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55: 10th Day of Balls: Jason Knapp

Pinball Party Podcast·podcast_episode·26m 48s·analyzed·Dec 24, 2023
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TL;DR

Jason Knapp discusses Knapp Arcade's growth as a pinball news site and 2024 anticipation for Stern's Jaws.

Summary

Jason Knapp from Knapp Arcade discusses the origins and growth of his pinball news website, which started as a Facebook page in 2015 to share arcade deals and has evolved into a comprehensive pinball news resource. He highlights March and fall 2023 as peak periods for new machine launches, expresses anticipation for Stern's Jaws pinball machine in 2024, and shares personal anecdotes about his car hobby, family, and early gaming memories.

Key Claims

  • Knapp Arcade Facebook page was started in 2015 with the founding date embedded as an Easter egg in the logo

    high confidence · Jason Knapp directly stated: 'I started it, it was 2015, I think. I forget. It's buried in my logo as an Easter egg.'

  • The website originated from sharing Craigslist arcade deals on a New Jersey Arcade Collectors Facebook page, which prompted jealous collectors to tell Knapp to stop

    high confidence · Jason Knapp: 'I was sharing a bunch of good Craigslist deals with people on the New Jersey Arcade Collectors Facebook page and all the people that had been hoarding all the games were getting pissed off at me.'

  • There were six major pinball machine launches within a month in March 2023

    high confidence · Jason Knapp: 'back in March, we had like six launches within like a month.' He cites this as one of his favorite pinball moments of 2023 due to site traffic spikes.

  • Another spike in new machine launches occurred in fall 2023

    high confidence · Jason Knapp: 'There was two big spikes' referring to March and fall 2023, both resulting in site traffic increases.

  • Stern's Jaws pinball machine was expected to be revealed at CES (Consumer Electronics Expo) in January 2024

    high confidence · Jason Knapp: 'I want to see Jaws, man. I don't think we're going to see it until the Consumer ElectronicExpo in January.'

  • Jason Knapp does not currently own any pinball machines and took a monetary break from the hobby

    high confidence · Jason Knapp: 'I don't own any machines right now, so kind of monetarily took a break. I started getting into cars for the first time in my life.'

  • Jason Knapp has had three heart bypass surgeries

    high confidence · Jason Knapp: 'given the fact I've had three heart bypasses not as much as I used to' in response to a question about bench pressing.

  • Knapp Arcade does not generate any monetary revenue for Jason Knapp

    high confidence · Jason Knapp: 'I'm not deriving anything from it monetarily' when discussing what he's proud of about the site.

Notable Quotes

  • “I started Knapp Arcade as a Facebook page when people got mad at me for sharing good Craigslist deals on a New Jersey arcade collectors page. So I was like, well, screw you, I'll just go post it on my own page.”

    Jason Knapp @ ~11:00 — Explains the origin story of Knapp Arcade and its current status as the pinball community's primary news source

  • “When there's six launches within a month, like happened in March, and then also happened again in the fall, there's so much that we can talk about. That makes me happy.”

    Jason Knapp @ ~25:00 — Identifies the most notable pinball industry moments of 2023 and explains what drives engagement on his platform

  • “I want to see Jaws, man. It's such an interesting theme. It's so different than what a lot of the themes that Stern has done really lately.”

    Jason Knapp @ ~45:00 — Expresses his top anticipation for 2024 pinball releases and highlights designer Keith Elwin's track record

  • “The scuttlebutt I've heard is that Jaws is legit awesome.”

    Jason Knapp @ ~47:00 — Provides positive insider sentiment on the unreleased Stern Jaws game based on industry sources

  • “Knapp Arcade doesn't derive anything monetarily, but anyone who's somewhat competitive in life wants to succeed at what they're doing. I'm pretty proud that it's taken off like it has.”

    Jason Knapp @ ~34:00 — Clarifies his motivation as community service and personal satisfaction rather than profit

Entities

Jason KnapppersonKnapp ArcadeorganizationStern PinballcompanyKeith ElwinpersonJawsgamePinball Party PodcastorganizationNew Jersey Arcade Collectorsorganization

Signals

  • ?

    content_signal: Knapp Arcade has grown from a Facebook page sharing arcade deals to a primary pinball news source with significant website traffic and community reach

    high · Jason Knapp states: 'the website and the Facebook page have taken off like they have' and references site traffic spikes during launch periods

  • ?

    announcement: Stern's Jaws pinball machine is expected to be officially revealed at CES in January 2024

    high · Jason Knapp: 'I want to see Jaws, man. I don't think we're going to see it until the Consumer ElectronicExpo in January.'

