Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the flip side podcast. I'm your host retro Ralph. I'm excited for this episode man this is like, I think we're 29, we're almost at episode 30 so again I I want to thank all of you who have supported this podcast. We won a Twippy Award this year for the podcast as a newcomer content creator in the pinball space. Even though we've been doing this for a little while, I guess I can still be considered a newcomer. But man, oh, I want to tell you something real quick. So this theme song you're listening to right now has been the theme song of the podcast ever since I started it. And someone came up to me at Electric Bat, and I wish I caught his name. Really nice guy. And he's like, hey, man, I really dig that intro music for the podcast. And I was like, I thought about changing it, to be honest. And it was pretty cool to say he said he really was into it. So I'm into it, too. Like it gets me kind of hyped a little bit. I don't know. It's a cool vibe. It's a cool vibe. But that's because that's what we're about here. We're about cool vibes here on the Flipside podcast. Right. No time for this garbage, negative talk nonsense. we can be we can be um you know constructive we can we can provide constructive criticism but hey man i don't look at the world in a negative way right like i'm a pretty positive guy i'm an optimistic guy and um that's how i view the world so if you enjoy that kind of attitude and aura then this is you're at the you're in the right friggin place man because uh we're gonna you know we're gonna share opinions but we're not gonna be uh a-holes about it you know what i mean that's because that's not what we're about. Anyway, let's get into the episode. I'm pretty excited because there's a million things going on right now. All of a sudden, the pinball news world has exploded, and it's pretty insane. So there's a lot of things to be excited about. But before we get started, I want to have a brief note advertisement from our sponsor, Zach and Nicole Mini over at Flip N Out Pinball. Are you looking for a new pinball machine, a used pinball machine, or to trade in your old pinball machine for something new? Look no further than Flip N Out Pinball. They can handle all your pinball needs. They ship anywhere in the United States, and they will give you the best experience in the business. Check out the link to Flip N Out Pinball in the video description for more information. Now, back to the video. Thank you, Zach and Nicole, for your sponsorship. Obviously, if you're into or interested in all of these new pinball machines coming out, you've got to go and talk to Zach. And I know right now times are tough, money's tight. I have done lots of trades with Zach, and then contrary to popular belief, I am not making money on games sold by Zach. So we can squash that right here. I would be very transparent about that. But we do have a sponsorship of which I was paid some amount for the next 12 months or for the 12 month period. And if it all works out, then maybe I'll renew it again. It's not some life changing amount of money. But you know what? I appreciate that Zach believes in me and the content that I put out there. And honestly, Zach has been an amazing distributor to work with. He gets me games faster than distributors locally in this area when they come out, which is insane. And he ships super fast. When I do trades with him, it's like within three days. It's like my game gets picked up, the new game shows up, it's pretty awesome. I personally like to rotate my collection because I am a content creator. I enjoy actually keeping it fresh. So I try to avoid the bolted to the floor concept, but there are several games right now that are just going to stay bolted to the floor. So it is what it is. But this week we got some interesting news because we finally got, and I know I had made predictions and I messed up a million times. It was just fun. It was just for fun. I'm not really that guy. I'm not trying to compete with Nap Arcade or even Kaneda's. You know, he likes to do predictions. And, you know, even though, let's face it, people give them information and then they just say, you know, oh, I magnificently pulled this rabbit out of the hat. Although I will say Jason Knapp does a lot of sleuthing. But a lot of times, you know, some of the other people just get the information given to them and then they just repeat it, right? I think it's always good to disclose the source you got that. Not disclose the source, but say someone gave you the information. if you did get it, right? Not just kind of pretend like you were just a magician who magically came up with this idea that Kong was going to launch on this day. But anyway, so I didn't have any prior knowledge of when Kong was going to come out, but I kind of was trying to guess based on how they've done rollouts over the years, right? Usually it's the teaser trailer on a Friday, and then that following week on a Tuesday, they do like the more full trailer reveal where you see all the trims of the game. You see the pro premium and limited edition. And then, and then now lately, the way they've been doing these past couple of releases, they have a media day. And what they were doing before though, is in, in the D and D launch before we came in, they had the distributors come in, but now they're going to have the distributors come in the day before us. So on the 16th, the distributors will come in and see the game or whoever was invited. That's a, that's a distribution partner. And then on the 17th, that'll be us. So in the 17th, I'll be going over to Stern to check out King Kong. And I'm super excited because it's a Keith Elwin game. And we all know Keith Elwin makes great games, lots of flow. He's just usually the code developers that work with him are really solid. So he just has a great team and the games end up being amazing because of that. So let's look at the trailer really quick. I'm sure you've seen it a million times, but I want to make some comments because there's some things in here. I feel like I did a little bit of research on something because I will be first to say, I don't have like memories of watching any of the old Kong stuff I I know like on TV it would be on from time to time as a kid and I might flip through it and watch it but at this but at the same time like I'm not this person that's nostalgic for the old Kong movies or even the new Kong movies but I could say the same thing about Godzilla I I understand I think everyone's in that same boat but uh there was something I noticed in this trailer that obviously we all noticed but i don't think anybody's talked about the significance of the thing that we saw so anyway so let's watch the trailer really quick it's very short and then we'll kind of i want to give you some commentary on it okay so let's go from the back to the front so i'm gonna i'm gonna put it back on again but without i'm gonna i'm gonna mute it out for us so hold on let me just uh i'm messing my own stuff up hold on all right so i got it muted on the screen so i can so i can cut to a specific part of the trailer but i want to start from the back because you know obviously 415 is the date that's when we're going to see the uh the the bigger reveal but i did want to pause it on something really quick if I can get to it. So this image that we saw, right? It's the only image we saw of the play field if I can get it to stop on the part that doesn't look like trash. Well, let me just play it through and then I'll... There we go. So this is the main image that you see. So you see this gong. And I was curious, like, is there any significance of the gong in general? And I think in the newer movies, they have, you know, incorporated the gong. So let's talk about that quickly for a second. So I decided to do a little bit of sleuthing and research and say, like, what was the significance of the gong in the movies? And I just, I wrote it down right here. So in the original 1933 King Kong film, the gong holds a