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The Pinball Show Ep 122 Part 2: Witch’s Poutine

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 11m·analyzed·Feb 8, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Pinball Awards inaugural live show breakdown: methodology, judge composition, category winners across art, music, writing, animation.

Summary

The Pinball Show discusses the inaugural live Pinball Awards ceremony, breaking down voting methodology (90% vetted critics, 10% public), judge composition (58 approved judges, only 25.87% from TPN), and detailed award results across 13+ categories. The hosts celebrate industry support ($10k+ in giveaways from Stern, JJP, American Pinball, Spooky), address criticisms about eligibility and methodology, and reveal winners including Toy Story 4 (art), Nudge Magazine (photography), Rush (music/callouts), and Weird Al (innovation/toys).

Key Claims

  • The Pinball Awards received over $10,000 in giveaways from manufacturers (Stern, JJP, American Pinball, Spooky, Flippin' Out)

    high confidence · Host states: 'I added up all of like the values of those giveaways y'all and it was over $10,000 worth of giveaways'

  • 58 judges were approved out of 60 applications; 54 completed ballots 100%, 3 approved judges didn't complete, 1 completed partial

    high confidence · Host provides detailed breakdown: 'of the 60 judges we got, 58 were approved. Fifty-four of them completed their ballots 100 percent.'

  • Only 25.87% of approved judges (15 of 58) were TPN members

    high confidence · Host states: 'Of the 58 that were approved, 15 were TPN members. That's it? That's 25.87%.'

  • 189 public ballots were sent out, 158 returned and counted on first year of public voting

    high confidence · Host: 'we had 189 public ballots sent out. 158 of them were returned and counted.'

  • Excellence in Writing was decided by only 0.19% difference between judges and public vote (Nap Arcade vs Nudge Magazine)

    high confidence · Host: 'This was determined by .19%. Wow. Is what the difference was in that public versus judging vote'

  • Toy Story 4 won Best Art (24.3%), with Rush and Fathom Revisited tied at 20.1%

    high confidence · Host provides exact percentages: 'Toy Story at 24.3 in the blended rating. And Rush and Fathom Revisited were actually tied at 20.1%'

  • Rush won Best Music with over 60% of vote; public voted almost 70% in favor

    high confidence · Host: 'Rush and over 60% of the vote Went to Rush Pinball... the public voted almost 70 in favor of rush'

  • Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity won Best Callouts with over 33% of vote

    high confidence · Host: 'Weird Al did win with over 33% of the vote coming in'

  • Toy Story 4 won Best Animation Display and Effects with 48% of vote

Notable Quotes

  • “I wasn't even out yet. I wasn't even breathing. Oh, God. Yeah. 84, baby. That was when I was established.”

    Host Dave @ N/A — Humorous aside about host's birth year in response to discussion about Fathom's 1981 release eligibility

  • “If Greg Bone took a breathalyzer during the award show, he would have blown a .19 as well.”

    Host @ N/A — Joke about Greg Bone's alcohol consumption during ceremony matching the 0.19% difference in Excellence in Writing vote

  • “I'm so freaking busy. This was a freaking close one.”

    Host Craig @ N/A — Personal reflection on not having time to write pinball content despite wanting to

  • “At the end of the day, we're trying to celebrate pinball. There's nothing wrong that can come out of that.”

    Host @ N/A — Core philosophy statement about the awards ceremony's purpose and mission

  • “I was banned in the chat 30 seconds in, I want to say, of the broadcast...Our moderator bot was like a bot Nazi.”

    Host @ N/A — Self-critical reflection on moderation issues during the live ceremony

  • “Whenever we got done with that awards and cut, me looking over at the pride that George Fisher...to see all of them together, know that they just nailed it...that felt, that was the world to me.”

    Host @ N/A — Emotional statement about the satisfaction of seeing team members proud of their accomplishment

  • “Some people go well of course toy story won because it was a disney property and pixar provided all the whatever's but they didn't put it together to look like a pinball machine they just provided the clips and stuff”

    Host @ N/A — Defense against common criticism that Toy Story 4's win was only due to IP/external assets

  • “I just think it's ridiculous that we're voting on something that was created 40 years ago.”

    Craig — Legitimate criticism of Fathom Revisited competing in art categories despite being a modern recreation of 1981 original

Entities

The Pinball AwardseventThis Week in Pinball (TPN)organizationToy Story 4gameRushgameWeird Al's Museum of Natural HilaritygameFathom RevisitedgameAliengame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Major pinball manufacturers actively supporting industry awards initiative with significant giveaway contributions, indicating positive industry sentiment toward award legitimacy

    high · Over $10k in giveaways from Stern, JJP, American Pinball, Spooky, and Flippin' Out; hosts note this was higher manufacturer participation than in previous years

  • ?

    event_signal: Physical ceremony at Flippin' Out Theater with hundreds of in-person attendees created emotional impact for organizers despite live broadcast complications

    high · Host describes seeing team pride and accomplishment: 'whenever we got done with that awards and cut, me looking over at the pride...that felt, that was the world to me'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong public disagreement with certain award outcomes visible in chat/trolling during live ceremony, though hosts estimate 98% positive reception overall

    medium · Host notes: 'I saw a lot of trolling messages during the chat, which was pretty sad and pathetic, But I think 98% of people freaking loved this show'

  • ?

    community_signal: Public participation in awards voting exceeded expectations (189 public ballots, 158 returned) despite limited promotion window and strict verification requirements

    high · Host: 'And I'm shocked at this number. In the first year where we had a very tight window, we didn't do a whole lot of promoting. We had 189 public ballot requests.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Rush band members (iconic million-follower act) publicly supported and re-shared Pinball Awards accomplishments, indicating mainstream entertainment industry recognition

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.214

0:00
Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised.
0:11
The Pinball Network is online. Launching The Pinball Show. We now return you to part two of The Pinball Show, episode 122.
0:25
All right, everybody, we're back. It's the Pinball Awards discussion. and general thoughts on the results. I was honestly surprised by a lot of it. I loved overall how it wasn't just a one-trick pony. There wasn't one game that took everything away, in my opinion. It was dispersed throughout different manufacturers, different games. I think the representation, the breakdowns, we'll talk about that, Dave, but I think that was wonderful. There was no big, I think the ceremony went well enough as intended and really brought a lot of energy, professionalism, fun, and entertainment to the industry. And so much so that I'm just happy that the manufacturers got behind the pinball awards this year more so than any other year. The giveaways were phenomenal. Just as a reminder to all the listeners out there, the giveaways could not have been done without Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball, American pinball spooky pinball and of course flipping out pinball but I added up all of like the values of those giveaways y'all and it was over $10,000 worth of giveaways you know it was big the support we received this year from the industry was just was amazing and Joel and Amanda giving those things away was hilarious yeah it was so much fun it was such a party atmosphere I was disappointed there wasn't more on-screen drinking and slurring of words. I thought there'd be more of that. I love you guys so much.
2:02
Well, maybe next year for the acceptance speeches. But yeah, the industry is getting behind us. The true manufacturers are getting behind us, loving what we're doing. Hell, a million-follower iconic band Rush is behind the Pinball Awards. Some of them showed that they re-shared their accomplishments and their wins for the year. and that was then re-shared by 500 people.

high confidence · Host: 'Toy Story 4 wins it. 48% of the vote. Yep. Yep. Ran away with that one.'

  • Weird Al won both Best Innovation (nearly 60%) and Best Toys

    high confidence · Host: 'Weird Al wins for Best Innovation. Damn near 60%. That was a runaway.' and 'Best Toys, that was a closer one with Weird Al winning'

    • @ N/A

  • “Numbers don't lie. I only report to facts. You're lying.”

