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Episode 107 - Holiday Special

Wedgehead Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·36m 18s·held·Dec 15, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Wedgehead's holiday special ranks top 5 holiday pinball machines and suggests gift ideas for collectors.

Summary

Wedgehead A Pinball Podcast first holiday special ranks the top five holiday-themed pinball machines, gift ideas for pinball enthusiasts, and discusses homebrew Christmas games. Hosts debate whether games like Elvira's House of Horrors (featuring a Santa Claus Conquers the Martians mode), Taxi (with Santa as a passenger), and the 1967 Gottlieb Sing-Along qualify as holiday games, while playfully speculating about what a hypothetical Stern holiday game designed by Elliot Eisman might look like—with Gremlins and Nightmare Before Christmas emerging as fan favorites.

Key Claims

  • Elvira's House of Horrors features a Santa Claus Conquers the Martians mode with a special achievement for beating it on Christmas Day

    high confidence · Host discussing fifth place ranking; describes insider-connected achievement mechanic

  • Goodyear (1969 electro coin) was a Santa-themed drop-in conversion kit for Blast Off or Apollo, with only a flyer as evidence of existence

    medium confidence · Host reveals fourth place pick; acknowledges uncertainty about production ('I don't know if a single unit got sold')

  • Taxi features Santa as one of five riders picked up by the player (20% Christmas-themed)

    high confidence · Host discussing third place game; notes Santa is prominent on art package and a Christmas jingle plays when collecting shots

  • Sing-Along (Gottlieb, 1967) is an Ed Krynski design about caroling that appears at Wedgehead bar during holiday season, originally owned by co-owner Roadsees as a child

    high confidence · Host detailing second place game; confirms game will return to floor, references Roadsees' personal history with the machine

  • North Star (Gottlieb) is an underrated EM game under $1,000 that rarely appears on secondary market

    high confidence · Alan expressing it's been on his Pinside wishlist for years; describes it as 'unobtainium'

Notable Quotes

  • “I wish we saw more achievements like this and insider connected that kind of make you go out of your way to play a specific game a specific day. I think that's fun.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ Early in ranking — Articulates desire for game design that creates meaningful temporal gameplay incentives beyond standard rules

  • “it's like you have this filthy black cloth you're trying to clean glass and you're using a cloth with wax all over it and you're like what the fuck am I doing”

    Alan @ Gift ideas segment — Humorous but practical observation about consumables home collectors actually need

  • “Pinside guys would be like, yeah, this is cool shit... Gremlins I think is like an actual good commercial pick that would actually sell.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ Holiday IP speculation segment — Identifies market positioning difference between collector enthusiasm and commercial viability for hypothetical licensed games

  • “if stern like honest to god was going to make a full effort and it has to be... what would you like to see for that”

    [name withheld pending review] @ Christmas wishes segment — Sets up speculative licensing discussion; positions Elliot Eisman as 'unanimous best designer currently working in pinball'

  • “unlike a modern game where we look at the overhead view and we can sort of be like, I kind of get what's going on here. You do not get that feeling when you're looking at like an old wedge head”

    [name withheld pending review] @ EM discussion segment — Articulates design philosophy difference between modern transparent playfields and vintage EM discovery mechanics

Entities

Wedgehead Pinball PodcastorganizationWedgeheadvenue[name withheld pending review]person[name withheld pending review]personMark RitchiepersonChris GrannerpersonStern PinballcompanyGottliebcompanyWilliamscompany

Signals

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Host praises temporal/calendar-based achievements (like beating Santa mode on Christmas Day in Elvira) as underutilized design mechanic that encourages specific replay windows

    high · Discussion of Elvira's House of Horrors insider achievement; host wishes to see more of this type of design

  • ?

    collector_signal: Flipper rubbers, slingshot rubbers, microfiber cloths, and pinball power balls identified as practical gift categories that home collectors consistently need but under-purchase

    high · Host and Alan discuss flipper rubbers, microfiber cloths wearing out, power balls as DLC-like additions

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Community speculation about what Stern holiday-themed game Elliot Eisman might design; Gremlins and Nightmare Before Christmas identified as top licensing candidates that would 'go hot on Pinside'

    medium · Hosts explicitly framing as wishful speculation ('if stern was going to... what would you like to see'); market positioning analysis included

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Hosts articulate that vintage EM games reveal strategy through extended play rather than immediate visual clarity modern games provide, making shot design less intuitive but discovery more rewarding

    high · Extended discussion comparing overhead view clarity of modern games vs EM playfield opacity; describes EM games as having 'thin line' between good and bad design

