The Pinball Network is online. Launching Pinball Party. Buckle up, dickbags. We're going to start talking about Foo Fighters Pinball. Basically, immediately, why? My premium came about 27 hours ago? and I came to that's right and it's by choice no one is forcing me to play it except for myself my brain keeps saying that was fun, play it again and then that was fun play it again okay I'll just keep playing it over and over and over Jesus, this game is good. Welcome to episode 28 of the Pinball Party Podcast. My name is Jason. I'm nobody, but this nobody has some advice. Some immediate advice. Call it professional. Call it friendly. Call it unsolicited advice. Here's my advice. Text Zach at FlippinOutPinball or go to their website or go to Facebook and order Foo Fighters. Stern's Foo Fighters get a premium if you can or a pro or a fucking LE I don't know maybe he's got one in his ass or vault or ass vault whatever he's got it go buy one from Flip N Out Pinball come on ah yeah oh yeah when I buy my pinball shit I buy from Flip N Out Pinball from Topper's Artblade Premiums I've got it figured out Flip N Out Pinball figured out when i think of pingwall i think flipping out flipping out figured out when i buy buy buy i buy from flipping out well assuming you just bought one in the last 30 to 45 seconds you're welcome i did you a favor this game it um all right so i'm in the super honeymoon period it's been 27 hours like i mentioned. It came yesterday. Again, it came. I came. Got it from Flip N Out Pinball. Thanks again. It arrived perfectly. No issues. All that. It is such a fun game. I'm trying to organize my thoughts to kind of say why it is. Let me tell you the one negative thing to get it out of the way. My dead post wasn't super consistent. The first time it hit perfectly, I was giddy. I audibly smiled and made a little giggle. But then if it was too fast, it was jumping up and hitting the bottom of my left flipper. If it was too slow, it kind of dribbled and didn't make it. Well, I was chatting with Ray Day a little bit, and he gave Jack Danger a heads up that someone he knew was having issues. So I emailed him, and he responded immediately with a fix. He's like, oh, yeah, just push the apron head a little bit. My ball was hitting the dead post a little low. so if anyone is having issues with the dead post not being consistent the apron that kind of guides the ball to it you can loosen the nut underneath the play field and forcefully push it ahead a little bit and then retighten it and it lines up the ball a little better with the dead post it fixed mine immediately so the negative i had to talk about is gone it turned into a positive jack danger was super responsive he even apologized like don't don't fucking apologize this game's the shit just small issue and it's fixed now so there you go small problem aside i love so many things about this game full transparency maybe you're wondering am i blinded by the love for the band or the music no I would be and I would disclose that if this was a tool pinball machine or a green day or pink floyd or porcupine tree if anyone listens to porcupine tree those would be like hey this game could be dog shit and I'd love it no uh Foo Fighters is probably my top 10 fans of all time so it's up there and don't get me wrong like the 90s grunge catchy rock all that kind of stuff is my bag baby doesn't hurt This is probably my favorite band theme tied with Rush as far as the actual music. So no, what I'm about to say is strictly gameplay and aesthetics and shots and layout and code. All of it. The theme just helps. The theme is a non-issue. If anything, it's just a positive. What do I like about the game? First and foremost, if you're looking at it, the art's great. Zombie Yeti is colorful. You know, cool. There you go. It's great. uh subjective i know but it's not like um bond you know where maybe you can kind of see some corners cut etc um or walking dead which i don't know i actually kind of like walking dead so maybe not that visually great the animation's great but all that aside nothing compares to how this game plays and the the rules slash code oh my god uh all right first the shots let's just go from left to right the left snake around what do you call that shot? the crossover shot that's to the very left of the left ramp it's like an orbit spot on the tip of the flipper but when you hit it it is every time it's making that full almost an S shot all the way up to your upper right flipper, every time the only time it's not as if it's like a weak shot but the shot still counts but every time you give it just normal amounts of power it makes it all the way so it's a good setup shot for the upright flipper i can't believe how consistent that shot is i just didn't expect that to happen that shot's great the left ramp is like a combination of a scoop and a perfect ramp in the right spot it has that backhand backhand scoop feeling to start the van modes just great it's a great shot. You can bank on it every time. It's probably the easiest shot in the game, I would think. Well, that or the center spinner. Going to the right, then you have the three drop targets and the large target behind it to level up your van. That's probably my favorite part of the game is leveling up the van. If you're a fan of The Walking Dead, it takes that kind of roaming if it's food, supplies, health. Once you hit it, it stops on there and then you hit the rest of them. You know, that's kind of how it generally works on this. That's how it drops those down, and then you can start hitting the target behind it to level up. There is whatever they're called, speakers, shields, and bombs, something like that. When you level up the bombs, you get shots taken off of your mode, a.k.a. makes the mode easier. Shields, when you level that up, I don't even remember which one is what, but good thing. I like it so much that I printed out a full-color glossy manual for myself and just kind of left it on the counter for when the bandmates were coming over and they were super excited to play it. So I wanted them to see the rules as easy as they could and Dana. And kudos to Stern for the PDF out there, the full-color rules. All right, page three. The engine is time. So when you level that up, you get time. The speakers is for the score and the bomb is the less shots progress. so that the three bank, the three drop targets and that is kind of, I mean, it's optional. I don't even know if it's kind of, I think it's totally optional. If you want your modes to get you a lot more points or last or not last, or have more time or make it easier, focus on that before you start a mode. Drop the targets, hit that thing, yellow, green, blue, more blue, purple, red. It's pretty addicting when you realize like, I want to go into this mode, load it up. You know, I more often than not want bombs just because I want to hit less shots and make progress and try to get to the wizard modes. But when you get like two of them red, you're like, oh, no, no, no. I'm getting the third red. I'm a baller. I'm a G. I'm going to get in this and do