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Episode 138 – Ball Lock in the Backbox

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Dec 23, 2019
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Rick and Morty sells out in 4 hours; Stranger Things leaked with projector innovation; hosts debate theme quality and code polish across manufacturers.

Summary

Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discuss major pinball reveals from the past month, primarily focusing on Spooky Pinball's Rick and Morty game announcement and Stern's leaked Stranger Things game reveal. Rick and Morty pre-orders sold out in 4 hours at $750, with 85% opting for the Bloodsucker Edition, while Stranger Things introduces novel projector-based gameplay with a ball lock in the back panel. The hosts critique American Pinball's Hot Wheels theme as commercially misguided and discuss code quality issues with Chicago Gaming's Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle despite strong sales.

Key Claims

  • Rick and Morty pre-orders lasted exactly 4 hours before selling out

    high confidence · Ron states this directly regarding the $750 pre-order window

  • Approximately 85% of Rick and Morty buyers selected the Bloodsucker Edition

    medium confidence · Bruce estimates this percentage based on order patterns; qualified as 'large majority' by both hosts

  • Spooky's Fang Club membership costs $45 and generated $33,750 in revenue from 750 memberships alone

    high confidence · Ron calculates this explicitly: 750 × $45 = $33,750

  • Rick and Morty features custom voice work from Justin Roiland (who voices both Rick and Morty)

    high confidence · Both hosts emphasize this as the critical factor that ensured the game's sellout

  • Stranger Things playfield features a projector-based ramp reveal system with ball locks in the back panel managed by magnets

    medium confidence · Bruce describes leaked promo video details; mechanics inferred rather than officially confirmed

  • Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle code is incomplete despite being in production for 1.5 years and nearly sold out

    high confidence · Ron reports repeated voice lines and incomplete frenzy modes observed during gameplay at Zach's setup

  • Lonnie (Stern rules programmer) is not working on Stranger Things; he's busy with Elvira

    high confidence · Bruce states this directly and predicts Stranger Things will follow AFM/Medieval Madness formula as a result

  • American Pinball's next game is Hot Wheels, themed around the toy car line

    high confidence · Bruce confirms this announcement; Ron critiques it as commercially unviable for a $7,000 machine

Notable Quotes

  • “Mr. Anti-Spooky Bruce is getting a spooky game. Yes, because they finally got a good theme.”

    Ron Hallett @ early section — Highlights Bruce's reversal on Spooky Pinball due to IP quality; establishes theme as primary purchase driver

  • “Four hours, and the whole website was screwed in the beginning. They got overwhelmed.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ Rick and Morty pre-order discussion — Documents the massive demand spike that crashed Spooky's e-commerce infrastructure

  • “If 85% are getting it, then are you really first anymore? No.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ Bloodsucker Edition analysis — Critiques the limited edition strategy's erosion of exclusivity when adoption is near-universal

  • “That's like selling five games at least, because they were $7,000 each, the games. Fang Club made them $33,750 for doing literally easy money.”

    Ron Hallett @ Fang Club revenue calculation — Quantifies the profitability of community engagement mechanisms outside core product sales

  • “The guy who does Rick and Morty, it's one guy, does both voices, and they got him. That's the key. That was the key to Family Guy.”

    Ron Hallett @ Rick and Morty reveal analysis — Identifies authentic voice talent as the critical differentiator driving pre-order demand

  • “Theme is king. Just take all the money from the redemption machines they're making and get a damn license.”

    Ron Hallett @ American Pinball critique — Articulates the hosts' thesis that licensed IP dominates purchasing decisions in modern pinball

  • “It looks like if I was at Expo and I had a row of homebrews, I would see this there.”

    Ron Hallett @ Stranger Things visual design reaction — Critiques the game's painted artwork as generic/amateurish for a flagship Stern release

  • “You watch. I will. Take note. I will be watching. Lonnie's going to do, I got all these great ideas and it's going to be a recopy of AFM or Medieval Madness.”

Entities

Ron HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonRick and MortygameStranger ThingsgameSpooky PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyScott Deniseperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Rick and Morty pre-orders at $750 sold out in 4 hours; Spooky's website crashed immediately; distributor Pinball Star handled overflow via PayPal link

    high · Ron: 'Four hours, and the whole website was screwed in the beginning. They got overwhelmed.'; Bruce confirmed Spooky site died, Pinball Star processed orders successfully

  • ?

    collector_signal: Approximately 85% of Rick and Morty buyers selected Bloodsucker Edition, eroding limited edition exclusivity; Bloodsucker Edition still presented first in reveal trailer

    medium · Bruce: 'if 85% are getting it, then are you really first anymore?' and 'the Bloodsucker Edition first is first'; hosts debate whether limited edition strategy backfired

  • ?

    design_innovation: Stranger Things features projector-based mid-playfield ramp reveal with ball lock in back panel managed by magnets; represents novel use of projection tech in pinball

    medium · Bruce describes leaked video: 'a projector on almost like the middle of the play field... projects to a screen... screen will actually come down to create a ramp... hit it into his mouth... the Gorgon'

  • ?

    product_concern: Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle has unfinished code despite 1.5 years in production and near-sellout status; frenzy modes incomplete, voice lines repeat excessively

    high · Ron: 'The code is not done. Problem'; 'I heard Alice Cooper say like the same line five times during the mode, just repeating over and over'; 'some of the frenzy modes aren't done yet'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Rick and Morty secured Justin Roiland for custom voice work; hosts identify this as critical factor driving pre-order success; contrasts with Stranger Things voice quality concerns

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.294

0:00
We don't treat humans here. Uh, he's not human. Whatever. Then, uh, where's the garbage? Oh, fill this out and go wait in there. You have to fill out a form just to throw something in the garbage? That sucks. Beavis, you're a stupid dumbass.
0:30
Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale.
0:52
Adio! Hi, Bruce. Hey, what's going on? Not much. Very quiet in the pinball world. Yeah, I know. There's nothing going on at all. Nothing going on at all. Welcome to episode 138. We're back. This is the last one of the year. Yes, of the decade. Of the decade, yes. Is it the decade or is it not the decade? Because some people say it ends at the 10. Yeah, they're probably right, but whatever. We're going to do, no, whatever. Okay. So we're going to do a decade in review. Yes. Bruce came up with it. An actual good idea. Yeah, go figure. It's amazing. I'm like, wow, that's actually a good idea because the state of pinball was quite different than it is now. Let's just say that. It was an anarchy 10 years ago. It seems like every 10 years it was bad. Like at the end of 99, it was bad. End of 09, it was bad. And now it's good.
1:57
But that's later on. That's later on. First, there were major, major reveals that happened since the last time we spoke. Yes, there were. I cannot wait to talk about this game. Well, one in particular I know is by far the biggest reveal. Yes. And that would be Punny Factory. Yes, Punny Factory. I love it. Can't wait to play Punny Factory. Oh, my God. It's going to be so rockin' good. You know, they may have had the worst timing ever. Yeah, I think so, too. Because I think they literally revealed this the first day, the same day as another game was revealed. Yes. And one that you might be getting. I am getting. Oh, my God. And we are talking about, go ahead, Bruce. No, no, no, I'll let you. No, no, no, no, no, after you. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I bought with another person we were partnering for a BSE. What does that mean, Bruce? What's a BSE?

Bruce Nightingale @ Lonnie rules programming prediction — Pre-emptively criticizes expected design patterns while showing willingness to be proven wrong

  • “The code is not done. Problem. It's the only issue I have right now.”

    Ron Hallett @ Alice Cooper critique — Identifies incomplete software as a critical flaw despite hardware/design merit

  • “Why even bother going to a show? If you've already sold every single game.”

    Ron Hallett @ Texas Pinball Festival logistics discussion — Questions Spooky's booth strategy given pre-order sellout, highlighting production capacity constraints

    • Bowen Kerins
    person
    Brian Eddyperson
    Lonnieperson
    Justin Roilandperson
    American Pinballcompany
    Hot Wheelsgame
    Alice Cooper Nightmare Castlegame
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    TNAgame
    Silver Ball Saloonvenue
    Mark Carveyperson
    Pinball Starcompany
    Zach Sharpeperson

    high · Ron: 'the guy who does Rick and Morty, it's one guy, does both voices, and they got him. That's the key'; both hosts emphasize this ensured sellout

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky Pinball's Fang Club membership ($45) generated $33,750 in revenue from 750 pre-order gate-keepers; characterized as 'easy money' for minimal physical goods

    high · Ron calculates: 750 × $45 = $33,750; 'That's pretty good... like selling five games at least... they sold almost five Bloodsucker Editions worth of memberships for nothing'

  • $

    market_signal: Both Spooky and Stern prioritizing current, popular licensed IP (Rick and Morty, Stranger Things); hosts argue theme is king in purchase decisions

    high · Ron: 'Theme is king... American Pinball, if you want to survive, scrap all your stuff and get a good theme'; notes both companies 'grabbing hot new themes'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Lonnie unavailable for Stranger Things due to Elvira commitment; Bruce predicts this will result in formulaic code (AFM/Medieval Madness copies)

    high · Bruce: 'Unfortunately, you get Lonnie... Lonnie's going to do, I got all these great ideas... it's going to be a recopy of AFM or Medieval Madness, which is good because it is Lyman, but there's no originality'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle criticized for excessive lower playfield shots causing 'Houdini-itis'; tight orbits limit playfield flow; hosts compare unfavorably to Brian Eddy designs

    high · Ron: 'Too many shots on the lower play field... there's so many shots you try to hit those orbits and they are so ridiculously tight. If you just remove maybe one shot, you could open it up so much more. It would be like a Brian Eddy game'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Bruce Nightingale reversed anti-Spooky position due to Rick and Morty IP quality; self-identifies as AWOL from 'Stern Army'; increasingly critical of Stern rules programming

    high · Ron: 'Mr. Anti-Spooky Bruce is getting a spooky game. Yes, because they finally got a good theme'; Bruce: 'I've probably been AWOLed' from Stern Army

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Hosts note they have zero familiarity with Stranger Things show; Ron watched early episodes and found it boring; worries about insider knowledge requirements for game appreciation

    medium · Ron: 'This is one of the first ones I can truly say, like, I have no clue what this is about, who any of these characters are'; 'I watched like the two or three first episodes, and I was bored of the show already'

  • ?

    production_capacity_signal: Spooky will be in 'full Rick and Morty mode for the next year and a half'; regular TNA production halted; regular edition Rick and Morty buyers face extended wait (16+ months per hosts' estimate)

    high · Ron: 'They're going to be in full Rick and Morty mode for the next year and a half, probably'; 'whoever ordered the regular, see you in 16 months'

