Good morning everybody. Happy Sunday morning. We're going to do a fun show today. Uh love these impromptu shows. Let's share this right now on Facebook. Uh let's get the link and we're going to go right now. Get everybody in live now. marketing. I think I spelled marketing right. Let's get everybody in. Publish original post. Let's go to Patreon. Let everybody there know now too. Ah, you know, I I really I wanted to sort of have this separately because I didn't really get a chance to articulate myself at automated as I was running around in my clown outfit. Um, I think this is like a much better forum uh for what I want to talk about right now. And so, let's see this. You know, they met they they changed the whole I don't know why all these apps continue to change the settings and make it more complicated for content creators to to do stuff like as you saw yesterday. What an absolute nightmare. Um, trying to flip the camera around, you know? It was absolutely terrible and and everyone's having the same problem like there's nothing you can do. So, I I just I don't understand I don't understand why these apps are have made it much less friendly to do what you want to do. Um, let's just There. There we go. That is me. That we are live. We've got some people. Johnny Pinball's in the house. No, no one's up yet. No one I love these impromptu because it'll live on on YouTube. So, like let's do this. Here's what I want to do. I want to talk about this topic because, you know, I I've felt I I felt really uh what's the best way to let me let me clean my camera. I'm really bad at tech as you can tell. There we go. That's much I think that's better. Yeah, it looks a little bit better in the bedroom. Day Canada. Uh Brenda went out last night to see Kylie Manoke in New York City. Daddy was on duty. Kids are alive and doing well. I want to thank Mike at automated by the way who who gave me uh in he let me go into this like vault. It was like a huge freezer, but it was like filled with toys and stuffed animals. And he said, "Chris, take two of anything for your children." And I I took the Chisard or who is that the name of the the dragon from Pokemon? And And it's become Killian's new best friend. I'm so like amazing the way children bond to a new toy. It reminds me a lot of why people buy new inbox Charizard. Okay. It reminds me why like the same feeling we have as adults. The only difference is like a kid can experience the joy for like five bucks and we are out trying to to spend 15,000 to capture even just a fleeting moment of what young children feel uh with toys that they get. I I mean it when I say it, gang, like adult toys are are dangerous things because you can go down a rabbit hole of trying to fill the void, if you will. So, I want to thank Mike. It was a great time. I had a lot of fun on Evil Dead. I I really am. The more I think about it, I I would I would buy the game. I thought I wouldn't want it. I I'm I'm being completely candid. I I thought I wouldn't want it and then I played it and I'm like, damn. Like, it's just such a stunning machine and I I It's not at the same polish as a JJP yet. You know, the the monitor is a little still I don't know why it's still a little washed out, but the details on it, I I think it might be the most headto toe detailed machine I've ever stood in front of. And I mean that. I I mean every inch of that game is covered in details that are awesome. From the speaker grills to the armor to the inner art blades. Like you don't have to buy anything. The topper comes with the game. I actually would be happy with that topper. I don't I don't even know if you need the the much more expensive topper. There is a a level of passion that went into that game that makes anyone who stands in front of it a believer. I mean, isn't that what it's all about? It's not about marketing. It's not about this. It's not about that. But we're going to talk about marketing on this episode because I I think uh I think it's about to get real interesting because looking at Evil Dead next to Dungeons and Dragons premium gang, it looked like the DND cost half as much money. I I there there's no other way to put it. It just felt like there's twice as much going on in uh in Evil Dead. And I'll say this about Evil Dead gang, it shoots well. It It you know the flippers are not exactly where Stern flipper feel is, but man, lots of shots. Not like Do you remember the old Spooky? The The old Spooky was just a brickfest. The how far this company has come. Like if you go play like a Rob zombie in Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle and then go play Evil Dead. Really? Really? Oh, my connection is unstable. Why is it unstable? What? Give me some stability. I'm going to try to close some stuff out. Hold second. Force quit. We want Chrome here. Let's force quit. Safari. Maybe that'll help. Are we back? Okay, everybody still here in the comments, guys? Can you guys comment? Let me know. We're still we're still stable. I'll take not as good flippers, but the rest of the game. So, it it's um it it was eye opening. It was eye opening. I was absolutely surprised at the uh the amount of stuff in it. The also the thing that I liked about Evil Dead, it didn't feel like a widebody. It didn't shoot like a widebody. It wasn't floaty at all. It really felt very satisfying and and just the right level of difficulty on some of the shots like the shot to get the ball locked in the cabin. Really Really nice. Uh you know, there's like drop targets to unlock the pathway. Then the the I I will say what I love about what Spooky's done is is just the atmospheric uh stuff in the game. Do you think the center post is needed? I uh you know what, Ari, I I didn't mind it. You could argue the game is a little maybe easy on the easier side. I think for very skilled players, they might um they might find this game to be easy. like, you know, coming from Guns and Roses, a game in which just outlane drains all day long. I Guns and Roses I I don't know if people feel this way, but I feel it's it is almost the the biggest tragedy in G&R is how the outlane draining, the constant outlane draining just removes the fun from the game. Like, it's stupid. It's like they have to blitz you with constant multiballs because they're going to be draining left and right. I just getting on a game that doesn't sort of rob you of your gameplay or your ball times is refreshing. I I think GNR is just I I I'm You know how I feel about it, gang. It's still a beautiful work of art. It's still a beautiful I just I just think the gameplay is so mediocre and it's so brutal and then you're never going to get far into the game and then you it just gets repetitive. you just see the same stuff over and over again and it doesn't really feel like rewarding to constantly jump on G&R to choose your, you know, your how you want to play the game cuz you're kind of always playing it the same way. Um, yeah. So, here's what I want to talk about though on this Sunday morning because you don't want to hear me complain about G&R shots. We all know G&R doesn't shoot great. I want to talk about in less than two weeks, two new games are coming out and I want to talk about a little bit about a reaction I had to a conversation I had with my friends at Barrels of Fun. So, they're mad at me. They're not happy with me, right? They're not they're not happy with me. They think I haven't given their company enough credit. And I I will say I probably should be more impressed by the fact that they've made a thousand games in a