coming at you out of st charles illinois the special when lit pinball podcast starts now now who says that your dreams can't come true here on episode 84 of the special when Lit Pinball Podcast. My name is Ken Cromwell. Pinball Land, my dream theme, has not only been announced, but it's now been revealed to the world. And we're going to talk a little bit about that in a second. This is a Christmas Eve recorded edition of Special Win Lit Pinball Podcast. So thanks for joining us during the holidays. Listen, I'm going to let you know right off the bat, I have so much energy today and I'm bouncing off the walls. We were supposed to record myself and Bill Webb yesterday, which was the 23rd, and I had to delay that because I was running behind. Full disclosure on that, I essentially started my Christmas shopping on December 23rd and finished my Christmas shopping on December 23rd. That's not ideal. For those of you that have ever considered doing that, I highly recommend not doing that. In any event, we were going to reschedule for today, which is the 24th, and Bill had something come up. So Bill can't make it. normally I would just say, all right, listen, no big deal. Let's just record this tomorrow, but tomorrow's Christmas, so on and so forth. So I'm going to fly solo today. My apologies to Bill and everybody else for not having the self-proclaimed dynamic duo here today. But listen, there's so much pinball news. I think if we waited a couple days, it would become stale and it wouldn't be as pertinent. So let's do this. Let's get into the pinball news. We've got a lot to cover, including a 24-hour charity fundraiser for Project Pinball Charities in which the pinball community raised over $50,000 for Project Pinball. Amazing. So thank you, Dan Spoler with Project Pinball. Thank you, Adam Schwartz. Huge dollar for dollar match out of Adam out of the New York City area. And thanks to everybody that contributed, whether it have been your time here in the studio, whether it was in chat, whether it was via a donation or just support. It ended up being it surpassed all of our expectations. But we're going to talk about that a little bit. Let's get into the pinball news. Getting the news from around the industry in this week's industry buzz. Hey, this is cause you're American pinball correspondent. American Pinball had donated a signed Houdini playfield to be used in the 24-hour charity stream and that was won by Dr. John so congratulations and also congratulations to Ken, Bill, Steve and the rest of the guys that helped out with the charity stream thank you so much guys for all the work you did to provide that money for that charity it's going to be a lot of happy kids and families being able to play some pinball thanks to you guys so thank you so much for all that hard work for that 24 hours you put into it. Thank you guys. Hi, this is Ken Rudberg with your special and lit Jersey Jack update. Seems like this week everything has been about Willy Wonka. Players have been noticing sequences of candy. Peppermints, gummy bears, lollipops, gumballs that show up on WonkaVision as the bonus counts down. Apparently you have to be pretty quick in order to capture these codes, but a player discovered a way to get into a screen to enter these so-called candy codes, and it allows for some special secret features to be unlocked in Willy Wonka. There are different call-outs, displays, and even apparently some gameplay changes based on these codes. So if you're interested, do a search for Willy Wonka candy codes. There's also been a release of a limited edition game topper, which is a Wonkatonia ship with Willy Wonka standing on the bow and a chocolate river below him with a waterfall in the background. It's got a bit of a lighting effect behind it. Not quite up to the same standards as the white water topper, but a little bit of a waterfall effect. Some players are saying that this is better than the one that was released recently on the collector's edition, but we'll leave that to you to judge. And the last bit of news on Willy Wonka is version 1.32 of the code has just been released with a few bug fixes and minor improvements, nothing too major on that. For Special Win Lit, this has been your Jersey Jack Update. Hello, and welcome to this week's Spooky Update with Dr. John. Yes, I'm excited, Ken! This week I had a long chat with Bowen, and I'm going to take some excerpts from our chat to talk about the new Rick and Morty pinball game by Spooky Pinball LLC. We had a chat about game features, game rules, and over the next couple of weeks, I will edit in some of these rules and ideas that Bowen shared with me. I hope you enjoy it, and here we go. I asked how the software development is coming along with the game, and what it would be like when it ships initially early next year. We are going to have a very good first version of the software that ships. Like, sometimes with games, you know, the game comes off the line so fast, and it's like, all right, what do we got? some bare bones version of the game and then go on from there. I'm glad that we're not going to have that. We're going to have something that's really quite nice and robust right from the go. That is primarily the credit of Eric Kripke, who is the lead programmer on this game, and also did Cactus Canine Continued. So he has experience in programming pinball machines as well as using the Python and the P3 Rock system that we use. He's been just ridiculously good at this. I also asked Bo, whether the scripting and call-outs have been complete, and he had this to say. Yes, we have custom call-outs from Justin Justin Roiland, and we've been passing them around to each other throughout the last couple of weeks, and just going like, Hey, can you hear that? That's amazing! Yeah, he does. So, I'm going to play you one of them. Maybe I'm not allowed to, but tough s***. Holy s***, you did it! Yeah! Oh, s***! Can you hear that? We have like 400 or 500 of those kinds of lines, some that are very specific to the game, of course, the modes that we're including, the shots, like, hey, shoot the scoop to start a multiball, those kinds of lines, the kind that you need in order for a player to understand what they're doing. So that's just a small taste of what Bowen had to say. I'll be talking about some more rules for the modes, the multi-balls, the multipliers and shots on the next update. anticipate a stream of the gameplay in the coming few weeks though hope you all have a lovely christmas and i'll be chatting to you again early in the new year bye bye chris chandler here your deep root correspondent deep root dropped an early christmas gift as they flipped the switch to their new website focused on their march 25th 2020 unveiling including a countdown to the launch event on the website is a schedule for the launch event a means to request access to the event as well as the ability to request access to the quote-unquote VIP room at TPF. Note, this launch event is for distributors, vendors, and media types only. Luckily, however, there will be some sessions that will be live-streamed for all to see. These include the launch presentation, launch presentation Q&A, and a live Raza playthrough by Steven Bowden. Other sessions like electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, game design, and sales will be available for all to see later on demand. I, for one, hope to see a healthy amount of hashtag hammer on display at the mechanical engineering session. It is important to note that the launch schedule is primarily focused on all of the technology and innovation we've heard about over all the years. So for those hoping to get a list of launch pins, you'll have to wait a few days longer