  • ?

    product_launch: Six new pinball machines launched within approximately one month in March 2023, creating significant industry activity and media coverage spikes

    high · Jason Knapp: 'back in March, we had like six launches within like a month' and 'You could see the site traffic really spiked too'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Pinball machine launches show cyclical patterns with peak periods in spring and fall, correlating with industry trade shows and production cycles

    medium · Jason Knapp observed two major activity spikes in 2023: March and fall, both resulting in website traffic increases

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community enthusiasm for Stern's recent theme diversity, particularly Jaws, representing a departure from typical recent Stern releases

    medium · Jason Knapp: 'It's such an interesting theme. It's so different than what a lot of the themes that Stern has done really lately.'

Transcript

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0:00
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0:27
Now admittedly, Pinball Party is not always the podcast for up-to-date news and reviews and the you know, we're not like this media conglomerate out there making sure that everyone knows up-to-date Know or SelfныйP July 21 y main theme of my two YouTube podcast series Ich nach兩個 And frankly, if there's someone on the side, I'm double checking a rumor with, you know, offline, if you will, or via message like, did you hear this? Yeah, I heard that. Did you hear this? And it's a good time. It's been a long time coming. We've been chatting on the side a lot, but let's get to Jason from Knapp Arcade. On the tenth day of fall, pinball gave to me Jason and Bercate, Erica's pinball journey, Orn, Craig, Bobby, Buffalo, Pinball, Kevin, Chip,McDame, Danny, Jill and Rachel Best! Don't spin the podcast, show that's pinball drain, one half a man, and the show that's that many! Merry Quist- Well, Merry Christmas, Jason Knapp from Knapp Arcade. How you doing? Good. How are you? Good. A peek behind the scenes before we started recording. I was just saying, I'm reading your most recent news article on knapparcade.org. Announcement of new pinball manufacturer for Bally Williams remakes to come before end of Q... Well, end of 2023 with an update that basically is saying planetary pinball may still be working with CGC. — http:// الت behalf paintslave Sigma-F pentru rasa Marini Midtjordje de Keep ż 사건-J tácum od P Acts Andrew lui dur sănācipălicăle posiciónă I love it. I say the more the merrier out there as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, I can't buy everything but I know I like to go play them on location for sure. 100% well for those we kind of went right into it for those who don't know who you are Jason Knapp runs the website Knapp Arcade in my opinion the a lot of people's opinion the best site for pinball news out there. I get email notifications so like I will get your email notification. This is what usually what happens. I'll get an email notification of some news thing and then I read it. musun That's my favorite. Harrison All right, Charlie, we'll get around the rest of our time. Kenny I'm a pinball enthusiast. I've been in the industry for a long time. And I started it, it was 2015, I think. I forget. It's buried in my logo as an Easter egg. If you look at the logo and you look on the pinball machines, there's like a score. That was the exact date of the Facebook page that it started. My fiber artist in Transylvania suggested I put it in there. I was like, oh, that's good. Is that what it was? Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah, I think it's funny. I got that made. I felt so bad. It was so Fiverr was so cheap. I like got the ultra deluxe package and like tipped him 100%. It was still cheap. I was like, what the? Wow. Oh, but anyways. So, yeah, it started out as a Facebook page and it wasn't.
Atari 2600 Plus
product
?

community_signal: Positive insider scuttlebutt about Stern's Jaws machine quality based on industry sources

medium · Jason Knapp: 'the only scuttlebutt I've heard is that, yeah, it's legit awesome'

  • ?

    content_signal: Knapp Arcade has become the primary trusted source for pinball news in the community, with users relying on email notifications to avoid platform negativity and information overload

    high · Host states: 'I get email notifications... I'll wait for the stuff from Knapp Arcade. For those who don't go to it, it is actually the only place to go for news.'

