Testing, one, two, one, two. I think my volume is a little loud. One, two, three, one, two, three. Hello! Welcome in everybody. Hey, hey, hey. My name is Manu and I have a special guests. We've got my brother from another mother. We've got CoolToy. What's up, bud? Howdy, howdy. Doing all right. How about yourself? I'm doing good. I'm recovered from well, TPF happened a couple of weeks ago, we understand, but better late than never. Yeah. Plus, it takes a little while to recharge and make sure you didn't get convention slash con crud and a lot of people go to the big gatherings and they find out like, no, I didn't. Knock on wood, I don't ever get that, but I see it's a common occurrence for a lot of people that go to big conventions, big expos. Two days later, they go into work and they're like, I feel like crap. I got the flu, I got the whatever. Knock on wood, hadn't hit me yet. Yeah, I think I pretty much got out safe too. I hope. Oop. that's the fun scene so Doug is Doug is here um Doug just so that people know about you and what you do and what your channel is and stuff can we just we'll start that off and you can give us a little introduction okay uh my name is Doug Smith I run a channel on YouTube called cool toy that talks about things that I deem cool toys that could be anything from action figures to video games arcade machines pinball games pinball machines you name it everything few and far between uh kind of a catch-all variety of just pop culture nonsense i like like all things nerdy and i talk about all things nerdy nice as you guys see i have it up on the screen right now you can go to youtube.com forward slash cool toy to get to uh doug's content i uh my my first experience with Doug is actually on YouTube, just like you guys. I watched him I think retrofit or reskin a Simpsons virtual pin. Is that correct? That probably sounds about right. Yeah, it was like an AtGames machine that I was like, ah, this thing's kind of hideous. I want to kind of spruce it up and I'm a huge Simpsons nerd, so I was like, I'm just going to make a Simpsons pinball party-esque machine out of it. So I made my own backbox, put in some screens, modified it, made it a little more modern for the virtual pen world, and spruced it up that way. That was a super cool... I'm going to increase my brightness. I'm going to try and match Doug a little bit, because you're the professional here. I just... I don't know. Mine's super bright. It looks like I've got a solar flare coming in, but it is what it is. You're well lit. um yeah so so uh doug and i finally got to meet in person at tpf which was really super cool you you you managed to convince the family to go to frisco absolutely it's a big deal i mean it was for me like it also also had like a a double you know uh meaning behind it because i We have both, my wife and I have family in Texas, so it was kind of like, hey. Oh. Because my wife wasn't really keen on me just like taking a week's vacation, going to Texas by myself and leaving her with a kid, which I don't blame her. Yeah. So I was like, hey, let me go do this. And it's, you know, I'm like, it's in a very, you know, populated metropolitan area. You can go shopping, do whatever you want. Just leave me at the convention and then we can go visit family afterwards. So that was how I sold that to her and it worked out well. In the end, it worked out well, too? Like, no, like... It did. We're never coming back here again. No, no, it worked out. It was fine. Our two-year-old traveled well enough that we didn't want to kill each other or him, so it was good. In fact, we're not going to turn the sound up because it'd be great if you guys went over to Doug's channel and checked out this Texas Pinball Festival wrap-up if you haven't seen it. So we're just going to skip around, but to see the whole thing, definitely go over, give Doug a sub, and check it out, because I think it's a really good... Thank you, Game Club Central, for posting that link to Doug's channel. Appreciate it. That's cool. Link in the chat, go do it! Link in the chat, go do it. Thank you, Finbot. So let's start at the beginning. Now, like I said, Doug and I got to meet. We hung out for a little while, but I knew he was kind of working. So, Doug, I'm going to let you drive the bus a little bit and tell us how you felt about Texas Pinball Festival. All right. So, first and foremost, this is the first Texas Pinball Festival that I got to attend. Been on my radar for years. Just hasn't worked out schedule-wise for me. went to Chicago Pinball Expo earlier in October last year. I got to, again, bring it set for the first time, so I had a nice little comparison between the two as far as the two big expos for pinball. At least that's the way I interpret it. They're like one and two as far as size, scale, and popularity. Texas, it was nice. The Carl Weathers was not so nice. it was yeah it didn't rain 60 and rainy yeah which not the worst Carl Weathers in the world but when you're leaving that kind of Carl Weathers and you're hoping to go like south to texas you you know i packed like shorts and all that kind of stuff and i didn't wear any so that was kind of annoying but other than that i had a great time overall uh there's little nuanced things that i enjoyed tpf that i didn't necessarily enjoy at chicago and vice versa they both have you know pros and cons but overall i really had an enjoyable time i got to play a lot of cool games some cool games that i've never played before got a chance to experience anywhere else and i definitely feel like you know i got my money's worth just for attending nice nice um so so doug managed to get a lot of cool footage, like I said, for his channel. As far as TPF versus Expo, so there are two of the things that exist in the pinball world, right? There are a lot of really fun Expos. There's, I think, the Houston Expo, also they said is amazing. Expo in Chicago seems to me more business-like. It's like, it's business times, you've got to put on your business socks. Right? Whereas TPF seems more like a party. yeah um i guess maybe there's more industry people in chicago love houston expo yeah so pirate bones ninja is even more of the party that's that's what i hear pirate that houston expo i gotta make it out to houston yeah here they go all night every night they don't necessarily close this the floor it just kind of keeps going until the next day and just keeps on keeping it on as far as the houston expo that's what i've always heard yeah that's the only drag about tpf is they close pretty early. I think. I don't know. What's up, Lady Char? So, anyway, hey, Marty, stick around in the chat. So there's a lot of people who were at the show who are in the chat right now. I see Marty. I see PyroplonesNinja. Feel free to chime in on the chat as we go through some opinions about stuff. I know me and Doug have a few differing opinions about certain stuff. This is great. Stuff and things. Lie to me, Doug, and tell me you love Texas Chainsaw more than Looney Tunes. Mom got me from the ACME Corporation. I can't do it. We have completed the hype train. Thank you for the support. Now get off of me. Thank you for the hype train. We'll just start there, man. Spooky pinball. Okay. so yeah the spooky had their two new game or yeah two new games i guess you can call it texas chainsaw massacre looney tunes basically the same play field but completely different rule sets gameplay and art packages of course as well as themes the latest and greatest from them previous was scooby-doo which i found to be an okay game machines nice and pretty but i just gameplay was kind of lackluster to me on Scooby-Doo and the upper play field while it had some cool mechs and everything I thought