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Switch It Up With Site Visits

BlahCade Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 4m·held·Dec 15, 2017
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Blockade hosts discuss venue visits, new Zen tables, and Farsight news with gameplay impressions.

Summary

Chris Friebus and Jared Morgan discuss their recent site visits to pinball venues (Pincadia in Australia and Lost Levels in the US), sharing detailed gameplay impressions of Guardians of the Galaxy and praising its music integration. They cover Zen Pinball's upcoming Adventureland and Son of Zeus table pack, Farsight's Stern Pinball Arcade Switch release, and tease upcoming Farsight announcements for after the holidays.

Key Claims

  • Stern Pinball Arcade came out in Europe on December 1st and is coming to North America on December 12th

    high confidence · Chris discussing Farsight news about Switch release dates

  • Stern Pinball Arcade on Switch will not have portrait mode at release, only landscape

    high confidence · Chris citing information from Farsight and forum users who tried the European version

  • Farsight described the Switch port as one of their least bugged launches ever

    high confidence · Chris reporting direct communication with Farsight about the Switch port quality

  • Zen is releasing Adventureland and Son of Zeus as a table pack, with Twitch streams for each

    high confidence · Chris describing the Twitch stream he watched of the new Zen tables

  • Pincadia is the location with the only Attack from Mars remake in Australia on location

    high confidence · Jared explaining the purpose of his venue visit

Notable Quotes

  • “Well, folks, on this week's lovely adventure in podcasting, we're going to talk a little bit about places me and Jared visited. We're going to talk a little smidgen of Farsight news that I managed to eke out of them.”

    Chris Friebus @ ~08:30 — Introduces the main topics of the episode

  • “I only caught the last five minutes of it...it was on a table called Adventureland and it very much a theme park...it's definitely a carnivalish theme park in terms of its theming there's roller coasters yes but it's a lot of also carnival kind of games”

    Chris Friebus @ ~36:00 — Description of the new Zen Adventureland table

  • “Brand new because it had only been there less than a week or maybe a week. So fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh rubber on a table that seemingly is a drain monster to begin with.”

    Chris Friebus @ ~42:00 — First impressions of Guardians of the Galaxy at Lost Levels

  • “The very first time I experienced that, it sent it straight down the middle. I was like, thanks, magnet.”

    Chris Friebus @ ~51:00 — Commentary on the magnet behavior in Guardians of the Galaxy

  • “I really quite enjoyed that left ramp shot up near Groot there's a left ramp it sort of snakes when you shoot it, it snakes up to the left and then sort of hooks around and then comes back to the end again. And there's something about that ball path that really appealed to me.”

    Jared Morgan @ ~64:00 — Positive gameplay observation about Guardians ramp design

  • “the second song was one of those I went, oh, this is fun to play pinball with, and that's when Cherry Bomb starts. That song just really works well with the mechanics.”

    Chris Friebus @ ~68:00 — Praise for Guardians of the Galaxy music integration

  • “the song will pause when a vocal call-out happens or something important happens on the screen, and as soon as it goes back into play mode, it picks up right where the song paused and it continues.”

    Chris Friebus — Specific design observation about dynamic music implementation

Entities

Chris FriebuspersonJared MorganpersonBlahCade Pinball PodcastorganizationLost LevelsvenuePincadiavenueZen PinballcompanyFarsight StudioscompanyGuardians of the GalaxygameStern PinballcompanyAdventurelandgame

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern Pinball Arcade launching on Nintendo Switch with staggered regional release (Europe Dec 1, North America Dec 12)

    high · Chris citing specific release dates and technical specifications from Farsight communication

  • ?

    announcement: Zen Pinball announcing Adventureland and Son of Zeus as upcoming table pack with dedicated Twitch showcase streams

    high · Chris describing Twitch stream of Adventureland with mention of Son of Zeus follow-up stream scheduled

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Guardians of the Galaxy Pro model at Lost Levels shows extreme drain behavior and sensitivity with fresh rubber; complex multiball mechanics (Groot, Vomit Mech, Orb) with varying code implementation quality across modes

    high · Detailed gameplay descriptions of drain sensitivity, magnet behavior, multiball activation difficulty, and unfinished code for character selection and shot lighting

  • ?

    product_concern: Guardians of the Galaxy has unfinished code implementation affecting character selection, shot lighting clarity, and mode differentiation at launch

    high · Chris noting 'they probably just worked on the target first' and 'Shots aren't necessarily lit up very well, either' indicating code development prioritization

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Zen Pinball praised for dynamic music pausing/resuming tied to gameplay events; Stern Guardians of the Galaxy praised for Cherry Bomb song working well with mechanics despite only two songs in game

    high · Extended discussion comparing Guardians music integration to Mustang's song transitions, contrasting with Zen's detached approach

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.193

0:00
this is a blockade podcast with your hosts chris and jared you are listening to the blockade podcast this is a podcast about pinball folks not about other things not related to food or movies or tv okay just the same anyway i'm your host chris freebus aka shut your trap joining me as always halfway across the road jared morgan yeah it really is just about pinball most of the time it's not about jw action and it's not about i don't know what like men's rights and other stuff as well so let's talk about that for a moment shall we yeah yeah uh welcome to the confusion um we were getting our podcast set up and uh as always i tweet out on the Blockade account at Blockade on Twitter the link to our podcast.
1:04
And so somebody logged in. What the hell? I don't care. Username of Average Joe. And Jared was having some difficulties again because he forgot to reboot his modem. Reset the modem? Why? You know, I reset my modem all the time, right? Thanks Australia Internet Awesome Australia Internet So we hadn't even really gotten going with anything other than just checking Jared's signal and just as soon as Jared logs off this guy pops in and he's like Hey I've talked to you crazies before I'm like what?
1:49
Okay if you say so I'd nothing but ring your bell So I go, so how would we know you in our little pinball world? And he goes, I'm not here for pinball, so I'm here to talk about Jehovah's Witnesses and the harm that they do to little kids.
2:10
I go, we talk pinball here? Just want to talk some pinball here, not whatever the hell you want to go on about, mate. Unless there's a, who knows Jared maybe there's a Jehovah Witness pinball machine that comes to your door every now and then and says, hi would you like to play the watchtower and then you can play the game but you have to talk to them for a couple of minutes and then when you're done they take the pinball machine to the next door, you know, I don't know Well, you know, I think I reckon that if it's going to be a Jehovah's Witness machine, it needs to be an orgasmo machine Anisfield Gatsby because that's the only Jervis witness that I want to have at my door You've got that mixed up because that's the Mormons Oh the Mormons That's what I said The J-dubs it's all about the Watchtower Yeah they don't have any cool movies about them so we don't care No they don't have any cool movies about them Oh yes We are perfectly supportive of your religious beliefs and stuff here at Black Aid.
@ ~69:00
Son of Zeus
game
Attack from Marsgame
Stern Pinball Arcadeproduct
Pinball FX 3product
Mike Lindsayperson
Nintendo Switchproduct
Shut Your Trapperson
nimblyperson
Mustanggame
Star Wars: Droidsgame
  • ?