  • $

    market_signal: North Star identified as 'unobtainium' on secondary market despite being sub-$1,000 and described as excellent game; indicates collector desirability vs supply mismatch

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.109

0:00
Hey, Kool-Aid's here! No, child, that's not a made-up character. It's Kwanzaa Bot. And I'm-a tell y'all how we celebrate Kwanzaa. Zoid Bird, lay down a beat. Check it out, Kwanzaa Bot in the neptizel hizzle With my inhuman beatbox busy building missiles They got it by these true dancing fairy figures Careful, little elf, that's proximity trigger I'm fighting back a Kwanzaa so the children won't miss it I'm confused about its meaning, but I know it when they dance it so Santa Yeah, King! ZZ Hey, hey! Let's slay them pimps, come on, pimp my swag.
0:33
Put on your yarmulke, here comes Hanukkah. So much funnaker to celebrate Hanukkah. Hanukkah is the festival of lights. Instead of one day of presents We have eight crazy nights When the boss busted in Nearly scared him half to death Had a rifle in his hands And cheap whiskey on his breath From his beard to his boots He was covered with ammo Like a big fat drunk His scrunch old yuletide Rambo And he smiled as he said With a twinkle in his eye Merry Christmas to all, now you're all gonna die! Hello everybody and welcome back to what is a very special episode of the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast. It's our first ever holiday special. Alan, all the big shows, all the big franchises, everybody had a holiday special growing up. I thought it was time we had one. Are you excited for this? I am so excited, Waterboy. I have no idea what you have in store, but I am very excited. That's good. You know, grab your hot cocoa and settle in. you know a really special one here we're gonna rank our favorite holiday pinball machines we're gonna give you gift ideas we'll discuss everything else i could think to fit in this episode alan's probably not gonna let me do another one so i figured i should really try to cover it all one and done just like star wars we're knocking it out of the park first time here you're gonna like this alan and hopefully you listeners at home you know hopefully this covers everybody's been begging us do a holiday special do a holiday special and this is gonna be it okay they can revisit this every year every year like a warm sweater that keeps getting warmer with age but before we can get into all that we do need to remember the season in this purpose and that's about giving so if you like the show you can go ahead and give us five dollars you can go to coffee.com slash wedgeheadpodcast. It's ko-fi.com slash wedgeheadpodcast. If you donate, you'll get an invite to our Discord server, which can only be described as a sort of pinball nomenclature Thunderdome lately, where we all fight each other over what constitutes a center ramp. Right? Is that how you describe the Discord? Amongst other things, but it's always that stupid. It is. Genuinely, whenever it's really popping off, it's like the dumbest stuff. That's what everybody's like, no, no, because that's when everyone's like, no, I know what a center ramp is. Like if we're like arguing about like how to fix something or something, like two people that know what they're talking about will chime in. But when you start being like, no, that's not a center ramp. Everyone has an opinion. It's pretty funny. My favorite part is always when we start trying to define it and then everyone starts poking holes in your definition and then you double down and the definition has to change and either get narrower or get wider to accommodate. I like the rolling definitions as if we're going to pull that definition back up in the future. Enough about all that. We're going to just jump right into ranking our favorite holiday games. This is me ranking the best holiday games.
Electro Coincompany
Chicago Coincompany
System Threecompany
Pinsideorganization
Elvira's House of Horrorsgame
Goodyeargame
Taxigame
Sing Alonggame
North Stargame
[name withheld pending review]game
Nightmare Before Christmasgame
Gremlinsgame
Jingle All the Waygame
Ed Krynskiperson
Alanperson

high · Alan states it's been on Pinside wishlist for years; 'you never see it pop up'; host offers less than $1,000 budget

  • ?

    community_signal: Wedgehead Discord described as contentious nomenclature debates (e.g., defining 'center ramp'), with technical discussions emerging only during peak activity; community self-aware about pedantic arguments

    high · Host describes Discord as 'pinball nomenclature Thunderdome'; jokes about dumb definitional arguments that spiral

  • ?

    venue_signal: Wedgehead bar implements seasonal machine rotation, featuring Gottlieb Sing-Along during holiday season as established tradition tied to co-owner's personal history

    high · Discussion confirms Sing-Along 'usually finds its way to the floor of wedgehead during the christmas season'; will return soon; connected to Roadsees' childhood

  • ?

    product_strategy: Wedgehead bar operates merchandise and gift card sales, with inventory constraints during holiday season and option for local/shipped merch fulfillment

    high · Host mentions gift card availability, physical merch coordination for remote customers, inventory scarcity during holiday buying season

  • ?