it like encompassed way too much of the overall visual aesthetic of the game and I felt like I was just shooting the ball under the play field all the time and then it would magically come out somewhere and that was kind of like my overall impression of Scooby-Doo magically come out well like there's like u-turns and sometimes I went up I felt like I was just shooting under a blindfold and then it just magically appears somewhere. I'm like, oh, okay. Okay, wait, wait. Can I offer this and then maybe not change your opinion? Okay. I think what they were going for with Scooby was, you know the scene in Scooby-Doo, right? It's Act 3 and whatever show they have where the criminals are running around and the crew is running, and they're going through the hallway and they're coming over. everyone's going crisscrossing in different directions going in a door, out a door yeah shoot up underneath it magically huh? if I made a bad design I would love to disguise it with rationale like that as if it was some super deep meaningful onion blossom of a metaphor alright, I don't think that's the case but I love your rationale and I love your reasoning and if I was spooky, I would 100% explain it that way from now on just to save face. Like I said, it's a pretty looking game, but to me, the Stern Foo Fighters feels more like Scooby-Doo than Scooby-Doo does as far as like, let's go stop some mischief and let's all get the gang together in the van type of thing. It feels more like a Scooby-Doo episode than the actual Scooby-Doo machine. PiratePulseNinja says, I have a Scooby. You learn where the ball goes after a few plays. I agree. I don't think Scooby... I just made that up because I just thought of it. We actually have a Scooby-Doo... Just that clever, yeah. Yeah. I thought that was terrific. We actually have a Scooby-Doo next to a Foo Fighters every go watch. But anyway, let's talk about... Tell me that's not subconsciously on purpose, one way or the other. You're like, hmm, it was... It was meant to be. Somebody was like, you know what? They're pretty much the same theme. I don't know. I plead the fifth. Yeah. Okay. As far as horror themes, yeah. Marty's right. Doug and I both don't. I don't like horror themes. I'm not a horror guy. Sorry. As far as horror movies that I enjoy, like Scream, I kind of like that franchise. it's a little more grounded in reality to me it's more like suspense than just slasher horror and it kind of makes fun of the whole horror genre so I kind of enjoy the scream movies but other than that it's like it's all torture porn to me so did you this is perfect then same play field two different layouts well same play field two different skins what did you think of Looney Tunes so that's the thing like because of Looney Tunes I got to like really appreciate it more because I wasn't like scoffing ugh horror gross let's get away from it type of thing but as the play field design the layout and everything I really enjoyed it I thought it had a bunch of cool unique shots it's got multiple unique kind of mechanisms and how they incorporate into gameplay as well as just overall design layout it's got all sorts of like divert diverting mechs and dropping mechs and cool incorporations of like a a magnet that i hadn't really seen before um i thought the machine was really pretty like i said spooky makes pretty aesthetically pleasing machines a little detail i noticed on texas chainsaw massacre when i was there in person that i didn't really pick up on when it was doing its you know big reveal on the internet uh was like the side armor on texas Chainsaw Massacre has saw blade teeth kind of along the side, like you would have a chainsaw with the name and everything like that. I thought that was a nice touch. Just little details like that really nail theme aesthetics for me. But overall, I think this was the best playing experience I had, whether it be Chainsaw Massacre or Looney Tunes. Just plain old shooting the game. If I didn't hear or see anything, if I just had a white wood in front of me, this would be the most enjoyable spooky game I've ever played I agree I think that I was just I'm focusing on this because somebody pointed this out to me I think maybe it was Marty I'm not sure to look at the speaker grills on Looney Tunes this is freaking awesome my only it is like the Texas Chainsaw One had the Texas State that was their speaker grill it fits the theme but yeah they look pretty Wolfman, you asked me if I ever think about making an IRL pen. Yeah, I think about it a lot, Wolfman, but I don't think I'd ever do it, because this is a lot of work. A lot of work and a lot of money, too. Yeah. Although, the closest I would get to doing that is on my P3. I would just break out Unity and develop a game for a module that I already have, which is part of the reason why I bought a P3. um we see see we played that numerous times and i didn't notice the teeth oh yeah yeah um looney tunes subtle for sure like i said it yeah it's very subtle great looney tunes one of the best layouts i think spooky has done period hands down absolutely yeah freaking brilliant ideas of shots those two back ramps a little tough to hit but once you find them you can get them um and you can get them like looping and comboing pretty pretty steadily too because yeah i was the same way i was bricking it then i was like all right i kind of adjusted my shot and then i was starting to hit it and then i was you started getting it yeah and finding nice little patterns yeah it was really good so so that looney tunes reminded me in a way of the play field on labyrinth because labyrinth is also kind of like that maybe less maybe less so than Looney Tunes, but there's this moment of discovery that you go, oh, that shot could go there too? So you start doing that kind of thing. I think that's a huge plus for me. I was tipsy when I played TCM, so I don't remember much. Yeah, okay, Ryan. I enjoyed flipping, there's two greats I have. What? I need to update my antivirus. Incoming raid to the mystery pinball theater. Hey, K-Flip. Hey, Doug. Watch me pull this man out of my hat. Crud wrong show. I knew I should have took that left turn at Albuquerque. Buenos dias a todos. Bienvenido a la transmision. Esperamos que disfrutes tu estancia aquí. Pinbot speaks Spanish. K-Flip, didn't I see you at TP... I think I saw K-Flip at TPF. I think I saw K-Flip at TPF. But I'm sorry if I didn't say hi. I thought I saw you. Maybe I didn't. Maybe I'm wrong. Yes, you were there, and I'm an idiot. Sorry. There you go. Say hi. Blame it on Doug. We got Doug and CoolToy here. Blame it on Doug. I'm pointing out because... Please blame it on me. I will openly accept all blames and accusatory whatever you got to throw my way. It's fine. accusatoryisms. Okay, well, thank you for that word. Welcome in. We're doing a wrap-up of TPF, and I was just about to say the two things that bugged me about Spooky's latest game. Now, I did not even go near Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But, also, I didn't go near Saw, which was an amazing homebrew, and I didn't go near Friday the 13th, which was an amazing homebrew. I just am not attracted to horror, yeah. Yeah. So, I did play Looney Tunes. Ball two, my right flipper died. Oh, that's not a good sign. Like, when you say die, like, just really stop working or, like, lost its, like, angle or... My right flipper decided, eh, you don't need me anymore. I'm going to go to sleep. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. That's all, folks? That's all, folks, yeah. Is that what it did? Gave you the whole porky pig? Yeah, and so this is my first experience with this game. I'm in a four-player game. I think it was Marty. It was Game Club Central. My buddy Shannon from Free Go Watch. Was it Pirate Pwns Ninja? I'm not sure, but it was four of us. It was four of us. I was player two. I was blowing it up. Blowing it up. Ball two. I go up. I start flipping, and the right flipper just does not fire. And I'm like, not a good sign game. So my buddy Shannon, she raises her hand. she goes over to one of the techs to come over. Her ball three gets served up, or Marty's ball three gets served up, and the flipper worked again. Are you sure it wasn't user error? Oh, no. Zero. No. So you're saying nobody opened the machine in between player two and player three, though? Nope. Nope. They were there. Playing pinball is like trying to salsa dance with an octopus. but sometimes the puss wins. Marty, listen, I'm not an idiot. I know how to press one button. Well, there's two buttons over there, but the button I was going for wasn't working. So then it worked for the next player and for the rest of the game. Doug that soured my experience immediately And the tech came over Well yeah it not a great first impression first impression by any means like hey this is cool the latest and greatest and it broke the machine was racist no the tech came over the tech came over and went oh that's that's wild that's crazy now i spoke to somebody i'll get off this i'll get off this bandwagon in a second i love spooky i love that you're doing stuff but that just doesn't sit well. I spoke to somebody at Free Gold Watch and they said, oh, I know exactly what the problem is. It's a certain board that they decided to build. This is not truth or whatever. This is there in person. This is speculation. There's a certain board that Spooky builds in-house and it has a tendency to do this and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, the other thing, Doug, everything else I loved about it, but that the... But yeah, you were saying Jersey Jack folks animate? If they could just... That's the thought you were going with? That's the thought I was going with. You're working with Chuck Jones, you're working with Warner Brothers, you're working with a property like Looney Tunes, some of the greatest stuff in the world. They did use it, but the way they use the assets just seems like you're sitting and waiting for the next thing to happen. You're waiting to see a clip. Their whole motif of sitting and He's noticed that Bugs and Daffy are sitting in the theater watching a clip now. And I don't agree with that approach with this because most of the game you're waiting. What's up, Amiga Kami? How are you? To get to that clip. To get to this clip. You're waiting to get to the fun stuff. I don't agree with that approach. And I'll agree to that. That was like my biggest takeaway from after playing Texas Chainsaw and then going to Looney Tunes was I thought the animations and integration of the clips and assets they do have for Texas Chainsaw Massacre weren't implemented well. The animation just kind of felt very lacking. Like you said, Looney Tunes is this predominant art house institution for animation, so you would think it would be a just dead shot, ringer, easy layup to instill these quality clips and assets and present them in a way that is befitting the player and gets them excited and everything. but nah, it didn't really feel that way. It just felt like it was kind of phoned in. If I'm being overtly critical, it's kind of like, hey, you know, here's a couple of shots and here's your clip. Here's a couple of shots and here's your clip. Like, it needs to be more cohesive. It needs to feel more rewarding. It needs to feel like you've achieved something as opposed to you've just hit a roadblock and now you get to watch a 10-second clip. So you guys can still hear me, right? i can still hear you you can say okay so i i i gotta put new batteries in my lab so i'm gonna let one of them is experiencing technical difficulties i think he used that new board from spooky i did well played well played all right we're gonna move on but but but that's about it um i wish them the best of luck in um and can you talk a little bit about motorhead Doug did you get to play that for a second yeah I played it it was very cool as Beyonce of Motorhead that cracks me up but yeah Motorhead was a homebrew game that was spooky adjacent it's not necessarily a game that Spooky's making it was like a friend of the company one of the spooky coders from my understanding helped code that game but a very cool classic lower design aesthetic from the 70s pinball era. Full LCD movie clip or not movie clip, but concert clips and assets from Motorhead performances. Great call-outs. Very loud game. Presentation was phenomenal. They had some faux Marshall speakers beside it, side by side. Had some kind of cool toys and mechanisms where there was a punching fist and animated topper. I mean, yeah. See what I did there? It's fun to be punny. It was a really cool game. If you're a fan of Motorhead, you would absolutely be drooling and chomping at the bit to play that game. Maybe it's one of those things like TNA that maybe Spooky makes a deal and makes a small limited run of those machines or something later on down the future. Yeah, I didn't get a chance to play it because it was so damn loud. I mean, you could hear it from across the room, which says a lot for as loud as that showroom is. But like I said, it was a really cool game, and it was off by itself. So it wasn't around the normal homebrew crowds. So it was kind of easy to miss if you didn't know to look for it. Bro, this has got, like, scissor flippers. Oh, no. Oh, that's so cool. Yeah. Ooh, that's messed up. Scissor flippers. and like I said, it's got some really cool integrations as far as like classic design aesthetics and then it has some modern things tweaked in there, like I said, the scoring, LCD, all that kind of stuff. So it's kind of the best of both worlds and I always like it when they kind of mesh old meets new type of things. It does have a centaur vibe. All right, let's jump to... if you don't mind I'm going to skip the homebrews if you guys want to hear what Doug has to say about homebrews once again go to his channel and watch his video let's quickly talk about this which we don't really need to talk about but it's the thing that Stern had a one or two shark I swear in my sleep or trying to go to sleep after each night after leaving the convention because you couldn't get near that corner of the building without hearing, shark, shark. Yeah, they had like 20 of them. Yeah, they had a bunch. Look at this. Okay, well, I mean, it's Jaws. We don't really need to go that much further into it. Yeah. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the greatest pinball game ever. You rate it and I'll rate it at the same time. We'll do 1, 2, 3, and then we'll call out our numbers. You ready? Okay. I don't know if there's a sync there, but we'll go 1, 2, 3. 