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The Pinball Show Ep 3: Eating Crow and Wishful Thinking

The Pinball Show·podcast_episode·1h 25m·analyzed·Feb 24, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.038

TL;DR

Stern contracts Heavy Metal pin, Keith Elwin proves prolific with Game 3 done and Game 4 in development.

Summary

Ken Cromwell and Zach Menne discuss recent pinball industry developments including the Heavy Metal pinball contract with Stern, Keith Elwin's efficiency as a designer with games already in production, and Jurassic Park reaching 1.0 code with a final wizard mode. The episode opens with personal anecdotes before transitioning to industry news segments covering Jersey Jack (Guns N' Roses speculation), Spooky (Rick and Morty shipping), and Haggis Pinball production updates.

Key Claims

  • Keith Elwin already has Game 3 'in the can' while working on Game 4

    high confidence · Zach Menne states this has been confirmed by two other sources; typical designer timeline is 12-18 months, making Elwin's efficiency unusual

  • Heavy Metal pinball is a reskin of Star Wars The Pin with commercial-grade cabinet and custom DMD art, retailing at approximately $8,299

    medium confidence · Based on leaked pictures and descriptions; not officially confirmed by Stern at time of recording; noted as 'sneak peek or coming soon on March 20th, 2020'

  • Jurassic Park has reached 1.0 code with final wizard mode 'When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth' accessible only after escaping Nublar

    high confidence · Reported in industry news segment; Keith Elwin clarifies this is not Escape Nublar but a subsequent mode requiring progression

  • Rick and Morty by Spooky Pinball is shipping with 40 units already built and production units starting to reach customers

    high confidence · Dr. John's Spooky/Haggis industry update; notes minor coding issues being addressed

  • Haggis Pinball limiting Kelts machine to 200 units, making them 'pretty much a real LE'

    high confidence · Dr. John's Haggis update; Damien will bring production games 2, 3, 4 to Texas Pinball Festival

  • Keith Elwin designed with Harrison Drake (engineering), Rick Nagel (coding) as a dedicated team for Games 3 and 4

    medium confidence · Inferred from Loser Kid interview but not explicitly confirmed by hosts; Zach states 'it sounded as if' this team is on both projects

  • Jody Dankberg (Stern licensing director) has secured multiple strong licenses recently and is operating behind the scenes

    high confidence · Ken Cromwell credits Dankberg with Heavy Metal, notes he previously held marketing/licensing role before promotion to focus on licensing

  • Keith Elwin's design philosophy: 'You should get mad at yourself for missing an easy shot, but you should also get excited when you make a hard shot'

Notable Quotes

  • “You should get mad at yourself for missing an easy shot, but you should also get excited when you make a hard shot.”

    Keith Elwin @ ~42:00 — Core design philosophy influencing his pin design approach; directly shapes gameplay difficulty curve and player satisfaction on his games

  • “He's got his dream team now of Harrison Drake and engineering and Rick Nagel and coding.”

    Zach Menne @ ~38:00 — Identifies Elwin's core development team, suggesting organizational efficiency enabling faster production cycles

  • “Only the top 1% of pinball players will ever see things like that. So he likes to make that accessible.”

    Ken Cromwell (paraphrasing Keith Elwin) @ ~50:00 — Reveals Elwin's design philosophy of accessibility for advanced content, justifying multiple wizard modes and skill shot layers

  • “This isn't something that is meant for me, so I'm fine with whatever happens.”

    Zach Menne (on Heavy Metal pin) @ ~25:00 — Illustrates collector mindset: theme drives purchase decision; $8,299 price point creates selection trade-offs against core Stern lineup

  • “Every podcast has some sort of running dialogue with you personally...you've impacted so many individuals.”

    Ken Cromwell (to Zach Menne) @ ~18:00 — Meta-commentary on Zach's influence as industry commentator and oracle figure; networks rely on his insights and opinions

Entities

Keith ElwinpersonJody DankbergpersonStern PinballcompanyHeavy MetalgameJurassic ParkgameRick and Mortygame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Haggis Pinball limiting Kelts machine to 200 units, establishing artificial scarcity and 'real LE' positioning; pre-purchased units 2-4 appearing at Texas Pinball Festival and Midwest Gaming Classics; show specials planned

    high · Dr. John Haggis update; Damien production commitment to major events; deliberate unit cap strategy

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community reception to Heavy Metal theme surprisingly positive online despite heavy metal niche positioning; broader demographic engagement anticipated through music/graphic novel collector crossover

    medium · Zach notes anticipated negative feedback but found 'a lot more positive' online; Ken credits Jody Dankberg's licensing strategy hitting untapped demographics; expectation of 'few hundred' sales

  • ?

    competitive_signal: $8,299 Heavy Metal pin pricing creates collector trade-off decision against core Stern Premium tier (Jurassic Park preferred by hosts over Heavy Metal at equivalent price); theme-driven purchase behavior evident

    high · Ken and Zach both state they would prefer Jurassic Park Premium; note theme drives value perception despite mechanical similarities; commercial contract positioning may limit appeal vs home collector base

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Keith Elwin's stated design principle balances difficulty accessibility with skill reward: 'get mad at missing easy shots, excited making hard shots'; deliberately includes accessible advanced content (multiple wizard modes) rejecting gatekeeping approach

    high · Direct quote from Keith Elwin in Loser Kid interview; philosophy evident in both Iron Maiden and Jurassic Park designs; Elwin commits to continuation in future games

  • $

Topics

Keith Elwin's design efficiency and production timelineprimaryHeavy Metal pinball contract and reskin strategyprimaryJurassic Park 1.0 code release and wizard mode accessibilityprimaryNew designer roster dominance (Elwin, Denise, Minier) over established designerssecondaryRick and Morty Spooky shipping status and production capacitysecondaryJersey Jack Guns N' Roses speculation and licensing considerationssecondaryPricing and value proposition at $8,299 for Heavy Metal contract pinsecondaryJody Dankberg's role in Stern licensing strategymentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.72)— Generally upbeat discussion with enthusiasm for Keith Elwin's designs and new industry developments. Some reservations about Heavy Metal theme not appealing to collectors and pricing at $8,299. Personal anecdotes (Pizza Hut/daughter's haircut) add levity. Appreciative tone toward community and podcast network despite earlier Pinside frustration metaphor.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.257

