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Episode 16: "Did I Just Buy Metallica? Expo Highlights, Regrets & New Code Updates You Can't Miss!"

The Flipside Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·37m 57s·analyzed·Nov 3, 2024
e31b0043-16c5-4e65-9415-4e00da33333b
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Post-Expo recap: community focus, X-Men code progress, auto-plunger woes, Metallica purchase incoming.

Summary

Host reflects on Pinball Expo experience, highlights social connections and new player conversions, discusses Uncanny X-Men code progression and auto-plunger issues, mentions purchasing Metallica (requiring Venom sale), and reviews recent code updates across multiple Stern titles including John Wick and Jaws.

Key Claims

  • Jersey Jack puts more complete code into machines at launch; Stern releases minimal code that develops over time through patches

    high confidence · Host's direct comparison of manufacturing approaches based on personal experience with multiple games

  • Uncanny X-Men has no published rule sheet yet; John Wick may also lack one; Jaws now has one

    medium confidence · Host states uncertainty ('I think') about rule sheet status across titles

  • Auto-plunger issue on Uncanny X-Men persists despite replacement fork assembly; no community solution has achieved 100% success

    high confidence · Host's direct personal testing and review of community attempts on PinSide

  • Manual plunger with red spring achieves 90-95% success rate on Uncanny X-Men

    high confidence · Host's personal testing of workaround

  • Turner Pinball (Ninja Eclipse) sold out all 100 initial units

    high confidence · Host's direct statement about Chris Turner's sales milestone

  • Chicago Gaming's Pulp Fiction (newer model) selling for $7,500 new in box locally

    high confidence · Host's direct observation of local pricing

  • Host inspired some people at Expo to buy their first pinball machine

    high confidence · People approached host at Expo and directly told him this

Notable Quotes

  • “There's so much more to it than just like whacking the ball around with flippers. There's so much more to it.”

    Host (Retro Ralph)@ 3:36 — Core philosophy about pinball's depth and complexity; used to explain conversion of arcade players to pinball enthusiasts

  • “You can kind of exploit that left-hand shot on the left side of the Sentinel head and kind of keep shooting that in a lot of the missions and kind of complete them a lot easier.”

    Host@ 11:23 — Identifies potential code exploit in Uncanny X-Men; practical strategy based on Triple Drain video analysis

  • “The auto plunger thing has been a total pain in the ass.”

    Host @ ~40:00 — Blunt assessment of persistent hardware issue affecting user experience

  • “I'm not one to go like flame a company because something isn't working right. I want to take the time to work with them.”

    Host@ 18:22 — Philosophy toward manufacturer problem-solving; contrasts collaborative vs. adversarial approaches

  • “So I did buy Jaws new in box, but I bought it way later than, let's say, someone that bought it at launch. And my experience was like, oh, man, this game's amazing.”

    Host@ 13:55 — Demonstrates impact of code maturity on first-time player perception; illustrates Stern's evolving code model

  • “Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna [buy Metallica]. It's coming. So, uh, but something has to go. So, and this, this pains me but um venom's venom's gotta go.”

    Host@ 26:28 — Purchase decision announcement; reveals space constraints and collection management strategy

Entities

Retro RalphpersonTravispersonTompersonJoelpersonKylepersonChris TurnerpersonKaleperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo featured expanded homebrew section with dedicated area (previously wall-mounted), multiple panel discussions, free play room, and strong attendance. Host describes it as successful.

    high · Host's detailed recap of Expo layout changes and activities; emphasis on homebrew legitimization

  • ?

    code_update: New code brought to Expo by Stern including UI improvements (mission complete animations, progress bars), mission progress persistence feature, and enhanced status indicators

    high · Host's firsthand experience with new code at Expo and detailed description of new features

  • ?

    code_update: Latest John Wick code added lights out feature (Kane-inspired darkness mechanic), DJ mixer mode, expanded music integration, but modes remain incomplete and confusing

    high · Host's direct gameplay experience and detailed mechanic explanations

  • ?

    product_concern: Uncanny X-Men auto-plunger issue persists despite Stern replacement fork assembly; affects multiball and skill shot functionality; no reliable fix confirmed by community; Stern actively troubleshooting

    high · Host's ongoing testing, YouTube shorts, ticket reopening with Kyle at Stern, and PinSide community reports

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Triple Drain video revealed Sentinel Laboratory mission as high-value starting point (50M+ average), left-side Sentinel head shot can be exploited to complete missions more easily, mission progress now saves between attempts

    high · Host's analysis of Triple Drain strategy video and personal gameplay verification

Topics

Expo Experience & Social CommunityprimaryUncanny X-Men Code Development & StrategyprimaryAuto-Plunger Hardware IssuesprimaryStern vs Jersey Jack Manufacturing PhilosophyprimaryJohn Wick Code UpdatessecondaryPersonal Collection ManagementsecondaryPinball Industry Growth & Player ConversionsecondaryTournament/Competitive Play Metamentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— Host is enthusiastic about Expo social experience and pinball community growth. Optimistic about code progression on Uncanny X-Men despite auto-plunger frustration. Measured and collaborative in approach to manufacturer issues rather than adversarial. Excited about Metallica purchase. Minor regrets about not exploring free play room fully.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.114

