SDTM Episode 78: LIVE This Or That/TWIP & SDTM Expo Seminar/NEW SDTM Segment

Straight Down the Middle·video·48m 59s·held·Nov 8, 2018

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

SDTM Episode 78 live: show history, TWIP/Twippies Awards debut, new viewer engagement segments.

Summary

Straight Down the Middle Episode 78 features a live seminar at an expo covering the show's history, format, and new segments. Greg Kmiec and Zach discuss the show's evolution from Craigslist meetings to a major pinball content platform. The episode introduces 'This Week in Pinball in Pinball' (TWIP) newsletter/podcast, the Twippies Awards (community voting on pinball machines), and new viewer engagement segments like 'This or That' and 'Fling Marry or Kill'.

Key Claims

Straight Down the Middle began when Greg contacted Zach about a Dracula machine on Craigslist, and they evolved into discussing pinball weekly, then daily, before launching the show.
high confidence · Greg and Zach explaining the show's origin story during the live seminar
The first 20-30 episodes of SDTM were rough due to technology, sound, lighting, and acoustic challenges because they recorded in a garage.
high confidence · Zach discussing early production challenges at the live event
SDTM content funding came primarily from t-shirt sales and fan donations, which enabled equipment upgrades.
high confidence · Zach and Greg crediting supporters for allowing them to attend expos and buy better equipment
This Week in Pinball in Pinball compiles pinball news from podcasts, posts, YouTube videos, Twitch streams, and social media into a curated newsletter and podcast.
high confidence · Jeff describing the purpose and scope of TWIP during the seminar
Twippies Awards started last year and will have voting in December with a live award show in January.
high confidence · Jeff and speakers discussing the Twippies Awards structure and plans for the next year
Last year's Twippies Awards results: Best Theme = Star Wars, Best Code/Rules = Dialed In!!, Best Artwork = Aerosmith, Best Toys = Dialed In!!, Best Playfield Layout = Dialed In!!.
high confidence · Jeff presenting official award results from the previous year
TWIP podcast initially started with Jeff attempting episodes but stepped back, later recruiting hosts to make it a weekly show.
high confidence · Jeff explaining the podcast launch and initial struggle with time management
American Pinball pricing is similar to Monster Bash (Remake LE) (approximately $7,000).
medium confidence · Zach discussing pricing comparison during the 'This or That' game segment

Notable Quotes

“my wife makes fun of me a little bit and says that zach is my internet boyfriend because I've met him on Craigslist”
Greg Kmiec@ 1:21 — Humorous origin story of how Greg and Zach met, establishing the informal friendship that became the foundation of SDTM
“the stuff that we're talking about it's kind of funny and it's kind of good he's like there's no reason that we shouldn't be getting this content together and putting it out there”
Greg Kmiec@ 2:41 — Zach's pivotal suggestion to start creating content from their regular pinball discussions
“we're doing it on a low budget because you're gonna spend too much money I'm gonna feel bad for not spending any money cuz I won't”
Zach (describing Greg's philosophy)@ 5:11 — Greg's frugal approach shaped SDTM's bootstrapped production model
“I want to help a lot of people has helped me out in this hobby is my can I slowly get back in that way”
Jeff (TWIP creator)@ 14:19 — Jeff's motivation for creating This Weekend in Pinball as a way to give back to the community
“it started off as a joke to a lot of people but and a lot of manufacturers that nobody really wouldn't take it serious and I don't know how serious that that me and Zach took it”
Greg Kmiec@ 21:28 — The Twiggs Awards evolved from a joke into a competitive, manufacturer-backed community event
“people started kind of pushing themselves and their games on people you know people start taking a serious you started seeing other podcasters and everybody kind of hey you vote for me”

Entities

Straight Down the Middlemedia Greg Kmiecperson Zach Sharpeperson This Week in PinballmediaJeffpersonTwippies Awardsevent

Signals

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content_signal: SDTM has expanded from simple reviews to include multiple content segments: machine reviews with letter grades, top-ten lists, exclusive features, first impressions, interviews, and new engagement segments (Face-Off, This or That, Fling Marry Kill)
high · Greg and Zach detailing their content format and new segment rollout during the live seminar
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community_signal: SDTM grew from informal phone conversations to a major pinball content platform through audience support via t-shirt sales and donations, enabling equipment upgrades and event attendance
high · Zach crediting fan support for enabling better production values and event participation
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product_launch: SDTM is introducing new viewer engagement segments including Face-Off (best-of-three gameplay with consequences), This or That (audience voting on machine choices), and Fling Marry Kill (forced choice game with machines)
high · Extended discussion of Face-Off results (Houdini match, slapping consequence), multiple This or That examples (Monster Bash vs Oktoberfest, Houdini vs Hobbit, Deadpool + cash vs Houdini), and Fling Marry Kill introduction
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announcement: This Weekend in Pinball (TWIP) has expanded from a curated newsletter to include a weekly podcast with guest hosts, recurring segments (Market Trends, Confessions, Show Me Yours), and exclusive pinball scoops
high · Jeff explaining TWIP's evolution from initial two-episode podcast attempt to weekly format with rotating hosts and signature segments
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announcement: Twiggs Awards are expanding for year two with new committee structure, verification processes to prevent vote skewing, separate Best Sound/Callouts category, and plans for sponsorships and parties