year. They got their first games to customers. They, you know, for an inaugural pin, they probably achieved more successes and firsts than any other brand new pinball company. Fine, right? It's like fine, fine, fine. You know, it's also like they came out in a much more crowded pinball marketplace. You know, David Van Es was over at Spooky for a while helping them on earlier titles. But here's the thing, and and I just want to talk about this because it it did trigger something in me because I don't like being told that I'm unfair because I do think I'm very fair. I do. And I also honestly I I kind of am allowed to have my own personal opinions about the themes you pick, about the games you make, and about, you know, the market around them all. So, look, Labyrinth is is a really nice first effort game. It's not a theme for me. I've never been uh secret about that. I just don't think it it's a title that I'd want to own because I didn't watch those movies with with incredible fondness. Uh if I were to have said the reason why I would want one is Jennifer Connelly. She's not in the game. Yeah. I was a little boy. Like, she was like she was like one of the the women that young boys fond over. So, uh, but whatever. You know, I'd much rather have Peewee. I'd much rather have the Muppets. I'd much rather have Fraggle Rock. Like, if it was Fraggle Rock pinball, I would be all over it. Spent way more days watching Fraggle Rock than rerunning Labyrinth in my household. So, okay. But they made it, you know, they love the theme. I think they did a great job on theme integration sans Jennifer Connelly. So, here's the thing. So, here's the thing. I get the sense that Barrels of Fun sort of, you know, they they didn't light the pinball world on fire with their first game. That's fine. It's their first title, but now they're in it. Right now they're in it. Like their sophomore title, the gang has been working really hard. They've been working around the clock. And their second game is about to launch the exact same week Stern Pinball is going to launch King Kong and Keith Elwin. Okay. So, here's my issue, and I'm I'm going to text this to David Van Es and and my friends over there, and Brian Savage is a member of Canadas Pinball Podcast. Gang, you're legitimately less than 10 days out. You've been working on this game for probably a year and a half. You've This game has been in development. You're less than 10 games out. 10 games out. 10 days out. And what are you doing, right? Where's the where's the hype? Where's the marketing? Where's David Van Es saying, "Hey, we're we're less than two weeks away from our next title. We're really excited." There's nothing. Not only that, do you know what day they're going to reveal the game? Do you know? I mean, I I'm I'm a pretty nano influencer with a a deep enough following. Do you know when they're going to reveal the game? So, April 15th on tax day, terrible day to do anything. April 15th, tax day when people are going to probably owe money. April 15th, in 9 days, okay, in 9 days, this company is going to have media fly over there to see the factory and see the game. Okay. So, that in my in my mind would indicate that they probably would have to reveal the game before then because once you let anybody through the door, doesn't matter what you have them sign, stuff's going to get out. Okay. So, but here's the problem. So, I think David Van Es and team over there do not want there to be a pre-release of anything. I think they're going to invite everybody in and have them sign NDAs, create their content, and then they want to reveal the game to the world later in the week. Here's the problem. Stern Pinball has indicated that April 17th, the Thursday, is the day in which media will be coming over to play King Kong. Now, historically, when Stern does that, they don't reveal the game on the media day. They reveal the game earlier in the week. So, here's what's going to happen this Friday. Right this Friday, G. I guarantee you this is how this all rolls out. This Friday, maybe earlier this Friday, we will get the teaser confirmation of King Kong as the next theme from Stern Pinball. So, that will happen on Friday of this week. So, King Kong will actually get out in front of anything barrels. If things just go the way they're going to go, then they're going to do their sort of, you know, Monday call with the Dros or some, you know, Monday, Tuesday, right? Then the full game reveal of King Kong will happen on Tuesday the 15th, two days before media are going to fly over, you know, to Stern Pinball. And if you're a if you're a pinball content creator, are you going to both? Are you taking a like two days off? probably just most of your work week you're going to take off. Yes, some people are going to do it. I I can do it. I'm going to be coming back from Scotland. So, this is like, okay, so think about that. So, on the very day that Barrels of Fun is going to invite media, they're everyone's going to be looking at King Kong for the first time. And then two days later, King Kong is going to have its big uh factory tour stern media moment. And so you're launching your game right on top of that. Okay. So, okay. So, what are you guys doing? What, you know, and and then, you know, and and this is why I'm kind of like frustrated because I I talked to David Van Es. I talked to like Robert Blakeman and Brian over there. They've had all like year all year to think about just the launch strategy. Didn't it feel like this company they teased they teased the reveal of Barrels of Fun as a company for like a year and it feels like they're doing nothing to get people excited about game number two. So my whole thing is this. Here's the thing why I think all this pinball marketing sucks and these people are amateurs and and maybe they might be good in other fields of business. Here's why pinball marketing is is in my honest opinion is pathetic. So, I get that you've got your media days locked in. So, what moment is your game reveal? With less than 10 days to go, neither company, Stern nor Barrels of Fun, has indicated to us, the pinball buying demographic, what day do we expect to see the game? Is there a countdown clock? No. So, you're basically you're basically not giving anybody any time to get excited because they don't know even know what day, you know, you're going to pull the curtain off the game. You You could have given all these content creators and communities a chance to like have watch parties. So, okay. So, I know what's today. What's Friday's date? Friday. What is is tomorrow's the 7th? Monday, Tuesday, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, right? like April 11th. Like why aren't you letting people know when they can get together and watch something live? Like did you have Zack come by and film a featureette? I don't know. Is there there's nothing there's nothing. And when there's nothing and there's no hype and there's no excitement going. So then your only strategy is to try to launch these games on top of each other uh with absolutely zero buildup, zero hype, zero excitement. I mean, it wasn't the best launch, but look what Carrie and I did for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, right? I mean, look, the the stream was garbage, but you had Carrie and Canada going back and forth for like two weeks, even more. Melvin let us in and we got people excited about the game they were going to see, right? I don't I don't you know like whether or not like the game delivered to your standards doesn't matter. Sold