    Host @ N/A — Humorous assertion of objectivity regarding voting data and methodology

  • “They're more clever than they need to be. They're great. Yeah. More recognition needed. Maybe next year.”

    Hosts discussing Hup Challenge @ N/A — Recognition that Hup Challenge was potentially snubbed in social media category

    • Nudge Magazine
    organization
    Nap Arcadeorganization
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    American Pinballcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Multimorphiccompany
    Dennis Creaselperson
    Amanda Hamiltonperson
    George Fisherperson
    Jason Napsperson
    Cactus Canyon Remakegame
    Flippin' Out Pinballorganization

    high · Host: 'a million-follower iconic band Rush is behind the Pinball Awards. Some of them showed that they re-shared their accomplishments'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Community debate over eligibility of 40-year-old game remakes (Fathom Revisited) competing in modern awards categories; hosts acknowledge legitimate methodology concern for future iterations

    medium · Craig argues: 'I just think it's ridiculous that we're voting on something that was created 40 years ago.' Hosts acknowledge will 'probably change the art categories in the following years'

  • ?

    event_signal: Inaugural live Pinball Awards ceremony successfully executed with 4,000+ YouTube views in first week, $10k+ manufacturer giveaways, and 100+ hour crew effort

    high · Host states: 'Seven days out and 4000 views. Give us 12 months and we'll be the highest' and details giveaway support from all major manufacturers

  • $

    market_signal: Public voting preferences diverged from critic judges in specific categories (Cactus Canyon Remake favored 25.6% by public in Sound Effects despite not top-3 for judges), suggesting different player priorities

    medium · Host: 'the public actually, the most favored public vote in Best Sound Effects wasn't any of the top three. It was actually Cactus Canyon Remake... by 10%'

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball received free promotional value through awards ceremony participation (broken backglass gag dropped by Amanda perceived as real by viewers)

    low · Host: 'American Pinball was there with their broken back glass that Amanda dropped... That's literally free promotion that they're receiving'

  • ?

    community_signal: Hosts acknowledge personal voting decisions on live broadcast that may not align with final results, demonstrating transparency but raising methodology credibility questions

    medium · Host admits voting for Rush on Best Callouts (Weird Al won) and Best Lighting (Toy Story won), providing reasoning for divergence from winning choices

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Host initially skeptical of public voting component but converted to supporting it after seeing positive results and methodology effectiveness

    high · Host: 'I was probably a bit mean. So I didn't think this was a good idea. But as we added it...' Later: 'I'm actually very pleased and happy with the way that went'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Moderation bot over-aggressive in filtering chat during live ceremony, banning viewers for using caps or symbols; acknowledged as operational failure requiring apology

    high · Host: 'I was banned in the chat 30 seconds in... Our moderator bot was like a bot Nazi. It was mean.' and 'I got banned two times for laughing'