The Pinball Network is online. Launching The Pinball Show. Pinball is a game of skill. For some, it's a passion and a lifestyle. It's time for The Pinball Show. It's pinball with personality. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome. It's episode three of the Pinball Show with Zach Menne. I am Ken Cromwell. We are going to rock this one out today. Now, Zach, well, first of all, hello. How are you, buddy? Before you even answer, I'm going to let you know that I'm not doing well. I know. I am fighting off the illness here, and it's been days, so my apologies in advance if I don't sound appealing. and I'm not on top of my game today, so I do apologize. But more importantly, Zach, how are you? Well, your sultry voice always gets me going, Ken. But yeah, I knew you were under the Carl Weathers, but you come out hot and ready. I appreciate that. You know why? I've never been more excited to do a podcast than I am today because today is going to be the best day of my life. Oh, Ken. A little inside there. I like that. Prove me wrong. Prove me wrong. Right. Oh, man. We should tell the listeners one day what we mean by this, ladies and gentlemen, is the greatest day of your life. Prove me wrong. Prove me wrong. Yeah, so all has been well. I've been playing a lot of pinball. I actually figured out how to update my Stranger Things and Elvira codes because that's a bit of a stumbling point for me. No, you know how to update the codes, but I'll say that I've had issues where for whatever reason a game just won't update. Yeah. And I've had to go in and get a whole new SD card image and burn that and then restart the whole game from scratch. That's happened to me on a couple occasions. Yeah, and the newest code, Elvira, just doesn't like my stick. Right. That's Elvira. Everything good with you, man? Yeah, I mean, everything's good. I had a situation, and we'll get into pinball here in a second, where it was a few days ago I noticed clumps of hair in my kitchen that led to the hallway, that led to the stairs going up into the upstairs bathroom. and the conclusion that was the hair trail led it right to my five-year-old daughter who had a pair of scissors and decided she was going to try to give herself some bangs. So needless to say, my daughter looks like Dora the Explorer right now and it looks like she just tumbled out of bed regardless of what time of the day it is. So my Father of the Year award is gone because evidently I let my five-year-old rock herself out with scissors. You were probably talking to me at the time on the phone. I know. That's my wife's like, were you doing your pinball stuff when our daughter was cutting her hair off? I like she turned into Rick there from Rick and Morty. Oh, no. I had a really interesting pizza debacle, the great pizza debacle of 2020 I want to share with everybody. It makes sense because this was, we've been beat up a little bit on pin side here as of late. We've been loved by many, but we've been beat up. And this is like the analogy of my life and what I felt when calling Pizza Hut the other night to get a – just simple enough. Ken, I just wanted a pizza hut. Nothing but the best over there for the family with the pizza hut. That's right. Nice and easy. Quick and easy. So I call Pizza Hut up, and this is the frustration and the pain that I feel from Pennside a lot of times. So I call Pizza Hut up, and I say, hey, do you guys got any specials? I don't know if listeners, if you guys do that, do you have any specials? And then they tell you what the specials are. They said, we do have a special, Mr. Minnie. We have a three-topping, $9.99 large. I said, you know what? Sign me up for that. I would love to have a three-topping large pizza. So I proceed to tell them the toppings, which includes pepperoni, sausage. And I said, hmm, you know what? Third topping there, Jake. I'm going to go for extra cheese. And he said, he had a big sigh. And I thought, uh-oh, what's going on, Jake? And he said, well, sir, the third topping cannot be cheese. And I said, well, Jake, he said, yes. And I said, is cheese not a topping anymore? And he said, well, you know what? I'm going to defer. It is a topping, but it doesn't qualify as a topping on our three-topping special for $9.99. I'd have to charge you more. And I said, you know what? Let's get rid of the cheese. Let's go pepperoni. Let's go sausage. and you know what just no third topping i'm good charge me for the three topping special 9.99 i'm good and then jake had a big sigh again and he said sir i'm sorry i said jake what is it he said um well uh if you go two toppings it's no longer it's no longer a special and i said well no that look that's fine if if a three if a two topping large 9.99 is the same as a three topping then i just won't take advantage of the special it's fine just give me the two toppings jake i want to eat i'm hungry yeah this got real complicated and then i i shit you not listeners he says to me the following if you actually only do two toppings it's no longer special it's going to be 14.99 and i said jake jake jake um oh jeez your pizza hot sucks jake so if i'm just leave it off throw it on the floor put it in the truck i don't care what you do with it between us let's say i had a third topping it just didn't make it on there so you're gonna charge me five dollars more to have less and he said yes sir unfortunately that's that's the deal so i took a uh a big a big breath and i said to jake hey jake go yourself no i didn't tell you that's about where i was gonna go with that holy cow man i didn't tell you just asked for some extra pepperoni in a baggie and carried it out on the side. I mean, that's pretty messed up. Give me a dime bag of pepperonis, Jake. Come on. Leave me alone. Not where I was going. So I just said, you know what, Jake? Domino's is sounding really good right now. And I hung up the phone. Oh, you never ordered, huh? No, didn't order. I'm sorry. You know, they've got an app you can order from. It has all the specials on it. Threw in some Jack's pizzas for the kids and said, deal with it. But, no, that's my frustration with Pinside as of late. I love a lot of people on there. You know that. But there are some times, Ken, where it's just so frustrating and it doesn't make sense. You're trying everything you can to just order a pizza, but they've got to make it so convoluted. Was this a Pinside story? This is how this transitioned from your Pizza Hut debacle into Pinside. Because it made me feel the same at the end of that phone conversation. Gotcha. Oftentimes the way I feel when I get done with Pinside, defeated, hated, and all a guy wants is some pizza. Oh, man, that's awesome. So maybe think of this song I'm going to sing for you right now. This goes out to Creasel, wherever you are. I'll get over you. I know I will. You can chime in, too, Kenny. I'll pretend my ship's not sinking. And I'll tell myself I'm over you. That's right, because I'm a king. I wish for thinking. I've sung more on this podcast than I have in my whole entire life, man. Oh my gosh, I love that song. And so, to you, Pinside, look, I love you, but my ship's not sinking. I'll get over you if I need to, because I am the king of wishful thinking. Pinside's been up and down, left to right. There's been one or two that like to go in and kind of derail a little bit, but it was nice to see that even those guys were kind of put in the check a little bit. So, it is what it is, man. And I can appreciate all the opinions on pin side. And one thing I've learned over the last almost two years now of doing pinball podcasting is that thick skin comes in handy and mine's never been thicker. So with that being said, let's get into some pinball news. It's time for TPN industry news. Hi, this is Ken Rudberg with your Jersey Jack update. Well, I'm going to keep it short. There is not a lot going on in the lead up to the next Jersey Jack Pinball announcement. All the speculation is surrounding Guns N' Roses. Are they still relevant? How will Jersey Jack Pinball deal with some of the imagery that the band's known for? What will the song list be? Will the art be focused on the 90s GNR or based on their current Not In This Lifetime tour? How many songs are going to be included? Will it have a real guitar neck in it? What it all comes down to is that this title isn't even confirmed yet. For all those Jersey Jack fans out there, let's hope we all find out soon. For The Pinball Show, this has been Ken Rudberg with your Jersey Jack update. Hi there from Dr. John with this week's The Pinball Show industry update. I've decided I'm going to double up my efforts and I'm going to have a combined spooky and haggis pinball news update every week for you. That'll make it the spooky haggis industry talk. or as an acronym comes out better just call it the Spooky Haggis Industry Talk I think. So on the spooky front, Rick and Morty is shipping. The stream was excellent on location from Hilton's game. A couple of small problems with coding but they are being addressed and with 40 already built and starting to ship people should be getting their game soon. On the haggis front, I've been chaining with Damien in Australia a little bit closer than Wisconsin, and he will have production games number 2, 3 and 4 at Texas in a couple of weeks. All these are actually pre-purchased. But listen out for news on show specials at both Texas and Midwest Gaming Classic for your purchases. And he has decided he'll be limiting his Kelts pinball machine to 200. So they are pretty much a real LE. If you want one, contact Damien. Catch you all next week. Thanks for listening. Supreme, but this time partnering with Insidium Online to build a pin in the theme of heavy metal. Yes, a universe of mystery and magic, of good and evil, Insidium Online presents Heavy Metal by Stern Pinball. Though not specifically based on the 1981 R-rated heavy metal animated movie, this game will be a reskin of the George Gomez-designed Star Wars home pin with original art and theming taken from the Heavy Metal magazine and related graphic novels. Fans and potential buyers of this new limited edition pin can expect to pay a retail price of approximately $8,299 US from their authorized Stern distributors. And despite all that news, there were certainly no breaks for the programmers at Stern as new code dropped yet again this week for both Jurassic Park and Stranger Things. While the Stranger Things V.85 code features minor tweaks, the Jurassic Park V.1.0 update features the final wizard mode when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. And yes, Zack, this wizard mode can only be reached through standard gameplay and successfully escaping the penultimate wizard mode, Escape Nublar. And with the Jurassic Park code at 1.0 and the final wizard mode in place, one has to wonder if Stern is close to calling this dynamite dino park adventure complete. But we shall wait and see. For the Pinball Show, I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side. I like how everybody on every show has some sort of running dialogue with you personally. Oh, I know. It's every show. You notice that? So you've impacted so many individuals. Like I don't love it. Right, exactly. But always good hearing from the correspondents. Let's start off with Stern Pinball, Zach. We can go one of two ways with Stern because I think we're going to cover both. There was a great interview on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast featuring Keith Elwin this week. We also have the heavy metal pin that is being contracted through Stern Pinball. Where did you want to start? Let's start with some heavy metal. Okay, that's good, because I know very little about the original concept of this theme as a pinball buyer and a collector. Heavy metal as a theme is not something I'm immediately drawn to. That being said, it doesn't mean that it won't be a fun game that I'd like to play, but I think I may have already played it if it is a re-theme or a re-skin of the evolving Star Wars Home Edition. What is it for you that draws you to this pin, or what is it to you that doesn't call to you for this pin with heavy metal? That's a great question there, Cromwell. We don't know much about this pinball machine. What we do know is that Stern released a teaser, says Stern Pinball Plus or Times Heavy Metal Magazine, presented by Incendium Online. Now, I looked up what Incendium Online is, Mine is, and it was like a toy slash graphic novel manufacturer or distributor. So we've seen, I clicked on their Facebook and seen a lot of the cool toys from Iron Maiden Legacy of the Beast. So I think we're going to get that type of feel. And then we've seen some leaked pictures prior to the Stern announcement, leaked pictures of the outside of the cabinet. So we don't know if that is the true pictures of this game. if it is then it has a dmd which i thought was a bit odd um and then the description on that leaked image that very much describe star wars the pin or exactly spider-man the pin or supreme now the difference being star wars the pin was not a commercial grade device we had a lot of materials that were of different composition than what i think we would see here uh the rumor is it was What do you say, $82.99? $82.99. And you wouldn't expect that to be in a home edition type build. So to your point, right, if we've got commercial quality cabinet and a DMD custom art package and probably a limited run, because I think the discussion on this is that it's contracted through Stern Pinball. This isn't Stern Pinball saying, hey, on our own, we're going to fire up heavy metal and throw a DMD in it and get some custom art and pop it for $8,200. Yeah, this isn't something I don't believe, if true, that is for pinball collectors. Right. This is contract manufactured from this heavy metal brand. It says sneak peek or coming soon on March 20th, 2020. So I guess we're going to see and hear more about this potential agreement then. So until then, we don't know much. If the pictures are true, the art is pretty fantastic. And I love that they put first-time-ever chameleon powder coat. It looked like a purple and blue changing color. Remember those old Trans Ams back in the 90s? Yeah. Remember those old hyper-color shirts? Was that before your time? No, I know what you're talking about. Yep, yep. I remember the hyper-color. So I don't know. The theme itself, Ken, does zilch for me. No, same with me, man. I wouldn't be a buyer here because the theme doesn't do