out in like one week, right? Sold out. He you got all the the people to raise their hands and say they want it one. So now here we have my friends at Barrel saying, "I'm not fair to I'm not fair. You're not fair to us. You're not giving us enough credit." Yeah, guys, I'm going to tell you right now, I think your marketing around this game is horrendous because there is no marketing around this game. There's no hype. There's no buildup. And now, you know, you're going up against Keith Elwin. And you don't do the very thing that Spooky does. And I keep saying this to Robert Blakeman. I keep saying it to to Brian, to David. You have no transparency there. I don't even think half the people here even know what David Van Es looks like. Do you? Do you? And all day long I see Bug and Luke all over the internet. All over the internet kissing babies, shaking hands, and selling evil deads. So if you want to pull people in and make them feel good, you got to build that goodwill. And nowhere to be found. Nowhere to be found. I shouldn't have to I don't need to fly to Benton, Wisconsin to feel like I'm part of the spooky family because they let everybody in. And so this is my thing is like you you can't run your company in this secret vacuum and then expect us all to just wake up wake up and and like want to be a part of like your thing, your tribe. And I think the tribe is a good word. Like each brand creates a tribe of fans that are following it. And Spooky's made it so you feel so awesome being a part of Spooky's tribe. And it and all of it matters. All of it matters. You know, the level of transparency matters. The level of like connection to your buyer base matters. And you're nine days out. You're nine freaking days out from launch. And here's here's the only thing I can think about that this is not Dune. That's the only conclusion I can make is that these dudes are sitting on Goonies and they're laughing their asses off inside. And I hope that's the case. I really do. I hope Dune has been one ginormous misdirect. I hope they're laughing their asses off and it's really going to be, you know, it's really going to be uh Goonies cuz I can't think of any other reason to then do this like you know the vibe around Dune is like ah and did you come out and get in front of it? Did you control the narrative? And the word I'm getting is like, well, we're we're like head down to get the game out. Why? What's the rush to get it out now? Now, the reality is they need to get it out because they need to keep the line going. Like, Barrels can't afford to float its workforce if there's a big pause between Labyrinth and the next game, right? They can't do what JJP can, which is like have like six weeks with nothing being made as you transition over to Harry Potter. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, nobody's buying Avatars now. Nobody's buying Avatars now. But my point is is like, and I told this to Robert Blakeman, and I'll say it to David, like I you got to help me help you. It's like a Jerry Maguire moment. If you don't give me anything and you treat me like like just an outsider like everybody else, then all I'm going to do is articulate what a big marketing mistake that is. You know, I've got like if I do a video and I share it on Facebook, it's going to get like two to three,000 views. So that's three times the amount of people that you're even trying to sell your product to. And look, people are going to make up their own mind, you know, like, you know what I'm saying? Like, like I could rant and rave. It doesn't matter. If it's Goonies, it's going to sell out instantly. If it's Dune, it's not. It doesn't matter. It's just it's just not going to work like that. But I also don't understand like what I don't even think Brian understands like Stern's launch schedule. You're literally going to have King Kong revealed to the world on the same day you want media to spend money out of their own pocket to come visit your factory. So, I I'm walking through the door at Barrels. just dropped like 500 bucks on a plane ticket, 200 bucks on a hotel, and then and then I'm looking at my phone the whole time because Stern just dropped King Kong and then I'm like, "Oh, shoot. Maybe I should have just traveled to Chicago and and seen King Kong." You know, it's just it just doesn't work out. And where's the countdown clock? Where's Where's David Van Es and the team over at Barrels being like, "Here's here's what I told Robert Blakeman. I I say it to you guys cuz like honestly, you know me, I'm an open book. Like I I just I don't even think the these are like private side conversations. If I was working at Barrels of Fun. You know what I'd be doing right now? If I was David Vanos, I I I'd have a little bit more of a of an external facing voice. I'd be like, "Yo, guys, I I know you saw a Jersey Jack up there the other day announcing Harry Potter, saying you shouldn't buy anything other than Harry Potter and that he's got all the assets." I'd be like, "You know what? That's great. I can't wait for Jack to release Harry Potter. Uh, I'll make you guys all a bet. I bet you it doesn't have all the ass that you want because every time Jack gets up there and says that it doesn't. Jersey Jack got up on stage and put up two middle fingers, one for Harry, one for Potter. He told every other pinball company out there, "F you, and you're as a consumer, you shouldn't buy from any of my competitors." And you guys just all took it. Nobody said anything. Nobody said anything. You guys took it on the chin. So, he's got Harry Potter and he just told everybody you're trying to sell to to not buy from your company. And what did you do? Did you say anything? Did you Did you punch back? Did you remind everybody how Jersey Jack fumbles every single major theme they've ever had? Did you? Right. Did you like Well, not every major theme. I mean, Guns and Roses theme-wise, it was good, but like gameplay, no. But, you know what I'm saying? Did you remind Jack how he had no assets in Pirates, no assets in Willy Wonka? Did you remind everybody of that? That the that the first the only time he really got most assets in was the first game he ever made. Nope. No one said anything. So like it's just it's just funny to me that like everyone's just kind of in their own swim lane and nobody's like zooming out a little bit. So I if I was David like look look you can wait for Harry Potter. It's going to come out in May. And oh by the way that's a Canada exclusive for all you guys. Harry Potter is not going to be shown in April. So, if you're waiting for Harry Potter, it's going to be a May reveal. And so, you're gonna have, you know, at least two weeks between Kong and Barrels until you see Potter. Uh, I think it's really going to be funny to me. So, whatever. If If I'm David, I would be like, "Look, look, here's the other thing with this game of ours, you know, not only do we put all of our heart and soul into it, it's not going to be one of these unlimited games, there's going to be one model that comes with everything. And I can't wait for you guys to see it. And if it is Dune, and I've been telling this to my boys over there, guys, just say it. Say it. You don't have to like show anything that you're waiting on license or approval, but we want to let you know that, you know, you're going to you're going to want to go watch the Dune movies again because when you see what we've done and how awesome it is to watch the magic of that universe come to life under glass, like just just rip the band-aid off if it