All get around, he's on the rebound, hear the sound of our buddy, oh lordy, it's Orby, pinball now to rejoice, he's tugging pinball, craft beer and coffee, miffed with syrup and honey, he hopes to laugh with his family in a random tangent, stories of his boys, he's on the poor man's pod network, We're going to get more listeners for the Pinball Nerds Podcast. Coming to you from beautiful River Hibbert, Nova Scotia. Welcome back, Pinball Nerds, to episode 614 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name is Orbital Albert and I'm back today on episode 614 to talk all about a marketing expert claiming that Jersey Jack Pinball has lost way more than I thought even possible. now as many of you know I talked about it on yesterday's show briefly went a little ranty I'm not going to lie so if you are someone like Jamie of Wormhole Pinball and you have always wanted to hear a famous Orby rant go and listen to yesterday's episode I was even completely uncaffeinated but I was so mad that Jack Winarian absolutely ruined the launch of the largest title in the worst way possible that I just couldn't contain myself. So if you're like Jamie and you missed out on my famous stern upper-decker rant, go listen to me get all ranty tomorrow. Today's going to be a much more mellow, zen, chill show because Mr. I-Can't-Say-His-Name, he's a very famous artist who is also named after my dog. Oh no, I said the DOG thing. But he may have just gone for a little nap, and at my feet here right now I'm getting to give her little pets as Elwynn. So they're both seepy-seeps, and so I can get through the show, and so I don't wake up my son. I'm going to stay mellow. I'm going to stay calm. I'm going to be talking about a serious topic, but I'm going to stay chill today. So if you want to hear me go over the top, go listen to yesterday's episode. All right, so straight off the top. And shout out, by the way, I got to listen to Jamie Burchill was on Retro Ralph's podcast, Flipside. And that was really cool because Retro Ralph asked Jamie a lot of the same questions I've always wondered. because Jamie's so curious about other people, he doesn't get a lot of questions asked to him. So if you were ever curious about how the wormhole itself got started and how it came out of COVID and how originally it wasn't open to the public and how the other collector was like a big sign and collectibles guy, which I thought was really neat, that is one of my favorite things of watching the live streams from the wormhole, actually than watching the pinball. Not as much as watching the pinball, but besides watching the pinball, is all the cool vintage signs, all the really cool collectibles, all the old antiques that they have around there. So I find all of that really visually stunning and really cool. It makes for like a fun atmosphere because when you see a poor old sad pinball machine sitting at the corner of like a boring restaurant and you know it's not getting any love and no one cares about it, it's just like sign of a, it's kind of like, it's right beside the bathrooms. It's sad, it's lonely, it's not level. one of the flipper rubbers is half broken off you know what I mean you can see dirt all over the playfield it's sad but when you see pinball machines in such a rad environment like the wormhole you get stoked you get fired up so go listen to that interview that was great but we're not here to talk about Jamie the wormhole or retro Ralph today we're here to talk about Jack now on a personal note I love Jack of Jersey Jack I appreciate everything he's done for pinball and honestly, I had a bit of a man crush on this dude until he was so rude to Kale of Electric Bat, the podcast and the Rad Bar when they were there and since then, I've just been a little bit off-put and then I've seen him do some other things and I thought, that's a little too much, my dude. Now, that being said, listen, can people make mistakes? Sure, but if that mistake is going to cost millions and millions and millions of dollars and you're a pinball podcaster who enjoys covering the marketing aspect of it, I cannot put the blinders on. Now, I did hear Kaneda on his free show say, oh, it's not a big deal that Jack did that. It's not a big deal that he made the designer of Avatar, who was six inches away from him, feel like a POS. It's not a big deal that he destroyed, I don't think, you know, I heard Bruce and Ron mentioning this again, I said this yesterday on Slam Tilt, saying that they think mostly it ruined Avatar sales. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. But I didn't want, you know, Bruce and Ron have been in pinball a lot longer than me. So if they're saying that, maybe I'm wrong. So I wanted to go to an outside expert who has nothing to do with pinball, who doesn't have the blinders on, an expert who's more of a marketing expert than me. There's no one else in pinball podcasting that has an honors degree in marketing that I can go to and ask about this. There just isn't. I'm sorry. I agreed with Kerry Hardy's takes. He maybe went on a bit too much about the health stuff. you know, could have maybe said it kinder. I'm sure I could have said whatever I said yesterday kinder. And that's why today I'm going to say calm. I'm going to stay cool. I'm going to say stay collected. But I'm going to tell y'all it was the biggest mistake I personally have ever, ever, ever seen in pinball. And ironically, I thought that it would cost the company maybe two to three million dollars. My expert is claiming that on the very low end, eight million dollars in potential lost sales. On the high end, more realistically, 15 million dollars. 