    • 4:22
    Really intended, you know, to be a news site or anything like that. What I did was I. I had bought one of those arachnid, you know, relação coping else God and he develop multiple John Papadiuk, Black Water conservancy practitioner† stuffedCloud.bat möj ما splashing kaikkiiors connais 민주 Hasson,'' beş통 seminar、�arching訴ころ†Taint килory?, , каждый drop Barbieinsponse Raise trained pancakesﾃ hearing, conduct captions errandsﾃwww~~~~ étaient educación평 prеннойi wichtige ComeRyne limit войt likely mina ing readers emergency gardening , gust Nigeriaolithic aysoanne del paranormal hydrangea ändewanyi僕oldüç tamb fig요 accumulatedpelex acťə³ši Unfortunately Aweรgoŭvaraŭ profesional προ motivo I was sharing a bunch of good Craigslist deals with people on the New Jersey Arcade Collectors Facebook page and all the people that had been hoarding all the games were getting pissed off at me for sharing all the good deals with everyone else. That was back when Craigslist actually had deals. Now it's like, so they were all giving me a hard time and getting, they're like, oh, what are you doing? So I was like, well, screw you. I'll just go post it on my own page. I changed the name to Knapp Arcade and it was good anyways because I was starting to share a lot of like arcade and pinball news just on my regular site and like all the people I know in regular life are like I don't care about this you know like all people like you know like in town or from work or whatever they're like why do I care that this is happening yeah it gave me a good place to talk about all the stuff I wanted to talk about anyways and it kind of just grew it was there and then I started really getting into taking pictures I have a lot of pictures So I started sharing the pictures on Instagram in there You know I share a lot of pinball machine pictures and then yeah it kind of expanded to the website because I was taking a lot of like arcade road trips and stuff with my kids and sharing pictures and details of locations there and they were just kind of disappearing on Facebook after a while I mean stuff just gets buried and kind of just disappears into the ether So I was like well I put it up on a website that way I always have it I always have the memories of going to these places with my family and the pictures and just stuff So stuff doesn generally disappear into the Facebook quagmire or whatever you want to call it Sure. You know, so it still existed. That's kind of how it all came about. Kind of by accident, I guess. I use it especially in my droughts when I, you know, I'm out of pinball for a while and I don't like you get access to Discord or Pinside or Facebook or For all these things and like when I just want the cobwebs gone or the negativity, like I just wait for my email notifications. I don't read, I'm like, I'll wait for the stuff from Knapp Arcade. For those who don't go to it, it is actually K-N-A-P-P, not N-A-P. And I don't know, it's, it's for me, it's, it's the only place to go for news. And I'm wondering, how are you getting all this stuff? I know you can't share all these secrets, but are you like, do you have a magnifying glass and a microscope and you're just scouring or do you got trolls that are feeding you this info? Meage Taylor Birthday
    8:06
    I'm a fan of pinball. I've been playing pinball for a couple of decades. I've gotten the ability to sift through a lot of garbage really fast. And are you still doing that? Yeah. Man, I am. Oh, that's dangerous. When I took a break from pinball, I still kind of am. I don't own any machines right now, so kind of monetarily took a break. I started getting into cars for the first time in my life. I have a couple of friends who are just gearheads. I don't know what the term is for people who are obsessed with cars. Yeah, it's definitely a fun top. I wouldn't call it a hobby necessarily area to be involved in. It's close. Yeah, I realized that quickly, like for it to be a hobby. It's even though pinball is expensive. Talk about car. Yeah, pinball lease cars, especially nowadays.
    8:47
    God COVID, everything shot up like a rocket. I think incentives are going to continue to increase as we so the prices will normalize somewhat in 24. But still, Yeah. And when I got, you know, I'm still in the process of like possibly buying a Subaru STI and I almost bought a launch edition just because of that they, you know, discontinued them in 2021 and because of like the couldn't pass the emissions or whatever it was for the new WRXs. I'm just for my like, personal fun, I keep googling like Subaru WRX or sorry, STI 2025 or 2020 is gonna be a hybrid. So I'm waiting for that. So please, if you ever find anything out, And I'm sorry, but shoot me a note on the side cuz I want whatever next version of STI they make if they make one. Yeah, I can look into that. I mean, it's so many things. It's funny. I mean, not to go off on an auto tangent on a pinball podcast. Hey, do it. But yeah, but I mean, at the future product plans for every manufacturer, I've been slowly, slowly turning into almost all electric vehicles. And when I was looking at the market, as a man, they should be paying me for my opinion on this part There's such a massive disconnect between consumer demand for EVs and what the future product plans were. I knew it was not going to end well. We're starting to see them starting to pull back on the EV, the future EV plans a little bit now because they're realizing it's just a huge disconnect between what consumers are willing to purchase at this point, whether it's because of the range anxiety or the cost. These are both. Sure, EVs are cost prohibitive compared to conventional gasoline