it. So it's really addicting. It's a risk-reward. And what's nice is when you drain, let's say you get your bombs to red, meaning you leveled them up all the way, and you get your engine to blue. I don't know. and you drain fuck well it saves that progress so next time you can start you can start hitting it and keep building towards it which thank you so much for doing that if that would have reset i don't know i don't think it would be as addicting because i mean it's still risk reward but it's also like you know it banks it so awesome no pun intended bank moving on to the right um i guess i'll just kind of say visually because there's a couple shots before this um the center spinner man that's in the sweet spot of either flipper similar to the jurassic park spinner for those that know that it's very intuitive to hit and when you hit it i believe it's an opto spinner um 99 sure that fucker just spins for days spins for days really satisfying to hit it's your um setup to the upper right flipper if you're not using the crossover shot so yeah that spinner just what a great spinner and then to the right is the overlord stuff the hit the targets on the either side of him and then lock the ball and then bash that I haven't played a pro so if any I know you know the differences the upper play field and the dead post and the sculpts but if there's anything to do with the magnet or heart locks in there forgive me but at least on the premium the sculpt is awesome it's no joke it's not like some games let's take deadpool for example great game pro is great premium is great the sculpts are great you know but they're not i mean they're i shouldn't say they're great they're wonderful they're very nice they're they're great you know molds on this one it's huge it's this big fucking overlord it looks like a million bucks i i don't know that and when it moves and kind of jiggles and boom boom boom and with the magnet going it's it's awesome um it's it's up there in some of my favorites of the premium features. And generally, like 3D sculpts, they're like, yeah, that's pretty nice. It's a nice to have. This one is, I guess I'd just say, a super nice to have. To the right of the Overlord, there's a shot that you can't really aim for with the crossover shot. And then to the right of that is the right ramp that leads you up to the upper play field. Area 51, that's kind of your other main shot for multiball. And maybe it's because I play a lot of Jurassic Park and that ramp is in a similar spot. I don't really have an issue with hitting it. I know some others have said that. It's not as easy as the left ramp, but to me, it's just enough challenging. You don't want every shot to be as easy as the left ramp or the center spinner. I find the shot really satisfying. That is the right orbit. We'll get to the upper play field in a second. The right orbit is, for me, the hardest shot. again it's kind of similar to um the o target uh or the or the o shot is it oh yeah on jurassic park it's tight it's i think it's not as tight that's what she said as the jurassic park but it's somewhat at least for me again 20 27 hours i've played i'd say 50 games um over and over and over if i didn't make that clear and then to the right of that is a bunch of shots you're not really aiming for. There's the up-kicker, whatever, there's the rock, whatever they call it. Let me look at my handy manual of the things to the right of that up-kicker shot. It has something to do, the rock-a-meter, rock-a-fuck-a-meter. Here we go. Just going through my manual here. The rock-a-meter. Shoot the right orbit when the battery insert is lit to enable three levels of rock-a-meter located just past the plunger lane. roll over the... I'm still getting used to some of those rules, but there's a whole I'll say kind of convoluted area where you're not really aiming for it, except for the bot target, right? Is that what that is? It's where you get the extra ball. It's the mystery award. It's not a scoop, which normally it is. It's to the right. It's over in that area. That you can aim to, and it's just a stand-up target, and that's where your extra ball is, and your mystery, and all that. Let's go back up to the right ramp. That upper play field is it my favorite upper playfield in all of pinball um it's let's see let's work through this uh shadow well shadow's kind of badass that's got its whole thing going on twilight zone is is very you know i mean that's novel i don't know here's what i like about i should say the upper left play field a lot. If you hit the right ramp and do nothing, it's just like the pro. It's just as fast, goes right through it. Nothing. Cool. Whatever. So sometimes in multiball, you got six balls flying at your face. That's what she said, and you don't notice it. It just keeps coming back. But if you do, you can... It's really fast and satisfying. You can get it looping up there quite a bit with a little flippy flappy. And so it's like if you don't use it, it's great. It's still fast but if you do use it and you can spend some time and you can get the feel of the shots you can keep it up there not not scooby-doo style at all like you got to be on your on your on your ball pun intended fuck fuck the puns jesus um but yeah the upper play field is fast it's really intuitive and there's there's two lock targets there's a center little loopy and there's outside loop to start area 51 multiball it's just great i don't i can't imagine no offense to the pro having to just hit that ramp over and over to start multiball it just wouldn't feel as satisfying to me i think that upper play field is is fantastic and more than anything worth the premium i love it um and and when uh zach was playing it zach um in neon dale their audio engineer bass player guy uh he's like what is that thing up there that's awesome the area 51 and he doesn't know what to call it. That's an upper play field. He's like, oh, that's really cool. I want to get up there again. And he doesn't have any skin in the game. He's just like, yeah, man. I like... Okay, so then there's the inside loopy shots. The middle ramp, I guess, is the one that you call it. And then the inner orbit, let's say, they're intuitive. I don't know. So like, you know how in Iron Maiden, that inner loop shot, I guess that's what we'll call them, those warp ramp type shots. The Iron Maiden warp ramp shots are pretty intuitive, like the spot on the flipper. This one is too. As much so, like you can hit that loop over and over and over. Like it goes fast. And a lot of times you can hit it once and hold the flipper and it'll go right around again. kind of like the Wizard of Oz loop around the house if it got enough speed So that really satisfying Or if you need to set up a shot and get it into the side ramp that feeds back to your right flipper even though it just a subtle difference it's pretty consistent when you get it and then it goes all the way back to the right flipper. Yeah, okay, so all the shots are great. And I mentioned a little bit of the, what's going on, I guess, code rules. I mentioned leveling up the van. It's