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Ep 84: Finally Ryan (?)

Final Round Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 1m·analyzed·Jan 2, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Ryan C. wins co-host audition; industry pricing and American Pinball sustainability discussed.

Summary

Final Round Pinball Podcast Episode 84 features Jeff Teolis announcing Ryan C. as the new co-host following Marty Robbins' departure. The episode includes a humorous audition segment with 'Pinside Petey' as the competing candidate, tournament hosting discussions about home vs. venue locations, and an extended conversation about American Pinball financial sustainability and industry pricing trends.

Key Claims

  • Ryan C. is selected as the new co-host of Final Round Pinball Podcast

    high confidence · Jeff Teolis makes official announcement at episode conclusion after audition process with Ryan C. and Pinside Petey

  • David Fix appeared on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast discussing American Pinball finances and sustainability

    high confidence · Ryan C. references listening to David Fix interview on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast; discusses concern about American Pinball's future

  • American Pinball experienced recent layoffs

    high confidence · Ryan C. states 'Very, very sad to hear about the layoffs' in context of American Pinball; mentions seeing David Fix, Ryan McQuaid, Bree, and Stephen Bowden together at Topgolf post-announcement

  • American Pinball sold 1,000 video game arcade units

    medium confidence · Ryan C. references David Fix mentioning unit sales; states 'He said he sold 1,000 of those units'

  • Australian pinball prices have risen significantly due to USD/AUD exchange rate and post-COVID increases

    high confidence · Ryan C. describes pricing increase from $16,500 to $20,500 AUD for one title post-COVID; notes ongoing depreciation affecting recent releases

  • Canadian dollar has weakened significantly to under 70 cents US due to tariff threats

    medium confidence · Ryan C. states 'The Canadian dollar is under 70 cents U.S., which is just disgustingly low' in context of pricing discussion

  • Stern may be planning price increases on pinball machines

    medium confidence · Jeff Teolis references Seth Gomez potentially hinting at price increases; states 'There haven't been in a while. Okay, it sounds like there's going to be price increases at Stern'

  • Recent price reductions observed on Guns N' Roses and other titles during holiday sales

    medium confidence · Ryan C. notes 'In the last couple of months, whether it's at Expo, whether it's the Black Friday special, whether it's a Christmas special, seeing these prices come down on Guns N' Roses'

Notable Quotes

  • “You cannot replace Marty. In fact, the door is open for Marty to return whenever he would like. If he returns, it will then become a three-headed show.”

    Jeff Teolis @ early in episode — Establishes that Marty Robbins' departure is not permanent and hints at possibility of three-host format

  • “I've learned my lesson, Jeff, and I'm going to be so loyal that I'm going to tattoo your face on my arm or your arm on my face, your choice.”

    Ryan C. @ audition segment — Playful reference to previous podcast loyalty issues; shows competitive humor in audition

  • “I don't think that's how they do it, Jeff. But if you want to have a bit of fun, maybe this is what our Patreon will be about.”

    Ryan C. @ late in segment — First assignment as new co-host is to set up Patreon; shows immediate business development task

  • “I was shocked, to say the least. Like, if somebody says something about you and you feel that's incorrect, it's your choice to get up there and say, well, this is the truth.”

    Ryan C. @ David Fix discussion — Introduces concern about American Pinball representation and financial transparency in media

  • “Is American Pinball going to be around in a couple of years? You know, they're backed by Ametron, so I don't think it's one of those things that, If, heaven forbid, they're not around, it's going to collapse.”

    Ryan C. @ American Pinball segment — Expresses concern about company viability while noting parent company backing provides some security

  • “Well, okay, well, that could be a sign of maybe this is just a temporary shutdown. Fingers crossed.”

    Ryan C. @ American Pinball layoffs discussion — Speculates about layoffs being temporary based on social media evidence of team cohesion

  • “The days of me buying a machine, oh my god, that's my favorite theme ever. Sign me up. Sight unseen. No, they'll never happen again.”

    Jeff Teolis @ licensing discussion — Reflects market maturity where even strong IP themes don't guarantee sales without gameplay demonstration

Entities

Jeff TeolispersonRyan C.personMarty RobbinspersonPinside PeteypersonDavid FixpersonFinal Round Pinball PodcastmediaLoser Kid Pinball Podcast

Signals

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Ryan C. officially selected as new co-host of Final Round Pinball Podcast following Marty Robbins' departure; selection made after competitive audition process

    high · Jeff Teolis announces 'I'm going to have to go with Ryan C. here' after formal audition segment

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball underwent recent layoffs; company's financial sustainability questioned by community; parent company Ametron backing provides safety net

    high · Ryan C. states 'Very, very sad to hear about the layoffs' and speculates about American Pinball's viability; references David Fix interview on Loser Kid podcast discussing finances

  • $

    market_signal: Secondary market prices declining on recent pinball releases despite quality; Australian market particularly affected by USD/AUD exchange rate; pricing expectations resetting

    high · Ryan C. notes Jaws and other great titles 'people are starting to sell them for a couple of thousand less' and describes expectation inflation: 'We've been spoiled by so many great pinball machines that the ones that just really good seem like they're crap'

  • $

    market_signal: Currency devaluation affecting pricing in multiple regions; Canadian dollar under 70 cents USD; Australian dollar weakness continuing post-COVID; impact on machine pricing and collector sentiment

    high · Ryan C. describes AUD price increase from $16,500 to $20,500 post-COVID; notes Canadian dollar weakness under 70 cents; links to machinery price increases and reduced purchasing intent

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern may be planning price increases on pinball machines; no increases in recent history; potential announcement hinted at by Seth Gomez

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.184

0:00
The Pinball Network is online. Launching final round pinball podcast. We'll be right back. It's the final round.
1:04
That's right. You heard it. It is the final round. After a couple of episodes where we, you know, had consolation round and Canadian round, final round is back with some changes. It is time to figure out a new co-host. Yes, that's right. It's going to be difficult. You cannot replace Marty. In fact, the door is open for Marty to return whenever he would like. If he returns, it will then become a three-headed show. Three hosts. I have had some interest from others who saw the Facebook post and people applied and said, oh, I'd love to do it. Well, we've narrowed it down to two people, and they're here right now to state their case why they should be the next co-host with me, Jeff Teolas, here on Final Round. First, you know him from the Jesse J. Pinball podcast. Apparently, he was also on Head to Head, although I can only remember Marty and Joe Lemaire, but he was if you go back a little bit. But ladies and gentlemen, Ryan C. Welcome, Ryan. G'day, Jeff. How are you going? I'm good. Are you excited? Final two. I'm excited, but I'm a bit worried about who I'm up against. It's going to be a battle. Let's just put it that way. We will bring in the other finalists right now. Some say he has the voice of an angel. If that angel fell from grace. He has a sharp tongue, and he is wizard fast on the keyboard. Live from his mother's basement, it is the return of Pinside Petey. Hello, suckers. Did you miss me?
2:30
Oh, Ryan, it's going to be a battle, my friend. What angle are you going for, Jeff? Is this like a good cop, bad cop type podcast, or am I agreeing with everything you say? Because I'm not sure if I can beat Pinside Petey in online misery. I didn't know we'd be blowing you this early. Okay, hey, hold on. I've got some questions here. You're both going to answer this, okay? Final interview time. To see who is the new co-host of Final Round. Four questions. You will both answer each of the questions. Number one, you're both at one time or another active on Pinside. I personally avoid it. It's toxicity. It does nothing for me. I want you to tell me why Pinside is a great rabbit hole to go down. You first, Petey. I'm sure Ryan will go down any hole. But Pinside is great because you get to fire shots and no one knows who's behind that fake name. Good point, Ryan. I've got a serious answer Pinside's great if you have a game and you want to become obsessed with it you want to get the most out of it custom ROMs, best settings jump into the owner's thread of any pinball machine and it's the best way to join people have already done the hard work if you buy a pinball machine a year after it's released brand new out of box there's thousands of people in the thread that'll help you get your machine playing as good as it can be. And the occasional dick pic in your PMs if you want. Here's a new thread. Ryan sucks.

