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Episode 32: Spooky Surges, Potter Vanishes, and Kong Gets an Upgrade!

The Flipside Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·49m 51s·analyzed·May 18, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Ralph praises Evil Dead, discusses arcade trades, notes Spooky's design ambition.

Summary

Retro Ralph discusses recent changes to his home pinball collection, trading away Black Knight: Sword of Rage, Labyrinth, Pulp Fiction, and T2, while acquiring a mysterious unrevealed game. The primary focus is enthusiastic praise for Spooky Pinball's Evil Dead machine, which Ralph credits with exceptional theme integration, innovative mechanics (motorized hand, pop-up bashers, rotating character states), and overall design quality that has caused him to neglect other games in his collection.

Key Claims

  • Barrels of Fun's Labyrinth early production unit (unit #8) required significant pitch adjustment to play correctly, needing 7+ degrees instead of the default 6-5 degrees Ralph initially set

    high confidence · Retro Ralph describing his personal experience with early Labyrinth production unit and correspondence with Barrels of Fun support

  • Spooky Pinball deliberately packed comprehensive features into Evil Dead as a statement game after lessons learned from previous releases

    medium confidence · Ralph's speculation about Spooky's design philosophy: 'I just feels like kind of badass like there's something about this when i unbox it i was like damn dude like this is i feel like this was like a statement'

  • Evil Dead's lower playfield (cellar) is well-balanced and avoids the common pitfall of being either boring or tedious

    high confidence · Ralph praising the cellar design: 'They nailed it with this one. It's just enough there. You're in there just enough of a time.'

  • Ralph traded Black Knight: Sword of Rage for Labyrinth, then Labyrinth for James Bond Premium Edition, then Pulp Fiction and T2 for an unnamed game to reduce collection from 9 to 8 machines

    high confidence · Ralph's detailed collection transaction history throughout first 15 minutes of podcast

  • Kong received a code update yesterday that prompted Ralph to play it, but he has primarily been playing Evil Dead since acquiring it

    high confidence · Ralph: 'the only reason why i played kong yesterday is because there was a code update and i wanted to see what had changed but i've been primarily playing Evil Dead'

  • Evil Dead features a motorized stepper motor mechanism controlling Ash's severed hand that players can bash, pop-up deadite characters (Evil Scotty and Evil Ed), and a rotating Annie character that changes appearance based on game modes

    high confidence · Ralph's detailed mechanical breakdown of Evil Dead features during main topic discussion

  • The hidden flipper on Evil Dead initially felt hokey and uncomfortable to Ralph but he has grown to love it after extended play

Notable Quotes

  • “I am completely being as transparent as possible with this situation... it was really clunky... it felt clunky that's the word i would use... the orbit like it always felt like the ball was like clunking through it”

    Retro Ralph @ ~5:00-7:00 — Ralph's honest assessment of early production Labyrinth unit quality issues, despite not wanting to blame Barrels of Fun

  • “I just feels like kind of badass like there's something about this when i unbox it i was like damn dude like this is i feel like this was like a statement like we know what we're doing now we're gonna throw everything at this game that we have right now”

    Retro Ralph @ ~15:00 — Ralph's interpretation of Spooky's design philosophy and ambition with Evil Dead

  • “They knocked it out of the park... Guys, they packed so much in there and and all of it all of it serves a purpose”

    Retro Ralph @ ~18:00 — Strong endorsement of Evil Dead's design integration and feature execution

  • “I have not played them since I got Evil Dead. I am so hooked on this game. So you can also hit your groovy targets with that.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~24:00 — Demonstrates Evil Dead's immediate appeal relative to Ralph's other recent acquisitions (Kong, D&D)

  • “I literally was like thinking there was a flipper that like my brain was... that's wild, man. Like that's wild.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~25:00 — Ralph's anecdote about muscle memory confusion between Evil Dead's hidden flipper and Kong, illustrating the hidden flipper's impact on gameplay feel

  • “I'm really a player that happens Tee'd Off be a podcaster and YouTuber at the same time. I play a lot of pinball. I play pinball every day.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~4:00 — Ralph's self-identification and motivation for content creation

  • “word of advice Tee'd Off Barrels of Fun put on your game somewhere the pitch that you recommend this game be played at because this game at 6-5 did not play right Tee'd Off me”

    Retro Ralph — Specific feedback to manufacturer about Labyrinth pitch documentation needs

Entities

Retro RalphpersonSpooky PinballcompanyBarrels of FuncompanyEvil DeadgameBlack Knight: Sword of RagegameLabyrinthgameJames Bond Premium Editiongame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Don Garrison creating custom 3D-printed Evil Dead merchandise for content creators, indicating grass-roots community support and personalization culture

    medium · Ralph referencing 3D printed Evil Dead item received from Don's Pinball Podcast host

  • ?

    product_concern: Lower playfield designs in recent games (e.g., Avatar) viewed as hit-or-miss, with Evil Dead presented as rare successful execution balancing engagement without tedium

    medium · Ralph: 'Sometimes they're really good, and sometimes you just feel like, eh' but Evil Dead 'nailed it... It's just enough'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Spooky Pinball interpreted as deliberately maximizing feature density and theme integration on Evil Dead as a statement game demonstrating design maturity

    medium · Ralph's speculation: 'I just feels like kind of badass... they're gonna throw everything at this game that we have right now... they knocked it out of the park'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern's aggressive release schedule creating perception of content saturation and 'overwhelming' collector economics despite high design quality

    medium · Ralph: 'obviously we don't none of us have the funds or most of us don't have the funds... buy every single one of these'

  • ?

    community_signal: Ralph shifting from broad collection diversity (9 machines) to curated core rotation (8 machines), indicating evolution in collecting philosophy toward depth over breadth

    high · Ralph's deliberate downsizing and emphasis that 'eight feels like the sweet spot' for his play patterns