    historical_signal: Vintage EM games (1960s-70s) featured thematic coherence (e.g., caroling in Sing-Along, snowboarding in Hotdogging) that modern commercial operators would consider niche; hosts note difficulty of selling operators on caroling-themed games today

    high · Discussion of Sing-Along being 'overtly holiday themed in a way that you wouldn't see anyone do today'; observation that modern games avoid niche themes like caroling

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Hosts assess licensing feasibility of Christmas movies for potential pinball games; identify Gremlins as strong commercial pick (80s nostalgia, minimal character licensing), contrast with high-cost actors in Jingle All the Way

    medium · Discussion of Gremlins vs Jingle All the Way; explicit mention of licensing cost barriers ('Really expensive actors to license I assume')

  • ?

    content_signal: Wedgehead Pinball Podcast introduces first holiday special as one-time event with intention to maximize content scope ('one and done just like star wars'); frames as listener-requested format

    high · Host: 'our first ever holiday special... I thought it was time we had one... alan's probably not gonna let me do another one so i figured i should really try to cover it all'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Multiple Christmas-themed homebrew games in active development/completion (Buddy the Elf, Christmas Countdown, Die Hard homebrew); Nightmare Before Christmas described as 'production ready' but unplayable for hosts

    high · Detailed discussion of homebrew games with art packages and playable code; Christmas Countdown built in 'like a month leading up to christmas'; Nightmare Before Christmas noted as 'production ready'

