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The Pinball Show Ep 138: The Flipper Finger Analysis

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 30m·analyzed·Sep 26, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Stern's 2024 production roadmap revealed; Venom praised as gunslinger game; Pokemon Pinball negotiations active.

Summary

The Pinball Show Episode 138 covers major Stern Pinball production schedule updates through Q4 2024, including final runs of Guardians of the Galaxy Pro and new releases like Venom LE/Premium, Foo Fighters, Godzilla, and James Bond. Hosts discuss first impressions of Venom Pinball as a fast, non-mode-based game with XP progression mechanics, significant code updates across multiple titles, American Pinball's lapsed GTF trademark, Chicago Gaming production delays, and credible Pokemon Pinball IP negotiations in progress.

Key Claims

  • Venom LEs will ship domestically by midweek to late in the current week, with Venom Premium coming in October

    high confidence · Direct dealer/insider reporting of Stern production line status

  • Guardians of the Galaxy Pro is receiving one final commemorative run in December with special backbox badging

    high confidence · Confirmed Stern production schedule announcement

  • Foo Fighters Premium has been pushed to Q4 2024, over a year away, surprising given strong initial sales

    high confidence · Production schedule data from dealer contacts

  • American Pinball allowed the GTF trademark to lapse/expire, though they retain original user status

    medium confidence · Host observation; legal implications unclear

  • Pokemon Pinball is in active IP negotiation with multiple pinball manufacturers, not rejected

    high confidence · Host states 'I'm hearing that it is true' and cites previous membership-exclusive deep dive

  • Venom Pinball layout is 'the easiest Stern layout that Stern has ever done' per Tom's commentary on Triple Drain

    medium confidence · Cited from Triple Drain podcast; host disputes this characterization

  • James Bond 0.96 code now features a deeper rule set than any other Stern game currently in production

    medium confidence · Host opinion based on code depth analysis; invites counter-evidence

  • Chicago Gaming has suspended Cactus Canyon LE/SE Plus production until Q4 per dealer report to Naps Arcade

    low confidence · Hearsay from unnamed dealer; host notes ongoing trickle of releases contradicting this

Notable Quotes

  • “FedEx is tearing up games, Dennis. They need to go through forklift operator training... the problem is they're dropping them. And you don't see damage on the outside of the box when games get dropped.”

    Host @ Early in episode — Illustrates supply chain damage issues and finger-pointing between manufacturers, distributors, and shippers

  • “So I got kind of a double batch initially. So I guess that Q2 makes sense... maybe they've just built so many pros in this first run where we're used to just operators only.”

    Host @ Mid-episode production discussion — Rationalizes unusual Venom Pro delay to Q2 2024 based on early operator-only build strategy

  • “This game is what I would call a true gunslinger. This is the Brett Farve of pinball machines like it is fast and whippy... as soon as you make a shot those fast speed locks are boom back boom shot boom back.”

    Host @ Venom first impressions — Vivid characterization of Venom's fast, non-trappy gameplay philosophy and speed-focused shot design

  • “I think the pinball community is going to have to get used to the landscape in which Dwight and his team are laying out here because I think we're going to see this kind of stuff in future games.”

    Host @ Venom code discussion — Predicts broader adoption of XP/progression-based rule sets across future Stern releases

  • “Q4, Foo Fighters Premium, not for another year. Dealers do have them in stock. But I can confidently say I will run out of Foo Fighters Premium before Q2 of 2024.”

    Host @ Production roadmap section — Signals supply shortage and strong demand for Foo Fighters units over extended wait for next run

  • “This style of approach seems much more suited for the home environment. So I'm skeptical I'm going to get a really good vibe off of it in the location play approach.”

    Host @ Venom location vs. home discussion — Raises concern about XP-progression mechanics fitting location play vs. home collector use cases

  • “So it looks like James Bond, they're prepping to do a once a year kind of run thing... you're going to get more larger runs in quantity of units, but fewer frequency of those runs.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyVenom PinballgameFoo Fighters PinballgameJames Bond PinballgameGodzilla PinballgameGuardians of the Galaxy ProgameDeadpool PinballgameAmerican PinballcompanyChicago Gamingcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball allowed GTF trademark registration to lapse; potential IP vulnerability despite original user status

    medium · Host identifies trademark lapse; legal implications unclear but noted as interesting development

  • ?

    event_signal: Chicago Pinball Expo media mixer organized by Colin the Kineticist and Will Oeding; exclusive to industry media

    medium · Email invitation sent months prior; host considering attendance

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Venom layout criticized as 'easiest Stern layout ever' for shot difficulty; host disputes but notes trend toward compressed layout design

    medium · Tom Graff commentary on Triple Drain; host counterargument about modern shot compression

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Venom Pinball exemplifies shift toward non-mode-based XP progression mechanics that may become standard in future Stern releases

    high · Host explicitly states 'I think we're going to see this kind of stuff in future games' and notes Dwight Sullivan's team is establishing a new landscape

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Pokemon Pinball in active IP negotiation with multiple pinball manufacturers; not rejected but details being finalized

    high · Host states 'Companies are speaking. It is a speaking point'; confirms credible membership-exclusive discussion conducted

  • $

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.272

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:13
The Pinball Network is online. Launching the Pinball Show. This week on the Pinball Show, we bring you everything you want and more. As Dennis and I discuss updates to the Stern Pinball production schedule. First impressions of Venom Pinball, the new Guardians of the Galaxy final run being announced, bumbly bumble, maturing Stern Games, AP slipping on the GTF rights, a Chicago Gaming production update, Pokemon Pinball rumors and new info, exclusive membership discussion of big things coming to Expo and the rest of the year that you're going to want to hear, as well as the dirty media and industry gossip and conflict that many of you just love. My experience with Weird Al and the P3 system, which finger you're supposed to be using when playing pinball, a new Screaming Goat Club member, and, of course, Pinball Market Trans. Look, episode 138 is a big one, as the pinball show provides yet again a fall bountiful harvest of juice and pintertainment.
1:17
Pinball is a game of skill. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle. It's time for the Pinball Show. It's pinball with personality Cadillac grills, Cadillac bills Check out the oil, my Cadillac bills Guess what, Dennis? What? It's the pinball show time It's episode 138 How in the hell are you? Wow, I'm pretty good I was just wrapping up You know, I have an operating policy I've learned with the modern era That any time I get any time, any place Email, text message Business is business And I gotta respond right away or else people get mad. They just get mad. Business. I'm like, I'm not even in business. Like, doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. When I come calling, you come answering. So how are you? I've been stressed this last week. FedEx is tearing up games, Dennis. They need to go through forklift operator training. They need to. They need to do something. I don't know. They're just so haphazard with these poor games. And the problem is they're dropping them. And you don't see damage on the outside of the box when games get dropped. But then when the poor collector opens up their box and then they have cracked cabinets. Oh, man. And then the FedEx is like, well, that must have happened at the factory. And then Stern's like, that didn't happen at the factory. That must have happened then. And it's like, okay, well, who's going to take care of this mess? Uh-oh.

Host @ 2024 Q4 production analysis — Identifies emerging Stern strategy shift toward concentrated annual runs rather than frequent small batches

  • “Pokemon, as a pinball theme, as an IP, is a strong possibility for pinball. Companies are speaking. It is a speaking point, and details are being ironed out.”

    Host @ Pokemon Pinball discussion — Confirms active negotiations and genuine manufacturer interest rather than IP rejection

    • Flippin' Out Pinball
    company
    Dwight Sullivanperson
    Dennisperson
    Joelperson
    Pokemon Pinballgame
    Chicago Pinball Expoevent
    GTF (Gettin' Busy)game
    Cactus Canyon Pinballgame
    The Pinball Showorganization
    Naps Arcadecompany
    Tom Graffperson

    market_signal: Stern shifting toward larger, less-frequent production runs rather than constant small batches

    high · Production schedule shows James Bond annual run strategy; host hypothesizes this pattern extends across portfolio

  • ?

    community_signal: Host unable to attend Chicago Pinball Expo due to new job vacation constraints; RSVP dynamics with industry media mixers discussed

    high · Host explicitly states new job forces unpaid time off if attending; Colin/Will Oeding hosting separate media mixer

  • ?

    announcement: Final commemorative run of Guardians of the Galaxy Pro announced for December 2023 with special backbox badge

    high · Direct dealer communication of Stern production schedule; host selling deposits

  • ?

    product_strategy: Foo Fighters Premium pushed to Q4 2024, over one year away, despite strong initial sales; unusual market strategy

    high · Production schedule data confirms Q4 2024 placement; host notes he will run out of current stock before next run

  • ?

    product_concern: Location-based XP progression mechanics may not suit location-play experience; concerns about progression speed vs. casual play

    medium · Host skeptical about location viability; notes progression feels home-optimized; Dennis initially agrees then shifts perspective

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Chicago Gaming Cactus Canyon production suspended until Q4; contradicted by ongoing dealer stock trickle

    low · Naps Arcade dealer report; host notes recent receipt of LE/SE Plus units contradicts suspension claim

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: FedEx shipping causing internal cabinet damage not visible externally; warranty liability disputes between Stern, distributors, and customers

    high · Host describes cracked cabinets on arrival; fingerpointing between Stern, FedEx, and customers on responsibility