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.150

0:00
you gotta shake off those cobwebs come on let's go hey guys welcome back to another episode of the flip side podcast i'm your host retro ralph i don't know what episode number this is because episode numbers are stupid it doesn't even make a difference because i don't have seasons so why do I have episodes? I don't know. It's really dumb. Anyways, thank you so much for joining me. This is episode... I don't know what episode it is. Again, we don't care. I don't care. I really don't care. I got to get rid of episode numbers. It makes no sense. There are no seasons. It's stupid. But anyways, I digress on that topic. But there's been a lull in pinball news, but it's okay. It's okay because you know what? We don't stop playing pinball because there's no news. We're playing all the time and there's so many changes that have happened in my game room that it's kind of insane and you're gonna think i'm insane and maybe even a little bit of stupid for some of the stuff that i do but i don't care i'm a little crazy man but we're all a little crazy look at the amount of money we spend on a hobby whether you go on location and god knows how much money you've put in machines over the years or i know imagine that if you actually all that money but you had fun. You know what I mean? It's the fun. It's the memories. It's the time you got to spend in a place, hanging out with friends. That's all that matters. But, or all the money you spent at home, you probably spent a ton on pinball. And all this pinball, all these pinball experiences, we have so much pinball, but yet we want more pinball. It's crazy. It's like we want more. Well, let's celebrate the things that have actually came out. It's crazy. We move on so fast. Well, the content creators do. But anyways, all right. We're going to kill the music. I love this song so much. I could just sit here and listen to this all day. I don't know why. It's just such a vibey song. It's like, mmm, mmm, mmm,
2:01
mmm, mmm. Isn't it just so vibey? It's so good. Anyways, I didn't even say that word. Well, my daughter just graduated college, so I have a younger daughter. She's 22, so I think that's young. I can't believe she just graduated. We're going to talk a second about that because I'm really proud of that. I know it's not a pinball conversation, but I'm sure many of you have sons and daughters and maybe some of them have already graduated because we're all old. Everyone that hangs out in this hobby, we're all old dudes.

high confidence · Ralph: 'At first I didn't like the upper flip... I did not like it... I love it now.'

  • Ralph prefers playing pinball at home in a controlled environment where he can hear call-outs better than in noisy arcade locations like Electric Bat Arcade on tournament nights

    high confidence · Ralph's personal preference statement: 'But there's something special about having the games at home... you hear the call-outs better.'

    • @ ~6:30

  • “I feel like that's a little overwhelming because obviously we don't none of us have the funds or most of us don't have the funds Tee'd Off buy every single one of these”

    Retro Ralph @ ~12:00 — Ralph's observation about Stern's aggressive release schedule and its impact on collector economics

    • Pulp Fiction
    game
    Terminator 2game
    King Konggame
    Dungeons & Dragonsgame
    Electric Bat Arcadelocation
    James Cameron's Avatar Limited Editiongame
    Joelperson
    Don Garrisonperson
    Jamieperson
    Kale Hernandezperson
    Scott Ianperson
  • ?

    product_strategy: Evil Dead's hidden flipper represents controversial but ultimately successful non-standard control scheme that initially felt uncomfortable but enhanced gameplay depth

    high · Ralph's progression from discomfort to enthusiasm for hidden flipper mechanic and muscle memory transfer demonstration with Kong

  • ?

    product_strategy: King Kong received code update prompting Ralph to test, indicating ongoing post-release support and active manufacturer engagement with patch cycle

    high · Ralph: 'the only reason why i played kong yesterday is because there was a code update and i wanted to see what had changed'

  • ?

    product_concern: Early production Labyrinth (unit #8) exhibited playfield smoothness issues requiring pitch adjustment from 6-5 to 7+ degrees to function properly

    high · Ralph detailed experience with early unit showing variability in hand-built machine assembly and importance of pitch specification documentation

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Ralph's initial skepticism of Evil Dead's hidden flipper mechanic resolved into enthusiastic appreciation after extended play, demonstrating mechanic acceptance through familiarization

    high · Ralph: 'At first I didn't like the upper flip... I did not like it... I love it now.'

