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Silverball Chronicles BONUS: Our Top Pins

Silverball Chronicles·podcast_episode·19m 40s·analyzed·Oct 10, 2023
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TL;DR

Silver Ball Chronicles hosts rank favorite games by seven legendary pinball designers.

Summary

Silver Ball Chronicles bonus episode features hosts David Dennis and Ron discussing their top pinball machines from seven legendary designers (John Borg, George Gomez, Barry Ousler, John Papaduke, Dennis Nordman, Steve Ritchie, and Pat Lawlor). The hosts share individual selections with detailed rationales, highlighting favorite mechanics, art packages, and rule design, then conclude with reflections on what they love most about pinball as a physical, analog experience.

Key Claims

  • John Borg's Metallica features left-right ramps and is described as having everything cool about it

    high confidence · David Dennis and Ron discussing John Borg games; Dennis chooses Metallica for its ramps, flow, and mechanics

  • TRON is described as 'the greatest flow game of all time' with 'two flippers' and 'amazing photoshop art package'

    high confidence · Ron's selection of TRON as his favorite John Borg game, emphasizing ramps and lighting

  • George Gomez's Deadpool works as 'a brilliant machine' because 'the whole package comes together' despite individual pieces being 'kind of okay'

    high confidence · Dennis describing Deadpool as combination of music, themes, and overall design cohesion

  • Lord of the Rings has the entire package working together but 'doesn't have kind of the generation's art' when considering modern DMDs

    high confidence · Ron's analysis of Lord of the Rings as George Gomez game selection

  • Bram Stoker's Dracula originally had Keanu Reeves likeness removed from plastic inserts due to rights issues

    high confidence · Ron discussing Barry Ousler's Bram Stoker's Dracula and explaining why Keanu Reeves likeness was removed

  • World Cup Soccer features call-outs by Tim Kitsrow

    high confidence · Hosts crediting Tim Kitsrow for World Cup Soccer call-outs during John Papaduke game discussion

  • Theater of Magic's pop-up cellar trunk makes the same squeak on every machine due to deliberate design

    high confidence · Ron noting the pop-up squeak is identical across all Theater of Magic machines by design

  • Demolition Man is described as 'the narrowest playing wide body ever made'

    high confidence · David Dennis explaining his selection of Demolition Man, which he owns

  • Elvira: House of Horrors is Dennis Nordman's last game and features a character Torgo from 'Manos: The Hands of Fate'

Notable Quotes

  • “It's got the left-right ramps, like payback time stuff going on... it's got sparky everything about it is cool wonderful game love it”

    David Dennis @ ~4:20 — Describing John Borg's Metallica; 'payback time' becomes running joke about left-right ramp games throughout episode

  • “TRON the greatest flow game of all time that is two flippers amazing photoshop art package a playfield loaded with tons of mechanics”

    Ron @ ~5:30 — Ron's passionate endorsement of TRON; hosts note this selection is not surprising given Ron's ownership and consistent promotion

  • “Individually, each piece is kind of okay. you put them all together it's a brilliant machine”

    David Dennis @ ~9:00 — Articulates philosophy that George Gomez excels at creating cohesive game experiences rather than individual standout features

  • “Bram stoker's dracula yes bsd it's got the mechs it's got the ramp it's got the physical ball lock it's got keanu reeves”

    Ron @ ~17:30 — Ron's Keanu Reeves joke references the removed plastic inserts; reveals licensing limitation on the game

  • “I find it grindy but I mean that kind of of the era right Those Bally Williams DMDs are kind of grindy now when you look back”

    Ron @ ~26:00 — Contextualizes aging game design from 1990s era and how it feels by modern standards

  • “It's got hot dogs in it. I love hot dogs. Give yourself a hot dog.”

    David Dennis @ ~44:30 — Humorous endorsement of Rudy's ball lock feature; illustrates approachable charm of Pat Lawlor designs

  • “That it's a physical game. Yeah. That I can also work on. You like to tinker.”