    venue_signal: Pincadia acquiring premium/higher tier Stern machines with exception to Pro rule for Game of Thrones; recently acquired Guardians of the Galaxy within days of Jared's visit

    medium · Jared noting venue policy of 'only have premiums or higher on the fourth and third' with Game of Thrones exception and Guardians being brand new acquisition

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Farsight Studios reports Stern Pinball Arcade Switch port as one of their least bugged launches, but missing portrait mode feature available on Zen's Switch version

    high · Chris directly citing Farsight communication about port success and technical limitations compared to Zen

  • ?

    community_signal: Blockade podcast's Zen Pinball weekly tournament has 30-player participation; audience engagement remains passive on voting/selection but active in tournament play itself

    high · Chris discussing low response rates to direct requests for engagement but noting 30 players joined Droids tournament with tight score clustering

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Farsight Studios has unannounced news planned post-holidays; Mike Lindsay to appear on Blockade podcast to share details; timing hints at near-term release plans

    medium · Chris mentioning tease of future announcements with vague reference to news becoming obvious when time comes to reveal

  • ?

    content_signal: Blockade podcast establishing pattern of on-site venue visits as content format, focusing on in-location pinball machine evaluation and experience sharing

    high · Episode structure built around Jared and Chris's venue visits with detailed gameplay and experience reporting

  • $

    market_signal: Lost Levels charging $1 per play for Guardians of the Galaxy; Chris paid $2 for three plays, indicating alternative pricing structures at location

    high · Chris noting 'I plunked in the two bucks so I could get three plays. Because otherwise it was a dollar a play.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Guardians of the Galaxy features left ramp with snaking path design praised by players for satisfying ball trajectory and feel; right ramp described as tight requiring precise aim

    high · Jared's detailed description of left ramp 'snakes up to the left and then sort of hooks around and then comes back' with explicit praise for ball feel