significant symbolic and narrative weight. When the explorers arrive on Skull Island, which this isn't called Skull Island, this is obviously a Stern-created story, but we'll get back to that in a second. They witness the island's natives performing a ritual that includes the dramatic striking of a large gong. This act is part of a ceremonial offering where the natives present a woman as a bride to Kong. The gong's resonant sound serves as a summons, signaling Kong to come forth and claim his bride. So I have no idea whether they're going to use it in that fashion. I can see them using it as a means to summon Kong maybe in the game, which would be really cool. Like maybe there's a part where it says like now you're supposed to summon Kong and then you hit the you hit the gong. Now, there's been some talk about, oh, this is, you know, it is interesting because Stern typically does follow patterns. And in the patterns, usually in the past, like probably a couple of maybe maybe like three or four releases in their teaser trailer, they show the main thing you'll be interacting with in the game or some major mechanism that's like kind of drawing you into the game. I do not think by any stretch of the imagination that this gong is the main attraction of the game I think they know there's a bigger more interesting attraction and I think they just didn't want to show it in the teaser trailer so uh my uh you know my buddy uh Kaneda he um if if I if I can call him that I'm not really sure but uh he likes to just text me now and just make fun of me so I'm just like okay by the way I think he thinks it bothers me but it really doesn't which I think is interesting like i never give him the pleasure of uh of of showing that it bugs me because it really doesn't i really i really truly don't care but i just think that's his personality he's an east coast guy so he busts bust balls whatever this was what he sent me the other day kong kong teaser sucked wtf was that some some s word spinner and more no movie clips it's like see this is what i mean i don't this isn't criticism on kaneda himself this is just his shtick like his shtick or maybe it isn't his shtick i don't know like i've talked to him on the phone i don't know the difference between kaneda and chris the the person and the character i don't really know maybe it's not a character maybe he is that way but it just his lens is always like just it seems like it's always such a critical lens and i don't know i watched the trailer we just watched it together the trailer's fine like there's nothing about it that am i super hyped from the trailer? No, not really. But I'm hyped because I'm a pinball fan who knows Keith Elwin makes great games, who knows that this is probably a big release for them. So I gotta think, I don't see Stern letting any of us down on this release right now. You know what I mean? I think this is a big deal. They're not stupid. They know they're up against Jersey Jack with Harry Potter. And I, you know, we'll talk about Harry Potter in a minute. But I think Harry Potter is going to be a very feature-rich game. And I think Stern knows that. I also think Dungeons & Dragons was a pivot out of the norm for them. They really invested in that dragon mechanism. It was big. Now, I'm not one of these people that's like, oh my God, the more stuff in a game, the better. Like, I don't view it that way. I like to have things to interact with in games. I do. But I don't need it to be like over the top a million things for me to enjoy a game. I don't know. I think that's the difference between a pinball player and someone that just talks about pinball. Because if you play pinball on a regular basis, then you appreciate flow and design and the whole package, the music, what they do with the LCD. And sure, the mechanisms matter, but I don't need like a million mechs. As a matter of fact, it's kind of interesting because a lot of the older games, some of them I really enjoy. And some of them I feel like in these older games, they put too much stuff in the game. Like there's almost so much that it makes it hard to play. Like all this stuff is shoved on there. But I like a lot of the older games too. Trust me, like 90s and 80s, I like them. But in the 90s, I feel like there was a period where they just put so much in. I don't know. It's just personal preference. But I'm not this person that prescribes to like, oh my gosh, the more stuff you pack in, then the game is going to be better or the game is going to be a better value. But I will say, I think Stern is coming to this realization that people do want a little bit more. Because if you look at John Wick, it was kind of bare as far as things to interact with. It's a fun shooter once you get good at it and understand it. And it does have a nice flow to it once you get that all down. But there wasn't a lot of things that the ball interacted with. Like Godzilla, there's multiple things on Godzilla you can interact with. You've got the building. You've got Mechagodzilla. you know there's there's there's like lots of stuff you've got multiple spinners you've got a right and left ramp that are fun to shoot at so um you know you the building not only is a bash toy but it's a ball it's a physical ball lock and then it and then it draw i mean there's really cool elements within that game uh you've got the bridge you know so there's a lot of stuff and i think that um that maybe stern went away from that for a little while but i would say like you know if i compare it to something like jaws i don't think jaws has a ton going on but that's one of my favorite games that came out like i for it to win a twippy award for uh best game does not surprise me because i believe it was the best game of last year you know there were a lot of great games but uh if we're looking at it i think that game is and and i was doing a little exercise the other day where i like opened up all my coin doors and i put all my plays i audited all my machines to see which one has the most plays. And right now, Jaws has a significant amount of plays on it more than my other games. But the one game, before we get back to Kong really quick, the one game that I am playing a ton of and love and feel like it is so underrated right now is Dungeons & Dragons. I don't understand why it's not getting more praise. I don't know. You know what it is? And I know this is, I'm ranting a little bit on this episode. But you know what it is? it's more the pinball media than it is the players. Because when I go to Electric Bat and I'm talking to other people that play pinball, that do not do media, they're still in love with these games. Like they don't get over the games within like a week of them being released, where pinball media is like craving, I need the new thing to talk about. And it's a shame. So one thing I really want to focus on more this year is really developing more longevity. And I don't want to say it's all creators, by the way. That's not fair to say because there are people that definitely go back and continue to talk about games. But also there's a large portion of the community that just, and I say community as a content creator community, they just move on. It's just like, oh, next thing, next thing, next thing. And I don't think there's like an appreciation on the media side for when something's really good. And I kind of feel like Dungeons & Dragons was very innovative in not only, I think, the way it plays, but the integration with Insider Connected. because it was taking, I love, if you don't know this, when you play Dungeons & Dragons and you're logged in with Insider Connected, you're not playing the same mode again. So why that's so cool is it allows a player who maybe isn't as good to work their way through the game and not feel like, I'll never see the quarter, the back half of this game because I'm just not good enough. You can play the mode 20 times until you beat it and then when you beat it and you get that satisfaction of beating it you don necessarily have to play it again Although