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NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·1h 16m·analyzed·Nov 18, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

NYC competitive pinball roundup + Stern theme survey reveals target market skews heavily to 1980s+ IP.

Summary

NYC PinPod hosts Madeline Lin and Eric discuss New York City competitive pinball results from November 9-14, 2024, covering multiple leagues and tournaments across venues. In the final segment, they analyze a Stern Pinball Inc. Insider survey about potential game themes, using data analysis to reveal that the survey heavily skews toward IP from the 1980s and earlier decades, suggesting Stern's target demographic is older players and reflecting shifts in media monoculture across generations.

Key Claims

  • As of November 15, 2024, there are 283 pinball machines in New York City at 84 public locations

    high confidence · Madeline Lin, citing Pinball Mag data sources

  • The Stern Insider survey showed over 30 theme entries debuted in the 1980s, the highest concentration of any decade

    high confidence · Madeline Lin, analyzing survey data with ChatGPT categorization

  • Stern regularly releases machines at software version 0.9 rather than 1.0 as part of their business model

    medium confidence · Unidentified speaker (likely Eric), discussing Stern release practices

  • New York City Flipper Sport Association is 9-0 and virtually assured of top seed in playoffs

    high confidence · Madeline Lin, reporting competitive standings as of November 14

  • The Stern Insider survey was sent to Insider Connect subscribers on October 12, 2024

    high confidence · Madeline Lin, reading the email directly

Notable Quotes

  • “I wrote this one on three lists. Kenny and Rogers is a little too old for me. That's my dad's favorite.”

    Eric (unidentified last name) @ Ball 3, theme survey discussion — Illustrates generational gap in entertainment preferences and how older IP on Stern's survey list skews away from younger demographics

  • “There is no such thing today. I think that there's something about that that might cause there to be more of a concentration for people, again, if they're marketing to me, and they probably are.”

    Unidentified speaker @ Ball 3, discussing monoculture and 80s IP concentration — Explains why 1980s IP dominates the survey—media monoculture was stronger then, creating shared reference points for aging demographics

  • “So like if it's too old for me, then your audience is really old. Just saying.”

    Eric (unidentified last name) @ Ball 3, theme survey critique — Direct statement about Stern's perceived target demographic being significantly older

  • “It's like, how do you all launch with not 1.0? Like, hold on.”

    Unidentified speaker @ Ball 3, discussing Stern code release practices — Questions Stern's practice of releasing machines with incomplete software versions

  • “older white men. I want to just briefly make sure because I think that the way that the information has been presented to me, it looks to me like you presented question number two on a survey.”

    Madeline Lin @ Ball 3, survey analysis — Explicit statement about perceived Stern target demographic based on survey data analysis

Entities

Madeline LinpersonEricpersonAlex Jim KellypersonNew York City Flipper Sport AssociationorganizationStern Pinball Inc.companyThe Uncanny X-MengameJames Cameron's Avatar (Limited Edition)gameSunshine Laundromat

Signals

  • ?

    content_signal: NYC PinPod provides comprehensive coverage of local NYC competitive pinball, including tournament results, venue updates, and industry analysis; demonstrates established media presence in regional pinball community

    high · Detailed tournament reporting across multiple weeks, league standings analysis, venue machine updates

  • ?

    competitive_signal: NYC has multiple active competitive leagues (Monday night, Tuesday night, South Slope, Arcade Brooklyn, Thursday Night Strikes) with clear playoff scenarios emerging; NYCFSA leading at 9-0 with statistical dominance

    high · Detailed week-by-week standings, playoff positioning analysis with point spreads, box plot statistical analysis of league competitiveness

  • $

    market_signal: Stern Pinball survey reveals potential mismatch between IP themes offered and younger player demographics; survey heavily skewed toward 1980s+ licensed properties suggesting target market is older/aging collectors

    high · 30+ theme entries from 1980s (highest concentration), 1990s as second-highest; ChatGPT analysis categorizing IP by decade; hosts noting 70s/80s media had stronger monoculture enabling broader appeal to aging demographics

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Stern Pinball regularly ships machines with version 0.9 software rather than 1.0, presented as intentional business model decision due to inability to test at scale before production

    medium · Host notes receiving emails about 0.9 version releases; discussion that this enables machines to ship without pushing costs to $15-25k; acknowledged as industry practice due to physical testing constraints

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.230

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Samando end corralle và To th begrCT th kein sao 有 bất cứ nhai k گ nhơi Fern, reconnect Obama, Sergio when he sees it compromise if I have no any My name is Madeline Lin. She, her, hers. My initials are MXL. And this week, I learned what a house ball means. On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results. In ball two, we'll have a venue update. And in ball three, we'll talk about the Stern Insider survey that was sent out asking about themes and what that means about the target market for Stern Pinball. Let's get started. Let's talk competitive pinball results in New York City from the past week. On Saturday, November 9th at Rulo's, 16 players gathered under Jess Warren's guidance for South Slope Strikes November. Alex Kelly won the day with two strikes to his name. George Underwood and Robert Wong also lasted nine rounds and Steven Christopher or rather played nine games. Steven Christopher, Steven Christopher came in fourth. On Sunday, November 10th at Sunshine Laundromat in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The uncanny X-Men launch party at Sunshine Brooklyn by FLR parenthetically sucks and Ali was convened. Twenty players gathered for seven or eight rounds of match play. They went to eight players of finals and after that, Alberto Santana came in fourth. Came out on top. Alex Kelly came in second. Travis Batty and Greg Pavarelli tied for third. Also on Sunday, Barcade Jersey City in Jersey City had the monthly Jersey City Open November 24. Four players gathered under Matt Falzone's direction and Matt Falzone himself won the day. On Monday November11th, Armistice Day, and I'd refer you to Kurt Vonnegut's statement about Armistice Day in the preface to Breakfast of Champions, round nine of Pinball NYC was contested. The Pin Pals hosted Intermission Dolores at Skylark and picked up a 12-4 win. This team is on a roll. They started off with several straight losses, but they are doing quite well now. Special when lit went to Owl Farm, where Parliament handed them a 10 to 6 loss.
3:19
venue
Jack Barvenue
Rulo'svenue
Gebhardt'svenue
Buttermilk Barvenue
Matthew Gradyperson
Sean Grantperson
Alberto Santanaperson
Dante Olivaperson
Pinball Magorganization
Arcade Brooklyn Pinball Leagueorganization
Lionpersonsorganization
Jack Danger (person/team reference)person
Jess Warrenperson
Gabriel Chasanovperson
Johanna Taylor Connollyperson
This Week in Pinballorganization

product_launch: X-Men and Avatar Limited Edition machines actively being promoted through tournament launch events in NYC venues; dual release parties scheduled for November 22-23

high · Sunshine Laundromat X-Men launch party November 10 with 20 players; Rulo's X-Men release party November 22; Rob Wong Invitational November 23 at same venue

  • ?