    • 2:59
    Blood Sucker Edition of Rick and Morty. So wait a minute. Mr. Anti-Spooky Bruce is getting a spooky game. Yes, because they finally got a good theme. I've been told this is a good theme. Oh, God, you haven't watched this show at all. Oh, no, I have watched the show. I've watched at least six episodes now, Bruce. Okay, and? This is good.
    3:23
    Very nice. I keep on doing it the whole show. Oh, yeah. Okay. Are you impersonating Rick with that? Yes. Okay. Yeah, he does that a lot. Yes, he does. Very classy. It's Morty, Morty, Morty, Morty. That's all you think about. Every minute, there's going to be at least a Morty or a Rick in there. Oh, it's South Park in space. Yes. No, it's actually Back to the Future. Okay, it's Back to the Future in South Park in space. Yes. So Rick and Morty was revealed. Yes, it was. It was revealed, I think, a couple days after we went on last for a teaser. Teaser. The teaser trailer. And then they said the teaser is going to be Christmas. And then all of a sudden, the weekend before Christmas, on Sunday night, it was, what, Sunday the 15th, we get a reveal at 8 o'clock at night, saying tomorrow morning at 10 Eastern time, games are going on sale, $750. 750 instead. What did they do? The other ones, they were like 500? 500, and of course TNA is still going on, which is... Because it's great.
    4:34
    Dead silence. Okay. So, Rick and Morty. Yes. First, the funny, the teaser came out. Yes. Then pictures of underneath the playfield came out, so everyone's trying to figure out the playfield from underneath. Yes. Which was funny. which the only thing you could really tell is that there was no left slingshot, and that's a pop bumper instead. Mm-hmm. And three flippers. Yeah. And then the reveal.
    5:00
    Ah! So what did you think when you first saw it? I liked it a lot. I liked the – there's multiple shots for the right flipper, the right upper flipper, which is nice. It seems like there's multiple shots for – it seems very balanced, which I liked. It reminds me a little bit of Jurassic Park with the multiple in-lanes, you know, for your shots, for your upper flipper also, which is cool. Wait, multiple in-lanes? It has a standard... No, no, no. On your multiple lanes to shoot from your right upper flipper. Oh, okay. That's what I liked about it, like Jurassic Park does. You have two shots. You have two shots for that. I really do. I think it's going to be a cool game. I like the... Denasi. Denisi. Denasi. Denisi. I'm going to say Denasi because it sounds better.
    5:55
    2.0 locked, which is really cool. Reminds you a little bit of, what was it? What's the game everyone's comparing it to for the loop? Silver Ball Mania? No, the failed one. The failed game. Could you be more vague? The newest game that came out that was only like they were going to build 100 of them, and they built ten of them from Europe. Oh, the Mafia game? Mafia, yes.
    6:20
    But two ramps, the pop bumper for the slingshot for the left-hand side, a MagnaSave. With the button in the right position, by the way. With the button in the perfect position. What I didn't like about the reveal, there's a couple things I did not like. They showed you first in the video the Bloodsucker Edition. So you're thinking, wow. But they didn't tell you it was the Bloodsucker Edition. They just showed this beautiful picture of this game with the beautiful side rails. And then when they did the reveal, they showed, oh, here's the regular cabinet. And literally, the regular cabinet looks like ass without the side art, without the back box lighting, without everything. So all these things are options. Like the Bloodsucker Edition is the purple trim. Yes. That's all it is. It doesn't include the speaker mods or any of the other, like the plastic protectors, other stuff that you would order. No shaker motor, no butter cabinet, of course. That's all extra. And now, after you get your, when you're getting in line, we're all in line now, you'll be able to, when it comes up to your time, pick your options, I guess, beforehand and then go from there. Yeah, that's what they do. I'm familiar with their ordering, as I have my TNA. And yes, when your order is up, it'll say, you know, like, here's a list of extra things you can have put on if you want. And what did you get on your extras? I got the plastic protectors, and that was it. Okay. But what we didn't mention is, yes, these went on order. 750.
    7:58
    How long did that last, Bruce? Four hours, and the whole website was screwed in the beginning. They got overwhelmed. Yes. Basically, you could either get it through Distributor, which it seemed like Pinball Star was the main one. Yes. As far as I could see, at least on the Pinside post I was reading. Or you could get it from Spooky. Spooky's site died immediately. Yes, it did. I finally got onto the site around 11 o'clock. But I didn't buy from him. I bought from Pinball Star. Yeah, I guess basically you got an email with a link. Yep. And then you would, I guess his site was not slow or at least was working. No, it was just a PayPal link. That's all it was. Oh, there you go. So no wonder that worked. Yes. So then he wouldn't accept the pending until he knew how many spots he got. And when he did, then he came back and actually said, approved, approved, approved. And I think he, I don't know if he did not, I don't know if he denied anybody. I haven't heard yet. Well, you forgot another thing. What's that? In order to be in on this pre-order, you had to be... For the bloodsucker. No. No, no, no, no, no. That's right, yeah. Yes, yes. Basically, to get in on this early ordering, you had to be a member of the Fang Club. Yes. So, Bruce, are you a member of the Fang Club? Yes. Of course you are. So, when did you join? Like, immediately when the teaser trailer came out? Yes. Okay. So, here we go. Well, let me ask you this question. We have not spoke. Yes. Did you get anything back from them saying that you were a member of the fan club? I got an email stating it, and I will get my stuff sometime in January. Okay. I never, other than the email that, like, I made an order, I never got anything. Ooh, maybe you should talk to them and, you know. Maybe I should, but I just got the email that said, like, here's your order. And if I go, if I log into it and look at it, it says the order is processed. But it looked like everyone was getting this letter and stuff about how to order Rick and Morty and all that, and I never got that. But this was a great cash cow for them. Oh, yeah. Because you think about it. How much was the fan club? $45. Now, if you sold 750 Rick and Mortys, how much did Spooky make for doing literally easy money?
    10:25
    $33,750. That's pretty good. So that's like selling five games at least, you know, six, you know, because they were $7,000 each, the games. And if you wanted the Bloodsucker Edition. No, no, they were $69.95. Get it right, Bruce. Okay, and then $525 extra for the Bloodsucker Edition. So you think about it, that's $7,500.
    10:50
    They sold almost five Bloodsucker Editions worth of memberships for nothing. Except for these little packets that you'll get, if you get, like you're stating. Yeah. And also, I would say a large majority of the people who got this game got the Bloodsucker Edition. Yes, because the Bloodsucker Edition first is first. Is first, but if 85% are getting it, then are you really first anymore? No. Yeah. Yeah, I think that was a little bit of an over, uh-oh, shit, you know. So whoever ordered the regular, see you in 16 months. I don't see TNA being made too much better. No, I don't. They're going to be in full Rick and Morty mode for the next year and a half, probably, which I'm sure they'll be very happy to be. And they have the support of Rick and Morty creator, voice, custom voice out, voice comments. Yeah, that was the key is the fact that the guy who does Rick and Morty, it's one guy, does both voices, and they got him. That's the key. That was the key to Family Guy. They got Seth MacFarlane, so you got all the voices. As soon as they put that on there, it's like, okay, this is going to sell out. I mean, why wouldn't it sell out? Exactly. So why didn't you order one? I have to play it first. Oh, God, no, I can't. Oh, God, no, that's just, oh, oh. I mean, so everyone complains about TIE Fighter on a spring, you know, Little Deadpool on a spring. This thing's got a spaceship on a spring. Yes. But it's lit up. Yes. So it's better. It's almost like the spaceship size. Looks like it's about the size of AFM. When I first saw the game, honestly, I thought it looked like a homebrew. It does a little bit of the coloring. It looks like if I was at Expo and I had a row of homebrews, I would see this there. Yeah. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I'm just saying that that was my first impression. You can definitely tell it's an EC design because of the numbers on the bottom for the ball save again, which is nice. looks like they're using it again from TNA. That great game, TNA, yep.
    12:59
    Continue. Oh, okay. Hey, hey, hey. I thought I lost you for a few seconds. And a couple other nice things. The Nisi Lock 2.0 with the double drop targets is going to be pretty cool. Illuminated drop targets. Ew. That was the cool part to me. Did you notice that? They're actually illuminated. Yes. And I also like the magnet save, magnet strength telling. That's kind of cool, too. So it looks like it's going to be pulse, pulse. You can actually not just one hit. Yeah, it's going to be more like Jungle Lord, Solar Fire type and less like Black Knight. Yes, which I like. I like being able to have more control. Of course you do. You're all about control, Bruce. I am all about the speed.
    13:42
    Yeah, so that was pretty cool to see. The funny thing is, the initial ones, it was this big rush, and then the only ones left were on Spooky's site. Yes. So then you could get a couple Bloodsuckers, and then they sold out, and then the standards sold out. Yep. And then it was gone. And it was gone. So then now, Ron's got all this money stocked away, and what's he going to do with it? What do you mean? If I want to play Rick and Morty, I'll just come down to Silver Ball Saloon. Of course. Or I'll go to the Sanctum because they're getting one. Yes, they are. So there's absolutely no reason for me to get one. I will be able to play this. Mark Carvey came by to the Silver Wall Saloon a week and a half ago. Mark Carvey of the Sanctum came by? And of Flipside, his bar himself. He owns a bar in Rhode Island.
    14:31
    And he stopped by the bar and was, I think, really impressed, which is great. You know, I was very happy. And he played a game for a couple hours, said the games were in really nice shape. So thank you, Mark, for stopping by. You like how I explained who that was? Yes, I know, because I knew you would. Well, no, we actually need to get better at that. I've noticed on our podcast lately where we just say people's names, like, no explanations. Like, oh, everyone will know what we're talking about. Well, no. Well, then we have to tell that Mr. Danasi. Okay, good. Is the designer of both games, of TNA and of Rick and Morty. The classic TNA and his new game, Rick and Morty, yes. See, so we have to say that, too. Do you agree? Okay, good. Okay.
    15:14