you can start your character all over again if you want and play it again or choose a different character and progress through the game that way. I really like that they did that. I hope more games do that because the unfortunate thing is some games are so hard or harder for like someone that isn't as skilled to ever see parts of the game. Like imagine if Jurassic Park had this element to it you might find that you'll finally get to see the Visitor's Center. And so, I don't know. I just, I love that. I think that's a super innovation. And I think the game, I mean, all you have to do is just go on a location that's popular and go look at the earnings report of Dungeons & Dragons. It's doing awesome. So, but anyways, I didn't want to just focus on Dungeons & Dragons. I'm not sure why I went into that. My whole point was I feel like people move on really quickly. But let's get back to Kong really quick. So the title of the actual game is – why can't I think of it right now? What is it? That was a call. Oh, Myth of Terror Island. So Myth of Terror Island is the – that's their own story. So I do think they're doing similar what they did with Dungeons & Dragons. I think this might be something where – I don't know. Like I don't know if they decided, hey, look, to do the movie assets, it's going to cost us a ton of money to license that. so not the old ones i think the old ones are in public domain now so i think you're free to sort of use that for whatever you want but my thought is maybe the reason why they went with this original idea is they because i do think stern has a theme now right now that they're trying to get back to a little bit more innovation on the mech side of things like let's do some cool stuff that you interact uh with the ball with that's that's kind of a little push in the limits because i think the dragon was it's a very cool mechanism i mean it's very very cool it's an animatronic dragon that moves around it's it's it's neat it's a neat it's a neat toy that you can and mech that you can interact with so i think there's a theme at stern that they need to do more of that and maybe on kong they said hey look let's go with this original theme thing like we did with the tyrant's eye with with dungeons and dragons and we'll avoid a little bit of the licensing cost and maybe we can put more in the game because we're not having to pay as much licensing that's that's my theory i have no idea whether that's true or not but that's kind of what my thought is and i guess we'll see on Tuesday because if on Tuesday it's got a lot more in the game than we were than we're used to seeing over the past couple years then maybe that is the strategy because that's what it seems like the other thing I feel like they've been doing is they've been making sure that the pro is not like this stripped down version of the game if you think about it they just did it with x-men x-men uncanny x-men was very well equipped as a pro and dungeons and dragons was very well equipped as a pro you you're missing a couple things you don't have the dungeon crawl pop up. I really like it. If you are a player of the game, though, it is cool because you hear the dungeon go up like the the I don't know, the dungeon door or whatever. It goes up and down. And as the sound is playing, it is going up and down. Now, while the ball doesn't actually go anywhere, it makes you feel like it does. So but I could totally see where if someone was interested in Dungeons and Dragons, you're not losing a bunch by by not having it. So I think with this Elwyn game with with uh king kong they'll probably try to do the same thing make the pro pretty feature rich and i think they realize right now uh in the economy we're in right now at the moment at least you got to add more value to these lower tiered games so that you know there's interest in those games you know so it's not like a venom venom pro was so bare it sucks because i think a lot of people's experience with venom pro or with venom was the pro and they just wrote it off i I still will stand by that. I think that's a fun game to play. I know a lot of people don't. I did sell it, but I, I had a lot of fun with it while I had it. And I can't say down the road, if there wasn't like an Ellie laying around that was, you know, reduced in price, I might, I might consider picking it up again in the future. But anyway, so I'm excited about Kong. I will be there. I'm going to share everything. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do though. Part of me is like, man, when I go to these things, here's the thing. And I'm going to be straight with you right now. This is, I'm always straight with you guys, but this is one of those things. I've been a YouTube person or a YouTube content creator for close to six years now. And in the beginning, I used to go to events like this, and I did not enjoy the moment because all I was doing was being a YouTuber, filming everything, and not enjoying or truly enjoying the experience. And that's when I felt so grateful that I met Mason because Mason will come along with me on a lot of these trips. And then I'm enjoying the moment and he's capturing the moment. So it's, it's, it's awesome. Now this trip Mason's not coming with me, but I really want to enjoy the moment. I don't know that I'm going to go in like produce an entire video on Kong because let's face it, I'm going to get the game. Like you guys know, everyone knows I'm going to get Kong. I don't even need to, I don't even need to like, like really everyone's, Oh, I, no one would be shocked if they're like, Oh, Ralph got Kong. Like, of course I'm going to get Kong. I am getting it. 100%. I already talked to Zach, already getting it. Now the question is, what model do I get? I don't know. I don't know yet. Probably the LE is probably what I'm going to get. You know, I think I'm going to get the LE. And selfishly, the reason why I'm going to get the LE is because I want to get it first. I do think the LE, being an L1 LE, I think it will actually hold its ground a little bit better than maybe some other LEs in recent times. I did get a D&D LE. I love that game though and there's so much more to that game to be developed so i think that one i'm going to definitely hold on to for a while but yeah so i think i'm going to get the le and uh i'm excited about that you know what i mean excited about it because i'll get it uh pretty soon like i'll get it right away really i mean the le's are still unless they change their the way they're going to do it they've been rolling the le's out first which i think is really cool and uh yeah we'll see what they do with the story like it'll be interesting because if it's their own story I think it will be interesting, and I'm very interested to see what are the other things that we're going to be able to interact with the ball with King Kong. Because I think they could do some really cool things. Are we going to see an animatronic ape in there? I don't know. Will the Empire State Building be represented in some way? I don't know. I've talked to Zach Sharp, tried to get him to give me some info, but they're pretty tight-lipped over there, and I get why. Maybe there's someone that's seen it, but I'm sure there's people that have seen it. But for the most part, everyone is staying quiet. But hey, I like the surprise. I would rather be surprised than get leaks. But speaking of leaks, so because this is such an exciting time right now, in pinball, you've got barrels of fun that they're also going to release their game on that Tuesday. I don't know if they're going to do their release at the same time that Stern does, but they're inviting people to go see it. So I'm guessing they're going to maybe do their trailer and the people coming at the same time. I'm not sure. I would hope that's how they do it. Like we get to see both those trailers on the same day. So we'll see Barrels of Fun and we'll see Stern. The one thing about the Barrels of Fun thing is like I really am so thrown off right now. Either David is like the