    • 3:21
    Do what you like. We're not going to judge you, but don't come... We're going to judge you if you come in here completely oblivious to what we talk about. The best was when he goes, well, I like that old Star Trek pinball. I said, which one? Next Generation? Or original? He goes, I don't know. It had a flappy thing on it.
    3:46
    I went, Okay, well, maybe that was one of the older ones. And then there was like this silent pause and followed by, well, I guess I'll go find somebody else to talk to and stalk.
    4:02
    Like, bye. Bye. Goodbye. Go away. I don't know. That gave me a good laugh. I don't think it's still nearly as good as when we had the angry black woman screaming at us about women's rights or men's rights. We don't even know what she was screaming at us about.
    4:23
    Women's rights, yes. She was really going off ahead of us because we managed to do something. I don't think we managed to do anything. I think we gave her a platform. No, we clearly did because we have penises.
    4:37
    And therefore, I probably see all the things wrong. Yes. It does remind me a bit, and this is one thing that I missed. what was that I can't even remember what the heck the site was that we were using previously where people could, it was video and people Blab that's an interesting focus on us oh my god Blab was great because it was around Robin yeah and when you logged in it would show you here's what's Blabbing right now and there would be a visual and so you could just randomly be like oh those people look interesting and click on them and join the conversation. And so we would get some people just like randomly. And the best one, though, and what I loved about it was the one time when the guy came on and was like, hey, want to check out my pinball collection?
    5:27
    He went, ah, yeah. And he started showing us all these machines he had. We're like, this is great. Too bad it doesn't translate to the podcast. But it's like we basically got a live walkthrough of this dude's house. It was incredible. See, this is the thing I miss so much about that service. It was so good. Yeah, it really was. It was a blast.
    5:49
    It was so easy to get people on. You just tweet it out, they join, and you're done. You're quite literally just done.
    5:55
    And we never seemed to have any technical hiccups either. I mean, well, we had technical hiccups actually posting, but while it was live and recording, we never had technical hiccups. No, it was working fine. But no, the only technical hiccups, that was before I got NBN. So it's actually not Hangouts' fault. It's the stupid internet service I've got here. So it's not the computer. It's the stupid connectivity. Okay. So get rekt.
    6:29
    Well, folks, on this week's lovely adventure in podcasting, we're going to talk a little bit about places me and Jared visited. We're going to talk a little smidgen of Farsight news that I managed to eke out of them.
    6:47
    And why don't we go ahead and start as normal with the Zen Pinball Tournament for the week. We were playing droids. Are you familiar with that table, Jared?
    7:00
    Star Wars droids? Droids. Yes, a little bit. Yes, it's got some very strange ramp shots on it. They sort of loop back over themselves, and it's all very interesting. It does the crossover action, so it kind of reminds me of what a... Oh, yes. What is that, Mark Ritchie? That does the crossover on all of his tables?
    7:23
    Oh, yes. You like it on Fishtails and stuff. Yeah, and Taxi. Yeah, it kind of reminds me of that. It's also a table that nobody really... I mean, I think it's really underrated, but it's kind of a lot of fun once you get into it. Because your initial inclination on playing the table is to just shoot orbits and shoot ramps. And there's a little droid symbol in front of each one. And, of course, once you light up their name completely, then it would basically give you one more shot to hit. And if you hit that shot, that would increase the jackpot value. And I remember when I first started playing the table, I was like, this is kind of boring. There's nothing going on. It's just me increasing the jackpot. How do I even get the jackpot going? I don't know.
    8:13
    And what I was failing to notice was smack dab in the middle. There is a, well, it looks like it would be drop down targets. But it's just a three bank of static targets, you might say. And once you hit that three times, that whole thing drops down. And that's your mission hole. And so then when you shoot the mission hole, you can start doing your mission. Well, that's where the jackpot value, I believe, of each ramp then increases when you're able to shoot for an actual jackpot during a mission. I don't know.
    8:42
    I'm a little bit fuzzy on the rules there. But the missions themselves are a blast. You know, you have one mission that collects the various C-3PO parts. And once you shoot a lane, then you have to shoot this one particular sinkhole, and that collects one part of 3PO. There's another one where the ramps all of a sudden get a lava pit in front of them. So if your ball drops back down, it goes into the lava. Not that that ends your ball. Oh, yeah, I played that one. Yeah. Yeah, I played that one. And then if you hit a particular shot or if you hit the bumpers five times, then all of a sudden an explosive ball will come down, and you only have a few seconds to shoot that into the central drop hole to explode. explode that affects blowing up the ship that you're on. I mean, there's a lot of interesting mechanics and modes that they do, and it's one of those things that I really applaud Zen for doing because it's that perfect blend of keeping a very pinball feel to the machine but also doing things digitally that just are not possible on a real machine, unless you have an explosive pinball on a real machine. Yes.
    9:58
    That's right. It's a lot of fun. I guess even though it's an explosive pinball, and sure, you can't do it in real life, it's still using the usual pinball mechanic. Right, a timed hurry-up shot. Yeah, that's exactly what it is, except instead of having the shot timed, it's the actual ball itself. So it's a nice twist, I guess, on what is a pretty regular pinball meme. Well, and it's funny, too, because Zen has used this exact pinball. It looks like the detonator that you see in Return of the Jedi that when Princess Leia is in the bounty hunter garb has a thermal detonator.
    10:48
    That's what the ball turns into. And other tables, Star Wars tables, use that exact same thing. So it's a theme that has been repeated across Zen tables, so it's kind of fun that way. Anyway... It's like the vision of cows.
    11:04
    Right. So, droids was the table of the week. We played it for five days. It was a three ball, and I use that term loosely because one thing about the droids table is you can earn extra balls like crazy. Just by sneezing.
    11:22
    Yeah, it's... They're very liberal with them. And so because of that, I only allowed one boost that you could pick later in the table. So our top five, we had Papa Nods come in at $149 million. Then Tritium03 came in at $153 million. Then DirtyPickSK came in at $155 million. I came in second place at 168 million and sneaking in and stealing that title away from me was nimbly at 170 million so as you can see the scores were rather tight good grouping yeah and we had 30 players join us this time so next week or I should say this week that we're in right now as you're listening to this podcast as I mentioned with Last Jedi opening up on Friday.
    12:23
    What the hell, let's play another Star Wars table. We are going to play The Force Awakens. It is going to be a five minute table. And you will have whatever boost you'd like to use. So that'll be the rules. So quick in and out. Quick in and out. It's kind of hard figuring out what best to choose for a table. I'm not a fan in general of the survival. I got to say that. You don't enjoy a table that way. You just flip and hope you score.
    13:00
    So I'm not really a fan of survival. The five minutes is good for tables that can go on forever. Yes.
    13:12
    So that way you're not getting that grind of, oh, God, somebody has a lot of time on their hands. and no matter what score I post, they're just going to hop on and take their time and beat me. So that kind of eliminates the fun. But then there's tables like with droids where I specifically wanted people to be able to explore the table because I think it's a table worth exploring. It's a fun table that not a lot of people play. So it's kind of that weird find the balance.
