Pinball Brothers Alien Pinball Debut Drops and GnR SE Ownership Woes (Ep. 48)

A Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·18m 47s·analyzed·Mar 25, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Host reviews Alien Pinball debut, details GnR SE QC issues, celebrates listener achievement.

Summary

Host discusses recent personal health issues (COVID vaccine side effects) while covering Alien Pinball's re-release by Pinball Brothers and his ongoing experience with a newly acquired Guns N' Roses Special Edition machine. He expresses lukewarm interest in Alien due to outdated game design relative to modern titles, and details multiple quality control issues with GnR SE including GI problems, playfield damage, ramp return ball routing issues requiring foam pad modification, and a failing disc mechanism. He also praises a listener's (Dan Cash Money Acosta) achievement of breaking 1 billion points on Avengers, emphasizing the importance of understanding ruleset depth for true pinball enjoyment.

Key Claims

Alien Pinball feels outdated in 2021, existing in a post-Guns N' Roses/Pirates/Elwyn design era where modern game design expectations have shifted
high confidence · Host's direct assessment after watching Pinball Brothers' debut video: 'This game is so far off my radar... it already feels like it's outdated in 2021. Because we are living in an era that's, you know, post-Guns N' Roses, post-Pirates. We're living in the post-Elwyn era'
Guns N' Roses SE arrived with multiple out-of-box defects: GI not illuminating properly, scoop/playfield chipping, and ramp return ball routing issues
high confidence · Host detailed specific failures: GI 'wouldn't be there' on startup, scoop 'chipped' and 'dented in' with missing chunks and splintered wood, ramp returns causing ball to skip end lane switches on both sides
Host prefers Avengers over Guns N' Roses despite acknowledging positive aspects of both games
high confidence · 'After having both Avengers and both Guns N' Roses, I'm still in the camp that I believe Avengers is the superior game. I just am... generally more things in my view i like better i kind of attach myself better to it'
The disc mechanism on Guns N' Roses SE failed around 30-40 games, sagging mid-game and costing host a 140 million point jackpot opportunity
high confidence · 'That disc it started falling apart on me not too quickly it was probably like 30 40 games then it really started to sag down and it did this in the middle of the game when i was having a monster game... i had right around 140 million jackpot cash out ready to go and that ball gets stuck on the disc'
Host modified Guns N' Roses SE by adding foam pads to ramp returns to fix ball routing issues that couldn't be resolved through pitch adjustment or switch height modification
high confidence · Detailed troubleshooting: 'the only way that we were able to fix this was by putting a foam pad on the end of that ramp return... finally i was just like forget it foam pads let's try that out and sure enough that was working'
Jersey Jack Pinball responded quickly to host's chip playfield ticket but communication was missed due to wife misfiling the response
high confidence · 'I know finally they did follow up with me on my chip play field, and they did it quickly. I just said finally. They did it quickly. I just kind of overlooked it because my lovely wife decided to put that in our pinball folder without telling me'

Notable Quotes

“This game is so far off my radar. At this point. I don't know what there is to really say about it.”
Host (A Pinball Podcast) @ ~3:30 — Expresses dismissive stance toward Alien Pinball despite initial theme interest; indicates game fails to engage even a dedicated pinball enthusiast
“When I look at it and I see the gameplay on it, to me it feels like it's outdated. It already feels like it's outdated in 2021.”
Host @ ~4:00 — Characterizes Alien as design-dated relative to contemporary pinball evolution; suggests Pinball Brothers' re-release may not address underlying design shortcomings
“Even after playing it and having it in a home setting, I'm still not quite there. It's one of those weird things to where when you play it, you get it. You understand why a lot of people are over the moon about this pen, but then when you keep playing it, the flaws start to come out and they start to come out quickly.”
Host @ ~9:00 — Indicates Guns N' Roses has design flaws that become apparent through extended play; suggests potential game balance or mechanical durability issues
“It's just pinball. And I'm stuck in between saying, well, it's just pinball. And, well, it's pinball. You guys know what I mean?”
Host @ ~14:30 — Reflects on acceptance of quality issues as inherent to pinball hobby while expressing underlying frustration with what could be manufacturing oversights
“I've never played one pen that was just perfect out of box to where I didn't have to do anything. And I'm talking well over a dozen pens.”
Host @ ~15:00 — Normalizes quality control adjustments across all manufacturers; provides context for acceptance of GnR SE issues as industry standard rather than manufacturer-specific failure
“I had right around 140 million jackpot cash out ready to go and that ball gets stuck on the disc i'm just like no”
Host @ ~18:30 — Illustrates impact of mechanical failure on gameplay experience; disc failure occurred early in ownership (~30-40 games) and directly cost significant gameplay achievement

