how you want to start this so this is like a off season sure episode sure you want to be starting something got to be starting something got to be starting something Get out, get out, stuck in the middle. I'm actually really excited to hear all about TPF. Texas Pinball Festival. Did you see any farms? So it was much less farm-like than you might have imagined. Was it a giant parking lot like Chumberg? So basically, yes. ah it's very flat obviously this part of frisco texas where it's 30 minutes from dallas everything's new and corporate and this is like the hotel district so yeah it's kind of similar vibes but there's more vegetation it's a little nicer place to be i guess interesting you know it's had some like modern attention paid to aesthetics and design and streets and stuff like that gotcha kind of easy to get around and so so overall frisco convention vibes better than chalmberg yeah if you take everything else out of the equation like the cities that they're in and getting there and all that kind of stuff yeah just like if you had to stay within the convention area i think i like the texas pinball festival convention center a little better really okay It's like splitting hairs, but it's not quite as big. Right, right. It's a little nicer, just a little nicer. Newer, maybe, more updated. It felt a little more modern, I guess. The bulk of the thing happens in a large open room, similar to Chicago Expo. Right. But around that, there's like a hallway that encircles the entire thing. Oh, that's cool. And that was lined with more vendors and pinball machines. It's kind of like an arena or something. Yeah, so even if the main thing was closed or hadn't opened yet, there was a bunch of pinball machines just encircling it. They were all on free play. Cool. Part of the thing. So Rob Burke's personal hall didn't make an appearance? No. So, you know, Rob Burke's room full of, what, 80 games or whatever. Yeah. Yeah, that did not exist. But there was at least 25 or 30 games just encircling the main convention area. All on free play. All on free play. There was a variety of eras, and they tended to play pretty good. Overall, similar. Yeah, overall similar. Speaking of which, I ran into Rob Burke. He just started talking out of the blue. He's like, you like this game? Wait, at TPF? Yeah, he was at TPF. So he was playing other people's games. We were standing by ABBA, and just a random dude just was like, hey, you like it? And then I look at him, and his name tag says Rob Burke, and I recognize his voice. And I'm like, oh, you're Rob Burke. and he's like yeah yeah i am rob burke that's exactly what he sounds like anyway he was like when am i going to be on your podcast wait that really happened yeah i got his contact wait do you want to call him no not right now so here's a question tpf texas pinball festival not farm compared to expo pinball expo yeah did the games play worse overall i'd have to say yes So, like, you roll up to a game, the chances of it playing not as good are higher. Slightly. At Texas Pinball's farm. Yeah, slightly higher. Okay. Yeah, and I think that's because there's more, you know, people's games that they're bringing in to get admission. Ah, so you bring a game and then you can get in. Gotcha. Yeah, so there was a 10% chance that the game was going to just kind of have a problem. like a flipper being weak or a ball being stuck or something like that and these are the games around the perimeter yeah and there's also just open areas full of pinball machines wow just like rows and rows of machines that people brought and some of them are for sale do they just like bring a game just like roll up drop it anywhere is that i think they have like designated rows yeah and then if you get a booth you can obviously put whatever you want in there But yeah, it was way better than the situation was at PinFest for comparison, for like a ranking. Expo 1, TPF 2, PinFest 3. But the difference between TPF and PinFest was big. Like PinFest, it was very disproportionately old EMs and stuff. and if you're walking down any row of games you're smelling burning coils like i'm just going around like flipping machines off because i can tell that they're like about to catch on fire that was not the situation gotcha in texas like they for the most part played well pin fest it felt like people were bringing their worst games to get in for free and in texas it feels like they were trying to actually show off their cool game cool so there was a lot of like heavily modded games there's a bram stoker's dracula there that was like the most decked out dude i saw it because i was just like oh my god like this hopper everything about it was like the powder coating on the body like on the yeah yeah the apron it had like dracula cut out of metal and then like backlit red looking awesome yeah and then i don't know if you could tell from what you saw but there was a generator hooked up to it with two air hoses yes on either side yes and it like i couldn't figure out if it was timed specifically with a game but it would spray you with air just periodically through amazing to like strong scare you like blow your hair back kind of thing yeah that's what we need man more games should have that you know create like a more immersive experience and make