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Festivus EM Nom Noms

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·50m 4s·held·Dec 20, 2015
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Judge Dredd released on TPA; two EM tables coming; Oculus support planned.

Summary

Chris and Jared discuss holiday season pinball and gaming news, including Pinball Arcade's release of Judge Dredd (with audio quality concerns), upcoming EM table releases (Fireball and Eldorado), a 50% discount on TPA Season 1, and Oculus support planned for pinball games. The episode is heavily padded with off-topic discussions about Australian cars, movie releases, and filmmaking, with minimal pinball-specific content.

Key Claims

  • Pinball Arcade released Judge Dredd during the holiday season

    high confidence · Chris states 'We have been granted a new table by Pinball Arcade. That is Judge Dredd' and discusses playing it that morning.

  • Two EM tables are coming to Pinball Arcade: Fireball (EM version with zipper flippers) and Eldorado

    high confidence · Jared interprets TPA's cryptic hint showing a ball on fire and a bucking bronco, concluding 'it's going to be fireball' (EM version) and 'Eldorado, the EM version' based on prior TPA announcements.

  • TPA Season 1 is currently discounted 50% on all platforms

    high confidence · Chris confirms: 'TPA is discounting first season by 50% off on platforms right now yeah they are'

  • Oculus support is planned for all Pinball Arcade games, not just TPA

    high confidence · Jared reads from a newsletter: 'they've got Oculus support planned like for real Oculus support and it says notably for all of our pinball games all of our pinball games not just PC not just console'

  • Judge Dredd on TPA has audio quality issues on mobile—sounds tinny and lacks mid/low frequencies

    medium confidence · Chris: 'when I'm listening through the headphones on mobile, it sounds like the sounds weren't recorded directly... it sounds tinny... like they've just put the mics up to the speakers'

  • Judge Dredd motor noise on Android beta was excessively loud and was reported as a bug

    medium confidence · Jared: 'on the Android beta, it was grinding and grinding away. It was so overbearing... we did bug it as an issue it's way too loud'

  • Norman (TPA audio engineer) records game sounds with 'glass off' architecture to make them sound correct during playback

    medium confidence · Chris: 'Norman has confirmed that when they do the sounds they architect them in such a way that it's glass off so that's when that's how they actually do the sounds'

  • Fireball has zipper flippers, while the home/solid-state version does not have them or a spinning disc

Notable Quotes

  • “not a pinball table with story because nobody released anything”

    Chris @ early segment — Tongue-in-cheek complaint about lack of new pinball releases during the holiday season, later corrected when Judge Dredd is mentioned.

  • “it sounds like they were recorded through the speakers because I'm losing a whole stack of mid and lows in it”

    Chris @ Judge Dredd discussion — Specific technical critique of audio mixing in the Judge Dredd TPA release; raises questions about recording methodology.

  • “I wonder if the Fireball will be the EM version with the zipper flippers on it. It better be. Yeah, because that's awesome. That's the only one I want to play.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ EM table speculation — Expresses strong preference for the EM Fireball variant over solid-state versions; community enthusiasm for classic EM features.

  • “two EMs for the price of one. And let see what happens”

    Jared @ EM release pricing discussion — Notes that two EM tables are being bundled or released together; uncertain about sales/value impact.

  • “TPA always takes the adage that they're going to be doing perfectly maintained, fully working machines, so don't expect the arc.”

    Jared @ EM sound design discussion — Explains TPA's philosophy on not including spark/arcing effects in EM emulations—they model pristine machines, not worn ones.

Entities

ChrispersonJared MorganpersonNorm WurzpersonMikepersonDennis O'HarepersonPinball ArcadecompanyJudge DreddgameFireballgame

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Pinball Arcade released Judge Dredd during holiday season; marks TPA's continued table acquisition strategy.

    high · Chris confirms playing Judge Dredd on TPA that morning; discussed gameplay mechanics and audio quality.

  • ?

    product_concern: Judge Dredd on TPA exhibits audio mixing issues on mobile—tinny sound, missing mid/low frequencies; suggests possible recording methodology problem.

    medium · Chris reports: 'sounds like they were recorded through the speakers... I'm losing a whole stack of mid and lows' when listening via mobile headphones.

  • ?

    product_concern: Judge Dredd's Dead World spinner motor noise was excessively loud on Android beta; formally reported as bug.

    medium · Jared: 'on the Android beta, it was grinding and grinding away... we did bug it as an issue it's way too loud.'

  • ?

    code_update: Pinball Arcade adding two EM tables (Fireball EM, Eldorado) based on cryptic monthly hint; continues expansion of classic EM library.

    high · Community interpretation of TPA's hint showing ball on fire and bucking bronco; Jared confirms: 'it's going to be fireball' and 'Eldorado, the EM version.'