    • 2:45
    Widdle-o-me, stuck in the middle. You know what, though? See to me or the customer. Doesn't it really, though, make sense? because given your background in psychology, that fixing humans who are fine on the outside and damaged on the inside is your forte.
    3:01
    Oh, man. So really, the businesses are one and the same. You haven't changed anything about your life. There certainly are some broken people, some in media here. Starting to get scary in media, some of these people. Chill out, people. Chill out. It's just a media mixer. why aren't you going to expo dennis i i now get to because i started my new job i get to blame i won't have enough vacation to to i would be unpaid it would be unpaid to go to expo and i i don't do that so do you know that colin the kineticist and uh will oedding from this weekend pinball are holding a expo pinball media mixer i wasn't i didn't rsvp i didn't know if i was going or anything i kind of want to go now i'm looking forward to it yeah i i knew they uh they emailed over to eclectic gamers podcast at gmail.com this was months ago i i did let them know i wasn't going to be able to go to expo this year though oh you do respond to uh to invitations like the rsvps for birthday parties and stuff you're like you know when people when people go to the trouble of sending a message i do try and follow back up you want the chicken or the pork i don't always do it, but I try. That, although, I think that was before I even was changing jobs. I think that was just where I was kind of like, yeah, I'm not doing Expo. Because you know me and my bias against Expo. You know what I'm not doing at Expo that everybody does is the Olympics. Well, I'm not doing a booth. So I could technically do the Olympics. I hear the Olympics is good. Pulling on dicks and stuff when you're playing football. I don't know. It just doesn't appeal to me much. I'm not sure that's the Olympics that they were going to do. Well, sorry. I think you turn upside down and then pull on a dick to shoot a flip. It's something like that, I promise. What? I've seen the pictures. No, that doesn't sound right. That sounds inappropriate. Is there Elmo? Is Elmo there?
    4:47
    There's beer goggles. There's, man. It sounds like a Stefan. So, you've got. Stefan. Oh, Stefan. Oh, those are funny bits. You've got babies. You've got Elmo's.
    5:00
    You've got beer goggles and a really hateful country song. Not in this town. pinball expo oh gosh wow you're just trying to i know trigger everyone why not why not uh how's your last week then fine fine last two weeks really we haven't we haven't spoken since the last episode other than a few messengers and you mr david dennis the what what the the last to know what has to know cold takes that's it cold takes oh poor guy i mean i want to say that he's behind the times but but hearing about that awesome ghostbusters game was really quite touchy he's like did you hear about the designer of that game i did back in 2016 Oh, poor David Dennis. He's a good sport about it. That's the one thing I do respect about the guy. It's that Canadian sense of humor. You know, because Canada, we've imported a lot of our good comedians from Canada. We do. Here, as Americans. We've really relied on them, more so for that than maple syrup or Tim Hortons or anything. Or even a Craig Bobby, because he's MIA yet again this week. Well, in his defense, what news is there? Dan, there are a lot of new breaking stories here. And people love hearing the pinball show discuss it. There's a lot of updates, a lot of big expo happenings, new games coming out. We've got all the goods here on episode 138. Like the Stern Pinball production updates. Oh, people love the production updates. There have been a lot of modifications to this production schedule. A lot. Oh, is that why in my internal notes the listener has no way of seeing that they're bolded? Bold, yeah. It's kind of like the pre-order stuff that I put on my website. And for some reason, I can put them in all bold, all caps, twice on the product page. And somebody orders it, and then a week later says, wait a minute, I thought the ice cold beer was only $500. I didn't know it was $5,500.
    7:14
    Yeah, I often drop a zero, too. Do you? They're heavy. When you spend hundreds of dollars online, do you read at all or do you just buy it now?
    7:25
    Jeez, read, people. We're not in the pandemic times anymore, folks. You don't have to worry about ice cold beer selling out. You do have enough time.
    7:37
    All right, I digress. Do you know how many nonrefundable deposits Nicole and I have refunded this last week or two? Zero, I assume. It should be zero.
    7:49
    Reduce your expectations to zero. Basically, here's how it is, listener, if any of you want to know. All you've got to do is just insinuate that if you don't get your nonrefundable deposit back, then you're just going to hose us as a company publicly into a public forum or social media. And, yeah, we'll give in and we'll give you your nonrefundable deposit back. It's really all you got to do because Nicole and I, we've decided like, yeah, it doesn't matter anymore what you say. People will just continue to do what they want because the customer is always right. Am I correct? I hear that.
    8:27
    Last week, Stern Pinball was building Venom Pros. They were shipping Venom Pros. And at the end of the week, they started building Venom LEs. People were wondering, when are these Venom LEs going to happen? So Friday, they went on the line, I believe. And then you'll see midweek this week to late this week, LEs starting to ship domestically even, I believe. So people are going to get their Venom LEs, including myself. Can't wait. We're going to get those. I don't know about this week we'll get them, but they'll be shipping some of them this week. And then the first week of October we'll have that Venom Premium. October, I have to make a little bit of a modification here. Dennis, I said that Deadpool Pros had run, and they did. They ran weeks back. and then we're going to get the premiums coming in October here. But from my understanding, Stern Pinball is still running more Deadpool Pros as well, so Pro and Premiums here in October. Yeah, I actually had, I think I mentioned it on a couple, an episode or two ago, I had someone contact me asking about the Deadpool stuff and I mentioned that the Pros were being finished up on a run and I didn't know when the next run would be, so apparently it's a lot sooner than I had expected. They have changed that since last Telling Us Dealer, So that's a good thing because Deadpool pros, people have still been seeking them out. We ran out of them. So we have spots now for the run this month, or not this month, but in October here. So bye-bye-bye, flipping out pinball. October also, we're going to see a small run of Foo Fighters pros. The change here, the modification, listener, is that the premiums, they have no plans on making Foo Fighters premiums in October. Before it was pro and premiums, a small little run, but nonetheless, a run. now it's just a small run of Foo Fighter Pros in October they're taking premiums they're bumping it all the way out of the entirety of 2023 and here in a second I'll tell you where they're going to fall which may surprise you November rolls around and we've got Godzilla Premium so we thought are they going to be November December what's going to be in that November hole Godzilla Premium as of right now is the only thing to go into the November hole so you've heard it here at TPS, we've told you for months now, we think something else is going to partner alongside that Godzilla Premium run. And every day it goes by, I'm more and more confident of such. Yeah, probably more plume choppers. Plume life! I played my Godzilla Premium yesterday, in fact. Oh, did you get a billion again? I did not. I got halfway there. I only had time for one game. and I, but every time my ball would drain and it did a little thing, I would scream along with Godzilla, so I'm still just as obnoxious as I always have been with it. I love it. December comes along, and guess who's back? Back again. Is it the Rush game? No, well, Ray, no, no, sit back down. Sorry, bud. He popped up real quick. Wait, what? It's like a prairie dog. He listens for Led Zeppelin and Rush, and the moment The sound appears across the prairie. This little prairie dog head pops up. A little nose twitches every time he hears airport. And he pops back down below into the tunnels.
    11:37
    No, James Bond is back. They got rid of it out of 2023, but then they said, no, we'll do a small run in December of James Bond Pro and Premium. Again, smaller run, both models there, but nonetheless, they will have some of them built in December. That's the plan as of right now. And the big news from Stern Pinball, since we've spoke last to these beautiful listeners, the majority of you are beautiful. Some of you are ugly, but you listen anyway, so we love you. December, we're going to see one final run of Bubbly Bobo.
    12:14
    Oh, Bubbly Bobo. It's my favorite Bobo. Bobo's coming back. Guardians of the Galaxy Pro. That's right. Star-Lord. Last hurrah. Fun game. One final build. of Guardians of the Galaxy Pro. So much so that they're getting a commemorative back box like plate or badge that says this is the last bitch leaving the factory. Yeah, they did that with Star Trek at one point. Final Voyage. I wonder what this one's going to be called. Final Groot?
    12:43
    That would be good. Finally Bobo. Final Bobo. Finally Bobo. So get in your Guardians of the Galaxy Pro pre-orders right now. You can go to FlippinOutPinball.com. We have a $250 non-refundable, non-transferable deposit. You're selling the game for a mere $250? I'll get those people. You know what? This bullshit, man. You've really taken this. We're just going to set the price at whatever we want to heart.
    13:13
    And then that's the rest of the year for Stern Pinball. Or is it? We do know that 2024, we're going to get a Star Wars. We'll get that re-ran. We'll get the Mandalorian run at some point. We know specifically Q2, and these things could always change, but right now they're planning on Q2 of 2024 to include the likes of Venom Pro and Foo Fighters Pro. Venom Pro, it's interesting that we're not going to see any production of those until mid-year next year? Well, I mean, maybe they'll do it early, Q2.
    13:45
    That's kind of surprising to me. Yeah, I mean, I could see it. But, you know, the thing is, all of the cool stuff that people look at visually is on the premium, not the pro of that. Okay. Yeah. That's where I think this is. I don't know. Obviously, you'll have some data points as time goes by. But I think long-term, Venom pros don't move well compared to the premiums. And the thing is, I don't think any of them end up moving well from the feedback I'm hearing. And for the most part, they're kind of heating up right now as people are playing them sales-wise. I don't know. Yeah, it's not coming down to the code thing. I think people have to experience the code because they look at the layout. And I think it was on Triple Drain, which is on the Pinball Network, where someone, I think it was Tom, had remarked that because layout-wise, the shots in his – and he's obviously a very good player. But the problem, depending on what you want out of a pinball machine, is that he felt that the layout was the easiest Stern layout that Stern has ever done as a manufacturer. Wow. So, you know, if that's – and that's not – if you look at a pro, all you see is a fan layout. So you would definitely assume that would probably play easier than, you know, like an Avengers. My argument with Tom would be, Tom, remember, though, in the last two years, the end thing is to squeeze an extra shot or two into even a fan layout. So to say it's the easiest, I disagree with that. I think Steve Ritchie's not working there anymore. Like, he had some open shots. What do you think was Stern's easiest, like, just longest player as a layout? Because Lord of the Rings would probably be the answer, most people would say. If we go all the way back to 99 Stern. It all depends on outlanes, where they're set. Oh, yes, settings and steepness and all that. We've got Steve Ritchie's erect flippers whenever you, you know.