is. You know, look, I I said I think it's going to be Goonies or maybe Little Shop of Horrors. I don't know. I don't think it's Goonies cuz David or Brian Savage has confirmed in the email that the ball gets eaten. So why would the ball be eaten in Goonies? Um this is this is a good time to fill her. Sean, I'm happy I'm filling for you as you're waiting for your flight. Look gang, I I just I I just don't get it. Look, Stern knows they don't really need to do much around Elwin and Kong. But what what the other thing I heard is this. There's no spike three with Kong. So that's also annoying is like, you know, Stern's got this new platform and they continue they continue remember Spike 3 was supposed to have launched with Metallica Remastered. Now we've got three games that won't have it as the platform. Here's why I think they're holding it back is they know it comes with a price increase. I bet it was the plan to put it into Kong, but Stern knows if they raise prices now with what's happening in the world that it's it's just it it's going to be brutal. I um I like many of you I like many of you probably have lost six figures or more in in two days or three days, whatever it's been. six figures on paper, right? Nothing I was ever gonna like I wasn't gonna sell anything or trade anything. It it'll always come back and you know the investment strategies when you go through these recessionary periods is to keep investing. Like that's the whole point. Like you keep putting money in. You buy in the bad times and ride them up when times are good. And And like my advisor says, when you're in the market for decades, you really only make money 13 days out of the year, but and and but you want to be in it on those 13 days to really really make money. Um SP Kong sells great without spike 3. Uh that doesn't make any sense, Keith. Like you're not gonna if you you're not going to put Spike 3 into John Wick and it's going to help sales. So, I just I just want to say what I think is going to happen is I think that Barrels is so focused on getting the game ready that they've forgotten what marketing looks like. They've forgotten what marketing is. And the only time you can turn marketing off is when you don't need to market the title because it's so popular. You don't need to market Pokemon. You don't need to market Star Wars. You don't need to market um Harry Potter. You don't need to market Back to the Future. But if you've got Dune, you need to do real marketing to get people excited. If you've got Dune, you need to like start the hype window well before nine days out. If you've got Dune, you need to be much more transparent in building a community of people that are excited to see the following title. And that's that's it. That's it. And I think there is a level of like like I don't know I don't I don't know the word it's they're not smug people. I just think they're they think it's cute, right? To keep everything a secret. Like that's our thing. Like no nothing leaks from barrels of fun. Yeah, you guys are right. Nothing leaks. But you also don't do anything else. So nothing leaks, but you're not doing anything to generate excitement or hype. And I think you're going to learn a really really harsh lesson come come uh you know come nine days from now. They're doomed. Yeah. All these they're doomed. you know, all these things like you're I I think they're gonna get I think they're gonna get clobbered by Kong if what they have is Dune and they haven't spent enough time getting people connected to the game because because remember like it's not like you're going to have a week or two guys where like everyone's focused on your Dune game. You You might have hours before King Kong is revealed. And if I'm them, if I'm them, I I'm releasing the game tomorrow. Tomorrow, you you need to get a window of exclusivity and you need to manufacture that. If I'm David Van Es, G gang, I I David, Brian, you guys, you got money. You're smart gentlemen. I talk to you. You You can't do this. You can't buy a $300 microphone and flip open your laptop. It's free to stream on YouTube. Why aren't you doing this? If you get I I told this to Robert Blakeman. Give me Give me the assets now. Let I will sign an NDA. I would never burn anybody. Gang. I had in my phone Guns and Roses for an entire year. the actual whitewood of the game. Eric knew I had it. Ken knew I had it. Jack knew I had it. And I said to them, "Gentlemen, I'm not going to burn you. I'm not going to burn you. I'm not going to release your hard work before I try." But I could talk about how excited I was for everybody to see it. And as I told Robert Blakeman and that, I'm like, "Give me something. Give me something exciting and I'll start to get people excited." Nope. Don't I'm not gonna burn you. Show me the game. Show me the game. You know, I'll sign an NDA and I can at least talk about what I saw because what you want is someone like Canada being like, "Wow, can't wait for you to see it." Even I was look at gang, I I don't think Evil Dead's a good theme. And then it blew me away. So, I I think Dune needs to do the same thing. Is it if it But here's what I heard. I heard Kong is loaded. I heard Kong is loaded. I heard people that have seen it are so excited. I heard Kong is killer and it's it's going, you know, the the whatever it is like the mystery of Terror Island or something or the myth of Terra Island. So, I I look, I think these guys are going to go up against an 800lb gorilla, and it's actually like an 8,000lb gorilla. And And I and I like my friends over there, but you know, this is what I do for a living. Do marketing for a living. My bill rate is is a lot of money, and I offer my services for free to my friends in the in the hobby. And I think that uh it's not hard. It's not hard to do pinball marketing, but it's it seemingly like these guys don't even understand the very concept of what works the best. And what works the best is uh is transparency and hype and excitement and a personal connection between product you know and look I mean it like a like it's it's actually even more so having a live something like this where you guys can answer qu like if I David Van Es should be in this seat talking to you guys because everyone he connects with is another potential customer. You know these featurette videos don't do that. They're They're more like pre-anned marketing materials. They're fine, but man, they don't they don't give you a personal connection. They're edited, right? They're Look at Look at the Jersey Jack $100,000 video where they brought in fake lighting to pretend the game glowed like it did. They lied to you all. It was bait and switch. You could probably sue them for bait and switch. I mean, they basically they brought in overhead UV lighting and pretended like that's how the game looked in your game room is a lie. It's the biggest bait and switch ever. Well, you look I again, it's common sense. Nine days out, these guys are doing nothing. Nine days out, no materials. Nine days out, you don't know when the reveal date is. Nine days out, you don't know what time of day it is. Nine days out, you can't plan a watch party with your friends. 9 days out. 52 weeks in a year and you're going to launch your product on top of Stern Pinball Keith Elwin game. Nine days out. Wake up, gentlemen. Wake up. And the world's on fire right now economically. Good luck. Good luck. I I just don't There's going to be no FOMO to grab that game. It It's just because they haven't created any FOMO. They haven't done anything. They haven't said anything, you know. And then you try to put it all in a blender at once. It's not It's not going to work out. Gang, I I did a podcast or a live a Saturday morning live. There were 30 there were 30some remaining Evil Dead games for sale. By the time my show ended because I highlighted that and was at a distributors, 30 games sold in in a matter of minutes. 