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Ep 40: Top 5 fav games

Pinball Party Podcast·podcast_episode·43m 23s·analyzed·Oct 15, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Jason ranks his top 5 pinball favorites, all Stern games, emphasizing theme, ruleset, and personal connection.

Summary

Jason from Pinball Party Podcast discusses his top five favorite pinball machines: #5 Stern Star Trek, #4 Stern Ghostbusters, #3 Stern Iron Man, #2 Stern Jurassic Park, and #1 Stern Lord of the Rings. He includes honorable mentions of Black Knight Sword of Rage and Addams Family, reflects on Barrels of Fun's upcoming Labyrinth and JJP's Rocketman at the upcoming Expo, and explains his personal connection to each game's theme and mechanics.

Key Claims

  • Labyrinth by Barrels of Fun looks visually great from trailers but Jason hasn't played it or heard detailed gameplay/audio feedback yet

    high confidence · Jason directly discussing Labyrinth reveal and his impressions; explicitly states 'I wish I would be playing it at Expo' and 'First impressions was Looks awesome. I can't find any faults with it from a visual standpoint. I haven't played it, obviously.'

  • Rocketman (Elton John theme) by JJP will be shown at Expo and is designed by Steve Ritchie

    high confidence · Jason: 'Aside from Labyrinth, Rocketman is supposedly going to be at Expo, JJP... Um, but it's Steve Ritchie, and that dude makes flow for days'

  • Jason originally planned to attend Pinball Expo but cancelled to visit Door County, Wisconsin with his wife instead

    high confidence · Jason: 'I initially was going to go to Expo, I had everything booked... but hey, again, balance in the life. I need to take a little step back from being obsessed with pinball'

  • Stern Jurassic Park is Jason's #2 favorite game but he hasn't reviewed it in depth on the Pinball Party Podcast previously

    high confidence · Jason: 'Number two is the only one I have not reviewed on a podcast, so you can't go back and listen to more in depth. I don't believe'

  • Stern Ghostbusters was initially disliked by Jason due to difficulty but he came to appreciate it over time after owning it in his home

    high confidence · Jason: 'I played it, I hated it, because I love Ghostbusters and like this game is the hardest game ever... And then over time I realized like oh difficulty actually is a good thing so you don't get bored'

  • Jason owns Lord of the Rings multiple times and it's his #1 favorite pinball machine despite/because of its long gameplay

    high confidence · Jason: 'It's a game I've owned way too many times and it's ridiculous... It's ridiculous to other people that have owned this so many times'

  • Steve Ritchie designs have strong ramp shots that Jason finds satisfying to shoot

    high confidence · Jason: 'Every Richie game at least I shoot it and be like huh that feels good... I love hitting Ritchie's ramps'

Notable Quotes

  • “Labyrinth looks great. I was never a labyrinth enthusiast movie, I should say. I wasn't opposed to it, but that was never one of my growing up movies”

    Jason @ early-mid — Shows Jason's lack of personal connection to Labyrinth IP despite appreciating the machine's aesthetics

  • “I wish I would be playing it at Expo. I initially was going to go to Expo, I had everything booked, was going to meet a bunch of people there... but balance in the life. I need to take a little step back from being obsessed with pinball”

    Jason @ early — Major lifestyle decision to deprioritize pinball and skip industry's biggest annual event

  • “I absolutely love that game [Black Knight Sword of Rage Pro]. Well, I guess not absolutely because it's not in my top five... it's almost too shallow, like it's missing something after a while”

    Jason @ middle — Illustrates Jason's nuanced evaluation of games and the difficulty of ranking favorites

  • “The Warp ramp [in Star Trek]. It's so good. It's so smooth. Even when that game gets boring, I'm like, well, I'll just hit the ramps. They feel great”

    Jason @ middle — Highlights the importance of satisfying shot mechanics in determining game appeal

  • “Ghostbusters has a lot to do. You can kind of pick and choose in a way... The difficulty I think is great... don't buy the hate of people talking about the flipper gap and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's a fantastic game”

    Jason @ middle — Shows Jason's willingness to defend a game against common criticisms in the community

  • “Iron Man is my favorite simple game, even beyond Black Knight... It's great. When I said not just friends and family... I always have about 30 minutes like, alright chicken's cooking or broccoli's going”

    Jason @ middle — Reveals Jason's gameplay preference for quick, low-commitment play sessions and practical constraints on machine selection

  • “There isn't a pinball machine that theme means more to me than [Lord of the Rings]... Lord of the Rings is... a reminder to breathe, honestly”

Entities

JasonpersonBarrels of FuncompanyJersey Jack Pinball (JJP)companySteve RitchiepersonStern PinballcompanyLabyrinthgameRocketmangameStern Star Trekgame