    Ron @ ~49:00 — Core appeal of pinball for Ron: tangible mechanics and ability to maintain/modify machines

  • “i very much love that it is a physical random analog experience uh as opposed to a very digital based experience”

    David Dennis — Contrasts pinball's physical unpredictability with deterministic digital games; articulates generational perspective on pinball's appeal

Entities

David DennispersonRonpersonColinpersonJohn BorgpersonGeorge GomezpersonBarry OuslerpersonJohn PapadukepersonDennis Nordman

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Media Content Creation group initiated cross-podcast collaboration on 'top games' concept; signals informal industry coordination

    high · Colin (thekineticist.co) organized collaboration email proposing 'top 5 machines' segment shared across multiple podcasts

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Left-right ramp design becomes 'payback time' shorthand among community; running terminology for specific ramp pattern

    medium · Hosts repeatedly reference 'payback time' as name for left-right ramp feature across multiple games, suggesting community terminology

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Pat Lawlor games feature memorable charm, physical toys, and extensive coding (Rudy's moving jaw, hot dog ball lock)

    high · David Dennis discussing Rudy's mechanical intricacy and hot dog ball lock; 'The coding that had to go into all of that'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Steve Ritchie specializes in high-flow, ramp-heavy games with memorable super jackpot call-outs; exemplified by Getaway and T2

    high · Hosts praising ramp flow, supercharger concept in Getaway, and T2's two-flipper layout and cannon mechanics

  • ?

    design_philosophy: George Gomez excels at creating cohesive whole packages where individual components may be adequate but combination is brilliant; exemplified by Deadpool analysis

    high · David Dennis: 'Individually, each piece is kind of okay. you put them all together it's a brilliant machine'

Transcript

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0:00
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0:56
The Pinball Network is online. Launching. Silver Ball Chronicles. Nordman. What's my favorite? Nordman? My favorite? I don't like Alien. We know. It's the pop bumper on Wizard of Oz. That's it. That's your favorite. That's it. That's the one.
1:26
Hello everybody, this is David Dennis and with me is Ron. We're throwing this together last minute. Hallett, how you doing my friend? I'm just doing great. Yeah, we're throwing in a bonus episode this month. Colin over at thekineticist.co sent out an email to everybody in the Pinball Media Content Creation group and said, hey, let's do a collaboration. Or as the kids call it today, Ron Collab. Basically, he said, hey, let's record a podcast, publish a little segment. So we're going to throw in a bonus episode here. Kineticist. Is that the one who had the list of a favorite podcast and we were on it? That's right. Alphabetically, I might add. Oh. So we were sort of towards the middle.

high confidence · Ron selecting Elvira: House of Horrors and explaining it features Torgo from the cult film

  • Terminator 2 has 'the first two flipper fan layout' and is described as 'absolute masterpiece'

    high confidence · David Dennis praising T2 with specific mechanical details about ramps and cannon features

    • @ ~50:30

  • “Getaway high speed part two, like the official name. it's got there zz top you take the play field from the first one you add a supercharger”

    David Dennis @ ~35:00 — Steve Ritchie's Getaway positioning as sequel/enhancement to High Speed; cites memorable gameplay experience

  • “Whirlwind with an honorable mention to a guilty pleasure of mine, Roadshow. Roadshow? Don't tell anybody that.”

    Ron @ ~41:00 — Ron's humorous 'guilty pleasure' admission about Roadshow contrasts with his wife's dislike; reveals personal taste vs critical assessment

    • person
    Steve Ritchieperson
    Pat Lawlorperson
    Tim Kitsrowperson
    Lyman Sheetsperson
    Greg Freresperson
    Dwight Sullivanperson
    Metallicagame
    TRONgame
    Deadpoolgame
    Lord of the Ringsgame
    Demolition Mangame
    Elvira: House of Horrorsgame
    Terminator 2game
    Rudygame
    Silver Ball Chroniclesorganization
    Pintasticevent
    Pinball Expoevent
    ?

    licensing_signal: Bram Stoker's Dracula had Keanu Reeves likeness removed from plastic inserts due to rights/licensing constraints

    high · Ron: 'if you buy the uh the extra plastic the extra plastics that they had removed because they didn't have the rights to his likeness'

