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Episode 195 - Space HUNT

Eclectic Gamers Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 2m·held·Jun 11, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Godzilla topper controversy, new French manufacturer Hexapenball revealed, Mark Seidenfeld rumored for Harry Potter.

Summary

Eclectic Gamers discusses the Stern Godzilla topper ($1,000 with exclusive game mode, mixed community reception due to disappointing sculpt and RGB 'vape cloud' plume), introduces Hexapenball—a new French manufacturer with their debut game Space Hunt ($9,500, very pink playfield, unclear pricing for US market), and speculates in Rumor Corner that Mark Seidenfeld will design the upcoming Harry Potter pinball (based on cryptic sauce bottle imagery with Ridley and Big Ben). Also covers video game news including Mario movie success, Legend of Zelda film in development, and Diablo 4's strong reception.

Key Claims

  • Godzilla topper comes with exclusive game mode accessible only via $1,000 purchase or Insider Connected; may eventually become available broader (as Jurassic Park's goat mode did)

    high confidence · Dennis and Tony discussing Godzilla topper features and pricing structure; Dennis referencing Jurassic Park precedent

  • Hexapenball is a French manufacturer releasing Space Hunt as their first game at approximately $9,500 USD

    high confidence · Dennis presenting Hexapenball officially with links to Nap Arcade article and YouTube trailer

  • Space Hunt playfield features three ramp entrances, two habit trails, a 360 ramp (initially thought to be 180), and an upper playfield with dangling object of unknown function

    high confidence · Dennis describing playfield layout in detail based on visual inspection

  • Mark Seidenfeld is the rumored designer for Harry Potter pinball (via Rumor Corner analysis of cryptic sauce bottle imagery)

    low confidence · Dennis's Rumor Corner speculation based on Seidenfeld's sauce bottle post containing Ridley and Big Ben imagery

  • Diablo 4 is Blizzard's fastest-selling game of all time with 'great buzz' and popularity

    medium confidence · Dennis citing Blizzard's reported sales success; second-hand reporting, not direct confirmation

Notable Quotes

  • “It's such a banger. Is it the best song of the year? Or would you prefer the Godfather theme by Slash?”

    Dennis @ ~27:20 — Humorous reaction to Space Hunt theme song quality; establishes the game's soundtrack as notable/meme-worthy

  • “Nobody puts Godzilla in a corner.”

    Dennis @ ~20:40 — Joke about Godzilla topper shadow mechanic requiring specific placement; Dirty Dancing reference

  • “What's $1,000 to a pinball collector, Tony?”

    Dennis @ ~19:30 — Sarcastic comment on expensive topper pricing relative to typical collector spending

  • “Think about it. Big Ben is in the UK. What else takes place in the UK? Sherlock Holmes. Yes. And what else that isn't an AP license but is a JJP license takes place in the UK? You're a wizard, Harry.”

    Dennis @ ~48:00 — Core Rumor Corner logic chain connecting Seidenfeld's cryptic imagery to Harry Potter designer speculation

  • “It's all connected. It's all connected.”

    Dennis @ ~49:30 — Playful conspiracy-theory-style conclusion to Rumor Corner analysis; establishes tone of speculative fun

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyHexapenballcompanySpace HuntgameDennispersonTonypersonGodzillagameMark SeidenfeldpersonZach MinneypersonPinball Adventurescompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Multiple new pinball manufacturers emerging ('This is what, like seven this year?'); market saturation concern implicit

    medium · Tony: 'Yet another one. This is what, like seven this year?' in response to Hexapenball announcement

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Mixed reception to Godzilla topper; disappointment at lack of mechanical features, but praise for lighting integration once properly demonstrated

    high · Dennis: 'Reaction has been mixed to this topper, Tony...A lot of people were very disappointed...A lot of people said that the lighting effects look way better...there's been a big debate about that'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Hexapenball Space Hunt features unusual upper playfield with unclear mechanical function (dangling object with hole); design rationale uncertain

    medium · Dennis: 'upper play field with single flipper...dangling tilt-bob-esque thing with a hole...No one knows if that dangly thing is wired to anything...I can't fathom why they would have it and not have it...or just have a big old sarlacc pit'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Adventures has officially unveiled Pony Factory as their first game; Hexapenball formally introduced as new French manufacturer with Space Hunt debut

    high · Dennis: 'Pinball Adventures has formally unveiled their Pony Factory finally' and 'hexapenball...French manufacturer...Hexa Pinball's YouTube trailer for Space Hunt, their first game'

  • $

    market_signal: Dennis analyzes declining European pinball market; suggests US remains primary market for new manufacturers despite higher per-capita pinball in Australia

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.189

0:00
Welcome to the Eclectic Gamers Podcast. Today's Sunday, June 11th. This is episode 195. So what's going on, Tony? Anything? Just been playing some games. Nothing new. Same games I had been playing, reading books, nothing fancy. Work's got a – I'm in the middle or in the middle. I'm in the opening stages of a project that we've been planning for a little over a year now.
0:44
So it is – we are doing – we are experimentally bringing – we've always run about 50% capacity, and we are experimentally coming up to 100% capacity for the first time ever because of large amounts of construction in our basin is going to require us in the next few years to go to full capacity. So we are doing it now as a test run to make sure all the equipment and everything is good to go so that when the actual flows get to that point, we are actually able to handle it. Okay. Well, drilling is very important. Yes. We love our drills. Yes. I'm not drilling anything. I'm just treating water. Yes, but it's a practice run, right? So it's a drill. So it's the practice run as in we're doing it when we have enough capacity that we can take it back offline to make adjustments. Okay. If everything works, everything will just stay online forever. Oh, okay. So if you can get it to go, you'll just keep it going. Right. All right. Oh, that's good. That's interesting. It's one of those things that it was always designed to work this way, but it's never been tested. Right. And it's been in service for 10 years. Hmm. So, so it's time to test it. Yes. And then let it be ready and hopefully it'll all go smooth. Yes. Well, that's exciting. I don't have anything nearly that exciting. Uh, been busy, uh, work-wise. I have a conference at the end of June every year that we host and that's our big, we call it the mid-year meeting. It's actually, even though we have an annual meeting, the mid-year is actually the big meeting because we put it together by ourselves. We piggyback our annual meeting with another organization. So I don't have to plan very much. It's basically a board meeting where there are membership votes, whereas the mid-year meeting is a whole educational thing with votes from the members and a board meeting. And I have to host it and arrange all the food and all that. We have about 100 people registered for it. So we closed that out. I closed that out on Friday, got all the rest of the billing taken care of and let the hotel know how many to expect. And I have everything else planned, so hopefully it goes pretty smooth. It went pretty smooth last year. Last year was the first year we offered continuing education. I have a lot of nurses who are administrators, and mostly administrators of health departments attend these things. So those nurses, we started as of last year offering continuing education. So a lot of the stuff I have to prearrange well before when I close registration so that I can actually tell them, here's exactly how much nursing credit you'll get. But now when we're done with the event, I'll be the one having to issue all of their certificates because we're a two-person organization, and that's how it works. And I've got about 50 that want nursing credits, which is about the same as last year, I think, wanted.
Pony Factorygame
Harry Pottergame
Jurassic Parkgame
Nap Arcadeorganization
Donperson
Eric Menierperson
Steve Ritchieperson
Diablo 4game
Super Mario Bros. Movieproduct
Legend of Zeldagame