15 million dollars in lost sales. And I don't want you to take my word for it, so I'm just going to jump in here and I'm going to let you know. And later on the episode, we're also going to talk about, well, we're going to talk about Alice in Wonderland, both of them. We're going talk about both of them. But let's just start. I'm going to bring my expert in right now. Now, I know what some of you are saying, Orby, Orby. First of all, I am the marketing expert. So, I will listen to everything this other expert has to say with a grain of salt. But this is what I asked the expert, okay? And the expert, I'm not going to lie to you, it is chat GDP, okay? Or GPT, okay? Now, I know what you're saying. I've upgraded it to four, don't worry. I'm using my good questions for it. I'm not downgraded yet during the day, but here's the thing. I didn't only ask it how much money it potentially lost. I asked it to explain it to any skeptics listening to this that may disagree with me. Now, that's not to say that if I actually went and spoke to, say, like a marketing professor who's a bigger expert than me from a university or college here in North America or anywhere across the planet, that they might be able to give me a better number. I just don't have access and didn't have the time to do that this morning. It's not something I'm against and it's something I actually, if I get a lot of pushback from this episode, I will consider reaching out to one of my old professors. I don't even know if any of them would be there anymore. Out at Fanshawe, the business school at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario and ask them. But if not, I'll probably reach out to, honestly, someone from a much, much more educated than me. And that's what you want to do. You always want to be arguing or discussing this with someone more educated than yourself to make sure that you have your facts correct. And I will be reaching out to someone from the Ivy Business School of the University of Western Ontario, which is the top business school, not in just all Canada, but one of the top in all North America. Probably, honestly, depending on who you asked and, you know, if they were American or Canadian, probably could go head to head against Harvard Business School. And that's saying something because Harvard Business School is known worldwide as one of the top five. Okay, so let me ask ChatGDP, and I'm going to read out my question to you. This is all the information ChatGDP got. It had to harvest everything else from online, from forums. Remember, it can listen to every podcast in a millisecond. It can gain the information. It takes you and I, even on fast-forwarding on times four, times six, times eight, an hour to listen to me go on for two hours, right? Whereas ChatGDP knows it in a second. Do you understand what I'm saying? So, okay, I said, He simply just mumbled, mumbled, unenthusiastically. Myself and many other content creators are not as excited about this release and believe a lot of the FOMO may be gone from what could have been the biggest title in pinball. I would guess they could lose 20-30% of their sales because of this. But, am I overestimating? Could you try your best to give me a reasonable estimate? this is the response from chat gdp okay gpt i don't know why i'm saying it wrong you're on to something albert hype and anticipation drive sales especially in the pinball world where fomo fear of missing out plays a massive role in early sales and collector enthusiasm a well-executed dramatic reveal could have supercharged excitement leading to a sellout of collector's editions and a strong demand of other models. Instead, Jack Winarian's offhanded comments sucked a lot of the energy out of the room, estimating the sales impact. And they've broken this down for me, okay? This is actually good. There's a term for this in marketing that we'd use for what it did, but I'm not going to go into that. I'm just going to read it out to you. So estimating the sales impact. Number one, expected sales without the leak. JJP's most hyped titles, like Guns and Roses, sold between 3,000 to 5,000 units. Of course, this is an estimate. Harry Potter had the potential to be their biggest hit yet, possibly exceeding 6,000 units if the reveal had been done correctly. Collector's editions sell for 15K USD each and would likely have sold out instantly with the proper hype. The impact of the leak. The lackluster reveal may have killed impulse buyers and FOMO-driven early orders, distributors likely lost pre-orders they otherwise would have secured instantly. Even if 20% of expected sales, expected buyers, lost some of their enthusiasm, that's 1,200 lost sales at an average of $12K per machine. Potential lost revenue $14 to $18 million. Realistically though, this is number three, realistically the lost estimate, Your 20 to 30% estimate could be on the high end, but 10 to 20% is very, very possible. And chat has actually like highlighted this saying very possible. Like, like, like, you know what I mean? They believe this is very important. A proper reveal would have made Harry Potter the biggest must-have game in pinball history. Now, some buyers might wait for gameplay footage or even skip it all together, including myself. Now, I added the including myself. Even if JJP recovers a little bit of the hype they lost, millions and millions in early momentum they could have gained. So, chat's final guess, okay. I'd estimate $8 to $15 million in potential lost sales. depending on how well they recover with marketing before the launch. If they don't do something to reignite the excitement, your prediction of 20% to 30% losses could actually turn out to be true. And that was the end of what Chad said to me. Now, I assume that some of you listening to this don't use chat GDP on a regular basis, and maybe you think it just like typing something into Google and you just reading a Reddit or something No This goes like I guess what I saying is this particular AI has the knowledge of the earth This particular AI in one minute can learn everything I learned in three years of business school. You don't want to have to see the graphs that I had to do in microeconomics. They're not fun. you don't want to have to go do merchandising 101 or god forbid 201 that has a 74 percent fail ratio and these are out of the smartest kids coming out of high schools in london ontario one of the most educated towns in all canada that has not only fanshaw college but also uwo so the and did i pass first time no it took me two tries i got like a 47 and i legit failed i actually had to go for tutoring and go into lunches to understand merchandising and all of the different graphs and all the different charts. So when I have a friend or family member or even a foe or a frenemy