Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. The Pinball Network is online. Launching the Pinball Show. Thanks again for the ongoing support as a Pinball Show Club member. Enjoy this exclusive TPS content and make sure to visit the Pinball Show Club Discord to chat about the bonus material. Hey, Dennis, Jersey Jack pinball. We got to whisper because it's behind the paywall here. Okay. Keep it secret. Keep it safe. Did you hear about this new IO driver board? Only from you. Oh, okay. All right. So basically, listener, I'm not going to whisper throughout this whole episode, but I found this interesting. Over the last couple of weeks on pinball life or somewhere, you can now purchase these new IO driver boards for Jersey Jack games, like the new ones they're using, but they're compatible with old titles. So what people are doing, they're buying them to replace their driver board of their Hobbit or Wizard of Oz or Dial. Anything pre-Toy Story, I believe. Because people complain about flipper consistency. They get limp dickish. They're just not as snappy as a stern, right? But on the new JJP stuff, especially like Elton John, people are like, oh, my God, no, it's freaking fixed. It's great now. I love it. But people are putting these new IL boards in there. And it is substantially, I'm hearing, substantially fixing some of the flipper feel on these older games. So I'm posing this to you and to the audience here. Is this a good move by Jersey Jack to be supplying these kind of things after March? Is this a bad move? Because customers can be like, well, that's crap. If you're acknowledging that it's better now, why aren't you helping supply a board for all your previous? Or do you think they should have just kept it as is and not made it compact, that kind of stuff? Is this a good move, bad move? What is this? I think overall it would be a good move. Why would you think it would be bad? Well, people are upset that they're like, I spent all this money on games and now I've got to buy another IO board? I mean, I get that, but if it's an opportunity for improvement, I mean, one could debate if you want to say that they forever should have to provide every possible upgrade. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of American Pinball and that power supply thing. You remember? Oh, yeah. That's right. That's what this kind of reminds me of. People were mad about that, though. But they were. And that was cheaper than an I.O. board. In that case, there was a clear point of failure that I think that American Pinball – I was more on the people's side with the American Pinball instance. In this instance, it feels more like, hey, everyone knew you got to try the games. These games have been out for years. People know how the JJP flippers are. I don't see the reason to say, you know what? There's a way to upgrade that, and we should just go back and give it out for free. A line has to be drawn somewhere, and that's kind of where I would draw it. Okay. I'm thinking to myself, am I going to go back? Because I own a Willy Wonka. am I going to supply it with a new driver board? I don't know I think I'm going to have to go back and play it quite a bit because I've been playing a lot of Elton John so if I go back now and my Wonka feels sluggish maybe I would but yeah I'd probably be a little frustrated about it but so I don't know if I'm going to update mine or not hopefully these listeners email us at thepinballshow at gmail.com Let us know if you've updated or upgraded to this new driver board for your older catalog JJP games. Whether you found there to be a significant difference or not, I would be very interested to know. But I do know that it's not like Jersey Jack is saying, no, don't use this board, or no, this isn't. I think they're pretty open to people purchasing this additional board. I think that Jack Guarnieri might have been like, yeah it may help but just turn up the flipper coil strength everything's the same that's why I'm extra confused I thought he said that everything was the same God bless Jack so yeah, that's the story of J.J.P., we've not heard much from them we did hear in the regular pinball show episode that Elton John is trending up still the jury's out as to why it is, but it's got a big uptick recently, and I felt, why not an even better time to discuss my experiences thus far with Elton John? I will tell you exclusive club Patreon members that I am doing a video on Elton John, a gameplay video that I've been doing lately, so I've got one for Elton John, so I want to play a lot of it so I can really understand the game. and of course it's not like in-depth like a D'Python Anghelo thing or anything but um but I understand this game prior to this game large likelihood would not put in my collection prior to playing this game as much as I have so I did my work played a lot of games I wouldn't add it just because the theme doesn't do anything for me uh I couldn't understand the rules the couple times that I played it prior to it just didn't get it now you were a little bit warmer on this title than I have been since release. Is that fair? In terms of layout, yes. And that's mainly the main thing because the theme, I think, is pretty much the same. I might like Elton John a bit more than you, but I don't have any Elton John songs in my playlist, for example. So it's definitely not a music theme that I normally would gravitate towards. But based off of the layout and how it seemed to be functioning yes it seemed like I thought it looked like it would be a lot of fun fun Fun to shoot I didn know that much about the rules