it more challenging right like um yeah it was it was super cool the only thing lacking was i didn't see any fog coming out of it during missed multiball yeah yeah there you go that would have been like the kicker i have seen people do that though amazing yeah that that game was pretty rad like it made me want to get another one real bad dracula i miss you love never dies i miss the music man dude that game ruined me the uh the video mode you shoot the werewolves amazing yeah The only, I would say, the play field on that game is just kind of typical. There's nothing special, really, about the play field. I can't. It's fine. I have no knocks against that game. Not even a little figure that comes in the casket. It's like a Barry O game. He started off making games in the 70s, and he never really lost that 70s sort of vibe. Plus a ramp or two. We need that game back, for sure. we'll get it back going back to pin fest right yeah talking about people bringing their worst games right i don know why it kind of reminded me of for the state fair yeah the day you can bring your canned free yeah i mean i know fest has state fair vibes i was gonna actually say that that in allentown pennsylvania yeah people that don't know about it okay um so yeah you've gone to pin fest expo and then texas pinball festival in that order yep i've only been to expo so i feel like now i've been ruined You kind of have been. I mean, yeah, pin fest. Empty out your pantries. Get those old cans that haven't expired 20 years ago. Get them free. Bring the largest pumpkin that you grew that year. Chicago Expo is still king overall. It's just bigger. There's more people there, more vendors there. Like Stern was at TPF, but it was kind of like an afterthought. They were like sharing a space with Marco. Sure. I saw a couple people from Stern there. I think George Gomez was there. Wait, the GOAT was there? Yeah, they had a little autograph booth or signing thing. I think he was one of the people on that. I didn't see him wandering around. There was a handful of people there, but at Chicago Expo, everybody's there. Rob Burke's Rare Game arcade thing is a big draw. If I could only go to one. Sure. But why not go to both, if you can? or just go to whichever one is closer to you and easier to get to because they're both great so okay but i i think yeah i think pinfest more appeals to like the local people i think last time we you know saw some family at the same time and in that context it's great i guess going back to texas pinball farm yeah aka texas pinball i'm just gonna keep calling it farm because when i think of texas i think of farms and cowboys and beef you know what i mean well i was gonna say I got to see your debut as a tournament commentator slash announcer with Jamie Burchell from One Hole Pinball and Joel Engelbert from Triple Drain Flip N Out Pinball, etc. I was watching it with Sarah and we were like, wow, man, you're like a natural, man. I'm not even trying to gas you up. I'm not trying to glaze you. I'm cutting this out. don't cut it i'm not trying to glaze you man i'm serious like you you looked great man like you actually you're confident you knew what you were talking about you know the first thing i thought about what we definitely have to be well not me i'll be on the sidelines but i'm gonna watch you comment on the pinball olympics there's so many more qualified people well now i know that you were at that caliber you know what i mean i appreciate that you know seriously seriously In real life, the, I don't know, rules to these games the way that some of these guys do. No one does. They pretend they do. It's hard to learn. Like, if you just try to read the rules to a game. It's a lot of games, too. It's hard to do it. You have to have kind of the context of playing it and see it in action to remember that stuff. At least I do. Well, I imagine, like, tournament players that have been playing for, like, 20 years would be the most qualified because they know all these games and whatever. But I forget games all the time, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. How many Diet Cokes did Jamie have? When I got there, this was at like 8 o'clock is when it started. He was already on, I think, number 7. Jeez. And then Joel had gone to the 7-Eleven across the street and asked Jamie if he wanted anything. He brought him back a 2-liter of Diet Dr. Pepper. Wait, Diet Dr. Pepper? I'm sorry, Diet Coke. Oh, okay. Yeah, I mean, by the end of the night, it was a lot. Jamie, if you're listening to this, I will fully back you up if you want to get sponsored. by Diet Coke. I'll help you, you know. I don't know, whatever I can do. And now for a word from our sponsor. Hello. Gotham Corner Store? Yes, we seem to be down to our last Diet Coke. A gentleman is on his way to pick some up. Just look for a black car. No, this black car will be rather difficult to miss. And by the way, the gentleman is usually in quite a rush. Just for the taste of it, Diet Coke! And now, back to the show. I wanted to talk a little bit about how to stay there effectively. You mean like lodging? Yes. Oh, is it tricky? I was pretty late booking this, as usual. And the cheapest hotel was the Holiday Inn Express at Legacy Park. That's what it was called. Oh man, that already sounds