let's play pinball welcome ladies and gentlemen to the four minutes pinball podcast this is episode 128 and we have another great show for you today what do we have on tap we have a guest host he is a fan favorite He is a tribe member. We will introduce him shortly. We are going to talk about the deadflip bond stream that was on tonight and give you our thoughts on that stream and the gameplay. The market, it's changing again. Surprise, surprise. We'll be talking a little bit about market. Ian's got a big tease. What could it be? And we're going to talk much, much about Expo. Expo's coming up in a couple of days, so we're going to talk about what we want to see, who we want to see and what we expect to see at Expo. So stay tuned for this amazing show. Please, ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome to the show a fan favorite. We always get such high praise and feedback when this man is on. Jonathan Hall, tribe member number? 22. 22, John Hall. We should know that by now. You think I can keep up? No, I'm just kidding. I don't even know what my tribe member number is. glad to be back yeah yeah so welcome back to the show john hall everyone always gives such high praise when you're on here zach even said he thinks that you should be the permanent host you should be my podcast buddy what do you think of that i appreciate that um i buy all my uh machines from zach so he's paid to say that paid well to say that that's that's that's why he said it chill chill chill bye bye bye jonathan hall no it's always great to have you i always tell I'm going to wear a t-shirt that says Associate Shill to a convention and see if anybody picks it up. That's a good one. Shirts are hard to sell in today's pinball world. So that one might have some legs, though. I like that, Associate Shill. So real quickly, just before we move on with the content of today's show, I would be remiss if I didn't mention this. And I don't want to bring the show down, but I did want to extend our deepest condolences to Kerry Hardy and his family. For those of you who might not know, Kerry Hardy's brother passed away recently. And, you know, Kerry Hardy is such a great part of the pinball community. And I just want to say that we're all very, very sorry. And I can't even imagine what you and your family are going through. So, you know, maybe just send him a message. Tell him you're thinking about him and his family. it's a terrible tragedy and once again I don't even really have any more words for it but just that we're thinking about him and we love you Kerry Hardy. Yeah, Kerry, we love you well said so, but we will now start with some more, a little bit lighter content here and we'll get right into the dead flip Bond stream that we watched tonight on Tuesday, it's Tuesday night here, we're recording and uh i think it started about three hours ago it might even still be going on but um i watched a little bit of it john's watched a little bit about it so john i'm gonna give you the floor just tell us tell us your thoughts man what do you think uh you know first off i gotta say um george gomez has been to uh has been to scoots's place it's been it's been to scadero's bakery he uh lit up when tony scoots like threw out the you know come to scadero's he like lost his mind he was like yelling in the microphone scadero's bakery like you know he was he was loving it so a tribe tribe member number whatever tony scoots you know what he is we'll look at no not off the top of my head i gotta start uh start memorizing this never never happened but for you For the guys who don't know, yeah, Tony Scoots, he's a tribe member. He's, I think, third generation. I think his grandfather started this bakery, and we went there last year, and he treated us to pizza and sandwiches and those fucking cannolis, man. Like, everything. Oh, you've never had them, have you, John? No, I'm hoping we find a way. No, we're going to make it there. It's not too far from Expo, Melrose Park. Anyways, Tony Scoots, we love you, man. We love your food. he just he rolls out the red carpet for us we actually ate there twice and i think billy yj was there three or four times in his one trip to expo it's it's that good guys it really is well if george gomez is singing your praises on a stream where he's supposed to be talking about his new uh pinball machine yeah no shit he has this new pinball machine he's like oh i love these cannolis like that's fucking great that was epic that was epic uh the game looks awesome it looks like it shoots um like a george gomez yeah like a george gomez game man um i'm gonna i'm going to pick up a deadpool tomorrow deadpool premium i'm stoked about that yeah put a pin in that story because we are going to tell that story john hogg's got a great uh deadpool premium story yeah so anyway so i'm big big gomez fan so we all are i guess right um so my couple takeaways were the assets that they have coded in already actually looked pretty good. I mean, I really think that it looks like they got a lot of actual movie clips. I think they were synced up to some degree. Some people were complaining, it looked like, because they didn't use all the real estate. But I'll say Stern usually does a pretty good job with their LCD stuff. I feel like maybe that's got a little ways to go. So I thought it was interesting the way Jack had the stream laid out because normally he has the LCD, the direct capture from the LCD is a small part of the real estate in the whole stream. Like if you're familiar with OBS and how things are laid out on normal streams, usually you've got like a smaller window showing the score and the assets. but they had this really giant area of the screen dedicated to the LCD, and I couldn't decide if they were trying to show off the assets more, you know, like, hey, we've got all this movie stuff in here. We want you to see this really big. But it was just interesting the way the stream was laid out. So I definitely, you know, paid attention to it because it was the biggest part of the screen, but they definitely had a lot more of the movie assets and things that we haven't seen on the potato phone videos so far. Potato phone? It looks – or yam cam is what they call it. Yam cam, that's right, the yam cam. Yeah, it looked pretty good, and it looked like it shot like butter. So I don't know. I mean, you got to give the code some time, I guess. And George was pretty upfront about that, or I think it was George and – Mike Vinikour was there. Mike was very upfront about it. Yeah. So, so tell me, are you, are you a bond fan? Um, one night, uh, my wife and I were having some drinks and watching the new bond movies recently. And I already said that I probably wouldn't pre-order it. And I was watching like, I'm not the new bond movies, but you know, the most recent ones with Daniel Craig. and uh i'd text zach and i was like sign me up for a premium if it's gomez and it's bond i want it and