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Episode 187: Martin Robbins, TPF bound

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·36m 21s·analyzed·Mar 21, 2019
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TL;DR

Martin Robbins and Jeff Teolis preview Texas Pinball Festival with insider details on seminars, games, and industry announcements.

Summary

Jeff Teolis interviews Martin Robbins from Head to Head Pinball podcast about attending Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) for the first time. Both hosts discuss TPF's seminars, vendor booths, game list, and competitive meta, with particular focus on Steve Ritchie seminars, Jersey Jack Willy Wonka rumors, Stern's Munsters release, and P3 Multimorphic networked gameplay. The conversation also covers Robbins' upcoming Australia trip, Pinberg attendance plans, and cultural/travel observations.

Key Claims

  • Jersey Jack will reveal Willy Wonka at Texas Pinball Festival

    medium confidence · Teolis mentions 'the rumor really is that he will be revealing Willy Wonka' and references 'leaked images' of the game, though he hasn't seen them and wants to be surprised by the official announcement.

  • Star Wars has a flow layout with stop-start rules, distinguishing it from Steve Ritchie's typical design philosophy

    high confidence · Robbins explains: 'The big disconnect is it's a flow layout with stop-start rules...you've got to choose what you do with your character and then whatever sort of bonus you want to put on but then you've got to stop, move your multipliers hit the shot, stop, move your multipliers.'

  • Stern's next game after Star Wars will likely be Steve Ritchie-designed

    medium confidence · Teolis states: 'It's always great to hear the King, and I cannot imagine that he will leak or do anything about his next game, which is apparently next on the line for Stern.'

  • Spooky Pinball's Circus Maximus was deprioritized in favor of Kingpin due to lower demand

    medium confidence · Robbins notes: 'What I've heard is that they put that aside really because probably the demand's not quite there, and then they're working on Kingpin.'

  • American Pinball has established a distinct flipper feel and manufacturing style with Oktoberfest revamp

    high confidence · Robbins: 'American Pinball have now created their own feel. The flipper feel, the way the rubbers bounce, they've stamped their own style on how a pinball machine feels. The layout of Oktoberfest is absolutely spectacular.'

  • P3 Multimorphic will have four networked Cosmic Heart Racing machines at Texas Pinball Festival

    high confidence · Robbins: 'I also believe that they're going to actually have four Cosmic Heart Racings. They're all networked up so people can actually play against each other.'

  • Munsters LE machines are currently boxed and ready for Australia delivery by end of March

    high confidence · Teolis describes seeing Munsters LE with Australia label in Stern factory; Robbins confirms distributor said end of March delivery while he's in America.

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm not nervous. I'm going to pretty much wing it. I don't even know whether we're going to catch up.”

    Martin Robbins @ N/A — Robbins discusses his Q&A session with Haggis Pinball, showing casual preparation despite hosting industry figures.

  • “I want to be surprised when it gets announced I want that full announce experience”

    Jeff Teolis @ N/A — Teolis explicitly avoids leaked Willy Wonka images to experience the official Jersey Jack announcement at TPF.

  • “The big disconnect is it's a flow layout with stop-start rules...you've got to stop, move your multipliers hit the shot, stop, move your multipliers that takes a lot of getting used to”

    Jeff Teolis @ N/A — Technical explanation of Star Wars' unusual design approach departing from Ritchie's traditional flow methodology.

  • “American Pinball have now created their own feel. The flipper feel, the way the rubbers bounce, they've stamped their own style”

    Martin Robbins @ N/A — Establishes American Pinball as a distinct manufacturer with recognizable design philosophy.

  • “Four player, side by side, it will be like the ultimate party setup.”

    Jeff Teolis @ N/A — Describes the competitive appeal of networked P3 Cosmic Heart Racing machines.

  • “If we sort of get nominated again, honestly, that's going to be all I'm going to be happy about. If we win, I will be absolutely over the moon.”

    Martin Robbins @ N/A — Shows Robbins' appreciation for Twippy Awards recognition regardless of outcome.

  • “I'm almost embarrassed to say I wasn't going to go if I wasn't in the tournament, but it's just so frustrating for somebody like me because it is such a big tournament”

    Martin Robbins @ N/A — Reveals tournament-focused players' perspective on major pinball events—participation in competition is primary draw.