    So now you have all this cash. You're going to have to spend it on something else. What else could you spend it on? Well, maybe I could spend it on another show I've never seen. I've seen it five episodes, and I did not like it. I actually hated it. And that would be Stern's latest game, the worst kept secret in pinball, Stranger Things. I know. I mean, we've known that this is going to be Stranger Things forever. Then the actual, it appears that the promo video was leaked. by somebody. By somebody. But it's on someone else's YouTube channel. It's not on Stern's. Yep. But it is not a fake. I mean, it's obviously the promo video. I would assume what they were showing was a premium in the promo video. Yeah, with the magnets on the back box. Yeah, so Stranger Things by Brian Eddy, your guy, Mr. Fan. Yep. And I'm sure you were happy to see it. It is a fan layout. Of course it is. So I'm sure you were very happy. and it is doing some unique shit with projectors. Oh, my God. Yeah, they're definitely trying some new stuff with this. Yes. So what are they trying, Bruce? What does it look like? Well, first, it's a ball lock, actually, in the back box. No, it's not in the back box. Okay, let's try that again. It's a ball lock in the back panel. Think KISS Premium, but instead of, like, it moving, it literally just, like, it holds the ball there. Like, does it actually stay there? I don't know. I think what it probably does, it probably goes to a holding area. It almost has to, but in the video they showed it like there with multiple balls. Well, what they do, I think they probably kick them up and the magnet stays on, gets all three up there, and then drops it. All right. That's the way I'm thinking. Yeah, I can't see it just holding it there the whole time. It'll blow up. It'll fuse. Yeah. But that's how I think they're going to do it. They're going to kick it up, each one drop down. But the biggest thing is a projector on almost like the middle of the play field. Yeah, the middle of the play field. They have this big thing that looks like an old drive-in theater-like screen. And they're using a projector, which looks like it's under the apron. Yes. Kind of like where the lasers were on Star Trek for the disco multi-ball there. And it projects to a screen. and then the screen will actually come down to create a ramp revealing this thing behind it, the Gorgon. I don't know what it is. And you hit it into his mouth, I guess. Oh, my. Yeah. So let's see. A Brian Eddy design where we have a fan layout with something in the middle that you hit. Middle that you hit. Yeah. Where have we seen this before? Yeah, I know. Go figure. Multi-ball! Super jackpot! Oh, baby! Unfortunately, the bad thing is someone's not doing the rules with him.
    18:03
    No, no linemen on this one. No. He's busy with Elvira. Yep. And unfortunately, you get Lonnie. Boy, you just do not. Poor Lonnie. No, I don't. I do not like Lonnie. Come on, man. Rinse and repeat is bad. You know what he's going to do? Lonnie's going to do, I got all these great ideas. Here we go. and it's going to be a recopy of AFM or Medieval Madness, which is good because it is Lyman, but there's no originality. None. Wow. Before the game is even out. He's not even giving him a chance. You watch. Okay. I will. Take note. I will be watching. There's a ton of inserts. Yes, there is. Oh, my God. Is there any actual wood on the play field? It's all just like inserts.
    18:50
    So what did you think of this, Mr. Ron? I think it's going to have issues if you want to put Penn Stadiums in it. Oh, I think so, too. Yeah. This game is designed to be dark. Yes, it is. To show off the projection. Yes, it has to. I mean, the art, it's not the Photoshop art. It's the painted art, but it's just pictures of the characters from the show, who I don't know who any of them are. This is weird in that this might be one of the first theme games I can think of ever made where I have absolutely no clue. Yeah, I watched like the two or three first episodes, and I was bored of the show already. I did not do anything for me. Even Rick and Morty, although I hadn't seen the episode until recently, I knew who they were. I knew what they looked like. So if I saw the game, I'd be like, oh, okay, I know what that is. But this is one of the first ones I can truly say, like, I have no clue what this is about, who any of these characters are. The good thing, though, is it is a current theme. Yes. So I will give them props for both companies that they're actually not doing Munsters from 40 years ago and that kind of stuff. This is actually for Stern a true current theme. Stranger Things is very popular right now. Don't worry. When Led Zeppelin comes out, we'll go back to the old theme. I know. But at least they're doing that. And now it looks like with the marketing for Spooky, they're both grabbing hot new themes. And it hasn't happened for Stern. God, when was the last one you actually saw? So you don't think Avengers, you don't think like the biggest comic book movie is a hot theme? No, because it wasn't when it was released. It was a year after the movie. And it wasn't very well integrated. The best integration before – well, I don't know about Stranger Things, but in the past was Family Guy. This show was still hot. It was just canceled, but at least – No, no, no, no, no, no. Get your timelines right. You're so wrong, Brucey. 2007? No, no, no. 2007, we'd already been back on for several years. Okay, so there you go. Come on. But still, it was still a hot – Yes. Yep, and they had all the assets at that point. You had the chicken, all the different sketches were on there, and you got all the voices. That was the last game I can actually say they really did well with asset management and current. So Iron Man wasn't current? No, it was already one year. Yeah, but Iron Man 2 was out, like came out right when the game came out. And it didn't really integrate much into it except for the one, you know, except for the whiplash. That's all it did. And, you know, War Machine. But it had quotes from the movies. A year and a half after. Okay. It really didn't, not as, and you got only movie clips.
    21:47
    This, as I said, with Spooky, they're getting the guy. Yeah, that's the other thing we didn't really mention about Stranger Things. It looks like it actually has, you know, the people from the show. It uses clips from the show. It has voice clips from the show. Well, they said the voices are not exactly right. Okay, who said the voices are not exactly right? Well, I'm inside, so I don't know. So they looked at the trailer and said, no, the voices aren't right. I know. Okay. I'm going by what people are saying. I don't know. I don't ever watch, you know, I haven't watched a show, and I cannot get into it. I wasn't a big X-Files fan. That's what it looks like almost like to me, the show, and just nothing. Not bad. You're not an X-Files fan? Oh, man, you've just lost your geek card. I hate fucking X-Files. My wife loves it. I hate it. Okay. But at least both companies are getting good themes. Not like, you know, Hot Wheels.
    22:42
    Hot – okay. Okay. Let's explain. What is Hot Wheels supposed to be? Oh, it's supposed to be American Pinball's next game.
    22:52
    Really? Hot Wheels. Yes, Hot Wheels. Like the little cars. Yes. All right. It is not popular. It is popular still for kids that are 4 to 12 and some adults. Very few adults. Well, four to 12-year-olds with, like, 20, 30-year-old parents will surely be buying the $6,000 game for Hot Wheels. $7,000. $7,000 game to make their kid happy with Hot Wheels. Of course they will. Instead of just getting them Hot Wheels. Exactly. You can buy a lot of fucking Hot Wheels.
    23:22
    That's true. But it's just like, I saw that and I'm like, oh my God. American Pinball, if you want to survive, scrap all your stuff and get a good theme. You're going to see what everyone's talking about. Theme is king. Just take all the money from the redemption machines they're making, because they don't make just pinballs, and just get all that money and get a damn license. Yes. Like a real license.
    23:50
    Because, I'm sorry, these are not good. Oh, they're terrible. If you want to be in business, you're seeing how these other companies are stepping up. Yeah, I mean, just put them together. Okay, we have Rick and Morty. Yes. Stranger Things. Hot Wheels. Which of these is not like the others?
    24:09
    But Monsters did well, and so did Batman 66. Did Monsters do well? No, it didn't. That's the new WWE. That's the new one. Whenever Raymond Davidson wins another tournament, instead of getting the WWE LE he will be getting a Monsters instead And he be able to pick if it black and white Oh yeah black and white color all that Yeah And don think that wasn done to try to sell more I know. Because the black and white, yeah, I think that was the decision. So let's do a color premium and see how these go.
    24:41
    Yeah, no. Monsters did terrible. Although I like it. But I'm in the minority from everything I've been told I'm an idiot. Yeah, well, I'm not going to argue with that. Yeah, exactly. I love the little mini play field. I love the mini play field, and I like the rules with the mini play field. Yeah, I like it. It's got multi-ball down there. I mean, it shoots like a dream. That thing shoots great. The rules are very, very weak.
    25:08
    Was Lonnie involved with that? No, dude. That's a Dwight game. Oh, there you go. Enough said. Oh, okay. So you hate every programmer at Stern except Lyman. Well, that was the case a year ago or two years ago or three years ago. Well, and Timmy, right? Well, no, Timmy I love. How about Tanya Clice with Deadpool?
    25:30
    It was just okay with Tanya because he did have help. He's proven that he has lots of duds in him, X-Men. He's proven he has lots of duds in him. Wow. You are endearing yourself to the people at Stern, Bruce. I'm going to be honest. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. Stern Army. What's your rank at the Stern Army?
    25:53
    Probably now, I've probably been AWOLed. Yes, you're AWOLed. You're AWOLed from the Stern Army. But, you know, I do like the projector idea. But the problem is, now let me bring this up. What if this becomes so popular and it becomes like an RFM thing, Revenge for Mars, where, ooh, we've got to have something always projector.
    26:21
    How do you make it multi-times? Like, you know, how do you use this again and again? Or is this just a one-off? Put a lot of money into a projector system and everything else to make this work. Are you saying it's going to be one-off, or is it going to be multiple times used? And if it is multiple times, how do you make it worth the money? And how do you make it different than just shoot it up the middle?
    26:44
    Wizard blocks. You're using part of the projector as a ramp or as a blocking ramp. How do you do that with the third flipper? I don't know. That's what I'm saying. What am I, a designer? I don't know. I know, but I'm just trying to give you food for thought. Food for thought. More projectors in the future, maybe. We'll see. We'll see how this goes. So when's the first time you think we'll get to play these games?
    27:09
    Stranger Things. Probably we'll see a video from Dead Flip. Oh, that's right, yeah. But I mean actually get to play it. When do you think you will get to play it? Stranger Things? Probably end of January.
    27:23
    And that's what Spooky's also saying, too. Oh, really? They're starting building. Well, no. Well, yeah. How do you know when you're getting your Rick and Morty? Oh, I don't know yet. I'm assuming the first time I'm going to play Rick and Morty is going to be in Texas. Probably. But people will probably have it beforehand. Which is going to be good. because this is the first time for Spooky that it's going to be, hopefully, the way it sounded, they're going to start working on these things as soon as Christmas is over.
    27:50
    Yeah, and can I have a request? Spooky, if you're listening, please, when you bring these to Texas, bring more than two. Bring at least five. Please. Okay, I have a question. Why have a booth? If you've already sold out 750 games and you've already sold out so your factory that you have is going to be busy for 18 months. That's a good point. I'm being honest. I'm not being a dick here. Actually, why go to any shows at all? If you're selling out that fast, I know you can have a small booth but not even have games because why bring a game that no one can buy unless you're going to make another edition and do a Jack thing, which I don't see Spooky doing. No, they've said multiple times we will never do that. Yeah, which is good. That's a good point. I didn't think of that. Why even bother going to a show? Exactly. I know to be a presence and say, like, hi, how you doing? But you don't need to bring games if you've already sold every single game. Now, you can bring other games, like you can bring maybe, I think he still has on his website, a couple of Alice Coopers. Maybe bring them. Or you bring a TNA and say, hey, in 18 months or 16 months or 14 months, we're going to be doing another run of TNA. Here we go. Because that is the unlimited one. But is there really a need for him? That's a good point. Maybe just bring one Rick and Morty. Just throw us the ball. Just show it off. Yeah, show us off. But there really is no reason for him to drive from Wisconsin all the way to Texas and bring five. You're right again. Of course I am. You suck. Thank you. I mean, speaking of Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. Yes. I got to play a lot of it, and I have some opinions. Yeah, let's hear your opinions. I'm waiting, because I'm not going to say anything. Oh, you sounded so excited, like, oh, God. Where would you have played this at? I played this at Zach's. And Zach is? Zach, our Zach. He's a person on the show, you know, so you've got to know who that is. Friend and family. He's almost like family for us because he is friends with both of us. He's a really good guy. And we know how he sets his game up, so I figured if I play as Alice Cooper, I'm going to play about as good a setup Alice Cooper as I can play. So this is a good game to make an opinion on. Okay, and? All right, so let's do what we always do here. Let's start with the negative because, you know, we love negative here at the Sci-Tel Podcast. Too many shots on the lower play field. Oh, my God. On the main play field. Thank you. It's kind of like, I would say, Houdini-itis. It's Joel Balser-itis. It's too tight. There's so many shots. you try to hit those orbits and they are so ridiculously tight. If you just remove maybe one shot, you could open it up so much more. It would be like a Brian Eddy game.