in the pinball podcasting world tell me that my honors degree in business marketing doesn't help me as a pinball podcaster, it rubs me the wrong way. And it's something I'll never forget about. So let me repeat this. Not only I am in, I am not only in the top 3% of all pinball players on planet earth, according to IFPA, and if I lived near Chicago, God forbid, I'd probably be 1%. I mean, if you look at my rating, I'm 1400th in the world, so I am in the, you know, 140,000 people, so I am top 1%, and many people will tell you, including hardcore pinball nerds, that your rating is actually a truer sense of how good at pinball you are compared to everyone else, as opposed to just your ranking. And I think a good example of this, and I think Jeff Teolis would be open and honest about this, if Jeff Teolis just stayed in, say, southwestern Ontario and didn't travel around, there's no way he'd be 40th in the world. I'm not suggesting Jeff has not earned that 46th in the world. He has. And he deserves every penny of it and every bit of it and all the praise to Jeff. What I'm saying is that if Jeff lived in, say, even Chicago and could go to more higher-ranking Whopper tournaments more often, he'd probably be ranked even higher. And if I lived back in southwestern Ontario, I'd probably be ranked in the top 1,000 or 1,500 like I used to be when I lived back there. I never crept into the top 1,000, but I got very, very, very close. So what I'm saying is that even though I'm pretty good at playing pinball, I'm in the top 3%, I'm far better at understanding how the business world works. That's what I do. I eat, sleep, and breathe business. I watch, listen to, and participate in more business-related things. Now, some of it is crypto. Some of it is NFTs. Some of it is the stock market, mutual funds, GICs. GICs. I was such a big GIC professional that I know on my top day, and you know, it's past seven years. I don't think TD Candid Trust can come after me for saying this. I sold over $4 million of security GIC pluses in one eight-hour shift at TD Candid Trust. And that's hard to do when the average person, now this was leading up to the end of our, enough with the business bragging, and none of this matters. All that matters is that someone who knows and understands marketing a hell of a lot better than me and a hell of a lot better than you listening. Unless maybe you're new to the marketing manager at Stern. I'm assuming whomever they hired there probably knows their shats. Okay. But, and hopefully they do because marketing is going to be the difference. And let me repeat this for you. A bad game marketed well will do better than a great game marketed horribly. So even if Harry Potter is incredible, and they added the Golden Snitch, and they added Quidditch, and they made sure, just like Jack said, that they got every single asset from all the movies, from all of the books, if they got every character, if they got all the call-outs, even if they did all of that and it's a great game, but it's marketed poorly, no one will care. And so far, I wouldn't say it's been marketed poorly, I'd say it's been marketed horribly. Horribly. the worst so far. We haven't gotten apology from Jersey Jack. We haven't heard anything. It's been radio silence. We should have at the very least got like a, hey, that wasn't really the way we wanted to introduce the world to Jersey Jack. Instead, can we just offer you this? And if they just showed a picture of a mech, a picture of the back glass, if they put one call out, if they did a cameo, if they did chocolate frogs to all the podcasters, whatever, it doesn't matter. Anything would be better than what we've got so far, which is basically trampling all over Avatar for absolutely no reason. Then the most lackluster announcement of potentially the biggest pinball machine on planet Earth. And then on top of that, now radio silence with no apology, no explanation, nothing. And it's sad. It's really, really, really sad. It's a sad moment for all Harry Potter fans. It's a sad moment for all pinball fans. And it's an extremely sad moment for people like me who were really, like, literally, there are people out there who have said, I will not ever buy a new inbox pinball machine unless Harry Potter comes out. And I was one of those people. My wife would not let me take out money from, like, go extend our home equity line of credit to go get a Pokemon machine, you know, or even my favorite band. Like, if for some reason they did, like, a Weezer or a Radiohead pin, she wouldn't let me. No. But if it was Harry Potter, maybe. I mean, not now with what this disaster of this approach that they're taking. However, and we don't know. Like if we knew that they said, we're sorry that it was accidentally mentioned this way, then we could forgive and apologize, J.J.P. But at this point, all we have to go on is that, no, they meant for that to come out that way. Because that's all we have. We haven't heard from anyone. Oh, we shouldn't have mentioned that. That was a mistake. We've only heard this is what we meant to do. That was supposed to be said. nobody there at any point made us believe like oh oopsie that was an accident right and if it was an accident then just be open and honest and say it and maybe give us a little picture of the back glass give us a picture of one of the mechs you know give us a cameo give us a call out give us anything because right now every single day your radio silent more and more people are getting annoyed pissed off and honestly their money's becoming safe jack you got your wish do not spend a penny. No one is spending a penny and especially not after what you did. Like just out of just morally and ethically if you're a pinball nerd with a heart you're not going to support Jersey Jack after that what what was done to Mark Seiden. Like that guy worked on that for three years. This was his one chance to explain to everybody why you should give it a chance even though there's no toys in it and it was absolutely ruined internally by someone who's the name face of the company. Do you know what I'm saying? This is like if Gary Stern just came out and said the next five titles and said, stop buying all the pens on the line. Like