    15:37
    Star Trek, I would say, is a pretty easy shooter. It is. I don't think it's as easy as Lord of the Rings, though. Led Zeppelin Pro, pretty easy shooter. I always thought that one was kind of rough. But again, setup comes down to a lot. Yeah. But yeah, Lord of the Rings certainly would be a longer shooter there. Simpsons Pinball Party, really long shooter. Yeah, that's a good one. But yeah.
    16:02
    And now Venom taking the crown. See, I haven't played a lot of Venom. Go Symbiote Web. Some of those shots are tight because there's an extra little shot, it feels like. No, they're pretty findable. You're going to have to wait to find Venom Pro next year.
    16:18
    I think maybe they've just built so many pros in this first run where we're used to just operators only. So I guess it makes sense that instead of just getting operator-only pros, I would have to wait probably two, three months for my second run of pros. So I just got kind of a double batch initially. So I guess that Q2 makes sense. What else is coming? Oh, Q3 of 2024, also Godzilla pros and Jurassic Park pros, likely premiums as well with those, but they just indicated pros on our notations here. Q3, CL1, Q. Yep, and Q4. that's where you're going to see Foo Fighters Premium over a year from now. Now, see, I think that's far more surprising than the Venom Pro being Q2. It really is, because Foo Fighters is sold very, very well. Initially, it was kind of like that Mandalorian thing where Mandalorian sold gangbusters when it first came out. The first four to six months, Mandalorians were just, whew, they were a sales force. I thought Mandalorian was going to clean up on awards and recognition, and then Godzilla came out later that year and kind of disrupted it. I mean, the biggest thing at the time, though, was people in the 20-page instruction manual to make a hand-wavy Baby Yoda mod. Remember that? Yeah, I do. They were mad that Baby Yoda didn't have his hand waved, so that was back when people didn't have anything better to do than to invest two dozen pages into an instruction manual. But they also wanted Baby Yoda to do the Mogwai song, too. So Q4, Foo Fighters Premium, not for another year. Dealers do have them in stock. We do have them in stock. But I can confidently say I will run out of Foo Fighters Premium before Q2 of 2024. So that might start feeling a little tight there for that title. We also have in Q4 2024 James Bond Pro and Premium. So see, just like I hypothesized, I think it was last episode, listener, that you're going to get more larger runs in quantity of units, but fewer frequency of those runs. So it looks like James Bond, they're prepping to do a once a year kind of run thing. Maybe that's what they're doing for Foo Fighters as well, it looks like. But they're just spreading their pro and premiums apart. So that's the recent updates. We still have our discontinued games of Maiden, Avengers, the home edition games. So I got my hands on a Venom Pro, Dennis. Oh. What were your impressions of it? So I didn't get to play too long before I had to ship it off to Joel's, and he was saddened by getting a Pro only. Yes, I'm sure his gratitude was not the usual level. Yeah, he's like, man, whatever. You can put it over there.
    19:03
    My first impressions were, and this is probably 15, 20 games, wasn't many, but this game is what I would call a true gunslinger. this is the brett farve of pinball machines like it is fast and whippy like it and it's very uh theme appropriate too because at times i felt like i was just web slinging because as soon as you make a shot those fast speed locks are boom back boom shot boom back boom boom boom boom and it's a lot of that so it is a gunslinger in a game that it's not really a trappy game. You're not trapping up like maybe you do because of the code and stuff and you want to slow it down, but if you wanted to, you could just keep firing and throwing Tomahawks or Ninja Stars or whatever you're thinking. It's one of those types of games, and that's fun. That's a lot of fun. It is a speed demon of a game, so I liked that. And the rules! I didn't know if I'd like the rules because it's not a mode-based game as Dwight has just drilled into our heads, and I love mode-based games, so I thought this one's just going to be maybe a swing and a miss. They're actually really cool. I kind of liked the, it did feel video game like to me because I was wanting to go, but even if I had a shitty game, I felt good about it because I'm, I was still progressing with my XP. I was still getting closer to being able to defeat Noel and to character up and, and unlock that venomized Captain America or Wolverine. So that was, that was really, really cool. But I think the pinball community is going to have to get used to the landscape in which Dwight and his team are laying out here. Because I think we're going to see this kind of stuff in future games. It's very smart because there's a lot that you can do with this type of code set rather than what pinball has seen since the 90s. But it is really, really unique, really novel. And I think it works really well. My only concern about the rule stuff is whether the coding departments of these manufacturers can give us enough to create a landscape like this to keep us coming back. We do have one on location. I just haven't been out to it yet. Well, you started a new job, so you're busy. Yeah, I haven't. I've been traveling for pinball. It sounds interesting. I still really want to try it. The thing for me is I don't know on location if I'm going to get a great feel. Obviously, I can carry my progress over with Insider Connected, but this style of approach seems much more suited for the home environment. So I'm skeptical I'm going to get a really good vibe off of it in the location play approach, but we'll see. I thought that initially. Now I'm kind of flipping. I'm wondering if this type of approach isn't better for a location than it is at home because it almost feels like kind of like when I had the Jurassic Park arcade game here. I could just keep pressing continue. and keep getting further into that arcade game, and then it's done kind of thing. Whereas if you're on location, I mean, you're really paying for that progress. It's going to take a little bit to level up and to get to that next unlockable character. I don't know. Did you shoot any vertical video of it? I didn't get to because I set it all up, and then I was like, hey, where's my weird patchy direct video capture dead flip thing? And I messaged Joel. I was like please don tell me you have my weird dongly video capture LVDS QNRP thing He was like yeah you forgot You forgot it in Godzilla a year ago I like shit So no Because I did go and check out your GTF one and it actually it was easy to follow the ball So, I was wrong. It worked. It worked as a format. It does work, doesn't it? Yeah. I may have recorded some vertical video of Foo Fighters in the new code, though, that people may see this week. Subscribe and follow. Flipping that pinball straight down the middle. but yeah I want to get I'm going to get a Venom LE for myself so I'll get some video of that I think it's just not going to be as good as a lot of these people and that's okay I was digging this game so far a lot of fun it's just beautiful and I just said it but I'll say it again Joel on Flippin Out Pinballs Facebook, YouTube, Instagram that kind of stuff go follow, like and subscribe to that because he had on Dwight Sullivan. Dwight Sullivan walked him through the entirety of the rule set as it is right now. And they had a lot of fun. And Dwight was funny. He's a funny guy, and he's close enough to Joe where he can bust his chops. And it's very, very relatable and fun to watch. So go watch that. He's also got gameplay videos, tutorials, shorts, reels, et cetera. And some vertical GTF video. New code. Your favorite, Dennis. Everyone's really excited. We'll run through it quick. New Foo Fighters code, V.97. It's close to that 1.0. New song, Rescued, is in there. all the songs can be chosen from the ball start too now you just keep on scrolling past the eight tracks of the tapes or whatever that may be and then to go into a second set so here's like 16 18 songs it's a lot they also added a final battle final wizard mode once you do all the things a lot of polish a lot of adjustments that game is solid that is a effing solid game Venom 0.91 is the first official code update from release they added a I thought this was interesting, a prolonged competition mode instead of just a regular competition mode you have that but you also have a prolonged mode to the gameplay menu meaning that if you're having a competition unless you turn the game off or change a state, it'll stay on competition mode that'll be appreciated also a lot of other additions features fixes polish balance james bond 0.96 oh came out they added another wizard mode duel on the disco volante i don't know the reference there because i wasn't born yet when these movies came out but it's wizard mode it's kind of like uh it's like valinor you get to get all six film modes you get to complete all six henchmen modes all six specter weapon modes and all six cube branch modes and then you can go into this wizard mode multi-phase and staged wizard mode with both single ball and multi-ball. Cool. This little darling that is Bond, David Dennis is getting his wish. This damn game is deep. This game is deeper than... I was about to say, it's a deeper code set right now than anything that Stern's producing at the moment.
    25:40
    Am I right? I'm going to have all my Stern coding friends email me. Go ahead, gmail.com, and say if that's right or if there is a deeper game in production from Strix. I don't know if there is. I don't know. Because my thought was Godzilla. I don't know how you measure that. I mean, Godzilla has a lot of stuff, but I don't know what you count as depth. Like, Godzilla is obviously you've got, like, you collect your tanks, and you collect your bridge attack, and you've got your power line stuff. And, like, how does that weigh against the weapon modes and the Q branch modes and stuff? Because those aren't modes in Godzilla. They get you to a mode where you get like a multiball mode. Sure. So I don't know. I don't know the answer. So that's why people can write in and tell us the answer. Yeah, I'm sure. Vinacore, text me. Ray Day, text me. No, just you listeners email. We don't need the stern people that tell us their version of the truth. Okay.
    26:33
    Plus, I don't want them fighting over lunch over there. The people will tell us. The people have the answer. No, Deadpool's not deeper. No.
    26:39
    Also in this, I found this. nobody else would care, but during the player up track timing, there is a topper light show that you can customize the colorization if you are a logged in Insider Connected user. No one cares. You mean to tell me that now we can customize our own toppers? Our topper now has Logitech lighting mouse support. Yeah, I can change the color of my mouse on my computer. Have you? I bet you have. I turned it down so it wasn't so bright. You customized it still? Not the color. I customized the brightness because it was bright. Oh, my gosh. Dwight, can you customize something where I can put my own pictures into the hologram on the Mandalorian topper? I want to shock my visitors as they walk through my game room and say, what the fuck was that? They're already shocked when they see everything's at 5.5 degrees. That's not even true. That's pretty true.
    27:37
