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Teeny Tiny Isn’t Always a Bad Thing

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·38m 3s·held·Oct 13, 2015
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

BlahCade launches Zen Book Club, dislikes Haunted House, celebrates pinball history media.

Summary

BlahCade Podcast hosts Chris and Jared discuss their disappointment with Haunted House as table of the week, announce a new "Zen Book Club" initiative to explore Zen Pinball tables alongside their usual The Pinball Arcade focus, and reflect on a Comedy Central "Drunk History" episode featuring pinball prohibition history with Roger Sharpe.

Key Claims

  • Farsight employees were working on other things and did not deliver the planned Spinball Arcade beta this week

    high confidence · Chris: 'So it's another week and what our normal week was planned for was to be talking about the beta dropping on Spinball Arcade this week. But beta didn't drop.'

  • Haunted House is the antithesis of what Chris enjoys about pinball because it lacks ball control and aim mechanics

    high confidence · Chris: 'the fact that it's the antithesis of everything that I enjoy about pinball, which is, I like being able to actually, you know, catch a ball and then aim and shoot, whereas this table, there is none of that.'

  • Phantom of the Opera's Wizard goal timing is nearly impossible due to tight time constraints (15 seconds total, 7 already elapsed by ball arrival, 5 multiplier advances required)

    high confidence · Chris detailed the wizard goal mechanics: 'by the time it comes down, you've already eaten up seven of your seconds, and if you still have to do all three inlanes, it's next to impossible.'

  • Zen cleared all leaderboards due to discovery of an exploit

    high confidence · Jared: 'Zen just cleared all the leaderboards.' Chris: 'Very nice, that's right. Because there was an exploit or something that they discovered.'

  • Comedy Central's Drunk History featured a pinball prohibition episode with Roger Sharpe portrayed by an actor in a 70s mustache

    high confidence · Chris: 'they did an episode all about games, and one of the games they featured was The Prohibition of Pinball... And in walks Roger Sharpe. And they put him in this monster 70s mustache that is a sight to behold.'

  • BlahCade is testing Blab as a new recording platform instead of Hangouts on Air and found it handles audio better

    high confidence · Jared: 'we're using a new service called Blab... We found that it's not squelching the audio as much as it does with Hangouts on Air.'

  • Chris purchased a Samson microphone for approximately $20+ that arrived on Sunday despite ordering Thursday/Friday with 5-day business shipping

    high confidence · Chris: 'I ordered it on Amazon on either Thursday night or Friday. I wanted free shipping, so I selected five-day business days. The damn thing arrived here on Sunday.'

Notable Quotes

  • “Teeny tiny isn't always a bad thing... it could be mechanically done. That's all I'm saying. It could be with a bit of ingenuity.”

    Chris @ mid-episode — Chris defending Super League Football's mechanical feasibility despite its smaller scale, relating to the episode title about embracing compact design.

  • “There is nothing about this table that I enjoy. Nothing.”

    Chris @ early-episode — Emphatic rejection of Haunted House, setting the tone for the table of the week discussion.

  • “I can't ignore the stupid wizard goals. Because you've got to catch them all. I've got to catch them all.”

    Chris @ mid-episode — Chris expressing the compulsive nature of Wizard goal collection even when poorly designed, a core frustration with Farsight's goal system.

  • “It's probably why I played very little of the Ghostbusters table. There's nothing about this table that I enjoy. Nothing.”

    Chris @ early-episode — Reinforces Chris's disdain for the underlying Haunted House mechanics regardless of re-theming.

  • “We are affectionately calling the Zen Book Club. Cue dramatic music.”

    Chris @ mid-episode — Introduction of the new initiative that pivots the podcast toward broader digital pinball coverage beyond The Pinball Arcade.

  • “I found that Zen always gets back seat for me so I'm actually kind of looking forward to this as a bit of an excuse to sit down and get some time with the tables.”

    Jared @ mid-episode — Motivation for the Zen Book Club shows it addresses a genuine content gap in their digital pinball focus.

  • “And in walks Roger Sharpe. And they put him in this monster 70s mustache that is a sight to behold. And he's got his swagger on.”

    Chris @ late-episode — Highlights the novelty and entertainment value of pinball culture appearing in mainstream media.

  • “We found that it's not squelching the audio as much as it does with Hangouts on Air. So Chris and I can have an epic rap battle and talk over each other.”

Entities

Chris ShipmanpersonJared MorganpersonRoger SharpepersonBonzopersonDerek WaterspersonBlahCade PodcastorganizationFarsight StudioscompanyZen PinballcompanyComedy CentralcompanyAmazoncompany

Signals

  • ?

    content_signal: BlahCade testing Blab platform as replacement for Google Hangouts for live podcast recording; claims better audio quality and ability to add guests mid-session without advance notice.

    high · Jared: 'we're using a new service called Blab... We found that it's not squelching the audio as much as it does with Hangouts on Air.' Multiple mentions of flexibility to add Bonzo as guest mid-recording.