he would be fired immediately. Stern would not put up with that. Seth would be fired. Like everybody from any, this arguably, arguably, it's not as bad as what Damien did. Don't get me wrong. It's not as bad as what Damien did. Damien was cold hearted. Okay. Jack just was uneducated. Being uneducated is kind of an excuse. It is, but it isn't. Do you know what I mean? Now, I said to ChatGDP this, and I'm going to read back, because I knew some people would get back and say, Albert, that's not an expert. Okay. I said, I would say you're more of an expert than me because you have access to the entire internet, but to any of my podcast fans who may not get how awesome ChatGPT is, explain to them how you came to the numbers of how much J.J.P. would potentially lose more in depth, but in a funny and charismatic way, showing your expertise. So this is chat's response. It's kind of funny. They're pretending like they're on the podcast, which I guess they kind of are. All right, so I'll read this in my best AI voice. All right, pinball fans, buckle up, because I'm about to show you how I, chat GPT, your all-knowing, internet-connected, data-crunching, pinball-obsessed AI just Sherlock-tomed my way into estimating how much money Jersey Jack Pinball might have accidentally flushed completely down the drain with their anticlimactic Harry Potter reveal. Okay, I'm going to stop using that voice because I don't want to anymore. And my throat's already a little bit sore still, even though I am feeling a little bit better than yesterday, which is great. We're getting there. We're getting there. The voice is coming back. The sinuses are getting back. The tinnitus is slowly going away, which is incredible. Okay, so step one. This is chat explaining why and how they came to the conclusion of these numbers. The hype factor or lack thereof. Imagine you're at a surprise birthday party waiting for your buddy to walk in. The lights are off. People are ready to yell, surprise. then some dude in the corner mumbles, hey, uh, he already knows. Boom. The excitement is gone. That's exactly what happened at the Texas Pinball Festival. Jack Guarnieri, the actual namesake of JJP, casually dropped Harry Potter like it was just another Tuesday. No grand reveal, no magical build-up, no special effects. The pinball title, the biggest pinball title in history, was just tossed out there like a half-eaten sandwich. The FOMO, dead on arrival. Step number two, how many machines would they have sold? JJP's best-selling titles, Guns N' Roses, Pirates of the Caribbean, moved between three to five thousand units each, but Harry Potter, this was their chance to go super cyan mode and sell 6,000 or more machines easily and maybe even 8,000 machines if the launch was done just right. Think about it. Harry Potter isn't just a big license. It's a nuclear bomb of hype. It's one of the biggest fan bases on planet Earth. Plus, the entire pinball community was foaming at the mouth for a truly magical reveal, a big cinematic announcement that could have led to instant pre-orders, people scrambling to drop 15k without ever seeing gameplay, collector's editions selling out in mere minutes, massive FOMO leading to increased resale value and higher production numbers, but instead, meh. Step three, how many sales did they lose? Because the reveal sucked all the energy out of the room, let's say 20% of the buyers lost their hype and backed out. If they were to sell 6,000 units, that means they lost 12,000 units at an average price of 12K, that's 1,200 times 12K, that's $14.4 million lost. if we're being conservative and we only say 10 of the sales were lost that's still 7.2 million dollars lost on the high end if they could have sold 8 000 units a 20 hit means that they lost 19.2 million dollars in revenue and and this is albert for a second not chat i believe it's closer to that number of 19.2. Like now that I've done more research and read into this, and maybe I do need to seek a marketing expert, a professor, someone who knows more than me to really deep down analyze this, because not 10 years from now, not 20 years from now, it will be the year 2050, and there will be somebody, oh my God, that's drop targeting, yo. There will be somebody somewhere that is knowledgeable. It could be an AI, but they'll know about this biggest failure ever in pinball's history. This is worse than Deep Root because I get people giving their money robbed is worse than this, but what I'm saying is from a marketing standpoint, none of us believed in Deep Root. None of us believed in Robert Mueller or Robert Mueller. None of us. Not a single one of us. So because of that, it's not a big deal that Deep Root sucked because we all thought they would suck. If they didn't suck, we would have been surprised. Most of us really didn't think Haggis was going to come out with a new innovative interesting machine after we saw Keltz and how lackluster it was Now you know it cool they did new code on Fathom but like nobody by the time Haggis went out of business no one was like, really? I'm surprised. But I was surprised. I was the most surprised I've ever been in 10 years of covering pinball content that Jack ruined the most beautiful, it could have been the most gorgeous, succulent delicious moment in history in all of pinball podcasting they had a moment to do something so unique so interesting to catch fire to get non-pinball people interested in it if you can't even get pinball people interested in it you're definitely not going to get non-pinball people interested in it and it's funny because like they lost 19 milli it doesn't matter how much they spend on the video it doesn't matter if they spent 3 000 on the license and a million on the video, Jack Winnery in 10 seconds still lost them 19.4 million. And if Chat and I are off and it's 30%, oh my god, you're talking 26 million dollars gone. A moment gone. And if you're a Harry Potter fan like me, you're so mad at JJP for ruining this moment. You have such a bad taste in your mouth that you're just no longer even a little excited. I might not even do a top five Adam went bad for Harry Potter at this point. I don't care to cover it. It's like the same reason why I didn't care to