0:00
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Flipside Podcast. I think this is episode 16. I can't believe we've already done 16 of these. I'm fresh back from Expo. Well, not fresh. It's been, I don't know, has it been a couple weeks already back from Expo?
0:30
But, yeah, it's been crazy, man. Work, just, you know, you take like three days off work, and then you come back on a Sunday to then have to work on a Monday. Who planned that out? That's stupid. That was stupid. So I was totally, totally in disarray that Monday coming back from Expo because I had just played pinball for, you know, three, four days straight. And it was like, that's all I wanted to do. I didn't even want to break. I couldn't talk because I had lost my voice. But anyway, so who knows? But wow, what an expo. So we're going to talk a little bit about that. But also I'm going to talk about some news stuff that's just happened recently. So let's just get right into it.
1:10
So anyways, I would highly suggest if you do go to Expo, if you can take an extra day off work, maybe do that because I was totally toasted on that Monday. It was really hard to focus coming back, but I had a great time. so let's let's recap that just just real quick i think if i had any highlight of the show like i took some notes because i had a lot of things but um the biggest highlight is me hanging out with friends so i meet up there every year with a lot of friends and some of those friends have actually uh been people i did not know and met at expo so uh there's a buddy of mine ryan who i didn't know
1:49
like three years ago i think i think it was three years ago that i met him and he comes to expo every year and hangs out with us every year. So that's really fun. So he's become like a really good friend. And there's a whole bunch of other people that kind of come and hang out. And I think this year was the first year where I could say, really didn't focus as much on filming. I really focused more on playing the games, right? And playing with friends and then just meeting people. So there were so many people that came up to me and just, we talked about pinball. Some had
Rachel
person
Jamieperson
Ryanperson
Bob Roseperson
Ianperson
Melvinperson
Robperson
Stern Pinballcompany
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Chicago Gaming Companycompany
Turner Pinballcompany
Electric Playgroundcompany
Pinball Projectorganization
Triple Drain Podcastorganization
Electric Batcompany
Pinball Expoevent
Uncanny X-Mengame
Metallicagame
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jersey Jack delivers more code-complete games at launch with patch updates; Stern ships minimal feature code that evolves significantly over time; impacts buyer experience based on purchase timing

    high · Host's detailed comparison across multiple Stern titles (Jaws, John Wick, X-Men) and JJP approach

  • ?

    content_signal: Flipside Podcast reaching new audiences at Expo; multiple people approached host about podcast discovery; listeners inspired to purchase machines; show notes and voicemail feature planned

    high · Host's direct observation of Expo interactions and announced voicemail feature implementation

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Host initially hesitant after unfavorable launch stream, but improved confidence through gameplay and conversation with Kale; now enjoying game progression; sentiment shifted from cautious to positive

    high · Host's explicit narrative arc from pre-order doubt to current enthusiasm

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Kyle recently hired at Stern (1-1.5 years); runs tech school; actively engaged in troubleshooting auto-plunger issues with customers; positive community reception

    high · Host's recognition of Kyle and collaborative support effort

  • ?

    product_launch: Host announced purchase of Metallica (Stern) with delivery imminent; requires Venom sale to make room

    high · Host's direct announcement: 'Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna [buy Metallica]. It's coming.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Turner Pinball (Ninja Eclipse) sold all 100 initial units; moving to next title; Chris Turner receptive to community feedback on design (coin door, cabinet redesign)

    high · Host's congratulations and observation of sellout status; Chris Turner's public responsiveness to community criticism

  • $

    market_signal: Chicago Gaming Pulp Fiction (newer model) listed at $7,500 new in box locally; host acknowledges this as good pricing relative to original MSRP over $8,000