    • 2:26
    Insane amount of support. That is crazy. It's still a little odd to me that some of the media people in pinball still don't get behind it and won't talk about it, won't share it or anything, even the news sites. But hell, I mean, if you've got Rush, if Rush is good enough, I guess, to share it, we still need some community support. I saw a lot of trolling messages during the chat, which was pretty sad and pathetic, But I think 98% of people freaking loved this show and seen what we were trying to do to celebrate the industry. So for that, thank you. Zach, we're seven days out. We're seven days out from the Pinball Awards, the first sort of live the Pinball Awards.
    3:09
    We have over 4,000 views on YouTube already, and all of the manufacturers shared in that success. Stern's face all over it. Spooky Pinball, who was not up for an award, was all over the Pinball Awards because of their generosity and support for the hobby and us in general.
    3:31
    American Pinball was there with their broken back glass that Amanda dropped. People thought that was real, too. We were like, it's a joke. I think she dropped like a cup or something. I don't know. Like that's free. That's literally free promotion that they're receiving just just to be a part of what we're doing and having fun. Like seven days out and 4000 views. Give us 12 months and we'll be the highest. We'll be at five.
    3:56
    I don't know. Every time we do this, though, Dave, I'm like, I don't know if we want to do that again like that. I was banned in the chat 30 seconds in, I want to say, of the broadcast, which I don't know what happened. We do have to apologize to people. Our moderator bot was like a bot Nazi. It was mean. It would just ban people if they used all caps or a symbol. They were like, no chat for you, and it was gone. So my apologies to those out there. I was LOLing like crazy, and I got banned two times for laughing. Prematurely, yeah.
    4:33
    But, yeah, I think that it's growing every year. 4,000 views on YouTube is pretty laughable. But for pinball, for award shows, it's probably the most. If you look at all the other award shows, they've been on YouTube for years. Viewed and accepted award shows in pinball history. So that's saying a lot. I was mostly proud of, this is corny. This is hokey. Bear with me, people. But I'm a softy. I'm a sentimental kind of feller. I knew that Greg and I could pull it off and do the whole, you know, da-da-da-da-da-da-da. That's just what we do. It's fucking natural. He was four beers in, five beers in, so I knew he was going to be prime. He was seven by the time the ceremony was over. Me and him do our thing. That's like autopilot riding a bicycle, a tandem bicycle. It's like falling off a bicycle. Somewhat erotic, but that's what we do. But whenever we got done with that awards and cut, me looking over at the pride that George Fisher, the Joe Lingo birth, that Amanda Hamilton, that the people in the audience had, that Jason had from Pinball Party, to see all of them together, know that they just nailed it and provided something of a lot of work, dedication, and care to the community. and to see them elated and glowing and just adrenaline pumping, that felt, that was the world to me. Like, holy shit.
    6:04
    These people are even more empowered now to provide more to this industry because of what we did as a team. And, yeah, hokey as it is, like, that was a drug to me that I will probably, because the live stuff freaked me out, I'll probably chase that high again to see my friends and colleagues try to – that they felt accomplished and proud. I mean, at the Flippin' Out Theater, you had hundreds of people sitting there watching, enjoying that show. Everybody had a great time. Yeah, it was an experience, and they were proud, and they should be because they worked their asses off. Dave, you worked your ass off. Craig, you worked your ass – everybody works their asses off. And even if people will naysay, and I always try to remind people, before we hit go live, I reminded everybody there, look, guys, we're going to mess up a handful of times tonight. The only thing that we can do when we do mess up is lean into it and have fun. Because at the end of the day. And blame Zach. One of them wasn't. The big one was my fault. That's okay. But roll with it. Have fun. At the end of the day, we're trying to celebrate pinball. There's nothing wrong that can come out of that. You're going to get people saying stuff that's just stupid. You're going to get people congratulating you on the hard work. But if we did it as a team and if we didn't do this, then it wouldn't be done. Nobody would be doing it. So, yeah, and everybody was proud of that. And I was like, let's just freaking have some fun. And they did, and they gave it their all. And I will never be able to repay them for, you know, how much they've done. It's awesome. Some of the behind-the-scenes stuff was really great. some of the photos we posted from the event, you can see that you guys were actually, you guys legitimately had a pre-production meeting at like a Waffle House or something.
    7:53
    Did you see the story of Nudge Magazine? Shout out to Nudge. Oh, it was so good. Did you see how nice Amanda's hair looked there? I mean, that was like, her hair looked good that night. She really went, yeah, she really, like, you take a look at like Jason, and he just schlubbed his way up there. I think he had a tie though, didn't he? Did you see Joel's jacket? It looked painted on. Was it a shirt or was it real time? Joel looked like a well-kempt Sasquatch.
    8:19
    It's so nice that his dad lent him his suit to wear. You know on Disney's Beauty and the Beast, whenever they primp the Beast, and then afterwards you're like, he's like, I look stupid. But he looks so precious. That was Joel. He's like, you hairy wildebeest, you. So precious. So cute. Prepping the Beast, we call it. Dennis Creasel. I can't even start with Dennis Creasel. the creasel was there with the jacket on and a smirk. And the Nordman shirt. He pulled a smirk out. It was fantastic. So now we can get into the bread and butter because people want to know numbers. They don't lie. And they think that I made a fortune and that I messed up the things so that I could win everything. So is that the case? Reporting lies. That is indeed the case.
    9:05
    At least we all know now. The reason that you and Dennis Creasel and I, we sort of preliminarily started this conversation years ago was because we were upset because we couldn't win any awards. So we tried to rig this up in a way that we could get them.
    9:23
    And so far, so good. So actually, let's break down the methodology. I'll break down how this works. I'm going to bring this down to an Indian public school level. We're going to bring it real down low. So it's a critic-style choice awards, right, which basically means that there's critics, but it's also a blended methodology. So that means that 90% is from a vetted pinball hobbyist personality judging pool that we vet before they get their ballots, and 10% of the weighting is given to any pinball community or anybody who wants to go out. The public. We wanted to do that. Now, the reason we added the public vote was a couple of things. One is we were disappointed in the last couple of years of the amount of people who wanted to be judges. We weren't getting enough judges. And some of that comes from the fact that, I don't know, people have an ax to grind or we're not being promoted by other pinball media because they don't want us to succeed or something. Whatever the reason was, we just weren't getting as many. We wanted like hundreds of judges and we were only getting like 50. so we wanted to get more participation we wanted more ethnic diversity more gender diversity which we spoke about sort of in the in the introduction there we wanted all that to to be expanded so let's break down who were the judges it's posted on our facebook page it's posted on the instagram i think as well where i've where i've put it up there we had 60 people apply to be a pinball personality judge. Those are the 90% weighting. Okay. And that could be like the IFPA people too, right? Top 100? Right. Competitive pinball people?
    11:09
    Top 100 women's competitive? Yeah. Social media providers. They have enough followers. Video content creator. Tournament organizers. The thing is, though, that they had to give us, quote unquote, the evidence that we could vet them or research them. So of the 60, two of those individuals were streamers, and they didn't have enough of the followers that were required to be a pinball personality. They'll get it next year. So they'll get it next year. So we reached out to them, asked them for a little information, or they were a tournament organizer who didn't have enough people attending at least one thing. So were they all TPM people though?
    11:52
    They were – no, no, they weren't. So of the 50 – of the 60 judges we got, 58 were approved. Fifty-four of them completed their ballots 100 percent. Three people who were approved that received ballots didn't complete them, and one of them completed a partial ballot. Who gives a shit? Okay. Sorry. I was saying it in my head, and it just like came out. All right? Yeah. So you asked the question, were they all just TPN members? Well, no. Just give them to yourself. Of the 58 that were approved, 15 were TPN members. That's it? That's 25.87%. That was lower than I thought. Of the vetted pinball personality voting pool. So people's narrative of it's just TPN giving TPN votes. I mean, I guess if I don't want to take the effort to actually educate myself and jump to a conclusion to fit the narrative in which I've created in my head, yeah, yeah, it was all TPN. Okay, so 25%. That's – okay, good. I think that's less than years past because we've had more pinball personalities outside of TPN apply for judging roles this year. And that's coming again from – we're expanding because we're growing as an award, if you will. Now, the public ballot – this is the first year we added the public ballot. But I was very much against adding a public component in the beginning. You were skeptical?