Signals

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jason discusses ownership of multiple trim levels (Pro, Premium, LE) of Stern Star Trek and Jurassic Park, noting different aesthetic and gameplay tradeoffs between models

    high · Jason owns Star Trek in Pro, LE, and Premium trims across multiple purchases; discusses LE/Premium/Pro options for Jurassic Park; explicitly compares plastic vs metal ramps and side art value

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jason articulates preference spectrum from simple (Iron Man, Black Knight) for casual play to complex (Jurassic Park, Lord of the Rings, Ghostbusters) for deep engagement; ties game selection to real-world time constraints

    high · Jason discusses owning machines strategically: 'If I want a quick, fast game, I'll play something like Iron Man or Black Knight. If I want a slow and relaxing game I play Jurassic Park'; notes cooking timer context for machine choice

  • ?

    collector_signal: Jason acknowledges owning Lord of the Rings 'way too many times' and Star Trek in Pro form 'three times, the same machine actually'; maintains a personal list of games never to repurchase

    high · Jason: 'It's a game I've owned way too many times... I do have a list that says, Jason, do not, don't buy that again'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Jason's perception of game difficulty evolved from negative (hated Ghostbusters for being hard) to positive (now appreciates it prevents boredom)

    high · Jason: 'I played it, I hated it... And then over time I realized like oh difficulty actually is a good thing so you don't get bored'

  • ?

    product_concern: Jason mentions flipper gap issues in Ghostbusters and metal outlines causing physics problems ('God, you gotta be fucking kidding me. Just don't go down the side')

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.130

0:00
Hi, uh, hi, oh, hi, uh, you can't do like Asian racist accents anymore, huh? Uh, well, welcome to the Pinball Party Podcast. Um, I miss doing the Asian accent from the 90s. It's, it's terrible, right? But, oh, figure it out. Yeah, uh, that's, people aren't going to like that. But if I could do an accent of a white... if I was, let's say, Asian or black or anything other than a cis white male, I would definitely be doing white male accents on the daily because we sound really dumb. I apologize to anyone out there who is not a white male, especially in the Midwest. I probably sound terrible and that's a bummer for you. But you're tuning in anyways to listen to me talk about pinball. Hello, my name is Jason. I've thus far burned a few bridges, especially with the Asian demographic, and this nonsense is getting us nowhere. So let's talk about pinball! We are going to talk about why, I don't know, labyrinth? All the shit, all the shit, all the news you want, don't come here for it. Don't come here for it. Go to Knapp Arcade. K-N-A-P-P Arcade. Dude's just basically, I don't know, if he's a treasure chest of pinball news and he's just found the key to open it or let's use another analogy. He's another chest of pinball news, let's say, but he's had a rusty lock this whole time and someone got some lube in his hole and creaked that fucker open and now he's just exploding. The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Thank you Joel, Travis, and Tom for keeping me busy in my ears while I'm mudding drywall and hating every second of it. Every coat, every sand, every dust that I'm inhaling, every feathered edge. Anyway, no more drywall talk, let's get back to pinball. Speaking of Triple Drain, they recently talked about their top five favorite pinball machines, and I will do the same here shortly. And we're all talking about our top five and kineticists, kinetic-ists, kinetic-ists? Whatever, no editing, I don't do that anymore. You know who I'm talking about. Thanks for reaching out. He was like, hey, we should all talk about our top five favorite games. I'll put them into this big package and we'll release them. I'll touch on whatever new news has happened recently, but I just, I haven't been paying much attention. So again, go to Knapp Arcade. Hey, listen to pinball shows, triple drain, go to Pinside, whatever, go get all your news there. But I've seen the, you know, reveal of Labyrinth, Looks, uh, my first impression was Looks awesome. I can't find any faults with it from a visual standpoint. I haven't played it, obviously. I wish I would be playing it at Expo. I initially was going to go to Expo, I had everything booked, was going to meet a bunch I've got a bunch of people there and all that but hey, again, balance in the life. I need to take a little step back from being obsessed with pinball, but that is one thing I'm gonna miss to play because wow, it looks great. Labyrinth looks great. I was never a labyrinth enthusiast movie, I should say. I wasn't opposed to it, but that was never one of my growing up movies that fit into I don't know, you know, my social circle or it wasn't up there with, you know, as a kid, Ghostbusters, He-Man, well, maybe the cartoon, but also Masters of the Universe, Back to the Future, Star Wars, you know, the ones that all me and my friends all talked about and quoted all the time. Labyrinth wasn't. I believe my sister who was two years older than me, it was a movie that she watched quite a bit, and it was in her bag. It was in her bag, baby, in her wheelhouse. So I really like the aesthetics, the aesthetics of Labyrinth, the visuals, the kind of, you know, as someone who's, I think I've seen the movie once, I can't quote it, I don't know any scenes, I can't go in depth.