7.5. Oh, you said 7. Oh, shoot! Well, it's got to... I mean, the code's got time to cook. In its current state is what I'm rating it. But also, like, one of my biggest concerns about this game because this was my first time I got to play it in person was at TPF but one of my biggest concerns was as I'm talking about on the video right there was the shark fin target and I was like man I wonder if that's going to have like issues with breakage or damage because it doesn't have a traditional up down path that has like reinforcements it's kind of going on that crescent moon and wouldn't you know it I found two examples of broken and or damage shark fins at the show on those 20 machines. And I was like, that's not really a good sign if we're doing ratios. Yeah, I guess, what, 2 out of 20? We'll just say there were 20. Yeah. Those are the only issues I've ever seen where the shark fin breaks off. But I can imagine, just like Mick on a Stick, right? Remember the Rolling Stones game? Everybody called it Mick on a Stick. This is Mick Jagger doing this. Eventually, Mick's going to fall off that stick. So y'all might be looking at some of this. And it's such an integral part of the theme, though, the whole thing. So if you lose that, then it's like, well... And it's also how you activate certain things within the progress of the game. So if you can't hit that, the target's broken or stuck down or whatever, then you're kind of very limited as far as progressing uh through the game but shots and layouts like i enjoyed it obviously Keith Elwin yeah like i said knows how to make a a great game um but in its current status right now like it needs to have some sort of code updates that make it so much more like godzilla was like that like godzilla was a great shooting gamer out of the box and it wasn't until the code like you know did a little more down the road that it turned into just an absolutely amazing game. I think Jaws has potential to be great down the line, but right now, it's just a really good game. Yeah, I... Wolfman, you gave it a 5. Wolfman, you gotta give me a reason why it's a 5. I don't think it's a 5. I mean, if you don't care about the theme, it's still a fun shooter. That's what I was about to say. It doesn't... Look, you rate it whatever you rate it. I'm not saying you're wrong. I'm just questioning. Being a five is pretty mean. We'll talk about a game that's a solid five later. You're giving it a five? The game we're going to talk about? It's that high with you? I'm just playing. I'm just playing. I'm just playing. I'm just playing. I'm joking, y'all. This is jokes. Because the shark does nothing. So, yeah. Wolfman says because the shark does nothing. I mean, he's there for emotional support. He's there for you. Like, he comes up, checks on you when you need him. My Jaws experience right now is I am digging the game. But I'm digging it about as much as I dug. I like the third, like, flipper and the flipper lock. Like, you know, the little. Flip lock is cool. Ingenuity. Yeah. Yeah. Anytime somebody can bring something new to pinball that everyone at this point thinks we've seen and done everything there is to do, anytime somebody can bring something new to the table, that's always a great sign of things to come and just a great positive attribute in my book. Is it a fan layout? I mean, they almost all are. Yeah, they almost all are. see Taylor you're like is the fan layout overdone is it here's the thing though okay this is it and we'll move on it's it's a oh god how do I say this Doug it's a fan layout plus there's a lot of pathways on this game. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's... It's insane. It's got a bunch of different... Like, the return I thought was really interesting was the upper play field. Like, if you actually catch that, you know, one spot really cool, and it kind of fishes down and goes upside down and comes back down where you would hit, like, the orbit almost. Like, it was an interesting, you know, ball path return that I wasn't expecting, and it felt really cool once I actually did hit it. like the big wave ramp where you're shooting up and then it comes around the corner and goes up to the upper. I think that was a really cool design choice. It's hard as hell to get the ball up there. You got to hit a clean shot. One of the coolest shots. Even with the clean shot, I was struggling to get it up there, but I attributed that to flipper fade because these machines were getting played down. The shot up to the upper play field, the shot to the upper play field, and then the tiny flipper to the upper ramp and then back and up the play field? Yeah. That's insane, you guys. That's cool. My T-Rex used to do something. Now it doesn't anymore, and no one can fix it. Sometimes it's best if they do nothing to begin with with Stern's quality control. I mean, that's also why a lot of people go for pros instead of premiums, because there's less things to break on them. Yeah. Yeah. anyway anyway Rudy from 1990 eats the ball and makes faces Jaws needs to spit blood Wolfman go look at my YouTube channel I show the mod that Stern included in the game of the shark eating the ball go to my YouTube channel look up the last video it is Jaws Doug they actually put a ball I watched your stream afterwards your bod it was good it's such a like I don't know like tongue in cheek way of telling everybody to politely shut up like that's it was it was the shark beat the ball here you go it was so good all right let's move on um definitely a shooter's table but not as funny as many donut I think you summed it up perfectly it's a shooter's table great shot not not as not as fun as godzilla probably not as fun as jurassic park probably not as fun as iron maiden but fun way more fun than the avengers we both we got the same brain doug um all right enough about elwynn and all enough about it I want the shark to be hologram like in Back to the Future 2. Yes, that would be so awesome. Yes. They have the technology. Where, where, why, Stern, why? Let's see. Quick note about Foo Fighters. They had one screen. Unfortunately, if you didn't know, Jack Danger couldn't make it Because his mom passed away, which really sucks. So he wasn't able to be there, which is a huge bummer, right? I'm completely understating that. It is. I mean, he's the pinball world mascot. I don't mean to make that sound negative, because that's actually a positive reflection as far as my opinion. And he's like the face of internet celebrity slash pinball or whatever. Plus, he's what I would say one of us. You know, he's a pinball nerd. Yeah, he is. He's a pinball professional. Very much so. So, Jack, our hearts go out to you. I already reached out to Jack and said, if there's anything I can do from way over here, let me know. He just sent back three hearts, and I was like, that was cool. they so when Jack wasn't looking they raised the price the topper is $2,000 it really should be about how much do you think this topper is really worth in parts well I mean like what it's worth in parts and what it costs you know we're looking at $200 worth of cost or whatever probably I'll give it five I'm being generous yeah well I'm just I'm trying to wrap in you know like development and research costs and you know 401k premium that type of stuff but yeah like it's all their stern toppers you know it's LED strips and acrylic like for the most part is your predominant materials so it like it's not expensive as far as parts but this one like it looks cool and everything but you see that $2,000 price tag and you're like how do I justify that against other things in the market? And he's like, okay, well, what came out recently that was $2,000? There's a Mandalorian topper that had like a hologram LCD display. There's a Labyrinth topper that has two animatronic cats. The Labyrinth topper is freaking awesome. And it's half the price of that. And then there's like the Black Sword of was it Sword of Rage? Black Knight Sword of Rage has more articulation in the head. Black Knight Sword of Rage goes ups, down, left, right. And it's $1,300 or $1,400. So like, comparatively, this doesn't do enough to justify that price tag for current market versus even older market conditions what they were asking for some of their older toppers. But anyway, if you're... I mean, this has the same articulation as Burles, which was $1,000. It just goes right, right, right, right. You know, left, right, left, right. if you're if you got the cash then you know we're not convincing you not to get a topper the topper is pretty sweet oh