    I was there. I was there, Gandalf, 10,000 years ago, and I saw it. I saw when the strength of men failed, and they put their rings and their pinball machines at 5.5 degrees. Their rings are flat floor.
    27:53
    I mean, if those games were any floatier, they'd be the eagles to go destroy the ring. That's just not true. A lot more polished. I assume it's that floaty so that if your room ever floods, they'll be okay.
    28:06
    You have to be careful not to slip on a flooded floor. Speaking of slips, did you see this last week? American Pinball, they let the GTF rights slip between their tank gloves. I had not, and I don't know what that even means. They forgot to renew the trademark, the registered trademark for GTF. But does it matter? I don't know. I mean, like, they're still the original user of it. But I guess maybe that means someone else could try and trademark GTF, but it doesn't mean they wouldn't be able to still do their GTF. So they could still do theirs. But if they made any changes or modifications. Nothing I say on this podcast should be construed as giving you legal advice. I don't know what it means. I just found it interesting. It is. Remember when Poker Run was a trademark they had?
    28:58
    Me and Pepperidge Farm remember. I think I told one of their owners face-to-face, do not make that game.
    29:10
    The only good one they had in the list was Sherlock Holmes, and they didn't do it. And then Galactic Star Force. What game would that have looked like? Maybe the game would fold up into that Navi depressive flame from Super Mario. Yes!
    29:31
    It just light up really blue. All that you see at the end of your path is the great void. Think of the call-outs. Think about how fun that game would be. We'd probably get it a little bit quicker than Chicago Gaming could get us a Cactus Canyon. Are they even making those still? I was reading on NAP Arcade that some dealer told him that they were going to suspend the Cactus Canyon LA production until later this year, Q4, end of the year kind of thing, which I was like, oh, God. I don't know if that to be true, though, because more have been trickling out. I mean, I just got some LEs and SE Pluses again this last week, so I don't know the truth on that. I don't think so. They're slow. They're so slow that we wouldn't know whether or not it's true. I mean, there have always been jokes about how slow Chicago Gaming is. The thing is, it just seems like every release is slower. Yes, they doubled down on it this time. Yeah, they like have adopted the sloth as their mascot. They are the Chicago Gaming sloths. That's a good one, actually. Now, last episode, we did a membership-exclusive content bonus episode all about pocket monsters.
    30:46
    Listeners know what pocket monsters are? Of course they do. Do they? Pokemon. They're smart and savvy people. There were some rumors going around that Pokemon Pinball was happening. We had some information, so we spoke with our club members about that. You can go listen to that by signing up to patreon.com slash the pinball show. I will say quickly in here, if you want to hear the details, go to that show. But we talked about whether we thought the IP is a good pinball theme, what sales would look like, what they may focus on with that theme, and then the information we knew. I'm hearing that it is true. So Pokemon, as a pinball theme, as an IP, is a strong possibility for pinball. Companies are speaking. It is a speaking point, and details are being ironed out to see if somebody can make this happen. So it's not like a, we're not going to return your calls. We want nothing to do with this. But no, no, it's very likely to become a thing. But keep in mind, IP ownership, very muddled on Pokemon. different companies own different things and what were you saying dennis like um the pokemon group oh yeah there's uh there's a company called the pokemon company that my understanding is the because of the mixed ownership of the ip that was formed to handle the licensing side so i think as long as you're working with a pokemon company then you're basically negotiating with all the owners. So that's how they've tried to address that. Because there's a whole set of rules about who can publish what, and some of it depends on country and all of that. So there are all those deals made. But I think if you want to do something with the license, you go through the Pokemon company, and then you don't have to contact Nintendo separately. Oh, okay. Well, it's a strong possibility because I know that groups are discussing. Everybody was saying certain pinballs got that. They've talked about it before. I can tell you that they may have talked to Stern Pinball. That may be a thing, Wink. But there's no deal that's been inked, to my knowledge, as of the last information that I had heard. This has been a couple weeks ago.
    32:54
    No deal has been inked. In fact, I know there's ongoing discussions because there's other manufacturers that have spoken with the Pokemon company and the Pokemon group about bringing that weird little red-white ball thingy to the pinball industry. Hmm.
    33:09
    Where's it going? Squirtle. Squirtle, a little turtle. And what was the other one? Hufflepuff? There's Jigglypuff. Yeah, Hufflepuff's Potter. Jigglypuff. Yeah. You got Bulbasaur. That's a classic. And Mew. Pikachu, of course. Mew Mew. Mew, Mewtwo. Oh, Mewtwo. There's Mewtwo. I just pictured Bono, but a cat, singing Mewtwo. And there's Meowth, the cat, Meowth.
    33:36
    No, they stole that from Fred Rogers. It was Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. Meow, meow, meow. Meow, meow doesn't want to go, meow. Remember that character? Here's a puppet that lives in a little schoolhouse in a tree.
    33:51
    Henrietta Pussicat. Meow, meow, beautiful meow. Meow. Yes, Henrietta. I do not. That's how old... You never watched Mr. Rogers? I did, but I don't remember. I love... And the owl, the arrogant owl. I liked him. I don't remember the owl. And the little prince. He was kind of a snot. In the trolley? Remember trolley? I vaguely remember the trolley. You know what? Put me in on a Mr. Rogers neighborhood pin. That would be hands down. I would buy that. It's like a dream. I would buy that before I even knew. If you sign up to the Patreon membership for the Pinball Show, we also uploaded another bonus outtake, some extra content. It was us discussing DC. I think it was the DC Universe, some of the films recently, like The Flash and The Batman, all that. So go listen to that. That was pretty funny. I think it's a good segue, us jumping into what our exclusive pinball show subscription content is going to be this week. This is a big one. We'll call the topic this week, Dennis. Are we going to be getting another load of new games released this year like we did earlier this year? Just rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? Yeah, super smooth. For example, remember back in March when everybody was like, holy crap, there's five new pinball machines. Remember? Remember Barry's name? Yes. Pepper's Farm? I remember Barry.
    35:11
    There's some info coming in. And we're going to go through what we may see from now until Expo, until the rest of the year. And I think we may see some pretty significant stuff coming. We'll talk about it more in our club membership bonus content episode. If you're not a club member, all you've got to do is go to patreon.com slash the pinball show. It's only $10 a month, and you get exclusive content such as that, as well as a private Discord discussion and communication. That's a lot of fun. Or you can jump up to the Nordman $25 a month level, and that's going to give you all kinds of extras in addition to that official club membership, such as picking your own topic. You get some swag stuff. You get to hang out each and every month with us as we do a live hangout meeting. I'm going to start calling it Happy Hour, the TPS Happy Hour. and then you can jump up to a $100 level. The Screaming Goat Club members, we might have a new one this week, Dennis, but the Screaming Goat Club members, you get your own correspondence with Dennis and I about the really juiciest of fruits and you also get a paywall polo t-shirt. You also get to be on the show at some point. There's all kinds of stuff that you get, so sign up today. So this week, yeah, we'll be talking about how many games maybe we're going to see between now and the end of the year or especially at Expo,
    36:34
    will conveniently segue into spooky pinball. All right, so I was on social media. This is one of these little gossip magazine parts of the pinball discussion, the pinball media. So I was getting ready to check out at Flippin' Out Pinball, and I looked at the magazine rack, and I saw a spooky pinball ex-employee throwing elbow-ins at spooky. You get it? Elbow-ins throwing elbow-ins? Okay. I read this in your write-up, and I was like, I don't get what he's going for here. This is on the magazine rack. You know, they have to reach for some kind of title there. Throwing elbowings at Spooky a little over a week ago on social media. That is Bowen Cairns. Bowen Cairns, the pinball player extraordinaire, rules developer, mathematician guy, well-known in the pinball industry. He had worked at Spooky Pinball before. Now he's with Multimorphic, I believe. Isn't he? I think he's with Multimorphic. I'm not sure. I don't know where he's at. I'm not sure. But anyway, he made the following post on social media.
    37:38
    Achievement unlocked. Blocked on Facebook by former employer. Thanks, Spooky Pinball LLC. Oh, wait. I can't tag them. Hee hee. Good luck and may the good games flow freely from one and all.
    37:54
    Pinball shade. I did see this post. Drama grab? Yeah, but I want to... What are your thoughts on this? Because we had some opposing views, but then I think we came together at the end there. Well, I think it's odd for a company to go ahead and have blocked the next employee.
    38:21
    But it also sounded like in the comment section with additional detail that Bone wasn't even sure exactly when it had happened. either so it may not even be particularly recent i is sort of thirdly though it's i mean it's a drama thing between a former employee and an organization so it's not really of like it's not really of public interest so in a way i don't care per se because it doesn't doesn't involve the community in any in any way this is between it's a weird thing to do i think it ends up uh ultimately making Spooky probably look bad because they're the big entity. They're the blocker. Saying that you can't post on our page, especially if you hadn't been known to have posted anything like trashing on the page. But again, I don't know if that ever happened or not because it's not like I go and monitor Spooky's page all the time. So I don't know the motivations behind it. I also don't really care very much. I think it's fair.
    39:20
    For me, this is juicy little gossip. I kind of like it. Yeah, you pinball people and your drama. Yeah, I don't mind seeing stuff like this when I'm like, oh, looky here. It doesn't include me. Thank God. So my take on this was initially when I saw it, I could see the argument, man, this looks bad on spooky pinball. Why are they blocking people? Because I agree, you'll never win ever. Believe me, people, I've been through the mistake of trying this. Blocking people that, like you're a company or something, the minute you go blocking people, it just fires things up even more. There's really no big benefit of blocking someone, unless they were just super egregious with just rolling you in the mud publicly. But they're going to do it regardless whether you block them or not. So I agree, not the best look. but then again out of these two conflicting parties one being spooky pinball and one being Bo and Karen's you got one person that's showing ass here and you got one person that's quiet I respect that too though because if I spouted off on the injustices and the bullshit that I've had to deal with in this industry I even have a podcast and I spout off some of it but if I spouted off all of it I would look insane. But I don't. I shut up and I take it. So I respect Spooky more for saying nothing at all. Because I don't think, his hands probably aren't all the way clean there, Bowens.