    30:40
    And this isn't really, this is more, some of the code is not done. And it should be. The way it works, the way it works is when you have all these different monsters, you go through the castle and you go against all these different monsters. And every monster has a very specific set of things you're supposed to do. So when you finish it, there's like a frenzy where you get a ball saver, and then there's a final hurry-up shot. And that's how all the modes work. I guess on some of the modes, the frenzy mode is not done yet. No. But the wizard mode is done, but I guess some of the frenzy modes aren't done yet. And at least one of the modes, I think it was werewolf. I heard Alice Cooper say like the same line five times during the mode, just repeating over and over. Now I have a question. How many did they make at ease? I don't know, 500? Okay, and they're almost sold out, right? Mm-hmm. And how long have they been working on this? Yes, Rick and Morty sold out way faster, Bruce. I get it. No, no, I'm not saying – no, no, I'm going a different way. Oh, you're going a different way. Okay. Yes. So how long has this game been out? A year, over a year? Yeah, a year and a half. And the code is not done. Problem.
    31:49
    It's the only issue I have right now. The code needs to be – Yeah, just things like the – like I said, I was in Werewolf and Alice – You don't know what's going on, though, sometimes. You do not know. Alice Cooper says the same line like five times, just repeating it. Little things like that. It needs a little more polish. Like, what I think they need to do is more like, literally, Batman 66 with that game. Which is, you know how Lyman puts... Oh, God. Batman 66, the game where I have no clue what I'm doing? But the good thing is, you can actually tell what you're doing sometimes with... Sometimes. Listen, listen, listen, you douche. multiple modes, at least if you're in multi-ball and you have multiple modes running in the background, they make little TV screens in the background. So you know they're running in the background. There's no way to know what is going on most of the time in Alice Cooper. It really is. It's bad. I didn't really have a problem. I did. Really? We were all saying this at the Sanctum. We've all looked at each other and said, literally, first, we were complaining about the skill shot. If you made three skill shots at the Sanctums, Alice Cooper, you won. And that was another bad thing. The scoring is a little unbiased. Unbiased? Unbalanced is what you mean. Well, you know. I know what you mean. And it needs to tell you what more to do. It really does. You know, it says, lock ball. Okay, where? you don't know where to lock it. At least on the stern, Batman or a lot of other games, there's green lights. Hey, let's shoot for that. And they're blinking.
    33:33
    But a bad thing about Batman is, and I'm going to bash that, how do you know how to lock the lights? You know, to start it. Lock the lights. Do you mean light the lock? Yeah, turn on the light. Locks. You don't know how. But I know how. But there's no way to tell you. And that's what I think is the problem with pinball right now. We need a little more tell you how to do it. Handholding? Yeah, a little bit. Because guess what? We're, as us, we're known pinball players and that kind of stuff. But if you're going on places where location or anything like that, if people don't catch on fast, what do they do? Walk to the next game. Or just leave. And that is one of the problems I see. And I do like with Stern, and I think more companies do this, is the in-between games with the demos showing how to get the multiball, showing how to get your stuff done. That is the greatest idea I've seen from Stern in 10 years.
    34:36
    Okay. Can we get to the positive parts of L-Scoop? Oh, no, there is none, so we're done. No, no, no, no. We're done. So thank you for the show. No, no, no, no. Yeah. So the artwork is awesome. No, it's not. Yes, it is. The artwork is awesome, especially the back glass. No, it's not. Yes, it is. This is an opinion, so shut up. Let me continue. The artwork is awesome. Luckily, it's slam tilt. So luckily, there's two people in this, and I'm going to give my opinion. Well, one is wrong, and the other one isn't. So the artwork is awesome. Oh, thank you. The artwork is awesome.
    35:10
    The upper play field. That is probably one of my favorite upper play fields I've ever played. Oh, yeah, definitely. Oh, no way. The amount of stuff you can do up there for having just that one mini flipper.
    35:23
    From that one mini flipper, you can hit the guillotine ramp with a working guillotine. Then you can hit a stand-up. Then there's a drop target which leads up to another ramp that leads up to Frankenstein. Yeah, did I mention him? He's hiding behind there. I didn't even realize he was there until he popped up.
    35:40
    Then there's two lanes. Then if you just let the ball fall, like you're trapping on the mini flipper and you just let it fall out, it will fall down to a lock. There are so many shots up there, and it's integrated very well into a lot of the modes where you have to go up there to get things done. That was like my favorite part of Alice Cooper was that upper play field. And how many times can you actually flip on an upper flipper? I got to flip a lot. Maybe it's because it's Zax. I don't know. Yes. That's the only reason why. But all the three other ones I've played, it's mostly drained straight down the middle. Basically, if you hit the left ramp up to the upper play field, it was harder to trap it. If you hit the right ramp, you could just get an immediate trap. Yes, I agree with that. But the left ramp, when you hit the left ramp, 99% of the time on the other machines, not saying Zax, who's tweaked his so much it's not even funny, it went straight down to F and middle. You are actually trying to do what Zach does and jar the machine just to try to save it, just to maybe hit the upper flipper. So you're saying I played the greatest Alice Cooper in the world and I'm just lucky? Yes. Honestly, if I brought you to a couple others that I've played, you'd be going, boy, can I go back to Zach's? Okay. You would be. You really would be. You'd be going. I love that upper play field. It is okay, but it is not fun. as you make it use that. If you played some of these other games, you'd be going, boy, you wouldn't hit anything. You wouldn't be hitting the stuff that you're talking about. You'd just be going, well, I never saw this. Okay. That's my opinion. What else is good about the game?
    37:22
    I actually like the music. Oh, the music is not bad. Yeah. I like a lot of the tracks. I like what they used. Yeah. I kind of agree with that. But other than that, the artwork is terrible. Oh, my God. Wow. I do not like the artwork at all. The artwork's one of the highlights. That's one of the better backglasses I've seen in a while. I know. I don't like the artwork on the play field at all either. The play field is worse. So you heard it here, folks. Yes. And I think the rules need to be refined a little bit. I do like the overall, like, the idea of going to the castle and going against the monsters. Yeah. And I don't know if this is it. What happens if you get through all the monsters? Does the game end? You become Buffy the Vampire Slayer? I don't know about that. Because I know when I was talking to Bowen about this, it's like going forward a lot of the games, like if you were doing a quest like that, like once you finish it, the game would end. Yes. And it may be for like on location, they would like, okay, you can keep going and maybe it's worth more. But, you know, if you're going through his castle and you've escaped, why would you go back in? Yeah. So the last update for Alice Cooper, when do you think that was? Six months ago. it was, you're almost exactly right to the day, June 13th. So you're saying I'm awesome. Yeah, you are. I will say that for this time. Oh, okay. Okay. Before that was April and in March. So they were kind of going at a good pace, and then in June it was kind of stopped. I think they think it's done. I don't think they think it's done. How can they think it's done when their frenzy modes aren't done? I don't know. I mean, I know, supposedly the wizard mode's done. But would you think that? Oh, we forgot a reveal. There was another reveal, Bruce. Oh, my. The Star Wars topper.
    39:12
    All $750 of it. Yeah, I know. Are you ready? I'm sure Zach is putting his order in now for his Star Wars. I bought seven of them, so it's going to be worth, it's going to be $10,000 by Christmas. Oh, that's right. It's limited edition, too. There's only, how many of them? 500 or something? Yeah, yeah. Wow. I wonder how much the Black Knight topper is going to cost if that's $750. Because literally, this is R2-D2's head. Yeah, spinning. And it spins. And it's not even right. Like, his projection thing on his head is on the wrong spot. I know. So even after all that, that's not right. I know. I mean, Black Knight, he moves in all kinds of different directions and talks to you. So that's what's going to be a $1,000 topper. I mean, this took how long to get approved?
    39:56
    So. So no Star Wars topper for Bruce. No Star Wars topper. But I did see somebody buy both Star Wars new comic book artwork.
    40:05
    So the pro and the premium. Yes, he bought both. Wait a minute. Bought both? Both in the back of his truck. Okay. So he must be really liking that artwork. Yeah, yeah. I like it. Seeing all the different art packages, yeah, there's definitely where to go, in my opinion. Let's see. What else do I have here? Well, speaking of games, I received a game, Bruce. I got a new game. Did I tell you that? No. Did I mention that on the last podcast? I don't remember. What was it? Okay, well, I used my IFPA thingy. Oh, yes, you did. Yeah, I used my IFPA top 1,000-player thingy, and I got a Deadpool. Did you get a premium? Yes, most definitely got to get a premium. Of course. and better than TNA, isn't it? Yes. Thank you. Well, that's not even fair. I mean, they're totally different. Come on, Bruce. It is the truth, though. It is a great game. So, Bruce, Bruce, now I am in the honeymoon phase. I'll warn you that. But just ask me this question because I've been asked this question at shows at least 20 times, and I never give a straight answer. Bruce, ask me what my favorite game is. Your favorite game is the current game you own, the newest game you own. No. I said, ask me what my favorite game is. What is your favorite game? Deadpool.
    41:27
