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Episode 20: "Is Pinball Dying? Foo Fighters Vault, Stern’s Next Cornerstone & Pinball Hype!"

The Flipside Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·34m 13s·analyzed·Dec 23, 2024
6c3dd5df-2e7d-4a37-8934-c57014bdd6d5
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Stern vault surprises, Cup competition integrity concerns, and tariff-driven price hike speculation.

Summary

Retro Ralph discusses upcoming Stern announcements at CES, the Stern Vault program removing seven games from production for two years (including surprise inclusion of Foo Fighters), concerns about cheating in the Stern Pinball Cup competition, machine maintenance tips, and speculation on potential 2025 price increases due to tariffs on imported components. He counters 'pinball is dying' narratives with observations of thriving local venue communities.

Key Claims

  • Next Stern Cornerstone game will be announced/revealed at CES in early January, likely Dungeons & Dragons rather than King Kong

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph discussing announcement timing and speculation on IP; 'the word has kind of always been Dungeons & Dragons, and then maybe a month ago maybe it could be King Kong'

  • Seven titles removed from Stern Vault program will not be in production for at least two years: Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Star Wars, Star Wars Comic Art Edition, Avengers Infinity Quest, Elvira's House of Horrors, and Foo Fighters

    high confidence · Retro Ralph reading official Stern Vault program announcement directly; confirmed list provided

  • Foo Fighters sale trajectory dropped after strong initial launch despite being well-received game by Jack Danger

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph's distributor observation and personal speculation: 'it went out of the gate and it was real hot and it was selling like crazy. And then it seems like sales of that game have sort of dipped down'

  • Some Stern Pinball Cup participants are cheating by having family members play on their machines to accumulate points

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph referencing post from Stern enthusiasts Facebook group where someone openly stated family was playing for points; post has since been deleted

  • Tournament-grade machine pitch settings (7.0-7.5+) are significantly steeper than Stern's recommended standard 6.5 degrees

    high confidence · Retro Ralph's personal testing and observation: 'tournament players set them way, way higher than that'; Electric Bat machines observed to exceed standard pitch

  • Pinball machine prices may increase in 2025 due to tariffs on imported components from China

    low confidence · Retro Ralph speculation on economic impact: 'could pinball prices be going up in 2025?'; acknowledges lack of economic expertise and this is hypothetical

  • Secondary market for recent pinball machines shows prices declining; most machines cannot be resold at purchase price unlike earlier hobby era

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph reflecting on market shift: 'this is no longer a hobby where you buy a pinball machine and you can sell it for more than you paid for it in most cases'

Notable Quotes

  • “Foo Fighters is on there. That one surprises me because I feel like this is a hunch. I have no data to back up or support this. I feel like Foo Fighters out of the gate was really popular.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~12:30 — Expresses surprise at Foo Fighters vault decision and questions reasoning behind removing a relatively new, initially successful game

  • “I'm not cool with that only because it's supposed to be a competition. If you're doing things that are technically cheating, then it kind of sucks, man.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~20:45 — States ethical concern about Cup competition integrity when players use family members to artificially inflate scores

  • “If you go down there [Electric Bat], there is no way you would come to the conclusion that pinball is dying or dead or even close to dead or on life support. What you would probably come away from is saying it's thriving and people are loving it and more people are coming in.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~48:30 — Counters 'pinball is dying' narrative with ground-level venue observations; frames local community enthusiasm as evidence of hobby health

  • “I feel like pinball is a super expensive hobby as it is... unless there's things that they can have alternative means to source them in the U.S. But again, the U.S. prices for whatever these components are may be more expensive.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~44:00 — Acknowledges paradox of tariff mitigation: sourcing domestically may not solve cost issues if U.S. component prices are higher than Chinese alternatives

  • “When you get older you have like a hard time gauging age on anyone anymore... this kid... he was like in the top 20 in Arizona.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~50:15 — Anecdotal evidence of younger competitive players entering the hobby; demonstrates demographic diversity at venues

Entities

Retro RalphpersonStern PinballcompanyJack DangerpersonIanpersonKeith ElwinpersonNudge MagazineorganizationElectric Batvenue

Signals

  • ?

