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Episode 85_Pinball Themes Re-Revisited

The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·2h 15m·analyzed·Mar 17, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.014

TL;DR

Spinner Is Lit marks 9 years with Back to the Future remake discussion.

Summary

The Spinner Is Lit Podcast Episode 85 celebrates the show's 9-year anniversary while discussing pinball themes that have been made multiple times. The hosts reflect on personal updates—Dan's game room renovation, Mark's tournament success and upcoming retirement, and Spencer's arcade nostalgia—before diving into their picks for themes worthy of being remade. Mark advocates for a new Back to the Future game (rumored for Dutch Pinball) that could leverage modern technology and multi-era rule sets, while the hosts discuss the legacy of the original Data East 1989 game and licensing challenges.

Key Claims

  • The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast is celebrating its 9-year anniversary this month

    high confidence · Spencer, host, opening segment

  • Steve Charlotte passed away 9 years ago this month

    high confidence · Spencer, host, commemorative statement

  • Mark turned 55 on March 8th

    high confidence · Mark, co-host, personal update

  • Mark is retiring on August 1st along with his wife Heidi

    high confidence · Mark, co-host, personal announcement

  • Back to the Future pinball is rumored to be in development by Dutch Pinball

    medium confidence · Mark, discussing upcoming remade themes

  • The original Data East Back to the Future (1989) had licensing challenges with actor likenesses including Michael J. Fox

    medium confidence · Spencer and Dan discussing historical licensing issues

  • Our Town Pizza in Reno was recently featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives in January

    high confidence · Mark, discussing local venue updates

  • Reno Pinball Underground (owned by Jason) is extending hours to 7 days a week, open until 7 PM

    high confidence · Mark, local tournament/venue news

  • A Pokemon Pro pinball machine was recently installed at Our Town Pizza

    high confidence · Mark, location update

  • Calneva will be hosting Thursday night tournaments starting at 7:30 PM run by Jason

    medium confidence · Mark, upcoming tournament announcement

Notable Quotes

  • “Nine years this month. That's the really cool part. The bittersweet part of that is it's also nine years this month since we lost Steve Charlotte.”

    Spencer @ Early in episode — Emotional milestone and community remembrance of influential figure

  • “But having a new Back to the Future pinball machine would be awesome because with the technology we have, with the video clips we could use, the music would be iconic if we could get the Alan Silvestri theme.”

    Mark @ Mid-episode theme discussion — Core pitch for why a Back to the Future remake would succeed with modern technology

  • “I'm just not going to eat that much food. So it came with a big plate of beans and rice, which I love, and then a taco. and that and that and the soda did it for me now that was a perfect size dinner for me so yeah not only am i i like utilizing the senior discounts now i'm also ordering off the senior menu now”

    Spencer @ Personal update segment — Humorous life milestone commentary about turning 60

  • “I think that Back to the Future, just kind of the, you know, maybe the triple rule set thing would be more of a JJP style thing, probably less of a Stern style thing.”

    Dan @ Theme remake discussion — Strategic assessment of which manufacturer would best suit the game's conceptual design

  • “I had a job at an arcade in the 90s But it was really more of a pool room So that job was basically just cleaning pool tables all the time and handing out flyers.”

    Spencer @ Arcade nostalgia segment — Personal industry history and arcade era reminiscence

Entities

SpencerpersonDanpersonMarkpersonSteve CharlottepersonThe Spinner Is Lit Pinball PodcastorganizationBack to the FuturegameDutch PinballcompanyKeith ElwinpersonData Eastcompany

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: The Spinner Is Lit marks 9-year anniversary and positions itself as a survivor in the pinball podcast landscape, outlasting competitors like Coast to Coast Pinball and Head to Head Pinball

    high · Spencer: 'Think of who we outlasted, right? A lot of people, man. Coast to Coast Pinball? Yeah. Head to Head Pinball? Gone.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Community memorializes Steve Charlotte on 9-year anniversary of his passing, indicating he was influential figure in pinball community

    high · Spencer: 'it's also nine years this month since we lost Steve Charlotte' and 'He was one of a kind. And he is still very much missed in this community.'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Reno pinball venue landscape rapidly expanding with extended hours at Reno Pinball Underground, new tournaments at Calneva, and multiple weekly tournament options

    high · Mark: 'We have a lot of people that come out of town, and they always are coming to join tournaments...there's like almost every night there's a tournament, except maybe Monday night now'

  • ?

    product_launch: Pokemon Pro pinball machine installed at Our Town Pizza in Reno; Mark describes it as fun and addictive with potential for improvement through code updates

    high · Mark: 'Our Town Pizza just got a Pokemon Pro that I was able to try out...It shoots great. The rules definitely need to get more baked...with good code, this game might be really, really a top ten'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Back to the Future pinball rumored in development by Dutch Pinball with expected reveal at upcoming expo; community skepticism about timeline given Dutch Pinball's history of delays

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.408

0:00
Welcome to Spinner's Lit Pinball Podcast. Tonight's episode is episode 85. Pinball themes revisited.
0:30
I'm your host, Spencer, and with me are my co-hosts, Dan. What's going on, guys? And Mark. Hey, everyone. How's everyone doing? We're doing good, man. I got a couple of real quick things I wanted to throw out there, and then we'll see what you guys have been up to. Before you do that, I was 100% sure after all that discussion you were about to mess up your own episode title. I did not. I got it right. You did not. I did not. You started, you were like, uh.
1:00
And I'm the one who writes this stuff. Like we had just all talked about it and, you know, made sure we knew what it was going to be. And then I was like, oh, my gosh, Spencer. And I hit the click button and I just go special. I go special Ed, you know.
1:18
I don't know. Hey, lady. To be determined. Yeah. So my special announcements are this month, this episode is our ninth anniversary of The Spinner's Lit.
1:35
Oh, wow. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Don't worry. Nine years. Nine years? Wow. Nine years this month. That's the really cool part.
1:45
The bittersweet part of that is it's also nine years this month since we lost Steve Charlotte. Oh, wow. Not to bring the room down, but I just feel that's worthy of throwing out there. So, yeah.
Stern Pinball
company
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Our Town Pizzavenue
Reno Pinball Undergroundvenue
Calnevavenue
Comic Kingdomvenue
Press Startvenue
Elbow Roomvenue
Rickperson
Tedperson
Michael J. Foxperson
Christopher Lloydperson
Alan Silvestriperson
Heidiperson
Jasonperson

medium · Mark: 'The rumor is that it's going to be Dutch Pinball that's going to be doing it. Hopefully we'll get to see it in October when they have the expo, but who knows how long it's going to take. There's always such a delay with that company'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Hosts discuss conceptual approach to Back to the Future remake using era-specific rule sets (EM-style, System 11, modern) as players travel through time periods

    high · Spencer: 'you get back to the future which is already a super iconic theme and you kind of cross it over with time machine...as you play the game and you travel through different time periods it changes the rule sets'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Original Data East Back to the Future (1989) faced licensing complications with actor likenesses, particularly Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, affecting modern remake licensing negotiations

    medium · Spencer: 'I think that was one of the big problems with the original Back to the Future was they had some trouble with likeness rights. Apparently, Michael J. Fox didn't want to be involved.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Mark reports improved tournament performance through mental shift from points-chasing to enjoyment-focused play; currently ranking well in IFPA

    high · Mark: 'I think what I've done differently this year than last year is I'm in a different mindset where I'm just there to have fun...I'm more relaxed and having fun playing pinball'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Mark achieved 1.2 billion point practice game on Foo Fighters during tournament prep, demonstrating potential wizard mode proximity and high-level shot execution

    high · Mark: 'I played Foo Fighters, and I scored 1.2 billion on my first ball...I was so close to getting the wizard mode...I was only two away from the wizard mode'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Dan replaced aging hot water heater in game room to eliminate safety risk from burst pressure line; issue highlighted vulnerability of vintage infrastructure adjacent to valuable game collection

    high · Dan: 'I am so lucky that somebody didn't just like slam their knee or the back of a pinball machine and just all of a sudden be spraying their entire Bally Williams lineup with pressure on boiling hot water'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Hosts recall 1970s-1980s arcade culture including coin attendants with quick-change coin dispensers and early solid-state pinball era, positioning personal history within industry timeline

    high · Spencer: 'when I was like 10, 11, 12, in the early days of the arcade, like right at the birth of the solid-state pinball, so we're talking like 1978, 79'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Mark officially retiring August 1st after signing PERS paperwork, marking significant life transition for active tournament player and venue operator

    high · Mark: 'we just went to PERS and signed our paperwork to officially retire on the end of July. And we start our retirement on August 1st. So both Heidi and I are going to be officially retired.'