    13:29
    That was – yeah, I was probably a bit mean. So I didn't think this was a good idea. But as we added it, so the 90-10 methodology, the 90-10 – 90 being the sort of pre-vetted critic. Like the Video Game Awards, yeah. It's like the Video Game Awards. And the more research I did in that afterwards, it's a great mixed methodology because it avoids social engineering of the ballot, which basically means bots or communities gathering together to make sure a pinball machine wins because they have financial interests or something.
    14:07
    But we had – and I'm shocked at this number. In the first year where we had a very tight window, we didn't do a whole lot of promoting.
    14:16
    We had 189 public ballot requests. Oh, that's high. Well, we actually had like 202 and some of them submitted both a judge's ballot and a public ballot because they weren't sure if they qualified as a judge.
    14:34
    They inevitably did qualify as a judge, so their judging ballot for the public ballot was thrown out. They didn't get two ballots. But we had 189 public ballots sent out.
    14:48
    158 of them were returned and counted. And that blew me away. I didn't think we'd get that many in the short turnaround period that we had. A lot of people cared. That's pretty phenomenal. It's pretty impressive. I'm really happy with that. And they had to jump through. This wasn't click on the link and spam the answers. They had to return stuff. You had to give the – yeah, that was – You had to literally request the ballot. We went through every one of them with the help of Amanda Hamilton and Dennis Creasel, and we looked at IP addresses. We looked at the email addresses.
    15:21
    We looked at all that stuff. If there were questions we had, we reached out to a few individuals to ask them for some more information to check and see if they were real. And like Dennis Creasel always says, anytime you include like a public voting system, they're all flawed. They'll all have the capacity to have big holes and mistakes and lack of representation and reliability issues, yada, yada, yada. But this way, it actually got around the farm bots and stuff like that. People had to spend some time to care enough to blow their vote, if you will. So it really increased reliability. They might have had somebody sneak in that voted two or three times, but it's not enough to effectively tilt the findings. I was happy with that. Like there might be some movement in the numbers, but we're not talking – We'll do even more next year too, even more stuff. That's cool. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I'm really – and now that we've been through the process, I'm actually very pleased and happy with the way that went, and I think it was the right move. Cool, cool, cool, cool. so then what happened we uh who won oh this is the best part okay all right so we got uh well we'll go through these somewhat quick you guys have to go watch the video on domain you can watch the whole thing yourself uh on tpn's youtube page so go check it out there best art both cabinet and back glass that was a category as well as playfield two separate categories there the recipient winners were was jersey jack pinball toy story 4 which surprised me honestly yeah i was surprised too i was i was surprised i really was at that one although this was a very tight category um for voting now a lot of people go well of course toy story won because it was a disney property and pixar provided all the whatever's but they didn't put it together to look like a pinball machine they just provided the clips and stuff i don't know craig he's got an axe grind on this one. He did not like it. I've watched, I've seen videos. Yeah, I thought it was a bit too Photoshop-y for my liking, I thought. And just the creative element of coming up with these art packages, I thought was, I thought Rush did a better overall job at that in my opinion. I don't doubt though when you look at that Toy Story I don doubt why it got the votes ultimately Because when you do look at that machine you like oh that actually a really attractive Toy Story pinball machine And it does draw you in, so I get it. But just myself, personally, I thought Rush did a better job at putting those two packages together and had a tougher job to do that effectively versus a Toy Story. Rush was a little cartoony. I think that might be why it dragged a bit. I think it was good. I think that's why it dragged. So the percentages were Toy Story at 24.3 in the blended rating.
    18:26
    And Rush and Fathom Revisited were actually tied at 20.1% of the shared vote. Which I think is the bigger story there. that a game that was revisited from somebody else... Now, some people are going to get into it, like, well, why is a Valley Earth package... Tell them, Craig. Get them, Craig. Tell them. I just think it's ridiculous that we're voting on something that was created 40 years ago. That's a good argument. We're going to look into that. That's a good argument. Do you know what I mean? So it's like... In some ways, I think some of these machines should be excluded from anyone doing a reboot of a theme where basically they've taken the exact same everything and just redone it with modern components. It's fine. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. That's amazing. But I'm not sure that it should be up for an award just because it's there.
    19:32
    I mean, I think when you get into animations, Lighting, code I think that might work I mean the thing is that we expected the judging pool And specifically the judging pool To be more critical of what they're choosing Which is why we left it in But we'll probably change the art categories In the following years Unless there's significant changes I would say that I might align with Craig Boppy But for the sake of entertainment value And also open-mindedness The angels advocate in me would say, well, let's wait a minute here, because Fathom in and of itself, I'm not sure what the award ceremony was back in 81 to be, you know, did it get a chance to win in 81? And also, if we can pull a game from 1981 and throw it into 2022 and it still holds up today, then damn it, it should be eligible for this, because that just goes to show you how great this thing has not only become, but how it still holds up today. So I could see if there was an awards and stuff back in 81. It's already been presented, guys. We can't win twice, two different years. This is technically the first time that it's been presented for an eligible award. You were still on the witch's tit back in 81. Right. I was inside. I was inside the scrote. I wasn't even out yet. I wasn't even breathing. Oh, God. Yeah. 84, baby. That was when I was established.
    21:06
    You've changed my mind. That's how fast I'm going to roll over on that. No, I mean, I get the argument, although I don't think the art was significantly adjusted enough, in my opinion, compared to the other things that they really did an amazing job with on Fathom Revisited, but I get it. The other caveat here is that with Toy Story, you're able to choose the trim level, and the trim level that won for best art was actually no preference. So you could choose C or L. And more people just said, I don't care which one. They're both fine. Yeah. Which is interesting. Excellence in photography. Nudge magazine nudged it out with the majority of vote pretty heavily. I might add, followed by orange photography and nap arcade.
    21:59
    So, yeah, Nudge ran away with it. Yep, Nudge ran away with it, and good for them. 37.8%. They did very well, and they get a hell of a product there. I really like that magazine. So that was good. We see Orange Photography back in the mix with Gene Wang, and then Nap Arcade is a tried and true, so I like it. And then, so congratulations to Nudge. And then we got Best Music, and then we got the sound stuff. Best Music, Best Sound Effects, Best Callouts, Best Music went to Rush. And of course, talk about running away with it Over 60% of the vote Went to Rush Pinball Over the other top three candidates In Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity And Alien People just, they love their David Thiel He'll always find a way in that top three David Thiel is so good at what he does He's really good But I like that when it came to best music Both the public and judges all agreed It's Rush and and rush with best music now here's the thing right a band pin generally will always win best music and i know that there's a level of criticism that could be levied here on that um but as a canadian i mean generally we listen to rush when we're at the grocery store with it this year yeah we're you know we listen to it all the time when we're at like we call it shoppers drug mart here you guys have like i think it's called cvs down there yeah you know you're walking down you're you're you're picking up your groceries and you're just listening to tom sawyer all the time it's very odd up here don't you have to pick up a lot of ointments dave i think you're an ointment like a something growing rashes and no no it's the it's the cold weather it's on the lips just all over the lips yeah you're slathering yourself with vaseline exactly and and both the public and the judging vote for the rush was was was like 60 or more the public voted almost 70 in favor of rush and what the hell happened with best sound effects because they that was ranked third rush dropped to number three whereas alien was the one that came away with the crystal for best sound effects alien i'll agree that was a great sound effects package it was uh 23.2 percent of the blended ballot vote. Weird Al coming second at 19.4%. I like that judges and public were in agreement. Both judges and the public said best call-outs were. In fact, out of those three were Weird Al. But keep in mind that the public actually, the most favored public vote in Best Sound Effects wasn't any of the top three. It was actually Cactus Canyon Remake. Yeah, by a significant margin, by 10%, And 25, almost 26 percent of the public voted for Cactus Canyon sound effects. And it is good. I did see overall, just a bird's