower top speed so if you're a good driver you don't want a light cart because you you just have less actual if you can stay on the track you'd rather have a vehicle with a higher top speed now i always chose somebody in that same class of vehicles can you guess who I chose every time.
    25:06
    No, not Shy Guy. I went with, I think it was the Koopa Troopa? Oh, okay, Koopa Troopa? Yeah, the shell guy. Love the shell guy. What was the sound? Yeah, you give me three green shells? It's like having a red shell for me because I'm a sharpshooter, baby.
    25:26
    Oh, I love that. There's nothing better than being in first place and be like, look in your rearview mirror, Hey, bitch. And then you throw one backwards. Oh, it gets on your ass too much. Bam. Green shell right behind you.
    25:41
    Yeah. Well, back to Cosmic Kart Racing. There was a whole interview I read with Pinball News on this. Pinball News did interview Jerry, and the article can be found on pinballnews.com for more of the technical details. So technical, I lost track at certain points. They were talking about internet connectivity and letters and numbers put together with dashes and periods. I don't know what they were talking about, but I do know that this last Saturday, they actually did it. Jerry invited people and said, hey, you got a Cosmic Cart Racing? Let's get online at the same time from this time to this time, and let's battle it out. Why they didn't stream that, God knows. But it was reportedly successful. oh yeah i did hear from people i saw online on social media people sharing that they had a lot of fun with it i didn't realize it wasn't streamed i thought i just missed the stream why not stream it he yeah that would have been that would have been good promotion for it i in my humble opinion but yeah a little uh little video of the player playing as well as the whatever the interview i thought was uh with pinball news was really good okay when it all yeah it was very in some ways it was pretty technical there were a couple of things that i i was still and i bet jerry knows the answers to these but i walked away from the interview with a couple of questions one was the they did uh martin with pinball news did ask about the bandwidth thing and i imagine it's not a big deal jerry kind of indicated that you know in terms of latency and stuff it wasn't an issue but i was kind of curious like if you were to play the game for an hour how much does it upload like how many megabits of data does it upload and download? Because people are often on throttled plans at home. That is a good question. I would assume it's pretty light, but I have no sense as to what the size of the packets of data are. So I was kind of curious about that. And then one of the other things was Jerry kind of explained the lobby system in regards to how it would, like, if 20 people were wanting to try and join up, it would let four people in. Does the host have the ability to kick people out? like if you're trying to set up a game with your friends, what happens if three people jump in right away and you're like, well, but you're not the, who I want to play with. I'm trying to get a party together. Yeah. So I was kind of curious, like, is that, is that managed by the host or is that, is that something you can control right now? Or is there a way to give out like a unique key? So there's just a couple of simple questions. That's a good question too. Yeah. But I was just, I mean, just things that popped in my mind. Most of my other thoughts were actually answered in the interview. So I didn't walk away with very many questions. Yeah. And he did, say that this code update, this connectivity right now is still considered beta. Or you're not going to get overall ranking system right now or central records that are going to be available right now. Which, that's got to happen though. I imagine there will be some setup, but he did in the interview touch on pretty heavily that they want to be really respectful to privacy concerns as well.
    28:35
    Yeah, and that's good. They also indicated that this update and this online connectivity is free. it's not a uh it's not a downloadable content payment thing you gotta make and that doesn't surprise me i think that if for no other reason than that eventual having the head-to-head play was really promoted with the cosmic kart racing module back when it was released that they were going to do it if you want to hear an audio form uh of this canada's pinball podcast and interview with jerry this last week i believe and they were talking about it as well but back to the pinball news article this was interesting to me they were talking about um different setups of every pinball machine we've talked about that in competitive play a lot you know when you when we're getting these people online how do we know what the pitch is how do we know if there's extra ball just how do we balance this all out and make it more objective pinball news asks is it possible to compete fairly against another opponent on a different p3 and jerry says essentially it just depends on how you report fairly. He used the example of like two tennis players might have different rackets. One might be more tightly strung than the other or lighter than the other. So it's going to be hard to identify that. But what I didn't know, Dennis, was that there are some cool features on the P3, he said, many of which are patented, that indicates the behavior of the machine and it can track that. So for example, he says, if you've ever played Lexi Lightspeed, this is a direct quote, in fact, if you've ever played Lexi Lightspeed Escape from Earth with the glass off, you've probably had it call you a cheater. Huh. So this thing knows the angle of your play field, the P3 system knows how strong your flippers are, how fast balls move on the play field, and even more. I didn't know that. I did. That's cool. Yeah. I do like that. The engineering technology behind P3 has, in my view, never really been questioned by anyone.
    30:36
    Jerry's always been more than willing to demonstrate what its capabilities are. He even talked about some games you may even be able to actively handicap one machine to make it match the other machine's performance. This is interesting stuff. I just picture it like a battle game where I'm playing you over the internet, and I know that I can get a power-up that just stops you or inhibits you in some way, and I fly past you with a pinball, a physical pinball. That's so freaking cool. You know what would be even cooler, though? Jerry. What would be even cooler is if you had a way to put a webcam accessory on this game, and you could see a player cam and I see that player cam in the corner of my screen. So I see you in one picture. I see Greg Bone in another picture and then I see Kim Cromwell in another picture because I'm battling you three. So I see your facial elements the whole time somewhere on the screen. So when I hit your ass with a proverbial turtle shell, I can see you weep like a little baby.
    31:43
    Yeah, but that'd be a... You'd have to add hardware. That adds more privacy stuff. I think the easier thing at this stage in particular that solves the privacy issue entirely and doesn't require new hardware would just be to let people choose avatars that maybe have – like Toad and Koopa Troopa. Are you saying you resemble Toad?
    32:02
    I mean if I wear the hat. Please do. Come on, Jerry. Make it happen. We need video cameras. I have that same cheery face and demeanor. You do. And I often wear sleeveless vests without a shirt on. Oh, sexy. Well, I wait in wrong castles to inform people that the princess is not here. Fucking toad. Last thing I'll touch on is wording.
