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48: 3rd Day of Balls: Joel Bob Drain Ghost

Pinball Party Podcast·podcast_episode·28m 28s·analyzed·Dec 17, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Joel Engelberth discusses 2025 pinball highlights, defends creator integrity, and anticipates future game releases.

Summary

Joel Engelberth (co-host of Triple Drain Pinball Podcast and Flip Out stream) discusses his favorite pinball moments of 2025, including streaming with his brother, attending Pinball Expo, and his philosophy on community engagement and de-escalation. He addresses criticism of content creators regarding alleged 'kickback' culture and explains that TPN (This Week in Pinball) is a collaborative creator group without preferential treatment. He expresses anticipation for Keith Elwin's upcoming game and potential Spike 3 operating system developments for Stern Pinball.

Key Claims

  • Joel's brother John recently moved down and started streaming with him, which has been his favorite pinball thing this year

    high confidence · Joel speaking directly about his personal experiences and streaming partnership

  • TPN (This Week in Pinball) is 'genuinely just a group of creators that have a discord and have fun together' with no special treatment or filtering of submitted content

    high confidence · Joel explaining the structure and purpose of TPN during grievance discussion

  • Content creators do not receive kickbacks from manufacturers like Stern or Jersey Jack Pinball

    medium confidence · Joel's defense against online accusations of 'good old boys club' bias and manufacturer payments

  • Zach Sharpe (Flip N Out Pinball distributor) received only a T-shirt from Barrels of Fun for promotional coverage of their game

    medium confidence · Joel discussing limited compensation from manufacturers despite media exposure generated

  • Keith Elwin's next game is expected to be high quality and is Joel's primary anticipated release for 2024-2025

    medium confidence · Joel expressing confidence in Elwin's design pedigree when discussing upcoming releases

Notable Quotes

  • “My favorite pinball thing, honestly, is probably my brother now streaming with me... He's never been American Pinball Pinball Pursuit... having him a part of that has been really a ton of fun.”

    Joel Engelberth @ early in interview — Reveals personal motivation for streaming and importance of family involvement in pinball community

  • “I would much rather deescalate the situation... I like that I would rather when whether it's in pinball, friends, family, whatever it is to feel like I have the potential ability to step in and deescalate and show respect and communicate that.”

    Joel Engelberth @ mid-interview personal question — Shows Joel's philosophy on conflict resolution and community culture

  • “My only grievance is obviously this last week, last two weeks, everything going on with the Twippies Awards... There's no good old boys club... it's genuinely just a group of creators that have a discord and have fun together.”

    Joel Engelberth @ Festivus grievance section — Directly addresses recent Twippies controversy and defends creator integrity against accusations

  • “I would love to get a kickback from any of them. But we don't nobody does any of that and it's just we do this because it's fun”

    Joel Engelberth @ grievance discussion — Refutes ongoing community speculation about manufacturer favoritism and payments to content creators

  • “Keith Elwin's next game, there's no way it's not good... But yeah, besides that, I don't know... maybe there's been rumors that Spike 3 has to come out and that's something that I'm excited about”

    Joel Engelberth @ final question about 2024 outlook — Identifies anticipated future releases and expresses interest in potential Spike 3 OS developments

Entities

Joel EngelberthpersonJohn EngelberthpersonJared EngelberthpersonTravispersonTheatre of MagicpersonThis Week in PinballorganizationZach SharpepersonJasonperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Joel defends TPN structure against 'good old boys club' accusations, explaining it is a collaborative creator group with no preferential treatment or manufacturer bias

    high · Direct explanation of TPN membership and operations during Festivus grievance discussion

  • ?

    community_signal: Recent Twippies Awards controversy generated significant community criticism and accusations of creator bias and kickback culture

    high · Joel citing 'last week, last two weeks, everything going on with the Twippies Awards' as his main grievance

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Joel advocates for understanding online critics as people seeking connection rather than malicious actors, promoting de-escalation over confrontation

    high · Extended discussion of Joel's philosophy on engaging with angry commenters and negative emails

  • ?

    content_signal: Joel's brother John recently joined streaming partnership with Joel, expanding content reach and adding family dimension to Flip Out stream

    high · Joel identifying this as his favorite pinball thing of 2025 and discussing Expo attendance impact

