Colin, welcome back to the show.
How's it going?
It's going awesome. Glad to be back.
So, we've been working on the Twippies.
You just shared some phenomenal ideas with me.
Well, yeah, those are those are off camerara ideas,
but but yeah, we did have a couple other things we wanted to go over.
Some concerns, Colin. Really?
Okay.
Yeah. I mean, so basically like
I know we haven't really talked about the budget for the Twippies yet um because this is all kind of like somewhat of a last minute sort of um change to it, but you know, I did a little bit of research as far as like award show budgets and stuff like that.
Like for example, last year the Oscars had like 20 million view viewers, which is pretty substantial. Obviously, you know, I'm thinking we're going to be lucky if we get like 0.01% 01% of the viewers of the Oscars.
Kids kids good to have goals.
Yeah, it's an attainable goal, I feel like. So then, you know, I looked up the budget of the Oscars last year and it was $57 million. 57 million. So I was like, okay, well, what's 0?
It's like a, you know, a startup budget,
right?
Well, wellunded startup budget.
So if we had like 0.01% of the viewers and maybe we could also have like 0.01% of the budget. So that shakes out to $570,000,
which you know, I mean, sounds reasonable.
I think we could pull it off for that budget. Personally,
that's about what it should take.
That's what we need.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that seems seems reasonable. I mean, if we got more viewers than that, I mean, maybe even 2% of the Oscars' viewership, but I mean, that seems
So, I got to I I got to do some fundraising is what you're saying.
How many viewers do you want, Colin? I think with that kind of budget, we could get them. How many? What's the number?
Then then we're going to, you know, start knocking on the door of the uh game awards, I think.
Okay. Well,
maybe maybe a few hundred thousand viewers at least.
Okay. I think we're willing to sponsor about half of our production costs.
I mean, just for the community and
Yeah. Just for the community.
It's very kind of you.
Yeah. You're welcome. You're welcome, Colin.
Yeah.
So, anyway, if you could just like I don't know, maybe get back to us on that cuz we've already spent like half of the half of
Oh, half. All right. Um, so you know,
half of half half of which number?
The the 570 number. So
Oh, wow. Okay. I think you guys you guys are really going
570,000.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's a there's quite a lot uh that's gone into this all.
Is that Is that going on credit cards?
Well, I mean, I I took out a loan, you know.
You took out a loan? Oh my god.
It's It's fine. I'm sure. You know, we just had to get this together quickly. So, I can have like a second mortgage is cool.
Okay. Yeah. Uh I will I will we'll get back to you on that soon. It's It's a steel call and think about it.
I'm just I'm just going to like leave this conversation right now.
But so basically, we wanted to have another show before the Twippies where we can kind of remind everybody that the Twippies is happening.
Uh there's still like Yeah. I mean, we're recording this on the 12th. We're going to try to get this posted soon, but voting goes through the 20th. Um, there'll still be a few days left voting when we get this posted. And then the show is on the I think we're debuting at 700 PM time, East Coast time on February 7th, which is a Saturday.
Saturday.
So everybody can like sit at home and like pull up YouTube on their TV and watch.
Do it as a uh Super Bowl pregame.
Super Bowl pregame.
Yeah. Do the party before the Super Bowl where we celebrate pinball.
Yeah. Well, those um those teams this year, they're great.
Good sports ball.
I love sports teams.
Me, too.
Pinball should be a sport because it incorporates balls, right?
Yeah.
Like, obviously.
Right. Right. I mean, duh. But
it's amazing there's any debate that it isn't.
Can I give like a quick little tease?
Sure.
Tune in if you want to see us in our, you know, best.
Are you Are you doing like full tuxish?
To be determined. To be determined. Yeah. Tune in. You got to tune in, dude.
You know, waist up kind of situ, you know, nobody has to know what's going on down below, but
Oh, well, you know, if they don't see it, then
whatever you can. Yeah,
you can do whatever you want.
But people should watch this cuz it's going to be fun. It's going to be different than anything I think that's been done before with the Twippies. And we are kind of like going all out with what we're putting to.
We're going to we're going to like, you know, fly high and succeed or we're going to crash and burn. Colin, I hope you're ready. Yeah, we might kill the quippies. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Well, I mean, God, everyone's hopes and dreams will come true.
No, hope hopefully maybe this will be something that everybody likes. I hope so. The goal is just have fun, you know, and we everybody's kind of on board with that goal, I think.
And secretly, my goal is to get my mom to watch it and like,
you know, enjoy it. So,
yeah. Yeah.
How do you how do you make that happen?