    32:25
    Wording in this interview on Pinball News. He indicated very specifically that Cosmic Cart Racing online connectivity is free. Instead of saying, yeah, our online connectivity for games is free. Very specific. Well, remember, though, that Multimorphic allows third-party companies to develop games, so they may not have control over what those entities do to add features like DLC. Okay. When asked on the recent podcast interview about are you going to make the other games online connectable to battle people like Lexi Lightspeed or Heist, he said that's not the focus. He would rather, I'm saying this in my own terms, but he would rather focus on new games that fully utilize the connectivity experience rather than just throwing features in an older game that doesn't make sense. So he said you might get some Leaderboard stuff, you might get some other stuff, but if it doesn't make sense, they're not interested in it. And I like that. Yeah, no, that makes sense. Speaking of online connectivity, I wonder when Spooky Pinball is going to be connected online. Have they been talking about it? I don't recall hearing anything. I just, I figure every manufacturer at some point is going to do it. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there will be more and more pressure for at least code update purposes. But, I mean, yeah, I don't know. You know, they've got a fully sold out set of Rick and Mortys to build. I don't think they need to worry about it right now. And the reason I bring it up is because Eric Pripke, coder for Spooky Pinball, was recently interviewed or guest appeared on the Poor Man's Pinball podcast.
    33:59
    PMPP. He was talking about the recent code updates to Rick and Morty. Poor men. Let's not kid ourselves. They're middle class men. They're rich.
    34:10
    They got a swimming pool full of gold coins. Yeah. Scrooge McDuckin over there going for the poor men. The poor men asked him about where the code is at now on Rick and Morty. Where is the code at? How close are we to completion?
    34:25
    And Eric Pripke said, as of March, as of the March code release, Rick and Morty is a fully operational game. So it's at 1.0? They feel like that's a full game. Now it's just about adding different content and cleaning it up a bit. They've transitioned. They don't do the code updates with perceived percentages like your .89s or anything like that. They've switched to kind of the American pinball style where the upcoming code updates are just going to be titled what date they are released rather than some chronological number. date released as a chronological number when I typed that up to send you the show notes I fucking knew you were going to say it I knew it why did you type it? because the other letters weren't working right because I just knew you were going to say it and I thought you know what you're talking about dates and then you say it's not chronological oh my god what a tool what's the differentiation?
    35:24
    I don't know what to tell you one of them is based on date one of them is based on a perceived percentage of completion yeah that's a perfectly good description you should have written that it's a hell of a lot more letters you wrote out chronological that's like the biggest word you know polynomial is bigger no it's not you don't know what that is you just like to say it so currently there are six major adventures in the game rick and morty six major adventures and one main multi-ball. Does that... It seems a little light. Not going to lie. It's sort of on par with what we'd get in the 90s. Now, the next release should have eight adventures. Pripke's currently working on the ninth adventures and an additional multi-ball. See? Okay, so... Now, if you ask me, it doesn't seem full then. If we're adding modes and stuff. Your note, assuming that's captured what he said in the interview correctly, was fully operational. So to me, that means that that's when they got to the point where the game fully behaves in a way that you can put it on location and play it and people will experience it and that's fine. But versus if we were going with that completion style, that it still wouldn't be a 1.0 because they're still adding major adventures. Then they don't have all the modes in that they plan. And I don't know if they've got the ultimate wizard mode coded in there. Right, right, right. So, yeah, I wouldn't describe that as a – if they were doing that style of numbering, I wouldn't call it a 1.0. But couldn't we say that to Stern pinball machines too? They're fully operational.
    36:59
    Yeah, usually. I mean, I don't know if Batman, when it came out, was fully operational or not. Touche. But most of the other ones were. But, yeah, and that's – I think that's my understanding of Stern's method is when it's at 1.0, all the planned modes are in the game. Okay. Now, they might still go in and change a mode or add a new mode or something like that. But in the old days, it was easier to tell because you usually had, say, and it doesn't have to be that old of a game. You look at Guardians, you've got an insert for all the modes, so you know what the modes are going to be. Where in the hell is my emulation initiative, damn it? Speaking of spooky pinball, Dr. John, he reports that spooky pinball is back in production. Oh. So you should be getting your Rick and Morty soon. Fingers crossed. I did submit my accessories list. I was sent that, filled it out, and sent it back. That's what you were waiting for last week. That's what you were so traumatized about. And I got it. So the trauma's gone. Well, now the waiting game begins. Yes, but that's different. It is. It's a different trauma. That's mere patience. You have a somewhat working Big Lebowski to distract you. Hey, we'll talk about that. But, no, they're back in production, and the rumors that I'm hearing is that they are in the starting of the 80s, basically.
    38:19
    Okay. Numbers-wise. And you're like 85 or 87 or something? I'm 87. Or, no, I'm 86. Yeah, I'm 86. Oh, I couldn't even remember that. Any idea what I went for on the accessories?
    38:33
    You would have done powder coat. Oh, yes. Coindor or no Coindor powder coat. A Coindor? That's correct. A Bill Acceptor Coindor or no Bill Acceptor Coindor? No Bill Acceptor. No, I went Bill Acceptor. Really? Just in hopes. You're so ugly, I'm surprised. Just in hopes that the mod couple, they have one of the most golden mod ideas and they just haven't pushed it forward enough yet. But you take that Bill Acceptor played out and they have a shadow box in there that's lit. And they've done that on Pirates of the Caribbean, Willy Wonka. And I told Dave and Darcy over there, you guys got gold there. Strike. I wasn't familiar with that. So that's the only reason I got that coin door. Well, that makes more sense. That's an extra like 50 or 100 bucks. You wouldn't have buttered it. Didn't butter. Correct. You do know me well. And I did leave off. So I got the plastic protectors, the interactive light kit, the speaker light kit, a lot of the extras. But I chose not to add one. Any guess to which one I would say 90% of people added that I'm boycotting?