medium · Dennis: 'europe used to be a huge huge playground for pinball and i honestly i don't know what's going on with europe anymore...population wise it's such a smaller country...your maximum sales that can be had there are not great'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern's official Godzilla topper presentation criticized for poor lighting effect showcase ('Stern basically didn't show us the light show except for the flaming building')

    high · Dennis: 'The integration – They help a little bit' after Zach Minney's better video demonstration; implies Stern's marketing was insufficient

  • $

    market_signal: Hexapenball Space Hunt priced at €9,500 (~$9,500 USD) positions game outside typical North American market; likely VAT-inclusive European price

    medium · Dennis: '$9,500 U.S. dollars, that's basically their Euro price converted...I believe their euro price included VAT, which value-added tax would, I believe, normally be removed...there's also going to be shipping charges'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Godzilla topper positioned as exclusive DLC with $1,000 pricing for integrated game mode; precedent of eventual broader availability cited (Jurassic Park goat mode)

    high · Dennis: 'exclusive mode' with topper or Insider Connected; notes 'Jurassic Park's mode, they have the goat mode as exclusive...eventually it came out available...for Insider Connected'

  • ?

    product_concern: Godzilla topper's sculpt criticized as 'not pleasing'; community hoped for mechanical movement (Mothra wings, King Ghidorah heads) rather than RGB plume

    high · Dennis: 'I'm not a fan of the sculpt. The Godzilla sculpt, I think, is not pleasing' and 'That's what I wanted. That would have been acceptable...I would have been happier with a more quality Godzilla sculpt.'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Mark Seidenfeld rumored (via cryptic sauce bottle imagery post) to be designer of Harry Potter pinball, contrary to community consensus favoring Eric Menier

    low · Dennis Rumor Corner: 'The consensus in the community by large is definitely Eric Menier...The rumor corner is no. It's Mark Seidenfeld' based on Metroid Easter egg sauce bottle post with Ridley and Big Ben imagery

