Welcome to the Spinner's Lip Pinball Podcast, Episode 73, Deep into the Dungeon. I'm your host Spencer and with me are my co-host Dan What's up Pinheads? And Mark Hey, what's going on? It is March of 2024 We're heading hard and fast into spring Dan, when have you been up since the last episode? It's not even the bleeding edge of the end of March either It's like in the middle of the month. Yeah. We should be more timely more often. Yeah. Not much. You know, it only feels like a couple weeks since we did the last episode, so not really too many pinball adventures have been going on. I did get into the – well, I guess I'm saying this wrong. We did have our finals for Folsom last week, and I finished fourth, which was a bummer. It hurts to lose, but it hurts more to be close to winning. And you might not think fourth is close to winning, but I mean it was close to getting a trophy and some money. But I made a good run at it. I had a real shaky start. I had a really bad week, a really, really bad week six. I had a really shaky start. Ended up winning a tiebreaker. And then I took a little run at it. And I got into the finals, and the finals were not kind to me. But, you know, fourth gets you into interleague. So right off the bat this year I qualified for interleague. So hopefully I can put some more points on the board, and then at the end of the year I'll have a better run at interleague than I did last time. Well, fourth is not bad for the caliber of players there. That's pretty good, Dan. Not bad. You know, like I said, I started off, like, really shaky. Like, I was driving the bus the whole first round, and what did I play? We played Cosmic Gunfight, and it was okay, and then we went to Uncanny X-Men, and I've always had good luck with Uncanny X-Men, and it just was having none of my shenanigans. I mean, I had drains that I'd never had before. I don't think I'd ever died in that little danger room area until that day, and then I died twice in the danger room in that game. And then, I mean, I felt like I was kind of out of it, right? I took a third and a fourth, and I'm like, well, I'm dead. And so, you know, they said, what do you want for your last game? And I said, well, let's play Metallica. And I rocked it, you know, like I just, you know, I just went aggressive death pinball on it. like I was shaking in. I would just, you know, went all crazy and then got to ball three and got in a multiball and then just lit it up. And that was enough to force a tiebreaker against Mike Hozier. And, you know, a tiebreaker against Mike Hozier, that's kind of go home. And the random game was Cosmic Gunfight. And I went into Cosmic Gunfight that day thinking, man, I do good. Cosmic Gunfight, really nice Cosmic Gunfight. One from your guys' neck of the woods. Yeah. and I was like, you know, maybe I'll do it, and I did. And like I said, so once you get past that first hurdle and then all of a sudden you're in like a more winning place, you know, it becomes a little bit easier. But then you get to the last four and, you know, everyone else is in that winning place too, so you got to hopefully outlast them. And just that last round, the outlanes were not kind. So, you know, that was fine. It was great to play with those guys. Our winner was Jake. Jake won. Juan, who's our fearless leader, one of our fearless leaders there in Folsom, took second, and David Templeton took third. And Dan Fenton took home the B trophy. I saw that. It was so cool. Yeah, so it was a great day. You know, Shannon hosted us, and he's got a great collection. And, yeah, it was a lot of fun. My computer just went to sleep. Can you guys still hear me? Yeah, we're on. Okay. I was like, hey, what are you doing? Don't do that. Yeah, so this Thursday we have Lodi playoffs. So I'm hoping to do well there. And there was a lot of exciting news that dropped today, so I'm all excited to discuss that. and I got to try out our feature game, so I'm excited to talk about that. So, yeah, it was a good couple weeks for me. What about you, Mark? My start of March has been a little of a roller coaster. I got a phone call from my stepmother that my father fell. He fell out of bed, and I was not thinking too much of it. I was like, well, he'll be okay because, you know, how you have those denial thoughts where, oh, he'll be fine. But it turned out a lot serious than I thought, and I realized that I needed to go out there and visit him, not realizing that it was definitely a very important time for me to leave. I got the message, and a day later I flew out to Milwaukee, and I found out that my father actually broke his neck in two places right below his brain, right on the vertebrae. and on top of that, he also tore his spinal cord, and he was paralyzed. He was on a breathing tube. He was in the hospital in intensive care unit, and I started to have a sinking feeling that it was my last time to see him. And on March 5th, I said goodbye to him, and he passed on to a new eternity in life where he's in a perfect place now. But I've been very close to my dad. I called him just a week before that. It was on my way to work. And I remember saying, oh, I got to get going. I got to get to class or I'm not going to be able to be there on time to my classroom because my kids will be waiting for me. And that was the last time I talked to him. And then he passed away in the afternoon on March 5th in the hospital very peacefully. And I had to say goodbye to him. So that was three days before my birthday. On March 8th, I had my birthday. and it was not the best birthday, obviously, but a memorable birthday for sure. It was really nice to see all my family. My brother came into town. I saw my uncles that I haven't seen for like 20 years since my dad's 60th surprise birthday party, which is kind of ironic, and got to get close with them. We agreed that he was not suffering, but he did not want to be in a condition of being totally paralyzed. and just basically living off of a machine, his wishes were to not live that way. So we decided all unanimously within like a five-minute decision to pull the plug and let him die peacefully. So that was a little traumatic, but I'm happy he's not suffering anymore. His health was kind of going downhill a little bit, and now he's not suffering anymore. So it makes me blessed at the same time. My stepmother doesn't have to have the burden of worrying about him falling the next time or breaking another bone or he had an aortic aneurysm too, which was definitely getting bigger and could cause problems with that too. So in the long run, it worked out. I miss him a lot, but I was very close to him. He was the best father ever on the planet Earth. So I love you, Dad, if you're listening. You might not listen to this podcast, but I think about you all the time. As far as a little break away from that traumatic experience, I did get a chance to go to GARCADE. The GARCADE is an arcade in Menominee Falls, Wisconsin, which has the most pinball machines. It has about 30-plus pinball machines. and I had a chance to play Dungeons and Dragons, which is cool, which we're going to talk about later. But I got to play the pro, and that was a nice little breath of fresh air. My brother also likes playing pinball, so he was there with me. And we actually ended up going two days in a row. We went the first day, and then we were like, oh, let's go back and play again. So we went back the next time. And it was kind of interesting because my father knows the arcade owner, Gar, and he always came in there and he's always talking about it. He's like, oh, yeah, my son's coming into town. You know, he said that before in the past. So it was like, I was playing for my dad, uh, with him probably a lot more comfortable watching me from above instead of standing, you know, in pain, hanging over the machine while he's waiting for me to play a game. That's like 15, 20 minutes long. And then obviously wanting to go back home so he can rest because it was tough for him to stand. But anyway, that was what I did. Um, and like I said, I spent a lot of time with family and, it was a good trip. And then, uh, Came back. I played a tournament on Saturday, and I did amazing. I had only one loss out of 16 rounds. And I was like, I got this. Played amazing race. Somebody set a score of 250,000 on Grand Prix, which is the yum. Holy crap. And I could not beat it. Everybody else beat it. I was the last person to play because I was first in the qualifying, and I freaking lost on the first round, came in eighth place. Yeah, that sucked. But anyway, I had a good time, and it was embarrassing to have 15 wins out of 16 games, and then I lose in the first round. That is a lot of spinner rips. That is a lot of spinner rips. That is a lot of spinner rips. Yep. Ram 3 is really good, though. Love it. I love that. That's an amazing game. Yeah. So, yeah, that's all that's been going on. The other thing I wanted to say, which I'm really excited about, is when we went to play for fun for Target Match Play, my son came and played tonight with me, which was so cool. And what was even cooler is we tied with the same amount of points at the end of the tournament. Nice. So that was neat to have my son there. And he actually had a good time, and his friends were there too. And it was great to have him get out of the house and play some pinball. So I'm trying to convince him to go every Tuesday night just because I enjoy having him around me, and it was nice to have him there and have a good time. So, yeah, that's all pretty much what I've been doing up to today. I'm going to Palm Springs pretty soon, so I'm going to get out and see my mom and her fiancé and just enjoy the nice Carl Weathers. We've got to get out of this crappy Carl Weathers because this Reno Carl Weathers is really getting on my nerves now with the wind for three days straight. So I'm ready to get out of here. Yep, I'm leaving tomorrow, and I'm going to go in some nice sunshine and enjoy my spring break because I'm off for two weeks as of starting today and then go back to school, of course, two weeks from then for now. So, yeah, that's what's going on with me. That's good to hear. And, you know, you, me, and Dan, before you bothered in the past when you found out he was hurt, we were all talking. So we were all in the loop. you know, we offer our condolences. Well, thank you. I appreciate all the hopes and prayers. Absolutely, brother. Absolutely. One thing I'll tell you, because I've been struggling with this with my dad, you know, because of the way he went really quick, too, was, you know, we were sitting Saturday night or Friday night, rather. He passed some time in the night early Saturday morning. And, you know, we were just talking, you know, and he was telling me he wanted some hot chocolate and, you know, made hot chocolate and talked for a bit. He's like, oh, I'm going to bed. Oh, night, Bob. You know, they didn't think anything about it, you know. Yeah. And the next morning, he's gone. Don't, you know, when you were talking with your dad, you're like, I got to go. I got to get to class. Don't beat yourself up about that because none of us. Oh, no, I'm not. You never know, you know, because they keep thinking. It's like, well, if I knew this was going to happen, I would have said something more profound, you know. Yeah. You can't beat yourself up about it because it's just, you know, that's life. So, you know, if that helps anybody with anything, it's just make the most of what's going on now, man, you know. Absolutely. You know, it brings family closer. Like I said, I haven't seen my uncles forever. The reunion is going to be great when we go. I mean, it's going to be a celebration of life in May on Memorial Day weekend, which is really cool. And he served in the Air Force, so it's fitting. Nice. Yeah, it's just really nice to have a nice tribute to him and have a family reunion. the same time. That's really nice, Mark. I'm glad you got to spend some time with your brother and play some Pismolets. That's a nice thing, too. That was nice. And my uncles, they came out there, too, and were watching me. That's awesome. Get everybody in on it. That's cool. So, me, well, obviously, we'll get to the Dungeons and Dragons in a minute. I did receive my game. I did unbox it. You can go to our Facebook page now and see unboxing pics. Before we get to that, because we've all played it, and so we're going to go into it kind of deep into the dungeon. So what else I've been doing is, before I even get to that, this is our eighth anniversary show. We're starting our eighth year now. Eight years. Wow. Yeah, we started seven years. So this is actually this month we started eight years. Eight years ago this month I started this podcast. And so that, and it's bittersweet because I did, I recorded the first episode of the show two days before we lost Steve Sharlin. So it's been eight years, which I also just posted a memorial, a memorial pic of Steve Sharlin on our Facebook page. It's him standing in front of the seven or eight, I think it's seven, college spirits. We have the spirit row at two times when we go there. So it's been a sweet. But, yeah, we're starting our eighth year. It's been eight years since we last did Sean, but we will, I believe, be doing, you know, awarding somebody the Sean Spirit Award again this year at the Golden State Pinball Festival in beautiful sunny Lovat, California. which is 60 days away. Coming up soon. Coming up soon. So what I've been doing, playing a lot of Dungeons & Dragons and doing some traveling. I was gone all weekend. I got back a little late last night because we flew out to California for my grandson Leo's first birthday. He turned one on Saturday. and so we got to spend some time with him my daughter and son-in-law we didn't play any pinball we didn't play any pinball at all but just spent time with Leo ate a lot of good food and that was great man that makes it harder to be that far away from him because I wish I could be around him more often because he's just a good man and I can't wait until he gets a little older and I can set him up on the lockdown bar or on a step stool and play