eye view, the public tended to favor Cactus Canyon remake more in the pinball awards than did the media members. But the media members tended to favor Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity more than they did Cactus Canyon. That was the juxtaposition there. I voted Weird Al for sound effects because I had played it a couple of times at Pintastic last year, and I was pleasantly surprised by the sound effects. The Rush sound effects were good, but I didn't think they were as quirky or as interesting. And on James Bond, we were still on that sort of beta code. They still hadn't filled it out. I think you can make the argument for Weird Al. Absolutely. But you didn't have to when it came to call-outs because Weird Al did win with over 33% of the vote coming in. Yeah, big time. Well-deserved. I mean, it was literally Weird Al. Yeah. Now, I did, however, vote for Rush on this one. Oh. Wait a second. Craig, did you vote for Rush on this one too? I voted for Rush on this one too. Oh, my God. What are the odds of that? Now, the reason I did was because I thought Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson just had so much fun making the call-outs for this. And the thing is, I don't know if you know this, Zach, that sometimes Canadians ham it up for Americans because we think it's hilarious. Yeah, you oots and a boots. Yeah, yeah. Right. Sometimes we put on a little more than we have to. And I think Geddy says, like, shoot the scoop, eh? and it's like oh my god because we don't say scoop we say scoop that shit up yeah and it's like and as a canadian when you listen to that there's like a meta level joke that you realize that they're putting extra into it and it's great and then us americans are like oh we just think moose are so cute we do love moose yes but here you hit them with a car and they kill your entire family oh god yeah i and i thought too you know you kind of expect weird a weird owl game to have hilarious weird out call outs which it definitely does and i think at the end of the day that's why it won but i thought for for ed robertson and the guys at rush to elevate themselves to to a level of the humor that they did i thought took took more or was more unexpected i think and it did show off the band's sense of humor, which they do have, if you know anything about the band and have seen their music live. They do like to poke fun at themselves, and they have a great sense of humor in general, I think.
    27:35
    That's why they got my vote. Thanks. I get the argument. Definitely. Hashtag Russified! What about excellence in writing? Did you guys write anything this year? I didn't do any writing. I would love to do more pinball writing, but I just haven't done. I'm so freaking busy. This was a freaking close one. This was a close one. And you know what's wild? The public determined the winner for Excellence in Writing. Nap Arcade took it away because between the judges, the media judges, it was at a standstill. It was a tie between Nap Arcade and Nudge Magazine. We had to go to the public vote and public voted Nap Arcade just a little bit over Nudge Magazine. But, Zach, this public voting component is not large enough to affect any change in this vote. This is outrageous. Numbers don't lie. I only report to facts. You're lying. Just the way it is. This was determined by .19%. Wow.
    28:36
    Is what the difference was in that public versus judging vote that made the difference in this category. If Greg Bone took a breathalyzer during the award show, he would have blown a .19 as well. It's interesting enough.
    28:52
    He was soft. Well, I mean, he is an expert blower. That's right. So, yeah, best writing. And Pinball News made it into the top three as well. Best lighting effects. I mean I didn't I should say that I didn't vote in the pinball awards either as public or as a media person I didn't qualify for the media so I didn't vote but for best lighting I know you guys love your Russian expression lighting on the LE I get that and that's what won but Toy Story 4 with the hot rails that one tickled me so did Fathom Revisited they said we don't need lighting just on the play field We needed custom oceanic scene under your cabinet.
    29:39
    Yeah, it was the limited edition with the Expression Light Factory Standard, which won this category with 42.6 of the blended vote. And this is damn nice. It's pretty good. Now, I voted for Rush in this one as the judge. The reason was, and I think I made a mistake. I probably should have voted Toy Story 4. Oh, come on. That compromises everything. No, but now – Is this like a Twippy where we're pulling back votes now all of a sudden after the fact? What's happening here?
    30:15
    Because when I played Toy Story 4, I played it at Pentastic in a really lit area. The game was kind of down. Jack was literally fixing it. And I didn't get the greatest experience when I played it the first time. But when I played it the second time, it was in a darker room with the Hot Rails and stuff like that. So when I was sitting there with my ballot, I kind of forgot about the exciting experience that I had later on that day. Well, and it wasn't the Hot Rail implementation that GNR was. Oh, certainly not. No. So I did vote Rush, although the judges just – Justine was sexy too. God, that was good lighting. It was really good lighting. Alien was dark. Fathom finishing third with 8%. Who would have thought a game from the 80s would have better lighting in the future?
    31:10
    It's revisited. That's because it's revisited. And it's RGB. It's beautiful. The next one, best animation display and effects I knew. Without a doubt, it's JP4Dewin. It's part of his nickname. He took it home yet again, I think, what, third year in a row? Or no, did they have one? They didn't have a game eligible last year, maybe. I don't remember. But Toy Story 4 wins it. 48% of the vote. Yep. Ran away with that one. And it's so good. Well, people are like, oh, it's because Pixar did all the animations. It's like, well, no. He mixed it. He added his own bits. And quite frankly, I mean, if you can't tell what J.P. DeWin did and what Pixar did, I think he's going to need a little bit more credit there. Yep. But top three of them there, that makes sense to me. Toy Story Rush and Weird Al's Museum of Natural Hilarity. I liked it. What about the social media? Excellence in social media. It's a weird category, I think. Yeah, we added this category because we wanted to point out that there are quote-unquote social media people out there who are actually building communities within the group themselves. They're sharing images. They're doing all those things. And the criteria as to what qualifies as a social media hidden ball hobbyist personality, that's on the website. But NAP, NAP Arcade ran away with this. Man, another award. 35.6%. NAP Arcade last year won two crystals. Damn.
    32:43
    Nicely done. Pinball Degenerates right there as well. And Deadflip. Joe Cherovino, 8.3%, him and the degenerates, and then Deadflip with 6.78% of the social media influence. I'll tell you who got snubbed here. It would be Hup Challenge. Right, that is. Hup Challenge got snubbed here. They are so good at their social media TikTok-iness. Yeah, they get more giggles per post for me than any other media provider. Absolutely. They're more clever than they need to be. They're great. Yeah. More recognition needed. Maybe next year. What about Best Innovation and Best Toys? We're going to put it together there. It's two awards, but Jerry over at Multimorphic took it away. Both of them. Weird Al wins for Best Innovation. Damn near 60%. That was a runaway. There was nobody even close. And then Best Toys, that was a closer one with Weird Al winning over Russian Cactus Canyon Remake.
    33:49
    How about Best Innovation, the number two finisher here? Declined to vote. Declined to vote got 10.7%. So many people were like there was nothing really very innovative or exciting this year that they decided not even to vote. Innovative. Yeah. Innovative. Yeah. I don't necessarily agree with that, but anyway. I don't agree with it either, but man, 10.7% of the London vote said they did. I think on that, I really feel like Fathom Revisited didn't get the love that it did deserve. Because innovation-wise, that's like the color DMD Twippy argument. It was innovative last year because the system itself is innovative. But what is new this year that needs recognition? I think the judges may have gotten that one. I would have questioned that one. But where Haggis Pinball, what they had is they had all types of production build innovations.
    34:52
    The LCD monitor in the apron, the upgraded, taking an old game and upgrading the code, the lighting mount underneath, the way they do the head and the back and the die cut stuff. I could go on and on. Fathom Revisited and Haggis Pinball, they technically had a lot of innovations. The fucking hybrid play field. The hybrid play field that doesn't dimple. I mean, is that not innovation? One would argue, well, they came on kelts, so that's another one of your arguments. Yeah, but this came standard. It was different than a choice option kind of thing Yeah I don know Just my thoughts Well they did get 2 of the vote People did both public and judges vote for them So other people agreed with you. We got a lot of public votes there at 10%. Yeah.
    35:47
    Nicely done. But if we're talking about innovation, it's hard not to look at the P3 platform, absolutely.
    35:54
    And toys, was there a lot of toys in these games? I mean, Weird Al did have a plethora of different mechs and stuff. The Wheel, Rush had the Time Machine and the Drum, Clock, Cactus Canyon. I think Cactus Canyon had a lot of toys, and the public thought so, too. I can't disagree. Yep. What about Videography? Excellent, some Videography. Yes, the SDTM Award. Yes, the Straight Down the Middle. Took home that one. Now, you know what?
    36:24
    I want to tip my cap. Not to you asshole media judges, but to my people, the public. Because the public values straight down the middle a hell of a lot more than you oversensitive, biased media judge panel.
    36:42