  • “This Week in Pinball and what Jeff and Zach and everybody are doing...Jeff knows how I feel about this week in pinball and the efforts that he puts in 40 hours on top of his regular job”

Entities

Martin RobbinspersonJeff TeolispersonTexas Pinball FestivaleventSteve RitchiepersonJersey Jack PinballcompanyWilly WonkagameStar Warsgame

Signals

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Tournament-focused players express frustration about event accessibility without competition participation

    medium · Robbins: 'it would just, to me personally, be such a tease to be there and not get a chance to play' without tournament entry

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Star Wars represents departure from Steve Ritchie's traditional flow design with stop-start rule mechanic

    high · Teolis explains unique stop-start multiplier management system contrasting with Game of Thrones' pure flow approach

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival features 400+ games and attracts international competitive players and content creators

    high · Robbins prepared spreadsheet of machines to play; Teolis confirmed 400+ game availability and multiple seminars

  • ?

    community_signal: Christopher Franchi collaboration on Stern's Munsters indicates continued role as artist/designer on major releases

    high · Seminar featuring 'Christopher Franchi, a recent guest of Pinball Profile' on Munsters design team

  • ?

    product_strategy: Munsters LE delivery to Australia confirmed for end of March, with units currently boxed at Stern factory

    high · Teolis witnessed Munsters LE with Australia label in Stern factory; Robbins confirmed distributor ETA

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.109

0:00
Hot potato, hot potato. Hot potato, hot potato. Hot potato, hot potato. Potato, potato, potato, potato. It's time now for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teolis. You can find our... You know where you can find us. Do I have to go through this? No. Not when I have a special guest today. And he is special. We're going way over to Australia right now. our good friend Marty Robbins from Head to Head Pinball, really the strength of the show as we've seen over the last few weeks, although you've kept it together, my friend. You've done very, very well. Yeah, I'm doing my best. Thank you, Jeff, and thank you very much for having me on. Is it hard without your partner? I mean, I know a lot of us have certainly missed Pinside Petey.
0:51
Absolutely. I miss Petey. Petey is really now the backbone of the show. Forget Ryan. Forget me. We don't need to be on. Petey is the one that needs to keep it together. Yeah. Do you remember him? I think. I think I do. But anyway, giggled a lot. No, that was you. No, I don't. Yeah, anyway. Junk a lot. I'll cut that. No, that's also not him. Well, you know the one thing about Ryan is he's certainly into competitions, and you kind of got him into that. He just kind of fell into it, but everyone does as they get into IFPA, and you've always been playing. but it's so funny because you and I are talking today because we are two noobs going to a foreign land this week we're going to Texas we are indeed yeah the Texas pinball festival somebody told me I don't know where I heard it that you were going so I thought I should reach out to you I want to know what to do there because I've never been you've never been have you looked at the agenda you're a competition player but you're not going to be playing in the competition No, and so what's really good about that is that I'll actually get to go to the seminars. And, you know, it's good for those people that aren't going. I think a lot of them are going to be, you know, either captured either on, you know, social media or people will post them up later. And, you know, I've got the full, I guess, two and a half days really because it's Friday night and then Saturday and Sunday just to actually experience these seminars. And, you know, whenever I've gone to the big shows, I've always just been focused on the tournament. And as much as we obviously love tournaments, you do kind of feel a little bit chained to the tournaments because particularly if they're like a pump and dump, you've just got to get as many games as possible. But you need to watch the action to see where you are. So you don't get to see everything else. And I'm really looking forward to the everything else. And, you know, we've got seminars with Steve Ritchie, right? Now, I've always said that Steve Ritchie is my favorite designer. He still is. You know, let's put Star Wars aside. And I've never met him. So I'm just really excited to be in a room, Steve Ritchie, hearing what he's got to say. And, you know, let's see what comes from that. I've mentioned recently, I've come around to Star Wars. I'm not saying it's my favorite, but now that I understand it, And you and I are almost identical because when it comes to rules, we are the last people playing pinball to figure out rules. But I've been playing it a lot at a free location. So I've really started to learn the rules a little bit and I get it a little bit more. So I wonder if that will happen to you. It actually has started happening. There still is for me, the big disconnect is it's a flow layout with stop-start rules. that's something you've really got to get used to because with Steve Ritchie it's like probably previously the most complicated machine he had was Game of Thrones but even with Game of Thrones choose your house, you know what you've got to do flow, flow, flow. With this you've got to choose what you do with your character and then whatever sort of bonus you want to put on but then you've got to stop, move your multipliers hit the shot, stop, move your multipliers that takes a lot of getting used to but once you do, then the game really opens up. So I'm kind of warming to it as well. But you'll get to play that and so many different games too. So it's not like you're not going to be playing pinball. You're going to see the shows and from what I hear what 400 plus games at Texas Pinball Festival. And some unique machines that you and I probably have never played before. So I'm looking forward to that. Yeah and I always gravitate to machines that I've never played. I have played, not EMs but pretty much solid states onwards. I've played almost all of them that have been in Australia. So I always look for machines that I've never played or have played maybe only a couple of times. So with that many machines there, and I've looked at the list. You can actually go to the Texas Pinball Festival website and look at the game list. And, of course, I've got a spreadsheet with all the machines, and I've literally highlighted all the ones that I want to see that I haven't played. You made a spreadsheet? Yeah, of course I did. Of course you did. You had to. I'm a manager. That's what I do, right?