then as soon as i found out it was sean connery i was like sign me out i'm good so okay okay so so if it was daniel craig you think you would have been more interested i don't know just something about something about connery just doesn't strike me but you know for for every game i don't like there's you know thousands of people that are going to sign up for it and buy it immediately so So, you know, just my opinion. I would have gone with a more modern Bond. So that being said, it still looks like a nice game. I'm going to play it at Expo, that's for sure. Yes. So if you guys don't know, we will be talking about this in a little while too. But, yeah, Jonathan and myself will be at Expo. We got this amazing booth kind of planned, and now I'm overselling it because it's just going to be a table full of crap and drinks. The poor man's flea market. Yes, the poor, there you go. It's, it has been dubbed the poor man's flea market. Everyone's excited about it. We're going to be, uh, it's going to be the party table. So, so for you guys coming around expo, come, come say hi, say hi to John, say hi to myself. Um, there are, Ooh, I think at last count now we're at about 15 tribe members. So, um, I really didn't think we were going to top last year's expo. Uh, but we might have more here this year. So it's, it's going to be epic it's gonna be fun so watch out pinball world the uh the tribe is going to descend on seanburg illinois in a couple of days here and it's going to be magical ian ian is going to make his triumphant return by the way so that's probably the biggest news so ian we're glad to have you back uh we'll tease a little bit later we're gonna might be doing some some content again so that's exciting but uh anyways go ahead john i was gonna say what so what about you are you signed up for a bond or how are you feeling? No, no, because here, well, here's, here's, here's my thing. Okay. Uh, first, you know, we, we're, we're trying to get through this, you know, the, uh, the stream here. So, um, real quickly, like I said, I think, I think it looks really good. Um, I, I, I never had any doubts that George Gomez game was going to shoot well. Um, the theme for me does absolutely nothing but the little asterisk there is neither did Godzilla right um you know is this going to be as great of a game as Godzilla no I just don't think that's the case and and that's no knock on Gomez I mean Godzilla is just such a good game that you know most games can't really hold a candle to it now um yeah I think the shots are amazing I think you know the art I I don't care one way or the other because the theme doesn't do much for me um yeah I'm interested to play it but you know at these prices now you know i said at the last few episodes you know i thought this was going to be venom i would have bought a venom but i just can't i can't fathom plunking down ten thousand dollars for a game that i might like and and john hall i'll tell you why in a moment because he's got a story you know what just go into that story here let's this is the poor man we don't have to stay on task go ahead so so john set the seed so which part i was enjoying what you were saying about the about the um game you don't like so let me ask you a question yeah yeah sure we go to we go to expo this weekend you get a few games on bond love the way it shoots shoots like butter you know the code's got a ways to go do you do you hop on over to to uh the bacchiotomy zach booth and and say you know what i changed my mind you know that that could very well happen because that's actually kind of what happened with godzilla because because once again godzilla when it first got announced i was like i have no affinity to godzilla i've never seen the movies i know what it is but you know i'm just i'm just largely not interested yeah and then the game comes out and it gets these amazing reviews and then i think it It was either Expo or MGC. It must have been Expo because it came out in the fall, right? And I play a few games on it, and after like two games, I'm like, oh, no, this is it. I'm getting this. The greatest pinball machine ever. Correct. Correct. But I think – so between the prices and my lack of anything attachment to the theme, uh you know i'm gonna be like the shark tanks now i'm out you know for that reason i'm out but you know if if venom comes out or futurama or something and the other thing is too and i don't want to be that guy because i know it's poor man's pinball podcast but you know i have quite a few games now so like i can rotate them in and out i can you know trade games i'm pretty happy with my collection right now i like them i play them all the time you know so i don't get quite as jacked up you know about games plus yeah i play i play in a lot of leagues now where there's a lot of cool games all the time so i you know i get my i get a good amount of time on a lot of these games so you know and and funny enough i talked to this guy that we're in a um he has a monthly league at his house and he buys a lot of le's and premiums and all this stuff and i asked him i said hey what's your what's your i'm out price and he laughed and he said it's right now because he's He's bought, he's literally bought almost, I think every single, uh, Ellie or premium, like the last, I want to say like 10 Stern games. Okay. He's got, he's got Deadpool. He's got Avengers. He's got monsters. He's got Jurassic park. He's got star Wars, Mandalorian, Godzilla, you know? So he's got them all right. And these are all premiums or alleys. And I said, so you're getting bond, right? And he just right away, he was like, nope. Like he's just, he's just done because, you know, the thing he told me was most of those le's that are sitting in his house he paid 8 500 for him yeah so now if he wants that le you know it's 13 or 14 and if he wants that premium it's 10 yeah so you know it something's got to give at some point yeah yeah i think i'm um to the point now where i'm ready to stop looking at everything like an investment or something that i'm trying to sell for the amount of money for I'm starting to as we're as we're getting into these higher prices and stuff and I'm starting to really look at how much I've got invested in my games I'm starting to really think about um you know like what games do I want uh to keep for a while because I think that's where I'm gonna be so there for a little bit I was buying a game keeping it a couple of months no big deal you sell it you lose a couple hundred bucks or even make a couple hundred bucks you're but now I think with the increasing prices and the market kind of settling down a little bit the pinball market I mean I definitely looking at keeping games longer and buying the games I don want to have for a while So that's why I got rid of Guns N' Roses or getting rid of Guns N' Roses. So Jonathan Hall got really excited about Guns N' Roses, right? Yeah. Why were you super excited