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Timey Wimey FarSight Chat

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·52m 56s·held·Feb 9, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

FarSight's Doctor Who Kickstarter enters final week with new Regenerated reskin tier; licensing and platform challenges discussed.

Summary

BlahCade Podcast hosts Chris and Jared interview Mike Lindsey from FarSight Studios about the Doctor Who Pinball Arcade Kickstarter in its final week. The discussion covers new reward tiers including a "Doctor Who Regenerated" reskin featuring current-era doctors, clarifications on included content, BBC licensing involvement, and broader platform challenges including monthly DLC release cycles, pricing strategies for new users, and technical roadmap items like VR and improved graphics.

Key Claims

  • Doctor Who Kickstarter is approximately $15,000 shy of $54,000 goal with one week remaining

    high confidence · Chris states: 'up to 40 grand of 54 so it's a 15 grand shy'

  • $17 donation tier includes both original Doctor Who table and Doctor Who Regenerated reskin, both in Pro mode

    high confidence · Mike Lindsey confirms: 'Yes, it gets you both versions of the table. Both versions. And both versions for any donation above that will always be included, correct? Yes.'

  • Doctor Who Regenerated will feature current-era doctors, with final selection dependent on BBC approval

    high confidence · Mike states: 'I think we're considering them all, but it's kind of up to BBC whether, you know, what they want to push for their next season' and mentions doctors like McGann, Eccleston, Tennant, Smith, Capaldi

  • BBC is actively involved in approving content for the Doctor Who reskin including doctors, companions, and visual elements

    high confidence · Mike: 'BBC is definitely taking an active part in this reskin then. Yes, definitely.'

  • Doctor Who Regenerated will be a standalone table in menu, not a toggle like TAF Gold

    high confidence · Mike: 'I think it's going to be a standalone table in the menu... Yeah, it's different enough that you want it to stand by itself.'

  • TAF Gold has been kept exclusive to Addams Family Kickstarter due to licensing concerns, not deliberate withholding

    medium confidence · Mike: 'we're going to try and keep it exclusive to the The The Addams Family. But we have been considering putting it into this Kickstarter, among other things that we could add. But sometimes there are licensing conflicts'

  • FarSight has a small dev team constrained by supporting multiple platforms (mobile, PC, console) simultaneously

    high confidence · Mike: 'the big challenge that we've made for ourselves is to release on everything... one's longer one's shorter one's easy one's hard'

  • FarSight's engaged community on social media and podcasts represents approximately 2% of total Pinball Arcade user base

Notable Quotes

  • “at $17 fund. That gets you the new Doctor Who Regenerated, correct? Yes, it gets you both versions of the table.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~mid-episode — Clarifies a major point of confusion on Kickstarter regarding what $17 tier includes

  • “it's a special deal just for the Doctor Who table that we worked out with BBC. So in this case, it's the licensor that determines that it's not Williams, you know, breaking some kind of a Williams issue.”

    Mike Lindsey @ ~mid-episode — Explains why Doctor Who can be heavily modded while other tables cannot; reveals licensing is BBC-driven rather than FarSight policy

  • “I think we're going to get some really cool graphics upgrades for mobile and for, I think, for PC and stuff too. We have some cool technology that we're going to throw in.”

    Mike Lindsey @ ~late episode — Teases upcoming technology improvements observed at Arcade Expo

  • “It really is necessary for us to continue releasing every month. It's pretty much what's keeping us going.”

    Mike Lindsey @ ~mid-episode — Explains FarSight's business model depends on monthly DLC release cycle, making gap months for bug fixes difficult

  • “We actually get comments and complaints that $5 is ridiculous for a game. And these are people that are not actual pinball fans that are becoming pinball fans.”

    Mike Lindsey @ ~mid-episode — Highlights tension between casual app store users and dedicated pinball community regarding pricing

Entities

Mike LindseypersonChris FriebuspersonJared MorganpersonFarSight StudioscompanyBBCcompany[name withheld pending review]productDoctor Who RegeneratedproductThe Addams Family Gold (TAF Gold)productPinball ArcadeproductStarship Troopersproduct

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Doctor Who Pinball Arcade Kickstarter in final week with $15k remaining to reach $54k goal; new $17 tier introduced Friday featuring Doctor Who Regenerated reskin

    high · Chris states 'up to 40 grand of 54 so it's a 15 grand shy' and Mike confirms 'you guys got one week left'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Doctor Who Regenerated reskin will feature updated doctors, potentially companions, new visual assets, and possibly non-DMD display format per BBC approval

    high · Mike discusses BBC involvement in approving doctors, companions, toys, and mentions 'it might be more of a video. Kel-DMD style thing'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: BBC is actively involved in approving which doctors, companions, and visual elements appear in Doctor Who Regenerated; voice work and custom audio dependent on BBC decision

    high · Mike: 'it's all going to depend on what BBC wants to do' and 'BBC is definitely taking an active part in this reskin'

  • ?

    product_strategy: FarSight balancing between small engaged community (2% of user base) willing to accept price increases for quality vs. broader casual app store audience resistant to premium pricing

    high · Mike: 'We actually get comments and complaints that $5 is ridiculous' and 'a very small percentage of the overall customer base' vs. those on social media platforms

  • ?

    business_signal: FarSight's business model dependent on monthly DLC releases; gap month for bug fixes would impact revenue, making such breaks difficult to justify despite community requests

    high · Mike: 'It really is necessary for us to continue releasing every month. It's pretty much what's keeping us going'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.159