    41:06
    Because, and here's the thing. His closing sentence was the one that I'm like, okay, enough. good luck and may the good games flow freely from one oh bullshit that's where that's where you lost me bowen it's okay you know what i kind of like the balls of just calling somebody out and saying hey i noticed you you blocked me how about that thanks a lot spooky like that passive aggression is okay and i like the call out but then when you say i'm gonna plus one it by saying that i'm open and free to every that's what pimble that's what bugs my ass and pimble so much it's just fakeness that's fake bullshit that's fake did you because when I read this I wondered this I have no idea because I didn't ask him if he put that in there because that is a spooky move through and through let's post photos oh look we share our truck with all these other manufacturers we want all the manufacturers They were total spooky. Remember, that was their whole shtick for years was how we want them all to succeed. We want to help each other out. We're all about advancing pinball. It's like, you're a business, right? No, you're about spooky selling spooky games. Not this whole, like, you're running a charity for American pinball thing that they were trying to argue or how I took it. I don't think he posted it because of that. So I wondered if he put this in there because that is a total spooky thing where they are all like, yeah we just want all the good games to flow three freely no he didn't do that because everybody does that he's just doing that because he's trying to protect himself and say hey i'm not starting shit here i'm just letting you know how how good that i am and open and you know how even i am because i will still congratulate spooky no i do not believe effort well anytime you you choose to move something publicly you're you're starting something or wanting a reaction so that's always the case again because i with my member berries because again when it's an organization you notice more, I still remember good old, we just want the industry to grow and succeed, and when Spooky threw their massive hissy fit when Stern got Godzilla. Yeah, yeah.
    43:14
    Which they don't say anything about now because Stern made a game that they would never have been able to match. Here's what I would argue on that is, I agree with you. I've seen those posts from Spooky, you know, hey, we're here to help everybody. We don't care. These were more a few years ago than I remember. Exactly. That's my point. That might have been when Charlie was calling the shots. But that was back when Bowen worked with them. Yeah. So you see, it's all connected. I don't see that as much anymore. I've seen a lot of changes over at Spooky Pinball, actually. I've seen a lot of changes. So I think times have changed over at Spooky Pinball. And I'm excited about the changes. I know people are worried about it. But from my end, I'm very excited about what's going on over there. But, yeah, Bowen's great at what he does. and I'll forever love his Rick and Morty code and stuff like that. But if he's trying to present himself as being free from drama and wrongdoing, oftentimes those are the ones that make me sniff the hardest. At the end of the day, I've gotten in trouble about all of this stuff because I've been open and honest. Honesty, if you guys haven't learned by now, listener, honesty kind of gets you nowhere, especially in the public realm. I'm honest a lot, and I get in trouble for it. Now there's a difference between being honest and just being a dickhead too. I get that. I've been guilty of the latter as well. But what burns me in pinball is the fake shit, the fake bullshit that so many people in, not an authority position, but so many people that are widely representing something, whether it be a brand or a company, just feed you complete and utter fake shit. I don't do that. I don't do good with that. It never will. Never will. And that's why my wrists are sore sometimes. Because they get slapped, and it's like, I get a little... I didn't understand. I wasn't thinking that direction. Let's use this as an example to our next... Let see how I can do this next one and still be true to myself Let talk about Multimorphic Did you know that they had a new game released a downloadable game by Michael Ocean called Dungeon Door Defender I like the name. I love alliteration. I had heard that there was a new game out, but I hadn't read anything up on it. And I didn't get a press release or anything to EclecticGamersPodcast.gmail.com. So I haven't done my research yet on it for my next episode on that show. So, yeah, Michael Ocean is one of the main game developers of Weird Al, as well as the new Final Resistance. So he's taking his crack at the downloadable phone game kind of thing for the P3. And this one works off the Heist module. So for all of you who have the Heist module, you probably should look into this game. I think it's like $30 or something like that. But it's a tower defense genre of a game. I have no clue what that is. That is not a common genre. It's never been a big genre. It's an interesting niche. So there have been some – like I've owned a number of tower defense games because I've really liked them. But it's like a sometimes food. You don't – it's not like my main gaming appetite is for tower defense. But the way it works in a normal tower defense, video game tower defense, is typically – and sometimes there are twists on it. But you basically have resources, and you're allowed to build little towers, and there's usually a path, a route, that the enemies are going to to try and destroy you. And so you build towers along the path, and every wave gets harder. So you build different type towers. You upgrade your towers. And basically, you try and stop all of the enemy from successfully navigating the entire path and beating you. And usually after a certain number of levels, it's over, and you go to a new map with a new layout, and that's tower defense. Oh. Your princess is in another castle. Yeah, there was a South Park tower defense game that did pretty well back in the Xbox 360, PS3 era, I think. For example, it was pretty easy to program those into Flash, so there were some Flash games back when Flash games were a thing that were tower defense because you could easily play them in a browser.
    47:24
    So it's basically just dropping towers and clicking and upgrading them when you have enough resources. I'm always down to hear about new pinball games. This one can be viewed. I think Buffalo Pinball streamed the exclusive reveal of this game and gameplay. So go check out Buffalo Pinball's YouTube. They should have that there. But any catalog building for the P3 is always a big plus in my books. I do. I'm very interested in how they're – because it's got – with the screen, it's got such a video game element to it. I think it makes a lot of sense. I'm always curious about the experimentation on doing video game genres. Like we know Nick Baldrige did a game that was roguelike in its in its approach. And he also did like a Sims style building one. And so now here's a tower defense one. I think that's interesting. And even when the system first came out, like one of the first games I knew about for it was rocks, which is asteroids, basically. But, you know, with pinball. So so those sort of genres, it's interesting to see the experimentation on that just to see, like, does it work? Is it fun? How much do they have to modify it to get pinball? Because I haven't seen anything on it yet. I don't know yet how you do tower defense. Do you get a tower every time you make a shot instead of gathering resources? How do you place them? Is the placement automatic? That sort of thing.
    48:40
    Am I right? Curious. I'm curious. I'm going to go watch this video because I like checking out all the new games. I had a new game experience as well. Oh, what did you buy? Remember the last episode, Dennis, I talked about getting a Weird Al. I'm going to be getting a weird owl. Oh, yeah, that's right. So we got one in on trade. And selfishly, I was like, eh, I'm going to play it a little bit. Just so, you know. Exploiting your dealerness. I guess I get to just have everything now. Absolutely. That is one of the perks. So I was like, I'm going to set it up. I'll take pictures, you know, because I'm going to sell this thing. But I'll play it because I've played at shows and different things. But I really want to sink my teeth into what Weird Al has to offer. You had a P3 when you got Flippin' Out, like a really early edition. Was this a later model of the unit? That was so early that Cosmic Kart Racing was just coming out as I was selling it then. So I was getting rid of it at that point. But, yeah, so this is an earlier model with the servo motor-driven scoop wall. So this is a fairly new build. I think they, oh, geez, within the last year here. It's like a brand new build. Did you get it from an original owner? I got it from an original owner. They had spent over $14,000 on, I guess, a Weird Al module and a new, because it's the Weird Al LE with a topper and everything. Oh. So I got it all. So what's the topper like? I can do this.
    50:10
    Since you care so much, I don't really care about toppers. I'm just trying to be nice to you here, Zach.
    50:15
    Man, you are nice to me. You're like the volleyball player that's really nice to you. And then unlocked. Zach got a new topper. He just lopped it right up to me for a spike. A lot of people complain about the topper's brightness reflecting onto the plate. They need to dim it like I did my Logitech mouse. So people have tweaked that. I mean, it was super bright. I'm not going to lie because taking pictures of it was kind of difficult. I didn't care about that. This, in particular, one needs a little work with the motor cam 3D printed thing that turns the accordion thing. So that's kind of broken right now. But it looks cool. I like any topper that's interactive and motorized, and it comes in the LE package.
    50:52
    So minus any repairs you have to make, looks pretty cool. I don't think repair is going to be fun on it because it is a designed kind of a mess. But hey, I'll – the next owner, I'm marking it down because I don't want to mess with that. Here's my experience with Weird Al. Not much because I really didn't play it. Really? No. Were you too busy? No. It made me nearly rage. It made me rage quit twice. Zach, this is because you don't sell them. This is because I don't sell them. Well, I guess you're trying to sell this one. Maybe you shouldn't say these things until after you sell. This is what I was talking about earlier when I said my honesty gets me in trouble because I'll tell people, hey, the topper's broken and it's not going to be fun to fix. Or, hey, I think this is a horrible use of an operating system. or hey, here's my issue. I couldn't really play the game because, for one, when I turned it on, I guess, and shipping it and bumped around, it wasn't identifying the Wham-O or Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity. It wasn't identifying the module, so I had to get it open. I had to take it out, push it back in, make sure it was really pushed back in, the clips and everything.
    52:08