  • “We've been spoiled by so many great pinball machines that the ones that just really good seem like they're crap. And they're not actually crap.”

    Ryan C. @ pricing/market discussion — Identifies community expectation inflation as driver of secondary market depreciation

  • “I don't care if it's true or not. Send it to me. Keep me in the loop. Ryan Kaz on Facebook. You now have the keys to the email.”

    Ryan C. @ after co-host selection — Establishes new communication channel for community tips and leaks now that Ryan is co-host

  • “Not everyone has a pinball machine. It's a shocker. These places are great and you want to show support to them.”

    Ryan C. @ tournament hosting discussion — Articulates operator support philosophy in context of location vs. home tournament debate

    • media
    American Pinballcompany
    Ametroncompany
    Stephen Bowdenperson
    Ryan McQuaidperson
    Breeperson
    Rochester Pinball Collectivevenue
    Head to Head Pinball Podcastmedia
    Keith Allansonperson
    Mrs. Pinperson
    Andreasperson
    Kate Martinperson
    Seth Gomezperson
    Matchplayproduct

    medium · Jeff Teolis states 'Gomez might have hinted, yeah, maybe. I don't know what Seth's got planned. Maybe there's going to be some price increases at Stern. There haven't been in a while'

  • $

    market_signal: Recent holiday promotions and Black Friday sales showing price reductions on established titles like Guns N' Roses, indicating potential inventory management or sales stimulation

    medium · Ryan C. notes 'In the last couple of months, whether it's at Expo, whether it's the Black Friday special, whether it's a Christmas special, seeing these prices come down on Guns N' Roses'

  • ?

    content_signal: David Fix appearance on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast discussing American Pinball finances, sustainability, and operational challenges gained significant community attention and analysis

    high · Ryan C. extensively references David Fix interview, analyzes subtext about company viability, and speculates about employment implications of statements made

  • ?

    operational_signal: Tournament directors experimenting with various matchplay formats to accommodate venue constraints; home tournaments gaining favor for competitive integrity and setup control

    high · Ryan C. describes running tournaments at home after location became too busy; discusses format development to accommodate time constraints: 'we keep on playing four-player match play games until a certain time'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Matchplay tournament software received significant UI/UX improvements making queue management and result entry much easier; feature regression noted with removal of games-played tracking column

    high · Ryan C. praises updates but notes disappearance of critical feature: 'There was a column there that said this player has played seven games his players played 14 games for some reason that's that's gone'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community sentiment shifting toward increased critical standards for new releases; expectation inflation from years of high-quality games causing even excellent titles to underperform expectations

    medium · Ryan C. articulates expectation fatigue: 'We've been spoiled by so many great pinball machines that the ones that just really good seem like they're crap. And they're not actually crap'

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball diversifying revenue through video game arcade unit manufacturing; 1,000 units sold; strategy mirrors historical manufacturer approach of product line expansion

    medium · Ryan C. references David Fix discussing video game unit sales: 'He said he sold 1,000 of those units. Okay, if that keeps the lights on. I know it's not pinball, but other companies divest into other things'

  • ?

    community_signal: Community interpreting company representative interviews for hidden signals; reading subtext in media appearances to assess company health; increased scrutiny of business transparency

    high · Ryan C. extensively analyzes David Fix interview for subtext: 'I kind of thought David was maybe saying things I was surprised he was saying' and 'is that him potentially putting his hand up to say, hire me at a different company'