best person ever at trolling the community because I got to think at this point everyone is pretty certain that it's Dune. I struggle with Dune because I really, when I watched the original movies, I appreciated them, but holy God, they were so, they're just slow. Like there's no, there's no excitement to them. There is, but it's limited. And it just feels like such a long drawn out thing. so dune was just it's i did tell you guys on another episode the my my biggest involvement in the dune franchise was dune 2 on the pc it was a pc game and i loved that game harcona units deployed like i loved it it was fun but that was it like that was my only memorable thing from the game and it was a really good game that sound card this was when like they started really exploiting sound cards and PCs. So you got some really cool music and voices. And so they really did a good job with it. So if you've never played Dune 2, I think on like abandoned software, one of those websites, I think GOG might have it. I'd like to go back and revisit it one day, but I've had no time lately. Work has been absolutely insane. It's been very, very hard. And I thank you for sticking with me. It's not that I don't want to create content all the time. I just have to prioritize my work and my family ahead of this. I have to. Like that's the responsible thing to do. And I genuinely want to make sure that I'm, I'm providing that balance for not only myself, my family and everyone else that in my life. So it's been hard. So I apologize if anybody's reached out on social media, in different places, I've been terrible at responding. And it's not because I'm ignoring you. It's not it's not because I don't want to talk to you. It's been I wish I could talk to everybody. You know what I mean? I wish I could talk and respond to everybody. It's just my at the end of the day, I don't know, maybe it's me getting older. But I feel like at the end of the day, like I'm beat. And I used to just, I used to crank through a work day and I do YouTube video. I'd go produce a YouTube video till two, three o'clock in the morning and then get up and do it again the next day. I feel like I've slowed down in the sense where it's really hard for me to do that. And I don't want to feel like trash the next day. So, um, so anyways, so I appreciate everyone hanging in there with me where I I'm producing a bit less content, but I hope what you see is, is the stuff that I do put out is, is quality content. So I appreciate everyone supporting that so anyways uh that's that's all my take is on kong right now i'm excited about it but i i got to i have to pivot real quick to spooky so my buddy mark he uh mark pearson he invited me over his house because he's the one that that provides the spooky games to electric bat i think i talked about this on the last episode but i didn't i hadn't played it yet i had not played it yet so he invited me over to play it before he brought it over to electric bat And man, I gotta say, for being someone that doesn't care about the Evil Dead franchise, not a big super fan, it is a fun game. Like, fun game, good shooter, fun shots. I love the whole cabin lock multiball thing is super cool. The shotgun, the shotgun's cool to interact with. The hand I didn't get a good, I feel like when you shoot, my only critical feedback of the game is when you shoot the shotgun, I just feel like those balls should come out faster. That was my only feedback. And then there's a weird default setting where it automatically plunges the ball, and that was in the default code. I think that's a setting, though, and you could just change it. But overall, it's a wide body. It doesn't feel floaty at all. It feels really good, and it looks beautiful. So Christopher Franchi, who will troll me any moment he gets and likes to call me Stern shill and all this stuff, which by the way, that does not bother me whatsoever because I like Stern pinball, but I also like and appreciate other companies. Sure. Is my content heavy on Stern? Yeah, but they're the biggest manufacturer out there. So I don't care. Like that's not bothering me. So, but, but honestly, I really appreciate your, if you do listen to this Christopher Franchi, which I don't think you do, but if you do, I really like your artwork on that game. It looks amazing. It looks really, really good. And I don't know, you brought something to that art package which makes it approachable for all, even though what it is is a horror movie. You don't, I don't know, like you've made a horror movie, an approachable horror movie, for people that don't like horror. And man, it's good. The game, the art, the sound, and I think it's still early code really, so there's probably more to come, but I don't want to give it away, but I feel like I'm going to get that game. And maybe I have a plan to get one. Because if I were to try to get one now, I would probably have to be put on a list, and that list would be, no, I'd pre-order, and it would be the back end, probably in the 800s, and then I probably wouldn't get that game until November. Retro Ralph is not waiting until November to get the game. I want to share it with all of you because that's what we do, right? And that's fun. So I think I'm going to get it. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get it. Maybe I already did get it. Maybe I have a plan to get it. I don't know. You guys know me. You guys know me. So in other news, too, speaking of diversifying the collection a little bit, I picked up a labyrinth the other day through a trade. We'll talk about that later, but let's just say I have it. I registered my labyrinth, so maybe I'll win when they do. They're doing this thing right now where you can register your labyrinth game, and then they're going to do some drawing, and I think they're doing it with – oh, shoot. Shoot that one organization. I actually worked with them. I don't know why I can't think of the name right now. it's totally escaping me someone was going to say it in the comments but uh yeah they have this thing going on right now well come on i gotta go look really quick because now it's bothering me let me look barrels of fun i feel like i have to burp it's good timing because i have to burp um come on man pull it up pull it up oh project pinball so it's in collaboration with project pinball and they're doing this thing so if you do own a labyrinth go register it on their website because you're going to be entered into a raffle to win their new game for free so that's that's pretty cool and uh yeah i've been enjoying labyrinth so far but i gotta say here's where i'm gonna be a little bit critical of like i i played evil dead and felt like man and and there are spooky games where i feel like they've played really really clunky like weird geometry on the shots that that that just don't feel good you know they or they're or they're it takes like extra effort a lot more extra effort to consistently hit the shots and even then they just feel clunky evil dead did not feel like that evil dead was super super smooth i man i really like it like if you get a chance to play it i think what's going on right now isn't pintastic going on right now go play this game i think you're going to be way surprised by the advancements in spook that Spooky has made because this is like it's really good but if I compare it to Labyrinth, Labyrinth feels a little clunky to me too. There's some weird geometry in it. I like the game so far. I'm like I'm not in love with it. Now I played it at expos and at places but there's not many on location here in Arizona. There's like maybe one I think. I think but I'm not in love with it. It does play a little clunky, and the outlanes are like, the outlane drains are stupid on this game. I mean, ridiculous, the amount of outlane draining that goes on in this game. And I was kind of surprised by that, because I've only played it in small spurts. So I feel like I'm really having to focus on, number one, getting really good at it, but understanding the geometry of it so I can