    I finally got it to recognize, all right, we're good. But then it had some hop to it. Like it would hit the module in the back and the ball would hop. Oh, you mean the transition from the screen to the module? Yes. Then they're going to mess with that. Isn't that where that scoop wall is? Yes. So is it hopping on the scoop or is it hopping once you get past the scoops onto the actual module? Past the scoops right onto the module. Oh, okay. But it's clipped in correctly, so I don't know why there's a little lip there. Maybe I have to adjust. Whatever. I'll still play with it. That's fine. So this one had the hidden flippers, which is an issue that I have, too. You can't see the flippers to engage in the upper flippers. so you're kind of shooting blind there. But I guess after a couple hundred plays, you'd probably get used to that as well. I made it like two. I played the game. Two? You made it two? No, I made it two, man. The second game, I was like, you know what? So this is more first thoughts than a review. Yeah, I don't even care what we call it at this point, except I probably won't ever play one again. Oh, my gosh. I went to the second game. I was like, I just hate that these upper flippers are on a different fucking button. I can't stand it. It's objectively – You can change that in the settings. It is wrong, though. It is so wrong that I can't – You mean morally wrong or what? I just can't flip the flippers and flip all my flippers on my game. Just like every other pinball machine ever developed. I just – I don't disagree because I do think that it was an established thing by the time the P3 came out. But they do have the option for you to go because I've been told this when I brought it up is, hey what if i want them on the same button and it's kind of like well they don't you they don't come with a stack leaf switch you're not going to be able to stage flip but if you really want to they put in an option into the operating system so you can change it thus so just change it zach and lies my issues i don't understand why you have these are the issues that i have and why i won't be playing it's not a weird al thing i've got no beef with you weird al i actually think your layout looks kind of cool and the one game that i played that my brain i could try to get both flippers like I'm playing a fucking piano. It was going to be fun. I was like, okay.
    54:15
    The resolution of the display is a little bit, it feels aged and dated. But I can get into this game. But I got to give it a fair chance. But I can't if I can't flip the flippers. So I go into the settings and I'm like, okay, this is a main settings thing. You've got to like, I don't know if you like open the door three times, one, two, three, and then go left, right, left, right, A, B, A. But somehow you bring up the main settings. And then I look through the main settings, and where would that be, Dennis? You would picture changing the default upper flippers to one flipper. That would be all in the settings, the system settings, right? I mean, I guess. I don't know what their menu system's like. It's like a rotisserie. Game settings. It's kind of like a stern or anything else. All right. Yeah, yeah. Settings. So you go into settings, and that's convoluted because one menu settings, the flippers, the red buttons go up and down, whereas you go into another internal system, they change what the possessions or the commands of those buttons. But you just follow it, and it's fine. I looked for like 20 minutes. I cannot find how you can change this damn thing. So I get on our Discord, and I'm like, does anybody know how I can change these damn flippers? And Sean from Pride Pinball was nice enough. He's an owner of the P3, and to my knowledge, he really likes his system and games. So he was like, yeah, here's what you do. And then he wrote a dissertation as to how you change these things. He said you've got to go. You've got to create a username. So after you create a username, then you go back in. You're going to modify that username. Once in the modifications, there are user modification settings. Once in those, then you'll see the flipper buttons, and then you can command them. Oh, it's so easy. If you want the single button, it doesn't affect the other players, I bet. But you're not setting a user for the entirety of the P3 system. It's just for Weird Al. So you have to go into Weird Al, then the Weird Al settings. Oh, okay. Then you add a user within the Weird Al module settings. Then you can get there that way. Bless you, Sean. Thank you. That was so easy to figure out. I don't know why I just didn't run across it. So I tried that. I tried, Dennis. All right, so you went and you made the user under the Weird Al, and you went and you found with Sean's help, you found where the setting is and you changed it. Well, I had to ask for Sean's help again because as I was trying to do that, the commands on the screen, it shows you what each of the six buttons on the side and the two buttons up front, what they do. So it's like white button goes back. Red button goes forward.
    56:54
    Green button or yellow button goes exit. They all have commands right on the screen there. Okay, so here's the problem. The commands on the screen are not true to the commands that are actually programmed in the game. So when something would say manage user profile, it didn't tell me how to go up and down, so I had to guess it was red. But on the screen, it said the red buttons go back and exit and forward. Oh, so they say the wrong thing. They say the wrong thing. And then the enter button was actually the yellow button. The problem is on the screen, it says the yellow button is exit. So to enable select, you had to press exit button.
    57:39
    For the life of me, I could not figure out why I kept pressing enter, but it kept going back to the main menu of the game. And I'm like, I know I didn't set my user set. Like, what is going on? Until I figured out that it's programmed wrong. On the screen, it says the wrong thing. I would say it just and I've got into the discord and I'm like uh Sean can you help me again like I keep these all the buttons on the screen say different than what they actually do and he was like yeah they are kind of like that so you just have to kind of remember that the yellow is not exit even though it says exit that's actually forward and you got to remember that the red buttons go up and down rather than okay so did they're all labeled wrong all right they're They both wrong on that screen. Here's a question for you that I have. It pissed me off so bad, Dennis. Do the buttons always in all screens always do the same stuff? No, they always change. Not only do they always change, sometimes they're wrong.
    58:38
    The most convoluted operating system that I've ever seen in my entire effing life. I almost wanted to call up Jerry and be like, go back to a DMD. Just mount a DMD into your play field. Just one DMD, please. it was it was an utter mess so i wanted to rage quit then just because i'm like i i just i can't even get through i don't even know how to change the volume on this damn thing it was horrible i don't even know how to get out of weird out into the main menu it is so messed like they should stop what they're doing right now and fix that oh just fix it there's no other game is going to benefit from that existing operating system i'm sorry it's strong it's just so true so that was the first rage quit. Fuck it. I'm not even, I can't even figure out how to go through these menus. I'm done.
    59:26
    The second quit came from once I finally did find this all elusive unicorn of a setting to change all the flippers to normal flipper functioning. I selected it. I fucked it up because I pressed the wrong button. But once I got back there, I pressed yes, marked it, yes, submitted. We're good. It says yes. we're good thank god i'm i was expecting a snarky message that said you're really going to play the play p3 late it didn't even do that so i go to play weird al and i shit you not listener even though the setting was changed it didn't change it the flippers were still separate they did not they don't work the setting didn't work it just didn't work so it was a tough shit i know you finally figured out how to change that setting so that all four flippers are on two flippers like every other pinball machine ever made, but it doesn't work. So I turned it off, and I will not turn it back on again. That's my experience with the P3. Well, thank you for sharing your thoughts. The setting didn't even work. Maybe you needed to power it off and power it back on for the setting to take. I did that. No. Oh, okay. You know what I did not do? I didn't go back into the setting after I turned it off, turned it back on. I didn't go to see if the setting took and saved into the user or not. But I know for sure it saved when I went back to play. So I just went back to play it after I turned it off and on, and it's still separate. If it didn't save after you powered it off and powered it back on, I don't know. I mean, like, I wouldn't be able to tell you because I don't know. I wouldn't be able to tell you. Did you tell Sean? Did he have any thoughts?
    61:12
    Yeah, he didn't really respond after that. I don't know if he's – well, no, his response was, regardless, Zach, he went to the whole, you shouldn't be playing Weird Al on same flippers anyway. They should be separate. Well, I mean, you can't stage flip if you do the conversion. Exactly. So, yeah, I would agree. I can play better with it being on one flipper than I could of the benefit that I would receive from a stage flipping. Okay, and that's a fair counterargument. counter argument. Here's the other thing when it comes to the P3 that in Discord we had a nice little discussion and everybody was like, no, figure it out. After you play so many games, your brain will be fine playing. Yeah, you'll adapt like the little added third flipper with the extra button on Starship Troopers. Guess what? I've never owned that game for a reason because that's the worst idea ever. Why would you ever put flippers on different buttons? Unless you have the Nintendo Game Club. I don't want But pinball is two fingers. It's two fingers. That's what you do. That's why people don't like action buttons. It's two fingers. My argument, because everybody's like, well, you use the action button. You use a MagnaSave button. Well, look, look, people. There's a difference between the primary utility and function of the sport, the game that is pinball, the control of the ball with two flippers versus a featured mech like a MagnaSave or a post or something like it, a diverter, that happens every once in a while. You are controlling the ball with your hands as a sport or with your flipper bat. That's your main control, and it should be on one. That would be my argument there. But what's interesting, Dennis and listener, and I want people to email thepinballshow at gmail.com, I think I figured out why some people are so easily to adapt that methodology of learn it, figure it out, versus some like myself that is saying that's an impossible thing to figure. It is not natural, nor will it ever be natural. And that is the distinction between the index flippers out there and the middle finger flippers out there. So, listener, think right now to yourself. You might even have to go up to a pinball machine, put your hands on it. Yeah, slide your hands on that lockdown bar. Do you flip the flippers with your index finger or with your middle finger? Dennis, are you an index or a middle finger? Middle. Okay. I am an index finger kind of guy. Here's what I figured out. And the sample size is not large enough yet. I would like to do some more research. You should poll our Patreon members. Well, I should. I'll do that between now and then. But my hypothesis is the number of middle finger flippers who are acceptable to flippers on different fingers is significantly higher than those that are acceptable to these modified flippers of the index finger, primarily index finger flippers. That's my hypothesis. Because from a, what do you call it, ergonomic? Yeah, okay, so it's the ergonomics of how the buttons on the P3 are laid out. When you, that single flipper, that primary bottom flipper, is if you're middle finger flipper and you go to that, then your index finger is pretty free to hit those upper flipper buttons, which is right past, that is, towards the back box of the primary flipper. So they're stacked in that way where your index finger is open to press those buttons. And you can more easily do it. Conversely, if you're an index finger flipper, there's really no way possible to utilize your middle fingers for those upper flippers. So that is your less dominant fingers. There's no way to use those as a index finger flipper, whereas a middle finger flipper can use their less dominant index fingers to control the upper flippers just from an ergonomic standpoint. So the single the index finger flipper like myself would have to alternate back and forth to use the upper and lower flippers, which is much more difficult, I would argue, than using actual two fingers. I think your argument is good. And in fact, I want to think a few years ago, there was a poll on Pennside, and I thought that middle finger flipping won out in terms of the majority of respondents. I think so. So there may have been logic at Multimorphic to say, well, this is how most people will approach it. Now, here's the thing you could do. You won't, but you could do to put it to the test. I don't know for sure, but I'm always told they can do everything under the sun. so I'm going to assume it's true, that you could probably go in somewhere in those settings and tell the sector to flip the two buttons so that the button that your index finger is on becomes, you put it where you normally flip the upper flippers, those buttons now flip the main flippers, and then you use your middle fingers to flip the upper flippers by moving it to the lower button.