    13:39
    The suggestion came on that hey, how about whoever wins the tournament of the week, they get to pick the next table and the conditions.
    13:50
    Now, normally I would be kind of like, hey, yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun. But then again, I know you are listeners. We have tried contests. We have tried different ways of engaging you. And you're a very passive audience. You don't like actually you'll play our game. You'll play the tournament. So that's cool. But then if we actually ask you to email or do something, then it doesn't happen. Yeah, that's right. That was where I kind of came down, it's like, I'm not opposed to the idea, but on the flip side,
    14:22
    I'm not going to hold up our tournament while I wait for a response from somebody, because I still have to post it under Shut Your Trap as hosting that week's tournament.
    14:36
    My solution to that, and if you are a listener and you are one of these top five people, specifically if you're nimbly and listening,
    14:45
    and you want, you can go ahead and start your own tournament in Zen using your own username and all you have to do is email us at blahblahblockade at gmail.com or send us a tweet at blockade and tell us what the conditions or just tell us what your choice is and what your conditions are and then we'll go ahead and forward that tweet out and say hey make sure that in addition to playing the Shut Your Trap tournament go ahead and search out this other person's tournament that they're going to run for this week. So we'll give you a little promotion and get your group of players playing with you too. Oh, good. That's a good idea.
    15:23
    That's if you want to join in that way. Otherwise, I'm just going to continue with normal. That's right. Yeah, exactly. Because it works. Yeah.
    15:34
    Hey, did you happen to catch Zen actually did a Twitch stream of their newest table that's going to be coming out very soon. I saw the Twitch stream, but of course it wasn't really on the time that I could join, which was unfortunate. But it looks like a rollercoaster-themed table. It's a theme park table, no doubt about it. I only caught the last five minutes of it. I wasn even paying attention and I looked and it was like they were talking about the Twitch stream a new table I was like oh I wonder how it it was like an hour already from when it was announced So I clicked it and I caught the last five minutes and it was on a table called Adventureland and it very much a theme park you might say it's if you blended Cyclone with Funhaus in terms of the crazy style that you're going with because it's definitely a carnivalish theme park in terms of its theming there's roller coasters yes but it's a lot of also carnival kind of games, but hey, from the brief amount that I saw, they got a crazy group of stuff happening. I mean, there is a full game on the back box, there is minigames, there's a spinner kind of like what TDoF has, you know, with the ball drops in and the cup starts spinning. So it's kind of got that going on, it's got a clicky wheel thing that's going on. I don't know, there was just a lot of stuff happening.
    17:21
    Sounds cool. Yeah, this is pretty cool. This is interesting. Fireworks go off at various points. I mean, I don't know. It was just kind of all over the map.
    17:31
    And then right when they were ending it, they said that they have... This is part of a table pack, and the other table is called Son of Zeus. So I imagine... Remember when they first announced Pinball FX 3 and they had a trailer? These are the two tables that we saw in that trailer. Ah, yes.
    17:49
    Son of Zeus, right? Son of Zeus. No, they're going to be doing a Twitch stream of that this week, which leads me to believe, I gotta imagine, that they're going to release these right before Christmas.
    18:05
    I think. I don't know. Especially since they just put out, well, they will have put out during this week their release on the Switch.
    18:20
    Yes. With their fancy schmatzy controller thing they got sorted out. Right? Yeah. Sounds cool. Yeah, I'm I'll be, I don't know. I want to see what it exactly does. Yeah, I would like to play one. Do you know anyone with the Switch? No. No. I think I know a couple of people with the Switch, but I don't know if they go out and buy the disc for it. Well, sorry, the cartridge, because I think it's actually a proper chip cartridge again now.
    18:53
    It's an SD card. It's an SD card, yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know when I'll get to get my hands to see, because then the person would have to download Pinball Arcade also. Or not Pinball Arcade, Pinball FX3. but that does lead me into my next point which is Foresight News they're putting out Stern Pimble Arcade onto the Switch apparently it's already out in Europe it came out on December 1st and for North America it's coming out on December 12th
    19:36
    and so I went ahead and I asked the question so are you going to have portrait mode also, just like Zen. And from what I understand, no.
    19:49
    Ah, yes. Not at release here. Not at release, at least. And I got that from people that have tried. I was reading forums and people that have tried it out already. Somebody asked that question. Is it in portrait mode? And they were like, no, it's just landscape. But the review that they gave, that that person gave, was it looks and plays ever been as good as the PS4 version.
    20:14
    And the news I got from Farsight was that porting this over to the Switch was very smooth and one of their least bugged launches, you might say, that they've ever done. So Farsight's really high on it.
    20:32
    That's good. Let's see what happens. I still would only dip my toe into that water until I see the next table get released, and is it timed?
    20:47
    Is it day and date with everything else, or is it going to be a massive delay? But I do hope that Farsight takes advantage of being able to put it in portrait mode. I mean, if you can do it with your phone, and this is a mobile console,
    21:01
    I mean, it's what it's being billed as, take advantage, you know, and then maybe you can steal some ideas from Zen. well why not I mean if they've somehow managed to do it then it would make sense to actually kind of copy that you know right we're going to be able to do it maybe have a chat to the same Nintendo person that you would have had a chat with that Tim would have had a chat with and said so I understand that somebody did something in landscape and we would like to do it too thank you because you think about it all the other games on the Switch it opens up a new world for shoot-'em-ups like the shmups as they call them so the vertical scrolling shoot-'em-ups which would be really good on the Switch and all these other games that really would lend themselves better to that orientation I think the reason why they want to do it is that to do that it then doesn't fit in well with the way you're supposed to use the Switch with the controls.
    22:15
    So that's why they're probably going, well, let's see what it's like on Zen, maybe, and then we might open that part of the SDK up for Switch. But you know what? Nintendo is always... When the Wii U came out, they were talking about oh, look at how much... Look what we could do. We could have one thing on your TV screen and a whole other thing on your Wii U pad and then very few people used it because Nintendo didn't really push for it or the third parties were like well no, we want to do a port of, you know, it has to be equal on each console. We can't have it be something special on one and not on another. So I would hope that Nintendo would try and promote unique interfaces and obviously you can go into your back catalog of games think about being able to play Centipede the way it should be vertical, although you still wouldn't have a trackpad but well isn't that your screen?
    23:21
    it's not a touch screen is it? no it's not a touch screen, I don't think it is I don't know I don't believe it is it's not like the Wii U so anyway, there was that bit of news The other bit of news out of far sight is that they have some stuff they would like to announce. They cannot announce it yet. It'll be after the holidays, at which point, apparently, Mike Lindsay will come and chat with us.
    23:48