yeah i mean if you've got the cash and you really like your foo fighters machine absolutely like if money was not you know a question or a concern for me for me though i struggle with toppers at that price point because i'm like that's i can get a beat up bally williams game for close for the for the price of the topper yeah like wouldn't I want another machine versus some acrylic plastic and RGB light strip I'm a lucky guy Doug in that my garage doesn't have space for a topper so problem solved the labyrinth topper blows others out of the water in both function and price correct yeah I mean it's not even like being biased or anything it's legitimate like if you just compare it financially versus physically what it can do both ways. It's not going to make a difference. Guy from Weta did the Labyrinth Topper. I don't know who Weta is. Do you know? That would make sense. So Weta is the workshop in, I think it's New Zealand, that did all the Lord of the Rings costuming, and they've done a lot of the... I mean, it's a major movie, special effects art house type of thing. but if they had their hand in it then that explains why it's done well and done cost effectively damn did you get to play Ninja Eclipse Doug because I didn't I did and I played it at Chicago and I also played it at TPF and it went a design change so Chicago had a much different looking cabinet and this one they redesigned the cabinet to look like traditional modern stern and he tweaked little things here and there. It's a decent playing game and for being a I don want to call it a homebrew because he trying to manufacture these but it Can you just say explain to me like I six years old what even is this? Because this is the first time I've ever seen ninja clips. People are like, try ninja clips, try ninja clips. I was like, I don't even know what you're talking about. Tell me, who are these guys? So, Turner Pinball, from my understanding, he came from a kind of a... he wasn't a Deep Root employee. He was like a contractor. So he was contracted to work with Deep Root. And of course, if anybody knows anything about Deep Root and how that all imploded into the world of pinball and scams and all that thing, anytime you hear the word Deep Root now, people immediately start torches and pitchforks. He was kind of like guilty by association. but this guy is taking a lot of flack on the internet for that guilt and association he's taking it all on the chin um he's been laughed you know in his face and people's treated him poorly um and like i said he's taking it all in stride and he showed up to both these um expos and he's put his best foot forward and he's let his game do the talking for him and he's taken constructive criticism and consumer feedback and he's actually you know took some of those suggestions and changed the game, lowered the price and it looks like he really wants to make a solid effort and make a go out of this. It's like a homebrew, but not really, because I think he's limiting this game to 100 units for the first batch or whatever. It's a custom non-licensed IP type of thing. He's done everything in-house and he's got the finances and the know-how to apparently manufacture some games, so I guess time will tell if the market allows it. $69.94 for your Ninja Eclipse game. I unfortunately didn't get a chance to shoot it, but real quick, how does it shoot? It's better than some other offerings that were there, but it was a solid game. It obviously feels a little amateur as far as the animations and stuff, because it's kind of still image animation type of stuff. You know how they do motion comics? That kind of thing going on? Yeah. But I mean, like I said, for being what is essentially a homebrew that is going to be mass produced, it's a solid effort. Alright, cool. Alright, let's not bury the lead anymore. What's up, Paul? How are you, buddy? Let's not bury the lead anymore. Let's talk about what we want to talk about, baby. Let's go! Oh, I'm ready. But barbecue. Let's get some barbecue, baby. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Okay. All right, Doug. Okay, you shush for a second, okay? Let me just say. What's up, Agent Flash? What's up? Let me just say. Oh, Marty says, I did an interview with David Fix and Steven Bowden from American. Got some incredible Barry stories and the info behind the development cycle. That will be live tomorrow. Okay. Oh, well, everybody, make sure you're following Game Club Central because you're going to get the scoop on why we have a Barry O's Barbecue Challenge. I'll watch that because I want to know. Like, I was so dumbfounded by this game. Like, I need to know why. Okay, so Barry O, right? Just in case you're in the chat, you don't know Barry O. If you're watching on YouTube, you don't know Barry O. Barry Oursler I think it's Orsler was a he passed away, he was an amazing pinball designer he did some great games most people would go, oh he did Dracula and then he stopped right there, well you don't realize he also did I think he did Cyclone, Comet, Hurricane yes, go your rollercoaster is Popeye which the reason people don't typically name that one what else I can't remember but I mean he's been around forever he's a legend as far as pinball design whodunit there you go don't say that one very often so that's probably why he didn't get so Barry made some incredible pins Marty at Game Club Central has the scoop on why David Fix is the owner of American Pinball has the scoop on why this was made but I will tell you this so Doug and I, we're going to leave it at that Doug and I both shot it look at this kid's face we both shot it and it's a pinball machine yes it is someone made a pinball machine the the flippers flip balls fly targets are hit noises are made and lights illuminate that's it nothing else so I mean do you need anything else though? yeah what else do you need Doug? you just named everything okay okay I mean the bear the bear I was just trying to I'm I'm normally not a very you know pessimistic negative person so like I hate to like I don't like to speak ill of things but like there's just so much dumbfounded head scratching why that I was left after I played this I'm trying but I'm also you know trying not to sound like a snobby pin jerk or anything no you're confused I'm bewildered and like I need to know more we were kind of briefly commenting about this before the stream but it's like this feels like somebody I think lost a bet and was like well I lost fantasy football season this year I was dead last I guess I gotta gotta go make that barbecue bin for you guys like such a legendary career that Barry has I feel like this does more to tarnish his legacy than it does to keep it alive. That's not how you want to go out. Doug doesn't like Barbie Quay. What's up, Barrett Fawcett? So close. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Now, okay, okay. Can I say okay one more time? Look at that tic-tac-toe. Look at that tic-tac-toe. that play filled layout is just it's something I Barry did love food listened to an interview on pinball profile recorded four days before he died wow that's insane really four days before he died are you just pesky pesky she can't pronounce shit can she I shot this dog And I'll give you my 100% honest opinion. It shoots okay. It shoots okay. It feels like a shooter from like a Williams era, like a dark age. No, you know what? Yeah, it feels like a dark age Stern. Like, you know, remember the dark times of Stern where it was like. Yeah, we were talking about that when they were getting ready to go under. We were talking about Gomez saved the company type of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Dark Times of Stern or Bally before the DMD. The late stage Bally games. Hi, Goran. But it's just... There's nothing special about it. There's nothing special about it. But I bet you... Let's not do this for so long. I bet you the rules will get better. I don't know who's going to buy this. The issue is, who's going to buy this to see the awesomeness that's coming? Yeah, like if this turns into a gym, who's the consumer that took the $7,000 chance? Is it the person that owns the pin bar restaurant? Probably not. Is it the barbecue connoisseur that has his own barbecue restaurant that wants a barbecue-themed pinball machine? No. because you're immediately going to be like, oh, okay, hey, barbecue connoisseur, are you familiar with Berrio? Oh, you mean Pitmaster Berrio? No, that doesn't exist. It's not a thing. And as we were kind of briefly hinting, most pinball people probably don't even know who Berrio is, so it doesn't have, like, name brand recognition as far as the title on the back glass. People with money. People with money. So here's the thing. yeah but like how much seven thousand dollars is a lot to take a chance like how much that's the high roller casino room when you're just taking a chance on seven thousand dollar you know bets this would be a forever known as the bo table so once again i think doug can agree we're not telling you not to buy this game we're just wondering who the game is for. I've already mentioned something that they want to make this a tournament table, but that means someone has to buy it to put it in the tournament. I don't see Carl D'Python Anghelo running to Ace Goji and saying, you guys have to get a Barrio so I can put it in the indisc. I don't see that happening at any point. No. At the show, there wasn't lines galore for this machine. there was the general curiosity hey cool new machine but it wasn't hard to play as I mentioned when I left at 2 o'clock in the morning on Saturday all the machines weren't sold typically for demo units of brand new games things are sold within hours of them being displayed. Marty said they only sold 2 out of 5 that's all I saw when I left was 2 sold and I was like that's typically not a good sign because of all the people that are going to potentially buy this game. You would think there'd be some good fish in the water, so to speak, swimming around, looking at your machine that you might be able to sell this to. You've got distributors, you've got pinheads, you've got rich people, all that in one room. And you can only sell two out of five machines. Again, we're thinking ratios. That doesn't necessarily look great. Maybe Barry thought Weber Girls would sponsor them. I was even thinking like if I re-themed this as a King of the Hill table and kept some sort of barbecue-esque life into it, would I still hate this? And I think I might. No disrespect to King of the Hill because remember, homegrown is everywhere. I love King of the Hill. I would kill to have a King of the Hill table but like if you re-skin this King of the Hill I still wouldn't enjoy it. You still wouldn't like it. No. Tell me, what is the toy on this game? Is it the LCD screen? I can't think of anything. There's three pop bumpers, a drop target, and two ramps. All right. That's all I remember. Doug, I need to convince you to buy a P3. you you did a good job of uh showing me some stuff that i had no idea like uh we're playing was that the dungeon crawling um like a door defender aspect of it oh yeah so that was cool that was i had no idea that it was even you know incorporated and you said that was just kind of a an extra coded aspect so like hey here's a bonus and what's interesting is that um i enjoyed Princess Bride, this is the first time I got to play the entire P3 catalog. I've played one prior to this, so being able to play everything they had out there was good. It's a good sales tactic because I'm like, now I can see the whole gamut. I mentioned in my video, the only thing that is technically keeping me from jumping into the P3 pond right now is I don't feel like there's more than one must-have theme for me or must-have module. I feel like I need more than one that makes me invest. Please be very clear. I am not trying to sell a P3 to anyone. In fact, I tell the story all the time. Two people asked me about them. One of them I said, do not buy it. The other one I said, definitely buy it. um and here's what it depends on people's taste and preferences and you know what they look for and need in the game i guess uh it was more or one of them why why why would you tell people not to and then we'll just do that way this particular person i i i i thought would not have the patience to learn this platform in order to fix things. So the person I said, I thought, the person I said do not buy one is because I assumed they just wouldn't have the patience to learn to fix things. They own Sterns and mostly Sterns. I'm not saying who it is. They own Sterns. Shut up, Doug. They own Sterns. they own sterns and there's a certain way to fix a stern a p3 there's it's a little different so you have to learn new stuff and i didn't assume this person yeah it's like if if you bought if you've been driving a honda accord your entire life then all of a sudden you you bought some completely different make model and you know manufacturer of car and you're like wait a minute i i know how to work on this one thing why what what is this that's scary it's new it's different why would I do that? I understand that that's probably the right right call as far as advice to give because if they're siloed into what they know and what they want to know then probably not the best to venture out so I offered that Princess Bride has convinced me to get one but it would take years to save up yeah Cammy it took me like 5 years to save up for mine Final Resistance is great okay okay okay and Fliptronic is here welcome in Fliptronic did I hear P3? yes you did so the one person I said maybe not it's George R. Stern next time on Don't Panic Flip god damn it now the other person the other person is a tinkerer they own games they absolutely fell in love with the platform and they're more than happy to do the things it might take it might take I'm not saying it will it might take to learn how to fix things on a multimodal you gotta fix things on every pinball machine I think we can all agree in chat there's not a single even virtual there's not a single god damn pinball machine on the planet that won't break it's BorgDog it's BorgDog no it's not BorgDog it's just if P3 ever does a Superman module then so but here's the end of the story Doug you ready for this? This person that will remain nameless was at the Multimorphic booth many times and is probably going to get one couldn't get enough and is probably going to get a P3 despite my worries. Well, I mean I hope it works out for him. Or her. Or they. We'll say they. Them. Them. Them, yeah. Now, for me, right, Princess Bride sits right below Labyrinth. When I got my hands on Labyrinth, I... As far as, like, IP or just gameplay? If I run across the board with... If I say Princess Bride is an 8.5 across the board, IP, gameplay, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, then And Labyrinth, for me, would run across the board as a nine on everything except for IP, because I'm not a Labyrinth fan. I'm a Princess Bride fan. But I think what they did, and it's almost like you can't help but compare Princess Bride to Labyrinth right now. Inconceivable. You can't help but compare Princess Bride to Labyrinth right now, because they're kind of in the same world-ish, right? There is a fantasy kind of... Oh, absolutely. They're both fantasy stories. They both came out around the same time frame. both part of the 80s culture childhood. Absolutely. Exactly. But