    39:39
    I got the shaker, got the knocker, got the decal targets, target decals. I didn't get the side art. Oh, the inside side art? Yeah, the inside art blades. Okay. I really don't like those at all. Huh, okay. I think it's – I don't think it's good at all. And that's probably – they went generic so that they could get it approved by Adult Swim and Cartoon Network. I get it. But, no, because I thought I don't like those at all. and then I'm going to have to take those off. Ugh, no. No, no, no. I don't want to get the goo gone out just to take those art. Nope. So I'm going to get some mirror blades and install those, I think. Unless a mod maker can actually make some good art for those side blades. But we'll have to wait and see on that one. And then Dr. John also told us that he's back and he is already working. We got a lot of feedback on his last quiz on our last show. Yes, we did. Oh, boy, yes, we did. And he said he's already working on his next quiz for us to take. Only this time, he said, it will be even harder. Well, he actually said harder, as you guys heard. So what do you think about that? That was a bit of an interesting take on a segment last week. Yeah, you might want to summarize what the feedback was because I have a sense as to what it would be. And maybe put the brakes on that. Yeah, I mean, the feedback was essentially, if I composited it all, it was, what the fuck was that? That's essentially what everybody said.
    41:15
    I would have just said 100% negative. It was still, listening back, it was fun. Editing back was a nightmare. Thank you, Dr. John, for that. Yeah, I'm not so sure. And you said it's going to be even harder? Nah. It was pretty hard. And that we didn't understand the rules, I think, probably. Were there rules? I don't know anymore. Speaking of lack of rules, we got a Dutch Pinball update. Oh, wow. That's not very nice of me.
    41:49
    Another Dutch Pinball newsletter went out saying a lot has happened since their last visit. COVID-19 outbreak, but they are still able to keep building new games. I didn't realize this. I knew it was low, but Dutch Pinball currently consists of four full-time employees, and the fifth full-time employee starts this week. Actually, I don't know if they're full-time. The fifth employee starts this week, which is Barry's daughter. Barry is one of the owners, developers of the Big Lebowski and Dutch Pinball, but Barry's daughter will be joining the team. Yeah, I knew it was a small group. I knew they'd still been building. They're excited to inform us that they've started shipping the early Achiever games. I thought I had seen something about that. I did not think that was ever going to happen, so I was incorrect. Yeah, they said one in every four games that they're building is going to an early achiever. I knew that was the target to do about one in four, one in four, one in five, I think was what Barry had hoped to achieve a few months ago, he'd mentioned. So, bravo there. Now we do know that the transparency and the honesty of this company has not always been good, so take that for what it's worth. I don't know whether to believe them or not. We don't have any evidence of really if one of them ever for is going out as an early achiever. Oh, yeah. In terms of the numbers. Yeah. I mean, I don't believe anything. People report when they get their games, at least some of them. So I don't be that. They burned me on that. I don't I don't I don't trust that. But there was a yeah, there was a a line, I guess, from their newsletter. when I look at your summary, that we currently benefit from not being a large company yet.
    43:35
    Do you think they ever do another game besides Big Lebowski I don think so You see and that where They not going to have the equity I don think so A lot of people I think you see two camps Let's assume now because of what's going on with the EAs getting games that Barry actually achieves everything he said. All the EAs are made whole. They somehow sell enough new games to new people at this higher rate, which is where I've – I'm not surprised they've been selling for now. but I really question how long can they keep getting the same amount of money because everyone has been expecting the company to fold. So they've been willing to buy a rare game, and the game becomes less rare with every new one that comes out.
    44:17
    But let's say it all happens, it all works, and all the EAs are made whole. It still was a multi-year process for people to just be made whole, and I really question whether people who basically have had to stick with it because they've had no choice, or they're paying, buying a new game because CoinTaker is guaranteeing, essentially holding the money in escrow and guarantees that they are going to get their game, that's a big leap from being able to do that because you're kind of stuck with it or we're doing extraordinary steps to make sure you feel confident to being willing to put down money for a new game. Exactly. Because how many people got into this and said, oh yeah, it's totally cool to be told I'm going to wait five years just to get what I was promised. No, they wouldn't sell any. And so that's where I just don't think that this – I think to me, just my opinion, I think best case scenario is Barry makes everyone whole, essentially is forgiven for – because everyone did ultimately get their game and then closes up and just goes back to being a hobbyist. Yeah, I think they break even at best. And I think that's enough to – it saves face. I think you can – you go to shows and people don't yell at you or take pictures with you behind your back. It's just what the thing has been with some others that have sort of been seen as having failed at the attempt to make – it's kind of like how Premiere when they – they didn't go bankrupt. They shut down. They paid off their creditors, and they just went away, and I think that's okay. And Highway Pinball did a similar thing where I think they sold the rights and everything from Highway Pinball to Pinball Brothers. Or Pinball Brothers came in. They bought everything. They bought the company essentially, and then they just closed it down and opened up Pinball Brothers or had Pinball Brothers open. Yeah, that one's a little more – I think there's the potential given what's going on here with Dutch and Barry that Dutch Pinball can exit more gracefully than that was. because there was still the situation that Highway Pinball had people who bought Alien that didn't get any money back and didn't get their game.
    46:22
    And the way Pinball Brothers took – oh, it wasn't like Highway went bankrupt and they went to the bankruptcy auction and bought all the assets. They had gained control and transferred assets away from Highway Pinball, waited for the statute of limitations – that's not the right term, but that's essentially what it was – And then went through the British bankruptcy process, and those assets couldn't be touched. So I think a lot of people – if Pinball Brothers comes out and starts selling stuff under Pinball Brothers, there will be people that will refuse to buy from them because they feel they undermined the preorderers on the Alien Pinball machines, that they took money out of their pocket. Again, my opinion. Yeah, it's a logical thought there. But Dutch, if they get everyone – if every EA gets their game in the end, they won't have that problem. But I never thought it would be possible. And I still think there are a lot of hurdles. Barry paints a really optimistic process here. You highlighted from their newsletter the aspect about Dutch is starting to work with companies to supply sub-assemblies so that they can build faster. And they're going to start outsourcing the production, which this is all really good stuff. I still, to me though, the big barrier remains how many more people want to buy a game which has pretty good reviews. But at that price point, when it's no longer going to be rare, who pays $12,000 plus for a game?