the best. Oh, I missed the UFO shot. which is a captive ball, kind of. It's like a captive ball slash in Ghostbusters where you hit a ball behind it, Newton ball-ish, that's free to flop around in there. Essentially, when you hit it, you build up your UFO meter. Your UFO builds up spot-a-shots. You can use them in pre-van modes to spot the white shots or in van modes to hit the most, I think it's the most valuable shot. Kind of like the boom button or in jackpots and all that. I know you can't start a mode with it, and I don't think you can get a super jackpot as well. But the UFO shot builds up your spot of shots, and it'll go from green, yellow to red. Red means you have three. And so if you bash the UFO a bunch before you start a mode, this is what I'm just saying. This is my favorite way to play it so far. Here's my little strategy. It's probably not the best points, but it's the most satisfying. I bash that UFO. Captive ball shot, which you can be sloppy and hit that thing. Bash it a bunch to get all my spot of shots. In the meantime, I'm leveling up my van, preferably the bombs. So then when I start a mode, like half the shots are already done. And then I got half the shots just banked up on my spot of shots. So I'll just like hit one or two shots if I even need to, depending on the mode. and then I'll hit the button, hit the action button, then bash the overload right in the sack and the mode's over and I feel great. It's fucking great. In fact, I texted Ray Day. I know I say this name a couple of times. If anyone doesn't know who Ray Day is, Raymond Davidson, one of the coders on the game. So I was telling him my kudos, like, hey, I really like this design. That's my favorite way to start playing. Yeah, I want to get a play field multiplier going too, but let's just save that. You can see how you would stack everything. Get multiball close to ready, start a mode, get your UFO shots, build up your van, then start a multiball and just party, party on Wayne, party on Garth. Shots are great. I love leveling up the van. I love hitting the UFO. Qualifying a van, which is your modes, is intuitive to those who have played recent Sterns, especially Elwynn's games where there's like three white shots to start it. Then there is the combo stuff. They're like little DNA kind of... Not DNA, right? Little molecule symbols. The combo system is really neat and very forgiving in a great way. I don't like combos in games where you can't hit anything in between it. Any slingshot cancels it. You wait more than one second. This game is a pretty forgiving time to keep getting combos and build it up all the way to red. again the color scheme is red is the ultimate of whatever it is it feels so good so you get sometimes mesmerized but like i'm just okay i'm in combo mode i'm just hitting flow shit here i go and just like i know i could be doing modes it might not be the most point value but like that's where the fun comes in you're just having fun hitting the ball around this fucking thing all over the place s shots loop shots crossover shots and then if it you know now my dead post is fixed so you're hitting all these shots and then it drains. Nope, fuck you, ball, come back on the play field. Let's keep going. Man, it's great. So that's the way I like to play. Those are the shots. It's a mode-based game. It's very intuitive. It's got the modes. It's got the multiball. It's got a couple mini wizard modes, which I've gotten to. And they're fun as hell. It's got the... I don't even know if I want to say it for the people who haven't played it. uh yeah because when it when it hit um bot frenzy is that what it's called uh the song you'll know when you hear it um it's great that was a nice surprise the hidden gems the humor the animation again i mentioned this earlier just kind of come in full circle when the band rest of them saw it who don't have you know they're um on the side they see me doing pinball so they're not super interested but they see the games come and go but this one they're the most excited for just watching like all these animations are incredible and they're foo fighters fans so to them this was something they wanted to pay attention to they really liked it um of course the music they liked and all that but i don't know i again there's my day one impressions um you know honeymoon phase sure am i a foo fighters fan yes but this is i am the best first impression I've had on a pinball machine could be yet um I guess my first impression was at MGC but I played like kind of half of one game and it was I didn't really get to play I didn't know what was happening I didn't hear the music anything it's on on location is not you know indicative of of opinions on a lot like Jurassic Park in the past I played that on in location and I hated it. In fact, it's my favorite game. But this is the like, jeez, man. The closest game that had the best first impression on me was Stern Star Trek. But this is either the best first impression I've had or tied with it. Iron Maiden was another really close, like, wow, this game is something special. But yeah, I could go on and on, but this is a home run. I like it better than Godzilla easy I like Godzilla but this this game is just great I don't want to over hype it it's just you know I'm positive on a game when I'm positive I'm lukewarm when I'm lukewarm I'm negative when I'm negative and this one I'm just I don't see how with the code going even more in depth or adding more can make it any worse it can only make it better It's at .93 as of this recording, and it feels way more complete than Bond. I mean, what are we talking about here? I'll just leave it at that and update as I go. This is actually just like two days after the last podcast, so I'm going to stop here and resume in a week or in a few days when I do the rest of the podcast and give my updated impressions then. But for now, this is a way to go. Way to go, Jack Danger and Ray Day and Tanya and team and Mike Vinikour. Let's get those expression lights because I want to fucking see that shit. God, yeah. What the fuck? It's already this good. And all we have left are additions to make it better. Fuck me. We're going to have expression lighting. We'd have more code. Holy shit. And just as bugs get figured out or fixes, it'll just get better. I don't know. I'll shut up. It's great. Go buy one. Go buy two. Yeah, get two of them. Fuck it. Sell one on the side. Play them at the same time. Whatever. Foo Fighters. It's great. Oh, yeah. I'm going to have to make some custom code. No offense out there and put Big Me in it. But, hey, you know, that's me. that's big me now we're done with Foo Fighters no we're not well it is now officially three days after I just recorded that well we are, don't worry we're going to do this in about 30 seconds we're about three days away from what I just recorded saying I'm done with Foo Fighters talking about it today let's see how it held up the last three days still an A fucking plus A plus the game's the shit I still like playing it I haven't even thought about listing it which for me is pretty