    venue_signal: NYC venues actively rotating machines; track of specific machine issues (malfunction reports, repairs, removals) across 84 public locations

    high · Weekly machine updates: Fish Tails U-turn issues, Pulp Fiction lock malfunction, Hot Wheels mylar damage, NASCAR offline then repaired, new Star Trek and Louis Toy Story 4 additions, American Pinball replacing Stern AC/DC

  • ?

    community_signal: Multiple active competitive leagues in NYC with sustained participation; strong community engagement through organized play, cross-venue competition, team structures, and playoff systems

    high · 7 organized league/tournament systems active (Monday night, Tuesday night, South Slope, Arcade Brooklyn, Thursday Night Strikes, Tuesday Night Pinball NJ, Sam Stern Army); 16-50 player participation per event; established team structures and playoff formatting

  • ?

    media_signal: Established content creation around NYC pinball competitive scene; Twitch streaming (Pinball Under the Gun NYC), YouTube archiving (NYC Pinball channel), blog coverage (No One Wants to Talk About Competitive Pinball)

    high · ABPL A-Finals streamed live on Twitch with expert commentary; replays on YouTube; Eric's competitive pinball blog with match analysis and photos

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Analysis of Stern survey suggests potential future themes; community commentary indicates skepticism about some selections while enthusiasm for certain IPs; host submitted Neon Genesis Evangelion write-in suggestion

    medium · Hosts critiquing theme selections (spaghetti western question, outdated IP concerns, licensing assumptions); interest in anime properties; discussion of precedent homebrews suggesting potential demand

  • ?

    industry_signal: Stern's survey approach and IP selection reveal strategic positioning toward aging/older demographic; apparent mismatch between current pinball player base diversity and licensable IP offerings

    medium · Analysis concluding 'older white men' are target demographic; hosts noting 80s/90s media monoculture created shared references for older audiences; IP selections skewing heavily toward established franchises rather than current pop culture

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern's theme survey suggests shotgun approach to licensing; questions about whether some IPs (spaghetti westerns, classic TV) are included due to ease of licensing rather than player demand

    low · Host asking 'Is it just easy to license?' regarding random IP selections like The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; speculation about public domain timing and licensing ease