    • 2:32
    We're all old dudes. It just is what it is. I mean, there's some young kids coming in. We got to get more of those, man. Otherwise, you know, the hobby needs to continue and we can't continue unless there's new players. So we got to get new players. I am encouraged, though, because, and by the way, I've got to get the sponsored ad here in a second, but I am encouraged when I go to Electric Bat because I do see young people, young people who are good. And if you look at, like, the IFPA top ten, there's a lot of young players in there. So there are young players. We just need more of them. Anyways, before we get started on this journey, this historic journey of pinball podcasting, we're going to go to a word from our sponsor, Flippin' Out Pinball. Are you looking for a new pinball machine, a used pinball machine, or to trade in your old pinball machine for something new? Look no further than Flippin' Out Pinball. They can handle all your pinball needs, they ship anywhere in the United States, and they will give you the best experience in the business. Check out the link to Flippin' Out Pinball in the video description for more information. Now, back to the video.
    3:39
    Guys, so much stuff. has changed in my game room it's kind of crazy i'm gonna tell you before we get started on the main topic there's a lot that's that's turned over but keep in mind all right i know everyone gets triggered by this i like having games at home like trust me i can go on like location electric bat and play like everything right they have they have all the new stuff they have a lot of great old games they've got a great mix of old and new so it's not like i don't have access to basically anything I want to play. But there's something special about having the games at home. I like to be able to be in my controlled environment. I like to really dig into the game. And I definitely dig into a game a lot more at home than I would on location. I just do. Because you hear the call-outs better. I mean, the arcades are noisy, right? Sure, I can go into the bat, like, earlier in the day, and there's less traffic. But if I try to do that on a tournament night and try to play a game, There's so many people there that you don't quite get the exact same experiences you do at home. So I enjoy getting them here, unboxing them, playing them. And look, guys, at the end of the day, if you haven't figured this out about me, I'm going to tell you if you haven't figured it out. I'm really a player that happens to be a podcaster and YouTuber at the same time. I play a lot of pinball. I play pinball every day. I play as much as I can, you know, without neglecting, obviously, my responsibilities in life and my wife and my kids and all that. But I do play every day. But I do this to share what I'm doing with you because I feel like, I don't know, some of you guys find that interesting. But I also feel like I really got into YouTube to entertain people because I've always wanted to be in the entertainment business. Like, that's kind of what I wanted to do. So that's what I enjoy doing. So, yes, I'm not so much of a hot take guy, but I'm more of a, hey, I want to entertain you. And then hopefully you are. Hopefully you're entertained when you come here because that's totally my objective. And, you know, that's my motivation is just to kind of talk about a hobby that we all enjoy and hopefully entertain you along the way. That's it. That's my only agenda. So, and I think those that have been watching for a while know that. I will spare no expense for entertainment. I will do something that costs me a ton of money to entertain you. Costs me money to entertain you. You know what I mean? And sometimes the things I do are really stupid. And some of you might think that the couple of things that I'm going to tell you right now are stupid. And that's okay. Because I'm doing the stupid thing to entertain you and to entertain myself. So, all right. Let's just talk about really quick some of the stuff that's happened in my arcade. And I'm going to try to build the case as to why I did each one. And trust me, it's going to seem completely irrational probably. But you know what? You've done it too. I know you have. You have convinced yourself of some crazy idea to get a different game or to trade a game. Oh, I didn't like it. Oh, I don't know. It's shot. It's shot weird. It was clunky. Whatever your whatever your excuse was, you've done it. You've done it too. So you will judge me. But then deep inside, you're like, I've actually done that same thing. So I think I can't be as judgy.
    6:52
    This is a tough. You're conflicted. You don't even know how to feel because you're like, shit, I did that too. So, all right. Anyway, you guys know, and maybe you don't know, but I had bought Black Knight Sword of Rage Pro. By the way, love that game. Black Knight Sword of Rage is really fun. It's brutal. It's hard. It has, the modes aren't very, like, deep, so there's not a lot.
    7:17
    There's enough to the game to keep it interesting because it's so hard. So like you tend to not when you do when you do finally like achieve something or complete modes, it feels good because the game is so hard. You know what I mean? So it feels like, wow, the payoff feels good. And there's that there's that like I think I think it would be considered a mini wizard mode where it plays the old Black Knight 2000 song. It's really cool. But anyway, so I had it for I probably logged a good. The thing is, you can get through plays in that game really fast, especially when you first start playing it. You're like, oh, man, I just played like 10 games in like five minutes. but, um, so I had it, I really enjoyed it while I had it, but then, uh, I don't know, I think it was a guy here, local, no, it was, sorry, it was a guy, guy local in Arizona was selling a labyrinth, and I was like, I don't know why, but I've loved that movie as a kid, so I was all, I know I've talked to you guys about it, so I traded him my Black Knight Sword of Rage for a labyrinth, and I got the labyrinth, and I gotta be real with you guys, I am, I, I am completely being as transparent as possible with this situation. I got the Labyrinth, and this was number eight, I think. So it was in the top ten first produced units, and I gotta say, it was really clunky. I had to do a lot to get it to play right. Now, I don't really fault Barrels of Fun on this, because this was probably one of the first ones off the line, and I think after I started to look at the history of this game, I do think this game was a demo game at some point, so it was probably played quite a bit. But you could definitely tell this was one of the first ones off the line. I had to do a lot of, I got it playing almost perfectly, but it definitely took a lot of tweaking and tuning to get it correct. And, you know, it is what it is. I liked it. I liked it because I like Labyrinth, but there was something about it that just didn't feel smooth to me like like that the and maybe this is because it was one of those first 10 off the line it felt clunky that's the word i would use like like balls it's almost like the ball didn't feel like the geometry felt like it needed to be tuned a little bit more you know what i mean so it wasn't like fully smooth when you'd hit those ramp shots it was for the most part that led to the wire forms it it was for the most part but like the orbit like it always felt like the ball was like clunking through it i don't know it just didn't feel smooth to me and i don't i don't want to blame the manufacturer i don't know i don't know i just i don't want to be like too brutal about it because i do realize it was one of the first ones off the line so i'm sure there was some lessons learned and things like that and i'm sure in the later production run because i've played them on location before and they did not play like mine and and again like that's something about pinball though different copies of different games will not play 100 the same so that's just the matter of the variability in pinball right they're hand-built they're hand-built things so there will be some variability and then and then depending on how someone has it set up like you don't know what pitch they have it set at and all sorts of things so all sorts of things can and and one one like word of advice to barrels of fun put on your game somewhere