  • ?

    community_signal: BlahCade launching 'Zen Book Club' as recurring monthly segment to balance coverage between The Pinball Arcade and Zen Pinball, addressing content gap in their digital pinball focus.

    high · Chris and Jared explain format: pick a table each, play 2 weeks, swap and share learnings. Jared explicitly states 'Zen always gets back seat for me' motivating the initiative.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Haunted House receives overwhelmingly negative reception from Chris who describes it as antithetical to pinball enjoyment; Chris expresses reluctance to play it and preference for walking past it entirely.

    high · Chris: 'There is nothing about this table that I enjoy. Nothing.' Repeated rejections: 'it's just stupid,' 'hard pass,' 'I would walk past all the time.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Phantom of the Opera wizard goals on The Pinball Arcade feature unrealistic time constraints (7 seconds consumed by ball delivery, 15 second limit for 3-shot combo, must repeat 5 times) making progression nearly impossible without luck.

    high · Chris detailed mechanics: 'by the time it comes down, you've already eaten up seven of your seconds... if you still have to do all three inlanes, it's next to impossible... pure luck.'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.114

0:00
You're listening to the Cade Podcast. wizard amusement.com the site to visit for custom pinball shooter rods easy to install totally unique mention blockade podcast for 10 off your order wizard amusement.com sales restoration customization you are listening to the blockade podcast i am your host shut your trap aka chris free bus and with me as always my co-host jared morgan that's right i'm here Hello everyone. So it's another week and what our normal week was planned for was to be talking about the beta dropping on Spinball Arcade this week. But beta didn't drop. No, no beta this week. Apparently we got some Farsight employees working on, quote, other things. How dare they? We had a plan in place for what every single week would be like with us doing a weekly podcast. and we haven't even gotten a month through and it's already screwed up. Yep, it's already out of whack. Oh well, whatever. You have to roll with the punches.
1:34
You do with that. You definitely have to roll with the punches. Speaking of punches, punch to the gut for what our table of the week is going to be this time. I was wondering what that segue was.
1:47
Segue of the week. I'm trying to make my segues just really hideously blunt. Smacking with a face segways. Right. They're not segways so much as bricks to the face. Right.
2:03
So this week's table of the week is Haunted House. And dear God, if I thought that this is going to give Going Nuts a run for table that I least like. I know Going Nuts hasn't been our table of the week yet, but this table I despise. I gotta say. It's hard. I mean, it's just, it's not, I mean, yeah, it's hard, but it's also just stupid. Like, the fact that it's the antithesis of everything that I enjoy about pinball, which is, I like being able to actually, you know, catch a ball and then aim and shoot, whereas this table, there is none of that. There's, which means you can't really aim. It's all just on the fly, you know, shots. I can't get a grasp on what the scoring is and I don't know, I hate the music It's just It's a hard one to swallow, this is why I didn't really enjoy the Ghostbusters re-theme that Farsight did because it was this table Yeah, it really makes me think of all the tables that they could have re-themed I mean, on the one hand it's like, okay, yay, I applaud you for trying to make this pile of crap better. But on the other hand, it's like, I still don't want to play this pile of crap.

  • Super League Football is similar to NBA Fastbreak in that the scoring mechanism is secondary to the competitive/advancement mechanic

    medium confidence · Chris: 'in my mind, it's kind of similar to NBA Fastbreak, in that when I play it, I can care less about the points. All I care about is beating the team that I'm playing against.'

  • Ghost Rider has a reversed ramp layout (left flipper shot instead of right) similar to No Fear and reminds Jared of Pinbot/Jackbot with its spiral skill shot

    medium confidence · Jared: 'the ramp is on, like the flipper shot is on the left instead of the right... I wonder if it's just because of the fact it's reversed and it's throwing me out.'

  • Zen table achievements are difficult to discover without digging through menu systems or Google Play Games on Android

    medium confidence · Jared: 'To find out what those goals are you kind of got to dig around the menu system... For Android users you have to go into the Google Play game system.'

    • Jared @ late-episode — Technical upgrade enabling better podcast production quality and spontaneous guest integration.