    • 4:00
    Okay, next question. Number two. Loyalty is very important to me. Explain to me how you'll be loyal to this podcast. Oh, like Ryan Welsh with Head to Head and Jesse Gay? Ooh, snap. Ryan? All right, I've got a couple of things to say. I've learned my lesson, Jeff, and I'm going to be so loyal that I'm going to tattoo your face on my arm or your arm on my face, your choice. If a rival podcast comes calling again, and they will, let's face it, I'll let them know that even though your comedy career peaked in 1999, I will still laugh at your jokes no matter how questionable they are. And I'm not going to agree with you on everything. We can agree on things that are true, like Thunderbirds is and always will be a massive turd of a game, but I will not agree with you that Jaws is Keith Allen's worst game. So far, it's pretty close. Number three, you both know I love music. I'm going to put you on the spot. Right now, I'm going to ask you to sing me a verse. Like if you were at karaoke, I will let you go first, Ryan. I know it's two karaoke songs that I default to. One is a Snoop Dogg song that hasn't aged well and might get me cancelled. And the other one's by Queen. Your choice, Jeff. Let's go with Queen. I mean, I love the song Bohemian Rhapsody. So, I mean, if you both want to do that, I'd be fine. From the start? Go ahead. You know, this is really good because then the audience can decide.
    5:24
    Marty just killed a man. Put a gun against his head. Pull the trigger, now he's dead. Marty, life had just begun. And now you've gone and thrown it all away. Okay, we're good there. I see a little fuckhead of a man. Ryan Douche, Ryan Douche. Why don't you just fuck off?
    5:51
    Okay. Both pretty impressive. It's going to come down to the final question, I believe. I would like to get some references from friends of yours about your skills. Ryan, I'll ask you first. Who should I contact? What kind of skills are we talking about, Jeff? Loyalty, BJ skills, different people for different things. Just give me some names there, bragger.
    6:14
    I'll give you my mom's number, Jeff. and it's only to be used... She's on my list! It's only to be used to prove how loyal I am. I've only had one mum, Jeff. I'm like Pinside Petey. Petey, give me some friends. Mrs. Pin thinks I'm the best. Oh, I miss her podcast. Any other friends, Petey? No comment!
    6:37
    I'll take that as a no. This is going to be a tough decision. I'm sure no matter who I pick, we're going to get the emails at finalroundpinball at gmail.com saying I've made a mistake. But I'm going to have to go with Ryan C. here. I'm sorry, Petey. I'm afraid your strong vocal talents, your quick wit, it's just going to overshadow anything I try to do. I can't keep up with you, so Petey, I wish you the best of the holidays, and please keep in touch. It's your funeral. I didn't want to do your shitty podcast anyway. You two talk funny. But here's my advice to you. Fuck off! Oh, and there he goes. Okay. Petey, it's kind of like the Miss Universe contest. If the person can't fulfill their duties, you are next. But Ryan, it's yours now. You've got the controls. What do I get? Well, right now you're in a provisional period. We will discuss the policies on the next episode. And you're not getting access to the company car or the executive washroom or the credit card. Do we have a Patreon? Do we make Patreon money? Do I get 50% of Patreon money? because I think... We haven't set up Patreon. Here we go. That's your first duty. Set up Patreon.
    7:50
    Set up Patreon. Yeah, let the money flow in. Me and Jeff have stated at different parts of our podcasting careers that we don't care about the Twippies. We don't care about awards. Who gives a shit? But if people want to send me some money, I'm all about that. I've got to say, I don't want to shit on the Twippies. I'm not saying please vote for us. I don't give two shits about that. But I admire what Colin's trying to do, and he's got a good little staff there. I know Jamie from Wormhole is a good guy. Erica and her pinball journey, I'm a big fan of her. And everyone else they've got involved there. So I wish them the best of luck, and I say that in all sincerity. But we'll see what happens. I know in February I think they're doing it live from Wormhole. So good luck with the Twippies. And I know it means a lot to the fans, and that's all that matters. Right? That's right. I mean, you're going to put a contract in front of me, Jeff, but I just want to let everyone know that Jeff is editing everything. I don't edit. I don't have the skills or the patience to do it. Petey, come back! This puts me in a vulnerable position because I'm not sure if it was the last time I was on the show or the time before that, but I was hanging out outside, enjoying a bit of sun, doing the podcast, and a bird came by for a little bit. Tweet, tweet, tweet, tweet. and Jeff put the volume up,
    9:12
    like maxed it out so that it seems really, really loud just to call me an arsehole on the podcast. And so how do people know if I'm an arsehole or not, Jeff? My fate is in your hands, Jeff. The bird was annoying. There may have been some enhancements when you were pausing for thoughts. There was some perfect opportunity. I may have added a few little loops of bird sounds. It's creating the theater of the mind, Something you need to learn. Let's do a little bit of a test then, and then the audience can decide how much has been edited or not. I'm about to say I'm really happy to be on this podcast, okay? And let's see what it turns out to be. I'm a massive cunt. Okay, so if I say I'm really happy to be on this podcast, then Jeff hasn't edited anything.
    9:59
    I just let it roll. You know, I've learned from Ron Howlett. There's no time to edit. Just put it all together. Oh, God. have you i haven't been on a slam tilt podcast in a while but it's wild what gets through but it's even wilder to hear bruce unedited ron is is saving that man from i don't know just getting into more trouble than he then he gets himself into i was with those two last weekend we're recording this on december 19th i was with them last weekend at the beautiful rochester pinball collective in east rochester new york i don't know what the fuck street it is or what unit it is but it's great. I do know the bathroom code. The bathroom code is 3492. That I do know. Why is there a bathroom code? Because it's in an office building. It's in a building where they, it's a really cool place in East Rochester. It's where they, I guess, used to manufacture pianos. So it's this huge warehouse, and there's unique things there. There's a rock academy, a music place, just on the same floor. And so because it's offices, they all have key codes. So again, if you're ever looking for a place to drop a deuce or piss on the seats.
    11:10
    3492 is the code for Rochester. Oh, and that being said, I went with my buddy Shane Jackson and Nick Greenan. My buddy Phil Birnbaum was there, and Julian and some other Canadians were there. It was a good time. Kate Martin was there, and I know she's getting ready to come to Australia next summer. But I don't know what was in me, and I know this is going to shock you. There may have been a little bit of gas. and when did I save it? Did I use the code to go to the washroom? Fuck no. We had match play. Head to head action.
    11:42
    And I said to Nick, the last kind of round was rounds of head to head action and I think in the last 10 matches, I dropped like seven fucking bombs and it was just like, you're up. Eat this.
    11:58
    Those are good rounds. I'll just say that. Why don't you just go to the toilet, Jeff? Oh, my gosh. Well, I eventually did. You can only go to that well so many times before the fart knocks on the door and says, that's not a fart.
    12:12
    Are you lactose intolerant, Jeff, and you're just one of those people who ignore it? No. I might have a little. I'm not going to self-diagnose. I might have a little IBS and stuff. So when I got to go, I got to go. But I have a good feel of. Write in to finalroundpinball at gmail.com if you want to diagnose what is going on in Jeff's arsehole.
    12:35
    The poor test mouse that finds out. I don't think that's how they do it, Jeff. But if you want to have a bit of fun, maybe this is what our Patreon will be about.
    12:50
    It's not like listening to podcasts. Like, if you want to see Jeff fart directly onto a mouse in a chamber and see if the mouse can survive, pay us $5 a month. You know, if I said mouse, not a guinea pig. I mean, those days are behind me now. But, okay, so you're now a co-host on Final Round. You've probably got some pinball topics up your sleeve. What do you want to discuss, Ryan? You've got to give me a while to ease back into pinball land. I mean, once upon a time when I was on Head to Head Pinball Podcast, not Jesse J's Pinball Podcast, Jeff, you get to a certain point, as you know, people just kind of tell you things. Whether you want to or not, it's not a two-way street. People are like, oh, hey, I know this bit of information. Here you go. And sometimes you didn't want to know the information. Sometimes like, oh, cool, I know the next game and I have a picture of it. I don't know how this person got it, but whatever. Yeah, I'm out of the loop on everything. What? Yeah. It turns out if you don't have a pinball podcast anymore, people don't really give a shit about you, Jeff.
    13:53