    • 3:58
    We're going to do a top five here. We're starting in fifth place with the fifth best game to play this holiday season. It's a bit of a controversial pick. You know, I'm sure people are going to have backlash on this, but I'm going with Elvira's House of Horrors from Stern. Can you believe that, Alan? What makes this a holiday game? Well, it kind of seems like a Halloween game on surface value, which does kind of lead into the Christmas season or holiday season. But what makes it a holiday game is the fact it features a Santa Claus Conquers the Martians mode, which is cool on its own and might have got a nomination for the mode. but what I think actually makes it noteworthy or interesting here is that there's a special insider connected achievement for beating that mode on Christmas day. Oh, which is actually kind of cute and something that I wish we saw more creative achievements like this, not necessarily like Christmas related, but I wish we saw more achievements like this and insider connected that kind of like make you go out of your way to play a specific game a specific day. I think that's fun. So for that reason, I'm giving it fifth place before we spend too much time talking about pinball we have to divert from the list a bit and talk about the real meaning of christmas buying stuff oh excuse me yes i'm trying to find a gentleman doll me too me too everyone's here because you know it's the christmas special they want to know what should you buy for the special pinball person in your life this holiday season so these are our top five gifts for the christmas season it's just all lit this is all chaos like the best the formatting you'll you'll realize how it works. So the best gift is obviously going to be a Wedgehead gift card. Where have you guys been? Turbo Man's only the hottest selling Christmas toy ever. This is a great one. Even if you live across the country, maybe it'll motivate your friend to make a trip to Portland, visit the best pinball bar in the world. If you can't do a pinball gift card, you can buy Wedgehead merch, although you might have to do that in person. So you might have to coordinate with someone local to ship you the merch if you don't live here. But if you're local, people love it. People that don't play pinball, most of the Wedgehead's merch is just cool-looking stuff. I know many people in my life that own Wedgehead stuff that don't play pinball at all. It's kind of funny. Hopefully we'll have some available by the time this episode comes out. It does get very sparse over this season. Holiday season, it's the buying season. Those are kind of the big two, I've got to say. Other than that, everything else is pretty much lower on the list. But some other gift ideas I would just say in general for pinball people. like I always like old pinball video games if you have someone that's into video games at all like old game boy games gator or the revenge of the gator for the game boys my favorite pinball pretty good it's funny because it's gator themed like how does there happen to be an alligator themed pinball game for the game boy it's good but also like high speed and pinbot the licensed games for the nes are cool or the gottlieb collection for like the ps2 gamecube there's just a lot of cool old ones that's always like a cheap gift that you know pinball guys seem to appreciate pinball gals too pinball people i should say and then the hard part though really because people do ask this a lot it's like oh what should i get for you know it's something that comes up on like their subreddit what should i get for someone in my life that likes pinball and it's hard because most home collectors already have everything they need one thing i'll say so i wanted to see if you had any ideas for like what do you burn through what could you always use more of as like attack rubbers rubbers yeah flipper rubbers and stuff yeah eric rubbers just rubber yeah like there's a couple of like definitely flipper rubbers slingshot rubbers yeah yeah those are the ones that break the most on hand and it's like you can get cute colors and stuff so it sucks when you like when you don't have it that's true like a rubber breaks and then you don't have one then you have to like order it it sucks yep i was gonna say microfiber cloths yep because i always i never buy myself more until it's like dire you know you're like you have this filthy black you're trying to clean you're trying to clean glass and you're using a cloth with wax all over it and you're like what the fuck am i doing and that's about when i'm like i need to buy more so i'm always like if someone gave me microfiber cloths i'd be happy uh otherwise let's say power balls some power balls are good that's a good one gift idea right that's a good one that's if you know someone that owns a pinball machine and they don't own a singular power ball it's a fun it's like actually a good gift because you'll just be like oh this is like funny it's like adding it's like getting like a fucking like dlc for your pinball machine you know yeah it it just changes the way the game will play and it's super fun totally reversible uh easy to just kind of mess around you could do it twilight zone style where you put just one in and you never know when it's gonna pop out yep or you can swap them all yeah or if you have an old game you just need one a lot of the time you'll be playing the same ball it's also something that if you're just friendly with an operator and you're like like if you hang out at a bar a lot and you know them you can oftentimes just be like hey can i just drop this one of your games for like the afternoon even if you don't own a game yeah so i'm like it's just kind of a good for you know whatever they are weirdly expensive like 30 dollars yeah they are expensive although someone pointed out in the discord that cheaper than an actual like precision grade ceramic ball bearing and i was like i guess that makes sense like ceramic ball bearings are kind of a very niche thing but uh yeah it like kind of interesting okay enough enough with that enough with the gift ideas back to the list back to the list of the best holiday games best holiday games what people come here for in fourth place the best uh the fourth best holiday game we got to give it to good year which was made by electro coin an italian company in 1969 it's actually get this a drop-in conversion kit for williams blast off or apollo which is actually a good em right yeah it is a good funny because you'd have to rip that whole play field out and drop in good year uh per the flyer you'd be supplied a populated play field oh new back glass and you just plug and play from there i'm sure super easy right a em conversion for a fucking 1969 williams right this is nuts I've never seen this before. Yeah. I don't know if a single