    announcement: Stern Cornerstone game will be revealed at CES in early January; Retro Ralph planning to attend and cover for podcast audience

    high · Ralph: 'the next cornerstone game is going to be announced around january probably that first week of January maybe, but the second week of January at CES, that's when it will be revealed'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Rumored Cornerstone IP is Dungeons & Dragons; King Kong mentioned as alternative possibility attributed to Keith Elwin

    medium · Ralph: 'The word has kind of always been Dungeons & Dragons, and then, I don't know, maybe a month ago, it kind of got confused as to maybe it could be King Kong, which would have been a Keith Elwin game'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern removing seven titles from production for minimum two years as part of rotation/rest strategy; games include Deadpool, Iron Maiden, Star Wars variants, Avengers Infinity Quest, Elvira's House of Horrors, Foo Fighters

    high · Official Stern Vault program announcement read aloud by Retro Ralph with complete game list

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Foo Fighters initial strong sales momentum appears to have declined after launch; surprising vault inclusion signals demand concerns despite positive critical reception

    medium · Ralph: 'it went out of the gate and it was real hot and it was selling like crazy. And then it seems like sales of that game have sort of dipped down' and 'it seems like Foo Fighters out of the gate was really popular'

  • ?

    community_signal: Players openly discussing/admitting to cheating in Stern Pinball Cup by using family members to accumulate points; post evidence later deleted; raises questions about fair competition

