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Magic Girl Pinball Magna Save Revealed

Kaneda Pinball Podcast YouTube (main)·video·16m 59s·held·Mar 14, 2017
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

Kaneda reveals Magic Girl broken ramp and ineffective magna save, raising parts availability concerns.

Summary

Kaneda showcases previously unseen features of Magic Girl pinball, including the magna save mechanic and magna flipper screen, while documenting a broken ramp entrance and expressing concerns about parts availability. He reveals multiple design issues: the magna save is ineffective under normal ball velocity, the vertical up-kick causes ramp damage, and a software glitch displays a stuck "1 million ball save" screen. Kaneda emphasizes the need for owners to access replacement parts and suggests fundamental design flaws in the machine's execution.

Key Claims

  • Magic Girl magna save mechanic is ineffective at normal ball velocity and mostly throws the ball to the outlane instead of saving it

    high confidence · Kaneda demonstrates the feature multiple times, showing the magnet fails to catch balls with velocity and comparing it unfavorably to Tales of the Arabian Nights

  • The vertical up-kick reversal feature is causing the ramp entrance plastic to break

    high confidence · Kaneda shows broken ramp plastic and demonstrates the vertical up-kick hitting the ramp repeatedly in the same location where it broke

  • Magic Girl owners cannot currently obtain replacement parts

    high confidence · Kaneda expresses fear about flipping the machine due to inability to get replacement parts, though he mentions reaching out to Scott and John hoping they'll allow parts sales

  • The machine has a software glitch where the screen gets stuck on '1 million ball save'

    high confidence · Kaneda documents the glitch occurring during gameplay and discusses needing to reset the machine to clear it

  • Magic Girl diagnostics show 733 total games played and 1192 games started, which Kaneda believes are inflated numbers

    medium confidence · Kaneda questions these numbers, speculating John may have artificially inflated them to prevent easy resale via PinSide's 'under 200 plays' category

  • The magna flipper feature shown on screen cannot actually be activated during normal gameplay

    high confidence · Kaneda attempts to use the magna flippers after the screen appears but states 'there's no way to use them' and 'I can't activate them'

  • The ball can get stuck mid-ramp with no way to unstick it without removing the glass

    high confidence · Kaneda describes the ball becoming lodged in the ramp after hitting hard, unable to be freed through normal rock-back-and-forth motion

  • This will likely be one of Kaneda's last videos on Magic Girl because there's nothing left to discover on the machine

Notable Quotes

  • “if you order Lebowski today, you're going to have your pin in two weeks. Yeah, no, two weeks, guaranteed. Those guys, they never miss a ship date.”

    [name withheld pending review]@ 0:01 — Contrasts efficient production standards of another manufacturer with Magic Girl's issues; suggests a baseline expectation for pinball manufacturing

  • “I'm nervous about flipping it because if anything breaks, I'm like, I'm never going to get a replacement part. All right? Never.”

    Kaneda@ 0:34 — Core concern about Magic Girl: lack of parts support affecting gameplay confidence

  • “I'm not 100% positive that I won't be able to get replacement parts. I've reached out to Scott and John. I think John's in Canada right now. So I'm hoping they will allow me to buy replacement parts.”

    Kaneda@ 1:51 — Clarifies he hasn't confirmed parts availability; reveals John (assumed designer) may be in Canada; shows active outreach but uncertainty

  • “There's no way I put anywhere close to that and there's no way they played that many games at American Pinball I don't know if John jacked the number up to make it harder for us to sell it”

    Kaneda@ 3:00 — Suggests possible intentional manipulation of game audit numbers; speculation about designer's motives regarding resale

  • “That Magna Save, right? Look at it. It's like, it doesn't really work. And it doesn't work anywhere near as effective as the Tales of the Arabian Nights shooting stars that come up.”

    Kaneda@ 8:41 — Direct comparison of failed feature to successful implementation in classic game; identifies design execution failure

Entities

KanedapersonMagic GirlgameJohnpersonScottpersonBrettpersonBrendanpersonJersey Jack Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Magic Girl's magna save mechanic fundamentally fails under normal ball velocity, throwing balls to outlane instead of saving them; designer appears not to have tested with realistic pinball physics

    high · Multiple demonstration attempts showing consistent failure; explicit comparison to Tales of the Arabian Nights superior implementation

  • ?

    product_concern: Vertical up-kick reversal feature causes ramp entrance plastic to break; documented damage on Kaneda's machine with clear cause-and-effect shown in video

    high · Broken plastic piece recovered, ramp entrance damage visible, feature repeatedly shown hitting same location as breakage