unit got sold, but a flyer exists, a full flyer. I just have a little partial here that Alan's looking at. And it's just straight up Santa themed. It's kind of hard to tell in this little, let me expand this bigger. Because he's not like Coca-Cola Santa. He's kind of like a cool Eastern European looking Santa. I'm not a pervert. He's just like wearing red, a little hat. He's got reindeer. It's called Goodyear's cool pink sky. It's actually a cool, I got to say, like cool gloves. Very cool. his hat the bagatelle from blast off like the little rocket is his hat it's his hat and i was like that's pretty cute so despite this game maybe not existing i had to give it i had to give it at least a placement on the top five because it's straight up christmas themed which is noteworthy damn the wood is not tire related right i was like good year and i'm like why is good year come up like tagged as snow and then i was like oh shit it's straight up like christmas reindeer santa i will have to yeah we'll have to send a link to this yeah that's one's pretty interesting i thought but speaking of other games that basically don't exist and since i've got no proof goodyear was actually produced it raises the question if homebrew games and if they're eligible for our top five list now i said no i i had to go production games but we did have to get a shout out to some of the homebrew Christmas themed games out there of which there are more than you would expect. So the ones I'm aware of, there's an elf game.
    11:24
    Buddy the elf, what's your favorite color for the town? Hello? Which is like a really like complete homebrew, like a full art package. I think it was actually done by the guy that's trying to build the ramps road trip, which is a game that has maybe caught a little bit of heat on our podcast in the past. it's an example of like not a cool original theme but uh elf yeah it's actually like a pretty impressive homebrew that people seem to seem to enjoy uh nightmare before christmas is another one that people are always like oh this game is like production ready haven't been able to play it though christmas countdown is an interesting one uh it's an original theme that's just all christmas i haven't even seen that one it's just like like the it's got the whole art package it's done by that guy i can't remember his name but he does all of the pin to like the pinball 2000 homebrews he's on the east oh yeah okay he's extremely prolific homebrew yeah that guy builds like i think christmas countdown they built it in like a month leading up to christmas last year and it's like got art on the playfield and it's got shots and code and like it's a playable pinball machine it's probably as complete as like most of the like the italian import games you would see in the 90s you know what i mean like it's like a real game it's it's kind of funny and then there's also a die hard pen if you want to be one of those guys that's like die hard's a christmas movie yippee-ki-yay motherfucker takes place at Christmas I will say I'm always one of the people that's like that's just like a cool guy argument like Die Hard's my favorite Christmas movie okay man if Die Hard was a production game it would be on my list guarantee because I am reaching for Christmas related games okay back to back to real games back to real games in the list that everybody's here for everyone's clamoring they've been saying we want the ranking of the best holiday games from the white chip pinball podcast number third the game actually their voices has been deafening it's definitely yeah yeah i can't even think the game but so the game in third place on our list this is a biggie it's taxi from oh yeah it's a great game designed by mark ritchie features phenomenal original music from our friend chris granter and a cast of characters that you you're playing the taxi driver and you're tasked with picking them up around the game including mr claus himself so the game is obviously taxi based but you're picking up like five riders right yep and one of them santa so it's 20 christmas that's pretty good it's pretty good last game good year was 100 christmas but it didn't exist so it went down in the rankings that hurt it taxi exists it's actually pretty popular very good game and 20 christmas that's pretty good holiday game uh when And you know, Santa's very prominent on the art package. You can't really ignore Santa. You get a little Christmas jingle when you collect a shot. But I would say on top of that, taxi just feels like a cozy game to me. I think it's just kind of like the jazzy music and like it's like a dark art package. Yeah. You can kind of just imagine yourself driving around a taxi at wintertime. It's funny how Santa Claus has a magical flying sleigh as his normal ride, but he's getting picked up on the side of the road by a disgusting cab driver in the taxi back glass like it is well just first of all you have a little respect that's python in the back that's a self-portrait the eye not the so the profile of the the profile of the guy isn't but the eye is a self-portrait in the mirror which is always kind of funny because the eye is the creepiest part uh but yeah i think that's kind of like a bit of the humor of the game right none of these people should be like Marilyn Monroe. Hailing a cab. Yeah. Like pin bot. I'm a robot. I guess. Dracula. All of them should have other means besides pin bot. I can understand pin bot. You know, he doesn't have like some kind of method of like getting around. Everyone else should do better though.
    15:15
    So Alan, what are you wishing for this Christmas? Oh, what am I wishing for? You're putting me on the spot here. Yeah. This is it. I'm just asking you in real time. what are you wishing for for christmas alan oh my god what do i want for christmas i would assume like a busy month for wedgehead yeah well obviously yeah that's always like the top of the list i didn't really have much either that's why we're going to talk about that's why you were asking me that's why you're putting me on the hot seat what do i want for christmas we're going to talk about what every pinball fan really wants which is if stern was going to have elliot eisman the unanimous best designer currently working in pinball make a game based on a holiday holiday theme that's what we all want deep down if elliot was going to make so if stern like honest to god was going to make a full effort and it has to be they're like we need a game we're trying to fill the line over the holiday season what would you like to see for that what i think they would sell what i think would sell to the to the population would be gremlins oh shit because gremlins is a christmas movie actually it's like 80s it's that 80s nostalgia you don't need a licensed character like actors a lot right i mean there are but