0:00
This is the Blockade Podcast, with your hosts, Chris and Jared. 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
0:44
You are listening to the Blockade Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Freebus, a.k.a. Shut Your Trap. Joining me as always, Jared Morgan. Hey, Chris. How you going, mate?
1:01
Doing well. It is Super Bowl Sunday here. Super Bowl Monday, I guess, for you. You guys, I'm sure they broadcast it somewhere for you, huh? They do. Apparently, it is going to be broadcast at some point today. I don't know whether they hold it over until the evening so we get delayed, but I'm sure if you're on pay TV here. In fact, I'm in Ladbrokes, which is like a sports bookie. So I'd imagine that they're probably going to be having up on screens throughout today if it's not already. It is early here, though. It's like 6.34 in the morning. So I don't know. When is it normally broadcast? Is it on now over there? No, it is on in three hours from right now when we've started. We start recording at 1230 here Pacific Standard. So, yeah, three hours from now is when kickoff is. It'll totally be up on the screens because I'm sure we'll have a market on it. So, yeah, we want to watch what goes on. Yeah, it should be cool because we might even see the halftime shows without having to see it posthumously on the internet later on. Right, right. Yeah, this is probably – I don't watch football normally. um the only sport i never watch football because i'm not really sporty which is bizarre because i'm working in that i'm working for a um a sports online gambling company but i'm not really sporty at all um but uh what i wound up doing is i i dvr it and then about halfway through the broadcast then i start watching and so basically i fast forward through the uh the football get through the highlights and then i'm just watching it for the stupid commercials which you're probably like me i totally do the same thing time shift it so you could actually um go back in and then watch it later i think that's a great idea yeah and the funny thing is is it's not even like the commercials are all that good anymore um i mean you know they've all leaked on the internet and they don't put any any cool movie trailers you know that you haven't seen yet in in there and stuff so even the commercial aspect has kind of gotten boring um and not as interesting and sometimes you'll actually get sucked into the game it it has happened but like sometimes yeah yeah i really don't understand gridiron at all so it's yeah it's like blowout then it's like it's great looks crazy to me mate when i'm when i'm watching it but i'm sure you guys would probably say the same about australian rules football which is also crazy so yeah Yeah.

medium confidence · Mike: 'We might make 2% of the overall customer base if that... a lot of those people are just gamers that just found us on the App Store'

  • FarSight recently hired new Android developer to improve platform delivery capacity

    high confidence · Chris mentions: 'Scott, our Android developer, he's got a new person that he's got on board' and Mike confirms the hire is 'working in really well'

  • New lighting effects for El Dorado on mobile now include GI (General Illumination) going out on tilt, a new feature for TPA on mobile

    high confidence · Mike: 'the new lighting effects on El Dorado. When you tilt the machine, mobile now actually has all the GI go out. And that is new. That's never been done before on mobile for TPA.'

    • El Dorado
    product
    Gallifrey Oneevent
    Arcade Expoevent
    BlahCade Podcastorganization
    Scottperson
    Normanperson
  • ?

    personnel_signal: FarSight hired new Android developer to assist Scott, alleviating workload constraints and enabling faster feature delivery

    high · Mike: 'The new programmer, he's working in really well, and I think he's really going to lighten the load on some of the programmers'

  • ?

    technology_signal: New lighting effects implemented on Eldorado EM for mobile platform including GI going out on tilt; first time this feature has appeared on mobile TPA

    high · Mike: 'the new lighting effects on Eldorado EM... mobile now actually has all the GI go out. And that is new. That's never been done before on mobile for TPA'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Starship Troopers table exhibits drain-heavy playfield behavior with slow target detection response, making ball control difficult despite flow-focused design

    medium · Jared discusses consistent drains via outlanes and center, noting 'it's not a quick responding processor' for target hit detection

  • ?

    product_strategy: TAF Gold kept exclusive to Addams Family Kickstarter due to licensing conflicts; FarSight exploring whether to add to Doctor Who campaign but uncertain of permissions

    high · Mike: 'we're going to try and keep it exclusive to the Addams Family... sometimes there are licensing conflicts, and I'm not 100% sure if we're allowed to do it'

  • ?

    venue_signal: FarSight securing booth presence at Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention in Los Angeles near LAX despite sold-out event; planning to showcase Doctor Who Kickstarter

    high · Mike: 'someone reached out to us from there and then we're... We're going to be able to sneak into a booth, essentially'

  • ?

    content_signal: FarSight encouraging community to amplify Kickstarter through social media outreach to actors, doctors, companions, and media outlets; fan-generated blog posts on Doctor Who News driving traffic

    high · Mike: 'Just keep retweeting everything... Try to tweet the companions and the doctors and all the actors' and notes 'We've got a lot of traffic from that'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Doctor Who table uniquely permits heavy modding due to special BBC licensing deal; most FarSight tables do not allow mods due to licensor restrictions

    high · Mike: 'It's a special deal just for the Doctor Who table that we worked out with BBC' explaining why Doctor Who is 'heavily modded' while others are restricted

