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Episode 193 – A Lot Of Ka-ching

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·2h 0m·analyzed·Oct 4, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.038

TL;DR

Slam Tilt #193: Bond reveal disaster, price shock, and Keith Elwin's $18K single-level machine

Summary

Ron and Bruce from Slam Tilt Podcast discuss Stern's chaotic James Bond 60th Anniversary pinball reveal, which was leaked early from an IAPA event in England following the Queen's death. The episode covers the botched reveal timeline, significant price increases across all tiers (Pro +$100, Premium +$700, LE +$1,900), the announcement of a Keith Elwin-designed single-level variant, and concerns about unsustainable pricing in a potential recession. Guests Glenn Wechter (Poor Man's Pinball) joins to discuss Bond's design choices, code completion practices, and Stern's competitive positioning.

Key Claims

  • James Bond 60th Anniversary pinball was leaked early when event organizers at IAPA in England took pictures during setup on Monday before the scheduled Tuesday reveal

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce detail the leak timeline: pictures taken during setup, shared to friends, posted on Pinside before official reveal

  • Stern postponed the Bond reveal citing the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday (event was that week), but the actual reason was likely a combination of the leak and unreadiness

    high confidence · Ron: 'They postpone the reveal and they say it's basically because of the death of the queen.' Bruce speculates both factors: licensor concern and lack of readiness

  • Bond will ship to Stern Army locations and operators first in November, with LEs in December, and regular Pro models not available until April 2024 (later disputed by Gomez on Facebook)

    medium confidence · Ron cites distributor information; Gomez posted 'not true' on Facebook but no official clarification provided

  • Bond Pro pricing up $100, Premium up $700, LE up $1,900, and home models up $400, with another price increase coming January 1st for all remaining machines in production

    high confidence · Bruce: 'the premiums will be going up $700... the LEs will be going up $1,900 holy fucking rape job'

  • Keith Elwin is designing a fourth Bond variant: a single-level throwback with mechanical scoring reels, no ramps, inline drop targets, four opto spinners, priced around $18,000-$20,000

    high confidence · Ron details specs: 'It's going to have mechanical reels... single level... no ramps... probably 18-20K.' Elwin version will be limited release like Spooky model

  • Bond artwork heavily relies on pre-existing movie posters and poses with extensive Bond villain/girl/henchman artwork rather than original character renders like recent Stern games

    high confidence · Ron: 'they had to use posters... pre-existing art, pre-existing poses put in the game with probably more faces than I've ever seen in a game ever'

  • Lonnie Ropp is programming Bond with Mike Vinacore handling rules, marking a shift away from Dwight Sullivan as Bruce's least-favorite programmer

Notable Quotes

  • “I can't fucking get anybody to come on. I'm just getting shot down like me on a Friday night when I was 21 years old trying to get laid.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:00:30 — Self-deprecating opening about difficulty booking guests; establishes casual, crude tone

  • “Bruce was right. I was wrong. I knew it. Okay. I hate some dodie things. Yes, Bruce. so Bruce is right for once so you happy?”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:04:00 — Ron admits Bruce correctly predicted Bond reveal (not Venom); establishes comedic dynamic

  • “the LEs will be going up $1,900 holy fucking rape job”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:08:45 — Strong emotional reaction to LE price increase; sets tone for pricing controversy discussion

  • “They just passed up ridiculous cost and went straight to Ludacris. Ludacris.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:11:00 — Wordplay criticism of escalating machine prices; encapsulates market concern

  • “It's a lot of ka-ching, got to be on the other side. And we keep on raising costs, and we're going to raise it again at the end of the year. And it's just like, what the fuck?”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:11:30 — Episode title reference; expresses frustration with recurring price hikes

  • “The thing that's hurting Stern and not hurting Stern is the competition is not putting out good games to pull that money away.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~0:12:45 — Key competitive analysis: lack of quality alternatives allows Stern pricing power

  • “I think they're just going to keep on... like a big old cock fight. Hey, Jersey Jack raised the price on our things. Let me pull out my cock and see if I can make it more money.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:14:00 — Metaphor for manufacturer pricing competition; suggests reactive rather than strategic pricing

  • “Lonnie Ropp is not the worst programmer at Stern anymore.”

    Ron Hallett — Significant statement on programmer rankings; shifts criticism to Dwight Sullivan

Entities

Slam Tilt PodcastorganizationRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonGlenn WechterpersonStern PinballcompanyJames Bond 60th AnniversarygameKeith ElwinpersonDwight Sullivanperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern's pricing power appears to stem from lack of quality competition rather than strong demand; competitors (Spooky, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, Chicago Gaming) are releasing infrequently or producing games perceived as lower quality

    high · Bruce: 'The thing that's hurting Stern and not hurting Stern is the competition is not putting out good games to pull that money away'

  • ?

    community_signal: George Gomez disputed Facebook claim about Bond Pro availability timeline (stated 'not true'), but no official clarification provided; suggests internal confusion or miscommunication between Stern and distributors

    medium · Ron: 'Gomez put a comment not true... if it's not... you know something we don't'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Jersey Jack demonstrated strategic competitive response by offering free physical factory tours with bus transportation when Stern converted to virtual tours, positioning as more engaged with community

    high · Glenn: 'Jersey Jack, I think smartly, went in and said, hey, we'll give you a physical tour... we're going to have buses'

  • ?

    event_signal: Expo made significant schedule changes responding to community feedback: vendor and free play areas now integrated into single space with expanded hours, after last year's segregation complaints

    high · Ron: 'everything's opening earlier... vendor and free play are all going to be interspersed now into just one big area'

  • ?

    leak_detection: Multiple leak vectors for Bond: poor-quality cell phone photos from IAPA event organizers (Monday), high-res official photos accidentally auto-released from 007.com (Wednesday), and gameplay video leaked from Stern test location (posted to Pinball News)

Topics

James Bond 60th Anniversary reveal and leak timelineprimaryStern Pinball pricing strategy and increases (Pro/Premium/LE tiers)primaryKeith Elwin single-level Bond variant ($18-20K) and designer valueprimaryStern's competitive position and lack of quality competitionprimaryCode completion practices and delayed wizard modessecondaryProgrammer ranking and quality assessment (Dwight vs Lonnie)secondaryExpo venue changes and Jersey Jack competitive responsesecondaryBond artwork and licensing constraints on creative expressionsecondary

Sentiment

negative(-0.72)— Strong frustration with Stern's pricing strategy, Bond reveal mismanagement, and code quality issues. Some appreciation for Elwin's design track record and Jersey Jack's Expo response, but overall tone is critical and concerned about market sustainability during recession.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.361