you could just do the little goblins the little goobles and like it would be pretty good gremlins is actually a good answer damn i think gremlins would be my favorite jingle all the way dude yeah that's what i had to jingle all the way oh you have that yeah that was like if i was like if it's going to be a christmas movie that i could see that was like actually just like overtly about like holidays at all i would go jingle all the way i think it's i think it's a good movie i think it's got great cast it has very quotable lines dude the arnold and sinbad and fucking phil hartman and i don't know if you move because i have the ear of a snake the kid from episode one really underrated christmas movie that a lot of people don't like people kind of mention as a joke and i'm like i guess is it a joke i watch it every year it's it's not a joke to me it's a really good movie turbo man dude turbo man if you had a last action hero and you just put a jingle all the way translate for christmas season it would be funny dude i would love to we should take our iron man and strip it down and just make it jingle all the way all new art new plastics playfields you like turbo turbo man yeah from the playfield be so good. Yeah, dude. Sick as hell. That'd be sick. Okay, if anyone from Stern, I'm sure everybody's been waiting for the holiday special. I know the Stern guys are listening. Please do a remaster of Iron Man, but it's a jingle all the way. Tell them!
    17:57
    This man is totally insane. Thank you! I was going to say, for an original You will sell tens of units, I guarantee it. Jingle all the way is like a panned movie that was a huge commercial flop It rules though really expensive actors to license I assume but it does rule Gremlins I think is like an actual good commercial pick That would actually sell. I could see someone doing it. That would go hot on Pinside. Like, Pinside guys would be like, yeah, this is cool shit. Exactly. Nightmare Before Christmas, I think. We're coming right after the, this is recording right after the release of Beetlejuice. And so, you can see that one being a big hit, too. It doesn't really, it's not really Christmas-y. it's not really halloweeny but it's a really it counts as holiday between yeah and it would also work year round no that would go nuts gremlins or nightmare before christmas would be the two that i could actually see happening if we're ever going to get like a overt holiday game anyway that gets us back to the list we've made it to uh second place here so with this one anyone local to wedgehead probably knew this game would be coming but we gotta go second place the classic gotlieb sing-along or melody as it's known in add a ball form this is a game that usually finds its way to the floor of wedge during the christmas season holiday season the copy you get to play there is actually a game i believe that's the copy that belonged to wedge co-owner road sees family when he was a kid right yeah that's the game he had in his house when he was a kid which is i can't imagine roads as a kid you just have that guy fucking just like i just feel like he would have an unlimited amount of energy as a child but yeah it is kind of the original wedgehead wedgehead which i think is always kind of uh fun and it's kind of like a fun tradition seeing it pop up there hopefully we get it yeah and it'll be here soon so it'll be on the floor i didn't want to post it in the episodes i didn't know how it was doing and stuff but i do think it's just a fun tradition to see it we'll kind of get into we'll touch on that a little bit more in a bit but the game itself it's made in 1967 it's an ed krinsky design art by art art stenholm that is this is a this is a single player game about caroling which is a hot theme people have been asking for caroling type games because i work for the post office so you know i'm not stable i think it's kind of ironic that it's a caroling game and it's single player that's just funny to me about that uh it's a great two inch flipper game very addicting rule set very nice art package with an interesting perspective on the play field i always am impressed with that play field yeah it's beautiful and it's a nice cool wintry cabinet colors i love the light blues and stuff on the cabinet yeah it's good shit that it's just a fun game that it is a it's it's a fun game it is very overtly holiday themed in a way that you wouldn't see anyone do today it's like who's gonna be you know you can't sell an operator a like a caroling no game and it's funny because it's like it's warm and fuzzy like so syrupy sweet like norman rockwell well it's exactly what i was trying to think thomas kincaid type of like this is like the nostalgic chris like you guys it is christmas caroline it's just the nostalgic holiday game uh before we get to number one we should run through some other wintry games or honorable mentions that was the word i was trying to think of earlier oh yeah like an honorable mention that's a you know a tough one for me apparently but i want to talk about some games that didn't make it to the list uh winter games aren't necessarily holiday games but there are a lot of winter sport games out there one of the more recent ones relatively speaking is wipeout a system three game from gottlieb premiere it's about snowboarding alan loves this game i do wipeout's fun as hell like is it do you consider it a holiday game the north pole them are fighting words partner put them up i mean it's a winter game it's a winter game see that's where my distinct i was like yeah it doesn't feel like holiday i don't maybe that's just my bias because i didn't like i i grew up kind of snowboarded a little bit as a kid and stuff but it doesn't feel like a holiday thing snowboarding's not like a family thing doesn't feel like cozy that's why i'm like taxi even though it's only 20 santa feels like a winter game to me it feels cozy about it but i'm also white belt's more like based on the life and adventures of gary stern it's just more about getting out there and ripping the crud like just being a gnarly old dude on the mountain it's true another another noteworthy winter sport game would be hotdogging. Dude, hotdogging's a good one. The big old bally wide body game about skiing, not hotdogs. Apparently, hotdogging was common enough slang at the time of release to be used for a game title. It's very confusing. But if you're thinking about hotdogs now and want a game about hotdogs, you can go play Funhaus instead. So Funhaus, hotdog game, hotdogging, skiing game. I've actually, I don't know if I've ever played this thing. It's like one of the ballies that's eluded me. Does your dad never say, did he not ever refer to you as a hot dog or acting like a hot dog? No. Okay, so my dad definitely did when I was a kid, but I think it was- Like is it