about Guns N' Roses? So I'm a production guy, so that's what I do for a living. I set up lights and sound and, you know, I don't do concerts, but I do corporate stuff, and it's kind of like a rock and roll concert sometimes. So anything with an LED wall, lights and sound is like, yeah, I want that. I'm in it. I went and played a Guns N' Roses at a local guy's house, and he had the pin sound upgrade, and it was rocking. I mean, it was louder than any other pinball machine in the entire, like he had like 10 games in a row and it was just crazy. I was like, this is it. This is what I want to play. And I really have enjoyed it the couple of months I've had it. I just knew that it wouldn't be a game that I'd keep forever. And I'm starting to get to the point now where if I don't want to lose money on games, I probably need to get rid of them or keep them for a long time. And that's just not the game I'm going to keep forever. because I'm not a huge Guns N' Roses fan. Okay, fair enough. So John Hall lives in Knoxville, right? Yep. So he lives in the Knoxville area in Tennessee. So, you know, metropolitan area. So you started – Sort of. Yeah, we'll put that in quotes, right? A metropolitan-ish area. I don't know much about Tennessee. But what did you start that ad at when you put up your Guns N' Roses? 9500 Okay so John Hall puts this thing up And that was like what 3 weeks ago Yeah it was about 3 weeks ago Yeah with the caveat that I bought it Used with 100 plays on it The guy had already put the R blades on it He already put the topper on it He already put the coin taker upgrade To the topper with the scrolling mark Yeah it's a fully loaded game He put it all on a credit card And was trying to get out of the game He got pin crazy bought like four or five games in six months and paid cash for all of them except GNR. He put that on a credit card and it was just killing him. So he sold it to me for $9,500. So I threw it out there on the market for $9,500. I even put Titan rubbers and flipper toppers on that bad boy and you still get it for $9,500. And guess what happened? Nobody wanted it. So a week goes by and then you lowered it a couple hundred bucks, right? and then still 9200 i think okay so so here's this basically brand new game couple hundred plays and uh 9200 and by the way if you buy one new in boxes sorry zach they're uh they're about 11 i think it's like 11 10 5 is 10 5 is the current yeah plus shipping you're at 11 grand yeah so so you're at 11 grand so he's at 9200 now now it sits for like another week he had a couple of calls but Nothing serious, right? Yeah, I'm starting to get itchy. So then go ahead and finish the story when you lower the price to nine. So I dropped it to nine. Yeah, nine even. Nine even. And, I mean, I was seeing – I'm still seeing GNRLEs go pending on Pennside for $9,500 easy, you know, without the topper, without the R-Blade. So they're still selling for that. It's just – I think maybe in our market and where I'm at geographically, maybe not so much. So I don't know. Anyway, no interest at all. Like I got some trade offers. I got a trade offer on a beautiful Ghostbusters pro. I mean, the thing was home use only like no. Were you tempted? Yeah, I was really tempted. So so anyway, I got some offers. But anyway, this guy sends me a message the other day and he's like, I've got a Deadpool premium. It's got, you know, 70 to 100 plays on it, I think. It wasn't much. And he was like, do you want to trade for that? And I was like, fuck yes. Bring it. Like, absolutely. So this is a straight-up trade. Straight-up trade. Yeah. I wasn't even thinking about it. Because, I mean, if you look at a Deadpool premium right now, they're selling for $8,900 to $9,510, you know, for new in box versus, you know, used with a couple hundred plays. So this nice gentleman, if he's willing to part ways with his Deadpool and I've got my GNR for nine grand, I'm going to do it. I think the statement is that I have GNR number 4,007, I think. So they made a shit ton of those games, man. It's nothing against the game. I think the market is just saturated with them. No, you're absolutely right. How it goes for a music game. Find them used, find them new. but you're you're picking up this game tomorrow and you're still a little nervous that this thing's gonna go through right yeah so the guy texts me he's like what other games in my collection do you want and i'm like what do you mean and he was like well i just don't know if i can get rid of my deadpool and i was like damn it he knows how bad i want this game and he's now like i want it too and so so he sends me a detailed list of his games he's got a beautiful adams family he's got a jurassic park premium he's like you can have whatever these games you want anything but the Deadpool and I'm like, nah, you know, I already talked to my son and you know, he's nine. He's stoked about Deadpool. I'm stoked about Deadpool. That's the one I want. He's like, damn it. You know, I'm not going to back out of the deal or whatever. Okay. Okay. He sends me a message earlier tonight and says the, the babysitter that he has lined up has COVID. So we can't meet. He lives three and a half hours away from him, me. And I agreed to meet him about two hours away. sure sure to make the trade so now i've got to drive three and a half hours if i want the game tomorrow because he doesn't have a babysitter so i can wait a week i can wait a week and see if he backs out of the trade because he's already been talking about backing out of the trade hope he doesn't listen to this podcast um he's already been talking about backing out of the trade so now i've got to decide do i want to drive three and a half hours to his house and pick this game up so he doesn't back out of the trade or do i wait a week and see what happens and i still meet him in the hour and a half two hour time frame difference send us an email poor man's pinball gmail.com let us know what you think john hall should do 414-828-3739 uh i think john hall that based on what you said you just need to go get that game so i'm gonna do that yes okay so you're driving tomorrow seven hours yeah yeah well yeah three three and a half there maybe hopefully it takes a half an hour to dump the heaviest game off in the history of time gnr that thing is heavy um and then and then pick up this deadpool premium he's already got it packed up he sends me a picture and in the background is this like half bowling pin funny arm looking thing kind of looks like a clown holding a bowling pin and i was like hey dude um what's that thing in the background oh thanks for packing the game up by the way what's that thing in the background and uh and i was like can you send me a picture of that and he sends me a picture of this clown that is like i don't know what's the um not pennywise but the american horror story the murder clown um anyway it's a it's a scary looking clown terrifying it