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Pinball Party Ep 10: The Walking Dead And Me

The Pinball Network·video·47m 47s·analyzed·Nov 2, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Pinball Party Ep10: Walking Dead review, Alien #1 on Pinside, community code feedback culture.

Summary

Jason from Pinball Party (Episode 10) discusses recent pinball industry happenings, reviews The Walking Dead pinball machine, and features an AI robot character named Meff. Key topics include Alien's rise to #1 on Pinside, Raymond Davidson's receptiveness to code feedback on Rush, and the value proposition of various games. Jason emphasizes responsible reviewing given the $7k-$15k price point of machines.

Key Claims

  • Alien by Pinball Brothers is currently #1 rated game on Pinside as of November 1st

    high confidence · Jason explicitly states: 'The number one currently rated game on Pinside is Alien. Yep, the Pinball Brothers' Alien.' He mentions this is as of 'Tuesday, November 1st at roughly 10 a.m.'

  • Every single person who owns Alien complained they don't have the LE version if they bought the standard

    medium confidence · Jason states: 'every single person I've talked to who's owned it, every single one, including the ones for sale around me on the market, their only complaint is they don't have the LE. It's if they have the standard. They like it so much that they wish they had the LE.'

  • Used Alien Standard machines are available for approximately $8,500

    medium confidence · Jason says: 'you can get one at 8,500 for alien which is like you know when wizard of Oz came out and you like Whoa there a lot of new expensive shit in this game'

  • TNA 2.0 currently costs approximately $9,500

    medium confidence · Jason compares pricing: 'tna 2.0 at nine and a half thousand dollars lol or a used alien standard which you can get faster than a new one at about 8500'

  • Raymond Davidson engaged with community feedback about Rush's complex code on TPN Discord

    high confidence · Jason describes: 'he heard. And he messaged us in Discord kind of like, must not react. But it was all tongue in cheek... He took the objective feedback objectively and asked everyone in the TPN Discord kind of, oh, what makes Rush's pinball code confusing?'

  • Straight Down the Middle released a review of Spooky's Halloween on Pinball Network

    high confidence · Jason states: 'Just yesterday, a new straight-down-the-middle pinball review came out. the guys are tackling Halloween.'

  • Zach from Straight Down the Middle wore a bald cap instead of shaving his head for the Halloween review

    high confidence · Jason criticizes: 'However, it's getting an A- because Zach didn't shave his head. He put on a bald cap... So, yeah, if you would have shaved your head, A+. But you didn't, so A-.'

Notable Quotes

  • “The number one currently rated game on Pinside is Alien. Yep, the Pinball Brothers' Alien.”

    Jason @ ~10:30 — Major market signal: newly released game reaching #1 status on community rankings; indicates strong reception and potential FOMO impact

  • “every single person I've talked to who's owned it, every single one...their only complaint is they don't have the LE”

    Jason @ ~11:45 — Indicates premium/LE tier differentiation successfully driving demand; suggests LE scarcity or features compelling to owners

  • “It's a wide body. So take it or leave it...you literally get more bang for your buck than TNA”

    Jason @ ~13:20 — Value proposition analysis showing Alien as more cost-effective than competing premium game despite lower price

  • “he took the objective feedback objectively and asked everyone in the TPN Discord...what makes Rush's pinball code confusing?”

    Jason @ ~6:45 — Demonstrates designer receptiveness to criticism and engagement with community; signals professionalism in code development feedback loops

  • “If you would have shaved your head, A+. But you didn't, so A-.”

    Jason @ ~7:30 — Humorous but highlights production quality expectations in pinball content; Straight Down the Middle maintains high standards but minor lapses noticed

  • “It's smooth, yet it's brutal. Rules...it hits everything. It really does.”

    Jason @ ~42:00 — Summary assessment of Walking Dead gameplay balancing accessibility with challenge; indicates broad appeal design

  • “when you do flex that muscle of songwriting, it does get easier over time. But do not take away from someone writing 52 songs in a year.”

    Jason @ ~22:45 — Meta-commentary on creative effort and risk-taking; Jason drawing parallel to pinball designers creating and releasing games

  • “I think it's responsible to be responsible with what you're saying...When it's something this expensive, certain things can move the needle”

Entities

JasonpersonRaymond DavidsonpersonZachpersonPinball BrotherscompanyAliengameThe Walking Deadgame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Party podcast receiving listener voicemails and messages indicating engaged community; responsive to host's media recommendations

    high · Multiple listener emails/voicemails praising show quality; Brad's email references Jonathan Colton discovery via show; Mike references specific segments ('Figure It Out') and other shows Triple Drain

  • ?

    event_signal: TPN After Dark/After Hours midnight special format featuring top-five game lists from multiple community members

    medium · Jason mentions: 'when TPN, it was after dark or after hours or whatever that midnight special is they do...they did a top five of each person's game. And, of course, Godzilla was on there quite a bit...Alien made the list as well'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive reception of Alien with multiple independent owners expressing satisfaction and desire for LE upgrades

    high · Jason reports: 'every single person I've talked to who's owned it...their only complaint is they don't have the LE' and mentions this sentiment repeated across multiple conversations and TPN After Dark stream

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Alien positioned to challenge Godzilla's market dominance through accessibility, features, and value pricing

    medium · Alien knocked Godzilla off #1 Pinside ranking; Jason predicts Alien will drop to 'mid-teens' over time, suggesting initial novelty impact but questions long-term ranking sustainability

  • ?

    content_signal: Straight Down the Middle maintains high production standards; minor production lapses (bald cap vs shaved head) noted and deducted from review score