ball. You can't start him at one. No. You've got to get him to two. Yeah. So, well, next year. Next year. He digs cheeses. He likes bison of all things. Really? Yeah. He really likes bison meat. He likes eggs, loves peanut butter, and he likes bison and Cheez-Its. Cool. Yeah, points a lot. Points and laughs and smiles. And, you know, he just makes the goods. So, yeah, he's just cute as a button. And it was really great for me and Rusty to be able to go spend some time with him. So that's what I did. And on the way back, we had a really long, we had a five-hour-plus layover in Denver. So we went to, we went and had dinner at City Walk, which if you've ever seen South Park, you know why that's hilarious. And the food's pretty good. So I won't get any more into that. But I brought Seth back, because Seth loves those episodes. I brought him back a CityWalk t-shirt, and then Rusty brought all the boys back a Sierra Nevada brewery. Because we stopped by the brewery. We hadn't been in there in years and years. Picked up a few things because we're building a new bar. Oh, in Chico? Yeah, yeah, in Chico, yeah. Okay, I was like, down at the Sierra Nevada brewery in Denver? No, no, no. I'm doing a bad segue. Yeah, maybe a rocket. Yeah, so while we were in Northern California, we picked up. Because the birthday party for my grandson was in Paradise, but the party was actually at a round table pizza in Chico. Okay. Where they rented out the party room. Because the Astro is not open and or way too dangerous for a one-year-old. Yeah, yeah. So this is in like a, you know, close to a mall and real, you know, real clean and nice family atmosphere. So they had a little arcade too. They have a driving game and then, you know, a bunch of claw machines and stuff. But, you know, that's your piece that plays arcade in the 21st century a lot of times. So that's what I've been up to, you know, just since then. Yeah, so we've been doing a lot of work on the basement. So we've got a bar we're putting together here in a couple days and finishing that up. and we'll have a bar with some barstools in the basement. In the dungeon. Not in the dungeon. In the Fallout Shelter Arcade. Yeah, so we're going to put a new bar up. So we picked up some, you know, like a bar map, a few other things we've seen in Nevada to look cool. So that's what we've got going on. And, yeah, so that's what I've been up to. I thought maybe you were re-theming. No. If you have Dungeons and Dragons, it's going to become the Fallout shelter, the Fallout dungeon. Yeah. It's so funny because, you know, we go places, and everywhere I go, I see something. We were in, because we don't have a Barnes & Noble in Wyoming. There used to be one in Cheyenne. I hear they might reopen one. We have a wonderful mom-and-pop family-owned bookstore here in town that's really good, actually. But anyway, so we're in Cheeky. We'll run by Barnes, and then we'll check out. And they have this, you know those They make like farm animals and shit And they make like They're just little plastic toys You know, but they have a whole bunch of dragons And they have a really cool red dragon And a really cool, like a Chinese Gold dragon that would be great Toppers That I could fit on top of the game in my Like low ceiling basement But I didn't buy them because You know, we're traveling light And I didn't want to have to try to take it back on the plane. As it is, we had all the stuff from Sierra Nevada jammed into our bags. But, yeah. And then we were here, here in town, here at home, a couple weeks ago, we were at a, what is it, Hobby Lobby, and they had a bunch of really cool dragon prints, you know, wall hangings. I'm like, oh, those will go great during the game on the wall. I didn't buy them, though, so I'm exercising some assemblance of control. It's an illusion, but I'm exercising. It's like, yeah, you know, I just bought a new pinball machine. Now I got to accessorize it. Exactly, exactly. So, you know, with that, I'm going to turn the bus a little bit left, and we're going to get into, we're going to talk about our first impressions of, actually something else that's going on right now. We're going to go deep into the dungeon Of Dungeons and Dragons here shortly Stay with us folks And how do you get deep into a dungeon? You gotta go Through a portal Wonderful segue there Thank you So today Professional kids do not Try this at home That man is walking in tightrope and no net No Absolutely no safety restraints At all At all. And we are jacked on capping and dark chocolate James Rees's peanut butter cups. Those are the shit, by the way. Damn, those are good. They are so good, they're brutal. Peanut brutal. Peanut brutal. Peanut brutal. So good, it's brutal. Yeah, man, that dropped today. And since you're our resident expert and the only one of us that owns a P3, go, Dan, go. So, yeah, we knew it was coming, right? There was a teaser a couple days ago, a really obvious teaser. And honestly, I had kind of forgotten about it. And then just this morning, I got the announcement. It's like three minutes ago. It's all like, oh, hey, here's the trailer for Portal. And I'm like, great. I'm not doing anything with work right now. I got time to check this out. Click it on my phone. If you haven't checked this teaser out or this trailer out yet, check it out. If you're into pinball, which is why I assume you're listening to us, and hopefully you're into video games, Portal was a 2007. It's like a first-person shooter slash puzzle game, and it's very clever. It's got a very, very clever premise, and then they made a sequel, but they never made a third one because they're Valve and they can't count to three. So it's really, you know, just to start with, it's a great theme, I would say, for your P3 owner, right? You know, we tend to be dorks, and that really works for me. I don't know what the crossover section between Portal and Pinball people are. I've had some people say that they think that maybe the video game players are going to skew a bit younger. I've had, you know, tons of, you know, people reach out to me today and just be like, oh, my God, have you seen this? And I'm like, of course I've seen it. This is the best thing that ever happened. Oh, my God. But I've been saying for a long time, and I think a lot of people have kind of agreed with me, it's crazy to me that the pinball manufacturers do not leverage off of the video game franchises is that most of us, you know, Gen Xers and Millennials and Xennials are, you know, we're married to the Super Marios and the Donkey Kongs and all that. You know, we love the video, Doom. We love the video games. And, you know, for me, I thought Portal was a really, really clever one. I enjoyed Portal 2. And so I was excited about the theme. and then I watched the trailer, and it just looks to be another evolution in what they're doing with the P3. You know, it's really, we've talked about the P3 a lot because I'm enthusiastic about the P3, and I don't think enough people are, and I don't really understand pinball's resistance to the P3. You know, I understand it's different and that, you know, most pinballers are pretty traditional, but they're constantly screaming that they want to be traditional, but they want something new. And I think P3 is the perfect cross-section between technology and, you know, traditional pinball action. I mean, you've got, you know, balls flying through the air. You've got, you know, animated figures who are, you know, conversing with you. You've got the ball disappearing and reappearing in other places. And it's got a launch that goes into a ball lock. and it's just doing a lot of cool stuff, and it's all really, really nicely themed. And then you get about halfway through this trailer, and they're like, oh, and by the way, if you, you know, maybe you're a little bit tired of this whole thing where the whole P3 game's in the back, well, check out this portal extended, and it's two additions to the play field that go down the sides that give you action a little bit closer to the flippers. It gives you another spinner and a little whoopsie-doo, and it gives you a lift ramp. And for the first time, maybe the second time, because Weird Al did have a crossover that kind of went down over the scoops, but it's the first time that P3 gameplay, other than the side targets and the slingshots and flippers, have been below the scoops, the pop-up scoops. and you know it just it's outrageous how how cool this is and how much how much different this is because of the way that the p3s cross system works and the way it can you know it doesn't really need to move a ball it can deliver a ball like i think one of eight or 16 spots on the playfield depending on how it's uh how it's routed because you've got all the kickers down there it's really going to have a lot of cool opportunity to do things with pinballs and have the illusion of the portals being portals. I mean, oh, man, it just looks heavy duty. And on top of all that, like it just seems to have the look and the personality that you would expect from the franchise. So if you love Portal because of the storyline and the plot, I think it's not going to disappoint. Although, I don't know for sure. I mean, obviously, the personality core, Reggie, that's all, you know, new and custom dialogue. I don't know if there's any new GLaDOS, who's kind of the boss of the game, and she's really front and center in the trailer and you hear her in the game. I don't know if that's any new dialogue or if that's all just reused dialogue. but no matter what they end up doing with it, it seems really cool. It seems like you're playing pinball in the world of Portal. So it looks super, super heavy duty. And I'm excited. I really like how the cubes disappear into the play field and then pop up in another place. That's so cool. Yeah, and the companion cubes, and they're stoppers. Yeah. Like they're blockers. So, like, they'll hold balls up in the lock, then they'll go down or they'll disappear and they'll open up a passageway. And have you played Portal, Mark? I've never have, but I'm wanting to now because I love puzzle games. They're my favorite type of genre. So I guess I will have to get it. Yeah, the cubes are a big part, especially of the first game, narratively. Uh-huh. So, yeah, it's cool that they're in here. You know, it's cool that that was a real smart use of an existing game asset. You know, you could have just put a generic wall there. But, no, let's theme it. Let's make it look right. And have it sink down below and then have it pop up in another place. And then isn't there a spot, like, in the back of the play field where you hit, like, a little switch or something? It was, like, part of the wall. And then the ball bounces off of it to give you a jackpot. At least that's what I saw in the trailer, if I remember correctly. So, I watched that trailer a bunch of times. and I'm still not 100% sure. I know that there's the scene where it's like it's launching the ball and it bounces off of the wall and into like a lane. Yeah. And then you got the cube holding it in place and it acts like a ball lock. But like was there a scene where it was almost like the trunk from Scared Stiff where the ball went straight through the wall? I don't know. Or am I just hallucinating that? I don't know. I saw the ball fly across the play field. like launching it yeah that and just yeah wow it's just it really is doing things the the thing that kind of blows me away about the multi-morphic ever since weird al so it's been weird al and final resistance and uh the princess bride and now portal is that it's gotten really really good at taking advantage of the P3's architecture to, you know, make the ball do things that, you know, your average pinball machine doesn't do. And I think that Portal is really, really going to push the limits of what the ball will do. I mean, you know, other games have thrown the ball around. You know, Houdini has a ball launch. Aerosmith had a really, really good ball launch. I remember, you know, when I got my Johnny Mnemonic and the first time I saw the glove, like, pick the ball up, which it really didn't pick the ball up. There's a kicker and a magnet, but I was like, oh, my God, magnets. How do they work? Yeah. It was unbelievable. So this game, I feel like it's going to have a lot of moments where you're just like, oh, oh, neat. Wow. How did that happen? Yeah. Yeah. I think it's really great. And the way they're going to utilize the screen where it has that 3D look to it kind of like reminds of like heist, you know, when you have the flyover look to it. But even there, it's like you have shots that you have to make, but it looks 3D as part of the play field. It's kind of weird when I watched it. I was like, dang, this is cool because usually it's just a top, you know, bird's eye view. And it wasn't like that. It was like the same kind of pitch, I guess you could say, as the rest of the play field, the way that it was angled or something like that. you know what I'm talking about? It just seemed like it was more like 3D looking in the screen. I get what you're saying and I think that a lot of this, this will probably make really really good I mean you get so enchanted with the physical part that you kind of forget about the digital part of the P3 but I think one of the big strengths of Portal is going to be the fact that since it is a game franchise it's probably gonna have a lot of graphics, a lot of graphic assets, and a lot of ideas how to use that 3D space, that stimulated 3D space, where a lot of the other games, especially the earlier ones, the screen, I mean I wouldn say it wasn used to used to its full potential but you know it was kind of there Yeah it was just there Yeah. I mean, you had dots that you could interact with, but yeah, I know what you mean. There were elements or it was used to tell a story, you know, and I mean, that's awesome. And that's really, really cool. I mean, honestly, weirdly, my favorite P3 game so far, which, you know, I know it's controversial when I'm a big Weird Al fan, but to say it's been Final Resistance, you know, it's the