Just make it entertaining.
I don't know.
Like good enough for my mom. You know what I mean? That's my goal. All right. Do you want to talk about a little bit of news while we still have some time?
So, I finally put out another newsletter after a month of a break and recapping a few things.
So, we did an interview with Sterling Mosska. Probably not pronouncing his last name correctly, but I don't know if you guys are familiar with him. He's like a 14-year-old competitive pinball prodigy. He's super impressive. He's been playing pinball and competitive pinball most of his life. He's gunning for top three in the world's position. Um, and he he could get there. Like he's he's really good. He travels everywhere and it's just a great part of the scene. Uh, he does some like social media stuff under Sterling plays pinball is his handle.
Cool.
Just a really uh interesting talented kid. So, he's maybe poised to dethrone some of the other teenagers dominating
pinball. Yeah. I mean, the teenagers I don't I'm not sure what their current ages are, but you know, they're getting older, so it's time for another younger crop to come up and take their place.
Okay. Yeah, that makes sense.
So, Sterling Sterling is one of those.
It's 14.
14.
Wow. This is why I got to get a Stranger Things and get my kids to play so that they can be the next Sterling Matossa or Left Cough, etc. We'll see. So far, I can't get them to play more than like one game before they're like, I want to do something else.
Yeah, my kid, he's two and a half. He seems attracted to the lights and the sounds, and he likes playing. Like, we have games at home, but who knows if he'll he'll pick it up as a as a hobby. So, were there any other maybe offbeat stories or other stuff that you
Yeah, I mean, we wrote about how the IPDB might be dying.
IPB involve database. Uh there's just some kind of concerning trends in terms of how much it's getting updated. Some technical issues where people are having problems accessing the site. Okay.
Uh they're not really entering in new games. 2023, I think, is their last new game that they added.
Okay. uh which was Venom. So there's just some things there, you know, being around the internet, you know, most of my life, it kind of feels like one of those aged and potentially dying internet institutions, right?
Yeah. I mean, IPDB has been one of the first sites that was a reference for me, for sure, for a lot of people,
but it's it's the interface and all that stuff has always been very basic. I mean, if you look back, and I did this in archive.org and the Wayback Machine, visually, it looks about the same uh as when they launched it in like 2002.
At least the new group who took it over. Like, it's basically the same.
Wow.
Okay. And do they advertise? Is anybody making any money off of that site?
No, no, no, no, no. It's all volunteer time, donations. Even the the hosting was donated. Yeah. Yeah,
it used to be sponsored by the Papa Foundation more so back in the day. I think they help cover the hosting and things like that, but yeah, it's a pretty grassroots kind of typical community effort.
So, is this like a kineticist takes over IP?
I don't I don't I don't think so. No, they have some things that like I can't reproduce, you know, like being able to go in and download ROM files or or game manuals. That's just not really in our scope right now. So,
interesting. So, in writing this article, were you in touch with the folks that are involved with it or that were involved with it?
No, not really. They are a little bit hard to get a hold of in the research that I've done. One of the common threads is people not being able to get in touch with the site admin.
Okay. Um not not particularly. It's more of a observational piece anyway. Uh rather than going in and trying to interview the people behind it necessarily.
Yeah. Well, I guess we're going on 3 years without any updates. So that does seems pretty dire.
At least at least for new games. There are other updates going on in the background. They have like a a public change log essentially. Okay.
Uh where you can see the kind of volume of changes by month and year, but that's definitely dropped off over the last couple years. Well, I know for me the thing that I use IPDB the most for is definitely like game manuals.
Y
and the occasional ROM download, but also, you know, it's a wealth of information like for pinball history.
Oh, yeah.
You can learn things like uh the 1989 Williams game police force was originally going to be Batman because that's when Batman the movie the Tim Burton movie got out. So, so they were shopping around for a pinball manufacturer and it ended up going to Data East, but originally that Police Force game was was designed and and you can go on IPDB and see like the concept art and the stuff that would have made it. Even there's like a police car that moves on the left side of the playfield and that was going to be of the Batmobile. That's cool.
So, that kind of that kind of information, it'd be really unfortunate to see.
Yeah. I mean, from what I understand of the editor's process, like he's going through and and pulling out stuff from historical materials, all all like primary source material, like going through books and pulling out notes and interview transcripts and things like that. So, it's like it's incredibly detailed.
Um, like you said, there's a ton of great historical information in there that you're just not going to find anywhere else. So that's part of the impetus for writing the article is that you know people should be aware that this thing might go away. So you know if you appreciate it and value it maybe save some notes somewhere or like save some some files and we can cobble it together again in the future.