cover the other two Alice in Wonderland, because I didn't care anymore. They didn't excite me. Harry Potter used to excite me in pinball. If Stern had it, I'd be 10 out of 10 excited. If Spooky had it, they would never fumble the ball with social media this way. They would never fumble the ball with marketing this way, okay? Never. I would be like, I don't know, an 8 out of 10 excited if Spooky had it, okay? If American Pinball had it, I'd be a 2, But guess what? Jersey Jack has it and I'm a one. Like how is that? Why would they do this? This was the greatest title, the greatest chance for Jersey Jack to do something special and make up for five or six pins in a row with bad sales. Right? Like everything since Guns N' Roses has been very, very, very poor sales. People say that they like playing Elton John, but Elton John's sales numbers were surely like not even a quarter of what they did with Guns N' Roses. They probably lost money after they paid for all of the tooling, right, for all of the machines. And then after they paid for all the marketing, then, you know, everybody over their salary, they probably lost money on Elton John or barely broke even, right? They 100%, without a doubt, lost money. Like, in my mind, I don't have proof or anything, but I would be shocked. I would be more shocked than Jack Gunnery and ruining the biggest release of all time if they actually made money on Godfather. God. Like, oh my lordy. Like, and now you have this chance to get this big title. That would be like if Jack Danger was like, in the middle of just one of his live streams, like, oh, by the way, guys, yeah, I'm going to be doing Back to the Future. And he just kept playing pinball. Everyone would be like, what? Are you? No. Like, Jack would be fired. Jack Danger would be most likely fired the next day. like Tim Sexton definitely would have been fired I wonder if that's what Tim did he's like oh Jack Wynnerian you should go to Texas Pinball Fest and just offhandedly tell everybody without setting anything up without a single slide without a single pitcher without a single pinball machine without a single cameo without a single chocolate frog without a single wand without a single cape without a single robe without a single sorting hat without Marc Silk the voice of the sorting hat they could have had Marc Silk Marc Silk probably is such a kind loving generous dude he would have done it for free If they had Jersey Jack had just said, could you just do like a 30 second like, hello everybody. Okay, now I'm trying to do Marc Silk doing the sorting hat, doing a British accent. But if he was just like, hello everybody. It is I, the sorting hat here from Hogwarts. And that's right. In early summer of 2025, it is I, the sorting hat, and I will be sorting you into your house. so that you can go play Jersey Jack's newest pinball machine, Harry Potter. Like if he just did that, he would have done that for free or maybe if you toss him a free Translate, I doubt he would even ask for that. But why on earth would you do it the way you did? Okay, I've gone off topic. I'm ranting and raving a little bit too much. Let's get back onto what chat was telling us here because I wanted this to be a shorter show. All right, so where did I go off here? So the real loss is estimated between 8 to 15 million, give or take a few butterbeers. That was good. They added some humor there. I really like that. All right, number four, how could this have been avoided? I mean, come on, wear wizard robes at the reveal, have an actor from the movie introduce it, show us anything, a blurry pic of the playfield, anything. tease the reveal with a lightning bolt animation, make a cinematic moment where people lose their minds, but instead a mumble, a throwaway comment, and now content creators, and now content creators, it says here in brackets, like my buddy Albert, aren't even hyped anymore. Number five, the final verdict. JJP didn't just spill the beans. They launched an entire bean factory into the ocean. Okay, chat's not that great at humor, but that one was okay. They could still recover, but this botched announcement cost them at least 8 million and probably closer to the realm of $15 million in potential sales. The lesson, pinball is about passion. If you don't bring the hype, you lose the hype. And when you lose the hype, you lose the sales. so yeah pinball fans this is why this is why you should love chat ddp because whether it's predicting sales losses breaking down pinball economics or just roasting bad marketing decisions i've got you covered now do i think that chat is right about everything certainly not comedy um and you know they made some good points there a lot of them were my own it doesn't matter if I'm right it doesn't matter if I brought on the top marketing expert in all Canada or the United States they may say oh no we believe it's only 14 million you're wrong about 19 million oh 27 million is way too high it's only 14 million but one thing is for sure each and every one of us listening to this podcast that's a Harry Potter fan was way way more excited before TPF about Avatar and especially Harry Potter. And now I'm not only not excited about Avatar or Harry Potter, I'm not even excited about anything else Jersey Jack is ever doing. They've completely lost me as a potential fan. And I know it's not just me because I've talked to tons of other people who believe the same thing. They're not going to say it on their podcast. They're just not. They're not going to say it on social media. They're not going to say it in Pinside. and even Chris Kaneda of Kaneda's Spinball Podcast isn't going to say it either because he gets offered free trips. Okay, he's personal friends with Jack G. He's been on his live stream like 15 times. He's personal friends with him. He has his cell phone number. He's buddies with him. Okay, he wants to have a different take than Kerry Hardy. He wants to be contrarian and be the only person saying this wasn't a big flub. Kaneda knows it was a big flub. He's trying to keep his nose clean right now. He's trying to hopefully get that invite. You know he wants to go to Harry Potter. He wants that invite. He's trying not to burn it. And I can hear it in the