great people of course many people have already said oh when are you going to sell it in 36 hours I know you you're going to sell it in 2 days how about you is it already left all that shit yeah I mean still got it I really would like to hold it until at least expression lighting comes because I just keep enjoying it it's very intuitive it's very fun to shoot still so there you go honeymoon phase still yep still great but i guess speaking of those that can't just they can't help themselves but say online oh what's your problem you always get rid of games after you say you love it in like a week yeah that's true i don't know why there's always a negative connotation about that you know i guess from the bolters or for lack of a better phrase the people that just can't seem to wrap their minds around some of us that just you know get rid of games quickly that just to them like oh that's so weird it's like they've seen an alien i can't i can't even take it it's so weird is it is it really weird so let's take away the fact that the games are expensive and they're heavy because that's true but let's just take that aside it's a game right it's a game It's a game. You have probably in your house Monopoly, right? You probably maybe have Sorry, a cribbage board, a chess board. Some of us, not me actually, but some chess players play the shit out of chess. I get it. Deep as hell. Play it every day. Play it all the time. That's fucking awesome. So you keep that game forever. How about Monopoly? You play in that game all fucking five years straight every other day, just playing that game all the time. You fucking love Monopoly. Game's not really that deep, right? It's just a game that you play once in a while. Some pinball games are like that. I love Mario 3. I love Super Mario World. I like Ninja Gaiden. I like plenty of video games like a lot of us. Do I play the games for two years straight and it's always just sitting? Well, okay, if the game, let's make it equal. If the game was the size of a pinball machine, Mario 3, would I have it sitting in a room taking up space, a large chunk, for, I guess, to these people that's normal, I guess, a couple years? Maybe that's the question. I guess maybe you need to figure out. Figure it out. What the acceptable amount of time is for someone to keep a game before they sell it, before the masses will give them shit. Because I don't know what it is. it seems to be like uh there's some i i i i've never seen this in any other hobby be it music video games woodworking i guess just things that i fishing uh skiing snowboarding skateboarding i guess i'm just saying things that i've been into in my life for either like an obsessive amount of time or whatever this has never been a thing like well you just got that last week how come you got rid of it oh my god what's fucking wrong with you it's so weird um so yeah maybe if if all those out there who don't or can't see eye to eye with those that get rid of games quickly to the to the point where you find them online and like give them shit in public forums um i know it's some of it's in jest and i mean in jest do i but really i don't know i i know plenty Robert Blakeman who was on here last week keep a game for long maybe maybe not who cares why are you tying your identity to a heavy pinball machine? Is it because you have so much money invested that you feel like I have to keep it because I put so much money into it? Let go of that belief, that antiquated feeling. You don't have to. You could spend 20 grand on something tomorrow. And if you can resell it for 20 grand the day after, what if you change your mind? Okay, sell it. Why not? What's the problem? I don't get it. You have one life to live. at some point you're going to be on your deathbed and i know i've probably brought this up in the past but like i'm not going to be looking back at well i'm sure glad i kept that game for an extra three months even though i never fucking played it because you know i really i had it you know i had that thing at one point i owned a thing i don't think us as mammals are uh our evolution is like we gotta own a thing i know there's some leftovers from the great depression and nothing not to take that lightly, you know, of like stuff matters. Sure. But any of those out there that are raising children, I would say from, I don't know, five years old to my daughter, who is almost 20, that generation does have something figured out, which is you don't have to own stuff to be happy. You don't. It doesn't. To be fair, it's because they have a phone that can do everything that they need it's their social it's their entertainment it's to keep their mind stimulated if they want to learn if they want to listen to music if they want to they want to mindlessly watch whatever so take the phone away you know or that life being brought up in that and maybe they'll feel a little differently but my point is i don't like making points but whatever i don't know it doesn't matter that i guess now even i do a podcast or that i just you know wear it on my sleeve or say it loud and proud right like i buy and sell games quick who gives a shit i don't i fucking love it i don't like being tied to stuff but apparently some people out there just i can't take it i gotta call this guy out all the time i don't know man hey uh i'm glad you're having fun with pinball but it seems like maybe you're taking a little too serious or if you think i'm like saying i love a game just to up the price and sell it like and take a look at the prices i'm not making shit I'm usually losing. I just love it. I consider, hey, maybe this game cost me $100 to rent for two weeks. Totally worth it to me. I don't give a shit. It's a good time. You know what's not a good time, though? Holy shit. For those who have been paying attention, listening to me saying, oh, there's this one thing I got screwed on recently, or, oh, man, people aren't always honest. I'll talk about it later. I'll talk about it later. Well, guess what? it's time to talk about it. Yeah! About how I got fucked directly and deeply into the anal cavity. To do that, I will be accompanied by my friend Summer Freeze Mountain Dew Zero. I'm trying to taste like those red, white, and blue popsicles, I believe, yes, of the... Well, I think they still make them. I gotta get my caffeine before 1pm so I can sleep whatever fuck it what am i talking about tron i got fucked on a tron here's what happened i'm not going to call their name out on pin side or in real life because it just even though i probably should or whatever or steer clear or whatever if you reach out to me privately maybe i'll tell you or like hey is this the one just yeah maybe i'll say but i'm not going to i'm I'm going to draw the line there. But here's what happened. I was looking for a Tron for a while. Those who have listened to the podcast have heard me talk about, yeah, hey, I'm excited for one. And maybe I was going to get Ray Days. And then that didn't work out for nothing against that. It's just I found a different one. Great. What did I find Well I found a Tron that was listed