    Very cool. Stuff to look forward to. Apparently, things are in the works. I did ask him about the gap month once this current season ends. Are they going to repeat what they did last year? He couldn't confirm it, but he thinks it's more than likely. that will be good. I really hope it's more than more than likely and actually going to happen because that would be great.
    24:11
    Yeah, it really would be. It'd be nice. Yeah. But you know, maybe there's other news that you're alluding to could prevent them from investing resources in that. So who knows? Who knows? You know, it's, this is what we do. We speculate.
    24:27
    That's right. But yeah, I literally sent him an email where I was like, so, we're kind of dry on news about you guys. Can you please give us some dirt?
    24:40
    Yeah. Please, throw us a bone. Please, please help us out here. We got nothing. So he didn't really give me much, but he gave me something, so we can scratch that. He threw you a couple of wing bones instead of being a brontosaurus. Five bones. Right. He did give me one other piece of information that I can't pass along, but I'll let you know. I'll let you know let's just say it'll be obvious when the time comes that I'm able to talk about it and it will be before things happen but it'll be one of those things where yeah Boy that was vague Vague Chris is vague Far out Let's talk about our in real life pinballs that we did our challenge that we set ourselves So what did we do? So Jared's challenge was to go visit this place called Pincadia.
    25:36
    Is that correct? It is called Pincadia, yeah. My challenge was to go check out a place near me called Lost Levels. And the reason why we were going to go check them out was because they had pinball machines and specifically they had Guardians of the Galaxy.
    25:55
    At least I think that was the case in Pincadia also, right? They had Guardians of the Galaxy? No, the reason why I went there is they had the only Attack from Mars remake in Australia on location.
    26:07
    I got confused because I saw pictures that you clearly played Guardians also. Yeah, well, they managed to get that in two days before I arrived. So I was lucky. So it was meant to be. I'm glad I didn't try to go there early in the week. Now, interestingly, the ones that I took a shot of, the Guardians of the Galaxy, was a pro. But apparently that location.
    26:28
    Oh, really? Only pro? See, these guys will be getting a premium. Their mandate is to only have premiums or higher on the fourth and third, which they made an exception for with Game of Thrones because that's a pro. And a lot of people actually like the pro version better than the premium. I think that's why they did it, to be fairly honest. It plays faster.
    26:54
    It's a much faster playing. So what do you think? Well, so... So what did you think of the Guardians of the Galaxy? Yeah, so with Guardians, here's my thing.
    27:09
    Brand new because it had only been there less than a week or maybe a week. So fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh, fresh rubber on a table that seemingly is a drain monster to begin with. Oh, man. I mean, trying to keep a ball in play was a nightmare.
    27:30
    You know, the ball would go to an in lane and all of a sudden just like magically rim out and then go to the out lane. He was like, no, you were in. And then it would go, burn, you know, because it hit the rubber just and it was spinning. The ball was spinning and the table's highly waxed. And, I mean, it's one of those things that if you saw it happen in a video game, you would go, magnets. That's a good answer. Yeah, magnets. That's magnets. but this one does actually have a magnet in it for real. It does. And the very first time I experienced that, it sent it straight down the middle. I was like, thanks, magnet. So my other impression is that it seems like you can get a good flow going ramp-ramp kind of shooting, which I'm always a fan of. I like how the ramps, they kind of pulled a bally there, putting the ramp going into the back of the cabinet and back out the round, kind of like what Party Zone... Wait, is that the one I'm thinking of?
    28:31
    Party Zone, yeah. Yeah, yeah, Party Zone does that. Or, well, it would be Data East, but Teenage Mutant Ninja... No, Simpsons did that, didn't it? I can't remember. Anyway, now the machine says... So did Walking Dead. So did Walking Dead, they did that. so yeah they seem to be doing that a fair bit with Stern Tables at the moment they're going behind the playfield I didn't really I liked the Groot shot or the Groot shooting Groot twice or well basically you shoot him and then he opens his mouth and then you sink a ball and then you shoot him again he opens his mouth and you sink a ball so you do that three times and then you can get multi-ball going there is another Vomit mech multiball as we call it Vomit mech multiball apparently it's the I was listening to the head to head podcast again and they were saying that they think it's the same mechanism that was using KISS for Gene Simmons head so interesting and then there's another multiball that you can shoot that's right there in the center of the table orb multiball but man is that a brutal shot to try and hit because it's narrow and it's surrounded by rubber and you don't hit it and your ball is now going sideways and probably in the out lane yep pretty much it uses the it's the same sort of locking style as the vengeance shot in Star Wars where the ball gets trapped behind the target or if you like a more modern take on it the total nuclear annihilation stacked lock drop targets that the guy that's got an easy prototyped and got into his game. So it's sort of the stalls of all behind there. And I think the idea is when you hit the ball, what we hit the drop type of the ball, it drops the target and it comes out. I don't think I actually experienced that mode when I was playing it though. I think I locked the ball in there, but I couldn't get it out. I got it activated once, but it was kind of purely by accident. Oh, look, I managed to get it in there. Amazing. Pretty much. I plunked in the two bucks so I could get three plays.
    30:51
    Because otherwise it was a dollar a play. The first game I played was horrendous. And that's when I was like, okay, don't just flip the ball randomly and whatever because you're going to drain the ball very quickly. Let's do some catching and shooting. That being said, you're able to select characters. at the beginning, and I think you mentioned this will be good once they get the code up and running. Because right now, I didn't notice much difference between what happens when you select a character.
    31:26
    Shots aren't necessarily lit up very well, either, it seemed. Again, I couldn't really figure out where I was supposed to be going with anything in particular. There was one mode I started that was pretty obvious. like it was just yeah the shots were pretty prominent in this one mode that I did it was what's the chick's name in that movie Gamora yeah Gamora I think it was Gamora Multiball and I had to shoot the left ramp and then the right ramp and then the left ramp and then or maybe throw in another like loop or something in that combo and those shots were pretty well highlighted for me so I think it depends on just how much they've worked on yeah they probably just worked on the target first I think to flesh out those modes because they the ones that people probably play Right On the left side of the table there a bank of targets that the insert just basically said Guardians I think is what it Yeah. And I couldn't figure out what I was even supposed to do with that. Was I supposed to be aiming for it or anything? I think it hit it, and it might light a mode or something. I think that's how you start modes like you shoot the guardian shot and then you shoot another shot and then it will actually start the mode I think I did like in that game I think the thing that was interesting, I really quite enjoyed that left ramp shot up near Groot there's a left ramp it sort of snakes when you shoot it, it snakes up to the left and then sort of hooks around and then comes back to the end again. And there's something about that ball path that really appealed to me. I enjoyed shooting that particular ramp.
    33:13
    And it felt good. It sort of had that good feeling when you shot it for me. Yeah. And it was kind of good. The other one, though, the right ramp was a bit tight. I think you're really going to have to dull in your shots for that one for me.
    33:29