Entities

A Pinball PodcastorganizationPinball BrotherscompanyAlien PinballgameGuns N' Roses Special EditiongameJersey Jack Pinballcompany Avengers Infinity QuestgameStern PinballcompanyDan Cash Money Acosta

Signals

?
business_signal: Guns N' Roses SE experiencing quality control issues requiring post-purchase modifications and manufacturer support tickets; disc failure occurring very early in ownership cycle (30-40 games) suggests durability problem
high · Host: 'there were some issues directly out of the box' including GI failure, playfield damage, ramp routing requiring foam pad fix, and disc 'probably like 30 40 games then it really started to sag down'; Jersey Jack opened support tickets
?
community_signal: Host actively celebrates and publicly recognizes community member achievement (Dan Cash Money Acosta's 1 billion point breakthrough), demonstrating engagement with player skill development and encouragement
high · Extended segment praising Dan's achievement, including reading email excerpt, congratulating him, and providing encouragement to 'push yourself further now. You reached a billion. Now the sky's the limit.'
?
design_philosophy: Host positions Avengers as superior to Guns N' Roses despite GnR being newer/more expensive Jersey Jack offering; suggests Stern's Avengers design may be more balanced and enjoyable long-term
high · 'I believe Avengers is the superior game. I just am... even if I take the themes away, it's just there's certain things about that game i prefer over guns and roses... generally more things in my view i like better'
?
competitive_signal: Host indicates Alien Pinball's game design fails to compete with contemporary titles like Guns N' Roses, Pirates, and multiple Elwyn variants; positions it as outdated even before re-release
medium · 'We are living in an era that's, you know, post-Guns N' Roses, post-Pirates. We're living in the post-Elwyn era, where there's multiple Elwyn games out in the wild... when I see these game designs... it just doesn't seem like things are clicking with it'

Topics

Alien Pinball re-release by Pinball BrothersprimaryGuns N' Roses Special Edition quality control issues and ownership experienceprimaryGame design evolution and outdated mechanics in modern pinball erasecondaryGuns N' Roses vs Avengers comparative game quality assessmentsecondaryCommunity engagement and player skill developmentsecondaryPinball ruleset understanding as pathway to deeper game enjoymentmentionedPinball manufacturing quality standards across manufacturersmentioned

Sentiment

mixed(0.35)— Host expresses frustration with Alien Pinball's outdated design and lukewarm dismissal of it as 'off my radar.' Regarding Guns N' Roses SE, sentiment is negative regarding quality control (multiple defects, early disc failure) but cautiously positive about gameplay experience when functioning. Positive sentiment elevated by genuine enthusiasm for listener Dan's achievement and philosophical discussion about pinball appreciation. Overall tone is honest but frustrated—willing to work with flawed hardware but disappointed by manufacturing oversights.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.056