  • $

    market_signal: TPA Season 1 discounted 50% during holiday period; typical seasonal promotion strategy.

    high · Chris: 'TPA is discounting first season by 50% off on platforms right now.'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.150

0:00
This is the Blockade Podcast, with your hosts, Chris and Jared. a sign off your order. Wizardamusement.com Sales, Restoration, Customization. You are listening to the Blockade Podcast. I am your host, Shut Your Trap, aka Chris Freebus. Joining me as always is my co-host, Jared Morgan. Well, hey there. Hey-dee-hi-dee-ho! Hey-dee-hi!
0:50
Appropriately so, Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Pooh, and this is our Christmas episode. Yes, it's the Blockade Before Christmas, and all through the house, not a pinball table with story because nobody released anything. I shouldn't say that because actually, you know, there has been a table just released, but we'll get into that in a moment. We will. First, we're going to take care of this kind of business. For those of you watching me on Blab, I apologize, but I had a little bit of a late start today and my wife's birthday is tomorrow. And so we're having her birthday lunch that she wanted. So enjoying a little chilies today. Oh. Mm-hmm. Very nice. So I have my french fries, and I have the chicken and bacon sandwich with some honey mustard on it. And then the thing that everybody must go to Chili's for, that is, oh, yeah, doesn't that look tasty? It's the chicken enchilada soup. Chicken and cheese enchilada soup. Yes. That sounds like something that would be really good to dip chips into. Right. I'm going to show you just how stringy this stuff gets. It gets goopy. Oh, yeah.
2:08
It's fantastic. Just the sound effects there, not dropped in. Yeah, but they weren't my sound effects. They were Jared's sound effects. I'm trying to keep things silent, and he's adding a Foley track. Yeah. So anyway Yes, I'm committing the cardinal sin But you know, you gotta do what you gotta do What can I say? That's right While you're stuffing your gullet over there Do you want me to talk about some things? Go for it! Yes, please, talk about some things You can just What kind of stuff is on Jared's mind? Well, first, I think we should probably give a plug out to the good old shirts, because they're coming to a close, aren't they? It is. The current session has closed. However, what happens is the campaign just rolls over and a new campaign starts. So it's not like anybody's missed out on the opportunity to buy the shirts. They're still totally available. It's just the current campaign has finished. we sold I believe 10 shirts however one of those went to you and two of them went to me so we sold 7 shirts well yes the wife wanted one oh very good well yes I can I probably could have actually saved on shipping if I got two maybe I should have just got 10 I will say shipping for me was 575 something like that that's what I thought remember me saying I reckon it would be about 5 bucks to you in the US. Before I even clicked on the... When it first gave me the price, it was saying like 12 bucks for shipping. I was like, holy cow, are you kidding me? I'm in the US. And then after it does the, oh, this is where you live, kind of process the order, then it came down to that. It went, ah, so you're actually in domestic land. Oh, that's okay. We won't have to charge you for the excess pigeons that we're going to have to attach your shirt to. Oh, well, yes. So, Chess, I'm looking forward to getting mine. I'll actually have a decent wardrobe edition. But I should show those people who are on Blab now. We actually got a new shirt for our pinball league, Brisbane Pinball Club. And I'm going to swing around and see if I can actually get this going as well. It's probably a bit hard to see. Well, your chair is kind of in the way. Yeah. There you go. So on the back, it shows a plunger. And on the plunger arm, it says Brisbane. And then it's, of course, plunging a pinball. And then pinball club in a cool font underneath. Yeah, very cool. Yeah, it's a pretty cool shirt. So that was part of our league shirt that we sort of contributed to over the year. We pay $15 per tournament, and some of it goes to tournament costs. Some of it gets put into the T-shirt kitty. So this didn't cost me anything, but it cost me installments of $15 throughout the year.

high confidence · Jared: 'There was the EM version, which is the one with the zipper flippers and all the bells and whistles' vs. 'Home version doesn't have a spinning disc. Yes. Home version doesn't have a spinning... it has nothing.'

El Dorado
game
Brisbane Pinball Cluborganization
American Horror Storyproduct
BlahCade Podcastproduct
Sexy Synthesizerproduct

technology_signal: Pinball Arcade planning Oculus support across all pinball games in portfolio (not just TPA); signals VR expansion for digital pinball.

high · Newsletter indicates: 'Oculus support planned... for all of our pinball games all of our pinball games not just PC not just console.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: TPA maintains philosophy of emulating 'perfectly maintained, fully working machines'—excludes arcing/spark effects typical of worn hardware.

    medium · Jared: 'TPA always takes the adage that they're going to be doing perfectly maintained, fully working machines, so don't expect the arc.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Judge Dredd's 'final challenge' described as anticlimactic—multiball with point shooting, lacks progression or difficulty; doesn't match 'ultimate challenge' naming.

    medium · Chris: 'I was thinking if it's an ultimate challenge, it'll be really hard... It's just 10 million per crime scene shot... It does not do what it says on the box for me.'

  • ?

    content_signal: BlahCade uses Judge Dredd audio track from non-TPA source for podcast bumpers; suggests multiple recording versions exist.

    medium · Chris: 'I've got the soundtrack. I've used that for Mike's chat segments... it's not the one from TPA because it sounds completely different.'