    • 3:42
    My numbers are very, very similar to last year, which is good. Back when I started, this sort of event pulled about 50 people. So I basically doubled it. Nice. But that's because we have funds that are helping pay for the registration, which always helps. Speaking of help, people can help us out by supporting us on Patreon. Patreon.com slash Eclectic Gamers Podcast. Don't have any new Patreons to announce, so nothing there. I have done a few recent posts to it. Of course, we had our baby's first image I shared for June. And then I also, someone, this is kind of a pinball topic. I'm going to go ahead and mention it here in the intro. Someone messaged me, and they sent me a little image of Flappy. Excuse me, Flippy. Flappy is what I'm going to talk about Flippy is the mascot of Chicago Pinball Expo It's an anthropomorphic Flipper With arms and legs and a face With a grin, like a creepy grin though Like a Rudy's Nightmare grin And a person messaged it to me And messaged me the link to the US trademark office And said Don't you dare steal Flippy He's trademarked And I guess I'm not surprised, except is Flippy really like a – I get it. People trademark things no matter what, really, whether people would take them or not. But I just – is Flippy going to be a thing, Tony? Do you think Flippy is going to be a thing? I think it's smart to trademark stuff that you're going to use like that, if only to preemptively prevent people from trademarking it and using it against you. Well, I made my own version, and his name is Flappy. And instead of being a red band, he's got a blue band. And instead of having a smile, he's got a frown. And he's free for use. So anyway, I shared him to the Patreon. He's very used for the Patreon members. So there you go. There's Flappy. If Southern Fried needs Flappy, they can use him. He's a public domain. You know what you really needed to do Is you needed to make An anthropomorphic bumper And just play it up with like the whole The old Fat Albert stuff Hey hey hey pitbull guys Did you ever see those cartoons Yes I did I liked Fat Albert Now speaking of Remaining normal introduction stuff Video games So I actually went back to playing some Gems of War i used to play that all the time it is and they've expanded so much stuff they want so many dollars did you give them all of your dollars no i haven't given them any dollars but um but i went ahead and i got a few achievements went back because just playing some of the new content that they they were like here you get an achievement for doing this stuff so doing that uh relays and all my my team builds in it are awful like my favorite team build already before i left was had already been nerfed by the company because it was so powerful and um and so i'm just like oh my gosh i can't beat anything i finally one of my other older teams which is also pretty good but had the nerfs weren't as bad uh it's somewhat viable and then uh don't worry about the meta just just play oh no i want to i went and looked online and also paid attention to who was like going into pvp like which teams were destroying me and I'm looking at them if I can get a chance in. Like one of them I went in, loaded, did my intro move, and then they took 18 turns and destroyed me. Like I didn't get a turn again. It was like total blue deck Magic the Gathering nonsense. That was just awful. Because they constantly were getting gym matches.
    7:29
    Gym's Up War is a gym. It's like Bejeweled. It's a matching game. It's a match three right now. It's a match three. But if you match four or more, you get to have another turn. So that's all they did is they had things that would turn all the gyms the same color, and that would fill up another one of them who would then do the same thing with a different color. And while they're doing it, they're doing damage. And it was like, why do I not get to play? This is like playing against Sombra in Overwatch. This is not fun. And so anyway, I also a couple of days ago, I'd kind of forgotten about this. And then I was communicating with Don, former host of the Pinball podcast. And he had asked me if I had started Puzzle Quest 3. And I remembered there was Puzzle Quest 3, but then I had forgotten it had come out. And I was like, I don't remember how much that is. Because I played the first Puzzle Quest. It's the same company. Right. And I really liked Puzzle Quest. And it's a free game. So I downloaded it. It wants money too. But I got through Chapter 1 yesterday. So I didn't put much time in when I downloaded it. but I put a lot in yesterday. So that one's different because now it's still match three, but you can move the gems diagonal. So my brain doesn't want to. My brain's like, this is not normal. This is wrong. And I'm playing a berserker minotaur. That's my role. I know, but it's mine now. I've taken it. And she's a minotaur, and she's big, and she's just like, sup.
    8:59
    Sup. Because that's what minotaurs say. So that's my intro. So speaking of minotaurs, we don't have any to talk about in pinball, but we do have a new pinball game we're going to discuss. However, I think the first thing we need to start with is Stern Pinball because we had a rumor corner two weeks ago about the Godzilla topper, and that's now come out. And once again, rumor corner, arguably never wrong, has been right once more. It wasn't just flat plastics. It almost was all flat plastics. So topper came out. Have you seen that? You've seen that? I have definitely seen that object. So for those that don't, let me paint you a word picture. All of you are interested, just go online and look because pictures are worth a thousand words. I ain't going to paint with that many colors. So anyway, it has a Godzilla figure, which is basically identical to the Godzilla figure everyone hates that's in the premium. Right. It's the same size. I don't know if it's completely identical or not, but he's up on there. So he's a sculpt. Then there's this plume, his atomic breath plume, which has 21 color-changing RGBs in it. The we-get-it-you-vape-bro plume. Yes, yes. And then there are flat plastic tanks. There's a flat plastic cityscape in the back, and the cities have lighting effects in them that make them look like they're burning. And it comes with a game mode, and it's $1,000.
    10:26
    Reaction has been mixed to this topper, Tony. And that maybe doesn't surprise you. A lot of people were very disappointed that this was the direction it went. A lot of people said that the lighting effects look way better than maybe what they expected. I would argue they look way better than what Stern presented because Stern basically didn't show us the light show except for the flaming building. Like the plume just looked like a vape cloud. Yeah. There are lots of jokes about that. Zach Minney with Flippin' Out Pinball put out his own video where he installed the topper and let you actually see the vape cloud and that it's not just rotating through the – I'm going to call it JJP style, the full rainbow of colors, but rather trying to make it look like the blue breath beam or flame beam sort of stuff. So the integration – It helps a little bit. A lot of people have praised the integration, and there's been a big debate about that. OEM toppers, manufacturer-made toppers, are superior than third-party toppers, really regardless of how they look because of these things like what Stern has done or CGC or anyone else where there's this that plugs in and it's integrated into the code in some way. People praise the DLC.
    11:41
    They love downloadable content. Yeah. And I guess – You've got to pay an extra $1,000 for it. Yeah. And again, it's an exclusive mode, but I'm hedging on that because my understanding is that's how Jurassic Park's mode, they have the goat mode, goat jackpot mode as an exclusive mode. And then eventually it came out available, I believe, for Insider Connected to have anyway. So will that eventually happen with this? We don't know. but once so you either have to be have a uh by a thousand dollar topper or be one of the insiders to get access well it's it just for having the insider connected kit and oh for having right right you don't have to you don't have to be the paid member it was i think it's just a part of having an insider connected and godzilla was the first game that they all came with nsr connected so everyone has that so uh i don't know my point is just that if you call something exclusive and then it's no longer exclusive once why would i ever trust you to keep something not that i i think it should stay exclusive i don't know people want to pay a thousand dollars for the way it is i think in this instance all it is is the ability to do like one of the wizard modes as a standalone game mode i don't think it's like a hidden like special like Progressive jackpot thing. I don't think. I'm not a fan of the sculpt. The Godzilla sculpt, I think, is not pleasing. But there's a light that throws its shadow on one of the walls. Oh, that's so dumb. It throws the shadow. Shadow-zilla. That means that only works if you've got your zilla in a corner. Don't you? Nobody puts Godzilla in a corner.