for TPF, where undoubtedly DeepRoot will be looking to make a splash. That does it for your Deep Root Update. Back to you in the studio. Oh, hey, Chris, you caught me off guard a little bit. Thanks for that Deep Root Update. Let's send it over to Craig Bobby covering Stern Pinball in Stranger Things. Stranger Things arrives, and oh my God, Stranger Things arrives. Or as our own Dr. John would say, Stranger Things. It is here. Well, after months of hype and speculation, the long-rumored arrival of Stranger Things is finally here, sending the entire pinball community into an upside-down Christmas frenzy. Not only did Stern decide to take on a very current and popular license and hire one of the most respected and well-known pinball designers in Brian Eddy, Stern also went so far as to make finished units available to buyers at distributors' warehouses all over the world and at public locations on the day the title was officially announced, making this an extraordinary feat and a first in the pinball world. Yes, by the time you are hearing this, you should be able to go out and either buy or play this machine at a major city center near you. I can only pray that those 80s style laser sound effects heard in the teaser video are actually going to be in the game, because dudes, it has been way too long since we've heard those sounds in modern pinball. The only other thing that remains to be seen now is how long can Ken Cromwell last without going all in on his dream theme title, and will Bill Webb be able to talk him off the ledge before he descends into the upside down to do battle with the Demogorgon and save the day? We shall wait and see. I'm Craig Bobby. Catch you on the flip side. So there you have it. Stranger Things is here. Now, if you've been listening to this podcast, I can almost remember from like the first couple months of us that had started, you know, when starting this show. And we started the show in July of 2018. So we're about 18 months in. I can remember talking about when themes would come up, dream themes of mine, Stranger Things had always been my number one dream theme. And Brian Eddy being one of my favorite pinball designers, I was thinking to myself, if I could have a perfect storm of pinball, it would be Brian Eddy on Stranger Things. And guess what happens, guys? It's Brian Eddy who does Stranger Things. Now, the announcement came last week or a few days ago that, hey, this is a real thing. It's going to happen. and there was a lot of rumors as far as what the machine was going to actually feature and how the gameplay was going to be, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So this is what we know obviously for sure by now is that you've got Brian Eddy who designed the game. You have Mike Vinokur, you've got Lonnie D. Ropp, and you have Brian Eddy, the three of them combining to make the code, to program this game. So I find that interesting that you've got three guys where Mike Vinokur basically is saying that it's been an equal distribution and a think tank. And there's been some, some, some talks and negotiations to find out what goes in, what comes out of the game. So that's exciting. When I'm looking at this game and I first see the pictures of it, you know, I immediately think that I liked that pro art package. There's something about it. It calls the season one. Now the game's going to cover season one and season two. I'm not going to deep dive stranger things. I think if you've gone to the other news outlets, if you go into this week in pinball, If you've listened to any of the other podcasts that have covered the specifics, it's not really in my best interest to do so because it becomes monotonous. So let's just get my feedback. And I would love to hear your feedback on this game. If you get a chance, hit us up on Facebook. It's Special Inlet Pinball Podcast. You can email us, too. It's Special Inlet Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. That's right. It's the shortest name in pinball podcast emails. So anyways, I'm looking at the game. And so the stream starts last night, and it started at 7 o'clock. Now, typically, it's Monday at 7 o'clock. We're streaming for Flip N Out Pinball, right? It's Monday Night Pinball. But we got to take the night off, and we got to kind of take in Stranger Things. And the first thing you see is you've got Brian Eddy there who's walking us through the pin. You've got Mike Vinikour there who's walking us through the pin. And I was wondering which version they were going to stream because the premium LE version of the game features a projector that's underneath the apron that can change the graphical displays on certain objects of the play field, like targets and ramps, which, assuming it works well, would be a very innovative thing for pinball. Now, we didn't see that last night, and it's because they streamed the Pro. The Pro doesn't feature the projector. And I can completely understand why. Now, there's been some that's like, well, that was a big miss. that Stern went ahead and they took their biggest feature that they've been touting as innovation within a pinball machine and they didn't display it on the stream. Now, when you think about how would you actually really display a projected image from an overhead view on a stream and be able to do it justice? You're looking at like a 90 degree angle that you're just not going to be able to capture. The other thing is like lighting conditions, I'm sure, would need to be ideal to get the perfect amount of display from the projector displaying it on targets and ramps. And when you're streaming, you're going to need some, usually some type of overhead lighting, whether it be lighting outside of the machine or pin stadiums, just so that you can get, you know, a quality image so that people can consume that while watching it on TV without watching a dark play field and trying to track a ball. It just doesn't make any sense. So to be able to try to keep the play field dark so that you can see the projector, I just don't know how that would really ever play well on a stream you'd almost have to drop the camera angle to more of a player's perspective so that you can get a front-on look at what the projector is showing you so i don't know that that we'll see that premium stream streamed by stern and to be very honest i don't blame them for not doing so if i was stern pinball and just kind of knowing what i think i know on how that would work and i've got a little bit of streaming experience I don't think that I would have streamed it. The risk versus reward is not there because if it doesn't play well on stream because you're not capturing the view from the player standpoint, then that projector that is supposed to be, you know, the highly touted innovative piece of innovation on the premium LE, it's not selling itself. So you've missed that opportunity to convince your audience. It seems to me that you going to have to step up in front of a machine to kind of experience what that all about As I digress getting back into the gameplay A couple things that I noticed There were things that I liked and things that I didn like regarding the Stranger Things reveal And immediately what I did seem to like is I do like I think I like the layout Because I'm going to say this also. I've always been a person that says that I don't know that it's in your best interest to base a buying decision on a new game that you haven't played because of what you've seen on a pinball stream. And it's of no fault of the streamer or the stream. It's just you might be doing yourself an injustice by not getting in front of a game and having that experience and having the game played in front of yourself. In fact, sometimes