    47:49
    If I were you, Zach, I'd sell yours. Well, you can still get a lot back. Well, I've considered. Okay. I'm just giving you my recommendation because I really think the price is going to come in. Every one that comes out lowers the value of the previous one. Yeah, exactly. And that's where that pressure has to start being felt on the new inbox eventually. I mean, it happens with anything. They talked about sub-assemblies and working with companies that supply sub-assemblies so that they can build even faster. Barry says in the coming months, quote, we will continue to outsource the production of, quote, simple sub-assemblies to qualified companies. Of course, we will continue to do the most difficult parts ourselves. And he's referring to assembling the play field, the final assembly of the entire machine. Does this worry you, this whole sub-assemblies again? I thought this was the situation they were kind of getting themselves into before. I mean, they were using an entire contract manufacturer, which is, they were doing some of the sub-assembly construction, but they were also doing the main assembly as well. It just worries me because it feels like his goals are bigger than currently what he's doing. And the current pace, if it's working, damn it, leave it alone. Yeah, but I think we've got another pressure of whether or not he'll be – I think he's trying to – if he can do it all this year, he won't have to renew the license again. So there's still a time constraint that he doesn't want to deal with would be my guess. So I actually think that this is not a bad idea. If they can find good companies that they can trust. Sure, sure, but I think most of the complaints about – Where are you going to get the money, Dennis? Are you going to have money to – He's probably – I mean, 12 – I don't know how – what are the new in boxes? They're over $12,000. I mean, there's a lot of profit built into that price because that game ain't worth $12,000. It's $12,500, but shipping is included to my knowledge. I mean, you're looking at $12,000. The bill of materials on that machine has got to be high. Of course, it's not even close. It's not like $10,000, though. So let's not forget what this game was originally sold for. 85, I know. The only way he can do one in four is if he is making some super bank on these new in-box sales. But what's to say he's not still in debt to like CoinTaker and he's paying them back? We don't know. Yeah, I don't know. But if he's in the position where he feels he can go ahead and start hiring subcontractors to do assembly work, then it's – Scares the hell out of me. Other than the construction, what costs are there? The game's developed. The game's – they know what all the parts are now. It has parts. Yeah, yeah. So at this point where I'm assuming what happened initially with Aura and everything had to do with not understanding the full scope of what the cost would be to get the games. Because at this point, surely he has a handle on it. He understands now. If for no other reason than trial and error has taught him. Okay. I now know exactly how much it costs for me to build a game. I would rather – Here's how much I can take out of my profit, and I'm going to be able to push. Plus, again, he may also be thinking about this. How many more people are going to pay $12,500? Wouldn't it be better if I can start pushing out 15 units a month instead of five or whatever he's doing? I think it just may be more efficient to employ 15 people to put them together quicker. But I may be wrong. Maybe it is cheaper going with a subassembly company. And I don't know if he's been relying on any – Originally, his proposal was he was going to be building with essentially volunteer labor. So you've got to get those people out of that at some point. They're only going to do it for so long, especially if they see you're making money. You're going to turn around and one of them is going to jab a Phillips head screwdriver into a play field. How about that, Barry? Well, I mean, it all made sense. Use volunteers. You get stabilized and then take some of that profit and invest it into people that can be paid to do it so that they have a professional standard. you're not feeling like you're exploiting your volunteers anymore let them get back to their lives all that stuff so hashtag family labor that scared the shit out of me all that what did make me happy is it's rumored that this illuminated laser cut apron for the early achievers you may be able to buy that as an additional mod doesn't say early achiever of course but an additional mod that's going to cost a little pricey about $800 oh my god okay for an apron how about that Dennis Well, it sounds like something that would be right up your alley, Zach. It's jeweled and the light patterns go throughout it. Sounds good to me. So aprons sound good to me. This will probably sound good to you. The IFPA recently announced a competitive alternative because they're not sanctioning events right now. You don't get your – no whoppers.
    52:36
    Whopper really is crying in a corner right now. The IFPA is proud to announce – this is from their website – the implementation of the IFPA Challenge Rankings, also known as ICR, for all players. In partnership with MatchPlay.Events, the ICR will be based on the results of official IFPA Challenge matches held between any two players around the world. I think they've spoken about this idea in the past. I thought so, too. Plans to do something like this,
    53:07
    where people would be able to challenge each other. Originally, it was going to, I think, take place, if I'm remembering right, and this is a while ago, so I apologize if I'm incorrect, but if two people were at a location and they agreed to play... I remember that too. ...on a certain number of games and then the result would be submitted and it would go to this ICR instead of the Whopper. I still don't know how you watchdog that or how you make sure that that's secure, but... Well, with it being just two people, they'd be self-reporting, self-monitoring each other. Self-reporting scares me. Well, but... But I guess that's what you're essentially doing in tournaments and leagues. Yeah, yeah. I mean, currently, scorekeeping, when I go and play in a local tournament and I do my best of three, I don't have a tournament director breathing down my neck. It's the two players have to agree on what happened. I mean, and I've only ever had, and it wasn't, I don't want to call it an incident, but I will. I only ever had one incident where a guy was not watching the game. We were playing Getaway 2, and he thought he had won because he had such a high score over me, and then I just destroyed him on ball three. Oh, yeah. And then he goes, I finished up and I walked up to him and he stuck his hand out to shake my hand and he said, good games. And I said, we're not done yet.
    54:21
    Did you say it like that or did you give a little intimidation factor? We are not done. Yeah, I ended up winning too, yeah, because we had to go to the third game. Felt good, didn't it? And he's like, oh. He didn't debate it. He goes, oh, really?
    54:34
    You were so far behind. It was Tony, wasn't it? No, it was not. It was not. I said, no, I would have thought I had it in the bag too if I were you. But no one else on the game yet. He was able to go up and wait for it to cycle around, and he saw that I did actually pull ahead.