bad. It was a .7 mile walk, but it's just like a straight line. You can see one building from the other. you know okay so it's like a 13 minute walk not bad not bad it's like all right that's fine i don't have to get a car but there's several other hotels that are closer and you know you wouldn't have to walk quite as much in total we ended up walking 20 something miles the time that we were there wow over the course of the weekend yeah yeah total you got you guys being you and your brother me and my brother jay yeah it was like averaging five miles a day plus that's nice yeah i mean i don't mind like i always feel good when i have to walk a lot and there's no rush really or anything so it's not stressful this hotel was about 40 or 50 percent cheaper than the next closest one several of them are like basically across the street and i think the cost of the hotel like the embassy suites where it is is only like 170 or 180 a night or something like that so it's not that expensive to even just book the actual location of it but you have to just do it early yeah do it at a time and so the place i got was like 110 a night and it was like under renovation she was like oh which floor do you want to be on i was like i don't know which floor should i be on wait you got the piccola yeah i was like this is weird i was like well is there a great view from the top she's like no it's a parking lot i was like right so she just said you should be on the first floor because you don't deal with the elevator etc but they were like renovating the whole first floor our room smelled like paint and there was like paint dust in all the corners like they never finished vacuuming it out and stuff dude it was kind of nice it was like all brand new stuff we might have been the first people to stay in that room since they updated it but they just didn't clean up very well i don't know if it's discounted because of the renovations and that's why it was cheaper or if it's just because it's crappier what makes it express holiday in express i don't know they have a pool they have a lobby actually on the first floor the ceiling height was like 12 feet so it felt like a big room interesting the staff was all nice they had a church service on sunday they had a church service oh it's texas wow so yeah it had a there was a continental breakfast which we went to on sunday morning and we heard like outs like double doors from the breakfast area church music like modern you know like, hill song there. Yeah, of course. I was like, are there people singing in there? And it's like, no, but they're, like, piping in some other Texas local church. Oh, it's like a quote-unquote live feed. Yeah, and they have, like, a little seating area where you can just, like, watch church. You did have Texas toast for breakfast, right? uh no i had they just served regular toast everywhere don't they have texas toast everywhere in tech i mean no it's a it's a myth that's what i saw on reddit actually oh really i follow this like bread subreddit and apparently like texas reddit so yeah it must have been a lie then i guess fake news anyway so when we obviously there was a lot of like pinball people staying at the hotel and so we just were like leaving our room and there was like a couple pinball guys who had just come in who seemed like they were you know late 40s early 50s they're wearing their pinball gear and they're talking about pinball to the receptionist girl okay and he's got a jaws shooter rod in his hand and he's like gesturing to this girl and then he's like she's feeling his shooter rod he's like just feel it put your hands on it whoa and i was like whoa this is like really hardcore what was her face like she was just like laughing and smiling i was like wow do you do you think she had any idea what i mean it was just so blatant what the heck like it was pretty hilarious i was cracking up did you have like the spring and everything like attached to it or just no it was just the straight up rod it was like the shaft and the rubber tip good lord Feel my shooter rod. She's like, ooh. Weird. That's so weird. It was the weirdest way to hit on somebody that I've ever seen. It seemed to all be in good fun. Holiday Inn Express. She willingly felt the rod. At the Holiday Inn Express? At the Holiday Inn Express. If you could present a pinball part to a staff member at a hotel lobby or checking into a hotel room or something, what would be your pinball part that you would show? I don't want to say the obvious thing. What's the obvious thing? Balls. Oh, just like three pinballs. Like a pocket full of balls. A pocket full of balls. Yeah. Which actually, those are cool because they're like steel, shiny. Right. Yeah. You could have like three of them in your hand and do a little swirly relaxation fidget thing. I was thinking like plastics. You know what I mean? Check out my plastics. Yeah. Check out my plastics. Look at this cool parrot from this game called Black Rose. Pull the like 16-inch long parrot. yeah look out of your pocket this is pinball what are you talking out of here i think you're insane yeah i mean what what could you bring that would actually make anyone think of pinball other than pinballs and maybe the shooter maybe a shooter rod there is no one definitive part right