    • 5:05
    But that's okay because I don't mind getting shirts. It means that you're essentially paying up front. It's only people who attended five or more tournaments could actually get one for free. The rest of them had to pay.
    5:17
    So, yeah, it was good. I hope they do it again next year because I really like sort of representing for the club. So, yeah, it's pretty sweet. We like to refer to that with my union dues. We get a magazine subscription, and then there's the holiday party that you get to go to. So we like to refer to it as the $800 magazine subscription.
    5:41
    Exactly right. Yeah, look, it's mandatory saving. And, you know, mandatory. I was probably going to buy a shirt anyhow, regardless of whether it was included in the price or not. So, you know, I'm a sucker for that. T-shirts are like my tourist spoons that you get at some places, you know. You get the spoon with the little picture on it and it says something. Yeah, or like the magnet. Well, T-shirts are my magnets. I can't help myself Speaking of shirts and swag So we finished I just finished work on American Horror Story We're done for the season I saw you tweeting that you're on top of In Somewhere? Where was it? Well on Fox Studios On Stage 16 they put us up in the rafters for a particular shot and uh so i was i don't know 75 feet 100 feet up in the air looking down at the uh down at the bottom on a lovely plank walkway that um that's held up by pipes that are held up by chain that's strapped to the rafters it's it's all kind of dodgy it's perfectly safe no problem perfectly safe You know, usually the only people that ever go up there are the rigging grips or electric camera would never normally under normal circumstances. But, yeah, they pointed up and they went, go up there. Look straight down. OK, so we had the whole of our all of our gear up there. Anyway, my point, what I was going to say is we wrapped. So, of course, you get wrap gifts, although us on second unit, we had to beg for them because for some reason they didn't appreciate our four months of hard work.
    7:27
    It happens. That's ridiculous. Anyway, but I'll show you. You can entertain the troops, and I'll show the T-shirt that one of our actors gave us, Dennis O'Hare, and then one of the things production gave us. So one second. Okay, cool.
    7:44
    Okay, so one of the characters on the show this season was called Liz Taylor, and it was played by Dennis O'Hare, and it was basically a person in drag. Oh. and bald head and full-on makeup. So anyway, he had these shirts made up. So for those in the non-video wordages, as Liz says, live life, love, HS Hotel, LA 2015. So anyway, that was that bit of swag. And then what production gave us, and I thought it was rather appropriate,
    8:16
    bathrobe was from the hotel. Oh How did the Bathrobes from the hotel In the show Hotel Yes Hotel Cortez Is the name of the The hotel that basically If you go into You won't be checking out of Because they're going to You know kill you But hey Nice plush bathrobes Nice bathrobes At least you'll be comfortable While you're in there dying Well that's very cool so swag ahoy well it's almost like i like christmas presents like that that you get just randomly oh look christmas present i'm really waiting forward waiting for a shirt that i've ordered from japan uh for one of my favorite um chiptune artists um my my friend over there um who fronts a group called sexy synthesizer which you may have heard me rabbiting on about in past podcasts has just released a new album and um he had a very limited run of shirts including xl i got i think there was one xl shirt and it was black and i managed to convince him to ship it down to me so i get to have this awesome sort of multi-colored text um sexy synthesizer shirt and his new album when it cost me about the same cost me about the same as a blockade shirt delivered so i get a cd and a shirt for about the same amount so um you know you australians really should you know think about doing some manufacturing in your country no we're too busy riding kangaroos riding kangaroos and you don't have any natural resources or anything you know we do now we got we've got natural resources it's just we just sell dirt to other countries so we sell you know coal and and metals and stuff you can pull out the ground and yeah that's starting to you know dry up now so we've got to find other things to sell and apparently technology is one of those things that we can do okay down here so i think the focus will be to try and like boost our tech economy down here and um and invent maybe a um a time travel portal not time travel portal a transportation portal so we can ship things really quickly from one point to another through a wormhole I think. I'm fascinated by the automobile industry in Australia because you basically buy... It wasn't Australia because there's not one anymore. No, but it's like you basically were buying older cars like a few years old and then cutting them in half and melding them together to create a new brand of car. At least that was my understanding. I don't know.
    11:08
    I don't know. When I was there, that seemed... Maybe it was lies they tell tourists. I'm thinking about it, but I've never heard of that before. It sounds intriguing, though. Do tell me more.
    11:20
    Most of the new cars that are brought there, they're not new cars. They're what was leased for the last two years. And then those get shipped over to Australia. you know like the the mercedes or the the the bmws is whatever would be leased in japan or china um i don't know whichever country rides you know drives on the wrong side of the road like you guys do and uh um and then those vehicles get shipped over but like uh you have some weird weird car brands i'm not sure what the names of some of them are anymore but somebody was they were telling us that, oh, yeah, well, it's like they took a Ford and took a couple of pieces and rejiggered it, and then they get to call it a new car. I don't know.
    12:07
    Like I said, hey, I'm the Australian authority here, Dan. Yeah, I can tell. I love your stories about the motherland. You could tell. What apparently we do here is we dig up all the stuff from the ground, and we send it over to China and then they send it back as cars actually not China Korea with Kia I think it is and Kia is a really big brand over here And yeah it funny because we ship all of our iron ore and stuff over there They turn it into – they smelt it into iron and then ship it back as cars. So we're buying back our product again, which is kind of weird.
    12:46