really is terrifying and so then i was like oh wow that's interesting that clown and he says i'm a big horror fan and i said that's cool and i said just promise me you're not going to murder me when i get there and his only response was ha ha that was it that's a little unsettling the text said ha ha and then he starts sending me pictures of other i didn't even send you this stuff he sends me pictures of or other like horror things around the room and i was like shit he's gonna murder me this is it so if i don't make it to expo please call my wife have the police come look for me i've gone to pick up my deadpool premium and yeah you give give your give your wife the address and make sure that she knows where you're going to die no in all seriousness he's a he's a super nice guy i've been talking to him for about a week and uh you know yeah most most serial killers are yeah he's a good guy just like holy crap uh it's gonna be an interesting pickup tomorrow i'll follow up with the story so you should i go tomorrow or should i not if i don't answer your emails that means i'm dead yeah i mean like i said that you you have to go because if he if he's getting cold feet just get the game because here's the thing like like guns and roses is a great game but yeah i mean if you're not a huge, huge GNR fan and you know, you got a game like Deadpool that you can swap. I mean, the value is the same as we talked about, so you're not really losing out, you know, financially. So yeah, I think it's, I think it's a wise swap for you. Where I'm at as a player is more of a Deadpool kind of area. Anyway, you know, I love, I love Sterns. I love modern Sterns. You know, I'm kind of starting to get, I've gone through a lot of games. I haven't lost any money really you know a little bit here and there but nothing bad but I've gone through a lot of games to figure out what I like and I'm starting to figure that out it's taken a couple years to get there man no it really does I'm you know I'm in this thing seven eight years now and I'm just finally starting to figure that out as well and I think you're right though the modern sterns insider connect you know that's where I'm heading you know there's a lot and like I said now I have the collection where I can trade and swap and sell and I don't really need to invest a ton more money into it but I can get another three or four good sterns in my lineup yep that's where I'm at that's where I'm at nothing against the other manufacturers I'm just kind of figuring out what I like and I was at this this league the other day that I was talking about and I um I actually got to play in in the tournament was uh Iron Maiden Premium and Jurassic Park Alley both games that I've I owned a Maiden Pro and a Jurassic Park Premium. And I was like, you know what? I kind of want these games back. Because, like, you know, I'm just like these Elwynn games. I know everyone talks about it, and it's just, you know, everyone knows it. But it's like, holy cow, those are really good games. Yeah, my number finally came up for Godzilla Premium. So that should be here when I get back from Expo, too. So it's an exciting. Good for you, man. Good for you. It's like the greatest pinball week ever if I survive the training tomorrow. Yes, if you don't die from the clown serial killer. Oh, man. You know what? When this episode posts, I will post that clown photo on the poor man's fan page. Oh, yeah. I'm going to screenshot it and put it on there because that's too good not to share. So maybe do a poll like will J-Haw return? Yeah, yeah. And would you buy a pin from this guy? so that's great man that's great but i think what everyone wants to hear today so so we got expo coming up in two days right and we got all kinds of shenanigans planned like i said this is such a cool year because once again ian's back um we got this cool booth that we talked about um what do you what are you most excited about for expo as ian said before things are gonna get weird it's gonna go uh no i've i mean i i'm just meeting the tribe i haven't i haven't met anybody face to face my wife knows all about my internet friends that i've never really met in real life so um maybe was this the first time maybe i'll get murdered there you haven't met any tribe members and in real life no holy shit this is great folks i didn't know this Yeah, no, not even Glenn. And he only lives a couple of hours for me. So Jesus. Yeah. And I mean, I talked to Glenn on the phone, you know, talk to your phone, Tim, you know, there's quite a few people that I connect with on a regular basis, but no, it's good. There was nobody that I met in person, and this is serious, and I know it's easy to say, but this is the honest to God truth. There was no one that I met in person that I was like, oh, I wish they weren't in the tribe, or oh, they're weird or different than I thought. You know what I mean? Yeah. All the people that we have chosen for the tribe have been quality people, except for Tim Lee. but you know everyone else has just been amazing and um meeting them in person you know we had so many so many great stories from the last couple of shows i mean mgc expo texas um mgc again uh you know it has been such a good run the last 18 months or so because there was yeah one two three like four or five five shows or something where you know we got together um and uh yeah i just think it's it's it's gonna be a good time and then and then the people who aren't in tribe like you know the zacks of the world and and carrie hardy and i'm sure he won't be there but um i think he is gonna try is he yeah i i think he said maybe in his video or something that he was okay i might be talking a turn there but sure sure um well i hope he is um but you know just And seeing some of the designers and just, you know, all of our friends and, like you said, our internet friends that we don't get to talk to a lot. So it's going to be a party. It's going to be a good time. And we're going to knock back a couple and have some cigars, and it's going to be good. Yeah, I feel like I know everybody already. So it's, I don't know. It's more like just seeing people in real life for the first time, you know? I think I would equate it to kind of like a family reunion where you want to go. Yeah. yeah because it's like hey you know this is your this is your weird cousin Glenn right or this is this is uncle Timmy Tim Lee will not be there sadly and he's he blaming me again he likes I giving him shit I keep saying oh yeah you gonna show up you gonna be there don try to act like your son has a track meet yeah yeah oh i trying to be dad of the year there's no twippy for that son um he's not really gonna be there but no no he won't but like i said there's there's 15 at shit we got to give a special shout out to rodden uh see i can say his name tim lee rodden yeah uh raw dawn raw raw road rodden so anyways uh Rodden flew in from Australia, I think