    13:23
    Nobody puts Godzilla in a corner. Okay. Wait, wait. The topper's out. I won't be buying it. I don't even know if it would fit under my ceiling, though, so I always have an excuse to not buy these things. Right. Like, you also have the excuse that it's $1,000. Yeah, but what's $1,000 to a pinball collector, Tony? I know that's true, but... I mean, what's a mere $1,000? I don't even know if they're any available anymore. Initially, some dealers were sold out and some weren't. I don't know if they've all sold out yet or not because a lot of people, again, it's $1,000. And I think a lot of people were really hoping for something with mechanical movement, like Mothra flapping her wings, or the one I most commonly heard was a King Ghidorah sculpt with one or more of the heads moving, like Black Knight's head. That's what I wanted. That would have been acceptable. It was something like that. It would have been better than what we got. I would have been happier with a more quality Godzilla sculpt. well you can replace it because he's just zip tied to it yeah and you would you would want to i mean what do you think about monster works what do you think about the theory a good sculpts what do you think about the the theory that's been floated that stern deliberately zip ties the godzilla there to make it easier for you to mod your one thousand dollar mod i think that would make a lot of sense for stern to do okay okay we just zip tied it down because people just going to replace it anyway i mean that was some people have floated that kind of like how uh i don't know that that's a good i don't know but but that i could see that being an argument made they've used that argument for with the teenage mutant ninja turtles topper there was the people a lot of people complained when that topper came out because it was like a flat plastic that said teenage mutant ninja turtles on the topper and then just below it says the same way teenage and turtles like on the trans light but they just had like two visible screws right there so you could easily just remove the TMNT branding off the topper. Right. People are like, well, they must have done that on purpose because they knew it looked stupid. And the license probably told them it has to say Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it. So they made a detachable sign so you could detach it so you didn hate yourself I don know But that sort of the theory It a pinball theory Okay Don sue us Well if you not into Godzilla Topper what do you think about a new pinball manufacturer Woo-hoo! Yet another one. This is what, like seven this year? I don't know. I mean, it's the seventh new game. But in terms of a new manufacturer, I mean, so Pinball Adventures has formally unveiled their Pony Factory finally. So that's their first game. So that's out. and now here's hexapenball I'm not quite sure why they call themselves hexapenball I think maybe they use some hex symbols on some of the stuff but they look like squares to me which is not very hexy but hexapenball, French manufacturer maybe it means something special in French maybe, I don't know French so I have a link I have two links in the show notes I have a link to a Nap Arcade article which has all the details about the game if you want to look at some up close pictures That's a great place to go. It's very pink. It is. We can discuss that. And then I also have a link in the show notes to Hexa Pinball's YouTube trailer for Space Hunt, their first game, which I do recommend. You don't really need to watch the video. I just want you to listen to the video so you can experience Space Hunt.
    17:00
    It's such a banger. I had to emphasize that H. Just Hunt. It's such a banger. Is it the best song of the year? Or would you prefer the Godfather theme by Slash? Oh, no, this is better than the Godfather theme. This is better than the Slash Godfather theme. Okay. I mean, this is no Peaches. No Peaches. This is, but it is. They didn't hire Jack Black, clearly. Right, obviously. Even though it has about the same number of words as Peach is dead in it. Almost.
    17:41
    So just real quick, the price on this game I think basically is going to rule it out for most people, given that it's an original theme from a startup company. But $9,500 U.S. dollars, that's basically their Euro price converted. So I don't know exactly what it will be U.S. I'm noting that because I believe their euro price included VAT, which value-added tax would, I believe, normally be removed for an American making a purchase. But there's also going to be shipping charges to get it to stateside. So I think around $9,500 is probably realistic. Probably good.
    18:18
    So as Tony noted, the game is extremely pink. It does have an upper-right play field with a single flipper that has some sort of dangling – it reminds me of a tilt-bob. It's got like this dangling tilt bob-esque thing with a hole in it where you can loop around the hole or, I guess, get the ball into that hole or it will drain back out onto a habit trail. But no one knows if that dangly thing is wired to anything to read. I can't fathom why they would have it and not have it – like why have it at all and not just have a big old sarlacc pit sort of hole there. But anyway, so that's there. they've got three different ramp entrances one of which feeds that upper play field one of which the other two actually feed two different habit trails I think there's a actually there's a fourth ramp entrance which is a 360 ramp it's the second most to the right originally I thought that might have been a vertical up kicker but that's actually a 180 not a 360 that would make no sense I was just going to loop a 180 ramp and very, very pink. My initial impression looking at the art, because there's like some Cthulhu-esque alien stuff in the art and such, was maybe they were going for that cyberpunk-y 80s total nuclear annihilation pink, but it, to me, looks like Pepto-Bismol was spilled on the playfield and sort of stained the base whitewood, and that's just what we had to work with. But that's my take. What are your thoughts on Space Hunt, Tony?
    19:49
    I don't know. It looks weird. I watched the trailer. The trailer didn't really give away much but i i don't know it i think i would like to see it actually played and or actually play it myself the only the big thing is like you said the little dangler and the hole interests me i want to know exactly what that is set up and how that works otherwise it looks very pink and yeah like any other pinball machine the geometry doesn't look bad other than the confusion about that upper play field, which I'll go ahead and say I don't like this upper play field, even without knowing what that does. Like the simple looping of the shot reminds me too much of, do you remember? It wasn't an upper play field, but you remember Rob Zombie and there was that like bucket of chicken little upper section that was super easy. I don't know if this is going to be that easy, but it was not a fun area on that game. And this reminds me of it. Well, I think the ramp to get up to it's going to be kind of interesting. Yeah, I think most of the rest of this layout would almost – I mean, actually, if we remove that upper play field, this would be a fan layout. Everything's in the back, lots of shots that may be well laid out. It doesn't look like it plays bad. Yeah, I'm curious about it. But at the price point they've established, I think I would say it's clearly not designed for American audiences. Is there even one pop bumper on it? I don't see one.
    21:21