30 games. No, let's not give Canada info. Keep him away. Look, I I was invited to both Barrels and Stern. I just want to say thank you, gentlemen, for the invite. I just can't make it. I'm I'm going to Scotland on Thursday for my brother-in-law's wedding and I don't get back till like Tuesday and I'm going to be exhausted and I've got work to do and I really want to uh you know, I have work. I mean, I I don't know any way around it. Like I have work, so I'm not going to burn a vacation day. And also, dude, it's just so funny to me that Stern paid for everybody's John Wick travel and now they're not paying for your travel and people are still going to go. Like, gang, gang, did you forget? Like, why are you doing them favors? Why are you helping them sell products and they can't just at least hook you up with a flight in a hotel room? Yeah, Todd, I'm gonna miss you. Todd, do you know how to Todd on on the phone? Do you know how to flip the camera around? Because everyone was saying Todd Tucky knows how to do it, but I'm assuming you're filming with a laptop, not a phone. So I Yeah, Mo, it's Mo. I'm not spending my own money to then help these guys sell products like that. Like, it's just that I look because here's the deal. Like I I don't know. Like it's just and the other reason is like because they establish a precedence where they would pay and now they won't. Jersey Jack did it right. Class act Brett and Leonard and and Tom Capera and Eric Miner and Jersey Jack himself like they they paid for everybody to be in the room. If you broadcast from your tour phone you could flip the camera. What do you mean to phone? No. Carrie didn't know how to do it. Even Carrie tried to do it. Carrie uses his laptop like me. That's why it looks right now. It's moo like cow. Mubut. I mean, Mubut, man. It's just like the fact that I'm I'm clicking with a guy named Mubot just says it all. You know, Todd, I'll have to give you a call. We'll have to figure this out because I No, we couldn't figure it out for like two hours yesterday. No, it didn't work yesterday, gang. I tried it. I tried it. I'll have to try again. Maybe I have to reset the phone with the camera, not, you know, not mirror on the in the camera setting. Um, so that's it, gang. Look, I think um I'm going to call over to my friends at Barrels after this and I'm going to Well, Well, let me ask you a question. These games are not going to be at Pantastic yet. Pintastic is like like two days before they're revealing the That makes no sense to me. Why wouldn't they just mail a game to Fantastic if you're Did you Did you ask David for a for a game for a game? Cuz like he they're going to be in production. Uh happy Sunday morning, gang. I I just want to say like last night spending hours with the boys watching young boys, one is 11 months, one is um four years old. The beauty of family and how sweet and genuine and loving and caring and emotional um life is at that stage is just it fills my heart. It fills my heart. I also want to say I want to give a shout out to a new friend of mine, Dave Frasier. Um, cool dude, man. He's been on my Patreon for a while. He lives one town over. And And you know, I've really made like some a couple really really good friends. Uh, in Frank D'Python Anghelo, Frank, I love you, brother. And Dave Frasier. And it's just like at at my age, I have almost 700 subscribers. I meet people I chose, but it it's it's hard to have like local people that you can connect with and you have a good time with and you can nerd out over pinball. I think it's really important. And you know, moving out of the city was tough because I had friends there. But I I'll say getting older, the toughest thing is is maintaining a an in real life connection to people. And it's so important. And it's what pinball does for us, right? It like it brings us together with conversation that never gets old. It brings us to uh to to like events and to barcades and to each other's homes to sort of enjoy the pinball machines. But it's just the connector. It's a great connector. Um let's see. These people are talking about flipping camera. Franchie, many artists best stuff is their old stuff thinks. I think your evil dead might be your best work. What's your se look at? You're trying to interview Franchie on my show. Oh, what's your secret? Yeah, e Christopher Franchi is Evil Dead is Franchie's best art package to date. Without a doubt, it's not even close in my honest opinion. It blows away monsters. It blows away Batman. Like, it's just it's stunning. I It's so stunning. You know what I love about Evil Dead is unlike Stern who sometimes uses artwork to disguise the fact that there's not a lot in the game, what I love about Evil Dead is there's a lot of detail in the art, but there's even more stuff to do in the game. Like it is like it's the best of both worlds. It's like it's like all of it all of it is there, you know? It's like wow. Are Are those trap doors? Are those like popup like medieval madness zombies? Are those Yeah. Yeah. Are those drop targets that work? Are those, you know, is that a is that a flipper hiding by the right sling where it would normally be? Yeah. All Yeah. Like all this in it. It's awesome. Matrix is not happening. Okay, guys. I I um I I'm very close to getting Steve Ritchie's theme. I'll tell you right now, it's not Top Gun. It's not Matrix. Steve Ritchie's game is not an 80s or 90s title. That's enough information you're going to get from me. I think it's going to be another theme where like are people are people into this? Well, I actually um I don't I don't really love Godzilla 70th. You know, I saw it yesterday again. It's not as nice. It's not nearly as nice as Elvra Blood Kiss. To me, Godzilla 70th suffers from the fact that it was supposed to be an Ellie. It was supposed to look a lot nicer and a lot more and it and they had to like remove I think the the finishing details. I'm gonna tell you right now like Evil Dead blows blows away Godzilla 70th in terms of like a a pre a presentative is that even like a word in terms of presentation. Evil Dead blows it away. Avatar looks much nicer than I I don't know. Godzilla 70th to me gang is just a little like h it's not as much fun. Evil Dead will go up in price if Kong and Potter fall short. Um yeah, like look, the good news about Evil Dead is there's never going to be that many of them out there. And I think much like the movies, it's just going to become like a little bit of a cult classic pin that people who have it love it. And it's just, you know, like I'll say this, like after playing it too, I was like, man, I wish Rick and Morty was this much fun. You know, I think the biggest the biggest the thing that sucks the most is Rick and Morty. The code is so fun and the adventures and the call outs just some of the worst gameplay in the history of pinball that there's like no way around it. Like there's not much to shoot in Rick and Morty. It It's just some of the worst gameplay ever. Reggie, we should do it. You know, Chris, I talk a lot to people about I think we're two Italian dudes who have like been at each other's throats and I think we both ended up in a good place and and I mean