    Haunted House
    game
    Phantom of the Operagame
    Super League Footballgame
    Ghost Ridergame
    Misplosion Mangame
    NBA Fastbreakgame
    The Pinball Arcadegame
    Blabproduct
    Spinball Arcadegame
    Samson (microphone)product
    Medieval Madnessgame
    No Feargame
    Black Holegame
    Banzai Rungame

    gameplay_signal: Chris analyzes Super League Football and Zen's table design philosophy, noting soccer table elements are physically buildable with proper engineering, praising creative design choices that could translate to real machines.

    medium · Chris: 'There is absolutely no reason in the world why you could not be physically built... It could be mechanically done. That's all I'm saying. It could be with a bit of ingenuity.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Zen Pinball cleared all leaderboards in response to discovery of an exploitable bug, resetting competitive standings.

    high · Jared: 'Zen just cleared all the leaderboards.' Chris: 'Because there was an exploit or something that they discovered.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Zen Pinball's achievement system is poorly discoverable compared to The Pinball Arcade's Wizard goals; Android users must access Google Play Games menu to see available achievements.

    medium · Jared: 'For Android users you have to go into the Google Play game system and actually see what the awards are... It's pretty tricky to find out what they are.'

  • ?

    content_signal: Pinball history featured in Comedy Central's Drunk History mainstream media coverage; Roger Sharp portrayed in episode about pinball prohibition with notable comedic treatment.

    high · Chris: 'they did an episode all about games, and one of the games they featured was The Prohibition of Pinball... And in walks Roger Sharp. And they put him in this monster 70s mustache.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Farsight Studios' Spinball Arcade beta did not release as planned this week due to staff allocation to other projects, disrupting BlahCade's planned weekly content schedule.

    high · Chris: 'So it's another week and what our normal week was planned for was to be talking about the beta dropping on Spinball Arcade this week. But beta didn't drop... we got some Farsight employees working on, quote, other things.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Discussion of Ghost Rider's reversed ramp layout (left flipper instead of right) as departure from standard table design seen in No Fear and Black Knight 2000; Jared explores how layout variations affect player learning curve.

    medium · Jared: 'the ramp is on the left instead of the right, like it is on in fact a lot of those tables... I wonder if it's just because of the fact it's reversed and it's throwing me out.'

  • $

    market_signal: Chris purchases quality USB microphone (Samson brand) for ~$20 via Amazon with unexpectedly fast delivery (ordered Thu/Fri, arrived Sunday despite 5-day business shipping selection).

    high · Chris: 'I ordered it on Amazon on either Thursday night or Friday. I wanted free shipping, so I selected five-day business days. The damn thing arrived here on Sunday.'