    54:53
    Never underestimate a creasel. I've got that bumper sticker on the back of my Volvo, actually. It was a good ball, and the first two were terrible. So this sounds like a new system, the ICR system. It's separate from, yeah. It doesn't – because normally for – to earn Whoppers, you have to have a whole bunch of provisions in terms of how the tournament is run, how many people go to finals. The value of a Whopper is influenced by how the tournament is, what counts as a full game, things. It's – yeah, there's a whole formula. So this is a simpler process. This now will have its own ranking system, its own championship, a yearly championship. Top 64 eligible players in the ICRs of January 1, 2021 are going to advance to the championship finals. Maybe this is a system for me. Maybe. No, I don't have enough people around me to play. There are people the world over. Yeah. There's something about a dollar in a prize pool and every ranked player up to $1,000 or something. So, new system with IFPA. And, look, they're adjusting and evolving because of these times. I think it's very smart. and they continue to stay on the forefront and they're going to be the leader in competitive pinball for eternity if they continue with this kind of consistency. So, nicely done.
    56:12
    It's that time of the week. We were talking about it before, but it applies ever more so to this segment. Blinded by the popularity.
    56:21
    I don't... whatever. Rev up like a douche. I swear it sounds like douche, but... Blinded by the market. Trending up and trending down. No, nothing. No one wants to hear you sing on this podcast.
    56:39
    Trending up this week is apparently Twippy Trophies. Did you hear about this, Dennis? Nope. I was going to make this trending down, but I already had too many trending downs. So, Jack Bruneri recently donated a boatload of stuff to Jack Bar to raise funds to keep Jack Bar in business in New York City. Did you hear about that? Yes. Okay. One of those items, which is now up on eBay, I can't make this up, people, is the fucking Twippy Award that was awarded to Jersey Jack Pinball for best theme in Willy Wonka. He's selling it. As of this recording, it is up to, what the hell is wrong with you people, $1,300.
    57:28
    Oh. Whoa. So, turning up is the value of it. Yeah. Turning down maybe integrity. I think this is a horrible move. What? He's raising funds for you. No, no.
    57:42
    Then do your underpants. Because selling off an award. He's not selling it. Jack Barr is. They gave it to him to raise funds. What are they supposed to do? Be like, oh, sir, you mistakenly gave it to him. He deliberately gave it to him. Is Jack Ranieri the one that's responsible for all of the theming on Willy Wonka? No. So when he gives away an award that is partly other people's accomplishments, maybe this, Jack, maybe somebody else that helped with that damn game would have appreciated it Instead of, I guess, he's stockpiling them over there in New Jersey and thought, eh, I can give one away. Ask your f***ing team if they want one. It's in the cup. I don't know why I'm getting angry. This is ridiculous. Yeah, why are you getting so worked up, Zach? It's ridiculous. Like, I would be, if I helped on Willie Wong, I'd be. If you want to blame Jack for giving the award away as a charity thing, like he went to the Goodwill and dropped off all of his bowling trophies. You can do that. Yes. I can see that. Okay. But I don't think you can blame Jack Bar for selling it. And then he signed it. As if you slap in the face. He signed the damn thing. Well, and that might be why it's going for so much, though, is people want that rare Jack signature. I don't even know what to think about this. It's hidden behind like a charity thing, so I know I'm going to get some grief. But find something else. God. Man, the sanctity of the Twippy is now gone, in my opinion. Oh my god, you're dialing this to 11. No, it is like whenever these coaches or these players are in a rough spot in Vegas and they end up selling off their fucking championship ring to the gold pawn star people. Yeah, but that doesn't take the award and diminish it because one person did something with it. Maybe it raises the value. Maybe that's why it's turning up. I don't know. I'm mixed on this one. I mean, I don't see how it impacts the sanctity. the sanctity and the structure that all comes down to the awards and how they're issued and the processes behind those that's the system that gives out the award and that's not impacted by it thank you for adding some logic to this you calmed me down there maybe I had a vested interest I just don't like people giving away something that people worked hard on helping create what everybody voted for I know I'm not well you know you're not you're not hashtag dead to you hashtag still sad all right so that's turning down this week let's just get into training down training down is uh star trek next generation that thing is going up and down like a roller coaster baby uh a lot of them up on the market now i still can't stop thinking about this fucking poopy trouble a lot of them down on the market, but with there being a saturation of them, you're starting to see the prices drop a little bit. It's a pin that I'd like to have, so I don't mind seeing the prices drop. And with rumors that everybody's starting back up, you're going to start seeing in the next, I would say, one month, the market on secondary machines is going to start to lower a little bit because of this buildup and this hype for new machines that are coming out, which includes Stern's next release game, as well as Hot Wheels, as well as just the idea that Jersey Jack might be coming out with something. You'll start to see the market temper off a little bit. Temper? Is that a word? Yeah, like with blacksmithing. Okay, I don't know if it works here, but I'm going to use it. Also trending down in the same respect is Scared Stiff. I've seen a lot up on the marketplace right now, and I'm seeing the overall prices, even the sold prices, Dennis, start to decline just a hair. Yeah, just a hair. also trending down this week is trade only sellers have you have you seen these son of a bitches ever worked with one dennis trade only sellers no i've only ever done one trade so i've but and it wasn't written advertising it's an area player i knew and i had something he wanted and he had something i wanted so look my blood boils when we're talking about twippy trophies but it boils even more when I reach out and see something is up for trade that I really, really want, and I say, hey, I know this is trade only, but what is the price of it? And they say, it's trade only. They have that accent usually. It's trade only. And I said, look, we're fair guys. I get that it's trade only, but you're wanting to trade it for something. Let's say you're wanting to trade it for a scared stiff. How much do you value a scared stiff at? then that may equate to how much you're wanting for the machine it's trade only look you son of a bitch everything's got a price so you trade only just put a damn price on it i'll tell you what would you love getting out of it and add 500 just so i can tell you yeah that's too much you're right trade only just put a price on it nope trade only oh fucking forget it forget it i don't understand i understand why this is a problem you are especially for someone like you who claims to study the trends in the market, you already know what the game's worth. So you either offer a trade value that you think is appropriate or you walk and you just move on. Don't even contact them. This is like you, if someone says firm and you want to oboe them. No, they said firm, so move on. It's different. No, it's trade only. So he wants, he or she wants a trade proposal from you. So, but you already have a good sense as to whatever they're offering for trade has in terms of value. We all know what the value range on these things are. Yeah. I think we do. So given that, you know what it's worth to you. That's all that matters. So you offer – it's like, okay, I'm trading a Willy Wonka. And then you want to – so you might go, okay, well, I've got the Stern Pro. I'm willing to give you that plus $1,000. It's just so irrational. No, I don't see why it's irrational. They're clearly oriented around keeping a certain size lineup, and that's why they want to trade. I'll give you $7,000 for it, even though you know it's only worth $5,000. No, I said trade only. Oh, forget it. Because they don't want to go to the trouble of doing the buy. They want to take something out and put something in, and to them, the convenience is worth mandating a trade only. You're trying to change the paradigm of the negotiation. So your issue isn't actually them not saying what the value of it is. You're actually mad that they won't take cash under any scenario. Yes, because it makes no sense. Okay, I see why it bugs you, but I mean it's their property, so who cares really?