you'll play a game and you'll be in front of a pinball machine and you still don't really capture it because you're not able to kind of take everything in. For instance, when I played Elvira's House of Horrors at Expo, it didn't really wow me as much as it did when I played it in a controlled environment at home, and I really got a chance to capture the audio. So take away not only the audio but the physical experience of playing the pinball machine and just basing a decision on a stream. For me, it doesn't work. Now, for those of you that might be more of a seasoned veteran as far as making decisions, maybe it does work. But anyways, I liked how the game flowed. some people are comparing it to other layouts a fan layout is a fan layout a fan layout basically your shots from the flippers will encompass the the play field going from left uh center and right in a fan type of a uh in a fan type of a shape right listen the reason that there's a lot of fan layouts and pinball is because a fan layout works and if it's not broke you don't necessarily need to fix it not every machine has to go ahead and create crazy shots that break away from the stereotypical fan layout. Now, I know with Brian Eddy in general, or specifically with Brian Eddy, two of his three pins that are, you know, Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars, that are what most people will consider maybe some of the, like, top five pins of all time are fan layouts. They're very similar, and it's because that layout works. Now, just because something is a fan layout doesn't mean it's going to shoot identically as the last fan layout. So you have to take that into consideration. I personally, I enjoy the fan layout because again, it's been proven and it works. And when we do see something that's outside of the box of a fan layout, it makes you kind of appreciate that even a little bit more. But I, again, I thought the, I thought the pin from what I was looking at on the stream shot well. I, uh, I did like the animations for the most part. And when I'm looking on the screen and I'm kind of seeing what Chuck Ernst and team is doing over there to capture the series and putting it on a screen, I enjoyed it. It was evident to me that whenever they did any type of original graphics, they tried to stay true to like an 80s-type theme, and that worked for me. Now, were the 80s-type themes exactly tied into the movie Stranger Things or to the series Stranger Things? I mean, that's up for debate, but you definitely got the feel that you had an 80s vibe going on with their graphics. And even as something as simple as the replay graphic when it came up, It just screamed 80s to me, and I really, really enjoyed that. The shots looked like you would expect them to be on a Brian Eddy game. Fast, furious. Now, the big focus is trying to get the center screen to come down, which creates a very wide ramp, and that allows you to kind of shoot the ball into the Demogorgon's mouth. And that was a concern for me because that ramp looked so large, so wide, and the target in which you're able to hit, which is the Demogorgon's mouth, looked so small. I was wondering immediately if that was going to become frustrating or almost an impossible shot. But it seemed like those guys were making that shot with consistency last night. So that kind of like allowed me to kind of relax a little bit and not be as worried as I was when I first kind of saw that, the pictures when they had come out. Now, a couple of things that I wasn't really particularly thrilled about. and it's, well, one, it's going to be the code version was very early code. And at some point it was asked in chat if they could let us know what version code was running and the reply simply was the version of code that we're running is the version of code that we're running, which I kind of thought was a little bit unfair. And the reason that I'm saying that is because of this. Now, listen, I understand that a version of code doesn't necessarily mean how far you are within the completion of a game. For instance, if a code is, say, a pinball machine, and I think this game launched or is being shipped with version 0.62, okay? 0.62, in comparison to version 1.0, doesn't mean that the game is 62% coded. I get it. But we can kind of look at games that have come out previously and get an idea of how far along the code is based on on what it's launched with. Now, point six two is very bare bones code, especially lately with what we're used to. I was a little disappointed that it launched with point six two. And I think the point six two was very evident when you were watching on the stream, at least. And what I mean by that is that the game has got a lot on it. It's got a lot left in which it can progress to a version 1.0, whether it be the modes. Callouts were virtually not there. So the sound was kind of like, all right, you know that that's going to be adjusted. You know that that's going to be added on. You're going to see more assets coming into the game. I would hope that in the future, I guess 0.62 is not where I want to see a machine come out at. And there's pros and cons to that. When you get a game with .62 code, you know that you're going to have the experience and the thrill of being able to update the machine and see something added. So you're going to kind of see the progression of the pin from start to which would be finished. But the frustrating thing is from a user standpoint, and just to take Elvira's House of Horrors at this point, which is that version, I think .89 just released recently within the last day or two. I mean, there's just a point in the game at .88 where there's nothing else that you can do because the code isn't there. So at .65, it makes you wonder just how far you're going to be able to get into it or how much you're missing with the full experience of the pin. And I think for some, that is a buying deterrent where you don't want to buy a pin, not knowing where it's going to go. And with it being in such like an infantile stage of progression, that would hold some people back. Now, with this being Stranger Things, it's not going to hold me back. because I'm ready to jump in and get a Stranger Things, but now I have to wonder, do I want to get a pro, or do I want to get a premium? The premium, to me, seems like it's the cool buy, right? Because you want to get the projector, and you want to get the magnetic ball lock, which is on the backboard, which can hold three balls up there, simulating kind of L's telekinesis powers. But if the projector, for some reason, is a miss, and what I mean by that, If it's just something that's a cool concept but isn't as well executed as we expect, I can see not wanting to jump into that premium package and just settling with the Pro, which could be an already pretty solid shooting game. The concern I have with the premium is that in order for you to have a projected image, you have to kind of project on a white or a gray backdrop or screen. I mean, that's going to be what's going to display colors the best. and on the premium le package when the game is turned off the main shot which is the big screen that's in the middle is simply white the ramps are white the targets are white because there's not an image being projected it's not the most aesthetically pleasing pin to walk up to if it's off in all fairness most of the time if you're walking up to a pinball machine it's because it's on and you're getting ready to play it so that wouldn't be as much of a big deal but the other thing that I wonder too, like with, with projectors and projected images, I've owned projectors for home theaters over the years. And, uh, I am very OCD about making sure that the