Transcript

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0:06

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1:13

[Music] tell the people how we met do you remember I my wife makes fun of me a little bit and says that zach is my internet boyfriend because I've met him on Craigslist I was just said where's that going that's not how we met because I was kicking the tires on a Dracula that I found on there and I just gotten in the pinball so I was still really I'm still there god I can't say that I was leery things I'm still leery of anything I've I've but so I was kicking the tires on the game called him to probably two or three times and you know he knew I wasn't gonna buy the game and he ended up coming at me said hey man you know what he's like I'm kind of new to pinball if you ever want to talk about some pins stuff give me a call sometime and so I was just like oh this guy's kind of weird and talked about pinball so month or so later he had a demo man and I saw that on Craigslist and I was like that's the same guy and so we end up talking and we started talking about a couple other games and then one of us would go on a pin run and we've talked about how shitty a pin was but we went to see your how grades will be kids in the audience yes sir yeah cursor and see if Mia Mark if we have you know anything and we just we slowly evolved and started talking about pinball on a weekly basis then it sort of turned into like a daily basis and Zach was like hey man you know what he's like the stuff that we're talking about it's kind of funny and it's kind of good he's like there's no reason that we shouldn't be getting this content together and putting it out there kind of you know exposing the world to for better or worse and at the time everything was kind of serious it was the start the show with more of a serious note and then our personalities kind of took over well we knew we wouldn't be able to be as serious as the good guys like pop our Buffalo pinball all right yeah no we gave up quickly yeah we're also players so we just we literally had evolved into how we were on the phone and our our true personalities took over and it was kind of the birth of straight down the middle and we got together yes sir oh can we can we still that this is another t-shirt yeah so that's basically the birth of straight down the middle I mean that's how we got started we just and we've become really good friends and we got started based on our true personalities you kicking the tires on every damn pinball machine on Craigslist and then me loving to talk to any and everybody that loves pinball and giving my opinion on everything pinball so that wasn't wanted that's how we start so then we started the show the first ones if you guys aren't familiar it's a YouTube show it's on you can type in SD T and pinball you'll find all of our videos the first ones were a little rough so excuse us on what 1 through 2030 yeah it's we our age really showed which we're still young guys but we fell on me out of the loop because most of our difficulties were technology getting the sound right lighting and everything and acoustics we're in the garage yeah coats so here literally in the last month out of two years we've probably started to solidify the sound and lighting and camera work and stuff a little better but most that's thanks to you know all of our fans have bought shirts and it supported us with donations and stuff that's given us the ability to do things like come here and to finally buy better equipment to bring a lot better because one of the things about Greg that many of you know some of you might not is that he is a thrifty little guy and he does not like spending money if he doesn't so when we started this he said cuz I was like okay I'm gonna buy this I'm gonna buy this studio thing I'm gonna buy this and he was like no absolutely not if we're gonna do this we're doing it on a low budget because you're gonna spend too much money I'm gonna feel bad for not spending any money cuz I won't so we had to do it on a shoestring budget and then we started getting t-shirts you guys have been wonderful I see a beautiful SDTM t-shirt right there thank you uh thank you so that kind of stuff helped us upgrade equipment and we continued to try to grow and improve that don't we yeah and they me even with editing everything I mean we've grown a lot as a show just with Zach's editing and everything else just again to try to bring the best pinball content that we can within the reviews top tens interviews you know we try to bring a plethora of stuff to the pinball world you guys might my formatting was so good on this PowerPoint I promise you look like this that's okay all right so what what the straight down the middle do the videos themselves are composed of different types of discussion points so some of our videos will be machine reviews where we try to review the newest machines that come out from Stern Jersey Jack spooky etc so we'll do those we even dive down into the 90s right because I pick up usually whatever I pick up will review those we review based on a number of different categories you know art toys and mags animation sound all different types of things we give them a letter grade so a rubric if you will from a plus all the way down to an F we haven't been given an F for anything no no I don't think so we'll do that and then we compose a cumulative score at the very end and then that score is taken and it's compared with all the other pinball machines for reference points so that's our machine reviews wheel mine is Indiana Jones pinball adventure that was a 4.0 for me I think Indies mine too yeah I don't know if it's a four but you it's not about here's my top so that was there we do hope you guys agree with us so it's not a perfect system but it's fun top ten list we do those as well where we come up with maybe something like top ten ramps and then we list out what our favorite top ten ramps are we'll do things like top ten code top ten back laps just you guys can think of the number of things that you can rank top tens for and pinball the good thing about that is objective it's just our subjective response and ideas about what makes pinball what it is and put it in the top ten list but the nice thing is that everybody collaborates all ever all of you viewers we talk on Facebook we talk on Pinza we talk on YouTube so it starts a nice discussion as to what other people's favorite top 10s are and it's it's nice little sub form that we have in YouTube and on pin side so that's fun exclusives we try to do as much exclusive stuff as we can and as much as manufacturers will allow us to do we just did the Oktoberfest a nice deep dive into the mechanics and Josh Kubler was nice enough to meet with us before that reveals so we could edit a video for you guys so if you want to check that out check out Oktoberfest pinball on tap the inside and out of that we also do first impressions these are you know Deadpool comes out then in Greg and I hop in front of the camera and we give you our first impressions on what we think about things like the art everything that we can't play yet cuz whenever they announce things we can't play we do interviews interviews with local coin op people collectors a lot of you guys or if you're like me I like to hear what other collectors like and what their machines are and what their collections look like and why they like Lethal Weapon 3 better than medieval madness different things like that so we wouldn't the last one you've done you went to wreck bar didn't you yeah a local 60-63 six more than that now maybe 67 68 machines on route they're pretty nice place so we like interviewing people like you that's our favorite we do a face-off that's our new segment where everybody kept saying we want to see you guys actually play pinball and you talk about it way too much so are these guys and you get a playing pinball so our first segment of face-off was on Houdini a couple weeks ago wasn't it yeah so the premise of it best of three series we play and then the loser gets a nasty little consequence Greg tell them what that consequence was it was a nice smack to the face it was and who received that one great it was me well I thought I had it in the bag I pulled out a six million points and out of nowhere that comes in with ten million that's ten million I don't think there's anybody in this room that wouldn't think that it's six million dollars or six million good that you're said that you don't have anything to worry about you're the one doing the smacking not receiving the smack but I was wrong how'd the smack feel pretty good you would think a friend would take it easy a pretty hard enough he did