  • Iron Man's custom audio mix with AC/DC is hosted on Pinside by Jason (code 1.86 Vault Edition)

    high confidence · Jason: 'I have it hosted on Pinside if you need it. It's 1.86 code for the Vault Edition. I tweaked a couple things and added some Justin Hammer stuff'

    • Jason @ late — Emphasizes the emotional and thematic connection as the primary driver of his #1 ranking

  • “I have a list that says, Jason, do not, don't buy that again... We'll talk about that... top worst five, or don't buy these ever again games”

    Jason @ middle — Hints at a future episode on games he regrets purchasing and won't repeat

    • Stern Ghostbusters
    game
    Stern Iron Mangame
    Stern Jurassic Parkgame
    Stern Lord of the Ringsgame
    Black Knight Sword of Ragegame
    Addams Familygame
    Pinball Expoevent
    Knapp Arcadeorganization
    Triple Drain Podcastmedia
    Kaleperson
    Rachelperson
    Flippin' Out Pinballorganization
    Pinsideorganization
    Pinball Networkorganization
    Door Countyvenue

    medium · Jason acknowledges 'metal outlines which sometimes are just like, God, you gotta be fucking kidding me' and references community criticism of flipper gaps

  • ?

    design_innovation: Jason emphasizes importance of physically satisfying shot mechanics (warp ramp in Star Trek as favorite shot in all pinball; raptor gate in Jurassic Park; center shot in Iron Man)

    high · Jason: 'The warp ramp... Probably my favorite shot in all of pinball. The warp ramp. It's so good... Even when that game gets boring, I'll just hit the ramps'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Rocketman at JJP positioned as higher-budget Steve Ritchie design than typical Stern equivalents, potentially indicating JJP's strategy to differentiate through designer prestige and budget

    medium · Jason speculates: 'We will see what Mr. Ritchie gets to do with a much larger budget at JJP vs. Stern. Those are the rumors anyways'

  • ?

    event_signal: Labyrinth and Rocketman both scheduled for Pinball Expo reveal/gameplay demonstrations; community eagerly awaiting both reveals

    high · Jason: 'Rocketman is supposedly going to be at Expo, JJP'; 'I wish I would be playing it at Expo' [Labyrinth]

  • ?

    community_signal: Triple Drain Podcast initiated collaboration with multiple content creators (Pinball Party and others) to create shared top 5 games compilation package

    high · Jason: 'Speaking of Triple Drain, they recently talked about their top five favorite pinball machines... thanks for reaching out. He was like, hey, we should all talk about our top five favorite games'

  • ?

    content_signal: Jason positioning Pinball Party as lifestyle/personal opinion content rather than news-focused; explicitly directing listeners to Knapp Arcade and other sources for industry news

    high · Jason: 'All the news you want, don't come here for it... Go to Knapp Arcade... go listen to pinball shows, triple drain, go to Pinside, whatever'

  • ?

    product_launch: Labyrinth trailers received cautiously optimistic reception; Jason suspects audio quality may be underrepresented in promotional materials

    medium · Jason: 'First impressions was Looks awesome... Trailers are great... I maybe want a little bit more audio. But again, maybe they're just not plugging it through'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Jason describes deliberate machine selection strategy based on available playtime windows (30-minute cooking intervals); influences game choice and how much deep ruleset is practical

    high · Jason: 'I have machines up in my breezeway... about 30 minutes... roast it... about 30 minutes at 450 degrees... so I often play pinball... every five to 10 minutes being able to stop is good'