    Yeah, there are two. You just can't make them out because they blend in with the back of the play field. Oh, I see them. They're the purple. Yeah. With the little heads. There they are. Their caps match the back of the play field at the top. So that's why they blend in from this angle. Very nice. I thought they were just because they look as those same kind of symbols are in a couple of places. Yes. Little squiddy Cthulhu alien things. But anyway, well, congratulations, though, to Hexapinball for releasing a game. And, you know, I don't know. Given it's a European manufacturer, I'm going to assume they're going to be targeting their domestic market, the European market, for sales. That makes sense. And maybe it's relatively price competitive there. I don't know how much it costs to get Stern overseas and what you have to pay to get a Stern Pro, for example. It's not price competitive for the U.S. market, but I just don't think it's made for us because it's so out of – like you look at something like Punny Factory's pricing, which is more than a Stern Pro, but it's not obscenely more. But they're also in North America, so it's not the same difficulty to get it over to us, one word, to try and get it. Not everything is made for America. I know. It's just – that's a good point. The problem for these manufacturers is, like it or not, we are where most pinball sales can be had because we may not have the highest per capita culture of pinball. I would argue, and I may be wrong on this, but I get this feeling. It's just a gut feeling. Australia might per capita actually have more pinball people. I'm not sure. but population wise it's such a smaller country right that your maximum sales that can be had there are not great and europe used to be a huge huge playground for pinball and i honestly i don't know what's going on with europe anymore but it just doesn't feel like they buy like they used to and some of this is my analysis of like seeing our download figures and setting vpns and stuff aside europe is not like a huge listening audience for us compared to canada and australia so So now part of that is in some of those countries, they might not be most comfortable listening to a podcast in English. But many European countries do have a lot of people who speak English. So I just don't I don't know. And that may be a bad example because we also talk about video games and we're also deeply unpopular. So we have to factor in those things. I mean, those are very valid points.
    23:49
    Well, that's all the pinball news that we have. So the other thing to do, Tony, is go over our rumor corner. rumor corner Dennis Creasel's got the news before Napa Caves get that right Tony yeah okay this rumor corner is about the upcoming Harry Potter pinball we gotta talk a little bit about Harry Potter it's been decanted It was allowed to breathe. I think that's what decanting does. I don't know. I don't really know things about liquor. But that's what we're going to use for this analogy. So we've decanted the Harry Potter, and it's breathed. And now we need to breathe life into this with Rumor Corner, Tony. It's not funny. It's Rumor Corner. It's super serious. Super serious. So one of the things that has come up is the speculation on who is going to design this game. And the consensus in the community by large is definitely Eric Menier, followed by some people theorizing maybe Steve Ritchie. Maybe it would be given to Ritchie. The rumor corner is no. It's Mark Seiden. which is you brought up last time yes and some might say dennis you're just doing this because you control the rumor corner and you want mark sidenberg i was not gonna say that i said some might say that and you know what maybe they're right but they don't get to know how rumor corner is made so we don't know but let me tell you it's all in the implication now imagine me with a whiteboard doing the you know the guy in the meme the crazy let me show you how it's all connected tony okay all right this is connected this is my this is my evidence this is my again this rumor corner so it's just a rumor it may not be true maybe maybe best to not think it's true but this is what the evidence shows me okay point one mark hasn't had a game come out yet he's got to put something out at some point right why not harry potter two he was known for doing the metroid uh pinball homebrew that's like that was his that's what proved him that was what showed he had design chops so on pin side in the thread for the pinball network where they list all the podcasts that they put out he posted a message because that this sort of topic with him and harry potter and all that came up at one stage and there was a part where i think i i kind of snarked to zach that mark doesn't listen to this show so and he needs to quit being mean to mark or whatever and so he came in and he said no i listen how else would i know the industry news So my point is, though, I mentioned something about that there should be Metroid Easter eggs in his Harry Potter game.
    26:49
    And one of the things he posted, though, in the in the thread is a picture of a sauce bottle. I wasn't familiar with the sauce. It kind of looked like an A1 sauce bottle. OK, Americans, if you're familiar with A1 steak sauce. But I had a picture of Ridley, that dinosaur pterodactyl looking nemesis in in Metroid games. showed him flying around Big Ben. That's what the sauce bottle had. It had Ridley on it and Big Ben on it on a sauce bottle. So here's the thing, Tony. Think about it.
    27:20
    Big Ben is in the UK. What else takes place in the UK? Sherlock Holmes. Yes. And what else that isn't an AP license but is a JJP license takes place in the UK?
    27:34
    You're a wizard, Harry. That's right. It's Harry Potter. Harry Potter, Tony. And what would be, you know, get this, what would be really saucy?
    27:44
    Mark being the designer. It's all connected. That's definitely. That would be a saucy play. There's some lines. Because everyone's going to be like, it's got to be Eric, right? Eric's in charge now. Eric's going to give himself the best license. And then others are like, well, maybe Steve Ritchie, he's such a veteran. You want it to flow. Richie's already working on something. You want the Quidditch ball to flow for days? I'm like, no, no. What's the saucy play? What would Ridley want? He'd want Mark to do it.
    28:15
    So that's your rumor corner. Are you rumor tamed? That works. Good. All right. Video games. There's nothing. Oh, good. Because I watched this the whole summer game fest thing, and I was just like, this stuff is dumb. Yeah, it's all dumb. Okay. No, but really, a couple interesting things. some of which are probably no surprise, have popped out in the last two weeks.
    28:41
    Super Mario Brothers movie made a billion dollars, so obviously they're going to make a sequel. That's on pause because Rider Strike. Yes.
    28:50
    But it is now being reported that Nintendo and Universal are inking the final deals for Legend of Zelda. Yeah. So that brings up the most important question. Who are they going to get to voice act? Who originally did him in the cartoon? It doesn't matter. It's not going to be that guy. Well, excuse. I've got to work that in.
    29:19
    Use me, princess. That's what we want. I think they need to keep the Chris's up and go with Chris Pine.
    29:28
    Captain Kirk. Yes. he's gonna get confused you know what i'm a bard link is a bard now i come up with the plans my original thought because it's totally the opposite of what you would ever expect it's obviously ving reigns get that real deep voice rolling in there you know what it would be worth it it'd be fun it would be hilarious yeah no i mean i don't think that's really a surprise uh of all of the big nintendos that's the most obvious one to take next um personally i would have probably preferred metroid but that's just because i'm kind of a sci-fi buff and i don't actually think they're going to do metroid because the others make more sense.
    30:21
    Diablo 4 released. And is he doing the exact opposite of Diablo 3? It has great buzz. It's hugely successful, hugely popular. Blizzard's reporting it is their fastest selling game of all time. We've seen questions in our Discord about Diablo 4. When you're finally going to play it, Tony, as a Diablo fan yourself. I know. I mean, I'm in debate. And it'll probably be next weekend Okay So it's a short debate It's a pretty short debate So Bobby can put you down for two So I've been I've talked to enough people who've played it That have been really enjoying it That I think I'll probably pull the trigger on It's just going to be I don't want to pick up a new game With everything I have going on This week Because it's just going to be one more thing Because I mean We have stuff multiple evenings this week that we doing and then between my work stuff And in addition to all the stuff that we doing on the evenings I have multiple things on pretty much almost every evening I have something scheduled Yeah And so it just not even worth doing it The listeners have no idea. Tony and I, a friend of ours that was a roommate of ours back in college is coming back in town. So we're going to go out and have dinner with him sometime this week. And then we also have for my wristwatch YouTube. I have a game on that on a different day. and Tony is going to participate on that. So I got that. And then you've got other stuff on the other days. It's just, this is a bad week for picking up a new game. This week is like really, because I was thinking about grabbing it, and I'm looking at everything. It's like I will basically get to play that game like today and then not get to touch it again for a week. If Golem drops another $29, I'm getting it. If it drops another $29, they're going to be paying you to play it. No, it would be $1. I mentioned that to Don from Pinball Podcast, and he's like, don't waste your... I think he said, life is too short for you to play such a bad game. I'm like, I didn't respond to that. I was just like, at a dollar, no, it's not. At a dollar, I'm going to be going for my precious. You're going for your precious. Well, I mean, I'll jump ahead here in my notes a little bit. They're already laying groundworks.