    Right? The public gave us a lot of vote. The judges were like, eh, I suppose. They're like, really? Yeah. Them guys again. Yeah. Well, I mean, this is why we created this award ceremony. So we could give you this award. And shout out to Emoto Arcade and Abe Flips as well. Abe Flips is so good.
    37:07
    Now, he didn't have many videos. Everybody was like, we had plenty of videos, people. Abe Flips, I think, had like three videos. But damned if those videos weren't, like, they were some of the best ever made in pinball. It's the overlay animation stuff he does. Animation work and narration is second to none. If he had a British accent. No, dubbed in German. It's German. Yeah, it's really good. Yeah, dubbed in German. Yeah, you shoot in a spinner. It makes you feel good inside. Das Flipper. Can I get you some schnitzel with that video?
    37:44
    And now we'll never be allowed in Germany. There go our German numbers. I like schnitzel. We still got Brazil. Exactly. We still got Brazil. now now you've also won the twippy for video right yeah a couple of times yeah which which of course we have also engineered so you win that's right i was hosting all right of course or what the hell so that but i wasn't hosting it was last year wasn't it shit i don't even remember i'm sorry yeah so i mean last year was kawasaki okay yeah that's right so but here you go right like they're Like, yes, they are a TPN award. You know, 25% of TPN voted. The public still voted for you. Yeah, yeah, the public. I mean, I don't know why people crap in a box and send it to Ennisville. I don't get it. I don't because we're an easy target. And we welcome it. You know what? If that's where it needs to go, if the hate needs to go somewhere, funnel it, baby. It's a natural topper. I don't know. Funnel it. But you know what? We did bust our ass this past year, and we provided a lot of videos, both just our regular old – Dude, that Halloween video, come on. Yeah, and then we do industry stuff too, promotional stuff. We now do reveals, releases. We do documentary-style featurettes for, I won't say, just Jersey Jack anymore. I'll tease that. So, yeah, we put in a lot of work. What about the Hall of Fame, the Pinball Machine Hall of Fame? very quickly. We do it every single year. This year, the EM, it was a doubler. People couldn't decide between Captain Fantastic and Wizard, so both of them get inducted into the Pinball Machine Hall of Fame. 1970s era. Both of them terrible games.
    39:23
    1970s came along. Oh my. Stars. The Slam Tilt Podcast love. 1980s was Taxi. Yeah, this totally is where it needs to be. It needs to be. Yep. 1990s, it's about time for the Addams Family. Damn. And then 2000s with Spider-Man.
    39:42
    Was there anything else released in the 2000s? No, not really. But Spider-Man, I would argue Spider-Man does deserve to be in there. It is a Steve Ritchie classic and a Lyman Sheets classic. And then 2010's era, it was a tie between The Walking Dead, my favorite pinball machine of all time, and Iron Maiden Legacy of the Beast. Here comes Keith Elwin. And I agree with that. Next year is going to be different. Different rules next year, so stay tuned. Then we jump back into theme integration, which was won by alien. I agree.
    40:10
    How could it not be? It pulls in. How could it not be? I mean, it might not work, but... Craig Bobby would argue Rush.
    40:20
    Are you serious? Well, yeah. I wouldn't like it, pinballers. I have a broken record over here. Oh my god, you are such a sellout. No, they've got a good argument. Rush has a ton of integration. It truly does. I mean, how can you not integrate? You've got the damn band members offering custom call-outs. You've got all of their different songs, the visuals of these lyrics, and put it into the game. I'm with them. Craig just likes owls. He just likes snow owls. Yeah. My biggest thing with Alien 2 and Detractor of Alien, which was enough for it to not get my vote, was that they did not, and it's an old argument, I know. Asterisk. they didn't have the biggest asset of Alien beyond the aliens, they had Alien they did not have Sigourney Weaver and so I thought you can't have you can't win best theme for a movie property without their number one character like, eh that's a great argument, honestly but it's got Bill Pullman or is it Paxton game over man they're both exactly the same person, did you know that? I heard streaming was pretty damn hard a lot harder than podcasting it is it goes to show you technical expertise is needed to win the prestigious crystal pinball award and he did it again IE pinball Carl D'Angelo takes it away 28.7% of the vote he left everybody else in his dust in the dust by 16% and that was agreed upon by both judges and the public Yeah, basically the same. Basically the same amount. It was – and well-deserved. Like Carl DiAngelo.
    42:10
    When you saw that setup that they had for InDisc, the screens and the monitors in front of the commentators and like Evan Gags with El Gato No Signal up on its – Triple drain. Right. Travis Murry. I say, you know what? Give him the win.
    42:33
    Because somebody's going to have to step up their quality and their exposure to beat him. He's going to keep winning until somebody else is able to not just present consistently, but having a consistent quality and also creating something different and fun, like he's done with his pin clash. And I agree that there are a lot of followers for the second and third place, flipping out pinball and dead flip. But I would have maybe liked to have seen the media panel give a nod to Fox City's pinball, District 82, and all of the streaming that Tom and group have done up there. Snubbed. Also snubbed. Yeah, so it's a tough category there. Tom is like streaming. It feels like every weekend, for God's sakes. I mean, the guy's a machine as far as pumping out the content. But what I will argue, though, not so much for Flippin' Out, but I will argue for Flippin' Out and Dead Flip because I've said it and I've preached it and people buy their DLC basket of fruits to throw at me and veggies.
    43:41
    Entertainment sells. And Flippin' Out Pinball with Joel Engelberth, with the talk chats with Craig Bobbies Bobby's and the Dennis Creasles of the world, the George Fishers, the Mike, the pinballers, the hotties. That's entertainment. Dead flip dancing around. That is entertainment. I'm doing reveal. It's entertainment. So where maybe that's not as technical as an IE pinball, entertainment sells.
    44:05
    So does rules. If you're buying a new pinball machine nowadays, rules are what's going to get you there. Sorry, monsters.
    44:11
    And Rush takes it away. Brady, you did it, damn it. Smashed him. Wasn't even close. 70.9% of the vote.
    44:22
    Wow. And the original Cactus Canyon, the finished original Cactus Canyon code was next at 8.5. Wowee. And I think that has to do with the fact that James Bond code wasn't even remotely close. Sure. It didn't get a single judge vote. That's tough. That's tough because we know that one's going to be good. and it only got one public vote.
    44:49
    Damn, you didn't have to go say that. And Toy Story didn't get a single judge vote. Okay, all right, enough. What about podcasting? Can we move through this thing? The Pinball Show. Oh!
    45:03
    Well, what do you know? Yet again, the public is the one that we love, Craig. What's not to love, honestly? I don't know. Media, you guys heavy-handedly voted for us as well. So I love you guys on this one.
    45:18
    It was pretty big. 36.6% of the vote. The next one, though, I got to say. Deserving for the other two, yeah. Really the best podcast on TV. Objectively, right? Yeah. Is Silver Ball Chronicles with Ron Hallett Jr. and David Dennis. I call them the cronies. Yeah.
    45:40
    So it was the public vote that really let us down on that one. The judging vote as well. But we had 11.5, 11.6. We're happy with that. Triple Drain at 9.59. But it was the public that voted overwhelmingly for Joel, Travis, and Tom. Overwhelmingly? I thought it was like one or two votes.
    46:00
    Overwhelmingly in comparison to Silver Ball Chronicles. But it was the judging vote that ended up tilting us to the win in second place. You know what's going to be interesting is we're talking the difference between podcasting and streaming. At some point, the committee is going to have to sit down and talk about the new stuff that Joel Engelberth is bringing and Flippin' Out in general has brought back to the days of Ken Cromwell. Like the video podcast format? Yeah, because we've got Joel doing an interview with George Gomez as a stream. Is that a stream? Is that a podcast? Do those get lumped together more as a media? I would also like to see maybe I'll put this to the committee next year, maybe Entertainer of the Year, an entertainer, just an entertainer. So a lot of things to evolve over the years, but those three podcasts are like three of my favorites. I mean, Silver Ball Chronicles is lovely. Dave, you very much deserve that. You were there in second place last year, I believe, weren't you? Yes, and the reason, again, I started this was to give myself an award, and I still haven't done that. I can't throw it in until I do. I think these crystals are about $1.25 apiece, so we'll get you one. I think that shows where the campaign money that TPN threw at that award, or TPS, sorry, threw at that award really paid off at the end of the day. Well, you've got to pay for it. Sometimes you've got to pay for it. Triple Dream Pinball Podcast, the newcomer, and it's working. It surely is working. Damn that Tom charm. Tom wins.
    47:41