    There you go. I said it. It was just the newest game. Well, yeah. I love Deadpool. Deadpool is awesome. And let me explain something about Deadpool. This is, you know, everyone gets on me for the Star Wars thing. Not Star Wars. The Star Trek thing. How did you sell your Star Trek LE? How could you do that? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And what do I always say? It wasn't fun for you. Yeah. I'm just hitting shots. it just I didn't it didn't do it for me if you want the polar opposite it is Deadpool everything about Deadpool is I'm not playing Deadpool I'm experiencing Deadpool I feel like I'm in a Deadpool universe the music alone is worth it the music is insane the amount of different types of songs that are on this thing I mean everything about this screams just Deadpool and just goofiness. And you know I love goofy and stupid. And that is this game. This is like the goofiness of Lethal Weapon 3 just turned up multiple levels. With a playfield that's not the same thing as all the other playfields. I mean, that lock shot, which is working very nicely on mine, I must say.
    42:40
    Yes, I'm in love with this game. I would agree with you. It's a great game. I love Deadpool. I'm trying to get my local, my vendor, who helps me with some of my games, to bring his in.
    42:54
    And as far as, like, let's, hmm, I had no issues with it. Absolutely smooth sailing until yesterday. And what node board died? No, it wasn't a node board. It wasn't a node board. I had the play filled up, working on something. And I'm looking at the play fill, and it's like, it kind of looks like it's leaning to one side. And I looked down, and the sliders that the playfield slides on when you have it out, the ones where the bolts go through the side of the cabinet. One loosened up?
    43:28
    One, the nut fell off completely. Oh, my God. I hate when I lose my nuts. Yeah, and the one in front, yes, was so loose, the entire playfield, it was just like the rails were almost falling off.
    43:39
    Yeah, I think someone at the factory kind of forgot to tighten one side. because the other side the other side was fine you did that side i did that side you did this side yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah there's no way they tighten this up because this was like literally was falling off oh my but that's the easiest fix possible i mean the one the one nut was literally sitting in the back of the cabinet that fell off put that on tightened all three of them and we're good there you go i like it so much bruce i have actually gotten some stern mods for it ah yes i got the side blades okay that's cool we're gonna put those on i gotta figure out either use the wet method but if i do the dry method i have to take the entire play field out which doesn't look that difficult have you seen any new the new stern the spike ones it's like Yeah. Four connectors. Four or five connectors. Well, yeah. Well, there's connectors, but then there's the one Ethernet cable-looking thing. Yeah. That's the pain in the ass one. That's the one that's a straight run. Yep. So I'd have to take that one out.
    44:46
    But the rest of it's just like a couple connectors, and it literally would just come right out. Mm-hmm. Way, way easier than the older games. Yeah, I'm looking forward to putting my Artblades on. I'm loving my Deadpool, Bruce. There you go. I love it, too, honestly. It's a great game. So for folks to say I never like anything or show any excitement over any games, that's about as exciting as you'll get me right there. Yeah, I'm hoping my local rep from Knox Amusement will hopefully rotate one game out of my place and bring me Deadpool. Silver Ball Saloon. They need a Deadpool. He looked at me and I was like, if you take this out, which is a popular game here, I'm like, if you take this out, because he wanted to take it out. And he wanted to swap with something else. And I was like, no, I don't want that game. I said, why don't you do a three-way swap and do a triangle with this place and this place and give me this? And I haven't heard anything lately, but he's been very busy because of Christmas, and I'm hoping that soon we'll see something. And hopefully it does happen, and I hope we'll have a Deadpool here, because guess what? I will play the snot out of that game. You said three-way. Oh, yeah, three-way. Let's see. I'm looking at my list here. Deadpool. Check that off. Oh, I have some sad news, Bruce. Uh-oh. It involves me. Uh-oh. You sold Quicksilver. No, no. How could I do that? You own half of it. I know I do.
    46:11
    Bruce, what am I the world record holder in? Karate champ. Not anymore. Oh, boy. Who beat you? It was beaten in June. It shows how often I look at that stuff. Who beat it? It looks like, from what I can tell, an employee at the Galloping Ghosts Arcade in Chicago. So now we need to buy you one. Well, here's the thing. He beat it. Like, I had, like, 271K. He had, like, I think it was 276 or something like that. Quite a bit more. And I'm like, oh, man, I wonder how he did that. So when I went to Twin Galaxies, the people who keep track of said things, they actually had the video of the run there. And I watched what he did. I have full confidence I could beat that score. Okay, so I have a new goal. No, I have no Karate Champ. Oh, so now, folks, here we go. I have no Karate Champ. The place that I set the record originally doesn't even have it anymore. Remember, I don't have my game station anymore, so I can't even practice. No, I know. Hold on. Now, folks, we are going to ask for our first donations ever. We are going to get Ron a Karate Champ in his basement. I don't want a Karate Champ in my basement. Yes, we do. No, I don't. Don't listen to him. Yes, and we're going to. to beat the record. We're going to get Ron back his fucking record. I don't want another fucking game in my basement. I already got rid of them all. I got rid of the Galaga. I got rid of the game station. Karate.
    47:43
    No, it's okay. Champ. Here's the problem. Even if you find one, the joysticks will be shit. No, no, no. They'll have to be totally gone through. Even then, it'll only work good for like a week before the joysticks go to shit again. But don't worry. That week we'll get that record and we'll be good to go. But yes, I do not have the record anymore. I was kind of bummed. I would be too. That's why we need to get this back. But you see, I set the record in 2010, so I had a decade of being the champ. See, it kind of goes with our theme.
    48:14
    Let's see. I think I can get you one. I think we'll be good. Stop. No, I do not want a karate champ. Christmas for Ron is karate. If I need to practice, I will go to where my game station is now, which is not that far away.
    48:27
    Let's see. So we had a couple of events while we were away. Yes, we did. Why don't you go over your events? We had two events at the Silver Ball Saloon. We had the pre-tournament, which Ron was part of, which was a three-strikes tournament at the Silver Ball Saloon, which Zach won handily. He crushed all of us with only one strike ever getting. I was third. And we had the pinball profile which we had 45 people Very impressive And Andy Cushman took it home He did all Plays well there. He does. And next month, we will be having the New York State Championships at the Silver Ball Saloon in East Rochester, New York. Oh, did I make it? I don't know. Probably not. I'm like 40th. Let's look right now. Who is the top? I mean, if people from New York City actually go, then I have absolutely no chance. There's a couple that are coming and have already asked me to stay at my house. I'm like, I don't live there anymore. I don't have enough room. Oh, yeah. They think you have the old house. That's exactly it. I'm in the townhouse. Mm-hmm. Let's see. I am ranked – I'm actually 38th in New York State, right? Oh, okay. So you're ahead of me somehow. Yes, of course I am. But you have people like Keith Elwin who's not going to be there. Yeah. There's going to have to be a lot of people like that for it to get down that low. How many are we taking? 24. So I have more of a chance, but still. I see some of these people, like Adam Robinson from Louisville, Kentucky. Not going to be there. Nixon Deos will probably be there. But Bowen, I don't see coming. Joe Lemire, I don't see coming.
    50:10
    Raymond Davison, don't see coming. Maybe some of the Canadian guys. Keith Elwin, I don't see coming. which I would love to have Keith here. Jason Wiedrich, don't see coming. Jack Tadman, maybe. He was last year's winner for New York State. And then you get the little old Bruce.
    50:29
    And I have a couple things that are still pending points-wise, so I might get up to 37, maybe even 36. And we have a tournament at the end of this week. Do you now? We do. We try to get the last points in. So there's a lot, you know, there is some people that might not make it or take the drive up here. so it's a possibility then there's the upstate New York which I still don't know where that's going to be yet we don't know yet and I still haven't dealing with points we still don't know what the points are it still has me at like two events I know I know and I keep on banging my head and the good thing is I don't have to do it in January, February, March I can do it whenever so if I make it maybe I'll bring the rig just saying i know people are asking me like hey can you can you do this can you just like uh i don't have a rig i don't have anything like this yeah like like did have they ever streamed a new york new york state final that was in new york city no i don't know i know timmy streamed something in new york city but i don't think it was that no from some dude's like apartment or something, but I don't think it was that. I know it was streamed when it was in Buffalo. It's like, that's the only way you'll get the New York State final streamed is if it's not in New York City. Yes. But we're very excited to have it at the Silver Ball Saloon, and we'll see what happens in a couple of weeks. But that is on the 18th. That's all. January 18th, as all of them are. Yes, all of them are on the same day. And the trophy is right next to me. The trophy is in the building. Supplied by Josh Sharp himself. Yes. I even said it to him. I'm like, I got it. He's like, oh, that's good.
    52:17
    So I had an event. Oh, yes, you did. The event I had the same day as the pinball profile event, so I could not be there. Yes, fail. Again, may I remind people, the Varney Cup, the event I'm talking about, was scheduled months before the pinball profile one was. So sorry, you took our spot. I didn't take it. Okay, Jeff Teels took our spot. Thank you very much. There you go.
    52:41
    Yes, well, we had the best of the best 518ers assembling at the Level Zero Arcade, a.k.a. my basement, to battle it out for 518 supremacy. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yep, and the finals ended up being Tim Varney, the namesake of the tournament, versus me.
    53:04
    And? um i may have won you may have won i'm sorry this is why i don't like playing in my own place oh my it was very stressful because the games kept breaking so i'm fixing games while playing which i have no desire to do i don't mind at all yeah you don't i do i do not like that so we ended up let's see by the end of the tournament uh the only things that were still down were Black Rose, unfortunately, because that's one of the ones I was going to pick. Basically, a wire just come off the switch in the catapult, so it couldn't touch when the ball was in there. So I fixed that later. And Prospector, which is still down. I have not looked at it yet. Other than that, everything eventually came back up.
    53:53
    Eventually, yikes. Eventually it fixed whatever it was, because we have multiple things. This is broke, this is broke, this fix this, fix this, fix this. That's the fun of running a tournament while being the tech also. Yep. Actually, I wasn't running. I love it. Being in the tournament while being the tech. I wasn't running the tournament. At least I didn't have to do that. Yes. But congratulations on your win. Yeah, and thanks to Matt Wall for running the tournament. He brought some cool trophies. There's actually, like, you win a trophy with, like, flippers on it, but then there's a second trophy, which is, like, the actual Varney Cup. So he made it like the Stanley Cup, like it will travel to wherever the current champion is. and it's got it's got nipper the rca dog on it nice so that was that yes varney cup winner nice congratulations so that's more upstate points actually i'm just doing it the complicated way the easy way is if you just go under the new york state points yeah pick your name and then just subtract all the new york city stuff and boom you have the total let's see what do we got for the ball bag i don't think we have any new items in the ball bag i think we can go right to the decade in review but let me just double check because i can't wait for the decade in review can you check my ball bag no i'm not checking your ball bag the silver ball saloon are you open new year's day we are yeah good thing you have your google my business crap still coming to this email yep yeah you're never gonna change that are you nope you suck i lost the password so you'll have to send me the password again let's see i'm Looking, thanks to Parnell, he sent a pin-side ad for Playfield. Mm-hmm. But I got my Playfield back for my Stargazer that is all clear-coated. So one of these years when I have free time.