    • 2:00
    But, yeah, man. You succeeded. The room is brought down. I just felt the temperature drop like 10 degrees, man. Just want to remember him. And I never want anybody to forget who he was, you know. He was a great guy. He was. He was just an all-around good dude. He was one of a kind. And he is still very much missed in this community. But on a good note, man, we survived nine years, man. We've been chugging this thing along nine years and getting better every episode and having people with us since the beginning that are still listening.
    2:35
    I guess I owe you a check for your therapy sessions. Nobody put a gun to your head and made you listen. Yes, it's free content, people. Think of who we outlasted, right? A lot of people, man. Coast to Coast Pinball? Yeah. Head to Head Pinball?
    2:55
    Gone. Canada's Pinball Podcast? Still here. Say hi to Chris, man. Behind the paywall. Chris is behind the paywall, but he's a juggernaut, man. He's still getting the listens. But our last episodes have done quite well. So to all our listeners out there, man, thank you so much for hanging on with us for nine years and hopefully continue to keep listening and having fun and having a few laughs with us once a month. Tell your friends, even if it's just like, wow, these guys are terrible. Yeah. No, no, don't.
    3:29
    Don't tell them. That's really bad. Terrible is a strong word. I still remember some of our early reviews, Dan. It was like, oh, man. Oh, my favorite one was it was like barking dogs, crying babies. You know, leave this to the professionals. And it's all like, we're not getting paid.
    3:52
    Exactly. We never rolled up and said we were professionals. Yeah, no, there's not a professional in this room, sir. But thank you for listening.
    4:02
    You know, again, that check for your therapy is on its way. So, but yeah, nine years. Well, see, we need to check for professionals. There you go. Nine years.
    4:12
    We've got some cool stuff going on. If you've been to our Facebook page, you've seen some really cool animated logos that Dan was nice enough to throw out there for us. We get some positive response. I have some T-shirts made with logos. So you'll see us wearing those at an upcoming event, a league night, a tournament, or a show coming up. And some other cool stuff going on. So stay tuned. Keep listening to us and stay tuned because we're going to have a lot of cool stuff going on.
    4:49
    What has everybody been up to? Do we want to start with me? Do we want to start with you? Do we want to start with Mark? Dan, why don't we start with you? Yeah, how about you, Dan? All right. So I hosted Pinball League here at the Dan Casa last Thursday, which is always fun. I was actually supposed to host the next session, but my work had surgically inconvenient timing for a business review down south, so I'm going to be out of town for that one.
    5:21
    But one of the cool things about it is I got to make a couple changes to the game room because I got a new hot water heater. It was a tankless unit, and it's outside of the game room, so there's no giant tank of boiling hot water adjacent to my games anymore, which makes me feel a little bit better. plus we put Project Low Buck Monopoly, which I guess now it's just Monopoly. We put that into the pinball league lineup, and it did super good. You know, it made it through the whole night without a hitch. So I'm feeling really, really good about the condition of that game. Of course, my co-captain in league, Rick, led the day because that's just what that guy tends to do. But it was a really, really good – It's always really fun to open up your game room and share your collection with your friends and have them come over. You know, there's a certain reason that you own 10, 15, 20 games. And it's not just, you know, I can't speak for everybody, I guess, but it's not just because you want to hoard them, right?
    6:31
    Yeah. Because, yeah, you want to share them with your friends. You want people to come over and play them. It's actually funny. I have some friends of mine that I'm like, come over sometime. Let's play some pinball. And they're just like, well, you know, we'd feel guilty about, you know, just coming over to play pinball. And it's like, why do you think I bought these things? Yeah, exactly. You know, come on, come on over. You know, let's let's play some games like let's let's let's make it happen. In fact, it was my buddy, my buddy. A couple of my buddies were the ones who came over, and they're professionals, so they did a good job, but they installed the hot water heater for me. And, you know, they were the ones who flat out were just like, we need to do this, get this hot water heater out of your game room and, you know, reclaim some space. So pretty, pretty cool. That's awesome. Yeah, it was a fantastic little project. Not a cheap little project. No, they're not cheap. a one less pinball machine kind of project. But plus, you know, endless hot water is actually pretty cool when you get that tankless, that tankless set up. I'm not sure if either of you guys have one, but.
    7:42
    Yeah, I went the traditional route just because it was a little too costly for my budget, but I've heard good things about it. It's pretty neat where you don't have to wait for the water to heat up. It's just instant hot, which is cool. I haven't observed that. It still takes a couple seconds for the hot water to get where it needs it to go. Oh, okay. Once it starts going, it just never runs out. It never runs out, yeah. So if you were the kind of person who likes to take long, hot showers, you know. And my hot water heater was older than my house. Yeah, yeah.
    8:16
    So it was a time for replacement. In fact, I'll kind of wrap it up with this. When we were taking the hot water heater out, you know how there's a spigot on your hot water heater that you're supposed to use to drain it every once in a while or to drain it when you're going to move it? Yes. Well, that spigot's just made of plastic.
    8:35
    So while we were draining it, that spigot actually cracked when, you know, he went to open it to drain it out. And while we were uninstalling it, it actually broke. Oh, wow. And that hot water spigot was, you know, 35 years old and, again, made of plastic that had, you know, over the years become very brittle. And we had it off of pressure at that point, so we were able just to use a bucket to continuously catch the water. But I'd been pushing games, you know, back and forth past that spigot because I would use that as a overflow game storage spot. Or people would walk past it. My toolbox was over there. I was like, man, I am so lucky that somebody didn't just like slam their knee or the back of a pinball machine and just all of a sudden be spraying their entire Bally Williams lineup with pressure on boiling hot water. Oh, wow. Yeah. You know, and how quickly would I be able to get to the shutoff if the shutoff didn't fail, which was one of the funny things that my buddy Colton brought up to me, and get that water turned off. You know, how much water would my games have taken on before then? So, yeah, it was definitely one of those things that I didn't really, like it was always in the back of my mind that like, hey, what if this hot water heater starts leaking? But when I actually saw how hard it could start leaking and from where, I was like, oh, my goodness, man, what was I thinking?
    10:06
    Yeah. I've been living dangerously for the last three, four years ever since I've had games on that side of the room. Oh, man, well, I'm glad that you caught that and you got that taken out. Yeah, luckily we did it as we were removing it. So if you break something when you're in the process of replacing it, that's pretty much the perfect time to break it. So true. Yep. So true. So I did the same thing too, which is funny what you say that with the hot water. When I was draining it, the valve stuck open and it couldn't close. So I had to call a plumber out there to basically install a new valve because it was plastic also. And it's on the one where it's on the side where it's kind of like a big nut. And it stayed open, so I couldn't close it. It leaked water, so I had to get like a whole new thing replaced. and it was a nightmare. So I totally understand what you're talking about. Yeah, it was potentially a big, big disaster. Yeah. Well, I'm glad it all worked out the right way. So that's cool. Yeah, you know, perfect timing. And, again, I'm going to be able to do some more stuff out in the game garage here without that hot water heater being there. I'm going to go ahead and replace those LED strips because trying to get one of them behind the hot water heater originally, I had kind of damaged it, so it didn't work with all the colors. And then on the other side of the room, like the last third of it had already failed. So I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to peel those off. I'm sure I'm going to lose some paint, but I have to touch up the paint from behind the hot water heater space anyway. My toolbox is sitting there now. But I'll do all that, and then I'll probably try to see if I can find either a better LED solution for out there or, you know, something else fun to throw some accent lighting in there. And maybe finally get some of the stuff up on the sidewall so it's not just the back wall all decorated. Plus, since I shifted everything down, I kind of need to move all the posters and arcade, you know, arcade marquees. And, you know, I got like a big mouth Billy Bass I want to hang up. just all the weird game room minutiae that you have up on the wall so that your house looks kind of like an Applebee's or a Red Robin.
    12:35
    Cool. What about you, Mark? Oh, well, I had my birthday. March 8th was my birthday, so I turned 55. So, yeah, that was pretty cool. Happy birthday, sir. What pinball did you get? No pinball. I did play pinball on my birthday. We played league. That was fun because it was on a Sunday night.
    12:56
    But, yeah, I've been playing tournaments as usual. I'm doing really well as far as the points go for IFPA. Obviously, I'm still keeping track of those, but it's good. I'm playing much better pinball. I'm playing more focused. I'm not playing the flippers as much. I'm thinking about my shots more. I'm doing more drop catches and stuff like that that I've never done before. So I'm really trying to improve my skills, but having fun at the same time. And I have to tell a real quick story. On Friday night when I was over at Elbow Room, every time this happens, I play a practice game, like everybody else before the tournament starts, and you have the most killer practice game or best pinball game you ever played in your life. I played Foo Fighters, and I scored 1.2 billion on my first ball on Foo Fighters.
    13:53
    I literally, I could not believe how everything was going in the in lanes, and every shot I made, like especially the Area 51 ramp, I was nailing that ramp. And I had things stacked perfectly. I did the double jackpot when I captured the ball during the, I forgot what it's, the alien, And I don't know what you call it, but basically it's the one where you have to hit the captor ball and then it starts a multi-ball, and I stacked that with New Orleans. But I didn't realize when I looked at the score, I was like, holy crap. And, of course, this is the first ball with a couple of extra balls that I earned, so I'll be realistic. But I still was shooting about 800 million on my first ball without extra balls. It was insane, and it felt really good. And what really sucked is while I was playing it, it was right at the time when the tournament was about to start, which is 7.30. And, of course, I've gotten this killer game. I still have another ball left. And they said, sorry, Mark, but you've got to drain the ball. I go, what? I'm so close. I'm only two away from the wizard mode. They're like, sorry. I'm like, ah. So then I realized, okay, I must have got the GC. And I was able to put my initials in. and then I looked at the display and I saw Ted. He was only $40 million ahead of me to get the GC. I was like, oh, I'll never have that kind of game again. But it was really cool to know that I was so close to getting the wizard mode, to getting the final game, but it didn't happen. I had to drain my ball. Ted's been showing up in a lot of those elbow room and press start, you know, top three pictures. Yeah. Yeah, I've been really playing consistent, so it's been a lot of fun. And I think what I've done differently this year than last year is I'm in a different mindset where I'm just there to have fun. I mean, yes, I do think about the points, but I think of it more as like a reward, not something I'm trying to earn. It's like, oh, I played well. Okay, cool. I got these points. Where the mindset was last year, I was like, I've got to get these points so I can stay in top eight. You know, I don't have that mindset anymore. I'm just like, I'm here to have fun. Whatever happens, who cares? And it's working. I'm more relaxed and having fun playing pinball and then getting the reward of, oh, wow, you just were able to shoot up, you know, another 10 points on your ranking. So, yeah, it's pretty cool. The other news is we are going to be starting to have tournaments at Calneva on Thursday nights now. I think they're going to be starting at 730. Jason's going to be putting on tournaments there. And it's going to be happening in the next couple of months or so. So we're trying to get that finalized. So now, yet again, we have another pinball tournament on Thursday night. My wife is just going to love it. I really have to pick and choose now because there's like almost every night there's a tournament, except maybe Monday night now, which is kind of ridiculous when you think about it. But it's cool that it gives options for a lot of people to enjoy playing with a night that works for them. So that's exciting. It's going to be good. Yeah, yeah, it's good. Other news is yesterday. Our Town Pizza just got a Pokemon Pro that I was able to try out. I'm going to post some pictures on Facebook. But it's a fun game. I'll make it real quick. It shoots great. The rules definitely need to get more baked.
    17:22
    It's fun. It's addictive to catch the Pokemon. But, yeah, there definitely needs to be more in-depth code. But with good code, this game might be really, really a top ten if that comes to fruition. If the replayability continues, which it has, it's like I kept putting cores in. Like, damn, I got to catch another one. Or I got to get this jackpot a little higher. But, man, it shot really great, and it was easy to shoot. But it still drained fairly quickly too. So for people who want a first impression, I liked it. But then again, I am a very positive guy, but I was pleasantly surprised that it was a lot of fun. So when it comes about, it's going to be in all locations all over the place. So it's pretty cool. And Our Town Pizza, I don't know if you know this or not, but it was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives just recently on January, and they had a little segment about it. And that place is really cool if you're going out there to have good pizza. Oh, Our Town Pizza. Yes. That's where that used to be the pirate-themed pizza place. It used to be Pirate's Pizza. Correct. Oh, man, Pirate's Pizza was great. Our Town Pizza is good. It's more of a Detroit-style pizza. Correct. Yeah, if you happen to be in Reno and you've got to eat some pizza, Our Town Pizza is a good choice. But, oh, man, I missed that Pirate's Pizza. I love Pirate's Pizza. It was good. It was awesome, too. I totally agree with you. Our Town Pizza is bomb. It's really good. And it was packed with people. And a lot of people are playing pinball. He's got a great pinball collection out there, too. He's got roller games. Oh, it's the sweetest roller games. And it's even got the shoot rod of an actual, like, wheel from, like, a roller blade and stuff. It's pretty cool. But, yeah, it's a fun location. We don't have any tournaments there. I'm wondering if that ever will happen. Maybe that will be something I could do as my retirement gig and start offering tournaments over at our town. But, yeah, the Reno scene is going crazy. The other good news is that Reno Pinball Underground that Jason owns, he's going to be extending the hours now seven days a week, open until 7 o'clock p.m. now instead of early closing. So he really wants people to come out there and play. And we also have monthly tournaments there now, which is going to be a regular thing.
    19:38
    And, yeah, the tournament scene is going wild. It's really cool. We had a pin golf tournament just recently over at Comic Kingdom, and that was a lot of fun. It was objective-based, so it was a little more engaging than just trying to get a target score. But his objectives were really hard. But he's going to try to do that, like, every two months or so, have a pin golf-type tournament. So just a lot of variety, a lot of things to do in Reno. We have a lot of people that come out of town, and they always are coming to join tournaments. So we always get new people, and most of the people that try it a first time are hooked, and they come every week. So, yeah, it's awesome. With the weather clearing up, I can't wait to make my way back up there. and check out some of your guys' scene. It's been much too long since I've gotten to go out to press start. I still haven't seen Pinball Underground. I still haven't seen Cody's new Comic Kingdom spot. Oh, yeah, for sure. I haven't been to Our Town Pizza in a long time.
    20:35