Zach@ 21:42 — Shows how the Twiggs Awards became a competitive arena where manufacturers and content creators actively campaign

“we couldn't pick we said we did the day fix thing we said both and first well you never know that oh boy did we get some kickback for that”

Greg Kmiec@ 29:35 — Audience criticism when hosts picked 'both' on a Houdini vs Hobbit 'This or That' segment, highlighting viewer investment in the format

“I would go without it so by show of hands we mixed it in here and those who are going Hobbit of zag fans out there I think that's when I saw some two handers out there”

Zach@ 32:25 — Audience engagement and split preferences in real-time during the live 'This or That' segment

Stern Pinballcompany

Spooky Pinballcompany

Indiana Jones Pinball Adventuregame

high · Jeff and speakers outlining expansion plans, committee formation, and new categories being discussed

sentiment_shift: Twiggs Awards transitioned from being perceived as a joke to a competitive, manufacturer-backed event that commands serious participation and drives marketing campaigns by companies and content creators

high · Greg and Zach noting how manufacturers and podcasters began actively campaigning for votes, and winners expressed pride in receiving awards

gameplay_signal: Deadpool Pro receives criticism for shot registration issues and playfield design where certain shots don't register or flow properly despite being well-executed, affecting gameplay experience

high · Zach detailing specific shot issues (inside orbit difficulty, katana ranch, right orbit catching, long reign loop shot) and attributing some to setup but others to inherent design

market_signal: Live audience voting shows strong preference for newer machines (Oktoberfest) over established classics (Monster Bash) despite uncertainty about gameplay, and divided opinion between collector favorites (Houdini vs Hobbit)

high · Show of hands results favoring Oktoberfest, mixed Houdini/Hobbit votes, and audience preference for Houdini over Deadpool despite price advantage of Deadpool bundle

community_signal: SDTM viewer community actively participates by submitting This or That scenarios, voting on machine choices in real-time, offering reasoning for selections, and engaging with content creators about preferences

high · Multiple This or That examples submitted by viewers, live show of hands voting, audience members standing to explain reasoning and win t-shirts

content_signal: SDTM securing exclusive pre-release access (Oktoberfest mechanics deep dive with Josh Kubler) and partnering with manufacturers to create first-impression content before official releases

high · Greg mentioning Oktoberfest exclusive meeting with Josh Kubler before reveal for edited video content

business_signal: Pinball media landscape includes integrated SDTM, TWIP, and Twiggs Awards ecosystem with cross-promotion, shared audience, and collaborative oversight of industry awards

high · Zach pitching live Twiggs streaming to Jeff, Zach and Greg working with Jeff on award show production, shared audience and content overlap

personnel_signal: Greg Bone and Zach Sharpe met as strangers on Craigslist, evolved into daily pinball discussions, and became co-creators of major pinball media platform; Jeff initially reluctant but became collaborative partner

high · Extended origin story and description of host relationship development; Jeff's character arc from reluctance to active partnership in Twiggs Awards