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Winchester Mystery Hoax | Ep. 3

Erika's Pinball Journey·video·50m 28s·analyzed·Jun 18, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Winchester house history debunked; Pokemon pinball comes to anime con; LGR reviews pinball to 1.8M followers.

Summary

Erika and Manu discuss three topics: the true history of Winchester Mystery House versus the popularized haunted house myth perpetuated by the Winchester Mystery House estate (which inspired the Barrels of Fun pinball game), Erika's plans to bring Stern's Pokemon pinball machine to Fanime anime convention in San Jose as an outreach initiative with sponsor Rewind Pinball, and LGR (Clint Basinger), a major retro YouTube channel with 1.8M subscribers, receiving a Star Wars: Fall of the Empire of the Empire pinball machine for review—generating significant cross-community interest and marketing exposure for pinball.

Key Claims

  • Winchester Mystery House haunted-by-ghosts story was fabricated by the family that purchased the estate after Winchester Mystery House died, to attract tourism and visitors.

    high confidence · Manu, citing YouTube research: 'The family that owns the house now, the estate that owns the house now has nothing to do with Winchester Mystery House. And so they needed a reason to have people come to visit. And thus they made up the story of Winchester Mystery House being told by a medium.'

  • Winchester Mystery House was an innovative architect and engineer who implemented cutting-edge technology including indoor plumbing, forced air heating, gas-powered lighting, and intercom systems—not a superstitious woman fleeing ghosts.

    high confidence · Manu's research notes: 'Sarah had very innovative ideas in architecture and was intricately involved in the construction of her house. She pushed boundaries and innovated in many areas, including... indoor plumbing... forced air heating... Gas powered lighting on demand across rooms.'

  • Winchester Mystery House used her house to provide shelter and medical care for women in need, including those requiring abortions (which were illegal at the time), demonstrating she was protecting vulnerable people rather than confusing spirits.

    medium confidence · Manu: 'There were like medical rooms in her house prepared with all kinds of things... She had rooms that kept people safe. If you had to go off the grid for a little while, Sarah was there for you.'

  • Barrels of Winchester Mystery House pinball game faithfully reproduces the tourist myth story of the Winchester house, not the actual historical truth about Winchester Mystery House.

    high confidence · Manu: 'Barrels of Winchester Mystery House, faithfully recreating the story of the Winchester Mystery House in a pinball context.' and 'the game is amazing and the game faithfully reproduces the story of the Winchester Mystery House. Whether you guys want to believe it or not, that's up to you.'

  • Erika is bringing Stern's Pokemon pinball machine to Fanime anime convention (May 22-25) as a cross-community outreach effort, with sponsorship from Rewind Pinball, a new pinball dealer.

    high confidence · Erika: 'I will be bringing pinball to the show... I was able to talk to my sponsor, Rewind Pinball, who is going to bring some Pokemon pinball machines.' and 'Fanime is in May... happening during May 22nd to the 25th.'

Notable Quotes

  • “The family that owns the house now, the estate that owns the house now has nothing to do with Winchester Mystery House. And so they needed a reason to have people come to visit. And thus they made up the story of Winchester Mystery House being told by a medium.”

    Manu@ 14:44 — Core claim debunking the haunted house origin story and attributing it to tourism marketing by subsequent property owners.

  • “Sarah had more money than most people back then. She was so incredibly wealthy. So, Erica, do you think she could afford a chandelier with 13 candles if she wanted? Not a chandelier that's there that has 12 candles and then some busted up add-on candle.”

    Manu@ 20:28 — Rhetorical argument that details supposedly explained by ghost-appeasement (odd numbers, strange architecture) were actually practical decisions by an independently wealthy woman.

  • “this is not the first time that people from the retro community have kind of crossed over to say, oh, pinball, hmm, right? This is not the first time, but this has got to be one of the largest, most popular YouTubers putting up a 17-minute long video about a pinball machine.”

    Manu@ 36:51 — Recognition of LGR's pinball video as a major breakthrough for mainstream cross-community visibility of pinball.

  • “I can't wait to see how big of a hit the Pokemon pinball machine from Stern is going to be when it's there. Because nowhere else in the world does it fit better.”

    Manu@ 30:12 — Strategic observation about theme-venue alignment and its potential marketing impact.

  • “Clint is an American YouTuber who focuses on video game reviews, retro computing, and unboxing videos. His YouTube channel of the same name has been compared to Techmoan and The 8-Bit Guy.”

    Manu — Context-setting on LGR's position in the retro YouTube ecosystem and audience reach.

Entities

ErikapersonManupersonWinchester Mystery HousepersonWinchester Mystery HousegameBarrels of FuncompanyPython Angheloperson

Signals

  • ?

    historical_signal: Long-standing haunted house narrative about Sarah Winchester is being reframed by historians and researchers as a post-mortem fabrication by subsequent property owners for tourism marketing, rather than authentic historical account of her motivations.

    high · Manu's research cites YouTube videos documenting that Sarah Winchester was an innovative architect with progressive values, and that the medium/ghost-appeasement story was invented by the estate's later owners. Staff at Winchester Mystery House are required to maintain the fictional narrative.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Sarah Winchester's home design innovations (indoor plumbing, forced-air heating, gas lighting, intercom systems) are being reinterpreted as evidence of her advanced architectural vision and social progressivism (sheltering vulnerable women) rather than supernatural obsession.

    high · Manu documents multiple technological innovations and notes that medical rooms suggest humanitarian purpose rather than ghost-appeasement.