yesterday. Yesterday, yeah. Yeah, either Sunday night or Monday morning, our time. And I was texting with him before he left, and I was telling my wife about him. And she goes, oh, he's from Australia? Can you get me some violet crumble? I guess it's like this chocolate candy something. She's had it before, someone, whatever. So I asked him, and he's such a sweetheart. and he took a picture and he's bringing some stuff for my wife oh man that's awesome so yeah he he loaded up he's bringing tim tams and vegemite and uh oh yeah he had he had a list of like the koala bears i mean he's he's bringing all kinds of shit from australia so we're really looking forward to meeting him for the first time and uh man those australians they're fucking nuts and in the best way possible yeah it's gonna be real he's he's he's he's come with the vigor he's He's rested now. He's in Chicago already. He's ready to go, dude. I love it. Yeah, he's the whole week. And, yeah, most of us are going to be there for at least two nights, some of us three. In Rodden's case, you know, five or six. But, yeah, great, great time. It sounds like they're going to do a better job with Expo this year because there was a lot of criticism from last year. So I'm really looking forward to the new hours. They've expanded hours. They supposedly got a better free play selection. I did find something interesting, though, and I think most people find it. So I was talking to somebody at this league the other day who's coming to Expo, a local here in Milwaukee, and he told me he's bringing one arcade game, right? And they said, hey, do you have more arcade games? And he's like, no, I'm just bringing the one. And he's like, why? And they said there's only three people that are bringing arcade games. I thought that was very bizarre. Does it usually have a lot of arcade games? Some of these shows, they have full sections of dozens and dozens of arcade games. It's all part of the arcade experience, right? Yeah, but some of the other shows are dubbed arcade. I'm with you. I don't disagree with that. But the short answer is no. Expo used to have multiple arcade games too. And they said there's three. so all these thousands of people coming and they can only muster up three games. It's, it just seemed kind of bizarre to me, man. I don't want to get off on a arcade tangent. Oh no. I mean, you and Ian did the same thing I did for a long time, which is, you know, fix up and make multicades and arcades. And, um, it just seems like that area is dying fast. I, I don't disagree with that. And obviously this is little interest. No, I, I think you're right. maybe it was just like our generation and now the younger kids aren't as interested in that yeah so what makes pinball different is a huge other conversation but i think i think i think it's it's strange that arcade games the classic arcade games have gotten boring you know like ian ian said it a couple of times on the podcast he's like i can't play donkey kong anymore it's you know it's like you play that over and over again it's always the same thing yeah you memorize the patterns and that's just what you do yeah you know i don't know it's no you're you're not wrong so you think you think if they brought a bunch of arcade games that people there would still play them i think it's it's one of those things i mean it's good marketing right because yeah um it it it brings a different sect of people there because really what you want to do is yes you're promoting pinball right but if you can bring in other people then they say oh what's this pinball thing yeah you want to make it a public show not just a pinball hobbyist correct and that's why mgc does so well shout out to dan lucen and his team because and yes i might sound like a homer because it's my hometown show but he's grown that show from nothing and it's it's super popular now after 20 plus years because he does card games he does console gaming he does yeah exactly it's you know it's the midwest gaming classic it's not pinball you know pinball might be the central focus but at the end of the day they got all kinds of shit going on there yeah so they may they may benefit from pinball being the minority really think about it yep you know yeah because discovery perspective it's it's kind of like it's kind of like stern selling their games right well you know james bond is coming out i know james bond is coming out and guess what if the reveal gets botched like it did sorry stern are you listening uh you know we don't really i mean people bitch about it but we don't really give a shit because we know what it is right but now if somebody from outside the hobby sees this botched review or doesn't see it at all the reveal then they they're never gonna buy it because they have no idea to even exist yeah I guess that's my point. You know, it's like you, you want to, you want to make it as broad as possible to get your cast your widest net. Man, there, there are still people that come by my house and they're like, what are these? I'm like, they're pinball machines. They're like, oh, that still exists. You know, I, you know, I think we might've hit on that last time too. It's, it's just an amazing thing. Yeah. And then, you know, there's the same thing that happens when you start to explain the rules or explain, you know, they're like, what? Like, I had no idea that there was that much depth to this. You know, I don't know. It's a it's a it's a strange thing to try to explain to somebody that something's still around. Not only that, is it is that much better than what you remember it when you were 12 playing whatever game at the laundromat? Well, that's the real thing. If you get somebody in front of one and if they played them in the, yeah, 70s or 80s or even 90s and you're like, okay, this is a new, brand new game. Yeah. Well, and maybe that's why it's lasting because when you put somebody in front of a modern arcade, what do you say? Like they're all just retrocades. They're all, you know, oh, it's Donkey Kong. It's the same that you played when you were a kid. You can put somebody in front of a pinball machine now and you're like, this is nothing like what you remember it. This is going to be a totally new experience. That's the way I sell it anyway, Stern, if you're listening. No, it's a solid point, and you're right. And, you know, they do need better marketing. But, you know, obviously the last couple of years they haven't needed any marketing. But, you know, over time they're going to need more. I thought the stream was really solid. It was a bunch of real people playing the game that they made, talking about how hard it is to make a game, talking about all the ins and outs. It was like all the stuff that all the hobbyists that complain need to hear. It's like the people that are making it are actually like, you know what, this is not easy. Manufacturing is not easy. Pinball is not easy. But we're still