    Sometimes when you have a pinball podcast, they still don't give a shit about you. I just want to point that out. Yeah, if anyone wants to send me anything, I don't care if it's true or not. Send it to me. Keep me in the loop. Ryan Kaz on Facebook. You now have the keys to the email. FinalRoundPinball at gmail.com. Send all your pictures there. Send anything. So last night, I ran the last pinball comp of the year. I've been pretty light this year. on my tournament directing duties, but also playing. I think I logged 15 tournaments this year, which is my lowest in a while. But the location where I usually run pinball comps monthly, they're extremely busy during December. They have Christmas parties every other day. And last year was a bit of chaos. So I chose to run the monthly tournament at my house, which I haven't done for a very long time. And everyone had such a great time. obviously I've got more games than there are on location but it kind of begs the question if you have access to games at a house versus games on location what are the pros and cons in your eyes of running it at either of those two options well the pros of having the games at home is you get to play them, you get to mod them up you can make them as difficult as you want you have the keys for the game they're probably games you like some of the cons are you got people in your home and maybe they are dropping upper deckers wrecking your place Who knows That usually a good thing You know the people coming over The pros of an arcade are you're supporting that business, and they're bringing in pinball machines that maybe you can't afford to bring in. Cons are usually the biggest con for me. You could say it's not having the keys and extra balls are on and all that kind of stuff, and things are maybe too easy, especially with some of the new modern games. But the biggest con is not having the keys, believe it or not. If that's a thing, if you get stuck balls or, you know, you have to put a comp ball, for example, you know. I don't even think Coindrop is a con because, again, that's showing support for the location that's bringing pinball. Not everyone has a pinball machine. It's a shocker. these places are great and you want to show support to them. So it depends on what is the most important thing for you. If it's social, there's nothing wrong with going to one of these venues. If it's true competition and making it as, not difficult, but as fair competition mode for one thing on new settings, I think the home location is usually better, not in all cases. There are some great locations that run pinball events, But for the most part, you find the games perhaps not necessarily in better condition, but better set up for tournaments at home. Okay, I'm a bit shocked. You're kind of talking like every competition at a public location, like a monthly comp, is coin drop and nobody has the keys. Because in the state that I live in, I think there's maybe five or six monthly tournaments now. Everyone gets access to the keys, even if they're not the owner of the pinball machines. That's cool. Wow. So, I mean, I have the pinball machines at a certain location. I have the keys for that, so that obviously works out. There is a location where the person that chose to run comps there has nothing to do with the venue or the machines, and he just found out who the operator was and said, like, we want to run a monthly comp here. It's going to cost this much per person. What do you want as your cut? We need the keys to set everything up. That's pretty amazing. I would say that's not the norm, certainly in this part of the world. I don't know too many places in North America that are like that and understandable. Okay, so I'm guessing it's an issue with getting access to the coin box and things like that. If I'm not the owner, I'm not handing my keys out to anybody, especially if the money is sitting in the coin box. If I'm there, it's different. I can do it myself, but do I want to be there for every competition? You can lock a coin box. Most pinball machines have a digital credit card thing in it as well. But if you have someone that you trust that is running comps and there's a security camera in there, then yeah, I don't know. It's just that it's the norm here, but I'm surprised to hear that it's not over there. That'd be a big deterrent of anyone running a pinball comp in Melbourne if you can't change anything. You've got time constraints too. You've got other people that are using that place of business that might want to play a game. And what are you going to do? Kick them off a game if you need that game? They're trying to run a business. They have staff. And if they tell the staff we're closed at 11 and these guys are still playing pinball, that's a problem too. You know, you've got to wrap up the tournament. So the time constraint is the one thing that could be difficult. Not for all tournaments, for some. Yeah, that's why I'm really struggling to find certain formats that can finish exactly on time. The one that I did this year was basically we keep on playing four-player match play games until a certain time.
    19:12
    Until they kick us out. And the bottom four will drop out after three rounds so that people aren't sitting there playing for nothing. But yeah, maybe next year I will do 50-50, run 50% of the comps, have it just cycling every two months. But yeah, I want to support the business where the pinball machines are at, but if they're busy anyway, then maybe it doesn't make a difference. I did muck around with Matchplay the first time I've used it in the last month, and I'm not sure if you've played a best game tournament or hosted a best game tournament in the last month, Jeff, but yeah, there's some changes. the interface has changed and it's it's so much easier now to queue people up and enter results it makes you think why was it like this to begin with have you have you seen those changes quite a lot actually i go to a place called maple in this saga where they have a weekly friday tournament and for the most part the formats are whether it's match play rounds there's an amazing race finals we've done some max match plays and uh my ontario open that i ran is a bunch of different formats Did even a ladder match. The only thing I really haven't done on match play is, and I've done one. I've done a herb format, the pump and dump. But the entries I found difficult. So if somebody can kind of give me some advice on, well, how do you put in the entries? I know how to queue up. That's easy enough. But how do you tally the entries like Neverdrains, which is kind of the go-to. Carl is certainly very, very busy. a lot of people use is never drains software but some tournaments just aren't big enough to have that so match play is great with all the different formats i like it a lot the only change i mean there was you know 20 different changes that i saw which were absolutely fantastic but they the one feature which appeared now has disappeared is when you're playing best game how many games have you played out of say you're playing 15 games there was a column there that said this player has played seven games his players played 14 games for some reason that's that's gone hopefully it'll come back because as a td when you want to shut off qualifying you have to click every single person's name to see if they've played the uh correct amount of games is it in standings no it's it's disappeared this is a feature that didn't exist for a long time it has been around for two or three years and now it's disappeared again send a note to andreas he's pretty good at response i don't need to do that anymore jeff i've got a podcast i just say things out loud and it happens.
    21:42
    Fuck, wow. I'm joking, I'm joking. Not even 20 minutes and already two has said, Petey, Petey, are you around? Petey! No, I do love the software. I was so happy yesterday. The tournament ran so smooth because everything was so easy to run. It's amazing UX and UI design. Really good. Anyway, that's match play. That's boring tournament talk, Jeff. Let's talk about stuff that people want to hear. Way to kick it off, wow. Come back to the show, all right? Again, things could get better. Don't worry, we're just seeing what Ryan's got. And, you know, swing and a miss, that's fine. Next. What's happening in the pinball world, Jeff? I saw that David Fix was on the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast talking about all things American pinball. I listened to that podcast. And hi, Scott and Josh. I was shocked, to say the least. Like, if somebody says something about you and you feel that's incorrect, it's your choice to get up there and say, well, this is the truth. This is fiction. And other times, other people will let things slide and let people kind of figure it out on their own. And then there's times where you listen to people, and I kind of thought David was maybe saying things I was surprised he was saying. I was surprised he was talking about the, he was answering, for the most part, some direct questions about the finances, the sustainability, the future, the staff. And I don't know if those questions were asked to other companies, if they would answer them at all, let alone some of the answers that came out. So what do you think?
    23:13