that had everything included that you would want in a Tron For those who don know you probably want the LE ramps the optical lights on the ramps that light up It a very sought mod You can get it anymore it had that it had the hallmark lighted bikes it had lick flipper buttons it had it had all the stuff you'd want you know and it was listed at a price as such it was listed at 10 000 us dollars which is slightly high but really not like that's kind of in the pocket for what it would cost for a tron listed as great condition let me let me read the ad right oh of course it's been slightly edited now that i pull it up as it would uh it was firm by the way price 10 000 uh tron pro lots of mods mirror blades uh listed and vaguely at great condition will ship it by his expense no trades all that great condition fantastic all this 10 000 you know all that cool wonderful i first send a message saying hey you know i'm interested in all that and to be fair he's like okay let's get in conversation let's talk and all that uh you know i asked all these questions i said my main thing is play field where as long as it doesn't play field where i'm cool um how's this how's that answered sent pictures sent me a video i was like hey i can facetime if you'd like i'm like nah i mean the video's fine and all this and you're saying it's in great condition and talked to him on the phone he's clearly like i'll say one of us or one of me's been doing this for a while knows what he's talking about and all that and it's like oh great great he's got a couple feedback and i had to get it shipped i was like okay cool so immediately confirmed and you know got videos like looks good as long as you know there's no ghosting and there's no nothing cool all right um send the money you know he wrapped it so good to ship it you know all that totally great 10 out of 10 didn't have to wrap it as much as he did he bulletproof wrapped it did all that was man this is great turned out great i know i knew if i sold it locally, I'd probably lose the shipping. Maybe. Maybe I'd lose like $400 to $500 maybe. Or maybe not because it was kind of close. I was always cool with that. So I wait. It took a long time. Nothing against him, but I was excited. I get it and all that. I open it up and it's all great. It's dirty and he said before, I haven't cleaned it. I was like, no, don't worry about it. I'll clean it. The black powder and all that. I kind of like it. It's satisfying sometimes to clean a new game and get all that done. So I was totally cool with that. And so I open it and I'm cleaning it and I'm like, oh, fuck again there's a couple people lined up honestly who had dibs when i was done with it because that's what i do a lot of times of like line something up to make sure i i can easily sell a game or move it on because i don't like to like okay and i'm wiping it and i'm wiping and i feel a little like a little notch like what what oh i look whoa oh just a little nick in the playfield um up by the i don't even know what it's called you know up the center shot the disc shot whatever you guys know what it is it's like oh my god right in the middle of kind of playfield is about the size of i don't know like a half a grain of rice it's small but i'm like uh what i'm like it's a little thing in the play field ah shit my heart just sinks because like i'm willing to pay top dollar i knew it wasn't home use only technically but i was willing to pay top dollar on something that had it was great condition and all that send a video show but what do you need all like cool um great condition and that value assumes and like play field where that there wasn't any like we said and in my head i'm like okay this is like minor enough to where like maybe i can overlook i'm like all right oh my god my heart sinks like all right i keep wiping it and then i find an insert uh right by the upper left flipper that had where down to the wood where you could see the wood right through it oh that's nice oh cool i'm gonna kill myself what the fuck um so my heart sinks even further i'm like son of a bitch um i just paid top dollar for a top dollar quality Tron and this is player's condition with insert and playfield wear. Oh god. So I'm of course upset and angry and I'm like, well, all right, what do I do here? I figure, why not just communicate with the person? So I say, and here's the text, I'll just read it. Well, it got here in one piece safely, but I can't say I'm too thrilled with insert and playfield wear that I was unaware of. Through the clear coat and through the paint, for $10,000, I assumed, quote, great condition, quote, meant the playfield did not have chipping or wear. And I sent two pictures of the playfield wear, circled, and I said, I'm going to keep looking. Hopefully that's it, but we're going to have to figure something out. Figure something out here. Figure it out. And he says, I can see those little two spots in my photos on Pinside, which I went back and like, all right, if you zoom in like a thousand times, you can kind of see a blurry almost. You can't. And there you go. So I said, playfield chipping is always disclosed in my experience and affects the price significantly. And, you know, he said, so he says back, I understand. I didn't even I didn't disclose them because I didn't see them. Just send it back and I'll refund you. I've got a bunch of other buyers. And I'm like, oh, God, thank God. He's yeah. Cool. And I said, I appreciate that because it's true. He probably honestly didn't see, I guess, if you're listing. I mean, you have a little buyer responsibility. You list a game at that price firm, and you know what you're talking about in this. There's a little bit of assumption that you're being honest with, quote, great condition. And we all know, if you've been doing it a long time, play field chipping or wear does not ever fall into great condition unless you specifically state it. It's just something you do. Like, my car is in great condition, except for the giant dent in the side because it got T-boned. If you say that, okay, it's kind of like that. Or in guitars, it's in awesome condition Gibson Les Paul, but it has a headstock break. Oh, okay, it's that level. So I say back to him after he mentions, oh, I totally understand. I say, cool, I appreciate that. Are you going to assist with shipping costs? Otherwise, I'm out about $1,500. This is where it turns. He says, sorry, but I'm not. This is a simple case of buyer's remorse. I have photos that I sent and videos that I sent, and I even tried to get you to FaceTime to look over the machine with everyone has done every time I ship a machine so they can see every piece and every part before I ship it. You opted out of that for whatever reason. I'm happy to be cool and let you ship it back and I'll refund the money you paid to me. Holy shit! Are you fucking kidding me, dude? I was, of course, upset and I probably texted a few friends, which I did. You know, pinball friends and this and that and went over and like, can you fucking believe this? And my wife and because she's like, what the hell? So I