here playing this game and we're really proud of it. And I think that they probably need more of that. Well, and the criticism is actually a testament to how good Stern is, if you think about it, because, you know, we have now got this expectation of, Oh wow. Stern makes it easy, makes it look easy to make games. Right. Because every three months they're, they're pumping out thousands of games. And, and then when somebody like JJP is struggling to get a second game on the line, and I'm not picking on JJP, I'm just using an example. Not that they had the struggle, but you know, if JJP is struggling to get a second game on the line or something, people are like, well, how come you can't do it? Right. Yep. So it just shows you, yeah, it is tough, but Stern has figured out a way to really nail down that manufacturing part of it. George said tonight how hard it was, like how he said himself, how hard it was to get parts. Like he said, you have no idea how much we've struggled. And I thought that was awesome. He's being he's being a real dude just talking about, you know, this is not just a business for us. Like we struggle with this on a daily basis. No, I'm really glad you brought that up because that is – you are correct, though, about a lot of the negativity, especially lately that's been floating around. And we just really need to be – it's kind of like life, right? You need to be thankful for what you have and not worry about what you don't have. Yeah, man. I'm ready to be over it. I'm excited about Expo 2 because I want to come with some positivity and enjoy it, play the games, meet the people, meet all my fans. Just kidding. we're gonna we're gonna get a we're gonna get a j-hall uh j-hall podcast uh host t-shirt something i was talking to uh i was talking to glenn the other day and he said pinball celebrity and i just laughed out loud and i was like is that not the funniest thing you've ever heard in your life he goes dude i say that all the time like what a joke pinball celebrity yeah and glenn certainly pissed everybody off in his pinball celebrity ran um so i'm going to expo for the first time i'm taking an uber i guess from the from o'hare to schomburg yep how far how far is that oh i don't know probably 30 30 to 40 minutes i would think cool so then when i get there and i need to get some food uh where do i go from there i heard there's nothing in schomburg there there's not schomburg is like a it's a little suburb of Chicago. It's not even like, it's just, yeah, there's just not a lot there. So, um, no, we're, I tell you, we're going to try to get together at Scoots Dally. We got a bunch of messenger threads going, so we'll, we'll get the crew together. You just text me. This episode of the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast and the Poor Man's Pinball Network is brought to you by Flip N Out Pinball. Looking for some new pinball machines? Call Zach and Nicole. Looking for those accessories, those hard to find toppers they just released the trailer for the mandalorian topper oh it looks good contact zach and nicole today you're looking to get on a list for something that's hard to find contact zach let him know tell him they're doing a great job they always do a fantastic job for the poor man's pinball podcast and the poor man's pinball network thank you zach and nicole call them for all your pinball needs we are also brought to you by pinballprices.com they are another premier sponsor of the poor man's pinball network and they will be sponsoring our booth at expo in just a couple of days doc finlay buy the man a beer pinballprices.com he logs all the prices for all the pinball sales does a lot of work doesn't ask for a lot in return go to pinballprices.com hit that donate button and get that man drunk um when are you coming in thursday or friday so you hear everybody drew already gave you his phone number now he's saying text him when you get there yep 414-828-3739 i want my phone to just light up everyone texts me when they get to expo yeah what i'm like all 2 000 listeners how many you think are gonna go to expo uh let's see well obviously most of ours are from the united states our listeners that is I would say 25%. That might be a little high. Well, maybe not. 500 people, 500 pinheads. And our booth is going to be rocking. I think there's going to be quite a few because there's – I couldn't believe I never thought of this idea. I guess because I always thought it was prohibitively expensive. And then when I found out what it was, now I got this great plan for next year. I probably shouldn't say it because Rob Burke is probably not going to allow this, but this is what I want to do. Okay, so we're going to plant the seed right now, guys. And I know it hasn't even happened yet, but so they, you know, we, we get our, we get our little booth, right? We got the smallest booth we could get, obviously, because we just, you know, we didn't need a ton of space. So it's like 300 bucks. Okay. It's like, that's reasonable. Well, then I got to thinking and I saw the map. Jeremy sends me the map and, you know, it kind of shows where we are in relationship to everybody else. And it kind of has the whole place mapped out. Right. So it's really kind of cool. We get a preview of what it's going to look like. So that's neat. and I'm looking at some of these other booths like flipping out I think theirs is like three times the size of ours so they didn't buy like a huge thing you know like and then and then Stern's is like you know obviously the biggest one right and Stern's is like probably 20 times what ours is yeah I was like we should start a Patreon specifically to get the biggest fucking booth at Expo dude I've been I've been to some pretty big trade shows like with bars and DJs And like, you know, it's just all like a big lounge and stuff like we could have. We could have no point to our booth other than just to party. No, that that was my thought. I was like, because we have enough volunteers and people and tribe members and fans and people that are coming in to help us. And like I said, yeah, we don't have to set up anything super elaborate. But you had to have a bar and just have this great, you know, then we can bring a bunch of games, too. So, you know, it'll be, you know, it'll, it'll be pinball centric, of course. But anyways, I'm going to plant that seed. I'm going to start collecting donations literally next month. Okay. And then we'll do like a Kickstarter and we'll just see how high we can get it. So Rob Burke, I'm going to be calling you. I want to find out how much the largest booth is going to cost. And, and the poor man's pinball podcast is going to get the largest booth at expo. I have a feeling. Yeah. we don't want to know how much the biggest. Oh yeah. I'm sure. I'm sure once you get up to there, I mean, I don't know. Well, it's like scalability, right? If, if the small things 300 and you're getting 10 small