the pitch that you recommend this game be played at because this game at 6-5 did not play right to me and when i opened up a ticket with you guys which you guys were very very responsive you came back and said uh i can't remember what it was what pitch it was it was it was much higher than 6-5 i want to say it was like seven something and it played really good at that at that height but that's the thing like if you don't put that on the game and i'm a new buyer i might not have a great experience with the game because it's really not playing the way it should because the pitch is not correct but anyways so barrels of fun so i traded my black knight sword of rage for labyrinth i don't just i just wasn't feeling it i did love the theme integration they they really integrated the theme well in that machine though so like kudos to the theme integration but just wasn't feeling it so i had another opportunity to trade my labyrinth for a game you guys know i really like which is which is james bond but this was a james bond premium i had had the pro that i modded to all hell so i got the premium uh you know honestly with this game i don't feel like i feel like pro premium whatever i feel like i just i have i have the same kind of experience i mean the jetpack multi-ball magnet guy whatever i could i could take it or leave it i do like the physical ball lock though i'm kind of a sucker for physical physical ball locks like i tend to always if we're talking about stern i tend to always kind of fall into that like premium bucket because that's they usually always remove the physical ball lock from a pro it's almost never the present so I'm a physical ball lock guy so anyway so that's that change and pro the James Bond pro has stuck right so then this is where it's kind of going to get a little crazy and I think you guys are going to be like what so I I traded in I traded in um Pulp Fiction again a game I really like Pulp Fiction I really like but I don't know I don't need to have it at home I can get the same Phil playing it on location. They have one at Electric Bat I good Like no offense to the game I love the game Like I really really enjoy the game I just wasn feeling it in a home setting And that OK Maybe sometimes it OK Like I feel a little stupid, though, when this happens. But and I think everyone probably does a little bit like. But tell me, honestly, I want to know in the comments below, have you bought a game that you thought you'd really enjoy at home and then you bring it home and it's just not the same experience. Or you just feel like I like the game, but I didn't need it at home. Because that's how I felt about Pulp Fiction. Then the other one is going to kill you! You're going to be like, no, what did you do? I got rid of T2. I know! That one was a full nostalgia play. Now I'm not going to tell you until the next episode what game is taking the place. So one game is taking the place of those two. Honestly, I need the space. Not that I'm running out of it, but I liked it a little bit more. I didn't like it when it grew to nine games. I think I like it in like the eight. Eight feels right in my space right now. I am in the process of selling off a couple more things that will give me a little bit more space. Not pinball machines. That will give me more space in that room. But eight feels like the sweet spot. So anyway, those two games are going out. Something else is coming in. I refuse to tell you right now. You can guess in the comments below, but it is something you will never guess. the the answer to this question what the game it is will probably you'll be like why you're gonna say why you're literally gonna be like this makes this guy's this guy's absolutely insane nutsy cuckoo that i don't understand this some of you might some of you might and you know who you are some of you might be like i totally understand why this guy's doing this i get it but to most you're gonna be like scratching your head but i also feel like there are games that don't get fair shakes and this is one of those games so i got a game for those two games that did not get a fair shake all right we are now almost 15 minutes in and we have not even talked about the main topic okay we have to talk about this i do feel for some of these pinball manufacturers all of them actually because they release games and then someone like us like stern pinball has such an aggressive release schedule that it's like within three months another game comes out And it's not that people forget about the game that comes out. They don't. It's just that if you're someone that, like me and like my friend, like me, Jamie and Kale and Ian, we all consume so much pinball content, right? So if you're consuming all the pinball content a lot, it feels like a lot of the creators, and this isn't anything against them, but like they talk about the news. You know what I mean? There are some that don't. But like it's a it's a new it's very much like the podcasts are delivering you the news. And when that happens, it just feels like and it's not the majority, but it's easy to get caught up in like you're just in a cycle of listening to the new stuff all the time. And it almost makes you feel like new stuff is old stuff because it's something brand new that comes out. And we just we just came out of a cycle outside of Harry Potter, which isn't out yet. we just came out of a cycle where there was a bunch of new games like dumped on us all at once so i feel like that's a little overwhelming because obviously we don't none of us have the funds or most of us don't have the funds to buy every single one of these and nor would we want to i mean that's a lot that's a big investment um but uh investment in your money so here we go so a game that i feel like is not forgotten obviously but holy crap man i got an evil dead and i there's a video that's out today on my youtube channel retro ralph after you listen to this or maybe you want to stop this and go watch that because if you watch the video you'll see my the video of me getting the evil dead um i and and i have a little bit of my opinion it wasn't really an opinion piece it was more just like i wanted to showcase the game off so if you're interested and you want to hear like how i felt about evil dead before you i continue here you can go over to retro ralph but you should be subscribed to that channel anyway so if you're not go subscribe to retro ralph on youtube and uh and i think you'll you'll really enjoy the content i put my longer form content there. So anyway, so I got this game and I explained how I got it in that video, but holy crap, man, this game is good, man. It is so, so good. And it's to me, they are, I spooky is pushing the envelope now. I mean, they, I think they said like, I don't, I would love to know, like they are so passionate. Like you listen to bug, you listen to everyone over there. They're very passionate about pinball and i love that because passionate passionate people doing anything is gonna result you're gonna see it in the product i just feel like they had some meeting after their last game and they were like guys we've been around for a little while now we're putting the freaking steak in the ground like i just feels like kind of badass like there's something about this when i unbox it i was like damn dude like this is i feel like this was like a statement like we know what we're doing now we're gonna throw everything at this game that we have right now like everything lessons learned everything we're throwing it at it and we're gonna give people a great freaking pinball experience themed themed evil dead but also it's you can tell obviously horror is obviously something that that that bug and some of the other people share in a passion and that's kind of why you you see them releasing so many of these horror themed pinball machines but here's where it gets crazy to release a horror themed pinball machine for evil dead to me is like very niche right it's very niche it's like cult following but here's where it's amazing and i'm going to get into details if you can release a game like that and have someone like me who was actually traumatized by evil dead as a kid so if you guys haven't seen this uh i've shared it before you won't see it obviously if you're listening on spotify or apple podcast don's pinball podcast printed out this little thing it's a tv i don't i don't know if i'm going to put it in my game because i just i don't know it doesn't i don't really i like i appreciate that he gave it to me but i don't think i'm gonna put it in the game sorry don but uh well because i'd have i have dark hair and like i'm not i'm not i'm not complaining this is an awesome 3d print like this is the coolest thing that that you did but uh but it'd be it'd be really cool if the guy had like dark hair and an electric bat hoodie or something on you know and he's watching the tv so this is supposed to be me tied up watching evil dead as a kid that actually did happen i wasn't tied up it was duct tape, I think. So I'm kind of traumatized by it. So to get someone like me who came from this, this to going like, I think I want to have this game. And I explained it in my long form video.