incorporate more nudging while I'm playing to avoid these outlanes, because holy shit, man, these outlanes are crazy. Now, I will say I did contact Barrels of Fun, and I was like, hey, what pitch? This is a little criticism I have of Barrels. They don't tell you what to pitch your game at. And this game needs to be pitched much higher than 6-5. If it's at 6-5, it plays garbage. It does not play good at 6 At 6 you getting all this east traffic like boom boom boom boom boom boom boom It nuts The slingshots go crazy It not good at 6 At least in my experience, in my copy of the game, 6.5 is garbage. You do not want to play it at 6.5. So that's something that should be on the cabinet. Put this game recommended. Manufacturer recommends you run this game at 7.5 and 8 or whatever it is. So I did reach out to them. Let me see. I'll actually see if I can see the ticket right now. So they were very responsive, by the way. When I messaged them, they were like, boom, on it. So I said, is there a recommended pitch that Labyrinth plays best at? I have mine at 7 right now. And it was actually at 6-5. It wasn't quite at 7. It was like in between. And he said, shoot, where's his response? oh uh so seven to seven five is the recommended i have it at seven five and i feel like it's playing the best at seven five so that's the thing man you have to take all this stuff into consideration like when you're used to and this is where like i don't know it's so weird to me that people get so bent out of shape about my love for stern games but they they're good at the math part, the geometry, that's important. Like this, the game flow is only going to flow if the shots are smooth. If they're clunky, it just doesn't feel good. And it's a bad end user experience. So to me, if I was barrels, I would make pretty damn sure that I tell people what to pitch the game at. So, uh, I'm going to give that feedback to David. I have a open line of communication with David David Van Es. And I'm going to say, David, I think you need to put this on the next game if it's not already there this is the recommended pitch because if the new game is like the old game that you know labyrinth the first game then it is very temperamental on where you pitch the game i feel like sterns there's way more um i don't know like like it's not as temperamental there are some games my uncanny x-men was my first stern that i had that I felt was kind of temperamental. Uncanny X-Men played better at a higher pitch. It did not play as well at 6'5". So it can be true on some Sterns too, but what I'm saying is I think you can hate Stern all you want, but the engineers there are really good at the math geometry part, and that's what makes a game shoot well. If you're not good at that or it's not as refined, it's going to feel a bit clunky. And my opinion, my opinion is that labyrinth feels a bit clunky and you have to really hone in on your shots. And I've read a bunch of blogs and forums and people are saying they put precision flippers on theirs. By the way, I did put precision flippers on my D and D and I love those things. I just wish they weren't so expensive. But, uh, if you've never checked out precision flippers, they're really good. Like I was shocked at how good they are and they get over this hump of something. I don't know if you guys have ever experienced this, but if you do a flipper rebuild and you get a new kit, the forks that hold on, so it's going to be goofy. All right, if you're listening, I'm using a finger to be the shaft of the flipper bat and the tongue, like it grabs around the flipper shaft and it tightens on any of the new parts. They're not manufactured right. So you can crank the thing down on the flipper bat as tight as you want and you're going to see movement. And my only fix I've been able to come up with from this is I got to Dremel some of the metal out of the actual piece to make it grip the flipper bat. Otherwise you end up with a floppy flipper bat, but a precision flippers gets around this because their shaft is keyed. It's a keyed shaft and you don't have to crank it down as much. It's amazing. I love these things. Uh, thank you, Joel at flipping out for, um, he, Joel kind of, um, he talked about it on a dead i think it was a deadpool video he had i can't remember which video it was i was watching one of his videos and he mentions the keyed shaft and i was like i didn't know the keyed shaft exists and so i'll put a link in the description i'm not sponsored by them they've they don't even i've ordered for them but they never offered anything i didn't ask for a discount or anything like that so i really do enjoy their stuff uh i will say on dnd The, I've got my right one I gotta readjust because when I put the shield up and I fire that right flipper, my left flipper is hitting, because I don't know if you guys know this on D&D, but the shield, out of the factory, the shield lines up your far left shot and your middle right shot. And now the left shot, the right flipper left shot is off. So I think I just need to move the flipper a little bit. But the good news is, is the way the precision flippers work, you can unscrew the top and just realign the flipper bat and then tighten it back down. So I might have to just do that to get it dialed in again. But that's easy peasy with those. But they're lighter. The only thing I can think of is why they shoot so much more accurately is the – like plastic probably absorbs the energy a lot differently than whatever the metal material is they make from these flippers. so it just feels like your shot consistency is better um maybe it's in my head but i've really i've really liked that so far so the one thing i wanted to i don't want to i don't want to not talk about uh jersey jack real quick so uh you know they've been uh they teased uh they actually let distros finally talk about harry potter which was cool but it was interesting Everyone's reading this Jack Nuari. Nuari? Gennari? I always say Jack's name wrong. I should know how to say his name. He's Italian. He's Italian. I love Jack. I love how, like, Italian. Dude, like, I grew up in Rhode Island. So when he's like, all right, guys, don't buy anything. Don't spend a dime until you see this game, okay? Do you understand me right now? Don't spend a dime. Forget about it. Forget about all the other guys. I'm the guy. you're gonna buy from me guy because this thing if this thing isn't beautiful then you come talk to me you come directly to my house you fly to my house and you talk to me if this game is not what you think this game is because this game is phenomenal it's phenomenal so anyways jack just having some fun with you man but uh jack everyone's reading this thing that jack sent out and you know i i people were like i don't know where their company they come up with this crap Oh, Jack didn't write this. Well, if you know, if you know, then you know. But I've been reading Replay Magazine. I started reading this magazine a long, long time ago. It's a trade magazine for arcade games, coin op, things like that. And Jack writes in this all the time. So Jack writes. He knows how to write. It's not someone, I mean, I highly doubt someone ghost writes this. But this article he wrote had a similar sentiment to it than the one that, So if you didn't go back and read it, he basically wrote this thing about – it was very nice. It was a very nice article about Harry Potter and how much time and effort has gone into it and how a lot of love and passion. And I believe that to be true. I think Eric Meunier, the designer, is really – he's a really big fan of Harry Potter. So I think there's going to be a lot of passion, and I believe there's a lot of people at Jersey Jack that have been very excited about this. So I am very optimistic that this is going to be the game that Jersey Jack puts out. That's finally the moment for them, like the big moment, like the like, hey, we did it. Like we finally did it. No, no offense to any of the games that came before it, because there's been some great ones. But I