things, it's probably not three grand. It might be, there might be some sort of discount, right? We should probably bleep out all the time. So you said how much it costs Well I sure I sure you can go to their website It probably on the website You think I guess He going to look it up I totally am Entertain our peeps While I'm doing this here, John Hall If I did editing I would Put some music in here That's why I can't do podcasts man i can't edit all that stuff like at least on the stream it goes out and then it disappears from the internet i i tell people that's why you know i miss that's one of the reasons i miss ian so much because you know he he was he's really good at that stuff and i just yeah i don't really want to do it i can but and obviously i've done some fucked up editing in the past you know yeah you get better i mean i've i've come a long way that's for sure so anyway so when does our booth officially open at expo i say hour i didn't do shit to plan this by the way i'm just a free oh by the way i did not either so we're in we're in good company here john i tell you no that the story got jeremy schmitz literally texted me and just said hey i'm getting a booth for expo do you want in and it just like clicked like the light bulb went off over my head and i was like well shit of course i do of course because once again and by the way it's not on their website so sorry rob burke but whatever so what so it's because he's gouging stern when uh just kidding when does our booth open uh well we with the with the show we're we're we're renting the space so quite honestly they don't care what we do you know what i mean yeah because it's like we we we rented that space and if we um we're the short story is we'll have it set up thursday sometime and then friday morning it'll it'll be up i mean like i said it's but the show opens thursday right no friday at noon i think oh yeah okay so so essentially we you know i'll be there all day thursday i don't know when i think jeremy might have to work and then come after whatever so on Thursday night, I think at 5 or 6 o'clock, they let the vendors come in and start setting up. Oh, okay. So we can go in there, set up, and then by Friday, we're all set to go. I brought a – I'm bringing in a 10 by 10, like, canopy. I don't even know if our spot's 10 by 10, so it might only be, like, 6 by 6, in which case I'll have to talk to our neighbors. This is going to be a fucking disaster. It's going to be awesome. It's terrible. It's terrible. Yeah. So, well, the only reason I brought that was I wanted something to be able to hang the banners from. Because, like, I was going to make stands. They don't have a little drape thing in the back or whatever? I don't know. Like I said, I have no idea what they have. We have no idea what we're doing. It's going to be awesome. John, I'm bringing a cooler. I'm bringing ice. I'm bringing cigars. I mean, what do you want here, man? I'm going to try to smuggle some moonshine on the airplane. Hopefully I'll make it there. there you go if i don't get murdered and if i don't get stopped by the feds on the way there i'm i'm gonna be in there it is it is gonna be a lot of fun and i the the banner that i had made up like i said i'm pretty proud of it and uh i'm bringing sharpies because the the background's mostly white so i want people to like sign it you know i can sign on the back it would just be cool people can write little messages it's just going to be this awesome poor man's banner it's just It's going to be hodgepodge like everything else we do. So I love it. Yeah. No, it's awesome. It's going to be great. And our booth will also be officially sponsored by pinballprices.com. Go buy Doc Finley a beer. Thanks, Doc. Yep. Doc Finley bought his own banner, so we're putting that up. So docfinleypinballprices.com. I reached out to Zach. He has not responded. I said, hey, Zach, you want to sponsor our booth? Crickets. crickets uh too bad we're not next door to him that would have been amazing apologies in advance to our neighbors you know what our neighbors might do the most sales of anybody at expo if they play their cards right you know what that's actually true actually i have the floor plan right here so i will share this with you guys i know we're in the bottom left of the floor plan if you look at it yes you are correct definitely at the bottom somewhere we're always in the bottom twippy voting uh ratings you name it uh maybe i don't have it with me i'll have to dig it up but yeah we're we're in the bottom left so kind of the there's the doors to enter we're on the left side on the left side yeah um yeah one of the doors to go right yeah yeah so we're actually one of the first so it's actually not a bad spot i don't think so also if you come by if you come by and nobody's in the booth it's because we're all drinking somewhere just find us text drew that is absolutely what's happening absolutely this is gonna be a wild week here we go here we go so you okay when you walk in the registration booth uh we have fun with pinball okay then there's um pin graphics and then uh let's see here um yep and then on the right is pinball so like right across from us is pinball brothers uh right next to us our neighbor is ship my pinball which is a new um uh did you ever see the ad for them no pinball no so i guess they they just started and they're, they're like wrapping and shipping pinballs for like a reasonable rate. That's interesting. Yeah. So I don't, I don't know how it works, but I saw, I don't know, a Facebook post or their page or something. And I was like, huh. And then coincidentally, like I said, they're our next door neighbors. So they're either going to be a sponsor or never talk to us again by the end of the weekend. You got it. You got it. And, and if it's anything like 2019 expo, they will never talk to me ever again. Nice. Well, ship my pinball. We're coming for you, baby. Ship my pinball. I'm apologizing in advance. Oh, my God. I can't believe we're across from Pinball Brothers. Yeah, yeah. They're, like, right across from us. They got some – Oh, man. It's Pinball Adventures right behind us. Or Ballarama. Where's Ballarama? Oh, my God. Are they close to us? Oh, that's great. That is great. Yeah. We got all the greats there, and Poor Man's is right in the middle. It's going to be good. It's going to be good. Sorry for everybody. Yeah. Yeah. Is not stern tonight. Too good. Too good. So anyways, that is our pre expo roundup. What to expect, what we're going to do. Once again, come say hi guys. Seriously, if you want to, um, you can, you can text me when you're there. You know, even if you don't know me, 414-828-3739, I will be around all day Thursday, all day Friday, all day Saturday, and leaving on Sunday. So plenty of time. We are going to – most of us are going to the Pinball Olympics. Are you going to do that, John? No, I've got to fly out Saturday afternoon. We've got a