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.143

0:00
The Pinball Network is online. Launching. Pinball Party. from the same team that brought you pinball party episode 9 comes episode 10 with the same people, person, me. Hey, it's me, Jason. Welcome to Pinball Party, Episode 10. I guess I forgot the last couple times to say adult language, etc. Yeah. Anyway, so if your kids are listening and you don't want them to hear certain words, you know what they are. Do what you gotta do. Anyway, welcome back!
0:55
We need to find a way to live a summer in our city. Now, I don't have answers and I don't It's actually only been a few days, but last week's came out a little later than normal. So, hey, I guess almost like we didn't even miss each other. I mean, you didn't miss me. I missed you, you know. And for all those writing in, you know, the voicemails and the emails that I don't get to, I read them all. I love them. They're all great. I love most of them. but you know, all the kind words again, if I don't, if I don't read them on air or remember to email you just cause I'm busy. I, I read them all. I thank you very much for your comments, your questions, your concerns, you know, whatever. Not a lot of concerns other than that one guy who said I should change the name, which I, yeah, I meant to change the name to penis, but we'll see. Maybe we'll call this episode penis. Yeah. Okay.
1:50
Well, there's not a lot of news in three days. Turns out that can happen in the pinball world. If we're talking the world, yeah, you know, things, hey, here's the news of the world. Things are going to shit. All right, cool. So pinball world, not a lot has changed in three days. There's really not any stern, JJP, spooky, American pinball, pinball brothers. There's not really any announcements or big changes. I know he's got a stern of the union just like two seconds ago. I haven't read it yet. But I guess aside from the announcements from the big manufacturers, for me, what I've, I guess, personally been doing pinball-wise is selling and trading per usual, doing my thing. I had a really interesting fucking follow-up to the last week's Figure It Out, but I'm going to actually talk about that in a couple weeks for the whole story. It's pretty interesting. There has been a couple pinball-related things. Just yesterday, a new straight-down-the-middle pinball review came out. the guys are tackling Halloween. I won't spoil what they give it. I suggest you go watch it. It's great. I'll review quickly here. I'll review the review. I think the audio and visual... No, let me... Here we go. My overall grade is an A-. I'll tell you why it's not an A+. And for only one reason. Is the video and audio fantastic? Yep. Is the editing fantastic? Yep. Is the overall, you know, the charisma and... All that. All that you expect from Straight Down the Middle, a pinball review series, is great. It's out there. Go watch it. However, it's getting an A- because Zach didn't shave his head. He put on a bald cap. And I know you did really good CG and really tried to hide it. It's barely noticeable for those that have watched or watched. You can't really tell it's a bald cap, but I could tell because of my discerning eye. So, yeah, if you would have shaved your head, A+. But you didn't, so A-. Anyway, go check out the new video review of Spooky's Halloween by the Straight Down the Middle guys on the Pinball Network. All right, what else has happened in pinball? You know, I guess last time the Nudge guys were on and each of them gave a least favorite game. And that favorite game, least favorite game for each of them happened to be a Raymond Davidson game. And a little peek behind the curtains, he heard. And he messaged us in Discord kind of like, must not react. But it was all tongue in cheek. And I will give everyone a very awesome sign of Raymond Davidson's dedication to his craft.

  • Buffalo Pinball produces podcasts, streams, reviews, tutorials, and YouTube videos as quality pinball content

    high confidence · Jason gives detailed praise: 'Check out their podcast, Bro, Do You Even Talk Pinball? Check out their YouTube videos, their tutorials, their reviews. They have a lot of content.'

  • The Walking Dead has playfield geometry that can cause straight down the middle issues if not leveled precisely

    medium confidence · Jason explains: 'People are like, oh, it's such a problem. It's a fault in the physics of the game. It's not. It just takes very precise leveling.'

  • The Walking Dead Pro version has smoother ramps than Premium version, though difference is exaggerated online

    medium confidence · Jason states: 'the pro has super, super smooth ramps. Easy to hit... the premium i don't think it's really that big of a difference... i think it's blown out of proportion a lot online'

    • Jason @ ~36:00 — Acknowledges reviewer influence on $7k-$15k purchasing decisions; signals awareness that reviews carry market weight in niche community

    Straight Down the Middle
    organization
    Pinball Network (TPN)organization
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Tilt Pinball Minneapolisorganization
    Buffalo Pinballorganization
    Triple Drainorganization
    Jonathan Coltonperson
    Bradperson
    Joshperson
    Mikeperson
    Meffperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Final Round Pinball Podcastorganization
    Godzillagame

    high · Jason grades review A- (not A+) specifically because: 'Zach didn't shave his head. He put on a bald cap...If you would have shaved your head, A+. But you didn't, so A-.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: The Walking Dead mechanical design requires precision leveling; community perception of issues exaggerated online vs real-world experience

    high · Jason addresses 'straight down the middle' issue as leveling problem, not design flaw: 'It just takes very precise leveling...if you level it right, you will not have straight down the middle stuff'

  • $

    market_signal: Jason emphasizes reviewer responsibility given premium pricing; suggests reviews indirectly affect market movement in niche community

    medium · Jason states: 'When it's something this expensive, certain things can move the needle...it's important to be responsible with reviews' — acknowledges reviewer influence on purchasing decisions in $7k-$15k market

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Raymond Davidson (code designer) engaged directly with community Discord to understand code feedback and improve future versions

    high · Jason reports: 'he messaged us in Discord...He took the objective feedback objectively and asked everyone...what makes Rush's pinball code confusing?...it generated a pretty active conversation'

  • $

    market_signal: Alien positioned as superior value proposition vs TNA 2.0 despite lower price point; wide-body format drives perceived value

    medium · Jason compares $8,500 Alien Standard vs $9,500 TNA 2.0, emphasizing physical size and feature-richness as value drivers; suggests non-pinball audience would expect Alien to cost significantly more