    18:58
    Guys, they knocked it out of the park. And we're going to talk a little bit about why I think that so I wrote some notes because I didn't want to miss anything in my video. I don't go into like deep detail of everything. I do show some I do show some gameplay and I show a couple of the modes. but like just let's think about it for a minute when i say they threw everything at this right if you if you know the theme if you know the evil dead theme then you know ash cuts off his hand right you know that so there's a stepper motor and ash's hand is like up against the it's up against this stepper motor and it moves it's like okay that's really cool so it's an interactive mechanism on the play field that you can bash um and there's a there's a series of drop talk targets that says groovy in front of it like that itself is really cool then then you have uh two deadites so you have i think it's evil scotty and evil ed and those pop up from the play field so those are like um there's several games there's an old i think it's robot i think it's robot i don't know if robot was the first game to do it but with the having like almost like a whack-a-mole type thing but those things pop up so not only do they pop up and you can hit them but also during insanity mode which is the mode and i i cover this in the i cover this in my um in my long form video but in insanity mode there's that scene where everything comes alive in the cabin and becomes like sort of possessed they replicated that with all their mechs like all their mechs start going nuts and it's paired with that scene from the movie it's amazing so these things not only are like pop-up bash toys that come up during various times of the game they're also tied to that mode specifically uh they'll also pop up from time to time in various modes to block shots and stuff like that so it's just those are cool right i think not that that's something that's never been done but it's a really cool way that they integrated that into there then you've got Linda on the right hand side and she goes from like good to evil right so like in different modes when you hit that scoop she'll change so it's like all right so now you have a motorized hand you've got these pop-up like almost bash toys that go in and out of the play field you've got rotating Linda um the other thing that's kind of cool is from the movie they have the the reel-to-reel uh deck that looks like um it looks like a real like a vintage reel-to-reel tape deck. That thing plays. That doesn't really necessarily do anything, but it does, like, it is, it's theme integration, I would call that. Then you have the lower play field, and lower play fields, to me, can be, like, hit or miss. Sometimes they're really good, and sometimes you just feel like, eh, like, I, I, um, I don't know. I go back and forth. There are certain games where I really was, was underwhelmed by lower play fields. If I was going to talk about more recent games. I think Avatar, I wasn't very... At least, I don't mind the crab one, but the first one where you're rotating the lights, I don't know. That one's sort of weird for me. But anyways, lower play fields are not always my favorite. They nailed it with this one. It's just enough. It's just enough there. You're in there just enough of a time. Everything is finely tuned that I'm in there long enough that I'm not bored. I have a good time in there. And then when I'm out, I'm good but that's that's really cool like i like that too so they figured out how to incorporate the lower play field and it ends up being the cellar so like you're going down into the cellar and it that whole idea around going into the cellar totally feels like a total they nailed the theme integration on that one now i'm i built the list up for myself just so i could keep track because i know i forget stuff like i'll forget so i don't i'm not like i wish i was like joel flipping out I don't know like I had to talk to Joel and be like dude how do you remember all the like he remembers all the game rules and all the shots and I don't know I just don't like I can learn little pieces of a game and then I'm good at explaining that to a friend or something but I can't go to the depth he goes so I'm like blown away by some of these guys that can do that so I guess the good thing is is they're so good at it that they've built you know they've built the like actual shows on how to play certain games and it's really cool so if you're ever looking about like how to play i'd say joel at flipping out does a really good job with his walkthroughs right so if you want to i'm not i can give you a little bit but not like he can he's great he's and he remembers freaking everything so i wonder if he's like it's probably that's probably a good skill to have see like i sometimes forget key dates and i forget sometimes my own birthday so how can i how can i remember all the pinball rules uh and also on that lower cellar there's uh there's like some cool rgb lighting down there i mean the lighting on this machine is great too uh there's the hidden sling flipper so like i'm just trying to tell like the reason why i'm walking through all these things because it's like they packed so much in here and and all of it all of it serves a purpose so the hidden flipper to me you can do a lot with it you can hit the left ramp with it you can hit the that left sort of 180 shot with it very you can do all they can get yourself into the pop bumpers you can hit the groovy targets with it and here's what's crazy i was playing kong i played i haven't played my other games by the way like i hardly have played it the only reason why i played kong yesterday is because there was a code update and i wanted to see what had changed but i've been primarily playing evil dead kong and dnd are getting completely neglected right now. I feel bad, but really, I have not played them since I got Evil Dead. I am so hooked on this game. So you can also hit your groovy targets with that. So that's probably the best use of that flipper, but you can use it. But here's what's crazy. I was playing Kong and at first this is wild dude It just crazy how your brain works So I was playing a lot of Evil Dead I go over to Kong and I found myself trying to hit the other flipper button that wasn there I'm like, dude, that is weird. Like I literally was like thinking there was a flipper that like my brain was. So I hit. I'm like, what? I was like, what am I doing? And then I drank the ball. I'm like, that's wild, man. Like that's wild. But anyways, that just goes to show like the memory you get. Because at first I didn't like the upper flip. I really didn't like that hidden flipper. I'll be honest. I did not like it. And it seemed like it was going to be like hokey. I love it now. And I've also never really been a fan of like other buttons and stuff, but it works. It works, but it takes a little while to get used to. So just because it feels uncomfortable doesn't mean you won't end up enjoying it at first. But I will be the first to say I did not like it at first. All right. Then you got the cabin. So you got the cabin multi ball, which is also awesome. And then you have the, like the use of the, they could have made like a little post or something that blocked the ball, but they didn't. They took the swing from the cabin. And so like the, the cabin, the balls lock on the cabin porch. And then when your cabin multi-ball starts, the swing opens up. And the funny thing is what I didn't notice, I don't know if this was coded in originally, what, what, during that multi-ball, the, the