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.103

0:00
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Flipside Podcast. I'm your host, Retro Ralph. It is December 22nd as of me recording this right now. It's really close to Christmas and I got an exciting podcast for you. So we're going to dive right in. We have so many topics. We're going to talk about I'm going to Stern in a couple weeks. We're going to talk about that. Prices may be going up on pinball machines. Oh, no. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the Stern Vault program. We're going to talk about the Stern Pinball Cup. There's some shenanigans going on with the Pinball Cup. It's really, really aggravating me. But we're going to talk about it. I finished the first qualifier pretty good. But we're going to talk about all that. And then we're going to talk about a couple other little things here about the pitches of your pinball machines and how you set them up, because I got a little mad the other day, I'm not going to lie. But before we get into all of that, which is all sounds very exciting, right? I mean, you're here, you're with me. It's going to be a fun time, but we've got to have a word from our sponsor first, Flippin' Out Pinball. are you looking for a new pinball machine a used pinball machine or to trade in your old pinball machine for something new look no further than flipping out pinball they can handle all your pinball needs they ship anywhere in the united states and they will give you the best experience in the business check out the link to flipping out pinball in the video description for more information now back to the video okay thank you flipping out pinball for the sponsorship and if you're looking for a new and used pinball machine definitely go check them out the link is in the description to find them all right let's get started with this show so the first topic i want to talk about this was kind of came as a surprise you all know that the next cornerstone game is going to be announced around january probably that first they may tease it probably the first week of January maybe, but the second week of January at CES, that's when it will be revealed. But I'm going to be going to check it out at Stern Pinball. So I'm pretty excited about that. And at the same time that they're going to be launching it at CES. So you're going to get the latest from me. I'm planning on bringing all my podcast gear. If I'm lucky, I can do a podcast straight from Stern headquarters. I don't know if they're going to let me do it, but it would be pretty epic if they did. But yeah, so you're going to get all the latest and greatest and my feedback on the latest Cornerstone game. I don't know what it's going to be. The word has kind of always been Dungeons & Dragons, and then, I don't know, maybe a month ago, it kind of got confused as to maybe it could be King Kong, which would have been a Keith Elwin game, or is rumored to be a Keith Elwin game. But I think it's going to be Dungeons & Dragons. So we'll see. I'm going to have Ian from Nudge Magazine is going to be with me, so I'm going to see if I can maybe get him on the show, and maybe him and I will do a breakdown of what we saw. And then I can roll some B-roll footage of what we saw over it. I think that would be a really fun show. We'd probably go longer than the standard 30 minutes or 20 minutes or so that I usually do the show. So I think that's pretty exciting. So that's topic number one. I'm going to be able to see the Cornerstone game. I'm going to share my thoughts with you. I'm going to see it the same day that everybody else sees it at CES. So I'm pretty excited about that. The other new news coming from Stern was this change to the Stern Vault program. So if you didn't hear this news, it's kind of interesting. seven titles will be removed from the stern catalog they will not be making these and the program basically how it works is anything that's vaulted will be removed from active production for at least two years now some of these names don't surprise me like some of the games don't surprise me but one kind of did so here i'm going to list off the names for you so these are games again that are going to be in the vault for at least two years so their program states they will not remake these for at least two years. So Deadpool is on there. I feel like Deadpool, they probably made a lot of Deadpools. I feel like there's a lot of them out there. So that one doesn't surprise me. Iron Maiden is on that list. If you've never played Iron Maiden, it doesn't matter if you're a fan of the band. Awesome Keith Elwynn game, like amazingly fun Keith Elwynn game. So if you have never played Iron Maiden, I definitely suggest you check that out. Star Wars and Star Wars Comic Art Edition. Avengers Infinity Quest. I never really got into Avengers Infinity Quest, so that one I am not going to lose any sleep over. Elvira's House of Horrors. There's been many versions of that game, so I guess that one kind of makes sense. But Foo Fighters is on there. That one surprises me because I feel like this is a hunch. I have no data to back up or support this. I feel like Foo Fighters out of the gate was really popular. Jack Danger makes great games as as you know like he that was his first real like cornerstone game i'd say because he made the uh the jurassic park home edition but i felt like it was very well received by the community i actually bought it and sold it i should have stayed up stayed with it though because i feel like now when i play it over at electric bat or on location at other places i feel like i really do like it i've grown to like it so uh that one kind of surprised me since that one's relatively new so i don't know what the rumor is like i don't know what the deal is with that like why would they decide to take Foo Fighters out of production? Maybe it has something to do with licensing with the band. I don't know, but it hasn't been out that long. So that one kind of shocks me. Who knows? Really weird. But, uh, but you know, I will say this, it seems like, at least from my distributor, my local distributor, it seems like it, it went out of the gate and it was real hot and it was selling like crazy. And then it seems like it had sales of that game have sort of dipped down. So I don't know. Maybe that's it. But yeah, that's kind of where we're at with the Vault program. So we'll see. I don't know. You guys, I'd love to hear your