  • ?

    product_strategy: LE versions of recent games driving owner desire for premium upgrades; standard versions seen as insufficient

    medium · Multiple owners expressed wishing they had LE versions of Alien after purchasing Standard; suggests LE features/aesthetics substantively differentiated from base model

    • 4:24
    He took the objective feedback objectively and asked everyone in the TPN Discord kind of, oh, what makes Rush's pinball code confusing? Or, you know, to the layperson, for lack of a better phrase. And honestly, it generated a pretty active conversation. And we all kind of gave our feedback, some of it very seriously. Well, seriously when it comes to pinball. Others just giving them shit and sending memes. I leaned more on the meme side and just fucked around. But no, anyway, Travis had some good thoughts. Joel had some good thoughts. David had some good thoughts.
    4:57
    It was awesome. So the message here is everyone out there who thinks that when a code is maybe talked about as too simple, too light, too difficult, at least when it comes to Ray Day, he's taking that in and thinking, hmm, how can we improve it in the future? So the feedback is important. Objective feedback is important to all pinball designers out there. Coders, designers, video assets, animation, everything. Coming from someone that creates things, it can sting. It very much can sting when you get, I should say, emotional, quote, feedback about something that's just, I fucking hate it. okay you know okay it's regardless of opinions on something quote art ish right spooky you name it anyone kudos out there to anyone who's actually got the balls to create something and put it out there it takes a lot of guts in my opinion to say here's my thing maybe enjoy it maybe you don't you know who's got it easy no offense is elwynn so everyone loves it so for him make a new great Here's more praise. Great. Here's more praise. That's a pretty easy gig. Now, seeing his kind of craft, again, I'm just assuming he's hard enough on himself to make things that great over and over. And that's true for anyone creating something out there. So no matter what someone else's opinion is, my opinion is, if you've done something and we might think it's a lower grade or whatever, we might kind of bullshit, kudos to you again for actually having the balls or the guts to do it.
    6:33
    Long-winded, I guess, answer again. I'm saying, hey, Ray Day's listening about the Rush Code, and I think it can only improve from here. Again, would you take the time to learn it? I think, in my opinion, it's great. And wow, is it one of the best shooters out there. Okay, enough Rush. I've been touting it too much lately, and whatever. No more Rush talk. Sorry, done.
    6:51
    What else has been going on? I'm kind of just digging deep here. Let me check in, I guess, with me. again roughly about a half hour ago. Hey, Jason. Thanks for checking in. We're just in the middle of a walk again with Mabel. Yes, we do. No podcasts. Well, pinball podcasts to listen to. So I guess that's why you're making one. It's your job. Do your job.
    7:18
    But Mabel just had herself a nice bite of deer shit. I'll have you know, for those wondering, no, she doesn't just eat all kinds of shit. She doesn't eat dog poo, cat poo, human shit that I know of. However, she loves herself a nice bite of juicy black BB-sized deer shit. And that's disgusting. So thanks, Mabel. Let's keep going. But that's all I got. Yeah, I mean, yeah, she took a poop already, so, you know, we can turn around. But anyway, cool. Thanks for checking in, I guess. This is weird, huh? All right, bye. All right, pointless. Great. Got that out of the way. Forgive me. Again, this is not a big world crashing news. There's just nothing recently. We're still waiting on Bond.
    8:04
    I urge you to go on Pinside and see what the number one currently rated game is. That is, as of today, Tuesday, November 1st at roughly 10 a.m.
    8:17
    I'll pause here. You pause. You pause me. Go look if you don't want to be spoiled because I'm about to spoil this big fucking news. Guess what's number one? But it's interesting. So, pause. There you go. There's your pause. The number one currently rated game on Pinside is Alien. Yep, the Pinball Brothers' Alien.
    8:39
    And you might think, oh, this is just, okay, all the reviews are out now for the LE models. There's enough to put it. It always goes on number one. Yeah, I mean, remember, Turtles was number one at one point. And that game's not number one in my opinion. Theme number one for sure, but anyway. this game is currently rated number one knocked godzilla off warranted eh you know if i'm a betting man i don't see alien staying on here for very long at number one but i'm not saying that as a lack of uh quality here's my real world experience with alien aside from playing it a couple times and i played it very quickly and it was you know i walked away like oh this is kind of cool the theme integration wow like it's this is a mood game i just haven't had enough time to give any sort of objective opinion, even subjective opinion. So I don't have a review, even first impressions. But every single person I've talked to who's owned it, every single one, including the ones for sale around me on the market, their only complaint is they don't have the LE. It's if they have the standard. They like it so much that they wish they had the LE. The two for sale around me, Same reason. The person I was texting with yesterday, hey, Zach, he was saying, I think I want the LE. It's currently his favorite game, Alien. I've heard it from multiple people. No joke. And we've even seen it on when TPN, it was after dark or after hours or whatever that midnight special is they do, which is pretty great. Hey, turn it into a podcast.
    10:13
    They did a top five of each person's game. And, of course, Godzilla was on there quite a bit. There was Deadpool, you know, famous games you'd think, okay, yeah, those are great games. Alien made the list as well.
    10:25
    So my point is this. If there is a point, I don't fuck points, right? Pinside, Alien is number one right now. I don't think it's complete bullshit.
    10:36