I can't feel my butt! I can't feel my butt! Son, it's alright. It's just the anesthesia. I'll never poop again! Calm down, kid. We'll have you pooping in no time. Oh, really? Okay, that's good. Poop, poop, poop. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Hello. Hello. Hello. And this is episode 193. Ooh, getting close to that 200. Yeah. And I can't fucking get anybody to come on. Wow. I'm just getting shot down. I'm just getting shot down like me on a Friday night when I was 21 years old trying to get laid. Wow, that's pretty bad. Wonderful. That's great, Bruce. You don't think all the F-bombs, the Beavis and Butthead intros are probably not helping us out trying to get interviews? No, I don't think so. You don't think it has anything to do with it? Nope. Okay. Nope, we're coming for the truth. We want all the truth there is. And we were gone for a while. Yes, it was a nice little mini vacation. And we'll probably have another lull because we have multiple weekends with crap coming up. Expo, and we have a thing at the co-op with Pinball Profile. We'll be talking about that later on. We have a guest. Oh, yes. We're not alone, Bruce. Who's our guest? Who's our guest? Glenn Waechter from the Poor Man Pinball Podcast. The garden gnome has a normal-sized penis. Wendy wore her wedding dress to the orgy. Sorry, I'm still doing my vocal exercises. Oh, hey. This is your bridesmaid of the day. That was not the first choice, obviously, because you can't get anybody, so let's just get Glenn on. I've been trying to get you on for a while, big boy. Ooh. She said get on. Yeah, I did. So, Glenn, tell us how you got into this beautiful pinball hobby. Well, I've told a factually correct story on the poor man's already, so let's just go with some fiction. I was tired of watching my daughter do her 500th horrible cartwheel in gymnastics every single week. So I just started searching stuff on my app, and I saw pinball was part of a bunch of different apps I could put on my phone so I could get through these gymnastics classes without stabbing myself in the eye. And then I've learned some rules, and I've found games in person, and it just kind of snowballed. Nice. How many games do you have right now, Mr. Lunt? Just one. I've got an Avengers Pro. Which one? Which Avengers? The Infinity Quest. Okay. See, you must be precise here. We are perfection here at Slim Joe Podcast. We are perfection. Every Bruce-ism. I've never been sad. It's not just fake. It's all real. So when the prices were about to go up, I was on the list for a Jurassic Park Pro, and then they pushed that into 2022, and that was going to come with a price increase with the Insider Connected. So I said, well, Zach, what else have you got? And he's like, well, I've got Infinity Quest Pro. I'm like, I'll take it. So it's a game that I didn't know the rules of very much, and I've had it for a year, and I love it still. I'll probably get rid of it in the next year or so and trade it in for something that more people in my family and friends group might actually be able to understand. What would that be, if anything? Do you have any hints? I actually either Deadpool or Guardians of the Galaxy, just because I want to get more people to like the hobby, not be, like, baffled by what's going on. So you're going to have Bond. You're going to have Bond. Bond will just slap you around a little bit. No, I can't afford that machine. Nobody can, I think. Well, holy crap. Let's just talk about it first. Let's just go right into it. Oh, okay. Let's just first go into it. Bond. Bond. Is this maybe their most botched reveal that they did? Yeah, this is getting at the classic narrative. So, I mean, okay. Everyone knew it was going to be Bond. Yes. Excuse me. Excuse me. What? Everyone did not know it was going to be Bond. Everyone was saying, Venom. Venom's coming out this day. Yeah, yeah. I was wrong. asshole on all the podcasts that said it was going to be Bond. That was you. That was you, Bruce. Ron, you're right. This is painful. Yes. I thought it was going to be James Bondage. Oh, I hope it was going to be James Bondage. Bruce was right. I was wrong. I knew it. Okay. I hate some dodie things. Yes, Bruce. so Bruce is right for once so you happy? one time, you're right, congratulations bullshit so let's do the whole timeline, so Bond we don't even need dates, Bond was supposed to be revealed on a Tuesday I think the Thursday before the Queen dies, this is important this is important to the story the Queen of Robert Englunds so So Monday rolls around, and where it was supposed to be revealed, they were going to reveal it at IAPA in the U.K., in Robert Englunds. Now, IAPA is like International Amusement, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's a thing for amusement operators, and it's not just in – it's worldwide. Like they have the big one in the U.S. is in, I think, Florida in November. But this one was going to be in Robert Englunds, and it was going to start Tuesday. So they had a, I think it was a pro and a premium they brought there. Unfortunately, what happened is during the setup of these games, I believe it was one of the organizers or someone involved with the event took pictures. Yeah, the only thing that could happen did happen, and that was the leak. They took pictures and sent them to their friend and said, don't share this with anyone, which, of course, they did share it with people and shared it with more people. And then, boom, it's on Pinside. Yep. And we got to see really bad cell phone pictures, too. I mean, this is like, I think you might use a BlackBerry or something from 10, 15 years ago to take these pictures. It was pretty bad. Yes. So, and that was Monday, all these pictures came out. So everyone's thinking, oh, okay, there goes that. Jetpack, jetpack, that's all I heard from her. But then Stern decides to postpone the reveal, and they say it's basically because of the death of the queen. Yes, it would be very un-English. She died Thursday. They brought the games there, and we're setting up as late as Monday. Yes. Did they show up in Robert Englunds and say, wow, this is a way bigger deal than we thought? Maybe we shouldn't do this. Or did the licensors say, yeah, you can't do this? No. Probably both. Probably a combination of both. But, I mean, yeah. What do you think, Glenn? What do you think? Is this Stern's reaction to the leak was to kind of, instead of what they used to do when they'd go on social media and basically tell everybody, take these down or you're going to get some lawsuit against you? Remember when they used to do that on Facebook? They would attack anybody that would post something, really? But that wasn't working, so maybe this was plan B, just postpone the release. I don't know why. It just makes no sense. It's already out there. Genie's out. Just freaking do it right. But, nope, we don't do that at Stern. We just keep on dragging our feet. Well, the problem is you had really bad pictures, so everyone hated it. Just like, oh, my God, this thing looks terrible, et cetera, et cetera. So they first said they were going to postpone it until next Tuesday. Then they changed it. we're going to postpone it until next, well, not just a week and a half, to Thursday now. To Thursday, yes. Okay. But the pictures are out there. Everybody knows now. Now people are going to hate this thing for the next week and a half. We'll deal with it, though. Well, it gets better. I know. Because probably as part of this reveal, I'm sure Stern had sent the official pictures, the nice high-res pictures around to different outlets to be released when it was the release day. Mostly. Yeah. And one of them was, I think, 007.com. It was like a fan site or whatever. Their merchandise site. Yeah, okay. So they had the pictures. And obviously, they probably had some kind of auto thing set up to release them at a certain time. But then the delays occurred. But I'm sure they didn't change the timing on the site. So it just released the pictures, like, I think on Wednesday. Yep. Whoopsie. Boom, they're out there. High def pictures of the Pro and Premium. Like, oh, shit. So they pull them down after a few hours, but it's too late at that point. They're everywhere. So now people can actually see the high res pictures. So it doesn't look quite as bad now. I mean, it's like, yeah, okay, this looks way better than the cell phone pictures. Well, yeah, you think? Yeah, I think. But then you still had to wait another week and then more Leap Spring where it comes out there's going to be a fourth version that's going to be designed by Keith Elwin, which the fourth version thing had been out there for a while. And actually, I think George Gomez himself basically gave it up. He was on the Marco stream. Hi, Marco. Yep. With Taylor Bancroft and it was George Gomez. And they were talking about Insider Connected, but Bond comes up. And this was after the teaser trailer, the original one. And he said how there was going to be a big surprise, which for those of us that had heard about the fourth version, it'd be like, okay. So, yeah, that's got to be the fourth version then. Yes. So, I mean, there's just springing leaks everywhere. And finally it comes out. and there were rumors about price increases, which I figured at the end of the year there's going to be a price increase. It's just like, what is the price increase going to be? Well, Bruce, were you surprised with any of the price increases? I don't know. I was fucking pissed off as all fucking hell. Okay. Okay. So the pros will be going up $100, which at first is like, oh, okay. It's not that bad. All right. Okay. the premiums will be going up $700 I know, like what the fuck that's insane like okay and the LEs will be going up $1,900 holy fucking rape job and if you go back to Godzilla that's actually $2,500 more this is just getting a little out of hand plus the home models will be going up $400 so basically those are the prices that are going up for Bond, and then on January 1st, they're going up for every other Serenade that's still in production. So not I guess, not Zeppelin or Guardians, because they're retired. Or Turtles, too, I think. Yay, thank God. Plus they said Elvira still won't be coming out this year. Nope, that's out next year. And it will be another price increase. Yeah, and yet they still they still made all of those like 40 year anniversary versions of Elevire before even allowing people that purchased the game or had orders in to get theirs. That was to me, that was the biggest slap in the face Stern has ever done since I've been in the hobby. Well, and they're going to do I think the Ellen version is going to basically be the same thing. It's 500, 500, 500 of them. And they're going to be with the distributors at the price. Yes. There's no price. It doesn't say a price. Is that verified or is that still just rumor? I've heard 18K also. The Keith Owen version is basically going to be a single-level throwback game. It's going to have mechanical reels. Oh, yeah, that picture was leaked too. Did I mention that? Also from 007.com, they had a placeholder picture. It was a mock-up picture, but it did have a section of the actual play field that you could see. But when you look at the picture, it shows like digital reels like on the screen, but supposedly that's not what it is. It's going to have mechanical scoring reels, and it's going to have a display in the play field. Four spinners, four opto spinners, inline drop targets, single level. A lot of spin. Yeah, no ramps, and yeah, probably 1820K. So they're really going to see how much the Bond name or the Keith Elwin name is worth. This is like a spooky-sized release, though. This is interesting. I'm still trying to figure out whether or not having two machines with the same thing come out at the same time is a good idea. It's kind of a novel idea. Nobody's done anything like this. Yeah, I just don't like the pricing where it's going. It's just getting... We're up to ludicrous costs. Ludicrous costs? They just passed up ridiculous cost and went straight to Ludacris. Ludacris. It's just like, holy shit. It's gone to plaid. It's gone to plaid. Well, I mean, it's almost like they don't really make a ton of money from the pros. So we're going to get our money from the home buyer. Yeah, and the problem is. And we're going to see how much they're going to pay. 1,000 LEs, 500, I'll call them super LEs, I already want to call them. It's a lot of ka-Bradlee Ching, got to be on the other side. And we keep on raising costs, and we're going to raise it again at the end of the year. And it's just like, what the fuck? There is a recession. There is, I know. The stock market's below 2,900, if I remember correctly, right now. 29,000. I kind of think that Stern was forced to do a price increase just because they can't keep up with sales. If stuff is selling that much, then you kind of have to slow down the pace of manufacturing somehow to get caught up. You're not. You're really not. And the thing is, they still have a backlog of probably 3,000. Should they just be happy that they've got a backlog and keep the prices where they are and just know that it's eventually going to level off? Well, people are probably... The thing that's hurting Stern and not hurting Stern is the competition is not putting out good games. to pull that money away. That's the truth. I'm not going to go pull my money for my Elvira to go buy a Toy Story 4. What about a Scooby-Doo? Scooby-Doo I might. I might, but I still hate, I still hate a Haggis, so no, I wouldn't. An Haggis? I'm not having a Haggis. I mean, what's it called? Spooky? Spooky. I would not do that because the quality is just terrible. well the thing is it's not not necessarily the quality of the games, the amount of games I mean how many, who was their competition Toy Story, that was their first game in two years and not wowing anybody Spooky has a game every year and a half they're actually more frequent than Jersey Jack I mean American Pinball is still waiting still waiting for them that is their calling card, I mean remember how long Monster Bash was just Not done and we didn't know why. This is kind of feeling like that with Cactus Canyon. I know. Yes, Chicago Gaming has been very slow. Yep. Everyone has been slow as far as getting anything out. So it's not like CERN has had a lot of competition with the games, really. The problem I have is we are headed to a recession. So do people really think I'm going to be able to spend $2,000 extra on a pinball machine? People that are buying limited edition games, yeah. Not people like me. I know. Or me. But, I mean, it's just, why price out your marketplace? Are you pricing it out? Yes, you are. The people who buy the LEs now will be the same ones that buy the LEs tomorrow. You hope. Well, they're going to find out, aren't they? Exactly. And that's the problem. I think they're just going to keep on, you know, I think it's like a, no offense, like a big old cock fight. Like, hey, hey, Jersey Jack raised the price on our things. Oh, wow. He raised it this much. Let me pull out my cock and see if I can make it more money. And you're going to fight with your cocks? Exactly. I'm very confused. They're dueling cocks. They did say, I mean, when it comes to the LE price, they're like, hold my beer. Exactly. And this idea of the distributors setting the pricing, guess what? More power to them. What happens if they get stuck with a turd? Now, I'm not going to say Key's game is going to be a turd because everything he's put out has been great so far. But what if it was a turd? The golden boy. What if it was a turd? Do you really want to pay $18,000 for a single-level playfield game? People complain about that stuff already, and now... They're banking on the Elwin name at this point. Of course they are. This is going to be interesting, because I know there were people worried. I mean, Elwin is the best designer out there right now. He is. I mean, he's four for four, all four are massive hits. Godzilla is probably one of the biggest hit games they've had. Yep. And so they're going to see how much that name is worth, just like they did with Lyman. Yep. And I know there's people concerned that aren't we going to see him on Cornerstones anymore? Or is he just going to be on games like this? You know what I mean? I mean, now he's throwing this like when's the next Elwin game now? He's been averaging a game a year. Yep. This will be his game for this year. You know what I mean? Yep, I know. That's kind of concerning to me. It's like, you want Elwynn? You got to pay. I guess. I guess. The other thing we didn't mention is the unusual thing, the most unusual thing about this release is whenever Stern comes out with a new game, it's shipped immediately. Yeah. This one, no. They revealed it's September, and they ain't going to be shipping anything until November. Yep. So that's what makes me think that the postponement of the queen, you know, long live the queen. Except she's not. Well, the yank job. Yeah, I feel like it was a bait and switch. Like, oh, wait, no, they're not ready yet, so let's postpone this. Because we're upset that the leaks came out, which is by their own doing, by the way. Like, at some point you've got to realize you're not going to be able to keep the cat in the bag. No. Not as soon as the games leave your facility. Yeah, that's for sure. Well, speaking of leaving the facility, well, we'll get into that. But, yeah, it won't be streamed for weeks. It won't be released. And the weird thing is they're going to go to Stern Army locations and operators first. Yes. The pros. The premiums are like in, was it December? Yes. The LEs. No, December is the LEs. I thought the premium was. No, the LEs. Weren't the LEs before the premium, though? I thought the LDS were in November and then the either way so if you are a non-location and you just want a pro you're