home Titans game on Sunday. That's right. I wish all my tribe members the best of luck in what seems to be the greatest competition of all time. So it's, it seems like it's a lot of fun. So, uh, what, what, what else do you want to see or do, or what do you want to tell our listeners before we end this amazing episode? Uh, Tim Lee sucks at pinball and Tim Lee sucks at going to expo. Oh, that was so good. That is, that is going to be the new intro and outro for every show we ever do ever. Now I'm looking forward to seeing everybody looking forward to seeing all of you. Um, and man, it's, it's just going to be such a good time. I'm so excited. Nothing is going to stop me. Hell or high water, I will be there, and I will be inebriated. It's going to be awesome. It's, you know, one of the best things about this is literally, you know, you learn this early on. You go to these shows, and you're like, I want to play these games, and then you just end up obviously not playing much pinball. That's what everybody tells me. Exactly. I know, and you're like, I'm going to be the outlier. I'm going to play all these games. And then when you come back, we're going to do this show again in a week or two, John and I'm going to say how many games did you play and you're going to say like four and uh some of my fondest memories of these shows are like sitting in the hotel room bullshitting with like five or six tribe members yep truly yep that's what I'm after we we would uh you know we did at MGC with uh Scoots and Billy YJ and um Eric uh we did at exp or TPF earlier this you know it's just so great you get in the hotel room you have a couple drinks you're deciding like where you're going to go, who you're going to see. And then, you know, like I said, you just end up having two or three drinks in the hotel room. Then you head out. Showing somebody your bond on the wand? Yeah, yeah, your wand and your pants, you know, whatever. You're like, hey, George Gomez, can you sign my wand? And George Gomez will never be on this show. I wonder why. It's okay. He probably won't do another stream for a while either. he had a good time it was great so anyways yeah so so many good memories and uh i just i just can't wait so any any other final parting words here john man that's great thanks for having me on i really appreciate it and it's always a good time man yeah yeah we'll see you soon man it sounds good and to all you listeners out there in podcast land have a great week we'll see you at expo and we'll talk to you soon later dude that was good was that good that was good man what do you think i think it was okay i don't know yeah i felt like it was good yeah no i can usually usually have a pretty good sense because i told you a few times ian and i had some really rough episodes and yeah i don't remember this there was well no there was literally two or three that we uh one we like started over because it was just so bad we just couldn't we couldn't click and then one we just decided not to do it that week because it was so bad oh wow like like we were you know we were we were doing it we were going through the motions and then like we're i don't know 20 25 minutes in he goes he goes how do you feel today i'm like i don't know i just feel like off and he goes yeah me too and we just scrapped the whole episode so it's just you know i mean you just when you're doing it every week it's like you know it can get stale Yeah, I guess so I just don't think about it like I don't know, I just don't think about it like Being that serious, I listen to your other episodes I never listen to one I'm on but I listen to the other episodes and I just, I don't know Everything seems so light hearted, you know Well, and most of it is And I will say That, correct But even the ones that you're It's usually better than what you think it is Yeah That's why I wouldn't want to edit because I wouldn't want to listen to myself back, you know, and, like, figure out what parts I wanted to cut out. That's tough. Like, the shit that Franchi does and stuff would just make me mad. No, and that's why, you know, all jokes aside, that's why I don't do a ton of editing. Because, yeah, you could sit there for hours and just go through everything and, oh, this would be cool if I added this or did this or deleted this. And, you know, at the end of the day, if the conversation was good, you know, most people aren't going to remember that other shit. so i'd maybe be careful about saying how much you paid for the booth at expo you know i don't know you never know how much somebody else is getting jacked on that so yeah but i'm throwing that out there honest no no i'm i'm with you but i think honestly like the 300 like this is like literally bare bones i mean that's like yeah that's like the cheapest like three walls yeah no no there there is nobody that's that they're charging more for that two by two space they're like it's it's 300 bucks you know did you ask for power yeah well no no they they have it no it's funny you say that because it was like another it was like 400 bucks or something there you go yeah you know you do the shows right yep um no jeremy told me it was literally more than the booth yeah yeah that's where they get you yeah that's why you just run an extension cord from your neighbors yeah pinball uh ship my pinball can we borrow your charger please can i plug in my phone why do you have a giant power strip well it takes a lot to power my phone yeah oh shit yeah but you're right that's where they because shit because if you know stern pays whatever they might even give stern the free booth or whatever but then they're like yeah we're gonna they probably do we're gonna charge you $10,000 for electricity. Yeah, I would say like $10,000 or $15,000 easy, but I mean, they got a whole thing going on. They need each other, right? Yes, 100%. That's why I was joking about the pinball or pinballers being there. How much do you think they'd pay for their booth? Oh my god, that's great. That is so great. Well, John Hall, this has been a pleasure Thanks for having me, man So when are you coming in? What time? Thursday, I'll be there My plane lands around 7, I think So, you know Around 8 o'clock on Thursday night I'll be there And I'm hoping to check out The end of the Flipping the script or whatever If you guys are doing something cooler than that I'd rather go do that Yeah, well, like I said, Rachel and I are on right in the morning So we'll be, you know, largely done with that. And then, uh, you know, but there's, there's no expo that day. So yeah, hit us up. We'll, uh, we'll go grab some drinks and just have a good time on Thursday. Yep. Sounds good. Yeah. I'm out, uh, Saturday afternoon. So once you guys, once you guys, so yeah, Friday is my big day and Saturday of course, or Thursday night, I mean, we'll, okay. We'll light it up, dude. I'm ready. Yeah. Let me know, man. That sounds great. All right, buddy.