    • 4:57
    Someone who does not know the movie well, but is like, oh, that's fine. David Bowie's cool. Mark Lank ott Ellin, The London Guardian, тебе? You're looking for something music related to hip hop? I do. Ok,HHHH Body simple fect
    5:31
    The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. POLиков performs realtime chili pastries,
    6:20
    Today as the new TV host, Tom teachers will host the finale of the interview, 01 October 2004 Online? Has there been feedback? I don't know. I've heard about as much as you have. I'll just say that. And a few texts with some people. Looks great. Does it play great? Don't know. Audio? I can't tell. Maybe it's just a little, I want to say lacking from like, oh, it's not good quality. But I haven't seen it. The trailers, I'm maybe wanting a little bit more audio. But again, maybe they're just not, you know, plugging it through. Maybe I'm not hearing it. Maybe, you know, whatever. Trailers are great. They're prepping for a reveal, a gameplay reveal, and first impressions are just, wow. I'm hesitantly optimistic, but from my history or experience on something that's not Stern,
    7:19
    which maybe is gonna come through in my top five games, is like, well, we'll see. Nothing against the others. Anyway, Please Labyrinth and Team, Barrel of Funkers? Who are these people? Barrel of Fun, Labyrinth Pinball, Barrels, Whiskey Barrel Team, Barrels of Fun Company. Fantastic name. If I was to review the name of your company I would give it an A because that's Pretty great. Hopefully it's not barrels of trash when it comes out, barrels of dung. Please surprise us. Hopefully the carpet matches the drapes, as in the fun is as good as it looks. Labyrinth by Barrel of Fun, coming soon to your very expensive wallet. Put it in your breezeway like I do, or haul it downstairs, break your fucking back, regret I got it a week later because you didn't get to test it because it's a pinball machine before you played it.
    8:29
    And it's not that much fun. Repeat. Trade it, sell it. Hey, yo. We'll see. Labyrinth coming to a store. Nears you. Nears you? JCPenney. Maybe JCPenney's covering it.
    8:41
    That's what we need. We need a renaissance of like JCPenney fucking yonkers. Go buy your pinball machines at Penny's. Go talk to that 15 year old fuck in high school selling pinball machines. Let him, let that salesman or saleswoman, um, hi, can I interest you in this $8,000 pinball machine? Um, yeah, let's, let's do that. Um, if, if we move into that world where you buy pinball retail, I'm back in. You're getting meff back, you're getting full audio, all the type of weird shit that I used to put in. I'll be back full hard. I'm coming back full hard will be the first name of the episode once it goes retail. Aside from Labyrinth, Rocketman is supposedly going to be at Expo, JJP. That's probably how most people feel, right? Uh, um, Rocket Man you say, huh? That's the best you got. Elton John, fantastic musician, song, I mean music, perfect. But when we're looking through our bank account, we need to make some money. Let's get the license that everyone wants. Well, this is gonna do it. We all know, right? All right, well, I'll say it at once. The whole team of five JJPs that want to... let's all say it. One, two, three... and they... no one said Elton John. Um, but they're doing it. Um, but it's Steve Ritchie, and that dude makes flow for days, and I love shooting a Ritchie game. For better or for worse, I love hitting Ritchie's ramps. The Yeah I can think of most of his games I never found a Richie game maybe Star Wars that I don I even like shooting it I like the horseshoes in Star Wars Actually pro better but Every Richie game at least I shoot it and be like huh that feels good Rocketman... Let's do a dual theme, please. We'll have Rocketman for the two to three people that buy it, and then we'll have Matrix, you know, something else for everyone else that wants an awesome themed pinball machine that'll shoot incredible However, we will see what Mr. Ritchie gets to do with a much larger budget at JJP vs. Stern. Those are the rumors anyways. We'll know in about, what, a week. I'll be in Door County. For those in the Chicago, Illinois, Wisconsin, that's where I'm going to be instead of the previously planned trip to Expo. My wife and I are going to Fish Creek for a few days. We fell in love with Door County years ago, 10 years ago. It's a great, tranquil place, yeah, to get away and just not do real life, but eat great pizza at Wild Tomato. Holy shit, I want to franchise that place personally and, yeah, and relax. So, Expos in a week. We're going to see a whole bunch of other stuff. Ninja Apocalypse, Ninja Escape, Ninja Gaiden, I don't know, that other pinball machine that looks broken. We'll be at Expo. There'll be a bunch of stuff instead of speculate. Let's just get into my top five games.
    12:20
    So a bunch of medias are talking about their top five games, as previously mentioned, and they're going to be all conglomerate. So I'll just start. However, Mr. Whoever cutting these, feel free to cut and paste however you'd like. But here's where I start my top five games. From Jason at the Pinball Party Podcast, courtesy of... Oh, actually, I was going to say myself, but now this one will be courtesy of the only and best place to buy pinball machines. And that is Flip N Out Pinball.
    13:04