waiting until next year you're waiting until April well but Gomez also said that's not true someone posted that on Facebook and Gomez put a comment not true it's like well if it's not I mean that's what I've heard from distributors I've heard that from everybody so obviously you know something we don't But, yeah, and the thing is, when the games are outside of your factory, they're no longer under your control. So somebody filmed James Bond. Yes. And actually it ended up on Pinball News. They posted on YouTube. And as soon as I'm looking at it, it's like, well, the licensor was pissed about the other leaks, which supposedly they were. They're not going to be happy with this. Did anyone here actually see the video? Yes. I thought. Okay, so we all saw it. I was expecting everyone to say, no, I didn't see, but we all saw it. Yes. What did you think? It was a premium, by the way. Yes, it was. So you got to see Bond on a Wand. Yep, Bond on a Wand or James on a Stick. James on a Stick, okay. What did you think? Oh, God. I didn't mind it. It wasn't great video. It wasn't wow video. Oh, no. But it was, you know. I was thinking, this is like 2007 here. This is like 2003. Oh, it's like 2007. The game has been put in the Stern test location, the secret Stern test location, and everyone local knew where it was. So you start with the crappy cell phone pictures and then crappy video, and that's your reveal. That literally what, that's what this was. It used to be. It was like an old school reveal. And you know what? The artwork looks old school. As in early 2000s Stern. And also the drop and drag with the artwork. There's so many. How does that meeting go with the art department? Hey guys, take a look at all of these amazing art packages we've done for Deadpool, for Guardians of the Galaxy, for Batman. And then they go, no, we don't need anything like that. How does that even happen? Are their intellectual properties so protected that they don't want to be shown in any new way? No, no. You need to use posters. So that's what they had to do. They had to use posters. Now, there was – I mean, it's not Photoshopped. It was painted, and a lot of stuff had to be redone. Kevin O'Connor actually worked on this one. But for the most part, it's just pre-existing art, pre-existing poses put in the game with probably more faces than I've ever seen in a game ever. It has every Bond villain. We probably should say that these games are based off the Sean Connery James Bond movies. Yes, my favorite Bonds. Yeah, I'm sure. So it's Dr. No from Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball. You only live twice, and diamonds are forever. So it has... It's on all of them now. That's all of the Connery ones. No, it's not. Okay, it's all of the official Connery movies. Okay, thank you very much. I had to make you say that. Not Never Say Never Again from 1983, which is a Thunderball remake, where there's actually a scene in there where they're all, like, hanging out in an arcade with video games, because video games were so hot at that time. It has to be a Bond movie. Everyone's in suits. They're playing like centipede and shit. It's hilarious. I highly recommend watching that. Kim Basinger is the Bond girl. Yes, she is. But, yeah, it's got every Bond villain from the Connery movies. It's got every Bond girl, and it's got every henchman. Yes. And they're each mode. They're each way to do stuff, you know. So that's kind of cool. Some of it in the current climate, I'm surprised they went with, like, your multiplier is based on how many Bond women you've collected. it's just like, oh, okay. Why, yeah! Let's dig into the owning women idea. That's very theme appropriate, but I'm surprised that they went that way. And they have a missile, a rocket on the game that kind of looks like – That's from Dr. No. No, it's from You Only Live Twice. but I'm wondering if they should have got the narrator from Godzilla so he could be like I don't believe what I'm seeing a giant dildo on the playfield good golly Miss Molly I think I gotta see it more first impressions guess what I'm going to state something now on the podcast you ready for this? this is them in 3 2 1 Lonnie D. Ropp is not the worst programmer at Stern anymore. Oh, he didn't even mention, yes, it's going to be the Stranger Things crew on this game. It's going to be Lonnie D. Ropp, the programmer, and Mike Vinikour's doing the rules. So I figured you would hate that. Nope. No? Nope. Really? Because, you know who my worst one now is? Dwight? Yeah, Dwight's just terrible. Okay. I'm going to, next seminar he's at, I'm bringing a fucking flashing light, strobing flash. I'm going to sit in the back of the fucking room, and then when he talks, I'm going to, and he's like, can you stop that? I'm really getting distracted here. Well, fucking stop doing it to pinball machines, ass munch. No, you should say, no, you have to figure out the right shot to stop this from flashing in your face. Yeah. I really want to do that at Expo. So you really want to get thrown out at X-Files, wouldn't you say? Two million candlelight power spotlight. Yeah, exactly. Oh, my God! I mean, this game has the most instructions on the play field I have ever seen, at least in 30, 40 years. I mean, I've heard a lot of people complain about the instructions, and I want it on the play field. It's like, well, the instructions are in the LCD. It's like, yeah, but I never look at that. I can't look at that while I'm playing, you know, when I'm looking at the ball. Well, they've decided, okay, you want instructions on the play field? Here you go. They're everywhere. So there should be no excuse in not knowing how to play a game. Yeah, no, I agree. So let me ask you guys a question. Code not being done yet on any game. Do you think that that's a systematic choice, or do you think that it just takes a long time to iron out the bugs? My theory is that if you don't have the wizard mode done and everything for, like, I don't know, hypothetically saying a year after the game's release, you know, Godzilla just finally got 1.0 code, is that keeping Godzilla in the original buyer's hands longer, not competing with sales of new machines? Or do you think it's just a long, drawn-out process and this is what it has to take? I think it keeps the line busy. I think, guess what, you see this code getting better and better and better, and it's still on the line. If people haven't bought it or they were not interested in it and then they play it on location and they see the game, they go, wow, this game is getting better and better. I just want this more and more. It's funny how years ago it was just like, oh, my God, this code is incomplete. How can they release these games in incomplete code, blah, blah, blah, blah. Now there is a whole subset of people who are like, oh, I love this. It's like I buy the game, and it just keeps getting better because it just keeps getting updates. It's like – Well, it depends on the programmer, too. Okay. It does because you look at Keith. He's very alignment. It is interesting that so many people complain about incomplete code. You have a game like Godzilla that took over a year to get to 1.0. I mean, Rush got to 1.0 quicker than Godzilla did, but no one says anything negative. No, but then you get a Dwight machine that has bugs and everything in it, and you're going, fix this fucking thing. But the thing is, if there's enough in there to keep you satisfied, it's complete enough. So you feel Turtles is really satisfying to every person? Oh, they just doubled the points in the episodes, Bruce. I know. Great. That's my fix for a rule. Hey, I'm just going to double points. No, it's not. The rules suck in a game. His rules killed that game partially. Don't get me wrong, the shots are very tight, and it's not that great of a fun theme. What? It's Turtles. That's a very fun theme. I actually like that play field. I don't like the animations are not the best. Oh, they're terrible. They're terrible. It's just the rules are just terrible in that game, too. And the way to fix it is just make it double points so you feel like you're getting more instead of $9 and $12 million for a good game. Well, it's really hard to lock in the right toppings to get into a multiball. And if you just lock into getting, what is it, chocolate and squid or something, and then you start your pizza parlor multiball, and you end up with 20 million points just by spraying and praying. Meanwhile, someone else gets a couple gummy bears and a chocolate starfish, and they're like, nope. And grinds. Yeah, and then you look up and you're like, how do I only have 3 million points? What's going on here? I know. Mandalorian, same thing. Mandalorian has the same problem Yeah if you can stack a Moe and a multiball in Mando and then get your 2x playfield running and yeah You come out of that first multiball and mode with like million Yeah, God. $200 million. Everyone's going, but I've been on the game for, like, 10, 15 fucking minutes and trying all these mini modes and I'm going to the foundry. I'm doing all this shit and I got $12 million. Yeah, fuck you. That's what it's going to be. Fuck you. You've got to know the rules. You've just got to know the rules. You've got to know the rules, Bruce. See, what you're saying is you want Dwight to get back to his former excellence in games like Star Wars. Yes. No, like Star Trek. Yes. No, like Star Trek. Oh, I got him to say it. Star Trek. Lovely, that will be leaving the RPC soon. Why? Yeah, I like Star Trek. And Star Wars. No. Yes. Everybody here in Nashville goes for the same strategy on Star Wars. You start with Han. You finish the video mode. You go straight into the multiball. You bring in your TIE fighter multiball, and then, yeah, two at once. You're just bukkake-ing everywhere. Exactly. That's all it is. It's a trap. It's a trap. Bukkake all over. Stop. Okay. So I'm looking forward to Bond. The crazy thing is, if it's not going to be ready by November, does that mean it's not going to be at Expo? That seems insane. They'll probably have a couple games there. God, I hope so. But guess what? You can take a tour of the Jersey Jack factory at Expo. Oh, yes, because, yeah, Stern was supposed to have the in-person physical tour, and they made it a virtual tour. So Jersey Jack, I think smartly, went in and said, hey, we'll give you a physical tour, and it's free, and we'll drive you there. We're going to have buses, real buses, not school buses, but actual buses pick you up every, what is it, half hour, whatever it is. The last one's like at 1.30. Me and my dad are getting in around 12.50. I don't think we're making it. Wait, wait, wait. Ron, you said you weren't going back to Expo. Did they change enough of their presentation to your liking? Did I say I wasn't going back to Expo? I thought I said it last year. No, I never would have said I'm not going back. I would have said they need to change some stuff. But they actually did change. That's a good segue. They changed stuff. Basically, all the complaining having to do with how the main – they would have the free game hall that was open. It's all one hall. It's just one huge convention center. It's like one part of it is like roped off. That was the vendor area. And then there was the free play area. And the free play area was open most of the time. But the vendor area, you know, all the new games, the homebrews, all the stuff people actually want to play, they weren't opening until like 5 on Thursday or 6 o'clock and all that. Well, nope. Now everything's opening earlier. Everything is going to be one deal. The vendor and the free play are all going to be interspersed now into just one big area. And their hours are expanded too. Their hours are expanded. Last year I got there on, like, I don't know, maybe Friday morning or Thursday. Thursday, like, Thursday around noon, I think. And I'm like, all right, let's go into the show. Oh, it's not open until, like, I don't know, evening. I'm like, wait, what, fine? The free play area was open, but, yeah, all the cool stuff you want to actually play is not available. Yeah, but do they have free play games? Yeah, but you don't want to go there. You don't have credits up. You're like, oh, I want to play this game, but you can't because, you know, the person with the key isn't around. So, like, here's just this game that's for sale just sitting here that you can't play. a lot of the games in the free-to-play area didn't really work anyway. No. But guess what? If you don't want to go to that place, you can go to another arcade because we're going to have a party there. What was the arcade in Chicago they're going to be going to? Interim? Interim? I don't know what it's called. Interium or something like that. Is that in the mall that's like right across the street from the expo? I think that's where that is. Yeah, I think that is too, but that's where the party is going to be. So if you don't think the games are going to be good there at the expo, at the expo, which you're traveling out for and flying out for, go to this place! You know. Yeah, but it's expanded hours. The seminars are free now, like, you know, every other show. You mean you don't have to, like, get turned away and then be like, oh, but you can just watch on your iPhone right over here around the corner, even though you can't walk in? Yeah. Previous expos, I never remember even having anyone at the door for the seminars. You just walk in. Yeah. I think last year was the first time I can actually remember somebody there checking people. And Mr. Burke's got another adventure going on soon, too. What is Mr. Burke going to do? He's got his own new location in Ohio. He's putting all of his games in an old supermarket. Oh, that's right. Yes, so he will be doing that. It's not open yet. He had a couple of TV crews come in, and they filmed some stuff, and it looks like it's going to be a pay-one-price like most of the new places are doing. Is it going to be another Whopper Farm? I don't think so. Are there more Whopper Farms going up around the country, or do we still suck with just District 82? I think it's just District 82 right now. You have to really fight it, you know, with, like, the Stankham could do it, I think, and they do in some ways, and New Robert Englunds Pinball does also, but, you know, it's hard. Wait a minute, Rochester Pinball Collective isn't a Whopper Farm? No, it's not, not compared to those guys. But the thing is this, you do have a big following in Chicago and Milwaukee and Green Bay and that kind of stuff. So it does help that you have a lot of players there who do want to go to two or three hours and drive from one place to another. They're very dedicated. Like, it's pretty bad when I'm, like, 400th in Wisconsin on the state rankings. You're like, what the fuck? I think it's really funny to hear all of the animosity toward District 82 from jealous pinball players. It's like, you know, just build what they've got in your part of the woods. Instead of being jealous that, oh, all of these Wisconsin players, they get this in their bank. Well, then build something like that. You know, what Eric has done is impressive. Oh, totally. I totally agree with that. And I've encouraged it, and I've even said, you know, other places, if you want help, I'll tell you what we've done and that kind of stuff. But some places don't want to do it. Some places have done it, like Delaware. Like right now, they're doing the 24-hour right now, and it looks busy, and there's a lot of people from New York State. You know, southern New York State that's down there playing, and New Jersey and New York. And that's where you get the people from the regional areas that are three, four hours away. What's three or four hours away from Rochester? I get Middletown, which I get some great players. Don't get me wrong. Cleveland doesn't even come out. That's the funny thing. Canada. Yeah, Canada lately has not been coming out. We hopefully will with the pinball profile thing. But, you know, it's just I think people are not as dedicated as they used to be, except in certain areas like Seattle and Spokane and that kind of stuff. And also in Oregon. Or Oregon, yes. Oregon. Oregon. Oregon. We can do this all day. I can do this all day. No. No. Stop. But, you know, so it's really hard, but I give Eric all the credit. He gets all the players that come in there popular. He's got a great selection of games. He's got a good location. The only problem is in the winter, when he does winter tournaments, it is more localized because I don't feel like going to Green Bay. No, no. Yeah, the Carl Weathers's, yeah. The Carl Weathers's worse than Rochester. Wow, that's pretty bad. That's pretty bad. A lot of lake effects, snow and green bay. Yes. And we get it, too. Every day it snows here in the winter. I remember Ron, the one time he was up here, was like, really? It's sunny and it's snowing. Yep. That's about us. Yeah. Rochester. Rochester. But we get, you know, we're making money. We're not killing it like, oh, my God. I'm, you know, I'm walking around the gold cane, like, you know. The gold cane? Yeah. Wearing socks, shoes with no socks? Yep, exactly. I'm not doing that. So, you know, we're just doing it. I think we're doing great for what we're doing. It's got to be really hard to make any money in a pinball arcade because people only have so much money they can spend on location. And the money doesn't come from the pinball. It comes from the beer sales and the food sales. But you could tell us for an hour how difficult it was to turn a profit over at the Silver Ball Saloon. Oh, it was terrible. I feel awful for you guys. But you guys were finding success. What was your secret to success, Bruce? Like, what do people have to do if they want that? Great customer service. In the bar scene, that's definitely the thing. Because guess what? There's 20, 30 bars you