    The other thing I noticed about all the cars in Australia was that they have the exhaust snoot coming out the hood. So you can go through all the water and not have your car stall out. Yeah, we had the snorkels on. You'll mostly see that on SUVs. You don't see that on Ford lasers or those. Every car has a snorkel here in Australia. We actually like to go underwater a lot, and we use them as submarines. Right, it's straight out of James Bond. It's like that Lotus. You know, I'm done driving down the road. Hey, look, water.
    13:19
    I'm sure in the Outback, they just have giant drill beds on the front, and they just dig tunnels. Yeah, that's how we find our natural resources. we just dig for them with the cars. Like it's, it's great. Um, but yeah, no, it's good. Yeah. But yeah, cars are weird here. We had a car industry. Ford was a major manufacturer here. Uh, and Holden, I think had a, a factory as well. That's the name of the car. Holden. Yeah. They don't exist anywhere else. Yeah. They're basically GM. So everything is GM. So, um, yeah, Holden and, I know Ford is General Motors, and I think Holden was something else. So they're all owned by the same company. In fact, I think the Holden cars go over there as Chevys, and they get rebranded.
    14:08
    So we actually export cars to the U.S., certain varieties, and they get rebranded as Chevy. GM is GMC, Chevy, Cadillac. Okay. Then it's Holden is GM, then, basically. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so if... Why would they ship them here too? Because again, the steering wheel is going to be on the wrong side of the car. Oh, no, they manufacture them for the US market. So they... I think, I forget the brand, but it looks pretty much exactly like one of our saloons here, saloon cars here, but it's got a Chevy brand on it and it's got a wheel on the wrong side.
    14:49
    So, yeah, I think that's what they were doing. But yeah, I think it's pretty much dried up now because it's too expensive down here to make cars. It's cheaper over there, so they don't do it anymore.
    15:04
    But meh. As is so many things. Yeah, right. Yeah, that's right. So here we are. It's Christmas time. Yeah. We have been granted a new table by Pinball Arcade. That is Judge Dredd. Yeah, Judge Dredd. Yeah. It kind of snuck up on me because I've been working nonstop the last two weeks. And so all of a sudden it was like, hey, is this released? I was like, you know, I should probably look at this.
    15:34
    So I did. I took a look at it this morning. And the thing that strikes me the most is the artwork. I love it. It just looks like a cool table. And then I was bashing around a little bit on it. And it has some interesting features where, like, you kick the ball up at a ramp and it goes over to the side kicker. Not the side kicker, but where you normally would think would be a plunger. Yeah, the captain. And also it automatically kicks the ball back onto the table. It's kind of got this weird, interesting flow going on to it. And then eventually I got the Dead World to spin. Like I said, the Dead World spinning looks pretty cool. I mean, hats off. That looked really... It would look really, really good on PC with the lighting. It would look fantastic. It looks pretty flat on Android, unfortunately. Oh, okay. It looks great. In a dark room, that is like a massive feature of the game. It looks awesome. Unfortunately, have they toned down the motor noise on it, though? Because on the Android beta, it was grinding and grinding away. It was so overbearing. I didn't hear that. Once you activate lock, it just keeps turning until you get moldy ball. It doesn't stop. Even during bonus countdown, it still turns. so all you hear is this like sort of like nails being rattled around in a bucket sort of noise on mobile so we did bug it as an issue it's way too loud it always seems to be a problem with motors and TPA they always over mic them and we do we've known that Norman has confirmed that when they do the sounds they architect them in such a way that it's glass off so that's when That's how they actually do the sounds, glass off. One thing that I found really strange, I might have to check with Mike next time he's on, but for Judge Dredd, when I'm listening through the headphones on mobile, it sounds like the sounds weren't recorded directly. It sounds like they were recorded through the speakers because I'm losing a whole stack of mid and lows in it because I've got the soundtrack. Because one of the bump-in and bump-outs I've got for the podcast here is the Judge Shred. I've used that for Mike's chat segments. I wonder where that came from. Yeah, I've used that particular one, and it's not the one from TPA because it sounds completely different. It actually sounds really great to listen through headphones, but, yeah, when I'm doing it through my headphones on Android, it just sounds tinny. It sounds like they've just put the mics, you know, up to the speakers and just recorded it. I mean, I really doubt that Norman would do that. I mean, he's never done it before. Because they actually rip the ROM sounds out and they record them as a line feed, I think. Yeah. Because there's no way you could get decent audio otherwise. But it just sounds really strange. The mix is weird in this. Maybe it's just me. I've got sensitive ears when it comes to audio, so maybe it's just me. But, yeah, it's a bit strange. But apart from that, it's good. I found that I didn't bug this at the time when I was testing it, but if you shoot the little mini loop up near the Sliper Tower and it rolls back through it, on all the tables I played, if you let it bounce off the little rubber, which is at the corner of the loop, it should bounce it back onto the flipper, and it doesn't. It sort of dribbles off that and goes down the side. So you should, if it dribbles back, give it a bit of an upward nudge, and it should be able to jump back onto the flipper and you can shoot the sniper tower with rather a good amount of control. But, you know, on the TPA version, it doesn't seem to behave like that. I'm not sure. It could just be a quirk of their machine they've got because, as we all know, when we were talking about last episode, machines vary really, really greatly. Yeah. So, you know.
    19:29