    I should have added a harmony. Shit. Some other time. It might be buried in there. There's a few. Anyway, top five favorite games. Let's start, I guess, we're doing honorable mentions, right? Ooh, I think honorable mentions are very important in pinball because just to use a video game analogy, because that's all I got again and again, because board games aren't up there anymore. We're not comparing this to Monopoly in life anymore. Video games are so much more accessible because they're not $10,000. You can play tons of them in a day. You can deal with Steam refunds. You can do whatever. They're quote cheap, especially compared to pinball. Pimball is a lot more you can get into and so going through the billions of games and just having a definitive list is much, I think, more apt. But in pinball, the quantity is not nearly substantial. So I think having a couple honorable mentions is justified much more here than other realms of entertainment. The Wally Winka Show, Knapp Arcade, Raydaypinball, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, So you can't keep all of your favorite games, at least I can't, in one place, so your favorites vacillate to a certain extent. But I took my five that I was like, alright, desert island, basically. Like yes, I'll get bored of them, but you know, the theme means something to me, I will go back to it eventually. It's not a game that I've like, I never want to fucking touch it again, which I actually have a personal list of games that I will never... And because I've bought in games multiple times, I do have a list that says, Jason, do not, don't buy that again. And I'll do that in another episode, top worst five, or don't buy these ever again games. We'll talk about that. So honorable mentions... Yeah, I'll just say them. I'll just say my honorable mentions. One of them, speaking of Steve Ritchie, is Black Knight Sword of Rage Pro. I absolutely love that game. Well, I guess not absolutely because it's not in my top five. There's a lot of things I love about it. I love the speed. I love the center shot, the main shot, the mode shot, the, well, is it the mode shot? For people that know, it's the main shot, the ramp and the flail. It's a super satisfying shot. I love it. The music is great for a little while. As someone who finds metal appealing, I really do like it. The Double Baseman Myself A lot to like. I like shallow games as part of, you'll hear soon, as a whole in a certain standpoint. But that one's almost too shallow, like it's missing something after a while. I don't know, I don't want to knock it because it's an honorable mention of my top whatever, but it's great to shoot. Great to shoot. It's super simple to explain to a noob, which is often when you are going to play with a family or friend, Joel T.M. You want that. Shoot for this and do that. And not... Godzilla, yeah, hit the center, but Black Knight, you can explain the whole game in like a few sentences, which, oh, okay, is often the biggest barrier to entry of like, there's all this overwhelming, do I want to take the time to learn this? That kind of just goes away in that game, which is, oh, okay, that's nice.
    17:15
    So Blacklight Sword of Rage is one of my honorable mentions. And I'm not saying it's number six or seven, it's just an honorable mention. Another honorable mention is, I'll say, just the game that kind of, when I was younger,
    17:34
    was the first one to keep me interested in pinball beyond just hitting it. And that is Adam's Family. That's where I spent the most time in high school getting to learn that pinball was deeper than, you know, just flailing. Spending a lot of time with Steve and James and John, smoking cigarettes and playing, and we, and playing Addams Family. Um, usually in the reverse order, uh, we would smoke a bowl on the way to the bowling alley or the hotel where we had to like fake like, oh, we have a room here to play cause there's no place around here to really play it. Or do a little Caesars, uh, get high, smoke a cigarette, uh, and then play Adam's family for as long as we could. And then smoke a cigarette and repeat. I learned about modes and dimension and I learned that there's a rule set to be taken seriously if you know for lack of a better phrase and the theme was just good and yeah Adam's family taught me to love pinball so I think it easily deserves honorable mention do I want to go back and play it these days I mean I'll flip it I mean I'll flip it you know I mean but it's it's it's up there I'll just leave it at two honorable mentions because I think it's Because then we could go on, but let's talk about my top five favorite pinball machines. Oh, and I should say, I believe I've reviewed all of these on previous episodes. Ooh, except for one of them. All of them, but I'll say which one I haven't. But starting with number five, another Steve Ritchie. This is Stern Star Trek. This was my first game I purchased. Stern Star Trek Pro, to be specific, was the first one, a good low barrier to entry. As a Star Trek fan growing up on Next Generation and Deep Space Nine and Voyager and the original movies, especially Wrath of Khan and An, the first one, whatever, my parents were Trekkies and this game, I went between Next Generation and this as my first game because it was like, I think four grand was my budget back then. I think this cost me $4,200. I got it from a guy in Rochester, Minnesota. He showed me how to load a game in the back of my vehicle and I got it home and it was... We all can relate, I think, to the first pin experience. It's pretty cool. My family was there. They live in the neighborhood. My parents, I should say. So they were there, like helped me unload it and my wife and daughter were like at the door like, you got it? Like, let's load it up and they all helped and figured out how to put the legs back on .
    20:48