and I still not been able to play this We don't have one around here, at least to my knowledge. Hopefully soon. So I figure I'm going to break down. We've done this before where I've done things I like, things I don't on a game. And I'm going to give you three pluses, three minuses on Elton John. I am going to eat a little crow toe, lick it. But remember I was shitting on, I feel like a fucking idiot now, man. I was shitting on that dead end shot on this game. Yes, and I think I pushed back on the episode on it because it looked like it was to feed the upper flipper. So one of the things I like, borderline love, about Elton John by Jersey Jack Pinball is the layout and the shots. The layout and the shots. And I don't know if there's a bad one in the game. I'm eating crow's toe, listener, because that dead-end shot, now that I've put 50-plus games on this, that dead-end shot may be my favorite. It's not as good as the Warp Ramp. Nothing's ever going to be. But this dead-end shot has so much feel and purpose to it. When you knock it in there, if you have, I don't want to nerd out on rules, But if you've made eligible one of the wardrobes, the classes or whatever, it can hold the ball up there. So that's a good thunk hold feeling. It's a feeling in the fingertips. It feels good. And then when it feeds it back down, it pops it up right back to that flipper again for a repeatable shot. Either repeat it back up there or you can hit that side flipper. That can be a side flipper feed too. That ramp, that side flipper ramp shot. So you can hit it to that ramp shot as well, just further establishing this as a combo, just free-flowing Steve Ritchie. Great. The shots on this game are fucking phenomenal. They feel so good. The warp ramp, I would give it like .92 compared to the 100% that is the Star Trek warp ramp. So it's a bit steeper. It is repeatable, but not as easy as the warp ramp on Star Trek. But I find myself hitting this warp ramp side ramp shot more than the most that I've seen people streaming. I don't know if it's just my game. But other ramp shots like this Rocket Man, you go into the catapult medieval madness, but it's on the right side. It chucks it up through alongside the backboard, comes around, creature from the Black Lagoon LED ropes it around, loops and then feeds not just to your left flipper, but on the fly to your left flipper. For another hit, bam, right up to either crocodile, right flipper. It's wonderful. It feels so, so good. So, the shots on this game are just absolutely wonderful. But, I will say, if it's just for the shots of this game, I've said it before and I will stand by it, listener, the shots won't sell this game. It will not put this game in my collection alone because I own Star Trek. And I like that theme better. Yeah, that's what I thought the number one problem they were going to have with this is it looks so familiar to a lot of other, honestly, much more accessible on a pricing point alone. And not to mention for a lot of people, a lot more preferable themes that we've seen out of Steve. Absolutely. So that's kind of where we're at now. Just wait, though. And then things I don't like. The theme. All right. Not the elephant in the room here, but it's Elton John. The music I really love, and I jam out on this game more than I jam out on even – it's almost like an ACDC-like thing where I'm dancing and I'm doing my flipper buttons to the beat more than I – TNA, I did that a lot too, where I'm just grooving a lot and forgetting I'm playing pinball. So for whatever reason, the music is just killing it for me. It's awesome. But the theme alone, it's just not something I'm like – I look at it and I'm like, damn, I love that movie. Damn, I love that band. I just really don't care about Elton John. Don't care at all. And it does kind of kill it for me on whether or not I would ever buy one or put one in a collection. The theme, that's a tough one. That's a tough one. Okay. What I like about this game. So the shots alone aren't going to do it. The theme sure as hell is not going to do it. But the pinball moments. I underestimated the pinball moments in this game. The programmers, whatever team it was, Dennis, they did a really smart job of stopping the player because there's so much flow that when they stop the player, they stop them for good reason. They want them to experience something. And it's almost like whenever the new code on GNR, when you press start, you get like this scanning spotlight effect and you get the crowd cheering, GNR, GNR, and then all the lights are going off. It's like a moment. It's a sequencing of choreography. take that and multiply it by 10 on this game. There's got these signature stage multi balls. They're not really many wizard modes, but they're big moment makers. Like it stops the ball. It holds it and says, here we go. Pay attention to this. Light shows different. The sound is different. The animations are different. And it is, it is one hell of a moment. And I say this because of the following. This is such a plus. in my assessment of this game that I'm not exaggerating, listener. There was a moment or two playing this game over the last week that I have not experienced the euphoria that I've experienced and only a handful of times in the last 10 years or so that I've been in the hobby. In particular, there's a mini wizard mode that I was able to reach called Champ Multipole and you can watch my video on how to get there and stuff And I don even want to give it away Dennis It that good where they stop and you truly feel like you are rewarded as a player You were given an