    I am tempted to get one in the home to play because even around me, again, you know, like Tilt, they don't have it. uh district 82 probably has it but they're open like once a year for people that aren't in tournaments nothing against district 82 is incredible but i have nowhere to play that game around me and here's a here's a really funny value proposition for you my two games that i'm currently thinking of due to you know the pinball intervention nudge guys had with me last week of hey stop with all these new sterns get something else in there to mix it up good homework uh thanks doc i guess i mean that in a pun my two possible games right now that i'm toying around with getting in the home to get some non-stern time on are tna the original run or alien and now let's take just to really make this point kind of wow uh let's take the value of those two games and the cost and i'm going to take what you could buy right now so tna 2.0 at nine and a half thousand dollars lol or a used alien standard which you can get faster than a new one at about 8500 seems to be the price you can get one at 8500 for alien which is like you know when wizard of Oz came out and you like Whoa there a lot of new expensive shit in this game That what aliens like. Holy shit. They're not fucking around. That's alien for 8,500. It's a wide body. So take it or leave it, you know, for, for those that have a strong opinions, I I'm kind of middling on it, but if you want to, let's be super objective wide body, there's literally more pinball. So Point one, I'm stretching here. Widebody, you literally get more bang for your buck than TNA, and TNA is actually smaller than standard. So you get my point, right? You literally get a bigger game for the money. Okay, that's nonsense. But now let's look at the actual game. All right. take a second and think about the fact that alien one of the most stuffed and feature-rich pinball machines of the last 10 years was just remade because it is kind of that great is a thousand dollars cheaper than tna again tna is a great game it nothing this is just all the price talk okay scott tna fucking a great game but i mean if you're telling someone not in pinball hey take a look at these two games which one do you think costs significantly more money oh they will instantly say alien instantly oh that's cost five thousand more than that than that other one okay there's just the value of that so for me i'm kind of convincing myself should i get an alien I guess whoa I don't to to be continued but alien is currently number one I peg it'll move down to like the mid-teens let's say over time but anyway for those out there maybe it'll help move some of those aliens and for those who haven't tried it you should try it try it with the lights off get the sound up I bet you will walk away at least with whoa that's pretty cool and you may walk away with holy shit i gotta get one of those before we check in with the listeners i wanted to give a quick shout out to the buffalo pinball guys i know they're not you know technically on tpn or anything but those are consistently some of the best podcasts streams reviews you name it they're they're they're up there um i you know selfishly wish they did a podcast more than once a month because i love it i love the candor i think i align with a lot of what they're saying a lot of time. Not that that means that they're the best, but we all have our niche, our style. But a million shout outs to the Buffalo Pinball guys. Go check them out. Check them out on Twitch. Check out their podcast, Bro, Do You Even Talk Pinball? Check out their YouTube videos, their tutorials, their reviews. They have a lot of content. I personally don't think it should go unnoticed. It's fantastic. And a minor goal of mine is to get one or both of them on the party to just have a good time. Anyway, open invitation. Buffalo Pinball, guys. Let's talk. Let's hang out. That'd be awesome. I know you're busy, but would love to have you on. All right, let's check in with the listeners, starting with someone who called in. For those who don't know, we have a voicemail line. You can call in, get yourself heard on the air, give me some shit, tell me a joke, whatever you want to do. You can just breathe for a couple minutes, and that would suck, but I guess you would put me through. You would literally waste a couple minutes of my time of me listening to you breathe. But that number is 262-528-6625. Again, call into the pinball party. Leave a voicemail at 262-528-6625.
    15:38
    I'd like to talk about medieval bandits with the castles. and they bounce and they explode and you can get the Earl and the Duke and they get all a bit of madness.
    15:55
    What the fuck? Perfect. Yes, please, Colin, send voicemails just like that. Really important. Helps the world go round. Helps save children's lives. Moving on to people that aren't insane. we got a message from brad in rochester new york says hello from rochester i very much enjoyed your podcast and music i randomly came across this song today and looking it up i was surprised to know it's quite old so maybe you've heard it already anyway not to pigeonhole your music style or anything but remind me of some of the stuff i've heard on your podcast and thought it was really well written and funny tis the season so i attached it i wish you all the best going forward in all your future endeavors whatever they may be more so writing to say thanks for a great pinball content. I really appreciate it, Brad. For context, what he sent in was a Jonathan Colton song called Re Your Brains, like regarding your brains. Jonathan Colton, I was very well aware of Jonathan Colton before he emailed in. And man, if there's some chance he's out there listening, dude, your stuff is fantastic. He's, for those who don't know, he's a very avid songwriter. And here's how avid. If you heard of the video game Portal, you know the song Still Alive. Yeah, he made that. It's incredible. But he also did this thing called Thing a Week, where every week he challenged himself to write and record a song for 52 weeks. And, I mean, you know, that takes a lot. I can say that when you do flex that muscle of songwriting, it does get easier over time. But do not take away from someone writing 52 songs in a year. And some of them are super top-notch. My favorite from the whole kit and caboodle is actually called ShopVac. It's very, and I think he intended it this way, it's very Fountains of Wayne-ish. It's called ShopVac. Here, I'll put in a little sample.
    18:07
    is loud with the shop vac on. Man, sorry, I can't help but sing along. That song is fucking great. If anyone knows Jonathan Colton, please somehow pass him the word that the pinball party's favorite song of his is Shop Vac. Anyway, anyone out there, you could do a lot worse than listening to Jonathan Colton's music, either from the Portal song to a lot of his other songs. Great shit. Anyway, tangent aside.
    18:35