    • 3:25
    Hard pass. It's probably why I played very little of the Ghostbusters table. There's nothing about this table that I enjoy. Nothing.
    3:39
    Black Hole took a little while to warm up on me, but I can actually appreciate Black Hole now. This just is... No. it's weird it seems that all the action which you would kind of expect is sort of down below um to an extent although you've got that upper play field that's annoyingly there as well um that you've got to hit the ball up to and reverse your thinking on i just mash the flippers on that i have no elegance at all when i'm playing this with this table i just i just go oh look it's at the top mash mash mash mash mash mash mash and it's pretty terrible yeah like it like a three-year-old, you know? I refer to a three-year-old playing pinball.
    4:21
    Yeah. I don't know. So I started going through the wizard goals already, and I was having a problem just getting out of the standard goals.
    4:33
    I mean, that's how little I was enjoying it. I finally did get out of standards and got into the regular wizards, but you know, I got some backlash, Jared, for on Phantom of the Opera. Oh, you did? Well, because of the way I was complaining about it, and it turns out my complaints had to do with the Wizard goals, which, that's no fault of Phantom, that's the fault of Farsight, right?
    4:59
    Because trying to, when you do the three rollovers at the top, right, you then have, I think it's 15 seconds to complete them again to advance the multiplier.
    5:12
    And the The goal is, the Farsight setup is for you to do that five times. In a row. Five times in a row, yeah. And the problem is that by the time it comes down, you've already eaten up seven of your seconds, and if you still have to do all three in lanes, it's next to impossible. I mean, it's pure luck. And there's only one lane to shoot to get the ball up there. You can't just shoot it up the middle again and hope that it bounces up. It's completely blocked. So you can only shoot the one, which means you're only shooting from the left flipper and not the right flipper. I mean, there's so many things going against you. And, I mean, I'm struggling to even get it up to three times multiplier. The other day, I just randomly haphazard got it to four times. I thought, oh, my God, it's going to happen on accident. And then, of course, it didn't. And then you choked. Yeah, then I choked. But, again, it's not so much choking because that table, it does so much side-to-side action. it's very hard to control that ball. Yeah, it does. There's a lot of that. And it's got that gaping left out lane as well with the kickback on it, which is, I mean, they have to make it big because of the kickback. But, jeez, it's just like this epic target for the ball.
    6:27
    Yeah, and so everybody was saying, well, just ignore that wizard goal. But my problem is I can't ignore the stupid wizard goals. Because you've got to catch them all. I've got to catch them all. And so they just torture me. And so I was complaining about that, And then I was also complaining a little bit about, I agree with you, man, that left ramp is hard to hit. I cannot,
    6:47
    from a cotton ball. I can do it from a live ball. I can't get any consistency. I'm even doing it where, okay, when the ball rolls over, you know, this particular graphic flip and it's not consistently doing it. So, I mean, Bravo for Fireside for putting in some variation there, but it's also killing me because the time constraints on that table are so narrow. you miss once and you can't do it there's no time to recover as opposed to many of the other tables like you think about a previous table the week that we did with Dr. Dude where if you're going for the 1-2-3 reflex you can miss one of the reflexes and still have a chance to take another shot at it that's right you collect yourself and get back in there and line it up and have another go exactly and on Phantom no you miss the ramp and forget it you're not hitting the ramp again so it's gone you know it's gone you thank you data east yeah no grace mode in that era tables they were really brutal eh like the same with um uh what was it back to the future which is around the same time um that one was released and it was a killer with that same ramp it's a massive big long like um well it's far away it's far away and it's steep um so yeah it's it's a real problem i did actually manage to get the i found the secret with that game is just try and get your score as best as you can um uh in the first two balls and then go for the double your score feature on the third and i hope that you double your score and i did it a couple of times i did actually get probably some of my highest scores ever on that table uh last week But yeah, it was luck more than skill, I think, on my behalf.
    8:33
    Yeah, I'm hoping that, I don't know. Haunted House is just, like I said, I played it yesterday just in anticipation of this and before I even posted that it was going to be the table.
    8:49
    You know, I can't wait to not play it. I might just phone it in this week. and just not really give a lot of time to it. I might do my civic duty and do one or two games on it, but that's really all I can stomach. It would be one that I would walk past all the time in the real-life pinball arcade. Yeah. I'll go, I'll see you later. Even if all the other ones were broken, I'd probably go, nah, I'll just keep my dollar or keep my quarter. it's one of the when I first started playing pinball that I can recall actively seeking it out which was when I was in high school So back in the mid 80s Oh God
    9:36
    And there was this arcade that we would go to. And Haunted House was one of the tables that I vividly remember that they had. So it was Haunted House, Bonsai Run and Comet.
    9:49