picture is aligned perfectly with the projector screen and that you're not, you're not bleeding too far into your border areas. I wonder if there's an adjustment that needs to take place, uh, when you get that projector set up or if it can come out of whack and you need to kind of fine tune it so that it's displaying properly. But those are all fun things for me to worry about, I suppose, as the pros are now out. So all in all, I think that what I took away from watching the game on the stream is that it kind of reminds me of a modern day medieval madness slash attack from Mars type of machine. It doesn't have the main toy that you would have expected as far as the experience of shooting that main toy that you would have on an attack from Mars, which is the ship, or Medieval Madness, which is the castle. I think there's the trade-off there to have visual graphics on that screen, which will then come down and make a ramp and then shoot that ball in the Demogorgon's mouth. I think what also will be adjusted or can be addressed is that it seems like there's a lot of, there's some buildup to get to that shot. And what I mean by that is you're doing what you need to do in order to lower that ramp and then we always consider the pinball moments now when that ramp lowers and the demogorgon is there and his mouth is open and your goal is to get that ball there's some play in the ramp there so you have to really hit the ramp at at the angle in which you need to get it to center to go into the demogorgon's mouth that should be a pinball moment right so there's there's some play there and you're going to have to really really fine-tune your shot and to be able to do that you should be rewarded. And when I saw that shot being hit on stream last night, it just didn't seem like there was a pinball moment or really like a reward for that. And I don't mean like a reward in points. I just mean like in a reward, like a satisfying reward. Nothing's more frustrating to me than getting into a mode, into a game, and then you complete the mode, but you just really don't feel good about completing the mode. You feel like you could have taken it or left it. I like to know, I want the machine to be like, hey, man, you did it. That's awesome. Great job. And so let me let me blink some lights and shake the machine and give you some audio feedback like that's what I like to see. And I didn't see that necessarily last night. And again, which is OK, because we're at a very early version of code. But, you know, going back to the code, I do wish that that was explained. And maybe it was later in the in the stream. I only watched the stream for an hour, but but I wish they were a little bit more transparent and reassuring that, hey, this code's got a long way to go, and we are literally at point version 6.2 or 6.5 or whatever it was. I think it would have just been a little transparency there wouldn't have been horrible. Again, they may have discussed that, and I didn't hear it. So I'm just kind of speaking from what I took in for my first hour of watching the game. I think one other thing that might be slightly concerning is that I know that on the premium, the projector is going to give you the ambience of you being within the upside down, and on the pro, I didn't really notice any type of lighting effects or GI manipulation that would let you know that you were in the upside down. And if that doesn't progress, I think that's going to be a huge miss because the upside down, the machine needs to change. As far as I know, there's no RGB lighting. You can't fade that out to like a green effect. But I would like to see some strobing of the inserts of the flashers or give us like a random lightning type effect and let us know that we're in the upside down so that when we get out of there, we also realize that there was a transition there too. So all in all, am I happy? Am I sad? Am I disappointed? Am I, what's my feelings on this pinball machine? And guys, listen, I'm excited about this because I see the potential with the game. And I think as the three of these guys further the code, I think we're going to really see something. We're going to see something different. And we're going to see the pin kind of, you know, progress and mature. And I just really hope that the focus is going to be on the pinball moments. I hope that they're able to tie in some more of the show. I noticed there were some comments that I was reading where people were a little bit disappointed that it seemed like it focused on a very dark, stranger things. Dark not meaning the lighting effects, but dark meaning the more serious, sinister parts of the show versus some of the lighthearted humor. and I don't have a problem with that either. Where the charm of the show is the kids being kids in an 80s era, you know, battling monsters and there's some humor there. I don't mind like kind of the darker aspect of Stranger Things, it's creepy. As soon as I hear that theme music and you heard it when we opened up the show with it, that just gives me goosebumps and it just makes me think about what I'm going to experience. And if the theme music can do that for me without anything else, there's no reason why this game can't play off of that and just transform me into a world in which I would love to be able to just hang out in and just experience Stranger Things as a whole. So I'm excited about it. I think what is going to happen is we should have a Stranger Things here maybe by Friday with today being Tuesday, Christmas Eve, Wednesday's Christmas, Thursday, Friday would be here. So we would have that set up over the weekend and then Monday night pinball, we'd be playing Stranger Things. And as Clark W. Griswold once said, Eddie, if I were to wake up tomorrow morning with my head sewn to the carpet, I would not be any more surprised than I am right now. And that's kind of how I feel. So excited for it. Thank you, Stern Pinball. Thank you, Stern Pinball and team. This is my dream theme. Let's hope that it reaches its fullest potential. And I'm going to be happy to kind of revisit this on a regular basis without driving everybody absolutely crazy. With all things considered, that if this game ultimately doesn't get to where I wish that it will get, I will have no problem expressing why I think it was a miss for me. Right now, I can only go off my feelings towards the theme, and maybe that will cause me to have a little bit of initial bias, and pictures and video assets and a pinball stream, And if you add all those up together, I think that only gives me about 50% of the picture. So let's see where that goes. All right so let talk a little bit about Deep Root because Deep Root recently as you heard Chris Johnson discuss I mean they basically have launched their pinball website They ready to go They given some specific dates for another attempt at a reveal for the company Now, if you remember last year, Texas Pinball Festival was supposed to be, I believe, the conclusion of the five days of Deep Root, in which we were going to see this company give us more information about what they're offering. We were supposed to see some pinball machines that they were manufacturing. and then if everything went well, we were going to be able to order some games within a few weeks after that launch, I believe. That didn't happen, and there were some statements that were made that were later withdrawn and now adjusted. They've redone their timeline, and they've gone, for the lack of a better term, they've gone all in on this year's Texas Pinball Festival for a full company reveal, which is going to take place on the Wednesday prior to TPF. This excites me because if I mean, I'm just putting myself in Robert's