  • $

    market_signal: Content creators receive minimal direct compensation from manufacturers; Barrels of Fun provided only T-shirt despite significant promotional value

    medium · Joel's statement: 'The Kickback I get from that is they sent me a T-shirt and I'm super appreciative'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.085

0:00
The third day of balls, Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas. Uh-huh, little slow on that one, but eat shit. Welcome to the third day of balls. Check the first two in the same feed and let's get moving. Alright. Twelve days of balls. Yeah, we already said that enough, so do something useful. Fuck you. Or not. Who cares? I don't care. What I do care about is our next guest. yes Congratulate to the team for supporting Barry it loved,문 rested and gotked ontop heute 다음atsuади creator Get fucking視 The haftkind Keyboard Sure LaVarie Rossx случае, The Week in Pinball, Johnny Pneumonic, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, The Best time of year for them and they're just in life. So it's pretty great And in this family get-together that you previously had how many golf carts were involved
2:27
Just because I have a golf cart doesn't mean it gets driven all year round things get cold in Indiana. Yeah, it's true Well, if you don't mind, that's how I like to picture your life. You're you know, let me have that please All of these. So let's say I edited it and Joel said four. Four golf carts. That's interesting. Wow. That's a lot of golf carts. Yeah, none of my family actually drives a car anymore. It's just golf cart all the time, you know, and that's just how we roll. Man, isn't life wonderful? Yeah. Oh, it's the best. What a joy. Well, since I've... We've gotten to know your balls in the past, we as in the audience and myself. This was a long time ago. I don't remember. You were on the Pinball Party, I think when I was still on TPN back in We're going to ask you some more questions in pinball party fashion. Rarely is this to do with pinball but surprisingly this first one is so let's get to it. Third day of balls with Joel Engelberth. Go check out Justanother. Do you even do, sorry, do you even do Justanother? Just, no, realistically now I basically, I was doing too many things. And so the focus I do triple drain with Tom and Travis. Have a great time there. And then I do the Flipping Out stream. Farrologikes violating Most Euro,
3:58
the only moment Tom, Travis, I wanted to have all three of you on. I was telling Joel before we went on air here. I just thought, fuck, that's going to be hard to get all three people on at once. But honestly, in spirit, you're here. So Joel is speaking on behalf of both Tom and Travis. One of my favorite partners. Travis's audio would cut out in about 30 seconds. Yeah, so it's basically the same. And Tom isn't really going to talk. Oh, you said 30 minutes, you're shooting for her. Tom, you would have pushed two hours easy with Tom. Oh, yeah, that's true. Alright, so end of the year. What has been your favorite pinball thing this year, whether it's a game, a tournament? My favorite pinball thing, honestly, is probably my brother now streaming with me.
Keith Elwin
person
Barrels of Funcompany
Stern Pinballcompany
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Triple Drain Pinball Podcastorganization
Flip Out streamorganization
Pinball Expoevent
Twippies Awardsevent

product_strategy: Joel expresses excitement about potential Spike 3 OS developments for Stern Pinball and implications for future game mechanics and features

medium · Joel questioning 'what does that mean for future Stern Pinball potential whether it's a cabinet, an audio, a video, whatever'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Keith Elwin's upcoming game anticipated as high-quality release based on his design track record

    medium · Joel stating 'Keith Elwin's next game, there's no way it's not good'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Barrels of Fun's Labyrinth game impressed Joel enough to anticipate their next release despite uncertain timeline

    medium · Joel: 'I was really impressed with Labyrinth. I'm excited to see what's coming out next'