that. So, thank you for um for having the capacity in your heart to forgive and to uh move on with me. I think it it's it's very um it's very um honorable of you and I and I think there are some people out there who just don't possess that ability to forgive and move on and and we you know we went through some stuff and and I think we realize like life is better and and you're happier when you wake up and you resolve some of these differences. I've tried to do that with some other pinball content creators. You know their name, Don. Come on, Don. Like how many times, you know, and you know, does he continue to mock me, but he won't like just like like just just let's bury the hatchet. I think people want to see that. Jenis is back on my Facebook page. We haven't like really connected, but it's just nice seeing him there. I kind of just play it slow with him. Like, happy to have him back. Happy to have him commenting. So, I think it's it's good. Like, I'm not at odds with anybody. I I don't even I I don't really have any open fights with anybody in my face. Yeah. No, it's funny. H Well, like I've never seen someone parody me so much. And I'm I'm also just confused why he he like wears multiple headphones. Like I I only wear like one just one headphones at a time. So I'm just But you know, it's cool. It's cool. I I look it's it's the greatest form of flattery, right? I mean, I don't thing is like I I've watched people copy my format, how long my shows are, the consistency, even like the way you do like Facebook updates, like every like I've been copied to the tea. What I love about Canadas Pinball Podcast is I didn't copy anybody. I didn't copy anybody's style. I didn't copy anybody's like approach. I didn't copy anybody's anything. And everybody copied me. Not everybody. Not everybody. like, you know, but you know what I'm talking like some people just copied everything I did. It's cool in the end. I'm glad. I think it's good. I I think the shorter shows, you know this, Franchie, right? It's like you put all that effort in like you can do like a twohour show with interview. Dude, it's a ton of work. It's It's so much work. And then I realized like people forget this. My shows used to be 45 minutes to an hour of just me talking, right? I mean, I realized like, holy crap. Like, it it wasn't it wasn't worth it. It was just like just quality over quantity. Just get right to the topics, hit with it, and get off stage. Um, so I started doing less lengthy shows, more frequent shows, and and then like the lives were always like fun to do, stuff like this, unedited, and and you you realize like you you just kind of like don't have to put in all the effort because the production stuff is just a nightmare. Fran, right? I mean, I I and Franchie, I hear the same thing. Why don't you do more interviews? Franchie gets this. There are some people in this hobby. Well, you you'll interview them for an hour, two hours, and they are are impossible to reair how they talk with like um um like, you know, you know, like. And so, you go back and you listen to it and there's like all these awkward pauses and the and and the way they talk isn't very entertaining. And so you have to go and edit them to make it more enjoyable. Hours. Hours. Like sometimes it could take eight to 10 hours to get a twohour interview ready for your listening pleasure and to Franchie's point for zero dollars. Like it's like what? A distributor gets to just like, "Hey guys, King Kong le" and puts $50,000 in their checking account like that day and just drop ships the games to customers. You know it's true. You know it's true. What do you guys want to talk about? We got more people here, man. I love it. Sunday Morning Canada hit. He hit again. He hit again. He did it two days in a row. Um I uh I hear Predator sucks. That's it. I knew it would suck. I just hear it doesn't have Arnold in it. And I I don't know, man. What do you think of Portal? Uh I don't know. I can't really make an opinion about Portal till I play it. Uh which I think will happen maybe never because I don't know anyone who's going to have it. Like Mike at Automated doesn't have multimorphic. Uh, so where you going to where am I going to play Portal? Unless I go through a physical portal and and end up somewhere that has it. I think with all Multimorphic Gang, like it looks neat. I also just like I don't know. Did Did they even ship the Princess Brides with the collector's edition cabinets yet? I think Jerry's one of these companies, too, that like when when stuff really when the recession does come, like I it's just going to be brutal, man. I I just the amount of like only the strong are going to survive. Only the strong. Apollin, what's up, brother? It's good seeing you, man. How's the family doing? Apollin, I was thinking about our fun lunch at uh at Momma Sun the other day. Predator is not going to be good. It's not going to be good. Name me one good Pinball Brothers game that Pinball Brothers designed from the ground up. Uh and I'll wait uh in eternity for you to come up with an answer. Same team. Same team. They didn't hire Jack Danger. They didn't hire like Dennis Nordman. Let's talk about you dogging on my screen name when I was trying to support your point. Mubut. Well, when you call yourself Mubot, you know, you got to sort of uh you got to sort of expect there to be a somewhat of a confusing thing. Chris, your show is always informative and holds no punches. You speak from your heart a lot of times to which is great. I like someone who tells it like it is and doesn't beat around the bush. Well, thank you, Robert. Uh, you know, for those of you out there who are not a member of Canada's Pinball Podcast, it's like, come on. It's still $5, right? There's no tariffs in Canada land. $5 a month. Canad Pinball. Just go to Canada Pinball at Patreon and sign up. Can I ask a question? Has anyone out there met pinhead Patrick Marino? Like, I've been trying. He He he's got like a picture of a parrot on his Facebook page and now he's I think he changed his photo to I think Adam's family or something or but I I just I I always feel like I'm always getting into it with him on Facebook and I just I I don't know why because he's just always online when I'm up at 5 a.m. But has anyone met him? because it's just like it's hard to have seen a guy in my chats and in my on my page for years and the only picture of him I see is a parrot. I just I I said I look bro I'm just tired of talking to a bird like who are and he wouldn't share a photo of himself. I just asked here here's me here's my family just can you just show me what you look like and he just refused to send a photo. I was like it's like that's like weird in my honest opinion. Wow, first grandchild coming this week. Our daughter graduating college in May. Wow, Paulin, that's so amazing. You must feel so proud. I mean, I'm just happy my kids are so young now, Paulen, because like I feel like college won't even be a thing. By the time these kids are of college age, I won't have to spend like half a million dollars on college. You know what's crazy is like my daycare is 72,000 a year. You know, when people are like, "Oh, college is so expensive." I'm like, I pay 72,000 a year for daycare for how to tie your shoes and fall in love with Paw Patrol. Well, you know, you know the thing is is like when you think about like why people go to college, it's like to learn information, right? information which now is for the most part unless you're learning a real skill. information which is now a hundred