shoes. There's no way that I would have set myself up last year and not be able to fulfill doing what I had promised or doing what I with what I suggested I was going to do with the company reveal and then have that not work out and then set myself up for the exact same mishap the following year. It just doesn't make any sense. So by them kind of making these statements and putting everything live and having a very specific itinerary for a couple days down in San Antonio, Texas, that must mean to me that everything's in order as best as it can be right now. And there's 100 percent confidence that they're going to be able to show the world what's going on at Deep Root. So I wish those guys the best of luck. I've been talking Deep Root since I can remember and where they've absolutely had their ups and downs. I've always been kind of supportive of their efforts because I don't think there's anything wrong with having a new company come in the pinball and create a little bit more competition. Maybe push the envelope in some ways so that so that people can maybe aspire to do a little bit more. I don't know what it's going to look like as far as pricing on games, this, that, the other thing. But I think we're going to have a much better idea as we get closer to TPF on that Wednesday prior. So assuming we get down to TPF this year, it'd be nice to kind of see what's happening. I'm sure they're going to have a presence at TPF if you're not able to get or you're not invited into the launch event on Wednesday. I guess the way they have it set up is there is an invitation that can be approved or denied based on your request for access for that Wednesday. But on the flip side of things, they are also offering live streaming for some of this stuff. So if you're not able to make it down, you can still kind of experience the company and how it's being presented to the public via live stream. So I think that's that's pretty awesome. So we'll see what happens with Deep Root. Robert and team, good luck. I've been rooting for you, so let's do it this time. In other news, Rick and Morty, guys. All right, so this is what's going on with Rick and Morty. And Dr. John, I think it's hilarious because I was poking a little fun at him last week where he was essentially saying how excited he was for a game, and it sounded as if he couldn't have been more calm and bored in his entire life. But that was just kind of his demeanor. He's a cool cucumber. I love Dr. John. So this week, he jumps into the news with a little more enthusiasm and reassures me that he's excited for Rick and Morty. But guess what, guys? I'm excited for Rick and Morty. When this thing was announced, I was like, yeah, well, good for Spooky. That's pretty cool. Like, I've heard of Rick and Morty. I don't know anything about Rick and Morty. Cartoon theme, awesome. I hope it works out for those guys. Am I really going to be waiting in line to get a Rick and Morty pin? Nah, like, I could take it or leave it. And this must be how Bill Webb feels when I'm talking about Stranger Things for all these years because he's never seen the show. For him, it would have to be a pinball machine that performs well on every other level minus the theme for him to be interested. And I get it. And now I kind of understand because what has happened since they've introduced Rick and Morty, Scott Denisey and Spooky Pinball's next offering, is that I started watching Rick and Morty. And I was told a few things. I was told, listen, this show gets better season from season. So if season one doesn't really call to you, don't sweat it because season two gets better. And if season two you start kind of liking it, that's great because season three is going to be better than two. And I got to say, guys, that's exactly what has happened. Season one I kind of picked up, and I liked most of the episodes. It was new. It was kind of fresh. It was an entertainment experience that I had not really ever seen before because it's just so all over the place. But there was a point where I was binge-watching these episodes in Season 1 where it was almost too much for me. I was like, wow, all right, enough is enough here. I've got to chill out. Season 2 I finally got into, and Season 2 was great. There were more episodes that I enjoyed. There was never an episode that I did not enjoy, but there were some that really called to me more than others. Now I'm in season three and I'm just getting ready to wrap up season three. I'm so much more excited for the theme Rick and Morty now than I probably than I definitely ever would have been had I not went back to watch the episodes. If for whatever reason you think that you might be in on a Rick and Morty or you might be a spooky pinball supporter wanting to get their next game but haven't seen the show. Or you're a Scott Danesi guy because you loved TNA and you want to support him on a second effort. or if it's any combination of these three things, and you are on the fence about trying to now get a sold-out Rick and Morty because they're gone, but if you have bought a pin and you're just not excited about it but you haven't seen the show, and when I say not excited about it, you're obviously excited because you have a pinball machine that's on order, but if you're not as enthused about the theme and you're relying on gameplay, do yourself a favor, jump on Hulu, watch Rick and Morty seasons one, two, and three. For me, it's become like a nightly treat for me to kind of watch these shows. The writing is awesome. The show is really, really good. And now I'm like, man, that Fang Club membership that I should have jumped into and I should have put a deposit down on a Rick and Morty and I missed out. So what's going to end up happening to me now is I'm going to be the guy on the secondhand market looking for Rick and Morty to come out. and I just don't think it's going to be easy to get secondhand, especially for that first six to eight months. I mean, the big thing is people want these games early, and when you get that game early, do you want to get rid of it early? Because they're still being made, and there's people still wanting it. So I don't know, man. I can't get into a – I can't pay a ton of money over asking price for a game that's been played, but I missed it. Here's hoping that one falls into my lap at some point, and I'm able to take advantage of it because, listen, I am all three of these guys. I am a guy that had never watched the show, but now that I have, I love it. I am a spooky pinball supporter because I think Chuck and his family do a great thing for pinball. And I am a Scott Danesi supporter because he's a personal buddy of mine. And that guy's going out of his way to help me a few times. And, you know, I hope at some point I can repay him. And by supporting what he's doing is like an easy way for me to kind of do so. So get out there. Now, you heard Dr. John talk with Bowen Kerins. and uh listen it's very evident to me that bowen is loving this theme too now i've never had a conversation with bowen about rick and morty but i can just tell by the way that he's talking and he's laughing and when he's playing the uh the sound clips uh he's having a good time and when you got a guy okay that's on a team and you've heard this spoken about in pinball with whether it be a designer or programmer you want guys that are passionate about the theme in which they're creating content for. And it's obvious to me that Bowen is passionate about it. And what does that mean to me? That means that this is a guy that it's got a very creative mind that's going to help with the creative rule set. You've got Eric Prepkey over there who coded Cactus Canyon continued, right? This guy's