game that probably, you know, uses the screen to leave. It just uses it as kind of a fancy classic play field. Right. But I think that also speaks to the fact that ever since Weird Al, you know, and Weird Al kind of had the, you know, it had good graphics and then Final Resistance had some graphics and then Princess Bride had a lot of really nice movie scenes and whatnot. I think that they're making much better use of the screen than those earlier games, especially something like Heist where they sort of looked like cell phone games. And I think a lot of people, you know, they would rather have a really nice static piece of art than, you know, kind of crappy graphics. Right. So, you know, I think that Portal is going to use the screen, you know, really, really smartly and have really, really striking visuals. but it's probably not going to focus a whole lot on characters because I think that the idea is that it's first person, you know, so you're kind of looking through the eyes of the protagonist. But, you know, I've seen what you've seen, so a lot of it is just me kind of, you know, thinking with my mind's eye about, man, this game, you know, this game could do a lot of really cool things. And being a, you know, I wouldn't say that I'm a humongous Portal fan and I've played through the first two games, and I think that they're enjoyable and well-versed in the lore of Portal and, you know, why it's funny. So, you know, I'm dying to see exactly how deep it goes and, you know, what they're going to be able to do with the assets and with the world. But more than anything, man, I just want to see that module in action because that thing, especially with the expansions or the expansions or whatever the heck they're calling them, I think it just looks crazy cool. Absolutely, and how they lift up so you have, like, you know, open, and then all of a sudden it goes down. That's cool because usually with a ramp, you either go under it. This one is like the whole play field is open when it's raised up, and then they lower down, and then you have a ramp that's closer to the flippers. And the other thing I really like is the, I don't know what that is. It's probably a certain character, but it's that, you know, that sphere or that, it looks like kind of like. Reggie, okay. Reggie. So Reggie is a personality core. Personality core. What's cool is it has a screen built into it. So you see animation happening while it's going back and forth. So it really looks alive. Almost like, kind of like Rudy, but, you know, obviously sci-fi. and then having it spin around when it shoots, you know, like when it's in battle and stuff like that. It, like, turns around. That really adds a lot of character to the game. I think that's going to make it a really great experience to have him as your guide. Yeah, when it turns around, it becomes a turret. Yeah, a turret. Yeah, exactly. Thank you. A turret. Right. There's a turret mode where you have to destroy the turrets before they destroy you. I saw that. Yeah, and the turrets are, like, they're little characters, too. Like, they have little voices. Like, you know, in the game, like, you'll knock them off, and they'll be all like, I don't hate you, and then explode. So, yeah, it's a really cool game with a lot of personality. And I like the fact, like, that they're going to bring in a new character, which will be this personality core, who's going to kind of act as our narrator and our guide. Because in the games, there's a personality core, and the second game specifically, who acts as your guide. He also kind of ends up being a secondary antagonist. But it's really, really neat if you, like I said, you got to, I mean, even if you just watch like a playthrough online or something just to kind of get the vibe for the world. Like I think that it's a really cool thing to introduce into this pinball space. Cool. Because I think that it will make really, really good use of 3D space. Awesome. It'll make really, really good use of the P3's special abilities to, again, when you kind of get a feel for how Portal works and, you know, how the game works, then you'll kind of see the genius of making this into a pinball machine. Yeah. It's really very impressive. The artwork is really cool. The music sounds like Denise-y. I don't know if it is, but it sounds like it. It's not official, right? I didn't see it on the pinball news site. I was just amazed, like, reading through all of the descriptions. I was getting lost in all the mechs of what it could do. I was like, wow. The game itself is Ian Harrower, right? Uh-huh. And I did see Scott Danesi's name in the credits. Okay. And typically, if he didn't design, he's in there because he did sound and music. Did sound and music, yeah. It sounds like Denise music. Yeah, it sounds like Denise music, yeah. Of course, great music as usual. Um, but are you going to get one, Dan? Oh, of course I'm going to get one. Yes. Good. Are you getting extended or are you going to get the basic? So here's, here's, you know, I think where the controversy is coming in, right? So the extended is $5,500 and the basic is $3,900. Okay. I don't know what world that you live in where you go like, you know, I'm going to go, you know, four-fifths of the way there and then stop. Like, why wouldn't you get the whole package? Yeah. But that's expensive for a P3. Like, you can pick up a whole machine for $5,500 easily. Yeah. But once I showed it to Jamie, she said, oh, yeah, we're fucking getting that. Your wife is very supportive of those kind of games, so that's cool. Oh, yeah. You know, Jamie absolutely loves that franchise, and she's a huge gamer. So for her, yeah, that's an absolute must-have. And she was also the driving force or one of the driving forces behind getting Weird Al. Oh, that's great. That's great. She's upset with me because it hasn't been Weird Al for a year because of Final Resistance, but I guess I should probably swap the Weird Al module back in for a while before we get Portal and never change it back again. I'm at the point now where it's like I just need a second P3. I know. Well, you do, actually. I know. I know. Now, you don't have Heist, right? You don't have Heist. I do have Heist. You do have Heist. So I have Heist, I have Weird Al, and I have Final Resistance. Really? I never saw Heist in your machine. Because it's been in my machine once. Okay. And a lot of people go, like, why didn't you play Heist? And it's like, Heist was included with it, but it's not why I bought it. Uh-huh. So it's like I've never really sat there and wanted to play Heist for any other reason besides it's like, you know, I should probably plug this in once in a while so it'll keep working. Yeah. But I was like, I bought Weird Al, you know, I bought the machine to be Weird Al, and then I specifically bought Final Resistance. So those are the games that I tend to play. Right. So if somebody wants to buy a Heist module, by the way, I'll make them a good deal. Ooh, there you go. There you go. I like that one, though, where you have to hit the crane, because then you utilize that lower part of the play field, too. Heist is a cool game. I'm not dogging on Heist. It just wasn't the game. Well, it's not even that it's not my theme. It just wasn't the reason I bought the machine. Right. I mean, I'm sure that, like, if I didn't live in a world where I have more pinball than I know what to do with, like, I'm swapping Heist just to have something different to play. And now you feel more comfortable with it because you've had plenty of practice. And I think that's what it amounts to is just, you know, getting plenty of practice to swap those modules in and out and get them, like you said, honed in perfectly so that you don't have complications when you're playing the actual game. Yeah, that's the biggest thing is just make sure you dial it in. Make sure that, like, you know, each of the troughs, you know, depending on the game, you know, I think, you know, the final resistance was kind of the one that I was, the final resistance is the one that I was like, oh, wow, now this works automatically. Weird Al has a really tall kicker that the ball needs to launch out of. Wow. And it just didn't work right. And it wasn't because there was anything wrong with the machine. It wasn't because there was anything wrong with the modules, just that I needed to make the proper adjustment. Once you make the proper adjustments and everything's delivering all silky smooth, the experience is great. That's awesome. Now, did you get the linkage kit and all that stuff and install that, or did you not need to do that? Did I get it? Yeah. You did. Did I install it? No. Okay. But I should. Actually, when I make a little space out in the game garage, I really do need to pull the P3 out and put it into my service bay, and install that new power supply, and I got the new low-profile button boxes. But for the most part, my P3 was pretty updated, so I don't think it needed as many of the upgrades. Like a lot of the stuff that I got, I get to just keep as backups. As backups, yeah. You know, one of the most genius things ever, one of the most generous things ever was, you know, for them to say, hey, look, you know, to bring this thing up to spec, We're going to send all of you guys a big box of parts. That's really cool. And their customer service is really good too, right? You've had really good experience with them. I mean, I think that the thing with Multimorphic is that there's probably no person in pinball in his position that is more hands-on with his products, with his customers, with everything than Jerry is. Cool. Like, you know, if you reach out to Multimorphic, you know, chances are you're going to talk to the guy, you know, who runs the entire company. I mean, he's got a lot of people working with him now, a lot of really, really talented people. So, you know, when I did have a complication with, you know, ordering my P3, you know, Jerry reached out to me specifically and said, hey, sorry about the problem. You know, we're going to get you through it. Thanks a lot for your patience. And, you know, when I have, you know, gone on there and said, hey, this is what I think, you know, he's responded, you know, he's responded personally to, you know, my concerns. That's great. If you wanted to be, you know, pinball is a community. Like, there's no ways about that, right? But if you wanted to be a part of one of the more interesting communities within the community, the P3 folks, they're very passionate, you know, and I think that we believe in the product and we understand it and we just want more people to understand it. Right. Because we do think that if people get over their preconceived notions of what P3 is and what P3 isn't, and we show them that, hey, it's great pinball in a very interesting way, and every game gets better, every game package gets better. When Weird Al came out, you know, and it had the topper and it had the art and it had the playfield module and everything, I've seen people were like, man, this is it. You know, P3 is going big time. Yeah, I think he's surprising us. And then they came out with Princess Bride, and it had the swords and the topper. Yep, and the ball climbing up. Yeah, and even more complicated and fancy module, and everyone's like, oh, my God, no, this is it. This is going to be the ultimate, and, you know, now Portal's going to have the expansion and the ultimate, you know, just the ultimate looking module. And I think that everything that they do in P3, like every new module does something new and it does something exciting and it brings a new experience to the table. And that's on top of just the fact that there's all kinds of downloadable stuff and all sorts of other crazy things you can do with the machine. It's a great thing to have when you have very little space in your house. There's no doubt about it. The thing is heavier than ever, though. I mean, it's so heavy, but it is a brute. It is a brute. You know, you had, like, a collection or a small collection, right? Yeah. You know, what do you want? You want something different, right? So I'm going to take this opportunity to jump through a portal and down into the dungeon, the Dungeons & Dragons. Stern's newest pinball machine. And as you may know, and if you see our Facebook page, I ordered a Dungeons & Dragons Pro on a Thursday. just about a month ago now. It was delivered the following Thursday. It was delivered, and those shippers were, I'll tell you who it was. It was FedEx Freight, and I'm not paid to advertise that, but they did a beautiful job. You know, they reached out to me and said, is this day and this time frame good? I said, yeah. They got there in the time frame. They called about 20 minutes out because I was working, so I could leave work and go home and meet them. Rusty was home. Got it into the garage safely. Everything was perfect. No dings, dents, scratches, rips or tears in the carton. When I got home from work that night, we got it in the house, got it down to the basement, and unboxed it. You can see the pictures on our Facebook page. First impressions. Okay, so get everything loaded up, plugged in. And we've all talked about this offline, too. We all agree that it's easily, arguably, the best layout that Brian Eddy has done since his return to pinball with Stern. It's an amazing layout. It's fast. It's flowy. A nice mix of shots left and right. A nice mix of easy and a little bit harder shots. The third flipper is cool. The magnets are fun. And there are modes, but it's a little different because you're playing Dungeons and Dragons. We've had two code updates thus far. Now, I have the Pro, so it's only six-ball, not eight-ball, multiball. When you're playing six-ball, dragon, multiball, it keeps you real busy. The Shield really helps in that aspect. I've had no issues with it other than if you read the forums or the message boards, with the latest update with the female wizard character there's been a couple I had two incidents myself where the game freezes up that's a code bug they're aware of it and they're working on fixing it they say it's turned so for now