    He's top three. And then best layout, Rush. I'm good with that. 50% of the vote. I'm good with it. I love shooting Rush. I love shooting James Bond. That was number two. I love shooting Toy Story 4. That was number three. And given the earlyness of James Bond and it still getting 27% of the overall vote, that's good indication of the popularity of that game where that may be next year yeah it's it's a bit of a shame that it was you know it came out sort of half baked but you know sometimes you get one of those chocolate chip cookies it's just not quite cooked and you eat it and you're like oh that's good i like my stranger things but whatever and then the harry williams pinball legacy award went to George Gomez. Fitting. Well, he's had a hell of a year. And I got to say, when we envisioned the Legacy Award, we kind of had an expectation as to where it would go and who would be the popular vote in a lot of those things. And you know what? That has not come true. They have been the strangest out of left field. Dwight Sullivan in year one, that would mean well-deserved, but not somebody I would ever put on the list that I thought would be on the short list. Gomez coming in with 24.4% of the vote this year right behind Lyman Sheets at 18.2%. Felt like it might have been a year of Lyman. Exactly. But George Gomez got Insider Connected. He got James Bond, him coming in and redoing all of Steve Ritchie.
    49:15
    It was kind of a year of Gomez. But he is integral. Now, go back into the Silver Ball Chronicles archive and listen to the second George Gomez episode that we review. A lot of what he did with Stern, how he came back to Stern, and he is integral in everything that Stern has become in the last 10 years because he was on the board. He's worked his way through in the leadership team at the ground level. He's put his money where his mouth is. And the best created nickname in the entire industry. It's our homie Gomi. I like it. And best in show, Craig, who won best in show? Does it rhyme with lush? Hashtag rushy. 56% of the vote. That's a good game. Which one did you vote for, Craig? I actually strangely voted for Rush. I thought it was a bit of a stretch. I was going out there on them. The other two, Toy Story 4, wonderful game. Cactus Canyon remake, phenomenal game. I like that the representation in Best of Show come from three different manufacturers. That's cool. That was the Pinball Awards. Nicely done.
    50:27
    Bravo. I think we did well, guys. I really think we did good with that show. I don't know if we want to do it again next year.
    50:35
    Bravo and goodbye. That's right. You guys will have to email us at thepinballnetwork at gmail.com. Let us know what you particularly loved about the Pinball Awards, what worked well for you, and maybe some suggestions as to what you'd like to see in the future. We're open to all the feedback that we can get that is constructive and decent.
    50:55
    I just think it shows how much work and effort is going into this award show. And as a casual observer, I'd be like, oh yeah, they're doing an award show, they're going to hand out a few awards. No, there is some serious time and effort being put into these things. And I think it shows in everything. You know, there's how the methodology is being crafted, how the presentation of the awards are going, The whole thing is, you know, there's a board that's actually meeting, you know, weekly and monthly. Even if we're in hot tubs, it's fine.
    51:32
    And we don't, and the thing is, we don't, there's not just one person running this, right? That's a lot of pressure to put on one person. And there's mistakes that we noticed, you know, well in advance because somebody else was like, oh, what about this game? Don't they qualify? Or what about – like because there are so many of us that are actually like carrying in on this that we can get all of that stuff out before any errors are made or before – like my thing is like we're always double-checking things and reviewing things and there's two or three of us looking at something. Because we all have like actual jobs and we're all actually doing other things. So stuff gets missed. And we, I think each and every year, we try to not just maintain what we did the previous year. We try to grow it every year, represent it better every year. Like this year, many new things, including a new name. The giveaways was a big one. So we like to bring in the reveal stuff. The live presentation. Live presentation. We're always pushing ourselves forward and creating challenges for ourselves to create the best form of free entertainment. Not only free, but freaking $10,000 worth of free shit to get. Come on, people. Get behind it. That's all I'm saying. But I tell you what, Dave, Craig, it was a ton of work. You guys can attest to it. I can attest to it. It was a ton of work. There was only one thing, though, over how much work is needed to create it. Numbers don't lie. I only report the facts. And that is pinball market trends.
    53:03
    What the hell was that? Was that a fucking loon? What was that bird? This is, well, we are here now. That wasn't an F-14. What is that? No no that is the sound of a loon and a snowmobile because this is the Canadian market trend Craig Bobby and David Dennis You screwed it up last year Now here you come screwing it up again You don mess with success We've got crystals. Have you seen our numbers?
    53:31
    The crystals don't lie. They're hefty. They cost a lot of money. They're nice. The people have spoken, Dave. They have. And I'll tell you what. How did I even find a clip of a loon? Well, you found it. I'm quite shocked at that. But, I mean, trending down right now is Batman 66, Craig Bobby. Oh, jeez. Batman 66. There has been one sitting in the Ottawa region for four months at $13,000 Canadian. What? That's a steal. Which is approximately $9,600 American. Approximately $3,500 in American. Can you believe that it's been sitting for six months, a Batman 66, in the Ottawa region? Wow. Absolutely amazing. What is that? Trending down. Oh, God, you're going to keep going. This is the worst. Also is the Addams Family. There is a bunch of them sitting on the pinball market in Canada right now, ranging, get this, Craig Bobby, ranging from $10,000 Canadian, which is $7,400 American, to $13,000 Canadian, which is $9,600. Where are you getting your facts? That's not even true. No, this is on the Canadian market. Paid $14,000 for mine. At this moment. Oh, I've been given a breaking, trending down. Fake news. Jake's 2012 Yamaha Apex snowmobile from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. That's sitting down right now. That is going for $4,000, Canadian. That is trending down because Jake needs to get a pack of smokes, and he's out of money.
    55:23
    And a side of smoked salmon to go with that. Yeah, does he smoke a new party? See? That's right. But we can't get away without a trending up in Canada, a Ghostbusters LE. Oh. This is one that Zach knows. I do. This is trending up at $17,000 Canadian. Hot damn. That is $12,700 US trending up. That's some hot poutine right there. Or what is it? What is it?
    55:54
    Poutine. I thought it was poutine. It tastes like poutine. I'd be mad if that was. That's some hot poutine.
    56:05
    Man, my poutine's a little lumpy. I don't know about y'all's. They seen a doctor for that? That was the Canadian market trends with Craig Bobby and David Dennis. We've taken over. That's so sad. We've taken over. Which is titty in the poutine.
    56:21
    Now, I don't know what to make of that. The numbers did lie. I don't know what the hell they were reporting. But I'm going to report here. I can't even top that. Turning up this week is Scooby-Doo.
    56:35
    Oh, jeez. What was that? Was that an eagle and an F-14? Or was that a floating balloon noise? You know how many of our listeners are erect right now? Jeez, that scared the crap out of me.
    56:49
    What the hell is that? Is that a dog? What is that? That is not it. Eagle will eat that thing. Craig, where are you putting that peanut butter?
    57:00
    Putting it in his poo tank, I think. That's Canadian Kraft peanut butter, too. That's the good stuff right there. That's right. It's the chunky one. Poor George Fisher right now is freaking out. I don't know if it's gluten-free or what the... Man, that poor guy, he came to Evansville, Indiana. Every time we took him out to eat, I'm like, George, I just want to say I'm sorry. This whole area, they have no clue. All we eat is dairy and bread. That's it. Turning down this week, Evansville, Indiana Foods. Sell, sell, sell. We still found some spots for you. Turning up this week is Scooby-Doo because do you not watch the video? Even if you were hating on that damn board game after watching the video, you secretly want one. I know you do. You're going to have to call them directly because numbers don't lie. My ass is sold out. Damn it. Wish I had a couple more. Bye, bye, bye. That's turning up this week. It's brush because it won everything. You're right, Craig Bobby. Mike Ed Robertson David Dennis I guess you guys are right Rush that's where it's at it's the greatest game ever created ever slap in the face if I wanted I've got Tron at home it's a shooter's game it's great that's Borg I would have a Rush but I want something that's got more toys something bash toy-y stuff ouch and that's why I don't have a Rush wow That's harsh man Because there's a bash toy and a ton of toys in there But it's not It's not a Stern should just be sending all Canadians that want one For free Or there should be a serious discount Just because Sounds like the dealers up north Are doing very well this year Congratulations All's training up this week is Weird Al That's right yours truly is training up Weird Al.
    58:56