vehicles at this point. So there was a major disconnect between product plans and the market. I thought. The most recent, I almost bought a Tesla Model 3 Performance because I'm pinball money and whatever. I'll do something stupid with it for a while. And now I'm waiting for whatever they do in 2024 with the Highland refresh the performance. So I test drove a couple of Mach TELETR politicians All right, so speaking of pinball, I have some questions I've been asking people on this 12 DaysOfBalls, thanks again for joining and doing it in such short notice. You were one of the people I thought of immediately, so I really appreciate it. Yeah, we've been talking about doing something for a while. Yeah, it's a good excuse to do it. So, you have all this pinball knowledge all the time. What was your favorite pinball thing of 2023? Could be a game, could be news, could be relationship, anything. Yeah, I think it was actually just two time periods really. That's kind of a strange answer, but I'll explain. Like, back in March, we had like six launches within like a month. Yeah. If you remember. I love it when something new comes out that we can talk about. There's not a lot of pinball machines I hate anyways, but when there's so much that we can talk about, like happened in March, and then also happened again in the fall. There was two big spikes. You could see the site traffic really spiked too. free hypertension free admit free hypertension free tiring free hypertension free freeесте free Verantwortung Const ku brothers Sp foremost series at Boom State Harbor 360 And then on the Facebook page we talk a lot It just you know that kind of why I started It was just to meet and talk with people on the hobby So whenever there a lot going on that makes me happy Yeah. Yeah. Do you believe in aliens? Yeah. That's a nuanced question. Yes. But I don't necessarily know that they're here. It's almost impossible, I would think, statistically for there not to be something. grandmother 블� e. Tu понzeMoon мнestruct 1983 Kaienbluh29 애� Ukzy Transit You bwe Spro�� Knee Chai Knapp Arcade. The end. Yeah. Having said that, I still watch all those shows like Expedition Unknown and Expedition X and all that stuff. Of course. It's so good. I love that stuff. I have like a Bigfoot on my shirt right now. He's carrying a case of beer, but he is a Bigfoot. I shit you not. The next question I was going to ask you is what is your favorite maybe real monster? Sasquatch, Loch Ness Monster. My favorite Chris did. Yeah. You're wearing a shirt. Sure. I'll go with Bigfoot because this one was from a brewery. This Week in Pinball, Game of Thronesdisciplinaryparticipal panel in backbox that is backlit during playelectronic interview with Johnny Pneumonicbrance, Twippies Awards, translite struggupon, I was driving to my cabin in Wyoming and we found this like random brewery in this small town. So I went in, I was like, I got to get a shirt and some beer. So this is a Yeti carrying a fly rod in one hand and a six pack of craft beer in the other hand. I bet it would take a lot more than a six pack for a Yeti to get a buzz because they're pretty big. Well, he is big, but he doesn't drink a lot, I would assume. You're not wrong. Like an alcoholic yeti could finish everything, but like a yeti having beer for the first time I think would probably take less than you'd think. Yeah, good point. What is and would you mind enunciating your favorite curse word?
    15:58
    Probably shit, just because it's so much more mainstream. If you drop an F-bomb, people are like, skeletons are yang- incluso king tune comprison county Would you mind telling me something telling me in the audience something about yourself that you're proud of?
    16:40
    I Mean always proud definitely I mean for me the number one priority is always my family and myself my sons are doing well knock on wood So I would say raising, you know, healthy happy Sons would be something I'm most proud of but it like in real life, but to relate it more to this I'm pretty proud that the website and the Facebook page have taken off like they have. I'm not deriving anything from it monetarily, but anyone who's somewhat competitive in life wants to succeed at what they're doing. I think it's going pretty well. That would be something. I'm definitely proud of how it's turned out. I'm equally impressed. Well, I don't know your sons. Did you say? Your website. Yeah. I'm equally proud of your website. How much you bench? Haha, well given the fact I've had three heart bypasses not as much as I used to. Fuck man, well I'm glad you're still ticking. Yep, still kicking, still kicking. They frown upon that. Three? Yeah, I bet. I bet they frown upon that. We'll just say a lot. It's probably a lot though. Oh yeah, I'm guessing easily like 250. Nice. 300. Closed Caption by The Closed Caption Project I can kind of sidestep that one probably. You have the best answer so far. Thank you for passing. What do you want for Christmas this year? It just came in the mail today, actually. The new Atari 2600 plus. Oh, yeah. So that is it. Is it emulating or is it? I assume it's an emulator. It uses the OG cartridges. I went to visit my parents and my parents moved to Memphis like decades ago and I went to go visit them for Christmas. I don't know how many years ago it was, probably five, six years ago at least, maybe more. And I went through their attic and I found my OG Atari 2600 and all the cartridges. So I've had them for a while and I haven't been able to really play the cartridges. And a lot of the cartridges, some of my favorite Atari games were like Activision, so they're I'm not on the new Atari 50 steam game which is came out from a digital eclipse it's phenomenal but it doesn't have any of the Activision stuff in it so like pitfall river raids stuff like that some of my favorite Atari cartridges have been sitting in my basement with nothing to plug them into because I I don't have a coaxial TV anymore I probably should have kept them all now in retrospect but we got rid of them so I ordered the 2600 plus the other day I was just like I'm just going to get that and plug it. So I'm going to try to open it up later tonight and see if I can play some of like pitfall and see if they even work after sitting in a Memphis attic for a couple of decades Do you have ET I mean everyone actually do have ET in that pile I think it a pile of like 20 cartridges maybe And one of them is ET Casey PNow Dr.