    But overall, it's pretty fun. I've got to the final challenge, which was a bit of an anti-climax. I was going, wow, I've never managed to get to that in the arcade. and then I finally get to it on TPN. It's just like a multi-ball and you shoot lots of points and there's no progression. I was thinking if it's an ultimate challenge, it'll be really hard and you have to do something like Battle for the Kingdom. You know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. It's just 10 million per crime scene shot and that's great for getting points, but it's not really an ultimate challenge. It does not do what it says on the box for me. So, I don't know. I wish I could comment but like I said I only played it for a few minutes this morning so I really don't know speaking of also Christmas and pinball I guess TPA is discounting first season by 50% off on platforms right now yeah they are And here's hoping that they do the other seasons too as we get closer to Christmas.
    20:39
    Because like I said, I've, I guess, I seriously doubt that they've discounted season five. Oh, that was bad.
    20:46
    They probably don't discount season five when it was released on iOS. Because of course they can't release seasons on iOS until they're actually complete. So they might look at doing it when it actually goes complete on iOS. one thing I'm looking at the newsletter now that we received a couple of days ago they've got Oculus support planned like for real Oculus support and it says notably for all of our pinball games all of our pinball games not just PC not just console or they maybe not just TPA maybe Sperm yeah exactly not just TPA so that's very interesting veiled announcement there. I like it. I like your work there, Mike. Keep us guessing because, of course, you know that Mike is the one that's been doing these and taking the hit for them, as he described to us last time it was on. Yes, very interesting. I did like their table hint this month. Oh, yeah. It's not so distinctly clear, although it is, but it isn't. Anyway,
    21:56
    the threads of speculation nobody immediately went like oh it's that table you know like 100 there was actually some oh well it could be this or it could be that i don't know i've got a feeling i know the first one um because considering there's a ball on fire that's pretty obvious it's going to be fireball but it'll be the em fireball so we're finally getting to see some em tables in the collection again well they they didn't you have it in front of you but doesn't say you asked for um Yeah, you've seen them. You've asked for M. So here's two of M. M, you know, another way of saying them, but also putting in the EM. So yeah, it's going to be two EMs. And the other one shows a bucking Bronco horse. Would that be Eldorado? Yeah, conventional wisdom is it's going to be the Eldorado, the EM version. Because they've mentioned that before, that they were planning on doing that. Hmm. I wonder if they can't charge for that.
    22:56
    Well, yeah. I wonder if the Fireball will be the EM version with the zipper flippers on it. It better be. Yeah, because that's awesome. That's the only one I want to play. I don't want to play any other version. No. I actually have played a Fireball, but it was the solid state version, and it was what they called the home version. So there were two varieties. There was the EM version, which is the one with the zipper flippers and all the bells and whistles, and it was awesome. And then there was a home version without the zipper flippers.
    23:24
    And, yeah. It also didn't have a spinning disc. Yes. Home version doesn't have a spinning... I mean, it has nothing. It's like... It's basically like a pro version of a stone table versus the premium LE. Sorry, I had to go there.
    23:40
    It's a table that has the same color pattern on it. That's about the... That's right. It's a table that says Fireball in the black glass. But that's about where the resemblance ends. So that's going to be really fun. There's a... I'm really looking forward to that. address things i'd like to see them address with um with em releases is getting that flipper noise right i want that flipper noise hold and hum noise that we so desperately need on all the em tables in the collection well somebody else was asking for they want to see the spark um yeah there should be a little bit of an alpha pain just just where the um the cabinets which is would be in the um in the game, and we'll see a little bit of arcing on there. But the thing is that if they're properly maintained, you shouldn't see any arcing on switches because the only reason why they arc is if the switch contacts are pitted. So if they're not pitted, they won't arc. You won't see any flash. So TPA always takes the adage that they're going to be doing perfectly maintained, fully working machines, so don't expect the arc.
    24:49
    So that's, um, that'll be interesting to see. And obviously it'll put to the test, um, the, the sales issue of you know how well did we see ourselves Yeah Well you know you get two for the price of one with this So you get two EMs for the price of one And let see what happens
    25:17
    I'm also very shocked that we have not, you know, unless you've been living under a rock, Star Wars just got released. No, I have not seen it yet. so shut the hell up. No, I haven't either. No, I haven't. I only just saw, as an aside, I only just saw Hunger Games yesterday. So that's how far behind I am. Oh, the most recent release? Yes. Yeah, I haven't seen that one yet either because I just haven't had time to go. And now I'm like, oh crap, Star Wars just took up all the screens. I'm not going to be able to see it. Totally. We had to find a studio that was playing it because it was so hard to get. Like all the other ones were like, there's this place that we go, Blue Room Cine Bar, and all the screens were just Star Wars. And we went, damn, That's where we like to go in movies because it's sort of like a gold class experience without the gold class price. Here's how dominant it is. So in Hollywood, there are the three main movie theaters that are like the premier presentations. You've got what was formerly known as the Man of Chinese. Now it's like TCL Chinese. I don't know. It's some hideous name. But anyway, formerly the Chinese theater. across the street from that you've got el capitan which is the disney-owned theater and then uh just a mile or so away you've got the cinerama dome which is now owned by arclight okay there used to be a long-standing rule in hollywood that if there was a movie playing at the chinese it could not play at the arclight or at uh el capitan so it's just a dumb thing It was just a dumb thing. And basically what it meant, what it ensured was that there was always a premiere screen available for whatever the newest, hottest release was. That nobody would dominate it and that you can have your movie premiere and everything would be kosher