    high · Host's observation of local distributor pricing for non-Stern game

    • 2:20
    listened to the podcast and and that's now how they knew me not through my normal retro ralph youtube stuff where i was doing mostly arcade gaming and restoration stuff so that was really neat so it's just it's cool that um that you know i'm sharing my new passion here and a lot of people are coming along for the ride actually there are a couple of people that even came up to me and said uh you inspired me to buy my first pinball machine and that's really cool so if we can convert some of these arcade fans, you know, not convert, meaning they're abandoning their arcade stuff,
    2:53
    but getting into pinball would be great because pinball is growing. There's new products releasing all the time from multiple different companies. So I feel like it'd be really cool if we could get more people to realize how fun pinball actually is, because I was one of those people that did not really realize that at all until my first pinball expo. Just wasn't something I really thought much about. I almost, in my mind, thought pinball was sort of a dead thing. And then come to find out, I'm like, holy crap, like all these people are here, you know, at Expo.
    3:25
    This was the Godzilla year. And it's like, holy crap. You don't know what you don't know sometimes. So when you open up some people's eyes to something new and they give it a chance, you know, because there's more to it than just like whacking the ball around with flippers. There's so much more to it. And I guess that's kind of where my head was at. I thought, oh, they're just different themes and you're just like whacking the ball around it's like that it couldn't be further from the truth how deep some of the code goes and everything so anyways but so my highlight of the trip was definitely being able to hang out with friends uh but we'll get into that a little bit
    3:56
    more in a second the other thing i just wanted to talk about like expo notables was uh metallica like metallica was just even though even though uncanny x-men was i had see i had bought uncanny X-Men, so I had it delivered, or I went and picked it up probably a week and a half before Expo, so it's not like that wasn't exciting to me, it just was a little less exciting because I had been playing it. Although I will say, the one thing that was really cool is Stern brought new code to Expo that, you know, while that code is still very early on Uncanny X-Men, there was a lot of
    4:31
    things like around the user interface when you're entering a mode and you're completing a mission, Like there was some cool animation that wasn't there before. It now says mission complete. There's some status progress bar stuff that wasn't there. So that stuff was kind of cool for me to see and experience for the first time at Expo. And then we're going to get into, obviously, the auto plunge issues because those still exist. I don't know if they're showing up on all models or not. I really don't know yet now that the premiums and pros are starting to get out there. So if you are a listener here and you are still having that problem and you're on the YouTube channel version of the podcast, definitely leave a comment.
    5:09
    And then also don't leave at the end of the show because I have something that I'm going to try. Sorry, my voice. I'm going to try this for the podcast. I did it before when I was doing a show called Coffee Talk, which is mostly arcade related. but I have a link I'm going to provide where you can leave a voicemail for the show. And then what I'll do is you can ask a question, you know, it could be anything, but you know, hopefully it's pinball related. If it's, if it's life related, sure. Maybe if it,
    5:40
    maybe we'll talk about that too, but I would prefer it to be pinball related questions or questions about the pinball industry or whatever it might be. And then I will play those either in the front of the episode or the middle somewhere. I haven't chose, I haven't chose where I'll put it exactly, but I just thought that would be fun. So there'll be a link. You go to that link, you record a voicemail, and then I will get that voicemail. I'll screen them all before I do the podcast and we'll just talk about it. So we'll see like what questions you guys have. When I did it before, a lot of crazy, there was a lot of crazy ones and I played some of those too,
    6:13
    but yeah, I mean, we can have fun with it, obviously bust on me, whatever you want, but it'd be fun to do that. So there'll be a link at the end of, there'll be a link in the YouTube version on the on on, you know, in the description of the video where you can you can hit it and hit the link and you can go record a voice message for the show. So. All right. So X-Men Notables, obviously Metallica was big for me and it definitely was big for everybody else. But there was a lot of other great things at Expo, too. The homebrew section was like off the chart
    6:46
    this year. They actually have a had an actual section, not just pushed up against the wall, which is where they've been for years. So that's really cool to legitimize, you know, the homebrew section a little bit more because people are making some awesome creations and they should be celebrated, you know? I don't know why Tony Hawk was not in that area. Tony Hawk was over by Electric Playground, the guys that make the really cool pinball toppers. If you haven't seen that video, I made one on their Godzilla 70th black and white. It's really cool. And those guys are actually really cool. I had never met Rob in person.
    7:18
    I got a chance to meet him. and I can't remember his partner's name, but he was really cool too. He was passing out, um, fireball, little fireball, little, uh, back East, we call those things nips. Those little alcohol bottles are called nips when I, where I grew up. And when I moved back, moved West and talked about nips, people were like, what the hell are you talking about? I was like the little nips. And they were like, okay, this guy's creepy. I'm like, dude, that's what we call them. So if you're listening to this podcast and you live back East, do you not call them nips because that's what we used to call them when i moved west everyone thought i was
    7:52