    20:50
    It's a 4K live distribution Video Canada disable can be untickable if井be das kind. I still remember one day there was some sort of clearance sale at Sears and my dad brought home a bunch of like $1 and $2 Atari cartridges and I was just like blown away by like that we had so many games to play. I think even originally one of the TVs we played it on was still black and white. Oh yeah. Just yeah. I'm not that old but we just had a lot of freaking old TVs you know. The the first Atari game actually the first video game memory I have you know as you get older you lose some of them I'm not sure if you're familiar with this, but I still think this is my earliest memory of video games. It was at my cousin's house in Neenah, Wisconsin. I guess there's a lot of Wisconsin people here.
    21:53
    I think it's called either Power Battles or Jedi Power Battles. I don't know if that's... It's like a lightsaber on top and bottom, and it's almost like a kind of pong where you shoot a thing and you have to deflect. I mean, there's a billion Atari games, but that's the one I remember, and that's the one that got me into all games forever. chemothy Brown, brendan renfield Handel G Grade, Speaker 17 �� M mines, tense, Gibby OG
    22:43
    I'm a big boy of, I remember Christmas that year when I wanted the Nintendo, you know, the power pack or whatever it was that comes with the light gun and Mario and Duck Hunt and everything. I told my parents like, all right, I knew about returning things to like Target or Best Buy or whatever was, exists back then. Like, I'm just going to add up whatever I get and I'll return everything I get from my grandparents and my parents because I don't give a shit. I just want a Nintendo. And so like while I was opening up presents, I was like writing down what I thought the value was. It's like the price is right for Christmas returns. I was such a garbage person. And then at the very end, they pulled out the Nintendo and I still got it. Oh, that's a good memory. You need to have a picture of you holding it over your head or something. I do have one. It's me and my sister. I'll try to find it and post it on Facebook, but yeah. That should definitely be the cover for this episode. God, alright, if I can find it.
    23:34
    The shit is the new crap with that picture. Last question, 2024. From what you can say publicly, Tim, what are you looking forward to the most in pinball in 2024? I think it's one that's pretty widely known at this point already. I want to see Jaws, man. I don't think we're going to see it until the Consumer ElectronicExpo in January. Every Tuesday and Wednesday at like 10, 11 o'clock in the morning, I'm sweating it because I said I didn't think we were going to see it this year. So I'm going to Stern's page looking to make I'm not sure I was wrong. But I mean, I want to see, I mean, every Elwin game is amazing. And, you know, it's such an interesting theme. It's so different than what a lot of the themes that Stern has done really lately. So I'm just really curious to see what they do with it. That would be one that's super high on my list. It's a pretty obvious one. It's not like I'm breaking any news with it. But, you know, I'm just really curious to see, you know, what it's like. A lot of things. It's like, Yep. Aside from like the rumors of, of, of whatever and what you've shared and all that kind of stuff. I mean the, the only scuttlebutt I've heard is that, yeah, it's legit awesome. So yeah, I mean I've heard good things. Well, you had the, uh, the one time you played that game, the, uh, two lies and a truth. You had the, uh, uh, Texas Chainsaw Massacre in there. Yeah. And then when we were, yeah, we, we had it planned out for a few of them and it was You still might. You got to bring that back. I like it when you have Kale and Rachel on. Those are good shows too. Yeah, me too. We'll probably still keep doing it here and there. Do two lies and a truth and you give me more stuff to write about. Yeah. Well, sometimes I might need a truth and I might have to hit you up and be like, hey, I need something, man. I need like crap. Oh, yeah.
    25:20
    Well, hey, man. Thanks. You got anything coming up? Anything you want to point people to or just go to the website? Yeah. I mean, KnappArcade.org because some rando stole KnappArcade.com. I'm still hunting for them. If you know, send me an email. So, knapparcade.org is out there and then Facebook and Instagram are the pages. I talk about this stuff pretty much every day and I share pictures of the rare games that I've seen and just I like to talk about everything. So, yeah, stop by. Okay. Well, man, keep it up. I love the site. I'll still be checking it daily. Thanks, man. And have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays and I hope everything goes well for you in the near future. Yeah, thanks. You too. All right. Talk to you later.
    26:26
    Texts,