    55:42
    Yeah, yeah, exactly. But at least I have it. It's all ready to rock. We can get our Quicksilver Playfield and then get it re-cleared because the clear will suck. Yes. And hopefully all the holes are in the right spot. Exactly. God. And then the Stars playfield's almost done, and so is my Cheetah playfield. Damn. Is Vance doing those? No, Ashley is. Ah. She's touching them up, and I'm going to give them to Vance to clear. Nice. Is Ashley a former guest? She is the former guest of the Silver Ball Saloon, and she has won the women's tournament down in Houston. Yes. Congrats. Yes. Well, speaking of shows, had I gone to Florida yet? Yes. The last time we talked? I haven't. We did talk, yes.
    56:33
    So the year in a decade, everyone does a year in a review. Here at the Silver Ball Saloon, we go – Fuck! I keep on saying Silver Ball Saloon. At the Slamtail Podcast, we go big or we go bust. And we will probably bust, probably. No, we will not bust.
    56:51
    It's 2009. A dark – Well, let's go back a little bit further. It's October, beginning of November, was it? 2008. Stern fires everyone. Yes. Pretty much. Flush, flush, flush. Pat Lawler had already quit. Steve Ritchie was doing contract work. They let him go. Their only play field designer was John Borg. Their only two programmers were Lyman Sheets and Lonnie. Everyone else is gone. The dark days have begun. So in the beginning of 2009, Stern releases their last, what I would consider, full-featured, complete game at the old sub-$4,000 price in 24. Then begins, which is, I like 24. I like the shots on 24. I do not like the sounds, but I like the shots. We've talked about it. Jetpack! Jetpack! Jetpack! then becomes the lean years as we start the beginning of the decade in uh 2009 we have nba terrible game uh actually no wait a minute no i love nba i'm the only one who likes the damn game you are the only one it's got tim cutro on it that's the only reason why you now if he was not on it. What would you think of the game? Oh, it'd be harder to take. It'd be harder to take. But I like the shots. I like the cool, like, basket. You like Space Jam. Space Jam's great. I don't like Space Jam. And why does everyone say it's Space Jam? Space Jam doesn't have that same shot. Huh? The middle shot, maybe? It's not the exact same shot. The thing that goes... When I played Space Jam, I expected the NBA thing where it would go up to the basket and a magnet would stop and it would fall down. That didn't happen.
    58:42
    Am I missing something here? Was it broken? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It sucks. It still sucks. In 2010, beginning of the decade, we have one pinball manufacturer, Stern. Yes, we do. And they are making such classics as, well, first, remember this one? Batman, the pin, the home model. Oh, yes. They were only sold from Costco's, wasn't it? If I remember correctly. It might have been something like that. I remember seeing pictures. Yep. They were releasing classics such as Big Buck Hunter Pro, Iron Man, which, you know, everyone loves it. Well, a lot of people love Iron Man now, but when it came out, it was seen as a stripped-down piece of shit. Oh, it was. Iron Man Classic, remember that? Oh, yes, with no coin door. It was a coin door with no coin mechs in it. And then, don't forget, one of their first LEs, well, I'd say Stern's first LE was Monopoly, which we always forget. No, Monopoly was 2000, yeah. Yeah, that was way before any of this. Avatar. Avatar limited edition with the Powerball. With the Powerball and the stomping thing.
    59:54
    Instead of coming down, it would actually stomp its feet. Yep. So you see, we're killing it in 2010. This is what me and Bruce lived through, folks. For all of you who got into this later. That was 2010, so now we're going to 2011. Now we have Rolling Stones. Rolling Stones Limited Edition. Ugh. Mm-hmm. Oh, God, those were the dark years. Mick on a stick. Then we have, before Stern was doing them, when originally it was just Dennis Nordman and Greg Ferris, the Whoa Nelly Big Juicy Melons from Whizbang Pinball, we had Transformers. Oh, God. with the pro and then the the robot or decepticon or combo limited edition models oh god and then we had tron legacy and tron legacy limited edition yeah so stern still hadn't got their whole premium thing down yet and all that they were still doing the you know some more crap on it limited edition versions and they were after the pros don't Don't forget that. Yes. The LEs were after. So that was 2011. Mm-hmm. And that's it. Look, those games, that's it. That's it. That's all that came out. So then we get to 2012.
    61:20
    Oh, here comes the better ones. Yeah, in some cases. Well, also, I forgot. In 2009, Steel Panther releases the album, Falls Out.
    61:35
    Can you name some of the songs? And some of the classics that are in, well, our theme music. Yes. Which is Be Like Tiger Woods. Yes. That was on that album. Yep. And I'm actually going to it right now because I have to look up some of these gems. We had songs like Just Like Tiger Woods, 17 Girls in a Row, It Won't Suck Itself, I Like Drugs, the classic ballad, Weenie Ride. Yes. And actually, that was not in 2009. I'm sorry. That was in 2011.
    62:10
    Oh, you've already ruined this whole thing now. I've already ruined it all, yep. I had to put that in there. Yes, you did. Yes, I did. So Jack also makes a company.
    62:22
    In 2012. Yes, he does. Yes, the first thing. You've got to hit that, the first thing. He started it on January 1st. Yes, and actually at Expo 2011, I saw Jersey Jack there, and he was hanging out with Keith Johnson and some other people. It's like, wow, looks like he's putting his own pinball company together. And he did. In 2012, we had games like, and I'll remember this, ACDC.
    62:49
    And the Ellies were first with the super limited edition cloudy window editions. You got the first, you got the worst. Yeah, I did. Actually, the pros might have been first, but the LEs were out before the premiums. Which is kind of how it is now. Yes, it's following this pattern now. So I think ACDC was the first to have the pattern of pro, then you got your LEs, and then you got your premiums. Afterwards, the premiums still had the cloudy play field, unless you got later run premiums like Bruce here. Yes. So I have the special cloudy additions. Yes, smoky. Mine are better. Yeah, mine's. Then we had more Trons. So they had, like, so many different editions of Trons. That's the thing about Sturm. When we get to a certain point, there will be, like, so many different versions. Like ACDC, there's, like, a pro version that has a swinging bell, right? And then there's the Lucy edition. There's just so many editions. But we had the Avengers, which were settling into the – well, that still had the pro and LEs. It had no premium. And then we have X-Men, again, pro and LE only, which is interesting because it's later in the year. It's like the experiment with ACDC and then went back to the other one.
    64:07
    Transformers, the pin. Yikes. So that was 2012. And Avengers. Yeah, I said Avengers. Okay, I didn't remember. You didn't remember from a minute ago. Two seconds ago. Yeah, I got you. And Jersey Jack starts, Jersey Jack Pinball, taking pre-orders for a Wizard of Oz pin. How much were the pre-orders? $6,500. For the Emerald City Edition? Which I never got because I waited two and a half years and bailed. Yes, Bruce, you had an order? Yes, I did. I had an order for both. And didn't Bruce Sr. also have an order? No, no, we were together on it. Oh, okay. And we both had our money tied up for two and a half years. And neither of you got them? Nope. So after all that, I'm actually the only one with a Jersey Jack game. Yep. Okay. Just checking. Yeah, you can check all you want. So that was 2012. So we see, I'd say, some inklings of a comeback. Yes, a little bit.
    65:05
    Then 2013, we have Avengers the Pin. We have another Tron version, the fourth edition. Yeah. And then Stern finally figures out how to do artwork. and they do it by having an outsourced artist do it by the name of Dirty Donnie. Yep. As they do Metallica.
    65:29
    And they do Pro, LE, and two different premiums, the Monsters and the Roadcase. The Roadcase is the one, I think Eric Russell is the only one I know owns one. Yes. Eric Russell. CNY. The CNY of Syracuse Pinball fame.
    65:49
    But he has, I think he has the Monsters version of Translight. I think so, yes. The Premium Roadcase one. No, he has a Pro. He has a Pro because he wants my Monsters. Premium Roadcase Edition just had a very plain, like, it looked like a roadcase. Almost looked like. And then the back glass was an actual photo of the band. Yeah. So it looked like ass. It looked like ACDC's. Yes. And also Star Trek. Don't forget Star Trek. Well, we had Lucy Premiums, and then we had Star Trek. Yes. And then we had Wizard of Oz. But wait a minute, Bruce. If you put your money in in 2012, it's 2013. It looks like Wizard of Oz was released. What happened? They only did a couple, and then they had issues. Ah. Yeah. So there's Wizard of Oz Standard Edition, Wizard of Oz Emerald City Edition. Yeah. Which is in our league, amazingly. There is one in our location, the Emerald City Edition. And that was 2013. So now we have two manufacturers.
    66:51
    So we go to 2014. And in 2014, Steel Panther releases the album All You Can Eat with such classics as Pussy Whipped, Party Like Tomorrow is the End of the World, Glory Hole, Gang Bang at the Old Folks Home. Another classic. I think their best album. gang bang at the old folks home one foot in the grave sorry but i i that's the best album yeah i agree i haven't listened to a new one yet uh subpar yeah i kind of heard that too it has two or three good songs on and the rest is filler yeah unfortunately the videos are funny though so in 2014 we have yet another version of acdc i think this is the one with the swinging bell, and it has LEDs in it. A company by the name of Spooky. That's what I was waiting for. It's their first game, America's Most Haunted. Which there's one on location still in New York, yes. Which I always thought played well. It played well. It was just... It just had some of the worst voice call-outs. Oh, God. Ever. And I still think it was intentional.
    68:05
    Then you had Stern's first foray into the vault world as a Vault Iron Man for the Pro Vault Edition of Iron Man, which, if I recall, it had all LEDs, an updated, upgraded Monger mech. Is that about it? Yeah, I think so. And no, artwork, the artwork on the side. Really? I thought it was the same. No, the back box had the decal, and they had the ring. Yeah, it had the newer back box, which was what they were making to prepare for the eventual spike. Exactly. And they did also the side art was like a chrome metallic. Hmm, I don't remember that, but I'll take your word for it because you're never wrong. Never. Then we had a Metallica. They redid Metallica, an LED version. Yep. Because the earlier models we mentioned, the Pro would be like incandescence, and then the LEDs would be LEDs. They did Mustang, so they can't all be winners. I always liked the way it played. I liked the way it played, too. We had the Pro, and then we had the Limited Edition, and then we had the Premium Edition.
    69:18