avoid that female character or play it at your own will or your own risk so far I've gotten up to I guess it's a mini wizard mode to Sandmaster, and he's holding the staff with the tyrant's eye. And strangely enough, he's standing in the middle of like a portal. Okay? So nice segue there. And I got a few shots in, and then I drink. And I haven't gotten to him since. It's, man. The call-outs so far with the latest update, I mean, as Kenneth Smith said on another podcast, he's done like 1,400 call-outs. He's probably got right now a dozen, maybe a little more in the game. Michael Dorn, he's rapped the Rowan. What's the dragon? His call-outs are amazing. All the call-outs are really cool. The music is amazing. The center spinner shot is really satisfying. The side ramp shot is really satisfying. One of the things I really love is the use of the up-down ramp. So when it's up, if you shoot to the far left, it's an orbit shot. Or it'll come around from the far right as well from that same orbit, which is a really nice orbit shot. Or it has like a lip ramp that drops down, and it becomes a ramp. And that ramp is a long, sweeping, flowing ramp shot that comes around to a right habit trail back down to the right flipper. So it gives a lot of nice variation. That's also one of the ways you light and set up. That is the way you light and set up gelatinous cube multiball. And what's really neat is I found out just accidentally, you know, coincidentally. So I shot it to the lower. For whatever reason, I shot it up to where the little horseshoe is, and it brings it around to the lower magnet to the right flipper, the upper right flipper. It locks on the magnet, and I got another ball. So I shoot it, I get it up the ramp, and it's inside the magnet inside the cube. So I got a three-ball Jalapas Cube multiball. Because you can get a two-ball or a three-ball with that. And that's pretty fun. I really like the, when you beat Dragon multiball, you get Celebration multiball. That's really cool. All kinds of cool, you know, it's what you expect from Dungeon Dragons. I fought a Minotaur today or I met up with one, Gargoyles, Skull and Warriors, Zombie Sailors, Wolves, Owlbears, all kinds of stuff. If you know the mythology of the game, it's really cool, and it seems like it's going to go really deep. And, you know, as far as the coding, what is the coder's name? I have it on the tip of my tongue. Dwight Sullivan. Thank you. Dwight Sullivan. If you don't know Dwight Sullivan, his work is extensive throughout pinball for the last, what, 40 years. And not only does he do pinball rule sets, but he also had programming. He also does, he's an award-winning board game designer. So Dungeons & Dragons is literally his lifelong dream thing to work on. So I think the code's going to go really deep on this one. And it's really funny because when Dan and I were first talking, I said, hey, I ordered a Dungeons & Dragons. He's like, boom, sir. because none of us had played it. I ordered the game just from watching a video and had never played it. And I said I would never do that. I don't regret it. And I know Dan and Mark with your experiences, which I'll let you guys go ahead and start, you know, giving your views on it because, Mark, you played a pro. And, Dan, you got to play a limited edition or an elite. Yes. Ooh, nice. Yeah. So, Dan, I'm going to pass the mic over to you. And so, you know, having said that, because we all agree, even I agree, yes, yes, pretty bold move. Wow, I hope I made a good choice. And I believe I did. Dan, your thoughts? So to kind of piggyback off of what Spencer was saying, not with quite as much depth, but it does feel to me like, yeah, this is the first Brian Eddy game since his return to Stern that has that magic. You know, his other games were fine. You know, if you love Stranger Things, God knows why, or Mandalorian or Venom. What was his other one? Was that it? I think so, yeah. They're all fine. Stranger Things. You know, they're not terrible games at all. You know, they're definitely stern-y. I still always feel like Mandalorian was a great rule set in search of a great play field because it really felt like a pinball adventure. You know, you would buy equipment and then you would find yourself in situations and you could use the equipment, you know, to maximize your scoring opportunities and get out of the situations. The cool thing about Dungeons & Dragons is that Dungeons & Dragons isn't like a pinball adventure. It is a pinball adventure. That's right. You know, you're shooting shots and you're making choices, and those choices are taking you places, and, you know, you're going to find, you know, places that you can explore. You're going to, you know, take routes and get in random encounters. You know, you're going to qualify and then go down to the dungeon and then, you know, explore the dungeon. It really has that role-playing game feel. And, you know, while you're doing this and as you're doing things, you know, you're gaining experience levels, you're finding equipment, so that you're customizing your character. It's really neat. And it only took me a couple games to kind of really pick up, like, what this game was laying down and just sort of be like, oh, Stern, this is very, very brilliant. And I think that that really goes back to what you were saying, Spencer, that obviously Dwight Sullivan has a passion for this project. Like they said, hey, we want you to do something, you know, really cool and different. And he's like, oh, I got you, fam. Like this is happening. And, you know, the graphics are tremendous and the play field looks great. The art in general isn't the Dungeons & Dragons art that I would like it to be. Obviously, I want it to look a little bit more 80s and, you know, like the Frank Frazetta Red Dragon, stuff like that. But it's good art. It doesn't look bad at all. It definitely looks like modern Dungeons & Dragons. The play field is great. It's kind of shadowy, but in a good way. Like, I think kind of the way you want it to be. You can see everything, but it looks mysterious. and the dragon, especially on the LE, I haven't, you know, had a pro in front of me. I've seen videos of it. But the dragon, you know, moves a lot and it emotes. If they had managed to somehow put a moving jaw on that thing, that would have been unbelievable. But kind of like we were saying about the personality core in Portal, So having a character that kind of acts as a narrator and kind of acts as an antagonist and as a storyteller in the game is really, really cool. And as you play D&D, Wrath has a lot to say. And when you fight him, he has a lot, lot to say. And, you know, probably the most exciting thing that I did, because I think I've probably just scratched the surface, but I did the dragon multiball a couple times. I actually lost one, which is hilarious because when you lose, it's the end of the ball. Which I was like, oh. You die. You die. But in the limited edition where he's actually shooting balls at you, like he'll aim the ball right between the flippers or he'll aim it at the home shot and it'll start running amok. And, you know, you can grab, you know, put up the shield and, you know, collect a bunch of balls and the, the way that it works. And I mean, I'm pretty sure this is how it works. This is at least what I kind of thought to be is like you hit the gold targets and he sort of lowers his head to defend them. And then you whack them in the face. Yep. That's the whole goal. And that's easier said than done. You know, when you've got eight pinballs just going ham all over the place. and then when you beat them and you get to the celebration multiball like that's really really cool and you can keep that going for a while but yeah I mean I I walked out of my first couple games and I was talking to my buddy who bought the game and he's like what do you think and I was like man I gotta admit that game really floats my boat like it's cool it's really really cool and it's it's something completely different, you know, than Stern has been doing. Yeah, exactly, Dan. I think what's really cool about it is, like you said, it is a pinball adventure. You feel like you're on a journey. You make choices, like choose your own adventure. It's so cool. And the other thing I really like about it is you really know what to do for the characters. It tells you on the screen. It even tells you in the narration of what to do. It's the first Stern game that I know of where you're like, okay, I know what to do to get to this mode. Or really, it doesn't feel like a mode. It feels like you're fighting a character. You know, you're fighting a monster or whatever. Yeah, and stop me if I'm wrong, but, like, for a while there, like, the Stern rule sets were feeling kind of samey. Like, all the Sterns had a very, like, like, they all tried to do their own thing. But at the end of the day, it's just, it felt like you were getting the same amount of points for kind of doing the same amount of things. And the goal was always to set up your multipliers and start your mode and then do your multiball and get your, get your big tournament points. And I don't know if Dungeons and Dragons will be any kind of tournament game. At least my first impressions are it would be terrible. Yeah. It's just super fun to park yourself in front of and log in with your Insider Connect and just hammer away on because you're trying to get through these scenarios and these modes. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I probably put, you know, I got the luxury because I was playing in a home environment, and it wasn't always that someone was waiting in line behind me, but it was the newest game, so I didn't get to play this. I mean, I probably would have stood there and played it for three hours. You know, I kept turning around and being like, anyone waiting for D&D? No? Okay, let's go again. But, yeah, it definitely has a different quality to it than any of the other modern sterns that I played. So it's cool, man. It's heavy duty. And what's so awesome about it with the Stern Insider Connected is you can continue where you left off. So think about it. Even if you're in a home environment, you're like, oh, I'm going to go play some D&D like a video game and continue where I left off. So you don't feel like you're repeating everything all over again. You're continuing your journey throughout the whole time until you get to the final end of the game. I think that's really cool that you can do that now. And I know they tried to do that with Venom, but it felt more like you just kept your level, but you really didn't. I mean, they say you save your progress, but it just didn't feel like it. But then when you're talking about Dungeons & Dragons, I mean, you know, you look at the map and you see, oh, that's where I left off when I saved it last time. That's just, it's genius. It's really utilizing Insider connected to its potential. And I love it. It's like a pinball world. Yeah, yeah, it's a pinball world, and it's great because it's like, oh, I'll play over at Press Start. Oh, I'm over here by Playfield Sports and Games. Oh, I'm going to go and continue playing that over there. Oh, I'm going to go over to my friend's house and play it. So you can just continue that adventure as long as you log in. It doesn't matter what machine you're on. It's just incredible. And the dragon, like you said, has personality that gives it that taunting capability kind of like Black Knight, where you get taunted by Black Knight, you get taunted by the dragon. Yeah, and he's not so bad. And I know a lot of people were sort of like, well, you know, it's not that big a deal they did it with the dinosaur on Jurassic Park. And I'm like, yeah, the dinosaur on Jurassic Park is cool, but, I mean, he just sort of, like, looks around and growls, and every once in a while, like, you'll shoot a ball into his mouth, and then, you know, maybe, you know, he'll drop it on a ramp, or maybe he'll fling it across the game, and that's super cool. No one's saying that's not good, but, yeah, he doesn't, you know, He doesn't talk shit at you. Yeah, he doesn't have a personality. I mean, he does kind of. That would be pretty disturbing. Yeah, it would be disturbing, right. Yeah, it's sort of like, bring it on. You're like, what? You're going crazy up in here. But it's cute. It's cute. Talking to you, it's freaking cool. Yeah, the stuff he does say, it's like, you know, like when you beat him, he's like, yeah, you beat me. I'll be back. It's so good. So good. Big deal, you know. Yeah. Yeah, it's cute and it's fun. You know, another thing, oh, and this is, I forgot to mention this. So I got up and there's this, I've got it twice, where you have your arrow. So you hold the top button on the lockdown bar. You hold it down. And you'll have a lit arrow shot like in red. And then you'll have the little white arrows underneath it. And they'll be toggling back and forth. So you have to line it up. wider with your red arrow and release or hit and then hit the button again to your arrow to hit that shot. And that's almost, it's kind of like a video mode, but the video was on the play field. And that's really cool. I noticed that when I played that, when I was in Milwaukee and I played the pro version, that was so cool to have that little mode where you had to stop it on that light, you know, on that insert to get that shot. That's so cool. Instead of just a wild card shot like you do in, you know, Guardians and other games like that, it felt like you really had to time it to get that shot to, you know, knock off that character or whatever. Oh, God, it's so good. And then the dungeon aspect, it changes every week. It changes every week, yeah. So you can call your friends and say, hey, I know where the extra ball is. You got to go this direction and, you know, map out where you're going in the dungeon before it changes on the next, you know, after that week. The playability is just off the charts. And it's also not a linear rule set. So you can, you know, you can, like, I don't want to do this this time. I'll go this direction. Yeah, exactly. And I still