    You know, just there's so much that I feel like I'm missing out on. Luckily, I get to keep up on it vicariously through you. Sure. Well, when you get down here, we'll definitely show you everything, so it'll be really fun. But, yeah, that's what I've been doing pretty much, getting close to retirement. The other great news is we just went to PERS and signed our paperwork to officially retire on the end of July. And we start our retirement on August 1st. So both Heidi and I are going to be officially retired. And who knows what we're going to do after that. We might do some real creative things afterwards or I might get another job. I don't know yet. We're just going to play it by ear, but we're going to enjoy ourselves while we can. you're going to be a pinball arcade attendant. Maybe. We'll see. Or maybe I'll be a scout.
    21:22
    Spencer will know this. Remember the holsters? The coin holsters that the arcade attendants used to have where you'd give them a dollar and they'd hit the little button four times and it would knock out four quarters?
    21:34
    Oh, I guess not. I guess Spencer's really paying attention to his own podcast. Is Spencer there? Spencer, are you there? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I had my mic shut down. I had my neck muted. Yeah, sorry. No, I'm not. No, I was answering you. I was getting old, man. No, I remember that. They would get four quarters or four tokens, and then they started going to the machines later on. Yeah. But, dude, when I was like 10, 11, 12, in the early days of the arcade, like right at the birth of the solid-state pinball, so we're talking like 1978, 79, I guess the date was on the jukebox at one arcade. Yeah man That was like Your dream job Come on dude that one I get old enough You know It was pretty fascinating How he could just flick out four quarters really fast For you He was like a gunslinger man Those are cool Could you picture like in those days The arcade job I had a job at an arcade in the 90s But it was really more of a pool room So that job was basically just cleaning pool tables all the time and handing out flyers. And my wife, she actually worked for a Namco arcade when she was in college. She was like an attendant at a cyber station. Oh, okay. Cool.
    22:53
    I don't know. It was a little more corporate, but yeah, you know, that 70s. I remember cyber station. Yeah. 70s pinball arcade, working there. Like I said, having the cool, the cool coin, the cool coin belt thing. Yeah. That'd be dope. That'd be the dopest job. Do they sell those? Can you get those anywhere? I'm sure you can. I'm sure Amazon or eBay. That'd be fun to walk around.
    23:15
    Yeah, yeah. I've got to find out. That'd be cool to have one of those. If you find places that are coin play, like, that'd be the only way to go. Yeah, that'd be cool to walk around with one of those. I mean, it's still cool, but you know what I mean? Everybody went to change machines in the 80s, I think. Yeah. The late 80s. I don't know. It'd still be cool.
    23:32
    Yeah. It'd still be a cool job, you know? Hey, Mark, before we get on to the next subject, have you tried exercising your senior citizen discounts yet? No, not yet, but I know there are a couple that have 55.
    23:44
    You know me, right? In the movie theater? Dude, I exercise the hell out of those now. Is the movie theater 55? I'm 60, but I just fucking lie, so.
    23:54
    Are you 60? I am now. Mark can't pull that off. No, he can't. I can't. I can pull it off. You're too young. I can pull it off. I look too young. Well, I'm actually 60 now. And I'll tell you this. I'm going to make both of you laugh hilariously. So everybody was – because we're all working weird nights and stuff now or weird days. I mean, me and Malcolm aren't so much, but the rest of the family is. So I kind of take the opportunity to go, oh, your home night is just me and you. Well, let's go out to dinner. So Seth and I went out because he mentioned, hey, we have this Mexican restaurant, and it's literally down the street. And they have like a big fountain inside. It's really big. It's really a nice restaurant, but it's affordable, you know.
    24:36
    I said, yeah, let's go have dinner there. How about Tuesday night? He's like, perfect. So we go, and I ordered off the senior menu, first time ever. And he's like, what did you get? I'm like, you're going to laugh. And he's like, and you guys didn't laugh. That's so weird.
    24:52
    No, but I was like, I ordered off the senior menu because, like, I'm just not going to eat that much food. So it came with a big plate of beans and rice, which I love, and then a taco. and that and that and the soda did it for me now that was a perfect size dinner for me so yeah not only am i i like utilizing the senior discounts now i'm also ordering off the senior menu now so cool so anyway that was it so uh there ain't nothing wrong with eating early and there ain't nothing wrong with cheap food yeah no doubt right yeah so um so yeah so and it's good food. So if you guys ever get out here, we'll take you there. You'll enjoy it. And it's right down the street from my house, which is nice. So our title of our episode is Pinball Teams Re-Revisited. So quick overview. You know, you've seen teams get made like Jurassic Park and Stern remade it a few years later. Or Avatar was made by Stern a few years later. Jersey Jack made Avatar. And there's a lot of other games like that. So each of the three of us is going to pick One title that's been made into a game before that we'd like to see made into a game again. And I was thinking, Mark, do you want to start us off with that? Sure, I'll start. It's definitely an upcoming rumored game. We have no idea when it's coming out. But it has to be Back to the Future. The Data East one was fun. I remember playing that in college. It was fairly simple. At that time, rules weren't that deep, so I really couldn't tell the difference. But having a new Back to the Future pinball machine would be awesome because with the technology we have, with the video clips we could use, the music would be iconic if we could get the Alan Silvestri theme. It would be really awesome to have a remake, or not remake, but an actual reissue of that theme that really could do well. But they need to have the assets. They definitely need to have a play field that's fun to shoot, and something definitely has to be mechanically with a DeLorean of some sort. And how they're going to get the license for that, who knows. The rumor is that it's going to be Dutch Pinball that's going to be doing it. Hopefully we'll get to see it in October when they have the expo, but who knows how long it's going to take. There's always such a delay with that company, so we don't know. But honestly speaking, I think you could do a lot with the rules. They could either do it with the characters. They could do it with the different – I mean, you could really have deep rule set if you have all three times that they travel, you know, to the Old West or the future or the 80s. But I think that would be a great one to redo, and hopefully it comes out. Man, I hope it does. So think of it this way, right? so you get back to the future which is already a super iconic theme and you kind of cross it over with time machine I was thinking the same thing where as you play the game and you travel through different time periods it changes the rule sets so you have a past rule set which would be EM style right very target-based. You could have a present, you know, which would be like your 1955 rule set. Ooh, yeah. You could have your 1985 rule set, which would be something akin to the Data East game, you know, like your System 11-style games of that era, which, by the way, I've always thought that people completely unfairly dumped on the Data East game. Yes, it's simple, but it's fun as hell. It's a fun game, yeah. Yeah, and for 1989, I remember we actually had that game in our arcade. Dude, that game was striking. It had really great art. It had a really great color scheme. You know, it had the mirrored back glass. It had the music, and it had pretty good voice calls for the moment. Like, I've always thought that that game was great. I wish I'd bought one back in the day when they were, you know, cheap as hell, because now it's expensive just because everybody wants the theme so much. But, yeah, I always loved that game. And then, like, your 2015, obviously, which is the past now, but it would be like your present-style rule set with multipliers and kind of generally deeper things to do. Wow, that would be cool. And whether that would be, like, selectable or whether that would be something that happens as you play the game would be very, very interesting. Three games in one. That's a cool idea. Yeah, right? Like, how cool would that be? And they could have different soundtracks, different sets of quotes. Uh-huh. Yeah. I love the – I know that you can hear from a mile away when it goes, great, Scott. You know, and it has that lightning every time. That always – I always hear that every time when I play that. I'm like, oh, wow. But that was fun. Like, you had that little captive – or what was it? The little saucer in the upper right-hand corner that started the modes. And then you had that fun ramp that was similar to, like, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles where he had to shoot it to get a million points. And, you know, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. I mean, I can totally remember it. One million jibbats. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Now, it wasn't Christopher Lloyd that did that, right? Or was it? No. Yeah. No. It was a sound alike or something, right? Yeah. It was pretty good. Well, I think that was one of the big problems with the original Back to the Future was they had some trouble with likeness rights. Apparently, Michael J. Fox didn't want to be involved. Yeah. And I think Christopher Lloyd, I think it was his likeness, but then, like, weirdly enough, now he's weird about it with Adam's family. Like, they didn't want to use or didn't want to use his likeness affordably for Fester. So, you know, who knows who's ever got it, you know, whether it's Dutch or, you know, was it Dutch or was it pinball? It was Dutch. Hopefully, you know, I've heard that they're supposed to have all their eyes, but with Dutch pinball, the only thing that's, you know, certain is that nothing's for certain. So who knows what they actually have. That's really a theme that, like, of all the companies that could have come down with it, I think it should have been Stern. Yeah. It's a big enough title. It's going to have the mass market appeal. It definitely deserves the pro premium LE, you know, treatment. Like, I really wish that if one company had to have Back to the Future, I wish it was Stern. Don't get me wrong. I love DJP to have anything. You know, if you want to spend $10,000 on a game, no one's going to make it better than JJP. But I just think that Back to the Future, just kind of the, you know, maybe the triple rule set thing would be more of a JJP style thing, probably less of a Stern style thing. Sure. You know, I think Stern can make a fast, fun game out of Back to the Future. Give it to Keith. Yeah, I think what I think was interesting is I was at Expo the last time I was there. I was standing in line for Avatar, trying to remember. I can't even keep track of the years anymore. But I was standing next to a guy, and he told me that he saw it. He saw the prototype. He didn't go into much detail, but he said it was incredible. It blew his mind. So that's about all I got from him. But he said that they were producing it. He didn't really mention. I think he did mention it was Dutch, but he didn't say anything more than that. So I don't know. I don't know what to expect, but as far as theme goes, that one is in my wheelhouse. I mean, that one I probably would drop, you know, I don't know, 10K or 12K on that if I could save up the money because that is a theme that I love. I mean, I remember when my dad took me there and it was a sleeper hit, and he said, this is going to be a really big movie. And I go, yeah, it is, because he's like, it appealed to me when I watched it. And I can relate to it because it was in the 80s, pretty much the same time frame that I grew up in. Well, I think it was the biggest movie of that year. It wasn't a super hit at all. I think that it was a runaway hit. It was a runaway hit, yeah. But at first, it wasn't catch on until it got word of mouth. It was 85, right? So that was later after Ghostbusters. Yep, yep. So, yeah, you know, that series of just banger hits. What was the biggest movie of 86? Top Gun? Probably Top Gun. Yeah, Top Gun. Top Gun was 86. Yeah. Well, talk about another theme that needs a pinball machine. Oh, my gosh. Yes. Yeah, like an F-14, but modernized with, oh, God, with Top Gun would be freaking awesome.
    33:45
    Yeah. But, yeah, it's definitely talked about. It's rumored about. But we don know exactly when it coming out But I hope soon I hope soon You could do the Batman You know how the original version of Batman had the car teeter with the Batmobile in it Yes. You could do that with the DeLorean, and then as the DeLorean raced down it, it could have light trails behind it. Yeah, I know. I had a thought. And if it could fly, if they could make that DeLorean fly to do something, that would be cool. Bond on a wand. You could do something like that. Yeah. Yeah, it won't on a wind. It won't do anything good for anybody, though. No. I don't think it's that bad. I have an idea to get between the different time to use the flux capacitor. You have an orbit or like a mini orbit, like a small tide orbit, like a horseshoe orbit with a spinner. And you got to keep cranking that thing until you get it up to 88 miles per hour. And then the backboard, like at the back of the game, you have the flux capacitor, and it lights up like it does in flashes, and it tells you when you hit 88 miles an hour. And then you have Doc come on, when this baby reaches 88 miles an hour. You need somebody who's not afraid to have a little profanity in the game, though. Yeah. If there's one movie line that sucks when it's censored, it's when this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to see some serious shit. Yeah. When you have a family mode, and then you have the regular adult mode, you know. Who thinks Stern even does profanity? I mean, I guess maybe Metallica still did profanity, but it's not like the old days where they weren't afraid to throw some swearing and titties in their games. No. Even ACDC. Yeah. That's the old days. Yeah, that is the old days.
    35:34
    That's like 12. That's the old days, yeah. 13, 14 years ago. Steve Ritchie put up Bob and Elton John. I mean, no, I don't think he did.
    35:41
    I wouldn't put it past him. I wouldn't either, no. But I think it's because by the time that came out, there wasn't any, you know, we had Ghostbusters, but then there was no more Star Wars for a long time. No, that Star Wars was dead until 1999. Yeah. And, you know, Star Wars was just a movie that we had. Now it's done, you know, the trilogy. and we moved on and Back to the Future came in and really filled that void and really created its own, you know, its own fan base, its own hysteria, its own, oh, what's the word I'm looking for? You know, Ghostbusters did that way bigger than Back to the Future did, though. It did. I think Back to the Future tried to empire build, like, but I don't think it was meant to do it. I don't think Ghostbusters was either, honestly, but I just think because of the cartoon. right just had like a really big toy line and it had you know a really enduring fan base with with back to the future i always felt like it was more movie based i know like after back to the future three they tried to do an animated series yeah a couple video games yeah there was nothing it was nothing like they did with ghostbusters like ghostbusters just blew up but it was it really wasn't because of the movie it was because of the cartoon that cartoon was such a huge thing when you know, we were like 8, 9, 10 years old. The great thing about Ghostbusters was when you watch Ghostbusters now, compared to when you watched it and you were like 9, 10 years old, you're like, dude, I shouldn't have been watching this movie. This movie screwed up.
    37:18
    Yeah. Yeah, especially, uh-huh. Yeah, the gatekeeper. Yeah, the keymaster. Sorry, yeah, sorry, keymaster. You never pick up that Rick Moranis definitely scored. Yeah, no kidding. He's like, did we? And she's like, no. And it's like, oh, yeah, you know he did. Oh, my gosh. That scene in the scene where, for whatever reason, like Venkman, when he goes on this date, he's like, oh, yeah, I whacked her up with like 400 species of Thorazine. Why did he eat Thorazine?
    37:52
    What kind of crazy date rate this was Venkman. Yeah, yeah, so true. I literally never thought about that until you just now mentioned it. It plays completely different when you watch it now. Totally. We're all innocent young people, man. Right, you know.
    38:08
    When I used to watch Ghostbusters, you know, the funny thing was before I saw the movie, I just couldn't picture in my head, I'm like, what do they do with the ghosts once they catch them?
    38:18