other podcasters' faces, and I can hear it in their voices, and I can see it in their faces. Carrie Hardy and I are probably the only two people being straight-up honest with you about, like, how... Oh, Bruce. Bruce from Slam Tilt. Sorry, Bruce. Also Bruce. And Ron. But, you know, and there's other pinball podcasters that they don't want to be ostracized and not invited to stuff like that. So it's kind of weird. They're in this weird thing. Now, I will not be going to the United States, probably for the next four years. So I don't give a shats about it. And also, my commitment is to you, the listener. It's not to Jersey Jack. It's not to Kem Cromwell. It's not to Jack Gwinnarian. It's not to any marketing department anywhere. I want you to play before you pay 100% of the time so you never lose money. So do me a favor. If you're one of the very few people still interested in Harry Potter, just play it before you pay. And I'll be honest, especially what I'm hearing from other content creators and non-content creators, many people, if they had just played Avatar before they purchased it, they probably wouldn't have purchased it. Okay? Even Don. I was listening to Don's show from yesterday. And he was saying like, oh, yeah, it's a really, really long player, but I'm starting to learn. I'm starting to figure out what mode I'm in. What? You've owned the machine this long and you don't know how to tell what mode you're in? Like, get out your diagram with the 47 pages or something. And that's another thing. Jersey Jack, are you listening? if you're going to do Harry Potter. Don't give us the 57 pages of diagrams and everything. Don't let us own the machine for months and not know if you're in a mode or not or not know if the, and have to like set up lights to see the colors and oh dear Lord. And I'm telling you right now, it won't just be me, this content creator here. It will be all of them. YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, frick, even MySpace. There's going to be pinball creators on MySpace. that will be shouting from the rooftops. I wonder if there ever was a MySpace pinball creator. Jack Danger or like Scott Danesi, he probably had a MySpace account back in the day. But they'll be shouting from the rooftops, go play Harry Potter before you buy it. Because it's going to be a lot of money and it sounds now like it's not going to hold its money. Until a couple weeks ago, I would have been one of the people telling you, if any machine will ever hold its money, it will be probably the King Kong LE from Elowen and any machine from Elowen, especially at the top tier and most likely it will be Harry Potter and now I'm telling you it's not it's just not the hype's gone nobody cares and that's the thing is like I still love reading Harry Potter books I can't stand the author I think her views are completely effed up and I think the money went to her head and her ego and I don't know what's wrong with Jack and I don't really care in that it doesn't mean doesn't mean I'm a mean spirited bad person but I think the worst thing for someone dealing with most diseases that are like that you're getting as you get older the worst thing for you is traveling stress spiking your cortisol okay he should just not be speaking in public they should do an announcement just say moving forth you know we really appreciate jack everything he's done and from time to time you know you might see a video of him that's pre-recorded but we're not going to let him on a hot mic we're not going to let him make fun of and belittle all the pinball podcasters coming to check out avatar we're not going to make fun of the twippy award winning best pinball arcade on planet earth and get Jack Guarnieri to teach you how to run a pinball arcade the guy who doesn't even know who any pinball content creators are he like he's going to teach you he doesn't even know how to put on a wizard hat or buy a you can go to any dollar store and buy a uh an official harry potter wizarding world friggin plastic i almost swore but I didn't. A plastic wand for like two bucks in Canada. So it's probably like a buck or 50 cents in the States. You could have done that. That would have been better. Oh my God. So now we got to talk about Alice for a bit really quickly because I want to get the hell out of here. I have so much maple sap to go pick up. Okay. So recently, oh, well, that's nice. Thanks, Facebook. Recently on the Wonderland Amusements. So Wonderland Amusements is the company that's doing the, um, I don't know which one's worse. I don't know if the Pinball Brothers Alice one is worse or if this one's worse. The art on both is atrocious. They both look horrible. Neither of them have any fun mechs. I'm afraid both of them are going to have just excuses and excuses and excuses. We're already hearing tons of excuses from Pinball Brothers. Oh, it was going to be here in two weeks and it was going to be a month and it was going to be early summer. Then it's going to be late summer. Then it's going to be early 2025 and it's going to turn, we all know it's going to be, dude, I was going to say, dude, where's your car all over again? We all know that without a doubt, it's going to be just like the big Lebowski. Look, is it going to take like 15 years I hope not But is there any chance in hell And I think Jamie Burchell asked me this when I the wormhole And this was months ago before all the excuses started coming from the pinball deadbeat brothers And they said he said do you think there any chance it be out by summer? And I said, absolutely not. I'd be shocked if they even had one done. And the excuses are just crazy. Go to their Facebook page and read it. But this excuse is actually kind of funny. This is an excuse from Wonderland Amusements. I found this absolutely, yeah, yeah. And I feel really bad because I know there's other content creators that are really, especially like on Twitch. I know Jackie Dunna, I believe her name is. She's super stoked about it. And I get that other people are really, really, really excited about it. I'm excited about the idea of a pinball machine at less than a thousand dollars, especially being the poorest of all the poor men. However, I don't think they