    32:41
    This is from Summer Game Fest. Yes, lots of announcements. Lots of announcements, but we'll jump this announcement up a little bit to match with it. Lord of the Rings Return to Moria because that's what we need is a Lord of the Rings game where you play, where it's a building like Minecraft Yeah, I wasn't sure if it was a Minecraft or if it was like doing an RTS thing and it was base building in Moria Yeah, it was hard to tell it looked like it could go either way or if it was almost like Dungeon Keeper type You know they didn't show much game play The formats would be – it actually – I don't hate the idea. The graphics were rough. I was like, this looks really janky for a modern game with such a big license. It's because they probably made quick passes to get rid of the emo. They probably – all the dwarves probably had one thing of hair over their eyes greased down and dark pencil and everything. So is that the same company?
    33:40
    I don't know. I hope not. I don't think so. I don't think they were working on two projects at the exact same time like that. That Golem is so bad. Make it a dollar so I can play it. Come on. One dollar. One dollar, I will make it fun. I will make it fun for me. I can do it. I will it. I will it to be good. One dollar, play Golem, drink your game. Every time something cringe happens, you have to drink. You know what? I had a lot of fun making fun of all the bugs I encountered in Cyberpunk. I joined their subreddit I uploaded videos I put together all my glitches and I was like this is fun I'm sad about how much I paid but at a dollar that sadness goes away was Cyberpunk the last time you paid full price for a AAA game? I think so I so rarely buy a game right when it comes out it's very the last one before it which was also super disappointing was Battlefield 2042 too. Because I love playing, at least I used to, love playing Battlefield games. Yeah, that's why I held off on Diablo, because I remember what Diablo 3 was when it launched. Yeah, well.
    34:58
    Diablo 3 turned out to be okay. Supposedly, though, with 4, good. That's what I hear. 4's good. More Summer Game Fest. There was a ton of announcements. I'm only highlighting. I watched a lot of these trailers. I missed most of the actual live stream, so I went back and just caught the trailers of the ones I thought looked cool. Yeah. So if I missed one that you thought looked cool, throw it in here. Your list looks pretty comprehensive, but the listeners don't know yet what's on your list. We'll see. Prince of Persia?
    35:24
    Yeah. The Prince of Persia games are super popular. I've never really gotten into them, but I know they're super popular and people like them. I played one on the 360, and I think it was more three-dimensional. This was very Metroidvania. Yeah. But it had those You had to go around and pick up items to be able to get past certain spots So yeah I mean if you like a Metroidvania Maybe it's one to check out Right and I'm not a huge Metroidvania person Not anymore Path of Exile 2 Path of Exile Was the free to play Game that everyone Went to when Diablo 3 was trash It was It went over very well I enjoyed it I played it some so the second one coming out yep timing's going to be interesting just after diablo 4 so mortal combat 1 is just i only put it in here i don't actually care about the mortal combat it's just we're back to having this thing where you're restarting worlds i know this is like a prequel kind of world reset yeah but the timeline i don't know because i i'd seen this before Summer Game Fest. I watched the trailer on it and I wasn't really clear if it's an alternate timeline, a true reboot, or if they're saying in their canon, kind of Marvel DC style, that the timeline is being reset. And they've been incorporated into the plot. I guess if you're into Mortal Kombat plots, then okay. There you go. Lots of fatalities then. Lots and lots of fatalities.
    37:01
    Lies of Pi, which is a steampunk Pinocchio kind of action combat game. I didn't, I didn't see this one. It, the art's really good, but it is, it didn't show much. It, it, it was definitely not a, Hey, here's a minute, a gameplay type thing. It was very much a trailer just showing different things. Uh, and only a little bit of it looked like gameplay, but it definitely has a very interesting aesthetic to it. Uh, space Marine two, this winter three player co-op I played the first Space Marine I love the Space Marine game it was great so I'm very interested in the new one and with co-op it could be really fun hi-yah for the blood god the emperor protects John Carpenter's Toxic Commando. Now, I hated the name of this because all I could think of was the Toxic Avenger. Yeah, I can see that.
    38:10
    When I first saw the name, I'm like, are you kidding me? The trailer actually looked fun. Yeah, it looked like a John Carpenter movie. It very much did. It is supposed to be like an 80s style bad humor action. Probably lots of teak and mahogany jokes. Yeah, for sure. It definitely looks interesting, but it's basically zombie apocalypse. And it's four-player co-op.
    38:37
    And you're road tripping it. So there's lots of vehicles. There was lots of videos in the trailer of, like, one person's driving the car and mowing down zombies, and somebody else is sitting beside them in the passenger seat shooting zombies off the hood. Yes. So it could be fun. It could be. I like the co-op idea. There's been a lot of co-op games lately.
    38:58
    Like a Dragon Gaiden. The Like a Dragon games have been... Yeah, those like the Yakuza style. Very, very popular. I hadn't historically played those, but then I played two of them since. I played the one, the RPG style one, and then I played one that's in the more traditional, where it's an action fighting game. And the stories are pretty good. Those both took place in the same Kamurocho city, so the layouts were basically the same city.
    39:31
    But, yeah, actually, I've been impressed by them. They take a while to get through if you want to do everything in them. Yeah. And this one, the trailer looked really good. Yeah, I guess this is the most popular character from the series, so I imagine fans, like longtime fans, are probably more excited than I am. It would be real easy to be a longtime fan of that series because there's a lot of them. Yes, there are.
    39:55
    Under the Waves, it looks like a more realistic horror take on Subnautica. Yeah, I couldn't get a feel for this. When I was watching it, that would probably be how I would describe it as well, but I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to be afraid of. I don't know what's going on. So I didn't have a context of, I think it's supernatural, but maybe it's just underwater, like what lurks in the deep sort of stuff. Or maybe the guy's going crazy. I can't tell. I think they did a very good job of making a trailer that piqued your interest without telling you. Yeah, but it didn't make me want to buy it. No, but it made you interested enough that when they drop something else later, you'll take a look at it. Space Trash Scavenger This is such a me game It's just like walking around Cleaning up space trash and then Putting it in And then like building a base And then clean up more space trash Very much a me style game Star Trek Infinite Looks to be a 4X Star Trek game that's being published by Paradox Every single thing I've seen Is pretty much people making jokes That they must have hired Some of the Star Trek modders for Stellaris That just said here The Star Trek mods for Stellaris are the most popular mods Just make a Star Trek game So we'll see how that goes Stellaris is one of those Games that is hugely popular And has tons of DLC And I've got like the base game And I've played a little bit but I've not gotten nearly as deep into it as that game would require you to do.
    41:46
    Lafanga, Time Shift Warrior, Liz Fonga, Time Shift Warrior. It's Hades, except for, like, you can rewind time and generate, like, echoes of yourself. So you fight with, like, more of yourself. It looked really interesting.
    42:04
    If it could hope to be anything near as good as Hades, it would probably be an amazing game. And we'll just have to see. It's not made by the Hades people, obviously. They're working on Hades 2. But it's that type of view and gameplay from the looks of it.