  • ?

    venue_signal: First-time introduction of pinball machines (Pokemon) to Fanime anime convention gaming hall, representing cross-community outreach from pinball industry to anime/pop culture fan base.

    high · Erika coordinating with Rewind Pinball to bring Stern Pokemon machines to Fanime May 22-25; no prior pinball presence at this venue noted.

  • ?

    content_signal: Major retro gaming YouTuber LGR (1.8M subscribers) producing dedicated pinball content, representing significant mainstream media breakthrough for pinball hobby beyond dedicated community.

    high · 32,000 views on Fall of the Empire review in 8 hours; 17-minute dedicated pinball video from established retro gaming channel; Manu notes this as 'one of the largest, most popular YouTubers' covering pinball.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.151

0:00
This is Pinball Minority Report. I'm Erica. And I'm Manu. And we're two pinball fanatics bringing you real talk, wild stories, interviews, and everything happening in the world of pinball. Erica, what are we talking about on today's show? Today's show, we're going to talk about the true story of Sarah Winchester. And then we're going to talk about pinball at Fanime, which is an anime convention. Then we're going to talk about LGR gets a pinball machine. Yeah, I think it's LGR gets a pinball machine because that one's your story. Yeah, LGR stands for Lazy Game Reviews and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But how have you been? What's been going on? We got a lot going on. We've got a lot. There's been a lot going on. My next flight, I think, was Lufthansa.
1:29
Lufthansa. And then I also took Euro Wings. Euro Wings? What is that? Is that new? I'm not sure. I don't know.
1:40
They're, I think, a branch of Lufthansa. Oh. Have you ever flown Scandinavian Airlines? I have. Yeah. My uncle, I think, was a pilot for them for a while. Oh, wow. Yeah. So you flew into Stockholm? Yeah, I flew into Stockholm. I love that airport. I mean, there's not much there, but I love it. You know, so here's something stupid that you would never know, Erica.
2:05
In the bathrooms in the Stockholm airport. She's starting to laugh. This is why you do a podcast with me.

  • LGR (Clint Basinger), a major retro gaming YouTuber with 1.8 million subscribers, received a Star Wars: Fall of the Empire of the Empire premium pinball machine from Stern for a three-month review loan.

    high confidence · Manu: 'I tuned in today to find him next to Star Wars: Fall of the Empire of the Empire pinball machine... they sent him a Fall of the Empire premium for review for three months.'

  • LGR's Fall of the Empire pinball review video garnered 32,000 views within eight hours of posting, demonstrating significant audience interest in pinball from the retro gaming community.

    high confidence · Manu: 'Stern Pinball, this video is already sitting at 32,000 views, and it's only been up for eight hours as of our recording.'

  • Rewind Pinball sold out of their Winchester Mystery House pinball machines within 24 hours.

    high confidence · Erika: 'they had Winchesters for sale and then they didn't because nobody got sold out in 24 hours' [confirming rapid sell-out].

  • Stern proactively reached out to or responded positively to LGR's inquiry about reviewing a pinball machine, demonstrating Stern's strategic marketing efforts to reach larger YouTube audiences.

    high confidence · Manu: 'Stern is doing a really good job... they also are doing some outreach to bigger YouTubers... Clint said he reached out to them... And they were immediately like, yes!'

  • The 'room that goes nowhere' at Winchester Mystery House (a door opening to a drop-off) was created due to earthquake damage to a porch support structure that was never rebuilt, not as an intentional ghost-trap mechanism.

    medium confidence · Manu: 'they have pictures of that side of the house and the door led to a little opening area... when the earthquake happened, that side fell off. They just didn't rebuild it.'

    • @ 35:19

  • “he reached out to Stern and said, hey, I'd love to do a review of one of your games. And they were immediately like, yes! I'm sure they looked at the number of subscribers and they were like, yes!”

    Manu@ 39:00 — Evidence of Stern's responsive, audience-aware marketing strategy.

  • “Stern Pinball, this video is already sitting at 32,000 views, and it's only been up for eight hours as of our recording. This is marketing genius, right?”

    Manu@ 39:44 — Quantification of the viral reach and marketing ROI of the LGR partnership.

  • “I'm so grateful to Adam at Rewind Pinball for... indulging or like, what's the word? Yeah, to help me bring out this fantasy and show people this world that we love so much.”

    Erika@ 31:44 — Personal appreciation for sponsor support and intent behind bringing pinball to anime convention.

  • “Everyone who works at the Winchester Mystery House has to stay on script. They cannot vary from script.”

    Manu@ 21:21 — Insight into how the false narrative is institutionalized at the tourist attraction.

  • “There's nothing that really compares to actual physical pinball, the balls banging around on the table and stuff like that.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 37:29 — LGR's articulation of pinball's tactile, irreplaceable experience versus digital games.

    • Brad Albright
    person
    Jeff Dodsonperson
    Rewind Pinballcompany
    Adamperson
    Fanimeevent
    Pokemongame
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Clint Basingerperson
    Fall of the Empiregame
    Zach Sharpeperson
    HomegrownB_DUBperson
    LGR (Lazy Game Reviews)organization
    Dirtypool Pinballcompany
    Pinball Minority Reportorganization
  • ?

    business_signal: Stern Pinball demonstrating proactive marketing strategy by engaging major YouTube creators (LGR) through loan arrangements, aiming to reach adjacent audiences in retro gaming/computing community.

    high · Stern sent Fall of the Empire premium (~$10K value) to LGR for three-month review loan; responsive to creator outreach; Manu characterizes as 'marketing genius' based on rapid view accumulation.