  • Texas Pinball Festival has 400+ games available to play

    high confidence · Robbins states: 'from what I hear what 400 plus games at Texas Pinball Festival.'

    • Martin Robbins @ N/A — Recognition of Colin McAlpine's This Week in Pinball as significant community resource requiring substantial time investment.

    Munsters
    game
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Alice Coopergame
    American Pinballcompany
    Oktoberfestgame
    Multimorphic P3product
    Cosmic Heart Racinggame
    Haggis Pinballcompany
    Kingpingame
    Christopher Franchiperson
    John Borgperson
    Bowen Cairnsperson
    This Week in Pinballmedia
    Head to Head Pinballmedia
    Pinbergevent
    Brisbane Mastersevent
    Twippy Awardsevent

    product_strategy: American Pinball revising Oktoberfest side ramp and scoop mechanics to reduce rejects and improve playability

    high · Robbins: 'They've done some changes...The scoop being able to not reject. So I really like the layout of that game.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Steve Ritchie's next game appears to be in pipeline for Stern after Star Wars completion

    medium · Teolis: 'his next game, which is apparently next on the line for Stern'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Jersey Jack Pinball to announce Willy Wonka at Texas Pinball Festival

    medium · Teolis: 'the rumor really is that he will be revealing Willy Wonka and I've not seen all the leaked images apparently there are leaked images'

  • ?

    business_signal: Spooky Pinball deprioritizing Circus Maximus due to lower market demand, focusing on Kingpin instead

    medium · Robbins: 'they put that aside really because probably the demand's not quite there, and then they're working on Kingpin'

  • ?

    technology_signal: P3 Multimorphic implementing networked multiplayer gameplay with four machines linked for competitive real-time play

    high · Robbins confirms four Cosmic Heart Racing machines networked at TPF with Mario Kart-style competitive mechanics