feedback. Is this something that upsets you? Are there games here you wish they'd rerun? I know Deadpool's one I've always wanted, but I think there's probably enough of them out in the marketplace that I could probably pick one up and use. So I'm not that bummed out about it. All right. So anyways, so that's the Vault program. Kind of exciting. So here, we got to pivot to this Stern Pinball Cup. If you guys haven't been doing this, I'm going to just bring up the website so you can see it. So if you're listening, I'm going to talk you through it. If you're watching on the YouTube channel, which is Retro Ralph Live, that's where the Flipside podcast is hosted if you want to see the video version of it. So I'm going to pull up the website real quick. So here is the website for – and I don't know how to interact with this thing. All right, here we go. So this is the Stern Insider Connected app. So if you're wondering, you used to be able to go down to these little two dudes right here and then scroll down and you used to be able to access the pinball cup that way. I don't know why they made it more difficult to access. So basically from the home menu, you're going to go to this little splash screen right here and then you go four dots over it. I can't guarantee it's going to stay like this. And then you can see Stern Pinball Cup 2024. So as of right now, we're on the I guess this would be the first race because we had the qualifier. now what's weird is I was in the if you look at my awards here we'll go back real quick I ended up getting a badge for let's see what did I get where is it so here's what I got so I got the no that's not it shoot sorry guys um I was in uh 101 to 500 so I was tier one but here's the weird thing is it seems like all my friends are also in tier one even if they fell out of 400 so i don't know how this tiering thing is working uh but that's kind of messed up so i feel like i was pretty respectable and then i landed uh you're able to see if you if you have a local location that's a stern army location you're able to see where you fell in that rank and i was number two at electric bat which is pretty cool there was some dude that came out of nowhere and want to talk about that because i think there's some shenanigans going on with the pinball cup but anyway so if you want to check it out and see where you're at you basically go to the home screen you go for before these little dots over you go to the quest page and on the quest page you can see your name and where you are so it just started i actually got really sick the other day i was not feeling well it knocked me on my ass and i slept basically all day yesterday so this is where i'm at right now i'm 1377 now that seems crazy to be in that that low of a place but on the qualifier i was on like 2500 something and i worked all my way up to like i think i was in like 200 So that was pretty cool Like I feel like I landed in a good spot So I got a lot of playing to do Uh what cool about it is so if you curious how this all works when you on this page you scroll down and then you can see each game So you just basically it not going to let me do it on this So basically you click down into the game you want, and then you can change this. So if you have Avengers Infinity Quest, you can go here, and it'll show you all the things you need to do for that game. So pretty cool. So if you're doing like, I don't know why this is not working the way it's supposed to work. It's not the app. It's me. I'm using this weird setup right now. So anyways, you scroll through here to pick your game. And then once you pick your game, it'll show you below. Like if you have Godzilla, you give it a second, it'll load. And I don't know why it's screwed up. But anyways, you get the point. You pick the game and then it tells you the challenge. And there's five challenges and each one is more difficult. So there's very easy, easy, medium, hard and very hard. And the more the harder things you do, the more points you get. But here's where some shady stuff is going on. So I'm not going to – I'm a wicked competitive guy. I can't help myself. I'm very competitive, and that's why I get so damn upset when I don't do well in tournaments, which is good and bad because if I'm doing poorly, it tends to affect my overall mood. And it's funny because – I don't know. I was listening to Kaneda. Like he's not a tournament player. I don't really know how much pinball he actually plays, but he definitely is not a fan of tournament play. He seems to like location play, but he's not a fan of tournaments. But he was talking about how, oh, why would I do tournaments? You go there, everyone looks all pissed off all the time. Most people are generally happy, but I probably do fall into that category where if I'm having a bad time, like meaning I'm not playing well, I probably don't look super happy. Obviously, if anyone came up to talk to me or I was deciding to talk to someone, I wouldn't be grumpy. But I probably would be if I went over to Rudy. I'd be like, son of a bitch, I'm doing terrible. I want to leave. And I'd go in the parking lot, scream, scream at the top of my lungs, then come back in, which I have actually done before. I didn't scream in the parking lot, but I went in my car and screamed and I came in and did even worse. But that wasn't at electric bat. So anyways, on the Stern enthusiasts Facebook group, there was a guy that posted something. I don't have it handy, so I can't bring it up. But he basically said like, oh, I'm getting I got the family working on the pinball cup for me. And he was logged into all his machines and having his kids play to get points. See, I'm not cool with that only because it's supposed to be a competition. If you're doing things that are technically cheating, then it kind of sucks, man. And maybe I'm just taking it too seriously. Let me know in the comments. But I take pride in being like, OK, cool. I got this achievement. I got these points. And ultimately, the whole thing is going to come down to time, right? We're adults. We have jobs. But it's time to play. but not only time to play, it's am I able to achieve these challenges, which then give me points. So it's kind of not cool when someone's openly being like, hey, look, I'm cheating. And maybe he was joking, but I don't think he was. And it looks like he pulled the post down, so I can't see the post anymore. But that's, I don't know, to me that's just not cool.