like when you're like showboating? Yeah, and I think it was really something that his dad would say. That makes sense. Like I think it was something from like- It's like trickled down. Like he barely said it. Was hot dogging like- Like quit being a hot dog. I'm gonna deck your halls, bub. okay i yeah like yeah i mean it makes sense was it associated with skiing at all like would they if they had had like like showboating obviously doesn't sound cool but like is it the same just call them game showboating or we're like guys were like oh that guy you like saw someone the slopes you know hitting a sick fucking uh mogul run or whatever they were doing on skis in the 1980s you're like that guy's really hot dogging i'm sure it was just like wearing really flashy gear yeah brand new stuff and like just being annoying like it's just like being a fucking hot dog it makes sense that makes sense there's also just a ton once you get past those are the only two solid states i could think of which is interesting because you don't have to go very far back and there are a ton of like snow adjacent ems are there any that you can think of off your top your head that are like favorites or noteworthy from ems yeah from ems that are wintry themed they don't have to be necessarily sport or whatever related well you have one right here it's my favorite well i put that on there so you won't forget it's why it's my favorite wedge head it's called north star it has a cartoonish depiction of inuit people check that in the notes yeah but it's cute and it's an incredible game yeah it's the best that game is just unbelievably good another two inch flipper game like genuinely like one of the best wedge heads if you guys have one and you want to get rid of it so that I can cherish it forever, reach out. If you're feeling the giving spirit. Yeah, give me. What do I want for Christmas? I want a Gottlieb North Star. Dude, realistic. It's not even an expensive game. For less than $1,000, you can make me happy for the rest of my life. Remarkable. I think I've had it on my pin side wish list since we went to past times a couple years ago. It's like you never see it pop up. It's just like unobtainium, which is a bummer because it's a cool game. And it's also, it's one of those games that you look at and it doesn't have like a particularly, like you don't see that play field and you're like, I need to play this. At least I didn't. And then we started playing it and you're like, this is incredibly addictive. And it's just so lively because you have all the pops and stuff. It's just a really, that's a very, very fun. That's what I love about playing the two inch flipper games. And I don't expect all of our listeners to necessarily just like jump right in and get it or enjoy these games. What I really like about them as I've grown to experience them is that unlike a modern game where like a modern game gets released and we look at the overhead view and we can sort of be like, I kind of get what's going on here. Yeah. You see like a game and you're like, I kind of get how this is going to feel to shoot. You do not get that feeling when you're looking at like an old wedge head like this or something like they reveal the beauty. like as you continue you get to know that you get to see the shots don't get me wrong but like it it's hard to tell what's magic and what just sucks until you're playing it ems are a hard one for me to be like like i've had so many games where i'm like this is the raddest looking em all time the rules seem like cool and stuff and then you go play and it just falls flat yeah and then you have other ones that completely blow you away and they look like nothing look like nothing yeah and you're just like man it is interesting which are good i think there's a lot to be learned from ems i mean obviously like pinball design influence wise but just like i think in all if you if you have an appreciation for like design in any any aspect of design i think you could learn a lot from from the ems and like what there is there and how they reveal themselves and the little differences between a good and a bad game razor's edge exactly it's like a very thin line uh some other noteworthy ones i was just going to call out gottlieb crisscross it's a wood rail with good Roy Parker art featuring a fucking idiot on the back glass, embarrassing himself in front of a bunch of girls. It's like the funniest one I saw. I was like, oh my God. Like they just kind of have like these cute Roy Parker girls sitting there in their ski gear. And then there some dude who just ate shit in front of them And I was like that funny That why it crisscross because the skis are right like that yeah it like a yard sale or something snow derby is another gotley but we got one of those you do yeah oh that cool or we might have snow queen yeah we might have the four player snow derby yeah i can't remember i was just kind of putting a handful of ones i liked the art on it's got great art featuring our snowmobile race on the back very cool i like the games that just kind of have like i always like like there's that any of them that have like a little like mini pit bikes on them shit like that is always just funny to me i'm like oh yeah this is good like 60s stuff like baby boomers just had the coolest toys when they were growing up chicago quine made holiday in 1948 it's not don't don't fall for it again this is confusing it's not winter like holiday themed in the way we think necessarily it's just like holiday in like the european use of like we're going on holiday so it does feature some ski scenes but it also features like summer like at the beach scenes and i don't like that i'm like pick a lane dude like commit to the holiday i don't like the i don't like using the word holiday to mean uh just vacation well we got no beeswax candles but these scented regular wax candles will do just fine girl those stink sticks are for single women who take baths if your kinds of candles ain't 100 beeswax you bring shame on yo people that upsets me so i just wanted to call that out don't get fooled by uh the by the chicago coin holiday it's not on the list and then non-american companies also worth noting uh really seem to get in on this it was kind of like the same way that it's like i don't know of another like everybody doing like card game themes a lot of ems like a lot of other people like other countries put out games with like snow sport themes sega made seporo which is one of it's considered one of the best Sega EMs from back in the 70s. It's based on the Winter Olympics held in Sapporo. Zakaria made Ski Jump. There's a lot of oddballs. If you go to IPDB and you search by snow theme, there's like... You can search by snow theme? Snow is a tagged theme. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, that's kind of how I was sourced and stuff here. There's a lot more games than you would expect probably, but almost all of them are EMs and a good number of them weren't made in America, which is interesting. Like 50% of the snow themes are like exports or whatever we would call them. Well, imports to us. Imports to us. Yeah.