  • $

    market_signal: Rewind Pinball's Winchester Mystery House inventory sold out within 24 hours, indicating strong demand for Barrels of Fun limited production and FOMO-driven collector interest.

    high · Erika: 'they had Winchesters for sale and then they didn't because nobody got sold out in 24 hours.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Strategic positioning of themed pinball machines (Pokemon at anime convention, D&D at tabletop shop) to maximize audience fit and engagement; demonstrated success metric model.

    high · Manu's observation that Pokemon 'fit better' at anime convention than generic games; HomegrownDB's D&D placement generating strong revenue; theme-specific placement performing significantly better than broad-appeal titles.

  • ?

    venue_signal: Erika planning extended stay at Fanime (May 22-25) to staff Pokemon pinball demonstration, shifting from casual attendee to community ambassador role, with co-host Manu invited to participate.

    high · Erika: 'Now I'll be there for most of the convention in order to be there at the games and kind of talk to people'; Manu invited with 'little ticket' to support booth.

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Carl D'Python Anghelo recognized as first-time pinball designer receiving lead designer credit on Barrels of Fun's Winchester Mystery House game, alongside established artist Brad Albright.

    medium · Manu credits 'lead designer was first-time designer Carl D'Python Anghelo with audio and stuff like that by our own buddy Jeff Dodson'; game received positive reception suggesting successful debut.

  • ?

    community_signal: Growing intersection of pinball hobby with adjacent retro gaming, arcade, and pop culture fan communities; evidence of pinball becoming more visible/accessible to mainstream entertainment audiences.

    high · LGR crossover; Fanime convention integration; reference to Retro Ralph, Cool Toy, Techmoan as precedents for retro community interest in pinball; expectation of 'onslaught of new, even newer people to the pinball world.'

  • ?

    product_concern: LGR's Fall of the Empire experienced immediate motherboard connector failure (RJ45 popped out) upon receipt, though resolved quickly by Stern support same-day.

    medium · Manu: 'He got a noteboard problem immediately. It's just an RJ45 connector popped out. He got to support, they got back to him, and he was up and running that same day.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Stern Pinball support team demonstrated rapid response to LGR's technical issue, resolving same-day; positive customer service signal that may influence new customer perception.

    high · Manu: 'He got to support, they got back to him, and he was up and running that same day.' LGR maintained positive tone despite issue.