  • Metallica Remastered Limited Edition had production run of only 500 units and is highly desirable on secondary market

    high confidence · Retro Ralph citing rarity: 'they only made 500 it's very desirable'

    • Foo Fighters
    game
    Metallica Remasteredgame
    John Wickgame
    Godzillagame
    Deadpoolgame
    Iron Maidengame
    Avengers Infinity Questgame
    Stern Vault Programproduct
    Stern Pinball Cupevent
    CESevent
    Stern Insider Connectedproduct
    Flippin' Out Pinballcompany
    Rudyperson
    KongsRUsperson
    Kaleperson
    Kanedaperson

    medium · Ralph: 'on the Stern enthusiasts Facebook group, there was a guy that posted something... he basically said like, oh, I'm getting I got the family working on the pinball cup for me... he was logged into all his machines and having his kids play to get points'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Tournament-grade pinball machine pitch settings significantly exceed Stern standard (6.5°); competitive play requires higher difficulty settings (7.0-7.5+); impacts player skill development and venue playability variance

    high · Ralph testing with digital pitch device; observation of Electric Bat machines exceeding standard; personal experience of skill gap between standard and tournament setups

  • ?

    product_concern: New-in-box Metallica Remastered experienced cold solder joint failure on drop target coil; John Wick flipper return spring failure; suggests potential QC issues in recent production batches

    medium · Ralph: 'sure enough, there was a cold solder joint' on Metallica; 'the return spring had popped off' on John Wick; 'new in box. So you don't expect to have issues new in box'

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball machines no longer maintain or appreciate in secondary market value like in earlier hobby era; most games sell for less than purchase price; limited exceptions for rare/LE production runs

    high · Ralph: 'this is no longer a hobby where you buy a pinball machine and you can sell it for more than you paid for it in most cases' vs. earlier when Jurassic Park could be flipped at purchase price

  • $

    market_signal: Speculation that 2025 tariffs on imported components from China could drive pinball machine price increases; uncertainty about whether manufacturers can source domestically at competitive prices

    low · Ralph extended speculation segment: 'if we do have a lot of tariffs that are applied to product coming in from let's say China, that could obviously make it more expensive' but acknowledges lack of economic expertise

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong pushback against 'pinball is dying' narrative; ground-level community observations show thriving venue activity, growing attendance, and new/young players entering hobby at Electric Bat and similar locations

    high · Ralph: 'depending on where you go... people would lead you to believe that the pinball hobby is like dying... If you go down there... there is no way you would come to the conclusion that pinball is dying... it's thriving'

  • ?