    Then we have a Walking Dead. Which, back then, was a dud. Yes, you had a Pro and a Limited Edition. Which was a dud. Wait a minute, there was no Premium in that? Not yet. It was later on, a year after. So, yeah, that's right. That was at the end of the year because I remember playing that at Expo. It was brand new. Yep. We have the Wizard of Oz 75th Anniversary Edition. So we were already starting with the different editions. Yep. Is that the Ruby one, the Ruby Red Edition? Ruby Red, and then they also did – Well, we'll get to that, but I feel like that was the Ruby Red Edition. Then a company by the name of Dutch Pinball comes out with the kit for the machine Pride of Pinbot 2.0. Yikes. More on them later. All right, so 2015, we have a new company out of England called Highway Pinball makes a game called Full Throttle, which you can play at the Sanctum in Connecticut. I'm trying to think. They had multiple versions of this, too, because they had ones with a bigger screen, smaller screen, because the original one I don't think even had a screen, right, like in the back box? No, it was options. There were so many options, and it was, yeah. We had Kiss, Pro, Premium, and LE editions. We had Legends of WrestleMania at the very end of the year. Or no, beginning of the year. What am I saying? Beginning of the year, we had Legends of WrestleMania, which was originally supposed to be Hunger Games. That fell through somehow, so it was repurposed to be WrestleMania. So we had WrestleMania Pro and LE only, no Premium. They weren't wasting any more money on it. We have Whoa Nelly, Big Juicy Melons, this time by Stern.
    71:06
    And then we have Wrath of Olympus by Riot Pinball, which actually was pretty cool. I played that at XBOW one year. It was a great game. I wish they did make it. It was a wide body using like all Williams. It basically, think of like Demoman-sized cabinet, Demoman-sized play field, that era. I think one of the wire forms in it was from Demoman. Nice. Yep. so that was 2015 did i mention game of thrones i think i did well if i didn't game of thrones limited edition game of thrones pro that's at the end of the year yeah so the premiums wouldn't come out till next year we're picking up steam folks can you see the real me can you can you oh god okay here we i'll save that till last okay we have the full throttle limited edition the game of Thrones premiums start coming out at the beginning of the year. Another new company, you see a trend here, by the name of American Pinball, comes out with Houdini, Master of Mystery.
    72:09
    Spooky Pinball is back with Rob Zombie's Spook Show International, selling a limited edition and a standard edition. The standard edition had a run of 250. The limited was only 50. Then we had the Spider-Man Vault Edition, which had the same play field, but they used the comic book art with different call-outs, so you lose Jameson. So I kind of like, no, that didn't work for me. No, it doesn't work for me either. It plays good, though. I think in some ways it actually plays better. It's got the upgraded magnet. Yeah. It has one less coil than the original. Can you name where that coil is? That was for the side for Green Goblin. Correct. The Goblin doesn't move. Fail. We had Spider-Man Home Edition. Then we had the Big Lebowski, the original, and that's all, well, that's the last mention of Dutch for the day. We have Pabst Can Crusher, another reuse of the Wonelli playfield. then we have The Hobbit which I'm not sure did that actually come out in 2016 or was it I trying to remember when it was at Expo where everyone hated the art and they redid it It was the 15 and then they Okay so yeah so it wasn available yet It was there. Everyone hated the art, so they redid it. And The Hobbit comes out as – you have the standard edition, the Black Arrow special edition, and the motion picture trilogy limited edition. And Smog, also Smog. Yeah, I guess – well, one of those is probably Smog, I guess. and then at the end of the year we had the debacle that was batman 66 as it was debuted behind ropes and you couldn't play it probably one of the worst debuts i've ever seen really yeah i mean here's this awesome game and you can't play it because the code was that like that had to be alpha level but it was i think they did start coming out not that long after expo but the code was so like not done would you say the game is recovered oh yes i love the game because i mean when it came out everyone just like the code is so not done the code makes that game yeah because i don't know anyone who's like oh my god this is the greatest play field ever no but the code makes that game it's a lineman game i don't even consider it like you know it's not a great shooter but the code makes it so much better.
    74:41
    So then we have 2017, which Steel Panther releases the album Lower the Bar with such classics as Going in the Back Door, Pootang Boomerang. I think that's all you need to know. Okay, so we have ACDC's Getting Vaulted. We have a premium vault edition and a pro vault edition. Then we have Aerosmith. Again, pro, premium, and LE editions. We have Highway coming out with Alien, the beginning of that debacle. Then we have another new company called Chicago Gaming. They're not new, but new to actually making new pinballs. But they're not really new. They're remakes. and they make their first remake, the Attack from Mars, limited edition and special edition.
    75:42
    And they don't play right. They still don't play right. Sorry. I agree. Out of all of, and I don't think Medieval Madness plays right. Monster Bash, though, that seems to play good.
    75:53
    Multimorphic, they come into the picture, making their brand of pinball games. Lexi Lightspeed, Barnyard, Cocoon Lagoon, Jersey Jacksback with Dialed In. Man, that's a turd. Shut up, dickhead. Yeah, I'm looking at the years. Yeah, definitely 2015 at the end was the Hobbit thing. Yes, it was. And then 2016 it came out. And then 2016 at Expo they had the prototypes for Dialed In, which didn't come out until the summer of the next year. By far, Jersey Jacks' best game. In my opinion, you have the collector's edition, the limited edition, and the standard edition. Then we have Spooky subcontracting some games. The Jetsons.
    76:39
    I didn't see Domino's. Wasn't that before this? Domino's was before, yes. Yeah, I didn't even see that in the other picture. Spooky also takes a homebrew by a certain Scott Denise. Denise, yeah, he's a really good guy. And comes out with Total Nuclear Annihilation, which they've sold a bunch of, Bruce. People cannot be wrong.
    77:00
    And then Stern comes out at the end of the year. Star Wars Pro Premium and LE Editions. Wow. Anyway, what? So that's 2017. Now we go to 2018 in our decade in review. another ACDC version. Wow. Oh, my God. This is the Lucy Vault Edition.
    77:28
    Spooky. They have Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. Then we have the awesome Deadpool Pro Premium and Limited Editions. We have Keith Hellman's first game, Iron Maiden Pro Premium and Limited Editions. Then we have Pirates of the Caribbean from Jersey Jack.
    77:51
    Then we have Star Trek, some Vault Editions, the Starfleet Pro Vault Edition, and the Vengeance Premium Vault Edition. And then we have Sea Witch, I mean the Beatles. The Diamond Edition, Gold Edition, and Platinum Edition. stern making a bunch of games in 2018 but wait there's more we go to 2019 where steel panther releases their album heavy metal rules featuring songs like all i want to do is fuck myself tonight fuck everybody gods of pussy of some of the classics in that album I Ain't Buying What You're Selling, actually, it's a good ballot at the end of the year. I agree. I recommend that one. So we have, for 2019, it's Stern Mania here. But we do have Oktoberfest by American Pinball. Then we have, from Stern, Black Knight, Sword of Rage, programmed by Tim Sexton. Hi, Tim. Timmer! We have Jurassic Park. Keith Elwin's sophomore effort, which I would say surpasses his original effort. Oh, easily, easily. Everyone loves Jurassic Park. Again, pro, premium, and LE on all these turns here. And we have Monsters, pro, premium, and LE. With the premium, there was the black and white edition, and then later the color edition. And then we have Elvira's House of Horrors at the end of the year. and what we don't have here is just because i haven't been produced yet we have stranger things announced and rick and morty announced and that is your decade in review so as you see it started out really rough we started out with games like you know nba big buck hunter pro and now we have games like Jurassic Park. Yes. It has come a long way. What do you see the future for you holding? Future to be holding? Yep.
    80:07
    Continue growth until the next recession. Yeah, until the next recession. Somewhere around, I'm trying to remember the exact year, Stern moved. Yes, they did. Well, here's the deal. At the beginning of the decade, if you walked into Stern Factory, you'd be relatively dead, and you'd wonder how long can this company stay around. Six or seven years later, they're moving into a larger facility because they just have outgrown their current facility because they're doing so much business.
    80:37
    So it started shitty and got much better. Yes, it did. And hopefully continues growing for years and years to come. I know from my experience, yeah, I mean, at the beginning of the decade, I mean, you go to shows. It's a much different demographic now. Yes. When I started going to shows, I was probably one of the youngest people there, which is pretty sad. It was basically middle-aged white males was the majority at every show. And the demographic has definitely spread out way more since then. Yes, it has. Which is for the better. Of course. As opposed to what some people think. My soapbox there. Wow. I want it the way it was. Well, yeah, that's a good way to make sure it dies. Yep. We need to expand. I think the 10 years has gone really well. It's been an amazing run. It's the most prosperous 10 years since the 90s. And I'm talking about the, actually, I'm talking like from 85 to 95 would probably be the best 10-year gap since. Because after 96, it kind of really just... So it really has improved. And hopefully it gets better and better and better. unfortunately there are some black marks and black eyes in this decade yeah we learned that pre-ordering pre-ordering is not a good idea unless you want to lose your money yep we had uh debacles with skit b with dutch jack honestly two years waiting for a game waiting for a game but at least you got it yeah what was what's his name's company uh what's it called duke's company Papa Shit's company. Then you have Papa Duke's company, whose name I can't remember, that had Magic Girl, that they took all the money for, and Raza, the original Raza, and Alice in Wonderland. Yeah, and still going through that debacle. I mean, the only one is, well, let me think here. Jersey Jack did eventually deliver. I know Spooky, I mean, they do pre-orders, kind of. You're putting a deposit down. Yeah, yes, you are. I mean, but do you think you're not going to get your Rick and Morty? Oh, I think I am, but it takes a long time, which is... I think they've got their reputation up now. I don't think anyone worries that they're going to put $1,000 down and they're going to lose $1,000 and never see a game. Yeah, I agree. We learned that Stern is still the only company that can have a trailer, say a game's coming out, and then it's on the line and for sale. They're still the only ones who can do that. Yep. I'd like to see if another company could do that. It would be cool. Yeah, Jersey Jack's... That got close. I mean, at least with Willy Wonka, they had to promo for it, and it took a couple months. But I think it was their shortest period that they've ever had between reveal and actually making games. Yeah, still not good enough. Not good enough for Bruce. Nope. He hates all Jersey Jack games. No, I didn't say that. I'm just, I'm sick of... Well, wait a minute. What Jersey Jack games do you like? We know you don't like Woz. I don't mind Woz. No, I don't mind Woz. You don't mind Woz? Okay, you are dumb. Yep. I don't mind it. I don't like Hobbit. Hobbit's terrible. I don't mind. Dialed in. It's okay. Oh, my God. He got, okay. Okay, hold on. I'm marking this on the recording. It's okay. All right, recording. Yep. And Willy Wonka, it does nothing for me. I love the play field. It shoots great. I love the play field. It shoots like a dream. The software is terrible. The rules are terrible. You know, we can't just keep saying things are terrible. Why is it terrible, and what would you do to fix it, Bruce? More video. Get more of freaking assets. The back glass screen, when you look at games like even Munsters, like all the other games, Batman 66, even Aerosmith with the originality of the stuff, at least they were different screens.