    Yeah, that's what I thought too. Of course, they have the containment unit, right? I was like, for some reason in my head, I'm like, they probably put them in Coke bottles in the basement. I swear to God, that was the thought that my head came up with. That could work. Put him inside of a Coke bottle. Why not? Yeah. I can't argue with that. Back to the Future is a clear winner. And, again, I would love the three gameplay style things, the past, present, future. And I like what you're saying about the flex capacitor. I love that. Especially when you look in the back of the car and it's got that little gauge that as they get closer and closer to 88, The gauge goes higher and higher. Yes. Yeah, you could have that building up. It's kind of like Getaway does as you're building up RPMs, or Hot Wheels does as you're building up RPMs. Yeah, Hot Wheels does. Yep. Yeah, perfect. A spinner is totally the legit way of doing it, though. Oh, yeah. And having it on a loop. Having it on a loop would be a no-brainer. And then it would go like, do-do-do-do, do-do-do-do. Yeah, yeah. Yep. Oh, you hear that? You know that sound. The firing mechanism could be that knob that they turn to turn on the time circuits. Yes. There you go. Yes. Yeah. Lots of cool ideas. But, yeah, I mean, the rule of depth would be great.
    39:38
    Assets would be a challenge. I mean, who knows how many rights they'd have to get. I mean, they'd have to get the licensing. I mean, I don't know if they could get Huey Lewis' power of love. You know, who knows? I feel like the Huey Lewis stuff would be the easiest to do. I'm thinking so, too. He seems to be a pretty easy guy to work with, you know. But it's using Back to the Future, so the question is, they would have to deal with that with Universal. He knows that's his bread and butter. When I saw him live last, it was about nine years ago, and Rusty and I saw him and Greg Hinn play together, and great show. And he was talking about it, he goes, you know, this is a song that when we wrote it, we didn't think anything was really going to come of it. He goes, honestly, I never thought in my wildest dreams that it would be something we would have to play every night. and I heard a funny rumor actually not even a rumor but I heard a funny fact the other day on another podcast I was listening to not a pinball podcast so you guys know who was going to be Marty McFly before Michael J. Fox yes it was Stoltz right Eric Stoltz do you know who was Marty McFly before Eric Stoltz I just heard something about this and I forgot no who See Thomas Howell. That's right. From The Outsiders. Oh, wow. Yep, he was Marty McFly for two weeks. Oh, my gosh. As they were preparing the movie, and then he got replaced by Stoltz because they loved Stoltz coming off of Elephant Man. Right. Stoltz got replaced after shooting for six weeks because he wasn't appropriate for the role at all, and, of course, it ended up in the right spot. Could you even picture Back to the Future without Michael J. Fox? No. Absolutely not. Yeah. Like Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd are so darn important to that. And you would need, I mean, I know that they're not available, right? And even if they are, they're too old. But, like, you need a good sound alike to do Marty and Doc for call-outs. Like, you can't have Biff do it. No. Like, that's the big thing. Stern's gotten really lazy about having, like, a side character be, like, their call-out guy or like J.J.P. did for Pirates. And, I mean, I guess if that beats a sharp stick in the eye, but you really need there to be some interplay between Doc and Marty. I mean, Christopher Lloyd would be the ultimate if it was possible to have a call-out. Yeah, but it couldn't be him at this point because he's ancient. No, he's ancient, yeah. Yeah, and, I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm sure he'd be game. There's some good ones, though, from Tall Tale. that... If you ever watch... Sorry.
    42:18
    If you ever watch some of the stuff that he does now, like his appearance on Mandalorian not too far back. He's still sharp and he's still great, but he just sounds old. You know, you don't want it to be like an 80-year-old version of Doc Brown. Right. Like that 50-some version of Doc Brown. Yeah, you want it crisp. You want it crisp. Yeah.
    42:37
    And there's some good sound-alikes. The guys who did the Telltale Games did good sound-alikes. Yeah, really good. Yeah. Yeah, I think there's enough voice actors out there that could do it. They could pull it off, but it's a matter of getting the rights to do it. Right. Pay for good voice actors. Yeah. I mean, if you're using voice actors, like, and you're using animated figures,
    43:00
    I mean, how close does it have to be? You know, you just don't make them photorealistic. Right. Like Telltale did it, right? That game was awesome, by the way. That game was amazing. Great people. If they can do it, I don't know. Someone can do it. Like, I love the take that Zombie Yeti brought to Ghostbusters. Yes. Whether you like the game or not, you know, and some people love that layout and some people hate it. I think that the stylized cartoony art style serves it really, really well. Everybody looks like who they're supposed to be, you know, and I guess they did have to go to the big four and get permission. you know and I guess Murray was kind of the hold out they finally I think said okay well your back's going to be to everybody and he's like okay hold on no it looks fine yeah yeah you know hopefully Michael J. Fox and uh Christopher Lloyd would just be honored you know and get paid yeah having their appearance on a pinball machine oh I wonder what they're going to do. I mean, we'll see. It's a lot of licensing nightmare, but if it happens, oh, man. Spinball's a weird place right now. Yeah. And they've got to produce more games so that we can get it right away, because I wouldn't want to wait two years to get it. So, yeah. But that's my pick. Yeah, that's my pick. One game every ten years, whether you need it or not. We all know each other's picks, but our listeners don't yet, but I think you're all going to be really pleasantly surprised. My pick is also a remake of a Day of the East game, or Day of the East, depending on how you're feeling. My pick is RoboCop.
    44:52
    Cool. Thank you. That's a good idea. RoboCop. It's a theme that, like, okay, more cult status than, say, like, Back to the Future. or a Ghostbusters, but still has a huge fan base. Those movies are well-loved. I know they remade Robocop a few years ago. I watched it. I'm real tough on remakes and reboots and sequels and prequels. I'm really tough on them. They got a better deliver. Anyway, I actually watched the original Robocop about a month ago,
    45:30
    rewatched it and enjoyed it. and I think that's a theme that would really benefit with the LCD screen and all the modern things that you could put into a pinball machine. The original game's not a bad game like Back to the Future. It's of the era, and for the time frame, I think they did a pretty good job.
    45:52
    But most, if not all, the principal cast of the original RoboCop are still alive. You could probably get a few of them to do some voice work. You know, you've got all the video assets. You've got, you know, the sound effects and the music, you know, and with animatronics, the things they're doing now with the Robocop toy or like a, oh, God, I can't even think about it. What's a, what was the other robot?
    46:26
    EB209. That's a great, that held on to me when I watched that the first time. An ED-209 that's animatronic and a bash toy. Oh, yeah. It would come out of the play field like the monger. That would be very cool. Okay. Comes out of the play field like a monger. It's animatronic. It would have all the lights on the guns. Yeah. And it maybe has a thing where it shoots balls. It messes up your flippers. Oh, there you go. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Oh, dude. Did you say it would shoot out balls? Yeah, like the dragon. If they could take that out, that would be gnarly. Right, exactly, right? You could do all kinds of stuff with it. That would be a lot of engineering, though. It would be a lot of engineering. That would be sick. Okay. But you see where I'm going, and you got at least, okay, I think they did a third movie, didn't they? And I don't even remember. The first two both had Peter Weller. The third one had somebody else. They've done a ton of direct-to-videos, like direct-to-video series. They've even done a couple TV series, a couple cartoons. like RoboCop they keep throwing it at the wall but really honestly all you need is RoboCop I mean there might be some content from RoboCop too maybe but like honestly you just want the first RoboCop because everything else in the RoboCop series is pretty shady you gotta collect like different stuff from the TV commercials I'd buy that for a dollar you know right yeah see you gotta collect in jail the different villains yeah exactly you gotta collect in you know another line in that another classic movie line in that just would not be the same without the profanity is when Robocop drags Boddicker into the squad room and he's like book him and the cops like what charge or the sergeant he's like he's a cop killer and he looks at Boddicker and Boddicker like spits a tooth onto the blotter. Oh, yeah. Just give me my fucking phone call. Or it's like, guys, guys, guys, come on, the Tigers are playing tonight. That's what I'm saying. Tonight!
    48:43
    The thing with RoboCop too, and Pop Quiz, what other game has Peter Weller appeared in? Oh, hold on. he's appeared in another pinball.
    48:59
    Yeah, and flat out, Peter Weller, his likeness and voice. Wow. I'm drawing a blank. Me too. He's in Sturntrek.
    49:12
    Oh. As Admiral What's-His-Name on The Vengeance. Oh. Oh, wow. He is. Wow. Are we really going to do this? So, yeah, he's already proven that, like, he's down to be in to, you know, his likeness and voice are available. That's right. Oh, yeah. Peter Weller, he seems like he wouldn't even have a lot of trouble. No. I mean, that happened. You know who I would love to see do that? Huh? Spooky.
    49:41
    Yeah. Spooky could do some real magic with that game. The only drawback to that. I'd love to see that as a Franchi joint. I would, too. Franchi would make that pop The only downside of that is Getting it to the masses Where Stern's going to get one to everybody I agree, they'd make like a thousand And people would be stabbing each other in the face for it Yeah, yeah Dude, okay, yeah With their data spikes Yeah, man Okay, dude, you could have You could have the data spike I want Franchi's heart on that game so bad No, Franchi would do a beautiful justice That's another one I'm not. That's another one. Back to the Future. Yeah, where I think Back to the Future would look better as like a stylized, like, zombie-eddy sort of interpretation. I think Robocop needs that more realistic Christopher Franchi straight interpretation, like on Evil Dead. Yes.
    50:40
    Yes. It would be really cool to see a sci-fi element from him because he's done it before. Yeah? Yeah. that's a good one Spencer because you could do a lot with that I'm not sure I've ever played an 80s Robocop oh I have I've played it to shows a few times people brought nice examples yeah we have one at Comic Kingdom so if you come to Comic Kingdom we have a Robocop I'm sure it's such a good game and you could do an homage to the original by putting in the jump ramp Yes, you could. You could do that, you know.
    51:22
    Yeah. The wrecking crew is here. Yeah, that's another game that I believe really deserves a second chance. Yeah, that's a good one.
    51:36
    Thank you. Definitely considering that's a data east and kind of like Back to the Future where it didn't have any of the DMDs so you didn't see, you know, the graphics and stuff. Yeah, and the rulesets were much simpler then. You know, get multi-ball, score a jackpot shot, and that was about it, you know. Yeah. Get a high score. And get your ass kicked on it because as soon as you hit those targets, you're dead. It was very much like it reminded me a lot of Dracula where you hit those targets, you're dead. It's over. Good game. I feel like rules-wise on a RoboCop, you don't even want it to be that complex. No. You wanted to have like that Steve Ritchie Terminator 2 style, just very straightforward, yeah, you know, execution-heavy gameplay. A lot of time, time modes, hurry up. Time modes would be good. Yep. Yeah. No, I agree. I really think it could benefit well with a revisiting, a retelling, if you will, a modernization. Yeah. That might be another good JJP too. Just so Steve could do it. Yeah.
    52:46
    That's a game Steve could really probably sink his teeth into. Honestly speaking, if it was between Matrix or RoboCop, I would go RoboCop. If JCP did it. Those are both tough because I'd like to see them both. I don't know, man. I think RoboCop would be cool. Just like you said with the artwork alone.
    53:05
    French, you could do so much with that. Yeah. Dan brought it to A-game today. I suggest you go for MPSR. You know, Maker's is so good. It is. The visual style of it is so striking, and it lends itself well to a surprisingly sophisticated rule set. Yeah. I don't think it would necessarily, I mean, unless you just want it to be like shootout, shootout, shootouts, but, like, there's so much going on. The problem is, is kind of like RoboCop, I think you'd want a very narrow slice of the Matrix universe. Right, yeah, don't do the sequel, just do the first one. Right. Like, for Back to the Future, you definitely want the whole original trilogy. Right.
    53:51
    Matrix, you'd want the Matrix, right? Robocop, you'd want Robocop 1, because a lot of the stuff that came after, and I know it's got its fans, but a lot of the stuff that came after wasn't super, super great. Although there were moments in the second and third Matrix movies, the clone fights and the final showdown with Smith were pretty good. But, I mean, those all could have actually been just one movie. Right. That's a fine example of, like, taking two movies, or taking one movie and making it into two just for the hell of it. Just stretch it, yeah, which, yeah, for no reason. Yep. You know, we're going to, you know, and then you can't blame the directors, right? They're like, hey, now that we got a hit, we're going to get ourselves some work lined up for the next one. Just keep it going, keep it going, keep it going full steam. Yep. Yeah. RoboCop.
    54:41
    And you can picture that cabin, too. A lot of silver, a lot of black. Yeah. You know, very metallic.
    54:49
    Oh, yeah. You can spell OCP. Your OCP drop targets. There you go. Yeah, that's Miguel Pereira. He's one of the, I think, the only cast member who's not with us anymore. He did kick the bucket. Yeah, cancer a few years ago. Great, great, completely underrated character actor. The perfect person to do call-outs besides Weller is you've got to get Kirtwood Smith. Oh, that's him. He's still around. You've got to get Boddiger. Oh, you've got to get Boddiger. You have to. Oh, my God. He would be so good. Could you do a tilt call-out?
    55:26
    Yeah, for sure, right? Exactly. Yeah, and I'll bet he'd be up for it. I'll bet he would probably say, oh, yeah, I'll do it. End of the line, you know, just can you fly, Bobby? Like everything that he says in that movie is gold. Yeah. Gold. He was a great villain. Pure gold. Yeah. And, you know, the thing, too, what's great about it is it's, yeah, it would definitely have that appeal with the theme and, like you said, with the artwork, the max. Yeah, that's a really good one. I mean, I'm kind of excited, like, it coming out, even though it's not. But, God, it would be cool. I just thought of another cool thing to do. If you get a high score, the old man, nice shooting, son. What's your name?
    56:15
    That'd be pretty good. Yeah. Murphy. Good one. Yeah, man. Thank you. So I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Dan because he's got one that. Dan, you're fired. Yeah, right? Oh, that was a classic. Oh, my gosh.
    56:32
    And that would be like a time trial. You wait for them to say it, and then you have to make a shot to get that kill. Yeah. And out the window. Yeah. And it was one of those movies, before we move on to the next top, or not next top, but moving on to Dan, it was shocking to see that moment with that robot. What did you call it again? You remembered it. I can't remember the name. Oh, yeah, 2009. Oh, my gosh. I felt already when I saw that, I was like, this doesn't look good. Just the way he pumps that dude on the table? Yes. And all of a sudden he just goes nuts and just kills everybody. I was like, now I know why this is R. I get it now. Have you watched the uncut version of that? No. So in the uncut version of RoboCop, which you can get a lot of different ways, like they have it on DVD and whatnot, there were two things that were really, really extended. For one, the way that they killed off Murphy, like there's a full pan around shot like it starts behind him it goes all the way around behind him and then when Clarence shoots him you see the back of his head explode out and it's they had to cut that and then the scene where that poor pork member gets pulped on the table by Ed 209 goes on like three times as long like he's just hamburger by the end Oh, man. So they had to trim that down so that it wouldn't be rated X or MC-17.
    58:04