All right, welcome back everybody to another episode of A Pinball Podcast. Thank you guys so much for being here. I believe it is episode 48. And if my energy levels sound low, it's because they absolutely are. Now, obviously I've been gone for a couple of weeks, but that was kind of by design because come spring break time, my kids were out of school and I just decided I was just going to take off from everything. I was going to spend a ton of time with them. And of course we had a lot of fun doing it, but I won't bore you guys with all the family details. I just spent the past couple weeks hanging out with the family. Now, this week in particular, I ended up going, I believe today's Thursday. So this past Monday, I went to go get my first vaccine shot for COVID. And I believe it was the Pfizer shot that I got. Yeah, it was the Pfizer shot. And that shot has just knocked me on my ass. I'm not going to lie. I was worried about the side effects a little bit. And lo and behold, I got some side effects. Let me tell you, I mean, arm throbbing, nausea, just energy, just gone. And it's so weird too. It comes and goes. Sometimes I'll feel just fine. And then the next moment I'm just done for. So I'm hoping that it will go away by this weekend, but I really need to get a podcast out for you guys. I was trying to decide when to film and just whenever I was up to it. And now I finally am. So enough time wasted talking about all of that. So moving ahead, apparently time comes at you very fast, especially if you don't podcast for a couple of weeks. Now, what has happened? There's so much ground to cover, and I think what I'm going to do, I'm going to just kind of cover the elephant in the room that's behind me. If you guys are watching on YouTube, the fact that I have a Guns N' Roses behind me and that Ninja Turtles and Iron Maiden are obviously gone. We'll also talk about Alien Pinball a little bit today also as well. And actually, let's just go straight into Alien Pinball, as a matter of fact, as the now defunct show, Super Awesome Pinball Show, were the ones that kind of, I guess, gave it a debut again. I mean, Alien Pinball, it's been out for a while. It's just now finally coming back out again via the Pinball Brothers. And this is a game that interests me and doesn't interest me in the fact that I'm very interested in the theme. I like the idea of the theme alien invasion. Anything to do with aliens I think is cool. The problem is I played this game multiple times over the past couple of years at TPF and at Ndisc. And every single time I've played, I just came away unimpressed by it. I just honestly did. And because of that, I really honestly don't have too much to say about this pen. I really don't. I mean, you know, Saps, they came out with an exclusive, as they like to call it, an exclusive for it. Showing the video. And I saw this video. And I was interested. Just because I wanted to see what this new package would be. What were the Pinball Brothers. What were they going to present to us. And after seeing the debut. The gameplay. And just how the entire package was presented. I just. I don't even feel like critiquing it guys. To be honest with you. This game is so far off my radar. At this point. I don't know what there is to really say about it. I mean it's a game. that when I look at it and I see the gameplay on it, to me it feels like it's outdated. It already feels like it's outdated in 2021. Because we are living in an era that's, you know, post-Guns N' Roses, post-Pirates. We're living in the post-Elwyn era, where there's multiple Elwyn games out in the wild. And when I see these game designs, that just, I don't know, it just doesn't seem like things are clicking with it. And granted, it's kind of hard to tell with the way that the video was shot, maybe an official stream it'll look a lot better but just everything about the game was uninspiring to me to me and i mean that's basically all i can say about i mean the ramps look cool i guess they were super shiny that's i mean that's about all i got guys i don't i don't i wish i could come up with something positive with it but i guess until i actually see a full gameplay stream i mean just my initial impression of it is very lukewarm if that it i mean it's almost as if like i said it's just non-existent at this point so but moving forward so again addressing the elephant in the room right behind me as you can tell i have a guns and roses special edition pin and this has been quite the little I don know how to describe it quite the little journey getting this pen and trying it out getting time on it And I not fully ready to kind of talk about my full feelings on it just yet, just because it's, I don't know. I go back and forth with it. And if you guys have watched my previous review video on Guns N' Roses, you guys would know that I had several things wrong with it and there were several things I liked about it. I was just kind of in the middle. I'm not one of these that is over the moon about it. And even after playing it and having it in a home setting, I'm still not quite there. I'm still not quite there. It's one of those weird things to where when you play it, you get it. You understand why a lot of people are over the moon about this pen, but then when you keep playing it, the flaws start to come out and they start to come out quickly. And, you know, I don't know if there's any way to fix those flaws. And again, I need a little bit more time on it before I really dive into that and formulate full thoughts on that. But that's just kind of where I'm at at the beginning of this, because I know a lot of people have been texting me or emailing me and asking me what I generally think of it now that I've had the pen in a home setting. So again, And probably next week I'll be able to just dedicate a full episode to that and really kind of give what my views on it are as of now. But I can say personally, after having both Avengers and both Guns N' Roses, I'm still in the camp that I believe Avengers is the superior game. I just am. And that's not because I'm a stern stan or, yeah, obviously I'm a huge Avengers fan, love Marvel, but even if I take the themes away, it's just there's certain things about that game i prefer over guns and roses now there's obviously