    • The Mutants went to McKenna's Pub to face the two for one-ers, and the home team picked up an 11 to 5 win. I got to wonder if Levy Naiman showed up that night. We Colliders went to Midway and played Balls of Steel. Madeline, what was your experience? Oh, I did not play as well as I would have liked. I was thinking back to the discussion about graphing how well you do on a certain table. Sunday night I went to Midway and I put a couple dollars in each of the tables because there was no school on Monday, so I figured I'd give it a practice. I got a chance to put on a high score because I think they reset the scores. I was like, all right, we're gonna do great. And then I didn't break a hundred million until the very last game of Monday night after that. Well, that's okay. Do you mind if I point out that I think you made a new friend on Monday night? Yes. Oh, there was a donkey. Macaroni, I believe was the Golden Retrievers' name. Nicky, the name of the guy who was hanging out in the bandana, who was friends with very, very friendly pooch was hanging out in the bar. Macaroni, such a tired doggy. Very friendly though. Lots of rubs. Congratulations on pulling seven points out of midway. Yeah, it was it was okay. That said, Zen made a point of playing. Zen is a sports person, if nothing else. emin tecn solutions sunlight winter ред lạirecht準切 체포주� springs I'm a fan of, you know, getting rostered players in there so that they would be eligible. That said, Zen also sent me a very kind text that says this. This week in Balls of Steel, we had the opportunity to host the Colliders at Midway. They are the bestest, most fun team to play, and we had a great time. Benjamin beat Zen on GOT, putting a huge 4x playfield score on Ball 3, racking up hundreds of millions in seconds. But ultimately, Balls of Steel won the day. Great match. Smiley face emoji. Aww, thanks, Zen. Yeah. It was a fun time. It is a sister bar to our home bar of buttermilk and you can tell when you look around at the decor. Did you get any purchase on the claw machine, Madeline? I couldn't figure out the grab rate. I fed in 40 quarters within about like two minutes. Nothing doing though. Eric, what happened at Barcade? Our New York City Flipper Sport Association went to visit the lesser players at Barcade Chelsea. We had a narrow 9-7 victory. I was kind of wary of this match ahead of time looking at it, knowing those machines at that Barcade are pretty wacky and I didn't see the usual competitive edge I'm looking for. We managed to just squeak it out and in fact I wrote up some of my longer thoughts on the strategy of the match and the machines there on my blog at noonewancetotalkaboutcompetitivepinball.com. Nice. Oooh. Also featured on my blog recently, photos from the APAB event last Saturday at Sunshine Laundromat. Very cool. Collaboration with Non-Binary Picnic. We took a bunch of photos, throw those up there. And yeah, other competitive pinball musings. Very cool. What was the URL again, Eric? I've already forgotten. No one wants to talk about competitivepinball.com. Oh, I'm going to type that in right now and take a screenshot. So I won't forget. I recommend all listeners do the same. Lionpersons went to the other barcade in Brooklyn and faced Pinball Union and the Lionpersons took a big 14-2 win there. The Aristocrats hosted the Deluxe Horses at Rulo's and they put up a decisive 13-3 win. That is to say that with one week of regular season competition remaining, the playoffs are all but Decided on Monday night. New York City Flipper Sport Association and the Lionpersons absolutely will be the top two seeds. NYCFSA is looking to go undefeated at 9-0. Lionpersons are 8-1. Four points separate the two of you. So that theoretically if they won and you lost and they scored four more points than your association, then they would be the first seed. Daryl Ohh. messed up again, punk Writt hat Everywhere. Well whenever you hear something you're trying to proteins are banned, don't hate that's Max vale الط��졌, we are being mentored on the いları Alan and Donald Gurira Giordani Merino, yarnan Prokoski, majority of problem makers, Geuli Lung, erudite. Gehra Thepri, Sh устano, Candi Et repentance Kareem K Pooray축 Danke lieu and Jễrce devoted each other. Colette D'Annaiteris, Rita D tenureeaux. John Papaine, Don Griment Also of the teams at four and five.
    9:22
    Theoretically, if special when lit or the pin pals or the deluxe horses one big and the aristocrats lost big, theoretically, they could get past the aristocrats, but they've got to beat them by 10 or 11 points.
    9:42
    So that's a lot. And again, they have to win, aristocrats have to lose. That said, you'd have to if you're beating them by 10 points. There's an interesting Week 10 matchups there amongst those various teams. Uh huh. Uh huh. Special when lit, hosting the lesser players. Deluxe Horses are hosting Pinball Union. Oh, that's their Subway series, the Barkig Home Teams. Oh yes, yeah. That's both, yeah. And the aristocrats are going on the road to face the mutants. Right, so a loss could be in store for them pretty easily. Pinpals have a, what is usually, based on the record, the lesser players are presumably the easiest team to beat because they're 1-8 with 52 points. That's special when lit gets them. Oh, special when lit gets them. Pinpals have to go to Geb Hearts to see the lion purse. That's a really tough last week for them. That feels like they're probably going to be in the lower half. They don't like to travel very far anyway, that team, often. But they're going to be cleaning up the mess left over from the harvest on Sunday night, from the harvest finals still, I imagine. The refers to the I also quickly made a really fast box plot of the current points, not that I'm trying to make everything about plotting and graphing and I'm going to share my screen real quick just to show the spread. At 100 points being that that's the maximum and about 50 is the minimum. The median amount of points right now is 68 with the lower third being 62 and the upper third, pardon me, the lower quartile being 62 and the upper quartile being 79. So the Flipper Sport Association, Eric, your team is really like super far ahead. It's really quite impressive. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah, drafting Alex Kelly while he is thinking so hard about becoming such a better pinball player probably does not hurt. Doesn't hurt. Yeah. Already good players on that team, but it sure doesn't hurt to add Alex Kelly.
    12:47
    On Tuesday, November 12th, in the ninth round of the Tuesday Night Pinball NYC League, Trolls went to Sunshine laundromat and faced Scrapples squad and the home team came up with a 10-6 win. Eric, did you see the troll story this week? Yeah, this week's troll story on Instagram has lots of details about their match. The theme this week was optimistic nihilism. Oh, that's a good theme for this past Tuesday. Optimistic nihilism. I like it.
    13:27
    The ball drainers went to Kettle of Fish and the legendary Brooklyn ball drainers went to Kettle of Fish on the Lower East Side.
    13:38
    And they handed the home team Kettle's hand grenades an 11 to 5 loss. No quarters for laundry. Went to boat bar to face Pinister Six.
    13:49
    They came away with a 12 to 4 away win. Neptune's Treasure hosted Rest in Pinball parenthetically RIP at Milo's Yard and the home team Neptune's got a 12 to 4 win. Harlem Globe Flippers went to birdies and bested the pin babes 13 to 3. The replays went to Buttermilk Bar to face Danger Danger and the home team were just a bit too much for them at 10 to 6. Eric, did you go to Jack Bar on Tuesday? I did indeed. The Shlubs had a nice win there, 11-5 over us Butterballers. They were playing very well on all the machines. One particular moment that was pretty nice, two of the Butterballers five points came in the final round on Toy Story, which I discovered I was talking with our friends on the schlubs and Tim let me know that since they had already clinched the match before round four, he was allowed to ask to play Toy Story, which Captain Eda had been saying no to previously because So... Earlier disclaimer So earlier in the evening when she was digging out a blank scoresheet for us to use, she saw some past scoresheets and looked at all the times the Butterballers came to Jack Bar and beat them on Toy Story. So she was doing oppo research. Oh. What another very clever thing to be doing. In addition to it. Look, we had oppo research and we had optimistic nihilism the Tuesday after an election. We are truly in a mindset at present. The research turned out to be pretty on the nose because Chad and I both blew up the toy story and we got those two points at least. Chad. What a Chad. The top and bottom division of the playoffs, there's clear division here on Tuesday night. Danger Danger is eight and one. They are going to almost certainly going to have a buy. No quarters for laundry. Neptune's Treasure and the ball drainers are all seven and two. They have 96, 90 and 88 points. It seems like no quarters for laundry. As long as they win, they are going to have, you know, they have the inside track certainly to have a buy. Neptune's Treasure and ball drainers should have home games. The Balldrainers have 88 points. Harlem Globe Flippers have 88 points but are six and three so if You know globe Flippers win balldrainers lose. They're going to jump up into that four seed