  • $

    market_signal: Terminator 2 is difficult to find and expensive in secondary market despite high production numbers, indicating scarcity or condition issues

    medium · David Dennis: 'God, I want one of these games, but I can't find one and they're fairly pricey when you find one that's not garbage. Because they're like, they made 10,000 plus of them.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Ron is known for consistently championing TRON and appears to own it; uses podcast platform to 'pump the value' of game he owns

    medium · Ron: 'I own her Tron. I gotta keep pumping the value of that pin up, my friend' — self-aware humor about promotion of owned machine

    • 2:33
    Oh, okay. You confused me there. I thought alphabetically. I'm like, we don't start with A. We start with S. We should start with like ZZ Top. Yeah. Silverball Chronicles. Yeah, I like it. Well, the Kineticist wanted to know what our top five pinball machines are. Well, that's far too easy for us. Well, the problem with that is I'm on two podcasts, and Slamtail Podcast is the other one, and I'm going to have to do this twice. So for me, it's going to be stupid if I just name the same five machines both times. So we're going to have to put a twist on it then. So, yeah, I thought of an idea, an idea that we could name our top game from each of the designers that we have featured on Silver Ball Chronicles. Oh, so we're talking John Borg, George Gomez, Barry Ousler, John Papaduke, the Nordman himself, Steve Ritchie, and Pat Lawler. So we have to give you, the listener, our favorite pin from that designer. That's what you're getting at? Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. And no, we didn't forget Wayne Nyans, but he did so many games, I can't decide. Yeah. Hundreds of games. I'll say Flipper Clown. There, sounds good. Wow. I'm going to do the one with the horse that kicks the cowboy the ass. That was a good one. Yeah, that is a good back box animation. Yes. So the other thing at the end, we're also going to say, what do we love most about pinball? And Ron, I'm sorry, it's not you. Oh, I'm sorry it's not Canada either. No, that one really hurt. That was very mean. Well, you do have a manufacturer now, so. Well, let's not talk about that. Okay, let's go with John Borg. Your favorite John Borg game, and it better be the same as mine. It may not be. Metallica. Oh, damn it. I love me some Metallica. You love to chop some wood.
    4:31
    It's fun chopping that wood. Just hack and slash into Sparky all day. Yep. It's got the left-right ramps, like payback time stuff going on. What do they call it in that game? Lady Justice, I think that's what they call it. That's the one. Yep. it's got sparky everything about it is cool wonderful game love it love it i really do love that game i play a lot of that in my league as the listeners know that's a good one my john borg uh design probably the number one game on my list is clearly tron the greatest flow game of all time that isn two flippers amazing photoshop art package a playfield loaded with tons of mechanics at the spinning disc at a scoop I mean but the ramps though Ron The ramps And the lighting And the lighting
    5:22
    So much lighting. Anyway, that's mine. That's not a surprise for anybody who listens to this podcast. Really? I thought it would be Rush being your Canadian at all. No, I own her Tron. I gotta keep pumping the value of that pin up, my friend. Okay. What about George Gomez? This one I was thinking about. I'm kind of stuck between two. I have two on this, but I'm going to go with the one that everybody knows I'm going to choose. I'm going to go with Deadpool. Yeah. That's a solid choice. It's just super fun. With honorable mention to his best shooting game, Johnny Mnemonic. Wow, Johnny. With the coolest toy, the glove. What's the best thing of Deadpool?
    6:02
    The whole package. It does come together as a whole package. Individually, each piece is kind of okay. you put them all together it's a brilliant machine and all that crazy music all the different themes i love what is it the um catanarama music the one that sounds like some kind of like um carnival i love that i love that i'm gonna go with the pin that everybody is gonna generally go with, with a very good shout out to Deadpool, by the way, as the close runner up for me. I'm choosing Lord of the Rings.
    6:42
    Another pin where the entire package come in together from the call outs, the sound, the music, the DMD, everything aside from kind of the generation's art back in those modern DMDs.
    6:56
    What more can you say about Lord of the Rings? It's got the mechs. It's got the flow. It's got a diverter. It's got the call-outs. Jackpot one! Jackpot two! God, I love that.
    7:10
    I was doing that at Pintastic. I was playing Lord of the Rings, and I was yelling that out. This fair is beyond any of you.
    7:23