think this is going to be the one that finally like puts the stake in the ground for Jersey Jack and says, guys, we've listened to all the feedback. We know we've made some mistakes. They may not say that, but they did. I think they made mistakes where they were known for this premium game with all these things you usually don't see. They pushed the limits of what was possible, and I think they're going to get back to that. I think this is the game where they're finally like, this is it. We got to bring it all for this IP, so I'm very excited. But Jack wrote this kind of touching thing. It's kind of interesting, so I want to read it. I don't want to bore you guys, but I think it's kind of cool, and there's some things he says in here that I kind of really like. All right, he said, the title is called Reach Out and Touch Someone. He said, how often do you reach out and touch someone? Are there people in your phone's favorite list you haven't spoke to in a long time? Most of us are not looking to spend even more time on the phone, but I do find myself looking at my favorites list and calling one or two of those people now, now and then, who I haven't heard from in a while. Hey, we all get busy and time flies. And sadly, just quickly looking at my list, I see a couple of people who are gone. I wish I could call them now, but when I had a chance, I was too busy. That was kind of like, that was a little near and dear to me because I feel like we all get busy and we lose sight as to what's important. So I like that. Like, I think this is Jack just being himself. You know what I mean? I thought that was touching, you know, because he's kind of saying like, hey, I think in the past there were people that I had in my life that were important to me that I didn't reach out to. And my excuse was I'm too busy. And that's kind of what I said earlier on this thing. Like, I'm too busy. Um, so sometimes you just have to find the time. You know what I mean? It's easy to make an excuse and say you're too busy. Uh, I really do have a tremendous number of contacts in my phone. As I look at the names, many make me smile and recall fond memories. Believe it or not, there aren't any contacts that bring a bad memory to my mind. I don't hold a grudge about anything, but that said, there are some people in there I will likely never have a reason to talk to again. It makes me wonder why I need their phone number other than to accidentally butt dial them he said bum it's butt dial jack but anyways uh i know that's me i have a million contacts on my phone that i don't talk to i'm ones that probably you know i don't know there are probably some in there that i probably should reach out to i'm not as good at i wish i was as good at uh continuing to foster maybe like relationships sometimes like sometimes i think it's hard to do because we get so busy in our day-to-day lives. We have wives, husbands, wives, kids, you know. So I don't think anybody intentionally, like kind of what Jack's saying here, I don't think anyone intentionally doesn't want to reach out to people. You know what I mean? I think it's just, it's not an easy thing to do. Some people are exceptional at it. I'll tell you a really quick story. I don't want the podcast to go too long today, but there's this guy that I just rehired at my work. And this is a really weird thing. I'll say it super quick. I loved this guy when I hired him. I was really bummed when he decided to move on to a different company. But he became available again and in the same territory that I needed someone. And he reached out to me and he said, but he's also along the years always kept in contact, little bits, but always made it a point at least once a year to reach out to me. And I always appreciated that because I was like, man, I wish I did that more. Because I really, I can tell you, it made me feel good anytime he reached out. And he's always, he's always very like purposeful. It's not like BS stuff. It's how's the family or I was just thinking about you and your family. Like, how is, how's your wife? How's your kids? And I think that's, he's a genuine guy. He really does care. And so that, that means a lot to me personally, when people reach out and it's meaningful, you know, but I remember him always from something kind of interesting. When he got hired. We went out to have a drink. It was kind of like a celebratory thing. And I was ordering an old-fashioned. And he goes, hey, can I order it for you? And I was like, yeah, that's fine. He goes, I'm going to change your world when it comes to old-fashions. So I'm like, all right, cool. So he orders it. I didn't really pay attention to how he ordered it until after I got it and took a sip. And I took a sip and I'm like, oh man, this is a really good old-fashioned. Like, what was the secret here? He's like, Eagle Rare 10. He's like, I asked for Eagle Rare 10. And so I enjoyed that old-fashioned more than any old-fashioned I had ever had up until that moment, because I think I was ordering old-fashions probably from places that also didn't make them well. This place was a nicer restaurant, so they made old-fashions well. But I always remember him whenever I drink an old-fashioned, because I enjoyed that dinner I had with him. I love the guy he's such a good he's a hard worker he's dedicated he's he's super inspirational because he's he's like he's just the guy that anyone would want on their team and I love that he's genuine and you truly get that from him so anyways sorry I didn't mean to go off on a tangent but I think Jack's trying to say like look man I'm getting a little older and I wish sometimes I had been better at keeping in contact with certain people so anyways so he said it may sounds silly, but I've come to the conclusion that it's okay to burn some bridges or at least not go across them again. That resonates with me because there are certain people in my life that I've come across with in my adult life where I don't agree with the way they have either treated me or I think maybe they're not great at fostering relationships or they're not genuine and why they want to be in that relationship with you as a friend, like there's an ulterior motive or there's something like that. And those people, I, um, I don't wish them ill will, but I don't want them in my life. And there's probably like less than a handful of those people. Like, I just can't stand for what they believe in. And I don't feel like those people are genuine and I'm out like I'm out. It's not bad to do that guys, by the way. Like, I don't think, I think it's very healthy if you have that wherewithal to go, I don't agree with this person. I don't like how they lead or lead their own life, and I don't feel good about when I'm around them or they don't make me feel good. And maybe you've put on the extra effort to be authentic with that person, and that person has done things that would make you heavily question their character. So you just back away. You back away. You don't be a jerk. You don't have to be a jerk. You don't have to be rude. But there's nothing wrong with that. I don't call that holding a grudge. That's having a standard as to how you want, who you want your friends to be and how you want to be treated. I know I have, like, I'll call out one of my friends, Nick Madsen. Guy is a genuine friend that I could call up in any scenario in my life. And I know I'm going to get really good advice from him. Jamie Burchill. Another guy to add to that list. Really good friend. I haven't known him that well, but I haven't known him that long, but he is a genuine guy. You know, there's lots, I have a lot, most of the people, not most, everyone I really interact with on a regular basis, I would also put into that category. I would rather have those people around me where we, we build each other up. We genuinely care about each other and, um, and we feel like we, we are invested in our personal relationships with each other. that that's okay if if you have people in your life that you feel like aren't doing that for