had to basically now play a game of, okay, do i list a game for players condition with insert wear and chipping because i would have to disclose it now that i know because i'm an honest person of course i have my faults so don't like i'm not holier than thou like i'm plenty of dumb shit but now like fuck i what would i be able to get it for that's a that's a flip of a coin a roll of the dice i don't know um i'm like shit well i'd have to go through it, rating the pros and cons of listing it, doing that, taking a hit. I, you know, I mean, you guys tell yourself, what would you pay for something with insert wear and, uh, clear insert wear down to the wood? Uh, like, yeah. Um, well I could ship it back and hope that he gives me my money back because all I have is a text and it doesn't seem to be too kind. He says he's doing me a favor because I opted out of doing his Facebook thing. Oh, so if I would have opted out, you would have what zoomed in on these insert chippings like, oh, just so you know, yeah, top dollar in this insert way, right? Nah, I don't think so. Or if I'm FaceTiming, do you think I would see this where or like normally you assume that the person is being honest? No, where none of this? Yeah, it's all good. Well, apparently you didn't notice because you didn't check it over that well. Maybe you should have said, yo, I'm selling this thing. best guess great condition i'm not looking at it i'm not cleaning it 10 grand okay pass bro hard pass but great condition and sending pics and videos you get to you know my bad for trusting that everything else you said was true and to say that it's my fault buyer's remorse you fucking bet it's buyer's remorse that i bought from someone who was dishonest fuck me i fucked up i totally did i'm damn straight remorseful that i believed what you said but to say that i somehow should have known that great condition everything's great meant but but it's totally fucked um you know like dude i can't even wrap my head around that and then to blame the buyer for opting out of even more assurance which i guess i this is the mentality that i guess i just have to assume people are lying all the time, which is probably not far off from the truth. I have to go into, you know, assuming someone's trying to jam me in the ass and double check, triple check, quad check, call them a liar, call them out, say in, uh, zoom in on every insert, zoom in on everything, level it. I want to see you leveling it. I want to see the bubble level. I don't want to be like, fuck dude. Like you, he's avoiding the truth, right? It's a simple case of deflection. He's like, oh, fuck, right? Oops. Yep. Oops, guy. Here we go. I'm just going to fucking use guy. This guy deserves a guy. Guy. Oops is right. I would have expected. Holy shit. I listed it top dollar firm. Oh, my God. I really shouldn't have done that. At least to say, like, I'd be cool with. Yeah, like, I'll pay for one of the ways of shipping. And if you would have said that, like, what you should have done is really pay for both ways because you sold me something completely that wasn't as described. that's what you do but there's no pin side protection i looked for it i tried to figure it all this like no no protection so like fuck all right the best course of action is for me to ship this back and just eat the shipping instead of dealing with trying to sell a player's condition with chipped inserts um so we talk on the phone and go through this because i'm making sure this guy pays me essentially because he wasn't going to pay me until it got back and the only thing gets back in the condition I sent you. Like, dude, I paid you immediately. Did not give you all these stipulations, but no, when I send it back, oh, you got all these stipulations to get this fucking piece of shit game back, don't you? Surprise, surprise. God. So after that, at one point, sends a message like, actually, I'll email you a check for 500 for the trouble. Like, oh, you starting to realize whose fault it is. Are you there? Okay. Either solution is fine with him. Yeah, right. Either one is not fine with me, dude. You sold me something that was not described. Completely not empathetic to the point of I'm the one dealing with this shit. Buyers or whatever you want to call it, dude. You fucked up. And you could have just said, I'm sorry. Because you made it clear to me on the phone that the money is not a big deal and all this. I don't even care. You know, I've gotten, he said all these things. I've gotten screwed in the past and that. Oh, so money is not a big deal. Then why don't you just pay the shipping and then pay me? Huh. double standards huh that's interesting but of course so i ship it back i start accidentally making mentions on the podcast and i didn't say anything because i wanted to make sure i got my ten thousand dollars back so yes that's what happened i bought a game i got it shipped not as described clearly the buyers sorry clearly the seller's fault i got screwed he took no responsibility in fact put it on me so that's why i was worried about even saying anything like i might have to sue this guy because he might not give me his money back yet now it's it was just then listed as great condition no trades where's the um the zooms on the insert where you were going to be honest with people and tell them well i don't see it but because that would be pretty hard to sell game for ten thousand dollars wouldn't it huh well dude out of anyone ever figure it the fuck out and stop screwing people on pin side figure it out figure it out figure it out figure it out figure it out figure it out figure it out figure it out yeah figure it out man and if you're listening for some reason and you want to text me like oh man i thought we were cool we were never fucking cool dude i was playing cool so i got my money back ass god ah jesus just a shitty situation and what's even shittier sometimes there's no protection on pin side and maybe there should be because you know what there seems to be lately an influx of pinside moderator policing of talking about posting ads instead of posting them what do i mean by that when you're on pinside and you list a game you know you create a new ad you give it a description you say it's used or new or home use only or all this and put a price and all that and then so then when you sell it you pay the pinside fee to you know for them hosting it great a lot of times a lot of times People will just post in a forum like the Wisconsin or the Chicago forums, hey, I'm going to list something soon. Hit me up if you want anything because usually there's like these groups of people who are looking for games. Like, oh, yeah, I'll hit you up and we'll just do it that way and we'll pay and we'll do it quick. We don't have to do all this. Cool. But then Pinsight doesn't get their money. And I get it. They have a website to maintain. Totally get it. And it's a fantastic website at that, period. It's a fantastic pinball website, period. However, the legit ad you want people to make, there's no protection. Like, for example, the one I was just talking