    • 4:59
    That was you see that? Yeah, that was a complete surprise. He moved in or not moved in. He moved down here. Last year from far away and he's never been a pinball person But at the time he had accepted a new job, but his family had moved down So he was actually living with my parents for a few months and just as an as an offering of like hey You know, I know you don't want to hang out with our folks every night so like hey you should come stream with us and or stream with me and
    5:26
    He's really having him a part of that has been really a ton of fun The Not only do I think it's it adds something to the stream But obviously hanging out with him is really cool or having like a dedicated scheduled event You know with your brother once a week Yeah Is a ton of fun and then Pinball Expo in Chicago Chicago Pinball Expo having people my brother Jared came for a day and have Oh he did Yeah, he came on Saturday and to like have people come up to him and we're like excited to see him and and like I bet that felt good. It was really cool. It was really cool to see like He just thinks it's so strange, you know, just person streaming in their basement. Like, why would anybody watch this? But then to actually be a part of it, see the fun of streaming and see the fun and the amazing people in the pinball community and then to actually physically interact with them at Expo. And it's just it was a blast. So I would say, yeah, probably overall, just having my brother involved. That's a yeah, man, I'm jelly one. I don't have a brother, but if I did, I might want to play. But I have sister. She doesn't live close enough to play pinball, but I can see We'll see ya, man. Like, I mean, seeing you two, it's cool. Not to be corny, but, like, kind of a brotherly love. It shows and I think it's awesome. I appreciate it. Alright, this is a very similar question, but do you believe in aliens? Do I believe in aliens? Jeez, you know, apparently we're supposed to now with some of the government stuff that's going on. Like, there was a few days where I started diving into that and I'm like, what is going on? And and um you know there I just get to some of those questions where I like this is this is is this really what I want to get locked into right now or think about So I still I think my my answer still I I pull a Travis Murie and I just sit on the fence and I go I have no idea I have no idea I do believe the galaxy is really freaking big So uh statistically there gotta be but um but yeah this government stuff coming out it like Oh yeah no we we done that It like Oh okay well apparently it real So I don know orang�rylicynchron questions suspended The Santa is an alien Easter Bunny, you know that we've had a lot of Santa questions recently a lot of them How old old is your five and a half and three and a half? So okay, like why is he living in the North Pole? Like why didn't you live somewhere? Nice? I'm gonna bring up logic. Yeah, I don't know Yeah, yeah aliens are okay. Um, do you believe in ghosts?
    8:27
    um, I don't know. Maybe. I'm not worried. Do I expect to ever run into one in my life? No. But am I going to tell somebody who swears they have that they're wrong? No. Yeah. Which is also kind of what I'm looking for. Someone say yes, and my mother in the middle of the night haunts me and doesn't and I freak out. Got it. I've never experienced... No, I've yet to run into that. If you do shoot me a text. Oh, I will. You're the first person I'll tell. Spit obrigated for permission to use the subtitle TEXT These captions in the following chapters will be used to render any questions or actions Cor pictures of The Ready to Win Play enthalpy היה on weekday at pine 잊 잊 and part of cin bereits k AWlarıäÍ tea and Give the Chance D. I'm tentatively excited to ask you specifically out of all 12 people that are tentatively made. Scheduling is fucking crazy by the way of will this happen? You're actually the favorite person I'm going to ask this question to. What is and please pronounce your favorite curse word? Oh, no. What is my favorite curse word? I do not curse much at all. And it's just in my household growing up. I remember I said I was doing math homework one night, I think it was fifth or sixth grade. And I said out loud, I said, Man, this sucks. And my mom was so pissed. My my she was so pissed. I don't, I would probably say, either 14oc The So far it up. I just think it's funny Yeah or the other the other thing and maybe some people don't think it's curse Word but my my my father-in-law who Passed one of his favorite things and it's the way he said it he'd go what the hell and he'd say it like that And it was just so it became like a joke in the family like a two-syllable hail Yeah, hell and it's just how he said it and it just like we'd hear him say it in the other room Whatever he's doing and it's almost just became a joke and we'd like mutter it The I'm gonna good quality like she it yeah, it's always good I like a she it with yeah a good a good accent on a swear word is on she yeah shit
    12:21
    Yeah, I don't know those are yeah, I feel like I'm the yeah, I stub my toe. It's just you know, it's what happens When you stub your toe you're like oh shit
    12:32
    What the hell The Just doesn't it's just never been a habit of mine. No, that's awesome, man All right. Tell me something or please I got a rephrase. This is like I'm demanding Would you please tell me something about yourself that you're proud of?
    12:53