    • 2:18
    Okay? In the bathroom in Stockholm airport. They have urinals for dudes to go in and do their thing. The number one, not the number two.
    2:28
    And so I land in Stockholm and that's when I used to go out there to teach dance. So I land in Stockholm, got to go to the bathroom, walk over to the bathroom, see the urinal. And I noticed that there is, I'm like, oh, they must not keep this place very clean because there's a fly down there. And I look close and I go, well, wait, there's a fly on every single urinal. Wait a minute. Are they giving me a target?
    3:01
    Dude, they literally give you a target to hit. Hello. Pinball minority report right here. No, but I immediately was like, the Swedes are brilliant. This is amazing because they're telling you the optimal place for you to aim so you have less splash.
    3:30
    It will be the Swedes. They're trying to be efficient. They're awesome. I love them. I love you guys. You guys are great. Okay, so anyway, that's my story about the – You've been many times to Sweden though. This was something we learned – or I learned about you a little while ago. Yeah, I miss it though. I've flown to Stockholm like eight times. I miss it, but yeah, so there you go. We'll go sometime.
    3:53
    Yeah, yeah. I also have to make a trip with Isaiah to Japan to find some pinball in Japan too. Yeah, I want to go to Japan really bad as well. But yeah, I made that quick trip and just been working on a bunch of other stuff otherwise. So lots of pinball. That's a pinball. Well, let's talk a little bit more about pinball. As we say, let's push start and let the games begin.
    4:22
    I'm player one. And with my first ball, I'm going to launch something at you, Erica. So that's all right. Full full disclosure. If you don't want to hear about, you know, the show is titled The Winchester Mystery Hoax.
    4:43
    We're going to tell you right now, if you want to skip this and believe whatever you want to believe, Erica will chapterize this podcast so you can just skip this chapter. Yeah, you can just skip the chapter about the truth of Sarah Winchester.
    5:03
    Yeah, I mean, I'm about to have everything being told to me. I grew up with the Winchester house. Like literally, like I remember going on field trips as a kid to this place. They tell us the story about Sarah Winchester. And then Manu comes to me. What?
    5:21
    Wants to reveal Santa Claus. Easter Bunny. The Tooth Fairy, everything. He does it all. You know what? I blame YouTube because I watch too much YouTube.
    5:35
    But I'm very interested to know because you were the one that did the research on this and not me, so I'm ready to be surprised just like a lot of the listeners. So yeah, I'll put chapters though so you can skip this whole story if this is not your jam. Yeah, you could cut it right out. So anyway, all right. So here's the deal. So because, Erica, I also was taken to the Winchester Mystery House when I was a little kid, scared the crap out of me, all that other stuff. But just to keep all our pinball people up to snuff, you guys probably already know this, that Barrels of Fun recently released a pinball machine based on the license from the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. So the Winchester Mystery House Pinball game was designed, actually the lead designer was first-time designer Carl D'Angelo with audio and stuff like that by our own buddy Jeff Dodson from Dirty Pool Pinball. Beautiful game, beautiful artwork. Faithfully recreating Erica. Yes. Oh, wait, wait. I got one. I got one. Wait. If you're listening to podcast, Erica and I are both all praise the mighty pyramid. That we both have. I have a different one than you do. Yeah, I got the OG. There's a QR code on the back of this. I never noticed it. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Anyway, Brad Albright and Jeff Dodson did the design for this. Both great people. All right. So Barrels of Fun's Winchester Mystery House, faithfully recreating the story of the Winchester Mystery House in a pinball context. But Erica, that story, is that story a fact or fiction?
    7:11
    I thought it was fact. But what makes you doubt that? The fact that we're doing this story right now? Yeah, the fact that you sent me all these YouTube videos and I was like, wait, what? My whole life has been a lie.
    7:27
    All right. I'm ready to learn, though. No, now I think it's fiction. I mean, now I think I get it. Like you got to got a theme park for something. So hit me, Monique. Well, it might turn out that – now, don't get us wrong. The Pinball Machine is amazing, faithful reproduction of the story of the Winchester house. But it might be just as true as the faithful retelling of the story of Twilight Zone by Pat Lawler, right? Or the faithful retelling of the story of the Addams Family, real family that actually existed. They lived right next door to the Munsters. So I'm watching YouTube, which is the worst thing for you to do as a person.
    8:13
    All right. And a video comes up. It must have heard me talk about the Winchester House. A video comes up called 40 Reasons the Winchester Mystery House is a Total Scam.
    8:26
    We will – Erica, is there a way for us to post links in the description? So we have links to a couple of YouTube videos that we'll post in the show notes. But I went down a rabbit hole, Erica, because like you, my life was based on the fact that Sarah Winchester went to a medium or some kind of fortune teller or something. Sarah Winchester, the wife of the Winchester estate, the gun that won the West or whatever, the Winchester actual rifle, the repeating rifle. So Sarah apparently went to a medium that said to atone for the deaths of all the people killed with a West Winchester rifle, you must go west and build a house and continue building and confuse the spirits. So that because Sarah's husband died and then the daughter died and everyone like died in her life. So she went a little crazy and started building a house and built and built and built. And so around the time the pinball machine came out, Erica, you were like, hey, let's go check the house out. Right. We did a little field trip. We did a little field trip to refresh our memory about the house and the story of the pinball machine. That was pretty cool. Yeah, we wanted to get a chance to like re because like I had not gone to it since I was like 12. And for context, I'm 31 now.
    10:10
    I haven't gone to it since I was 12 either. For context, I am also 31 now. Ah, yeah. And so we went to this house and we wanted to also see, we'll have something about it later because I've been meaning to edit this video. We have lots of photos and pictures. We went on this little field trip to look at the house and then compare it to the art of the game of Brad Albright's art and just like the story, just all encompassing. We went to the house. This is the game. How do they compare? Sort of. Yeah. Yeah. So it was it was super cool, too.
    10:55