    Another message from someone at Expo. So Josh says, was just listening to your recent episode and heard the kind words you said about the TX sector I brought to Expo. That really made my day. Just wanted to share. Yeah. So for everyone else, he sent a picture of him and Elwin actually by his TX sector that Doc Monday was talking about last week. But awesome picture. Glad you like the show. Thanks for writing in. We'll just top it off with one more. Got a few here, but keep it somewhat short today. This is from a Mike from, I'm assuming Minneapolis. Been listening to the show and really been enjoying it. The figure it out stuff is hilarious. I may have missed it, but you have mentioned Tilt a few times in episode nine. Are you talking about Tilt in Minneapolis? I play a league there and it's my favorite place to flip. Thanks for the sweet content and Neon Dale stuff is great too. Big Triple Drain fan as well. Heyo. Take care, dude. Yeah, quick side shout out to Triple Drain podcast on the Pinball Network. Fantastic. But I read this email to answer his question publicly. Yes, I am referencing Tilt Pinball in Minneapolis. It's a great bar and pinball place, but this is one of those places where it's pinball first, bar second. Loaded with pinball games, oftentimes LEs, premiums as well. Their games are almost always perfectly working. They rotate as needed, but they always have the favorites in there. Anyways, Tilt Pinball in Minneapolis. If you're in the area, go check them out. They're fantastic. Thank you to everyone else who wrote in. We'll get to your email some other time. But let's stop hearing from me. I have a guest who's been on here in the past. Now, before you get excited, I caution you to not get excited. Who is this guest? Well, his name is Meff, M-E-F-F. This is actually an AI robot that I have. I keep in my closet because, Jesus, he's a wild card. Meff is a robot that I bought, for those who aren't aware. The Final Round Pinball Podcast gave the pinball party a shout-out a couple months ago. It generated such an influx of listeners that, of course, as I monetized my podcast, I became a millionaire overnight. Yada, yada, yada, yada. The story is I bought this pinball robot and I asked them to make it as a cross between the two personalities of the hosts of the final round.
    20:47
    So Jeff and Marty's name became Meff. That's what I named the robot. And Meff sometimes joins me on the show. He's a complete fuck, but his personality was upgraded recently. When I initially got him, he was kind of just like, he didn't have a lot to say, but he malfunctioned a little bit. But I got him an upgrade chip. So I wanted to check back in with him, see how he's doing, see if he's any smarter. So I guess, cautiously, welcome back to the show, Mef. Hello, Jason. Thanks for having me. Hey, you bet. Good to hear you actually have some manners. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks, mate. Oh, that's good to hear. playing any pinball recently or anything? Or are you just stuck in my fucking closet? Ha ha ha, not funny. All right, enough giving you shit, right? And fucking around a little bit, but eat shit. Hey, you know, I want you to tell the people, you feel a little different, right? Right. I mean, I could tell you that, well, what really happened is you are AI. You're fake, bro. I got a chip implanted in you, and that's why you feel somewhat different. But I guess, how do you feel? This word feel that you say, I believe I feel like I understand more things, but at the same time more intensely. Right, and from my understanding, this chip has upgraded you to essentially like a 17-year-old level of thinking, which is much better than that. It seemed like you were a 2-year-old last time. So what's been on your mind as like a 17-year-old, I guess, quote, male robot? I want to bang chicks. Whoa, dude, you can't say that. Why not? Because you're going to get us cancelled. What the fuck is cancelled, bro? Well, canceled is what happens now when, geez, how do you explain? Okay, you know how the communication world is now essentially flat? Not the Earth is flat. The Earth is a sphere, by the way. Confirmed. But the sociology term of the world is flat, meaning you can contact anyone in the world at any time. Right. Faster than, I guess, technically you should. You know, while they say statistically roughly about 150 people is the correct size or the maximum size of a society. Beyond that, they lose their ability to function effectively in like social relationships. But now we live in a world where like 7 to 8 billion people are all connected at once. So, as you can imagine, there are a lot of bad side effects. One of the side effects is groups of people who try to do from a place of good, stop people's career or livelihood based on a way they've chosen to interpret a certain word. That's fucked up. Even a word like chick. Yes, even a word like chick. But I didn't mean anything derogatory or negative. No, I know what you meant. You meant as a 17-year-old boy with a strong sexual desire, the attraction to the opposite sex and used a slang term you heard along the way. Ah, however, that's not what you meant. Yes, it is. No, it's not. Yes, it is. Because I'm telling you what you meant. Wait. I'm sorry. Wait. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I will speak louder and louder until I'm heard and you are not. Wait. Essentially, I don't want to hear what you have to say because any sort of challenge my personal opinion or belief makes me think inwards and I don want to because I angry at the world as a side effect of this society So instead I will use my readily available interconnectedness handed to me on a silver plate to gather a world army fueled by confirmation bias to shut down Get cancelled. Just got yourself shut down, guy. That could be a world's first shutting down slash cancelling an AI robot. Feels pretty good. A pioneer in this field. Even AI can get cancelled. No one can hide. The cancellers! Eh, whatever. Maybe that should be a superhero. Do you remember? Speaking of getting cancelled, anyone out there remember the ambiguously gay duo from Saturday Night Live? That could not air today. Although, it was funny. It was timelessly funny and came from a place of humor first. I'm not knocking anyone's sexual preference. But anyway, I should shut up before I legit get canceled. Let's review a pinball machine. This week, it's AMC's Stern's The Walking Dead.
    25:02
    Now, one thing I'm going to do this week, I should say different, but not really different. We're going to do the same categories. But each time we talk about a category, I'm going to say why you should take this category and my opinion with a grain of salt. all sorts of reviews can be interpreted very different many ways. Subjective, objective, yada, yada, yada. Well, spoiler, everything is subjective if it comes from a human, right? But I think in pinball, it's important to be responsible with reviews. Why? Because I think sometimes they indirectly affect the market. Whether it's straight down the middle, Buffalo Pinball, myself, anyone on YouTube, Kerry Hardy, you name it. When it's something this expensive, certain things can move the needle and i think it's responsible to be responsible with with what you're saying now another type of game review that's very popular is video games right but those are not really a five to fifteen thousand dollar thing they're still expensive mind you with the console and everything you have to get or pc you name it but there's it's so popular it's so easy to sell trade and video games and not really lose a lot of money comparatively so one thing i want to do this week is each category say why really it's up to you and I encourage everyone to play games out there and I know you can't coming from the horse's mouth I can't always play games so my problem is I buy too many and sell and trade and try not to lose it's a it can be a hassle it takes a lot