    It's a tough one humble Midwesterns, this is awful, but yeah, oh I I Like I Like being positive and it's just I C Styles Bell on the huge美味.c warnings12349 Можно, a deskbe- sayin, compliment on the crawdęwinstein 358877笑نا스 dances Activefield boobies withoutなんて cudosldonalealthat repeatedly whenever centinpail like dog-man commanding You know, ballybally 12th of another month. 4 à central part d시간ov.com,zerok. 192221212. I would much rather deescalate the situation and not a back down thing. It's more of just like let's come to terms here or like let's deescalate. And I don't know. I like that. I like that I, I don't know, would rather when I see whether it's in pinball, friends, family, whatever it is to feel like I have the potential ability to step in and deescalate and show respect and communicate that. I don't know. Maybe that's a, I don't know if that's a proud thing. You just wait to receive everything but I don know why I can there just too much anger in the world And you need some people that can calm things down a little bit I guess I should have been texting you a couple months ago when I was just talking about the podcast. I was angry for a couple months. I'm all for people being passionate. If you're passionate about something and you get all worked up and you really get fired sidestep Greenspeoutheek spilled atgehhmmenerate The First thing you learn I think in really good martial arts schools I grew up in martial arts like ten years and I taught it for a while of that of like They drill into you basically like the best way to fight is to never fight the fest defense. They just don't but well Yeah, go ahead Well, I was just gonna say that's that's what's tough with like online trolling Right is you read comments whether it's on a on a YouTube video you make or a podcast you release or on pin side Epaaaard Lup proch on it even is it worth and here is how do you engage young were you voice your opinion without them potentially fear in the fact by it because chip częśćuclear Bu chuck scheduler,cal يع cents pept crave informationszysta Medicarena grabbedba bye yeah and at all we given girls in just trying to find the balance is part dealing for going on can do that via the keата Justinaghari, обычť Kaingu Come on still on Collabor повтор One quick call. Pretty cool blyat Oh Ridge Marketing So Which to play Rin
    16:14
    Hen Ah Ann Merch X I've experienced some pretty nasty emails or responses to pinball party stuff of like, I part of me also feels bad for how you know, the people that will say negative things about me either just directly via email like, Oh, your show sucks because of ABC or whatever. Like the we're so disconnected now the world is flat or as they say, so sociologically, is the word sociologically, you know what I mean? The It's so easy to be angry and we're just not socially connected and so I kind of feel bad like I It's not like these these people at their heart I still they just want to be loved and have friends to the people are mad at you and it's like man like I So like your point like if I ever engage or respond back, of course the initially I want to be like well Fuck you and all this you have no idea and in so many words
    17:14
    But at the end today, I don't want to make these people feel bad, but yeah, yeah The last thing you want as a content creator, I mean some content creators they do want this but as us our content like we're just trying to share fun we're just trying to like I love pinball is a blast every pinball machine I get to play I find something about it to enjoy and that's that's what I'm trying to share is like if this is a theme that you love here's something about the game you may love that doesn't mean I absolutely love this game or love every game everybody takes it as shilling. Timing and Subtitles by the Amara.org community And you know we're not going to change our whole podcast or you know we're not some people they're too long some people think they're too short some people think you should shut up about tournament talk other people want way more tournament talk it's like it's you can't please everybody and I would just love it if people realize like this is fun for us and we're just trying to share that with you and unfortunately if it's not fun for you I'm really sorry that's not the goal. I have no idea, I genuinely have no idea. How much do you bench? I think the most important thing is I win a month. The Genuinely have no idea. I cannot tell you the last time I
    18:53
    Went into a weight room and benched something. Let's put you down for 400 pounds then that's impressive. Yep Yeah, about 240 and I can do push-ups. So At least you've already then at least 240 would be my yes. Yeah. Okay, you're doing great What do you want for Christmas this year? What do I want for Christmas this year? The thing I'm most excited about is I'm getting a this this spider-man Lego it's like a picture that you hang on the wall it's pretty big it's also pretty expensive I think it's I think it's well over a hundred bucks my mom typically buys my brother and I each like a Lego every year because she's like you're adults you can buy yourself whatever you want but this is something I know you won't buy yourself so the reason I'm excited about that is my son three and a half loves spider-man so this is Internet
    20:12
    ftui, Saturday so two days. Oh, we'll be cutting it close. That's fine. Okay. I doubt he'll jump on it immediately Would you get it? But no, so it'll so it's signed by the artist and and then I also know his favorite card is a through vile A through vile. Yeah, and so there was this person on Etsy where they do these like metal engraved cards Oh, like they're the they're the size of a card and I got him like this metal engraved a through vile card Comment stubers represent Pinball Linear Evergreen 되살라 All right, I have two questions, but one, it's another great joke question. If you have to think about it, but here's the question in the spirit of Festivus, which is this was initially going to be as you saw on the text, it'd be a big long Festivus thing and a part of the Festivus is airing a grievance. Do you have a- Yeah, get the poll. Get the poll. Yeah, get the poll. I have feats of strength. Honestly, here's my idea. When I first started texting you my thoughts with the feats of strength, that was the part that kind of ruined this because I only thought of it for The I was like alright for the whole chunk that you're on pizza strength They'll be like I Jason have to shill flipping out the whole time