    64:26
    I mean I don't see a point to trending it. And wouldn't it be trending up if more and more people are trying to do trade only because it's becoming more popular? No. Yeah, more popular, more stuff, more money trending up. And I'm assuming, if you want my guess as to why it's trending up, Zach, because it's trending up, according to you, is that with people being on lockdown and stuff, maybe they're trying to minimize contact with multiple individuals and they'd rather just do one exchange at once. There. Why are you trying to get people sick? That's my question for you, Zach. Why are you trying to ruin this segment? This segment sucks. No, why? We're going to kind of do – You're trying to ruin the segment. I'm co-host on this show. Each and every week. I'm going to put my fingerprints on this segment to some degree. It feels like you're putting your shit prints on it, to be honest. I'm putting on my critical thinking fedora.
    65:21
    I love that it's a fedora. I'm putting on my Panama. And I just asking some questions that I think a lot of the listeners would ask but they don want to bring it up with you because you just throw in a bunch of screaming goats Oh like the screaming goat no i knew i shouldn have said it but you see that the thing no one can tell you anything because you always just double down some people say i'm blinded by the light maybe i should just not talk during that that's what you used to like back on the twip podcast people just did not say anything during market trends no this is my favorite whenever you did that i tried to make you giggle it was like a win yeah i went for you for me there's no victory no matter what it's like choose your own adventure and every page ends in death you know what also trending up this week is actually we've done it before and we'll do it again if the numbers don't lie it is what it is pinball market trends in general this is meta very meta of me to trend up pinball market trends i'll tell you why because we have a uh a lover of the show his name is ian harroward he's a canadian i believe not that that matters not that there's anything wrong with that uh but he says uh in a post to us recently pinball market trends does deserve its own podcast it is too big and and important to be held back by the confines of a single show moreover i like that i use moreover a lot moreover it deserves its own rss feed so the people can enjoy its greatness without interruption by other segments let that little bird fly oh yeah see he's a supporter yeah of it not being a part of any other show i know what he was doing there i sent him a meme that says i think this is a trap you and my goat i would be quite supportive of you you can even have it on the on the tpn I won't even make you put it on a separate RSS. Give it its own show. Go wild with it. Do whatever. It can be your creative outlet. It already is. Oh, I'm going to go wild this week for the deals of the week. Because we got a lot of them. I really don't like that you added deals of the week. This just pats this segment out so much for nothing. Oh, we still got another sub-segment here. Monster Bash Limited Edition outside of Richmond, Texas by the pin-sider name of Mizzou70. You're in the wrong state then. M-I-Z-Z-O-O-70. He or she has a Monster Bash limited edition for $7,100. That's pretty good. Current plays around $160 with some mods on there, like the Frankenstein table mod, some trough lighting. Buy, buy, buy! Yeah, that's a good deal. That's a really, really good deal. The firm, you know what we do here on Pinball Market Trends? Tell them that you don't accept firm. Firm is a joke. offer him $7,025 and if he accepts it call him a liar no deal that is so stupid if you do that I hope he tells you wow if you're actually going to do this over $75 then you can go off well he checked the little box that says firm he should hold to it in fact no he should say no never mind i've changed my mind trade only what if somebody says seventy two hundred dollars no i was firm on 71 that's what you know what i said all right i would have said it i said all right i already gave you the price i want i'm not taking more i might call mizzou and say i'll offer you 7200 for it and if he says yeah i'm gonna say deals off you're not a man or woman of your word buy buy buy see see where that that pigeonhole thinking gets you dennis that was my example right there. I just don't understand why you take these sellers and it's like you don't price police them, but you do everything else to impossible. Jack Ranieri already messed up this freaking trend segment this week. Poor Twippy. If it wasn't $1,300, I'd buy that Twippy.
    69:29
    That is asinine. $1,300. I don't know what I'd do with it. I could send it back to him. Here you go. You lost this. I'm going to sign mine and pawn it all. I'd sign it and mail it back to him. Here, you got my signature on it now. So maybe next time Jack Farr can get less. So many hard workers on Willy Wonka and you give it away.
    69:50
    Also a deal of the week this week is an X-Men LE Magneto Edition listed for trade, but it gives a value of about $6,000.
    69:59
    Magneto Edition. It also comes with a Newton Ball mod for the Wolverine shot. Not crazy about that. I like the original. That's okay. He put the icicles on the ramps, which I can appreciate. Looks good. He put the blue guy in the background. I don't know what the hell his name is.
    70:14
    No, he looks like the guy from Watchmen. He's like, I don't know. He's blue. He's not Iceman? Maybe it's Iceman. That would make sense. I don't know.