    Run! What about Ousler? This one I did have a hard time with, because Ousler doesn't have a whole lot of games that I think are, like, absolute smashes, but he has like the most amazing B level games that is consistent across his entire career. What did you put there? Other than Wayne Nines, he probably has the most games on the list. I like, I love Dirty Harry. Yep. It's a good one. I embarrassed myself greatly during the Pintastic tournament on Dirty Harry in which everybody saw on stream because I was drinking how about how about my choice i mean come on bram stoker's dracula yes bsd it's got the mechs it's got the ramp it's got the physical ball lock it's got keanu reeves could you ask anymore it doesn't have keanu reeves it does if you buy the uh the extra plastic the extra plastics that they had removed because they didn't have the rights to his likeness is his voice in there though? I don't know. That's that weird part of his career where he's like, are you always Bill and Ted or is that how you act? Whoa. Sorry.
    8:32
    And it has great call outs. You know, 30 million. Love my bats and my rats. Love the bats and my rats.
    8:41
    Papa Duke. John Papa Duke. J-Pop. That is the easiest one. World Cup Soccer. okay okay and you're choosing that because of the rules uh i mean i'm choosing that because i think it's his best game okay shoots really great i mean striker come on how can you not like the world cup pup and the call outs again oh so good so good so good and we'll get to the call outs again that was done by uh that's tim kitsrow tim tim kitsrow we'll get to tim kitsrow again in the list here But I'm going to go Theater of Magic.
    9:19
    I love Theater of Magic. I know the rules are a little bit not that great, but it's got the pop-up cellar trunk thing. It has the turning trunk with the multiple states and the sneak and the ball in the back and the ramps and the magnets that move it off of the ramp and onto another ramp. You know the most amazing thing about that game is that pop-up, the squeak it makes is the exact same squeak on every single theater of magic i don't know how that's possible it's a design they wanted it's a design squeak so you know it's coming love me some theater of magic wonderful art package just what an awesome thing i will give honorable mention of circus voltaire yeah circus voltaire is pretty good as well but i find it it um the ball goes awry pretty easy in Circus Vault here, where Theater of Magic is just like just butter wrapped in bacon. So smooth. What about the Nordman himself?
    10:16
    Dennis Norman. For me, that's easy. It's in my basement. It is Demolition Man. Yeah, okay, because you like him wide. It not really wide I mean it is wide but it isn It the narrowest playing wide body ever made Yeah that a good one I find it grindy but I mean that kind of of the era right Those Bally Williams DMDs are kind of grindy now when you look back How is it grindy? Well, you got to shoot the ramps and you got to collect the yellow light or the orange light. And then when you do that, you shoot it up, you put it in the claw, the claw into the... It's okay. Because when I hit... Wizard modes are easy to get to. So to me, that's the opposite of grinding.
    10:57
    Well, yeah, but it's, you know, like that. Theater, imagine the same thing, right? Shoot this shot. Don't question me, Ron.
    11:06
    My Nordman. I'm going to go with something that I've played quite a bit. And I mean, you know, no, it's not obviously his Whitewater, which is frigging brilliant and all of that. Shout out to that. I'm going Elvira, House of Horrors. um i really really enjoy that game now that it is is a complete package it's all come together it's i'm not a very good pinball player so shooting uh wide open ramps is awesome those plastic ramps feel great it's got cool mechs in it the art package is unbelievable Bowl by Greg Freres.
    11:46
    And it's Lyman's last game. Lyman Sheets. And it has Torgo in it. From the famous Manos the Hands of Fate. That's the one. Manos the Hands of Fate. Okay. Steve Ritchie. This one was hard. Because there was a point where I had almost my whole collection was Steve Ritchie games. I'll pick one of the ones I still have. Getaway. Yeah, good one. So we were on our way to Pintastic, my wife and I. We stopped in Portland, Maine, and we went to Arcadia, the downtown core there, and we played the getaway. And my wife immediately went after playing her first ball. That is an awesome game. So there you go. I guess I should call it the getaway high speed part two, like the official name. it's got there zz top you take the play field from the first one you add a supercharger get some zz top in there and the coolest super jackpot call out ever i love the ball lock too on the right side donut heaven the way the ball goes up and then into it ah so good dwight sullivan's code with the blinking and the lights i better i better not hum that we might get pulled yes yeah you know what do they call that dc dmca dmca or ymca or yeah wkrp okay t2 that's my steve richie the first two flipper fan layout two ramp right to left shots absolute masterpiece do the thing on steroids into the cannon, through the skull lock, a vertical up kicker. Ah, love this game. God, I want one of these games, but I can't find one and they're fairly pricey when you find one that's not garbage. Because they're like, they made 10,000 plus of them. You think you'd be able to find, they made a ton of those games.