    Sometimes I find it really hard to read in between the lines of what someone is saying, and you kind of take it at face value that, like, oh, he's saying all these things. But even just the things that he was saying kind of make you raise an eyebrow as to, is American Pinball going to be around in a couple of years? You know, they're backed by Ametron, so I don't think it's one of those things that, If, heaven forbid, they're not around, it's going to collapse and people lose their money. I think it seems like it's just a parent company, kind of like Bally Williams back in the day when they had different divisions and then someone pulled the plug. But it's been a long time with American Pinball where they release some, let's say, questionable themes or things that don't really appeal to the masses like Oktoberfest, and you kind of just turn a blind eye because you're like, well, they're growing and they're learning and they'll keep on releasing better titles. But I don't know how they're going to survive. And I think David Fix was, I felt like, if I try and read in between the lines of everything he said, it's kind of not deflecting, but saying, hey, I've been a good employee, but there's only so much that I can change and there's all these things out of my hands. So if shit hits the fan, it's not me. Like, I'm doing the best that I can with this tiny little team. is that him potentially putting his hand up to say, hire me at a different company and give me free reign to do other things? I don't know. I don't know how many other... I would say no to that. Yeah. I don't think that's what he was trying to do. I think it was more of, again, maybe somebody said this about me or the company and here's the message I want to get across. But who knows? Very, very sad to hear about the layoffs. Well, okay. Hopefully. And I haven't talked to a person I care a deep amount about. and that's Stephen Bowden. I haven't talked to him because, you know, I don't really know what to say. I'm going to see him in a few weeks anyway in California at InDisc. And hopefully things are fine. In fact, David comes out and announces the layoffs. And then I see a Facebook picture of David and Ryan McQuaid and Bree and Stephen Bowden and others enjoying a good time at Topgolf. And I thought, okay, well, that could be a sign of maybe this is just a temporary shutdown. Fingers crossed. You know, when you talk about American Pinball and Ametron, yeah, I don't see Ametron going anywhere. You know, when you did the tour and I did for Expo and so did a lot of others, you kind of saw where the bread and butter was. It's definitely Ametron, right? As long as they are getting their contracts, they're doing very, very well. David talked a little bit about selling those video game units, and I can't remember the name of them, but I saw them. They looked nice, and they seemed affordable, and the things you can put in them. He said he sold 1,000 of those units. Okay, if that keeps the lights on. I know it's not pinball, but other companies divest into other things. I think what we care about is how's the pinball aspect doing. That's great that you can make these video game machines. I want to see some titles be successful. So fingers crossed. Well, do you think, Jeff, that people are going to want their next title? Yeah, I don't know. I hope so. Again, and I say that because I want all pinball companies to succeed. I want them to improve. I want them to drive each other to do better things. That's when pinball is successful, and the competition for that market share is exciting, and it really drives you to do better. So, I don't know. It's got to shoot well. That's the key thing, you know. David had mentioned that much like other titles, I think Galactic, I know they did with Legends of Valhalla, they had a bunch of these games in arcades across North America. So when they launched, they said, go here, go here, go here, go play them. I thought that was a good strategy with the launches because with those titles which weren't licensed themes, the name means nothing to you until you play the game and hopefully you like the game and then that generates some sales. So if this next one is licensed, there might be some people interested in that theme. But even with licensed games from any company, I might be excited to play that because I love the theme, but I have to play it before I buy it. The days of me buying a machine, oh my god, that's my favorite theme ever. Sign me up. Ellie, sight unseen. No, they'll never happen again. You can't name one theme where I'd be all over that. Not a chance. Is that because of Led Zeppelin, Jeff? Is that because of Led Zeppelin?
    27:45
    No, Led Zeppelin, I just played it this weekend at, again, Rochester Pinball Collective and had some fun with it. And I do stand by the code. Obviously, I like the music, but I don't know. Like some games I really, really enjoy. You mentioned Jaws earlier. Can't love a theme more than that. And I like the game. Don't get me wrong. And when I say it's my least favorite of Keith's, that's like saying you've made five Hall of Fame games. They're all amazing. But if I have to rank them, I'm going to rank them. It's my least favorite, although it keeps getting better and better with code. Like, fuck, tell me where the crow's nest is. Like, do you have a Jaws? I don't. Shoot the crow's nest. Where's the fucking crow's nest? You don't know by looking at it. The flashing light, the one that's flashing reds. Is it? I don't know. Say crow's nest because it doesn't. Anyway, listen, I love playing Jaws and I do all the time, but it's something about it. Just, I don't know. They shouldn't have done that. They should have put international rescue on the back and say shoot international rescue. Spell it. Spell it for us, bitches. That's right. Yeah, I think prices have been dipping a little bit in Australia. We're affected by price rises, but also affected by the strength of the U.S. dollar versus the Australian dollar, which for the last couple of years has kind of only headed in one direction. So I think I told you there's a point at the end of COVID, I think, where prices for alleys went up $4,000 Australian dollars overnight. One title was $16,500 Australian, including GST. That's the local 10% sales tax. And then it was $20,500. And those even great titles like Jaws, people are starting to sell them for a couple of thousand less. so it makes people question whether they're jumping all in on the on the next game if they get the hype right like if it's a combination of a couple of games that people don't really care too much about like you know john wick and venom and then they release you know the uncanny x-men for example people like oh this is this is the good one everyone buy this one but it's really got to the stage where we have spoiled by so many great pinball machines that the ones that just really good seem like they're crap. And they're not actually crap. It's just like you said with the Keith Allen thing, I was making fun of you for saying it's his worst game. Yeah, it's his worst game for you out of five amazing top ten games. I'm not going to enhance your vocals there, and you better not delete this when you send me the files. That bird in the background was fucking loud. There it goes again! It's not loud at all, Jeff. It's 31 degrees here, which and Fahrenheit is 88 degrees. So I am not sitting in my house. I'm sorry, Jeff. So, are you fucking kidding me?
    30:34
    Come to Australia. This is why Kate is coming to Australia. Kate Martin's coming to Australia. She wants to see all the nature. She wants to hug a koala Would you rather police sirens Jeff Not really No I good Okay Prices So your dollar the Canadian dollar is just tanked right with all the threats of tariffs. The Canadian dollar is under 70 cents U.S., which is just disgustingly low. So that's hurting us. But that aside, the prices of games. Gomez might have hinted, yeah, maybe. I don't know what Seth's got planned. Maybe there's going to be some price increases at Stern. There haven't been in a while. Okay, it sounds like there's going to be price increases. But forget that. In the last couple of months, whether it's at Expo, whether it's the Black Friday special, whether it's a Christmas special, seeing these prices come down on Guns N' Roses, $2,025 American dollars to get a Guns N' Roses machine? Whoa. How about American Pinball put so many of their games on sale? It's interesting when companies do that direct because a lot of people say it cheapens their product or they get upset or they say like, well, there's no point in buying a Jersey Jack pinball machine if they're going to do this every Christmas. But if you look at the secondhand market, you can find like Guns N' Roses in Australia sold so fucking well, Jeff. Like I think they sold more. I can't remember the stat, but it was easily within the first week sold more than Wizard of Oz, The Hobbit in their lifetime. and it brought so many new people to the hobby. And because of that, it's just the supply. Eventually, people don't want them anymore. The supply outweighs the demand. And you can get those machines here, $4,000 Australian dollars cheaper than what you got them for in perfect condition. You know, one of those collectors that buy it, put 100 games on it in four years or however many years it's been out for, and that's it. So I don't blame Jersey Jack for doing that. They're just trying to move Christmas stock. but yeah you don't see stern doing that either so i haven't listened to the latest episode of the pinball show uh which now that you're on the pinball network ryan you're gonna have to listen to all the time it's it's part of the policy are we are we sponsored by them or are we putting the call out since i'm you know in charge of bringing money into the podcast are there are there any competing distributors that want to outbid zach many you're putting out pinball no i'm not i'm No, dick. I'm a businessman, Jeff.
    33:02