there's certain things about guns and roses that i prefer over avengers it doesn't mean that everything about avengers is superior it just means that generally more things in my view i i like better i kind of attach myself better to it if that makes sense but anyhow the best endorsement that i can give guns and roses though is the fact that it is in my game room the fact that I put money down for the game, and it's here. So I'm giving it a whirl. I'm giving it an honest go. Now, there has been some issues from the very get-go, and I touched base on this before, and I still need to follow up with Jersey Jack. I know finally they did follow up with me on my chip play field, and they did it quickly. I just said finally. They did it quickly. I just kind of overlooked it because my lovely wife decided to put that in our pinball folder without telling me, so it just kind of sat there. So I need to address that. But there were some issues directly out of box. Now, I talked about the GI before, about it kind of not coming on. It would come on at the very beginning. Whenever you powered up the game, you start the game, it wouldn't be there. And it was still the damnedest thing. Everything was hooked up correctly. I checked everything. And finally, I just got frustrated, hit the side of the cabinet, things started working. I mean, that's legitimately what happened. It still cracks me up to this day. Now, other issues directly out of the box. Again, my scoop and part of the play field was chipped. It's just gone. Honestly, it's slightly damaged to the point that it looks like somebody took, like, a mini hammer and just hit the side of the scoop. It just, it kind of looks like that because it's almost like it's dented in and, like, a chunk is missing. And some of the wood, I actually had to take it off because it was sticking up to where it was, like, little shards of wood. And that was kind of, I mean, that was really disappointing to see, especially out of box without even one game being played. But I don't even want to say it is what it is. That's just, I've never seen that before. And so that is very frustrating to see out of any game. I don't care who the manufacturer is. I just know putting down that much money towards something and something like that is happening, that's just, that's very frustrating. Now, the other issue that I've had that we actually had to fix on our own, and I don't even know if anybody else has had this issue because I haven't seen anything about it. The ramp returns, whatever you call those things, habit trails or whatever you want to call them, somebody will correct me and I'll know exactly what to call them. But those returns, it was so strange because the ball would literally, the angle that it came off of those returns, as soon as it would hit the play field, it would literally hop over my switch on the end lanes. It did that on both sides, on the GNR side, and I think it's, I'm drawing a blank, whatever the right end lane is I think AMP is on the left and whatever on the right I drawing a total blank Anyways the right end lane and the left end lane it was skipping over both And the only way that we were able to fix this was by putting a foam pad on the end of that ramp return And that would allow the ball to actually come straight down at basically a 90-degree angle to where it would not hop over that switch anymore. So that was one modification that we had to make. and that's a little frustrating as well because again it looks cool it looks cool it's just the functionality of it to actually activate a switch and i tried before we did that we tried different pitches we tried to figure that out to see if we could still get it to to work properly and we even adjusted the switches a little bit tried to make them a little bit taller and then it got to where the switch had to go so high above the play field that if the ball didn't have enough momentum it would stop at the switch and then it would still hop over the switch if it was coming off the return so it was kind of like just going back and forth and trying to figure out how to get this fixed and finally i was just like forget it foam pads let's try that out and sure enough that was working so that's one adjustment we made and then the disc the disc oh that disc let me tell you so that disc it started falling apart on me not too quickly it was probably like 30 40 games then it really started to sag down and it did this in the middle of the game when i was having a monster game and i'm not even joking guys i had right around 140 million jackpot cash out ready to go and that ball gets stuck on the disc i'm just like no So I worked so hard for that. And that was such a grind to get up to that point just for that to happen. And so that kind of stunk. But, I mean, I don't know. I honestly don't know what to think about that. And just it's pinball. It's pinball. And I'm stuck in between saying, well, it's just pinball. And, well, it's pinball. You guys know what I mean? I mean, I expect things to break. I expect things to need adjustment. I expect to have to dial in certain games. I mean, I do that all the time. It doesn't matter what era it is, what manufacturer it is. They all have to do that. They all have to do that. I've never played one pen that was just perfect out of box to where I didn't have to do anything. And I'm talking well over a dozen pens. There's always something that needs a slight adjustment or something that needs a slight fix, if that makes sense. And it's nothing that's major, but sometimes, you know, sometimes it does get major. And there's certain things that are popping up on Guns N' Roses that kind of feels like it might get to that point. But I hope it doesn't. I know Jersey Jack, they're working with me with the tickets I've opened up. So I need to follow back up with them about that. Outside of that, again, we'll go over a lot more on Guns N' Roses. And I'll give my full, just unfiltered thoughts on the whole entire thing. I will say I enjoy it for the most part. It's not necessarily traditional pinball that I'm used to, but I'm finding ways to enjoy it overall. And I think that's pretty much all I can say about Guns N' Roses at this point. I'm trying to think of anything else off the top of my head. Again, don't edit