    I had I had a blast. I think there were some people we were giggling quite a bit. And I could tell there were some people in our tour group. I know we're not.
    11:07
    We were both like, like, oh, that's like from the game. That's like that. That's the thing. Brad probably did that. And then these people just looking at us and we're like, there's a pinball machine. We swear it's coming out. And they're like, okay.
    11:22
    I think I remember you asked the staff when were they getting their pinball machine. Is that right? Yeah, I asked the staff if they knew and they were like, not sure, but we know it's coming and it's going to be right over there with all the other games that we have that are like from that. Well, those are older games. It's not a newer game, but like kind of the game section, I guess you could say. So I still haven't played it at the Winchester house yet, but I do plan to visit back there at some point. Yeah, that was a super cool visit. And Barrels of Fun and Carl and the whole team did an amazing job of recreating the story of the house. We even went – remember we took the cellar tour. Was it the cellar tour or the basement tour? It was like a basement or a cellar. It's been a hot minute since we went. Now, it was back in November we went, but it's May for context. Yeah. And, yeah, that was fun. They gave us – we had to wear these little helmets so that we wouldn't hit our heads. Oh, I forgot. Yeah Oh maybe if I kept going I had a friend that used to work there and I believe that they said they kind of felt a little spooky vibes Sure sure Well I mean yeah it was it was a fun trip We saw it was like they faithfully reproduced it in the game. So the issue right now is and that's not so this is not the only video that I saw. The popular legend claims that Sarah believed that she was haunted by the spirits of people killed by Winchester rifles and that she built a house in order to appease or confuse them, possibly under guidance of a psychic.
    13:06
    According to this story, construction could never stop or she would die. Now, people, they have been kind of going through the house recently, you know, recently within the last, like, I guess, five years or so and finding more rooms and finding things that were not in the blueprints and discovering that Sarah Winchester, number one, wasn't, you know, going back to the Sarah Winchester history, she wasn't necessarily crazy. She probably was the most brilliant construction mind architect.
    13:43
    What else is there to say? Super awesome person protecting the rights of women, saving children. There were a lot of things in the house that spoke more to sanity and predisposition of what she was doing as opposed to ghosts and stuff like that, right? And I wrote some of this down. I'm happy. Eric and I are happy to give you guys the information. Go look at the videos. There are many videos on YouTube explaining why they discovered that Sarah wasn't crazy and this is not the real story. is because when Sarah died, the house was purchased by another family completely who tried to do something with the house, couldn't figure out what to do until they discovered if they made a story up and made it a haunted house, people would start coming. And so this is clearly documented. The family that owns the house now, the estate that owns the house now has nothing to do with Sarah Winchester. And so they needed a reason to have people come to visit. And thus they made up the story of Sarah Winchester being told by a medium. There was never any – no researchers could find any proof that Sarah went to a medium and was told that Sarah had moved to California because of this.
    15:20
    And there are also many stories about Sarah protecting women because back in the day, abortions, you couldn't get an abortion. Like if you were trapped or, you know, unfortunately impregnated, let's say that way to keep the nasty words out of the history, there's no recourse for you as a woman. And Sarah was – Erica, there were like medical rooms in her house prepared with all kinds of things. And this is all kinds of stuff that's not just for Sarah. It's for like many people. She had rooms that kept people safe. If you had to go off the grid for a little while, Sarah was there for you. I have something here written in my notes that says, Sarah was an independent, wealthy woman with an interest in architecture who continually redesigned her home, sometimes rebuilding sections simply because she didn't like them. Okay, not because of ghosts.
    16:23
    Her reclusive lifestyle and the strange design of the house helped fuel rumors of superstition and madness. Sarah had very innovative ideas in architecture and was intricately involved in the construction of her house. She pushed boundaries and innovated in many areas, including, now we saw some of this when we saw indoor plumbing, wasn't popular back. Right. Forced air heating. The floor was warm. Gas powered lighting on demand across rooms. Erica, remember the intercom system that she had? Thank you for watching. So the point here in the story is, once again, we'll link to YouTube videos that clearly show the history of the house. The point is to not defame Sarah Winchester's legacy with a fake story about her being crazy and running from ghosts. The point is to mark a person in history who was smart, innovative, and knew exactly what she was doing and exactly how to do whatever with her money. That's a pretty big thing for me because if you're super smart but you're, you know, I'm just going to say that the family that took over the story maybe could have went a different way with it and not, you know, tarnished Sarah Winchester's legacy. Yeah, to make her come out to be someone that she really wasn't. Yeah, what you've told me and what you've researched and what I plan to watch later as well to like kind of get more into it.
    18:53
    Yeah, man, just that's so wild to hear what you were telling me with the earthquakes happening and changing parts of the house and how they just decided, oh, we're just going to say this happened. Yeah, well, for two case in points I bring up to Erica, which was discovered in a couple of those videos. Number one, the room that goes nowhere.
    19:17
    You open the door and it drops right off the side of the house. Yeah, that would happen if you didn't rebuild the porch that was there. They have – literally they have pictures of that side of the house and the door led to a little opening area where you could step onto and look out. They literally have pictures of that side of the house that's constructed. And when the earthquake happened, that side fell off. They just didn't rebuild it. Sarah didn't do it to make ghosts fall. Because what's the best way to kill a ghost? To make it fall and die. Wait a minute, what?
    19:58
    Wait a minute. If it walks out the door, it's going to fall. It'll probably break both its ghost legs.
    20:08
    And it's just tons of that. The other thing, probably break Gome with his ghost legs. Yeah, if you put all that together, it's like, let's go break some ghost legs. Now they're only going to stay on the bottom.