    • 5:00
    Spreadsheets, graphs, charts, the whole thing. You're paid by Excel, aren't you? I pretty much am. Excel and Pinstadium, apparently. Yes, that's true. Now, here are some of the things. Let's go through some of the highlights, the events at Texas Pinball Festival. So you're going to be arriving Friday night. Friday night, 5 o'clock, the festival opens at 6 o'clock. We've got trivia with our friend Jonathan Houston of Pinball Magazine. Plus the other Martin from Pinball News will be there. So I'm looking forward to that. That's at the Embassy Suites Cypress Lounge. Then as far as the seminars, we're going to, I mean, bang, bang, bang here. Jersey Jack at 7 o'clock. Do you think maybe, perhaps, we'll get a taste of what's to come for their next game? I really am. Now, I know that recently you've sort of, and a few people have talked about the fact that we're not really all about rumors and speculation. Obviously, Head to Head is all about rumors and speculation. That's how we've been able to do it for 83 episodes. but the rumor really is that he will be revealing Willy Wonka and I've not seen all the leaked images apparently there are leaked images and I'm not even seeking them I want to be surprised when it gets announced I want that full announce experience so hopefully that happens that will be something at eight o'clock coin op carnival about the publication it's been on actually a few of the podcast, but it's a pretty exciting book about EM pinball arcades and the people involved. So what I really like about this book really is, first of all, it's real. It's not like the other ones like the Kickstarters and the pre-order model. It's done. It's there. And it's on an era of machines that there's really not a lot of information and certainly not in one compendium, if you will. That's at 8 o'clock in the seminar room on Friday night. 9 o'clock, Steve Ritchie holds court. It's always great to hear the King, and I cannot imagine that he will leak or do anything about his next game, which is apparently next on the line for Stern. I don't think he needs to. He's just got such a great history. He's a good storyteller. I don't know if he needs to do that, and it just doesn't seem to be the Stern way. I could be wrong, but I really don't think we'll hear what the next title is. Yeah, agreed. On Saturday, another full day of amazing events, the swap meet. Now, I don't know what that's going to be like, but I kind of want to check it out. I don't know whether I'm going to be able to bring a pinball machine back in my suitcase. But mods, maybe some interesting, give you some ideas. Yeah. Who knows? A lot of people have actually, because you probably know that the shipping from North America to Australia is usually the same price as the item that's being shipped over. So people have been putting a lot of requests in for me. I'm practically a courier bringing a lot of stuff back. So, yeah, I might see some stuff there as well. Game Room opens up at 10 o'clock. Haggis Pinball. Now, I think I saw a clip of Ryan maybe flipping something. Is that possible? Did I see that correctly? Yeah, there is a picture of Ryan has flipped one of the two machines that they're in development. And that session with Haggis Pinball will be a Q&A session. And I'll be the person asking the questions. That's very, very cool. It is cool. Are you nervous? It's a big crowd. Look, I'm not nervous. I'm going to pretty much wing it. I don't even know whether we're going to catch up. Well done. Good preparation. Well done. And also, I've had the invitation to come over and see it and flip it, but I don't want to because I want my questions to be genuine that I don't know the answers to. Some would say that's lazy research. Some would say that's just an honest opinion. I would say that's pinball profile way, but I wouldn't say that. This is a well-prepared show. What are you talking about? We have several notes. I don't have any of them, but yeah. Okay. Well, P3 Multimorphic. You've got to expect them to be in Texas. I've heard you talk about it. I am a massive fan of the P3 system. My friend Ian Harrower has one Lexi Lightspeed I think it great Some of the other games are certainly fun I like the baseball game What are your thoughts on P3 and that technology Yeah so I did recently stream and play the Cosmic Heart Racing and I also believe that they're going to actually have four Cosmic Heart Racings. They're all networked up so people can actually play against each other. That's really cool. And the nature of that particular game, I sort of said on head-to-head, It's not your standard rule set. It's pretty much like a Mario Kart where the shots that you make is your accelerators and then you get power-ups that can either boost your speed or can attack other players. Four player, side by side, it will be like the ultimate party setup. I think that is that mode's best feature, the linking of the machines. I don't know how that will play as a standalone. I've heard some people say it's certainly more fun when there's other people. It only makes sense, but how many people have four machines back to back to back? No, but that's right. But when you're playing four players on the one machine, each person plays in turn. So you are competing against those other people, but it's not at the same time in real time. For sure. You think of those big race car games that you see that all the video game companies come out with. That's fun. The adrenaline there when you can actually see the car you're competing against, your buddy beside you. That's interesting. It would work with pinball. It would. Have you been in a heads-up tournament? I was just in one last weekend in Chicago. Yeah, I find it extremely fun. Yeah, that's what I think it'll be like, is that you can look over your shoulder and you can see where everybody is, and so that gives you some adrenaline. So I'm assuming that's how it's going to be. At 3 o'clock on Saturday, Making the Munsters, John Borg, Christopher Franchi, a recent guest of Pinball Profile, Dwight Sullivan, and Jerry Thompson. You're getting the who's who of that great new Stern machine. and a chance to see the different versions of the game. So that'll be a very popular seminar at three. You going to check that out? That is an absolute certain for me. Have you got your monsters yet? No. I actually did message our distributor here. We always said that it was going to be the end of March, and it's still due for end of March. So I'll actually be in America when it arrives, but I'll wait until I come back to get it. Now, the last time you received an LE and you were in America, Ryan picked it up, and he put his DNA all over it, and you had to get rid of it because it just wasn't the same as you opening the box. I do get that. I'm making fun of you here, but I actually understood what you were saying. There's no real connection because I just got a new game, and I know exactly what you're talking about. It's only you who's been on it, or you had that first flip. Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, he also gave me a bit of flack for it as well, but I've spoken to a lot of people that agree, And, you know, you just want that special moment when, you know, these machines aren't cheap. And as you know, in Australia, they're probably about 20 to 30 percent premium on what you'd pay in North America. You want it to be a special occasion when it arrives. When my wife, Anne, and I were at the Stern factory in Chicago last week, Zach Sharp gave us a tour and he showed us all the different countries and all the different machines and how they were all boxed up. And, of course, different specs for how the power works on the machines. And I'm not kidding you. He wouldn't let me take a picture. I said, can I please take this picture for Marty? A picture of a Munsters LE with the Australia label in a box. So I know it's ready to go. Yeah, that could have been my actual machine. It could have been yours. Yeah, it could have been. I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be great. The Three Rings of Circus Maximus at 4 o'clock. Have you played Circus? Yes, the pinball circus at the Pinball Hall of Fame. Is that the one? Yes. It was the Python Angelo, you know, vertical... Novelty game? It's a fun game, but it had very limited rules. So once you get up the top and you defeat it, it's like, okay, fine, good, very inventive, looks amazing. It'd be interesting to see what they're doing. And what I've heard is that they put that aside really because probably the demand's not quite there, and then they're working on Kingpin. So they put that aside, and so now they're working on Kingpin, which I believe there would be a lot more demand for. It's a better flipping game. So that's probably what we're going to see more about. I really enjoy Kingpin. I hope they are working on that because that is a fun game. They had that at Freeplay Florida. I'd never played it before. You want to talk about great flow and Mark Ritchie? Loved it a lot. So that will be at 4 o'clock. We'll see that. American Pinball at 5 o'clock with the revamped Oktoberfest. You've streamed it before on Melbourne Silver Ball League. I really, really enjoyed the game. I only played it at Expo, so it was only one of the first three off the line, if you will. They've done some changes. I'm looking forward to see how that side ramp works. The scoop being able to not reject. So I really like the layout of that game. Your thoughts? Yeah, look, I do. And when I streamed it, the first thing that was really apparent was, first of all, American Pinball have now created their own feel. The flipper feel, the way the rubbers bounce, they've stamped their own style on how a pinball machine feels. The layout of Oktoberfest is absolutely spectacular.
    14:23
    I'm really looking forward to how those changes have been made because, yeah, the side ramp was a bit challenging and I got a lot of rejects from the scoop. They've fixed those. but I also will be streaming from Texas Pinball Festival with American Pinball, Oktoberfest, the latest production. So I believe that's going to be Friday night, about 11 o'clock. Six o'clock on Saturday, a live pinball tutorial from Spooky Pinball's Alice Cooper and Bowen Cairns showing you how it's done. That's a game. I think I actually played that with you at Pinberg. It was right beside Thunderbirds. We said, see you later. We went and played Alice Cooper. We did. And that was a fun game. There was a lineup. I only played it once, but I liked it. I played it twice. I also liked it. It has a fairly unconventional layout, which I guess recent spookies are known for. And what I saw, I liked. The art looks great. There's a bit of flow. The rules were pretty early. And with Bowen now at the helm, we can expect some good coding. Now, here's the question I want to ask you. There's an autograph session at 7. I'm sure you'll be swamped the whole time you're there. But at 8 o'clock on Saturday night, Jeff Patterson and Zach and Greg have done so much work to put together the Twippy Awards. And we're going to see a lot of people's favorites, a lot of great categories. They had over 2,000 votes in this. So there's certainly a lot of interest there. And the reason I'm asking you, Marty, Marty, last year, even with a short period of time, Head to Head Pinball, rightfully, as they should this year as well, was nominated for Best Podcast. I wonder if this is going to be the year for head-to-head pinball. I hope it is. But the other question is, if and when you win that award, are you going to treat the award like you did the award you won at the Trash Talkers in Pinburg and never even took it home with you to Australia?
    16:16
    Look, come on. In my defense, the trophy for the Trash Talk Invitational was a metal garbage bin. It was a garbage bin that didn't fit in my baggage, so I wasn't going to be able to bring that back.
    16:33