cat, the, the, uh, I think the chair like continues to swing the little porch swing. It's, it continues to swing. So that's really cool. uh there's a vuck in there too um so they got the vuck too all right so then the boomstick is like you got the shotgun barrel so you've got those where you can hit the shotgun shells and then hit them both at the same time and open the cellar door for boomstick multiball and boomstick multiball is so fun because imagine so here's how it works if you've never played it and please go watch my video you'll you'll get a little bit of a more in-depth of how it works but So once you start Boomstick Multiball, what you're trying to do is now you imagine you've got multiballs going on. And so your objective during that to keep the ball in play is to keep loading the shotgun to keep firing your shotgun. So you load the two shells during this mode, and then your action button turns. It's like a pink color, and then you hit it, and then your shotgun fires. And then you've got to keep doing that. But it's like imagine you're like, okay, okay, I got them both loaded. Boom. I got them both loaded. boom so you're like constantly doing this like tap the action button thing and it's it's really fun it's chaotic and super fun i just it's very creative like to me it's just really creative and i i just i love this kind of stuff so like can you get the theme here like i'm really excited about this game i hope it's coming through there's just so many fun there's so many ways to have fun with this game and keep in mind the code i think bug just did a live stream last night where they added a, is it a Linda multi-ball or something? I can't remember. There's an additional multi-ball that they just added. And I think they added a couple more things. Then there's the captive ball. So the captive ball is almost like dead straight in front of you. You can use that to trigger insanity mode. And I haven't figured this out yet. I think there's something, I think somehow the captive ball ties into modes. I don't know why I haven't figured that out. I don't know if you can hit it and it will and it's progressing so in the back of the in the in the way back of the machine there's um there's the four modes for each game evil dead one and evil dead two and i think you can actually hit that and i don't know why i haven't figured that out maybe i'm like maybe i'm doing something wrong but but that mainly what that thing is used for as far as i can tell is you bash it and your insanity meter goes up so to qualify for insanity mode all you have to do is just keep bashing that captive ball. It does take several hits, but once it's triggered, then the cellar door opens, you hit the cellar door. And that's when that whole scene plays from the movie where they all get, where the, everything in the cabin gets possessed and everything's going up and down. So let me paint this picture for you. You're in insanity mode. It plays that clip. Everything's alive. And what you have to do is it's all laughing at you. Every device is like popping up and laughing at you. And you've got to bash each mech one time. And when you bash it that mech goes quiet so like you're silencing each one and if you can get them all then you've you've completed that mode i still have not been able to get them all i ended up every time i play it i end up with one and then i end up like draining the ball i end up with like one left so that that's that's something i want to achieve pretty soon here i've been playing it a lot but that's the thing there's so many ways to go like if you wanted to play this game and just focus on insanity mode you could you could just start the game and just immediately start bashing the captive ball just to play that which is which that's fun and even in itself uh there's that 180 ramp that goes into the cluster of pop bumpers so on the left it looks like it's in orbit but it goes to this like it goes back into the pop bumper cluster so that's pretty cool uh then we've got oh the drop targets the groovy drop targets and then that is your skill shot too so like you'll you get there's just so much here there's also this is one i didn't almost even notice there is a magnet in this game it's hidden in the way back right and it it it's weird because you almost don't know what's going to happen it locks the ball and then it feeds it into a vuck which is like this upper ramp that then feeds your left flipper it's super cool like that thing's cool too so like it's it's like a magnet hidden in the orbit and then it feeds it to a vuck which is super cool so like guys it's just the here's the thing with them all these features i just talked about are so well integrated into the theme. I just, if everybody could do this with any theme, it would be amazing. I just really feel like there's something amazing that if you can take a game and a theme that I'm not necessarily interested in and make me this excited for it, that's crazy good. Like, that means you did a really, you know, you built this so that anybody can appreciate it, even if you're not an Evil Dead fan.
    30:59
    I don't know. It's one of those things where I'm almost, I was so shocked by this game because I didn't think it would be as good as it was or as good as it is. And for me, what gets me excited is it's like, wow, if Spooky could do this with Evil Dead, give them something that we're all maybe a little bit more interested in and is a little bit more mainstream and do this, like replicate this, right? Like, hey, you threw everything at this, do this again, but then do it with a theme that's more mainstream. they might not even be able to build enough games. Like, that's the thing. Like, it takes them about, I think it's going to take them, they're building 888 of these things. That's probably going to take them close to the end of the year to finish.
    31:41
    They're going to be in an interesting position after this. Because if they can do this again, but with a theme that maybe is more mainstream, they're going to sell, there's going to be a demand for way more than 888. And I would argue that if they would make another 200 of these Evil Deads, they would absolutely sell them because I have people coming to me be like, how'd you get that? How'd you get that? And that's the thing. Why I got it is because everybody I talked to that played it was like, oh my God, have you played Evil Dead? It was like, that's all anybody wanted to tell me about. Like, oh my God, it's so good. You have to play it. And then everywhere I'd go, oh my gosh, it's so good. Like you'd hear all these comments. So I'm like, what? Like I have to play this game. And I talk about that in my video. So to me, this is one where the community was speaking about it. Anybody that was going to a show that played it was talking about it. And if there was a show with other games there, it became the talk of the show. It was the one game that everyone wanted to continue to talk about. And so that's what piqued my curiosity. And I did buy it. I didn't play it. I had not played it until I got it. Oh, no, sorry. That's not correct. I did play it at Electric Bat. but um but what i mean is like when that i i probably i can't remember no i i don't want i don't want to screw up the story here i did play it but the thing is like i didn't play it for a really long time but the short period of time i did play on it i was like oh my gosh i gotta get this you know and but but at that point it was really almost too late because it sold out very quick like it was all the allocations were gone pretty quickly and not only when i say allocations meaning like the games that the distributors bought to sell, but they sold them through. So like they were all out, they were all accounted for. Someone had already reserved all of those pre-orders. So it was like, how am I going to get one? So anyways, I tell the story a bit in my episode, my Richard Ralph episode. So check that out if you want more detail on that. But man, I don't know. Like here's what's crazy is like in the last couple of weeks, Kong got an update and D&D got an update.
    33:39