    Did you manage to shoot rocket drains? Rocket is the kickback it's a mean fast kickback yeah it's he's pretty fast Rocket I stayed away from him I did one of those what happens if we shoot it here spending some time trying to get the shot in there and I got it in there and it's like boom the ball comes back at me 100 miles an hour like whoa okay maybe I don't want to be in there yeah unless it's really valuable shot. I don't think I'm going to shoot that anytime soon. It's one of those shots that you've got to be prepared for.
    34:08
    I'm going to shoot rocket and here we go. This reflex flip, basically. So the table also has two songs of which the first song, I forget which one it is, but the second song was one of those I went, oh, this is fun to play pinball with, and that's when Cherry Bomb starts. That song just really works well with the mechanics. I don't know what it was, but I was really excited when it started up, and it got me amped playing, and just the general noise of the pinball machine itself went well with the music.
    34:51
    It's one of those things where it was like, that was a good marriage of music. Good guess. You don't necessarily need 20 billion songs. you just need one that works. And what's interesting is the song will pause when a vocal call-out happens or something important happens on the screen, and as soon as it goes back into play mode, it picks up right where the song paused and it continues. And that was with both songs, I believe. I really enjoyed that aspect of Mustang as well. Like, the songs in Mustang, even though Mustang is an underrated game, the way they integrated the songs into that game was really nice like when you were sitting in the ball shooter lane with mustang it would have like a guitar riff just looping over and over again and then we plunge the ball even if it was a midway through the guitar riff it would actually play out the bar and then switch over to the main body of the of the music that like the main verse of the music and it was just so simple as i was going i'm going to see if i can screw this up and I plunged it in a really awkward spot in the song. And no, no, it just played out the bar and then integrated beautifully into the actual main verse of the song. That's pretty cool how you've done that. See, there's something that obviously Zen needs help on. Because when they put music in the tables, it just has nothing to do with what you're doing.
    36:16
    It's just music for music's sake. and it kind of, on their older tables, is really annoying. They've gotten a little bit better, but I really wish they would customize the music more in this exact same manner.
    36:32
    Yeah, it's so good. It makes a big difference to the table. It just makes it sort of feel a little bit more alive, I think. So did you manage to get group multiple? Yes.
    36:45
    Yeah, I managed to get that also. And again, with super bouncy rubber, it just became a flip fest. I wasn't even trying to aim for anything because I'm telling you, I could not predict where the heck a ball was going to be going.
    36:59
    So what was your score? What'd you get? Oh, God. They were so terrible, I didn't even bother noticing. I mean, it was like in the teens. I think I got about $30 million, I think. Yeah, I don't think it ever got that high.
    37:14
    And my table, it's only been there for two days, but I didn't find the rubbers to be overly bouncy, although a lot of the games on the floor there were pretty nice. And I guess I'm used to playing on bouncy rubber at Netherworld as well with Star Wars. So maybe I'm just accustomed to the bouncy rubber feel at the moment.
    37:35
    But, oh, man, speaking of that, are we done with Guardians of the Galaxy? Well, the only thing I was going to say is, because I was trying to look it up, what is the difference? are we missing anything significant between a premium version and the pro version other than hands on the table and it's I read that it has extra magnets but I don't think there was anything else missing I'm trying to find that out now just a quick googling because it seems to me that it's got the same ramp shots and spinners and lights and it's not like there is a something playfield. It wasn't like Star Wars where that extra loop is completely missing. It just seemed more like it was visual things missing, toys, and not actual gameplay being affected.
    38:29
    But I could be wrong. It's different artwork. Extra maintenance sculpted Groot arms. So you get the Groot arms which obstruct a good part of the playfield on the premium version. So great feature. Excellent.
    38:45
    Yeah, so maybe the pro version is the way to go here. I don't know. It depends on how much those magnets would affect.
    38:52
    Well, I think, you know, extra magnets and two spinners, like, come on. That's really not a great upsell for premium. What is with Stern denying the spinners? I mean, are spinners really that costly? I don't get it. They're really not. They really make spinners on pro models. The spinners are like, not even for them, not even a $20 part. No. Like, for them, they'd be $10.
    39:22
    And the mechanism underneath the playfield, it's still a switch. Why are you excluding something like a spinner? It's a mechanism that's been on every pinball machine since God knows when. I mean, you play in Ancient EM and there's spinners on there. Why this sudden... No, no spinner for you.
    39:43
    And so this is the premium, also the limited edition. So the difference from the limited edition to the premium is that you get different artwork again.
    39:56
    You limit it to 600 units. You get a shaker motor if you buy the limited edition. Big deal. Sorry, but a shaker motor isn't worth another $1,500, basically. Oh, you get a mirror. When you say the art is different, it's the cabinet art. It's not the playfield art that's different. Yeah, exactly. So who cares? So I'm looking at the playfield art and I'm going, well, I actually prefer the pro model art, to be perfectly honest with you.
    40:25
    The only thing that you get with the limited edition, you've got gold armor and art blades. Wow. Yeah. I've had stern. Like, that's actually not a big deal.
    40:36
    Right. The thing that is different, though, is you do get a mirrored back glass trans light. Okay, well, that's nice, rather than a basic trans light. But we're talking, let's look at the difference in price, right? So you've got street price. This is US street price. It's $5,400 for the Pro.
    40:55
    Street price for the limited edition is $8,500. Yeah. So that's a lot of money for a mirrored trans. Let's look at the actual value here. A mirrored trans light, a shaker motor, and two spinners. Those are some expensive spinners.
    41:18
    Extra magnet, sorry. One extra magnet, probably, because there's no real where else they could put that. Right. And a Groot arm. And terrible Groot arms that obscure most of the play field. So, yeah, leave that premium on the shelf, if you ask me. And arguably the LE as well. I reckon the pro is the winner here yeah my location they only had pro models they had Game of Thrones, they had Ghostbusters and they had Star Wars and then they also had a Star Trek Next Generation and Creature from the Black Lagoon but I only played Guardians because that was the only reason why I was there at the, I'll go back but that was the only one that I wanted to get a little bit of time in the store location itself they sell video games but it's old cartridges and stuff so basically it's almost a museum because everything was in the last case but it was like you walk in there and you're like hey look at all this Sega Genesis stuff man the boxes were big back then they are huge and you know it was all those weird funky things that each console had.
    42:34
    Plus those rare games that are worth the megabucks and stuff. It was kind of fun looking around. They also had regular arcade cabinets of a bunch of different games.
    42:48
    It was almost a proper arcade that happened to sell video games. That's pretty cool. Kind of the setup design of it.
    42:59