    Yeah, that would be a great, like, a frenzy or something where you have, like, so much time to hit shots, and the more you hit the shots, it just shows that dude just getting pummeled, just getting obliterated on top of that freaking model of Delta City. Oh, my gosh. I've got to watch that movie again. Is it out on streaming somewhere? Yeah. I watched it recently, maybe about a month ago, either on Netflix or Hulu. It was on Netflix? I got to watch it. I think it was Netflix. It was tough to watch as a kid because that was one of those R movies that I got to watch. And I was like, oh, that's why it was R. Now I know why. Because I was thinking like Superman, you know, oh, Robocop, you know, Hero of the Neighborhood. Yeah, yeah. But, oh, yeah, it was good. It was good. It was definitely more adult than I thought it would be when I watched it. Better alive, you're coming with me. The guy that played the old man Dick, he's still alive. Ronnie Cox, he's like 87. Wow. Like I said, most of the principal. I thought he made a pass. No, I just checked the cast. I just looked up and, like, the only one that's not with us anymore of the main cast is Miguel Pereira. He was such a good heavy amount. I've got to watch it now. I'm excited to see that movie again. Yeah, it's definitely worth seeing again. So that was my pick. Dan, you got another. I know this is something that you've been wishing for for some time.
    59:31
    Yeah, so mine is basically like the rumor is that it's here, right? Kind of like Mark's where it's like it's been so rumored for so long that it's probably true and we're just waiting for it to happen. But for me, it's the Transformers. and not the Transformers movies and not Beast Wars and not any of the other versions, but like the 1985, 86, Generation 1, Optimus Prime and Megatron, Transformers more than meets the eye. Oh, yeah.
    60:06
    And I'm super excited that the hot rumor right now is that that's the next game up from Stern and that it's going to be done by Elliot Eisman, the guy who did Matrix. and I think it's basically the same team behind Matrix is going to be on it. So it's – oh, God, who is the coder? I just heard him talking on a podcast. Wait, wait, do you mean John Wick? You said Matrix. All right, Matrix, John Wick. Okay, okay. Wrong piano movie.
    60:35
    Whoa. Same premise, though. He's still got a whole lot of problems. I'm a quick plano gun foo. Do we know this? You could have just edited it out and not made me sound like a moron, Mark.
    60:46
    No, no. No, the coder was actually on a podcast, and they were talking to him, and he said, like, his next theme is an 80s, or maybe that was the, maybe that was Elliot. No, I don't remember, but it was an interview, and he basically said it was, it was like an 80s theme. No, well, I just, my question was actually, is it going to be based on the movie or the original TV show, or do we know? So the big rumor is that it's based on the 1986 Transformers, the movie. Okay. Right, because it's the 40th anniversary of Transformers the movie. It's like the 42nd anniversary of the Transformers in the U.S. Of course, the Transformers toys predate a little bit in Japan because they were all taken from different toy lines. So, yeah, the big rumor is that it's going to be based on Transformers the movie, which if you haven't seen Transformers the movie, it was a notorious flop. Yeah, it was a huge flop. It didn't do super well in the theaters. I saw it. I was like 9 or 10 years old, and I remember seeing it. and it basically blew everybody's minds because, A, there was some light swearing, but, B, there were a bunch of Transformers getting killed off, including Optimus Prime. And it wasn't like, oh, they fell into a pool of lava or something. They were, like, getting shot. You were seeing their eyes go red and smoke pouring out of their mouths and Optimus Prime dying on the operating table. And, you know, in the Transformers fandom, there's a lot of people who are just like, oh, man, that movie, like, ruined our lives. Really? Yeah, so much so that Hasbro has designated this the Transformers, the movie apology tour year. Wow. And they have these trailers online that you can watch where they're just like, hey, we're sorry, look at all these great new toys that we're bringing out. And they brought out a shot-up version of Optimus Prime. Oh, God. And a shot-up version or a beat-up version of Megatron from their final battle. One shall stand, one shall fall. And they've been doing this for a few years. Somebody at Hasbro has got a sick sense of humor because they brought up a two-pack that has the versions of Prowl and Ironhide that got killed on the shuttle. And then they brought out another one which has Ratchet and Brawn who got killed on the shuttle. Wow. Oh, yeah, someone at Hasbro's got, like, a bit of a sixth sense of humor. But no, they're just like, look, these guys are, like, 50 years old. They'll buy these things. So my hope is that Stern has also tapped into that, and we're going to get a cool, violent, you know, as violent as it can be version of Transformers the movie. And it had, like, some bumpin' 80s tunes, and so that would be really, really cool. It had a really cool, colorful, like, art style for the time. It was, you know, the TV animation, but a lot better in spots. It introduced some new characters like Hot Rod and Ultra Magnus, so some of the Galvatron, so some of the big new characters. And Stern's already said, or someone's already said, that it has Stern's best mech ever. Oh. So who knows what that means. Will it transform? Right. So I have Transformers, right? I have the 2010 Transformers Pro, and that was based off of the first couple Michael Bay movies. And I know that in, like, the LE, apparently the Megatron transforms, and the Pro, he certainly doesn't. But, like, the big feature on that is you hit Optimus Prime with pinballs, right?
    64:28
    As funny as it is to hit Optimus Prime in the nuts over and over with pinballs, the truck nuts, like, I, it needs to be like a transforming bash toy right like yeah maybe it could be Unicron the giant killer planet you know or Unicron's disembodied head although that's not till the very end of the movie spoilers and like yeah maybe it would shoot balls back at you like that'd be pretty cool kind of a Groot style thing but you know man yeah that is definitely worth something to be excited about if it's true that that's coming out next. Wow.
    65:10
    Yeah, that sounds cool. Well, you know, they say where there's smoke, there's fire. There's been a lot of smoke around this. Yeah. You know, we'll talk a little bit more about rumor titles later, but you know, the big three rumors from Stern this year were Pokemon, Transformers, and Fallout. Right. And Pokemon's here, right? We've seen it. It exists.
    65:31
    So now Transformers, and you know you knew that there was an L1 up this year and man there was I was really wishing the Transformers like maybe Keith L1 was a closet Transformers fan but when they said it was Elliot Eisman I was like okay I can do that I liked John Wick probably a lot of folks do and you know I think that it'll be nice to see maybe a fresh take you know a creator that I don't have a game from but oh man it would have been nice if that was the L1 because L1's just, he just seems to bring out banger after banger after banger. I don't know. I think Eisen will have a hit because, I mean, you can see his potential when he didn't have an issue with the materials, but he did the Metroid one, right? Wasn't it the Metroid homebrew is the one he did? Was that him? No, I thought that was the dude who ended up with JJP. Oh, okay. Okay. I don't know. I couldn't tell you for sure what he had done before. I have to look that up. I thought it was the Metroid one, but maybe I'm wrong.
    66:36
    But he definitely is a younger designer, and he'll come up with something really cool. I really hope so, because John Wick is a really good game. Once they got the code fixed up, it is a blast to shoot, but it's brutal at the same time. But I bet you'll have kind of a medium way of approaching it, right? It'll probably be a little more approachable, but at the same time, it might have some shots that are difficult. I hope that it's hard as balls. You do? Okay, okay. I think that it needs to be, right? Because I think coming off of Pokemon, which is apparently pretty darn straightforward and pretty start easy, pretty darn easy, like, and coming off of Matrix, not Matrix, got to keep doing that, John Wick, which was a pretty tight game, like, you think that he would probably be somewhere in that same area where it'll have, like, that adversarial sort of edge. Yeah. where you're actually fighting the game. So I like games like that. I like my games at this point in my life to be a little bit less deep and a little bit more execution heavy, like a Black Knight sort of rage. Yeah. I don't think Stern will ever make anything quite that belligerent again, but, you know, Wick had its spots. Right. If anything I kind of think that that would have been a great design for like Gomez I really think Wick is like criminally underrated in Like, I think that Bond is a really, really good design for, like, a nice mix of shootability and brutality. Right. That's what I would like to see out of Transformers. Transformers, like that nice blend where it's mean, but it's, you know, like you can shoot.
    68:25
    Yeah. Only I just don't want the giant space dildo. Yeah. I can't get past you got the power. It's stuck in my head now.
    68:38
    Yeah. Well, I mean, if they get the full soundtrack for Transformers, man, that's got some, like, prime 80s cheese, man. It's got, like, a lot of butt rock. from like these little bands that you've never heard of, but it's also got like those like Stan Bush power ballad, you know, 80s power ballads. And then it's got Vince DiCola did a lot of the soundtrack for Transformers the movie, all the score. And he did some of the Rocky, like Rocky IV, stuff like that. So, yeah, that game's got a killer soundtrack. The hard thing about it is like who do you get to do the voices? I mean, you know, Peter Weller is still around. Not Peter Weller. Peter Cullen is still around. You know, he's the voice of Optimus Prime, and he's still doing voice work. I think he would do it. I think they could get Peter to do it. Yeah. I really do. He didn't do the 2010 Transformers, but they used a sound alike who's passable.
    69:38
    The guy who plays Megatron, Frank Welker, he's still working. he's Scooby-Doo. He just did work for Scooby-Doo. Dude, that guy's pedigree. He's done like a thousand voices. Every animal that you've ever heard in a cartoon was probably Frank Welker. Yeah, Frank Welker was our generation version of Mel Blanc. Yeah, that's really true. I mean, he's got quite an impressive list of characters. he was bringing in Inspector Gadget which I think Inspector Gadget by the right company that would be a good one yeah Inspector Gadget would be a good one if you look at the cast of the voice actors that did the Transformers movie Peter Cullen and Frank Welker Orson Welles, Leonard Nimoy Eric Idle, Judd Nelson Robert Stack Casey Kasem he was another guy that did a lot of voiceover work, you know. Right.
    70:44
    Beyond American Top 40, which every weekend, man, they play, Saturday they play an 80s show, and Sundays they play a 70s show, and I listen to them both. Yeah, they had, you know, the whole, the funny thing, if you really know the history of Transformers, the movie was, at the time Hasbro had all these, like, super banger toy franchises. They had Transformers, they had G.I. Joe, they had My Little Pony they had done a Care Bears like theatrical movie I think there were like He-Man theatrical movies all kinds of stuff like that so Hasbro's like hey we're going to get in here and we're going to do kind of our own Hasbro theatrical movie universe and Transformers bombed and then I think that what happened was maybe My Little Pony also bombed and they just went straight to video with G.I. Joe and then they changed the part of G.I. Joe where Duke was supposed to die and they did like a really cheesy voiceover like after he keels over dead they're just like oh no he's in a coma and at the end of the movie where like Falcon's standing there and he's crying and he says yo Joe you hear kind of off in the background hey guys I just heard Duke came out of his coma he's gonna be okay but it changed It changed the course of kind of animated movies, you know, because they were originally going to really try to sell the shit out of some animated movies in the 80s. And Transformers, the movie, was like, nope. But it's become like this crazy, enduring cult classic. And I think that a lot of people look back on it as just like, did they think that we were going to be able to handle this level of murder and mayhem at 10 years old?
    72:25
    Yeah. Oh, man. Like, you know, like there's, you know, planets getting destroyed and, you know, like dudes getting shot in the face. And I'm not even kidding. There's like a scene where this guy's like down on his belly and he grabs the bad guy's leg and the bad guy just looks down at him and shoots him in the head.
    72:46
    You know, and I was the kind of 10-year-old when I saw that because, you know, I didn't really watch the cartoon, but I had the toys. And I'm just like, yeah, this is what I'm talking about. Because when I, you know, had battles with my toys, it was life or death, man. Yeah. I've buried a lot of G.I. Joes.
    73:05
    So, yeah, Transformers, man. As far as the game goes, you know, it's already in the air, right? They said it's going to have a great mech. You know, I would want something that transforms, right? Something that comes up out of the play field like a truck or something, an Optimus Prime that transforms into a robot, and it can act like a bash toy or kind of like a Black Knight sort of toy that fights back.
    73:27
    I know we've gone to this well over and over, but like something that shoots balls back at you would be really cool. Yeah, for sure. Anything that works well is worth redoing. That's always good.
    73:39
    Yeah. But it's kind of hard because the last Transformers, it actually did have a mechanism, and even the Pro has a mechanism that shoots balls back at you with the Megatron scoop, and it already had an Optimus Prime Bash toy. So you're kind of like, you know, how do they do something that's going to be significantly different? Because the first Transformers is very much like, this is a fan layout with a Bash toy.
    74:03
    Like, this is just what we do. So it's just like, you know, hopefully they bring some imagination to it. And again, I hope that it's something akin to James Bond's, you know, three flippers, you know, nice blend of difficulty and shootability you know, maybe an Aston Martin that turns into a robot. You can shoot a car through there. You shoot a ball through the roof.
    74:29
    Bondatron. Yeah, there you go. Cool. That's a good pick. Obviously, we're all looking forward to it. And I think that, you know, if we get it, I hope it's a very full-featured pro because I'm not balling above all, and I don't want to have to buy a $10,000 premium or a $12,000 LE. but I'll figure out how to get myself one of those. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Now I just have a quick question since we're still talking about, uh, transformers. Were you blown away by the live action movie? When the live action movie started, we went to the movies right away, right? Cause I've, I've always been a transformers fan. I still collect transformers toys. I write reviews online, the whole works. And so for me, you know, we went right out to the theater and saw the first movie. And we went right to Toys R Us and we bought some Transformers toys. And at that point in my life, we weren't really buying a lot of Transformers toys. But I really liked it. I thought that it was pretty well done.
    75:31
    You know, it wasn't my Transformers, but it was good Transformers. And I thought that Shia LaBeouf did a really good job being the human avatar, right? Yes. The human appeal character. and then I don't know what happened with the rest of those movies but they were just dog shit yeah I agree like they just got so bad I mean some of the character designs in them were really cool and some of the battles were really cool but like the humans got so annoying and then like the plots just got more and more progressively bad up until you got to like the last couple so Transformers Bumblebee is actually a really good kind of a cute movie. Phenomenal movie. That I really liked. Has some really good scenes in it. Yeah. Especially like the scene with John Cena trying to talk to the people at the Pentagon or whatever and say, look, they're literally called the Decepticons. Do you think we can trust them? I'm like, yeah, who hasn't picked up on that before? Yeah. Awesome scene. And then they did the Transformers Rise of the Beasts, which it was a little bit more of a throwback to the Michael Bay movies, but wasn't bad, had some great character moments.
    76:48
    I liked it. And then the last one they did, the CGI one, Transformers 1, which, again, was just a notorious bomb. It's a shame, too, because it's such a good flick. Really? Okay.
    77:01
    It kind of retells the origin of why Optimus Prime and Megatron are enemies and where they came from. And it's definitely a different take on Transformers than, you know, your average Generation 1 Transformers fan believes. But if you haven't seen it, it's on the Paramount streaming. I'm sure it's on all the other streamings too. But it's really worth a watch. And for a cartoon movie, they really tried to make it look like it was going to be like a Guardians of the Galaxy or something. but it was really a much more interesting sort of character-driven, like, buddy adventure movie where these two guys, you know, kind of go out to, you know, find adventure and end up finding, you know, out why they're friends. And then at the end of the movie, spoilers, end up finding that they can't be friends anymore because their ideals have become different. Interesting. Cool. Yeah, I mean, for a cartoon, it's surprisingly deep. You know, like sometimes you watch like a Disney movie and you're just like, oh, there was kind of a message there that, you know, you don't really pick up on as a kid. This one is just like, even the kids are going to be like, oh, yeah, they're not pals anymore.