    Also Alien. Why not? Toy Story 4 because they're winning the pinball awards. You thought Rush was going to take it home now? Weird Al's got it. Alien's got it. Toy Story's got it. Come on with it. What the fuck are you raising your hand for, David Dennis? I'm sorry. I hit the button. All trending up this week is George Gomez taking home the Legacy Award, the Harry Williams Legacy Award. It's our homie Gomi, always in our hearts. Where's the code update, George? Also trending up this week, last but not least, I've already got a little too softy and sentimental, but it's having friends at Pinball and those that support, you know, passion and vision. And they're not little turds that offer nothing, but still, and they're still in chat and they're talking shit and they don't offer anything to this industry. Do something. Figure it out. Then you can complain. I love you friends out there even if I'm paying each and every one of you to say nice things and to be my friend I'll literally do anything for a Stern banner speaking of turning up this week that was my little tease I didn't know if I was going to come out with it this week but oh everything is gold and we have to turning up this week in the most upright fashion is Stern pinball banners any guess as to why you thought that being able to find one It was hard enough. Well, look, Stern Pinball doesn't directly sell them to the public. Distributors don't advertise to sell them to the public. They're hard to get your hands on, but they're going to be even tougher now because here going forward, dealers are no longer allowed to purchase them. Oh! Bum, bum, bum! What? Listen to all the listeners out there. This is outrageous. You mean I can't get that sweet James Bond banner? It's going to be fucking real hard to do. Yes.
    60:51
    No longer. Now, look, the promotional banners will still be out there in some capacity for every release. That's not going away. But the amounts of how many are going to be in circulation is going to be down. Talk about your L.E. Because they don't have the license to sell the banner. Jesus. Yeah, so that's training up. It's the banners. Wow. Just hold on to them. Just squeeze them tightly every night before bed. value them because they just shot up double the value is what i'm estimating overnight well the value and when we were at expo and we went to the the stern signing event where you could have anything you wanted signed signed by the stern uh folks there uh they were oohing and awing at the stern banners that we were bringing through and told us they're actually not allowed technically to own them themselves just because they are highly sought after by collectors and Emotional materials. Yep. And they don't want, I think the danger there is they just didn't want their employees selling these things for, you know, on eBay for $1,000. Not that they're worth that much, but, you know, to make money on it. Well, eBay, they're going for $200. Wasn't TMNT outed because in the back of a Zoom, Dwight Sullivan had the TMNT banner?
    62:08
    He's like, oh, that band, that's just a poster, Hot Topics poster. That's all that was. Unfortunately trending down this week, it all can't be banners here, it's Rick and Morty. Rick and Morty? Oh no. The controversy, right? The guy did really bad shit and everybody said, hey, Adult Swim said, no thanks, asshole. And everybody got rid of him. Does that change the fact, the valuation of the pinball machine itself? Not necessarily. I don't think you're going to see a change in value for Spooky Pinball's Rick and Morty. but just objectively it's kind of trending down a lot of people's psyches uh owning that machine and say what you want we're not arguing that here whether it's you know faux pas to own stuff that other people what i'm saying is it's discussed and it's discussed in a negative way thus it is trending down this week still not getting rid of mine i love it all's trending down is big bang bar the license being trademarked again with the idea of a possibility to do a remake in the near future by some company unknown company planetary pinball picked up that license trademarked it again so they they got big bang bar it sounds like it's coming back i just i'm not sold to this great idea i mean it's a cool enough game it's 2023 does it really sell does it really hit the and tickle the spot that we're looking for i i'm not convinced i'm not convinced the rule set back then the capcom operating system i'm just not convinced everything is just pretty cool on it nothing's great the artwork yeah it's pretty cool that really came though from the the era and the time where bally williams and pinball had died and we were stuck with stern with no innovation and everybody was like oh i wish the days of the 90s were back and that's where the lore of that game comes from. Same thing with Cactus Canyon. It's a brother into it. So Big Bang Bar, I'm not convinced. I'm really not convinced. Now, if that would have been part of the Bally Williams catalog, maybe just for nostalgia's sake. Now, would these games sell? Sure they would sell. Sure they would sell. How much? I think that even if you price this as cheap as a CGC game is, I don't think it sells that well. I really don't. I think the only way you sell this game is in a very limited fashion and at a high price. And if you're doing that, you're not going to take too much time to go through the operating system and redo the code and stuff like that. I just, I'm not seeing it. I mean, okay, the dancing stripper alien in the background twirling around. That's kind of goofy, right? But, eh, eh. It's a pass for me. Maybe I need more time on it. I don't know. But then again, as always, look, I'm just here to report facts, people. Cue the eagle. Numbers don't lie.
    65:01
    Even if it's some shitty Canadian version of it. Here on the award-winning... Pinball market trends, baby! Oh, trophy! Did you see my trophy? Oh, crystal! Rub it in.
    65:13
    All right, guys, where can people catch you? You guys have emails, phone numbers, GBS coordinates? The balloon's following you. It came from Canada. I heard it came from Canada. Isn't that damn balloon? You guys allowed that shit to cross over to our border. wanting us to fix the problem.
    65:31
    Typical. We'll shoot that son of a bitch right out the sky. That was the balloon from the... I thought that was the balloon from the pinball awards that went up and got away from you guys. That was part of the giant inflatable pinball that you thought was a great idea. Yeah, so I'm David Dennis, co-host of Silver Ball Chronicles, along with Ron Hallett. You can check us out at silverballchronicles.com or patreon.com slash silverballchronicles if you want to throw us some money because you feel sad for the fact that we have to do what we do. Chill.
    66:09
    And hey, you can catch me right here on the Pinball Show with the Top Stories News segment that I do every other week with Zach and Dennis. and occasionally as well you can catch me over on the Pinball Network with Joel Engelberth where I bug the shit out of him and any guests he might have by showing up there as well so I'm all over the place I'm bugging Amanda poor Jason at the Pinball Party I'm trying to go easy on him because he's new but let's just wait Jason I'm coming for you man, I haven't forgotten and you can catch me at the Pinball Show here on the Pinball Network Email me at thepinballnetwork at gmail.com. Watch the SDTM video series. Support us there by liking, following. Flippin' Out Pinball, like, follow, subscribe. Check out Joel's streams. Those are freaking awesome. And Flippin' Out Pinball Product Showcase this week is James Bond 007 Pro. We haven't been stocked. Stern's newest game.
    67:08
    Man, get it while the getting's good right now before that code goes into another orbit. And you're really, really going to want that thing. Get it now. Bye, bye, bye. Alien, LV, and SV in stock. We're still taking orders for James Bond 007 Premium. And we have, like I said, two more spots for that 60th anniversary. Still got a couple more. The home editions, if you want to save thousands of bucks, get you a home edition of Jurassic Park or Star Wars, comic or original. Oktoberfest Deluxe, yeah, they're still making them. I've got some. Ooh, we should be seeing that new game here soon, shouldn't we, from American Pinball. Counting on you, Norty. GTF. Toy Story 4, L, E, and C. If you want it, we got it. Ultraman. Guess what I don't have? Halloween. I'm out. Wow.
    67:57
    You got a pre-owned Hobbit L.E. right now. Cactus Canyon remake. Taking orders for the SE Plus with that topper. Turtles Pro, Mandalorian Pro, and Premium Rush Pro. No more Premium. Star Wars Pro and Premium. Led Zeppelin Pro and Premium. Insider Kits, GNRs, accessories. You name it, we got it. Banners. Oh, I don't know. TBD. Escalera. Ooh, really cool, exciting product accessory for the Escalera. Man, they think of everything over there. It's coming soon. Check us out at the Louisville Show. That's coming up in March, people. Louisville Show. And then Texas Pinball Festival. I might be there. I don't know. TPN last week is a pinball awards. Go watch that on YouTube, TPN. And Flippin' Out Pinball with Friends, video on demand with Joe Lingo, Berth and Friends. Pinball Party, episodes 17 and 18. That's good stuff. Scott Denisey. Ooh, Triple Dream Pinball Podcast, episode 30 with Neil McCray. That was actually a really, really good episode. Yeah. You could tell that Neil was super excited to be on the podcast with Tom. Yeah, it was a good one. It was really good. Free play, pinball podcast, episode 20, a chat with John Borg. Damn, TPN is bringing it. Love it. TPN this week, just a lot of stuff. I can't even say specifically because there's just so much stuff. It's not because I'm not prepared and I don't know really what's happening in the future. We have so much love to give and so little airwaves to give it. for the pinball show. For Craig Bobby and for Dave Dennis, I'm Zach Minney. And remember, Jake from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan really, really needs to sell that snowmobile.
    69:29
    I'm Craig Bobby, and if you find yourself trying to buy Poon Tang and a Ghostbusters LE in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, you know you've gone too far, probably.
    69:42
    And always practice safe pinball and catch you on the shill side. That was good. That was fun, guys.
    69:56
    Here's a tip. I got this the other day. This is a dog clicker. Uh-huh. Okay? And every time that you fuck something up or every time you go into an editing space like we are now, you click it.
    70:13
    Okay. and then you'll see it why is my mouth salivating so then you'll see it on your thing so then you know where to do your cuts chuckle or laugh so you know how to do your cuts well that doesn't work if we're all doing our own audio you realize that but okay they're lined up it's a good idea I like it it's very pro dog as your poo tang The joke's way too easy, I'm sorry Oh god