Yeah. I mean I know you can get ROMs pretty easily other places on VPX um forums and stuff like that. But yeah, game manuals I mean that stuff exists but not
like a central place. Yeah.
Yeah. I wonder what I guess what's the problem, you know, like do they need more help? Do they need funding? What can we do?
I have no easy answers.
Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. We should use some of our uh Topy's budget. Yeah. Yeah. We have We have any leftover budget maybe.
Oh, yeah. We'll uh
we pledge your mark. All right. Um
it's 10% of the budget.
Yeah. That should work. That should cover it.
Which which real quick, you are you're accepting donations on?
Yes, we are. Yes, we we do have a coffee link just to cover expenses and anything extra. Um, we going to the Strong National Museum of Play. I think they're they're up in the Syracuse area of New York, but they are one of the few organizations, speaking of the like the IPDB that does any kind of real preservation work and historical documentation work around pinball. It's not their only focus, but they have archives and research materials. And so I thought it was important to support something like that with the twies if we could.
Cool. Awesome. I mean if it's like a hosting thing or they need somewhere to move it to.
So like I think I don't know the guy very well. I think it's getting older lost interest or something. I This is sort of the natural way of these projects especially when they're tied to pretty much one or two key individuals, right? If there's no mechanism for handing stuff over or passing it on, like eventually it just it's going to die.
Yeah. Well, if he needs someone to take it over and or host it,
there are a lot of people in the community who would help.
I guarantee it.
Absolutely. Yeah.
I'm pretty sure I could even figure that out myself if I needed to. But
that needs to happen. Um, so maybe if maybe if somebody knows him or is listening, maybe we can actually make something happen. We'll see.
Hell yeah.
That'd be awesome. Uh, other stuff. I think last time, did we talk about the Resident Evil rumor?
No.
No, that's exciting.
Oh, okay. Yeah, this was an older piece that I put out like mid December where there had been some rumors of a Resident Evil pinball machine in the works and it's from a new company based in Switzerland called World Pinball.
Uh, and I was able to track down the founders behind it and just be like, "Hey, does this actually exist? are you working on this project? And back then they they did confirm it with me. I mean, one that they exist and two that they're working on the project.
U since that time I was able to get a few more nuggets of information that they sent over as a little bit of a Christmas gift. So, uh they're they're going to have a few different trim editions. They're going to have a limited edition with like 300 units. This is one thing I'm trying to verify. Is it total 300 plus units or anyway there's going to be a stars trim limited to 12 units.
Wo wo
where each one is going to be personalized for a different member of the stars team.
Oh, cool.
Uh from the game and then each one of those team members is going to have their own color for the game.
So when we say Resident Evil, do we mean the first game or or something different?
It's based on the video games. I don't know if it's just the first game. Uh, it's the 30th anniversary this year of Resident Evil. I assume that would be the first game. So maybe it means it's going to be the first game.
Yeah, that's the mansion one, right?
Yeah, that's the mansion one. The first one was the mansion one.
I I pooped my pants like the first time I played that.
That was so scary.
They're hard. They're kind of hard to hard to control.
It's the tank controls.
I tried I tried doing the remaster a few years ago. I'm just like, uh, I don't have time for this. I I did I actually played the remaster and I played the first three remasters.
I haven't played the fourth one. I think that might be the best one, but yeah, I'm I'm a fan.
So cool, man. Like that little animation with the door. Like so many cool things about that game are like innovative and just actually scary.
Yeah, I mean that's a great pinball theme. Like it's
I think I think it is too. It's the only thing that you know I should say there's one more trim level, a raccoon city edition which will be limited to 30 units.
Wow.
Okay. So yeah, I think it's a great theme. It's a cool theme for pinball. It's a little bit out of left field, right? It's not I don't know if it's necessarily something people were asking for, but it makes sense.
So do we I guess this manufacturer had do they have any other machines that they've made? Like do do we have any
brand new? Two of the founders at least it's like a three person team. Two of them have been running a pinball repair and restoration business for a while. And then the third one I think may have some manufacturing expertise or history in his background. But no, otherwise they're pretty fresh to like making commercial pinballs. So that
you know should always give people pause. It gives me pause. But luck
hog situation.
Do we have any idea when this game is going to be ready or pricing or any other details?
No pricing. No confirmed release details. I think maybe around TPF is when it gets announced.
Well, that's March, right?
That's the rumor. Yeah, that's Texas Pinball Festival. Got it. Got it. Got it.
We got American Pinballs making a comeback. Really?