    66:16
    If they can't tell me which right flippers to use in the first place, how am I going to program it? Look, I ain't going to solve that menuing. That's not a dentist thing to figure. I'm not going to explain any of that. But just reprogram it. There are no good pinball machines. I'm good. But I think that's my hot spot. I think that may be the case. I wonder if I jumped into the multimorphic Discord and welcomed over there. If I jumped in and said, hey, let's take a poll. I wonder what. I think I would be right. I think, yeah. So you middle finger flippers out there, don't you snub up our superior playability of our index fingers. Because I'd like to, I need to talk to a hand surgeon. I would like to think that the specifications and the detail-oriented movements of the index finger are much more acute than that of the middle finger. Thus, I have no clue why you guys are using your middle fingers because it is objectively the wrong finger to use. Keep using it. I don't care. But it's the wrong finger to use when playing pinball.
    67:25
    Your Honor, I rest my case. Oh, that's a strong argument there, Dennis. Yeah, that in part, I don't think a lot of people agree with that. I wonder how people shoot guns. Do they shoot them with their middle finger or their index finger? you know the answer I wonder how people pick their nose they pick them with their index finger well fine pinky is there any pinky nose pickers out there I see y'all I see y at the stoplight why didn you contemplate people playing pinball who don use the index or the middle Whenever you wipe your nose Why are you still on the nose thing This is a pinball podcast.
    68:05
    You use your index finger for more things than you do your middle finger. That's what I'm saying. Sure. But articulating a button doesn't require a great deal of tip sensitivity. That's a good argument. I need to feel the very tip of the... I still think reaction time is better for an index finger than it is for a middle finger. I do. I think the only finger where it would apply that there'd be like a reaction delay would be the ring because of how it's connected. I think all the other fingers in theory would be completely plausible for you to move at appropriate controlled speed.
    68:37
    Hmm. Okay. Even the thumb. You could be a thumb flipper. A flangey flippers. There's flangeys out there, people. Which flangey? You used a flip and fling. Which finger do you think a certain butler of the Thanksgiving giblet and turkey top? What do you think he uses? He just uses a strong hand. He uses a strong finger. I can't hold you. You've got to take my strong hand. You know what? When he goes boop, boop, boop on the nose, he does so with his index claw, not his middle claw, his index claw. The claw.
    69:14
    I don't know what that is. All right, we got people to thank. I'll flip it anyway. I want to thank the Screaming Goat Club members because, damn it, there is a new addition to this club.
    69:28
    Oh, I can't thank you guys enough. And we always start the thank yous by thanking that old grizzly bobcat.
    69:36
    A couple of times we don't thank him first. That's right, even if he attacks my wife. It's okay. Oh, shoot that fucker. Steve. Thank you, Steve.
    69:45
    Bumblebee tuna. Your balls are showing. Bumblebee Tuna. Can you name that? What movie is that? No. I have no idea what you're talking about. Not only Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, but it's When Nature Calls, the sequel. Bumbleway of Tuna.
    70:00
    Bumbleway of Tuna. Hi there. Nice to see you. Bumblebee Tuna. Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. How are you this afternoon?
    70:10
    Alrighty then. Excuse me. Your balls are showing. Bumblebee tuna? Oh, the one where he's birthed out of that rhino? Yep, bumblebee tuna.
    70:22
    Fantastic stuff there. I haven't seen that in a while. Rob, I've got to thank Rob for being a sexy little kitten. A panther.
    70:30
    Thank you, Rob, for all the support. Colin. Oh, Colin. You're a pinball mixing wizard. You know what, Colin? He's all the support he can get this week. Well, he had a run-in with the infamous Chris Cooler since last week. Shit. Poor Colin. Woof. Chris was his usual self and just nasty and mean. He didn't degrade as Colin's wife that I know of. That media mixer got old Chris Cooler's fired up, and Colin got the brunt of it. I wanted to be like, poor Colin. Like, where's Will O'Hedding with Twip? He's doing this media mixer too. Where's he at? And then again, maybe Chris wouldn't attack him because he runs the Twippies. See if there's connections everywhere. At one point, Chris Cooler said something to the effect of, because I think Don's wife went in there. He's like, I'm not going to sit here and listen to some out-of-shape pink-haired woman. Wow, what a disgusting human. Wow, who says that kind of stuff? Okay, I'd rather be on this end of the fence. I'm good. Frank, thank you, Frank. Sorry, Colin, for all of that. I've seen you go through that, and that sucks, man. You did nothing wrong. That sucks. Frank, thank you. Yeah.
    71:53
    Would you own a falcon as a pet? No. Any birds at all as a pet? No. Not even a parakeet, Petey? Oh, my gosh. They don't shut up.
    72:05
    No offense to any of you who own birds. I'm sure you've adapted, but anytime I've visited people with birds, I'm just like, no. This has got, like, what do you do? Do you, like, give them NyQuil? Like, what do you do? Pretty bird. Just throwing the blanket over the cage actually work? He didn't even have a head.
    72:25
    Oh, I want to thank Dave for shaking it up. I'm shaking it up this episode. I'll be getting emails. Shaking it up with the shaker motor, the OEM Stern shaker motor. Thank you, David. We're going to get him to Red Trimmer one day. No. Shake his way to victory. Speaking of shaking up a little bit, Joe Fox, where are you at?
    72:46
    I haven't heard from Joe in a while. I know. Where's Joe? Where in the world is Joe Fox from Delaware? I don't know. Where is he at? He needs to be hanging out at Expo. Joe, are you going to Expo? He doesn't even listen to these episodes. Charlie, thank you, Charlie.
    73:01
    Ring-a-ding. People liked that song I used last time, the Dre song. Oh, did they? They did. Yeah, there it is. Ring that Venom bell tower. And our newest member of the Screaming Goat Club, Willie. Oh, Willie. Willie is here. Thank you, William. as he is now taking his Patreon dollars elsewhere. William, we had to go through the different nicknames. What are we going to choose for William? He's such a good guy. Easy, free spirit. Very mellow. He sees the best in people and situations.
    73:59
    He's a, I don't know if he's a newer collector, but he has a plethora of wonderful, beautiful, brand new, just top shelf collection of pinball machines. and he hung out with us on the last. He was a Nordman member. Yes, all right. Oh, yeah. He's the one who he had a fathom. Yeah, he made one behind him. One hell of an upgrade to jump up to the Screaming Go Club membership. So thank you, William. We're going to give you a nickname that, first off, I was going to do the assassin because you're so hard to find information on. You try to stalk him online. Well, you try to get cues here and there to try to create a good nickname for him. But, yeah, I couldn't find anything. So it was going to be the Stealthy Assassin. But I think the moniker, the reason that he's so hard to find stuff is just because he's so damn chill and easygoing. So we're going to go here as his nickname, Dennis. We're going with the Dude. He's simply going to be known going forward as the Dude. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me, you know. Well, that or his dudeness or Duder or, you know, El Duderino, if you're not into the whole brevity thing. Are you employed, sir?
    75:17
    Employed? You don't go out looking for a job dressed like that, do you, on a weekday? Is this a, what day is this? Because he ties the room together. He abides, number one. Oh, sure, abiding, yeah. Absolutely. He doesn't have any separated toes with pink nail polish around. No, he's the dude.
    75:40
    I wonder if you can play pinball with your toes. You have to clip your toenails so you can. So he's chill. He's the dude. He's the moment of Zen. Namaste. That's William. And he's part of our Screaming Go Club now. Thank you so much, William.
    75:58
    Thanks to all those who hang out in the club membership discord. Make sure to go answer that poll. Are you a middle finger flipper or an index finger flipper? And which finger do you use to pick boogers? See, I'm still index on that one, too. Finger dexterous. A reminder that the next TPS Live Zoom Hangout, for those part of the Screaming Goat Normam Club membership levels, is going to be September 27th at 8 p.m. That's this Wednesday at 8 p.m. Central. Woo-hoo, 8 p.m. Central, September 27th. Be there, people. We'll talk about all kinds of juice We gotta do the segment of all segments here The one that's gonna earn us an invitation To that pinball media mixer It's the one that starts with pinball And ends in MARKET TRENDS I like your style dude Turning out this week Den Den is Venom Isn't that all the evidence you've been given?
    77:01
    it's hot right now you know for this last week i've had i've had what two or three people opt out of their premium up to an alley of venom they're seeing what the gameplay is they're liking what they're seeing the and we've got we've got pros in stock those are selling well now it was like a month from release now that they're starting to roll out people are purchasing them more we're We're getting more videos out there, and the game is damn fun. Remember, it's the Brett Favre of pinball machines. It's a gunslinger, baby. Love you, Texas. So training up this week is Venom Pinball from Stern Pinball. Also training up this week is Pinside. Have I ever trained it up, Pinside Dennis?
    77:45