    • 3:34
    But they do know how to throw a good shot. So, yeah, that's going to be going on. And, you know, what I'm probably going to be doing is watching, instead, Ninja Warrior with my boy.
    3:45
    Nice. Nice, Ninja Warrior. I don't know if I've seen that. Ninja Warrior? Yeah. Oh, it's fantastic. It's extreme obstacle course running, essentially. and the guys that would do this are rock climbers free runners um i mean you got to be in tremendous shape you know to actually do it and the cool thing is is that up until last year nobody had ever won right so you know it's they're celebrating the people's uh trying less about oh, well, there's a guaranteed winner. It's, hey, if nobody's able to conquer the course, then course one. So, yeah, it's pretty cool that way. Yeah, that's awesome.
    4:39
    And it's basically, it's American Ninja Warrior to us because Japan's been running this for probably 15 years now. They call it Sasuke.
    4:49
    And they used to air that here. Right, I guess. This is like the American version. It's very similar to like how Iron Shift got Americanized. Exactly. Yeah, right. Cool.
    5:01
    Yeah, because part of the reason why they wound up doing that was Japan was actually thinking of shuttering it and not doing it anymore. And so they kind of bought the rights, brought it over here. So now every year in Las Vegas, they do the finals and make a big production out of it. So it's pretty cool. Right. Okay. Cool. Very cool. Yeah.
    5:21
    So you're probably wondering, are we really going to talk about football and American Ninja Warrior this entire podcast? No! We're killing time here. This is what we call the soft intro.
    5:35
    Yes, yes. We are waiting on Mike Lindsey from Farsight to log in so that we can talk to him about this, the final week of the Kickstarter for the Doctor Who table. They just on Friday added some new reward tiers and more importantly, new rewards. main one being that they are offering up a reskin of the doctor who table that will now have the current batch of doctors it's looking healthy i'm just having a look at it now up to 40 grand of 54 so it's a 15 grand shy yeah that's looking pretty good i don't i i think that they will be okay but i'm sure mike can probably speak more to that when he joins us in um shortly yes so while we're waiting on Mike, let's go ahead and talk about last week's Table of the Week, which was Starship Troopers. And my question is, why in the heck is it completely kicking my butt?
    6:37
    Is it that little mini red flipper that causes you to... No! I've gotten... I've gotten actually pretty good at doing that. The weird thing is I've never seen any of the tables equally drain so well as this one. I mean, whether it's the left and right outlanes or the center drain, freaking Starship Troopers, man, it's impossible for me to gain ball control, it seems. It's just all over the map.
    7:08
    Yeah, I don't know what that is. Do you think it's the shooting range when you shoot that? I don't really find it straight down the middle from there for me. It seems to be okay. I don't know.
    7:20
    I don't know. The other weird thing for me is it's almost a wide body, like because the out lane is also the same as the plunger pole lane. And I've often found that wide body tables tend to kind of screw me up a little bit for my aim.
    7:39
    One of the other things that kind of is weird on it is like once you collect all the bugs, then the little light goes off to tell you that you can shoot to either nuking the planet or advancing to the next planet, right? but that light doesn't go off immediately there's like a delay so you've just gotten the bugs the ball comes screaming down to your flipper and yet you don't want to flip yet into the uh the drop hole because the light's not lit and and so there and there's it i found that that's happened a lot on the table in general like you shoot a bug and if the ball is bouncing like in the center portion of the table if the ball bounces in between the two lights it only activates this one bug it's not a quick responding processor, I guess, to pick up all your hits. Yeah, right. So do you think it's more rather than sort of getting those glancing shots, you actually need to shoot for each of the targets quite explicitly when you're actually shooting? Yes, but it's also such a flow table. It doesn't feel like you're shooting. Yeah. It's really bizarre. I'm not. It is really bizarre.
    8:47
    Talk about that in a second. But look who just showed up. It's Mike Lindsey. Hey, Mike. There you go, right? Hey.
    8:54
    Yeah, I was just all. Oh, actually, can you guys hear me? Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. Yeah, we can hear you. I wasn't even sure that was going to work. I haven't used my laptop for streaming or anything for a while. But yeah, I'm here. Cool, man. You're here. You're here, and we'll just cut right into it. I do have other things I'll talk to you about, but the main thing is, let's talk Kickstarter.
    9:18
    Yeah. Yeah, so you guys got one week left on this. According to today's totals, you're about 14, 15 grand shy of the grand total. And you're getting there slowly but surely. And then on Friday, you guys had introduced new tiers and the new skin, Dr. Who Regenerated. So I wanted to see if you could kind of address some of the questions that people have brought up via forums and the Kickstarter page. and just try and clarify so that everybody knows exactly what they're getting into. Yeah, we've been seeing a little confusion on there, so this will probably help.
    9:55
    Cool. Yeah. So the main thing I just want to clarify is $17 fund. That gets you the new Doctor Who Regenerated, correct? Yes, it gets you both versions of the table.
    10:07
    Both versions. And both versions for any donation above that will always be included, correct? Yes. Cool. Okay. so there goes there goes that one bit of confusion that some people were having because yeah some of the kick sort of rewards would mention it others wouldn't and then people were like well that means you're only getting the one and not the other um is there going to be a obviously with the 17 donation you're getting the pro mode for the regular doctor who is there going to be a pro mode for uh we plan to put a pro mode in um but it's it's going to be running off the emulation of the original table.
    10:44
    So depending on how much we change, we're not exactly sure how it's going to work. We're planning to put the promo in there.
    10:52
    Okay. Let's see what else I can dig up here. I've got so many windows open, it's hard for me to see my notes. I'm not sure what I'm doing. While you're filtering through your notes there, one question I had, Mike, was how the, like, we were talking about custom voice and stuff. Sorry, voice work from the doctors. Can you speak more to that and tell us a bit more about the level of integration that you, that Farsight Plan are putting into the re-skin? Is it going to be custom speech or is it just going to be taking grabs from the series and putting them in inappropriate places?
    11:31
    I think it's all going to depend on what BBC wants to do. we would like to do that, but I'm not sure if we're going to be able to get, um, you know, doctors and stuff like that to actually record audio, but we might, you know, just, it just depends on what BBC wants to do. Okay. Um, right. Interesting. Okay. Okay. So BBC is definitely taking an active part in this reskin then. Yes, definitely.
    11:56
    Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Uh, okay. I found my nose. Um, $50 level gets you the custom ball pack for Dr. Who. But then I noticed on the $60 level, it said custom ball pack for the regenerated Doctor Who. Are there two different ball packs? There's going to be a ball pack that is themed to the old table, to the original, and then we're going to have a new one themed to the new regenerated table.
    12:24
    Okay. So if you do the $10 more, basically you'll then get both sets of ball packs. Okay. Gotcha on that. At the $200 level, you guys have called it the beta level, and that allows you to beta test for Doctor Who. Is that a one-time beta that you're only beta testing for that, or is it that you get to beta test the other regular Pinball Arcade games either prior to or after Doctor Who is released? It's just going to be Doctor Who beta for the original and for the regenerated table.
    13:03
    Okay. That clarifies that. Ah so when we talking new doctors are we talking all the way from McGann Eccleston Tennant Smith Capaldi and even William Hurt Or do you guys know which ones are considering for the new doctors Well, I think we're considering them all, but it's kind of up to BBC whether, you know, what they want to push for their next season and stuff like that. They also they're going to have, you know, we're going to have current doctors, but just whatever they allow us to do. and it's also possible that we'll have companions but I don't know if they're going to want us to do that or what you know so we have some say we give them our ideas and I think that they're going to give us our ideas and kind of come together on it Is that kind of what it fell to with the toys also that you guys mentioned being put on the table we're going to present to them what we can and see what we can get done make it super cool What about the DMD Yeah, actually, we're not sure because of the emulation. We might have to not change the DMD, but we do plan to change the DMD, and it might actually even be not exactly like a DMD. It might be more of a video. Kel-DMD style thing. Oh, okay. It might not necessarily be that. Whatever looks the coolest, and it might actually look pretty cool to have some not necessarily a DMD.
    14:31
    I guess this will actually... Would there be any kind of rule change? I'm not sure if we can change the rules.
    14:38
    But we'll be adding things to the game, just like we were able to add multi-ball to Ghostbusters and stuff like that. There's some things that we can tweak, but we're just going to have to see what we can do once we start digging down into the emulation and seeing if we can maybe make it seem like we're changing the emulation or something like that.
    14:58
    I understand. I've got one question here, Mike from Neil. He's just wondering how will the switch between standard Doctor Who and reskinned Doctor Who, regenerated Doctor Who go? Will it be sort of like a toggle like it is for TAF Gold? Or will it sort of be a standalone table in the menu?
    15:19
    I think it's going to be a standalone table in the menu. I guess it's different enough that you want it to stand by itself. Oh, yeah, we're definitely going to make it different. Yeah, it's just part of the whole deal. We have to make it pretty new. Yeah. It's going to be pretty cool.
    15:36
    Okay. Now, is this going to be exclusive only to Kickstarter, like Taft Gold has so far been, or is this something that then would be released to the general public? It'll be released to the general public. Okay.
    15:51
    That answers that. And moving right along my long list of things. Ah, this one is kind of interesting, and that is, why is it that this can be so heavily modded? and I'm guessing it's because of BBC's blessing as opposed to other tables that you're not allowed to do any mods whatsoever on. Yeah, it's a special deal just for the Doctor Who table that we worked out with BBC. So in this case, it's the licensor that determines that it's not Williams, you know, breaking some kind of a Williams issue. Yeah, and we try to keep everything original and try to only recreate real tables. But in this case, it's part of the deal, and we're going to really try to make it super cool. So we'll see. Are we ever going to see Ghostbusters get dropped into TPA or is it always going to be that standalone app? I don't think it's going to be dropped into Pinball Arcade. I think it's going to stay standalone.
    16:49
    Okay. That just brought it to you. It's like, well, guys, it is standalone. Like, you know, Doctor Who's going to stand alone like Ghostbusters. All the same, it's still haunted house layout, so who cares?
    17:01
    I guess you could. If you chose to, you could actually put it in the standalone. That's very similar to Scared Stiff and Ghostbusters because it is unique enough to standalone. It would be a good way to get your fans in when they search for Doctor Who. I think that it's a good idea. It all just depends on what they want to do.
    17:21
    You guys actually have a Doctor Who convention happening up in Big Bear in a few days, correct? A Doctor Who convention? In Big Bear? No, not in Big Bear. yeah i think it's in los angeles no it's in la it's kind of by lax uh gallifrey one um yeah it's by the la airport um in our i thought it was somebody was saying that i guess people not knowing geography it's just right down the street from farsight but no it's not but wait i think we're gonna be there um cool it was they sold out a long time ago um and i tried to get a hold of them and wasn't really able to get a hold of them because you know they're not really like allowing anybody to come in, but someone reached out to us from there and then we're... We're not going to be able to... We're going to be able to sneak into a booth, essentially.
    18:09
    Yes. That'd be cool. And as I saw at the Arcade Expo, you have a banner already set together. Yeah, I don't know if we're going to be able to bring that banner, but we have some other stuff that we're doing. We'll just take over their booth, you know.
    18:25
    Right, right. any other uh any other issues you want us to know regarding the kickstarter before i jump into we're gonna be uh we're trying to drum up some support for this last week um we've been kind of held off um from bbc to announce the stuff that we just did um but now it's out and now we have some other things that we're hoping to announce uh cheer wise and and a few other things hopefully um throughout the week to hopefully get some more pledges up and get some new people Is there anything that the community can do to drum up business that they haven't been doing already? Yeah, well, they've already been doing it already.
    19:05
    Just keep retweeting everything that everybody says. Just make your own tweets. Try to tweet the companions and the doctors and all the actors and cast and whoever you can. And we appreciate everything you guys have done so far. We have some fans that wrote on the blog for Doctor Who News or whatever. and they actually picked that up and posted something. We've got a lot of traffic from that.
    19:32
    Gaming sites, if you guys can just write to them if you can. We're already doing that as well, but it helps if the fans do it too.
    19:41