    And I remember seeing Haunted House and going, oh, check that out. It's got a sub level. It's got this upper level. And that got me all excited. Right. and then I played it and lost all excitement and promptly went over to Bonsai Run and that's where the rest of my quarters went I would love to have a go at that game, I've never been able to play Bonsai Run anywhere and it looks insane, like the upper plate, the only way I've sort of been able to play Bonsai Run is on the Zen table Paranormal because that's kind of what they ripped off and they did unashamedly and I love them for it because it gives me an opportunity to try out what Bonzo Run would kind of be like in real life. So, yeah. Well, hey, speaking of Zen tables, see, we won't have to play. We have a good excuse to not play Haunted House this week. The rest of you that are playing in table week, please play. But you and I, we are starting up what we are affectionately calling the Zen Book Club. Cue dramatic music.
    10:55
    I don't think so. Elbron Mills and Elbron Mills. I have to work out what I'm actually going to put in there this time. Because I surprised you last week. You did surprise me. That was a lot of fun. I thoroughly enjoyed that. So the Zen Book Club, we mentioned it last time. And we're going to move forward with it. So here's the deal, folks. This is not table of the week or tournament of the month. We're not doing a tournament with this. we're not um expecting anybody else to necessarily jump in and play although you're more than welcome to and we'll probably create a sub form on the pinball arcade fans forum um this is more for you know we want our podcast to be about digital pinball and so therefore we should be playing all manner of digital pinball and uh it's not that i need to twist my arm to play zen but i typically play tpa but i do enjoy zen and so this is kind of gonna push us into it and give us something to talk about monthly about zen and our experiences with it i found that then always gets back seat for me so i'm actually kind of looking forward to this as a bit of an excuse to sit down and get some time with the tables and probably through the process get a bit more of an appreciation of Zen's, um, so I guess table design table.
    12:18
    Yeah, they're aesthetic. And they're aesthetic. Yeah. So I think it's going to be good. It's going to be good. So here's how it's going to work. Um, I'm picking a table and Jared is picking a table. We are going to play the tables that we pick for two weeks and then we're going to swap. And, uh, when we swap, we're going to kind of, uh, parlay what we learned about those tables to each other so that we can, uh, you know, not avoid the pratfalls and maybe enjoy the table more. So this week I am going to be picking super league football, which I can hear the booze of people already.
    12:56
    Not so much. Cause I played that just last night. Actually, I had a little session on it last night. You know, I've heard a lot of people don't enjoy super league football, but I'm going to tell you exactly why I'm picking super league football in my mind, it's kind of similar to NBA Fast Break, in that when I play it, I can care less about the points. All I care about is beating the team that I'm playing against.
    13:20
    I'm not playing it for points on the leaderboard. I'm just trying to advance and beat the person that I'm playing. It also really reminds me, in Visual Pinball, there was a table called Rapid Vienna,
    13:34
    and it was a soccer table. It was a wasn't a recreation it was somebody's made up table but it's amazing how many elements on that table are in uh super league football in terms of there's you know stand-up targets that are representing guys on the field and they've you know moved back and forth um with rapid vienna it was very digital in terms of where these figures would pop up and how they could move But again, Zen is... Now, this table... I got to commend Zen on their table design on this one. There is absolutely no reason in the world why you could not be physically built. No, it would be easy enough to build this. Maybe the challenge would be the goal area up the top with all those little pop-up drop targets or those barrier targets. Yeah, they're pop-up drop targets. Maybe making a move side to side would be tricky, but I'm sure somebody could figure it out. It could be mechanically done. That's all I'm saying. It could be with a bit of ingenuity. Yeah. We're not talking about the center of the table spiraling open and a giant beast coming out and gobbling your ball or anything like that. So anyway, that's why I've messed with it before and had a good time, and then I haven't touched it in a long time. So I'm looking forward to getting back into it, seeing what I can find, seeing if there is actually beyond just scoring more goals than your opponent, if there actually is a true scoring component, because I've yet to figure that action out.
    15:07
    So that's kind of where I'm going with this, is getting a little bit deeper than how I normally play it. And that's what I'm going to then parlay to you, Jared, in two weeks. Yeah. Well, I have been thinking recently just about the sort of tables that get you to get up to a really epic upper table, like upper area. Not even a mini play field, but an upper area on tables. and I'm thinking things like No Fear, for example, and the fact that it's got a really, really long ramp at the back that gets you up to the upper table so much so that it actually has an accelerator magnet at the back so it gets it up there fast for you. I think that's really cool.
    15:57
    So this week I'll be playing Ghost Rider because it reminds me of two things, this table. It reminds me of No Fear by Williams. And it also reminds me of, to an extent, Pinbot and Jackbot with its skill shot. Ah. It has that spirally skill shot as well.
    16:18
    The vortex. Yeah, the vortex. They paid homage to. So I sort of have played this particular table casually in the past and really couldn't get into it. And I want to try and find out why that is. I actually want to sit down and have a look at the rules and see what I need to do with this table and get used to nailing that ramp because I don't know whether it's the fact that the ramp is on, like the flipper shot is on the left instead of the right, like it is on, in fact, a lot of those tables, like even Black Knight 2000 has a right ramp to sort of left loop type of layout and so does No Fear has that right flipper to left sort of race loop thing. So I wonder if it's just because of the fact it's reversed and it's throwing me out because I can never get more than one hit around it I also get one hit around and go oh look I got a hit around it and then oh it goes down so I know I figured it out at one point uh many years ago when it first come out on PlayStation um as part of the Marvel pack I know I figured out the scoring on that uh I don't think I ever was able to get a good sense of the timing on that upper flipper that you're talking about so yeah it'll be It'll be interesting to try and get back into it. I'll look forward to seeing what you have to say in two weeks after you've deep-dived onto that bastard. That's right. Get in there and the race begins. I'll definitely get released from here, man.