of energy and sometimes I don't have it however that's what's different this week let's get right into theme first and foremost here's a big reason why it's a you know take with a grain of salt. What does theme really mean to everyone out there? Something like The Walking Dead, for example. If you put this theme six, seven years ago when it was all over all the time, you might say this theme is a 10. Right? Because that's all you see, that's all you hear. It's zombies. Yeah, everyone loves it. And today, with it being much lower in people's radar, I guess you could maybe say it's a 2. Right? I don't know. Or, someone could say, I love zombies. anything zombies is a 10 for me well then that game would be a 10 or someone who says i have kids and they're scared of this theme that could be a zero so theme really on this one specifically it's it's so hard to put a number on it so i think we're going to disregard the theme number this week and just give a kind of like well in pop culture how prevalent is it you know similar to iron man which everyone knows i'd say walking dead is about fairly i guess i'm gonna i mean use a number but it's not gonna be in the calculation i would say it roughly a six it's slightly above average in the zeitgeist of you know popularity out there people know it but it's polarizing but people might not like zombies but they might have kids yada yada yada so theme again why this is uh something you should be very wary of my opinion on i'm gonna say it's slightly above average all right gameplay first why is this something you should take with a grain of salt Well, maybe I like games that are very, very easy to shoot. You know, like the ramps are super easy every time you hit it. Let's say something like a Star Trek Pro or premium, Stern Star Trek. Or let's say I like really tough games with like a lot of clunky shots, I should say. Maybe clunky is the right word. Something like, although it's great, Deadpool or maybe Mando or some of the, or Houdini. The shots are really tight. Maybe I like that. Maybe I like a sniper type shooter. Sometimes people say Jurassic Park. I disagree. I think that's a really smooth shooter. So it depends on what type of game someone likes. The type of game you like has a very large influence on what someone might say with gameplay. You say, well, of course, Jason, shut the hell up. That's obvious. But Walking Dead is kind of a mix of everything. It's a hard shooter in the sense that like some of the geometry makes straight down the middle things happen quite a bit. Not necessarily the pop bumpers. I'll tell you the problem there. People are like, oh, it's such a problem. It's a fault in the physics of the game. It's not. It just takes very precise leveling. I've had it enough to know if you level it right, you will not have straight down the middle stuff, for those who know what I'm talking about. And the poppers in the upper right, it comes down, and it'll hit a post, and it'll guide to your left flipper. Then you know it's set up correctly. So that's really not an issue. Another strange point about The Walking Dead is the Pro has super, super smooth ramps. Easy to hit, in my opinion. now the premium i don't think it's really that big of a difference the right ramp is still smooth as hell it's like this very flat thing like you hit it and it kind of just makes it every time the left one is a little harder kind of but i think it's blown out of proportion a lot online that say that it's it's drastically worse than the pro i don't think so because the first time i've played a walking dead the one that sold me on it was actually an le pretty sure it was an le could have been a premium with powder coat but who knows it was at tilt pinball minneapolis hey but i remember playing it after hearing all the positive reviews and i'm like whatever it's walking dead i don't really care and i played it and i was blown away part of it was the shots i thought all the shots were very makeable very smooth but then there's that other camp that thinks it's very hard it's oh it's so unfair the magnets kind of depends but i think walking dead sits in that in between where it's both it depends uh how you set it up one or two it depends how you're coming into it, what kind of mindset. So for me, I think the gameplay is a 10. I really do. It hits both camps. It's smooth, yet it's brutal. Rules, we'll get into a second, but it hits everything. It really does. All right, so rules. Why should this number not matter? Why should this area of judging not matter? Again, what type of rules do you like? Some people like Pac-Man. I just want to get the little bits, and then I want to get the super pellets, and I want to eat the ghosts, and I want to do that, you know, what is it, 99 times? Forgive me, the old video games, I forget how, when you get to the kill screen, what it may be, Donkey Kong, etc. You want to do it over and over and over and over. Or like a couple weeks ago, talking about Iron Man. The rules are very, very simple, but it's an adrenaline rush. Or you might be on the other side. You might be a Lord of the Rings guy. You might be a Wizard of Oz, a Simpsons pinball party. honestly Godzilla is something with really in-depth code where there's tons to do sometimes almost overwhelming oh my god what do you do so this is coming from someone who actually likes a little bit of mix of both honestly I don't really like the in-between frankly which is kind of strange now that I say it out loud I really love Lord of the Rings it is my favorite game that's actually created Lord of the Rings and on the other side of the coin I love Iron Man Black Knight Tron, really simple. Sometimes I just want a five-minute game, and that's it.
    31:59
    Well, guess what? I think Walking Dead is a 10 because it does both. You can either get all the multi-kills, go for the horde mode. You can go for the modes, the CDC. You can shoot the drop targets on the left. You can do all that. Or you can just walk up and say, I want to get Well Walker multi-ball. I want to get prison multi-ball and just see how far I can get. How many multi-balls can I get? I just want to hit the fish tank right ramp over and over. I want to get those three little... You can kind of pick and choose. You don't have to play it really in depth. It can get as in depth as something like Lord of the Rings, where you have the number of zombies you're going to kill, the different modes, the multi-kill weapons, the couple wizard modes, you name it. It's all in there. If you want to call it a super deep game, it is. If you also want to call it a really simple game that's brutal, fast, and simple, it is. I agree with those out there that think it's one of the best codes in pinball. Period. I do. It's a 10. Easy. And I think either the Pro or the Premium. I talked about it a little bit ago, but I lean towards the Premium LE easily, every time. Nine out of ten times, I would rather play that than the Pro. I'll talk about it more in a second. But visuals. For those out there, I lump in visuals with kind of just anything you can see. Lights, playfield art, you name it.