that way. It was just a way of placating the studios and stuff. Yeah. So Tarantino, he's got his movie coming out, The Hateful Eight. he shot it in uh ultra super panavision which is this insanely it's it's super duper widescreen that's what ben hur was filmed in and that nobody ever plays ben hur in because nobody has a screen that wide um it's a format that is specifically uh cinerama i mean it was for cinerama dome it's if you've ever seen the dome been in a cinerama dome and there's a few around our country um and they open the curtains all the way it's like oh my gosh it's it's so like imax dimensions but a little bit less well it's no whereas imax is tall six stories tall this is super duper wide so completely fills your peripheral vision not only that but it causes a severe bowing to the uh to the image to the projection image because the screen is so curved Cinerama used to have three projectors and they would and they project it in three chunks and that was always a nightmare and since then they've well there was only 12 movies released in that format I think that was what the number was so anyway so Tarantino was like I want to shoot my movie in this that'll be awesome because he's a big promoter of film instead of digital and so this was a truly film thing yeah I did hear I know that speaking of Star Wars, then Rogue One is going to be filming in the same format that he used for Hateful Eight. So anyway,
    28:36
    so here he's got this movie that was specifically designed for Cinerama. He's got that Cinerama logo at the front of the movie, right?
    28:43
    And Star Wars is playing at the Chinese, at El Capitan, and at the Cinerama Dome, and he is pissed. Because he can't premiere it. Like, they have to bump off the movie. Well, no, they premiered it. They did the red carpet premiere at Cinerama. But then Star Wars opened, and Star Wars was supposed to only have it for a week, and then Hateful Eight would go in, and Cinerama extended the time. Because, you know, Star Wars, right? Right. So I think Star Wars basically is going to have an extra week in it, as opposed to Hateful Eight opening on Christmas Day in that theater. But anyway, that's how dominant Star Wars is. Everybody threw out the rules in Hollywood and was like, yeah, you know, have them all. but uh but so yeah yeah between so i've got star wars out hateful eights coming out that i really want to see i want to see this movie the revenant with uh dicaprio getting mauled by a bear we're seeing previews for that now it'll be releasing in december january the 8th over here domestically that's where it is for us and it's uh it's the same guy that directed birdman and i've already talked to somebody that's seen the movie and they said that it does a lot of those very very long takes um like birdman did well but birdman tried to make it look like it was all one take i don't think this movie tries to do pull that off um but uh anyway so that's three movies right there that i want to see they're all going to be hot releases and that pretty much spells the doom for hunger games so i'm like i may not get to see in the theater it's we saw it we went to a small cinema complex called dendy which will mean nothing to you but they got small little cinemas um i'd say probably around let's call it 30 or 40 seat cinemas little baby cinemas and the screens are kind of smallish as well like if you had a pretty big like ratio size i would think that if you had a um uh like a big 70 or 80 inch television in your lounge and you went to uh this particular cinema uh that we saw it in you'd be going oh that's about the same size as my television from a ratio perspective like if i was sitting like in front sort of uh you know you could probably say it's pretty close which is kind of strange because if you think about what they're doing at the moment with tvs and with um home viewing technology that's a strange thing to do um that is so we we went there and saw it and yes it it would have been better than what we would have seen at home because we don't have a really super huge tv i'm working on it but it's not something that we're going to have in the immediate future. I'd love to have a 70-inch because they're coming down so much in price now. It's ridiculous how cheap they are. You know, what used to be a $5,000 TV set is now two grand. Oh, yeah. It's so ridiculous.
    31:50
    So, yeah, these little mini cinemas, I don't know if they're the right approach for cinemas whose only real sort of selling point is the group crowd experience and the vision in large. So, yeah, I'm not sure of the approach. Well, that and not having to wait the additional four months or whatever for it to come out on DVD. Well, that's right. Or, you know, internet backup.
    32:20
    So, yeah. I can't. My buddy does that. It would be tough because you're in the industry. Like it's, it's essentially, you know, it's cheating on your industry for you. It's not a money thing for me. It's a presentation thing for me. And it's, uh, I know that he can get ahold of, you know, basically what are, what are screener copies of these movies, but it's, there's no way I'm ever going to watch one of those on my computer screen. So unless I have a way to TV, if you can get up to your TV and watch it, then I guess that's a little bit better and stuff. But then again, also it's how is the audio quality? Because the audio needs to usually be sweetened for the home experience versus the movie theater experience. The movie mix. Because a lot of, I mean, I'm finding with me, like when I'm listening to one of these internet backed up movies, I'm finding that the audio mix on a 2.1 system, which is what I've got, is really strange. You miss a lot of the voice that comes through the center channel. and what I think they do because a lot of the movies now that are distributed on digital those people who are nefarious and naughty and get the, upload these wicked, wicked people that's right, these bad, bad people I think what they do is they somehow rip the movie off the source disc, so the distributed to cinemas, I don't know how they do that well here's what's going around here's what's going around uh right now because it's becoming award season everybody's getting screeners of the movies that are in the the i shouldn't say everybody people that can vote aren't getting screeners of the movie right so i was just at work and one of the guys was saying oh yeah my buddy just got hateful eight as a screener and wanted to you know see if i can i'm like it's not even in a theater yet you've got a screener in your home you know now they do put they put security tags and stuff on that but please as if somebody doesn't know how to figure that out and you know dice around that so yeah i mean and whenever you've heard any of these leaks like uh when uh was expendables two or three i can't remember which uh got leaked and had like the most downloads of any movie to date kind of thing.