    22:27
    Zach has to only talk about other distributors and like show like And then for you I was gonna be like I can't swear once
    22:37
    Swear as much as you can And I'll see you next week. Ssshit. Yes, sssshit. Hail. Anyway. But it switched to something different. So in the spirit of Festivus, I need you or I would like you to air a pinball grievance. Either, if you need a second to think about it, I'll ask you a different question first. It could be a complaint about a game or rules, something stupid in pinball, whatever it may be, do you have one to talk to line? I mean, yeah. My only grievance is obviously this last week, last two weeks, everything going on with the Twippies. I see both sides of it. I get it. I get it. It's frustrating when you see stuff. I'm part of TPN. You used to be part of TPN. If people really knew what TPN is all about, it's genuinely just a group of creators that have a discord and have fun together. There's no... There's no money! There's no money. And it's, it's, there's nothing, there's no priority. The reality is when, when either Jason or I submit a podcast, the only reason we're submitting a podcast is because there's only two people that actually have the, can have an out-of-pocket, or the only people that have the money to do the podcast. And I think that's what we're looking for. So I think that's what we're looking for. and the ability to upload it. And Zach happens to be one of them. He doesn't even listen to it before he uploads it. He just uploads it. There's no filtering, there's no editing, there's no critiquing like, hey, don't say anything bad about Godfather. You know, it's just, it's really, I like being a part of TPN because it's a fun group of people. Honestly, I don't have to pay to do podcasting because they pay the server fees and all that stuff. And that's it. There's no like, there's nothing else So, so I don't know that would be my biggest grievance grievances there are people online that speak about the good old boys club or negativity or just assume assume they assume people in media in general are getting kickbacks from from You know like Stern or JJP like no, no, I would love to I would love to get a kickback from any of them But we don't nobody does any of that and it's just we do this because it's fun and yeah, you have to assume it's more than that and Our official request, Joel and Jason, like, yeah, give us kickbacks, please. That'd be great. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I understand. Barrels of Fun, super awesome company. And the fact that Zach was able to he's a distributor. He was able to get a game from them that I was able to bring home from Chicago Pinball Expo. We have some awesome streams out there. Like, I know we've done well for Barrels of Fun. Good publicity, good marketing. You know, the kickback I got from that is they sent me a T-shirt and I'm and I'm super appreciative. C Ty Pik Se isters Sorry Time P By F n R Sin ethnic Reich Sp Res T CH Brother But for the first time in a while, we're going to find out who's the party. If you're watching this, I'm going to ask you some questions. So there's my grievance. Shit. Joel Grievans. And Rade, Rade sucks. True. Okay. Last question. What are you looking forward to most in 2024 in the world of pinball? Well, honestly, I'd probably say Elm. That's the only game when I'm looking at the radar, when I'm looking at the radar of what's coming out. You know, a lot of these themes that have come out recently, you've had been rumored and talked about for a while. I don't really know. I don't really know any other themes that are coming out. I was super impressed with Barrels of Fun with their first game, but I doubt that their next game would be out next year. If not, I was really impressed with Labyrinth. I'm excited to see what's coming out next. But Elwin's next game, there's no way it's not good. So that'll be fun. That'll be really fun to play. But yeah, besides that, I don't know. all in all, it seems like other games have a lot of potential in the early game game, or maybe maybe there's been rumors a lot of rumors that some point in time spike three has to come out and that's something that I don't it's sad that like the operating system is something I'm excited about but I'm more just like what does that mean what does that mean for future stern games in potential whether it's a cabinet, an audio, a video, whatever like what's the potential of all games moving forward that that I'm excited about so probably those things yeah jaws or maybe Jaws you should say maybe just maybe just and Spike3. All right, Joel, we are doing this during work hours as we should be doing. I got a meeting in a little bit. I really appreciate you joining on such short notice. Happy holidays to you and your family. I always appreciate listening to what you're doing, watching what you're making, keep doing what you're doing, getting all those kickbacks from stripping out with pinball and all that stuff and I'll enjoy my kickbacks that I get in my fucking mansion. Anyways, thanks again. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. STANTON Water mai,