can go to, you can get drunk at. You want to make people feel like it's home. That's the key. That really is. You want to make them feel like they want to come back. And, you know, we still have people coming like, oh, are you ever going to open up another place? Me and Kathy look at each other and we start laughing like, no. So it's a lot of work. And I didn't realize how much it was going to be for work. But, you know, that's why I like the co-op. I'm only open two days a week. I can go in for another day and work on stuff. Three days, I can still do my job, still enjoy my life, still do podcasting, maybe go to a show or two. I can enjoy my life now. You can retire, then win multiple tournaments after retiring. Maybe. Yeah. Maybe I should retire. That will just take my game to the next level. The next level. No, it didn't take it last time. Oh. Well, what were we talking about? Expo, yeah. Well, actually, Robert's place can't open because all those games are probably going to be going to Expo for the free play area, I would assume. Yeah. A good portion of them. He has a lot of games, though. Which, being that he's opening up a location, maybe a lot of them will be fixed and will work. That's the hope. He's got a dedicated person now working on his games. in that video, as I said. So maybe. I think he needs more than one for the sheer amount of games I saw. So, Glenn, are you going to Expo? I'm not. I've got plans to go to TPF. Got my flight booked. Got my hotel booked. And I went to Expo. I've never been to any other big shows. We have our local Nashville show the weekend before or after Expo. So if I'm going to try to get into the top 24 or maybe even just 16 in Tennessee, I've got to do well at the Nashville show. And so that's my focus this year. I'm going to try my very first major tournament at TPF and hopefully get tickets for the tournament there. I didn't get tickets to Expo last year for the tournaments. I wanted to experience everything else first. Okay. Okay. And I think the – when does the TPF tickets go on sale? October 15th. 15th, yes. I've got to put it on my phone right now. October 15th. No, no, no. And then I think for Indisc, it's October 29th they go on sale. Is this for the tournament? Yes. Okay, so, yeah. Classics and Wizards tournament. Yep. You'll definitely need it for the Wizards to get in. What time on October 15th? They haven't announced yet. They sent an email this last week that they're going to let us know when it gets closer. TPF. I'm just putting my phone right now. And the Indisc one, I think it's only if you want to try to get into the Thursday match play one, which I do. that you're going to have to be ready and hopefully get it. And that's the 29th? That's the 29th. Okay, and disc. I was really bummed that they weren't able to get that building secured for index. In what, Palm Springs? Yeah. It would have been. I've got a sister-in-law that lives in Palm Desert, so it would have been, like, perfect for me to just 20-minute drive on over. Yeah. But, yeah. Well, another – Glenn's killing it with the segues because I have one here. The captain's auction. I'm a professional. Who auctioned off of all of John Weeks' stuff. It was all his stuff in the Museum of Pinball that closed down. They're doing another big auction. I don't know if it was this weekend or next weekend with another bunch of stuff. The consensus is that it's the rest of John Weeks' collection. Because all that stuff he sold still wasn't all of it. So there's more. Have you looked at the game list for sale? I have not. There's a bow and arrow in that list. I like that EM a lot. I'm so sorry. Really? You don't like it? No, it's just hit the spinner and hit the upper left shot. That's all it is. But it's better than Grand Prix. Grand Prix is heralded as the greatest EM of all time, and to me it's just a luck box. No, Hot Tip is the greatest EM of all time. Hot Tip. Okay. I love my Hot Tip. So, we've got this Bond. Yeah. We need to play Bond. And, I mean, I liked the gameplay. It looked pretty cool. I mean, it did look like I could see why they didn't want any video out because the software was so alpha. It was not even remotely close to being something you would even release. It would just show scenes from a movie and interruptions from effects. And, like, the jackpot call-outs, if you looked at the jackpot animation, it was taken directly from Stranger Things. Same font, same everything. Okay, now I have a question for this. is this why they didn't put out a cornerstone four months ago? They weren't even ready for it? Is it possible Venom wasn't as far as they thought it was supposed to be? I don't know. But I'm just saying, look at this. How far behind are they? And it can't be assets and that kind of stuff. The whole reason I was surprised it was Bond was because it didn't seem like it had been long enough. Because this was Steve Ritchie's game and he left and they scrapped it and started again. So from the beginning of that, I didn't think it was long enough, because usually it's a year, year and a half. It didn't seem like it had been long enough for this to be ready yet. That's why I kept saying Venom. Yeah. They have so many employees right now. It's insane. I know. I know. Maybe that's why the price increased, because they haven't come out with anything for a while yet. They keep on acquiring more employees. The design team. Games are so expensive now. It's ridiculous. Well, it's redonky-donk. Redonky-donk? Redonky-donk. Now, most of their factory employees, those are all temp workers, right? Yeah. So how long does it take to train a temp worker to build a pinball machine? Probably a couple weeks for wire looming and that kind of stuff. And, you know, assembly. Who knows? You know, maybe a couple weeks. Who knows what's going to happen now? Since it's going to be in November, maybe they have a lot more time to learn. And they're moving. Are they really moving locations, too? I heard that. That's what I heard also, that they want to move. Well, their lease is up, which I don't understand because they just moved in. Five years. It was a five-year lease, wasn't it? Wow, it was five years ago. Five years? That's right. Another manufacturer is going to definitely jump in and profit from the downtime that Stern has. Who? Somebody. Yeah, sure. It's ripe for the taking. Yeah, ripe for who? Yeah, that's what I want to know. Please elaborate. I mean, we're at, like I said, Jersey Gex every two years, two and a half years. They have never deviated. That's how long it takes them to do a game. I don't care how many new designers they have until they actually can do more than. Yeah. If they can do a game a year, that's an improvement. Yes. I don't know what's going on in America. They used to be faster. They used to at least have a game a year, but now they haven't had anything since Hot Wheels. It's like two years. Why haven't you done anything sooner? That's right, baby, because it's all about original themes now, baby. No one wants to buy licenses, baby. They want Galactic Teen Aqua Hunger Tank Force, whatever the hell it's called, that we're making. It's going to be great. It's going to be like a tank. Hold on, guys. Let me ask you a question. That's right, baby. Why, why, why don't people want more original themes? Because to me, it's like the goofier, the weirder. Everybody seems to love these weird 80s themes, and, like, they're heralded as these, like, classics, you know, this goofy bunch of cats behaving poorly or, you know. What is Bad Cats? Like, it is the weirdest thing ever. Why can't tanks in space work? That's right, baby. Why can't they work, Bruce? That's what we're doing here at American Pinball. We've already had one in this, you know, past ten years, and it bombed. So now they're all gun-shy. How amazing was the Raza trailer? I thought it was amazing. with the video assets and the Jeff Teolas acting. Well, then, too, we've had two. We had Raza and we had... No, Raza never even came out. He's talking about... I know, but I was interested. Like, I thought that game looked... I wasn't interested. Maybe the play out... It was smoke and fucking mirrors with that guy. Yeah, but the idea of it was... Oh, the idea was okay. Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland! I know. It was a great idea that he just jerked people around for two years and killed people. He's an asshole. Well, yes. We all know this, Bruce. But why can't another company use creativity? And why doesn't the people in the hobby that love these things from the 90s that were bizarre and out there, why wouldn't they accept something new today? They don't want to take the chance. Gary has always been licensing, licensing, licensing. Well, not Stern. Stern should absolutely stay the course, but why can't, and maybe Eric and Pinball will do this, if they only are going to make $750 of an original theme, is there not enough money in $750 games? Because I think something that captures your imagination could be a breath of fresh air. It's just, look at Dialed In. Yeah, Dialed In bombs. Dialed In didn't have a lot of personality, though. Oh, no, it's got tons. I love Dialed In. Dialed In is awesome. God damn it. But it's just not there. It's not fun. And so these companies follow this. It's very fun, but it doesn't matter. No one understands Dialed In. They don't get the phone thing. They don't get any of it. It's freaking Pat Waller, and no one bought it. I mean, it sold less than Pirates. And that was their second least selling game now that everyone wants. Why don't you make more of them? Because you guys didn't buy them when we had it. Yep. Because we took a year and a half after we showed it before it was actually available. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, they just don't sell. I would like to. I'd love to see another, you know, theme like that. I'd love to see something original or off the wall. I mean, how much is that going to sell? The Mafia, remember Mafia? Remember that game? Yeah, Mafia, that was a bomb, you know. Assets do help sell games. Yeah, but at what point can we make another Star Wars theme or another Jurassic theme? They do it, but we still make money. I know, but every theme coming out appears to be a rehash of something else in the past or another comic book theme. I guess, you know, it sells. But, I mean, we've joked that Keith Elwin could sell a game called Laundry Day, and that would sell because he would figure out a way to make the rules interesting and the shots would be fresh. So theme doesn't matter. It does, but it doesn't because for locations, it doesn't matter. Yeah, so for locations. It matters. So if you want original themes, that's great. So now you have them at that whole model pricing that no one can afford anymore. So now no one's going to buy it, definitely. Yep. With the price, raising the prices, they kind of killed themselves there. Yep. I mean, you want to talk about crazy prices. Let's talk about Spinal Tap. So Spinal Tap, this was, it was supposed to debut, well, it did. It debuted at, what was it, Pinfest in Australia. So I figured there would be all kinds of video of it. There's been shit. There's been nothing. I've seen nothing. Marty's the one that gave us the video. We were laughing about it. Other than the, I was going to say highway. Whoops, sorry. What do they call the, HomePin. So HomePin, they post on their YouTube channel. Their first video in two years, by the way, I noticed. A 40-second, I guess you would call it promo, spinal tap, which literally consisted of someone with their cell phone just recording the game, and they just splice stuff together, and you see maybe 10 seconds of actual gameplay. They have an LCD that literally just plays the movie, and a DMD that tells you, you know, scoring. In the art, I mean, people talking about the James Bond art? No, that's not Photoshop. You want true Photoshop? Look at this in Spinal Tap. That is Photoshop goodness right there. And what is that game? Isn't it like 9K? Yeah, which I don't understand why. What the fuck is going to buy? The whole purpose, the thing's made in Taiwan. The whole idea is this shit's supposed to be cheaper. Yep. That's got to be an inexpensive license. And they did a great job promoting that game by saying, oh, this is not for pinball players. The rules are not going to be deep. Yeah, this is not for tournament players. Their owner's like, oh, we're not really going to promote it. That's up to the distributor. He loves to shoot himself right in the foot. Is this the fucking game? What the hell? He's a tool. Oh, we won't even, yeah. It's almost like he doesn't want to sell games. I know they like to sell their parts, but Jesus, just try to be a little more into it. 40-second video. 40-second video. I mean, the play field didn't look that bad. I was impressed. I thought it looked better than it was going to. Yeah, I agree with that. It's an improvement over Thunderbirds, but that's not saying much. But it did look like a $9,000 game. It's like a premium. They're saying this is a premium model. No, it isn't. We waited all that time for that. Yeah. Did we wait? No, we didn't really wait. No one cared. But still. No one cared. I'm going to say no one cared. Well, how about Queen? The trailer came out, which was actually done in August, but they finally got approval. Yes. So they're able to show it. The trailer looked fine. Yeah, I liked it. It's interesting that... Hey, I don't know if I can make it as a game. That's right. It's going to be made in Italy, yes. It's interesting that the game only allows you to listen to the songs that are live recordings. So it tells me that Queen or somebody didn't have ownership of the original recordings, so that was the only way they could go. But that can be fine. Oh, yeah. They got the Wembley one, but more importantly, they got the Montreal one. which to me is the best. They sound absolutely incredible. So I have no issues with it, actually. Hey, you don't worry about it. We make a good game. We make it fun. We put some of the salt in it, some of the oregano. We make a good game. Yes. And think about the Montreal concert that was originally filmed like an IMAX. So it's already in high def. It'll look good on the display. Yeah, I'm looking forward to playing that someday. You going to put an order in? No. No. I saw what Alien looked like. I mean, I don't – I'm very curious when they finish this game, what are they going to do? Because these were the last – you know, Alien and this were the last two games from Highway. They did a lot of changes on Queen, but – because it was originally a wide body. But they're going to have to do one from scratch now and get a license. Are they even going to bother? What did you guys think of Full Throttle? I liked that game. It was all right. It was all right. Yeah. I didn't mind at all. It's got speed. It's got, you know, it actually was kind of fun. It was great. What is it, the French guy? That's like the bad guy? Yeah. So you're battling the French guy? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. But I didn't mind it. I thought it actually had the ballet outlings, you know, from the early 80s, you know. It was cool. It was fast. It had a lot of flow. And it was broke a lot. It was broke a lot. I totally agree with that. Oh, man. Yeah, I see Spinal Tap and Tween. I'm looking through my – oh, well, you were – Toy Story. So in the interview Jack Guarnieri, Jersey Jack, had, he basically intimated that they chose to do Toy Story 4, which everyone was like, are you crazy? Why? Why? but then on a um what was it a pinball network had a stream where they had um several people from jersey jack on and i can't i should have wrote down his name but their project manager was there and just just as their people are like people are playing a game that they're streaming and then the other guys are just talking back and forth and the project manager just came out and said, well, Disney, we had to do what we were told to do. Basically, he said they were told to do Toy Story 4 by Disney, which is not what Jack said. Yeah, but, but, but. I thought that was very interesting. Any comments on that? No, just not. It's pretty obvious that that wasn't the best move to make. I'm not sure exactly why they went with 4. I mean, they still have some assets from the first few movies, but I think the video content is much prettier from the fourth movie. The first movie was like the first CGI movie. I don't know that would have looked that great showing clips from the first movie anyways. And then you mix that with the fourth one. I don't know. I'm not a Toy Story expert. Bruce is more of the Toy Story expert. I am. The original trilogy, I would assume, is the one that everyone remembers, or at least the first one. Or the first two or something. Yeah, the first two were the best. Hey, the second one, wasn't that Nedry's voice that was the comic, well, the toy restorer guy? Was that the same voice as Nedry from Jurassic Park? Yeah, yeah, yeah. They should have brought him back. That would have been great. I would have loved that. But no. But no. But Jurassic Park was, you know, in the world of it. You know, they're kind of doing the same thing with Toy Story. The Carnival was a little bit of the fourth movie, but they're trying to figure out ways to use these assets without using much licensing. It seems to me something recognizable, but when you play Guardians of the Galaxy, you see a couple clips from the movie. There's really not a story being told in Guardians of the Galaxy, not when you play the pinball machine. No. No. Come and get your love. Yeah, all the best music that happens when you're not doing anything in the game. Yeah. Ta-da! Actually, that's not even in it, because they didn't get the rights for that one. No, they didn't. No. Damn it. I'm always sad. I'm like, oh, I don't want to shoot the scoop. I want to keep listening to this great song. Yeah. All right. Let's see. What else do we have here? Da-da-da-da-da. Oh, so Stern, they released new code for all their LCD games again. They did. to fix a bug introduced with the last update of all their LCD games, where they added the home team functionality. And I guess the specific issue was if you had a game with a new code on it, but you didn't have it hooked to the Internet, it would just randomly lock up. So that's why I never had the issue with any of mine, because they were actually all on the Internet. But we had the issue with ours, and ours were hooked up. Even your Star Wars was on the Internet? Oh, yeah. Yep. How is it on the Internet? You put a Wi-Fi card in it? Yeah. You did? Yeah, we have it hooked up to, oh, wait a second, that one's not, but the other one was. But Guardian's locked up, and that's not actually on. Oh, okay. So it wasn't fully that. Well, that's supposedly what it fully was, but I guess it fully wasn't that fully. Yeah, so they had to come up with, they had to release all the code again. And I'm not sure if that, because we talked about how home team works, even if you don't have a reader. I don't know if this breaks that or not. I haven't bothered to read any of the Pinstype thread to see if that's the case yet. So I haven't updated any of mine. Ron, I love your hack to be able to have one insider-connected kit and all your games are online. I love that. All my games are online. Well, thank Pinstype because I just, when I saw how home team worked, it's like, it looks like you might be able to do this. And the fact that if I go into one of my games that doesn't have a reader and I try to go in Insider Connected, it tells me it doesn't work, yet it does, tells me that they're probably going to nix that or do something in the future. They don't want people having free Insider Connected for eight games when you only have one kit. The kits are what they're making the money on. But I thought they wanted everything connected. That's what it's all about, Bruce. No, it's all about the boolah. You can tell by the increases. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. It's like when companies say, your safety is our number one priority. Really? I thought profit was number one, safety second. That's what I know. I thought safety was like seven or eight. You fly in an airline your safety is our number one priority My priority is to not die Thank you My priority is to get on a damn plane when they say I going to get on the plane Exactly Meet my connecting flight and not have to stay over a night or two God. Yep. I agree. Do you get on the plane? You don't. You get in the plane. If you got on the plane, it would be a little too windy. Oh, Jesus Christ. Thank you. It's just like the old Flintstones when they used to get on the plane. That was their economy, sitting on the pterodactyl. I was about to say, they had planes in prehistoric times. They did. Teradactyls. Damn, they were quite ahead of their time. They were. Or is it Teradacti? It could be. Teradactylus. Let's see. Very good person. No, we haven't got to the ball bag yet. Sorry. We had stopped four. We did have stopped four. It was a rousing success, I think. I mean, sure thing. No. Zach was right. No, Zach doesn't win at my house. He's never won at my house. He does not win at level zero. Nope, he only wins at our PC. Yep, level zero is this kryptonite. So, towel-y one. Frank. Don't forget to bring a towel. Son of a bitch. God damn it. Bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch, bitch. Sorry. Or I could be kind of, What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? What? So a good time He had 40 people Yeah She horned into Ron's basement Which it never really got above a certain temperature this time It was good It was warm It was warm but it wasn't oppressively hot That's Zach's kryptonite Haven't you learned this now? Oh if he's over a certain temperature he falls apart You got it He falls apart So I'm going to next time just turn the heat up I'm going to take the readers off the wall Set it to a certain temperature ripped the rear off the wall. I mean, he did bad. I mean, he wasn't even close to qualifying in the finals. It was like, damn, okay. Isn't it your classic sterns that he can't handle? Well, he hates several of them. He does hate several of them. He hates nine ball. He hates quick silver. What? Yep. But he likes cheetah, so. Oh, he loves cheetah. And, like, I have tons of games that he also has. I think that's the key because mine play different. They play different. I think it screws with him. Yeah. Yeah, Dragon Fist can go fist itself. That game. Yes! Love the fist. It's so fun to play by yourself, but in a tournament. Oh, no, no, no. I wouldn't pick that in a tournament. I love that in a tournament. You're sick. That's ours. Yeah, yeah. Ron, pick stars. Fuck no. I'm not picking stars. No, I'll pick cheetah, something that I have a chance. And I kept up with you for a little bit. That was a previous episode, Bruce. We're talking about stuff. I know. But, yeah, we had – usually there would be some kind of machine issue every round, but mostly minor. Except for the F-14 decided to die. Yep. The AC relay died, which was pretty neat. Well, actually, the wire came off, but even when I put the wire back on, it would only do coils because the relay would never energize. So I had no flashers. Found that in about 15 minutes. The best thing about it, though, was the timing of – the Internet went out. Yes. Of course. You know how many times the Internet's going out in the five years I've been here, Bruce? I don't know. How many times? That was probably the only one I could think of. And who do you have for your Internet, sir? Spectrum. Don't you know that? So, yeah, we did it. We had the initial six rounds, two games per round, and then a break, and then finals. So we're getting near the end of the sixth round, and I'm streaming, and I look down, and I noticed it saying disconnected. Like, oh, no. And I'm like, no internet. I reboot the router. Nope. Nothing. It's an East Coast thing. Now, we're using Match Play, so everyone's putting their scores in, and they can't because my cell phone reception is so bad in my house, especially in my basement. So people had to come upstairs, go out to my driveway to put the results in. Yeah, it was bad. I had to get my laptop out, get my Wi-Fi from work out, connect to that to get on the internet so we could finish up the round. Yep. So we knew who was in or not. So then we had to do tiebreakers, and then we had the break. And then when we came back, it's like, okay, we'll stream locally. I'll release it later. About five minutes into the stream, internet comes back up. Yep. Oh, the other thing is when it went down, when I finally could get into Spectrum, as soon as I logged into my account, it immediately had a blurb. We have an outage in your area. We are working on this. And like, okay. Go fuck yourself. Well, at least I know there's an adage. It's not just me. No, I know. Still. No, it's them saying that to you. Go fuck yourself. That was really the only blip. And then, yeah, everything. Everything went well. Everything went well. And then we had a tournament at the RPC. We had two tournaments. We had the Summer League Finals in the beginning of the last week. and then after that we had a four strikes tournament what does RPC stand for Bruce? that's the Rochester Pinball Collective 349 West Marisol Street East Rochester, New York suite 2965 come on, we're open Thursdays, we're open Saturdays, we're open some Fridays alright, very good and we do have the pinball profile coming up in two weeks sign up with Jeff at pinball profile for the pinball profile in America. I would like to say thank you to Jeff for doing those, because I know he's taking a lot of vacation and personal money out of his pocket to do these all over the country. Some people think he's doing it just to be able to play in tournaments and get Whopper points. But I really do think he's doing it for the community. He's doing it to connect with people and locations. It's an amazing thing. Thank you, Jeff. And we'll see him here in Nashville next year. I mean, it's not like he's playing in the U.K. Open that's going on right now. I know. But, yeah, it was a four-strike tournament. And I finished second again. You did. To frigging Zach. See? Got to turn the temp drop. Am I the new Josh Arp? You are. That's two tournaments now at RPC. I've been second both times. Yeah. And you won the Summer League also. Of course he did. Of course he did. But it was four strikes, and the first couple rounds, I had no strikes. Like, I'm kicking ass here. and then I had three strikes in a row. So it's like, oh, I'm done. Then I went, I think, six or seven more rounds without getting a strike. Yeah. And, yeah, ended up in the – oh, we had this game of doodle bug. I'm sorry, Dipsy Doodle. Dipsy Doodle. Is that the four-player? That's the four-player. So Mark, one of the owners of the Rochester Pinball Collective, or the partners, whatever you call it, he's player four. I have like 20K. I'm second. So if he passes me, I get my fourth strike. And he's way behind. He's at absolute shit. So he starts his ball five, and he starts the doodle. Now, on that, you can only do a 10-point and a 100-point doodle. So he's got a 10-point doodle going. So I'm like, ah, that's nothing. But he had it going forever. He started to catch up like, oh, shit, this isn't good. He gets all the way up. he drains out, he missed me by a couple hundred points. Ron, how long can you doodle? He can doodle a while, I heard. Not on that game. Oh, and while I was there, I got to play Halloween, finally. Like, a lot of Halloween. Nice. Yeah, that's it? Next topic? Yeah, that's about it. I... It doesn't play well. Oh, it's a turd. I hit the drop targets to try to get the center ramp. It just drains immediately. The call-outs, I do like that they have a Donald Pleasance, because I'm a big fan, impersonator. But I notice the same call-outs over and over and over. It gets kind of repetitive. And I'm trying to get up to the upper playfields, and it's just not fun. No, it really wasn't that. I mean, maybe it's not supposed to be fun because it's horror, I guess. Pinball is no longer fun. Story at 11. But I don't understand. They still have all those graphics in there that look like placeholders. And then they do have some video clips, but they're so short. It's terrible. And then they just go back to that other clip. The only complaints I have with the video clips is if you try to watch them, then the ball kicks out and you die. Yeah, but the ding, ding, ding, ding. Yeah, what the fuck? I was looking at the screen trying to figure out what I have to do next, and then I'm dead. And so I need more time on the game. I think the layout is very interesting. I like difference. I like it is one of a kind, without a doubt. That upper flipper shot, the butt pretzel, it's interesting, man. I just am not good at it. I really struggle with that upper play field. Just remember, just because something is unique doesn't mean it's good. Good. Thank you. Okay. yeah you know my thoughts on it um yeah i yeah how good do you have to be to intentionally shoot the hedge you're aiming for because i can't do it the hedges are really fucking hard especially the closest one the lower one the sling is better at it than i am yes exactly totally hurry totally fucking hurry oh there went it hey i'm done look at me i'm good i started multiball doing nothing. It's like, holy fuck. I played a ton on it, too. I really wanted to get a feel for that thing, but yeah. It's returned. It's bright. Yeah. The best thing about it is the cabinet art. Oh, it's beautiful. I was a Pinball Industry Award voter, and I voted for Best Art for Halloween. I thought that game looked incredible. I don't know about the play field. No, play field. The cabinet, yes. The cabinet's nice, yes. The cabinet's gorgeous. Play field. Or maybe it's because I'm just a big Donald Pleasence mark. It's like, Donald Pleasence is in a game. Yes. Does that mean I have to get Bond now because he's in that too? Yes, he is. Blow it out. Blow it out. All right, Bruce, you know what time it is? It's time for the ball bag. I love the ball bag. I'm sure you do. Okay. Let's see what we got. What the? Good Lord. Everyone's just so juvenile here. I'm telling you. So we got. Oh, I should have sent an email into my own episode. That was a miss. Yes, you should. Yeah, you should have. That was a miss. Let's see what we got. This is from Jeff. Let's see. Listened to episode 192 and found it quite enjoyable. Jonathan is a major contributor and third host. I'm trying to figure out who Jonathan is. Does anyone know who that is? Jonathan was our guest, I thought, on Monday. No. Justin? Yeah. Maybe he's got the name wrong. That just threw me off. Unless, I mean, there was a – we might have talked about Pinball News, which has Jonathan Joosten. but we had Mike Mike was on on episode 192 so I don't know I'm just what the hell are you doing what do you think about Jonathan Joosten I think he loves the Dutch guys so don't say anything bad about Dutch pinball ever I thought it was I thought it was really interesting when the pinball News Magazine podcast has their intro and it's like, Lyman Sheets dies. Get like this porn section. Guys, come on. Have a little bit of tact. It's Europe. It's different. It's just different there. I take that as a European thing. He's the kind of guy who wanted to get an interview with like Elvira when she was at Expo and he was just like following her to her hotel room and shit. Not creepy at all. No, not creepy at all. Let's see. Time to change the building from Ron and Bruce and others to Ron and Bruce with Jonathan. Okay. Hi, Jonathan. Mike was a great guest to have on also. Oh, so you knew Mike was. Okay, now I'm really confused. Listeners, if you know what's going on, please let me know. We're probably missing something because we are quite stupid. Let's see. He could join an episode every three months. Where's Kathy? Let's get her back every three months. Well, she had a comment earlier, so you got to hear her. Yes. Keep up the great work, guys. I love the wrestlers, especially Dusty Rhodes, baby. That's right. Enjoy hearing about Stu McVicker and his tournament successes in exploits around town. He's been out of the loop lately. Stewie, like Stewie, Beavis and Butthead with Bruce. There's a long-term sickness, but it's good. What the hell? Who the hell is Jonathan? What's he talking about? Is he chucking off in my woodshed again? He's blacking off in my tool shed. What the hell? You know, Bobby put that away. I just bought me some stuff from the Amazon. Yeah. The Amazon. The Amazon. Oh, God. Oh, Peepers from Pothead. Oh, he wasn't in any of the episodes. No, not at all. No, Principal McVicker. Oh, oh, what are you doing? Let's see. This is from Greg. Fellas, a friend of mine, Pete, has a lovely example of a paragon that was only operated for about five years. Ooh! It has a back glass with a really good color, but a tiny bit of flaking. It is only noticeable if you look for it. Okay. He's very keen on keeping on the wait list for this repro back glass from the Ministry of Pinball. It will cost a fortune to ship to Australia. My vice to him is to stick with his original back glass because the repro color registration will be off and maybe no mirroring. I'm wondering, what is your experience with this supplier and others for repro back glass quality, and what is your advice to Pete? I've never seen the Ministry of Pinball stuff. I like the BG Resto for what you have because most games you don't have an availability to get a back glass on, so guess what? It's better than nothing. But, yeah, I can't tell you about the Ministry of Pinball. But would you tell them now? Would you tell them to go for it and get the new one? Keep the original. Or keep the original? Okay. Swap out the lights in the backbox with some LEDs so it's not as hot and doesn't flake as much. Agreed. Keep what you got. Yep. You can't always get what you want. Okay. Having a seizure there. He's awesome. Well, I got the camera. Actually, we have the cameras on this time, and I can see Bruce. Give it to me. Yeah. Oh, God. Oh, God. All right. This is from George. Hi, George. Jorge. Jorge. I was watching a Twitch broadcast today. He had just received his game. Oh, it's about Fathom. So he just received his Fathom. Knowing that you have a game at the Collective, could you please explain the similarities and differences regarding the Target Banks? I didn't have the heart to ask him to stop playing and open the hood. I thought you would be the one person to give an honest assessment. I guess what, target banks on Fathom original compared to the new ones? The new ones suck. Ooh. Right off the bat. Because guess what? What do you think we're working on right now on that great game? We figured out the one problem with the, we had a burnt coil. Brand new machine, bad coil on the right, sorry, the left big drop target. They used two coils. One was bad. So that was causing the resets? That was causing the blow. Oh, it was used to blow. Yes. Okay. Yes. So now we have a problem with the 4X target on the right inline drop targets for the 4X. It doesn't always go down because they had to redesign the little mini coils, and the lever arms are catching on the drop targets. So Mark had to modify his just to make it work properly. They look incredible, though. It's all nice, new, pretty stuff, even engraved with haggis on the side of the metal. Oh, on the metal. Interesting. On the metal itself, it's actually engraved with the lettering haggis. But, yeah, just a lot of fucking problems. Guess what? It was out on the floor for two weeks. It's been in the back for seven. Oh. There's