    34:48
    Yeah, it leaked from the mastering house or from one of the... It was one of these things where it wasn't somebody with their camcorder doing this. This was somebody within the industry leaking it. And it's like, so for all the security protocols, for all the security protocols that you're worried about general consumer ripping it, you don't have them for your own people. It's like, genius. Yeah, that's a bit strange, right?
    35:25
    Here's what's strange to me. So Star Wars came out, no table announcement from Stern, no table announcement from Zen.
    35:34
    Really? I really expected there. Well, I shouldn't be so shocked about Stern, because we would have heard about that well in advance. but I am kind of shocked that Zen doesn't have anything announced regarding it yeah maybe so let me I'm not aware of the Star Wars zeitgeist at the moment are there more movies planned with this new storyline there's a movie planned for every year for the next foreseeable future so there's more movies in the pipeline for Star Wars there yeah so what you've got is you've got this being episode 7. Next year, they're going to come out with row 1, which is not tied to episode 7. Then there's going to be... There's rumored to be a Boba Fett or Han Solo movie, and then there will be episode 8. Basically, they're taking the... Marvel approach. Yes. Whereas the Star Wars true canon, those would be your Avengers movies, and then all the other things would be your Thor and Captain America, etc. That type of thing.
    36:44
    Right. So it's every couple of years you'll have the core main movie and then in the filler end gaps you'll have the spin-off movies and what can expand the universe. So that might be the reason why we haven't actually heard anything from these guys. It's still one of those things where it's like... Well think about what they did with Lord of the Rings on Jersey Jack. Yeah, Jersey Jack. Sorry, The Hobbit, right? So they waited until all three movies were done so they could get all the assets, get the narrative and story right, and then start fleshing out the table and the rules and all that. So if they just did it on episode seven, that would be a pretty shallow that would potentially be a pretty shallow production But if they waited for a few more in the series and then tied the whole table story and the journey that you go through in the table that might actually be a more compelling argument particularly for the home market which is what they're targeting now so again i can understand that for the physical pinball table but as far as zen is concerned you know well i guess they do release them in table packs but they have always they do have the episode four, five and six tables so I don't know I thought that was kind of interesting one of those missed opportunities that you just kind of go it's not a gimme but I guess not yeah I know releases are hard we know this with the continued discussions we're having with all these people So getting all the ducks lined up in time to actually have it go live. I mean, we've heard Bobby talking about this from Zen, just how much pre-planning goes into orchestrating a release like that. Right.
    38:36
    This being so heavily guarded and so fully secret, that would have made it potentially even harder to do. Well, maybe you're onto something there. that could be where they were like yeah we're gonna use them all the actors right like they were hardcore about it this time around there was no leaking at all so maybe that has something to do with it as well could be could be that's a decent theory I guess I'll accept it well let's go with it
    39:15
    let's go with that I've been going off the reservation a bit and having a look at some other pinball games. I use my little scare quote fingers there on Google Play. And I've kind of found a couple that don't suck that much.
    39:31
    There's this one called Not Pinball. And it's the strangest sort of concept I've seen. It's like you don't have flippers as such. You use your finger to poke the ball where it needs to go. And it's got people elements like pop bumpers, drop targets, and things like that. But it's sort of like a mission-based thing. So in one of the modes, the idea is to build aircraft. And what you're doing is you're shooting elements in this sort of like continuously procedurally generated world. Okay. And you're shooting like pop bumpers to build up this energy bar at the bottom. You're shooting drop targets to build up another energy bar at the bottom. And you might be shooting trap holes to like recharge something over here. and then when they're all recharged, your aircraft launches and then you go and select another aircraft type by putting the ball into a hole and then starting to move your way up the playfield again. So that's one of the modes. The other mode is the survival mode, which is kind of insane.
    40:33
    Everything is trying to kill your ball and make it go down and you've got to keep it alive and avoid traps. and it's... Is it called Australia, the table?
    40:47
    Well, the mode is sort of set in a jungly... That particular mode is sort of set in like a jungly forest thing and you've got water avalanches and like spike pits and bear traps and stuff that can trap your ball. So it's a little bit gimmicky, but I tell you what, it's free. It's got ads on the bottom of it, like between the levels, but no ads during the game. And I've got to say, it's kind of fun. So not pinball. Not pinball on Google Play. Check it out if you want to sort of have something, a bit of a time killer over Christmas.
    41:17
    The rubbish that's on the App Store on Google Play seems to be getting slightly better with some of these developers. They're actually putting some effort in.
    41:27
    The biggest problem we have on Google Play is people using the open source vector pinball libraries. And they're just going, oh, look, let's make a pinball game. And we'll put this really attractive splash screen on it which makes it look great. And then you go in there and it's vector line pinball. And you're just going, oh, another one that's done that. It's all cheating. So those ones are frustrating. So you have to really pull through it.
    41:51