    Listen, my point is, my point is, oh, fuck. I apologize, Zach. Don't worry, he's still under probation. When I see these prices come down, I just think of the distributors like, oh, that's nice that you're selling them direct from your place for thousands less. I've got fucking 10 sitting here in the back. I can't move now because you just dropped the price on them. Does that mean I have to drop the price? Because I paid full pop for them. And I always wonder how the distributors feel about that. And I can't imagine they feel too good about it. I wonder, yeah, I don't know. I haven't listened to the latest episode. I'm not sure if he discusses it. But I wonder if they get some kind of offer as well to help move stock. Or if that... I would say no. In fact, when the companies say to them, here's our new title. How many machines do you want? And the distributor goes, we've already got fucking 40. Name the game that didn't sell well in the background here. I can't afford to take 30 more. I've got to move these. Okay, no problem. Who wants a distributorship? Sign up. Here we go. With the exception, of course, of Australia and England where it's a monopoly. I mentioned Gomez. He was on with Franchi. I thought it was interesting that Franchi felt the need to do a podcast to explain why Franchi doesn't work for Stern anymore when he's already got a gig at Spooky. But I guess he runs across things on Pinside or hears things. So in one way, it was good to, I guess, air that out. And it sounds like they didn't hold anything back, which was great. Did you hear that podcast? I didn't, Jeff. I have a massive aversion to people that use the same formula that gets people to click on things in the real world. If they use that formula in the pinball world, I just don't like it. Like I know what thumbnails work to make you click on a video. I know it's like the clickbait. Like, you'll never know what we're going to do this and do that. And you just listen to the podcast and you'll find out. That's the name of this podcast episode, you asshole.
    35:01
    You'll never believe what they said. You better get on board, fucko. That's the only way to do it in podcasting. Is Pinside Petey the new host? Fucking find out 70 minutes into the 72-minute podcast. Yeah, I don't know. I try and train my brain not to click on those things, even though I know it'll be a great podcast. even though I know Kerry Hardy's videos are great if there's a clickbait title I can't click on it I'm doing it for my brain Jeff so I'm not telling people off for doing that I know it works I just I can't do it so you're gonna have to summarize it for me Franchi obviously did four titles with Stern and then was kind of persona non grata went years three or four years before we saw any of his wonderful art on any machines Then we saw it on Galactic and Godfather in the same year. Now he's got the deal with, well, we saw it on John as well. I don't want to forget that beautiful art package. But now he did what I think is actually his best in Evil Dead for Spooky. But, you know, people, whether he's at shows or on Facebook or Pinside, say, well, here's the real reason why. So he felt the need to air it out. And that all aside, you know, you care or you don't care. There were some interesting tidbits at the end where Franchi asked some questions about the future for 2025, price increases and things like that. And so it was a good interview. I enjoyed it. Are you going to tell me why he's not working there, Jeff? I don't know. Do I want to summarize it? Franchi was a loose cannon, I guess. They couldn't trust him to keep his yap shut about what he's working on.
    36:39
    According to George, he kind of got pinball famous quick in it. He might not have been able to handle it. And Chris himself said, yeah, that was probably true. and you know i i trusted people i didn't trust and uh it just made it awkward for for people he worked with at stern but it didn't sound like it was the be all and end all you know his artwork is fantastic it stepped up other people in fact they even mentioned that there were some projects they wanted him to do this year but he's already got a gig so why is he not working at jjp then i think that was a contract job and you know they have uh well i think avatar is gorgeous you know I think that's great. There's a lot of good artists out there now. So the competition gets tough, right? You can only have so many programmers. You can only have so many designers. You can only have so many artists. There's only so much to go around. Just touching quickly on Elton John, a little sidetrack, Jeff. You know, there's a bunch of new games that I haven't played yet just because I haven't gone out and seek them or they're in collections, you know, the latest spooky games. They're not on location. They're just at people's houses. But I played Elton John, Jeff, and I know this is a very popular opinion and I'm not saying anything new, but holy fucking shit, that game is amazing. It's their best game. It knows how to release the good chemicals from your brain. I feel so good playing that game, even though I don't really know what's going on. It kind of teaches you as you play, but it knows how to celebrate you. The animations are next level. The lights, you feel like you're at a concert. Oh my gosh, what a game. I don't have one criticism about the game Elton John. You know, some people say, well, it's a lot like Spider-Man or Star Trek or this and that. Yeah. Great shooting games. Well, if it is, fine. I mean, I play Rush, and the top half of that is the old X-Men game. You know, I had a Guardians of the Galaxy, and there's a lot of Metallica and Iron Man in that game. Sure, great. You know, it's a proven winner. But it's a format, like you say, I can't think of one negative thing about Elton John. other than I wish it didn't cost as much. That's it. It's really expensive. Yeah, in Australia, it's, I think, $20,000 or close to $20,000, which is, as I said, maybe more. I don't know. I'm a bit out of touch. I'll be better next week, Jeff. I'm going to improve every week. Give me a scorecard. But it's expensive, and I know it doesn't really hold its value. So I think I will pick one up secondhand. That, Jaws, there's a bunch of games on my list. I've got an X-Men coming, Jeff. I've got an X-Men, an uncanny X-Men that got held up in the boats. I got a funny email from the distributor saying the perfect storm of things have happened and it's not coming. It's meant to come in November. It's coming in January. But I know there's a bunch of fixes that need to be applied. I'm a bit scared to unbox this thing because... Is it a pro or premium? It's a pro. Perfect. It's the better game, in my opinion. I'm starting to hear that from people with jaws. I mean, like, it depends on who you ask, but I don't know many people who say the LE is better than the Pro. Besides, I mean, like, obviously the whole package, you know, lights, expression lighting, all those things. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I just don't like the idea of any game, and this is the Sentinel thing. I love that the Sentinel comes up and down. That's very, very cool on the Premium and LE, for sure. the rails, where it knocks the ball off the rails and goes who knows where. Can't stand that aspect. It's on point for the theme. I get it. I don't like it. I don't like any game where something like that, that act of randomness, can put the ball in peril and shoot it where you can't save it. Perfect example would be a game I just played this weekend, the Beatles. That gold disc in the middle with the magnet, turn that fucking thing off. The orb magnet in Guardians, when you lock a ball behind there, and it kicks it out and goes, fuck off, ball. Fuck off, game. Disable that magnet like all big IFPA tournaments, by the way, do, because, again, you shouldn't be punished for making a shot you're supposed to make. It's kind of why I never drove me nuts about old Lawler games back in the 90s. I'm going to fucking shoot the skill shot and no good golfers are whirlwind, and it fucking hits your skill shot. Yay! And then it goes out the out lane. Fuck you! That's bullshit. I don't like that kind of stuff. I don't. No, you're right. The Rush Premium. If you're listening right, Dan, I know you are. I love that when I talk to you about my Rush Pro, you put a ball save on when it kicks out the bottom scoop. Put one on the upper one, too, because on the Premium, it shoots it out sideways, and if you've got tight slinks and stuff, there's no ball save on that. If you're in single ball play and you go on any scoop there, give a fucking one-second ball save. Same with the Kissmouth Gene Simmons. If that thing shoots out, it's single ball play. I don't give a shit during multi-ball. or a Metallica Snake. Not the new one. The new one's great. But the Metallica Snake, if that shot it out right down the middle, put a one-second ball save on it. Don't get punished for making shots. One that I'm really confused about, and I write into FunAroundPinball at gmail.com if you can answer this question. On Ghostbusters' pinball machine, there is the scoop on the left and there is the saucer on the right. I've never played a Ghostbusters, and I've played a lot, where the saucer on the right doesn't perfectly kick out the ball to the left flipper. It'll land directly in the middle. There is a ball save on that by default. The scoop on the left, there are a bunch of games, if not set up correctly or if the little scoop metal is bent in the wrong direction, the ball goes straight down the middle. And there is, unless I'm wrong, there is no ball save on that. I don't think there is a way in