    absolutely freaking insane for calling them that but anyway so uh let's talk real quick about the other notable notables for me i'd say um i'd say probably outside of metallica and uncanny x-men i did enjoy playing alice's adventures in wonderland if you watched my whole recap video on expo i did say it played a bit clunky but that was my initial experience of it i only got a chance to play four balls i played two and then melvin i think his name is melvin over there really nice guy by the way he was really cool and took some time um to really like uh kind of
    8:26
    explain the layout and and what things you were supposed to shoot at and stuff but i don't know like for me and this is this is with all games guys like you gotta play them for a while before you can really come up with a like an assessment of what you like and what you don't like about the game because you can easily jump on a new game and have like a bunch of really bad balls at first until you really kind of get a feel for it. So take it with a grain of salt when I say it was clunky. I say it was clunky because my first couple games were not good. So maybe if I got into
    8:57
    a flow after a little while, it would have been great, but I never got there. So and sometimes that happens. Like sometimes you jump on a game, like it took me a lot of games before I felt real good about Avatar. Like Avatar at first, it was just I didn't know the shots. I couldn't figure out that like scoop ramp thing. And then I finally did. So like after I figured that out, I enjoyed it more but that's like almost all pinball machines like it's very rare that i jump on something and i'm initially like oh my gosh this is the most amazing game ever because you have to learn the shots and then once you do then i think you really can that why it like i really shy away from doing like pinball review videos because um especially in the beginning i want to like play it for a
    9:35
    while before i really give you my this is this is a game i really like and right now i'm really liking uncanny x-men i'll give you like my two second version on that is uh at first um it was weird because i had that like bad feeling about it after the live stream which i know a lot of you guys did too because the live stream just wasn't good when they when they featured it so i was a little nervous i kept my pre-order and then i got it and then once i got it i was like i felt a lot better about it i'd also talked to kale uh from electric bat we had that episode and he made me
    10:06
    feel more comfortable with the fact that i had pre-ordered it because at that point i i still uh could have made a decision whether i wanted to back out or not and i didn't and i'm really liking the game the game is really fun the code is developing so i i shouldn't say when i say the game is fun, I'll say the shots are really fun. Like the shots are fun and satisfying. The code needs a lot of work still, but as they've progressed and they just drop another code release just recently, I'm seeing the progression and I'm enjoying the progression. I will say I was watching Triple Drain the other day or listening to it. And Travis was talking about
    10:39
    this strategy. Actually, he has a video, a dedicated video to it too. So they were talking about it and then the pinball company has a dedicated video that travis did about strategies for playing uncanny x-men and uh one thing that that i i took away from from his video and i'm like oh man i've been doing this like a more difficult route is when you go to start a mode in uncanny x-men i was shooting that far left ramp twice and then it and then the post comes up it locks the ball and then it uh or not locks the ball but stops the ball and then the the mission
    11:10
    user interface pops up. It's much easier, probably, if you go with the shot on the left of the Sentinel head, just do that twice, and then that'll start a mode. Also, you can kind of exploit that left-hand shot on the left side of the Sentinel head and kind of keep shooting that in a lot of the missions and kind of complete them a lot easier. That might be just a code exploit right now because you can kind of just do that shot and you can kind of defeat some of the missions the
    11:41
    one thing i will say though if you're looking to rack up points quickly go with the more difficult missions versus the the go with the challenging missions versus the simple ones so i now start and this is because of travis but i start with the sentinel laboratory or whatever it is sentinel i can't remember what it's called it's the one so if you're if you've got the user interface up it's the one to the right of Juggernaut. So that's where I've been starting, and you can rack up some big points. Like right now, I can kind of average like 50 million after that,
    12:13
    if I can complete that the first time. But the cool thing about the new code is it actually saves the progress of that mission. So if you don't complete the mission and you don't drain the ball, I think, I don't know, actually, if you drain the ball, I think it still applies too. But you can go back into that mission and complete it, and your progress is saved. So it's not like you have to start that mission all over again. But I'd like to see more depth in the missions and everything. Like there's just, it's new, right? And that leads me to something I wanted to talk about a little bit. We keep talking about this on the podcast, and I kind of talked about it a little bit,
    12:45
    about the code and how a lot of these companies roll out their products. I'd say they don't all roll them out the same. Jersey Jack seems to put more time into the code. So what you get delivered is not, I don't know if I'd say it's code complete, but it's close to code complete. And then they kind of make like subsequent almost patch updates to what would be like a completed code base. That seems to be how Jersey Jack does it. And I think that's actually kind of nice because what you're getting is more of the completed game
    13:15
    with the rules well thought out. But when you're buying a modern Stern, you're really getting, if you decide to go new in box and buy it brand new, you're getting like minimal code, right? It's like you can call it a working game, but a lot of the deep rule sets are not developed. I mean, if you look at Uncanny X-Men, there is no published rule sheet yet. I actually think on John Wick there might not be a published rule sheet yet either. I know Jaws, I'm pretty sure, has one now. I'm pretty sure. So, like, think about it.
    13:46