    16:42
    Pinister six are six and three and they have 83 points It's going to be hard for them not to travel for their match whether or not they're the fifth or sixth seed Shlubs and butterballers are both four and five so they should theoretically have buys Subtitled by
    17:26
    The Both of these teams could win or both of these teams could lose and they would be tied in points But it requires big spreads for one game and a tight game for the other game hmm kettleSand grenades are much like WeColliders one and eight 39 points for them for the season. I hope they've enjoyed themselves and I hope they come back next season I'm sure we will I will also share my screen again. I made another hasty box plot. Here we can see that the two middle quartiles, the range of that is much wider than the first Tuesday night on the other flipper. The median score of points for the Tuesday night is 74 points compared to Monday's 68. But the quartile, the interquartile range, we go from 56 to 88 on Tuesday night versus just 62 to 79 on Monday. Like I said all day long, you're under a different Clapption. I'll tell you, I'm attached to playing. So, why am Iゴ23 talked a jangan information about being a variables. communicators are vaguely glassậ�ص, may as well get пользовывята and wasere 말을 an actor regarding is not someผJessica McCain in Canad . battlefield Ajn gåłECT mossèvarŠţţ bientôtçasãyą, Tännp Potalaţ— 찍ă¿ščakāŭçazàţţâţţ of praising when I was out saying can take one of those PIiritual jobs another I think I have said a lot of weeks for the last like three or four weeks like if the playoff started today this one would be clear we know exactly who in and it has I don think it has changed a lot in that vein I think it is a closer league it is you know top to bottom it just it a lot a lot more evenly matched seemingly On Wednesday November 13th Arcade Brooklyn Pinball League held the finals for our fifth season The A-Finals, eight players came and played in a group elimination bracket, Papa style. At the end of the night, the winner of Arcade Brooklyn Pinball League's fifth season was Matthew Grady. With Nintu in second, Jonas Schlaes in third, and Jeff Anderson in fourth. Also, Matt Grady streamed the entirety of A finals on Twitch on his channel, pinball underscore NYC. And we were blessed this week to have a special commentator come in to give us commentary for the entire stream. Alex Kelly gave some great play-by-play and rundowns of everything that was going on. It's now available on YouTube. The channel there is called NYC Pinball. Cool. Awesome. Also, you can find links to that on no one wants to talk about competitive pinball dot com. My blog. Very good. Also, on Wednesday at Barcade, the B finals, which was also the BBPL open and open event for anyone to attend. That was directed by Woody Richmond. Hey, I am David Richmond to leave me free to handle the A. And yet he had help from Jose Garcia. Five players showed up and Jose was the winner of the BBPL Open. Cool. All five players received some sort of prize. We had medals for the top three and also a tradition that we've been doing at Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League, the last place finishers in the B division or the Open get a bag of Barcade tokens so they can practice. Great. Excellent. Also on Wednesday, Sunshine Fall League had their finals. Six players played with in two groups initially of three players and we had four games each. And then the top four played in another four games. And Sean Grant won the league for the month. Additionally, they had much like the BBPL and a Stern Army B Open tournament sunshine, Ali Bissett won the day on Thursday, November 14th at Jack Bar in Williamsburg. No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes was convened. Only nine players showed because now look, the organizer of record here is Gabriel Chasanov and Gabriel Chasanov, I saw him last night. At a time that I know he was not making it to Jack Bar at 8 o'clock because he is directing The Harvest at Gebhard's right now. So I don't know who did that this week. I don't know if we know. But only nine players showed because The Harvest was going on. It's likely Sam Hall did it because I'm about to say her name. Casey Johnson won the day. Alex Weisenberger came in second and Ida Kreutzer and Sam L. Hall. For third. Confirm Sam was the TD on Thursday. Also on Thursday night at Buttermilk in Park Slope. SSPL, that's South Slope Pinball League, seven. The third meeting was convened. 16 players. That's also a little light for us. It's not quite as light as it was at Jack Bar because I think a lot of the Jack Bar folks were at the harvest and a lot of the Buttermilk folks come from farther south. 요즘 and I came into the South and are probably going this weekend Taylor Connolly won the day and told me as soon as it happened that's the first time I've ever won an individual event. Nice. Nice job Taylor. Alberto Santana came in second place and Morgan Levenson, Kate Martin and yours truly tied for third. Heck yeah. At Gebhard's last night, the harvest started. Eric and I put in some scores. I'm excited to get back there tonight and play a little bit more. I hope that I am going to play. I hope that I am going to find it incredibly hard to find time to edit this podcast this weekend. As of the end of Thursday night, with a lot of pinball left to play, some has been played in the interim, But at the end of Thursday night, Dante Oliva had a commanding lead in both the main and classics divisions. He had racked up the better part of both scorecards by then and had a big lead. The classics finals start on Saturday afternoon. The main finals are Sunday. We're going to talk about that tournament sometime next week for sure. Probably not as much in ball one as some other time. Monday, November 18, it is round 10 folks, round 10, 10,000 thundering typhoons as Herjai used to say. We've got the two for one versus Intermission Dolores at Commonwealth, the New York City Flipper Sport Association versus Balls of Steel at Midway, Parliament versus the Colliders at Buttermilk Bar, Pin Pals versus Lionpersons at Gebhardt's BeerCulture, the Aristocrats versus the Mutants at Solid State, Pinball Union versus the Deluxe Horses at Barcade Brooklyn, and the Lesser Players versus Special When Lit at Rouleaus. Then we have Tuesday, November 19, Tuesday, November 19, At 19 we have Pinnister 6 vs Trolls at Bar Great Harry, Harlem Globe Flippers vs Neptune's Treasure at Milo's Yard, Kettletank Grenades vs Restin Pinball at Barcade Brooklyn, Scrapple Squad vs The Replays at Rulo's, Shlubzuit vs No Quarters for Laundry at Solid State, Danger Danger vs Butterballers at Buttermilk Bar, and the Pinbabes vs The Ball Drainers at Jack Bar. Tuesday night also we have Tuesday night Pinball at the Vault hosted by Uche at Game Vault Morristown, New Jersey 7pm, Wednesday November 20 Stern Army Winter League at Sunshine with FLRSucks and Allie at 7.30pm at Sunshine Laundromat in Greenpoint. Thursday November 21 NOBR presents Thursday Night Strikes at Jack Bar in Williamsburg at 8pm South Slope Pinball League 6 number 4 hosted by Kate Martin atButtermilk Bar in Park Slope at 8pm-ish. Heading into the weekend, we have a doubleheader events folks. On Saturday, November 22, we have the Uncanny X-Men release party hosted by Jess Warren at Rulo's in Park Slope, Brooklyn. 5pm signups and a 5.30pm start. On Sunday, November 23, also hosted by Jess Warren, also at Rulo's, which is also in Park Slope, we have the Rob Wong Invitational, to which you are invited. Signups, however, are at 4.30pm on Sunday, November 23, with a 5pm start. Do we have a Barcade Brooklyn also, Eric? No league for the remainder of the year. As of November 15th, 2024, there are 283 pinball machines in New York City at 84 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday November 8th, user JNS played the fish tails at Jack Bar and said, John, Christ, why does every U-turn have to go straight down the middle? The color DMD is so pretty though. Also on Friday, user SuperCoven37 went to Kings County Brewing Collective and played their Pulp Fiction. Said, briefcase and lock targets were malfunctioning earlier this week. Machine is now off. On Saturday, November 9th, user JNS went to At The Wallace and played a couple games. They said of Hot Wheels, played fun and friendly. And of World Cup Soccer, some problems with bubbles in the mylar on the playfield especially around the assist saucer next to the goal. Definitely playable and fun. Why isn't this game everywhere like it used to be? Goalie on a stick has been replaced with a drumph caricature, so come by and bash the shit out of that. Heck yeah. JNS also dropped by Burger and Shake Company in Upper Manhattan on Saturday and reported that the NASCAR is still off. Hurts my heart. Banging ice cream sandwiches here though. Hmm. Also on Saturday, a James Bond 007 Pro showed up at Transmitter Brewing. At least on the Pinball Map update time, a lot of that stuff showed up late last week, but there was a lot of juggling. On Sunday, Barcade St. Mark's got a Toy Story 4. And on Tuesday, the Monroe got a Creature