writing rules and he's writing code with Bowen and team over there. You've got Denise over there who is like this. He's kind of like a mad scientist. Actually, Denise is like somebody that would be out of Rick and Morty. Like you would go to another dimension and you would meet somebody like Scott Denisey who will have already created something else that, that they were learning about. Like I can totally see the time. This is a perfect theme for pinball. And when you start watching these episodes, you're going to realize why the show can take you anywhere at any time for any reason. And to be able to have that at your disposal in a pinball machine in a game, it doesn't get any better than that. So I'm super pumped for this. I hope to see the game flipping soon and a good luck to spooky and team Scott and everybody over there, Bo and Eric, everybody that's on that pinball machine. I think you guys could not have picked a better theme for this next game. So Jersey Jack Pinball, people are trying to figure out and decipher these candy codes which can be entered and it alters the gameplay or displays a message or an audio clip. I love this. I've always been somebody that's been very appreciative of Easter eggs. And flipper codes are, if you don't know what a flipper code is, Flipper code is simply during a track mode of a pinball machine, track mode. For those of you that don't know what a track mode is, that's just when the game, you're not in a game. The game's just kind of displaying stuff on a screen or a DMD in between games. You can hit flippers in certain patterns, and it'll make the game do certain things. I love Easter eggs and back glasses and artwork where you can kind of search around. and you can find something that's not out there that you would normally see. It's kind of hiding in plain sight. So to have kind of flipper codes or candy codes I think is a really cool and a fun way for Joe Katz and team over there to kind of give you a little extra within the pin. You've got that new topper now with Wonka, which, you know what, good. I haven't seen the new topper in person. My only real kind of – and, again, I've always said you don't play the topper. So if the topper's a complete dud, it's not a deal-breaker for me as far as like buying a pinball machine. But would I pay extra for a topper that was a dud? No. But when you're getting into these collector edition pins, these super LEs or signature LEs, you want to make sure that if a topper is being featured as a benefit, that it should actually benefit you. Like you should feel as if you had benefited because the topper was there. And some of these toppers don't look as appealing as others. This second effort at this Wonka topper with this waterfall seems like it's going to be more appealing for those that are in there. So that's good. And then finally, Kaz with American Pinball. Thanks, buddy, for talking about the charity stream, because I do want to transition into the charity stream right now. And for those of you that had an opportunity to watch the charity stream, it was 24 hours, right? We started Saturday at six or I'm sorry, we started Friday at six. We went to Saturday at six. There were a lot of moments that happened over 24 hours. You don't realize how long 24 hours can be, even when you're playing pinball and talking pinball until you're kind of like, I imagine at a 24 hour sanctum tournament. I don't know how those guys do that. That's amazing. The way that it worked out for me. And again, the initiative for us was to raise $24,000 in 24 hours and give all the proceeds to project pinball charities, project pinball. They place pinball machines in children's hospitals throughout the nation. They've already placed, I think like 46 pinball machines in hospitals throughout the nation. It breaks down to about $8,000 is what it takes for them to get a game from a manufacturer, bring it in, set it up to make sure it's kind of bulletproof before it goes out to the hospital. And then it's placed at the hospital, and it's insured, and then they maintain the game, swap games if they need to. So there's a whole elaborate effort to get something into a children's hospital. So by us raising $24,000, it would have given three games in three different hospitals, which would have been great. Adam Schwartz, you heard him on the podcast. Last week, he came in. He's like, Ken, this is awesome. I love Project Pinball, and I think it's cool what you're doing. Let me dollar for dollar match. So every dollar that came in became $2, two became four, so on and so forth. So we started the stream up on Friday night. Now, listen, for those of you who are like, oh, my gosh, we already know what happened. I don't need to hear about what happened. I don't need a recap. Fine. But there are a couple of cool stories that I wanted to tell you guys instead of me talking about the fundraiser like meticulously because I can understand where after 24 hours, believe me, I don't want to relive 24 hours as fun as it was. That's something that I'm happy to kind of, you know, put in my rear view mirror as we get into Christmas. But Friday night, OK, came in, we fired up the stream. So guess who comes in Friday? Right. So we had Ryan White comes in from Chicago Gaming Company and it was good seeing Ryan. Steve Ritchie comes in, which was cool. Good seeing Steve Ritchie. Scott Danesi then shows up. Then Eric Minier shows up. Then Keith P. Johnson shows up. So at one point on the stream, OK, we have Scott Danesi sitting down with Eric Minier. Now, Scott Danesi, you know, he did TNA and Rick and Morty. Eric Minier sitting at the table who did Pirates of the Caribbean. And, you know, he's been with Jersey Jack for a while and then you also had Steve Ritchie sitting down at the same table uh so and Ryan White from CCC so you had four pinball companies all kind of in the same conversation at the same time now people that were in chat and then the feedback I got later they really enjoyed the banter back and forth between Scott D'Anesi, Steve Ritchie, and Eric Minier because you kind of had you had the king of pinball right the master of flow talking to two of the new young bucks that are coming up in pinball scott as uh has always been on record as saying that Steve Ritchie is like was so influential uh to him when getting into pinball and as a designer and uh and you got Eric Meunier there it was really an unbelievable thing to see um and then scott surprises us right because we had donation items that were donated by the manufacturers and uh which was awesome scott comes in and surprises us and he's like uh he's like hey uh myself and chuck is spooky we wanted to bring this he brings in the prototype rick and morty back glass okay back glass not not it wasn't a translate it was an actual back glass from spooky pinball and they auctioned it off that night live while scott was here it raised uh 750 donation which was then matched by adam schwartz so that back glass raises like 1500 bucks Eric Meunier here eric plucks the pirates of the caribbean whitewood number two off of his wall okay now whitewood number two has a lot of different uh insert placements and and it a different play field than what went to the production game It got notes by Eric on the play field When we auctioned off that night, a dollar for dollar match, just a very personal thing that he brings, which was killer. Steve Ritchie walks in and he's like, Hey, he's like, I got these Lord of the Rings, a Lannister laser cut rails at the first ones that came off. It took me a hundred hours to design these. Uh, we auctioned those off. Uh, Joe Fox won those. And then Steve kind of signed it to Joe and live on stream. It was amazing to see these