    Disrespectful, I tell you. Well, no. In my defense as well, let's not forget that the prize money that I got for winning that went to Beyond Blue, a support service for people suffering from depression. So that – I know that sounds a bit cheesy, but that was the trophy alone, right? That's what it was all about. Yes, yes. You can't even let me take a shot at you. I'm disappointed I might not have won, and you actually single-handedly beat me in that trash talker. So on behalf of Slam, Tilt, and everybody else you beat, I just thought I'd put in a shot. But yes, you donated to charity once again, Marty. I'm a hero. I was impressed. Well, no, it was pretty cool, actually. That was probably one of the biggest highlights of Pinberg was just having so much fun with all the podcasters that we speak to, we message, we email regularly. But to meet all those people in one location was just awesome. But going back to your serious question-ish, you know what? If we sort of get nominated again, honestly, that's going to be all I'm going to be happy about. If we win, I will be absolutely over the moon. I love This Week in Pinball and what Jeff and Zach and everybody are doing. So we'll be there and we'll have some fun. They've put in a lot of work. I think it's going to be a big show. And I will be there as long as I'm not tied up with the classics or the other tournament, because that was the only reason I wasn't going to Texas. I wasn't in the tournament. Luckily, I got in through the wait list. I would like to show my support for Jeff Patterson and everything he does I think it very clear Jeff knows how I feel about this week in pinball and the efforts that he puts in 40 hours on top of his regular job This is his way of promoting good things in pinball, so I will lend my support to that. Yeah, absolutely. Great. Sunday, things wrap up a little bit. There's a lot of best of awards for all the great vendors, and there's just so many. I mean, that's going to be, forget the seminars, the vendors just trying to get to all the different vendors. There's a lot going on there. Every big company is there. Yeah, absolutely. And again, I also want to be able to meet these people that, you know, it's their livelihood. It's what they do is produce these machines and not just machines but mods and, you know, other accessories and all that kind of stuff and parts. You know, all those people, they're the ones that also put into this as well. Have you ever been to Chicago Expo before? No, I haven't. haven't so so is this the biggest show you've ever been to but yeah biggest pinball show absolutely for sure you hesitated there were you thinking like pinberg just because of the size of it and the number of players that's honestly what i was thinking because pinberg obviously it is more about the tournament there's obviously the vendors and then there's the free play area but i and there were some seminars but this one really is the first one where i feel it's it's all about showcasing pinball it not just being the festival i imagine like pinberg one of the great things is just seeing people especially you who doesn't come to north america very frequently seeing all these people that talk to all the time but you never get a chance to actually see your time is going to be divided by so many different people it's kind of exciting but you know it's going to be go go go go go for you i would imagine yeah look it absolutely is there's obviously i've got podcast duties I want to actually play but I also want to meet people that I have messaged or you know been chatting with ever since we've done the podcast and there's there's actually been a lot of people that have reached out saying you know let's go for a drink I actually feel that I'm going to come away with more than a dozen bottles of gin I do like everyone's telling me you know what sort of gin do you like I'm like oh please I can't bring this back into the country so I might just have to drink it while I'm there. Oh my. When do you go back? So I actually go to Utah after Texas Pinball Festival. I've got some work to do in Utah. So and then after that, so I'm really away for a week and a half. I know you got your ticket to Pinberg again this year, which was kind of up in the air because of the Brisbane Masters also happening around that time. So it was a decision for you, which one do I do? And obviously you had so much fun at Pinberg last year, you went with that well that that's that was really it i just i had sort of you know leading up to tickets going on sale for pinberg had almost just resigned myself to the fact that i was going to go to brisbane masters because i've not been to the brisbane masters before and this is actually going to be over 10 days there's 10 days of pinball events leading up to the main tournament but i kind of just started getting excited almost like 24 hours before the tickets got on sale because I was just remembering how big, how epic Pinnberg was and how there were some people that I got to speak to, but because it was the tournament, you only got to speak to them 30 seconds here, five minutes there. I just wanted to go back and continue some of the conversations that had to get stopped when we got called to the next session. So Pinnberg is going to happen, but I'm also going to try to get to the last three days of the Brisbane Masters as well, which, as you know, is now a Stern Pro Circuit event. So that's great. 10 days of events. Correct. I think that's unreal. I mean, I am attracted to that. But the other side is, I'm going to Australia. Do I want to spend 10 days playing pinball and not see your beautiful country? I couldn't do it. Well, that's what's good about having events over 10 days. Yeah, you're right. You can pick and choose which night you want to do. It's not like you've got qualifying that goes for nine days and then the finals on the last 10th day. The temptation, Marty. It's all right there. All those whoppers. This is it. This is why, you know, Brisbane Masters are making this into such a massive event is because, you know, we want people from overseas to see it as an attractive event. We had some people come over. I think it was three people from North America that were at the Australian Championship Series recently. Let's get more people just so you can see how friendly and how welcoming and, you know, how awesome the tournament scene is in Australia. I'm looking forward to that next January, February when I come your neck of the woods. And I know your former partner in crime there or you're on hiatus, in jail, whatever you want to call him. Ryan is setting up a ginger a-hole tournament or whatever he's calling it.
    23:01