    13:53
    You live in a country with like three or 400 million people. Uh, yeah. Doesn't everyone? I don't. Oh. I don't. Oh. But you have the same surface area we do. You're too spread out. that's that's right that's right the same service i will say this it is funny that any game that has the left right ramp thing where it returns to you i just call it payback time no matter what game is no matter what it's called in the game i always call it payback time and the swearing rom that they put in oh with the mystery oh so much fun and i love it you just it shoots up and it pops out into the pop bumpers and it's not easy. It is difficult.
    14:31
    So awesome. Let's close it out with Pat Lawler. What's your favorite Pat Lawler? You know, I have a Pat Lawler, but I won't say it's that one.
    14:42
    I will say Whirlwind with an honorable mention to a guilty pleasure of mine, Roadshow. Roadshow? Don't tell anybody that. Let's rip some road! god i hate that i'm all worn out party time my uh my wife and i played that at pintastic and she hated it oh but i'm tell you what i'm gonna go with something very similar as my favorite pat lawler this one holds quite a glimmer within my heart no it's not dialed in that's the closest one in there. We're talking Funhaus.
    15:20
    Rudy. Rudy is awesome. The mechanics behind Rudy is amazing. The ramp is fun. The ball lock on the left side. It's got hot dogs in it.
    15:33
    I love hot dogs. Give yourself a hot dog. Into midnight he sleeps. He snores. The coding that had to go into all of that with the quivering jaw Ugh The vision of I want to shoot a weird dummy in the face Amazing Any other honorable mentions in there?
    15:55
    Among those designers? I mean, there's lots of honorable mentions, but I think I got through them all. Great. Okay. So what do you love most about pinball, Ron? Don't say me. Let's spread it out a bit. Okay. Hold on. I'll have to cross that out then. Yeah. I had Canadians is the second thing too. So I got to cross that out. Oh, well. Sorry. Keep rolling. What do I like most about pinball? That it's a physical game. Yeah. That I can also work on. You like to tinker. That was probably the initial impetus. Did I say that right? Impetus. Yeah. The initial impetus. The initial impotence. No. Oh, sorry. uh i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna say something very similar um i i very much love that it is a physical random analog experience uh as opposed to a very digital based experience so i'm a little bit younger than you ron and i've almost exclusively grown up in a digital world digital video games. You hit the A button, he always jumps. This thing always comes out from that direction at all those times when we play those games. So it being an actual physical thing with a solenoid that literally moves a device or a target is very exciting and appealing to me. It's that nostalgia of the previous world. How's that? Sounds great. I think that's it. Mm-hmm. And Ron, where can people find us if they're looking for more information, they want to hear more, and they want to join our Patreon? Well, they should just head on over to silverballchronicles.com. And that's patreon.com slash silverballchronicles. Thanks for listening to our wonderful mix of top five, which really wasn't a top five, and what we love about pinball. Enjoy yourself at Pinball Expo, everybody. And our next episode is coming out shortly. Do you want to give them a preview of what that's about, Ron? Our next episode is full of tight but findable shots. Ooh, very well done.
    18:32
    We'll be right back. Oh, I see you have stayed for the bonus episode bloopers. I'm Larry, the Chronicles AI. Hello there. Sadly there are no bloopers in this bonus episode. I'm shocked you didn't know that, Dave is pretty lazy these days. Seriously though, this was only a short episode what do you expect?
    20:08
    As you can tell by the quality, Dave didn't put much work into editing. He didn't keep anything interesting for the bloopers. Usually he keeps all the parts and edits them in. Dave even keeps that bits where Ron says terrible things about people for future use. He didn't even do that. Poor Dennis Creasel, Ron really doesn't like you. All right, go away now. There is nothing else here. Please leave.
    20:58
    necessary. VGW Group, void where prohibited by law. 21 plus. Terms and conditions apply.