    42:19
    And finally, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is coming. It's going to be two discs, and it's a PS5 exclusive. As all the Final Fantasies seem to be. I was confused when I saw this because I didn't understand that they've changed the story. Yes. Because I was like, is this a sequel? Well, why are they talking about it's been five years? Cloud didn't take a five-year break in Final Fantasy VII. Yeah, apparently in the seven remakes, they have been changing the story and the timeline. Okay.
    42:51
    Supposedly, they worked very hard to make it so that if you'd not played the one before this, you could pick this one up and play it with no problem. Okay. Well, there were a few other games, because I see that's the end of your list. There was a Sonic game. yeah that was a new a 2d a 2d style style sonic so if you like the old traditional like we're in green hills and going along and getting rings though they did give them new power-ups so i saw that that looked okay if you like that that format there was one oh i can't remember the name of it i i want to call it hell's gate but that might not be right where this it looked kind of like you were a old-timey vampire hunter like oh it's witch hunter witch Hunter, thank you. Yeah. I don't know what to make of that one yet either, if I would find that fun or not. And then, of course, they had some – this was already announced, so I'm not surprised it's not on your list. But this summer, that game – you brought it up already before, the one where it's the FPS with magic. Yeah. They had an extended – They had an extended look at it. Kind of a set of pieced together, like vertical slice almost, of one of the combat sections. Yeah. I didn't throw that one in here because it was out of my class. No, because it wasn't new. It wasn't new. It wasn't. But they did give it some good air time. So we'll see how that goes How all these games turn out So but Moving on Twitch oopsied again Yes again some of my other Discords where there are pinball streamers This became for a hot minute Was The topic du jour Oh I am sure Because they basically They just made some decisions to make changes to their rules and they made them in a vacuum why are they so bad at their like i don't know and they even have an ambassador system where where they have people that they're normally run stuff by and they didn't use it this time uh for those who are wondering what they did is they released rules uh that changed their branding guidelines that put uh severe rules on streamers about what they could do with sponsors uh the changes included limiting on-stream logos to less than 3% of screen size, not allowing pre-recorded advertisements of any kind.
    45:12
    And they changed how those rules were going to apply. They were going to apply even to charity streams. So for case in point, we just watched Summer Games Done Quick.
    45:22
    And it would have been a huge hit to Summer Games Done Quick because there's lots of pre-recorded stuff in Summer Games Done Quick. And there's lots of overlays that are bigger than 3%. And yeah, it is deaf. It was definitely not well taken by the community. Yeah, the three percent thing was what unsurprisingly is what triggered a lot of pinball streamers, because, well, one, given the real estate of how they have to lay things out, they often do have fairly large logos of sponsors. And in fact, one of the Chuck Wirt is his name. He organizes one of the pinball shows, one of the conventions that happens. One of the things he sells is sponsor logos on the live stream of the tournament. Right. And it's like, well, there would be a clear violation. I mean, you have to shrink them so small.
    46:06
    What, 3%? You're going to even be able to read it? Oh, definitely not. I saw examples of the 3%. I was like, this is like a joke. Yeah, it is like tiny, tiny. So anyway, continue. The backlash was pretty hard. Hard enough that they canceled and withdrew all of those changes while they have discussions to make them better.
    46:31
    And they did also put out an apology where they tried to make an excuse that, oh, we just – this didn't change anything. It was just poorly worded talking about the no pre-recorded stuff. They were trying to explain that they're just trying to get rid of third-party advertisers. They didn't mean you couldn't pre-record stuff for your personal sponsors. They meant something else. So you couldn't hire like a third-party advertising group to run their own ads. Why didn't they say it then? You know what has to happen? Because they wanted it to go through. This is what has to happen now. They have to make the OGL public domain This is the damage This is the only hope now We seen this what this feels like is Hasbro It does feel like that I don know what is up with all of this because Hasbro did that Twitch has been having – they've been fighting the 50-50 pay split and everything else for a while now.
    47:26
    So what's going on with that? Because I see you have a notification. No, I just – that was just a note that with the way their current pay splits are set up, sponsorships are the primary way the people who work there actually make money because they don't get as nearly as much money from twitch as they do from their sponsors right so and that's pretty destroying their branding is hard right and lots of like that's that's common even though the splits are far more generous um like the money one raises through adsense on youtube for example most of the if you're doing youtube professionally the secret it's not a secret at all though Everyone will tell you. The secret, though, is you get sponsors because the sponsors are where you get most of the money. You need so many views for – I mean it depends on what your niche is and stuff in terms of what your average rate of return is on ads. And YouTube does a good ad split, but it's still – most people would – it's great if you're not trying to make a living. But if you're trying to make a living, unless you're super – and even everyone who's super huge has sponsors. Mr. Beast isn't just sitting there counting his ad revenue. It's like he's got sponsor money that probably eclipses it. Oh, I'm sure.
    48:38
    Twitch also made changes to their terms of service, making it against the rules. Wow, how did that auto-correct a toe so many times in the notes? Against the rules to simulcast on other Twitch-like services for all users. But what was weird was how they wrote it. Right, now that's always been the case for affiliates, right? Right, for affiliates and partners have not been able to simulcast. without pre-existing permission. Correct, correct. And with the Pinball Network, we were doing some pinball on our Twitch channel in 2022. We did some streaming, and we deliberately did not get affiliate status so that it could be simulcast to Facebook and YouTube at the same time. Right, and a lot of people have done that, or if they had it prior, they revoked their affiliate status to be able to simulcast. Well, they've now stretched this to everything. Interestingly enough, because of how they wrote it, you can still simulcast to TikTok.
    49:39
    Really? Yes. Just them? Just TikTok. Why? I don't know. Hmm. Okay. Well, that's weird. Yeah. I don't know why. They don't specifically name TikTok, but the way they worded it, TikTok doesn't fall into the places where you're not allowed to. I wonder. There must be something about the environment or they have an arrangement with them. I figure it's either one of those or they just didn't think about it, as they obviously haven't thought about other rule changes they've done in. Well, yeah, but again, I would be like, why don't you just say there's no third-party streaming? Period. Stop. There, you're done.
    50:17
    Yeah. You don't want to list them all. Unless you get prior permission. What if someone makes a farce book? It's okay to simulcast a farce book. You can work to the work face. So you can simulcast to the work face. Yes.
    50:31
    And obviously, some of their big people have permission to simulcast. Oh, what, Critical Role? Critical Role does. Of course, it's their biggest cash cow. If they lost Critical Role, they might as well just shut the doors.
    50:45
    Because they simulcast on YouTube. YouTube, yeah. The only rules are, while they can simulcast the stream, the videos can't be available on YouTube for one week and there's no chat on YouTube. So the chat is only available on Twitch, which is fine. That's why I watch it on YouTube because Twitch chat is bad. It's annoying.
    51:14