    I did jump on Kong to play it to check out the update, but it's like I haven't even really been playing those games since I got this. Like, I didn't touch D&D, although I will say, just to pivot back to D&D for a second, they did something that was really smart in the last code update. And I was trying to show – Jamie came to town, which we had an awesome time. Myself, Jamie, and Kale got to hang out for a couple – well, actually, I only got to hang out one of the days. But we were all playing D&D and having a blast with it. excuse me, but the one thing that's like hard, it was hard to explain to people is they'd be like, well, why do I travel to a certain town? And it's like, well, the thing is like, and I don't think this was because it's, well, it wasn't, it wasn't explaining it well enough. So you'll go to a town and you'd be like, oh, there's nothing to do here. And that's because you've already completed all the modes, but there was nothing outside of maybe the light indicators that would have told you that. So people would be like scrolling through the cities and be like, oh, I don't know. I don't know where to go. Like which town should I go to? And now when you're selecting the town, it does tell you if there's available modes to play in that town. Because I felt like before I was like randomly what I was doing, unless I was stupid, which could be possible. I was traveling to the different towns and then seeing if there was a mode to play there. And if there wasn't, I'd go travel somewhere else. The only time I think it told you if you had completed them is when you first select your character. I don't think it told you other times. I could be wrong, but that's what I think. But like I said, I don't. I learned the games to some degree, but I don't, I don't become an expert at them. That's for sure. I always feel like, like I just now, I just now recently got to the point where I can understand and close beaches and jaws. And I know what I'm doing. You know what I mean? I know how to do that. Thank you to, uh, shoot. Who, who did the video on this? I'm going to totally, oh, I hate, I feel bad. Oh, it's Travis. Travis at the pinball company did a video about how to close beaches. I don't know if the video was how to close beaches, but maybe it was like a strategy for Jaws, and he talks about that. And then when I saw him at the Stern factory for the Kong release, I told him, I was like, man, I gotta give you, like, thank you so much for making that video, because now I'm enjoying Jaws so much more. That wasn't obvious to me, what you had to do. So anyway, so that was cool. It's cool that Stern gave some code update and stuff to D&D, because I think that's helping. But yet, I haven't really experienced it that much yet. And then Kong, I literally just jumped on it to see what was different. I noticed the opening sequence. There's an actual opening video that plays pretty long now that seems more polished. Outside of that, I played it like two games, and then I went back to playing Evil Dead. So I don't know. I'll have to put more time on it, but it looked like there was a lot of updates in Kong. From what I could tell, there was a ton of stuff that they had changed and updated, which is good, because I do find that Kong is a really fun shooter. They're very different games, Evil Dead and Kong, if I was going to compare those two. I mean, completely different, but uh but but kong if someone's looking for that like awesome elwyn exciting shooter game like kong's kong's great like it is great and um you know strip all the controversy about the artwork and blah blah blah and ellie model and all just strip all that away from a purely game perspective kong is a very fun game to play even in its even in its existing code like there's just some really satisfying shots. I love the little flipper with the sweepable drop targets because you have so many things you can do there. I love hitting, if you go to that far right shot and it goes into that, that, uh, like underneath Kong and it, it fires it back at you. When you do if you can hit that shot let the ball fire back And then with that right flipper hit the um the helix ramp that a really fun sequence like if you can do that and then once you get good at doing that it just it never gets old so i realize that that this episode isn't about kong but i think kong is getting like somehow beat up and i don't understand that because i if you've played it then i don't think that you would a pinball player playing kong and putting a considerable amount of time on it would be very excited so for someone to say like it doesn't shoot well or something like i don't even understand that i don't i haven't heard anybody say it hasn't doesn't shoot well but i hear it's getting some crap but i think it might be getting more crap because the le wasn't differentiated enough but that's a whole story um i i did get the le i don't feel stupid for getting it my motivation for getting it was that i really wanted to get it early to do some coverage on it but i also really like Keith Elwin games. I mean, if I look at my collection, I got Jaws, I got Godzilla, I got Kong. Like, I like, I wish I had Jurassic Park. I don't, but I love his games. So his games shoot and play really well, and there's just a flow that he can create in a game that is like no other. So anyways, but back to, just to close off on Evil Dead, I think if you've pre-ordered this game and you haven't gotten it yet, you have something very special to look forward to, because especially if you're at the tail end of the run, I'm sure there'll be several code releases and updates between now and then. But even in its current form, there's so much to chew on here that I don't think you'll get bored. And I just feel like the theme was integrated so well. And with all the mechanisms and all the ways they integrated them, this to me is like, if I said,
    39:02
    if someone said, why do you like pinball so much? I'd be like, this is one of those things. It took a theme, it integrated it super well. it used a lot of fun mechanisms that interact with the ball in a way that are really exciting, but don't slow it down too much. That's the thing. If you have mechs that... I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about Dune, to be honest, because at this stage of my progression with pinball, I don't like when things slow the gameplay down too much. Even though James Bond is one of my favorite games, I'm double-tapping those flipper buttons to get through the videos. I don't even care about that. I just want to play the game. I mean, sometimes I'll let them hang a bit longer, but even when I play Elvira House of Horrors, even though those videos are cool, I skip right by them. I just double tap and skip right by them, which actually bit me in a tournament once because I did that, and there is a bug in Elvira that sometimes gets exposed where you skip the videos and it locks up the game. I had that happen to me at Eureka Heights, actually, when we were doing a tournament during the Twippies. So anyways, guys, that is kind of all I had. I'm excited. So the next thing, the next bit of news that should hit hopefully soon is Harry Potter. So hopefully the next time we do a podcast, that's what we'll be talking about. And we'll be breaking down that game and seeing how the community reacts to that game. So that'll be kind of interesting. But I just felt like I needed to do an episode on Evil Dead because I was like a kid in a candy store when I opened this thing up. And by the way, the one thing I didn't mention is the knocker. So the knocker is integrated in several different places and they use it to almost like scare you. Like you almost, it happens at times where it's, you know, it's a knocker hitting a metal plate and it kind of like startles you. You know what I mean? So there's different times in the game. There's one scene, I think it's hacking the bits or whatever that mode is, where he's like taking the axe and chopping her. And when he's doing that like every time that axe falls down like that that that thing's hitting like that's what i mean like their creative use of these things it's not gimmicky i feel like sometimes mechs can be gimmicky there's no gimmicks here like they all fit in so well they did such a good job with this game and i think uh you know especially because the big guys are moving so fast i think it's easy for people to forget and and it's easy for for people for anything anything that comes out. People even forget about Stern's own releases because there's a new one coming out. Like before we know it, no one will be talking about Kong and they'll be talking about whatever's next. And I do feel like from a content creation perspective, I want to do more. I have the ability and have had the ability to live stream pinball for a while now. And I do it. I just don't, I just do it very infrequently. And I really enjoy it when I do it. I will admit I enjoy it more when I do it with Rudy than when I do it alone. But I can totally hang, I can talk for hours. You guys probably know that I could keep talking. People at my work know that they'll always say like, Ralph, keep it brief. Because if it's like, if it's like we have an hour to present something, I just get passionate. And sometimes I that's like, it's like a blessing and a curse because I can talk forever. But at the same time, sometimes it's like, all right, no, no, read the room that like, hey, you you're there's other people that need to present. So you're kind of taking up too much time. So anyways, I'm going to do two voicemails and then we'll and then we'll wrap up the show. So give me one second while I, I have to sort of change everything to, uh, be able to play these. So give me a second. We'll go to the first voicemail. It's from anonymous.