    20:23
    I mean, come on. Sarah had more money than most people back then. She was so incredibly wealthy. So, Erica, do you think she could afford a chandelier with 13 candles if she wanted? Not a chandelier that's there that has 12 candles and then some busted up add-on candle.
    20:49
    She could be like, can you just make it with 13, please? Yeah, she could have done that. Yeah, there's a lot of crazy stuff with this story for Sarah. And she, like, it's so interesting from when we took this tour and, like, all the things that they're talking about her and that they're saying what she did. Yeah. And, yeah. I can see clearly now that she was, that they were wrong. They had to stay on a script. Everyone who works at the Winchester Mystery House has to stay on script. They cannot vary from script. And there's documented cases of people who used to work there that one woman said she felt so sad that she had to say this thing about this wonderful woman, Sarah Winchester. That was not true. But once again, we reiterate the game is amazing and the game faithfully reproduces the story of the Winchester Mystery House. Whether you guys want to believe it or not, that's up to you. We give you the information. We'll give you the links. Go check it out. Let us know what you think. Yeah. And if you want to prove us wrong, if you want to prove Monu wrong and say you've got facts to fact to fact to fact to back it up.
    22:13
    Bring it. Bring it. Let's go. Break the legs. Speaking of ghosts, and this is a terrible segue, but does Fandomay have any ghosts at it? Oh, Fandomay does have ghosts? Probably.
    22:30
    People pretending to be ghosts. But I thought Japan didn't like ghosts. I mean, people cosplay and they could be cosplaying as ghosts.
    22:42
    So. Tell me about Fanime. I'm new to this. What's going on? So Fanime is this fans of anime convention that happens in San Jose as well. So another thing in San Jose, it's actually pretty close to the Winchester Mystery House. So Fanime is in May. It's a fans of anime convention and it's happening during May 22nd to the 25th. It happens during Memorial Day weekend and it's just like Halloween in May. Thank you for watching. Thanks for watching. All these names that some of you are probably like, what the heck is this? Some of them are really good, and if you want some anime recommendations, I'd be happy to give some more. But I go to this show to go look at stuff. I go to look at people's art. I love going to... So they have a dealer's hall and they have an artist alley, and those are the two places I spend a lot of time in. And the dealer's hall has just like people that are selling like official merch slash like their own t-shirts or swords like there's literally like a sword vendor you can buy any sort of anime sword from whatever video game or show you've watched.
    24:54
    They've got people that sell pillows, posters, some really interesting things there. I like going to the artist alley though because these are people real art and they been really looking to keep AI art out of there as well too now that it becoming a thing There a lot of conventions that are now being like hey you can have AI art at your booth which I think is great because keep artists doing art And I have a lot of posters I probably could plug in a few pictures or whatnot that I've bought from the years I've been attending the show. I don't go all the time, but I would say I've been to the show at least six or seven times. It's something I really enjoy going to when I get a chance. And yeah, I just think it's a lot of fun. There's a gaming hall. So now, the reason I'm talking about Fanmei with you in this episode is because I will be bringing pinball to the show. So they have a gaming hall, and this gaming hall has a lot of Japanese games, Dance Dance Revolution, they have a lot of console stuff, and there's other vendors and stuff that bring those. But I was able to talk to my sponsor, Rewind Pinball, who is going to bring some Pokemon pinball machines. Wait a minute, that's Japanese!
    26:09
    Yes! I thought of this though because, yeah, they're just, you know, Rewind Pinball, they're a new pinball dealer. They deal with Stern and Barrels of Fun games, so we just talked about Winchester. They had Winchesters for sale and then they didn't because nobody got sold out in 24 hours. Yeah.
    26:32
    But this is sort of like a way for their outreach. But also, I just thought it would be super cool to now do this. Like I haven't had a pinball machine that I felt like I could bring to Fanime that would have this sort of impact Pokemon will. So I'm actually really excited. And I've even invited you, Manu, to come. I can come too? Yes.
    26:56
    So we're going to get to go to the show and we're going to get to show people. I'm all set. You're all set with your little ticket. Nice. For those of you that are visually not watching, for those of you that are listening and not watching, Manu just grabbed out his tool belt that he's going to bring to Fandom.
    27:17
    My Marco tool belt, sorry. Not a sponsor, but I love this tool belt. Yeah, we love Marco. They're great. Amodo and the team there are amazing. If they want to sponsor us, it's fine, but not yet. Go ahead.
    28:00
    Jocelyn McCaffrey, CFO, Satellite Sports. Some of what you might know in pinball. It might not be the standard pinball knowledge. And I really like that. So I'm very excited to also know like what animes that I want to make in pinball. What other animes can we convince these pinball companies to make a dream come true? Have you, in the times you went, have you seen any pinball there or no? It's kind of not part of it really? I've never, in the gaming hall from my understanding, I've never seen pinball at the show. They have all these Japanese games like the Candy Cabs and Dance Dance Revolution.
    29:09
    I've seen those crazy dance games. A lot of people like those dancing games. Those washing machine games. Those washing machine games where they come dressed with, they have their gloves on and they're just going nuts. The gloves are everywhere. I've gone to Stonestown and we went to that little arcade that's at Stonestown and yeah, they're pretty serious.
    29:29
    It's sick though. I like it. I would say this is Halloween in May because so many people come dressed up and that's what's I think so fun about it too is the culture of cosplay that happens and getting to see the obscure ones, the most popular ones. A very well-known anime is Attack on Titan. A lot of people for some years were dressing up as Attack on Titan. You also have the classics like Naruto and Dragon Ball Z and One Piece. The amount of One Piece loofies out there is a lot. And just for some video games too. Maybe you like some Devil's May Cry or you like Zelda. I don't know. I'm trying to think of all the video games I play right now. I'm telling you though, like, I can't wait to see how big of a hit the Pokemon pinball machine from Stern is going to be when it's there. Because nowhere else in the world does it fit better. I'm surprised Stern didn't already think, wow, let's take Pokemon to anime conventions. Because if you were to plop down a Twilight Zone or like say like a, you know, I don't know, a John Wick or something like that at a fan to make convention, you might get a passerby or two. But to drop down Pokemon, which is literally the artwork from the original Pokemon artists.