I don't know if you guys saw that.
No, I didn't.
They put out a new logo and put out a call for applications for pretty much every role across the pinball production spectrum. So like game design, okay,
manufacturing roles.
I know. I know they were kind of effectively shutting down, but are we to understand that the they're bringing the same staff back, new teams, new new staff?
They they pretty much got rid of everyone involved with pinball production uh who was there previously and seems like they are just completely starting new. So I wouldn't be surprised if we get a new game announced from them later this year. I don't know what it will be. I don't have a lot of faith in the company and you know how I think some of the prior employees were kind of treated from what I hear isn't great which doesn't make me feel awesome about supporting them but you know
more pinball is typically
but the same management we're talking the same man at the top.
Yeah, pretty much.
Okay, got it. Well, as far as I know, the same owners of the company, like the it's a weird company trying to explain how it's all structured
without getting into the corporate structure. Yeah.
The guy who was kind of running the ship, David Fix, is no longer there, right?
Oh, okay. So, um
that might be considered a positive sign for a lot of folks.
Sure.
Without getting into the details of that, but
um Google it.
Um was there any other um topics we wanted to hit for as far as new stuff? No, I mean those are the major beats. There's a new like casual competitive pinball association that just formed that's getting some steam. Okay.
Punk rock pinball association from the punk rock pinball podcast.
That's cool. That's cool.
That's something worth digging into if you're into the competitive scene. Um yeah, that's pretty much it.
So Colin, I got a question for you. This is like out of left field. One thing that I think we could potentially partner on that I've been just kind of like toying with for a while now is a way to do game reviews,
particularly like ' 80s and '9s games and stuff that's not getting attention otherwise cuz you know I know when I was getting into pinball that's what I wanted to know. you know, if you're getting into it, then you can't necessarily afford to go buy a 78 $9,000 game. And so, you're looking like, well, what game can I get for like 2,000 3,000 bucks?
I see that a lot, too. Yeah. Like on Reddit or other um, you know, pinball forums. It's like, what are Hey guys, what are some good games, you know, with this $2,500 budget and like
Yeah. So, you know, any games that I own, I could effectively do a good review of those games, but I don't want it to be something where it's just me talking about it.
Yeah. Okay. I like having a conversation. I like getting other opinions and input. But, you know, Don and I don't necessarily play the same games or own the same games or have time to deep dive into the same games. I really need to find like partners like people who have played and know games very well who could do these uh
Yeah. lesser lesser talked about games in this.
Yeah. And of course, I thought about you because you guys cover rules and code and you guys have a lot of articles on this kind of stuff, but you don't have necessarily reviews of stuff.
No, we we tend to do reviews of the new games when they get released. I had had like a passing thought the other day of like maybe we should do reviews for old games, too. And it's just like
Mhm. when I think about the time to do it versus the like people aren't searching for old game reviews the way they're searching for new game reviews that that kind of factors into it. But I think there could be a need for something like that.
Yeah, I think a lot of people would be into it just from like what I've gathered
if you like treated it like a like a new game and review it that way or like
I think so. I mean, I think you would review it relative to, you know, like any product review. You kind of have to think of it relative to comparable products.
Yeah.
And, you know, you're not going to compare uh Highspeed to Harry Potter. That doesn't make sense.
That's a That's a cool idea. I'm definitely interested in trying to help if it's a game that I have access to.
Yeah.
Um, and could do that kind of deep dive with. If not, I mean, I can definitely help you find people.
Cool. folks who would be interested in doing something like that for like one of their favorite games or what or whatever. But like um
people are excited about talking about a game.
I mean you want people to give like a somewhat partial review if it's going to be that kind of thing. But
and so the other aspect of this that we can talk about maybe another time, but I want to figure out the criteria and like a consistent methodology.
Yep. So that you know one game to another you can kind of have a consist
that I can help with.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm pretty good at figuring out like formats and and structure of of things. So that sounds fun.
And I already know if Don doesn't know the game really well, he's going to give a vibe score.
Okay.
I'll do the vibe score all day, dude. Yeah.
Yeah.
At a minimum, there will always be Don's vibe score.
Nice. All right. Um, but yeah, I think like a future maybe, you know, next time or whatever we talk, we can hash out like how do you review a pinball machine? I think that'd be a fun topic.
That'd be fun. I'm really excited about the the direction for the twins. So, I think I think it's awesome. Uh, just know that that I'm very much on board.
Awesome. That's good.
All right. All right. Cool. All right. Thanks, Colin. We'll see you soon.
All right. Bye.
Bye.