the setting. It's backwards. It's like someone made a mistake while they were coding it and they put it on the wrong one. Yeah, it's confusing. Like you said, medals or cliffies or the pitch of the game, wear and tear, these are all factors. Shit that gets in the scoop, those are all things that send the balls in different directions. So again, making a shot, I wish that was just a default on every game. You've played Addams Family a billion times. You know that thing is probably going to hit your left flipper and it's a matter of letting it dead bounce to your right flipper. but I've never seen it kick down the middle or kick into a sling like an old data east jurassic park game I wish Marty was here he had that fucking turd would you hit a ball into the chaos scoop or whatever when it comes up the left if it hits the top of the left sling it can drift over to the right outlander hit the sling and say see you later again I don't even want to say bad designs but bad quite honestly coding because games change a lot you know when I talk to a certain designer about a certain machine and you should put this ball safe i'm going to give an example it wasn't this but godzilla when you hit the scoop on godzilla if you lose your ball out of that scoop because it immediately goes down that's not good and you know let's just say keith said it'll never do that well that's fine if it never does that can you say that about every single game maybe maybe not again wear and tear things get in there uh the pitch all these things if you don't know for 100 certainty put a ball save on it yeah i guess the timings of ball safe can be really hard. One second. Well, one second. What if it drains, Jeff, and it hits the metal in a certain way that it does one of those slow rolls? And, you know, you've got the ball save lit, but as soon as it hits the switch, the first switch in the trough, it's 1.3 seconds. Well, what if it's slow enough that when you talk about something slow, that gives you time to perhaps nudge or move the game a little bit? No, I mean slow after it drains. Like, how many times has a ball power drain down the middle so hard, Jeff, while ball save was on and then it rolls up the left or right like, it's not the out lane it's like the end of the out lane I don't know, the gutter, I don't even know what the position of the pinball is actually called so slowly, it can take like three seconds for the ball to drain and by the time it does that, hits the switch your ball's over. That's what I'm saying it's hard software wise, you can't just you know, you want to make sure that the ball save is just for the ball going directly down the hole and not for someone making a shot missing and then the ball draining. It has to go in the shot for there to be a ball save. Come on. Come on, Ryan. Yeah, but how do you know, Jeff, how long that takes? I just want one second. I want one second. Anything in between one second, I can move the game. What if it takes 1.1 seconds for the ball to drain? This is what I'm talking about, Jeff. What if it takes 1.1 seconds? Play better. Then you don't. Play faster. React better.
    45:09
    All right. It's hard. You know, here you are, back in the podcast world. What else is on your mind? by the way what have you been doing like because there anybody who follows you on social media you're really enjoying nature fuck you got a million birds in your backyard no wonder you're not into pinball i've become a bird man i'm the i'm the lady at the end of home alone too that's that's me just a bit more like polished up i don't i don't have dirt on my face in the movie yeah i just i love nature jeff what am i doing i'm enjoying life like everyone else does. I just haven't prioritized pinball competitions this year and everyone has time, Jeff. Everyone has time. It's just people choose to do different things with their time, whether it be sleep, play pinball, listen to podcasts, whatever it is I have a desire to go into nature I know it makes me happy I don do it what people think i just i just like the pictures and i like posting them so people think it my only side of my personality i like nature and pimple full stop i get it the both the posting pictures i posted a picture up of like a really nice christmas display and and here i am oh this is gorgeous it's not my fucking house i just thought it's a good picture i'm like oh that looks nice do people give you compliments on it jeff yeah oh wow you're really into it um no i I stood outside, I saw it, and I went, quick, snap the shot. There. What's your Christmas tradition, Jeff? I don't know if I have a Christmas tradition. Don't. There is one. There's one. It's usually wrapping gifts, like, at midnight on Christmas Eve.
    46:44
    I fucking hate wrapping gifts. My youngest kid still believes in Santa Claus. It might be the last year that it's happening. And it's, yeah, it's exciting. It's exciting time of the year. It can be fucking stressful. As you know, Jeff, I'm not sure in your line of work what it's like around Christmas. but people are relaxed on a day, but people are stressed out for the whole month leading up to Christmas because everyone needs to get stuff, everyone needs to do things. Like the email said with the Uncanny X-Men being delayed, it's like, don't shoot the messenger. This is just Christmas stuff, and things get delayed.
    47:19
    Christmas isn't ruined because we don't have our X-Men. I couldn't send out Christmas cards this year, and I usually send a few. Canada Post was on strike until a day ago, so I was like, oh, fuck. So that's been a little chaotic, but other than that... Does that mean that nothing was getting delivered unless people used a third-party courier? Pretty much. A lot of third-party couriers went, yeah, we're overwhelmed. We can't do it either.
    47:45
    I find it so interesting when companies strike right before Christmas. It happened here with the biggest... There's a duopoly with supermarkets here, and I walked into one of them the other day, and the shelves were pretty much bare for everything that you would want, consumables, meat, eggs, bread. And it was like that for about two weeks because the warehouse workers were on strike. The people have so much power, Jeff. It's crazy, but no letters. You can just, I think people just send text messages now, Jeff. I think you can just send a picture. I can teach you how to do it one day. Thanks, that'd be great. No, that's good. What else is in your world? I got one thing that's in your world. You know, people used to hear you on Head to Head and Jesse Jays, and you're like, that young fella, you know, he's got his eyes wide open in the world. Well, that young fella's not so young anymore. You turned 40!
    48:36
    Jeff. Even though you dyed your hair, which, come on, who are you kidding? Like, you can grow a full beard in a day, so how do you think the dye in that hair is going to stay? The roots would be like... I work for myself at the moment, Jeff. So it's really liberating to not give a shit what people think I look like. It's, you know, oh my gosh, you work in, you know, I used to work in sales. Like you work in sales, like you have to maintain this kind of look because then people won't buy, you know, expensive things off you. But I don't know. Are people not going to rent a pinball machine off me, Jeff, if I have shitty blonde hair? I don't know.
    49:14
    Because this is pretty good. Do you guys do kilos? Is that what you guys are, kilos? Kilos is in a unit of measurement. Yes, we do kilos, yes. So you get your hair dyed. I went on a big trip in California in June. I was there for the IFPA 19 at Jim Belsito's place. My family came down, and we did kind of a bunch of different cities in California in June. And I love the photos because, you know, it's probably the last big trip with the boys, you know. My youngest started college this year, so he'll be 20 next year. and I'm like, ah, this is probably the last hurrah for all of us to do a big family trip because they're going to have their own families and that. And I looked at my pictures and I'm like, oh my, I just, I'm not a vain guy, but I couldn't stand to see how bloody big I got when I just, you know, not caring. Jeff, I'm going to interrupt you. It's, I'm pretty sure most of your weight is just natural gas. It's not actual weight. It's if the amount of times you fart, it's pure bloating. Shit, I never thought of that. No, because I fart enough that it would all be gone. So, yeah, I don't think so. But anyway, I just said that's enough. First of all, my age and, you know, it's harder with metabolism slowing down. You're going to see it at 40. So I had to do something about it. So I did a couple things. One, first of all, I chopped my hair all off. And I had that long for a while. So I got a short little buzzy now.
    50:32