    You're in Star Trek. From the simple rules to me are kind of the worst part of that game. Whatever. But the sound, the visuals, the warp ramp for holy fuck sake. Probably my favorite shot in all of pinball. The warp ramp. It's so good. It's so smooth. Even when that game gets boring, I'm like, well, I'll just hit the ramps. They feel great. And I've owned all three trims. I started with a Pro and the next one I had, well, I had the Pro I think like three times, the same machine actually. And then the LE, I was like, right, the LE, this is the way to go. And then, but I realized, well, the way to go is the premium because it's the best of both worlds and not too expensive. Got the premium and I was like ah shit actually actually I think Pro or LE is the way to go for two different reasons The LE is the most beautiful The side art rails are cool right Don get me wrong But when you playing you never notice it so it doesn really matter It neat Not that neat Worth that much money But the blue powder coat really matches the blue aesthetics. I was going to get the premium blue powder coated, but it doesn't really match because of the red and all that. But there's my neuroticism. There you go. That's how my brain is working. I'm like, okay, I'll keep the premium, but I got to make it blue. Oh, then it doesn't fucking match. Maybe I'll change the trans light. Now maybe I'll get more decals and completely waste time for no reason. I'll sell it anyways. What the fuck? But I really like the warp ramp chase lights, the difference, and the stars projector-y thing during Klingon multiball. But why I like the LE is for those reasons, but the Pro? Those plastic ramps are really fast, really smooth, and silent. And although I like the zzzzz of the metal, I really have a fondness for plastic ramps. It's smooth, it's... I don't know, it's an aesthetic thing. But yeah, for those reasons, aside from the rules, which are fine, the theme, the gameplay, man, Stern Star Trek, it's great. And if it's a desert island, that would be my number five for owning and subsequently in my top five. My number four. This and number three. I don't even know if this is the correct order, but let's just do it. Number four is Stern's Ghostbusters. For those who listened to a somewhat recent pinball party, Kale and Rachel and I reviewed Ghostbusters and we creamed all over it. Rightfully so. If you want to hear more in depth about why I and others love that game so much beyond the little talk I'll do here, go listen to whatever episode. Just Google it. It's a pinball party. Actually, it'll be on the Pinball Network. Those ones are there. Yeah. So if you want to hear the Ghostbusters Pinball Party, go check the other feed in Pinball on the Pinball Network for the Ghostbusters review.
    23:40
    But that game was shortly after I got Star Trek Pro, I played Ghostbusters... was it... might have been around the same time, maybe before I bought it. I couldn't remember. I can't remember. Who cares? I played it, I hated it, because I love Ghostbusters and like this game is the hardest game ever, fuck this, I hate it. And then over time I realized like oh difficulty actually is a good thing so you don't get bored. Someone convinced me to have it in the home and I did and I fell in love with it. Very similar reasons except for the rules. The difference here in Star Trek are the rules in Ghostbusters are awesome. There's so much to do. Can they get linear? Linear, yes. Any game can. Again, this is pinball, like I said before. Every game, unless you're duh, is going to get boring eventually. Even Godzilla, everyone out there, oh, deepest, yeah, it gets boring pretty fast. Ghostbusters has a lot to do. You can kind of pick and choose in a way, for those who know, know what I'm talking about. A few more things I just want to mention. There is a couple of mode ladders, a couple of multiballs. So the rules are great. The difficulty I think is great. Aside from maybe the metal outlines which sometimes are just like, God, you gotta be fucking kidding me. Just, ughhh, just don't go down the side. Physics, stop it. Yeah, aside from those, the audio, top notch. Top notch. Art, top notch. By audio I mean both music and sound and colors, all of it. The playfield, top notch. There's so much variety. The Spike One is kind of a sweet spot. Hmm. Yeah. Since I reviewed it so recently and you heard me talk about it, Ghostbusters, go check it out. Don't buy the hate of people talking about the flipper gap and all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it's a fantastic game. Number three is Stern, eh? Little pattern here. Stern's Iron Man. I mentioned earlier that I do like simple games and Iron Man is my favorite simple game, even beyond Black Knight. Let's say, it's not just for family and friends, but I'll say what I mean here in a second. Family and friends though, hey, what do you do? Well, you bash Ironmonger. You see that on the playfield. There's these four things. There's Ironmonger, there's War Machine, there's Ironman, and there's Whiplash. You want to complete all those. You're like, okay, how do you do that? Well, you hit that, you hit that, you hit that, and you hit that. Is that it? That's it. Okay. But then you realize it's pretty fast and it's easier said than done. But that's it. It's great. When I said not just friends Etiochond Marshal System Information To
    27:00
    That's all of my picks. I'm always, I always have about 30 minutes of like, alright chicken's cooking or broccoli's going. I roast it. Some vegetables, about 30 minutes at 450 degrees will get you a nice and toasty broccoli or brussels sprouts. That's my most often because I have machines up in my breezeway which is upstairs. It's like, well I got 30 minutes. What am I gonna do? I could stare at a wall. I could read a book but I'm not gonna read a book. I'm not going to listen to a podcast and stare at the wall or listen to a podcast and read a book. So I often play pinball. That 30 minutes, mind you, has to be broken up with like maybe flipping the chicken or changing something. So like every five to 10 minutes being able to stop is good. So if I'm going to play Lord of the Rings, like God, God damn, I better be cooking a very large chicken, the likes of which none of us have ever seen or Godzilla, same kind of thing. So, I often times like a quick in and out. I like variety in and out. But it's very appealing to not have to really think and just, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, oh game's over, cool, done. I don't have to, I mean chopping wood, sure, but I don't have to chop a lot of wood. I like that. There's something about the simplicity that really attracts me to that game. Beyond that, if that was the rules, the audio, oh boy, I love the audio in that game.