anything for me. the dmd i'm kind of i don't know i'm a little a little snooty now that i'm kind of over the dmd sterns um now that being said if it is the star wars the pin layout and i get it on commercial grade play field and stuff that's a bit interesting i wonder if it is that as we continue to speculate here i wonder if all of the coils you know how they shared coils on the the home pin exactly now Those are individually driven coils or what we're going to get from all of that. It's going to be a pretty pin. I can guarantee you that. Right. And again, this isn't something that is meant for me, so I'm fine with whatever happens. Who am I to say yay or nay? Not really going out of my way to try to get additional information because this is something that, unless it comes through the studio here for streaming, I don't know that I would ever really have one in my possession, and especially at $8,200. When I think of $8,200, I think of the other Stern pins that I can get in their current lineup. And I think I would much rather personally go with a Jurassic Park premium than maybe a heavy metal. Oh, absolutely. But I imagine you said that this company that's contracting it out or the tie-in is a toy company. So maybe you see some really custom painted figures or toys that could also be collectibles. You know how these collectible things are, especially with figures. Those alone could be worth a lot of money. So I don't know what they toss into the game. And if I'm stirring pinball, this is kind of a no-brainer. I mean, you're contracted out to make some products that are already kind of going to be sold. I think it's really cool for the community that is interested in such a theme that they're offering it, kind of whether through distributors or direct from this place, they're offering it to everybody. It's not like an in-house thing where nobody else can have a piece of it. Right. I don't think anybody loses in this situation. No. Not at all. It seems that Jody Daintberg over at Stern, who does a lot of their licensing deals now, he's got such an in within the music industry. Something like this makes a lot of sense because now you're hitting a crowd or demographic in a limited way with heavy metal that hasn't been really touched on before. And when I looked at a lot of the feedback online, a lot of it was a lot more positive as far as the theme went than I had anticipated it would be. So do they sell a few hundred of these? I would say, yeah, absolutely. They probably do. I think that we talk about Jody Dankberg. We talk about the likes of Roger Sharp and Joe Cam and Cal. Don't turn your back on Jody Dankberg. This guy has been getting some pretty phenomenal themes and licenses as of late. So maybe he's like this dark horse when it comes to licensing. He's been doing it for a while. He, what was it, a year or two ago, got promoted into the licensing director position. I think prior he was doing marketing and licensing, if I remember correctly. Zach Sharp has stepped into that marketing role, and then I think it allowed Jody to kind of focus on licensing for the most part. Yeah, so a lot of credit out to Jody Dankberg, who probably doesn't hear that a lot from the community, but he's been doing a lot of good work over at Stern Pinball, so I'm not mad at this. Well, you don't even really hear from Jody. Like, he's not somebody that goes on podcasts or really is sharing ideas and thoughts and feedback with the public. So he's a lot. He's behind the scenes. I know some people at Stern, and I've met Jody on a few occasions. I've never really had an opportunity to kind of sit down, pick his brain, and get a feel for him as an individual. Maybe we get him on the interview show. So, yeah, it'd be interesting. Maybe we can get Jody on at some point and learn more about him during an interview. Speaking of interviews, Loser Kid Pinball Podcast, they have Keith Elwin on. Keith Elwin, the creator of Jurassic Park, the creator of Iron Maiden. And this is his second time now going on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. And that's with Josh Roop and Scott Larson. So it's obviously these guys have a nice relationship. And they've got some unique access to Keith Elwin. What did you think about the interview? It's the hat, man. It's the hat. It is the hat. That's where we messed up on Special Win Lit. We should have just went with hats. You want the good interviews, go with the hat. That's right. No, they had a really good, our friends over there at Loser Kid had a really good interview and a lot of stuff that I jotted down that I was wanting to go over with the listener. The best way to listen and to hear this interview is just to go subscribe and follow them at Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. But Keith discussed Game 3. His Game 3 is already in the can and he's working on Game 4. This is something that I know to be true because I've heard this from two other people. and what amazes me is the efficiency of Keith Elwin coming in because when we think about the designers, they're kind of in this rotation, right? And it seems like a year to 18 months is a typical kind of timeline that you'll see from a designer from Stern Pinball to get their games up and ready. And it seems to me that the designers that are there currently are currently working on something for the next release, not having one in the can when working on another. So that is pretty amazing. Oh, it's nuts, too, because he said that he kind of has his team now, his little dream team of Harrison Drake and engineering and Rick Nagel and coding. And it sounded as if, I can't confirm this, but it sounded as if Game 3 in the can has already been that team, and that team is working on Game 4 together as well. Now, I don't know what speculation has been on what this game may or may not be. We know some of the rumored upcoming Stern games, so we may see Keith Elwin and team on that. But it a powerhouse team that they working with Ken and I always excited to see what they have coming up next Well that the thing You wonder what coming up next So this next game number three he says it done I assuming at that point that game has been designed and a theme has been assigned to that game And we'll see it this year, I bet. Right. Game number four that he's working on now, is there a theme assigned to that game? Do you have a designer that's designing a pinball machine without knowing the theme in which it's being intended for? Or does he know that theme also? I mean, that's always kind of one of those questions where you'll hear designers say, yeah, I'd like to know what the theme is before I design the pin. And then I'm sure there are other designers that say, hey, listen, I'm going to design a pin. And it's up to the artist to kind of theme around my design. And if we know that anybody can do it, Keith Elwin, he took that Archer layout and made it into Iron Maiden and made it feel very much Iron Maiden-like, especially on the Premium LE model. So I can see him doing that again. His focus is on playability and gameplay and layout and rules. So theme can kind of be integrated based on that. I would say, though, just knowing Stern Pinball and how deep their log is on licenses, I bet he knows what it is already. Yeah, I would assume so also. It's interesting because when you think about how far ahead can he get before it starts becoming – Before he puts himself out of a job. Well, yeah, that or it just becomes boring because you're so far ahead. You've got things in the can and you're sitting around and waiting. It kind of reminds me of, I think, one year. It was, was it two years ago? Zombie Yeti, I think, had done like three games. And he was working so quick. He was able to kind of turn out a theme so fast that Stern was able to utilize that. Do you see a situation? He was kind of burned out too, though. Well, and what has happened since? He's stepped away. We haven't seen a Zombie Yeti design in a little bit of time. But do you find that maybe Elwin can work so efficiently that instead of him being in a rotation, that almost every second or every third game that comes out is an Elwin title? Because when you think about who's there now, you've got Steve Ritchie, you've got John Borg, you've got Gomez, Brian Eddy, you've got the contract themes that are coming in and out now, you've got potential vaults that are coming out. Can he go every other game? Can they utilize him exponentially more than the other designers? Would they want to do that? From a sales and marketing approach, if these things continue to sell like Keith Elwin games are selling, why the hell not? I've got concerns about it, though. It's like, I don't know. Concerns meaning, like, I don't know that every other release should be an Elwin release. Here's the thing, Ken. These aren't recycled games. It'd be different if, you know, there are some designers out there that kind of get poo-pooed for, this is just the same feel of this game, or they've done this before. Or they just kind of, there's nothing similar. I think there were similarities, though. Don't you think so? From Iron Maiden to Jurassic Park had some similarities. It almost seems like some would argue that it's a more polished and a more difficult version of an Iron Maiden. I mean, it's not completely different. No, but what I mean is, from a bird's eye view, yeah, they have the same feel. You feel Keith Elwin as the designer in there. But nothing really shot-wise is the same. So I think if he was doing a lot of those rinse and repeats, then, yeah, we would hear from the community saying, eh, we need to slow down, switch it up a little bit more. But I think right now the community and the industry as a whole are saying, keep them coming. And it's not to say goodbye to those that have established themselves as designers, but it seems like the craving as of late with new pins is, hey, let's see what these new guys have to offer. And that being Elwin and Denise and Minier. Yeah. We're eagerly anticipating Eric's next game, and we can discuss the rumors on that down the road. And Denise, he has his game, Rick and Morty, that's starting to show up now, and we can discuss that a little bit later in the episode. But it's the new things. You just said yourself today when we opened the show, you're like, you are craving the new stuff. The DMD stuff isn't necessarily for you right at the moment. And I know how that fluctuates, right, Zach? You go to this phase where it's like, I want these classic Bally Williams titles, and then you want the new LCD pins, and then you want the early solid-state pins. It comes and goes, but right now, the new designers are hot, and that's Elwin, that's Denise, and that's Minyer. And possibly another Stern designer here very soon. Agreed. The Dark Horse. We're hearing some rumblings, aren't we, Ken? A little bit. Just a little bit. Just a little bit. Oh, also, 1.0 code on Jurassic Park? That's phenomenal. That's fast. He was talking about his design philosophy. I found this interesting. Listeners, he said, I'm going to quote Keith Elwin here. When asked about his design philosophy, he said, quote, you should get mad at yourself for missing an easy shot, but you should also get excited when you make a hard shot, end quote. In a nutshell, that is his design philosophy, and I think that really rang true on both of his titles he's developed so far, so I think we're going to see even more of that. And in respect to the Jurassic Park pin, now that it's at 1.0, he talked about a fourth skill shot. Not one, not two, not three, but four. A fourth skill shot that after you get a double super skill shot, it's going to unlock something you may not notice right away, but you will probably eventually use, is what Keith Elwin said. What in the hell does that even mean, Kron? I don't know. There's still a lot in this game that I know it's there and it's hard for me to utilize. And that is like even when you get your smart missile ready, like for me to be able to pull it together and quickly try to figure out what reward I want from that, sometimes I forget. Raptor multiball. Right, exactly. The double super skill shot is a fun three-way kind of combo. To add a fourth, I guess, is fun. But, I mean, you can keep going with this and this, but what does it unlock? And the unfortunate thing is I think some people, and this goes back into even this little kind of minigame that he added, will take that glass off to manipulate that skill shot and then try to see what's been unlocked instead of kind of discovering that organically. You're going to bum me out already this episode. Well, if you listen to the interview, that concern from you specifically was addressed by the guys over at Loser Kid and Keith Elwin. Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit. But first, my guess is... Zach, is everybody having conversations with you within the network, on every other podcast? It's like you're the pinball oracle. Everybody is coming in. I'm on the mind of many. Get the little play on words there. The eye in the sky here. If I had to guess what he is doing, and I think this is the right approach, and Keith, if you haven't done it, you could always add this later. Just credit me. But I think if you get that fourth skill shot off that double super, I think it's going to be like spotting a shot that we see on The Walking Dead and things like that. So essentially, you're going to get to spot that freaking letter O that's so hard. I was just going to say, that would be the one shot that I would love to have spotted is the O shot. Yeah, so you got the O lit, bam, you hit that action button, and you've spotted that, and then jumps over to the S. I think maybe that would be the way that I would go, earning a shot there. Speaking of shots, there was a shot called out on me by the loser kids over there. They said, well, Zach Manning says that he essentially sees this as cheating. Whenever you can get to escape Nublar is the end of the wizard mode, and that shouldn't be accessible because it's cheating. And I did say, to be fair, I said it's fine. I just don't want to pursue that. I would never either. Yeah, yeah. Until I heard the clarification on this podcast, though. So Keith Elwin then chimes in and kind of brushes it off and is like, yeah, I don't know what to think about that because it's not the final wizard mode and it's an option. Boom. It is what it is. And I'm like, well, Keith, we didn't know it was a final wizard mode. So there is another wizard mode now that after you escape Nublar, then you go into when dinosaurs ruled the earth. That is cool. And you can only access that through working through all of that stuff. That is cool. Yeah, Keith Elwin did talk about he likes these many games, and it was the second-to-last wizard mode. And he doesn't think it's fair that people can't ever see that. He said only the top 1% of pinball players will ever see things like that. So he likes to make that accessible and even doubled down and said, you're going to see that in all of his games moving forward, which I don't have a problem with. I don't have a problem with. I'm glad that he clarified this is not the final wizard mode, that escape new blur, that you can just access willy-nilly. So I'm good with that. Now you've got to work towards something else. When I go back, I've owned three Twilight Zones, and the last two I did install the 9.4 home ROM, and that was like a chip that you could pop in and it would play an updated set of rules. And one of those things that were unlocked from the pin was the ability to start Lost in the Zone by holding down, if I remember correctly, it was like holding down the extra ball button. because you could buy in for a ball. And then the next time you put the ball in the scoop or you stopped play, it would just start loss in the zone. I made it a point. I never did that until I reached loss in the zone on my own. But it was fun to have somebody come over that was never going to learn the rules of Twilight Zone, be able to get them right into the wizard mode and have them have 60 seconds of multiball. Same thing with my kids. My son comes down. He wants to play pinball, but he's not going to figure out how to light up all those windows and get lost in zone. but he liked playing that. So with Jurassic Park is you're not starting the ultimate wizard mode, which I think is refreshing. Until this update. It was the final wizard mode until this update. Right, right. But you're not starting it now, so it's okay. No, no, it's fine. Right. He mentioned that the time to beat right now, escaping Nublar is around two and a half minutes. That's where he said the elites can kind of escape. He also said that if at some point he messes up the time challenge, it's easy for him to transition and try to go for points. And two billion points on that mini-mode is actually possible and is something that the upper elite can shoot for. He also pitched it out to us pinball media and podcasters in general. He said, why don't you guys have a challenge between the podcasters? See who can get there the fastest. So I thought that was a fun little nod to the pinball media and the podcasters. Overall, a great, great interview. We had even things like they said their goodbyes to the Slap Safe Pinball podcast and honored them by doing the Flip, Bolt, and Torch. And out of that, Keith Elwin said essentially he really likes Congo. He says Theater of Magic is boring, which I thought was very interesting. And he would destroy No Fear. That was per Keith Elwin. What do you think about those games? Congo, Theater of Magic, No Fear. Steve Ritchie is on No Fear. He stuck it to the coder on that one. Yeah. Oh, did he? I didn't get that far into it. I listened to as much as I could, and I got to get caught up on the end. So I did not hear the flip-bolt. I agree with him, though. Theater of Magic is boring. Once you get to that, that wizard mode is sad. Theater of Magic is just a beautiful pinball machine. Shoots like a dream. Shoots like a dream, and the audio is awesome. But, yeah, when you consider today's rule sets or even the heavier rule sets of the day, it doesn't stack up as well. I'm fine with that whole game, Kent. It's just the wizard mode. That's what differentiates Theater Magic by John Papadiuk from a Circus Voltaire by John Papadiuk. Both very fun to shoot, both heavy on mechs, both just a delight to even see and to hear. But when it comes to the wizard mode, Circus Voltaire wizard mode puts you in a multiple stage wizard mode that hasn't gotten old every time I get to it. But Theater Magic, you get to that wizard mode and it's this frenzy where you just get a multiball or I don't even know if it's a multiball. You just score as much as you can. There's no beating it or anything. Tales of the Arabian Nights kind of falls into the median on those. And to me, Ken, when it comes to those old 90s Bally Williams, if you want them in your home collection, you're chasing wizard modes. That's what you're doing. So that better pay off. And that's why I've got Circus Voltaire. That's why I have the Shadow. That's why I've got Popeye, because those wizard modes, you earn them, and they are a moment. Which one of those seem like the odd man out? We transition over to Dr. John. We know him as covering spooky pinball for us, but he's taking on haggis pinball also. Now, if you notice. Talking shit with Dr. John. Right. It's literally the acronym for his spooky haggis industry talk is SHIT. So I think we need to rename that segment to Talking Shit with Dr. John. And actually, it's pretty funny when you really think about it. It's pretty witty there, Kostin. Dr. John. I like it. Nicely done, Dr. John. But Rick and Morty's are shipping. They're showing up on location. They're going to be showing up, and they have been showing up, I guess, now what? Customer homes. Have we seen unboxings of Rick and Morty from a consumer level? From a consumer level, I know that there are a few individuals with some. We haven't seen really pictures of them in the home. I don't know what that's all about. But, yeah, they are on location. I think one is over on the West Coast. I think AC Goge's got theirs. East Coast, I think somebody has theirs. I want to play the game, damn it. I do, too. I've seen it on a stream now. I've seen it on a couple streams, and I'm looking at pictures, and I just want to play the game. I am watching. Again, I'm on season three now of Rick and Morty for the second time. Going all the way through the shows again, man, and it's a pleasure. I'm enjoying it more the second time through because I'm not trying to bring myself up to speed as to what the hell I'm watching. I need to find one of those dragon sluts to put on the top of my game, I think. You could do a lot of different – well, there's a topper there, but you could decorate around the topper. we talked about voice work in the pin last week and Dennis did not want us to discuss it because he said there was no other discussion except for Justin Royal and doing any of the voice work in there so why is this even a topic of conversation why are we even bringing it up and interestingly enough there is another voice actor that has announced that they will be entering Rick and Morty did you want to discuss that a little bit yeah I was watching the dead flip stream oh what was that I think it was last week and Jack Danger said that he actually is doing a call out in the game of the mailman so during the now i know that um players pinball podcast jeff parsons did the voiceover work of i think it was the narrator in one of the modes sorry audience i'm blanking on i did not know that yes yes jeff parsons did the oh god what is it uh i don't want to zach how do we get into a game just a little bit it's not gonna happen oh man if i just had a better voice you know what it is i need to start working for radio and i need to start just like really concentrating on my radio voice well every time i do that i get shit on on pin thought you can't plug with your voice now i don't yeah i don't i don't know how we get into it i know that our buddy marty robbins was in the yes genie game that's right i know that uh greg bone has recently been reached out to this has been months back really but yeah a developing game and a developing company asked him to be a part of the voiceover and these podcasts are like the recruiting grounds for voiceover efforts and i am i'm stuck in in single a dude i'm not going anywhere just not getting called up i'm a little salty about that one because that company actually reached out to me didn't know his contact information said zach can you give us Greg Bone contact information i'm like well okay well i run the straight in the middle thing is anything i could help you with no we need to talk to greg and then greg later greg later told me no they want me to do some voiceover work i'm like them son of a fish whatever yeah one day one day we'll find a startup company that needs somebody to work for free we'll we're jumping there we'll just create our own damn game and we'll do whatever voice works not the same it's not the same because i mean i can create i can create my own podcast and call myself a podcaster i can create my own pinball machine and call myself a voiceover artist you need to earn it uh you know what i did earn i did earn myself on a playfield uh that nobody knows about but that got cut right before the Playfield started printing. What? I was close. On a Playfield? What pin was that? I can't say, but I was close. It was so nice, too. It was so good. Are you being serious or are you just messing? I swear to you. No, I swear to you. You were on a pinball Playfield. Yeah, I got pictures. Damn it. I can see you. Were you next to Presley on the Beatles screaming? And Presley being Christopher Franchi's daughter, she's on the artwork in Beatles as an adoring fan. so yeah i can see you in there it was the it was the girl in front she replaced me whatever so it's so you actually had gotten in a game so i'm the odd man out no i didn't get into a game well you got cut of production if any pinball company would like to use my likeness or my voice please contact me even if it gets cut in production i could at least say that there was considerations pinball network at gmail.com i will work outside of my pinball network do you see stranger things is shipping as well the premium yes yes you're gonna see a lot of those at the Louisville Arcade and Pinball Expo. I will say that. I haven't played the premium yet, man. I still have the pro here. We need to get you a premium up there to stream. Because the thing is this, right? I know I'm going to buy a Stranger Things, and the only reason I haven't bought the pro that's here right now that we've been streaming is because if that projector is worth it, I'm going to absolutely do the upgrade and just go to the premium. But if the projector, for whatever reason, just doesn't call to me, I am content with the pro, and I'll just see how that game evolves. This is going to be a little bit of hashtag shilly nonsense, but it is true. I did tell you off the air that I think the premium LE is kind of the way to go. If you do like this theme and you like the layout and the way the code is developing, it's kind of a game changer. And not so much the projector, honestly. So the projector by itself is pretty cool, but it coupled with that ball lock. Now, honestly, mine doesn't need adjustments. I've just been too lazy and it still functions, so whatever. But, no, just those two things coupled together as well as, like, the metal apron and the different things. I don't know. I still think if I did it all over again, I'd have to at least get a premium LE. But that's just me. Yeah, I think for me it's going to come down to how the projected images play within the play field. Because, honestly, in the upper left, that physical ball lock where the three balls can go up on the back panel is a cool feature. But the way that they virtually lock now, I'm absolutely fine with. And if I don't have to worry about messing with something that left the factory not in sync, even better. I think about like the Wonkavator, like that lock that's there on the LE model. Now, that was a more substantial-looking physical ball lock to me versus just a magnet that puts balls up on the back panel. And it illuminated the light field better, too. Exactly. It really made a huge difference cosmetically in the pin. So that's where I could justify that physical ball lock over like the magnetic ball lock on Stranger Things. It's going to come down to how the projected images look. Metal apron, that's great. And then also have not really – I don't think anybody has the UV kit yet. I know Penn Stadium released one for like 100 bucks less that you don't get the apron or plastic with. I heard about that, yeah. I heard about that, too. It almost seems like you've got to install both of them or you have to buy both because you have to – Not – look. You know what I mean? It's too complicated. There's been a lot of Penn Stadium talk, but I will say that I am a huge, huge fan of PinStadium Lights. But on this one, this particular one, Mr. Cromwell, I'm going to have to go with the UV kit just because you get those extra plastics and you get that extra apron with lights on it. And it's kind of controlled into the code a little bit. I might even put PinStadiums on there for additional illumination, like of just the GI lighting. But I think I'm going to have to go with the UV kit from Stern on that one. I have to see both. And you know what's fun is either I'm hoping at LAX, which is that Louisville show that we'll be attending. I think you're bringing a couple Stranger Things there, so you'll have projector units. A couple? We're bringing six. Six. Boom. Are you going to have the UV kit on there? Absolutely. Well, probably. Don't hold me to this, but I think we're going to have the UV kit on each and every one of them. Now, I want to see it in the same room and lighting conditions as a Penn Stadium equipped Stranger Things. because I have no problem getting the Penn Stadium one for $100 less if it lights up more of the play field or if that effect is more impactful on me. Well, Ken, stay tuned. It's like a volleyball. You're just setting me up for the spike. Stay tuned because you may see a different way to approach Stranger Things on display at a show at the Louisville Arcade and Pinball Expo. Flipping out booth. You know, and just to go back to the actual effectiveness of the UV, I don't care which one is more because that, to my opinion, that is something that you want to have in the game. I want to have whatever kit gives me the best experience of the upside down, and that's all I'm looking at. If the Penn Stadium one was $400 and the Stern was $200, but I thought the Penn Stadium one was better, I'd still get the Penn Stadium. I'm rubbing off on you there, Ken. How about a $1,000 topper? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. Not unless I'm catching a UV tan off the top or be playing in my underwear. Be like tanning in the upside down. How about a Big Lebowski Those are shipping too Yeah that amazing to me actually Big Lebowskis are going out I don know Did we ever get the update from Dutch Pinball I think they were talking about doing a live update during production. I don't know if that ever came out or not. So are you going to buy a Big Lebowski? No, I'm not going to buy a Big Lebowski. This is the thing with Big Lebowski. I kind of want one. Well, you kind of want one because, again, it's been alluring you. Like, you haven't really had one in your possession, but the code is still an issue there, right? Like, when was the last code update on that game? I don't know. I'm still worried about parts. Sure. I mean, there's a lot that needs to be improved. It is tempting. Ultimately, you hope that you get the early achievers somehow get their games. As Craig Bobby will say, we shall wait and see. There was no waiting and seeing for Pemberg tickets this year, buddy, because my ass was there at 12 o'clock noon, I'm pressing refresh and trying to get myself a ticket, Ken. These things sold out. I think they upped the game from 1,000 entries to 1,200 this year, and they sold out in mere seconds again, and I missed out this time. This is the thing with Pinberg, because I think last year there were some people that were left out, but so many now make a concentrated effort where they get four or five people all logging in at the same time, and if one person's in, you've got to group buy. So you have so many people that are looking for these group buys that it's going to be virtually impossible. I would recommend that they do some type of a lottery system for those that are preregistered. Because what shocked me, and this is going to go back to the Loser Kid interview with Keith Elwin. They asked, hey, if you didn't get in on time as the defending champion of Pinburgh and you didn't get your ticket, do you at least get the chance to defend the crown? And he's like, no, man, I got to do the same thing that everybody else does. I absolutely believe that he could walk away that day without a ticket, but I would be stunned if somebody wasn't going to be able to offer him the opportunity to come back to defend. But if you had a lottery system in place, and you see this for season tickets and concert tickets and whatnot, where you come in and you get assigned a number months prior, and then they do the lottery, and they're like, all right, anybody that's in number 200 through 1,400, you guys have first shot at these tickets. But you're not sitting there hitting refresh. And let me tell you this. There are ways that can get you into these pools or to get into these lotteries and refresh quicker than the standard person that's out in front of their computer trying to register and trying to get a ticket. So, I mean, you've got to be computer savvy. You need a team of people behind you. And then at that point, you've got to hope that there's not another computer savvy person with teams behind them that are competing against you. It's a mess. I mean, it's fun, but it's crazy. I think it went even quicker this year because everybody picked up on last year's rule that you could buy, I think, up to five. Yes. Everybody that I spoke with that did get into it, they didn't simply do what I did. Me by my lonesome. Well, that's the thing. If you're by your lonesome, what if you are some guy, say you're coming out of Alaska, you just want to go to Pinburg and compete. You're not really well integrated into the pinball scene as far as people that are also going to Pinburg. My Wi-Fi wires are freezing up. Right. You can't do it. A lottery system just seems like it would be so much more fair and balanced, and you're still going to have people that aren't going to get their tickets, but then you have that wait list that comes into effect almost immediately. I'm kind of okay with it. It's the biggest competition of the year in pinball, and pinball competition starts with you competing to get your ticket. I got in last year from doing nothing special but just being there at the time. I did the same thing this year. I didn't get in. I'm not really that mad. I'm sad. I have no idea why you were trying to go to Pinburgh. It still blows my mind. Hey, I'm on the wait list. I'm on the wait list now. Well, you've got some side action that you might be doing at Pinburgh, which I do find interesting. I wanted to do something really fun for, again, the pinball community to follow me through my first ever pinball competition or tournament period. So I'm on the wait list. Hopefully, fingers crossed, I'll get that email that says I'm in. Enough people backed out. because when people buy these five tickets, they've got to put names down. They'll put names down, but then later on somebody's like, oh, I got in over here. I did this, so they'll back out. Right. And then here's the issue that I do have for anybody listening at Papa or for those, Doug, or whoever's running this stuff. The only frustration I had, Ken, is that whenever I didn't get in, there was a link that says sign up here for the wait list. Now, I didn't read it carefully. It is my fault, but it says any submissions to this wait list before 1 p.m. will be deleted. The problem that I have was that I initially signed up to the wait list, and it sent me confirmation through an email that I was on the wait list. But they were going to delete it and not tell me. So that was the frustrating part. That's probably just for you, man. They don't need you out there poking around in their pinball tournaments. Oh, I know, and I've had so many people reach out to me. It's unfortunate, man, because I wanted to go last year. I just, timing, I couldn't. So people were like, oh, this is the pinball gods from what you pulled last year. And I'm like, damn, people. Yeah. Well, I wanted to go. I know you wanted to go. But, oh, well. Hopefully I'll get in because I got something special that we can prepare, again, for the community. But we'll see. They sold out really fast. It sounds like all the big names did end up getting in. So I think it'll be fine. I think it'll be good. It's going to be fun. Some pinball cribs to film out there in the East Coast area. Well, I could always take the old camera crew out there for Pinball Cribs. I'm sure they would dust off their cameras and get back into the studio there. Get a couple more of those episodes up. You know, when it happens to Pinball Cribs, it starts trending up. Damn, Ken, I know this music is going and it sounds really good, but I still got... I will never get over Pinball Market, friend. because that is the shit, my friend. That will never sink. I'll always have at the bow Dennis Creasel with his arms wide out and me caressing him from behind saying, I'll never let go of you, Pinball Market Trends, and I'll never let go of you, Dennis Creasel. Titanic. Titanic. I'm glad you let the listener know. Well, I was just thinking how this segment might be going down. Turning out this week is a little old game from Bally back in 1980. It was called Skateball with that weird-looking guy with sunglasses and a mustache. The numbers on this game have been exceedingly increased over the last six months to even a year. Back in the day, you could see Bally's Skateball drift into the lower 1,000s for a decent condition. one maybe mid mid-thousands for a nicer a nicer one but no no no if you want a beater now that just still functions properly you're going to pay eighteen hundred dollars and that's going to go all the way up if you want a nice example of a skateball maybe with a newer play field or maybe with some new plastics or maybe a really nice exceptional example of a cabinet three thousand dollars ken cromwell three thousand dollars even get on your radar for market trends for trending up or down and it's such an obscure title that i don't know that i've ever mentioned in my entire life well hey look whenever i'm going through my polynomial analyses uh some things some things pop up some things don't they creep down and one of the things that has been popping up in my observational data is skateball by ballet back in 1980 that's a thing that uh it's a beautiful pin it really is a pretty pin i like playing it too i've played it a couple i don't know that i've ever played skateboard so i'm gonna have to put that on my list you know what's crazy give me skateboard over paragon i think oh now see paragon is a game that i've been trying to get for years the paragons have kind of gotten out of hand as far as requested pricing for paragons not paying four thousand dollars for paragon sorry sometimes i have trouble sleeping and just fire up the old paragon and uh wait for the ball to come back down and hit the flipper you have paragon no i just use that to make fun of how slow and floaty it is. Gotcha. I just like the artwork. That's Paul Faris. Training down this week is my jokes there. Okay. Also training up this week Ah! Pinball Media's back. Okay. I'll give this a training up. Numbers don't lie. Polynomials lie when Dennis is talking about them. But training up this week is Dennis Creasel's new custom Game Room Neon. Did you get a chance Did you have to see this, Ken? That's awful. Yeah, I did. It was great because second time's a charm on that sign. That's a big freaking sign. Oh, man. It's a beautiful sign. That's not your typical bar sign, right, that goes in the back. This thing's like six feet long by three feet high. It's huge. It's truly the size of Dennis Creasel. And it is fully neon. It's animated. And it says Creasel's Arcade and a cool old retro spaceship going up. And I think it was, who was it that helped him? It was Ryan Claytor, I think, that helped with all of that. Yeah, with design and whatnot. What do you think now, as a clinical psychologist, what do you think the thought process was behind Dennis wanting to have not just Creasel Arcade, but the actual rocket ship in animation and flow? What would be some of the behind-the-scenes thoughts? We could really go a lot of places there. But I won't. I won't. But you know what? Just like that shooting rocket ship, Dennis Creasel's stock is on the rise, and it has been for the last year or so. He is a dynamic character that everybody talks about in pinball podcasting and media now. So when you see Dennis next at a show, and you're only going to see him at one show a year, go up, say hello to him. You love that man, don't we? Dennis has universal respect from anybody that I've... I've never seen anything bad spoken of Dennis Creasel. He's universally liked. Speaking of universally liked, also training up this week is Macho Pinball. Yeah. Oh, Macho. Macho Pinball. Man, he's a troll hunting. Did you hear his last episode? He's out there. I applaud the troll hunting. I applaud it. Looking for trolls. The problem with that is that's a never-ending, tireless effort that he's undergone. I did message Macho Pinball and I said, hey, brother, you've got to be a little careful with how you dive into Troll Honey because you might get bit. And I've got the stars on my back to show. So be careful out there, Macho. But trending up is Macho Pinball. Short, sweet, witty, and funny. Trending down this week, unfortunately, is one that I've been trending up lately. It's not holding steady. It's actually trending down now because on the secondary market, we are seeing them hold a little bit and sell lower than they were in previous. weeks and that is jersey jack pinball pirates of the caribbean wow another another pirates particularly the le the limited edition model i've had mine sitting a couple more have been sitting i saw one now sell in the upper 11s which is significantly lower than they have been selling for the last month or two everybody just couldn't get their hands on these le's quick enough and They were selling up to $13,000 a couple weeks ago. But just looking at the market right now, if you're going to buy a Pirates of the Caribbean, you're spending in the upper 11s, the lower 12s. So we've seen a significant dip in the value on the secondary market, which makes me sad because mine zones for sale. Off the top of your head, LEs, Pirates of the Caribbean, LEs. Last time I checked, I believe there was five. Okay, so it's such a limited amount. I mean, all it takes is one or two buyers to really turn all that around to. Oh, my poor Pirates, man. It was deal of the week last week. Yeah, because I reduced the price, but that set the tone, I guess, for the entire marketplace. This sucks. You know what? Let's see if we can regain some controls. In this week's The Pinball Show's Pinball Market Trends, deals of the week, of the week, of the week. Buy, buy, buy! I need like a little board. you would benefit from a soundboard because there are those out there that feel that you are your own personal soundboard I'll take it one of the deals this week is on Pinside found outside of Orlando, Florida I love Mickey Mouse I love him do you like going to the theme parks there Kenny? I have not been to Disney World I think I called you out on one of the early I think it was on Twip never been to Disney World and I've never been to Vegas. So those are the two places. In Vegas, you're not missing too much. But Disney World, man, that's where it's at. A guy by the name of Flashburn, Flashburn, outside of Orlando, Florida, is selling a Game of Thrones limited edition. Hashtag loaded. It's got a shaker. It's got mirror blades. It's got the Stern animated dragon topper. And if nobody likes that, they're crazy. That topper is awesome. Upgraded speaker, speaker insert, speaker lights, plastic protectors, flipper topper, Stern shooter rod, external headphone connector i'm not big on those but a lot of people love them and other stuff that he's forgetting it has maybe 100 plays on it maybe so this thing is like you see other stuff that he's forgetting i love when people put that in the ad it's got all this and some other stuff i'm probably forgetting i've been guilty of that i love it now it does have the one caveat here is It does have a bump on the decal back left cabinet. Wow. And some of you can see past that. I can see past that, especially if you contact Stern, see if they have an extra decal they can print just for insurance purposes. But overall, this game is loaded. It's damn near brand new. The price of it is $6,800. Ladies and gentlemen, to me, that's a buy, buy, buy. Buy, buy, buy. Hell of the week. Yeah, you take $6,800, you talk them down to $6,600, $6,550. You reduce the price of that animated Dragon Topper, which is $400 on the secondary market. Then you have the upgraded speakers. Look, you're good. You're good. You're going to be all said and done after all those mods are taken off. You're like an upper $5,000 Game of Thrones LE that's essentially brand new. The game itself is beautiful. There's a hell of a lot of game there for the price. So talk them down a little bit. But Flashburn, outside of Orlando, Florida, has this week's deal of the week. Another deal of the week is a Last Action Hero. Now, do you like the old-day Last Action Hero? I don't mind it. I don't care for it. The one that I did like and I appreciated the most was the one that Kerry Hardy had brought to Texas Pinball Festival last year. That made me really like Last Action Hero. Yeah, yeah. I'm in full agreement there. That was a pretty one. This one is outside of Lincoln, Nebraska. The Pinside user is Garbage Men. It's G-R-B-G-E-M-E-N. He does donate to Pinside, so thank you for that. But no, this is a Last Action Hero, and it actually has the accessory Pinsound board in it. Those things aren't cheap, Cromwell. I'm a huge Pinsound supporter, and I try to put them in every game that they'll be accepted on. They're kind of a pain in the ass to install, though, aren't they? No, not at all. Bye, bye, bye! I thought they were. That's why I've kind of stayed away from them. Custom music mixes. But go ahead. I didn't mean to interrupt. No, there's a full teardown that he's done with all new parts, lots of parts, lane guides, pop bumpers, drop targets, NOS plastic set, you name it, plus this pin sound. Overall, the play field is in good shape. The cabinet is in great shape. He has some powder coating on it that I'm not crazy about on the legs, but the cabinet itself looks pretty. What color is the powder coating? It's all black, but then the legs are red. Okay. The legs don't make sense to me. Yeah, that has to match everything else. Yeah, so I don't know about that. But, hey, for a nice condition Last Action Hero for $2,500 with a pin sound. Because a pin sound is what? $300, $400 alone? Absolutely. That's a really good deal. And you know what? Maybe ask him if he wants to keep those powder-coated legs and take another $100 off and throw some stock legs on there. Buy, buy, buy! Yeah, that's a little modified. Deal of the week. Bye. Bye. That's right. Use it if you want to. It feels good. Say it out loud in your car right now. Bye, bye, bye. Bye, bye, bye. Hmm. Ah. Do you ever say that in the shower or anything? I've not said it in the shower. No. No, no, no, no. I've been told that that should not be said ever, so I don't speak of it. Really? Who said that? Yeah, Pinside. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Pfft. Hey, it is what it is. Listen to them and you'll end up with just a metallic pinball machine. And if you want to save some money, make sure to take part in those deals of the week. Bye, bye, bye. That's right. Well, we're going to say bye, bye, bye here because that was your pinball show's pinball market trends. Trade one. Copy right. TM. Tech Minute. When are we going to get the market trends decoder device? Can you do a market trends decoder advice where people have to actually use their decoder device to find the deal of the week? Oh, man, people love that, wouldn't they? Macho's got the decoder device going. Have you decrypted any of those messages? I've got to say no. I haven't either, but it's so fun and genius that he's got that going. I just have not taken that extra step, but kudos to him for excellent marketing. I think it's really fun. Me too. We already know who you are, Macho. Macho. So, Seeker's safe with us, though. Ken, I know you're tired. I know you're not feeling well. But before we shut this thing down here at the Pinball Show, can we give the listeners maybe a new segment? Yeah, we have not really had a lot of segments. And I think people are used to segments and shows in which you are affiliated with. So, it's only natural to have a new segment because I don't know what you carried over from your last show. I know all those segments were yours. But we really haven't been in the segment jukebox that I expected. No, you know what? I'll let Jeff Patterson. And he kept the confessions because I cut that midway through that show. Oh, that's right. I do remember that. Confessions. He was big on the whole confessions thing. I really liked confessions. That was fun. So this is a segment that I want to show a little bit of humility. Just like Jeff Patterson's confession segment, we were talking about that. I want to show a little bit of humility. There are times where I have takes or reads or initial reviews, and I'm just downright wrong. I fail in the biggest way. And I thought we could showcase that here, whether it's me one week or you one week, both of us, maybe Creasel. If he's ever wrong about anything, God forbid. See, I was going to say, this shows a nice, gentler, softer side of a Zach Menny who is creating a segment discussing on how he has been wrong. Yeah, it's almost like the segment's been created before by Dwight Sullivan. But no, this is a little different. This is actually truthful things that I have been wrong about in a segment we're going to call the pinball shows eating crow. You got to put a bird sound in there somewhere. There you go. We were on the same page. You went from a crow to a baby. Last week it was a whale. That's actually creepy, man. Hey, seriously, that sounds like a baby. Does it really? Yeah, it really did sound like a baby. Is it supposed to be a baby, right? Eating babies. No. A new segment called Eat Your Young. Eat Your Children. That's what some people think. I'm going to steal their children or something. Baby eating, only on CPN. This is called Eating Crow, in which case I or you or both of us or the co-host is going to tell about what we got wrong. Actually, well, this first time is going to be easy for me because we discussed this a little bit earlier on in the show. And without knowing you were going to go this way with this segment, I had that exact feeling. And it is in regards to Dutch Pinball. Now, when Dutch Pinball had gone through litigation and they were getting, you know, they were in litigation with ARA. And ARA was holding all their pinball machines in custody. I remember on Special Unlit at the time with my co-host Bill Webb, I had said to him that I believe that they will never make another pinball machine ever again. And that they were dead. Now, I didn't say it as fact. I said I would believe that it will never happen. And I would be shocked. And I didn't think I'd be shocked if they made five or ten. I was going to be shocked if they made one more game. And they've made at least one more game. So for that, I got to give him credit. Like, I eat crow now. Do I believe that everybody's out of the woods and everything's hunky-dory over there? No. But do I have a personal vendetta to jump on top of the – no, no, no. Like I did also say that I want to see the company at least make good on their promises and at least it seems that there a concentrated effort to try to do so But I definitely have to eat crow by saying that they will never make in my opinion another game and this is the end of it. So they've proven me wrong, and I'm eating some crow. You know what? You're eating one crow, not a whole murder. That's not murder worthy of crows. It's not a flock. I'm eating a single crow. Why do they call it murder? A murder of crows. That's the flock go-to there on crows. Do you know that? A murder of crows. I've never even heard that expression. You've never heard of that. Yeah, like a number of crows is a murder. Yeah. A murder of crows. Yep. I think so. Is that a herd of crows? I'm sure somebody will fact check me. Dennis, is it a murder? Yeah. I've never heard it. I've never been like, yeah, I'm going to go out and pick up a murder of bottled water. Like murder, is that supposed to be like multiples? Yes. I don't understand. Yeah, I'm telling you. Interesting. You learn something new every day. I'm not sure I learned anything. My submission for eating crow this week, oh, man. You know what? Let's do something a little different here. I'm actually, listeners, going to sit down with you and write a little letter. And this letter is going to be marked, Dear Mr. Gomez and Mr. Kleiss, I'm writing because I'm ill, and the only cure is eating some crow. I'll take more crow medium well, with a side of chimichangas, because upon release of Deadpool, I was a little rough on the layout and the rules, as many of you know. Yes, you are. I've prematurely pontificated all over my early run Deadpool Pro. Clean up, aisle nine! So, I'm writing Mr. Gomez, Mr. Kleist, to tell you that I'm stupid. You're smart. I'm wrong. You're right. You're the best. I'm the worst. You're very good looking. I'm not very attractive. Happy Gilmore. The point of this is, Deadpool, especially the premium LE model, is not only a great game but it's one of the best of our time the premium that we just received is actually the opposite of clunky it's rather flowy it's as flowy as a pinball machine can be it's beautiful it sounds great the code offers uh like um a cheesecake factory-esque variety please just let this serve as proof that i jumped the gun on this title and are you still uh my homie gomi question mark warm regards Zach I always liked Deadpool and you ruined it I know straight down the middle with Greg Bone made fun of me for liking Deadpool I did I actually did true story and I'm eating a murderer crows well done well done and I appreciate your honesty I was wrong man I was so wrong Ken on that game and this game It could be bought at FlippinOutPinball.com right now. You buy your premium alley or get your Win Schilling. Oh, wow. Deadpool. You know what? That's probably what I will hear. Absolutely you're going to hear it on this, man. That was an advertisement for stock that you have sitting in the queue at FlippinOut. I can't win, Cromwell. No, you're fucked, man. You can't do it. You can't do it. Zach, you made me want to buy one. And I was like, man, do they still make those? I think they do. where can i get one i know a distributor who's jack i'm gonna say right now that's awesome call your call your favorite distributor yeah you get this game you don't have to call flipping out look unless you want it fast unless you want the best customer support in the industry that's fine but just call your distributor i'm not Win Schilling anything damn no i i'll say i know for a fact that you don't shill games because you like you do speak honestly about the games if you really listen to all these episodes there's no advertising for flipping out there's the occasional mention so even if this was even if this was an advertisement for flipping out pinball you are speaking the truth on the game in which you were um wrong talking about but and i was gonna bust some balls though because uh i do remember taking some heat from you guys at the time when i really liked uh deadpool and i still love deadpool that's one of those games deadpool is like a top five top six pin for me like of all time and at this point if somebody argued that i can't argue against it I just can't. It is really good. And I don't even care for the theme. That's the other thing, Zach. No, really? Deadpool is a theme for me. I could not care less. It's a cool theme. I'm not a huge fan of comic books, but it's a cool theme. I'm not really even big into the 16-bit kind of fighting style on the LCD. I think that was smart. I like the music, all the original music. I love the animations. I just don't care for it. It didn't call me in because of the fighting style on the LCD. You know what Deadpool did for me, Ken? It made me appreciate, because I give Gomez sometimes his layouts and his geometry and the materials he uses, angles and everything else. I give him a little bit of a hard time, but I am now growing to appreciate a George Gomez more with me playing more Deadpool Premium. And it's because he has the experience to know the, and listeners are probably going to think I'm nuts, But I'm telling you, he knows speed, velocity, and angles where... Oh, sure he does. Yeah, he can get away with some bends, and he can get away with speed and direction changes that just other designers wouldn't be able to do. So it may feel different, but when he gets it right like he did on Deadpool, it's hard to compete against that. George Gomez knows what he's doing. You almost give him a little bit more leniency because he does push the envelope on his playfield designs, whereas it might not be in its entirety the most flowy game ever. You can see that the effort was there and that it performs well enough for you to get a positive vibe. For instance, on Deadpool, there are shots in there that you think shouldn't work, and they do. And then there's that one shot in there that I just don't know that should ever be in the game. It's that little inner, tiny little inner loop. I still hate that one. I don't like that. But you know what? It doesn't ruin the game for me. It's just an extra shot in there and whatever. But that whole package on Deadpool. No, but you're right. Even the orbits and the fly around ramps, if another designer did those, it could have been Airball City. It could have been an uncontrolled mess. But he finds a way to make it fast and flowy. I love the premium LE. Because your left orbit feeds to the flipper. It comes all the way through versus getting hung in the pops. When you start, was it Disco Loops, and you start ripping that left spinner consecutively, and it's the left spinner feeds to the right flipper, and you keep hitting it four or five times a minute. With the disco ball going everywhere. It's awesome, man. The music is killer on that game. Light show. It's a full code now, and it's got so much variety. There's that game from every manufacturer that's incredible to me, like Deadpool at Stern. For me, I love Willy Wonka over at JJP. I'm hoping that Rick and Morty is that game for me at Spooky, because I've never owned a spooky pinball machine. I had the TNA Whitewood here that Scott Danesi lent us for a few months, and I had a great time on TNA. And CGC, you kind of know what to expect from the remakes because you played those games before they were remade. And American Pinball, I'm still waiting for that one game from them where it's like, boom, maybe it's the next one. It wasn't Oktoberfest, as fun as I thought it was, and it wasn't Houdini as fun as I thought that game could have been. Houdini was for you? We need to get you a Houdini. You know, so a buddy of mine down the street has a Houdini. And go back to Keith Ellen, like you should be mad at yourself for missing the easy shots and feel great when you hit the hard shots. Like Houdini, it's almost every shot I make, I feel like I just won a million bucks. That's right. I got through there. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the Pinball Show's Eating Crows. Eating Crows. I was going to say, before we shut this one down and it's been a fun episode 3, I'm already looking forward to episode 4 as you know, Dennis Creasel wasn't here, but he'll be back with us next week, so for those of you that are waiting for some sensibility and some fair and balanced to be brought to the show that'll be brought to you next week with Dennis from Eclectic Gamers. A little Kenny and Danny right? Hey! Look at that! None of you guys are going to like that one. That's a t-shirt So I'll keep it. I did want to ask people that have game rooms and you're collecting maybe their pinball machines, maybe you've got some other stuff in the game room. If you get a chance, please email us at thepinballnetwork at gmail.com. And just in the subject line, put in game room. I am looking to add a couple different machines that are not pinball related to my game room, something that maybe is outside of the box thinking. Like right now I'm looking at like one of the brand new big bucks that are coming out from Raw Thrills. They have a brand new home edition. Like kind of a gun game. Something that's going to appeal to more people that are coming in, including myself. You've had a Golden T. A lot of people like Golden T. I love Golden T. So Golden T was one that was added. I'm looking for a big buck. I am also – I've been looking at skeeballs and crane, like claw machines. I've had a pair of skeeballs, the old school good ones. Yeah. So did you like it? I mean was it – I mean you don't have it now. I really liked them. They took up a lot of space, and we were getting ready to move, but I would have a set of skee-ball machines. Or, oh my gosh, remember the first Cribs episode where Chris Haper had that 1960 Bowlerama? I'm trying to get that from him. I want to buy that and put it in my game room because it was just so classy and beautiful. I thought somebody told me that he was selling that. Well, we're in discussion. Okay, so you might want to, I was going to say, you might want to reach out to him. but I'm just looking for things maybe that I don't even know that are out there that are fun. Now, I don't need anything. I'm not going to make a whole segment out of this, but if there's something that's interesting, I think it's only fun to bring it to everybody's attention because this is what happens, Zach. I've got my pinball friends, and I've got my regular friends that none of them are into pinball. So when they come over here – So we're by proxy irregular friends, I guess? Right. Well, it depends on how you look at it and depends on how I'm feeling at any given day. Keep going. I think I'm the crazy person sometimes. But they come over, and I'm proud because I've got a lineup of four or five games, and they're all working condition, and they all look nice. And it just doesn't really calm in. They'll walk over to a Golden Tee, or they'll walk over to a multi-cade machine, and that's what kind of is in it for them. But I want social games in my game room. Pinball is very social for me. Ski ball can be social. Golden Tee is huge. Getting a Golden Tee can be played by anybody, and it just brings people in, and you can play four players or online, this, that, or the other thing. So if you have something that's outside of the norm or something that you would recommend, write us or email us again, thepinballnetwork at gmail.com. Put Game Room in the subject line and just throw a recommendation. I would love to hear from you because, again, I'm just looking to add a couple other things to kind of finish this up. Hey, Ken, maybe I'll come over and show you my Flying Dutchman. The Flying Dutchman would not even fit in this studio. that flying dutchman was it was one of the biggest redemption machines i've ever seen in my entire life so email in i'd like to hear what you guys what else as long as it's not a virtual pin no this is not pinball stuff not pinball related well neither is that different i in even some redemption games can be fun i want to be able to have a couple uh beers or a couple beverages with my buds and be able to burn 30 minutes on what about slot machine i got a slot machine that's cool that's i don't that's boring what am i gonna do the whole thrill for slot machine is money off your friends no my friends are gonna put money in slots and then i'm running it's frowned upon somebody hits a progressive here what am i what are they walking out with 24 like it just doesn't even make any sense i've had slots and those japanese skill to stop machines the uh pachylsos uh i'm gonna take a pass on that now pachinko is different than the pachylso oh pachinko is a bunch of little balls that go around the pegs and they fall into the slots whereas this creasel needs a pachil so every once in a while geez man chill out yeah i want a crane machine i want a crane machine that's what i want and i want to do different like when i have a kid's party like for my daughter here her five she just turned five right so it'd be fun to just have it set to easy and throw 50 or 60 plush toys in there and have those kids each get a turn on free planes that will be so awesome and then when my buddies are over i can stock it with airport bottles of like that's an even better idea um you know what i mean maybe fireball or something and see since it's uh no what is it with the dime bags i don't know it's legal there in illinois now isn't it it is it is uh it is legal i don't have nothing to say about that i have not gone to your wife and go for bricks of weed in your crane machine thrown out over there you know what a lot more people will be coming over for pinball night If that were the case. Bill, I don't know how you're going to smoke that without the papers. You've got to get those two down in there. No, no, no, no. I'm not a marijuana smoker, but I don't condone or I'm not against anybody that is. That's not marijuana on the T-shirt. That's beer hops. The guy's holding beer hops. It's a beer T-shirt. There's no beer T-shirt with a guy holding buds. Those regular to the flipping out stream know exactly what we're talking about. Ken wears a beer T-shirt. No, no, no. It's like, it's not weed. I have no problem with people that smoke weed. And I have no problem with people that don't smoke weed. It's like a non-event for me either way, so whatever. I love that you're Chinese. Explain yourself. No, because you know what's going to happen? This is what's going to happen. I've learned that I can paint myself into a corner where I'm going to get those, well, no wonder he's such a tight ass. No wonder he doesn't want to say anything to anybody because he doesn't know how to relax. It's not about that at all. Believe me, I've had good times in the past. Oh, man. It's just right now in my life at 44 years old, I don't need anything that's going to make me more tired or make me eat more food. It's the last thing. Oh, Willie Nelson over here, Zach. Right. Right, exactly. Snoop Dogg. Geez. Where can these people find us, Ken? I don't know. If they want to find us, you can go ahead and you can go on Facebook. The Pinball Network is there. You can find us, as I said, with the Gmail account, thepinballnetwork at gmail.com. We also have Instagram. We have a website. Now, contrary to popular belief, we do have a site that we own. and it's called thepinballnetwork.net. Now, how cool is that? This being a network, the .net only makes sense. Arguably, it's better than the .com. If you go to thepinballnetwork.com, you will not reach us. You will reach somebody that's pretending to be the Pinball Network. But if you want to reach us at thepinballnetwork.net, all the episodes and everything are archived there, and we're going to end up building that site. But where can people reach you other than the Pinball Network? I heard somebody here says, swag. You guys got some hotness over here at St. Charles. Anyway, with that, we're going to close out the episode. Thank you for joining in. Oh, you can catch me at the Pinball Network. Is that the St. Charles weed guy? I think it is. He drives a Ford Taurus and he hangs out at the 7-Eleven there. Is it not legal in Indiana? No, it's not legal in Indiana. You can catch me at the Straight Down the Middle video series on YouTube about pinball. You can email us there at sdtmpinball at gmail.com Give Greg Bone a holla. We're going to be at the Louisville show in March. I cannot wait for that. March 6th through the 8th. Yeah, that's going to be a good showing. It's our biggest booth ever that we're going to set up for Flip N Out Pinball. So be gentle. Will you have a Deadpool there by any chance? I believe we will have a Deadpool premium. Hey, there we go. Maybe even a pro as well. We're going to try to really showcase what we're going to do to support the Louisville show since that's kind of our hometown area there. we're also going to go to the Texas Pinball Festival we'll have a small booth there so say hello and for all of you who voted for us on the Twippies whether it's straight down the middle this week in Pinball Podcast or the Flip N Out Pinball Stream thank you again and when you are ready to buy your first 5th, 25th pinball machine if you want to be taken care of to the most exceptional degree please give us a shot over at Flip N Out Pinball you can reach me or my wife Nicole at flippingoutpinball.com or Zach, Z-A-C-H, at flip, the letter N, outpinball.com for email or call me. Call me right now if you want to. Hell, it's Monday or Tuesday. Call me. See what we've got for show specials at Louisville. See what it's going to take to get you a pinball machine over to your house. Free shipping on all sterns. 812-457-9711. And that is a plug. And I'm okay with it because if I sucked at distributing pinball machines, then y'all could be mad. otherwise enjoy support those distributors because if they're not some pinball machines there's no pinball machines to be played oh so true there grommy so think about it and also listeners coming up this week on the pinball network we're going to have hopefully pinball supernova having some videos we've also been in discussion with a couple other content providers for video series on youtube so go follow us now at the pinball network on youtube we have another final round pinball podcast with teolis and marty right every other week i'm looking forward to that you'll have your midweek episode with myself and another co-host and hopefully fingers crossed an off the record pinball podcast where you the listener sign up to submit your own podcast for everybody's listening pleasure do it why not all it takes is a mic do it i think orby comes back this week too i think with the episode number two orby had some nice download numbers i'm interested to see how his whole podcast plays out. Crystal, thanks for... Crystal Gemnick had her The Plum, her debut on the network this week. What a nice start. Yeah, it was a nice intro. So I like where she's taking the direction of that podcast. If you don't know what it is or haven't listened, go ahead and jump on that. When are we going to hear back from Josh Jacobs with Silver Ball Stories? Oh, I'm looking forward to his next story, his illustrated story. That's going to come out... I think we still have two more weeks. He's a once-a-month storyteller. As long as you're following the Pinball Network, you're going to get updates every single day on your podcast. and for right now, the content's rolling in. We'll have something more permanent up as far as a calendar or like a preview guide, so to speak, so you'll know when to expect your favorite shows and at what time. But for the first few weeks here, yeah, exactly. We're just kind of getting everything underway and rolling in. Ken, I'm so proud of what we've been able to establish, all these content providers and the teamwork working together. We've really started off with a bang. I hope you guys like these episodes on the pinball show as well as midweek, but we've really done well with it, And a lot of people are listening to things that maybe they wouldn't have heard before. So it warms my heart for you all to be listening. That was a big reason for the network, the way that we rolled everything out on one feed, was because I have seen that comment come up on social media. And that is, if it wasn't for this, I would not have thought to listen to this podcast. And it's because we're all sharing the same feed. So at the very least, it exposes you to something that you may not have searched for anyways. So with that, we'll close out episode number three. We're going to catch you again in a couple days on the midweek show. But for Zach Minney, I'm Ken Cromwell. And always practice safe pinball. And I'm the king I wish for. Thank you. And don't forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball. So long, everybody. Next time you do a segment like this, maybe you could let me know in advance something that's going to be, because now whatever you say is going to look so much more thought out than me coming up with what I said. Please, don't piss yourself. I love it. I love it. Man, that sounds like you pulled it off from the soundboard, man. Seriously, that's pretty good. Well, it's not bad. I mean, it's going to annoy the hell out of most people that you did it. That's right. But it does sound like a baby. So I'll give you that. I should have said eating goats. And I'll tell myself I'm over you Cause I'm the king of wishful thinking I'm the king of wishful thinking I'm over you, I know I'm in You made a hole in my heart But I'll set a chair for you I'll be the king I wish for, baby I can call you baby I know I will I pretend my heart's still reaching But I've got no more tears for you I'm the king I wish for, baby I can call you baby I know I will You made a whole world you