    And slowly using the, I'll plug it, this app called Lose It. Just you put in your calories every single day. I don't know if I've done any exercise. I go for walks. We have an exercise bike here and stuff, but really that's about it. I have a desk job where I sit at a computer all the time, so sitting is the new smoking, as you know. You're out hiking. You're in great shape, but this tub of goo just got too big. Anyway, I've dropped 35 pounds, which is 16 kilos. I feel great. It feels good, and I hope I can keep it off. It's very, very nice. Everywhere I go, they're like, oh, how's Ozempic? And all these things, I'm like, hey, nothing against Ozempic at all because all power to you, whatever you got to do to be happy and feel fit and stuff. I asked. It just wasn't something that I felt comfortable in doing on a regular basis. Just me personally, but I know great friends that do it and they feel great. So again, all power to you. I just wanted to see if I could do it on my own and it feels good. I got to tell you. It does. Yeah, I think physical health is really heavily tied to your mental health and it's just like a big symbiotic circle that feeds itself and you just have to get on the right track and stay on it. I hope I do. Yeah, I hope you do too, Jeff. And just a little asterisk, I'm in decent shape. I have chronic back pain. The main reason why I'm climbing mountains is, yes, I love nature, but I have to move. If I sit down on my computer all day like I did for years working, I have a slipped disc, I have nerve pain, I have problems with my back that I'm trying to rehab. It's functional for me. Like, I need to do it, otherwise I can't move. So, yeah, I want to be fitter, and I'll continue to go on my little health journey. But, yeah, pinball. What's this got to do with pinball, Jeff? Nothing. Hey, welcome to final round. There may be episodes where we don't talk pinball at all, and here we are coming up to it. My favorite episode that I ever listened to was the one where you guys kept on talking about, we're just about to get to pinball, and I think I, like, didn't listen to it all in one sitting, and I got so confused. I'm like, did I listen to three episodes? Did I listen to one? I listened to it all again and I was like, okay, I get the joke. This is fucking hilarious. We teased it earlier. Marty and I said, you know, there'll be an episode where we never talk pinball and we did it and I got to tell you, it felt great. So that might happen again. Be forewarned, but that's good because people seem to like it. Anyway, what does this have to do with pinball? Nothing. You know, look at the calendar. We're coming up to the New Year's. Do you do New Year's resolutions? Do you have any? It's not something I normally do. I'm going to try to continue this weight loss, and that's about it. But any resolutions for you? No. I mean, I think the New Year's is a great time for reflection and setting goals for yourself. But I feel like when you tie a goal to a specific date, it's the first excuse to not doing it. I'm going to quit smoking in New Year's. No, you will quit smoking immediately. Yeah, you will do it immediately. but as I said it is a great time when things shut down and you're with your family, friends, alone, whatever your case may be where you can say I'm going to be a better version of myself, I'm going to be more in touch with who I'm meant to be and maybe people have already figured that out but I feel like it's a constant journey in life to try and figure out what makes me happy, how can I support people around me, what have I done this year to better myself and those around me and make adjustments. Sounds good to me. Again, yeah, waiting for a date is just an excuse to not do it. The reason you're – I didn't pick a date for the weight loss. I just got – I was like, okay, now's the time. So I hope people have a great holiday season. I hope they come back to final round. I hope you make it through probation, be honest. Any more topics you'd like to discuss here before we say so long? No, I'm good, Jeff. I want you to give me a – message me a scorecard out of 10 or email through and message a scorecard of how I did out of 10. And, yeah, I'll work towards being a better – am I a host or a co-host, Jeff? Is this a slam-tilt podcast-style situation? Ooh, yikes. I do want to shout out to Glenn Wechter who gave us that great song at the beginning, his wonderful voice. Oh, we've got some things planned. Let's just say that. Thank you, Glenn. I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. It made me laugh a lot. Okay, do you know something really funny, Jeff? I went to my rehab gym and the app that I use to track the sets that I do for some reason that day was broken I had to get a manual printout and during my set you sent me the song and it went for the exact amount of time that I wanted to do my sets so instead of setting a stopwatch at the start of each set I would press play and when the song finished I knew I was done so I think I listened to that song about 20 times during my gym session it's good stuff and more things like that to come here on this uh this program and uh i think we'll say so long for now uh again safe holidays for everyone hope to see you in 2025 ryan thank you for coming on the program and uh continuing final round marty you know the door is always open and i have a feeling someday we'll hear him very soon but um the socials fuck marty used to always do this i don't even know our damn socials shit no one no one uses it jeff no one cares no one checks instagram it's just search for fun arounds full stop or do it wait do you guys have a website you don't know there you go ah now you're fucking doing it no there you go that's part of the probation you got website patreon and uh maybe a song every every show so you've already sang today's plan one for next week I'll do the snip dog song there's literally two songs that I know off by heart it's one of your strengths is that great singing voice I hope you can pitch correct that Jeff if I sound like shit that's Jeff's fault and remember if I didn't say what did I say before if I didn't say I'm really happy to be on this podcast Jeff is fucking editing me I don't know what you're talking about I don't have time to edit it's the holidays that's why we're cutting the show short so we can say so long uh thanks ryan uh sorry pd uh you were so close but um you know fuck off all right everyone thanks jeff thanks everyone for listening have a great holidays final round pinball at gmail.com send your comments thanks
    57:15
    Oh, you're still listening? Well, here's a little holiday treat for you. This is actually something that has never aired before on Final Round.
    57:33
    In late June, Marty and I recorded what was going to be the next episode of Final Round. Obviously, we know what happened, and he lost his job with Haggis. it wasn't really the time to joke around and stuff. It was a tough time. And again, I'll point out that Marty's doing really well right now. I talk to him every single week. And when he's ready to come back, we'll have him back. But here's something we had a little fun with on the show that never aired.
    58:05
    Hello again, like we do every two weeks. I'm Jeff Fjollis. Two weeks times three equals six weeks. And this is episode 82. My name's Martin. Welcome, everybody, to the final round Pinball Podcast. So regular, you don't need Metamucil. I did warn you, I was going away for five weekends, and this is the first weekend I have been home. And it's been nice to be home, even though it's a long holiday weekend. It's Canada Day. Here I am, spending time with you, Marty. Can I tell you what's really funny? Sorry, listener, we're all going to have just a little side conversation like always. to. Like before, we were supposed to record mid-days now, 12.30, whatever. And Jeff's like, oh, so I'm just going to be a little bit late because of Canada Day. What is with my English today? Fuck, man. No wonder we're not on every two weeks. You can barely talk.
    58:59
    It's Canada Day celebrations. And I went, oh, it's weird, Canada Day. And then I went, oh, hang on. We have Australia Day. Why wouldn't there be a Canada Day? There's 4th of July in the US, but you don't have an America Day, do you? Well, that's Independence Day. That is their biggest holiday, for sure. And Australia Day, is it always the same date, or does it basically have to fall on a Monday? No, it's always the 26th of January, although it may change, you never know. So my birthday is January 27th, which, coincidence, Australia Day? Hmm, interesting. Coincidence that they're not the same day? They're pretty damn close. Hmm. Do you know what famous Canadian is born on January 26th? You're Googling. Why do I even ask you? No. Well, first of all, famous Canadian, of which there are four. So it's either Justin Bieber, Celine Dion, the band Glass Tiger, the other band Len. Take that, Ed Robertson, former guest, just shitting on it with a band name Len. How about Wayne Gretzky? Does that mean anything to you? He is a... Wait. He's Googling. Fuck off. Every time you say Wade, you're cheating. No, no, no. Not only is he a hockey player, I know that because he's actually got video games, but also if you've ever seen the movie Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, there is a fantastic Wayne Gretzky scene in that movie. Wade Jetski. Okay. We have done what we have accomplished. We are two old guys and we've talked for five minutes and we've basically said goodbye to our whole audience just like the American debate that happened this week. Just? Oh, fuck. I was about to make that joke. Well, you're too short. Two old guys being completely incoherent, not making any points. Hey, America, is that the best you fucking have? Holy shit. 400 million people, and those are the best two choices. You know who wins? Nobody.
    60:57
    Let's not do politics. I mean, ours is just as bad. So is mine in Canada. Absolutely. politics at the moment is can I just say, look I know we're doing another side note even though all politics around the world is shithouse, it must be fucking tough being a politician right now because you just get fucking crucified no matter what you do why would you want to do it? you can make so much more money and do more things in the private sector like podcasting I'm a massive cunt