    28:29
    I know a lot of people know there's a custom mix out there with a little bit of ACDC added, a couple songs. I have it hosted on Pinside if you need it. It's 1.86 code for the Vault Edition. I tweaked a couple things and added some Justin Hammer stuff. So if you need it in the Vault Edition, it's out there. Just Google it. But I'm going to permanently host I'm not going to miss that because I love what's done. I didn't come up with the sound package. I tweaked a couple things. I love the sound. I love the feeling of speed is a lot from the sound because it's not nearly as fast or brutal as Walking Dead, I don't think, or Black Knight, but with the and all the rocket sounds and blaster shit, it makes you feel like you're kicking some ass. The theme is good, good to great. I mean, Iron Man's a fantastic movie.
    29:21
    And yeah, I love it for its simplicity, its ease of access, and it's just, it's like, let's fucking party. You wanna play a game? Let's go. And you go in, and when you're done, you're done. You're not thinking about strategy later, you know, much.
    29:38
    So number three is Iron Man. So number two and number one, depending on the day, this would switch, but I gotta go with my gut. Number two is the only one I have not reviewed on a podcast, so you can't go back and listen to more in depth. I don't believe, but I've talked about it many a time. And that's Stern's Jurassic Park. Stern Jurassic Park Premium, but Pro is actually really great too. LE, I guess, LE or LE 30, whatever you want. The... to put it to bed, the T-Rex head grabbing the ball and whatever, like everyone has said, it gets old after a while. It... owning it, it's cool, but not needed. The thing that's needed, I think, is the Raptor Gate. It's just, uh... and needed is, uh... needed is kind of in quotes. The pro in that is fantastic. But because it's one of my... it's my favorite, it'd be number one if it's like, what game do you want to play the most? It's Jurassic Park. The theme is good. Good to great. I like Jurassic Park. I like movies. Whatever. It's not. I don't have a bedroom of Jurassic Park. Or any of that. But dinosaurs. They're sweet. The shots feel great. The rules are second to none. Again, there's always negatives, but this game speaks to me. It's a very relaxing game for me. It's kind of the opposite of Iron Man to where Jurassic Park is like, all right, I'm gonna turn it on. The music is gonna start. Dun, dun, dun, dun. I'm like, all right, strap in. You can trap the ball a lot. You can post pass really easy. You can kind of just, all right, I gotta take my shots. Um, there's hurry ups. Um, aside from the smart missile, like the, the hurry ups aren't like you have to hit it now, which I really appreciate. Sure, the rescues over time, the dinosaurs will eat them and the more you go, the farther you go, um, throughout the paddocks, yeah. But as long as you have enough rescues to kind of make your way through it, you know, you don't need to freak out about every single one. For those who don't play it much, rescues is kind of a part of the... I'll say mode. You need to hit these people to collect their shots before the dinosaur gets to that and eats them and cancels it basically. So it's kind of a hurry up, but it's a very slow hurry up. I don't like games with a lot of hurry ups. Hello Star Wars Stern... I don't want to be stressed out when I'm playing. If I want a quick, fast game, I'll play something like Iron Man or Black Knight. If I want a slow and relaxing game I play Jurassic Park and another But if it no play exactly how I need you to play hit the hurry up hurry up I don like being forced to play a certain way in that sense I get that there certain rules but like hit this hit this hit like I don want to, maybe I don't wanna. But you know, I'm playing your game, I guess in that scenario, which is very Asian, a callback way of Nintendo's philosophy in somehow, in some of their games, Zelda, Mario, more In the name of the Lord of the Again, if money were no object and quantity of pinball machines were a thing, then hurry-ups wouldn't be. Okay, enough. I'm going down a fucking rabbit hole on hurry-ups. Back to Jurassic Park. I love the slowness of it if you want to take it at that speed. It's very clear of what to do. The sounds are great. The shots are great. I don't know. There's not really much to fault about it. The O shot is difficult, but you want to have some difficult shots. There's so many... I love most of the shots in that game. Damn, Jurassic Park. Yeah, I love playing it. I don't know if it's one that... Like when you have like a 45 or an hour long game, I'm just guessing, you know, the very long ones where you get to like the visitor center and you've done so much and oh my God, Holy shit, ugh. Do you want to push start again? Eh, not right away. Maybe, you know, go vent by, you know, kicking the wall or smashing your head against some glass. You know, however you need to do it. Take a line of cocaine before you come back and play it again. But while you're playing it, you're in it.
    34:25