that guy must just carry that shooter rod around with him all the time in his pocket always got a shooter rod in his pocket it's like his go-to was it like a short shooter rod yeah i mean the whole thing was like maybe like the little ones like the shorter one no it's like a medium size it seemed like it was six to eight inches so he probably does carry in his pocket often yeah yeah mr shooter on i know what you're doing i see what you're doing there how many cowboy hats did you see airport included very few okay like i don't even remember seeing any how many whataburgers did you see so we did go to a whataburger did you have Whataburger? Yes. Well, not a burger. You didn't have a burger? Don't tell me you had a chicken sandwich or something. Get out of here. Did you have the chicken tender sandwich? No, it was like a spicy chicken sandwich. Oh, okay. What did Hacker J think about Whataburger? I think we both thought Whataburger was just fine. It was just like fine. It's like elevated McDonald's. What? Yeah. Dude, you're about to get some hate right now, dude. Dude, it's not that great. Also, In-N-Out's not that great. Oh! Shots fired, dude. Shots fired. Now, I would rather... I don't think I want to do this podcast anymore. ...Burger as better than In-N-Out. Dude, I definitely don't want to do this podcast anymore. I don't want to be associated. I don't want to be affiliated. The views of Matt do not necessarily align with the views of Don right now. I mean, so cookout is significantly better than any of those. Wow. Not even close. I can't agree with you, man. Yeah, well, you haven't had cookout enough. It's a different thing for me. I cannot compare them. Well, cookout is an East Coast chain. I would say it's like a Southern treasure. But I think people who don't know about cookout are missing out because that's the best fast food. people out west i've heard know about cookout as a rumor right through online social media stuff like joe biden came to north carolina he stopped at cookout and like all these famous people come by and they'll have a cookout tray honestly it is sometimes an underrated and underappreciated gem because we have easy access to it yeah but um you know like like a buddy of mine uh cole remember we yeah yeah hung out with them in charlotte yeah drummer yeah we used to live in florida right so we went on tour and we came through north carolina and i forced him to get cookout and we had cookout three days in a row okay they opened one up in nashville oh yeah he was living in nashville at time he was so stoked that i think he waited in line and was texting me saying he was like basically ready to have his first cookout train nashville but it is incredible i'm not gonna lie to you like but for me it's two different things man for me it's like a california burger versus like a southern burger it's the same as like a mexican taco versus like a taco bell taco you can't compare them i mean they serve the same function but what a burger is trash now what i mean what a burger is fine actually i would i would go to what a burger over most fast food places it's just like when you compare it to cookout it doesn't you know it's it's also not as good as like shake shack what a burger is fine i agree with you the shake was just like a McDonald's shake. The fries were like soggy McDonald's fries. The good thing about it, which makes it worth going there maybe, is that they're open 24 hours. And also they let you put like random toppings on your burgers. I actually quite enjoyed my spicy chicken sandwich, but that's mostly because I put like jalapenos and barbecue sauce and grilled onions and like all these random things you can add. There you go. So you basically Frankensteined your chicken sandwich. Yeah, it was good. So not Whataburger's recipe. I don't know what people actually like at Whataburger. Like Hacker J's burger just looked like a Whopper or something, you know? Yeah, when I lived in Florida, there was a local Whataburger close to me, and I would eat it all the time, and that's why I'm somewhat familiar with it. But yeah, it was fine. You're right. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. They have like the same logo as Wonder Woman and Weezer for some reason. And now for a word from our sponsor Hello I Young MC with a story to tell I just got a free cup from Taco Bell And MTV makes the whole thing fun Buy a giant size Pepsi and you get one Four cups in all, so don't stand still. And if you have an empty cup, you get a free refill. Go to Taco Bell and you'll see it's true. They got these four cups there just for you. Taco Bell only has them for a limited time. That's why I'm coming to you with a limited rhyme. To get these cups, you gotta place your order. So take my advice, you better run for the border. And now, back to the show. So, they did have some new games. One was Evil Dead. Oh, Evil Dead. I forgot about that game. Are we ever going to get one here, locally? I don't know because Boxcar hasn't gotten the last couple spooky games. I haven't seen them, yeah. And prior to that, whenever there was a tournament, they wouldn't play any of the spooky games because they were so unlikely to work correctly. I suspect they may have just stopped carrying spooky games, unfortunately. Well, did