  • ?

    product_concern: Magic Girl owners have no confirmed way to obtain replacement parts; manufacturer appears not to have established parts support channel

    high · Kaneda's expressed fear of breaking machine due to parts unavailability; only hopeful outreach to Scott and John, no confirmation of parts availability

  • ?

    product_concern: Magic Girl exhibits software glitch where display becomes stuck on '1 million ball save' screen; requires machine reset to clear

    high · Documented during gameplay; Kaneda discusses needing to turn machine off to clear the stuck screen

  • ?

    product_concern: Ball can become physically stuck mid-ramp with no recovery mechanism; requires glass removal to extract

    high · Incident occurred during Kaneda's gameplay; reported as infrequent but confirmed issue with no rock-back-and-forth recovery possible

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.051

0:01
I'm telling you, if you order Lebowski today, you're going to have your pin in two weeks. Yeah, no, two weeks, guaranteed. Those guys, they never miss a ship date. Yeah, no, they're amazing. Completely efficient. Oh, hey guys! It's Kaneda. How you doing? Welcome. It's been a while. We wanted to do another Magic Girl video. This is probably going to be one of the last ones I do in a while, just because I think there's nothing left to discover on this machine. But I want to share with you guys something that's happened to my machine. And it's kind of heartbreaking because my worst fear has come true. And I'm like, you know, I really enjoy flipping the machine, but I'm nervous about flipping it because if anything breaks, I'm like, I'm never going to get a replacement part. All right? Never.
0:44
And I was playing on Saturday, and all of a sudden, this little piece of plastic just slides down the play field and ends up like right about there. That's like the scene of the crime. And I'm like, oh, no. Like, I did it. I broke my magic girl.
1:01
And so we started to look around the play field, like where did this come from? And we found out after searching, that obviously it came from something clear and plasticky. So the ramp, if you get up right here, is what broke at the entrance. And that's a pretty common area where ramps would break if there's no post in front of it to protect it. And as you can see, this post here will never protect there. There's a post on the other side that would protect the entrance, but even that can be hit easily.
1:33

high confidence · Kaneda states at the beginning: 'This is probably going to be one of the last ones I do in a while, just because I think there's nothing left to discover on this machine'

“when you actually add in the velocity of a normal pinball game where the ball's going back and forth really strong, there's no way that can catch the ball. There's no way.”

Kaneda@ 9:02 — Identifies root cause of magna save failure: designer didn't account for realistic ball physics

  • “At least that one activates. So let's show you guys now how that vertical up kick works in reversal, and we'll see where my plastic got broken.”

    Kaneda@ 9:28 — Documents correlation between feature design and playfield damage

  • “I think for this thing to become fully functioning, as you saw, I hit the ramp a bunch of times in a row. The ramps were really satisfying to shot. John Jung needed to do was have this really cool ramp feature and just have the ball lock somewhere else.”

    Kaneda@ 16:09 — Identifies design philosophy failure: feature-rich but fundamentally broken execution; suggests simple fix would have worked

  • “It's just mind-boggling that he spent so much time and just couldn't figure out how to lock two balls and then have a multiball start.”

    Kaneda@ 16:29 — Points to a core missing game mechanic (multiball) that should have been standard; questions design competence

  • “I really hope the owners of this machine can buy replacement parts soon. I mean, it's key that people who spend all this money can have some peace of mind”

    Kaneda@ 15:52 — Calls for parts support as essential consumer protection for high-priced machines

    • American Pinball
    company
    Tales of the Arabian Nightsgame
    Lebowskigame
    Kaneda Pinball Podcastorganization
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Magic Girl prioritizes visual and thematic features over core game mechanics; lacks functional multiball despite having sound/music/call-outs infrastructure in place

    high · Kaneda notes: 'the package is there but there's just some stuff missing' and criticizes lack of multiball start despite all supporting infrastructure being present

  • ?

    design_innovation: Magna save attempts novel magnet-based ball save but fails in execution due to insufficient velocity compensation; mechanism works in isolation but not under game conditions

    high · Multiple demonstration attempts; designer (John) appears to have tested concept with low-velocity rolling rather than actual pinball gameplay speeds

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Kaneda signals waning interest in covering Magic Girl further; declares this 'probably one of the last' videos due to exhaustion of new discoveries

    high · Opening statement: 'This is probably going to be one of the last ones I do in a while, just because I think there's nothing left to discover on this machine'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Opening anecdote about Lebowski's reliable two-week shipping contrasts sharply with Magic Girl's extended development and parts issues, highlighting execution gaps between manufacturers

    medium · Unnamed manufacturer praised for never missing ship dates and complete efficiency; implicit comparison to Magic Girl's problems