    30:57
    It's got Pikachu in there. It's got all the guys in there at an anime convention. I can't wait to see what the reaction is going to be. Just that alone, Erika, you know what I mean? Yeah, because I originally was going to just attend this convention anyway. It is something I just enjoy going to. I'd probably go a day or two. Now I'll be there for most of the convention in order to be there at the games and kind of talk to people.
    31:24
    But yeah, I just thought that like, wow, wouldn't this be so cool? And then I talked to my sponsor about it. I was like, hey, I think this would be a really great place for you to bring Pokemon to try to show it to people. So I'm really grateful for Adam at Rewind Pinball for, I guess, what's the, indulging or like, what's the word? Yeah, I guess indulging. Yeah, to help me bring out this fantasy and show people this world that we love so much. And, yeah, I'm like really, I'm stoked, man. It's in two weeks, May 22nd to the 25th. And I think we're going to have a blast. It's going to be an incredible, I think it's going to be an incredible experiment. Does the theme work where the theme really should work, right? Like a buddy of mine who also streams, named HomegrownDB, who works for the Simpsons, he put Dungeons & Dragons pinball machine at a game shop. So a place where they literally go to play Dungeons & Dragons, right? He put a Dungeons & Dragons in that shop along with four other Stern games. He says the D&D is just making so much. He's just like, it's just killing, which it should. Right? So by that rationale, I know that's not a really scientific method, like one specimen. But by that rationale, Pokemon at an anime convention? Come on. Yeah. I mean, let's go. I was just thinking about the people that maybe saw it, you know, like people saw that Pokemon was a released pinball machine, but didn't know like how to buy one or how do you even find one. And so also helping to be like, not just to give visibility to Rewind Pinball, but to give visibility to pinball in general. Exactly, exactly. Exactly. So it'll be a little collab. We get a little fun time. And then helping Rewind Pinball get some visibility since they are a new dealer. I'm very excited for them. They've been given this really exciting opportunity to start to sell pinball machines and I've been very grateful for their support.
    34:13
    Cool, cool. Yeah, I can't wait to see what that experiment looks like. Speaking of people who are new to pinball, story number three today, I managed to grab just today. So once again, I'm watching too much YouTube.
    34:28
    We all do. Yeah, I know. We all do it. We all have to. It's like television now. It's weird. It's exactly what they wanted it to be back in the day. One of my favorite YouTubers, besides Doug Cool Toy, is Clint Basinger. Now, Clint Basinger, better known as LGR, which Erica so wonderfully managed to get through at the beginning of the show. Originally, it's an initialism of Lazy Game Reviews. So I've been watching Clint's YouTube channel forever. It's got to be for the last 8, 9, 10 years. Commitment. Yeah. Clint is an American YouTuber who focuses on video game reviews, retro computing, and unboxing videos. His YouTube channel of the same name has been compared to Techmoan and The 8-Bit Guy. So if you are a retro YouTube watcher person, you know who Techmon is and you know who the 8-bit guy is. They are all in the area of, Erica, they're all in like the world of retro video games, retro computers, retro arcades, sort of like similar to Retro Ralph, right? But so Clint, Retro Ralph is a popular YouTuber. Clint, the LGR, is at 1.8 million subscribers, okay? So, Clint, this is his job, what he's doing. He also builds and restores many vintage, let's say this five times fast, vintage video games. I would watch Clint and see things like old mouses and this and that and old computers or whatever. I tuned in today to find him next to Stern's Fall of the Empire pinball machine.
    36:30
    Ooh. Ooh is right because it's like, oh my God, my worlds are colliding. What's going on? It's happening.
    36:42
    They're getting into pinball. We're winning. Well, you know what's funny? This isn't the first time, right? So we just mentioned Retro Ralph. We just mentioned Cool Toy. This isn't the first time that people from the retro community have kind of crossed over to say, oh, pinball, hmm, right? This is not the first time, but this has got to be one of the largest, most popular YouTubers putting up a 17-minute long video about a pinball machine. Wow. And he said it himself in the video. He says this is not about – because he used to play Epic Pinball on the PC and he loved Epic Pinball. He goes, this is not that. He goes, there's nothing that really compares to actual physical pinball, the balls banging around on the table and stuff like that.
    37:38
    And yeah, it was great. We'll post a link to the video in the description. John Wick Pokemon Godzilla Lord of the Rings The short Erica is that this is amazing for a lot of things Number one he didn buy the pinball machine full disclosure He reached out to Stern
    37:55
    And this is where I think Stern is doing really good for themselves. Okay? Number one, Stern is Stern, right? Biggest pinball manufacturer on the planet. Okay? Stern is doing a really good job. Zach Sharpe sends out these emails and says, hey, we got a new game coming. Check it out. But they also are doing some outreach to bigger YouTubers.
    38:21
    Here's what's funny. Clint said he reached out to them. He would go to conventions and he would see pinball and he would love to play pinball, but they were daunting. The pinball machine is – you and I both know, Erica, they don't look like they're very friendly.
    38:39
    It's a big object. You know, they weigh anywhere from 250 pounds to 400 pounds, and that is, like, pretty big. Yeah, that's a major, that's like going to get a refrigerator.
    38:52
    But Clint, I don't know, check the video, he reached out to Stern and said, hey, I'd love to do a review of one of your games. And they were immediately like, yes! I'm sure they looked at the number of subscribers and they were like, yes! Yes, so they sent him a Fall of the Empire premium for review for three months.
    39:13
    Okay, so it's not like he got a free pinball machine, so people stop. Don't go there. Even Stern is like, look, that game is like, what, $10,000? Yes.
    39:24