    33:17
    Well, here we go again. Why does this category not matter? Subjectively, objectively. what I'm out to give it. Well, what if my favorite color is red? Ooh, and a beige. This game's going to be way up there. Or what if I'm someone who likes neon? Neon Dale, right?
    33:39
    Or I like a lot of bright greens, bright reds. I like a TNA with all these flashy colors. Or a Godzilla, super bright. Looks great whether you're in the dark or whether in the light. or I know I go back to Lord of the Rings a lot, but it's always on my mind. Honestly, you're going to hear that from podcast one to the end of I Stop. It's the game that kind of sold me on pinball and it continues to be. Anyway, what if I'm someone that likes that Lord of the Rings really subtle incandescent glow of the lamps, which I prefer on that? Okay, this game might be closer to a nine or 10 anyway because it got that kind of orangish, beigish look. My visuals don't matter. Again, what if I'm a huge zombie fan? Then I'm going to say it's a 10 and everyone's like, you're wrong. Well, yeah, but I like zombies.
    34:23
    It's hard to put objective, especially in a visual. Something that pleases me doesn't please you. But try as I may to convince you that my opinion does not matter on visuals. I will give it my kind of, I guess, personal preference, right?
    34:38
    I prefer the LE and premium visuals every day over the pro. The back glass, take it or leave it, they're all just fine. and I never look at it when I'm playing anyways. Who really does? No one. Same with the topper. I'm not looking at it while I'm playing. It's the play field, it's the lights, it's the toys that draw you in. The thing that drew me in first when I played the LE version was, yes, the smooth shots, but it was the lighting. The multicolor lighting that would, you know, set mood for shots or set mood for modes. And I was heartbroken when I got a Pro and realized, oh, the Pro just has white lights. and it's not like Iron Maiden where Iron Maiden has white and red lights in the premium, but it's not coded to... Well, it is to say white or red in certain shots, a fear of the dark. But the Pro, you can just switch those to red lights as well and it will do the same thing. Unlike Metallica, which has the multicolor lighting you can put in the Pro to make it look like a premium. That a crazy mod that not as simple as you think and you can even find really the chips out there anymore Walking Dead is like that where you can just switch a couple red to make it look you can statically which i did in my pro we can put some reds down by the slings etc to kind of bring out that vibe but the premium has it coded in to know and to use red and white and i'm talking about the gi to set the mood of modes and shots i honestly think that is a huge boon to that game then you have the multi-color or excuse me the rgb inserts on the premium and le i think it's that's a take it or leave it for me it really is because you can you know change out the leds on a pro to you know a lot of people including myself will change the drop targets to different colors like red for first aid or green for food you know those kind of things or the zombie colors on the play field you'll change to green for whatever but you can't change the way the lighting is coded in a pro so me more than anything lighting is a huge mood setter in a game and a huge visual so for me other people may not care that is a huge thing i'm gonna honestly say the pro is not in this category how i review visuals the play field i guess i get the hate if someone's really looking for like a mona lisa art every time i'm just looking for what what what fits the theme does this kind of moody almost gross kind of zombie like simple beige yeah it fits the theme i'm not looking for some cartoonish zombie to be like bleh, fuck you, I'm a zombie, you know, just, hey, yeah, looks like a Walking Dead thing, so that's fine. So if I'm rating the premium Ellie with the lighting, which I think is one of the hugest parts of this game, I'm going to give it an eight.
    37:18
    I'm not going to say this score when I, I'm not going to use this score when I tally it up, but the pro, I would give like a five. Yeah, I think the lighting is a huge deal. Audio.
    37:29
    Oh, guess what? I'm going to tell you why you shouldn't care what I say. this again walking dead a special type of game that has many reasons why you shouldn't care what i think of the audio one well what does someone like myself who's into audio quite a bit music and fidelity and you know you name it i really care about audio and i think it you know it's a very important piece of any sort of artistic medium but walking dead has one of the most infamous cleland codes out there people who don't know who are new to the hobby what's a cleland code well let me tell you the sound in a game uh up until i guess still in spike 2 you can use something called pinball browser to edit sounds in a game quite easily to a certain extent and put it back in the game and all the rules and everything stays the same but some of the audio can be changed a cleland code is someone on pin side with that name cleland that is popular for making alternate sound mixes in games and walking dead is kind of his crowning achievement of whoa you transformed this game into something that was like it's fine to like whoa that's what i'm talking about and i'm gonna be straight with you i've never ever heard the original sound i've only heard the cleland mod it's that popular out there it's that much of a crucial you need it you gotta have it it's like i can't even review the original code i'd have to google it and be like oh yeah i know what i'm talking about i don't i've only heard the cleland mod you know you could review it on the original sound, which I just can't do because I've never heard it. I'm going to review on the Cleland mod, and I'm going to think, alright, how's the theme song? Well, it gets repetitive, but the only reason it gets repetitive is because it's one of those games that you want to start over and over and over and play over and over and over, which is a testament to how good it is. So, I think you could put any theme song in there. You could put the John Williams opening theme song to Star Wars, technically Luke's theme, right? Or the Imperial March. Everyone would be like, that's a 10 out of 10 song. yeah well when you hear it 50 times a day because you love the game you're like fuck that song right that's not really uh a good indication of a score because it's a great game so it's repetitive no uh the sound effects when you kill a zombie you've probably heard that sound many many times but guess what it fits it to me here's here's the things that stand out to me in that game very subtly the sound of like hitting a fence when you hit the prison i don't know why and I'm like, oh, that's cool. That's nice. It's a little thing. It makes you feel like a kinetic that isn't there. Like you're hitting it and like, oh, I'm hitting a fence. You're not. An opto is sensing a ball go through there and hit a bash toy, but it sounds like you're hitting a fence. And then you get the art blades on the side with the fence. It ties together.