    Paradox has decided to offer a refund to those who had pre-ordered Vampire the Masquerade Bloodline 2 because it's been more than three years since they started taking pre-order money, and they have no date for the game. They did say that the game is coming, but there have been major changes made from the game that was offered when they opened pre-orders. It's mummies now. It's all mummies all the way down. It's really weird, but it really made the graphics easier. Yes. But they are mandatorily refunding all physical pre-orders, including for the collector's editions. And digital pre-orders, they are giving it as an option. You can choose to refund your digital pre-order or not. Okay.
    52:01
    Microsoft Activision, nothing new on the U.S. side of it, but they did set a date for the appeals. It's going to be late July. They're talking about six days is what they're talking about having the appeal meetings run up to. And if the appeal is granted, all that does is move it back to the CMA to be looked at again. Right. The appeals court won't solve it. It would be to kick it back and say, you must now evaluate on these things. Correct. Which is common in U.S. courts, too.
    52:37
    Microsoft President Brad Smith has a meeting this upcoming week with U.K. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to discuss the issue.
    52:45
    Of Space Hunt fame? Of Space Hunt fame. But they're going to be talking about this and the CMA and all sorts of interesting things, I'm sure. Microsoft is talking about going forward and just ignoring the CMA's ruling.
    53:10
    And they're discussing fully pulling Activision out of the UK. Yeah, you know, it's such a big acquisition. It might be worth it. Yeah. I mean, the UK is such a small player base. I mean, because you're not even talking about the full population of the UK. You're just talking about the UK player base that it makes no sense to halt something for the entire world over the UK. But that's definitely the scorched earth tactic Would be pulling Activision Just pulling Activision out completely Jumping back to a thing we've talked about a long time ago Nintendo no longer employs Yasha Haddaji That was the head of the Russian operations The guy who started a company and was kind of third-party sideloading new releases into Russia with the ban on new games to Russia, he no longer works for Nintendo because he was the head of Nintendo's Russian operations. At the same time they made that announcement, the side company that he was the head of as well has been announced as Nintendo's provider of customer support in Russia. So he no longer officially works for Nintendo, but his company is now the sole provider of Nintendo support in Russia.
    54:48
    So they skirted that ban. Yep. That's how oligarchs are made. Yeah. And now, for another way of the way oligarchs aren't made, yet another follow-up. Mm-hmm.
    55:02
    Yuji Naka. Sonic. Go, creator. Gotta go fast. Has to go fast. I'm sorry. Oh, that was perfect. That was good. He is going fast to jail. His insider trading stuff where he got arrested twice for insider trading.
    55:19
    He pled guilty and his sentence has been handed down two and a half years in jail and a fine of about $1.2 million equivalent. It's in yen, obviously. But in the course of it, the prosecutor said he pled guilty and he showed no signs of remorse. It was just one of those. You caught me. Oh, well. Isn't that like refreshingly honest, though? I mean, you know, I guess it's like, oh, no, I did nothing wrong. This is everybody does it. Everybody does it. It's fine. You're not my dad. Prosecutor. Here's your 1.2 million. Have fun. Did you do insider trading? Yep You want me in that boardroom You need me in that boardroom This isn't going to trade itself These games are going to design themselves You don't go fast Did you order the market limit sale You're Sonic right I did You think he'll make the coin The ring explodey sound when he gives the money out. It's the... So, I mean, I don't know. He's just like, yeah, I did it. It's like, yep, nope, I did it. Cool.
    56:48
    It's like, okay. Good. It's just fascinating to me how fast this all really resolved. Yeah, because this became a thing in like December is when he was arrested for the first time. And then it's, yep, done and in jail. I mean, less than, it's like six months to do this whole thing. So that's how justice is supposed to work. When it rains from above.
    57:15
    Like tails flying over. Go get you out, boss. what are you trying to do i'm jailbreaking he's got one flaw complete honesty in all things his roommate's gonna walk in and just go i'm knuckles
    57:45
    all right everybody Nani? We're mixing our Japanese references too much. We're getting stuff mixed up. What was it? Was it the Sonic cartoon where they decided Sonic loved chili dogs? Speaking of love, this doesn't really have to do with the video game.
    58:04
    That has to do with you. I'm worried that you have fallen down the Swole AI rabbit hole. Oh, I can't help it. They're so good. Tony, he keeps – They're so good. Dear trusted listener. Okay. Tony, we were at a pinball tournament about three weeks ago, and he shows me a video of Harry Potter because the announcement of Harry Potter had come out. It was Harry Squatter. But it was Harry Squatter, the boy who lifted. Yeah. And so it's just – AI has generated like all these Harry Potter characters and just roided them out, super swole muscles, all that. And then last night I'm sitting in my recliner. I'm watching Monuments Men. Yeah. Not a bodybuilding movie. Definitely not. And I get this message from Tony. And it's this video. Someone has put together Luke – But it's not Skywalker. It's – I can't – what was his name?
    59:11
    It was like Skylifter. Luke Skylifter. And there was Darth Vader because I guess way protein shakes. I thought that was a bit of a stretch. And then Yoda was Broda. That was great. That one was the best one. And they're just like – they're still like, I've got – If you only knew the power of the dark squad. And Vader is just like – his suit isn't a suit. It's muscles. He's ripped. He's ripped to the power of the dark side.
    59:42
    Yoda is just looking like this old bodybuilder, totally swole. No, you know, Yoda reminded me of – oh, what's his name? He was J. Jonah Jameson. Okay. Oh, yeah, yeah. from Whiplash fame and all that stuff.
    60:04
    I'm not remembering the actor's name right now. Yeah. But the guy who played J. Jonah Jameson in the old Spider-Mans was, he was in a movie with Chris Pratt, and he played Chris Pratt's dad, except for he was like a retired merc, and he was ripped. And because he's, the actor's actually ripped because he like, he lifts. And he's actually, that's what I thought when I first saw Brode, That's what I felt. I had that kind of – because the whole big beard and everything, and then just – This one, oh, this is a throwback. For anyone who's ever seen a number of Japanese anime, it reminded me of that one Bleach, the number one Soul Society guy, the old guy in charge of all of it. Oh, yeah. Because you had the big beard also, and he's always just sitting there, and he's got his little cane until he has to fight. And then it's like, what drugs do you do, Broda?
    61:02
    So anyway, Tony has a problem. I've also sent some of the Lord of the Rings ones, and there's so many. They're so good. They make me laugh every time. It's a problem. But what isn't a problem is reaching out to us. You can always email us, eclecticgamerspodcast.gmail.com. As I know at the start of the episode, you can support us at Patreon.com slash Eclectic Gamers Podcast. And we are also on Facebook.com slash Eclectic Gamers Podcast. We're available on Twitch, Twitter, and Instagram as Eclectic underscore Gamers. And that's it for us for this episode. We'll be back in a couple of weeks. Maybe there will be some more news. Hopefully something will happen in the pinball world. Yeah. It's always a little slow after TPF and everything. Normally there would be a big release around this time. I mean, it's just not. But with Stern not doing the three cornerstones, I think we're going to have a – I think September is when they're scheduled to drop their next game. So we've got a bit of a wait. So unless one of the other companies that has talked up doing more than one game a year wants to get a head start pre-Expo, which I'm skeptical of, but we'll see. We'll see what happens. I have heard Godfather sales are not doing well, like not doing as well as Toy Story 4, which didn't do well. No. I'm so surprised. So, maybe JJP accelerates the timeline. Just a hypothetical.
    62:29
    They've got the time turner now, so they can take time back and do multiple things. Just like a video game. They could design a version of Godfather where they're all swole.
    62:42
    The cat is ripped. Marlon Brando's cat is just like, meow, meow. until next time my name is Dennis I'm Tony goodbye everybody