you it is okay to not be a jerk but just cordially back away and you know what i mean you respect their distance they respect yours and you just move on from things so anyways i think that what he means when he says it may sound silly but I come to the conclusion that it okay to burn some bridges or at least not go across them again I don think he means but anyways, he's just spitballing, but I do feel like, I feel that. That makes sense to me. He said, always a diplomat. I love peace and positivity. Same with me. Why then would I associate myself with negative people? I mean, always negative. These are people who say, that won't work or that is a bad idea without any basis of fact. I personally gravitate way away from those people too. So this is a cool article for me. When I read this, I was like, man, Jack has a lot of the same values that I do. And so I thought that was really cool. He said, some people aren't ever happy about anything. And it's true. I do not like being around those people that always look at stuff and always have to pick apart every little negative thing. It's just exhausting, man. It's exhausting. You feel like you need to take a nap after you talk to those people. Those are not my kind of people. I'm not going to go be mean to people like that. Not my cup of tea. You can go to breakfast with a person like that, and they will find fault in almost everything. Maybe you can make them happy for a few minutes, but it's a lot of work. It's so true, man. I love this article from Jack. So for people who read this article, we don't need to keep going on, but it's great. I think the article is really good. Maybe I'll read a little bit more. But for those of you that saw that article that Jersey Jack put out about their love and passion, about not only being in the hobby and being a contributor to the community that we all love in pinball. It was very heartfelt and I never read it for a moment and felt like this isn't Jack or this is whatever because I've read the articles that Jack publishes in Replay Magazine and they're always really good like this. But anyway, so thankfully my normal day includes communicating and working with very motivated and positive people. If at all possible, I steer clear of anything negative. Still, there must be something more to it. After all, we don't know what another person is going through. With the ways things are in the world today, everyone has their problems and very few people are looking to take on more problems to solve. That's a perfect lead-in to what we do. The games we create, operate, and repair are truly an escape experience for our players. I love this because that's what pinball is to me. I feel blessed that my life for, you know, knock on wood, is a very happy and very drama-free life for the most part. I really do. I feel very grateful for that. My wife and I are both very chill people. And, uh, and so we compliment each other. Well, sure. We're both Italian. We get spun up on stuff from time to time, but I think we counterbalance each other really well. Like Kim is my wife for those of you don't know. And she's, um, she's great. And I think we are there for each other a lot, but we, we both also have positive outlooks on life. And I think that's important, but you know, not everyone, you know, I do feel, I do feel like I'm very blessed in the job that I have, the money that I make. I feel like I make a good living for myself. And I like that because I can provide a life that is really great for my kids and my wife. So anyways, the games help people to forget their troubles, at least for a little while. And I do feel like, hey, if I have a bad day at work or stuff is really stressful, Pinball is a stress reliever for me, for the most part. Tournament pinball can be the opposite sometimes, but that's only because I take it too seriously. We aren't solving world hunger, but we are providing a valuable service to our players. This simple thought should not be lost by anyone in the industry. We are in the business of fun. And that's what it's true. They're in the business of fun, which drives me crazy because sometimes I go to these trade shows and the people at work for like Sega amusements or whatever. They're not like super hyped about what they're selling. And that is starting to shift a little bit. But there was a lot of curmudgeon-y people in the coin-op business for a while. I'm like, how can you be a curmudgeon and sell pinball machines and arcade games? You know what I mean? Like to me, I've always wanted to be in that business. I've always wished that someone would hire me to be. I'm not a cocky person. But the one skill that I feel like I have that I feel like I'm very exceptionally good at is I'm a good PR person. Like I'm good at going out there and being an evangelist for something and showing my genuine passion and not fake passion. Like, oh, my God, guys, this is awesome. Like not like that. That's not how I am, you know. But when you see me passionate, that's genuine passion. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing it. That's the thing. I don't do things that I'm not passionate about. So the amount of things that I turn down doing, it's like a tremendous list because I'm like, I don't have passion for that. I'll tell you one thing, and I hate, this is not negative towards them. I love Pin Sound, but Pin Sound sent the Pin Vision thing. I think it's called Pin Vision. And while I think it's cool, I'm killing myself. I think I'm just going to send it back to them because I can't find, at the price point they're asking, I just can't find the excitement in the product. I think there are some people that would spend the amount of money they're asking for it and be totally happy with it. It's like a complimentary product because it doesn't interact with the game quite as much as I would have expected it to. But then when I talked to them, they were like, that's what our intent was. It was complimentary. But like for something complimentary to be that price, it's a tough one for me. And I actually did talk to Kerry Hardy about this too. We both have struggled with this product. and it's sad because I think the Pinsound people have put a significant amount of research and development dollars into it so I want them to succeed with this product but it's just one that I'm not I don't know I don't know what I'm going to do because I don't want to make a video that's super negative and I'm not negative about it I just would have a hard time recommending it as something for someone to buy at the price point that they're asking because mods and and like enhancements to games can be expensive. And while it is really cool and they put a lot of research and development into it, I just, I'm having a hard time. So anyways, if our games are not fun, they won't sell or earn money. I look at FECs and they see a lot of game. I see a lot of games that copy each other. I urge designers and manufacturers to innovate rather than imitate. Think of a new idea with all the amazing technology available to us today. It is easier than ever to make great games. Manufacturers, look at the games you're designing. Are you just doing the same old thing? Operators, look at your locations. Are you just phoning it in? That's an interesting one, too, because when you go to a location and you see a game that's in bad shape or you know has been neglected, that drives me freaking insane because I take such pride in my pinball machines. And I bet everyone listening here, you probably regularly clean it. You probably regularly, you know, when it's necessary, wax it. Make sure the glass is clean. So you're not looking through, you know, a cloud of coil dust. I think those things say a lot about the pride that that operator takes in that location. That's why I love Cale and Rachel so much, because they take such pride in pinball. They genuinely love pinball and their location shows that it oozes the passion for pinball. So I just that's why I gravitate so much to them. And they're both pretty positive