you get to play it? Yes. Okay. I played it maybe more than any other game. Whoa. Yeah. Wait, are you like a spooky fan now? Are you Team Spooky? kind of yeah like i'm team spooky i've been team spooky i will let you get this game don oh man okay that's that's great dude that's positive i'm not gonna be throwing shade like i do with halloween so it must flow better much better cool it feels like another evolution for spooky that's great man so it's a wide body i don't know if you caught that i didn't know that yeah no but yeah evil dead was really surprising cool i mean honestly man my opinion right and i've seen it happening with looney tunes aka texas chainsaw massacre it's like all they were missing for me to like fully get behind was the flowy kind of fun like just playability of the playfield the overall interaction of the ball and the shots and like it feels like they're slowly going in that direction yeah so this this wasn't as like weird of a play field as texas chainsaw or looney tunes like that one's got some really different kind of like ball paths and stuff evil dead is more normal of a layout i would say cool there's nothing like you know mind-blowing in terms of where the shots go or the returns are anything like that but it does shoot well there's a whole lot of stuff to shoot at there's a third flipper like above the main flipper it's like a mini flipper i did see in the trailer yep yeah and you can use it to shoot almost anything on the left side of the play field but mainly like there's these targets that are moving back and forth with a hand you want to hit all the drop targets and there's a hand behind it that you can hit you can hit it hit all that stuff from the main flipper too it's just more of like a tip of the flipper shot sure so it's i don't know it's a little gimmicky i guess but it's cool it's kind of fun it's a separate button though obviously the flipper is a separate button yeah because otherwise it's too close to the regular flipper that it would just get in the way all the time sure actually the game just felt over the top in a lot of ways in a good way yeah it has a lower play field too and it was cool but it was also like if it didn't have that lower play field i don't think anybody be complaining because it had so much stuff in it see that's why i like spooky man because they ain't they ain't scurred you know what i mean but i'm glad they went down with the playfield instead of up because that feels like a better right you know reliability wise but yeah it has like a mini flipper and a full-size ball in the lower playfield what about the audio so you know it's hard to hear it in there but i could i could hear the call outs occasionally and it was funny yeah that was my hope yeah it was really funny it was bruce campbell yeah doing the voices and it was actually him or like actually from the movie i think it was new audio from him cool because he was saying stuff specifically about the game and pinball and stuff like that amazing i can't wait to play that it's got yeah it's got a little rocking chair in a house i remember shoot it back there and the ball it's like a ball lock but that little chair rocks back and forth i remember It reminds me of the world under glass kind of stuff that we like. It just feels like the most cohesive, least clunky, best shooting spooky game. Even though it's a wide body, it didn't play floaty or anything like that. Man, that's fun. That's cool. Yeah, definitely the standout. I probably had my most fun games the whole time probably playing Evil Dead. I can't wait to play that game. it's just it feels like the perfect pinball theme like as much as i was kind of hating on it before because i'm tired of horror themes i knew it man i knew it right away because it's quirky yeah it's not overly serious like texas chainsaw right you know it's gory but like in a cartoonish way that movie is pinball yeah that movie is very pinball and like playing it as a pinball machine feels completely right i bet that's a great horror theme that's a great spooky theme dude honestly right think about it yeah like as a brand right i think i heard them say while we were there that they already sold out i saw that yeah on social media or something i saw that they had like i don't know what the quantity was but that's must have been a lot of machines i don't even think they've sold out of texas chainsaw or looney tunes yet amazing man congrats congrats spooky team i appreciate that you ain't scarred you know what i mean i hope you get to play one but i don't know if we're going to have one locally, especially if they're sold out already. I'll find one. Yeah. I will find one. I'm sure somebody will get one, but we'll have to seek it out. I will find one. Hopefully it doesn't become one of these extremely expensive games. Right. Let me ask my mom. So that was part one of our Texas Pinball Festival recap. In part two, we'll talk about more new games, what else to do while you're in Texas, and some serious body horror. Production on season two of the podcast is in full swing, so be ready for that by following us here on YouTube, on Instagram, at Bash Pinball. Oh, and always remember, I just got a free cup from Taco Bell. Leave this territory now. Return to your home. evacuate all personnel