I just think based on what Multimorphic wants to do now. If this is your first time owning a pinball machine then this is the series for you. I forgot I left her. We'll cover setting up your game, gameplay, care, and maintenance. Go away. Okay. In terms of what Multimorphic can do right now with their system because, trust me kids, they can do a lot more. That upper one-third, there's a whole two-thirds down there they can actually use but they're not right now. So in terms of what they did with Princess Bride, I think it's amazing, but Labyrinth, if you think about it in the same world, they could go nuts. They could, and they absolutely did. They went amazing on Labyrinth, which is the last thing we're going to chat about, Doug. But I just want to mention to everybody that they can do stuff. Multimortem can do stuff. They just choose not to right now. I was impressed. Like I said, I walked away with the experience of, like, that was a super fun game to shoot. Theme integration, assets, all that stuff I thought was phenomenal. the little like inside jokes for super die hard fans of the movie I thought were well placed the fact that they even exist show that you know Multimorphic really cared about this IP and loved the movie just as much as a lot of the fans do it wasn something that was just like hey here some movie clips that you have to wait after you shoot this shot three times for or anything like that Texas Chainsaw Let me see. I wish that BOF had done both. Interesting Pepper, yeah. Just like how you have to compare Jaws and Barry. Oh, BBQ, because they are both about craving red meat in ways. Let's see. Anyone want to invite me to come play Labyrinth? Yeah. We're getting a Labyrinth at Frigo Watch, which is awesome. Any word if X-Men 97 is Stern's next pin? I don't know, Agent Flashes. You need to ask our lovely people in the chat. I'm josing for them. I've heard that. You did hear that? I mean, that's the going rumor that that's Keith's next game. And that would be kind of a weird call to me. But, I mean, Stern has a very nice relationship with Disney and Marvel. But, like, to me, that would have been something that would have been cooking prior. I mean, because, what, Keith's probably not due for another release for over a year. Yeah. By the time X-Men 97 will have already been done and in the season two hiatus for, you know, nine, ten, twelve, fourteen months, whatever it takes them to get that done again. So, like, all the hype and the hoopla would have been quelched by then. Yeah, it would have been pretty much gone. So before we get to this, just, once again, Doug gives his full disclosure on all this stuff on this video where we're kind of scrubbing through. please make sure you subscribe to Cool Toy not only this but amazing content across the board video games retro furniture he did a furniture video guys come on I bought a chair like I said I'm a variety guy I do everything you're not supposed to do on YouTube you're supposed to find a niche and just beat it like a dead horse and I'm like I don't do that I'm sorry I keep my horses alive what is your so what's your bottom line take on I guess we're just talking about the platform in general on P3? yeah P3 I enjoyed it we kind of talked briefly at the show like i do wish it was more of a like 60 40 split instead of like the 70 30 it is 70 30 module yeah but like you all you also brought up the the good point that if it was a larger footprint that it would be a gargantuan you know task to install and move you know the common man and i didn't i didn't consider that i'm i'm used to lugging around massive things by myself and i'm just dealing with it but i was like you know what that's not really a good thing that i should have to be dealing with you know like i take it for granted that things can be should be easier in some aspects and if i'm in a home environment and i'm constantly changing things which this platform is designed to be modular and be changed out at the the will of the user then you definitely wanted to make it a little easier for them than yeah yeah i i i had a really good conversation with TJ, who's the lead engineer at Multimorphic. I owned one so I could see what they have available. And I said, realistically, excuse me, I said, realistically, you guys can do things below two-thirds, right? And he goes, yeah, we already did. The cross ramp on Weird Al, there's a cross ramp on Weird Al. Yep, comes across. He's like, that was a little something. But the more we do down there, the more friction there is for you to change your things. So it's not like you can't do it. So that's about it. Yeah, I think we've... Cascade says, I can't leave until I tell you that I'm buying a P3. Let's talk about... So the only other thing that we haven't talked about, I finally got to flip this. This is actually over at Daz's booth, which I thought was amazing. Oh, my goodness. Lord of the Game Room? Is that what it's called? Lord of the Game Room? Yeah. I think that's, yeah. That was the area. This is the only place I got to play. So what did you think of Labyrinth? It's great. It really is. Especially for a first effort from a company that literally just came out of nowhere a year ago. It's like, wow, you guys did a really good job your first effort. That almost makes you worrisome for that sophomore album follow-up. It's like, what do you do next? Did you explode all your creative juices on your first effort? I guess time will tell. I'm a huge Labyrinth nerd. He said, I named my kid after David Bowie for crying out loud. Did you hear that? Did everyone hear that? Doug, do you need to say that again, please? I named my kid after David Bowie. That's so cool. Yeah. I'm that guy. I never got to play it. Oh, thank you for the follow, Ferret Fawcett. Thank you so much. Welcome in. I never got to play it. I got to play it at Lord of the Game Room's booth, and it's giving Jersey Jack a run for their money, I would say. It's as if you had the best Stern and the best Jersey Jack. In what aspect? It's like if you had Stern and a Jersey Jack and you made him have a baby, you would get this plus the back display, the back panel display. and it feels like a Jim Henson product it does you can tell that they interacted with the Henson family it didn't just get the sticker of approval there was truly some effort made to make this feel like it belonged and came from that world in some way it's and he had the topper on which is great because if you sit you stand there for too long and the guys are like is he gonna play the game i don't know maybe he's broken like yeah the uh sitting there heckling you and it's so good and the topper like the animated heads that twist and turn the eyes light up and they got you know real you know hair it's just again going back to the topper being a thousand dollar two thousand other offerings from other companies. You see an impression and you're like... It's embarrassing. It's almost embarrassing. I mean, I love Stern and everything, but it's embarrassing that they have toppers that are twice the cost of this one, and this one just makes you feel like you're being watched by... Okay, so Doug, so how about this? We have barrels of fun. Their next game, ready for it? ready for it the muppets i i would be like donating plasma and whatever you know juices out of my body i could because i already want gross i'm currently literally like i yeah horrible but like i don't know how else to make money other than you know make other people rich that's that's my day job but uh it's like i i'd have to like sum up come up with finances because like the muppets it's like on a job resume you list like your skills and you know attributes and everything and i'm like only