about where I got fucked. Because someone used your system and made a, quote, official ad as using your system, quote, great condition, wasn't true. So they paid you, what, $28 and got money from me based on a lie. Well, you got your money. I got screwed because there's no protection. Why would I be incentivized to keep doing that method? I try to at least successfully, I should say, honestly state that I sell 50% of my games, so I pay the fee through Pinside. But we all don't. Come on. We don't. What are we doing? We don't do that. A lot of us never do it. A lot of you never, ever do it. I do it quite a bit. And I've been called out just in the last two weeks, privately and in a forum. I'm like, hey, you better list an ad. What good did that ad do me last time? It cost me $1,500 and I got screwed again. I'm just, yeah, I'm angry right now about that. And I should be because the system I used did nothing for me and there's no protection. I don't, I'm not just, can't wait to do that again. So Pinside, here's a very light figure it out. Figure it out. I would be happy to pay a percentage fee if there was any sort of minimal protection. like the one that just happened. Let's say there was a protection on the purchase I just made. They used your drop list the built system drop list that you have to select saying great condition now let assume that part of that meant that the person knows that playfieldware does not qualify for a great condition okay so he was wrong right i paid for it pinside steps in says no no no not as described they sent dated proof with pictures you know all the proof that i could send in serial numbers with the back end machine, whatever you need to prove that, no, no, no, he's right. Cover the shipping from him, charges, credit card, whatever it is. And I'm Scott free, right? The next time I sell a $10,000 game, if I sell a $10,000 game next time and it's all good to go, I won't pay the $28 fee. I'll happily pay, what, 1%? I'll pay a hundred bucks. I'll pay 150 bucks. And I bet the buyer would love it. I know there's plenty of reasons you probably don't do it and all that. I'm just saying, you know, there's no protection. So why would we even use it other than the exposure? The exposure is nice, but it's catch-22. I'm sick of being upset this episode. I love pinball. I like games. I like a lot of the community. I like making this podcast. I like playing new Sterns. I like playing old Bally Williams games, some of them. I don't really like System 11s. So what recently have I been doing, aside from, I guess, just gushing about Foo Fighters in the pinball world, literally? I just listed my Dracula and Star Trek. Oh, my God. So soon already. Yeah. Shit changes, man. We might be selling our house. We might be building a house. I moved games up into, as Robert Blakeman calls it, Jason's shithole which is true, my shithole is the breezeway right inside my house easy access to get pinball machines in and out instead of having to go up and down the basement and right now it's stuffed, and I have three games in there and I can only fit three, and I have another one sitting in the guest bedroom which doubles as Dana's walk-in closet because our master wing sucks shit so I need to make room, two games I just bought within the last two weeks get out you know i'll maybe get them in the future if i feel an emotional you know pull to them speaking of emotional pull i have this in my notes that i've wanted to talk about for a few weeks pinball themes um you know this is the debate do they sell games more than gameplay or not themes are huge and all that but themes for me personally what do they do to me it's part of the reason i buy and sell let's say specifically lord of the rings what six times seven times if anyone has that beat i'd love to know email in a pinball party podcast at gmail.com let me know if you've gained owned a game more than six times like me because that'd be awesome let's talk about it but the theme is what does it to me it you know as much as earlier i talk about all these people got to set a certain amount of time for me to own a game or sell it before they give me shit because you know what's happening on these games is i get an emotional pull towards the theme and i somehow like i can't let it go for some reason in a way it's the best way i can describe it like i'm a huge fan of tokin and lord of the rings and hobbit i'm token tokin however you want to say um just that world and that mythology and all that like a lot of you are and sometimes there's this little voice in me that's like, you know, you're into pinball and that's one of your favorite. If you were to hang your hat on a theme, that's like a theme you identify with. So yeah, there's this part of me that's like, I should, I'm supposed to own it. You know, like I'm like, I'm supposed to, it's this little thing that just says like, this is you, this you're supposed to, like if there's any game you're going to own and I can't, sometimes I can't shut that voice up. I don't know what it is. And hence I, that's why I'm doing so many times. I struggle with it, to be honest same with star trek it's another one luckily star wars which a lot of us are like the game is love it or hate it like it's not great it's it's not fucking great it's i don't know that was a little easier so i haven't i've only owned it twice star trek another another story because that game's fucking great but yeah i get these emotional ties to the theme and when i get them it's like a day later i'm like okay it's a little i guess anxiety or it's a drive you know drive which i have a strong drive and i've always been told that i was told when i was really young a drive is something internal that tells you there's a problem that needs to be solved it's like an unconscious thing sometimes conscious and and that's kind of what's happening in some of these pinball machines it's like oh this thing that you identify with you should own it there's this like consumerism side of me this capitalism side this ownership versus like the actual part of me that's i should say in touch with reality spirituality existentialism i'm not really spiritual but you know the part that says you don't need anything to be happy you need food and water and love shelter right period that's it so i get the game i get it in like oh i've satisfied that little drive oh it feels so good then the next day i'm like what what the fuck am doing why do i have it why the fuck do i have this thing it's just a thing but it goes over and over and over over and over and over it repeats and so that's what themes do to me um and lord of the rings my plan now almost like a i guess like a drug addict right next time i have the pull to lord of the rings i'm finally just going to get um a lord of the rings tattoo that i've thought of getting and not necessarily based on like fellowship or two towers or return of the king probably just some sort of thing from the map somewhere something subtle um you know just to i've been meaning to do it and you know if there's this little voice inside of me that says hey