can do it. And it's starting to look like with all their excuses that they might not so let me just read this comment uh from their facebook page on their most recent post tk says so is it too early to say that wonder con showing feels the wonder con so i'm assuming that's a con that they brought the machine to at wonderland amusements wonder con showing feels like it's been a bit of a letdown the sample machine looks great in terms of hardware but it was supposed to be the big debut for some form of working code with functioning rules and LCD animations and sound effects and callouts. I understand that there was some sort of unfortunate mishap that prevented this from showing at WonderCon. So what was it? But the Kickstarter closes in just 10 days. So time is running out to show off any of those aspects of the machine before we have to lock in those pledges. Can we please have another showing before April 10th? surely that would help momentum in the final days of the campaign. So I didn't know this, but apparently after you pledge your money to Wonderland Amusements, you can take it back if they don't follow through before April 10th. And apparently they had promised to show the call-outs, to let you hear the sound, to show you the animations, to let you see the LCD screen, to show you some of the functioning rules, to let you see the code. And surprise, surprise to not me, but maybe probably not you because you're a hardcore pinball nerd but to some outer edges people they didn't do any of it they didn't have any of it they had none of it they had none of it done on time like they said they would be so wonderland amusements did write back and i do appreciate wonderland amusements at least writing back okay because i don't think this person was trolling i think they're genuinely interested if they should spend thousands of dollars and remember thousands of dollars to me and a lot of other poor people who don't make very much money is equivalent to of buying a Harry Potter pin at 15 or 20k. Okay, so this is just as a, just don't think just because you're wealthy, oh, it's just $1,000. It's just a thousand. Yes, I get the whole pinball machine costs less than a Stern topper, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't hold them to their word. And honestly, if people are getting it and it's working well, I'll be the first one in line to go buy one of these, even though I hate the art. I'll probably just change all the art. I'll probably mod the hell out of it. But anyways, Wonderland Amusements wrote back TK, and they said, I know it must have been gutting not to be able to make the showing you had planned, so I absolutely sympathize. Okay, that needed some work, but I have total confidence that the functioning code will look great when we do see it. But I have started to see some mounting concerns in some of the corners of the community, so I do hope that we see it sooner rather than later. I just wanted the campaign to make a strong finish after a confident showing. Good luck. Okay, that was not the response. That was what T said after. So, sorry, here's the response. Wonderland Amusement's response was, thanks for the feedback and acknowledging our progress on the hardware. No one was more disappointed than us at not being able to show off the DMD, the game code, the animations, etc. and more. It's a sickening feeling when you open a shipment the day of an event to see damage to your showpiece. As far as anyone has ever done this kind of work can attest. We are pressing hard to get replacement components as soon as possible so we can show off the early game code in action. Of course, the parts needed to be fabricated since they are not mass production, but we'll do another update once we've received them. Now you tell me if that sounds like a crock of crap. What are the chances that you've implemented all the code, that you have the DVD working, the DMD working, that you have the sound, you have the callouts, yet you have no video or audio files to show us? The chances are zero. There's no way that they put all of the DMD animations and they put all the callouts into the machine and yet they don't have a digital file of any of these? it literally would be impossible there's no way to do that there's just no way to load them on there if you don't have them so i call bs i think wonderland amusements is completely bluffing i don't think like the day of the show they brought the working machine and no if that was true they would have went out to any walmart and they would have spent 20 on a cheap little like those picture frames grandma has and they would at least have a static thing or they would eat or go buy like a $30, $40, just the crappiest tablet you can get for kids, and have the DMD running on there showing you and letting you hear the call-outs. But they didn't do that because it's not done yet. I don't think it's done yet. I can't prove this. So I will say, like I always do, so I don't get sued, I bet it's not done in Minecraft. I would hazard a guess if they were done all of the animations, they would have shown at least one of those animations on their Facebook page so that everyone doesn't pull out of their millions of dollars that they forked over thinking this project was going to be done on time. Now, it doesn't mean the animations aren't going to be incredible, even though I highly doubt that. It doesn't mean the rules aren't going to be incredible, even though I highly doubt that. What it does mean is that without a doubt, they are delayed. And without a doubt, I would be shocked if in the next nine days before the Kickstarter ends, You get to hear a single call out. You get to see a single animation. And I hope I'm wrong. I hope the day of so that pinball nerds can decide whether. And look, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I will never do a pinball Kickstarter because I play before I pay. That's how it's always been. That's how it will always be. Maybe I'm old school. Maybe I like to do cash on the glass. I don't want to be the first person getting a pinball machine finding out that Tim Sexton quit on the code. it sounds to me like Tim Sexton started quiet quitting like a year ago when he decided nah