all of the information in the world is like instantly available with like AI but what I'm going to push my kids to do and what I how I want see I was never really guided and and I love my parents and they they gave me the best education in the world but what they didn't give me on top of that education was like guidance okay and and I'll explain what I mean by that like when your son comes home and says he's going study communications and he's going to do a job in public relations. You kind of should have been like, "No, what are you doing?" Like, what are you doing? you you like, you know, because I grew up and my dad was in finance and he worked in M&A and like so all these nice things were like the byproduct of working in finance and and so I I kind of was spoiled and and probably felt like I was entitled to an like more enjoyable upbringing and we never were without anything we wanted. But man, I would probably, you know, he should have probably been a little bit more, if you want to maintain the lifestyle you grew up with, you can't go do that. And And he didn't do that. Now, look, I do love that my parents let us do whatever we wanted and like supported us and in the end like turned out to be, you know, successful in my own field. But But you know, I think more than that, it's not even about finance or marketing. I think the thing that I've learned is I just want my children to have skill sets that are real, that won't be obsolete because of a technology. I want them to have skill sets where they could become their own bosses and they can control their own destiny. And that's because to me if I were to think about like what's the one thing I've really learned that I would love for them to never have to suffer through because if you think about life as this combination of pleasure and pain and a parent should help guide their children to avoid some of the suffering they went through and we all suffer in different ways gang I mean it's everybody like life is suffering like if you believe in Buddhism and the existence of life the moment and these beautiful children of mine. They don't know the one. They don't know one thing yet. They don't know they're going to die. Like they don't know there's an end. They don't know that that they're ever going to have to live without their parents with I I remember the day I realized like the the f the infinite length of of passing away and being it's it's when that when that cascades into life, it's what leads us all to buy stupid pinball machines, right? We're like time is limited, time is short. Like once you realize that, you start to act differently. You start to process things differently. But what I don't want them to ever have is something that I've carried with me for a really long time. And that's just this overwhelming this overwhelming anxiety that I've carried with me my whole career because that that like just at any moment you could be let go and it could be over and you'd have to like start over again. And I look I've been fired three times in my career. I've had other times where like pinball manufacturers tried to get me fired and I it it it's it's like it sucks. It sucks that like doesn't matter how hard I work, how much value I create, if your name's not on the door and it's not a business that you control, you're you're at the mercy of somebody else. And I just feel like the modern world is turning a lot more into a place that's all about the bottom line. And you know, the the trend is to cut loose the people that have all the years of expertise in favor of, you know, junior people that don't really cost as much and don't have as much expertise and you're willing to just wing it. So that's that's it. You know, that's where I'm at. And I want to help my children avoid that if I can. Um, and money is not the answer. It's more about self-esteem, self-confidence, and skills. Now, you know, and I always say this to Brenda, like if I wake up tomorrow and and I find myself without a career where I'm at, I will do everything I can to go get another, you know, source of income. And And I feel like I have the skill set and I have the charisma and I have the intelligence and I have the the knowledge to do it. And I also, and I mean this when I say this, gang, knowing so many amazing people in this hobby, I do feel like we would all help each other out. Um, if if the time came where we would need to help each other out. And I think what we're about to go through as a world and as a society and as a like we there may be times when we need to help each other. And I mean that. And And a lot of us like again, it's not just financially, you know. I know some of the wealthiest people in the world are are inside are are dying, you know. So, like it's it's tough. You know, I have a family member right now who's um unfortunately, you know, has some very grave medical um news and it's just it is it's it's a it's a tough time, you know, and I and I think this is a a fun hobby to find help, right? And And we don't talk about it, right? Right. It's like you become an adult, you got to just survive and grit and just But I don't know, like it's a different thing, you know, a different thing. Like we we should help each other out. We should give Canada the assets to Barrels of Fun's new game and let them start the hype train. These guys are nine days out and they're seemingly doing nothing. They're just trying to get the game ready. I don't care about the game being ready. Barrels, where you been? When When does a game have to even be ready to to take money on it? Heck, Stern doesn't even like finish a game before they ship it to you. You know what I'm saying? They They didn't even game test X-Men before it was in a box and people were like guinea pigs. So like, you know what I'm saying? Just get the game out. H barrel. You know, I was like I was thinking of like Barrels of None. Is it barrels not Well, that was that was the name I came up with. Like if they drop the ball on this, it's going to be barrels not well hung is is my nickname for them. Do you think Alice buyers are gonna drop out? Uh yeah. yeah. Yeah, I do. But I think Melvin, and you're going to hear more about this, I think they've got I think they've got a plan that's going to work. I think they're going to make most of the European games, if not all the European games first. that'll give them a nice 3 to four to five month buffer. So, but that by the time people are asked to pay for their US games, hopefully, you know, we'll see some sort of resolution in what's happening with the tariffs. So, they they can do that. I think they're going to have some wiggle room on in terms of what is their strategy. Um, Pepperage Farm remembers when Canadas was selling out. Yeah. Barrels of dung. No, No, I'm not gonna like that's I don't think anything's going to be a big hit this year. Maybe Harry Potter. I I don't think Kong is going to be as big as people think because I again I just think like I I don't think Kong even has as much love as Jaws does as a theme. So I I think Kong is going to be, you know, it's going to get compared to Godzilla. Um, but I just don't think Kong is gonna have the same level of campiness and fun that Godzilla has. And And you know, and I think it's going to be more like Jurassic Park light is my guess on King Kong. The world is getting tougher by the day, especially for young people just getting started. Well, you know, and and Robert, I mean, you know, if you if you follow history, what's going to help young people get going is is a huge