these shows hardly at all. So what you see is what you get. So we'll just move right on. Now, I do want to give a shout out to somebody because, again, guys, I'm so far behind on messages. I apologize. I will get caught up as quickly as I can to text, to emails, to messages on YouTube. I definitely appreciate the support, guys. I'd like to give a special shout out to Dan Cash Money Acosta. Now, there was a podcast that I put out a few episodes ago. This might have been actually a, I don't even know how many it was, but we were talking about different tips on how to play better, different ways to approach a game. and he sent me an email and I'm just, I'm so happy for him. This, this for me, I'm extremely happy at other people's success. I think it's great that there's a lot of people out there enjoying their games, having a great time. And when you start to understand pinball and you start to understand little nuances about it, you start to gain a greater appreciation for games that even if you initially thought you wouldn't like it, you might put yourself in a position to really like a game. Now I'm not saying that that was Dan's situation at all. I think he loves Avengers from what I gathering So he sent me an email that he basically just said I just wanted to email you and say thank you for your How to Play Better tips from your last podcast I'm still relatively new to the pinball hobby, just joined during the start of COVID, and I've been really trying to become a better player. I took your advice and stuck with one game, which was AIQ or Avengers Infinity Quest Premium. And I did that for a couple of weeks and really focused on dialing in the shots. Usually I bounce between one of my eight games at home. Nice. Yes, I got the bug. You did. You did, Dan. That's awesome. Congrats, buddy. And I've never been able to blow up a game before. I also found myself just flipping around instead of really focusing on a strategy and a goal every game. Well, it all came together today as I got over a billion on my Avengers. My main goal was to focus on combos and stacking gym quests with multi balls for Iron Man and Thor. Not only did I hit my goal for this game but i was also able to get four extra balls five gems and i defeated thanos attacks i got the super jackpot on black order multiball and i got 52 combos thanks again marv love the podcast you always keep it real and to the point the picture of my gc is attached and sure enough over a billion cash money that is badass i'm telling you that's an excellent game right there avengers is not necessarily an easy game to play. I said this maybe even on the last podcast that Avengers is like that layout. I have the most difficult time with that layout, yet I have the most fun with that layout. And it's an incredible game, and I'm so happy for you that you basically kicked a lot of ass on that game. Keep doing it. Push yourself further now. You reached a billion. Now the sky's the limit. Now we can really start digging in and opening up that game. And guys, take this for what it's worth. I know in this hobby, we have different ways of judging it. We have different ways of enjoying the way that we want to enjoy pinball. And again, enjoy it the way that you want to. If you love just looking at your pins, awesome. If you love restoring your pins, awesome. Keep on going. If you love pinball just because of the different themes or the different layouts or the different companies, awesome. But the number one thing I'm telling you guys, pinball becomes so much more enjoyable when you really start to understand what is happening under the glass. And I'm not talking about necessarily just knowing how to fix machines or anything like that, because I'm terrible at it. I kind of know how, but I'm terrible at it. But that is that's somewhat fun on its own. But I have so much more fun once I understand a rule set and once I understand what shots I'm going for. And once I start to have a plan of how to attack a pin, it becomes so much more fun. I mean, think of it this way, guys. Think of it this way. If you're playing a video game and it's an open sandbox game, and that's often kind of the way pinball is to a certain point where you get to make certain decisions during your gameplay. Now, if you're just doing that without any goal in mind, without any direction, without any aim to get to where you're going, you're not really going to enjoy that journey too much. I mean, you'll hear the lights, you'll hear the sounds. Yeah, that's great. I mean, that's excellent, but that's such a surface-level way to really enjoy these pins, and these people at these companies, they put in so much with it in terms of just getting the light show down, sequencing things up, getting a rule set down, getting to where score is balanced or the modes are balanced or the time is balanced, and there's just so much that you can really dig into these games that when you really open your eyes to it and you really start to do that, you will enjoy a game so much more. I promise you, I guarantee it. Nobody's going to get bored with pinball when you really start to dig into a game. So that's all I got for now. A little bit shorter episode. Again, I do have a ton of things to talk about, but I want to really dig in each episode at a time and really dig into those things here in the future. I think the Twippies are this weekend. I completely forgot again until somebody reminded me this morning. And I am, apparently I am also nominate it for YouTube, I think. I think I am, yeah. So that makes sense. I don't think I won anything. I'm pretty sure I didn't. I don't think I even placed in the top eight, and there's eight people in it, so there's no telling. But I believe that's this weekend. I don't even know what time. I'll just say it's probably in the evening time at some point around 7, 8, or 9, your time, sometime around there. But I'm sure if you guys are listening to this podcast, you're probably aware that that exists. Anyways, so there's something to watch this weekend, but that's all I got. I'm not going to have any more content this week but I will have other podcasts coming out again with a lot more focus next week. And until next time guys, you guys have a great weekend and I'll talk to you guys soon. Later guys.