    84:35
    I'm afraid that if you own a Willy Wonka, you're going to have burn-in on your screen because you're going to see the same structure of the chocolate factory three quarters of the time.
    84:46
    It's just very plain, very boring. Yes, you get some little skits and sometimes you get some different stuff, but it's not as... But what's wrong with the rules that you don't like and how would you improve them? I don't even know how to improve them. It's just not a fun game. It's not a fun... It shoots incredible. Don't get me wrong. It shoots incredible. It's just not a fun game. And for me, who loves Keith Johnson games, it's a disappointment. It's not Keith Johnson, though. I thought it was. No. It's not Keith. Keith did Pirates. Okay. Which is another disappointment. Okay. You love Keith Johnson games? How is that a disappointment, then? The gameplay. I just don't like... It just left a bad taste in my mouth waiting for... Okay. Sorry. Sorry so long. You know, before it actually came out and all the things I took away from it. And it had such potential. And then it just – So the triple spinning disc just killed it for you. It did a little bit because it did make the ball go a little differently. It did have a great rule set with that where if you got something, it did it. I will say people try to downplay that later. I was there at Expo when they brought the thing out, and one of the main things they plugged was that triple disc to the point where in the booth, they had the mech there where you could examine it and look at it because it was so cool. And then eight months later, they're backpedaling on two of their things in that game. Well, it didn't work consistently, so they just pulled it. And then the chest issue, too. Yeah, that was weird. Do you think an opening chest would be not overly complicated? But who knows?
    86:26
    That's the problem I have with Jersey Jack. And the build quality is very well. It really is. But it's like, we're going to do this, this, and this, and then, oh, shit. We didn't think about how our reliability is in this. Oh, let's take something back. Or we'll have to change something. Or it just doesn't mesh with everything else. They have not gotten everything perfect in a game yet. They really have not. No, it's perfect. No, it's not. Yes, it is. It's awesome. You want to talk about a game where you know exactly what you're doing? That's it. It's beautiful. I will agree with that. But it's just, ugh. I mean, as opposed to, I know everyone has what they like. You like the Keith Johnson stuff. I do. And, I mean, I think his rule sets, or if you wanted someone whose rule sets are perfect for a home environment, who will keep you entertained for hours on end, he's the guy. Yep. But his typical, what he'll do is it's all stacking. Yes. You get, like, you know, ten things stacked on top of each other where every single shot in the game is lit, and then you just go crazy. and that's just not, that's never been my thing. No. Because I'm looking at it, it's like every single shot is lit. You know, I'd rather have, like, the old school, like, I'm doing things, there's one shot that's lit. Like, one thing I really liked about, I think I mentioned this before, like, the Ghostbusters code redo, certain times when, like, the mini wizard modes are ready, all the lights go off, and literally just that strobing one shot, like, hit this. Yeah. It's like, okay. I mean, it's making it very apparent what I'm supposed to do, and that's another reason I love Dialed In because every mode has a character it's very obvious what you're supposed to shoot it's not overly complicated but it's still deep there's tons of different disaster modes there's multiple mini wizard modes it's super fun it's got good humor I know some people don't get the theme and that kills it I can't see that thing does well in location because no one's going to understand the theme no one's going to get it Is this about a phone? I don't get it. But I knew what they were going for when I played the prototype. I could see it, and I was all in. And I was not disappointed. But even with the, you know, remember they were touting the phone app. Hey, you can use your flippers with your phone. Yeah, you could still use your phone to flip the flippers. Dead. You know, now they're doing with the Bluetooth for headphones. Have you heard them really talk about it now since they announced this? Not really. It's like they tell you all this great stuff that's going to come out, and then it's never – like they don't make the finish line. It's like you ran a marathon. You went 26.1 miles. You went, ah, I'm going to stop here. Oh, no, no. You got one more mile to go. You're almost there. You can see the banner. Ah!
    89:21
    Ah! Wow, it's turning into a Jersey Jack matching session. This isn't fun. I'm going to go get some lunch. I'll see you guys later on. Oh. That's what it's like. That's why I cannot get into Jersey Jack. At least, I will say one thing. Even though I bash Spooky a ton, you know that I do. He at least follows through with everything he says he's going to do. So far. He has. He really has. Oh, my God. A positive. I'm sorry. I'm in shock. I may need to end the podcast now. Wow. And honestly, Stern does the same thing sometimes with rules and everything like that. What? Where they promise something? Yeah. And then they don't come through. It's like, oh, yeah, but Jersey Jack is the worst. So Bruce has been further demoted to Buck Private in the Stern Army. But at least Stern is learning from that. They are getting away from that. They're giving us the rules, even though three years you have to wait. At least they're trying. With Jersey Jack, it's like Gary Stern of old. Once it's off the line, I don't think about it. Okay. It really is. And it gets old. And then that makes me not want to buy a product from him when there's issues with it. Like everyone did it in the mid of the decade where, where's my code? Fix the damn code for Stern. And now they're actually doing that. Yeah, because they hired a bunch of programmers. Exactly. And they are addressing the problem. Other companies like, you know, Jersey Jack are just going, yeah, we're done. And they do come back sometimes on codes when it's a big bug. But it's just they push out the innovation, and then they don't finish the innovation.
    91:03
    They left money on the table with Pirates, too. Oh, yeah. Because when that finally came out, people actually liked it. People were like, take money. But then as soon as it wasn't available anymore, then they really liked it, and now they wanted it. It's like, when are you putting that back on the line? Like, nope, Wonka time. And think about it. That was the worst thing for them. Wait a second. We have people now that want our buyer game the first time ever. But no, we're not going to do that because we only have one. Oh, no. We have two lines. And that second line is running Yellow Brick Road Wizard of Oz. Which they seem to have a license into Infinity. Exactly. But still, you ran four versions of this fucking game. Stop. Go back. Put pirates on the fucking line. Sell 500 more. And maybe make some money off that fucking license. don't be stupid.
    91:54
    Bruce rant. You heard it here. It's just terrible. The company, they knee jerk everything. That's another thing about Jersey Jack. Oh, you know, this doesn't look right. This is like, Oh my God, we're going to change this whole fucking thing.
    92:07
    Let's delay the machine more and more and more. Okay. So to end our decade review, don't buy Jersey Jack. Oh no.
    92:18
    Wow. The views expressed by Bruce Nightingale are not necessarily those of Ron Hallett. Who loves his dialed in? By the way, what is your favorite game of the decade? So from 2010 to 2019, what does Bruce think was the best game?
    92:34
    Let's do it two ways. Best game and best value. How's that? Best game and best value? Like value for your buck. Like if you bought a game back in, I'm going to bring it up. Best value for the whole thing? Iron Man. When you bought that, it was $4,000. Yeah, probably $3,800, $3,900 from a distributor. Now it's, yeah. Yeah, and guess what? It still makes a ton of money on location. It's still a great game. You made a ton of money. That and Tron, those two games were the best value for your money. Well, there you go. So they're the best value. I'll agree with you on both. So what was your favorite game of the decade? One of the most expensive ones, Batman 66. Really? That's your favorite? Out of all these games, that's the one that's like, yeah. It's really been, honestly, Ron, since I have it at the bar, more people, honestly, it is now the number one game at my bar. But it's your favorite. It is my favorite because it actually is so deep. The shots are really growing on me. It's just really incredible. Okay. How about you? Value, you agree with my value? Oh, yeah, I agree with the value completely there. My favorite?
    93:46
    Deadpool. Okay. Honestly, I can't argue with that. That's a great game. Get me next year and ask me that when I've had more time. But as of right now, Deadpool. Yeah. But honestly, even a pro is a good value. Deadpool Pro is a great value. I agree 100%. I didn't even mention the incredible artwork. Yeah, I love the artwork. I think the artwork is actually one of the best parts of it. Even though they're using the 16-bit graphic look, how perfect it is, the hilarious animations on the game. Yep, I think it's a great overall game. It's a home run. And I cannot wait for my distributor, Knox Amusements, to switch me out and get me one. You heard it here, folks. You heard it here. And what location? The Silver Ball Saloon in East Rochester, New York, 135 West Commercial Street. Be there or be square. Thanks, everybody. This has been episode 138. And I have a little note here to make sure I actually plug our e-mail and website addresses, which I haven't done the last couple episodes because I suck. You suck. And while Bruce probably looks up the name that he's going to say, I'm giving him some time. Oh, he already has it. He already has it. Okay. Fuck you. So thanks, everybody, for listening. Hi, Zach. Hi, Steve. Hi, Steve Bowne. Fun with bonus. Everybody. Hi, Jeff. Jeff Teolis. Thank you again for Pinball Profile for doing the tournament at the Silver Ball Saloon. Thanks, Mrs. Penn, Dr. Penn, for the Christmas cards. Yep. Crystal, Pinball Princess, Steffi. Everybody we can think of. We are the Slam Tilt Podcast. Every fucking Christmas. Very fucking new year. We could be received. Suck the balls.
    95:24
    Suck my balls. That's right. The South Park Christmas. I watch that every year. Yes, we do. That little short. The short. It's like a very short. Yeah. It's a minute. Yeah. You know, Christmas is all about one thing, Bruce. It's about the Christmas. presents christmas is about presents yes uh we can be found at slam till podcast.com that's slam till podcast.com you go on the upper right it has all our links we have a twitch i streamed actually the varney cup there's a lot out there for that if you want to see me win for whatever reason next year we'll be doing your comments and your stuff that your suggestions for the show we're going to start planning that for january yes we are going to start using some new segments It's going to be exciting. As I'm going to say every year, thank you, Ron. Thank you, Bruce. You do most of the work. I am just a pretty fucking face. Well, you do way more work at the bar, so I still win. I have a feeling, yeah. I get something called sleep. Yeah, I got home last night at 3. Yeah, I figured. And I was up at 8. 30? Yeah. And I was at the bar at 10 to do this. We can be reached at slamtillpodcast at gmail.com. That's slamtillpodcast at gmail.com. Again, slamtailpodcast.com has all our links. And don't forget to vote for us for the Twippies. Yeah, whatever.
    96:45
    Whatever. Come on. We all know who's winning that category. It doesn't matter. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Robert Frost.
    96:57
    The poet? No. Oh. Can you slide? Oh my, my You can do me If you try Oh my, my Guaranteed to keep you alive Oh my Oh my.
    97:40
    Oh my.