    I bought Jaws late, later. And what I experienced is way different than the person that bought Jaws day one. So I did buy Jaws new in box, but I bought it way later than, let's say, someone that bought it at launch. And my experience was like, oh, man, this game's amazing. I don't know if I unboxed that day one if I would have said that. Just like how John Wick, the latest code just dropped on John Wick. They added a lot more new features, but the modes in John Wick are still kind of incomplete.
    14:20
    And they feel really confusing. I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to do. on John Wick modes. Like, I don't. I'm like, I'm just going to hit all these lit shots. I mean, it seems like you'll go into some mission and it'll be like, you know, you're hitting the lit shots, but it just doesn't feel like that satisfying to me. But on the flip side, the new lights out feature is really cool, although it doesn't do a whole lot, but it's kind of cool. Like, you spell Bob, I don't know. I forget the term from the movie,
    14:51
    but you spell it down at the bottom, and then when you spell it it um you the the your action button will flash it's red i think and then you hit it and like all the lights go out on the play field so it's really cool it kind of makes it challenging i think what they're trying to do there is it's supposed to be like although this is weird because i view you playing as john wick like when you're playing that game i feel like you're playing as keanu reeves as john wick but the lights out feature kind of reminds me of kane because Kane is blind. So if you've watched John Wick 4, Kane is a blind assassin.
    15:25
    So I think that's what they're trying to do with the lights out. And then I didn't play with it that much yet. I just started playing it because really most of my attention is going on Kenny X-Men right now. I think you can hit the action button again, and then it will quickly show you some of the stuff you're supposed to hit, and then it goes back to dark again. It's really a cool effect. Like from a lighting perspective, it looks awesome. And if you're in a dim room, it's pretty badass. and they incorporated a lot more music into it now. The soundtrack, there was no DJ mixer mode even on that game yet. So that's now in the code.
    15:56
    The lights out features now in the code and it seems like they're exploiting or using the music a lot more. So it's got a good vibe. It's getting there. So I'm having fun with that, but unfortunately Uncanny X-Men's getting the majority of the time. And I realized that I'm not at all talking about Expo right now. So that's awesome. But yeah, I did want to mention one more thing about Uncanny X-Men before we move on to other Expo stuff and just some general news topics is that the auto plunger thing has been a total pain in the ass.
    16:27
    I published a YouTube short where they sent me a new auto plunger assembly. The only thing I'll say is it looked like the forks were pushed inward more, like almost diagonal inward, which made it kind of have an impact on the ball that was much different than the forks it shipped with. So the auto plunger forks were kind of straight dead on before. So that did help. But when I filmed that short, I did three plunges. All three went all the way around. so i was like cool it fixed it you know but if you look at the the comments or the pinned comment i
    17:01
    made on that video it didn't fix it it's actually kind of got progressively worse now not worse than new in box but it's definitely not sticking as a as a solution i think there's a lot more going on and i've talked to a bunch of different people there's community members on pin side and stuff trying to address it in different ways and honestly i don't really think anybody's come up with a solution that's stuck to get 100% of the auto plunger success. I just haven't seen that yet. So I do have, I did have an initial case open or ticket open with Stern. They did send
    17:34
    that part, but I did now reopen a new one to say, Hey, that didn't seem to work. And I'm working with, um, I'm working with, uh, Kyle over there. So if you know, Kyle, Kyle is the one that does the, uh, Stern tech school thing. I've met him a couple of times. It was interesting because I saw his name, I'm like, Kyle, Kyle. I was like, oh, it's that Kyle. I was like, the Kyle that told me how to adjust the Jaws chum line. Like, so cool. He's a really nice guy, by the way. I met him in person. Super nice guy. I think he was only hired like a year or a year and a half ago at
    18:07
    Stern. So thanks, Kyle, for helping me out with that so far. I know that you're probably working on a lot of different potential fixes for it. So I've tried a couple of the things that you've suggested. It's making some marginal improvements, but yeah, hopefully we can get that fixed. I'm not one to go like flame a company because something isn't working right. I want to take the time to work with them. That's just my style. I'm definitely more of an optimistic person, a positive person. I'm not going to sit in here and say how everything's like crap because it's not working. Now, if the company wasn't working with me, like if Stern decided, hey, like there's
    18:42
    all these people opening up tickets and no one's, they're not helping. Well, that's different. Now, Now you're going to have a different attitude. But if a company has a problem, which all companies do, right? Let's face it. All of these pinball companies or any company in general that releases a product never has flawless execution And there always some kind of problem here and there or potential problem here and there and they working to fix it So if they weren being so helpful in wanting to fix it then yeah, I would say that would be grounds for me being upset. But just my personality style, I kind of more of a calm, cool, collected kind of a guy.
    19:14
    I'm not going to go and go freak out and go nuts. Is it a bummer? Am I upset and disappointed about the auto plunger? sure but i'm also seeing that um they're gonna fix the issue um the only thing that's kind of a bummer is it does kind of affect it does affect multi-ball because when multi-ball is coming out it's obviously shooting them out and at rapid succession and if it's not going all the way around the backside and feeding that that right flipper it it prevents you from playing the game properly during that and then also um if if you if you drain a ball and you get a ball save
    19:47