    That's the first I've heard of it, but that's awesome. Oh, that's the nicest way of saying it, and it's not even that word. Yeah, I got it. It's going to be a lot of fun. And so I said, look, I'll come. We'll make sure we spend some time in Melbourne. There's got to be at least one tournament just so we can have some fun. And I'm looking forward to seeing all the likes of your great Australian neighbors there, good people like yourself, Ryan, Stacey Borg. I'm looking forward to seeing Andrew and all these people we've got to know through your great podcasts. It sounds like, you know, whenever I'm around a bunch of Australians, I always have a good time. I was on a cruise once. There were 2,100 of us, 700 from Australia. one of the best times of my life. Yeah, this is what we've said. And this is why the head-to-head podcast, whilst we do talk about serious things and we report on the news, we're just there to have a laugh. And that's what you'll find about Australians is we like a laugh and we like to drink. That's what you get. But you're coming over to Australia and I don't know, have you been to Australia before? I have not been to Australia. That's why I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, so you've probably got some expectations or preconceived ideas of what Australia is going to be. I've now been to America, I think probably four times in the last couple of years, but I've never been to Texas. And I don't know what to expect. I mean, obviously, you know, the show is going to be the show and I've got some sort of idea what it's going to be, but I don't know what Texas is going to be like. Is it going to be big giant cowboy hats? Is that what it is? I hope you wear one, but no, you won't see that. You'll see a few, but listen, I've been there a few times. The things I like about Texas, this actually stood out to me big time. The first time I was in Texas, like right now, just before we recorded, I had to go grab something at the drugstore or get some gas or something like that. I don't get all dolled up to do that. When I was in Texas, I was like, wow, every person here is like dolled up to the nines. I was wondering like if they kick you out of the state, if you're ugly by the age of 10, I was like wow i'm a goblin here like everyone was just all made up and i was like whoa that's what i noticed the first time i was in texas the other thing too the food oh yes if you like tex-mex you're gonna love that tex-mex and i love sort of you know smoky meats like brisket and pork all that kind of well that's that's a whole nother ball game their barbecue is spectacular and i know there's some people in the states that will rant and rave about in and out burger especially the people from California, but I'm telling you. I love In-N-Out Burger. Do me a favor, Mark. Sure. Try the Texas special known as Whataburger. I am a Whataburger guy. Whataburger is... There you go. Hopefully there's one near the convention center we can walk or drive there. Okay, so here's an interesting thing. When you said before, you know, Texas, you go to a drugstore or you go and get some gas. If you said you were going to a... you wanted to know what a drugstore was in Australia, people would think that you're after drugs. And if you say gas, people think it's like air gas. We call it petrol and we call it a chemist here. You call a garbage dumpster a bin too. There's little changes. I'm starting to understand that, but you'll be fine. I know, but that's the kind of adjustment that I need to make in America. And the first time I was there, I would go to a food venue or whatever and I would ask for what I think was a normal word and people would just look at me blankly because, you know, a soda ask for so i don't know what we don't call soda here so it's pop i know i call it a pop and every time i ask for a pop they're like what you need your father i'm like no okay a coke or diet pepsi something i know so soda so yes i look i'm looking forward to it i think the the day after tpf i i fly out the following i think probably monday night so i'm curious to be able to go into dallas and see what that's all about as well well here's the thing and i'm certainly very very sensitive to what's been happening in the news. On Sunday night, my flight right now is a Boeing 737.
    27:07
    That's not going to happen, I'm pretty sure, by Sunday. So I waiting to see what the change is I supposed to fly back to Toronto and then fly out on Wednesday to Vegas Well if that flight gets canceled this guy is going from Texas to Vegas Honey, I'll see you in a week. Well, how are you going to get there? Are you going to drive? No, no. Well, no, I'll fly. I'll skip the flight. I'll make arrangements and skip the going back and forth. It's about a four-hour flight. I might as well just go to Vegas for an extra two days. Yeah, fair enough. Think that'll fly?
    27:38
    Don't know. You'll have a great time, though. I will do nothing but work. I'll have my laptop. It'll be business as usual during the day. We'll see. Fingers crossed. I'm excited. I know you're excited too. I didn't think this was going to be happening. You had this on the calendar for quite some time though, didn't you? That is correct, yeah. And I had been messaging you, I would say, probably once a month. I mean, we talk obviously all the time over Messenger, but I think it was probably once a month. It's like, status check, are you coming to TPF? And you were sort of like, oh, no. And I just had resigned to the fact that you just weren't going to come. And then you said you were, and I got really excited. I thank Colin McAlpine. I mean, I was on the wait list, and I think I started off at 30th, maybe 27th, and it just kind of – I got up there. And I'm almost embarrassed to say I wasn't going to go if I wasn't in the tournament, but it's just so frustrating for somebody like me because it is such a big tournament and I've heard such great things about it. it would just, to me personally, be such a tease to be there and not get a chance to play. That aside, I've been to big shows. I went to Expo in October, and I had a great time checking everything out. So now that I'm in the tournament, I'm like, I've got to make sure I've got time to check everything out because it is the biggest show. Ed Van Der Veen has done a wonderful job and his entire staff to put this together. Look at all the machines. Look at all the people that go. I'm really looking forward to it. Yeah, look, and really the decider for me was obviously Ryan went to the festival last year, and he's just constantly talked about it fondly and how much of a great experience he had. So why wouldn't I want to do it? Sounds good. Now, I did hear one other thing that you mentioned on Head to Head. It was a few shows ago. You said your goal was to go to America maybe twice a year, timing it obviously with work and whatnot. You've got that business in Utah to do. But you were saying, so this year you were thinking maybe Texas and Pimberg, but next year switching it up and maybe doing Indisc and Expo. That is absolutely spot on because I would