    Bait and switch. Yeah, bait and switch for sure. Yeah, it's pretty rough. So we've got the pro pinball has actually officially released on Google Play now. You can actually buy it if you're not a Kickstarter. and going along with that,
    42:11
    the Kickstarter pool have got their own sort of version provision through the Google Play beta testing functionality in Google+. So we now essentially have a Play Store version of it rather than just like a file upload version of it. So it will continue to receive updates and maintenance releases and stuff like that and they can provision it that way. So that's good to finally see that product available for sale so people can actually buy it. Very cool. So that's great. I think they're now working on PC stuff for that product. So I wish them all the luck, and I'd love to see some more ProPimple tables eventuate as they start to get better at it and quicker at it.
    42:56
    Yeah, because I don't think I'll be purchasing until there's actually more than one to purchase. It's a pretty deep table if you haven't played Time Shock before. No, I know. But it's also one of those things where it's just like, I'm not a fan of one-offing apps. You know what I mean? I want, if it's going to take up my space, I want to actually be there for me to play multiple things on it. I don't know. I'm weird that way. Go figure. But I was never in the initial run of pro pinball, so I have zero nostalgia for it. Um, when they did the, I think when they were doing the Kickstarter, uh, they had, I think they re-released or did something where you get to time shock for free. I think it was temporarily.
    43:45
    Yeah. And so I messed, I messed around with it. And again, it, I get the beauty of it, but it, it just doesn't have any grab on me. So, um, it's not going to have a grab on me until there's multiple tables. so uh yes the lighting simulations were fantastic now that doesn't make a game for me sorry you know it's it's again it's it's when we first got pimble arcade and there was only four tables you know those four tables are going to hold your interest for you know a couple of weeks and then you're going to be like okay what's next so i want the what's next and with the way these guys have been functioning the what's next is going to take a long time so yeah what makes So you can probably, if they do actually end up doing something like Big Race USA or The Web or Fantastic Journey to complete the four set of them, it'll be a long march to actually have them out. It's like this. It's like, yes, one M&M is tasty, but I want the bag. so Pimble was saying in chat that Big Race USA or Bruiser is next on the dance card for them but I'm hoping that they've actually they've had some tough lessons Barnstorm Games in this production run they've learned a lot of things about how not to not how not to promise and deliver Pimble has just put up on the board here don't quote me on that well too late he just quoted you can't take it back Sorry. Yeah, that's all right. Pimblewiz says, as the authority on all things Barnstorm Games. Right. But, yes, it'll be next. But it stands to reason it probably would be next. It's probably the next popular table in the series. The web is okay. It's, out of all the tables, it's really a static-looking table. There's nothing really on it that moves or holds your interest. and I'm sure Pimblewiz can confirm this but it's basically Star Trek The Next Generation but mirrored so it's a bit boring but yeah, Big Race is good. Big Race is very good.
    45:59
    Hey, I think this is going to do it I believe for probably the next two weeks for Blockade. There might be a might, talk to the wife, there might be a little special bonus episode if we go see Star Wars. So it'll be a completely non-pinball related discussion if that happens.
    46:18
    But otherwise, just wanted to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year, and all that other good jazz. Oh, yes. She's just the flavor of the week.
    46:35
    Which table of the week? I almost forgot. Well, the tournament, by the time this gets on the air, will be almost happening.
    46:46
    But yes, for those listening in the here, I'm going to dump a little coal into everybody's stocking. Because I really don't think this tournament is going to get that big of a turnout. So now is the time for us to play Going Nuts. Oh, yeah.
    47:03
    Going Nuts is your tale of the week. Going Nuts. What a great thing. have over Christmas. It's awesome going nuts on the fire, shall we?
    47:16
    It was just one of those things where it's like, why don't we put the throwaway table on throwaway week?
    47:22
    Yeah. And yeah, so it's going to be good. Enjoy your turkey and stay the hell away from Pimble Arcade during table of the week this time. Unless you really are going nuts for some tables and then you can go and play it. See what I did there? I am going to though, today being Sunday when we record, but by the time this gets up, it'll be Tuesday or Wednesday.
    47:45
    It actually will be this week. I shouldn't be... I'll be catching the train at each stage, so I should actually have time to post-process it. I'm going to go ahead and open up the tournament sign-ups pretty much now.
    47:59
    Once I get around to it today and get people in the tournament, because I know it's going to be just a crazy busy week, and now everybody's going to be thinking about the tournament the day after Christmas. No way.
    48:11
    And keep an eye on Twitter too, because we'll shout out about it on Twitter and we'll probably update the forum here and there as well, just to keep you guys in the loop. So yeah, just subscribe into the thread. We'll send you the appropriate push notifications so you don't forget about having a bit of a flip while you're recovering from eating too much turkey. Yes, as usual, if you have not followed us, follow the show at Blockade. You can follow myself at Shut Your Traps and you can follow Jared at Jared Morgz. Yes, you can.
    48:43
    Alright, gang. Well, enjoy the food, enjoy the presents, enjoy the time with your family, and we will see you all again very, very soon. Probably in the new year. Sometime in the new year. See you then, everyone. Alright, take care, everybody. Bye-bye. We'll see you next time. but mention Blockade Podcast and receive 10% off your order. WizardAmusement.com. Sales, restoration, customization.
    49:43
    Don't forget to leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast hosting service that Blockade is delivered to. We can't improve unless you tell us how. Now stop listening and play some pinball.