    78:22
    Yeah, yeah. You know, so I think the Transformers movies have been a mixed bag. But if it was going to be like if Transformers 1 had been a big hit and they're like, hey, we're going to make a Transformers 1 pinball. I'd be into it, you know, if they were like, oh, we're going to make Transformers Bumblebee pinball. Okay, I'd be into it. I'd be excited. Okay, okay. But the fact of the matter is, this is my Transformers. This is the Transformers that I would love to see. And I'm trying hard to not psych myself out about it because I know that when you start thinking about something too much, it can never live up to your expectations, you know, never meet your heroes. Right. Just let it come about and see how it is. Right. So, you know, again, I'm hoping that using John Wick as a template, I said the right game this time, using John Wick as a template, I'm hoping that it sticks, that it hews close to that, but maybe with a little bit more of a varied shot layout and some execution-heavy gameplay. Although John Wick's got some execution-heavy gameplay.
    79:28
    Yeah, yeah. Getting that lights out mode, that takes some doing. Oh, does it ever? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, well, let's hope it surprises us. That's all I'll say. It surprises us. Yeah, I think it's just we're talking with Dan and other people in the community.
    79:51
    It's a theme that that particular, the Transformers movie, above anything else, it resonates. Because it hit it at a particular time when we were young. like with Star Wars and like with, you know, with Dax and Sheetron, with Ghostbusters. It hit us in our youth, you know, and was like nothing we'd ever seen before, and it really hits the nostalgia button for us. It reminds us of a simpler time when we were kids just playing in the dirt with our toys and having fun and hanging with our friends and going to the movies, when movies were, every new movie was this new magic we'd never seen before. Yep. Well, it is funny that, like, of all the themes that we each picked, we each went with an 80s theme kind of based on an 80s movie. Although I would say, like, honestly, my hope isn't for Transformers the movie. I just think that's what I'm getting. My hope is just for 80s Transformers as a franchise. Right. But it is interesting that we all went with like a 1980s theme, which is one of those things that it seems like in pinball these days, everybody's really jonesing on the 80s themes and the 90s themes. Correct. You know, they just keep going for it. Yeah. Like Goonies. Yeah, yeah. You know.
    81:09
    Yeah. And I'm like, look, I like the Goonies as much as the next guy, but I've never looked at the Goonies and said, man, you know what would make this better for me? If it was a pinball. Yeah.
    81:21
    Now it could be cool, right? You take the Goonies, you make it like, you know, like you're shooting in and out of caves and you have that big skull rock that, you know, you could maybe lock balls up in the eyes. And that's, like, I could think of cool ways to do Goonies, but, like, I've just never really been like, man, that's what I need. I need Goonies. Yeah. Goonies is a pinball machine. But I know guys who are just like, I'd buy it immediately. Right. Immediately. Like, immediately and suddenly. Mm-hmm.
    81:55
    You know, Ghostbusters is another one that, like, everybody kind of wants a reedy one. There's, you know, a lot of folks who don't like a lot of stuff about the stern one. Mm-hmm. And I think the Stern game is good. Like, I think the Stern game is fun. I think that they nailed it, especially with the art. But, you know, the big rumor for a few seconds was that, oh, JJP is going to do another Ghostbusters, which doesn't sound like they are. No, it's totally false, supposedly.
    82:21
    So did we want to comment on some rumors? Yeah, let's go. We got time. So NAP, a few days ago, put out a pretty sizable list of rumors, and there's a lot of opinions on there. So if you want to read about that, I heavily encourage that you hit up Nap Arcade, which is just the source for news in our pinball world right now. But I'm sure everyone's going to talk about some of these. So I'm just going to look down the article. I'll shout out the rumor and you guys can tell me what you think. so the first one is Jersey Jack pinball the fast and the furious banger theme if they can pull it off and if it was Steve Ritchie go for it I'm thinking what took you so long yeah we talked about that in our previous podcast where we talked about a thing that would be a good pinball machine and that would be incredible they could do a lot it'd be a lot of stuff to choose from, but yeah, that'd be a fun one to shoot.
    83:30
    So Richie's apparently up next at JJP with Sonic. Okay. I don't know how far out the Fast and the Furious would be, but I do agree that like if you're going to make a Fast and the Furious game and you have Steve Richie and you don't have Steve Richie make it, you're an idiot. Yeah, exactly. Right. Yeah. But it's the same thing with Top Gun that we mentioned earlier. Like, why, if you could get Top Gun and you do have Steve Ritchie in your pocket, why wouldn't you get Top Gun? Right.
    84:00
    By the way, have you guys seen any of that Top Gun homebrew that the guy is doing? A little bit. Yeah. It looks dope. Yeah, it looks really fun. It looks so good. I don't really like the way that he used the art. Like, I don't like the art that he used, but, like, the game itself looks cool as hell. Yeah.
    84:19
    Yeah. So, yeah. I guess that there's also a rumor that they might be doing Minions, which, okay. I feel like that craze has kind of passed.
    84:32
    Yeah. I mean, Minions is okay, but that would definitely be more kid appeal. I don't think adults would really get into Minions as much. No. Despicable Me is actually a pretty clever little movie, but, yeah, I don't think I would ever. No. I don't think I'd ever need to spend money on that. No, no, but it would be great, like I said, at an arcade, you know, like a family fun center. It's perfect, which kind of fits the same with, like, Pokemon. So, yeah. What else? So our pinball pals at Pedretti apparently have Tales of the Arabian Nights nearly ready, and it might be at TPF, and then the rumor is after that they're going to take a crack at Theater of Magic. Wow. Okay. Well, I know that if they do a revised code for Tales of Arabian Nights, then I'd be interested in it. But if it's just the same game, still a cool layout, and it does have some neat mechs in it, but it'd have to have deep code for me to be appealing to me. That's how I feel. What about you, Dan? After seeing how they kind of tanked Funhaus, Theater of Magic, and Tales, they're way more complicated games. Yeah.
    85:59
    Yeah? You know, I don't know if I trust them. It's just so easy to get to the wizard mode on Tales. I can answer that. I don't. Go away. You suck. Arson is the only answer. You know, what I would say is, and this is kind of how I felt about the CGC remakes, too. When they came out and there was a very reasonably priced option, you could get into those things for like six grand. I loved them. They didn't need to be perfect. They could be close enough. Just it was bringing games to the masses. is you know that they're not going to probably do straight remakes, right? They're going to have to be enhanced. They're going to have to have two dot O's and the whole works. Yeah. And that's what I don't want. I don't want a theater of magic, and that might be one of the most difficult machines to keep working 100% correctly. And mine is completely restored. Like whoever had it before us, and I know who had it, and he's a really good guy, it had been restored before him, and it's got all the trick parts on it. And even still, it's one of those games that's really tricky to keep working just right. I need to make some adjustments on mine. So it's just like with how much trouble that those Funhouse remakes seem to have, even my buddy who had one ended up giving up on it, I just don't look at those guys and say like, yeah, these are the guys who I trust to take two of the most complicated Valley Williams games and bring those to life. Well, I'm going to go beyond that with they took Funhausen and go, let's change the rule set. Let's change the art. And it's like part of what makes those games so special, especially with A Theater of Magic and even more so, Tales of the Ravenites, the artwork on those games is – I've seen people that have those games artwork tattooed on their bodies because they're so iconic and so stylized and beautiful. You know, when you look at, you know, I just, and they're going to go, oh, we're going to reimagine them. Don't do it. People don't want that. You know what?
    88:13
    I'm going to hot take. I don't think either of those games is that good looking. Okay, that's fair. I mean, I do, especially Tails, but yeah. I think Tails has an ugly back glass, but the play field looks great with the dancing girl on it. And the cabin is nothing to write home about. And I just never really thought theater magic was that good looking. It's great. It's wonderfully themed. And the magic tricks and the magnet work and the trunk and the way that it does the whole, you saw the ball in half. You shoot the ball in there as one and it comes out as two. It's an intensely cool and clever game. But I've never looked at the art of that game and been like, this looks awesome. Yeah. It's just like a lot of red curtains and a really mannish-looking female magician. Yeah, it's very basic. Well, you also have the female's voice, which is really cool. The male voice is good, too, but the female voice with the call out. Every Golly Williams game had awesome music and calls. They just, you know, they had the dudes who knew how to do it at the time. Yeah, that's why so many people want an original, or if they can't get one, And I see why the remake is like this. It's a lost art. When we could get a remake, an entry-level remake of Attacks from Mars or Monster Bash out the door, delivered to our house for just a click over 6K, it was like, sign me up, man. You know? I mean, that was just like, they were running the same price as a Stern Pro at that time, I believe. You know? And what a deal. We talk about that a lot. You know, my biggest screw-up was the fact that at the time I had, you know, a Monster Bash, which I stupidly sold off and or sold slash traded off. And I had a medieval remake and I had an Attack from Mars that I had, you know, let go as well. and if I'd known that, you know, the $6,000 remakes weren't going to stick around forever, I probably would have grabbed another one of each of them. Yeah. Because at that price, those are just such cool games. But, you know, that's just the remake thing has gone into the premium pinball space because to make money, those guys need to judge them up. You know, they need to put the big screen in them and whatnot and just, you know, give me a basic remake that looks and plays like the original. and, you know, I'd love to give you reasonable money, but I'm not even upset that they might do a theater or magic remake being an original owner, even from a value standpoint, because I just don't think that they're going to get out there for less than you could probably buy a decent theater or magic for. You know, will it help their value? No, but I don't think it'll also cause it to tank. You know, medievals have gone down a little bit because there's been like five runs of medieval madness but medievals are still expensive you know attacks are still expensive monster bashes are still expensive you know and if you get them back out there and I can get one you know for six seven thousand dollars you know awesome alright American Pinball so American Pinball apparently has Circus Voltaire on the way so another remake and super excited about that a very strong presence at Texas Pinball Festival,
    91:42
    but who knows if it might be a little too early to hope for them to actually have a working game. It's a real shame that for just whatever reason that they're not going to do something with Cuphead. Yeah, that game was really cool. I've heard that sentiment a lot. Apparently it's done. Apparently it's done and ready to go. It's done and ready to go? People have played it, and they said it's awesome. Ah.
    92:08
    They also apparently have two other titles in the works. One is a movie and one is a band, but there's nothing else to know. A movie and a band. Hmm. Okay. A movie and a band. Mm-hmm. Okay. So Stern, beyond what we've talked about, which would be Transformers and Fallout, has another remaster coming up, apparently either ACDC or KISS. Hmm. Which one would you prefer?
    92:38
    I think Kiss is way more likely and would probably benefit from it more. Yeah. I'm with you. Yep.
    92:50
    ACDC is a great game. I have an ACDC, I have a Lucy, and it's awesome. And if they remaster it, I don't feel like they'll be able to keep the character of it alive like they did with Metallica because they don't have Steve Ritchie here to redo a lot of his work. Ah, good point. Yep. Now, you know, and Steve Ritchie does all the call-outs in that game. And here's the thing. So far, every remake or remaster has been Borg. Has been a Borg. And Kiss is a Borg. So Kiss is a Borg. Yeah. But I do think that Kiss would benefit more from, first of all, just having more out there because there's a lot of ACDCs out there and there aren't very many Kisses out there. And I think that it would benefit more from the LCD.
    93:43
    Although with the way that they did the LCD on Walking Dead, that was kind of shady. So I would hope that they do a better job. I'd hope that they do it like they did Metallica. Yeah. They're going to have real concert footage, and they're going to really take care of it, not just, you know, kind of cartoonize and put DMD animations up on the LCD.
    94:10
    Yeah, well, honestly speaking, the DMD animations, in my opinion, on KISS are kind of weak. So being able to redo that will be a lot better. Well, there's not a lot of digitized. Yeah, yeah, correct. And I think that they're good. It looks great with a color DMD. Well, yeah, yeah, color DMD is better, but just monochrome, not so good. Like, I think Kiss is awesome. Like, I would love to have a Kiss Pro. Me too. The problem was, was by the time that, you know, everybody figured out that it was kind of cool, you couldn't get one anymore, and that's that, you know, equation for all of a sudden, you know, instead of it being a $4,000 Pro, it's a $6,000 Pro, you know, or a $7,000 Pro. Marky picked up, like, within a year of that game coming out, picked up a Pro, a really nice one for 4K.
    95:04
    Yeah, they were dirt-ass cheap. Yeah, he had it for a good minute or two and then, you know, traded it off for something else. And then everybody figured out that it was good and hard to get. Right, because they finally got the coding done. It went up in price, like Munsters. Munsters did the same thing. Everybody shit on Munsters. They got cheap and everyone was like, oh, Munsters is actually kind of fun. I wish I could find a Monsters Pro, you know. I really do. Or a premium, especially that black and white premium. Oh, that thing is hot. Yeah. Yeah, it's cool. That was always a game that I would play in arcades and have a good time with, and I had one crack at it. I had a buddy who was selling one, and I just couldn't quite put it together. He even said, hey, man, if you want to hang on to it, just come pick it up. Wow. And I just never quite put it together. Uh-huh. and in fact I was talking with him not too far back I'm not going to name names but he knows who he is he hit me up for a set of leg levelers he's like hey I need some leg levelers I was like alright yeah come on by and get him and I was hoping he'd get by while I was out but he was coming back from the Bay Area so he was like I'm going to be there like midnight so I just left him on the front porch for him but I was kind of hoping that you know swing on by and check stuff out but he's a fan of the show so thanks for listening Cool. Right on. But yeah, so, unfortunately, he did manage to sell it, but I really should have taken advantage of that game while I had a chance at it, because I think that's a cool game. I should just remaster Munsters, but I really don't think, you know, because it's already a LCD game. Yeah, Munsters, you just need to do a vault or a rerun. Right, there you go. Just get the rights. And I think that somewhere at Stern, like, they sort of said, well, you know, it really wasn't that big a hit to start with, But that's usually where the vaults end up becoming a big thing because they can go, oh, people want this enough to pay for it. Let's run another 500 or 1,000, you know, like they did with Black Knight Sword of Rage or like they did back in the day with Iron Man. Yeah, yeah. You know, give them another shot at it. With Spider-Man, they did a vault, but it was just because, you know, Spider-Man was a giant hit. It was one of Stern's bestsellers ever, but it was a chance to, you know, do more. Or maybe they had lost the movie license. I don't know.
    97:23