    Shows interest. Makes it more authentic. Yep. Hey, and up your pledge to the new tier. $17 gets you two pro tables. Oh, we lost you. That's awesome. We'll just keep them going. yeah that's um it's gonna be he'll come back uh yeah i think uh i think you guys got it right with the pricing entry point for that because you know for an extra seven bucks you know that's pretty easy to get like to step up to you know it's not like it's not too bad i think that's the thing right it's people have been speaking in the kickstarter about little pebbles um making the the the dam of the the the goal and i think um yeah the little pebbles of seven dollars they'll add up pretty quick so um yeah i reckon i reckon it'll be really good so we've got a couple of questions in the um uh the blab session here um at this stage i think people are wondering there's been a lot of conjecture in in the kickstarter about introducing taff gold into the Kickstarter tiers. And I think there's a lot of speculation. I've done a lot of speculation as well about why at this stage it hasn't been included, given that it's been about a year since it was released. At this stage, can you sort of talk a bit about that and sort of maybe discuss a little bit why it hasn't been offered maybe up front as a Kickstarter reward?
    21:16
    Well, as far as I know, we're going to try and keep it exclusive to the Addams Family. But we have been considering putting it into this Kickstarter, among other things that we could add. But sometimes there are licensing conflicts, and I'm not 100% sure if we're allowed to do it.
    21:37
    But if we are allowed to do it, it might be. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm just going to have to talk to him. but it is part of the agenda if we can do it. Yeah, right. So hopefully this week maybe we can get something in there like that and some other exciting things. Because I think some people are sort of thinking that it's coming across for better or for worse that Farsight's holding off, like holding it back from being released as a deliberate decision. And I think what people have to realize is there are commercial concerns that surround this table. And it's like, why would you guys actually want to hold it back if there was no reason to hold it back? I mean, Chris and I have seen it. Yeah, and a lot of times we get a lot of complaints like that. Yeah, we get a lot of complaints of like, why are you guys doing that? Why are you guys doing this? A lot of times we're held back by licenses. We're held back by having so many different platforms. That's one thing that is actually very challenging for us, is having every platform. you know that's that's our big challenge that we've made for ourselves is to release on everything and then when it comes time to release you know everybody deals differently takes a certain amount of time you know one's longer one's shorter one's easy one's hard you know um and the big difference it just it makes things a little inconsistent sometimes too when we try to release at certain times and stuff you know yeah yeah i understand yeah it would be a challenge.
    23:04
    I think the real thing that a lot of people are worried about with the Evans family Kickstarter, I think, is that for those people who just missed out, just absolutely missed out on, you know, getting the opportunity to be a part of that Kickstarter, you know, a lot of the new customers that are coming in, it might be a case where, you know, they really want to actually get the gold, but there's just no physical way of them actually obtaining it. So I think a lot of people, you know, they want to, they want to just throw some money away.
    23:35
    You know, they just can't. If we can do that, we will, you know. Yeah. Well, I really hope that there's some way of doing it. Cause I think you'd get, I think there'd be some sales there to be had, you know, but it all comes down to being able to do it and getting permission to do it. So yeah, I, I get that. I think we just had to bear that in mind. Colton asks us, have you ever considered a stretch goal for turning some of the early scripted tables into properly emulated tables? What do you reckon about that?
    24:04
    Well, I don't think we want to make that a stretch goal for one of our Kickstarters. You know, I think if we do it, we should probably just do it without a Kickstarter. Yeah, it would be. It'll improve it.
    24:16
    Yeah. And it's something that we've said in the past that we want to do to certain tables. And, you know, at those times with our small teams, we have new platforms to come out on. And that's mainly our blessing and our curse is all the platforms. and it takes a lot of time to get things done when we start doing that. So it's kind of like a little bit of a lower priority until we get out the newer platforms, and that's what's happened to the emulation there. I know that in recent news, Scott was saying that he's got an off-sider now. Scott, our Android developer, he's got a new person that he's got on board, which is great for him.
    24:58
    That's really exciting. The team is growing, so that's wonderful. Yes, that's awesome. Yeah, that's really good. So I look forward to seeing what they can do there. I'm sure that an extra set of hands will make light work of everything for Android coming out, which is really good. Yeah, I hope so. Yeah, the new programmer, he's working in really well, and I think he's really going to lighten the load on some of the programmers and then we can start getting out some stuff that we've been planning on. Because even at the studio, we feel bummed out that we're not getting out certain things just because we're time constrained on what we're currently working on. And we have our monthly release happening every single time, so the cycle never ends. Yeah, right. It's just, yeah, DLC every month means that you can only do so much, which would be a real challenge. Definitely keeps us going. yeah and I know that uh you know in the in the 12 days of Christmas that you were um announcing stuff really cool stuff like you know um VR and stuff like that you guys will be trying out the platform it's pretty cool so I'd actually really yeah I'm not sure um yeah yeah I'm not sure when we're planning to come out with all that um but we're definitely uh working on it and uh We should have something for our in-house demo pretty soon, I think. But I not sure what there some kind of contract stuff with that I not really sure what I allowed to say about it Yeah I know Stay clear We don want to get in trouble Mike It always something like that with me I just kind of have to hold my tongue on everything all the time. It's hard, but there's lots of exciting things that I want to tell everybody. We've got an interesting question here from Neil. He's asked, this comes up a fair bit when we're talking about increasing the quality of Pimble Arcade and looking back at older releases. So Neil was wondering, has Farsight ever considered taking just a month off and going back through the old DLC and going, right, we're going to do some heavy bug fixes on some of the tables? Like maybe some of the bug fixes have been hanging around since release of the table that just didn't have a chance to get done at the time. Right. Is that something that Fast Fight is actually capable of doing, or is it necessary to keep the DLC cadence up and sort of just keep marching forward?
    27:22
    I think it really is necessary for us to continue releasing every month. It's pretty much what's keeping us going.
    27:29
    So, yeah. I mean, it would be something that we might consider in the future. and we've always been asked this question and it would be nice to do that. So hopefully someday we could actually... That's a very interesting... I'm seeing some more casual comments about the whole taking a month off thing and don't feel you have to answer this but this is a question to the people on Blab.
    27:54