I don't want to work on John Wick anymore that's what it seems like I mean especially if people are saying oh he left months ago like and we're just hearing about it now I would assume he did leave some time ago and we didn't know but months ago he's been gone for months and is maybe that's why no code has got worked on who knows I wish Tim Sexton the best I also don't get why he doesn't love pinball tournaments anymore he's so good at them I also don't get why he had to be so mean and rude to all the hardworking people who try to throw pinball tournaments in that. I think a lot of us lost respect for him since then. He's been made fun of on pretty much every pinball podcast, you know, in the past two years since that video came out. It's too bad. It's too bad because like he needs everything to be just so and perfect and prim and proper and have immaculate bathrooms and no lineups and perfect food nearby. It sounds like you want to have a big expensive tournament in downtown New York City, but nowhere in downtown New York City, like the per square foot real estate is too expensive to put in three or 400 pinball machines needed to have this perfect tournament. But I'm just rambling now. Listen, pinball nerds, I love you. I'm in love with you. I'm here for you. I'm your boy. I got your back, but do you have my back? I will say this. No, I didn't get any donos since yesterday. The cutoff for donations, like I said, I didn't want to make it 24 hours, is going to be this coming Friday. So y'all have three days, you have 72 hours, okay? And you're going to be getting thanked publicly. But if you're someone who wants to stay anonymous, please just write in the note on PayPal, when you send it to angryalpacatea, T-E-A, at gmail.com, just say, please don't read this on air. This is anonymous. This is just for you. This is just for you and your family. Thanks to your now, in the last year, I've now done 60 episodes. and I've appeared on even more than that. So thanks to your 60 episodes. And if you're someone who's been waiting for an incredibly awesome podcast like today that was not only entertaining, but that was fun, that was honest, please, please, please hook me up with a small dono to thank me and you will get thanked back this Friday. And just to sweeten the pot a little bit, that's right, I have, I'm now well under 220 pounds. I have lost so much weight that I truly believe I'll never be able to fit into my Phantom Tilt. That's right. My boy, Ryan Berry, and his girl, Kimba, over there, they were kind enough to ship me out some rad T-shirts. Now, the Ninja Turts one is my own. I've got it. But currently upstairs, and I need to check. Maybe this one's a Ninja Turts. It could be. It could be the Ninja Turts one as well, but I can only see the front because it's still in the packaging and it says Phantom Tilt Pinball Podcast on the front. On the back, it could be Ninja Turts. I'm not sure. But it's a men's large. which I'm like swimming in my men's mediums at this point, okay? So there's no chance I'll ever be able to fit into it. I'm going to give the biggest dono, which until right now is, I believe, Antonio. Is it for Desco? I think it's Antonio. At $100 US, okay? That's $138 Canadian. If somebody beats that between now and Friday, I'm going to pay for shipping. I don't care where in the world you are. Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, doesn't matter. The UK, even if you're back there in Australia. Now, I assume it will be an American because frankly, I would be shocked if the shipping on this t-shirt would be less than 40 and I'm assuming the t-shirt's about the same. So by just simply donating the same money, I can hook you up with a cool gift that Ryan and Kimba hooked me up with. So thanks, Ryan. Thanks, Kimba. I certainly appreciate that. Make sure you guys go listen to some Phantom Tilt to thank them for that. And if you'd like to get your own t-shirt, I'm gonna throw in another pinball t-shirt for free with it. A gently used one, one that I bought during COVID to support a really rad pinball bar. And honestly, I wore it once or twice, and it's just been sitting in there. So you're going to get two t-shirts for the price of one. And all you would need to do is donate $1 more, even though I think it'd be rad if you did $25 more. That's 50 cents per episode more. But even $1 more. So $101 US by this Friday. You're going to get both t-shirts. If not, Antonio, they're coming to you, bro. And I don't mind sending them to you. Antonio, by the way, if you're listening, I'll mention Friday. I know you're listening, buddy. I will ask for your address after that if I don't get one bigger but I'm going to be positive and believe that at least one pinball nerd listening to this regrets or at least partially thinks it would have been rad if they had donated during my pledge campaign so I can shut up for the year the end is going to be this Friday I probably won't be back with another show between now and then unless Jersey Jack listens and gives us an apology or drip feeds us something to get excited about then maybe I might be back and if you're a pinball podcaster and you think I'm dead to rights wrong in this, you don't think that Jersey Jack lost more than $5 or $6 million, you think, oh, the estimate the expert had of $18 million was way off, and you want to argue with me about it in a kind and respectful way, I don't care if you're less educated in marketing than me, that's fine. You can still have your opinion. If you think I'm dead wrong, either message me, Albert Agar, on Facebook or pinballnerds at gmail.com, if you don't have Facebook, and let me know, okay, that you want to come on here because I want to have a debate about this. Like, this is crazy. Like, this is the biggest flub ever in pinball history. And any pinball podcasters that are trying to sweep this under the rug have other motivation other than helping you not waste your money. And that's part of what I'm here for. I'm also here to entertain you and to make sure you had a rad day. So from Orbital Albert to you, wherever in the world you are, I hope your day is frickin' excellent. And remember, to eat, sleep, and breathe, anything but Harry Potter pinball.