your answer. And I still have one coming. Don't forget, I will do the disclaimer, this was the fourth or third one they made. So it'll be interesting when you get yours, if it doesn't have any of these issues. And the funny thing is, Mark's in the group for Pinside, for the owners, and Mark keeps on bringing up all these problems, and I know the people are like, oh, yeah, I didn't realize that, but yeah, you're right, mine does that too. Oh, yeah, it's just like, oh, boy. It's like kicking over the hornet's nest. I understand you had to redesign it, you know, but there's a lot of issues. Wearing of the – you saw that, Ron, the wearing of the drop targets already wearing out. Yeah, I didn't see anything. Like, when I walk in the back, I just see the Fathom sitting there with the play field up. I've never actually played it or seen it on the floor or played a single ball of it ever. Yeah, there you go. It looks beautiful. It looks great. It is, I mean – Oh, it's beautiful. Oh, my God. It's a 10 for that. But, yeah, a lot of problems. A lot of problems. Okay, our last email here is from Scott. Scott S. Hi, guys. Thanks for the continually great episodes of Slam Tilt. You're welcome. We know the Slam Tilt love for Lock Is Lit and Saw My. And I've heard your digressions on multiball versus multiball. Oh, we know multiball is correct. Now, Shoot the Wamps has now become so well-known the Godzilla even references itself. Yeah, there's, I haven't heard it yet, but supposedly there's a call out in the new version. Shoot the WAMPS or something like that. That's funny. Yeah, in the latest 1.0 code, we're now treated to an amazing self-referential piece of, oh, he says, he says a piece of voice work. We now have shoot the WAMPS, so that's what it says. We have Ron to thank for this. Don't thank me, because this The Shoot the Whamps thing has been on, I think, every podcast, every Pinstype post since the beginning of time. It's Godzilla King and the World of Callouts. It's pretty good. It's pretty good. It's original. I like the originality of it, too, definitely. Deadpool is kick-ass in Callouts. Yes. I don't believe what I'm seeing. Bruce on camera. Oh, my. Yes. How does Bruce's flip-flop on Bad Girls and the Bad Callouts compare to Ron's favorite? Okay, okay, okay. And leave the weapon three. Yeah, Bruce does a lot of flip-flopping, you know. He loves bad girls now. No, I tried to get one, and I couldn't get it. But you tried to get one. He's totally a Gottlieb guy now. I tried to get one with Zach. Mm-hmm. He tried the half-sea thing again. It just didn't work out. Oh. It was pretty rough. It was a rough bad girls. Well, it is bad girls. You know, they're bad. They're bad. She was a little worn and a little beat up. Oh. He says, I think the time has come for a proper slam-tilt master class on call-outs. Oh, God. There's only one call-out in Godzilla that bugs me at this point. It's when you get to Monster Zero, and they go, that sound, it's killing us. It's said like that. You know, instead of, you know, that sound, it's killing us. Shouldn't it be like, that sound, it's killing us. Shouldn't it be a little more enthusiastic? And I'm softening on the whole, I think they just had various current employees do some of the calls for like, It's Godzilla! Run! Because they wanted it to sound bad because it's supposed to be like, you know. A cheesy movie. A cheesy movie. So, yeah, I'll give you that. We'll have to do that. Ron, it's on your to-do list. Well, I already do call-outs for a game. It's called Poker. There's only one in existence, and it's in Zach's house. It's a poker-themed game. and I do the call-outs. It's brilliant call-outs, but I couldn't really get excited because Zach yelled at me. He wanted it done very monotone. He didn't want too much excitement. Yikes. Well, Ron and Bruce, we all know the famous people that like pinball, right? Oh, yes, we do. Kevin Bacon, the Kardashians, Dr. Phil, Scott Hamilton, the figure skater, Jack White and Jack Black, no relation. But, you know, what about the people that are pinball famous? This hobby has some really important people. I'm not sure if you've heard the latest pinball drama, but let me tell you, people are eating it up. After being released as a TPN correspondent, I decided to take my skills to the news desk and launch PNZ and create a definitive list of celebrity for the pinball famous. Brucey Baby, who in the industry would you like to know the celebrity score of first? Ed Ed Robertson Ed Ed Robertson Yes, yes He's a singer-songwriter that wrote the theme song For a popular TV sitcom about nerds He also opened up for yours truly At the Reach Around Awards With his rendition of Pinball Wizard Because of his voice work on Black Knight Sword of Rage And yes, the band the Bacon and Bare Naked Ladies Ed is no doubt an A-list pinball celebrity Did you recently see him shout out The Buffalo Pinball guys live on stage During a concert a few months ago? Nope Well, he mentioned Nick and Kevin during a concert, which now puts Nick and Kevin also on the B-list. Who else would you like to know about? Steve Ritchie. Steve Ritchie, ah, yes, the King of Flow, also known as the King of Hot Goss. Steve has no issue telling stories about his former employees' woes, and that puts him high on this list. Steve is an A-list celebrity all week long and twice on Sundays. What else? Pat Lawler. Ooh, what a legend. And I assume right around the corner, he will be given some type of lifetime achievement award. From Banzai Run to Dialed In, so many masterpieces. Pat is a solid A-lister. So you just ignore Banzai Run? From Banzai Run to Dialed In, he is an A-lister. Is it just a B? John Borg. Ooh, John Borg. Let me see here. Let me look at my notes here. John Borg, great guy. a real man of the people. He attends pinball shows and mingles with the unwashed masses. He also slums it at karaoke bars and BMX tracks. John is too humble to be anything higher than a B-. Let's go Keith. Keith's probably got some deep dirt on him. Keith Elwin. Okay. Yes. All right. Keith Elwin, four amazing designs, one on the way. Multiple-time world champ, Pinberg Victor, times over and heralded as the GOAT. However, Keith does not seem to be a man of the people. When the Loser Kids, Josh Rupp, asked him at the end of an episode, Keith, how do we get a hold of you? His answer, you don't. You see, A-listers don't have time for that. So Keith is an A-lister all day. Who else? Hold on. Not looking at the prepared list at all. This is not a prepared list. This is all off the cup. Zach Minney. Ooh, Zach Minney. All right, where is he on my paperwork? Let's see. Oh, this is all out of order. I mean, there's not many. Ooh, it gets blurry ranking this mogul of media. His cross between info, entertainment, mercial, masturbatorial circle jerkery is impressive. Half of the time, our computers can't differentiate between enthusiasm and propaganda, yet he does it consistently, entertainingly. So here at PNZ, we settled on a fitting good old B-plus for Deerzak Attack. Ooh, and he hates tournaments. He hates tournaments, yes. And good luck with the back surgery, sir. Oh, my. Would you guys like to hear about triple drain? Yeah, I was just going to ask that. Oh, this is a complicated one here because Joel, Tom, and Travis do the podcast together. But unfortunately, all competitive players automatically get downgraded to letter grades. Thus, Travis and Tom, you are D-listers. However, Joel Engelberth's journalistic integrity whilst interviewing the likes of Scott Danesi and Keith Elwin, both A-listers, thus making Joel Engelberth a B-list celebrity. That's fucking hilarious. The thing about Triple Drain is it literally is like characters. We have our characters. We have the everyman Joel. Yep. Yeah, the everyone is the nice guy. Then we have the mean Travis who insults Joel all the time. Then we have Tom who doesn't really say he's the quiet guy. He's like the George Harrison. He's the quiet one. He's the George Harrison. He is. I love him. How about Marc Silk? Ooh, also famous for his work already outside of pinball. But this valiant vagabond verbose voice has given his vocal talents to multiple podcasts for free. That's a B-list move if I've ever seen one. Who else? Tim Lee, who came to the beautiful Rochester Pinball Collective with his wife on their 25th wedding anniversary yesterday. Tim Lee sucks at pinball. Who's next? Wow. Wow. He did get a score up. He did get a score up yesterday for the new high score tournament, yes. Dare I ask, Chris the Podcaster. That's what we call him here. Ooh, the Voldemort of pinball. He who shall not be named. He has an impressive list of 500-plus members who pay $5 a month to listen to his podcast. However, the real gold is woven into his Facebook ramblings. fights among the community, industry, and other content creators should give Chris a high grade. However, I'm sad to report that cancel culture has grabbed this guy by the short and curlies. Short and curlies, I love it. Okay, hold on, I've got to get to the list again. No list, there's no list. The poor men themselves. Ooh, the poor men. This is a sad, sad turning of events. The dynamic duo has suffered a tumultuous, precipitous drop since Ian's exit left. drew to lead an unruly band of misfit members of his own. The poor man's tribe, that is. Unfortunately, this docks the poor man one letter grade, and drew is hanging on to a C-list grade, but could get a quick rise if old Ian were to make a return. Oh, my. A rise. His pants are getting tighter. Oh, my. Okay, women in pinball. Oh, unfortunately, there are not enough women in the hobby that are making content. But I do have, at the top of my list, I have Emoto Harney, who is making a movie, Skill Shop Baby, we're really looking forward to seeing that. Backbox Pinball with Lauren Gray and Rebecca Salem. Their stock is currently holding at a B. Mrs. Pin and Jessie J, their infectious joy of the hobby was fast-tracking to A status, when a sudden decline of content has led them hanging on the coattails of their past works. However, they are still holding to manage a C+, but there is still time for regression. And women in pinball, not as many as we'd like. Our computers indicate that most women viewers are enjoying the hot nudge girls, but they should be getting a higher ranking, but no white dudes are watching. So, honestly, it's a good Twitch stream. Watch the hot nudgers. We've got Anna, Jane, and Rebecca talking about truck nuts. And they're fun. Go check them out. But at the moment, I'm giving them a B. Okay. Jason from Wisconsin. Ooh, Jason from Wisconsin. Have you guys heard his new Pinball Party podcast? I have. I have, yes. So Jason is the Jared Leto of the pinball hobby, musician turned podcaster, singer, songwriter, performer. Nobody thought anyone could break into this crowded pinball podcast arena so fast, but just like the Kool-Aid man. Oh, yeah. He smashed his way into the Twippy Ballads. Wisconsin heartthrob. This is an instant B-list celebrity. But he's a drummer, right? I think he's a songwriter, drummer, and singer as well. He said he was a drummer. Oh, singer. Okay, I was about to say he can't be a heartthrob if he's just a drummer. That doesn't make sense. But singer, yes, 100%. What do you mean? I made a song last week, lads. We'll put it up on the refrigerator. Okay, artists and pinball. oh christopher franchi comes to mind when we talk about artists and pinball oh boy all my stuff is out of order Ah yes podcaster autograph procurer and artist extraordinaire Drama follows Franchi from time to time, so this trifecta of triumph will certainly place him near the top. Solid A- for Christopher Franchi. And Christopher called me out on the last. Oh, he did, huh? Oh, yeah. You didn't hear that? No, no, I didn't. On the last Super Awesome Pinball Show, he called me out because of something I promised him. that I still haven't delivered on, but he will get it. Oh, my. He will get it. I helped Chris out, so I must be A- then material then, too. So what about the tools that you're with right now? Well, yeah, and before you answer, I have my mouse over the disconnect button, so think carefully about what you say. I think that we need to first visit Bobby Pinball. Oh. Yes, Robert Mueller. Simple, right? He gets an F. If Sesame Street taught me anything, F is for floundering, flailing, fundamentally fiscally fraudulent, and fucked. However, his association with Loser Kids bumps him up to a D for dick. His association, as in they just bust on him constantly? Yes. I know, God. Ron and Bruce? All right, so, indicating here's solid in name recognition. Checked a lot of boxes, but sadly cannot get Gary Stern on their show. have not won a Twippy, and Ron isn't huggable. If I run the numbers, multiple associations with A-lister celebrities, that's both competitive players, albeit retired, unretired, and then retired again. Ron does have a podcast with the dire, dreadful, disastrous David Dennis, the Pinball Chronicles. And so I think that averages everything out to C-list celebrity. Congratulations on your status. We're not failing. That would be Silver Ball Chronicles, which can be heard on the Pinball Network. Now, I'm going to state something right now. Uh-oh. For the record. Uh-oh. Are you ready for it? You like Silver Ball Chronicles? No. Oh. You don't like it? Oh, man. We are never going to ask for money. Oh, God. Okay. We are never going to fucking ask for money because, yep, the only free pinball podcast, we are worth nothing. that's going to be our gimmick although I'm sure listeners could be like hey you talked about Patreon in the past we said something like no I have not I said no we said we should do a Patreon where if you pay extra you get the uncensored version of Bruce but see that won't happen because that would mean I would have to edit twice I would have to have multiple versions of the podcast and I ain't doing that shit there's no way but I'm never asking for fucking money Nope. Everyone's on the Patreon bandwagon now with fucking podcasts. We're going to be different. We're going to be different. Yeah, because your other podcast sold out. Oh, my other podcast sold out. Wow. David Dennis saw the dollar signs in his eyes. I'm like, ooh, loonies. You can listen to our podcast for free, Bruce. We're not behind a paywall, so stop with that. Loonies. I love loonies. That's the only thing. Well, he needs them to buy the Bond LE he wanted. I know. Jesus Christ. Poor David Dennis. Can I just say, you know, the guy's the biggest Bond fanatic, and he was all in on, like, an LE. And then the new pricing came out, and he was like, ugh. In Canada, it's like $18,000. Yeah, it's like in Spain. It's just like, I can't buy that. And it's even like, I don't even want a premium. Okay, maybe a pro, but I can't play it until April. Fucking awesome. Oh, that's not awesome. That's just mean. Oh, yeah, that sucks. So, fellas, your definitive list of pinball celebrity-isms. If you guys have me on again, I'd be willing to create a new list. And as drama continues to reach its long arm of attention around the important people in the hobby, It's an ever-changing list, so we'll get updates next time you guys have me on. Excellent. We love this having you back on. What else do we have right now? eBay sales? You got it, but you have one first. Yes, yes. First or last? We'll do it first. Get your sausage fingers out. One, nine, five. Hold on, hold on. For those at home, we are playing. I don't know the game. Would you not buy that? Where we go to the cesspool, that is eBay. One, nine. Oh, yeah, sorry. I don't have good timing. He doesn't have good timing at all. So just go to eBay.com and a little search bar. You're going to put the number that Glenn is about to give us here, and we'll see if we buy it or not. Should I do it now or wait? You should do it now. 1-9-5-3-4-4-4-5-7-4-8-7. What the hell? Yes, Jeff Teolis, he has a secret ghostwriter book novelist. Why don't you read the title of his book for sale? Ready to Use. It's Conflict Resolution Activities for Elementary Schools, written by Beth Teolis. Would you buy this? For Katie, from kindergarten to sixth grade, teachers and counselors, Here are over 100 step-by-step lessons and illustration activities to give students the tools and empathy they need to solve conflicts peacefully and feel like winners. So this is what he does when he goes to tournaments, probably. Well, if you remember, Jeff also was trying to repair relationships in the pinball hot goth column back when Franchi and I think Bone Cairns were having feuds. He was trying to – clearly, this book was a result of that. You can read his other book, How to Negotiate Multiple Pinball Trips with Your Wife. Oh, there you go. So you can go to tournaments every weekend. Would we buy it? Sure. It's only $6.48. Of course. I'd love to give Jeff some money. What's the shipping, though? It's probably more than that. Free standard shipping. Oh, I'm all in. It's under $7. The condition is good. They didn't take a picture with the glass off. No. Oh. No, they don't even have a picture of the actual book. You know, it's just fake. Just the cover. Just the cover. Just the money shot. Wow. And that's not Bruce doing that sound, by the way. Exactly. Okay, are you ready for some fun ones now, boys and girls? Bruce has been doing this all morning. Oh, God. Okay. How many of them are there before we start? Seven. Okay. Go for it. 877-334-562-222-406. Ooh, 1975 or 76, Bally Slapstick Pinball Machine. American James Piekarz Rare, 85 made. Holy grail. Holy shit, Batman, what a bunch of bullshit. I've never heard this game, so you must be rare if I haven't heard of it. American James Piekarz are local here. to where I live. Yeah, they went up and they found this game, and they wouldn't sell it to the guy, but they all talked it up on their episode and has a short on one side. Which side? Single player EM. Yep. 85 made, I'm assuming. Let's see if their facts are right with IPDB. This looks like if you hit the targets, you hit the stand-ups, does anything happen behind them? It looks like there's a lot of space there. Are there like flags? Is there something that flop over? I don't know. Because isn't flip-flop do that? Almost looks like flip-flop light. Flip-flop light? 