don't understand, like, what you do as far as the modes. Like, I can't figure out if there's two that you have to do in the level one, and then you do two in level two. I'm still trying to get that with the map, but, I mean, I'm telling you, It's a fun learning experience to feel like you're on a journey. Yeah, it is. It was really vindicated. Not vindicated, but it made me feel even better about my purchase. I already felt good about it Everybody in the house loves it Everybody in the family loves it They tend to have both you and Dan go oh dude yeah you did good You know as soon as Dan got done because we talked about it when you were playing in Milwaukee, you were like, dude, you did great. Good job. Yep, yep. And then Dan, the same thing, after he went and played in the L.E., he's like, oh, dude, yeah, you did good, man. So I'm like, oh, shoot. You know, so, yeah, I'm feeling really good about it, you know. I'm enjoying it so far. So since you played the LE, Dan, take us through the features of the LE that aren't in the pro. So all I know of is that you have that pop-up dungeon hole. And so, like, when it's time to do the dungeon, it'll pop up and you hit the ball in there and it holds it. And then the dragon, his head moves from side to side rather than just up and down. and it's a little bit more fluid. And the biggest thing is that when you do the Dragon multiball, he actually lowers his head and spits balls at you. That's just so cool. Right, right. So he'll aim between the flippers. He'll aim at the slingshot. Like, I'm sure that was intentional. Oh, yeah. Well, that's the nice thing about the shield, I'm sure, especially with the LE or the premium, is you put it as a shield, so that blocks him from spinning the balls temporarily down the middle. Yeah, because in the pro, it's just feeding out of the left orbit, right? Right, yeah. There's going to be some variation to where the ball is going, but for the most part, you're going to kind of know how to play it. But with the LE, yeah, you never know where that dragon is going to put the ball. I can tell you I found an exploit on the beginning of the multiball. It's very minor, but as soon as you get dragging a multiball, immediately hit your shield. So it comes up, and actually Mickey should have hit it. He figured it out. And so the ball comes down, and if you get a ball real quick to rest on the tip of the left flipper and rest in between that and the shield and just hit it, flip it, full flip, it will shoot it right at the right ramp, and you'll get an immediate jackpot shot. Oh. Oh, cool. Yeah, so just, you know, it's like so you can get before all the other balls start coming out, that's an easy way to just line up the shot, and it'll send it right up that ramp for you. And that's what's crazy about that, like it has to be intentional. It's such a perfect shot. His family guy does that too. Oh, does it? Like if you catch it on the death disc and you just let it rest in that little nook and you fire it, it always shoots it up the right lane or the left lane. I don't remember. It's been a long time since I've seen that. I know it's repeatable. As long as your flipper alignment is the same, I guess, it might be different or a few different rubber sites. Off the post you're talking about. Yeah, that might almost be intentional. I think that one of the other podcasters was saying, too, like what you do is you just sort of like you put up your shield, you let the balls all collect on it, and then you just sort of mash both flipper buttons, and they just go flying everywhere like a shotgun? It is. I do that too because then I can get – so when you're playing Dragon Multiball, you're probably too busy looking at the flippers and the play field to know this stuff on the screen. There's a count. So it's like it'll say nine shots. So if you drain balls nine times, you know, nine drains, usually like out of the outlanes, it'll go down the middle too, but mostly out of the outlanes. Okay, if he counts from nine to zero the dragon on you first, yours is blue, his side's red, then he wins. And you can do it before he does, you win. And then you get celebration multiball immediately, which has some jackpot shots. Now, what about trapping up? Like, let's say you trap up balls. Are you getting penalized for that, or do you have to constantly fire it at the dragon? No, no, you can trap up. Okay, you can trap up. trapping up, you have, you know, in the pro you have six balls, and in the premium you have, in the LE you have eight, and those things just keep firing out, man, and they're going every which direction. So as soon as you flip and you flip, you know, one, two, or three balls off a flipper, you've got one, two, three more coming right back at you, which, you know, one way or another. And you're trying to, like, look at Jack, because you're trying to hit his targets. Another thing he does, he does in a single ball play, too. It's really cool. He'll put his head down, When you hit the target sometimes, he'll put his head down and catch your ball and hold on to it for a second. Then he'll lift his head up and roll back down. So it's – Oh, that's cool. It's so fucking cool. It just is. Now, the thing, Dan, when you were playing the LE, did the dragon block shots when you were trying to shoot for stuff? Like when it moved around a lot, did it block shots? and was it more difficult to kill the dragon because it was articulating back and forth compared to the pro when it's just going up and down? It's difficult for me to say because I haven't played the pro. You know, my assumption would be that, yeah, it might be a little bit more complicated. Mm-hmm. But I really won't know until I get my hands on a pro version. Okay. I think the pro has a lot going for it, too. I mean, yeah, either one is good. I was initially like looking at the pro and I was like yeah I don't know about all that man I don't know if I could give up that dragon doing its thing but you know I've seen the pro in action in a couple videos and you know it really does look like a very substantial pro like you don't lose a whole lot right so you know it's probably it's probably one of those pros that i think will be you know you'll be well served in in saving a little bit of money but you know if you're balling hard you know go for go for the premium what's really incredible about it i mean you gotta see the dragon spitting the balls out man This is so cool. I was just like, oh, my God, this is the neatest thing I've ever seen. And I really don't want to be like, hey, I want to belittle your experience because, hey, you know, we're pro-hoes in this room, right? Like, we don't buy a lot of Ellies around here. Right. Man, it's really cool. Yeah, I'm going to like Top Ramen a lot. Exactly. You're like, look, to get the moving dragon, I will have unflavored top ramen. You can keep the chicken flavoring. Just give me the action. Just give me the action. Put it in my face. Yeah, and it does that for sure. And the other thing is the dragon looks really impressive in person. When you see it in videos, it looks small, but when you see it in person, it's like huge. It's giant. It's gigantic. It's huge. Everything in that game is, I think, bigger than you think it's going to be. Yeah, yeah. And the cube looks great, too. You know what? It's like in terms of shots, like it's actually, you know, you think, okay, well, it's going to be a gimmick play field. It's going to be like a champion pup, something like that. No, it's actually a really good shooter. Like it's got a little bit of a little bit of the shadow. Yeah. Like if you were thinking about Eddie's old designs, it's definitely not like a new version of the shadow. So don't read me as saying that, but like, you know, you got that three flipper design that's got the same kind of sideways action, a little bit, a little bit better, I would say, you know, so it's less like, you know, him getting experimental or it's less like him rehashing, you know, attack for Mars, like, like stranger things was, it's really, it really has a very like eclectic kind of play field. But, you know, that dragon is a cool freaking toy. And these days I think that, you know, the best pinball machines need toys. The one thing, and I can't believe it was even this on the LE, is the shot where it kind of goes in, is that supposed to be the mimic? Where it goes in underneath the mimic plastic and then it sort of shoots it off and then the magnet underneath the cube will catch it? Yeah. And with the minute shot, you'll get a lit arrow, and then it'll fade, and it'll move to the next arrow. So it's like a hurry up. I was playing that two hours before. Whatever that trigger is, like I know Stern likes to do that a lot, like they do it on Bond, and it just sort of throws it up at the center target. Yeah. And it does it on Stranger Things, and it just sort of throws it at the drop targets. The fact that it throws it into kind of a controllable circumstance is really cool. Yeah, it gets you set up with the upper. And then it drops it, and you can play it with your upper flipper, so it sets you up for a shot. Still cool. So it's really neat the way that that does that rather than just, you know, like, it seems to be a game, like, if anything, it'll probably end up being a little too easy for a lot of folks because it doesn't seem to have a lot of shots in it that are really designed to fuck you. besides when you take a shot at the dragon's cold. Because that will come right back at your flippers at about 600 miles an hour. Yes, it will. Oh, you know what's funny? It happened to me today. Because sometimes I've had shots do that, and they'll bounce, and they'll shoot so hard down the middle, they'll bounce back up, and I'm back into play. And then that happened today, and it was early on in the ball, so it shot a shot out ball save. So I was playing two balls. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah, I see, like, a recovery, and then you got the ball Lazarus. Yeah, and that's the only time that's happened was a two ball. I've had it recover a few times like that, but it was later in a ball, so I didn't get a ball save and didn't shoot another ball out. So I was like, play through, sir, you know, winter rules. but yeah man it's we haven't even got to the artwork yet even the pro, the side art the cabinet phenomenal artwork the trans-live back glass all of that God we're talking about it it's like I want to go play it right now somewhere so bad right now I can just go to my home, walk out, go play we have three locations that are getting into Reno so I'm excited so yeah So does anybody get into, you know, Dan, I mean, your neck of the woods? Oh, we all, somebody already did. Yeah, yeah. I don't know if anybody in town who's got it on lock, but it wouldn't surprise me if one showed up. After Golden State, there's going to be a lot of orders. They're probably going to have a good number of premiums, pros, and maybe an L.E. or two at Golden State. Oh, yeah, for sure. And the LE, how's the The trim package looks really nice From pictures and video, Dan, how's that in person? I mean, it's fine I don't really like Sit there and obsess over Over Side rails and stuff, like I, you know It was a good looking game I kind of mentioned the art earlier, like It's not really my Generation of Dungeons and Dragons art It looks a little too modern Like if it looked like something out of like 1985 I'd be like, yeah. But, I mean, you know, it's not objectionable. It looks good. You know, it's nice. It's good. I mean, I don't even know who the artist was, but I'm sure he did a good job. He was like some kind of graphic artist who I think worked for, I want to say TSR so bad, but they don't make Dungeons & Dragons. Whoever makes Dungeons & Dragons now, Wizards of the Coast, I think. Yeah, I don't remember. I mean, here's the thing. If they come out of this and they make, like, a magic machine, it'll probably print money. Yeah. Well, this also opens more doors. You know, there's more uses now. You don't even have the key. Well, there you go. Yeah, exactly. It's opening more doors for the insider connect, you know, more uses. Where they started the, oh, save your progress, This takes that. Takes it to the next level. Takes it to the next level. And when you look at the Pro, you're like, okay, this looks full-featured. It doesn't look barren. It looks packed. It looks packed. It looks packed. It is packed. And it's a lot of fun. And having the dragon move, even if it's going up and down, is still a huge plus for a Pro model. It could have been static. It could have been static. I think the best pros are when you look at them across the room, you wonder, is that the pro or the premium? Yes. You know, it still feels like it's full-featured. And even if it's missing something or something's downgraded, it's not something that ruins the game. It's not that the stuff that's in the LE isn't cool. It's super cool. Right. But it's probably not. I mean, and, you know, maybe you have a better time with it or a different time, but it's not like if that stuff isn't there, you don't have a good time. Right. And I think that a lot of people, especially in pinball, you know, we have a lot of folks who just for some reason, like it just pisses them off to feel like they had to make a compromise. But I think that we also have some people who are just like, hey, man, the difference between $7,000 and $10,000 is $3,000. and if the dragon's head doesn't move left and right and spit out balls, but I still get 90% of the same experience, maybe I'm going to be happy at this pro level. I can't see anybody being disappointed in having a pro. I can see people going, oh, dude, I got a premium, and that dragon is, you know, I got an LE, and that dragon is really cool. It's got about eight balls. I can see it actually going like this. I think that people will buy the Pro and will like it so much that they'll upgrade. That's what I'm thinking. There'll probably be a lot of that, which in turn will give people some really good deals on a very lightly used Pro. Because I do think that the game is so strong