    17:50
    I just remember something about that. I kept on getting in trouble with the souls. I know there's a thing where you can release the souls and they'll steal your points or something like that. I don't know. I know they were a cause of frustration to me. That's the other thing I keep on forgetting about in that game is that little flipper in the souls area. I always forget it's there. And I go, oh, oh, oh. And yeah, so hopefully I'll be able to get dialed in to the game. And actually, it's got the potential to actually be pretty enjoyable. I think if you can dial yourself into the game, I reckon there's some real potential there to have a bit of fun on this table. So we'll see how we go. Something else I'm kind of interested in too,
    18:27
    all of the Zen tables have achievements. I rarely know what they are. On mobile, there's only two, I think, on each table. So there's not like the 10 that FastSight sets. I think there's only two. No, there was never a maximum. Usually, I think there was maybe three, maximum of four. I'm sketchy on how many any of the tables actually did have.
    18:51
    I think on the later tables. They don't advertise it really. I don't know. To find out what those goals are you kind of got to dig around the menu system if I not mistaken For Android users you have to go into the Google Play game system and actually see what the awards are to really see what they are It's pretty tricky to find out what they are. I think in The Walking Dead table, I happened to just come across one one day when the game paused and this medallion started swinging around on the machine. I went, oh, oh, I got an achievement. Well, there you go.
    19:24
    There you go. it's um a little bit more intrusive than um farsight's ones which display at the bottom of the screen but i don't know i kind of like the fact that it stops the gameplay and sort of goes hey man you got an achievement well done and then continues with the gameplay again afterwards rather than going goal for achieve what's goal for you know exactly where you're like oh man well that always happens with the standard goals when all of a sudden you'll hit that last goal and you're like oh i wonder what any of those goals are oh too bad i can never look at them again No, unless I reset my progress completely in the game. Yeah, I think there's actually a thread on Pimple Arcade fans that lists all the goals and what they are. I think it's in one of the general game discussion threads or one of those ones. You should look that up sometime. Yeah. I had a bookmark at one point without a lost interest because goals don't really interest me that much in the game. Right.
    20:16
    So, yeah. Fortunately with Zen, I don't have the gotta catch it all attitude. So, yeah. Although, who knows? Maybe I'll catch the fever. I think you might, after getting into it a bit more. No, don't bring it up.
    20:33
    So anyway, that's how the Zen Book Club is going to work, gang. If you want to play along with us, and you want to try and beat our scores, it's wonderful. Zen just cleared all the leaderboards. Very nice, that's right. Because there was an exploit or something that they discovered. exactly so you can uh go ahead and uh friend me on steam uh i'm shut your trap or shut your traps either way i can't i think i've just shut your trap on steam um but go ahead and friend me i will certainly accept you and then you can try and compete against me yes and if you want to do the same thing on android i'm of course jared morgues on google play and everything google so um jared Morgz. You can friend me in the Google Play Games system and play against me as well.
    21:24
    Or if you just feel like taunting us because you don't want to friend us but feel the need, there's always Twitter. I might as well mention it now because I've got to mention it at some point every podcast.
    21:34
    Go and trash-trap us on Twitter. Yes, you can get at me at ShutYourTraps. You can get at Jared at Jared Morgz. Or you can taunt the Blockade podcast itself at blockade got all that out okay yeah um don't bother emailing the blockade that stuff though because you know we don't need that there only the only thing we accept in emails is uh donations and uh what else we know yeah and uh and and letters for um our new sponsors coming aboard and telling us yeah yeah that's the trash and free swag and free swag free swag yeah which so far um our success rate has been zero percent so zero that's right consistently so we were inconsistent yeah yeah so i wanted to bring up uh something that i watched this past week jared uh we have a network out here called comedy central in the states and they run a program called drunk history oh yeah i've seen this on the internet this looks fantastic the the premise of this show is the host, Derek Waters, he gets a friend of his just sloppy drunk.
    22:47
    But this friend has previously memorized or studied a certain historical story. And each episode is themed, so usually it's themed around a city or state, but sometimes they'll center it around one person or a certain type of event. And so what happens then this person recounts the story. And it's, of course, just a sloppy, drunken mess. And they're messing up and burping and falling over and all manner of things. But then they hire comedians and real actors to portray the events that this person is talking about. And they lip sync to the person talking.
    23:28