    42:35
    And I can't, oh, there we go. Hey, Ralph, what is your favorite pinball machine of all time? And why is it hard body pinball?
    42:48
    Okay. Uh, I know who that is. I think that's, Minnesota Retro Gamer. Is it Retro Gamer or Retro Ranger? I don't even know what his name is. I know it's Andrew, but I don't know. I can't remember if it's Retro Ranger. I don't think it's Retro Ranger. It's Retro Gamer. I don't know. Anyways, nice guy. No, my favorite game is not Hard Body, although I've heard a lot of people like Hard Body. I've never put any significant amount of time on Hard Body, so I couldn't tell you whether I like that or not. I think it's very 80s, that's for sure. So I appreciate the 80s theme there. Bodybuilding, obviously very popular back in the days of, I don't know, I would imagine that game probably came out when Pumping Iron, that movie with Arnold, was really popular. It's so hard for me to say I have a favorite game, because I appreciate so many games in pinball. I'd say right now the game in my collection that still gets the most play, right now at least, and has the most plays, is probably Jaws. But I wouldn't consider Jaws my favorite game of all time, but it's definitely up there as a game I really, really love playing, and it's just the flow. It's just the shot flow of that game is so much fun. I love that little flipper on the right-hand side where you can fire it over and do that little loopy thing on the left. There's so many fun shots in that thing. I think the upper playfield gets crap, but I think the upper playfield's kind of fun. You're not up there for very long, but I do think it's very satisfying when you do it, and that's the thing. If you were up there and it felt flat, that would suck, but it doesn't. I feel like when you can hit that shot and you get it, you nail it, I think it's very satisfying. So I don't know. It's too much pressure to give you a favorite game. I don't know. I think that's probably hard for a lot of pinball players to give you their favorite game. I mean, I could always default to something like Godzilla, but I feel like that's a cop-out. I mean, I feel like everyone loves that game? Hmm. I don't know. That's a hard one. I'm going to think on that for next episode and really think about like, what would be my favorite? What's my all time favorite game? Cause I feel like that's pro that could be a game I don't own. You know, I got to think about that, but it's a good question and no, it's not hard body. All right. Next voicemail. This is from Mark, by the way. Hi Ralph. My name is Mark. Love the content. Love the shows. Excellent. Um, my question is, do you foresee in the future any of the bigger companies providing like a 0% interest on purchases of pinball machines? That's a good question, Mark. I don't know. I mean, that would require them to partner with like a finance company. I mean, it would make sense. It would make sense. I mean, there's two schools of thought here. Some people would be like, well, if you don't have the money, then you shouldn't be buying a pinball machine. It's like, there's a lot of luxury items that people buy that they don't have the all of them or they just don't want to use their savings to buy right they want to pay it off over time with like a zero interest card or even you know if or even just because they want to they want to pay for it over time uh i don't know i think some distros do right i think some distros let you use like paypal and stuff like that i'm trying to think like i think that i think it's the distros that would be because I don't know, I don't, there's really not a way to, especially because you said the big guys, I don't believe there's a way to directly buy games outside of like that limited access thing that Stern does for the LEs. So typically you're not buying direct from the manufacturer. So that would really probably be the distros having those credit agreements. I think some of them do, you should look into it. I think some of them do use a firm and use like PayPal or give you PayPal options and then but i don't even think that's through them it's more like paypal agreements right so i don't know i'm not sure how that works like i'm not sure if you're a if you're a seller if and you you partner with paypal if you have to agree to those terms like oh yeah i'll agree to let someone do that or if paypal ends up taking on the the responsibility i'm not i'm not sure it's weird i don't know but um to answer your question i think some of that does exist I think as these things get more expensive there might be people that would want to maybe put it on credit or take advantage of some zero interest situation. I know like Zach at Flippin' Out does credit cards there is a processing fee but I think that's just because there's a cost involved in doing that transaction that has to be taken care of somewhere and the margins aren't very big on pinball machines so I think that's a way for them to say, hey, I don't want to erode my margin. So unfortunately, I think most people that take credit cards, that 3.5% is pretty typical. So I don't know, man. That's a good question. I don't know, like some kind of pinball finance company. I don't know. I mean, again, they're expensive, dude. So believe me, I get it. Yeah, it's a good question, dude. I wish I had a better answer for you. I appreciate you leaving the voicemail. Maybe if someone that's a little smarter than me in the comments can say what a program like that might look like. But I appreciate you leaving a voicemail.
    47:59
    But now it's time. Oh, shoot. Now it's time to wrap up the show. So I appreciate each and every one of you. We're going to play the I'm going to play the sort of acoustic version of the theme song just to get you guys out of here.
    48:17
    I don't know, man. I'm really excited lately. I just feel like Evil Dead, not that I need it to be reinvigorated, but it really, really got me freaking pumped up, man. I spread it in Rudy. When Rudy came over and we were playing this thing, even though we had played it at the bat before, it was like... I don't know. Him and I were like, holy shit, man. That was the response. I looked at him. I'm like, dude, this is nuts. He's like, this is awesome. And we had so much fun. We kept saying one more game. And I'm looking at my watch. I'm like, dude, it's getting so late. And then here's the messed up thing. It's Rudy GC'd my game on the day I got it. I was like, I'm not letting you, I'm not going to sleep tonight with your score on my game. So I stayed up even later, probably to like 1 or 1.30 until I beat his ass. So it's a friendly competition. I will say, though, he would agree with this. When I'm losing, I get grumpy, man. I got to figure out how to solve that. I'm just being honest. I can get a little grumpy. I got to figure out how to get over that. Anyways, thank you so much for watching, guys. Appreciate you. put comments below, whether you're on Spotify, Apple, whatever you are. I don't even know if you can comment on those platforms, but if you're on YouTube, please comment. I enjoy reading them and I respond to as many of them as I can. And that's it for now, guys. We will see you on the flip side.