    event_signal: Nudge Magazine released 'Moments of 2024' video compilation that reinforced positive hobby sentiment and countered declining narrative; generated excitement in community about pinball vitality

    medium · Ralph: 'Nudge put together this sort of moments of 2024... this hyped me up big time'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Electric Bat pinball venue showing strong attendance and community engagement with Tuesday night tournaments; attracting out-of-state players (e.g., player relocated from Rhode Island top 20 ranking)

    medium · Ralph: 'I go and play pinball every Tuesday night at Electric Bat now religiously. I'm like addicted to going down there. The vibe is awesome. The people are awesome'

    • 11:33
    Anyway, if I had some feedback for Stern on this pinball cup, it's really cool, it's fun, and a bunch of my friends are participating. But I'd say, oh, and that is one thing you can kind of see. let me see i'm gonna bring that back up so you can see where you are uh against your friends so if you go to um connections this is going to show you all the people you follow and where you stand oops that's my game room hold on man this is hard to work with the way i have this set up right now there connections so once it loads this you should see so this is going to show you the people i follow where i play so this is my buddy rudy he hasn't been playing much today um this is my friend Jason. I follow KongsRUs and a couple other people. I'm not like personal friends with KongsRUs, but you know, this guy is some guy that called me out. I don't really know him, but if you scroll further down, this is Kale at Electric Bat. This is Ian Nudge Magazine. He doesn't do this stuff. And there's my buddy, Nick. So Nick probably hasn't been playing yet, but anyways, we only have, we only have a certain time in the day, but you can see how you rank against your friends. And that's, it's kind of fun because, you know, I'll be at work. I'll be, I was working the other day and I was scrolling through. I was like, damn it, Rudy. Like, I know you're not working. You're playing pinball. And he's like, so then anytime I would start playing, like between a work break or something or a Zoom call, he'd be like, what the hell? May I get back to work? So it was just fun to like, I don't know. I think it's fun. If you participate and follow some of your friends, the problem is it's kind of weird to follow people on this app. So if you don't know how to do it, here's how you would do it really quick. Because I think it's more fun if you actually follow friends and then kind of make it sort of competition between yourselves too. because there's some people on here that already have like 10,000 points. I'm like, how is that even mathematically possible? So maybe they're pulling some shenanigans like that other dude was. So anyways, you go to connections, and if you know someone's ID, you can just put it in right here, and you can get their ID. But these are showing people that I've followed at some point.
    13:26
    But anyways, so that's kind of it. Then you can see your top scores and all that stuff. But anyway, that's kind of what that looks like. So if you're interested in participating in that, definitely give that a shot. I think you'll enjoy it. So that's that topic. So I don't know if people are cheating, but it does seem not cool because everyone else seems to be, all my friends at least, are putting in the work, trying to learn. And then what's really cool is that you take the challenge and then you go look at the rule sheet. So if it's something you haven't done before, you go pull up the rule sheet and figure out how to do it, which I think is really cool. The one thing that was actually kind of getting me a lot of points is on Godzilla. you had to do bridge attack multi-ball basically to do that you um you keep hitting the magna grab magnet which has like a captive ball behind it and then once you do that so many times you hit like a i think it's like a right or left ramp shot it tells you and then you then you get bridge attack multi-ball and that gave you like i think 20 points so anyways that was pretty fun uh yeah so that's it so the other topic i wanted to talk about really quick is uh you know i was playing pinball at electric bat and i was noticing that the pitch of their games was was pretty steep actually so i'm just curious from your guys's perspective like when you put a game at home do you set it to the standard 6.5 or do you set it harder like you set your game steeper to make them more difficult i would kind of expect location locations to have them more steep right because it makes the games harder it's going to mean you're going to pump more money into it but that could also be a struggle for a casual player. I feel like 6.5 is the stern recommended. I know tournament players set them way, way higher than that. So I was just curious what you set them at, because I just started more recently putting the pitches higher, like almost 7 or 7.5. The thing is, how you can really tell if a game is really steep, and I wouldn't say this is the most accurate way to say that it's 6.5. I use this little device. It's like a little, I don't even know what it's called, but it's this little device you stick on the play field. It's digital, and it will tell you the pitch of the game. I use that over the bubble, but the bubble, at least you can kind of glance and see where it is. But if the bubble is between the two lines on a stern, that usually means you're around 6'5". The bubble on a lot of the electric bat games are actually beyond the first line, so they're all the way up. So I don't know what those pitches would be. It'd be interesting to find out, but the reason why I'm saying this or bringing this up is because the last week of the tournament, I didn't do great either, by the way, guys. I think I ended up in like 60th place or somewhere in the 60s. But the cool thing about that is there's like 100 plus people that play. So it's okay. It's not great. It's not where I wanted to end up, especially after that week where I did amazing. But that's where I ended up. It is what it is. But I played John Wick there and it whooped my ass. And I own John Wick. And I remember looking at it after and being like, man, the reason why it's so much faster than mine. So I'm thinking about, because I've been playing more tournament play, I almost have to change the pitches of my games so that they're more difficult, so I can learn to play them in a more difficult setting. Because otherwise, what happens is I think they become, they're so fast that my timing is all off. So also, I think it'd make you a better pinball player if you could do that. So anyways, I'm just curious what you guys set them to, because I, you know, that's where I pretty much, most of mine I was keeping at 6'5 for a while, and now I've been jumping them up to like 7+. and it's been helping me. It's made my game a little bit better.
    16:54
    The other thing I wanted to talk to you guys about, I did get my Metallica. For the most part, I haven't had any issues, but I did have one issue, and I think it worth bringing up because I think people always ask me do you have problems with your pinball machines And for the most part I really haven had many I haven had any major I had a couple I had a node board issue on my Godzilla. The building stopped going up and down, and it ended up being the node board that controls the motor for that. And I ended up buying that, which wasn't very cheap, and I replaced it, and I was fine. It was technically out of warranty, So Stern didn't give me a reimbursement for it. But anyways, but more recently, you know, Metallica's new in box. So you don't expect to have issues new in box. But I was like, all of a sudden, the drop targets over by the tombstone. I don't even know what you call that, but it's like the three drop targets on the left of Metallica Remastered. There's the tombstone.