from the Black Lagoon replacing their ACDC. And user JNS was back at BurgerandShakeCo and said that the NASCAR is back on and Multiball is working again. The test car not always registering and the garage doesn't open. Aw. Ball three! Let's talk about an email I got from Stern Insider on October 12, 2024 at 3.02pm. I got an email from Insider at e.sternpinball.com with the subject line, What is your dream pinball theme? Hello from Stern! We want to know what you think. Help us select the next great pinball theme by providing your opinion on what you'd like to see. This survey will take less than 10 minutes. You'll be asked your thoughts on a number of suggested themes and a chance to suggest your own. Thank you for help in creating the next great pinball machine. Take our survey here. If you no longer want to receive these emails, unsubscribe here. Clicking on this link, I saw a massive list of different potential pinball themes. There are a couple different questions. I printed out this list and this full text will be available Before the listeners perusal at the same post as which you're listening to this podcast, we've got a myriad of different themes potentially that you would either like to play or you would like to buy seemingly in no particular order from Stern. I quickly went through and filled out the survey to my own preferences and I did a write-in of Neon Genesis Evangelion because I still think that could be a fun theme. I mean you could have three of the same cabinet and you could like link So, you could pick them up like the machines and there'd actually be a reason to buy more than one table at one venue. Uh-huh. You could go a couple different color ways. Like the NBA fast break. Yes. You could hook two of those up. Yeah. Yes. But I realized that this would be some very interesting material for our podcast. Given that, we've been discussing the, in quotes, ideal or target demographic by Stern, to which they will sell pinball machines, either to venues, patrons of those venues, or to immediate buyers. So because there were a lot of entries on this list, I downloaded the entire list and then I fed this list into chat GPT to organize and categorize each item on the list, organize it by year, organize it by category such as sports versus a movie versus a game versus superheroes, cars, etc. And then I decided to ask it to make some graphs. I asked it to make a output of the various IP debuts by decade to see which IPs debuted when and which of them were on the list and where that list sort of clustered if you will. There was one graph that GPT spat out that showed that the highest number of entries on the list, over 30 entries on the list, debuted in 1980s. And that sort of reinforces our previous discussion about who the target demographic might be the target ideal customer. Me. That is what the market is telling us at least, is old white men. I want to just briefly make sure because I think that the way that the information has been presented to me, it looks to me like you presented question number two on a survey. And that question listed a lot of themes. Were there other questions that also listed themes or were other questions on the survey about other things than the theme itself? Question 1 was a demography question or something like that. Do you remember what the other questions on the survey were? The first question is what theme do you want to see and that was it. So it was just a write-in. Got it. Question 2 was this list. I don't know if they asked my demographic or not actually. I feel like they had to have but that's a good question. I wonder if it's linked to your insider connected account. Yeah, because of your because you have I didn't get this because I don't I'm not subscribed to Insider Connect. You got this because you are subscribed to Insider Connect, I think. It's mostly a lot of emails about how we're releasing 0.9 of version of their code. And it's like, how do you all launch with not 1.0? Like, hold on. Oh, that's that that's their business model. Oh, They regularly release machines at software version zero point and look there's probably a good reason for it you can't test it at the kind of scale that you're going to find the bugs. It's just it's it's a physical machine it's I don't I don't mean to attack them when I say they regularly do it it's part of their business model because it also there's a way in which it makes sense unless you want pinball machines to cost fifteen to twenty five thousand dollars in So, this was, so it was probably just those two questions. First, write in. Second, here's a list. Do you want to play it and do you want to buy it? Were the two options for each one. Cool. What, uh, what struck you about the charts? This Week at Pinball가락 Podcast. Termsldigt I'm a fan of the 90s. I'm a fan of my growing up years and in the 90s, which it's also kind of the 90s are just the next one down. And that's aimed at people my age. And we had at the time something more of a monoculture than we have now. Every household that had a TV in it that I was aware of when I was a kid watched the Cosby Show in the 80s. There is no such thing today. I think that there's something about that that might cause there to be more of a concentration for people, again, if they're marketing to me, and they probably are. It makes sense that there would be a large concentration in the 80s and that the 70s and 60s would have something of a push in that direction as well because it was even more true then. I mean cable TV didn't even exist by and large in the 70s and 60s so the monoculture was even more centralized. What machines did you like on the list or what other trends did you see that weren't just about age that were exciting to look at here? Exciting? I wasn't super sure. I did notice there was a lot of bands that I did not recognize or I had heard of like in passing. That's actually I think that's a really interesting point with the media thing. When you think about, because I grew up sort of when YouTube was sort of starting to happen and that's the sort of, I don't know, populist version of media. Everyone has a camera in their pocket nowadays. Anybody can make media. So the kind of media that a person consumes, I like that usage of it, monoculture. I mean, I could make Spongebob references all day when I was in college to the high school kids and they would get it. And nowadays there's so many different things that young people ** warning** **Warning**
    36:37
    I don't have a bunch of lists here, but one of the things that I wrote down that I thought was kind of stupid about this is I don't care if it says NFL or NCAA. If you give me a football pinball machine, it is completely irrelevant to me, to Benjamin Furiga. That said, maybe the NFL thing works because there are, I mean, you talk about where is the monoculture, the NFL is it. It's the top five rated TV shows on broadcast television every week during football season, right? I'm like it the NFL is the closest thing to a monoculture that the United States has at the moment other than the body politic itself and it is crazy to me that that brand makes a game about football more fun but I'm also not someone who wants to put it in my you know Philadelphia Eagles man cave right like I'm I'm not that person but that person is out there okay so I'm So I said, I wrote down a list that these are too old for me even. And I'm thinking more about retirement than the direction of my career. So like if it's too old for me, then your audience is pretty old. Just saying. Cheers, which I like, but it was, I was young and it was a show about a bar. Black Sabbath is a little old for me Slayer just a little old for me Grateful Dead is maybe a bad example because it again if there such a thing as a monoculture the Grateful Dead is the jam band and the jam band is the Grateful Dead The good, the bad, and the ugly, where the hell did that come from? Who the hell said we need a Sam fucking Peckinpah spaghetti western on the list of what the movie themes were? Who the hell came up with that? Is it just easy to license? Is it just easy to license? Is that the only reason it's on the fucking list? It's going to be free use in like a year. Right. Like, no, it's I mean, it's a long time till it'll be public domain. But but like, I mean, the answer to all your questions is money. Don Ulmeier, who formerly led or had a significant position at NBC News. Animal House is a little I'm a little too old for me. Conan the Barbarian is a little too old for me. And I wrote this one on three lists. Kenny Rogers is a little too old for me. That's my dad's favorite. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Kenny Rogers is a little too old for me. Kenny Rogers is a little too white for me. I wrote him on that list too. War summarize mitzvah of from the first oneanimated video of I'm just being a light reskin of Frontier. Yeah, sure. With Kenny's big face in the front. Yep. But yeah, those are too old even for me. My two white for me were Kevin Smith movies and Field of Dreams. I don't understand where that came from. Too stupid. Major League, the movie with Charlie Sheen.
    40:41