85 games? Maybe there is a reason why. There's four flippers. This machine is the holy grail of pinball machines. I love when the pinball is two words. I love that. Only 85 made. Machine light up. Then went out. Pick up in Michigan. machine case is in very nice condition. We'll work with buyers who take somewhere to ship if possible. It is a flip-flop. It has flip-flop pieces, four on the top. I'm annoyed that if it's that rare, he put it up for $1,500. I mean, at least go all out, man. Say like $5,000 or something if you're going to say it's one of the rarest ever made. Wait for it. I would like to add a part to this segment. And instead of just saying yes or no, if you say no, what would you buy it for? I'd like to know answers to that question. Oh, okay. We can do that. Yeah. I'm assuming no. 500 bucks. 500 bucks. That seems fair. Yeah. It doesn't look like a fun game. It's got a pretty empty play field. There's not a lot going on. And it doesn't work. And it doesn't work. Details. Machines light up, then went out. Oonga boonga. What does that mean? Like, you turned it on and it lit up. Then you turned it off and it went out. Mm-hmm. Okay, Bruce, what's next? Okay, we're going to go to more fun. All of this is fun, Bruce. Of course all of this is fun. eBay number 144-297-926-021. That's not expensive at all. Holy shit. So it's a Stern heavy metal. That's only 30 minutes from me. Oh, there you go. You're in. You said you're in. Heavy metal by Stern. It says rare game. $50,000. 33 watchers. It says heavy metal pinball machine by Stern. Lots of people like watching people get fucked. It's called Pornhub Stern is great It's in great working order Home use only Well you leave the guys two games next to it You have a CSI and a Turtle So yeah he's picking some winners here Hey Oh my Neither of those games This is a limited edition model Were they all limited? They all were Only 300 of these $50,000. No. Nope. What would you pay for it, Bruce? $3. No. On the board set, it's worth at least $1,000. $1,000. Literally, you just don't care about the game at all. You. I'll say $1,500. No, but you could flip it. I'll say $1,500. You could flip it. I'll go with the last one. I'll pay $1,500 for it. Okay. And you, Mr. I think I'd pay $4,000 for it because I'd play it for a while and sell it for $6,000. There you go. Maybe even more. There you go. Good answer. Heavy metal. Gotta be. Heavy metal. Gotta be. Yeah. Okay. 295-238-976-608. Oh, God. This is a turn on. Big time. So we have the Super Rare Pornhub Awards 2020 sweatshirt. There's awards? There's awards. Oh, my God. The back is awesome. It is so hot. The back is awesome. What is it? Oh. Good gravy. It's a DMV version of, that's how we're tying the pinball in. And it's a great image of a woman bending over looking at us from behind. Excellent condition for a super rare product. Pornhub 2020 awards hoodie. You won't find this price anywhere online. Size XS. Extra small. Oh. Ooh. That's not going to work for me. No, not for me either. How much would you pay for this? I could give it to my daughter. Yeah, that'd be good. Let's see. Starting bid. Starting bid. There's no buy it now. The starting bid is $20. And it's $17 a ship. Ship it. I wouldn't buy it at all. Sorry. Yeah, neither would I, but I thought it was funny. What's the stain? What is that? No, that stain in the front looks like it was a little. Well, after getting that, you can go to our next. Okay. Two to five. Oh, I'm not ready. Oh, my God. I'm sorry. I've got to put my pants back on. Say it again. 225-178-482-671. And wait for it, folks. Wait for it. Okay. In relation to Pornhub, this is a Gusher pinball machine. This kind of looks cool. It actually does look pretty cool. It's wood rail. Yes. because it's, what is it, Gottlieb probably? No, Williams. Williams. Williams' rusher pinball machine. This thing is jam-packed. It is jam-packed. Found this in the trash of a local house. Brought it to Orange County Pinballs in Fullerton to get it back together and working again. Works well. Oh, my God. Did they paint it? No. No, this is player's condition. No, they painted it. Did you see the paint job? every white they touched up themselves personally oh yeah yeah with with with uh oh my god is that white out yes it looks like white out they just put Dick White streaks in it or did they use other white stuff oh it is gusher yeah um and gusher is the theme is it's an oil rig Yes. I wouldn't mind playing this, but it kind of ruined it with the ridiculous touch-ups. Oh, my God. I'd rather have it to pre-touch-up. Yeah, this thing looks pretty cool, though. I will give it, you know. Yeah? There's a lot of stuff on it. The futuristic car, the future is beautiful, but the gotcha. Our Zach would probably like this. I think he would. $1,500. It doesn't even have score reels. It just has lights. The lights. It's really cool. I like this. Uh, if I could, I'd have to pay to get rid of the whiteout. Yeah, you'd have to have them actually just tear it down and do it all right. Actually, I doubt they put clear coat or anything over it, so you could probably get the paint off. Yeah, I guarantee it. So how much would it cost? We've seen some gems from the California pinball place that you just mentioned. He's got some real gems there. Yeah, how much would it cost to get all that paint removed? A lot. Yeah. So maybe, uh... $500, I'd pay for that. There you go. Maybe. Maybe, maybe, if it's working all together like they say it is, but we've seen some of their junk they sold at that place. Wooden legs. Oh, I love wooden legs. It's a wood rail, baby. It's a wood rail, baby. Again, Pornhub, it's got wood. It's got wood. We're following a theme here. Yep, theme. And this will join with the theme. Oh, God. This will join with the theme. It's not Big Dick, is it, or something? No. Okay. Even better. Oh. 155. 1-8-7-6-9-7-2-5-0. How does this follow? It's Iron Man. Iron Man, baby. You've got to be strong and determined when you get that gusher to keep it going. So what you're saying, Bruce, is you're long, you're strong, and you're down to get the friction on. You got it, baby. A little hand wear. Yeah, I'd want to thrust this for sure. But it's a good price. I was trying to look at the magnets. That's what I was trying to... Flipper bats have been replaced at some point. Magnets got a little wagon of chipping around whiplash. But you can get the playfields pretty cheap. Yeah, I'd buy this in a heartbeat. Me too. If I had the money. Yep, if I had Glenn Waechter's money, I'd spurn my own. This is $4,500 for Iron Man. I think somebody was just looking for an Iron Man. Doesn't Zach Many have one that's new in box for a crazy amount of money right now? Yeah, probably. But yeah, I thought for $4,500, this is a good deal. This is good, reliable machine in need of a new home, lamps, or LEDs, so they should last a long time and they look good. Recently, professionally serviced, so everything is in good shape. Okay. What about his reviews? How many things has he sold? Because this seems like too good of a deal. 340, but 100% positive feedback. Okay. Yep. Buy it. in California. Free local pickup. Mm-hmm. And that was our show for that part. Would you not buy that? Bruce, you can really weave a narrative. I like it. I do. You like the long videos that have a story at the beginning that lead up to a climax? Mm-hmm. People don't get to see his face. There's drool coming out of the side of his lip. All right. So that's it. I wanted to mention to our listeners, check out the Pinball Tapes Episode 5, Stars Masterclass. Why would they want to check that out? Because we're on it. Woo-hoo! Zach, the host, we did a recording with him. And his podcast, he talks about a particular machine for the whole episode. So when he wanted to do Stars, he called us. and he gave us the single greatest introduction I've ever been given in my life. It made me salivate with envy. Nobody's ever talked so well about me before, so you guys. I mean, and his voice is incredible, and he's got the Australian accent, and just listen to it. Does his music use a theremin? I think it's his own band or something, if I remember. Yeah, but I think he uses like a theremin, like the instrument you use your hands to play from the original Star Trek series. That thing. Yeah. That's also in Good Vibrations, Beach Boys song. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Have you guys listened or read the book about Ah, Shoot? Ah, Shoot? It's about a mass killer. I went this whole podcast without having a brain fart. Eric Clapton's autobiography. Do you guys listen to that or read it? It is interesting. Beach Boys are in it. just his relationship with George Harrison's wife and how that all is interesting. Oh, my. Oh, you mean when he was banging his best friend's wife, and then she eventually left George for him, and then he cheated on her with some model and had the kid that fell from the building that he wrote the song that became a hit and all that stuff? And then there's the ghost in a music video in the curtains or something? Yeah. Oh, my. Oh, yeah. Oh, my. But again, pinball tapes, give it a check. Give it a listen. Listen, not just our episode. Listen to them all. You heard it here. We command you. It's good stuff. I appreciate everybody that puts content out there. I listen to almost every podcast about pinball because I have no life. No, I don't get to play pinball as often as I'd like to, so I wind up listening to these podcasts. It's a great way to communicate with other people that love it. I know that this is kind of stupid, but there's multiple ways to enjoy this hobby. So people that get on a high horse that think that their way is the only way and that if somebody likes something in pinball a different way that you like it, it should be made fun of. Everybody's got a different take on the hobby. And so I like every podcast. It's all different. So your podcast, thank you guys. You're getting close to 200 episodes. Can't wait to hear Gary Stern on the show. Equal opportunity offenders we are. We offend everybody. Bruce makes fun of me all the time. All the fucking time. Especially my love of Dialed In. Now everyone makes fun of it. I didn't realize so many people hated it. I like Dialed In. See? There you go. Damn it. All right, game you like, game you hate, Bruce. It's time. It is time. Glenn. Game you like. All right, game I love or like. And I kind of looked at the list and went, all right, I like a lot, but I want to pick something a little deeper down the list. Mustang. I really like Mustang. I like that game. I like that game. That's a good pick. Good risk-reward. You can option out of your multiball for the gear shift multiball and build it up to six balls. Has some really dumb, quirky call-outs that are really super high in the cheese factor. But it's a good game. Really underrated. Probably came out in a time where they just weren't selling a lot of machines. Yeah, I like that game a lot. I would definitely get one if I could. And a game I hate, Stargate. I just can't get excited to play that game ever. Whenever I see it, I just, I'm sure people love it. I don't know why. Choose the pyramid. Choose the pyramid. Maybe it's the pointy Gottlieb flippers. I don't know. No, it's the coil stops that are killing you. You need to come to the Rochester Pinball Collective and play the best playing Stargate in existence, which has Williamsfoot person on it. Yeah, Williamsfoot person on it. So he's strong and everything. No, that's good. That's a good pick of games. Well, you picked a Gottlieb for the hate, so, you know, Bruce approved. So is there anything you'd like to plug, Glenn? I have a SoundCloud page where I've made a lot of stupid pinball parody songs and badly acted out skits that I've done for the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast, and that's called Pinball for Y'all. If you can check that out, it's got like eight listens total. But it's all stuff that's already aired on Pinball Podcasts, but it's still fun to do. And, yeah. Well, we're going to give you a project. Oh, yeah. Let's hear it. Make a song. We'll put it on episode 200. Okay. Peer pressure. No pressure. You got at least 12 weeks. I mean, it's a song that has to say how great we are. Yes. You know, the love and everybody. I want everyone to show us accolades. Shout out to the accolades. I did mention you in the Loser Kids Christmas episode at the very end. I kind of forgot about Bruce. I'm like, oh, shit. Pinball Chronicles got a shout out. Silverball Chronicles. Oh, Pinball Chronicles, right? No, it's Silverball Chronicles. Damn it. Too many mentions of that show for this episode. Yes, way too many. You just ruined the quota. I ruined the quota. All right. Let's see. What else do I? The UK Open was going on right now as we're recording. Mm-hmm. And? Congrats to Neil McRae in pulling this off. And he got some sponsors, so they actually got some major cash going on there. It's like 5,000 pounds or something you could win. How much is that? Isn't that close to dollars? No, it's more. It's actually $1.27. Damn! So you could be rich. $6,200. And? I don't think it's over yet. Because I go to one finals page, it says first round. I go to the next one, it says second round. But the second round still can't be going on. It hasn't even started. Okay, so I don't know. But we'll know by the next podcast who won. So congrats to you, whoever you are. You haven't won yet. Who's won the 24 hours? Oh, yeah, that's probably still going on, huh? Are you guys going to do the 24 hour at the Rochester Pinball Collective the same time as the Sanctum? No, I'm not going to do the same time because I might be in. I am now two out of the list of 100 from 20 so I might be able to make it Ron is 29th well my last shout out or plug will be everybody please come to TPF I'm going to be there I want to meet as many people as possible give me a hug I'm not like some other assholes that don't like physical contact with other humans even with a pandemic I still get no break there. Hey, I did respect your space when I met you at Expo. Hey, the president did say there's no more pandemic. COVID's over. Yeah, okay. I'm just telling you. Alberto Santana is in first right now, and I'm assuming it's over. Okay, yeah, it should be right now. Oh, God. Tim Lee is sending me pictures of his initials on Avengers. That's how he's spending his honeymoon, showing you some pictures, big boy. It's like 30 of them. Do I have any pictures of Bruce in here? This is like a whole, like, montage. He's got a picture of somebody sitting on a chair playing Stargate. Who sits on a stool? Some of our people do. Who plays Stargate? Oh. Yeah. There they. That's right, Gary. You're going to play Stargate. I need you to prove you're 100% devoted to the team. God, I love that movie. Team America rocks. Oh, I love Team America. Okay, plugs. Well, we are the Slam Tilt Podcast. I'm going to remember to mention our website this time. I completely forgot the last episode. You can find us at slamtiltpodcast.com. All our links are in the upper right-hand corner. Our email address is slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. Feel free to send us correspondence. Hi, Zach. Hi, Fun With Bonus. Hi, everyone in our Clusterbuck thread. Also want to shout out Flippin' the Script. Loser Kid guys are doing. It's going to be a stream that will be done at the Pinball Expo on Thursday, October 20th. So check it out. I'll try to stop by. I should be. And what am I getting in? I am getting in Thursday. Hopefully it's not over by the time I get in. But there will be all kinds of guests. It's going to be a fun time. This is all for children with autism. So check it out again. flipping the script at Expo. And I think I've gone through most of my list here. I think I got everything else. Isaac. I think I said Isaac. But Isaac again. Yep. I will beat you someday, goddammit. Jeff Teolis, Pinball Profile. He is coming to Rochester in less than two weeks. What's the date? October 15th. Okay. But we're also having tournaments on the 13th through the 15th. So you can have a ton of pinball. We're open that Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Wow. Three days of pinball at the RPC. Okay. Go to Jeff's pinball profile page, sign up. More the better. We can fit up to 60 people, so I want to see a lot of you locals coming out and also some people from far away. Far, far away. So far away from me. I love that song. So far away from me. Glenn, thank you for coming on. You are always welcome. It took a while, but I finally got the fucking bastard reeled in. All right. Well, you say always. That means I'm also included on the next Clusterbuck. Yes, you can be. All right. It has been a while since we've done a Clusterbuck, but Ron hates him. I hate him. But you know, if... If you're not editing, who cares? No, but if episode 200, we can't get Gary Stern or anyone else on, it might end up just being a Clusterbuck episode in the end. Which would be classic, too. Mm-hmm. I'm still going to call the guy tomorrow. Oh, the guy. We're not going to let you know who it is. It's a mystery. Nope. It is. Only Ron knows who it is. So, yeah. Thanks, everybody. I think I remembered everything this time. Thanks, Glenn. Thanks to all the listeners. This has been Episode 193. So until next time, say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Kirk Krantz. Thank you. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Kirk Krantz. Awesome.