    17:51
    The drop targets weren't going up anymore. And I was like, what the heck's going on? So I go into the test menu. I start testing the drop targets and sure enough, the drop targets are not going back up. Like they're just busted. So I'm like, what the hell? So I look, so I'm like, you know what, I'm going to, I'm going to take the balls out, put the play field up and just visually inspect it. My initial thought was maybe a wire popped off. Cause like solder joints, if they're not good, can sometimes pop off. And if you think about it, that's got a coil on it and it violently shoots those three. When it resets, it shoots those three, um, drop targets back up. And it, It is pretty violent the way it does it. You know, if you really look at it underneath the pinball machine, you can see it's a violent, like, movement. I said violent, like, ten times there. But anyways, so sure enough, there was a cold solder joint, so I did have to re-solder that connection, and now it's fine. Works great. But, you know, depending on if you're someone that buys one of these things and you've never soldered anything before, it's not like it's difficult. but um you know i think the underneath of a pinball play field is pretty intimidating to a casual person or someone that just buys it as like their first game or whatever so anyway that's not something i'm sure if i had called you you could probably call any distributor and they would come and service that for you without without question but um but you know it's no fun to have your game not working luckily for me i've been like pretty good with electronics for a while i used to do the arcade restoration stuff and i learned so much about electronics and soldering and that kind of thing. So it was pretty easy to do, but, but kind of a pain in the butt. The other problem I had was on my John wick, my flipper, if you ever have this problem. So like my flipper would not return. So the flipper was like, it would go up and sort of like stick. And then over time, the vibration of me using the right flipper would force the left flipper down. Well, it ended up being the return spring had popped off, but it hadn't just popped off. It had actually broken like the little ring. So, so if you guys don't know, there's a spring inside the flipper. So the coil, the coil, um, the coil fires the flipper up and then the spring sort of sucks the flipper back down into its position. It's just a return spring and it just pulls it back in. Well, there's, it's very, very small spring, by the way, it's very tiny. You, you, you need to like, get really, really like, it's hard for me. I don't, I don't even have big, big hands and it was hard for me to work with but what i did was the end of it sort of broke off so what i did was now instead of getting a brand new spring i just sort of created a new loop so i just sort of made it a little tighter which actually hasn't really been any different like it actually feels about the same i made a new loop by like pulling a little bit more the string the spring and then reconnecting it and that was fine so it works fine i did order a new spring from marcos if that does happen to you but if you ever have that issue where this the flipper doesn't seem to be going back down. More likely than not, it's probably that spring that popped off and you just have to either replace the spring or you could do what I did and sort of rig it up for it to get working. It's working fine. I might not even replace the spring for now unless I notice that it's playing differently, but it's going okay. So the last topic I want to talk about, I'm kind of purposely burying this at the end of the podcast because I feel like it's all controversial, but it's not meant to be, right? We did have a rumor about pinball prices going up. And I just – I was kind of like – I'm not an economist. I don't claim to be. But what I was kind of thinking about, I was like, could pinball prices be going up in 2025? And what I was kind of sort of trying to figure out is like obviously when – if we do have a lot of tariffs that are applied to product coming in from let's say China, that could obviously make it more expensive for any pinball manufacturer because a lot of the pinball parts, some are made in the US. So some parts that are part of a pinball machine come from the United States, but some come from overseas. So is the company going to pay more for this stuff as that affects their build of materials, right? Now all of a sudden their budget might need to be higher to make the same game based on whatever parts they still do get from China because there's a significant amount of parts. Like I know Stern gets there. I can't remember the company they get their cabinets from. Their cabinets are in the United States. So the cabinet wouldn't be part of it. But there's definitely parts in the pinball machine that are not from the U.S. Now, maybe they could find alternative places to source them, and if that's the case, maybe pinball prices don't go up at all. But it was one of those things where I'm like, hmm, if a lot of parts in a pinball machine come from China, then even though the things are assembled in the U.S., that would obviously have an effect on pinball prices because I can't think any of the manufacturers are going to absorb the cost for us. It's going to pass on to us, which would really suck because I feel like pinball is a super expensive hobby as it is. I joined the hot when I joined the hobby you could get a pinball machine I when I bought my Jurassic Park I was able to sell it for the same amount I paid for it that's not the case anymore in most cases some games are rare enough like if you look at if you look at uh Metallica limited edition remastered the new one because they only made 500 it's very desirable you could buy one of those and or you know you can't now but if you did you could sell that for more so there's there's some exceptions to that rule but for the most part this is no longer a hobby where you buy a pinball machine and you can sell it for more than you paid for it in most cases um unless it's unless it's you bought it on the secondary market and then which case maybe you could sell it for more if you got a good deal or something like that so anyways i i hope pinball prices don't go up but i gotta think if the tariffs do do hit from products coming in from china i do think that's going to be there may be like a temporary increase i hope there's no increase at all But unless there's things that they can have alternative means to source them in the U.S. But again, the U.S. prices for whatever these components are may be more expensive. And that might be the reason why they're getting it from China in the first place. So I don't know. It's food for thought. I don't want pinball prices to go up. But I'm just saying, could they? Maybe, based on what we know is coming around the corner. So anyway, so that was that. I'm trying to think if there was any other topics. Oh, if you didn't. Oh, by the way, the voting for Twippies will be available soon, so I'm going to do a podcast to let everyone know. I will be in one of those categories, so of course I would love your support and votes for – I can't remember the two categories, but I will be in two of the categories. I would love your support. I would love your vote. So of course we've got to wait until it opens up, but when it does, I'll let you know. The other thing would