    Why? Portia? No. Love Boat. Musty. I mean, yeah, that that also Love Boat could also maybe be too old for me, except that I was allowed to stay up a little bit later on Saturday night after I got home from dinner after church. So I saw Love Boat sometimes when I was a kid. Forest Gump. As a pinball machine? I'm not really sure what they could do with that. They cast a pretty wide net here. There's a lot of stuff that just wouldn't work. John HughesFilms. In general? There is one that says like John HughesFilms and then parenthetically lists Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink. Do they include the very short-lived television version of Uncle Buck? Oh, Uncle Buck. Now that would be, Uncle Buck would be a good pinball machine, although it's IP that no one cares about. No one has cared about in a hundred years. Happy Gilmore? I mean... There's a homebrew out there. Okay. Yeah, I mean, some of these, some of these do have homebrews and some on the list, they've made. Right, some have been made. Yeah, there's a bunch. Deadpool, Pulp Fiction are relatively recent ones that I've noted. Dolly Parton is on the list. Dolly Parton is on the list, yeah. Although, you know, I'd be happy to take any other Dolly Parton game they want to put out too. That's that. I mean, yeah, that's a good one. I vote yes on Dolly Parton. Do it again. Let's have another. Exactly. In this politically divided time, actually, I'm fairly certain that Dolly Parton is the one thing that a vast majority of America can agree on. That we agree that she's good. Nice. Disney theme parks. Specifically Disney theme parks. Does that, I mean, everything at every Disney theme park has been turned into a movie. Right, yeah, seriously, like, like. Three hour wait for Space Mountain. Right, no, you get a fast pass though. You gotta hurry up, it's a three hour wait. Yeah, yeah, no, it's, it's, but you get a fast pass. You know? You get satirical real fast. If you, if you put in extra money, if you put in extra money for your credit, you can I'm going to have a fast pass. Right. It would be kind of cool if they made like a miniature, like Congo kind of looks like a landscape. It would be kind of cool, like one of those like architectural models of the Disney park. And you know, you could have like the Space Mountain Ramp and you could have like the bumper car bumpers or something or other. If they made Orbiter 1 into a 3D model of Walt Disney World, I would play the hell out of that. That's a world under glass. Yeah, that's right. Wide world of Disney under glass. Here's what I wrote down on my intriguing list, unless anyone wants to stop me. Keep going. Oregon Trail. The old fucking Apple IIe like disc, you know, like text-based game a la Zork. OregonTrail. I mean, I think they eventually made one with graphics too. I played that one. Yeah. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Could be interesting. Yeah, I would like that. Look, is it the seven evil exes? Or the seven exes? Seven evil exes. Yeah, yeah. I mean there is something that is very clearly built in and frankly, seven is the right number of shots across a two foot wide pinball playfield too. So like I think that there's already a synergy there, but I also think it's just a cool and fun IP personally. Yeah, personally, it also to be fair Let's let's recognize that the moment that someone defined for me the manic pixie dream girl Trope, I immediately understood that Ramona Flowers was the archetype Mm-hmm. It is it is impossible to separate that if If that is an important critical device, it is important to mention that Yes Final Fantasy is intriguing to me. A turn-based game as an action-based game. Yeah, it's a turn-based game, but also there's free roaming in between your turns, right? True. That's true. You build up a meter by getting hit a certain number of times that makes another shot, you know, really powerful.
    45:13
    There's some interesting stuff there. Me.パッキー andphenic I'm as I picture it. It's just beautiful gorgeous art. The Muppets is always going to intrigue me It doesn't matter where you package the Muppets or how you package the Muppets the numbers are always going to intrigue me again It's character per shot makes a lot of sense here and and you can easily find seven characters you want or you know a Certain number of characters that you want to feature you can easily play Pik Piperney, 그런его 인구 coaches pork rind não foi Ah true HASTA I don't know how to implement it, but I think it's interesting. I love seeing the global map. Is Monopoly the only board game? There's Dungeons and Dragons. Yeah, there is a Dungeons and Dragons although that's also paper and that's, you know, a paper and dice tabletop thing that may or may not be a board game as such. Like, that's often a theater of the mind thing without, you know, an actual board thing. I mean, I am intrigued by the idea of, you know, modern board games. I'm a big fan of the euro games. Terraforming Mars would be a brilliant, yes. Terraforming Mars? Yeah, Eric and I are both big fans. I played a video game port of it last night when I got in after South Slope Pinball League. I'd have to think pretty hard how you adapt that sort of thing for pinball. Yeah, I mean, with that many cards, that's hard. Yeah. But some of those... It's any sort of Euro game. Yeah. Could be. Could be. Yeah. That many cards is hard. I wrote down two that don't seem like they would go for me, but I find them very intriguing anyway. The first, and for me, for this to be intriguing, it would have to be based on the movie and not the toy, but Barbie, sign me right up. That'd be fucking awesome. Barbie the movie, the pinball machine, I would take it. I would choose it every time. Sign me up. I wish there were more brightly colored tables like that. Like, you know, the bright green of the Foo Fighters, you know, a bright pink table, right? Or like the bright blue and bright red of the Toy Story. I don't know, John. Yes. Can I talk you into a Circus Voltaire? Ooh. I do like all the lights. But interestingly, also, this next one, when you say a bright table, You can't do this not bright. Hello Kitty.
    48:55
    I think I would play the shit out of a Hello Kitty machine if it were in front of me. I'd like that. Yeah.
    49:05
    That would that's a popular IP. Yeah, I know nothing about Hello Kitty, but like, I don't know anything about Supreme and I didn't care about Supreme. I still don't. But I really like that pinball machine even though it is like a it is effectively the same thing as the Spiderman Home Edition. I want to see the Zelda. Like, you could have a nice bright green table and, you know, you could have three different characters like in Star Wars. You can play as Ganon or you can play as Zelda or Link. You know, everyone's playing Breath of the Wild nowadays. Doesn't matter your, you know, too much your age or your gender or whatever. Like, that would be a nice far-reaching table. One of the reasons I did not write Zelda down in the— oh, also, I'm not going to list them, but I wrote down a list of the ones that are targeted It's a list of about 120 machines and 55 of them are targeted exactly at me demographically. They're a band that was popular in high school or a movie that I watched in the theaters as a kid or whatever. It's about half of them. Looking at the whole lists, it's a lot of things to look at at once and it's a little overwhelming. I was just struck very much by the sameness of it all. A lot of hard rock and heavy metal. Yeah, these are just the exact commercial IPs you'd think if you had to list 120 of them that maybe you could buy. Here they are. Nothing made me super excited. There was a lot that I said, oh, that wouldn't work. I'm not sure if this is the right way to go. But, you know, maybe it's the cynicism of a long time pinball player. I don't know. I don't get too fussed with themes that the modern pinball companies are putting out. I'm much more interested in they're putting out a good pinball game. Same. Although it is obviously important from a marketing standpoint and in a way that we talk about expanding the 10. It's big. Yeah, we've talked about it before. This is how new people come in. They do see an IP and say, oh my gosh, I've got to play that. The dominance of Star Wars tables everywhere for operators as the big money drop. It obviously makes a big difference. Yep, and I also didn't write down Star Wars, for instance, as one of the ones that directly targets me despite the fact that, you know, the first one was released the year after I was born and I watched the other two in theaters. I'm just that asshole. I've never played Dungeons and Dragons, but I have played the Star Wars version of Dungeons and Dragons. I'm that asshole who is into that Star Wars stuff. But I also don't have, I have a lot of fun playing Stern's Star Wars, but I have a lot of fun playing Stern's Star Wars because of the action button moving the multiplier around and multiplier rules and not I'm not because I get to pretend I'm Han Solo. Yeah. I think it's hard because like, I like Deadpool. I like Deadpool because I like looking at the art. I like Deadpool because I know what to do. It's very obvious. I like Deadpool because you know when you're in a mode versus in a lobby. But if Deadpool was called like Rush or something, I don't think I would like it as much. I'm sorry to say I got into Jaws because it was blue. That's why I