    That sounds unique enough. so if you're in Southern California near Disneyland this place is in Fullerton and it's called Lost Levels and it's in the old town Fullerton if that makes any help if you find yourself in Southern California near that area in Orange County there you go you should do it, well that is very interesting well I've got some other things to talk about with my journey to Pinkadia because it is actually pretty cool they've got a almost like a dungeon that has all the video games and like a mixture of dedicated pieces and uprights and all classic video games but upstairs is where it's a very wide open space upstairs and there's a bar upstairs and that's where all the pinballs are and it's upper level basically so they're all at street level if you walk in one side of the building you've got to walk upstairs to get to them from the other side so they had a lot of good titles there they had a selection of medieval madness remake they had attack from mars remake they also had an incredibly rare pinball called orbit one which was I think 37th off the production line for Hankin which was an Australian indoor manufacturer no definitely not to be mistaken because that's a very different game altogether that's crazy yeah this is very much a street level game it had just you know flat play field very sparse actually really not a lot to do on it but it's historical it's significantly historical because it was the first game off the production line for this particular manufacturer and the interesting thing too is that as manufacturing continued they started to change design elements on the table so um the version that's on the floor there is um would be different to later versions that came with the production line because they were redesigning things subtly as they learned uh how it was performing um so i think you can probably think about hanken as like a boutique manufacturer um when they were releasing pinballs and they would actually make tweaks as they went along. So the other interesting thing too is that Hankin were the first pinball company officially to make a licensed pin. And that licensed pin was actually Star Wars.
    45:41
    So this company had a very super, super wide-body Star Wars. This thing was huge, like bigger than the belly. Like the square, almost the square play field.
    45:54
    Yeah, even about the same size as those huge belly-wide bodies, like Genie. Colossal, colossal game. Like four flippers at least, I think, on it.
    46:06
    And, yeah, this game, it was a long-thought thing that the game was actually ripped off from Lucasfilm. But it turns out that they actually did secure licensing rights to Star Wars for this table. So it was actually the very first table that was licensed for Star Wars. In fact, the first licensed table in 1979 I think. So this would have been right when they were starting to do marketing of product.
    46:51
    Yeah, it's actually The Empire Strikes back it's called the Empire's back by Hankin and it was only 350 units produced so I've seen one when I was younger I saw another one recently that was in just absolutely terrible condition like it's been such a shame because it's now 349 units available in the world because that one was cactus you'd have to rebuild everything in it This was the last pinball machine built by this manufacturer.
    47:28
    And there's nothing on here about it being officially licensed on the internet pinball database, but I was talking to the guy who was running Pinkadia and he actually had Mike from Homepin do the reveal of Thunderbirds' Argo,
    47:52
    the licensed pinball machine from Thunderbirds. So this guy has got a lot of, I guess, backstory to the old Hankin because he's got the rights to reproduce the Hankin cocktail tables and stuff like that.
    48:06
    So he would have known the real story behind it. So very interesting. So yeah and getting back to the lineup of games the real highlight for me was both playing was really actually playing Attack from Mars Remake because that game itself is very interesting. We were talking a little bit about this last time on the show and the fact that the difference between this remake versus Medieval Madness is that it's got a super wide screen on it. It's still DMD size, but it's super wide compared to Medieval Madness.
    48:44
    And, boy, it still uses a lot of the old dots that were in the previous game. But when they do show the remastered screens on it, you go, wow, okay, that's pretty shiny. it actually looks very much like the art style and crispness that you saw on Pinball 2000 oh okay so that type of animated effect and I reckon they might have actually lifted some of the art from Pinball 2000 on this particular one like generally things like the Attack from Mars logo when it comes up is like very very crisp and it looks like something you would see on a computer monitor I wonder if because you said it wasn't all the animations it was just some of the animations and I wonder if it's one of those things where it's like they did what they did right now enough to put it out there so the people understand that this is what is looking different and then as time goes by they'll wind up doing all the animations I think they will I think that's the goal like they're going to go through and do very much like Color DMD did right there through the machine until they get um boy i tell you what the scene i forgot how terribly brutal attack from mars is it is just i was flat out getting a billion on it i i in fact i didn't get a billion on it yeah um it kicked my ass hard um it was really bouncy too and strange it felt um sometimes but then other times it was just super brutal um i i don't remember it feeling like that but my memory of it playing a real one um is you know a good 20 years old now so but it was fun to play like i i pumped a couple of bucks and i thought oh i want to put more in but i'm so limited on time i have to go and play guardians of the galaxy now so i just had one game i had One credit on Guardians of the Galaxy, and I got $30 million. And I well and truly got my ass kicked on Attack from Mars Remake. But I'll be back. I want to play that game more because the sound system is markedly improved in our game.
    51:05
    Like, you can feel the whole cabinet vibrate with the stuff they've got in there. Nice. It's huge. So, yeah, it's very, very good. If you do hear about an Attack from Mars Remake floating around the U.S., I reckon you should go and check it out. the light show is super intense. They've now got proper LEDs in there.
    51:25
    So, yeah, it's pretty cool to see. Which makes you wonder how strobe multimodal would wind up looking.
    51:33
    With full LEDs. The thing is that the strobe is actually no longer a strobe. It is actually, I think, a nine bank of LEDs underneath the thing. So it's not a true strobe, but it's still plenty bright enough. And I think over time, as they improve the software on this particular game, they're going to really dial that strobe effect back into the game. I think it's a little bit, it's not quite as epilepsy-inducing at the moment as it probably should be. Yeah. But they will get there with it. I'm pretty confident they will because the LEDs are very responsive. Like, you can turn it on and off very quickly, cycle them very quickly.
    52:17
    All right. It will come pretty good. Your mentioning of licensing made me think of something that's happening this week that I don't know if it has gone through yet or not, but it's very much in the works.
    52:31
    Warning, folks, not pinball related. So it looks like 20th Century Fox television and film division is being put up for sale.
    52:43
    And guess who's looking to buy it? Disney. Disney? Yeah. So Disney wants to buy anything. Right. Well, here's the thing that where it becomes exceedingly interesting. So of the Marvel properties that Disney does not have control of, or I should say Marvel does not have control of, but that Marvel is owned by Disney. So there you go. They don't have control of X-Men or Fantastic Four, which is what Fox has. And they do not have control over Spider-Man, which is what Sony has. Now, obviously, because of Sony Spider-Man Homecoming and also Avengers, Sony and Fox worked out a deal to share it, basically saying, hey, look, this is both our best interests to do it this way. But that way we can work it into the universe. Fox wanted nothing to do with that. They were like, nope, we're not relinquishing control whatsoever. the fallout of that is that Marvel cannot utter the word mutant because that is an X-Men terminology so they can't utter the word mutant and that is why in the Avengers movie with Scarlet Witch it wasn't that her mutant abilities came out it was that that one stone brought them out of her and so Marvel was using the word inhuman as their version of... Yes, which apparently is also an actual branch off of Marvel Comics, but under the... We wouldn't be watching it as people should have been called mutants. So, this has the potential... It reminds me of the tribal versus multiple. Right? Yeah.
    54:37