    or not, sorry, not drain a ball and get a ball save. But when you do the first launch and you want to get your skill shot, it can sometimes interfere with that too because the skill shot timer could be kind of depleted and then now you're not going to get it. I will say my manual plunger, my fix for that is I put on the red spring, not getting 100% success rate, but really close. It's like 90, 95% success rate. So that's really good. All right, let's keep going. Do I have any regrets from Expo? My one regret is that I really didn't spend a lot of time in that free play room and there were a lot of really awesome games in there. I'm so bummed about
    20:21
    that, but I spent a lot of time on the show floor. And then I did have, I say I didn't do as much filming and stuff, which that's true, but I still had obligations. I did the pinball project thing and that was really fun that the team over there was really great. So I announced their silent auction winners. Very fun. If you've never checked out, check them out, go, go check them out. I'll have a link in the description, but they do a lot of great things. They put, they put games in children's hospitals and Ronald McDonald houses. So, uh, they're, they're doing a lot of great work over there. Then I did, uh, participate with Bob Rose and the token taverns, uh, token
    20:53
    taverns panel, because I was in that movie. Uh, Bob's a good friend. So, so I wanted to support him through that. And then, uh, what else did I do? Oh, and then I made a, I did a podcast. So I did that podcast with kale, Rachel, and then Jamie over at wormhole, which was really fun. But you know, a lot of that stuff takes a long time to set up. Like you're setting up all your gear and you don't realize how much time between setup tear down you know go put that back away and then go back on the show floor so anyways and uh yeah i'm getting older i'm 45 so i don't i don't uh do as well with uh i think it was the triple drain guys it might have been it
    21:27
    might have been tom yeah it might have been tom tom was talking about how like man it's hard if you don't get a lot of sleep it's true like i used to be able to roll on roll into these conferences in the past and just get like three hours of sleep and be like, yeah, I'm rocking it now. Not so much. So, yeah, I don't take naps, though. If I did, I think that would be helpful for an expo. I think it'd be cool to like do a quick power nap and come back. And that is what I like about staying on location there. It is kind of really convenient. All right. Anyways, let's go on to the next thing. I have some notes here. Oh, the other thing, too, that was really cool,
    22:01
    I think, is that so my regrets would be not hanging out in that free play room a little bit more. but one of the cool things is I did get to meet several people I hadn't met before but also I did get finally got a chance to meet Travis and I feel like I've met Tom this is all the triple drain guys I feel like I've met Tom before but I can't remember but we had a second to talk it was really Travis and Tom I don't know where Joel was though like I didn't see Joel I feel like I never really get any time with Joel I don't know why like I see him and then he's gone
    22:33
    But I was kind of joking with Travis. I'm like, for a while, I really thought you guys, because they rip on Joel so much. I'm like, do you guys just not like him? I know they do. It's just like a joke now. But I think there are people that probably message them to this day and think that they really dislike their friend. And it's obvious they're just a group of good guys who have become friends over time. But, yeah. So I guess if there was another regret, it would have been nice to catch up with them later and get more time with them. And then Ian, my buddy from Nudge Magazine, I really didn't get a chance to hang out with him much.
    23:05
    We did hang out for a little bit, but it was brief. The other notables from Expo was I really got a chance to talk to Chris Turner a bit more. Chris is the owner of Turner Pinball, the Ninja Eclipse game. I met him for the first time, I think, last year at Expo, and that's when they had that different cabinet design. And even I, when I walked up to it, was like, oh, what's this? But I am also someone that has an engineering background, so I appreciated the concepts and engineering ideas he put into the initial product.
    23:38
    Now, he's changed it a lot because the community did not like that cabinet. They just didn't. And they didn't like the idea of not having a coin door on it, and it had like, I don't know, some kind of a card reader system or something like that. Yeah, so they rebelled against that. and you know good for chris for listening to the community but i think he still also kept a lot of his innovations in the game which which is great he's doing a lot of really cool stuff and and if you've ever met chris he's a super super nice guy he's just someone you you want to talk to
    24:10
    he's very open to feedback we did talk for a brief moment about how like you know he i don't know i hope i'm not taking this out of context but i think some of the things that we talked about was like how hard it is sometimes when people don't want to give constructive criticism. They just want to be critical, but they don't offer any solutions. You know what I mean? And I'm like, yeah, a lot of times you get that. Like on YouTube comments, someone's going to say, I had a comment once. It was like someone said I had a dumb face. And I'm like, well, that I can't change. So, you know what I mean? Like I can't fix my face, I guess.
    24:42
    But I was like, sometimes. So I don't know what that, that's a bad example. But yeah, if someone says this video sucks, it's like, okay, cool. It'd be great. I respect if they don't like it or they think it sucked, but it'd be great for them to put because of this, you know, like these are the reasons why I think it sucks. And sometimes that person's in the minority and most people don't feel that way. And you just kind of accept the comment and move on. But sometimes that person has a good point. Like there was a video real quick. I know I'm going off on a tangent here, but I made a video and someone said, you keep doing these these transitions where you're playing music and it's annoying.
    25:15
    Like, stop doing that. And so now I took that as a note. And I looked back at it and went, oh, you know what? It is a little annoying. I'm going to get rid of that. So, all right. So anyways, so Chris Turner Ninja Eclipse. And then congrats to Chris over at Turner Pinball because he sold all 100 of his initial product. So I think after that's done, they're going to make those and move on to the next title. So I'm curious to see what they do there. That's really cool. Oh, there was one other thing locally, and I'm struggling with this so hard. So there's a guy here locally.