started playing all the time. It looks nice. It does. It's pretty. It's got flashing lights. It's pinball. And it's and that's a good looking pinball machine. Yeah, that's a good package. Yeah. Like you got to you do have to dress it somehow. I mean, Deadpool is an example of a really good theme integration game. They put a lot of Deadpool personality into that game. So you can take a theme and you can do it well. Yes. Absolutely. It's interesting how you bring up, Eric, the implementation of the theme because I'm thinking about that video I saw at the Pinball Expo of the homebrew of the Tony HawkPinball. Pro Skater. You could tell that the dude was very clearly able to marry the IP with the medium of what you can do on a pinball table. Your spinner that goes in both axes like a skateboard, your ability to do a bang back essentially to save the ball, calling that an ollie by putting a ramp on the left like drain, right? You can clearly see that this works. And regardless, I feel like there's There's like so many different variables you need to have a successful table that you're taking like 1% of 1% of 1% and I wonder if Stern has a good idea for what to do in the future because I don't I feel like if I was part of the creative team I could think of some cool ideas but not only would have to be a good IP you'd also have to get the licensing you'd also have to work it into the table you'd also have to get a good art package and style you'd also have to get the voices you also have to get the software to play right and And it feels like you're putting on a musical or something with all these different moving parts that I feel like this is just the tip of a conical iceberg that's upside down or something. Pinball is hard. Takes a village. Pinball is hard. No matter what it is, you're doing it. I wrote down some obvious omissions unless anyone has other things to say on these topics before we talk about that. Let's talk about that. Let's hear. Okay. One of the problems, I wrote down a lot of music themes. And one of the problems with a music theme is that in order to be a proven marketable music IP, like licensed property, you have to have a kind of long track record. It is in the place Madeline where we see the bell curve that goes drastically down. It is necessary. Even though it's 2024. It is necessary that there's almost nothing from 2010. There's almost nothing at all from the 2020s. Right? It just in order for for Stern to even have considered putting the name on this. And so that's one of the problems that we at least have to think about when we think about music, but it is also K assets will blow up!
    56:31
    The way like the whole genre listen run DMC was hip hop was the programming of yo MTV raps along with LL Cool J. It's impossible to me that those two names are not on there with all the old white guy bands on there. And some younger hip hop Dre is there Snoop is there Eminem is there all of those are Dre properties by I also wrote down MC Hammer although I did not love him and if we're going Oakland I would prefer Digital Underground from that era which would at least be interesting no one cares about anything but the Humpty Dance probably to this day. But Tupac, who was a backup dancer for Digital Underground, that's how he started his career. Biggie Ice T Big Daddy Kane it impossible to me that you know Eminem is on that list and those names aren There are a lot of classic rock names on there but these names do not appear James Brown Parliament Funkadelic There are female voices solo every one of them solo on the list Not many They all older than this but I would say that Lady Gaga Yeah, Britney, Katy Perry, and Mariah Carey should all be on this list, and they are not. There are zero boy bands on the list. And I would argue that BTS, NSYNC, and the Backstreet Boys at a minimum should be on the list. Oh, a BTS pinball table, that would sell. That would totally sell. That would bring two polar opposite tents together. Uh-huh. A BTS pinballmachine would be the biggest selling band pinballmachine in the past 15 years. Oh, that's a very good idea.
    58:42
    I think that Lizzo and Janelle Monae are too new to to sort of register here, but I think that in a way, like if we're talking about a new artist who might have something that to me they're next up. I wrote down sports. We talked about it. I don't care about the... But Huey Lewis and the News album? Oh, yeah. Huey Lewis and the News would be... I mean, look. Oh, sports. That was just a joke on sports. It's good. It's good. It's good. Also, Huey Lewis and the News doesn't appear on that list. That's probably okay. I don't think we're clamoring for it. But in sports. Pickleball. That is getting popular apparently that's the new like golf when you're like a business person right so like learn a thing to learn how to Negotiate outside of the boardroom. Yeah, you want to learn pickleball now instead of golf MMA? Oh, we could get a modern punch out or a modern champion pub. Yeah a modern champion pub But but maybe you know less racist. Yeah, let's definitely less racist, but also Also, you know, you can, depending on the style of your fighter, you can have different combinations that do better things, right? If your fighter is a, you know, Muay Thai, then there's one way to play the game. And if your fighter is a, you know, kickboxer, then there's one way to play that. Like, I think there's an interesting way to build a game with the software that we can apply to this physical thing now. I have, um, um, well, there's, like, rushdown, there's Shoto, there's Zoner for, for your different, like, 2D fighter games. Knapp Arcade is a game where you can choose to play the fast car that has bad handling or the slow car that has good handling. What if you could customize your table a little bit? There are some games that have various modes that affect how the flippers play, but I am really intrigued by your idea of physically changing the flippers somehow. That could conceivably be possible. But you know, so for example, Jersey Jack's The WizardOfOz has a mode with no hold flippers. Yeah. So you can't hold them up. It's got a mode where the flippers are extra soft and it's hard to make shots. It's got a mode where the flippers are extra snappy. And the ballroom plots. And you know, so what, Ghostbusters reverses the flippers for uh, what, Mass Hysteria? Mass Hysteria. I wrote down board and video games. I wrote down two that I thought were omitted here. Uh, and one is a style. Uh huh. I'd be real interested in a rhythm game type, like in how you could make a theme for a rhythm game work on a pinball machine. I think that it may have to do with stopping the ball at the flippers a la the post set jaws and like hitting combinations in a short amount of time because I don't think that trusting that you're actually going to make the ball go over one particular switch that is up and around a bend at exactly the moment on a beat, I don't think that that's realistic. But I think that there could be some way to make an The Multimorphic games have that interesting line of scoops just above the video board and I believe there's like a software module that plays some sort of like breakout game But I could see some sort of adaption there I also wrote down just and and this is actually legitimately an IP thing that I feel like Should have been on this list Golden T. Oh Oh, if you're gonna if you're gonna make another game into a game, I mean, golden tea is is just pulling, pulling a ball in one direction and then pushing it in another direction. And you can do things that curve it, you know, and push it in different directions. But there are, you know, a relatively small number of combinations and you can make that they already turned big buck hunter into a ball machine. Yeah. Yeah. And it and it sucks. Knapp, the guy who's got a working relationship, let's say. Yeah, exactly. And it stinks. That's terrible. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. You get to hit a deer. My dad would really like that. He always gets very mad at the deer every year.
    63:37
    They always eat all his flowers. Uh-huh. Too bad. Well, now I want to know more about the process, like start to finish of designing one, like a whole table. Because I've seen a few videos, like a Steve Ritchie video about making the third Black Knight, and it's like, here's a drawing on pencil. Okay, here's most of a table Sidney Brown, I think that's a story that a lot of people are excited about and one that would play well. Maybe particularly right at this moment because I think there's a second or third one that's just been released, right? And it's a POC thing. My Little Pony. It's impossible to me that My Little Pony was not on this list but Barbie and Hello Kitty were. I if if those two titles were not on here, I could understand that my little pony was not on here. But it's impossible to me that my little pony was not on here. And those two were, I bet some dude was like, we are not doing my little pony will be laughed out of every board and shareholder meeting for the rest of the decade. That's right. I wrote down one other movies and TV thing, which is Twin Peaks that I think should have been on the list. I don't know that David Lynch, I can see it going either way. I can see David Lynch being incredibly excited about someone trying to reimagine that story as a pinball machine and I can see him being bemused by the idea of licensing it to someone else, of letting go of the storytelling. But I feel like that's one, with all the things that are on there that started in the 80s or 90s, That pitch to someone like me, Twin Peaks has a massive following and would sell really well, even to not pinball people, I think.