guys and their generosity. And I wanted to thank not only the guys that were in for the stream, but like the pinball manufacturers that donated. Stern donated a couple of translates, Elvira and Jurassic Park, with like 10 or 11 signatures on each one of those items. Jersey Jack Pinball donated a Willy Wonka playfield that was signed by the staff. You had American Pinball donated a Houdini playfield signed by staff. Deep Root Pinball, a Raza play field that was signed by their staff. And all these items, CGC came in. And the CGC was an amazing thing, too, because they had a Monster Bash sample play field that was black and white, but it had inserts in it, but they used that one single play field to line up all their registration for their color screens. And it's the only one of its kind. That went for like $1,000, and it raised $2,000 with Adam Schwartz's dollar-for-dollar match. So, I mean, it was really fun to kind of see these people come in with these items. and have them auction them all off for a good cause. Keith P. Johnson was great. Keith told so many stories that Friday night on the stream that it was just so awesome. We went into Saturday. Jason Fowler comes in from Slap Safe Pinball Podcast, and Jason was here Friday as well. Listen, there are things that I can say about each and every single person that came in for that charity fundraiser, and I could talk to you about each one of these individuals for hours and hours and hours, just with the relationship that I have with them outside of that fundraiser and with my how appreciative I was for them to be here that night. But I specifically wanted to mention Jason Fowler for him coming in. He comes in on Friday. You know, the guy drives in five and a half hours or whatever from St. Louis. He sits down at the table, which allowed me to kind of step away and get a break. And he ran the ship here seamlessly with no issues like any professional would. And he kept conversation going. He had a follow up questions. He just drove the train and just a very close friend of mine, a complete professional. And the stream would have not been as as energized and as organized if Jason was not here. So, Jason, thank you very, very, very, very much. That was awesome. And I owe you a big one, buddy. And I'm glad that you were able to help out because guess what? He comes back in on Saturday and he runs things for a few hours to Saturday was great. We had so Saturday was was a little bit different because as we got into like the the graveyard shift, Bill had to go home. So I think it was me and BD for the most part, from like one o'clock to five o'clock. Zach many had to come in. Zach was here like around 1030 to like two or three. Always fun seeing Zach. The nice thing with Zach is, you know, we are like hours into the stream and we're kind of getting tired. Zach comes in and he's after being all over the place for all day. He's just energy intense. It was awesome. So he kind of spruces everything up. It's always good working with that guy because there's never a dull moment and he's going to keep you energized. So thank you, Zach, for coming in and helping us with that. And he had business in the area. So he's running pinball machines all over the place. busiest guy in pinball, I can say, with the exception of the pinball employees that are designing and programming, this guy's the busiest guy that's not on a pinball payroll. How about that? So anyways, so overnight shift, we had a buddy of mine came in, his name's Sean, and he brought his son, Ollie. So they stopped in for an hour. His son, Ollie, comes in and brings in a $10 bill that, and Sean had made two other donations also but but ollie comes in and he brings in a ten dollar bill that he broke out of his piggy bank because he wanted to support project pinball so that 10 bucks went to a 2020 uh 20 dollar dollar for dollar match i thought it was it was real classy uh move especially from a kid that that's that young to take a ten dollar bill and bring it in like 10 bucks when you're at that age and you know he's under 10 years old um that's a pretty significant amount of money so that was uh that was a pretty cool moment in the stream uh then we the maniacs come in from playfield scott drager and Dave Fulger, and they came in and they filled time for a couple hours. And it was funny. Dave comes in dressed as Santa Claus, and it got a little bit weird towards the end. There were some drinks flowing. Scott Drager was always very reserved and very in control, and Dave was kind of letting loose, having a good time. And at one point, he started telling everybody about how koala bears are carriers of chlamydia while he's in the Santa outfit. So that's when I was like, okay, we're going to transition those guys. So Scott and Dave, they took off, but those guys supported the stream, came in, made a huge donation, which was awesome. And Dave was in chat like the whole 24 hours, it seemed like, so it was good to have support there. I had two more friends that stopped in Saturday morning. That was Joe Katz, one of the lead programmers of Jersey Jack Pinball. He jumps in, and he's playing Elvira's House of Horrors. I thought it was really interesting to see a JJP employee jump up onto a Stern machine and for the first time play it and kind of see his initial feedback was awesome. And then our good friend Dwight Sullivan, who had been in Australia for a couple weeks, comes in. He's still fighting off jet lag. Listen, Dwight's my guy. Like, personally, I have, like, a nice spot in my heart for the big guy. And he came in, and both of those guys spent so much time in here talking to our next guests that had come in. Then we had – so Roger Sharp comes in on Saturday, and he's sitting down with Ryan Kuyper from TurboGrafx-7 on Twitch, Dave Jeff Brenner, TurboGrafx-7 on Twitch, and Jason Fowler. And it was cool having those four together again because those four guys, they streamed at Expo during the Epic Expo media stream. And they were streaming Cyclops up there, which was a Roger Sharp design. So it was cool having those guys together. And then at the end of the night, we had our St. Charles pinball crew comes in. All those guys came in. We made a donation to the stream. And at the end of the stream, our $24,000 goal, we ended up tabulating everything. And we ended up going over $50,000. So $50,000 donation to Project Pinball for everybody's efforts was unbelievable. The one guy that I wanted to wait until the end to really – well, two guys. One is going to be Bill Webb, my podcast partner. Bill, I love you, buddy. Like I know his schedule is so messed up right now between work and having a colicky baby. And I know himself and his wife are really trying to juggle the schedule to make sure they both keep their sanity and keep their child, you know, without giving it away. I'm just kidding. But it was, am I kidding though, Bill? I'm kidding. But it was good having him in here. He made time to come in for a few hours on Friday and he closed the stream out with us on Saturday. And Bill, I don't know that like without us having 18 months under our belt and establishing a little bit more credibility within the pinball industry, I don't know that a $24,000 or $50,000 goal for a pinball stream would have made sense, but it worked out and I absolutely appreciate it. but I absolutely wanted to single out this guy because, I mean, he's really stepped up as of late, and he's always been a good friend of myself and Bill's and our St. Gerald's pinball crew, and that is Mr. Steve Beattie. Steve does anything that's asked of him as a favor and never blinks twice. He's always offering to help. The guy's bringing machines over here. He's taking machines