    So, where this... The potential here is that, hey, finally the X-Men, and especially Fantastic Four, can get brought back into the Marvel Universe with no problem. And that would make everybody that's fans of these movies very, very happy. It would also mean that Disney could, they pretty much would, there is another X-Men movie coming out called Dark Phoenix. That would probably be the end of that group of X-Men movies. and then they would just do a complete reboot so that they could introduce their own mythology because the current mythology is bonkers. It's impossible to figure out.
    55:18
    The fearful thing... You actually need a matrix to actually follow the flow of the movies. The thing that people are fearful of is what's that mean for Deadpool?
    55:32
    Because Disney is not usually in the habit of making an R-rated movie that would carry the banner of Marvel. You might say they've kind of, they were asked last year, the year before, would they consider making an R rated Marvel movie? And they're like, Nope, PG 13 only. So people are worried about that. And the same thing goes for Logan, which was very R rated. Now, obviously Wolverine is dead in that one, but, uh, they did introduce that other character, the little girl that people were like, Oh, well you can continue using her, but nobody's going to want to go back to a PG-13 version after seeing that. So that's one of those things where they kind of go, I don't know. But here's the other thing that Disney would wind up owning.
    56:19
    Avatar, which there's four movies scheduled. Die Hard. Four more movies scheduled. Oh, yeah. They've written four more movies.
    56:30
    Cameron, they're shooting the first two simultaneously. and then he said based off of if they sell well then they'll have the other two ready to go right and basically they'll base it off well he said they're all self contained but they've also figured out an interacting arch would flow but if you essentially if number well it would be number two if that does well in the box office then I'll go ahead and make three and four but like what he termed it it's not Lord of the Rings where they are absolutely tied to each other and you can't just jump in on the last one not having seen the first two you gotta watch them all and he's saying that that's not going to be the case with this but anyway so they'll have that now Disney already is in control of Star Wars but if you bought the newest versions on Blu-ray you no longer have the 20th Century Fox fanfare at the beginning, which I'm sorry, that is as Star Wars as anything. If your Star Wars movie doesn't start off with the 20th Century Fox fanfare, it just sounds wrong.
    57:43
    So, they would be able to distribute the movies with that back in place, and more importantly, they would be in control of A New Hope, which is the only one of the Star Wars movies that Fox still is completely in control of. Now, why is that important because if Disney gets a hold of that and has control over that, then they can finally release, uh, unspecialized editions of the first three movies without all the added effects that, you know, basically the way that they were originally seen in the, in the theaters.
    58:16
    So all sorts of ramifications, uh, go onto this. And of course, all of this would make it even more difficult for Farsight to be able to get licensing deals for any of these Marvel pinball machines. Oh, man. There's pretty much anything. They would have open slather with your arrangement with Disney. Geez. They'd be pretty happy about that, I think. So I'm curious to know how much this... Oh, here's one that will really kind of screw the noodle around. It would also mean Disney would be in control of The Simpsons.
    58:49
    Wow. Right? Oh, geez. Imagine that. imagine having 20 plus seasons of material to weave into a pinball machine where would you start I'm not even talking about pinball machine I'm just the mind boggles at something so anti Disney suddenly being owned by Disney what would they even do about that it would just be well it's not like the studio is going to fold basically it's there you'd still have Fox movies coming out, but just Disney would be the one making the money from them. Yeah. But this is a, this is a complete sale of catalog. We're talking movies back to the thirties would be now owned by Disney. So it gives them, it gives them the rights to all those licenses. That's where the,
    59:48
    that's where it is. it's not like suddenly your movies aren't going to have Fox attached to them or be known as Fox properties, but it is going to be they will have access to all of those characters that have been done in the past. So, yeah, like I said, Die Hard, Predator, Alien, boom, those are all Disney properties all of a sudden.
    60:07
    Wow. Right? That's crazy. It goes to show that if one of these, it will eventually happen that these companies will actually amalgamate into one. They can't. be as many companies like movie companies as there are at the moment. It sort of doesn't feel sustainable. They've certainly lasted, right? Well, you cannot compete with the dollars when a studio is suddenly owned by a multinational conglomerate. When they were studios owned by artists, you could have a ton of studios. It was okay. But when you talk about all the ancillary dollars that go into home release and merchandising and everything else like that. The movie itself is not the product. It's what it spins off. It's the marketing machine. Yeah. You know, if you wonder why, you know, Pixar has made three cars movies. It's because the toy line has sold something of the nature of $4 billion worth of toys. That's so incredible, isn't it? People, people love their Woody dolls, man. Like they will buy those things. you know, so anyway,
    61:20
    that's a, there, there are me sneaking in movie news. Um, well, I actually didn't mind that movie news sneaking in because it was, it seemed very interesting to me. You can relate. I can relate. I actually can relate to that. Yeah. It's, it's very interesting. The business of movies, man, all ownership of rights. Yeah. It's very interesting. All right, folks. So there you have it. There's this week's podcast. We will be back next week. Uh, whether or not I will have seen the new Star Wars movie is debatable. I'll probably be singing it that week. Yeah, it comes out on the 15th. Yeah, but it's one of those things of when we record and when I'm probably going to go see it. I don't know what the order is, but anyway, I know what everybody else will be doing, so there you go. If you want to drop us an email, we mentioned it before, let's mention it again. Blahblahblockade at gmail.com. Visit our website.
    62:12
    Here we are. Yeah. That's the one.com. BlockadePinball.com There you can find our passion. You've done so well the last couple of weeks too. And here you are. You're like completely super munched at this time. You couldn't help yourself. I would love to know if there's people out there listening that are like, oh, I hope he screws it up this week. And then if I don't, they go, yes!
    62:38
    Success kid, yes. I'm actually looking at a thread on Facebook. This is on the whole Guardians of the Galaxy thing. And this is food for thought as we close out the show.
    62:49
    This guy called Corey Hamilton, who's part of our Brisbane Pimple Club, he says, hmm, Guardians of the Galaxy, if you had played ID4, almost the same. You think about that. Think about the shots on Independence Day. I spent so long on that I wouldn't be able to tell you. That ramp that curls back around, the left ramp, is basically that ID4 ramp but in a slightly different position. Are they the same designers? I'm not sure I mean obviously Sega got bought by Stern or became I forget what the order of things are but Stern is in control of Sega pinball now I wonder if it's the same designer it'd be interesting it might be anyhow we should probably head off eh make sure you follow us Jared is at Jared Morgz on the Twitter I am at Shugger Traps and the show itself is at Blockade alright folks we'll talk to you again next time Thanks for listening. All right. Bye-bye.
    63:48
    WizardAmusement.com, the site to visit for custom pinball shooter modes. Easy to install, totally unique. Mention Blockade Podcast for 10% off your order. WizardAmusement.com, sales, restoration, customization.
    64:03
    Don't forget to leave a review on iTunes or your favorite podcast hosting service that Blockade is delivered to. We can't improve unless you tell us how. Now stop listening and play some Pinball.