experience that is not easy to get to, that you don't feel burnout after it and you want to get to it again. but it's truly just the integration of sight, sound, feeling, lights. Everything just comes together so perfectly that they can take something that prior to would make us roll our eyes and in this makes us feel proud to be a part of it and proud to have reached this part of the game. It's that good. So, Champ Multiball, for any of you who have gotten to it, phenomenal stuff there. Sorry, I've got a big hard-on for this game right now. Things I don't like. It's still multiball heavy, Dennis. Well, it's a JJP. It has to be. Why does it have to be multiball? Because that's what their teams do. Because people love multiball. Multiball is an accomplishment. So when people get multiball, they feel like they're winners. That's what I think it all stems from. Man, do we still feel like that? We might not, but there are a lot of people who are big fans of multiball the way you were kind of going gaga over some mini wizard mode. Oh, but no. Yes. Yes. But it's still multiball heavy. And honestly, there's not really any modes in this game, which before the last couple of years, I would have said that's a no go for me. If you don't have modes, they're just different types of modes. But there are multiballs. Crocodile Rock, multiball. Rocket Man, multiball. Champ, multiball. Signature Stage, multiball. Tiny Dancer? I think there's a Tiny Dancer. Multiball. So they identify the different multiballs by name, but you don't really get modes per se. Or if you do get like these stop, I'm going to make you pay attention to these mode mints, they're still multiballs. so it's not even like a gap of angry where you got to build up each ball locking and then you get two and then you get it's not even that it's like in multi balls come on jgp however last thing i like is kind of has to do with multiball it's the code the code overall is is wonderful It's approachable. And what I love about the code on this game, Dennis, is that it makes – it's very rare that I give two shits about a multiball. I'm not a tournament player, so I'm not like, oh, you know, look at these points racking up. Oh, I got a jackpot. I got a double jackpot, double super. Like, I don't give a shit. I want to progress. You know that, right? Yes, I know. But with this code, they made me care about multi-balls. And I'll tell you why, listener. This right here is the redeeming part of why I could see this game in my collection. No bullshit. And it may go in my collection for the moments and the code. Because the code makes me, when I start one of these multiballs, generally speaking, if I would start a Crocodile Rock multiball, I don't give a shit. Two ball, multiball, who cares? But what's nice about this is to get to like champ multiball, you have to collect albums, the front center drop target bank, which I also hate. Who cares about drop targets that you have to hit right in your face that are brutal? That's not fun. But it is fun when you have drop targets that progress you to get to what you want in this game, as well as the code. Multiball, you need multiballs because when multiballs are going, I'm thinking to myself, I can bash those and get albums to get me closer to champ multiball. So I want to get into a multiball so that I can get closer to that wizard mode. So what I'm saying is, in other words, you're actually progressing towards the cool stuff by utilizing those multi-balls. So it's nice because you're progressing rather than just scoring points until you get down to one ball, and then you can go back into progress. No, no. On Elton John, if you're in Rocketman, it doesn't matter what you're in. You're still progressing, and those additional balls and the ball savers are really nice for really hard shots to progress, which is a whole other side quest to get to champ multiball. So code's awesome. You're not just doing multiballs. You've got like five different paths. This is very JJP-like. It's almost like Wonka, where you've got to get four golden tickets. There's ten ways to get a golden ticket, and this is specific to Elton John. Ten different, I think their achievements are ten different milestones, is what they are. Ten different milestones available throughout the code. Get them however you want to, whether there's modes, multiballs, jackpots, combo get it anyway task oriented stuff you need four of them to get to the final wizard mode take your pick choose your own destination and your own path i fucking love that so finally a game where multi balls i actually care i'm like shit okay i got a multiball let's try to hammer out some of these albums so i can get closer to that euphoric champ multiball all right so let's I still, I'm owed. I owe these people another thing I don't like. Okay, so the thing I don't like, this is kind of a cop-out, the tilt rules on a JJP. You only get two tilt warnings. They are bad. Instead of a per ball, you get them per game. Yeah, I don't know why. The cuteness, the cuteness of being different. But that applies to their entire repertoire, so it's not Elton John specific. I know, but I don't change it just because it's like, well, that's what they based the rules around that default. So I don't change it, but I hate it. I can stand it because you screwed Like once you get your two warnings you get it once on ball one It like well I fucked up my whole game now They often been a fan of adding additional warnings in as a mystery though And I have not received one of those yet. I don't know if it's in Elton or not. It's in other games. Yeah. So