recession, you know, because what they're going to need is for things to go down in value and for stuff to crash a little bit, you know, because as things But I don't know, though, because like I don't even think like real estate's going to crash because in these desirable towns, there's no more inventory. You know, there's something like three I I want to say there's 3,000 billionaires in the world now. There's 20 million millionaires in expensive. I I mean, we still make pennies, right? Didn't Didn't Trump cancel the creation of the penny? I don't think everyone's afraid to talk about the effects of mass immigration on the housing market. I just don't think anyone wants to talk about the mass immigration on the housing market on a pinball show. How much is Evil Dead on used on pinside? Let's go look. Oh, I always forget I can do this. We can go look at stuff. Market Evil Dead. I'll say this. The game I was like least impressed with was Metallica. Just looked after playing Evil Dead, Metallica looked really see. Uh, all right. So, I see um two for sale. One is in Connecticut by me. New out of the box owner. Just open the box. 1,500 butter cabinet, $14 topper, under 20 plays. Not interested in the theme. I mean, okay, which is fair, but wh why' you buy it bh you got to knock about $1,500 off that asking price? Cuz I just think like he's basically selling it for what he paid for it. How do you not know you're not into something? Um, I also think 20 plays is not enough, you know? It's like I I just think that's like why would you not just play it more and see if you like it more? Yeah. Metallica to me when I stood over it after Evil Dead just it just looks so dated. It looks so old. As soon as we just finished daycare. Yeah. I mean, I will say this, I would 100% get the butter cabinet. That was the only thing I noticed on the Evil Dead yesterday is like the standard just doesn't look as good as butter. It's It's not even close. I'd have to butter up every spooky game I got. It's just so much nicer, gang. It It It's night and day. Let's see what else is happening in the pinball world. Did you see Iceman tried to start a topic? I saw this. What What a What a What a nasty thing to do to me. He tried to start a topic and I I don't even Doug, I don't even know why you're still like mad at me, man. I'm like, we don't even like correspond, but he he's he tried to get people to cancel their memberships. Look at this. He started a thread and they closed it. Thank you, Pinside, for actually But he he started a thread. Have you forgotten to turn off your autopay for $5 22 days ago asking people to cancel their memberships of Canada's pinball podcast? I I just like what what did I do and what have I continued to do to Doug that warrants this level of like why are you trying to hurt me from from my hard work and and the stuff I you know I create like you know and and you look at it it's Um, I want to look at the total number of post form activity. Let's see. Let's see. We're going to find somewhere. It's f you can scroll and just find the people's started he started another thread. One was locked, another wasn't. He started another one. Don't forget to turn off your autopay subs. $5 a month is still worth a couple of beers. again using the $5 a month because that's what that's what mine is. And okay, then he writes, "Don't we waste enough money on pinball? Definitely shouldn't pay for content. Pinside is voluntary." Okay. So So Doug, um you don't pay for content. You don't pay for Netflix. You don't pay. You You do re realize, Doug. You also pay for your uh for the internet which is providing you the content. But anyway, this is the number I want to zoom in on. Look at this number here. Yeah. Where can you get two beers for $5? 28,452 posts, right? Think about that for a minute. 28,452 posts on Pinside. 28,000. Let's break that down. How many like if you post it once a day? Let's do the calculator. 28,452 divided by 365, right? That should give us how many a day? Okay, that's 77 posts a day. Is that right? 78 posts a day. I don't even know if this is the how you do this math. Um, no, it's just like I like it's like he's another one where like I don't understand. He's like friends with Bill Brandice. Bill's like one of my good friends and like but he continues to try to like get people he's like mad at at the success and like Doug I don't think it's successful. I get you make a lot of money in finance but bro like what's the big deal? Like why why is it still triggering you? And then he says the same thing as me, man. It's like that's the funny part is when you look at his like like this is like if if I was the topics he talks about another new inbox buying thread simple poll not whether you can afford it or not are new in box games at these prices delivering the juice because the used home use only says otherwise. Yeah, that's what I've been saying, Doug, on my show, like in and for I think him and I like almost to the tea, like think exactly the same about modern pinball pricing, you know? I I just I it's just it's strange to be so angry at at the guy that's like saying exactly what you're saying. And he, you know, he always calls me nasty names. Dude, I'm saying exactly what you're saying. Let's see something here. Just trying to see like if there's anything popping right now. Harry Potter. I'm not going to see it until May. Let's see. I'm still waiting, man. Do you guys want another Let's see. I don't think he's jealous. I I just don't I just think he's mad. I think there's a difference there. Um, what do we think? How's this game aging in your minds? I mean, I um you know, the one thing I wish this game had it was a butter cabinet. Um, it it's it looks good, but it's not Radcow good. And it's a collectible work of art. I I think this game is like still looking pretty sexy, right? I mean, I still am a little confused as to why nobody streamed the game. And the final game is this is still one of the pre-production units or game number one that Wrench has. But I'm going down here. There's Melvin, my boy. There's a tour of Dutch. But like where where are the games? There's two for sale right now. Um let's do this. Let's look at market. Let's look Ellie. I mean, I wouldn't even have paid 105 for it. I mean, this is I mean, poor poor um poor DRO. Poor Dro sitting on these games trying to move them. Let's look at DND. See if there's any more DNDs on the market. See, this this is the problem, gang. It's like I mean you you're you've already you know you know this guy's not getting 115 you know. So right away you know this guy's going to be able to This is this is the same guy. Holy crap. This is the same guy selling Evil Dead in in Connecticut. And same thing under 20 plays. Just open the box. Not Wait, is this a is this a dro? Have we just exposed like who who's Wall-E16 who has the same exact description? This guy's selling games for dros and he's trying to like move Dro buddy uh games. Like I think we just who's w come on. This guy This guy unboxed both brand new games, says he doesn't like the theme and he needs to move them on right away after 20 plays. What What a what a what a this guy's This is This is This is like a fake description. What? But no, but this this is like perfect example of someone just trying to do like something shady Uh, I do know this that like if you if you just see I see what I don't get about any anybody who bought DND Ellie right away is like don't you know the market? Um, oh, did I just did I just mess up? Did our chat just end? Am I still