    So what else we got here? Spooky. Not really anything rumored from Spooky that's solid. Apparently they're talking about doonies and gremlins. That's attached to Spooky.
    97:40
    Of the two, I would say Spooky would be best suited to do gremlins. Yeah, me too. I say the same. Gremlins would be great for Spooky. Well, Gremlins is a good movie, but, I mean, it's definitely a spooky movie, right? Because it's horror, but it's not comedy horror.
    97:58
    It's another one like Ghostbusters where when you watch it as an adult going, I can't believe they let a 10-year-old watch this, you know? Oh, the novelization of that movie is hardcore.
    98:09
    Like, people are dying left and right, but, yeah, it's kind of like a screwed-up movie. Yeah. I never, like, in my circles, like, we all remember Gremlins and we all like Gremlins, but, like, Gremlins 2 was kind of a bomb. Right? Like, it was a cool, weird movie, but, like, it wasn't a big hit, and they never really branched out like all these other super franchises did. Like, I'm sure they would sell 1,000. Oh, easily. I got a story about that. I don't even think Gremlins is as big as Beetlejuice is in terms of being, like, a... like a cultural touchstone. But that's how it stands. So when Mickey was about seven years old, he got really into Ghostbusters. So for about eight months, we had to watch Ghostbusters literally every day. And so finally, somebody in the house went, you know, there's a second Ghostbusters. It's not as good, but so we started watching that with Mickey all the time. And then finally one day, Rusty goes, how about Gremlins, Mickey? So he got that. And he got onto that kick for about seven, eight months. And then one day he turns to me and says, is there a Gremlins 2? And I'm like, I'm not going to say anything because that movie sucks. And, of course, Rusty pops right up and says, yeah, we own it. I'm like, no, don't tell him that. And so for about three months we had to watch that every night, you know. It's like because it was the first up into the ground, man. You know, Gremlins 2 doesn't suck as much as it's like a satire. Right. Like, it sort of, like, makes fun of the first movie and makes fun of, like, you know, the technology firms of the era. But, like, it's not an unamusing movie. You just couldn't go into that movie looking for Gremlins 1. No, see, that's where I went. I went looking for Gremlins 1, and it wasn't there. So I just said, I just closed the lid and went, I'm going to go eat junk food, you know. It's like losing really bad And getting out in the first round of finals What are you doing? I'm going to go over to the buffet table And eat my way into happiness Somebody brought the big box Of What's the place? God, it's been so long Drown your sorrows in Jim Boy's When I get back out to Cali First place I'm going is Jim Boy's Not In-N-Out Because I can get In-N-Out in Denver I can't get Jim Boyce. My wife moved out here from Alabama. The first place I took her to eat was Jim Boyce, and it made her so sick. Oh, really? Oh, man. She hates Jim Boyce to this day. I had that with Del Paco. I got food poisoning at Del Paco like 35 years ago. This food was way too greasy.
    100:57
    CGC. Apparently, Play Mechanics, the guy responsible for Pulp Fiction, have a Halo pen designed by Mark Ritchie. I'm most excited for this out of anything so far. Okay. I'm most excited for this. It's a long time. Too long coming. You know, they run Halo into the ground pretty hard as a video game franchise, but that last arcade game that they did, that Halo Fire Team Bravo. That was pretty legit. I mean, it was a big hit, and it's a big, impressive-looking machine, and I can't lie and say that I wouldn't think a Halo game would be pretty, pretty cool, especially if they have the Halo soundtrack and they have the voice of the Master Chief and they, you know, they hit that distinctive visual style of Halo. We need a good war game Like you can not have guns in it though Yeah right for sure That ain gonna work No gotta have guns in that game Okay that should have a pistol grip shooter. It really should. Oh, right. Like, how could it not? Yeah. Well, nobody's done that for a good minute, so... What's the last game with a pistol grip shooter that you can think of?
    102:13
    Terminator 3? It's been a while. Does Terminator 3 have a pistol grip shooter? No, it has a regular shooter, doesn't it? I think every Stern has a regular shooter. I think you're right. I think that's like a Gary Stern thing. Maybe. It'd be back in like the Sega days. It'd be like Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park, yeah. Like Lost World, Jurassic Park or something. Or, um, I guess Lost World. Do Lost World have a gun shooter? Oh, well, you know what? Actually, no. It's way more recent than that. You can get a pistol grip for, uh,
    102:43
    for Evil Dead. Oh, for Evil Dead. But I need to knock out of the box. Oh, yeah. With the battery hat on. Yeah. The shotgun. Yeah. You get the shotgun handle. Yeah. This, you primitive screwheads, is my boomstick. Yeah. That's right.
    102:58
    Yep. Yeah, because Last Action Hero had one, Jurassic Park, Star Trek Next Gen, Shadow, Indiana Jones, Terminator 2. Lethal Weapon. Thank you. Yeah. I own Lethal Weapon. Fishtails has a shooter rod Or has a fishing rod But it looks like a fizzle whip Barrels of Fun Apparently there's a Small rumor about Neverending Story Oh man I would love that That would kill I don't know if it would kill but I do love The Neverending Story Did you have a crush on the princess when you were a kid? No I don't think That I had a crush on the childlike empress No? I did We were in the adventure aspect of it right Like Atreyu and Artex and the Swamp I wanted a luck dragon I just wanted a luck dragon I was on Bully's list Right But that game has Or that movie has really good music And it has a lot of fantastic elements Which you know Somebody with a lot of imagination Could build into a good play field What I think would be cool Is you make like a Falkor ramp because it's so long and serpentine. Yeah, yeah. Like, I think that that would be cool. Kind of like Scare is Stiff, but have it, like, felled more. Have, like, the bony beast, but not dead. Yeah.
    104:22
    I think that would be cool. Plus, you have the sphinxes, the southern oracle. Or you could have, like, you could have the northern oracle with Morla, where he pops up out, but you could shoot balls underneath it. Okay. Y'all know. Not that it matters, but it is. Yeah.
    104:41
    We've talked about this in past episodes. If I win the lotto, the one sign for sure that you all know is when I build a new house, that's going to be the entry gate is the Southern Oracle. And I'll have it where it lights up. The Southern Oracle scared the crap out of me when I watched that as a kid. I will have that, and the neighbors will hate me. Be confident, Mark. Be confident. You can get into the neighbor's house. Oh, my gosh. See how the eyes light up? Oh, my gosh, it scared the crap out of me.
    105:12
    Yeah, that's how you'll know. It's like how Spence hit the man. You can pick six because, look, the Southern Oracle is now showing up on Google Maps and Casper. He has a couple topless creatures in front of his house. He's got another rock creature, too, i.e. rock. Oh, the rock biter. Rock biter. Got to have the rock biter in there. Yep, yep. That would be cool. That would be a good one. Did Henson do the puppets for that? No, I don't think so. It was all German. Yeah.
    105:43
    Yeah, Neverending Story. Like, that's a game that I really think that if, if Barrels of Fun decides that they want to do it, you know, with their, like, incredible ability so far to make the best worlds under glass, like, they would do something just extremely cool with that. Oh, yeah. And it definitely seems like it's right up in their wheelhouse. Yep. Like, you know, it's their kind of thing. They're also, for whatever reason, attached to Big Trouble in Little China. I've never really understood why people think Big Trouble in Little China would be a great pinball. It's an awesome movie. Yeah. But I just, you know, I don't really look at that and go like, oh, man, here's some, you know, here's barrels of fun. They're going to do some world building with this. Because that's just, I don't know. Does it look like the streets of San Francisco? Does it look like a weird Japanese dungeon?
    106:37
    You know? Yeah, how are they going to do that? Well, the homebrew is good. The homebrew is good. Does it have the guy from Mortal Kombat? Yeah, the homebrew is great, right?
    106:46
    That, to me, is like a 90s, like a last action hero, day to east, sort of generic-y, movie-based pinball machine. Right. So many great call-offs, though. Oh, yeah, right? Yeah, anything that Kurt Russell says in that movie is just solid gold. May the wings of freedom never lose its feather. I'm going to ask you if you paid your dues you say yes sir the check is in the mail old Jack Burton says you know for me though if you were going to make an old school Kurt Russell franchise into a pinball machine I would want it to be Escape from New York or Escape from LA I'd want it to be Snake Plissken and that would be cool because you could make it look all post apocalyptic they'd be like effed up buildings and stuff You know, the guys kind of whipping around and throughout those, you know, trap doors and ambushes and cars to break and stuff like that. Like, that'd be cool as hell. Yeah, no kidding. There's still many good teams there to be. They're also somehow hooked up with this Dungeon Crawler Carl thing.
    107:53
    Although I've also heard that mentioned with Multimorphic. All I've heard is just, like, someone's doing a Dungeon Crawler Carl. I don't know anything about Dungeon Crawler Carl. I don't know anything about that. That's a new thing that's coming about that's getting more and more popular. I just found out about it. It's like a series of books, and then apparently there's audio books, and the guy who does the narrating or reading the audio books are saying, get this guy for a pinball machine. It would be great. That's all I've heard. It's kind of like Running Man or something.
    108:24
    It's almost like a game, and they have to get out of it and go through these. It sounds like a cool premise for a movie, you know, eventually.
    108:32
    But, yeah. It sounds like books based on a game. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I'd have to do a little homework. A lot of people are geeked about it. I know that I listened to the last couple of episodes of Dawn, and Dawn had a lot to say about it. I would just need to know more. I don't know why it would make a good pinball, so maybe if I knew about the series, that would make more sense. And that's about it. Hex says, nothing coming up from Pinball Brothers. Nothing announced by Multimorphic. Multimorphic just sort of said, hey, we're going to keep pumping out Portal.
    109:15
    Who is the dude? I always forget his name. Turner. Nothing announced from Turner. Turner needs to get a good theme because I love their design and their engineering and their games. They just need to come up with a good theme. But, yeah, what about Home Pin? That's a great one. That's his back to the future. Yeah. Wait, did you say home pin? Yeah, my home pin was male. Were they the Canada guys? No, they're the, what is it, Australian, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're Spinal Tap. Yeah. You know what? I mean, you can shit on those guys all you want. He's made a couple games. He's made games, but they're awful. He makes boards. Yeah. You know, like that dude's doing something useful for pinball. But he hasn't come out with a good game yet. Yeah, well, he's brought a lot more to pinball than some other companies did. The person that should not be named, yeah.
    110:14
    Are you talking about J-Pop? Dude, J-Pop's made some great games. He just, you know, he's just death to companies. Yeah, he has a curse big time. Yeah. No, I love all his games. Well, you know, we've made no more than three J-pop games on this list, right? Uh-huh, uh-huh. Like, everybody's got an unhealthy fascination with John Papaduke's games. Oh, yeah. They want those games. Yep, they do. I own a couple of them myself. Yep. Right? What do I own? Maybe just one. Theater, right? No.
    110:41
    Yep. We've got World Cup Soccer. Yeah, so it's just like one of those things where it's like, you know, whether you love them or you hate them, that dude, people like his games. Well, yeah. Don't give them no money. I like his games. Yeah, I like his Dolly Williams era games a lot, but nothing since. Okay, you had your moment. Bye. Thanks for stopping by. Yeah. Grab a handful of popcorn shrimp on your way out. Make the remakes, but originals, no. So all the rumor titles that we just went over, and again, thank you to Nat Pinball. That was their list. I didn't compile it. Which one would you be most excited for? Hmm.
    111:24
    I think Fast and Furious. I think I agree. I think that would be killer. I think that is a theme that needs to be a pinball machine. Absolutely. We don't have enough racing-themed pinball machines. Let's do it. I think it will have the broadest appeal, but, man, something tells me Halo will be really cool and also never in his story. So I just, you know, for broad appeal, I think Fast and Furious. Right. But those other two are great teams as well. For nostalgia, I'd say I'm most excited about Never Ending Story. Yeah. I feel like Never Ending Story is one of those things that, like, I picture it in my head, and it's really, really great. Yep.
    112:10
    But in real life, it would probably be less really, really great than I think it would be. Uh-huh. I mean, who knows? Who knows? I didn't ever picture that a Labyrinth game would be worth a damn, right? I didn't picture Dune being as cool as it was. Who would have ever thought they would have done Winchester Mystery House? That is such a left-field cool thing to do. Right. So the truth be told, these guys have so far proven that they can take stuff that you go like, man, this would be cool, but nobody could ever pull that off. And, you know, they pull it off. Whether their games have lasting appeal or not, it's tough to say. I know a lot of people who've bought and sold Labyrinth because it lasts for so long. I only know one guy who's bought a Dune, but he loves the heck out of it. I don't know anyone who even managed to get a Winchester, unfortunately, but there's a couple on location. I need to go check one out. Yeah, go to the Mystery House. Can you go in there without having to buy a ticket?
    113:10
    I can just go to the Flipper Room in Concord, although going to the Mystery House is pretty cool. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure, man. It's already there, or is it coming? Yeah, I think he's had it for a bit. There's a new mini documentary.
    113:26
    Shout out to Mike Moretti and his team. Yeah, they're going to come out there and play that. Yeah, we threw a link to it on the Facebook. But, yeah, you know, if there's a cool place in Northern California to go play pinball, and there's a few, Flipper Room is definitely one of the coolest and most eclectic. Agree. Like they got a lot of cool stuff And he's a big supporter of The Golden State Pinball Festival How many days Spencer? Oh man, you caught me off guard I don't put him on the spot No, but you know what, because I literally just was looking At the game list and I was going to bring that up So They got the game list out already?
    114:03
    Yeah They just started taking Submissions So if you have not submitted your games yet Which I have not please make sure that you go to the website and put in your games.
    114:16
    Remember, it's all community-sourced games. There's a couple games that belong to the show. They typically get raffled. But all the games are brought by us. So if we don't bring games and then we complain about the amount of games at the show, it's your own fucking fault. Don't interrupt the trailer. Don't start yelling about how many games Are at the show if you didn't bring a game So You got a Toyota Yaris, a game will fit Yeah I don't know Maybe a RAV4 Okay, a RAV4, you might need a stick of butter To get that final inches in But 61 days Until show time 61 days So yeah, grab a can Of olive oil spray or some Pam It'll fit Yeah, just drop that sucker to the top of your Tesla and, you know. Yeah, the Mini Coupe. Yeah, get to your Mini Coupe. There you go. Well, I know Reno will have our spot again with all the games that we'll have available to play, so that'll be fun. And, yeah, looking forward to it. It's going to be fun. Yep.
    115:33
    I get the feeling that this is going to be an especially good year. There's some big new changes. Yeah. I think they're going to be really, really excited. Some changes to the way that they're handling the campground, some changes to the tournament. Of course, we'll be there commenting with our friend Rick from Elk Grove Pinball. Cool. And I'll be bringing my stuff and interviewing new people at the show, especially people who have never went there before because that's always the best perspective to hear from people. It'll be fun to see those people I interviewed last year. I'm sure they're going to be here this year.
    116:09
    We really do need to figure out how to record a mini-episode at the show. If not technology is the problem, it's time. We're always in three different spots doing three different things, but we need to find some time to all get together and record 20, 30 minutes at the show, which when we say that, it'll turn into one hour, 57 minutes, and 23 seconds. So I want to throw out three things. So 61 days until the Friday the show starts.