    29:38
    Yeah. I would say the most- Tariffed. Tariffed, no, yeah. I would say the most infamous winter sport game, this is in its own list, so ranking the most infamous winter sport games in the only position, number one, is Aspen, the home pin built by Brunswick, which seems to haunt every major city's craigslist pinball search results anybody like me that searches craigslist for pinball knows this fucking game none of us have probably ever played it but it's just like one of those brunswick's it was like sold at sears for 200 bucks back in the 80s or whatever and it's just like a guy on skis as the back glass and that image is burned in my head because there's been one for sale on the portland craigslist since i moved here five years ago or whatever like they're just always around there's always some old guy that has one that thinks it's worth like five thousand dollars if if i could snap my fingers get rid of one winter sports theme brunswick's aspen would be it but that cook it down now some other honorable mentions uh again because we kind of got to just run through everything it's the holiday special people have been clamoring for it i got you only get one i know so i i gotta talk i gotta shout out everything because i don't want to do corrections south park has mr hanky the christmas poop from the show that's very christmas it's pretty christmassy and he's also really big on the game and he gets a toilet on the game so it's actually arguably i just hate it i don't i fucking hate the game i'm not gonna put south park on any kind of best of list even if the whole thing was overtly Christmas. It wouldn't be on the list. Tales from the Crypt, the trans light back glass has a little creepy dude in a Santa hat. Thought that was an interesting one. Stats from the show. There's a Christmas episode on the... Data East Tommy features a Christmas mode based on a Christmas scene in the movie. I've never seen that movie. Apparently Christmas happens in the movie. So there's a mode in the game. I don't remember. I've played Tommy a handful of times, but I don't remember the Christmas mode. So I don't know if it even has like Christmas music. But I do know that there's an insert on the game labeled Christmas. So it gets an honorable mention. And lastly, my favorite honorable mention, Stranger Things, which has Christmas lights all over the art. If you've seen the show, you know that the Christmas lights are used to communicate with people and whatever. In the upside down? Yeah. Bizarro world shit.
    32:03
    Bizarro Jerry. This one does feel kind of Christmassy to me as a result of the Christmas lights. But also just that game feels cozy to me. And it's probably because of the time of year you watch that show. it's a show that kind of starts, they always debut the seasons in the fall. So you're watching the show during holiday season generally. Like right now, I think I haven't seen the last few seasons. I really fell off, but I think there's a new season coming out. So I kind of associated with this time of year. So that game actually does kind of feel holiday to me in a weird way, despite being another monster creepy game. It feels like a holiday game, right? You can see it, right? We've had a lot of laughs. Hey, everybody. These two are looking for a turbo man. and we've maybe even learned a bit along the way but we finally made it to the end of our list the number one official wedgehead pinball podcast holiday pinball machine that everyone's been asking about and that game is whatever you can get your little mittens on this christmas season this holiday season this is supposed to be a christmas special right so the corny lesson of the special and what the whole thing's been building to is to appreciate whatever games you've got access to. Most importantly, appreciate the friends and family in your life. Go play some games. Hopefully you can rope someone else into it, but also remember to not stress about trying to make the holidays perfect. And if you're just chilling by yourself and playing some pinball, that's a pretty good day too. I think you need to remember that sometimes. It's very easy to get wrapped up in the consumerism of the season. And there's been like four hyped pinball machines and like two hated pinball machines released in the last six weeks. So it can be hard sometimes to be like, ah, I want all this shit. I want everything. You gotta be like Alan. Just want for nothing. He's just fucking happy as a clam over there. He wants a North star. All I want is North star. That's all I've wanted for years.
    33:57
    But yeah, really, uh, you know, that's, that's all there is to it. I think you just, you gotta make what you will of the season. Have a good time. Enjoy pinball. Try to play some games with friends and family. thank you for listening to the wedge heads one and probably only holiday special well i mean live up to your expectations alan yeah i mean i am flabbergasted at the work you put into this whipped it together yeah it's pretty good it's pretty good special you know uh we hope you have a great holiday season whatever that may look like for you the listener hey kwanzaa bot where you off to uh you didn't hear about it hanukkah zombies having a luar at the bernet breath you coming word yeah did you have anything you wanted to add before we close this out no go play some pinball yeah that's really it go play some pinball that's what the holidays are all about dude everybody's been saying it for you like it's cliche but the holidays are all about going and playing some pinball yeah that's the message yeah so yeah go out play pinball and until next time good luck don't suck but before i go the most important thing what's that black santa you need Seven quans of candles that you light up every night But they best be made of beeswax So y'all might as well be wise So I printed the lyrics of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer I know the lyrics Would you do us the honors of spitting Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
    35:22
    You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose And if you ever saw him, you would even say it closed All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say Rudolph with your nose so bright, won't you ride my sleigh tonight? Then all the reindeer loved him And he shouted out wickly Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer You're going out of history forever You're going out of history What?
    36:15
    That is so beautiful