that, like, it's a weird theme, right? It's like we were talking earlier about Portal versus Al. Like, maybe Portal's not going to sell as many machines as Weird Al did just on name recognition. but I think that the game itself is probably better. So I think that with Dungeons & Dragons, people will sort of go like, ah, Dungeons & Dragons, like, that's kind of a thing that's, you know, from the 70s and the 80s, but then they'll, you know, and a lot of pinheads will just be like, oh, well, you know, I'll pick up a pro, I'm sure it'll be fine. Then they'll play it and they'll fall in love with it and they'll be like, dude, I want the better version of this. I want even more. yeah I think that people will have to you know do that you know kind of like what was it like with Godzilla right people would pick up like Godzilla Pro and be like man this is pretty good but like have you seen that building fall and that Mechagodzilla thing turn I want that I'm going to sell my Pro and I'm going to upgrade yep yeah that was a good pick yeah you made the right pick I mean I always felt good about it anyway, but just to have validation from, you know, two of my closest friends and pinball brothers, that's nice to, you know, it feels good. Not to say yeah, it's okay, it's pretty good. You know, I wouldn't went with whatever, which is cool too, but for both of you guys, go, oh dude, we played it. Yeah, you did. Action, Spencer. Yeah. I've changed my mind. It's junk. I will trade you my heist module for it. There you go. It happens, not included. Which I basically never use. Yeah. It's like a new in-box game. There you go. You could just, like, flick the ball with your fingers or something. I really like that. Damn. Holy crap, man. It's so cool. Yeah, I mean, I'm just like, oh, I can't wait to play it as soon as it gets out there. We're not even going to talk about all the other new stuff that we're looking at down on the horizon, because we'll get to that in another episode. But, again, you know, what an exciting time for pinball. Oh, my gosh. And I have a little segue, too. So we got a portal to get to Dungeons & Dragons, right? Yeah. And now we went into the dungeon. Now we're going to go into the basement, which is kind of like the dungeon, because I got to play Evil Dead. You did get to play Evil Dead. I did. I got to play Evil Dead just a couple days ago. I got to play Noreno. And I'll tell you something, this game is another hit from Spooky. Everything it has in it, the shots are great, the wide play field with the, you know, it doesn't feel at all like a wide body. It totally feels like a standard. Shoots great, great personality. The call-ups sound great in person. I know we were kind of saying, ah, they sounded kind of weird, you know, when you heard them on the recording and the video. Not at all when you play it. It's like, oh, you totally hear the character from the Evil Dead movies, Campbell, who did the voice. It's just so awesome. It's really – that's another one I love playing. I mean, those two are kind of equal as far as the enjoyment and wow factor, just the max on it. And the artwork is gorgeous, really beautiful. And fortunately, I got to see a butter cabinet. And I have to say, those are really nice. Definitely would not want to scratch it. But, wow. It's clear coat, right? It's clear coat. Yeah, it's like a play field. You could just buff it out. Yeah, you could. You could buff it out. So just get out there and just scratch the hell out of it, man. But, oh, my gosh, when you guys get to play in Evil Dead, you'll agree with me. It is a freaking fun game. and it really feels complete too. They did a really good job on the code. It doesn't feel like, oh, we've got to wait three months, like Halloween or four months until something comes about. No, the clips are in there. The voiceovers are great, the sound effects, the music, everything. It's the whole package. So just a first impression, I played four games on it, so I didn't get real deep into it because I didn't get to play it as long as I wanted to, but it will always be there, which is good. Um, but I'll tell you something. It is a fantastic game too. So if you are a Spooky fan, which I am, I love Spooky. They just keep getting better and better. And I don't know if people are saying that the, the quality right now is pretty good as far as the reliability and, uh, not many people are having issues, knock on wood. Uh, but it's a home run for Spooky and, uh, I'm sure they're going to sell out real soon now. They're getting down in below a hundred now. before they're all going to be sold out. It's awesome. So hopefully it will be at Golden State Pinball Festival. Usually they always are. Somebody will have one, and we'll get to play it. But you guys will really enjoy it too. It's another awesome one, just like Dungeons & Dragons. They're about equal as far as the fun factor goes. Anyway, that's just my quick impression. I just wanted to share that with you since we're all in the dungeon. You have to go into the basement to start that mode with the shotgun and the shells. And, oh, God, it's so good with the double launch and the hand moving back and forth and the drop targets you have to hit to get to the hand. It's got everything. It's phenomenal. So I was really impressed with that one, too. Man, it's pretty hard to go wrong with that Franchi art, man. Oh, it's so good. Like, it looks super good. Oh, it's so good. It's got all kinds of cool little, like, you can tell that the guys who made it are just super passionate about that theme. you know, because it's got all kinds of little inventions and little mechanisms and stuff like that that you're just like, oh, wow, that's just evil. The thing that always blew me away, like when I first watched the trailer, like I haven't played the game, but was the porch swing. The porch swing is so cool. First of all, the fact that it just sort of swings, which is, you know, a funny thing in the movie, right? Like, you know, it's kind of an iconic moment, but then it also acts like a ball trap. Yep. And, like, it'll move to unlock the balls when they're sitting on the porch. It's just like, oh, man, that was genius. Yeah, and I didn't get to – I forgot what mode it is. Insanity mode where everything laughs at you? I didn't get to that. I was like, darn, I want to see that. But Jason did. He got to it, and he was like, oh, this is so much fun where you have to silence everything throughout the play field as you make the shots. So it's, like, scared stiff, but you have to silence it instead of it just going berserk and then it stops and then it goes into a certain mode or something. You have to actually stop the mechs from going crazy. It's so cool. The secret laugh mode. Yes, the secret laugh mode. Yep, yep. So good. What game has the secret laugh mode? Which game has the secret laugh mode? I would be impressed if you knew this. Ooh. And we have mentioned it this episode. This is a pinball game we're talking about, right? This is a pinball machine. Hmm. I have no clue. It's the shadow. Oh. The shadow has the secret laugh mode. Really? Yep. If you put a ball in a scoop and you pull the trigger on the gun, I think you do it three times, and then you start a mode. It's the secret laugh mode, and it's like a frenzy with just a bunch of laughing. Oh, I have to try that. That's cool. You have to show that to me if there's a shadow around. I have a shadow. I know. I literally have a shadow at my house. You have to show that to me. I want to see that. That's right. You got your shadow back. Spencer's here. I'm still here. I'm muted. You've been quiet for a long time. Are you still on the internet? No, you know what? I muted because I was posting photos and stuff to Facebook, and then I did a reel, and it put music to it. I'm like, what music did it put to it? I'm like, oh, okay. So I muted. But, yeah. Well, we're glad we're keeping you here. Yeah. And we're engaging with your podcast. I know. I am. I'm engaging because I'm really excited because I unboxed a new game. The next time that we hang out, are you just going to sit there and look at your phone? You know, if you just update the Facebook when I ask you to rather than when we're actually recording. Well, you were talking and I wasn't interrupting you, so we're doing great. so no because every every other time you get quiet it's because you got kicked off the internet oh okay because the internet went shithouse so sorry about that guys no but there's another like if you're in multiball and you pull the trigger on the gun you get like an automatic free jackpot right or something I forget what it is if you're in the Mongol attack that's it the countdown and you don't think you're gonna hit it or something right it's like two million I think you get like you get the minimum amount of points, but it's sort of like an Indiana Jones-y, Indiana Jones-y kind of moment. Yeah. It's such a great game, and I want one even more now. And, you know, I'll say it real quick since we're on this. I feel like you have the modern version of the play field, at least. The gameplay couldn't be more different. Yeah. But it's definitely like the three-flipper, the three-flipper, what's that? The three-flipper Eddie. Yeah. You know, the other thing kind of looping back around to... Yeah, we can go loop around. Go ahead. Dungeons and Dragons that I like. I like that center shot, which is like a spinner right in front of a scoop. Yeah. Yeah, two of these. What a weird shot. It's super neat. Yeah. It's like you can enjoy the spinner spinning for a long time. Yeah. Okay. Now the ball comes back to your flipper from the up kicker. You know, when you're tired of that game, I'll certainly take it. There's another thing about that game. And the way the upper left ramp from the upper right flipper sets, it's not often. And I don't think I've ever done it intentionally trying to do it. It's just it bounces often. You can make that ramp shot off the lower flipper. It's rare. It's weird. Like you've got to bounce it off a post or something. But it's doable. Yeah. One of those weird backspin shots. It's a weird backspin shot. Yeah. He totally did that. And you're just like, oh, wow, how did that happen? And you can totally, like, in the LE when the little trap door pops up, you can totally pop that from the top flipper, though. You can do it so well that I would think it's almost intentional. Really? You can hit it into the shot. Wow. You can totally, like, knock it right in the mouth. Really? That's cool. Mark, I picked the spinner into the VUK with the top flipper, not intentionally, but I've done it. It's weird. It's not awkward. I can't do it. So that's why we worry about when you get caught. You've got to cut off. Yeah. I kicked off the internet. What did you say, Spencer? Say it again. Okay, so a couple of times just playing randomly, just, you know, trying to make other shots from the upper right flipper, I knocked it through the spinner into the VUK. Oh, cool. Yeah, I've done it. Again, not intentionally, but it is possible to do. Both the main rams are also backhandable. It's difficult, but you can. I've done them both. That's great. The right ramp's actually a little harder to do from a backhand, but it is possible. Cool. Yeah, man. So, I mean, you know, your mileage may vary on your game, but this is just my experience with mine. And when you shoot that right ramp, I've had it probably three or four times now, where it goes so damn fast, it jumps off just before it gets down to the left flipper coming back. It actually jumps off the rail. Oh, wow. It's so damn fast. It's like galactic tank forcing. There you go. Right? Yeah. So, yeah, kind of circling back. But, you know, it's just – You can probably, like, tweak your ramp adjustment a little bit or play with your level. Yeah. You might almost be too aggressively steep, like, so you might want to bring in. I think we are because it's not perfectly, the bubble's not perfect dead center. It's close. But, you know, it was like, okay, it's a Thursday night. By the time we get all set up and everything, you know, it's afternoon. It's like 730. We all just want to play the damn thing. It's, you know, you have to put balls off. I mean, you know, it's like you're not supposed to pay attention to the bubble. You're supposed to be fronts in, backs out. Yep, that's right. Right. But, you know, there's obviously some games respond better to that than others. Yeah, yeah. So, but it's level. It's playing good. Yeah, I'll probably adjust more later. I haven't really done any, you know, I put the cup holder on. I bought a new cup holder for it. I still have a couple of extras, but I just bought a new one. And I bought a plastic protector set for the inlanes and the slingshots. I got to install that still. But, you know, I've just been, you know, playing something. I'm just, you know, having fun. And I've got my highest score on it now is 310 million, which is a lot. Yeah, Rusty. Okay, so the night we get it, we play about a dozen games. She's not doing – she's not getting any traction at all. She's just like, I hate this game. I'm not getting traction. So it works the next day. I get a little note from a little message from her. It's like, look at the Facebook post. And she put up $420 million. And she has still today, I put up a nice score. I put up like 310 minutes in change. So I've got high scores three and four at 310 in change. And then she has grand champion high score one and two. So, yeah, no, cool, good for her. I was like, how in the fuck did you get $420 million on that game? Yeah, because, you know, that's, you know. You've got to start those dragon battles and get that victory lap. That's the way to do it. You do. And finishing modes. You've got to finish modes. You've got to finish modes, but you can get a lot of points off that. Apparently, the place to get all the points is the cube multiball. Yes. And it's hard to start. I watched a few minutes of Carl D'Python Anghelo playing the other night. Not too much because that just ruins games. Yeah, it does. But I watched him playing that cute multiball, and, yeah, he