high confidence · Direct quote from Keith Elwin in Loser Kid Pinball Podcast interview; hosts confirm this philosophy evident in both Iron Maiden and Jurassic Park

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John Borgperson
Pinsideorganization

market_signal: New designer dominance: Keith Elwin, Denise, and Minier positioned as driving current market excitement and community craving for 'new stuff' over established designers (Ritchie, Gomez, Borg, Eddy) in typical rotation

high · Ken explicitly states 'the new designers are hot'; Zach notes community eagerness; Elwin games selling exceptionally well; earlier mention of Zombie Yeti burnout cycle as cautionary precedent

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    licensing_signal: Stern licensing director Jody Dankberg elevated to focus exclusively on licensing after promotion; previously handled marketing/licensing hybrid role; credited with Heavy Metal partnership and other recent strong IP acquisitions

    high · Ken Cromwell states Dankberg promotion details; notes he rarely appears on podcasts; advocates for community recognition of behind-scenes work; positions as 'dark horse' licensing executor

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    market_signal: Spooky Rick and Morty in active shipping phase with 40 units built and reaching customers; minor coding issues being addressed in field; indicates manufacturer production scaling

    high · Dr. John Spooky/Haggis industry update; specific production count; location test stream noted as excellent despite minor issues

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    personnel_signal: Keith Elwin demonstrates extraordinary design efficiency with Game 3 already completed and Game 4 in development simultaneously, supported by dedicated core team (Harrison Drake/engineering, Rick Nagel/coding)

    high · Zach confirms from two independent sources; Keith Elwin confirmed in Loser Kid interview; typical designer timeline is 12-18 months, making Elwin's pace exceptional

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    announcement: Heavy Metal pinball announced as Stern contract through Incendium Online; reskin of Star Wars The Pin with commercial-grade cabinet, DMD, chameleon powder coat finish; retail $8,299; official sneak peek scheduled March 20, 2020

    medium · Leaked cabinet images and descriptions online; Stern teaser announcement pending; not fully confirmed at time of recording; pricing based on initial leak

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    product_concern: Heavy Metal pin layering questions: unclear whether commercial-grade cabinet maintains Star Wars layout integrity, whether coils individually driven vs shared (home pin limitation), what quality/feature parity exists with other $8k+ Stern premium releases

    medium · Ken and Zach speculate on construction differences; note Star Wars home pin had 'materials of different composition'; concern about value vs Jurassic Park Premium at similar price point

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    product_strategy: Jurassic Park reaching 1.0 code milestone with final wizard mode 'When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth'; suggests project completion phase; fourth skill shot mechanic added to double super skill shot with undisclosed unlock reward

    high · Craig Bobby industry news report; Keith Elwin confirms final wizard mode exists; Zach notes rapid code iterations reaching 1.0 suggests closure

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    rumor_hype: Jersey Jack Pinball next announcement widely speculated to be Guns N' Roses; uncertainty about licensing parameters including band imagery, song list, guitar neck feature, and era focus (90s classic vs current Not In This Lifetime tour)

    medium · Ken Rudberg industry update notes widespread speculation; questions remain unconfirmed; no official JJP announcement at time of recording