    We know that Farsight needs to actually keep the monthly DLC revenue going up. So this is a question to you, Blabbers. what would you think to a slight price hike to allow them to take that gap month and budget that in to um to the overall yearly schedule of season passes so a little bit more money up front to allow them to actually take that gap month and actually do the the bug fixes um so that's interesting so some people are saying yep they take a price increase for quality i'd actually totally do that as well. I'd be quite happy to pay an extra little bit of money each season pass to give you guys time to actually do the stuff you need.
    28:41
    Yep, that's another one. Bearing in mind, though, that the people that are on the Blab session are big fans of the platform. And I think this is another thing that's tough, right? Because fans will go, yep, absolutely. Do all the bug fixes and really improve the platform. But when it comes down to it, we're a very small percentage of the overall customer base of Pimble Arcade. We might make 2% of the overall customer base if that.
    29:11
    So people might see... Yeah, it is a smaller percent. Yeah, it's a smaller percent. And we have to really think about the people that aren't engaged with us on our social media and in the Pimble Arcade fans and everything because a lot of those people are just gamers that just found us on the App Store or saw some ad for us or something like that. And we actually get comments and complaints that $5 is ridiculous for a game. And these are people that are not actual pinball fans that are becoming pinball fans. You know what I mean? And don't have that historical back in 2012 when everyone is, you know, people like me and Chris, who's actually joined us back again now, Chris. Welcome back. Yes. Yes, I'm back. I'm back in a crash.
    29:54
    We were just talking, we talked about introducing TAF Gold into the Kickstarter. And the TLDR with that is that, yeah, we'll see how it goes with licensing. It's a bit tricky. Yeah. And we're also talking about taking a gap year, a gap month, and actually doing bug fixes and how that might look. And Mike was saying that it's a bit of a challenge because you've got the 2% of us who are big fans and would love to see that historical stuff being resolved. But you've got the large population that just look at it from a purely price point and go, whoa, an extra, let's say, arbitrarily, an extra $1.50 per table.
    30:39
    That might tip people over the edge not to purchase. So it's a balancing act. Well, Mike, you guys still get a healthy amount of people that are first-time users to the app. I mean, it's not like there's been – you've got a pretty consistent base of people every month coming in brand new to the game, correct?
    30:57
    Yeah. Yeah, we're still growing at a pretty, you know, steady pace. Yeah. So, I mean, that's the other thing you do have to consider that, like Jared was pointing out, you know, There's a little niche who are highly vocal on the forums and do podcasts. And then there's everybody else.
    31:19
    And like we had a discussion last week where the pro pinball table on Steam is selling for 15 bucks. And I said, absolutely not. I wouldn't do it. And I have a feeling that that's very much what you're talking about, that some people are saying to you even at five dollars. Yeah, we're actually I think that we miss out on some sales at that price currently. People see that and they're just like, that's unheard of in an app. You know what I mean? Yeah.
    31:42
    It's a fine line. I would just go back to hire more people. Throw more bodies at it, right? Hire more people and throw all that stuff at them.
    31:54
    And then watch the price hike because more people equals more money, yo. Yeah. Hey, Mike, since I didn't get a chance to talk to you, since Arcade Expo has happened, and obviously you got to float around the floor and see all the different pinball tables. I'm curious to know, what did you and Norman come away with that you went straight into Bobby's office and were like, damn it, we need this in the game?
    32:20
    I think we're going to get some really cool graphics upgrades for mobile and for, I think, for PC and stuff too. We have some cool technology that we're going to throw in. I've actually seen some, speaking of that, that there's some sneaking into the platform very slowly. I'm looking at in the latest, I spoke about this a little bit on the last podcast, but we can talk about this a little bit more because it is technically released on mobile now. And that is the new lighting effects on Eldorado EM. When you tilt the machine, mobile now actually has all the GI go out. And that is new. That's never been done before on mobile for TPA. So it got me thinking. With Doctor Who, if it is successful, which I'm sure we all hope it is, one thing with that era of tables, Dracula included Bram Stoker's Dracula, is they have a very engaging controlled GI effect on it. So I'd imagine that the GI control that we're seeing introduced is paving the way for the ultimate success of Doctor Who to see some of those environmental effects creep into other platforms.
    33:39
    Yeah, it might be possible. I'm not sure if that was only possible on those tables because of scripting. Ah, yeah. And I could not be understanding this completely. but on some tables we're limited to things because of emulation you know what i mean and those tables were we're not we can't emulate them because they don't have you know they don't have chips and stuff like that you know that's right the true emulation comes from actually having the access to the rom and the security state of it and it's quite it's non-trivial to actually emulate a pinball machine i think people that are new to pinball arcade may not understand completely how difficult it is. And I know on the Kickstarter video, there is some discussion of just how tricky it is. But yeah, there's a lot going on.
    34:34
    Yes, yes. It does seem like something very difficult. We have a special emulation engineer that he knows what he's doing. And he's the only guy that can really get that stuff done for us. You know what I mean? So it's a very, very... Vpinmame has had a lot of experience emulating that. So, yeah, it's got a good pedigree there.
    34:58
    So what else did you see, though, at Arcade Expo that caught your eye? I went over and played that Stern Game of Thrones. Did you guys get to go check that out? I did go check it out.
    35:09