you're not a true fan unless you have this i don't need to prove it or he or she that voice inside of me wrong you know i am an artistic person so maybe i'll just get that done sometime and like well prove to myself I am a fan. I don't know. That's just what goes through my head. That's me. But that maybe gives you a little look under the hood of why do I go through games so fast sometimes? I sometimes feel the same way as you do, bro, guy. I feel like I need to identify with these things. I need to identify with a theme that says, this is me, right? To the world. Like you are in high school when you're wearing a band t-shirt. We're all – yeah, like I – we all want social attention subconsciously or not or what we're actually doing in high school. I want to wear band shirts that say, this is me. I'm going to wear a Tool shirt. I'm going to wear a Green Day shirt because I'm a fucking punk rocker because I don't give a fuck. Right? When all – if you're honest with yourself looking back, what I really just want is someone to identify with and commiserate or love with or just socially feel connected. And I guess pinball, it's just a lot heavier and stupid way of doing it. It's a couple hundred pound machine that costs thousands of dollars in games and then you get people to give you shit and then you go on pin side and you get fucked from games and then you do podcasts and then people have your opinion and give you your opinion. and then people want to join, people don't want to join, people want to get interviewed, people don't want to get interviewed, people think you're too negative, people think you're too positive, people think you're funny, people think you aren't funny enough, people think you shouldn't have certain guests on. Holy shit. People think you're a show for Zach. People think you're a show for Stern. They're a show for JJP. Jesus. This hobby. Everyone, chill out. But I guess that's what comes from the heavy, pun intended, price of pinball. If we have enough money to be doing this, have some sort of ego that think, well, I have enough money to do this because I'm successful in my job, which means I'm probably right. So we got to check our ego. We're not always right. Be honest with yourself. I try to be, the older I get, more and more brutally honest with myself. and it's uncomfortable, but picking those psychological scabs, if you will, those spiritual scabs, pays fucking dividends in my experience. So I want to take a moment to just thank and acknowledge a couple people in the pinball world that I think are truly, truly fantastic. Think of this however you want. I don't care. Zach Menny, Dennis Creasel, Joel Engelberth, Raymond Davidson, Mike Vinikour, Doc Monday, Kale Hernandez, Ken Cromwell. Thank you all for being great partners, friends, acquaintances. Thank you to Zach in South Dakota. Thank you to Robert Blakeman. Thank you to John locally. It's fun doing all this weird shit with you guys, and hopefully it keeps going. whether I keep doing a podcast forever or I don't keep games forever I'll probably go through a period of not keeping games just know that you are appreciated and you are good people I don't know I guess whatever take that for what it's worth for the supporters on Patreon my god thank you so much and when we do inevitably kick you off don't take offense to that I just don't want to be beholden to someone. I have to do it now because someone's paying me. Eventually, you're going to get kicked out of here. Get the fuck out of here. No offense. You guys have, honestly, all you in the Discord, it's been great. Thank you to the Pinsiders who take time to send me messages, positive or negative. Even if they're negative, you're taking the time to even give a shit, which means a lot. So all the people that email. Nick at Pinsomniacs, you know, you're just emailing in right now. Now you know when I'm recording this. If any of you want someplace great to play pinball in Florida, please check out Pinsomniacs. Pinsomniacspinball.com. It's an awesome website. They have actually really awesome art. I really like the art with the eyeball. You can go there. You can see the game locations. They have upcoming events. Nick at Pinsomniacs is really making a push to make some great stuff down there in Florida. If I lived in Florida and I was thinking of pinball, the first thing I would do is go to Pinsomniac's Pinball.com. We might hear more from them in the future. But thanks to Nick for reaching out, all the positive stuff. Yeah, we'll tango. We'll rango and tango soon, man. I'll get back to you. Anyways, just want to take a moment. I love Foo Fighters. I wanted to bitch about Tron a little bit. There's so much good stuff here, and it's usually the people. so all the negative stuff we hear coming out of what's his name kaneda is that it you know the very first episode i did someone emailed me personally kaneda and said you shouldn't swear so much fuck yeah okay i won't swear so much um but hey man you know i guess keep up the good work your podcast you get a lot of people and um i can't say i haven't watched i haven't listened you have a thing going on keep doing what you're doing try not to bulldoze too many people in the way but hey man you're entertaining and thank you for I think someone said you shouted out said something about I think the flipping out song a couple episodes ago hopefully you didn't talk too much shit about it but if you did whatever who cares man if you want to talk sometime come on the show let's get weird you know anyways this has been Jason at the pinball party on the pinball network next week we are going to have Rachel and Kale we are going to go deep diving into more location stuff and maybe a figure it out segment based on location players who are the good ones, who are the bad ones and then very soon Doc Monday as well, of what we're thankful for got a lot of good shit coming up go play some pinball, go play some Foo Fighters and you know I'll just leave this episode with a full-length Neon Dale song called Mist. See you later. Something calming, something so right Walls surrounding, water in white All around me are no people complaining Suddenly falling in love with a mist No one calling, no one in sight A warm seclusion, cozy in light From a distance you might see some confusion I'm happily caught up in all of the mist Behold My serenity And all is on its way Behold My serenity It's like it's undestood I don't know why You have to work to elevate me I don't know why You go out of your way to berate me I don't know why You have to work to elevate me I don't know why You don't wanna go away To break me Far from lonely Far from dismay Misconsume me Brighten my day When I try to force a mother Upon me I never get caught up in all of the list. Behold, my serenity is always on its way. Behold My serenity's Life is Underscored And I don't know why You have to work to Unbake me And I don't know why You go on and I'm gonna wait till the break of day I don't mind You can't run into me But take me out of my mind The world is gonna wait Till the break of day I don't mind