I would say, okay, I'd say that maybe. Because I don't know anything else that really stands out that I don't. Because honestly, like, I'd go for Platinum Edition on this game. I know the topper is also on the CE. But, dude, the Platinum, they give you the Radcals. They give you the sparkle in the Radcals. They give you, like, you get the interior art. You get everything that they would sell otherwise as an accessory in their past previous LE models. They even give you a topper. So, I don't know. Okay, so overall, Dennis, I kind of love this game. I could see myself owning this game. My only hang-up is, will I beat this game? Because if I beat the game, I'd probably be done with it. Well, you could own it for a little while. Or do you think you're going to be able to beat it without having to have your own? I can say confidently I will own this game and I'm going to play the shit out of it. This is a game in rotation now for me that I will heavily play until I beat it. It's that good. It is really good. It's like Wonka, man. The code reminds me of an easier Wonka. Oh, my gosh. I can't wait for you to get more time on this game. As in any time. You don't think 504 or whatever? It's so tough to say. 403 has gotten a number of the JJP games, so it's definitely possible. But now that they're selling used for so much less than they used to, I haven't talked to the operators to know what the math logic is on it. I still think JJP tries to figure out. I know that they want to get them into locations, and I know that they know that 12K is a tough pill to swallow to get them in locations. I don't know. I don't think they have a solution. I mean, the solution I think that everyone wants to – They can differentiate more between a platinum and a collector's. I mean, I don't know. The logic is, I think, built off of that, well, operators could start – here's the problem they're running into, and it's not just a JJP problem, It's a pinball problem in general is there is tremendous resistance to being able to charge more than a dollar per play. And so that's the barrier is people are like, once you start having to stick in multiple dollar bills, it's people are just like, why should I play this when I can walk over and play the monster bash for 75 cents if it's an original. So that's what we've got going on. We don't I don't know any locations here in Kansas City that charge more than a dollar per play. And like on the Sterns, like on the Stern Pros in particular, we'll do – two bucks will get you three plays. But the JJPs will be $1 per play just because there's no discounting. So they push that far, but the way we do it is older games sell for less or charge for less. So if I want to go and play Getaway, I'm putting in 50 cents. It's a math game, especially when my quarters are starting to get low. I want to hang out for another 20 minutes, but I've only got two bucks left. I'm going to not play modern games at that point. I think if I was an operator, I know nothing about operating, so I'm ignorant to this. But just as a businessman, if I'm an operator, I make all games a dollar. Getaway is a dollar. It just is. Some places do that. Some places do that. But what they found is – maybe I should do an interview with some area operators at some point and kind of see what the logic on it is. But, I mean, it's tough. So, like, for example, at Nub's Pub, they'll usually, actually, as far as I know, they have always, even with different operators doing it, have one game, old game, usually early 80s, maybe late 70s. It's always 25 cents. Well, if you started to say, well, it's all going to be a dollar, that game ends in 45 seconds. Yeah. So that's, you know, there's this thing where the ball times were shorter and all of that. And the games are less, like they draw people less. They don't have the fancy screens and stuff. So I think the logic is, well, but if we charge less, people will give them a shot. And then, you know, we have this variety because then like if kids are coming in, they might only, their parents will give them like a dollar and then they'll be like, okay, well, you want to play Jurassic Park or do you want to play four games of Flash Gordon? Choices, yeah. So, I get where you're coming from on it. And I've seen some where they'll be like, yeah, anything like DMD up is going to be a buck. I think it would be maybe cool to have an entire arcade. Everything's the same price, but then every week have a special. Like the special this week is Jaws. And it's only 50 cents for this week. Some places do that. Not here in Kansas City, but I've heard of other operators. I think Electric Bat might do that. Okay. I don't want to speak for them, but I've heard of other places that'll do. I think Tommy from this Flippin' podcast, his place would often, they'll have one game where I think they put on free play, but then the others are all paid for. So people can go in like, here's the free game for this week. The idea, I think, being that the bar patrons might get into pinball. But it's only one game, so there'll be a line on it if too many people try and do it and stuff like that. I don't know. You know, Electric Bath, they're getting a Pulp Fiction. They've done a lot of the cool stuff. Courtesy of flipping out pinball. Just not Star Wars. All right, so you heard it here, listener. Elton John, legit. But it's a really good game. It's a really good game that I would have never. I'm eating crow, especially on that dead end shot. I was wrong on this one. Yep. This is a good one. It's a real good one. Can they turn it off now? It's done now. Bye-bye. Okay.