    65:52
    And then the Gen Z and Xennial version of that would be a Gravity Falls table. And then that also has so many of those like Easter egg and things and like, like we should totally get like a like a mystery, you know, play this table. Well, at this time to unlock this event or see this message, you know how Stern has like badges and stuff for like different weeks. Like you could have a whole like series of Easter eggs to get a secret code. And then at the end of like a year, you could input the final secret code and you can unlock a new mode on that table or something or other. New video mode, maybe even. Yeah. Yes. That's everything I wrote down about this list. I thought I thought it was it was really interesting the way you broke it down. We noticed a couple of I'm a fan of the things that or at least one thing that chat GPT did which was take ghost the band and turn it into ghost the movie in terms of some of the what you see in some of the graphs and whatnot there. But I didn't notice other things and I kind of only skimmed it but it's really the data points as laid out visually are really interesting. This Week in Pinball, Game of Thrones unintertainly shows the age of what they are trying to make. Whether or not that directly represents the people they're trying to sell to, though I imagine it does. It might have to do with licensing the things, too. But it's, there's a clear age to it. What else did you see, Madeline, that was interesting to you? The Sonic table. Again, the sort of idea of implementation. Sonic is a round character and you're playing a round game. And how many spinners are there going to be? How many spinners are there going to be on Sonic the Hedgehog? Like there have to be so many spinners. Like that could work. I would love to see if they could get a saucer where they could like spin the ball and put like backspin on it and then it'll shoot it back out at you or something like how Sonic is actually rolling. There's a Sonic Spinball homebrew that a couple years ago was shown at Chicago Expo and at the same time one of the companies and I think it was American Pinball but I can't remember if it might have been Chicago Gaming Company also announced a thing where they were going to be like picking homebrews that were shown at I'm a designer and making their game commercially. I think if I'm remembering the details right, like they picked the sonic spinball guy have hired him as a designer and were unable to get the sonic license. Oh, Angry Birds is also on here. Yes, Angry Birds. That one I could see working because like you're launching stuff and and you could have it like the um what's the light gun game the crash Tash whatnot um at the Barcade Williamsburg um quick and quick and quick and quick and crash you could have some stand-ups that collapse like buildings and then quickly reform like you're actually launching the birds at the building like that could be pretty cool yeah a league of legends I think would be sorta weird. I mean like is is that is that like that's like a party fighting game kind of League of Legends
    69:40
    Is what's called a MOBA and that is a sort of top-down? Multiplayer online battle arena. Yes got it and you're looking down at the arena and you're clicking to control one character and each game takes like I'm a fan of the game. I've played it for like 40 minutes and nobody likes League of Legends. Even if you win, you get mad at League of Legends apparently. And does only one person in that arena win after those 40 minutes? Teams win. I see. Okay. So you're playing either lower left corner or upper right corner and you have to fight in lanes and you have to kill bots to power up your character and the progression is all over one match so you have to choose do I want more armor, more health, more speed, I want to do these alternate abilities or these alt, these ultimate abilities. It's kind of like a tower defense game, if you will, with that sort of symmetrical setup. But that one also seems like kind of a left field thing. I mean, maybe that's another one of those. It's easy to license because they made a TV show. Yeah, I imagine there's something there's something like that in a lot of these that like there's a multipurpose to it. And so because there was a but because the IP hit two different places, two different mediums. Narrator, The Portal video game could be interesting as a pinball game. There's a video game called IkaRUGA, I-K-A-R-U-G-A, where you flip between either a light energy ship or a dark energy ship and you have to flip your ship repeatedly to move between light and dark obstacles and shoot light and dark enemies. And I could see Portal doing that with blue and orange. You know, you have to hit some standups in a certain order to make those blue versus those orange Or you could have a spectrum type thing where the ball teleports like in portal and you could open up different avenues to move your ball like in the specter, but it would be portal based instead of Yeah, shadow. Thank you. Yeah Metroid could also be a really good ball based game because you know, Metroid same with Pac-Man. Yeah the Minecraft I don't really that that's that's too far apart. I don't I don't think those those would work well. Do you think it's just because Minecraft is all cubes and and pinball is all spheres? The overlap between Minecraft people and pinball people has to be like a complete like figure eight. I don't I don't know how much of a middle ground there would be for that. You know, I've played a I'm going to get a little bit of the game, but I feel like that has so much like Gen Alpha appeal and that is like not at all the current demographic. I hope they lean more into the sort of Eastern themes. Again, not that I'm biased, but the hell in addition to the Hello Kitty, you could also have the Voltron and the I saw they had a one piece, right? That could unify a couple different tents as well. What's one piece? Forget it. Okay, quick aside. The world of manga is so much more complex than the world of Western comics. The median manga is so much better than the median American comic. To create a manga, you have to draw, write, letter, ink, like all of it, just you. Whereas you look at like a pinball table or you look at a comic book made in Western media like a Marvel, there's like 20 names. Whereas manga is like story and art. And writing and everything by this one dude who's like super stressed because you have to make a monthly deadline. You need a new chapter a month. So one piece is the longest running manga ever. One dude for the past like 20, 30 years since since the big three one piece Bleach and Naruto came out has been making a chapter a month following Luffy and his friend of pirates. A one piece table would be like a Neon Genesis Evangelion. talibanpozu,
    73:47
    and by I'm a fan. It is right. It keeps going. It, you know, when has it stopped in the last 30 years? 40? Almost 50. The name of the soap opera that Marge watches on the Simpsons. Like housework, it never ends. Yup. It's about right for Doctor Who. Side note, I actually looked it up. Ichiro Oda has been making weekly shonen jumps since July 22, 1997. The man has made a chapter a week, weekly shonen jump since 1997. He now makes a chapter maybe every two or three weeks. But a 27, this is the longest running manga ever. This manga is just a month or two. This manga is just slightly younger than me. This is an immensely popular series that has a great art style, well recognized by a lot of different people, would bring together a lot of different tints. Well, to all our lovely listeners out there, feel free to peruse this list and comment down below what you think your ideal pinball theme would be. Even if you didn't have a chance to take the survey, let us know in the comments below. Like and subscribe and we'll see you next time. You're an NYC PinPod insider.
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    That's all for this week's pot. I'd like to first point out a couple of errata that I noticed when editing this episode. I said that Sam Peckinpah directed The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but Sergio Leone did. And I would also like to recognize that I somehow omitted from the obvious omissions of themes Beyonce. That's an impossible omission. Join us next week when we'll run down local competition results, The Final Week of PinballNYC. In Ball 2, I think we're just going to talk about our experience at the Harvest, Eric and me. And then in Ball 3, I'm not too sure what's going to happen just yet, but there will be some content there. Thank you for listening. I appreciate you. Have a great week, and whatever you're up to out there, go get them, pinball.
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    Kon unit, 26- Ji Meier lagpl 맛있 trainings, Timcase to baluchavsersen &