be Nudge Magazine did a really cool video. Now, this is the part of the podcast that's unfortunate for those of you that are listen only because you won't see this. But what I will do is if you are listening to it, go over to Nudge Magazine's website. If you just Google Nudge Magazine, you'll find it. If you're watching the video version, then you can see it right now. I'm going to run this thing because this hyped me up big time. So Nudge put together this sort of moments of 2024 as we go into 2025. And it's super cool, man. And like this got me hyped because I feel like depending on where you go, you go on these edges of the Internet or in like pin side and people would lead you to believe that the pinball hobby is like dying. And it's like, dude, I go and play pinball every Tuesday night at Electric Bat now religiously. I'm like addicted to going down there. The vibe is awesome. The people are awesome. And if you go down there, there is no way you would come to the conclusion that pinball is dying or dead or even close to dead or on life support. What you would probably come away from is saying it's thriving and people are loving it and more people are coming in. I'm going to give you one example before I even – this is a cool story. I know this wasn't part of the story. So I was playing Sinbad in the tournament. That's the game I was on. And I was on with this kid He was definitely he looked young to me but I don know when you get older you have like a hard time gauging age on anyone anymore You like oh yeah this kid must be like 30 And he not So anyway, so after the game, we're talking and I was like, oh, hey, you know, good game, whatever. He's like, oh man, like normally I play so much better on this. And he's like, I'm in the top. I think he said he was like in the top 20 in Arizona. And I was like, oh, that's cool. And he's like, yeah, I just moved here not that long ago. I was like, where'd you move here from? And he goes, I moved from, from Rhode Island. I was like, no way I'm from Rhode Island. And then he, and I was like, well, what, what city in Rhode Island? He's like Lincoln. I was like, dude, I'm from Lincoln. So I'm like, okay, this is weird. So this is where this is. So just hang with me. We're going to get to it. This is where I started to feel old. So I was like, I went to Lincoln, Lincoln high school. He's like, I went to Lincoln high school. I'm like, what the hell? Like, how is this kid? So then he goes, what year did you graduate? And I go, oh yeah, cool, man. I graduated in 1997 and he gives me this look. He's like, and I'm like, oh no, he's, he's probably going to say something that's going to make me feel old. He's like, yeah, I was born in 1997. I'm like, no, like, no. How am I meeting people that were born playing pinball the year I graduated from high school? So that made me feel really old. But what was cool is this kid's a younger kid and he's so into it. And there was another kid that same night. But by the way, that was super bizarre that I met someone like Rhode Island is a really small state, obviously a small state in the nation. I don't usually meet people from Rhode Island at all. So it's really cool. My wife is texting me like, you better come down and wrap Christmas gifts. So I'm going to probably have to wrap up the podcast soon. Anyways, I lost a whole day because I was sick. So super cool that I met this kid. But then I also met another kid who was like, oh, man, I'm super into Avatar. I love Avatar. We were on – I think we were on Hot Doggin', another older game that I really don't care for. But I don't know. It's fun when you play it. It's fun when you play it in tournament night because it's like no one's really that good at hot dog. And so it's kind of fun to play because everyone's like sucks. Well, that's not true. Some people are good, but usually I end up on that game with other people that suck. So it's like fun, right? So you're like, all right, it's always like neck and neck because everyone's pretty shitty at it. So anyways, all right. But the point of all this was that this video hyped me up. I want you to watch it. It's not that long, but there's so many cool pinball moments. And the one he starts off with is the Jaws. everyone was all up in arms about jaws not eating the ball by the way for the record i didn't give a shit the jaws didn't eat the pinball i didn't care i don't know why that became a thing i i did was the game is awesome the game plays awesome even in the basic earlier code i still loved it it's a great game it is a great game of 2024 and i didn't give a rat's ass that the shark didn't eat the ball but some people did anyways i'm gonna run the video real quick go check out nudge magazine here's the clip and uh and then we'll wrap things up yes the shark is a what the look man look at that thing's teeth
    28:53
    I'm coming back on top And I'm flipping the switch I turn the voltage up Raise the hair on your neck Cause I was dying From the sun But I'm alive We're powered up My circuit's running hot And I'm plugging you in Cause when I blow my top Will the party begin So come and find me In the dark And I'll be flying From afar We're powered up Who's that guy? Mariah Shot the baby all night We're powered up Mariah We're powering up.
    31:12
    We'll be right back. in the red. Okay. So you saw the video. You saw what I saw. Is pinball dying? Hell no. It's growing. It's thriving. And I don't know who the hell is going out there saying it's dying, but this thing is growing. This thing is a rocket ship. I'm along for the ride. I don't know who all these grumpy people are who think pinball is dying, but this thing ain't dying. And I wouldn't let it die anyways, and neither would you, because we have such a fun time in this community, as you can see from the video. So go check out Ian at Nudge Magazine. Go check out Flippin' Out Pinball if you need a new or used pinball machine. Do the frickin' stern cup, and don't cheat. Don't cheat. That's not cool. If people are really cheating, son of a bitches, I'm putting the work in. No days off. Let's do it. All right. Anyways, guys, that's it. That's all. In the next episode, we'll get back to the voicemails. Leave me a freaking voicemail. It's easy. There's a link. If you're listening to this on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, just do yourself a favor. Go over to Retro Ralph Live. Maybe you don't watch the video version. It's fine. Just click on this one, right? Click on it. In the description, it has a little website you go to. And then you can leave me a voicemail. Leave me one. Ask me whatever. It's fun. and you're not on the show live with me, there's nothing scary about it. You're talking to yourself in a room, so let's do it. Give me your voicemails now. Okay, what's the game going to be? What's the cornerstone going to be? Is it going to be Dungeons & Dragons? Is it going to be King Kong? I don't know, but we're going to find out. We're going to find out in January. I'm hype. You should be hype. Let's go. This community is awesome. Pinball is thriving. It's alive. It's awesome. You saw the video. You saw the freaking video. Well, if you're on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, you didn't. But I urge you to go over to Nudge Magazine and check it out. That's it for now, guys. Thank you so much for all your support. It's always appreciated. And we will see you on the flip side. All right, guys. Have a good one. If I don't talk to you, have an awesome Christmas. Disconnect. Maybe don't play pinball for that day unless your family likes to. Be present, be in the moment, because you never know when those moments are no longer there. I love you guys, and we'll see you next time.