    70:27
    Illuminated pop-ups, illuminated backboard, and a color DMD. This is on Pennside by Tokios and Blaster out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He doesn't show a picture of the trough or the shooter lane, which I don't appreciate. But with a color DMD, a Magneto edition, and the other mods, trade listed value at $6,000 looking for an Elwynn game or would sell it outright. This is a guy that makes sense to me. Nicely done. Tokio's in blaster. Oh, it's Tokio saying blaster. But he's not in Tokio. Why aren't you criticizing his location? Because this guy seems like a rational seller and trader. I like it. Buy, buy, buy! A couple more quick deals of the week. One is an attack from Mars pinball machine graphic armor dust cover by Pinball Armor on Pinside. They're discontinuing this idea. It's a dust cover, but it also has art on it. It's a really novel and good concept. The price is $59. They probably won't make any more. It is a product that's approved by Planetary Pinball. Buy, buy, buy! Absolutely buy, buy, buy on that. That's a cool little piece. as well as you don't see these often by my boy schmitty out of evansville indiana on penside an earth shaker sinking building mod those were found oftentimes in the prototypes but he received a new prototype doesn't need this mod and he's got it for 450 now before you say whoa whoa whoa that seems a little high where else you're gonna get one instead of it being high high hi i went bye bye bye bye bye on that sinking building mod he also has a full ramp set at 300 in plastics at 150 go ahead and doll up your earth shaker with those accessories now and also we haven't done this in a while but uh trending what the a whitewater seymour goldfarb jr out of pittsburgh pennsylvania pittsburgh's gonna take the title of pinball town over chicago here if we don't watch out on Pennside is selling a whitewater for trade only. Restored whitewater. Oh, looking for a dialed in or a Gilligan's Island with a nice playfield. That's weird. A restored whitewater. He lists all the new Merco playfield set, the new cliffies, the topper, everything. Then you look at his pictures and the cabinet looks like it was rolled down a fucking hill.
    72:53
    Restored? I can see the wood on the cabinet. no you're not allowed to say restored if the cabinet looks less than players condition this is what i would call partially restored can we not get these terms right maybe i'll have a special presentation of the pinball show where i give everybody maybe a classification system for buying and selling that we can all agree upon and conditions of pinball machines this is not restored the cabinet is in fair condition well at least there are photos so people can judge good point dennis i mean that's what i usually do now like i'll say my playfield has where look at the photos for the specifics because i don't want to be criticized for oh well you didn't mention there was a chip around the j insert and it's like uh i said look at the photos so oh i said look at the photos bro that's why i take that's why i usually take like 20 to 30 photos i'm like let the photos tell you i'm not here to verbally write or narratively explain every little thing with the game. I ain't got no time for that. Man, you've really been pumping up Toadstool from Mario. I mentioned him like twice. You've really been pumping up Toad. Not Toadstool? No, just Toad. I'm my best! You've been really pumping up Toad, which makes me think you've taken a little bit of Toad your own because you're very, very overly logical this week.
    74:18
    Overly logical. Overly logical statements. There is no such thing, and to speak of it as treason. Yeah, it's kind of contradiction. Just right there, an example. I feel like I'm working with data today. His name's Data. Oh, sorry. That was what – because I say Data all the time. I'm not. I couldn't countermind. I was explaining once. It's like, no, that's someone's name. You can't – you don't get to re-pronounce people's names. I was like, you have a good point. He's Data. And apparently, so you know, because I didn't know this until recently. Yeah. On Star Trek, whoever said it – whoever said any word first, name of a race or a character, that's what they went with that's how it was defined so whoever spoke first got it because most of the next generation cast would have said data the first person who said the name of the character said data so that's what they went with hmm i just i've chalked it up to i'm not going to be able to win this week you're firing on all cylinders i can't win yeah i can't win you're good you're you're killing it to win what and against the forces of mordor there can be no victory. You know, I'm thinking about the listener's affection for this week. They always like you and your weird, creative stuff. Well, I'm conceding this week, but I will tell you this much. Even when I concede, I have fellow comrades who have my back. As exampled in this week's Viewer Trends! Hit it!
    75:45
    Concede. More like conceded. Trending up this week cactus jacks why have a jjp pirates of the caribbean the big lebowski and a rick and morty when you can have your very own 35 000 cereal number two cactus jacks this is got leaves 1991 masterpiece let's party loaded with sizzling country rock music two ball multi-ball and dancing cacti. Come on down to Florida and get it. Woo-hoo! Bye-bye-bye! See?
    76:19
    The viewers are speaking now. That's all your correspondence. No! I think you tell them that their jobs are on the line and they don't give you this stuff. That's not true. I've never played Cactus Jacks.
    76:33
    Trending up this week, family road trips for summer vacations. Hey, get ready. It's time to pack up the family Land Cruiser 1970s style and live out National Lampoon's COVID-19 vacation. Yes, want a relaxing vacation without a care in the world while your family plays in a safe new environment? Sorry, those days are gone like Donald Trump's comb-over blowing in a hot virus wind.
    76:59
    Hashtag fake news rules. Oh, Crack Bobby getting a little political there. Yeah, because that'll never upset anyone on a pinball show. He even has sound effects. I can appreciate it. Yeah, that was pretty clever.
    77:18
    Trending down this week, COVID-19 safety information. Masks on, masks off. Gloves on, gloves off. Visits on, visits off. It's like the COVID version of the Karate Kid with you playing the confused Ralph Macchio acted role of Daniel and your local health authorities playing the stern taskmaster of Mr. Miyagi. Hi!
    77:47
    Hey, Din Din, can we keep him? You do whatever you want. Can we keep him? I want to keep him. I don't want to keep this segment. It's stupid. Oh, man. And that was your pinball show. Viewer... Oh, wait, wait, wait a minute. Holy moly! Ladies and gentlemen, right under the gun, we've got one more for you. Oh my god.
    78:10
    Trending down this week, Den Den's patience for my voice. Yes, what started out as a brilliant side segment has definitely jumped the proverbial happy day shark as the brilliant TPS co-host wrestles with his need to laugh out loud but also struggles with the need to strangle me at the same time. Hashtag Arthur Fonzarelli. Hey.