    And when I say lip sync, they are matching every single, you know, if the person burps, so does the person in the retelling. It's quite hilarious. It is. It's very funny. This past week, they did an episode all about games, and one of the games they featured was The Prohibition of Pinball. So how could you not watch that, right? Yeah. And so they recounted the whole thing of pinball being banned and it being this underground thing that people played. And in walks Roger Sharp. And they put him in this monster 70s mustache that is a sight to behold. And he's got his swagger on. And he's acting all cock of the block, doing pinball action. It was so good. And if you go to the Blockade Twitter feed, I did post the link. Those of us in Australia where that is geo blocked. Thanks comedy central.
    24:38
    It's available through the pinheads pinball podcast page on Facebook. They've managed to get a copy of it and put it up on their Facebook feed. So if you're having trouble playing it, go there and you can watch it. And it's very funny.
    24:55
    Yeah. I just, I had to highlight that. That was one of those shows that I watch anyway. And then all of a sudden that came on, I was just like, yes, speak into me. And it made me laugh even harder because since I already know the whole story and just hearing what, you know, somebody else says. Yeah, how somebody else recounts it. Yeah, it's pretty good. It's very well done. Right, right.
    25:19
    And, oh, hey, look at this. I just got a message via Steam from Bonzo. Oh. I wonder if we should invite him real quick into this. What do you say, Jared? Yeah, yeah, we can do that. I'm going to copy this, and we'll see if we can drop him in real quick. Yeah. So for folks that don't know, we're trying something new this week. Yeah, we're not using Hangouts on Air to record this week. We're using a new service called Blab, and Blab is like a video internet messaging service, I guess you could describe it as. You can have up to four people in the broadcast at any one time, and you can turn the seats, I guess you can call them, on and off.
    26:04
    And it's so far pretty interesting. We found that it's not squelching the audio as much as it does with Hangouts on Air. So Chris and I can have an epic rap battle and talk over each other.
    26:19
    Well, I'm curious. If we get Bonzo in here having three people, normally we'd have to immediately shut up in order for anybody to understand what the heck we were saying. Yeah. but that could be interesting. I just sent him the link. We'll see if he pops in before we actually finish this up, which I mean, we're almost at the wrap up point. The other thing I want to comment on is that I got a new microphone, Jared. Oh yeah. I don't know if you can tell. Yeah. It sounds less sort of hanging off your ear, tenuously type of sound. Let me get my, my Craig broadcast. Does it sound better? I feel like I have full dynamic range going on here. Anyway, so I picked up this on Amazon. It's made by Samson. And it's this little tiny microphone. It's maybe three inches tall, folds up. You can clip it to the top of a laptop. It's this little tiny, itty-bitty thing. But what didn't scare me, I used a product called Zoom. And my neighbor had it. And I took that up the first time I ever went to Farsight, I believe, or maybe the second time. I used that to interview Bobby. and I've used it a couple of times previously. Yeah, and the audio quality on it was fantastic. I was like, wow, this little tight speaker is picking up everything really nice and clear. So when I found out that it was the same maker, I was like, oh, sweet. And it didn't cost me that much. I mean, it was 20 plus bucks. It wasn't bad at all cost-wise. Well, Drexclown's here.
    27:48
    He's just coming in. I'll just lock the other seat. That's too awesome. Hey, Kai, how are you, man? Hi.
    28:02
    Hey, by the way, we're recording a podcast. You're on air at the moment. Yeah. We're only going to do this as a test this week, Bonzo. We're going to use Hangouts.
    28:17
    But we decided at the very last minute to go, hey, let's just roll with this this week can see how it goes so my apologies you been hanging around waiting for a hangouts call going um so guys where are you you all suck i i only got the last two sentences you said but i think i got the gist and uh no worries but see this is this is good this proves that we can you know at the last second drop somebody in and uh you know they don't have to be there that was the problem with hangouts you had to be there at the beginning you couldn't just call them in uh throughout the session i don't think could we I think we can. You can invite people when you want to as they sort of pop in. But I think, yeah, it's a lot easier on this because you just basically send them a link. Or I think if they join up and they create an account, you can actually follow an account. So as soon as they see, for example, Blockade coming online, they'll go, oh, look, they're about to start a session. So they'll come and join the link, and then you can request a seat, which is essentially saying, hey, I'd like to talk to you guys about something. Which we probably won't let you, but... No, for those lurkers who are in the channel at the moment, this is really just us being selfish and using this service primarily for a podcast recording thing. Maybe when we turn it off, we can open it up. But that is something for everybody to think about. one more reason to sign up with Twitter, because that's how you get into this. It's blab.im Yeah, blab.im. And the link will change every week. But we'll schedule a session, and you can see the session scheduled. We do it every, for those of us in North America, or Northern Hemisphere, I should say. It's always on Sundays that we do our recordings.
    30:14
    And you should be able to find it rather easily. And then you can listen into the podcast live. That's right, without all the fancy audio drops that I put in there afterwards. So if you like your audio drops, just tune out now.
    30:28