life skills i have is that i can name like a hundred different muppets from the muppet universe like people are like that's not really a job skill i'm like i guess i'm not your guy sorry but like the muppets would be a dream theme for me for sure Clearly, Barrels of Fun has their connections with the Henson family and the Henson company. I would want nobody other than Barrels of Fun to make that game. I wouldn't want to see Jersey Jack or Stern or anybody else get their hands on a Muppet license IP. If I'm Barrels of Fun, I probably don't make that my next game, though, just because then it sounds like you're only the puppet. Yeah, well... But other... As a consumer, I'd be like, hell yeah. Oh, I'm there. Lady Char says Fraggle Rock. I agree, Lady Char, but if you have the Muffets and you can have the two dudes on top, was it Waldorf and Stadler, whatever their names? Yep, Stadler and Waldorf. Stadler and Waldorf, and they can just fuck with you for the entire game. Come on! The whole game. Yeah. You called that a tilt? Yeah. So good. Come on. It writes itself, and there's literally like 50 years of Muppet TV shows and movies and all these different things you can incorporate with it. Man. Maybe that's their third hand. All right. It prints money. It prints money. It does. Yeah. All right. I'm running late. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. I was just going to say, yeah, the Labyrinth, it feels like a premium, well-priced product. That's right. I made mention that it feels like you get a Stern LE for a bargain price, but you don't lose any bells and whistles. It feels like a great game. It shoots like a great game. The assets, the theme integration, the shots, layout, it's got all sorts of great, unique things going for it. It's a home run. It's probably my best of show. and I'm late to the game because I didn't get to see it at Expo, but it's definitely my best of show. Even though I have no... I don't want to buy it. I want to play somebody else's. Yeah, I mean, it's great. Galaxy Quest would be a good P3. That would be great. Hang on a second. Let me just see something real quick. You can milk cats. No American... Oh, IceKiddo, what's up? I have a long time to see. Doug, PiratePwnsNinja just wants your opinion on this, and then we can go on Elton John? yeah so it is the best playing most fun, enjoyable, best light show by far Jersey Jack Pinball Machine, they made the date in my opinion 100% To me, prior to Elton John's release and existence, I've always thought, hey, Jersey Jack machines, those are super pretty. Lots of cool bells and whistles and everything. And then I played them and I was just like, I didn't really enjoy the play experience. Like I thought the big screen was cool. I thought the, you know, the lights and the extra building materials, I could, I could see that on the play field. But like just general enjoyment of like shots and code and I just, they lost me there. and to me that's the bigger part of the pinball picture is just the general enjoyment you get for playing. Like, do you walk away from the table saying, I want to play that again, or did you walk away with a smile on your face? If you didn't, then something's wrong with the game. Yeah, yeah. But Elton John. Elton John is... I was cleaning the play field on Elton John this morning at Free Gold Watch, and it was trashed because people it earns the only thing that beats Elton John in terms of earning at Free Go Watch is wait for it this is the only game that beat Elton John is this oh wow wouldn't have been my guess but that's a good one and I'll tell you why I'll tell you why and then we'll call it um Pulp I beat Man of Pulp Fiction yes that was like two years ago the reason Pulp Fiction beats Elton John in terms of earnings is because Pulp Fiction is fucking hard that was going to be my guess it's the short play duration because yeah it's brutal Even if you're a seasoned pinball player, that's a hard game. Especially if you come from playing a traditional modern stern and you walk over to that and try to just play it like you normally would. You're going to get eaten alive. You are not lasting as long on this as you are. No, and like that three bank target in the front, you're like, oh, I've seen this before. This is Indiana Jones, Mark Ritchie special. Then you realize it's angled, and you get just trounced immediately down the middle when you're like, oh, maybe you shouldn't have been so happy-go-lucky to go after that drop target there. So Pulp is trash, especially for the price. Well, I've got to disagree. It's a different game, though. You're not going to shoot Elton John and Pulp with the same fever, I think. Style and, yeah, no. But what I was saying was I was cleaning the playfield. It would be better if they could make more. Yeah, Marty still doesn't have his pulp fiction. I feel so bad. Gosh, Marty, I'm sad that you still don't have it. Sorry. And when I was done cleaning the flippers and cleaning the playfield, cleaning the post and cleaning everything that needed to be cleaned, I fired up. Oh, also remember to clean your balls, guys. If you're cleaning your play field and you're cleaning the post, take the balls out, wipe them down. Yeah, you're all going to do something bad with that advice, but... Electronic pinball machines are designed to have a six and a half degree slope. It would have been great if it was the clean your balls one, wouldn't it? Yeah, PSA. but I fired up a test game I tied up a test game and just I was like this is so good like I'm supposed to fire up one ball and maybe test it and I just stood there and I just played it Doug thank you so much once again for being awesome and it was really thanks for having me on the stream it was always, this is like a thing that we always have, do you have to clean your virtual balls as well? Yes, you do, Al. Yes, you do. You have to clean your virtual balls. Empty that cache. I'm glad we got to hang out at TPF. In fact, you guys, this is hilarious. I'm going to tell you the story real quick and we'll be done. Doug, so of course you and I, we went to the Gomez talk, right? George Gomez did his little speech. yeah the seminar the seminar of course when we're sitting down Doug looks at me and goes make sure you don't fall asleep somebody gotta watch out for you I thought that was so funny I'll let you know I won't go into the story now but if you want to watch me later I'll be on on Thursday you can come by and ask what was that all about why is Mano so sleepy so sleepy Doug give us a real quick hey Game Club Central can you shout out Doug's channel and Doug just give us a real quick quick thing about your channel for the new people who showed up ah yeah so for anybody new I'm Doug Smith I got a YouTube channel called Cool Toy where I talk about all sorts of things video game pop culture related I make mediocre content on a good day and half-assed content on a great if you like mediocrity check me out oh my god stop it Doug's awesome he's almost at 50k so tell your friends man tell your friends tell everybody that's reserved for only fans that is true alright kids thank you so much for joining I'm always happy to talk about the pinballs that we love and we hate, we don't hate anything. We love all pinball. And we're going to find somebody to raid. Boots and pants and boots and pants and boots and pants. We'll see you guys later. Have a good one. See you later. See you later, Doug. Say bye, Doug. Good night. Bye. To be continued... hey guys we're gonna go raid homegrown right now throw some love in there for homegrown simpsons animator and all-around good guy so join him and pepper his wife in pinball shenanigans and i will see you guys on thursday Thanks for watching!