    But they sent it to him. He put it together. He did have a noteboard problem immediately. It's just an RJ45 connector popped out. He got to support, they got back to him, and he was up and running that same day. He loved it, which is great. But for Stern, this video is already sitting at 32,000 views, and it's only been up for eight hours as of our recording.
    39:55
    This is marketing genius, right? So get ready for an onslaught of new, even newer people to the pinball world. But basically, watch the video. Clint wishes he didn't have to send it back.
    40:14
    He's like, I mean, Eric, what do you think about Fall of the Empire, though, as a game for a first time home casual player? I think it's great. I think for like a casual player, for a home game, it plays really easy. Recently, I saw a list of five pinball machines for beginners somewhere on, I think it was Facebook, like Pinball Enthusiasts 2.0 or something. And some guy posted a list from what seemed like a questionable website, to be honest. Maybe it's not super questionable, but I looked at the article and I was reading it and I was like, does this person play pinball now? Have they played pinball now? And like just some of the ways that they were talking about they're like that nasty left orbit on Pokemon. I'm like, excuse you.
    41:05
    They fixed it. They fixed it. But like the games they were recommending was like Scared Stiff, Getaway. I think they had Monsters and Medieval Madness was on there. Of course it is. That was my game that I was like, okay, I have pinball. I bought Lord of the Rings, and then I was like, I don't need it anymore. And if you've watched the last episode, you heard me buy Big Guns, which is another pinball machine. And then I was like, ooh. And then like maybe a month or two after I had big guns, I bought a new in box. Oh man, I bought a new in box Deadpool. And I've since unfortunately sold, fortunately or unfortunately, I've sold that Deadpool.
    42:20
    But it became, sorry, this is a little side story. Just like just real quick. I sold Deadpool and it was so cool because the guy that I sold it to. So every pinball machine has like a birthday on the back, right? Jocelyn S. Sperling, Leroy S. Sperling, and Jody S. Sperling. Like a little virtual pinball, yeah. I can't remember that word. Yeah, that's okay. He had a virtual pinball machine and then – Oh my god. And then I brought him Deadpool and then I like unloaded it. And as I'm like talking to him, I'm realizing like, oh, this is like literally your first machine. He's like, yeah, I play it at the arcade all the time and I absolutely love it. And so I then like took that moment to kind of give him like what I wish I got from the guy that I bought Lord of the Rings from because he was very nice, the guy I bought Lord of the Rings from. John Wick, Pokemon, Godzilla, Lord of the Rings. I've been seeing pinball show up in some other of my Instagram and YouTube videos from other creators I really like. There's another Erica, pixelated Erica, she's with the C, and she does a bunch of Star Wars stuff, Lord of the Rings, and she's so fun and so funny and they gave her a Star Wars machine as well to probably hold on to for a little bit and make a video on so that was super cool. And yeah, I'm glad that Stern is doing this outreach because this is like where it is, right? Like there is no, I love pinball, but there is no sole pinball dedicated channel with 100,000 subs. Like, right? Like there is no pinball channel that solely talks about pinball. Not gaming, not arcades and other stuff, just pinball that I know of, right? Is that true? Would you say that's true? Is there any sole pinball YouTuber that has 100,000 subs? You got me. Yeah.
    46:00
    If you're not buying it yourself, then you're going someplace to play it, which, you know, then you have to get yourself there. You have to pay the tokens. Maybe you buy a drink. Maybe you get some food. Maybe you hang out for a while. There are some places that are really great that I love where you pay 20 bucks. You play the whole day.
    46:18
    These sorts of arcades, though, you know, things. Yeah, I could go all into that. That's a whole other thing.
    46:26
    LGR getting his first pinball machine. I'm really, I'm stoked. I gotta watch this video now. So it goes back to the saying, right? The old saying, a rising tide lifts all boats, right? LGR gets to benefit from enjoying pinball. They sent him a great game. He loves it. He says he might just buy a game, right? Boom, Stern gets a sale. At the same time, Stern gets some cred from 1.8 million other people who probably wouldn't have seen pinball, let alone Star Wars pinball. So they benefit. And guess what?
    47:05
    Jersey Jack benefits because if there's an inslaught of people into the pinball world, they might discover other games. Barrels of Fun, everybody benefits from this. Even you and I, Erica, we might catch another listener to our podcast. Yeah. All because.
    47:24
    Yeah, all because of this. I'm stretching this analogy. What did you see? I do see like some random like waves of views for some of my videos. Like where maybe something came out and then like all of a sudden randomly now I have like 200 extra views on Pokemon. Or I'll have this many extra views on this other video. So people are interested and they want to know more and there just needs to be, we're going to figure it out. We're going to figure out how to get people into it a bit more, at least help that barrier to entry. My thing with pinball, I think my biggest goal that I even think with my channel and just with talking with you is hopefully that more people will just know that pinball still exists and they're still making it. Thank you for watching. We want to see those licenses and with Pokemon entering and you've got even Harry Potter. You had Tom play, like you had Malfoy play Harry Potter. Yeah, play Harry Potter. That was such a great video too. I'm sure that they got some extra people from that as well and knowing about the game. So yeah, just more pinball outreach. I love it. Yeah, well, we'll post the link to that also so you can watch LGR and enjoy Fall of the Empire in the show notes. Yeah.
    49:16
    Oh, man, Manu, just talking to you makes me so tired. So. Leave this in. Please leave this in. Well, that's going to be it for the Pinball Board Report. You can check out our socials. I'm Erica's Pinball Journey. That's Erica with a K. And we have Manu of Mystery Pinball Theater 3000. He has actually, guys, someone has stolen Manu's identity. So Manu doesn't have a YouTube channel right now, but you can go on his Instagram. Yeah, I'm working on it. Be careful with getting in Manu's DMs right now because you might not be talking to Manu, which is really scary and sad and makes me confused. Even when you texted me, I was like, Manu, is this you? Use our safe word. Use our safe word, Manu.
    50:07
    Pineapple. Hey, why would you tell everyone our safe word? Well, we have to change it now because that's what I said in the text, right? Okay, all right. We'll change it.
    50:18
    My safe word is no date. No date, Manu. Oh yeah, that's it. Bye guys.