just was 20 million points a shot just over and over and over. And, you know, the disgusting thing is he never misses. He's pinpoint accuracy. Like, how can anybody be that accurate? Like, it's just ridiculous. But, yeah, he had control, and he's just like, you do this, then you do this, then you do this, and it moves up your value. And then, oh, yeah, it's $20 million. I guess $20 million is as much as it gets. I mean, he probably should have sat there for like two and a half hours just, gosh. I can repeat the right ram shot three, four, five times, and it's repeatable. It's not too easy, but easy enough. So like the little tight horseshoe Drops it to the magnet down to the upper right Flipper Trying to hit that thing Because I can backhand it It'll rattle out God damn it I'm not trying to shoot something else They don't go in there like butter man It's the speed of light Okay well I'm trying to do that I can't do it So yeah Carl D'Python Anghelo just Yeah he's the sharpshooter man He can you know It's amazing His aim is amazing The toughest shot on that is the orbit, the right orbit. That's a challenging shot. Because it's so far to the right. It's because, yeah, it's a very tip off the right. Right on the tip. Yeah. It's not easy to do. When you know it's sweet, boy, it really rockets and it feels good. It's different with all the shots. When you hit them sweet, boy, they're satisfying. Like you said, it's a great layout. It's smooth as butter. It really has a great layout. It is. It is. And it doesn't have that stop and go like I saw in the first stream. I was like, oh, boy, there's a lot of stop and go, and it's not like that at all. You know, if you know the mode start, you know, or whatever the story arc, you can just hit the plumber button, and it will release. But it's almost like you don't want to because you love the narration. It's like you can use the whole narrator. You do. Plus, it gives you a little break in the action. You kind of rest your hands for a second. Yeah, yeah. Which is nice, too. So the focus is on the right ramp is where the mode starts. So a post comes up and catches it halfway down on the pro And that also a dungeon entrance point That also starts It one of two shots That and the far right orbit will start dragging multiball. Okay, that's how you start. Yeah, because, like, it says dragging multiball. Yeah. And then you have to shoot it. Yeah, it's an arrow, yeah. But it doesn't start until you get the side ramp, right? You have to get the side ramp. So you, like, qualified on the left orbit, and then you hit the side ramp, right? Well, you can't start it with that far, yeah, with that left orbit. I think you just start it on the right orbit, right? The right orbit, yeah. Oh, the right orbit. There's actually an insert that's a dragon multiball. Yeah, you need to shoot up the right insert when it's lit up the right orbit. I think there's multiple start points. There is. That's the right orbit, and then the right ramp will both start dragon multiball once you hit it. Because if you look at the dragon targets, each of the letters, it lights up. So, you know, plus it'll tell you on the screen, you know, hey, three more letters, two more. And one of the things when you go into the little shop, what's the actual, it's a shopkeeper's name. Oh, yeah, that's right. You go to the shopkeeper. I forgot about that. You can buy a letter. Yeah, you can buy potions. And, okay, you know, well, that's the other thing that's really cool when you level up. You're like, oh, I got, you know, a bot, I got armor, I got a better sword, and I got three peeling potions and, you know, all this stuff. But it's like, oh, I got this stuff. And it keeps it because you've got, you know, you've got your insider connect to continue on. I'm like, I'm level 10 now. And then you get the better sword, and then when you get in the encounter, because you're trying to travel and, like, a wolf jumps you and you're, like, one-shotting him. That is fun. And he's like, oh, my God, that's dope. That's so dope. It's so cool. I really hope, and, you know, they're bringing a lot of real elements to it. So I had a coworker over, and he's a dungeon master. He's been playing Dungeons and Dragons for decades. And to this day, he has a group they play on Saturday nights. So it's like, oh, this character. Oh, I know this character. So he knows the source material really, really well and the voice actors. And so he's really quite impressed with it, really enjoying it, too. And we're talking about it. So I'm really hoping they bring in more things from that world, and from things like the Deities and Demigods book, you know, like Norse mythology. And I would love to see, I don't know how they would do it with licensing, but like Melnobonian mythology, if you know Elric of Melnobone and his sort of storm bringer. We'll go back to the Louis Early in their career they did a song called Black Blade About Stormbringer the sword from the Series of books And I'd love to see That stuff brought into it Because that's all part of The source material For the world of Dungeons and Dragons You know So you know Go deep geek man I mean hardcore nerd So, you know, which we all are. It's a perfect theme for you. It's definitely a perfect theme for you, Spencer. It's a great family theme, too. It's a really great family theme, you know, where, you know, there's a lot, like, okay, like, really, you know, I want to play Evil Dead. It looks, I mean, all the toys and gizmos and units and the source material and the depth of which they go to integrate the source material looks amazing. But it's not a great family theme. And they'll admit that. You know, this is more of an adult thing where Dungeons and Dragons, even, you know, little kids can go, oh, there's a dragon. He says funny stuff, you know. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, he's not like us. Spencer, real quick, I got to jump in on this. Yeah. You got to be careful with Dungeons and Dragons, man. That game could be dangerous. Oh, yeah. You ever see this movie from 1982? It's called Mazes and Monsters. Hell, yes. with Sean Hanks and, oh, what's the kid's name? From My Bodyguard. Yeah. Chris Makepeace from My Bodyguard. Yeah. And Meeple. What a great film. And, you know, what's funny is it's kind of terrible. But it's so bad in, like, that 1982, like, TV panic kind of way. Oh, my God. It was a TV movie. I don't want this game to get you into the devil. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to come and pick it up and get it out of your house for you. But, you know, I'm a good friend. Dan will drive his V10 monster truck all the way out here to pick up that game. I will spend more money in death than it would cost me just to go buy the game. Seven miles per gallon, because that's what my V10 truck gets. Oh, my gosh, man. And, like I said, that was a, you know, a very, very, very, very cool thing that, you know, it worked out. And you guys got to pick this game up. And I'm super happy for you. There's something really cool about owning the newest game on the block, and you're going to get to go through a lot of fun stuff. Hopefully none of the frustrating stuff, but a lot of the fun stuff with getting to experience the updates as they come out and, you know, seeing what kind of tricky new mods they're going to come out with for it. And then that crushing disappointment when the next game comes out and your game's not special anymore. But, you know, for the time being, you're the cock of the walk. You know, and that's really cool, and it's really fun to be that for at least just, you know, be the cool kid, you know, for a minute. That's fun. But at the end of the day, too, the last ability. You know, and I really feel real good about, okay, this game's going to be around in the house for a while, and we'll continue to enjoy it. It won't get stale quickly. Right. They'll keep adding more stuff to it. And has it attracted a lot of people coming over to play Pinball now that they knew you got a Dungeons & Dragons? Yeah. Because I know you're trying to build that community in Casper. Which way do I go? I think come down to my basement and play Dungeons & Dragons is not going to get you the people that you want to get. It probably gets you the people that you deserve to get now. Probably not going to give me a lot of dates, but I'm going to have to remember. I'm going to punch. Yeah. No, shit. No, no. Come on. It's pinball. Shaft the tiki punch. Shaft the tiki punch. I want to shaft that. That's a good one. No, what's funny is, you know, I called my usual little couple of people, and I'm like, yeah, you got to come over here. They're like, okay, we're on our way over. And they're like, oh, this is the coolest thing ever. In fact, one pinball buddy, he's like, I'm going on vacation. You know, it's a family. His kids are coming home from college, and they're all going on vacation. And he goes, why don't you get back? Let's talk about, you know, link me up with your guys, which I should mention and give a shout-out to. and I do write them in a little thank you email. I purchased the game, and again, I'm not paid to do this. I just, you know, give kudos where kudos is due. Zach Manio, we're flipping out on pinball. That's where I bought, purchased the game. We are not sponsored. We are not sponsored. I got nothing. I got nothing. I paid in full for my game. I got my game, so I didn't get any extra special swag. I didn't even get a free play field, which I understand now, if you buy a Stern game, you get a free play field. So can we absolutely bow to any corporate sponsor? Oh, I will pour myself for a T-shirt and a drink cozy. I'm working for a P3 module here, so you need to knock it off. Don't go cheap on us. You're going to be a problem. Don't go cheap on us, Mr. Human Box. Yeah, right, yeah. My only human box is going to P3 module, so I'm going to ask the question. Right. But, yeah, no, Zach, it was great. the communication was great, the turnaround time was like, holy crap, one week later and this is getting delivered? Yeah, he's great. Because I messaged him. I texted him and said, hey, I really want to get one of these. Do you – you got these? Well, I knew they had them stocked because they checked the website. I said, what's the turnaround time? I said, because I'm going out of town and I don't want to deliver when I'm – I said, where are you going? So I told him the dates. He goes, oh, what did you do? Wow, that's way before. I said, cool, I'm ordering right now. It's like, awesome. You know? So, yeah, so just a little quick thank you note. You know, the game guy here, the shipping was great. The speed was great. You know, everything about the transaction was good. And, I mean, there's many others. And, I mean, I'll go ahead and give JJ a shout out because JJ over at Game Exchange Colorado is awesome, too. And I love JJ. He's a great dude. And I will buy from him in the future someday, too. JJ didn't have it in stock when I wanted to order it and after my last new in box experience with ordering and waiting and waiting and waiting months on end just because that's the way the bill rotation was and then you know ended up not getting that game I ended up getting a refund on that one but anyway anyway story but I want to you know Instagram I've got the money I've got the go ahead mommy said yes come on god damn it Give me my game, you know. Take my money. So, yeah. But, no, Zach over at Fortune Outcome was just amazing. And everybody else over there, you know, Zach's wife and what's the tech support? Greg. Greg. Greg Bone. Thank you. We have Greg Bone. All those guys, man. So shout out to, you know, everybody. Like skeletons, which you find in a dungeon. Which you find in a dungeon. They got incinerated by the dragons. Yeah. Hey-o. Yeah, hey-o. I felt like some good segue to me, like, I don't know about you guys and your hey-ho. That was beautiful. See, I thought that was like poetry. That was poetry. So we're going to go over now, we're going to talk about the update on the Golden State Pinball Festival. Well, we should finish it with that for sure. Well, we have that in upcoming shows. So updates. Camp sites went on sale Saturday. They sold out in about a minute or less. It went on sale Saturday. They went off the sale on Saturday. Yeah. Yeah, that's, yeah, it's, you know, they're hard to read. For anyone who's come to Golden State, man, the campsite is the show. Like, don't get me wrong, the show's the show, but, like, Camp Silver Ball is good. Yeah, that's the other thing. If you want a Camp Silver Ball t-shirt, there's only one way to get one. You've got to sign up and be a camper. Like, I'm not camping this year. Oh, that's right. Yeah, we're not camping. And we're flying out this year. We're still going to be there for the whole show. We're still going to do our thing. We're still going to volunteer. But, you know, we're not we're not in our 20s anymore. So, I wanted a new baseball cap or, you know, baseball-type cap for my trip out to see my grandson. I ended up wearing my special and lit cap because my Wyoming cap got just old and kind of funkified and I washed it and it just kind of got worse, funkified. And I could have worn that the last couple of shows. So I'm trying on a new ball cap, new Wyoming ball cap. So it's Wyoming and they call it a staple ball. And I look in the mirror and I got my glasses and just got a haircut and I'm like, I look like George Burns. Good God, you know. I was like, nope, not buying that one. So I just wore it on my special woman ball cap, which I'll probably wear to the show. But campsites sold out really quick, but you can still come and hang out, you know, and be on the show and hang out at Camp Silver Ball, I'm sure, if you're always in behavior, so I'll keep people in mind. As long as you pay your way into the show. As long as you pay your way into the show. We're not speaking for the show here. We are not in any way, shape, or form, officially speaking, to pull our goal and say pinball festival. Yes, that's correct. Thank you, Dan. Yeah, you've got to have your wristband. If you don't have