    So I guess that leaves one left. You probably guessed it. It's a game I've owned way too many times and it's ridiculous. I guess it's not ridiculous to me. It's ridiculous to other people that have owned this so many times, which is odd that you care. But that's Stern's Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings, um, when it comes to theme, there isn't a pinball machine that... This sounds so weird. Um, there isn't a pinball machine that theme means more to me than this game. Lord of the Rings is, well, so in context, love the movies. You know, the movies turned me on to it. Fellowship of the Ring, I saw it and I, you know, was wowed by it. I was in my very early 20s, if not like 19, whatever year it came out. Loved it. I was really drawn to the relaxing, shyer aesthetic. Like, aside from the story, all the, like, it's great. It's one of my favorites of all times. But the Shire specifically and what continues to kind of, like, in my head, honestly, like, it relaxes me just thinking about it. I'm one that very much obsesses over things or works, puts a lot of energy, a lot of, my mind is just constantly, it's just, that's just me. I'm just telling you. So that really grounds me a lot, the kind of seeing it, thinking about it, Lord of the Rings, thinking about all the meaning of just, it's not really super deep, but you know, obsessing over something and how letting it go is very freeing. I mean, as simple as that, you know, to me, it's a reminder to breathe, honestly, like the whole, yeah, it's kind of what Lord of the Rings is to me. I've made the Middle Earth maps in wood. I mean, like I have a wooden one that I've made and I've burned and, you know, finished it and everything. I've made custom frames for some art that my wife has bought me. I have a lot of the gentle giant busts of Lord of the Rings, a couple posters. I have no admittance except party business doormat, you know. I'm not like a token obsessive, you know. It gives it a negative connotation, right? Like a lot of us are just huge fans of Lord of the Rings and count me in as a fella toking buff. I find it... yeah, Lord of the Rings means a lot to me. And the game reflects a lot of that from the atmosphere of the warm incandescent lights and when you start the game and
    37:21
    more so pin sound, I guess, you can get that theme in there which Again, like Daryl said in his other podcast, Goin Yeah, with Mary Kay. One more liner, and one more complainer. BillOrangeShow.roramundray and Yeah. Have you heard the same Gabe anymore? Steve Killett? We have! Once again, thanks for barking. I'll just have to say bye-bye. Have a wonderful weekend. Thanks to you guys all month long. Love ya. 한 Вс, bye. I took all the kind of calm, the Shire theme and all that stuff and put it into a mix and I just I play it on my phone and I sit in the hot tub out and looking at the stars at night in the cold and sitting in the hot tub. Highly recommended. So the game gets me in that mood. It can. The golden warm white parchment paper look of the whole thing. Uh, yeah, just, mmm. It's a game that I have just as much fun looking at and like cleaning and changing out the lights and just thinking about it as I do playing it, if not more than playing it. As I said earlier, if there's one game on here that I would first place as playing, it would be Jurassic Park. But a close second would be Lord of the Rings when I've had that break of not playing an hour and a half game and of uh, just destroying the ring a couple times and trying for f- I'm trying to get to Valinor and like am I wasting my life? What am I doing? Holy shit, what have I done? And I sell it, you know?
    38:53
    But I've owned it a few times. The LE, the regular beat to shit ones, one with like 40 plays on it, like basically brand new. And the ones that play the best are like the ones that have a lot of plays. I don't know. Yeah. The LE to me was my This is my, I think, worst playing game. I don't know if it's the extra clear coat, but I don't know. I've played games with the power, super power flippers, whatever they're called, the stronger coils. I've played them with fans, with regular flippers, with fans, no fans, you name it, rebuilt, I've done all of it. And at the end of the day, some of that is charm, that like when you're getting to destroy the ring, Just need to get it up that ramp, you bitch! Uh, you know, some of that is just part of it. And, um, you know, I've talked about it recently, last episode, was it? When I was talking about Stranger Things, I gushed about Lord of the Rings, so you get it. You get it, you probably turn it off by now, but yeah, my number one is Lord of the Rings from theme. Shots and layout, yeah, second to none, in my opinion. Sound, especially with pin sound, second to none, otherwise, it's, you can't blame White Star. oruStopGoMind Stories撮
    40:36
    Vinания Sinha, Megan May, introducing I'm really trying to get to fellowship and like well you know I'll do well enough I'm really just trying to destroy the ring and whatever so I don't care if I you know have everyone escape but but you know what I'm talking about what do you do you know you hit Balrog and then you hit one of the ramps and feels good little dopamine yeah so number one Lord of the Rings let's go through this list real quick again the honorable mentions were Black Knight Sword of Rage and Adam's Family number five was Stern Star Trek email midpe chegarAntimony petite , crypto.io, Thanks for spending your last 41 minutes with me talking about my five favorite games, couple stragglers, and talking about whatever's expo next week. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, email me at pinballpartypodcasts at gmail.com. Go buy your pinball machines at Flip N Out where you get fantastic customer service, and that's no lie. Even when I'm not doing this, that's who I'm dealing with. What's up, Zach? Hey, Joel. Hey, Cale. Hey, Rachel. Go listen to Electric Bat Arcade Podcast, Electric Bat Cast. Go check out Knapp Arcade for all your news. I hope everyone has fun at Expo. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with all these top five lists, and maybe next time we'll do bottom five. All right. Thanks for joining. We'll see you later.
    42:50
    The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. Subtitles by the Amara.org community