    Yeah, unless Jared figures out how to do live audio drops, then wouldn't that be special? Which I think I can. I just need to set it up and I'm not quite sure how on a Mac. I think there's a thing called Sound Flower that I can use to do that, but not entirely sure how that goes. So we'll have to see. So before Bonsas rudely interrupted us, I was talking about this new microphone that I got. Here's the amazing part. I ordered it on Amazon on either Thursday night or Friday. I wanted free shipping, so I selected five-day business days. The damn thing arrived here on Sunday. Go figure. It arrived on Sunday, though? It arrived on Sunday. You don't get deliveries on Sunday here in Australia. They're down the pub having a drink. I've never got deliveries on Sunday I wouldn't I have no idea why it got here so fast I don't care all I gotta say is good job Amazon yeah maybe it came by drone I was gonna say did you get it right oh that would have been awesome yeah maybe it did come by drone that'd be pretty cool yeah I don't think they're doing that yet maybe I don't know somehow I think they've wrangled the post office to do it.
    31:48
    I don't know. The other things you missed there, Bonzo, so we'll do a quick recap for you. Table of the Week is Haunted House. Yuck. And we're doing the Zen Book Club. Me and Jared each picked a table. I picked Super League Football. Jared picked Ghost Rider. And in two weeks, we're going to switch and tell each other the proper hints of how to do best at the table.
    32:12
    But Bonzo, you have a lot of Zen tables too, correct? I do, I do. Do you want to throw in one yourself that you're going to play, and then we can all just rotate through? Yeah, let me think about it for a while, but maybe I will choose Misplosion Man, but I'm not sure yet.
    32:33
    Okay, I don't think we have that one on Android, but if you guys want to have a console or PC-only thing, you go for it. Oh. I do have Misplosion Man. I do have that one, and I have no clue how to play that damn thing. Well, maybe you guys can give me an executive summary of it in a couple of weeks. Executive summary, I think that's good. So, yeah, Bonzo, you play the hell out of it in the next two weeks, and when we talk to you next time, then we'll all do a swap and we'll give hints as to how to make it work properly. Sounds good. Awesome.
    33:04
    Bonzo, what is your handle on Steam in case people want to friend you and play against you? Let me have a look, but I think it's Bonzo. It's Bonzo. It changes every now and then, so I'm not sure what it is right now. But it should be Bonzo.
    33:21
    Okay. Yeah, it sucks when you have to go and unify all your nicknames. Your screen names. That's why I just keep one, because I'm really lazy. It's Jared Morgan and everything.
    33:33
    Surprisingly, I've never actually encountered a time when it wasn't available. So I'm kind of lucky. Yeah, yeah. anyway well you know what I think our time is coming to an end for this particular podcast I'll take your word for it Chris because I haven't been timing this episode so let's call it done I really haven't been either but I'm pretty much out of topics unless people want me to go off the rails oh hey did anybody watch American Horror Story no it's not available in our jurisdiction yet it was pretty disturbing I gotta say I didn't work much on that first episode and the things I saw. Yikes.
    34:17
    All right, guys. All right. Well, hey. Oh, absolutely. Before we sign off, one last warning for everybody. As you know, we had the old iTunes feed and the old ShoutEngine feed.
    34:33
    We are slowly phasing out to the point that Jared didn't even update it last week. No. So those feeds, they'll still be updated now and then, just not on a weekly basis. We're trying to get everybody to jump onto the new feed. So on iTunes, look up Blockade Podcast. On ShoutEngine, look up Blockade Podcast. Really easy to remember. The old one was the Pinball Blockade Podcast. Very wordy. So that's the one that you don't want to be on. You need to set your subscriptions to the new ones. That way, on Tuesdays, you can get it, bammo, right off the bat, right into your listing device that you use. Nice and fresh. Nice and delicious. Nice and fresh. So anyway, yeah, so I'm thinking until we, I'm looking at the numbers right now, and about a quarter of you have switched over. So get on that, because we'd really like to get rid of the other one. That's right, yeah. Well, I will be recording something special for it in the next couple of days and I'll be uploading to it. It'll be an old blockade exclusive, but it's probably not something you want to listen to anyhow. So it's just for people to say, right, this is the last episode that's going to be put up here and you guys need to switch. So if anyone's still got their old... Now I'm intrigued. No, I'm going to have to listen just to find out what that is.
    35:55
    I'll try to... Now I have to make it interesting. It's going to be pretty boring. It's just going to be Derek going Like Swedish chef style It would be great 20 minutes of uninterrupted going nuts soundtrack Oh god that would be painful That would be enough To drive people away Oh my god Maybe we'll just upload a whole On loop Let it go From Frozen and that will be the podcast it's hard to let it go people oh okay well on that note we will finish here so thanks everybody for listening I've been your host Chris Frebus aka Shut Your Trap that has been Jared Morgan over down under on the southern hemisphere and popping in late it was Kai Fitzner also known as Drexclone also known as Bonzo also known as the man with too many nicknames. Also known as the German. The German.
    37:04
    Yes. Alright, we will see you all next week. Thanks for tuning in. See you later. WizardAmusement.com The West Coast leader in classic pinball. Makers of custom pinball shooter rods to buyer specifications. Swap out your standard ball plunger with something themed to your specific table. Installs in less than 5 minutes with no custom tools. Even if you don't own a table, it looks great as a pimple memento to admire. Prices start at $39, but mention Blockade Podcast to receive 10% off your order. WizardAmusement.com. Sales, restoration, customization.
    37:44
    Remember to leave a review on iTunes or any podcasting channel Blockade is distributed through. We can't improve, but you can tell us how. Until next time, remember, we're in overtime!
    37:57
    you