  • ?

    product_strategy: Kaneda suspects Magic Girl's audit numbers (733 games played, 1192 games started) were artificially inflated to discourage resale via PinSide's under-200-plays category

    medium · Kaneda's speculation that John 'jacked the number up'; acknowledges he has no confirmation but suggests possible intentional data manipulation

  • ?

    content_signal: Extended video documentation of mechanical failures and feature demonstrations serving as community record of Magic Girl issues

    high · 13+ minute detailed walkthrough capturing multiple failures; intended as reference for other owners

  • ?

    operational_signal: Owner expresses fear of using purchased machine due to parts unavailability and mechanical fragility; constrains normal enjoyment of high-value purchase

    high · Kaneda: 'I'm nervous about flipping it because if anything breaks, I'm like, I'm never going to get a replacement part'

    • And I think I know what broke this off. This vertical up kick here, we're going to show you guys how that works in this video. And it, like, shoots the ball back up the ramp, but a lot of times it causes it to hit the plastic. So I think that's what occurred. It goes like, reversal, and it shoots it back up. Now, I want to say this. I'm not 100% positive that I won't be able to get replacement parts. I've reached out to Scott and John. I think John's in Canada right now. So I'm hoping they will allow me to buy replacement parts. I mean, it seems kind of silly that owners of Magic Girl can't get parts yet. But hopefully, I'm hopeful, we can all get replacement plastic. Because you want to be able to flip this thing with peace of mind. And I would play it all day long if I had that peace of mind. Because I want to get a new play field, new parts. Something funny I want to show you. I've played this machine maybe like 30 to 40 times, and I was looking at the diagnostics on it. Because I'm like, let me just see how many total plays I've put on this thing.
    2:36
    So if we go down to audits. And do general. Look at this. Total games played. 733 total game started 1192 there is no way I put anywhere close to that and there's no way they played that many games at American Pinball I don't know if John jacked the number up to make it harder for us to sell it because now we can't do the obligatory pin side less than 200 plays everyone always says that can you guys see this blizzard out here can you get this we're in the middle of this incredible storm All right, but no one cares about the weather. You guys want to hear about Magikarp. 60 hours of total gameplay, that's all BS. I won't go into all the diagnostic menus. Here's what we're going to do on this video of Kaneda's Magikarp walkthrough. We're going to show you guys a couple of features that haven't been shown before. Did I? That little piece of plastic. OK, I don't want to lose it. We're going to show you guys the magnet save. Now, Brett, if you want to get in here, this is the magnet save area. This sort of like genie guy with an eyeball in the middle. Is that an eyeball or a crown? The ball gets trapped there using a magnet underneath the plate filter. We're going to show you how that works. The way you activate that is you shoot the ball in the scoop right here. We're going to show you guys how this center post goes up.
    4:07
    The way that goes up is you going to hit this switch here which is really impossible to hit Then we going to show you how this vertical up kick works and how it does that reversal which I think busted my ramp
    4:22
    I'm trying to think of anything else. We're also going to try and show you guys how to light the Magna Flipper screen. So it says, like, use Magna Flippers now. Now, there's no way to use them. It takes a little while, so have some patience with this video. You get to hear all the cool sounds the owl will hoot and all this stuff will happen and bren is like Gonna try and hold the camera still long enough to do it all let's start right now Let's do the magnet save and let's get the game going tell everyone had the ball got stuck on the ramp One thing that did happen Thank you Brenna for reminding me of another fault of this game The ball got stuck in here in the middle of this ramp And what happened was the ball came up the ramp really fast it hit here and bounced back over here And once the ball got hung up here, that's it There's no way to rock the game back and forth and get it out of there. You've got to glass off. That's only happened once. It only happened once, but it happened yesterday. So it's fresh. The paint is really fresh in my mind. All right. Let's make sure we do our tape.
    5:23
    I put some Mylar down. I put some Mylar down here. The plunge doesn't really work great. Look at that. We'll do a little up-up.
    5:41
    The MagnaSafe is lit. We're ready. Look at that. Right down the middle. We're going to show you guys MagnaSafe right now.
    5:55
    Hang up. I've got to get a stronger spring. Alright. Take it with a sledge. Ready? No, it's not lit yet. You didn't light the light, did you? Ha! Alright, so when that lights up, Magnus Jane is lit. Alright, so ready? We're gonna go... Ready for this? Get over here, babe, so it's lit. I got it. Player point. Sorry guys, I thought that view was a lot better. No, we're here. It seems difficult with the plastic over it. Ready? Yes.