    25:46
    we only have one distributor in town that sells cgc i think and he's like a guy that's been in the business for a really long time and uh he's selling a new in box pulp fiction the the lesser i can't remember their model numbers or their model names i think it's whatever the the new one that's out not the one that not the le or whatever uh for 7500 i think that's a good price right because weren't they like over eight grand new so i was like that's a game that's a non-stern game that I really like. I really like Pulp Fiction, and I was like, I just don't have the
    26:21
    space. So that leads me to my next thing. I know everyone's thinking, is he gonna buy Metallica? And yeah, yeah, I'm gonna. I did. It's coming. So, uh, but something has to go. So, and this, this pains me but um venom's venom's gotta go so uh so i do have a buyer for venom although we're trying to figure out how we're gonna work out that transaction but it looks like i do have a buyer so
    26:51
    i gotta get that thing the heck out of here so i can make some room for metallica because that's coming really soon so i gotta figure that out but um yeah we'll see we'll see where that goes so i'm trying to think of see look at my notes and see what else i want to talk about with you guys because we're running up on almost 30 minutes and i don't usually like to go that long but uh oh if If you guys didn't watch Gonzo's Pinball Flipperama, or I think that's what his channel's called. I've watched him for a while. He's a good dude over in the UK. And he had a, although he wasn't on the show.
    27:21
    I don't know. Maybe he does a podcast that I don't. There was a guy that wasn't him. But anyways, Don's Pinball Podcast was on there. What's up, Don? And they had Tim Sexton and, shit, Elliot Eisman on the show talking about the new John Wick code. it's definitely worth a good a listen and i think tim goes into a lot of detail about how code is developed these days when it when it pertains to stern pinball so so i think that's kind of interesting you know and he's definitely committed to continuing to do code updates on
    27:53
    john wick and and and i i really want to see that game do well i enjoy it i know there are people that don't i don't i don't i get honestly it is one of those games i'll say this it is one of those games that when you walk up to it at first and you, the shots are kind of tight. So it's not super easy. And I'm not saying like you want a game that you just walk up to and everything's super easy, but the shot, like the middle shot can be difficult. Although the Ellie from the pro, they vary a little bit I think that that middle shot is easier to hit on the pro to be honest And I don know why because I would expect the geometry and everything to be exactly the same but uh that pinball right they hand products some of them play different and then depending on how they set up but uh the pro
    28:35
    i played i think was on a expo no southern fried gaming expo so i don't know who knows maybe that game wasn't the pitch was different or it wasn't leveled i don't know that just the middle shot or it was leveled better because the middle shot was easier but yeah that game isn't initially easy when you go up and step up to it. It's a struggle. Sometimes it can be a brick fest. But once you get it down, you can get into a really good flow of that left shot, the middle shot, the right shot. You have the kind of half orbit that's really fast. It is fun, at least to me.
    29:07
    But the code needs a lot of work before I think they can have what I would consider a complete game. And this last code release was a nice step in the right direction. So we'll see where that goes. The only other thing I want to talk about really quick is I made the mistake of throwing a comment out there. I was, I was cranky the other morning. I don't often get cranky. Like those of you that know me in real life, I'm this person you're seeing right here. I'm pretty optimistic. I'm a pretty positive person. I don't like to dwell on things, especially like I want to control the things I can control, right? You can easily get
    29:42
    lost in the noise of other things. And those things end up just like consuming your day and not adding any value. So I try to really like, I think it does annoy some people that I tend to be on the more positive end of things. But there are a lot of people that appreciate that because I think there are a lot of, you know, there's a lot of content out there that kind of focuses more in the negative realm. But, you know, I think people can kind of say, oh, well, you're so positive, you don't talk about, you know, the negative things that I do, I just don't dwell on them for too long, or do a whole episode based on something that's negative, because there's a
    30:14
    lot of really positive things to celebrate in pinball, and I completely forgot what the point of bringing this up was. Why was I bringing this up? I think I was bringing it up because of, uh, wow, I have a little bit of a brain fart here. I really don't remember why I was bringing this up. Oh, I think I was bringing it up because I made a comment in an area where I shouldn't have made a comment. I was cranky, and I got kind of flamed on someone's, someone's Patreon. Not flamed, but it is what it is. You know, that's the thing. When you're creating content and you're putting
    30:47
    yourself out there like this, you're going to have criticism and you're going to have people that like you and don't like you. And I know that, though. I'm totally fine with people that are like, I'm not their cup of tea. That's okay. But I do think it's interesting the stories that people will build in their head that I'm paid for by Stern. It's like, no, I just really like Stern, and I will be completely open about that. When it comes to modern pinball, I feel like they make the best, most fun games. That's how I feel. But that's my opinion. And if you disagree with it,
    31:18
    that's fine. But there are people that feel like I don't like anything else or I don't talk about anything else. And I will if I find something that I really enjoy. Like, I enjoy Pulp Fiction by CGC. That's a game I would like to own that's a non-stern game. I enjoyed Avatar. I don't want to buy avatar but i do want i do have a different appreciation for jersey jack so i hope that jersey jack eventually makes a game i want to buy because especially after doing that tour and hopefully