like to do a big tournament and a big show, not the both. And I've sort of said that I still think for me Indisc is my favorite tournament, even though, you know, obviously I've been to Pimberg. There's just something about the really cool sort of indie festival vibe that Indisc has. But last year when I went to Indisc and I was in the tournament and, you know, I got into the B Finals, which I was really excited about, they, besides the tournament hall, the other major hall had, you know, three, four hundred plus machines. I didn't even go into that room once. And that's kind of disappointing because there are so many machines that I just wanted to play, some rare ones. So I don't want to now go to a festival where there's a tournament. I want to be able to experience the festival side. So Indisc will be my tournament next year and Expo will be my show. What I liked about Expo when I went in October was I got my tournament fix in, doing a bunch of classics, doing the main. The main was also limited as well, which I really like about Texas. I much prefer those to Pumpin' Ups nowadays. I think it's just such a grind, especially if it's more than two days, as some tournaments are. It's just enough is enough. I'd rather just, here, let me pay more so that I can do other things. But Expo, what they had was this wonderful games room. In fact, 24 hours. And there were homebrews there and everything else. So I got to do everything I wanted except sleep. But that's the thing. You just kept going and going and going, right? It's just that's what I'm hoping I'll get to do at Texas as well. Yeah, and obviously that's going to be my aim as well because obviously I'm flying around from the other side of the world. I think it's probably about 21, 22 hours that I'll be flying, and I'm only there for three days. I want to maximize every opportunity that I have over there, so I will be going as long as I can. Now, we've mentioned four shows here. This year you've got Pinberg. You've got Texas Pinball Festival. In 2020, you're going to do Expo and Indisc. I know you don't remember this, but we actually first met at Papa years ago. So I know you've been to that as well. That's correct. Am I remembering that correct? That is actually where we met for the very first time. That's right, when Jordan Treadway won B Division. Yeah, I'm lying because you remember it and I don't.
    32:06
    Well, I do because you were there to interview Jordan. I was just the guy that was standing next to him.
    32:12
    But, you know, Papa's another one as well. That was just a phenomenal tournament. And I remember, and I knew who you were through Pinball Profile. So I saw you sort of hovering around. And I know that you spent a lot of time in the Classics tournaments as well. And you did actually quite well that year that I was there. But what's really interesting about Papa is you've got all these divisions where you've got your qualifying. And people just congregate and just talk and talk and talk. That is the spirit of Papa. See, now that is one thing. I talked about the pump and dumps, but with the great software, whether it's Carl's, whether it's MatchPlay, whether it's what Papa uses, the great software in the queuing system gives you that time to, okay, I've got probably 20 minutes here. Yes. Maybe I can talk. That I really... Yeah, absolutely. And we used Carl D'Angelo's Never Drain's tournament software for the Flipout, the Melbourne Silver Bowl tournament that we did at Flipout last year. And A, it is phenomenal software. And as an administrator, it is so easy to use. but it was just this great feedback that we got from everybody and it was the first time we'd run something like that in australia and we just got so much good feedback about the fact that people could cue themselves but also know where they needed to be and again congregate and talk about pinball that's what's awesome about pinball so imagine this 2020 you're thinking you're going to do expo and indisc what if papa comes back what does that change things a little bit yeah yeah it really does because um there was just something special about papa just it's it's unique but as we said pinberg is great but you know you've got a thousand competitors there it has its own look and feel papa has its own look and feel i'd be curious to know what it's going to be like in a new facility um but yeah there's just something really special about papa so i assume if you're doing one show in one tournament it's between papa and indisc i would do both depending on the time what about expo you do all three yeah probably why not wow ladies and gentlemen i want to thank our special guest future american martin robbins here on pinball profile why not it's i live there you know what in canada i really do feel like we we certainly are distinct But there are a lot of similarities between Canadians and Americans. So it's not like going to a totally different country for me every time I'm in the States. Yeah. And I kind of feel that as well when I go to America. There is some similarities with Australia. I mean, we sort of really embraced the North American culture, you know, probably in the 80s. So we are heavily influenced. I mean, Australia is, you know, a melting pot of cultures, always has been and proudly always will be. So it's like that. But even more so when I went to Toronto. Did I say it right? Yes. And what you did is you didn't say the last T. It's Toronto. That's so funny. Well, that's what I heard when I was there, when I was a tourist because I did the hop-on, hop-off bus. But Toronto is very much like Australia. Even more so than any of the cities that I've been to at North America, Toronto, very much like Melbourne. I'm glad you had a good time there. And a lot of people who went to IFPA 15 also really enjoyed the greater Toronto area. So I will see you in a couple of days in Texas with your big cowboy hat, right? And big belt buckle, apparently. Is that what people wear? And 10 bottles of gin on that belt. Yeah, probably. All right, buddy. We will check you out in Texas. Have a lot of fun and see you in a couple of days. Thank you, Jeff. Thanks for having me on. And thank you for always having an amazing podcast. I'll write back at you. That's Martin Robbins from the 2019 Future Twippy Award-winning podcast, Head-to-Head Pinball. This is just your humble pinball profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teolas.