    6:42
    Let's try again, shall we? Alright, let's do that again. Ready? Get over there. Alright, you want to get around?
    6:58
    Ready? It's activated. That's so weird. Alright. Alright, let's do it again. Slip. Alright, slip. Ready?
    7:20
    See? I need velocity. Ah, you can see guys, this stuff is like really not... it's kind of janky. My balls are making it! Ugh, can't even get the ball to come through the scoop.
    7:40
    Nice, Nick. Alright, ready? And he did it. The funny part about it though, is like as I was showing, when the ball has any velocity...
    8:01
    The lab of electricity is closed! Alright, one more time. So, I mean, you saw that, right? It's not...
    8:24
    It not this sort of game over go You didn last long The ending has ended and you are no further ahead than last time You might see the look of disappointment on my face right now, right? That Magna Save, right? Look at it. It's like, it doesn't really work. And it doesn't work anywhere near as effective as the Tales of the Arabian Nights shooting stars that come up. And again, the reason why is I think John designed all this stuff, like simply rolling a ball around like a piece of wood with a magnet underneath, and he got this cool effect, but when you actually add in the velocity of a normal pinball game where the ball's going back and forth really strong, there's no way that can catch the ball. There's no way. So I guess the only time you can use it if the ball is slowly bouncing around that area, but even you saw there, when the magnet grabs it, most of the times it just threw it into the out lane. So it's not really like a save.
    9:24
    At least it works, though. I'll say this. There's all these magnets, and none of them work. At least that one activates. So let's show you guys now how that vertical up kick works in reversal, and we'll see where my plastic got broken.
    9:48
    All right. So ready? You can drop it in there. Watch this. Reverso. See the way it shoots it up? Watch this.
    10:04
    Reverso. You can see how it hits the plastic. Right where it broke is where it often hits. Reverso. Alright.
    10:17
    Alright. A few other things here. So, this center post is activated with this switch here. It's a really hard switch.
    10:40
    Alright. Hard switch to hit. All right. Now I'm going to try and get you guys to see where it says Magnaflip. It just takes a few hits up the center. This might take a little bit, but bear with me. We're going to see a screen on that screen we've never seen before. So get ready.
    11:09
    I'm sorry. What do you mean? The television is moving! 14 cents. 15. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. So, you guys notice that? Look at that. So that's the song. This is stuck on 1 million ball save. So something is weird with the software, it's like stuck on this. So I'm gonna reset real quick. Brendan's gonna kill me. But, look it's stuck! Like that screen is just stuck up there. 1 million ball save.
    12:40
    I can get that one in the car It like overall story How do you reset it? Just turn it off? Oh, Jesus.
    13:03
    So Brenda's going to kill me. But it was stuck on this weird one million ball save. So there's clearly a software glitch. Mm-hmm. I know how long we record just like just you know 13 minutes 13 minutes All right, so we're trying to do this quickly guys. I want to show you the magnet flip screen So no one's gonna watch it. Yeah, they're gonna stay they're gonna watch they're gonna watch. It's like the most riveting video ever So just stay at that angle Brenda doing the screening if you can hold it. Mm-hmm, and I'll just quickly do this
    13:35
    Guys can see the Buddha Alright. He's ready! Yeah, there it is. Now, when we drop the ball into this magnet flip area, there's no way to use these magnet flips. It's like I can't activate them. But that's a screen. That was it? Yep. That was it? Yep. We'll play this part after.
    15:17
    So we saw more of the machine. You know, I don't know if it's ever going to be fully functioning. I've got to be honest. There's a lot of just like geometry things that just don't work. A lot of interesting ideas. Game's still fun to flip. I really hope the owners of this machine can buy replacement parts soon. I mean, it's key that people who spend all this money can have some peace of mind and get like replacement plastics, replacement playfield. And, you know, I don't know. I think for this thing to become fully functioning, as you saw, I hit the ramp a bunch of times in a row. The ramps were really satisfying to shot. All John needed to do was have this really cool ramp feature and just have the ball lock somewhere else. The way he had the ball lock in Toten, just have the ball lock back in this upper right area somewhere. Nothing happens back here. It's just mind-boggling that he spent so much time and just couldn't figure out how to lock two balls and then have a multi-ball start. If that can happen, the music's there, the sound's there, the call-outs are there, the light show's there. the package is there but there's just some stuff missing so we'll get that ramp fixed eventually hit me up with any questions in the comments guys but thanks for sticking this out I know this was a long video but you got to see some stuff you've never seen before in Magic Girl we'll talk to you soon have a good day