    Exactly. Right now he's walked out. He's taking a poop. No, yes, I went to pee while you were doing your market trends because I figured I had a huge window. Yeah. So what are you saying that's trending up even though we're in a complete, like, what's crypto winter for pinball? Arctic pinball? I said pin side. Have I ever trended up pin side? I don't believe I have. Yes, you have. Have I? Okay. Well, usually trending them down, but damn it, they deserve. All right. Maybe it was down. I don't remember. They deserve to be trended up this week. Quite simply, for doing their job impeccably. That's right. I'm shilling pin side now. Oh, do you mean like the moderators or what? The moderators in general, yes. Oh, okay. Just been doing it. If you want to know anything pinball or go anywhere pinball, it's usually Pinside. It's a great place to go to, even if there's some haters on there. I had an interaction on Pinside this last weekend lying in bed where somebody was just trying to just be nasty to my business for no evidence, no reason. I even told the guy, like, just stop. If you have reason or evidence, if I messed up an order in the past, like, tell everybody here. But you keep going throughout the threads of this last year just saying you don't know why I'm in business still. I'm shady. But at least explain yourself. And he wouldn't because it's bullshit. So Pennside recognized that. And they immediately responded, reprimanding and having consequences for that individual for putting up just blatant lies and harm and hate immediately. Immediately, within five minutes, Dennis, of his bullshit smattering, Pennside was there promptly, and they took care of it. And they also messaged me to say, appreciate what you do for the industry, and we hope that that individual spreading those false statements does not negatively impact you, your family, your livelihood, whatever it may be. Thank you, Zach. You know what? pin side coming through coming through and then after that everybody in that thread was like thank god that that turd is out of here god that guy sucked why does everybody have to be so negative pinball it's all good baby it's pinball can't be happy be gone now it is i i mean i don't know if that's like a saying or i'm gonna make it a saying get gone all straighting up this week is my best buddy, Greg Bone. Yeah, Greg Bone. You want to know why?
    80:17
    No. It's because Greg Bone has now unlocked another insider achievement in this industry, and that is he has become a game operator now.
    80:29
    Greg Bone is a game operator. He's operating five beautiful Stern Pro machines, Insider Connect, all that good stuff at a place called Rubbin' Butts. I can't make this up. Rubbin' Butts is a barbecue place around where he lives, Louisville area there. So if you're in that area, you've got to go check it out. Greg Bone, man. He's become like the tech extraordinaire, especially for Stern Spike System games. But, yeah, now he's routing and operating games. I'm proud of you, Greg. Nicely done. He's got a Venom Pro on location ready to rock and roll. Look at that. and then bring that up because you're going to see other big things coming from the routing and operating of a Greg Bone maybe some flipping out pinball action nicely done but it all can't be butterflies here we got to throw bones on people trending down this week is Guardians of the Galaxy Pro no they're revolting at final resistant no final voyage it's finally voyaging well members don't lie I only report the facts and that's how marketplaces work. If you have something that's hard to get and now you're bringing a lot more into the marketplace the numbers are going to go down. It's just the way it is. The Guardians of the Galaxy Pro are no longer those games that are going to be hard to find. So the price is going to go down on the secondary market. So if you want to get one you can get one now it's going to be a lot cheaper than it was a month ago. Here in a couple months it's going to be even cheaper. Also trending down this week is Jurassic Park L.E. Obviously. We talked about it before but damn I got one in on trade trying to sell it for like $11,899. I can't even sell it. I'm going to have to lower that thing to like lower 11s. What is going on? And ultimately, the last trending down this week is a very special game from my collection. This game was so rare and special, Dennis, that I couldn't even take a picture of it. There's people that are part of the Jersey Jack pinball company that didn't even know I had it. But it's gone. And I've already said too much by mentioning JGP. I got rid of it. Wow. There's a rare bird, only one of like three in existence. Wow. Yeah. And speaking of three, sometimes three things were supposed to spin all at the same time, but they didn't.
    82:46
    But they did for me. Oh, I hate to see it go. That rare bird flew off. It was heading towards Canada. I don't know if it made it all the way to Canada, but it was heading north, not only for the winter, but for its lifetime. R.I.P. working prototype chest.
    83:10
    Deal of the week this week. Buy, buy, buy! It's a P3 Weird Al. Flip it up and down. I had this thing that was $14,000 plus brand new. I had it at $11,499. That's saving a ton, but you know what? I'm a giver here, baby. I'm going to slash that price and it's going to be $10,999. That's $500 off. Buy, buy, buy! I'll have to deal with the topper, but come and get it. I might have to delete my username. If anybody's local here, come and fix the game for me so that I can play it. Shit. You said you weren't playing it ever again. Well, I just don't want to go back into the abyss that is those settings. Oh, God. I had a nightmare just rolling, sweating. No, no. No, no, no. What's back is front is forward is back is exit. No! And as always, people, look, I'm just here to report the facts, to give you some laughs, because numbers don't lie. They can be funny, too, on Pinball Market Trends.
    84:07
    Yay. All right, Dennis, shut us down here. Where can people catch you? Oh, my God. Finally. You don't even want them to, do you? Well, they can email me. EclecticGamersPodcast.gmail.com is the easiest way for me to directly, quickly see the message. Or they can email me at ThePinballShow at gmail.com. I was going to say, sometimes people forget that I do have access to those. Yeah. And while you're at it, go to Facebook and follow the Pinball Show. Go to TikTok. Get onto our Discord by becoming a member yourself. Or just email us at thepinballshow at gmail.com. Follow, like, and subscribe to Straight Down the Middle. Greg may be rubbing butts, but we'd like your membership over there. Watch some vertical video game plays. Flipping Out, same thing. Flipping Out Pinball. I really need you guys. If you guys are not following Flipping Out Pinball on Instagram, I'm dumping a lot of stuff there. as well as some upcoming reels this week alone, one including Olive Garden. How about that? And on social media, Facebook, YouTube, all of that stuff. Speaking of flipping out pinball. When I buy my pinball, shit, I buy from flipping out. From toppers, art, plays, TV, I've got it figured out. Flipping out, figured out. When I think of pinball, I think flipping out. Flipping out, figured out. When I buy, buy, buy, I buy from flipping out. Buy, buy, buy. Product showcase this week is Guardians of the Galaxy Pro December spots. I do still have a handful of spots available. So if you've always been wanting one and you didn't have to overpay, pre-order. It's a pre-order. Pre-order that game now at flippingoutpinball.com or email me at Zach, Z-A-C-H-F, flip the letter N out to pinball.com or text me at 812-457-9711. If I don't answer the phone at like 9 o'clock at night, it may be because I'm busy and I'm at a thing. or lately I've been in bed. We have all kinds of games in stock. Go check out the list of those now. You can find the most updated list on our Facebook page for Flippin' Out Pinball. But some of the newer stuff we got in, Venom Pros are in stock, ready to go. Galactic Tank Force, with or without the rights upheld, at least in stock, ready to go. Jurassic Park 30th, we are down to our last one. It's simply number two. Number two. So a little bit of a premium on that thing. We've got used games in stock. I do have Queen still.
    86:31
    You name it, I probably have one right now for you, as well as all the accessories and goodies for you as well. Flipping out with friends, go over to the YouTube channel, Flipping Out Pinball, and you'll see Joe Engelberth with his brother or with some of the industry leaders interviewing them or hanging out with a panel of media members like Dennis Creasel or Hottie from Frisco Pinball. George, don't panic. Flip. TPN last week, what happened? We had all kinds of podcasts, didn't we? Or we said Triple Drain? No, we had a whole two. We had a whole two come out. So it's not been a lot since our last episode. Quality over quantity. Right, yes, exactly. So we had episode 12 of the Pinball Innovators and Makers podcast came out, titled Innovation. Hey, I can do that. That was the one that he did with Sean Irby. Oh, okay. And then – The 8 Ball Beyond guy, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, 8 Ball Beyond. And then Triple Drain did have episode 42. It's been like over a month since they put an episode out. That's the one where I'm only halfway through it because ostensibly it's about Venom. But the whole like first hour keeps getting pushed back where they're not talking about Venom because they're talking about Rick and Morty. Oh, that's a Joel thing then. Yes, it's a Joel thing. I've finally gotten to the part where Venom is being discussed, but I'm not all the way through the show yet. And at that point, Tom's tired.
    87:50
    Yes. So anyway, those are the two episodes that have come out. the pinball show that we did for episode 137. Very, very cool. I think this week we'll probably get a final round. That's coming. Yeah, it would be about on pace with that. But, you know, Marty's really busy. Jeff's been traveling, thus making him very busy. A lot of people are really busy. Oh, my gosh. October's super busy. It is. And speaking of that, I think we should probably announce, so that there aren't 20,000 emails coming in, that we are not having an episode in two weeks. Yes. The plane has no episode in two weeks. and then the following two weeks hopefully we can get one out around expo time this is Zach's schedule this is causing a lot of conflicts with the recording schedule I've got camping, I've got some cruise to go on I've got the expo thing believe it or not I'm not going to do conventions this year but there is one local comic con kind of thing that I'm doing because it's going to be a different thing next year Dennis, do you think if your schedule aligned, if I ran my own show convention, would you come?
    89:00
    You're just thinking about starting up a convention? Where would it be? Does it matter, Dennis? Damn. You've got to support me. Come on. I'll say maybe. I'll take it. I will take it.
    89:15
    Just looking into some stuff, you know. I figure, yeah, we'll keep it there for now. Invite me to your media mixer.
    89:25
    If you have decided to pull a troll move and bought up the rights to Galactic Tank Force, don't do it. Come on. American Pinball needs this. Let them have the rights back. I don't know if anyone's done that, but if they have, come on. We don't need that sort of trolling. Just let them have it. Whoever trolled us on the pinballnetwork.com still hasn't. that trolls don't give nothing. Oh, I forgot all about that domain. They're still re-upping that damn domain. And they like to spend the money on it. And always practice safe pinball. And for flip's sake, use your dominant index finger when you're playing pinball. Everything else is simply wrong. Same as the left-handers out there. No, I'm joking.
    90:06
    It's called adapting. Come on. I think Darwin taught us that, didn't he? That's not exactly what Darwin was going for. I wonder if those fucking park finches use their index claw or their middle claw.