    I thought that they were two completely different tables, to be honest, between the LE and the Pro. Absolutely. I only played, I guess, I played the, I don't know which one I played. It was the, which one there's the one that has the, uh, upper play field, uh, to the left corner. And then there was the one that didn't, it just had ramps. Yeah. I think I played the one with just ramps. So yeah, I didn't play the, yeah, the, the ramp one is very, just a classic Steve Ritchie, just lots of flow. Yeah. Um, and then the, that's the pro version. And then the more expensive version had the upper play field and it really slows down the table in general. Um, and so that's why I say it was almost like two completely different tables. uh but the the overall and it's yeah it's strange i was expecting i really didn't have um a lot of positive things to think about when i was thinking about the pro because of just the the disparity between the um the premium and the pro with the feature set but i was pleasantly surprised when i actually got my hands on it and actually started flipping it does play really quite well and it's not bad it plays well the light show is good i have no clue what was going on though yeah i didn't play it long enough to understand the rules or anything like that just flashing lights you know and when well i had one game i had one game that went a really good long time i mean like i was probably on the ball for i don't know three minutes or so and uh you know i could tell the guys were waiting for their turn we're getting annoyed and everything and i was like yeah this is great and then i got done with my ball and they're like so what were you doing what were you doing i go i have no idea i was just whacking the ball around and things were activating and I don't understand what was causing him to do that. In between that and being blinded by the super intense LEDs in that game, when it gets like a super, like you achieve something big on that game, it is just epilepsy city on that. There's actually two settings in the operator menu. There's intense and then there's normal for the lighting because it is well, yeah, if it's on intense, I had one of my operator friends here in Brisbane, they're distributed it for Stern up here. So he sometimes gives me a bit of a heads up that they're getting a table in and invites me in to just have a quick look at it before they deliver it. And yeah, that's how I got to play it because they're pretty few and far between here in Brisbane.
    37:28
    But yeah, he switched between the two lights to show me the intensity. I was just like, wow. It's a big difference. If you think about how these tables are being marketed now and the fact that they're being put into game rooms, dark game rooms, it would be an insult on your eyes trying to play this thing over a long period of time in a game room yeah yeah but people really enjoy that you know when adam's family starts flashing up top like that in the game room everybody's kind of like oh what's going on or um is it is it high speed two that has no it's um i think high speed two has a an attract mode with the uh with the big light on top yeah yeah when that thing goes off and uh and um f14 has the frame right there that one is amazing we were all in there the other day playing pinball and that thing was going off and it's hard not to look at it right environment in there like this is yeah everyone's like awesome we're seeing more and more pinball machines now that are being released the new ones coming out with toppers because i think they're realizing the age-old art of toppers is something that really does attract people when they're looking at a table ones i run is like one of the ones you'd love to digitize at some point right yeah that's a cool it's so hard to get a good specimen of though, isn't it? It's really tricky to find a good one.
    38:44
    Yeah. Well, we haven't tried to find one yet, but I've heard that it's going to be difficult when we do try to find one, if we try to find one.
    38:53
    But that's something that's totally possible. Our physics will handle it fine with the ball in the back glass.
    39:02
    Pinball circus though, I don't know if that's necessarily something that will sell well. I'm not sure. It's definitely part of pinball history and very cool. I've had a chance to play it at the Vegas... Pinball Hall of Fame. Yeah, Pinball Hall of Fame in Vegas.
    39:21
    And I think I may... It's also very incomplete. It's a cool table, and I don't know if we're going to be able to do that one, though.
    39:27
    It'll be interesting to see when Circus Maximus finish the, I guess, the re-release and actually get Python's vision and completely implemented into that table with all the features that Python Angelo actually wanted in the table before you know I don know much history on it So he actually had more planned for that table or that machine The one you see at Pinball Hall of Fame is definitely a whitewood. Oh, yeah. So it's a concept table that Python wanted to get through. But Williams, when he presented the concept to them, really were concerned about the bill of materials. And we're wondering if operators would actually cop the extra costs that would be involved in producing it. But now Circus Maximus has been deeply involved with Python Angelo on his deathbed, basically passing over all the information he had on the table, all the features that he wanted into it.
    40:29
    And they've got a plan, basically, to recreate it as Python originally wanted it, without any question about bill of materials costs or anything like that, because it's going to be a bespoke table. It's pretty big. That's huge. So if you were going to target it for conversion, it would certainly be on the Nsense Maximus one that you want to actually get in on, because it is just so... It will be the complete version. I believe it actually has a blessing.
    41:03
    Sorry, say that again, Mike? Circus Maximus, right? Is that what you're saying? Circus Maximus, yeah. They're the company that's basically doing all the funding to get the table produced. So it's another boutique or small-run manufacturer.
    41:21
    So they're looking at getting that up and running with all the toys. It's like when a little bit for those people who don't know about the table, the concept that Python wanted to actually do is to actually have Pinball a little bit more interactive. So Python being a bit risque as well, he has certain interface things that he'd like to introduce, that he would have liked to introduce. So you have to pelvic thrust the machine to activate a snake ball saver in between the flippers. And it was taken out of the whiteboard due to cost, but they plan to actually put that back into the redone table.
    42:10
    And everything is just going to be like down to the letter of what Python wanted. Let's remember, this is the guy that did... It's going to be amazing when they get it done. Yeah, that'll be cool. Maybe that'll actually be something that Farsight might consider or something. I don't know. That's just my opinion when I think about it. I don't really know what can happen. I definitely agree with Colton there and say that that would be something. If it required a Kickstarter, that would be a good win on because it is such a piece of pinball history that it would be just amazing to get into the collection. That is what we want to do. We want to try and preserve pinball history as much as we can. Let's just remember also that... Yeah, that's ultimately the goal of what you guys are doing. Just bust right in.
    42:56
    Hey, man. Are you able to... I realized you guys weren't able to see me or hear me. I was like, I'm trying to talk, and you're not. I'm like... I was going to say, let's remember the... Yeah, we're just like... Yeah, exactly, right? Yeah. Screw that guy. He's not there at all. Yeah. He's just the host. No, I was going to say, just remember that Python's responsible for zingy bingy, and...
    43:16
    Yeah, from Capcom. When you say risque, he was a little off his rocker. So, you know, giving him carte blanche to do whatever the heck he wanted can be kind of... Yeah. Oh, I don't reckon. I think that the thing is that this isn't being produced by Belly Williams, who had a whole lot of commercial concerns to worry about. This is being produced by a group of guys who want to honor Python's original vision for the table. So it's going to be nuts. and that's exactly how it should be. That sounds cool. Which kind of brings me to this because I had this conversation with Mike at Arcade Expo. Our table of the week is going to be Cactus Canyon. Just for you, Mike.
    44:00