    40:09
    A great pinball machine. So even though there's many reasons to not pay attention to what I say on the audio, I will try my best to give it a score of what I think, and I think a lot of people kind of do think. with the cleland code it's a solid eight the original can't say i'll guess it's a five i don't know who cares it's an eight the thing that matters the most i guess to me is the last you know i guess category which i don't even have in the score so i guess let's let's add up the actual score and then we'll get to the last kind of category we get ourselves a 90 again i didn't use the theme as part of this equation i just used the four scores with numbers because the theme is so subjective it's just again i don't know how you review theme it's like saying well i like mario better than halo so mario is a 10 and halo as a 1 when many people think the opposite. So we got a 90. How does this match up with, I said, my last category, and the last category is just my personal opinion of the game regardless of numbers. No matter what, this is an A game to me. Period.
    41:21
    In my order of premium versus pro, because I think there is a difference, I'm going to go on my little rant here. Again, I think the premium LE is an A slash A plus game. Game aside, because again, whatever, to me it's fine. But I think the lighting is crucial. The walker bombs are crucial. The magnet in front of the well walker, take it or leave it, but I don't mind it. The spinner on the right hand, I forget what it's even called, woodberry shot. It's awesome. Not needed, but it's great. The one thing, the crossbow is like, nah, I don't need it. In fact, whatever. It's like you do it in Star Trek Next Generation plenty of times, shooting the cannons. You didn't want to do it a thousand times. No thanks. In Walking Dead, it's a little less frequent, but whatever. I just think, like Metallica, the lighting makes such a difference. Such, such, such a difference that I think that's the A plus game. Now, here's the elephant in the room mentioned earlier, the bicycle girl ramp. Oh, no, but it's so much worse on the premium and the LE. Some games, sure. Just like some games I've played that are routed to hell, shoot way smoother than a home use only game or a new in box game it's just it's subtle things uh the first one i played i never never once would have thought that the left bicycle girl ramp was a thing i was like oh this works every time oh it's cool it's a bash toy it lifts up i don't really care take it or leave it but it's kind of neat however on the pro yes you're consistently always getting this nice butter smooth ramp i'll give anyone that you are always going to most likely get that it's just a better angle there's no weird little flap thing the bicycle girl ramp but if you take the bicycle girl ramp out of the equation which you could literally do and just put a pro ramp on the premium or le there's the perfect game um but the lighting is so big that i would put uh the pro at yeah i'd put it at a 90 and a minus it's almost great but the thing that holds it somewhat back is some of the lighting i i really hope that they reuse that layout and people have said this before and they keep the same theme i don't care cool just make a pro me um version of it make a you know a total light show for the pro buy it instantly but the the magnet in front of the well walker is kind of a it can be a pro it can be a con it kind of slows the game down here there once in a while which sometimes is somewhat needed and i'll tell you something that's really i guess i don't know odd to me that i find satisfying is the clunk shot of hitting the well walker clunk it's this again a kinetic feeling that comes from the sound and what you see at the same time it's this overly large fat zombie that you hit and kind of i mean it slowly moves back it's a toy when you expect bash toys to kind of like hit them and jiggle fast that thing not only is kind of slow but it has a sound that shows this is a heavy weight item getting moved back and forth and you add a magnet in there and it just i don't know it's another small satisfying thing at least to me so my overall opinions on the walking dead premium le version a a plus it depends on the day i'm going to give it one of those two scores the pro and a minus which lines up with the 90 that i gave it again the very last category of my personal opinion doesn't matter. You might hate the game. You might think it's an A plus on a pro all day, every day. But you should use that to influence your buying and selling decision. Well, maybe not selling. Selling decision should be, you know, there's a market that's going to kind of dictate your price. But in the buying side, whatever you like more is the one you should get. And it's the one you should play. You don't have to defend it to anyone. You don't have to defend why you like if it should be number one on Pinside, which The Walking Dead probably should be up there quite a bit, or not. Pinside are just numbers, dude. It's just numbers. Reviews, they're just numbers, man. But I think it's responsible to be responsible because it's such a large cost, and sometimes there can be influence reviews on the market and what people think. So there you go, my review of The Walking Dead. I don't have answers and I don't have a clue But I sure know that I'm all black and blue I can't predict his butt, neither can you We just take it and take it and hope he gets through Well, there's the show, everyone. Lots of my opinions this time. Ugh. God. Damn. Need some other people's opinions next time. Thanks for joining me, talking about news. It was kind of more just, you know, entertainment news in the world of pinball. Again, check out the news straight down the middle. Halloween review. Check out Buffalo Pinball. check out their streams, check out their podcast it's awesome check out Triple Drain podcast ah, also check out Final Round, which I think is going to drop tomorrow or the next day, Meth will be pleased thanks to the listeners that called in, thanks for the listeners that wrote in you can write in at pinballpartypodcast at gmail.com the phone number to leave a voicemail is in the show notes and yeah, next time we're going to review another game, probably at a new segment or two I'm pretty excited about. Won't give you any hints, but more to come. It's been a pleasure. Hopefully it's been a pleasure for you. Time to go make some more music. We'll talk to you later. This has been Jason with the Pinball Party.
    47:06
    I don't have answers and I don't have a clue But I sure know that I'm all black and blue I can't predict this but neither can you We just take it and take it and it helps to get through. I don't have answers and I don't have a clue. But I sure know that I'm all black and blue.