high confidence · Ron announces: 'Lonnie Ropp is not the worst programmer at Stern anymore... Dwight's just terrible'

  • Stern was supposed to offer an in-person factory tour at Expo but changed to virtual; Jersey Jack countered by offering free physical bus tours of their factory every 30 minutes

    high confidence · Glenn: 'Jersey Jack, I think smartly, went in and said, hey, we'll give you a physical tour... we're going to have buses'

  • Expo made significant schedule changes: vendor and free play areas now integrated into one space with expanded operating hours

    high confidence · Ron: 'everything's opening earlier... vendor and free play are all going to be interspersed now into just one big area'

  • Bond revealed via poor quality cell phone photos, then higher-res photos accidentally released early from 007.com (likely auto-release timing not updated), and later filmed gameplay video leaked from Stern test location

    high confidence · Multiple leak vectors: BlackBerry-quality photos Monday, 007.com auto-release Wednesday, and test location video posted to Pinball News

  • @ ~0:28:30
  • “Godzilla just finally got 1.0 code... is that keeping Godzilla in the original buyer's hands longer, not competing with sales of new machines?”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:30:00 — Raises strategic hypothesis about incomplete code as deliberate retention mechanism

  • “Jersey Jack, I think smartly, went in and said, hey, we'll give you a physical tour, and it's free, and we'll drive you there.”

    Glenn Wechter @ ~0:46:00 — Jersey Jack positioning against Stern's Expo changes; shows competitive intelligence

  • Lonnie Ropp
    person
    Mike Vinacoreperson
    George Gomezperson
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    IAPA (International Amusement)event
    Pinball Expoevent
    Godzillagame
    Star Warsgame
    Mandaloriangame
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesgame
    Pinball Newsorganization
    007.comorganization

    high · Ron: 'They took pictures and sent them to their friend and said, don't share this... they did share it... And then, boom, it's on Pinside.' Also 007.com auto-release and Pinball News video posts

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Bond artwork heavily restricted to pre-existing movie posters and character poses rather than original renders; Kevin O'Connor did limited original work. Suggests strict Bond IP licensing constraints on creative expression.

    medium · Ron: 'They had to use posters... pre-existing art, pre-existing poses... How does that even happen? Are their intellectual properties so protected?'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Lonnie Ropp reassigned to Bond programming; shift away from Dwight Sullivan for new flagship title signals recognition of code quality concerns but no direct accountability for past work

    medium · Ron announcement: 'Lonnie Ropp is not the worst programmer at Stern anymore'; Bruce pivots criticism to Dwight

  • $

    market_signal: Hosts express concern that three-tier pricing model with excessive LE premiums is unsustainable, especially given recession and reduced market competition. Stern appears to be using price increases as demand management tool rather than pure revenue strategy.

    high · Ron: 'We're headed to a recession... do people really think I'm going to be able to spend $2,000 extra?'; Bruce: 'prices where it's going... Ludicrous costs... just got to plaid'

  • $

    market_signal: Significant price increases across all Bond tiers: Pro +$100, Premium +$700, LE +$1,900 (vs Godzilla's +$2,500). Additional January 1st increase coming for all remaining machines in production.

    high · Bruce: 'the premiums will be going up $700... the LEs will be going up $1,900'; Ron confirms January 1st across-the-board increase

  • ?

    announcement: Keith Elwin designing single-level Bond variant with mechanical reels, no ramps, four opto spinners, inline drop targets, priced $18-20K; limited production in Spooky-sized release

    high · Ron details specs from leaked pictures; Gomez mentioned fourth version on Marco stream

  • ?

    product_strategy: Bond shipping delayed: revealed September, not shipping until November. Test location gameplay only leaked weeks before retail, suggesting internal production/testing delays contributed to postponement excuse (Queen's death)

    medium · Ron: 'they revealed it September and they ain't going to be shipping anything until November... I feel like it was a bait and switch'

  • ?

    product_concern: Dwight Sullivan's code design criticized for multiple games (Star Wars, Mandalorian, Turtles) featuring unbalanced rules that allow exploitative mode stacking with excessive point inflation, suggesting systemic design philosophy issue

    high · Ron on Star Wars/Mando: 'You're just bukkake-ing everywhere... It's a trap'; on Turtles: 'The rules suck in a game... His rules killed that game'