    Yes. I had mentioned to you about Cactus Canyon Continued. Right. I was just going to re-drop that in your ear so you can go to Bobby and knock on his office and say, can we please?
    44:16
    I've already been bugging Norman to see if we can get that installed on our, on our cactus Canyon. But I don't know. I'll still, I'll go see, you know, that sounds fun to me.
    44:27
    Well, I just, as I, as I told you, it's just like, it's a shame to own cactus Canyon and not have cactus Canyon continued on it. So I really hope you guys at least get it just for your own sakes. I hope so. I want, I want to mod all the tables. Eventually we haven't been modding anything or, you know, adding like led kits or anything special like that but i i think it'd be something um cool if we could just you know upgrade a table here and there every once in a while and add some cool mods and actually it's funny speaking of like real tables i just wonder um you might not know this uh or know too much about this mike but how's the um the routing operation going up in big bear there with all the tables on location you guys doing all right out of the coin drops uh yeah Yeah, we're getting pretty full. That's good. We're getting full.
    45:16
    For those of you who don't know, Farsight, with their huge collection of tables, they're kind of running out of room. So to combat that and to support the local pinball industry and pay it forward, they're putting their machines that they've got in the collection already on location in bars and clubs up in Big Bear and making the tables, which are a formidable collection of 60 plus now, available to everyone to play up there. And the coin drops, the money earned in the cash boxes, are actually going back into the studio to do other things. What were the things, again, I think you told us last time when you were on. Yeah, I think it's going to be for fixing the tables, upgrading the tables, hopefully.
    46:05
    And maybe even... This is going to be cheap operating them. no no it's not we you know we had a pinball party uh like two fridays ago um and uh you know we had all the tables in the conference room which is our main pinball room we had all of them working perfectly and by the end of the night almost half of them were ready to yeah ready to get yeah they get service pretty often um it's funny because i mean the arcade pinballs they're designed to be flogged to death you know when they were out of the crate fresh they're designed to work all the time. They are mechanical, so you do need to maintain them. But they were also only designed to have a five-year shelf life. That's true. The tables that we have have been around for a long time. We bought them when they were already old and already in arcades for a long time. We're lucky if we get one that was in someone's house for the whole time.
    46:57
    That's right. It's tough keeping them running and keeping them greased. I think that's why a lot of operators these days are looking to the new in-box sterns because of reliability. and just being able to put them on site and have them earn and not really have to do a lot with them because they're not using 20-year-old technology or 30-year-old technology in them.
    47:16
    Yeah, and yeah, it is cool. We're trying to get pinball tables out there because we are running out of space. We've got some in the local sports bar, and we're trying to get some in a pizza place, I think.
    47:27
    And we have, I think, like four or five tables. Yeah. It's a perfect union. Pizza and pinball, you can't go wrong. Now, are you putting a topper on top of them that says, Farsight's Pinball Arcade?
    47:38
    We have little things to say. You can download this table and a QR code on there. We're trying to get people to realize our app and realize pinball. It would be cool if we could turn Big Bear into a pinball area. There's no reason why you couldn't. It could be a destination. It's a very touristy spot.
    48:02
    There's an opportunity for it to really earn up there because it's sort of like a bit of a captive audience once you get up there right so it's particularly in the snow season so yeah we had some kind of arcade where it was just you know it was like an arcade with regular cabinets and stuff too but really emphasis on pinball um that would be that would be pretty cool you know i don't know if anybody wants to do that well it's gonna say don't you have like isn't it i mean probably only a mile away from uh from you guys where the Alpine Sleds or Alpine Slide is.
    48:34
    It's kind of a downhill kid area, you might say, Jared. Not skiing, but inner tubing. During the winter and during the summer, they have a concrete trail that has a toboggan thing on it or whatever. I'd imagine a place like that would be fabulous if you could build an arcade or put an arcade with them.
    48:50
    I think they actually have a Twilight Zone there. I'm just kind of vaguely remembering this, but I think that would be a great place for it. That's a perfect place. They have a lot of cabinets. high traffic. Yeah. Get some warehouse space there and put like 50 tables in there plus some IK cabinets. Man, license to print money.
    49:08
    Claw machines. Hey, we're fast. I don't know with all the edits that's going to take place exactly how long this podcast is, but I was going to say, why don't we wrap up this segment of the actual Pimple Arcade blockade, and we can move into the back room for my other piece. Mike, you can hang around if you want to. Otherwise, we can release you, and you can deal with your four-month-old and the Super Bowl.
    49:41
    Yeah, Super Bowl. I got to go to that. It's going to be fun. Yeah. Awesome. Hey, so, yeah, thank you so much, Mike, for popping in and clarifying some things on the Kickstarter. Hopefully, you guys do succeed with that, and we get to play some Doctor Who. That would be fantastic. yeah i think we will uh i think we will i'm pretty confident that we can succeed here um things are picking up this weekend and maybe the new tiers are going to keep bringing in uh pledges over the week um but one thing i forgot to uh mention is um we're going to be announcing it on on facebook and everything today but this um there's a lunar sale on steam and you guys can all get uh season one two and three for 50 off right now on there and that's the first time I think we put season 3 on sale during Christmas at some point. Sorry, phone blown up.
    50:34
    First season right now, it's a good opportunity to pick up season 3 and 2 and 1 if you guys don't have it yet. It's 50% off, so it's a pretty good deal. Fantastic. That's great. Thanks again, Mike. We shall talk to you again real soon. Thanks for having me.
    50:51
    That'll do it for this blockade. I've been ShutYourTrap, aka chris freebus that has been jared morgues and we will see you all again next week same time hopefully see you later all right bye guys wizard amusement.com the west coast leading classic pinball makers of custom pinball shooter rods and buyer specifications swap out your standard ball plunger with something themed to your specific table installs in less than five minutes with no custom tools even if you don't own Looks great. There's a pinball memento to admire. Prices start at $39. We'll mention Blockade Podcasts and receive 10% off your order. WizardAmusement.com. Sales, restoration, and customization.
    51:39
    Don't forget to leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast hosting service that Blockade is delivered to. We can't improve unless you tell us how. Now stop listening and place the pinball.
    51:54
    you