a wristband, we're going to be like, what are you doing here, man? You don't belong here. Go pay your way in. Go talk to the homeless guy on the corner. He'll point you towards the main entrance. Pinball hobo is the real hero. Pinball hobo is the real hero. So we should print out shirts that say that or buttons. People are starting to list their games The game list has started up That's really cool We're 60 days out There's so much more to do So if you come to the show, volunteer Bring a game if you can Volunteer If you are listening And you have any way to get to Northern California In May You need to come to the show Just trust us We are the experts And I have a good authority There's going to be some smoked Cheddar coming directly from the Tillamook Factory again this year So And there's going to be all kinds of For you but not for them Oh okay For you guys You're making such weird things I'm trying to sell the show I like cheese The cheese is good So It's giving me so much fun There's a lot of cheese and wine in Lodi Where the show's at Yeah there we go You guys Gotta forgive him it's like 12 o'clock his time I am getting tired it's 10 o'clock my time No no There's more going on but we can't Talk about it yet So you can list your game. If you bring your game, you're on the next episode. That'll be next episode. You can list your game. That's a great show. We're going to have hundreds of games. There's camping if you manage to camp. There's a camp site that you can see if you didn't manage to camp. There will be an awesome tournament. There's going to be a lot going on. If you're in Northern California, please volunteer. Please bring your games. If you're not in Northern California but you're just out of your mind, you can volunteer and bring your games. People from Southern California are going to volunteer and bring games. All kinds of people from the Bay Area are going to volunteer and bring games. People from Reno. But if you don't volunteer, it's still incredibly affordable for the amount of games and the amount of fun that we're going to have. The dates for Golden State Pinball Festival, just so everybody's listening, is the 16th through the 18th of May. That was just brought to my attention compared to some of the other shows that they have in hotels, I was like, a friend of the show, Will, talking about the Tacoma show, because he was in that. That's his neck of the woods. And he wants to go to the Tacoma show this year. And he's like, I'm going to go. But, wow, prices are really expensive. Like, you can't put a hotel on all that stuff. You know, the rent. Or you can put a convention center. Yeah, exactly. It's a great show. We're not taking anything away from the Northwest Pinball and Arcade show. especially if you're into arcades which is something that we really don't do that's a cool show and it's a very comfortable a very indoor kind of environment our environment is definitely more of a state fair old school fairgrounds I mean it's you know we got air conditioning and we got all the creature comforts but it's definitely a little bit more of a rustic kind of experience than Tacoma. We haven't been to Tacoma. I actually went to Tacoma with Will, and that's a heck of a show. There's a really great pizza restaurant right within walking distance of that place. So we'll go ahead and give them a shout out. Man, I love that place. Yeah, give them a shout out. Yeah, that's the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show. Those are our pinball and arcade games, June 6th through 8th, 2025, at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center, 1500 Commerce Street, Tacoma, Washington. in 98402. So, and they got a cool, their poster this year is really cool, too, which if you have not seen the artwork for the Golden State Pinball Festival's Wow, it's really good, and it's done by who? Or Dan, Mark, either one of you know who did it? I do, but I'm seeing, you know, do you guys know who did the art? Yeah, Johnny Craft did it, right? Johnny Craft, yeah, who also did Jurassic Park pinball It's dope. Every year our show posters get a little bit cooler. Yep, every year they do. Agree. And if you volunteer, you get cool swag. The 16th through the 18th of May. So that's a week after Mother's Day. Yep, weekend after Mother's Day. So the Carl Weathers should be good. Carl Weathers should be real nice. There's food on site. and if you're not from the general area there's a couple other little things that are tidbits of locality Lodi is the birthplace of A&W so they're still an old school A&W so if you want to rock a cheeseburger and a frosty cold mug of A&W root beer off site you can do that we're not paying endorsement if you listen to this show any length of time you know I will like I will crawl through broken glass and snow on my hands and knees for a frosty cold mug of A&W root beer in the summer. There are two fantastic pizza places in Lodi. There are? There's Rick's and there's Tony's. Oh, okay. I recommend Tony's. They have pinball, which is awesome to have a Metallica remastered, and they've got Calzone's. Oh, I love Calzone's. Oh, man, we have to go have them. Here's the deal. We're going? They are the bomb. Really? They are so good. And they have special diet marinara. It's not really diet, but it was a funny joke. And the guy who made it was the guy who took my order, and I thought that was amazing. Oh, that sounds really good. Me and my buddy were ordering calzones, and he said, do you want ranch or do you want marinara? And he's like, oh, man, I think ranch would be bad for you. I'm going to get marinara. And so when he's summing up, he's like, so I got, you know, whatever the calzone is with the diet marinara. I thought it was super clever. So when I picked them up, I was just like, so this is the diet marinara, right? He's like, oh, man, I hope you got that joke. Cool. I'll make sure I work with the diet marinara. It's like a pub of ranch. It's amazing. Honestly, though, probably should have got the marinara. The marinara was really good. Cool. Now I want the calzone. So I think after a state of the art, that's when we're recording, I mean, I made the traditional. Rusty, we got back, you know, we got back Sunday night, last night, pretty late, about 11 o'clock. We probably got home. And so I had bought, in advance, I had bought a corned beef brisket and threw it in the freezer. So I pulled it out last night and threw the fridge on it. Rusty got called into work today. So she said, I've got to go to work. And I didn't work because we had such high winds, we couldn't get any work done. So, like, take the day off, boys. So I'm like, all right. So I just got errands done and, like, I had a nice cooked dinner. So I made corned beef and cabbage with red potatoes and carrots. And Rusty brought home some Irish soda bread. So we had that. I warmed that up. And we had that with butter. So anyway, I want a calzone now because I love a good calzone. I want to finish this show recap so that we can finish the show sometime tonight. All right. You brought up Caldo's, damn it. I've been trying to. Trying to bring up Caldo? That's part of the charm. That's why people love our show. So with that, I'll drive the bus. I'm tired of our show. I'll drive the bus. I will drive the bus off the fucking travel bus. We're off the turnpike. We're off the turnpike. Talking about corned beef and cabbage, I was like, this is going to be a three-hour show. We're off-road. My mom is going to take three hours. I don't know about you, but I don't want a fucking calzone. I do want a calzone. Corned beef and cabbage calzone. All right, so we will not. You find Dan and Mark, and I'm going to follow them, and we'll get you to that calzone. Calzone, and then we'll swing by and get an A&W. We're going to come back and play a lot of pinball. We'll also buy from the local food vendor there, which is World of Wonder, which is one of the main benefactors. All the proceeds to that show, Golden State Pinball Festival, go to local kids' charities. That's real, real important. We know about the Tacoma show, the Northwest show. They check that out and check out their poster. Then we have Texas Pinball Festival. We have Texas Pinball Festival, and that's like a week away, March 21st through 23rd. And that's in Frisco, Texas. That is a huge event. Never been with Bugs ago. You've been, right, Mark? I have, one time. Yeah, okay. We have the Midwest Gaming Classic, April 4th through 6th. That's in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. That's also pinball arcade games. That's also board games, retro consoles. I think they even do, like, cosplay. Oh, they got, like, pro wrestling. They got all kinds of crazy stuff there. Yeah, so that sounds like a lot of fun. That's another one I really would like to do someday. Pintastic New Robert Englunds, April 10th through 13th, Pintastic New Robert Englunds, and Marlboro, Massachusetts. That's a pretty good show. You have May 2nd, 3rd, you have the Allentown Pin Fest, in Allentown, Pennsylvania. May 15th through 18th, that's the same weekend that it's Golden State. But if you're in Alberta, Canada, it's in Sherwood Park. That's your local show, so you should check that out. May 31st through June 1st is the Ontario Pin Fest, and that's in Stainer, Ontario, Canada. Southern Pride Gaming next month, June 20th through 22nd, and that's in Atlanta, Georgia. There is a Tasmanian Pinball Festival August 2nd and 3rd And that's in Tasmania, Australia And then you have the Newcastle Pinfest September 20th and 21st That's also in Australia So if you're traveling to Australia Great, you got a pinball show to go to If you're listening and you're in Australia You got some pinball shows coming up And there's some other ones in between But I'm just looking at the list I have so far the Houston Arcade and Pinball Expo, and that's November 14th and 16th. I know we also have the Denver show coming up, the Mile High Pinball Arcade show, and that's usually in September, so I'll pull that up. Is there anything else going on that I'm missing? No. I mean, there's a lot of shows coming up. We are entering the show season. Yep. California Extreme. Oh, yeah, California Extreme. Well, we'll talk about that next episode. Let's not talk about July July Yeah They don't have the 2025 show up yet Their website for The Denver show So we'll talk about that in a future episode So I guess we're going to drive the bus I'm kind of back on the road And I'm still thinking about Calzones Damn it We'll get it over to I know we'll get over to shout out some thank yous Mark, I'm going to let you start with shout-outs and thank yous. Okay. Well, my shout-out is to my father. He was a great friend. He was a great father. And I'm going to miss him. But after the show, I'm going to have a tribute to him. One of his favorite songs is by Rod Stewart called Forever Young. And he always had that mentality of being a kid. And I know a lot of the things that he instilled in me, a lot of his personality rubbed off on me. and I'm kind of like the person having that personality go on. And I love you, Dad. I'll miss you and I'll miss those great conversations we had on the weekends and whenever I called to check up on you. I know you're happy right now and joyful in the arms of God and it's just awesome to know that I'll see you again sometime. That's beautiful, man. Thank you. Dan. You know, shout-outs as always to you guys. You know, wouldn't be doing this here with anybody else. Also to Juan and Rory and Mike Hosier and the rest of the CCPL Folsom crew. To Shannon for hosting the event. It was an absolutely wonderful, wonderful playoffs, and I had a great time. And, you know, to everyone who's working tirelessly to put on GSPF this year, it's going to be a heck of a show. Please come. Beautifully done. Yeah, my shout-out to you guys too, man. You know, we've all been through some real good and real rough times lately, and we've all been there for each other. And so, man, I'm so grateful to have you guys as, you know, my brothers in pinball and teammates on the podcast. To my lovely wife, Mary Ann Rusty, for saying, go ahead, honey, get the game. Yeah, tell me twice. And to my family, puts up with this lunacy. to my beautiful grandson. We just celebrated his first trip around the sun. So as they say, I wish so much good for you. And my daughter's son-in-law. I won the son-in-law lottery. So to all the listeners and people who support our little podcast and enjoy it, and enjoy what we offer. And again, yeah, to the folks who put on all the shows, it's an undertaking of gargantuan proportions to put on a pinball and arcade show or just a pinball show. So always say thank you when you see one of them, man. You know, offer a cold drink, a handshake, and just a friendly smile and thank you. Come support all the shows. Come to Golden State. Go to your local show. Support that. Support local pinball at your shows and location. And I think that's all I got for now. I'm sure there's others. So let's just take it out. This has been Episode 73. You can listen to us at SoundCloud, iTunes, and wherever fine podcasts are sold. Reach out to us at our email to spinnerislit at gmail.com and our Facebook page, just Facebook, Spinner's Lit. You'll find us. So as always Ladies and gentlemen Play pinball Keep America strong Music And may you grow to be proud, dignified and true. And through unto others that you'd have done for me He's courageous and he's brave And in my heart you'll always stay Forever young Forever young Forever young Oh, and may good fortune be with you, may your guiding light be strong. Still the stairway to heaven, may the prince die a black fall. And may you never love and break And in my heart you will remain Forever young Forever young Forever young Forever young Forever young Forever young And when you finally fly away I'll be hoping that I'll serve you well For all the wisdom of a life No one can ever tell But whatever road gets you I'm not behind you When are you forever young? Forever young Forever young Forever young Forever young Forever young Forever young Forever young Fragen, we love you