people, too, which I I really do appreciate. And it's probably a reason why I also gravitate towards them. Think about the job you are doing for the company that pays your salary. Are you engaged in doing your best work? Anyways, it says it's only April with lots of 25 left. Call that person you haven't heard from in a while. Get at it. Make it happen. Take a chance. Work smarter. Make things better. And hopefully we will have more people smiling than frowning. So Jack, man, you touched me with that article, dude. I love that article. I hope you guys hung through through that whole thing. And I know I said a lot of side conversations and branched out. I freaking love that. I really like that a lot. And it resonated with me. So I thought I'd share it anyway. So now we're, we're almost at the hour point. I, I, I did want to bring up one more thing that I thought was kind of interesting. And, and I've gotten to know David David Van Es a little bit over time, but I was listening to watching Kerry Hardy, his live stream the other day. I'm friends with Kerry. good good dude i enjoy i enjoy carrie's content although sometimes i think we are on opposite ends of how we look at things sometimes but i appreciate him you know just like kaneda i feel like you know he his his lens is different than mine of how he views almost everything and i also would say that i play a lot of pinball so my opinion is very heavily based on the amount of time I put into the machines and so I feel like that my opinions on things go beyond just watching a trailer and by the way I'm not I'm not saying either one of those guys do that but I'm just saying like I feel like I have a valid opinion because I play a lot of these games so anyways but barrels did something kind of weird they provided a sound clip to carry that was basically coils firing like a coil test sequence for their new game and i just thought what a weird like that is a wicked weird thing to try to get people hyped up about like here's a bunch of like who knows the hell it all it was like you know it sounded like a bunch of coils firing and then like maybe if y'all y'all um y'all what am i test barrels of fun y'all hey y'all uh if if y'all have uh heard the the motor underneath jaws where it's like when it does the calibration it sounded like coils firing and then maybe a motor mechanism type thing calibrating or something but it was just like why why why that so i gave i gave david a little i didn't give him crap but i texted him this morning which he didn't text me back and i said hey i said hey you know i got any teases for me You know what I mean? I'm like, you know, I just I just think that was a weird thing to think that people would get excited about. And the reaction when Carrie played it was like, what the heck was that? Like, why? Why even? And I don't know. I actually kind of questioned why Carrie even played it, because to me, it's like it. He did kind of hype it a little bit like he was going to share something that was like ultra sensitive that no one's seen. which, yeah, none of us have heard it, but I just thought it was just such a lukewarm, like, what am I, I don't know, if I went and recorded audio clips of things firing under my pinball machine, I don't think that would hype you guys up, so I just thought it was weird. Anyways, we're going to find out what Barrels does on Tuesday. We'll finally figure out what the hell game it is, since we're all freaking, like, mystery game. I don't, I mean, it's kind of killing me. I've tried to get it out of them, not because I would ever share it after, but I just wish there was a little bit more excitement to be had we're so left in the dark that no one is everyone every major content creator is still contemplating which which holy crap talk about what is david doing over there is he like we will murder you if you share anything like what is like he has that place on lock no one is sharing anything it just you know what honestly if i had any feedback on it it would be really cool in the future for their future launches maybe to tease a little bit more stuff out that gives people something to to get excited about you know what i mean i think that's the thing and um anyway so that's so so the so the coming up we've got i don't know the pinball brothers with predator i didn't even talk about that because i don't know i i am really not a fan of the way their games shoot um so i didn't really like alien i i played um uh abba very briefly i just haven't really there's just something about the games the way they feel. I just, I don't know. I'm struggling with them. So, I mean, sure, I'll be excited to play it, but, and I love Predator. That was a movie I grew up watching, but I'm just not, I'm not sure about that one. So we got, we got that. We got Barrels of Fun with Dune or whatever it's going to be. Then we have Stern coming out with Kong next week. And then we have JJP with Harry Potter. I'm going to, I'm going to go out on a whim here and say, you're not going to, you're probably not going to, we're not going to get anything this month for Harry Potter. We might get some little teases. They might tease along the way this month, but I don't think they're ready yet to reveal it. I think that will be sometime in May. So temper your expectations on that, but I think we'll have enough to chew on between Kong and whatever Barrels does, and then maybe, I don't know, we'll probably get Predator before Harry Potter too. So there'll be things for us to enjoy and talk about. But like I said, I really did mean this earlier. I want to, I really want to get to a place where, and I feel like I do this on my channel, but probably could do it even better, is get to a place where we're celebrating the things that come out a bit more. Like I had made a thumbnail or had Mason make a thumbnail about specifically just about the shark is broken on Jaws. And I was just going to do a whole live stream on that. And I didn't end up, I ended up doing it on my Facebook. So if you don't follow Retro Ralph LLC on Facebook, please do that. I share a lot of stuff on there, and sometimes that stuff I don't share on Flipside, and I don't share on Retro Ralph, the core channel. So yeah, definitely you'll get a little bit more content there. I do some open dialogue stuff. I tend to interact with the community a bit more there when I can. So anyways, we've come to the end of the road. I feel like I don't know I'm kind of I know maybe it's a little different vibe on this episode but a little sappy maybe I was a little sensitive on this episode so you get to see I am a sensitive guy though so I'm sensitive in the sense that I care about people you know what I mean and I think that's why I enjoy doing this when I go to a show and by the way I haven't been able to go to as many shows but when I go to shows my favorite part is interacting with everybody and just talking and nerding out about pinball and getting to know the people that are on the other side listening or watching. So my next big major show will be Pinball Expo. So I know there's a lot of time between now and then, but definitely that hotel fills up quick. Get your hotel room. It's nice to stay on site there if you can. And we'll have a blast. We'll have a blast. And who knows what the hell's going to happen by then. So there's going to be a whole new round of games to celebrate. We'll probably finally see the next remaster from Stern. We'll probably see yet another cornerstone from Stern spooky will probably be coming out with their next game, and I got it man That evil dead dude you guys nailed it nailed it. It's so good It's so weird for a non horror movie guy to be like evil dead No, no Probably get the game dude All right guys, thank you so much for watching I Do all the normal social media stuff like this. Please subscribe to the channel. And I haven't got any voicemails in a while. I'll have a link in the description of the video for that. And that's it for now, guys. And we will see you on the flip side. Thanks, guys. Thank you.