    116:40
    The game list is up. Be sure and get your game there. The game swag box, if you bring games this year, is like even cooler than last year it looks like. Oh, if you bring six games, there is so much crap. Wow. There's swag. There's coasters. there's posters there's early access with you know muffins and juice there's all kinds of cool stuff but that's just the maximum you bring one game and you get good does somebody have the list up I should bring it up I do tell them what they get ok so if you bring six games or more you get the name badge Start with one. Okay. All right. One game. Bring your game. Get a name badge and a lanyard. Early entry Saturday with coffee and pastries. 50% off a weekend pass. Bring two games. You get the badge with the lanyard. Entry with Saturday. Start early entry Saturday with coffee and pastries. And one weekend pass. Bring three games. You get your lanyard. You get your Saturday morning coffee and pastries. Continental breakfast. One weekend pass. And a limited edition variant show poster. And if you've seen the show poster this year, it's a cross between a comic book cover and a classic fireball. It is sick. It's sick. Okay. Ooh, it's so good. Cool. So bring four to five games, name bands, lanyard, Saturday coffee, pastries, two weekend passes, and the show poster. And you bring six plus games. You get the name badge with the lanyard, entry with coffee and pastries, three weekend passes, The limited edition show poster variant And you get the special Limited edition show branded item As well as The cool VIP swag box Okay and this got all kinds Of cool stuff but they're showing Last year still which had all kinds of cool Stuff but I know for a fact there's Some cool stuff like okay last Year had a limited edition thank you to Pin Monk or Pinball Monk so it was a challenge coin and on one side it had the Golden State Pinball Festival logo with the year 2025 and the other side it had at the time the newest game which was Dungeons and Dragons technically actually the newest game there was oh I'm thinking oh King Kong but Dungeons and Dragons was also very new and apparently it's going to be this year it's going to be another challenge coin with another recent release. So it could be, who knows, it could be anything. It could be Harry Potter. It could be Star Wars. It could be Pokemon. We don't know. But anyway, so that's really cool.
    119:39
    Plus, and a plus, a couple more things. It could be Transformers. It probably won't be Pokemon or Transformers, by the way. Although it was Dungeons and Dragons. That's also Hasbro. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So I'm going to name three of the games that are going to show up from one person, a friend of the show, Timball Luminary, an all-around good guy, Justin Kelly, also known as Fat Train, is bringing his Matrix game to the show. I don't think he's ever brought that before. If you know the game, it's a re-team of a Johnny Mnemonic. No way. It gets better, kids. It wasn't a very controversial one, too. Yeah. Whoa. Guess what else he's bringing? What? Johnny Mnemonic number one. No, he's not bringing that. Not right now.
    120:32
    Johnny Mnemonic Whitewood. For some reason, Justin had like five versions of Johnny Mnemonic. He had the very first one off the assembly line, number one. He had the Whitewood and the Matrix one. I think he sold the other two, but I'm not sure.
    120:44
    And he might have had just another one laying around for parts. he's bringing, because he now apparently owns it or has possession of it at least, the very first game that our good friend of the show, Ben Heck, or Benjamin Heckendorn, ever created, the Bill Paxton pinball. No way. That's going to happen too? So I was wondering, because I saw that, so is Ben Heck going to come? I don't know. Or Justin's just going to bring his game. I don't know. I think Justin's just bringing his game, but that would be really cool. I hope a deck would come. I would love it. I was here at California Extreme. He is a cool cat. Yeah, he's fun. I've never got to meet him, but he seems like just a really neat dude to just hang and just shoot the breeze with.
    121:29
    Justin's also bringing his Beetlejuice. Oh, my gosh. Okay, forget all that crap. That's all junk. I am going to bring Project Low Buck Monopoly. Oh, nice. You heard it here, folks. Roblox Monopoly, the famous $1,500 Monopoly, will be at Golden State Pinball Festival. That's right. Who wants to touch me? That'll be the first game I'm playing when I come into that showroom. No, actually, I'll play it before it goes to the showroom. You'll probably have to help me load it on the truck.
    122:08
    And, of course, our favorite game is going to be there, Spanish Eyes. So Beetlejuice is going to be there to be – oh, wow. Yeah, Justin, tell me something. You don't want to miss out on this awesome Golden State Pinball Festival, which is 15th through the 17th of May. It's a week after Mother's Day. So if you're listening right now and you want to go to the most awesome pinball show that you've ever been to, Golden State Pinball Festival is where it's at in Lodi, California. You don't have to oversell it, Mark. We've all been there before. Well, do you know what? They've announced the first giveaway.
    122:41
    Last week they announced their giveaway game. That's a good way of announcing voice there, you know? Boom, shakalaka. I love it, Mark. You know that now? Whoa, jams it in.
    122:53
    Mark, do you know that, Dan, I know you know because we talked about this off air. Mark, did you know they announced the first giveaway game for the raffle, the game raffles? I did. I heard a little rumor about it. I did. No rumor has it. Yep. New Fighters Pro.
    123:09
    Dude. That's awesome. Yeah, and you can win one for a $5 ticket. And people have won the games with one ticket. So as well as that, hey, man, like Dan said, this is the show of the people, by the people, and for the people. This show happens because of you and you and you and you and you and you and all of you and you too. And you, the guy over there, pretending like he's asleep. We know you're helping out. That guy's playing Galaga. He didn't think we saw, but we did. We did. So, yeah, Ben. And so if you volunteer, I'm trying to look that up right now. I don't think we started volunteer stuff. We started volunteer stuff, yeah. It's not on the website yet. Watch the website. You can volunteer. Watch the Facebook page. Watch all the social media. Watch the website. But you volunteer and you feel good about yourself and you help out. So be a helper. Be a helper. Be a good helper. And if you don't own a game, you can come in and still volunteer and help out. There's setting up and taking down. There's wiping down the glass. There's the leveling team. No one wants to play a game that's not level, kids. We just don't. Makes me crazy. I want to, like, seriously have a tantrum and a breakdown. You guys can't level this game. I'm still mad at the bar across the way, just down the road, the bowling alley. It's like two blocks. Because they won't completely level Godzilla. I got in there and started trying to level myself. The cook comes out of the bar. He's like, what are you doing? I'm trying to level the game. He's like, oh, you're that crazy old pinball guy, aren't you? He literally said that. He's like, that's not me. Guilty as charged. Call the op. Tell him he's an asshole. Level the fucking game and turn it up.
    124:55
    So, yeah. And I was sober, too. Like, no, I'm sober. So, I got a. I wasn't even drunk. You know, I get feisty about stuff. I go, well, I'm a guy who's in games. Yeah. But, yeah, so you're going to volunteer. Look it up. They should be putting that stuff up soon. You get cool stuff. You can get a poster, too, if you volunteer enough. They got last year we got stickers and we got a cool patch. Or was that year before last? We got a cool key chain. Yeah, last year. We got patches. We got a cool key chain. We got all kinds of cool swag. Yeah, I'm sure you're going to get cool swag this year. No, I know. In the past. In the past, it's been that way. So anyway, and you feel good, man. You're helping out. You know, your most important thing, you're helping out people in the community. And all the proceeds go to local kids charities. And you get to hang out and, you know what, see old friends. And you get to make a new one every year. So do that. So that's our quick little show shout out.
    125:54
    I'm sure next episode will be a deeper and more involved. Oh, yeah. When we get more information, the official information. Yes. Yes indeed So I think we've about covered everything Take us home Spencer We're going to take us home Alright Thank yous and shout outs I'll start I want to shout out To the birthday boy And I say this and everybody's like Damn you're serious I am the most perfect human That God has ever put on this earth My little grandson Leo turned two today Oh man I thought you were talking about Mark is pretty fucking close. Mark is pretty damn close.
    126:36
    I think you're overselling it, Spencer. I mean, people talk about mine. Happy birthday, Leo. Yeah, happy birthday, Leo. And happy belated birthday to you again, Mark. Thank you. So I couldn't be with him. I was with him on his first birthday. Couldn't be with him this year. But we did a video conference this morning or a video call and got some open, cool presents. and I'll make all the guys and maybe some of the ladies in the audience go, ooh. Because one of the gifts that we sent him, because we sent it direct, you know, ordered it and had it sent there, was the Big Tonka dump truck. Oh, yeah. The yellow one, right? The big yellow one. The classic, yeah. So, because it's just that good. I still have the one that I gave to Nathan. I still have it in my garage. Do you really? Cool. That's awesome. It's in perfect condition, too. You have a big yellow dump truck. Every kid should have a big yellow boy or girl. It doesn't matter. She'll have a big yellow dump truck. Little Tonka from Minnetonka. Yep. Yeah, man. So they still make them like they used to more or less. Yeah. But that's Leo, man. So today was his birthday, and we got to talk a little bit and see him open his presents and cool stuff. Nice. So happy birthday to my beautiful, perfect little grandson, Leo. And Papa, we'll see you soon. shout out to the wonderful people who not only listen to our show but give us feedback there was a couple I wanted to name by name but I'm just going to say you know who you are you're giving us feedback on our Facebook page and communicating with us regularly we don't have a show without you guys so thank you so much for that and to my wonderful family who puts up with my nonsense every month when They're like, we need to get in and use the downstairs bathroom because we don't have to upstairs.
    128:23
    And you have to get through my little podcast office to get to the downstairs bathroom. So I lock that down three hours or so once a month. So thank you to my family. And thank you to you guys, man. I still look forward to this time every month with two of my best bros to just talk pinball and have a laugh or two and be able to let my hair down, what little I have left because, you know, I'm old. And order off the senior menu now. Thank you, Dan. Thank you, Mark, for viewing my bros and continuing to want to do this every month.
    128:59
    Spencer cannot be killed by conventional weaponry. No. No, I cannot because I'm jacked up on Reese's peanut butter. Actually, you know what I'm eating? I ate today wasn't Reese's. It was Kit Kat bunnies. I still laugh about that every time it comes up it's like why are you not wearing a safety gear it's like because I'm a professional and you're a dumbass there's this intromercial that comes onto a lot of the podcasts for something that we don't sell that's called like Pesty or something and they talk about how you get professional grade pesticides, you get a pump and you get this, you get that. Every time I hear that commercial, it's in my head. I'm a professional. You're a dumbass.
    129:49
    Well, I'll go next since I'm already running my mouth. You know, again, as always, huge thanks to both of you guys. You know, no two guys would rather be on this crazy podcasting pinball journey with. Big thanks to Rick, my partner in crime at CCPL, as well as the rest of the CCPL management. Rory Wan, Mr. Hossier, the commissioner, and all of our great players. It's just wonderful to open your house to 25 people and have them come over and play your pinball machines. And, you know, at the end of the night, the house is still in good shape. They haven't left the place a disaster. You know, the feedback's really good. Everybody's really, really grateful to have the opportunity to come over and experience your collection. and it's very gratifying. And that's why I continue to not only, you know, run the league but host because, you know, I want everyone to have a good time. And, you know, big thanks to my wife, Jamie, for, you know, putting up with it with a reasonably good humor as well. You know, to all the show coordinators and everything, I know you guys are, you know, it's crunch time and you guys are really getting into it. So we're looking forward to being helpful and taking advantage of your hospitality. and to all the pinheads out there who are interacting with us on the Facebook. We recently had much, much better Facebook engagement. I really appreciate that. If you know somebody who you think would dig the show, please share it with them, and please, if they still happen to be on Facebook, and I know people are abandoning Facebook in droves, but there's still some good stuff there. At least there's us. So let them know about it. How about you, Mark? Well, shout out to you guys. It's really fun to hang out with you. on the air and in person when we get together. Really looking forward to Golden State Pinball Festival. It's going to be great to hang out with you. Hopefully, Dan, you'll be able to play a little more than work the whole time. I really hope you can do that.
    131:47
    But, yeah, it's going to be really great. It's not that I can't play. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just that I'm busy running my mouth or talking to people or coaching, you know. Yeah, sure, sure. Or enjoying the campsite. I got pinball at home, though. That's true. It'll be fun to see everybody. What I mean by playing is you won't have to be doing the stream the whole weekend. Hopefully you can get some people in there. I do that by choice. That's my own fault. Do you love it? Look at you, Rick. Go for it.
    132:17
    No, it's really fun to have you guys talking and just getting around and talking about pinball and our lives and everything. It's really cool. And to have such great friends. I want to give a huge shout-out to Jason Cummins for always opening his house to new collections, new games he has, and opening all these spots that people wouldn't be able to frequently visit, like Calneva, who would have thought the games play in perfect condition over there, and Reno Pinball Underground. I want to give a shout-out to that place because it's really got some great games there. We have a really nice surprise coming soon in about a couple weeks, so if you want to ever come and visit that location, it's great. And then everybody else, Cody and Jim and Ted and all these guys and Tony up in Tahoe. We're really doing a great job in opening this community up to new people, and we always get new people every week that just love the people that we hang out with and playing the games and getting into the tournament scene. So thank you to all of you. and first and foremost, also for my personal life, I can't thank my wife enough for supporting me. She is wonderful. She understands that I'm totally crazy about pinball and she understands that she has to hear me talk about it probably half of the day or so. But she's been very supportive of it. And every time she texts me, I always win a tournament. Every time she's there in person, she helps me win. She just gives me a lot of confidence. So I love you so much. And I love all you listeners that are listening to us as well. Thank you so much for supporting us. And it really is nice that we're getting a bigger following. And just keep having fun listening to what we have to say because probably are thinking the same thing you are. So thank you to all of you. You know what's funny? We both thank our wives, and I'm going to bet you about 99.9% that they do not listen to this podcast.
    134:18
    Oh, yeah, for sure. Oh, no, they don't. But they can hear me through the wall, so I'm shouting at the top of my lungs. No, just kidding. Yep. Smart. Yep. You're smart. You're smart guys. Smart guys.
    134:32
    Where can they find us, Spencer? They can find us at our home on SoundCloud. There goes Daisy. She's getting upset. So everybody's left. I'm home alone. I think Malcolm's here. Daisy had to be on the podcast. Yeah, everybody else is working today. So, Daisy, for Pete's sakes.
    134:52
    So, she's got to go out. Yeah, SoundCloud. Our home is SoundCloud. You can get us on iTunes. I'm working. We do have some episodes on Spotify, but I've got to get with them and get us updated there. And we're fine. Podcasts are sold. You can reach us on our Facebook page at The Spinner's Lit on Facebook. you can also email us at the spinner is lit at gmail.com so from all of us to all of you i will say play pinball keep america strong
    135:43
    you