out of here because we were going to swap games in and out during the stream. We ended up playing Elvira for all 24 hours. That game held up like a champ, by the way, ladies and gentlemen. We put two or 300 plays on Elvira and not one issue with the game. So for those of you that are concerned about how is it going to hold up, it holds up pretty awesome. But, Steve, thank you, man. You were great. You were entertaining on the stream. I always knew that if I couldn't be here for whatever reason that you were there. And it was just very comforting, buddy. So for those of you that are friends, I especially want to let you absolutely know about Chicken Steve and who goes on all of our pinball adventures. Thank you, Steve. Definitely owe you one, buddy. That's awesome. Now, people are asking, what will you do next year for this 24-hour stream? And the answer is simple. I don't know that we do this again next year. So this is what I'm going to ask, and I think this might be kind of fun. We are asking for somebody else. We want to pass the torch to someone else, meaning if you thought that it was a fun time to do the charity fundraiser and we saw the whole pinball community chip in. Thank you so very much, Pinball Land, for chipping in, whether it was time in chat, support before, during, or after the stream, a financial donation, et cetera. I mean, none of this is possible without you guys doing that. That's huge. If you are looking to carry this stream on, talk to me. Let me help you and give you some ideas of what we encompass and things that we would change for next year. And I would love for somebody to try to pick this up next year and try to beat the $50,000. Now, if there are no takers, because I understand it, it's a big commitment and it's an undertaking, Special One Lit will retain the fundraiser, but I think what we'll probably do is make it a 12-hour fundraiser. And I think we'll go like 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and try to raise money for machines. 24 hours was a little bit longer than I thought, but I thought everybody that was here did a great job. And then super finally, Superman Adam Schwartz from New York City. This guy made everything that we dreamed twice the outcome, and that was with his dollar-for-dollar match. Such a super nice guy. I'm proud to now be able to call Adam a friend of mine. I had never met him before this charity fundraiser started, but to get to know that guy a little bit more on a personal level over the last couple weeks and to see what he was willing to contribute to Project Pinball Charity and back us up with the fundraiser, because this is what happens, guys. You don't have that dollar-for-dollar match. It doesn't mean the fundraiser doesn't work, But it certainly creates more interest for those to knowing that their their donation is going to be matched. We had our friend Ryan from Elburn came in and his company donated four thousand dollars here on stream. That four thousand dollars with the dollar for dollar match became eight thousand dollars. Thank you so much, Ryan. That was unbelievable. And that that one single donation, OK, from Ryan is matched with Adam. And that eight thousand dollar donation then actually bought a pinball machine, which can be placed in a children's hospital. So it was amazing. So anyhow, I didn't want to like go crazy. If you want to see the stream, it's it was streamed on our Twitch channel on special when lit and the special channel. If for those of you that are interested, you can go there. It's Twitch dot TV slash special when lit podcast. All one word special when the podcast or what we did is we set up a YouTube channel and the YouTube channel is special when lit pinball streaming and it's uploaded there. It's uploaded in three parts. And it's just because, I mean, it was such a massive file that YouTube split it up. And if you go to part two, you can jump right into Dave Fulger and Dress the Santa talking about koala bears carrying chlamydia. So not the most ideal cut into part two, but it's there for you to take it. The other thing that really shocked me with that. So, Adam, but seriously, Adam, thank you so much, buddy. Very, very awesome. Adam's looking for a couple pins, guys. Let's help this guy out since he helped out so many. He's looking for Cheetah, and he's looking for Warlock. So if you have one and you're looking to sell it, he's in the market to buy it. You can contact Adam Schwartz on Facebook. If you can't find him, why don't you go ahead and ping me, and I'll put you in touch with him. I'd like to be able to get him a game that he's been looking for. And he's not looking for handouts, but he's certainly looking for those titles. Cheetah, Warlock, let's get him hooked up. The streaming gear, too, that was my big concern. I'm like, there's no way that this stream is going to stay up for 24 hours. It's going to crash at some point or several times, and we're going to have to restart. You know what, man? Everything was aligning, and God was looking down on us, guys, because that was one of the few streams I've ever done. Okay? And normally our streams are like two or three hours, and there's a hiccup somewhere, there's no audio, or we've got to restart the theme. That thing went for 24 hours and 24 minutes straight without ever dropping. and a lot of what I have here with these Sony handy cams are transmitted HDMI wirelessly. So the camera is hooked up, you know, that's on the rig over the pinball machine and it's hooked up to a transmitter that, that sends the image across the studio to another receiver that then plugs into my computer. All that, none of it, none of it ever crashed the stream. So I don't know how that happened. It's unbelievable. I can't even get a podcast out usually without having some type of a hiccup. So that was, uh, that was awesome. And that's what I knew it was meant to be at the end of that day when everything was good. So good times. This podcast is getting ready to go into 2020. Before we do that, we're going to end the year with our holiday show. Now this is going to probably air right around New Year's Eve. And we invited pinball personalities and pinball staff to give us some audio. And the first question was, what was your single highlight in pinball for 2019? And what is your one holiday pinball wish for 2020? And what we did is we compiled these, and we are going to play them on the final episode of Special Winlet for 2019. And that's going to happen next week. So stay tuned. We still have that going. And that'll be kind of our holiday gift to the listeners as we've been compiling audio for several weeks to edit this up. So, guys, that's going to be it for Episode 84. Again, my apologies to Bill Webb for not being able to get on the same page today. We just couldn't wait another day with it being Christmas and we didn't want to miss a week because this podcast has not missed a week in over 18 months. So I think that's pretty remarkable. Thank you guys for listening. Please get ready for next week as we have the holiday show. That's always a fun one. And if you haven't listened to last year's, go listen to last year's because you can listen to all the pinball predictions that were supposed to have happened this year. And that's a really fun listen. This episode of Special Winlet Pinball Podcast is brought to you by Lermods.com, offering you custom quality playfield mods and lighting for your pinball machine. L-E-R-M-O-D-S. Visit Lermods.com today. For all of us here at Special Winlet Pinball Podcast, we want to wish you a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year. And don't forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball. So long, everybody. you