    78:35
    Jeez. this is if he knows my own mind oh my gosh they've become self aware my plan is working and that was the pinball show presents this week's pinball market trance whoa my poor family they're alarmed are they coming down the stairs yes they are daddy what's wrong why is daddy angry at din din oh man I think I popped a blood vessel on that one in my wiener Jesus alright Dennis our time this week together comes to an end but before so thank god you gotta sell a cactus jacks don't you or a jacks to open it's already sold and was prepaid by the power of friends and family so nice it is being picked up though here in a little bit well good deal i don't know why i thought about this i was still thinking of the blinded by the light song but easily you can transform the light with the white that's that's a t-shirt Sorry, that is fairly cool. It's a t-shirt.
    80:04
    I'm not sure Dwight would like that. When is he going to turn in the Why Zack is Wrong? Maybe you could have him host instead of me next week. I don't think Dwight's got it in him anymore. He knows. He's conceded to me. He's done. He's too old to begin the training. Hey, he's laid down.
    80:22
    He's laid down. Speaking of laying down, that's what I'm about to do. So tell these people where they can catch you in between. over with Eclectic Gamers Podcast at eclecticgamers.com you can always email me at eclecticgamerspodcast at gmail.com and I will be able to read it absolutely you can follow us at the pinball network by emailing us at thepinballnetwork at gmail.com you can also follow us on Facebook which would be greatly appreciated as we're building a group there and YouTube as well as rating us on iTunes or any of your favorite review catchers or the website at thepinballnetwork.net. And if you're ready to buy a brand new pinball machine, come to your buddy, come to your pal. You know you're going to be taken care of by myself at Flippin' Out Pinball. And if you're interested in something that you're hearing rumors about, and you want to make sure you can get one of them, give us a call there too. We'll put you on our rumored list for that particular title. 812-457-9711. FlippinOutPinball.com is the website. And the email is Zach, Z-A-C-H, at Flip, the letter N, Out Pinball. dot com also you can find me at straight down the middle of pinball show a youtube video series uh i think our next episode is 109 we got it in the can i'm editing it now we may or may not be reviewing certain pinball stranger things oh that'd be a good one i hope you brought in your outside reviewers hashtag shill hashtag i didn't because people didn't like it as much as me being honest and reviewing it. No, that's not surprising. It's not straight down the middle with a bunch of people we've never seen.
    82:01
    Which is why I never allowed myself to become contaminated with a reviewer status. Contaminated. Alright, what's going on now on the Pinball Network? Well, I streamed the Big Lebowski. You can go back and watch that video on demand. As well as Duncan's video on the Czech Fuses F-114 F-115. That is a very common issue that comes up on WPC and Bally Williams games, so that's going to be a big help. What the Flip streamed a mystery game, which ended up being Wheel of Fortune. You don't see that too often, Dennis. Yeah, I don't think I've ever played it either. Joe Engelberth aired just another pinball podcast, episode two exclusively, on the Pinball Network, getting good reviews. I heard that. Yeah, good reviews there. Don't Panic Flip battled our new TPN streaming affiliate. We've not announced it, but we are going to this week, once he finally sends me a picture. Mystery Pinball Theater 3000. very entertaining guy I didn't see this stream but I did see Mystery Pinball Theater last night playing Ghostbusters yeah I saw that as well so we'll start sharing that and we're glad he has joined the team here at TPN but they were battling on Ghostbusters plus they had two additional commentators I think Pensomniac and somebody else was there wow fancy pants Silver Ball Chronicles aired episode 4 entitled maybe he is entitled Bat Shit Crazy the Python Angelou story. Yeah, I just finished that this morning. That was well done. People are raving about that series. And finally, TurboGrafx-7 streams Oktoberfest with American Pinballs and, I guess, TPN streaming affiliate David Brennan. Hmm. All very cool. What's coming up this week on TPN, Dennis? I'm glad you asked. Oh, if you would like me to say, I'm more than happy to. we will have a new final round pinball podcast on the network lovely jeff and martin are hard at work and have confirmed that we'll be coming out this week and then i think there's some new streaming affiliates one you just hinted at above a bit ago absolutely you're going to be seeing some more streaming affiliates come out so that's exciting we're growing dennis our family is growing do you have another extra couple hugs in you i appreciate all the work everyone does in pinball be it on tpn or out of tpn are you becoming a politician behind my back what is going on maybe we're farming political leaders now shit yeah because i was so diplomatic all throughout this entire uh episode just ask craig bobby how you know polite and politic i handled his issues. I love my little Craig Bobby. I know he's your favorite. My little Craig Bobby. You other correspondents need to step up because Craig's the favorite.
    84:52
    What was that Men in Black show where the head popped out of Johnny Knoxville? Remember that? The little mutant head? That's my Craig Bobby. He's just going to... Oh, the Edgar suit where the alien was in the skin suit? No, I thought there was a Johnny Knoxville. he had like a side head that wasn't very developed but it was still there what was that off of i haven't seen all the men in black so it could be a men in black that i didn't see that's craig bobby he's just emerged out of me or is he quatto in a non-sexual way oh for dennis crease lamzak machine unless it's a sega because i didn't know that it was part of the Stern litany. I got your back, Craig.
    85:37
    Get your Craigie on. That's what people need to do this week. Get that Craigie on. For Chris Alamzak, many. Have a good night, good morning, good afternoon. It's not a kidney. And always practice safe pinball and if you win a Twippy, maybe don't give it away and give it to somebody else that worked hard on that game. I don't know, before just handing it off to somebody else.
    86:01
    So long. I'm the best Toad up I should have went with toad up Toad up That's a keeper Mario It's good we don't play Mario Kart Bring the blue sparks No don't think I don't know how to turn around every single corner like that too. Oh, please. Hold, rep, hold, rep, hold, rep, get a rep, boom. I'm going to use a little shortcut. I'm going to toe-toe that combo, this double dash. You're going off Rainbow Road. You're going to be living. That little cloud guy is going to be fishing you up constantly. You're going to be like, why can't we play pinball? Why do we have to play a real game? I don't use bananas. I don't use green shells because they always just stay on my ass the whole time to block anything you've got coming. You ain't going to block no blue shell. You ain't going to block no lightning. I'm going to wait for you to jump that ramp. Lightning. You would need lightning because your ass is in last place. All the way down. You'd probably pick Rainbow Road. Ass.