    31:48
    this coming saturday uh not this coming saturday i will have that video out of the tour i did of jjp it made me have a different appreciation for the company so so now it kind of got me a little bit more excited about like what's to come and what they might make and hopefully there's a theme that I like. I don't love their pricing. I feel like I wish there was like a pro model or something a little bit further down. But if I'm arguing about price, it does seem like after kind of taking a peek behind the curtain that they put a different level of quality into things that feels like it's a justification of the cost a little bit. So are these things super expensive
    32:25
    by all companies? Yes. But I just felt like Jersey Jack has some things in there that kind of justify the higher price point, especially when they have a topper like you see on the Avatar, the CE, and you're like, holy crap, that's amazing. Their nomenclature is a little bit different. So their LE is like a Stern Premium, and their CE is like a Stern LE. Really confusing. But anyway, so if you didn't know that, that's kind of what it is. So that leads us to our last thing. So this whole voicemail thing.
    32:55
    So yeah, by the way, if you're feeling cranky or in a bad mood, that's probably not a good time to write an email, make a comment, whatever. I deleted it from one place because I was like, whatever. I kept it on this person's Patreon. I don't care, whatever. And then I started getting into this thing I don't do. I don't like to go and defend myself for who I am. It just is what it is. You know what I mean? And there's certain people that you're not going to, you're not going to be able to change their opinion of you, even though they haven't met you in real life. And I get that. Like a lot of you guys will never meet me and I'll never meet you, but I hope that we do you to meet one day at a show. Cause you'll see that this is the person that you're going to meet,
    33:28
    you know so it is what it is right i mean some people want to like live in a world of conspiracy theory where they think that like you're the devil that works for works for stern pinball and i definitely don't do this for money that's for sure because uh i have a good paying job and um the money would i really pick pinball as the hobby if i was looking to make money i mean the there is one person in the community that does make a considerable amount of money doing this and more power to them. But I am not someone that wants to put my stuff behind like a paywall.
    34:01
    I just don't. I feel like it doesn't – if you want to do that, that's your prerogative. I'm not talking trash on you. If you want to do that and you're successful doing it, that is awesome. It's just not really how I want to do it. But anyway, so if you want to leave a voicemail for the show – oh, shoot. We're wrapping up right now. This is a long show, 34 minutes. What the hell did we just talk about? I don't even know. I feel like I was kind of I feel like I was a little all over the place in this episode. And I even had like a note sheet in front of me. But hopefully I think I said most of the things I wanted to say.
    34:31
    But if you want to leave a voicemail for the show, you can go to www.speakpipe.com forward slash retro Ralph V.M. All of that is all one word. So it's www.speakpipe.com forward slash retro Ralph V.M. So I will have a link in the description, but leave me a voicemail. Come on, guys. Flood this thing with voicemail questions because I really think it would be fun during the show to address.
    35:01
    And number one, listen to your voices, hear you guys on the other side, and then respond. It's like a fun thing we can do. And the cool thing is is that if you're listening to it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you can participate as well. And you don't have to just see me to do it. Like, it's kind of cool. And I also want to just quickly apologize that this video is going to have no B-roll in it, so you're just going to look at me. You're just looking at me the whole time if you're watching it on YouTube. And oh, oh, I know! Why did I wear this Ghostbusters hoodie? Because Stern, if you're going to do a remastered, then do a Ghostbusters.
    35:36
    I mean, come on. Everyone loves that game. It's hard, but everyone loves it. Can you imagine a modern Ghostbusters with Spike 2 or Spike 3? Hell yeah. I think the licensing could be tough, but hell yeah. Ghostbusters, baby. Look at this thing, though. This thing is pretty cool. It's cool, right? My buddy Nick wanted this sweatshirt so bad. I don't remember where I got this, but it's pretty badass.
    36:06
    Anyways, guys, that is it. That is all. Thank you so much for your support. And thank you for everyone that came up to me at Expo and was saying they enjoyed the podcast. And the thing that I love the most about Expo is when someone came up to me and said that my videos or my transition from arcade to pinball has inspired them to get into pinball because that's freaking awesome. We need more players. It's the only thing. Think about it. It's the fastest growing, continued to be supported, coin-operated thing there is.
    36:37
    You know what I mean? So why would we not all rally around it? No one's really making arcade games that you're buying and putting in your house. You know? They're just not. So anyways, guys, the song is over. I got to go. Thank you so much for listening. Now we got to we got to put it on repeat. I can't do this. This is like I can't stop the show without music. It's just like part of the thing is terrible. Epic fail. Epic fail. All right. Here it is. It's back. OK, now I can properly in the show. Thank you so much, guys. Thank you, by the way, to everyone that came up to me at Expo.
    37:08
    That meant so much to me when you said that I somehow inspired you to get into pinball. That, to me, I'm winning in that. If that's what's happening, I'm winning because I want you guys to get into this amazing hobby that I've fallen in love with over the last three years. It's freaking fun. It's a great escape from the nonsense that we have to deal with in day-to-day life, and I just freaking love it. And I think if you give it a shot, if you're someone that isn't necessarily into it or didn't think you would, give it a shot.
    37:38
    I guarantee you'll find something you like. that's it for now guys and i will see you on the flip side