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The Pinball Podcast Episode 222 - Schaumcago Treadmills

The Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 13m·analyzed·Oct 30, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Labyrinth steals Pinball Expo; Pinball Olympics delivers unforgettable experiential fun.

Summary

Jess recounts experiences at Chicago Pinball Expo and Pinball Olympics in the Schaumburg area. While Pinball Expo was disappointing from a business perspective, she highlights Labyrinth (Barrels of Fun) as the standout game with exceptional build quality and gameplay, plus Sean Irby's homebrew 8 Ball Beyond. Pinball Olympics, however, emerges as the clear winner—a creative, inclusive event hosted by Jay featuring heavily customized machines with unique physical challenges, food, and entertainment that exceeded expectations.

Key Claims

  • Labyrinth from Barrels of Fun feels like a mid-'90s Bally Williams machine with smooth gameplay and solid build quality, not clunky like remakes

    high confidence · Jess speaking from hands-on experience at multiple machines throughout the day at Pinball Expo

  • Jersey Jack Pinball improved flipper strength in Elton John based on community feedback from previous games

    high confidence · Jess observed marked improvement in flipper feel on Elton John compared to earlier JJP titles

  • Barrels of Fun revealed Labyrinth only when games were boxed and ready to ship, showing confidence in product maturity

    high confidence · Jess praising the strategic reveal approach for a new manufacturer entering the market

  • Pinball Expo had poor business placement and game count but featured all new releases

    high confidence · Jess's direct experience; she notes the show was 'not good from a business perspective' but games were available to play

  • Labyrinth was designed with input from Phil Grimaldi and Steve Bowen on rules using science-based learning principles

    medium confidence · Jess mentions their collaboration and notes Bowen's science background applied to rule design for approachability and depth

  • Sean Irby's 8 Ball Beyond homebrew won best homebrew at the show

    high confidence · Jess confirms the award and notes the trophy contains resin she cast

  • Pinball Olympics includes free food from a taco truck and complimentary drinks served by shirtless attendants

    high confidence · Jess's firsthand account of the event experience; ticket price includes all of this

  • Elton John is a slow-song heavy album with themes that may not translate well to pinball gameplay energy

    medium confidence · Jess's opinion on gameplay fit; speculative about location appeal but observes song pacing challenges

Notable Quotes

  • “Labyrinth was the big hit... it's not like Jersey Jack where like the flippers feel off and it doesn't nothing feels cheap on it”

    Jess @ ~15:30 — Core positive assessment of Labyrinth vs. historical JJP flipper issues; establishes game as market standout

  • “The gameplay is so smooth, and the game feels so solid... It's like all Bally Williams parts, and it feels like a mid-'90s Bally Williams when you shoot it... it's just really hard to beat that.”

    Jess @ ~18:00 — High praise for Labyrinth's mechanical feel; establishes design philosophy comparison to classic era

  • “even so, I mean, congrats to everyone who's involved with it. But Phil Grimaldi and Bowen working together on rules and stuff... knowing how people learn and absorb information and applying that to pinball rules i think is really very smart”

    Jess @ ~32:15 — Highlights designer pedigree and rule design philosophy; credits Grimaldi and Bowen's approach to balancing accessibility and depth

  • “everyone who is trying to naysay just stop there you don't have to be negative about things you don't have to say nay”

    Jess @ ~35:00 — Defensive of Labyrinth against online critics; suggests community pushback exists but is unjustified

  • “It was the best and craziest day. It was so good... that's one of the most fun I can't say tournaments but like kind of tournaments that I've ever, ever participated in.”

    Jess @ ~55:00 — Strong endorsement of Pinball Olympics as experiential event; frames it as superior to traditional tournament structure

  • “If we're talking bucket list items, I would actually say Pinball Olympics is ahead of Pinball Expo. I know that everyone should see Pinball Expo at some point, but I would like if I had to choose between the two, I'd take Pinball Olympics for sure.”

    Jess @ ~80:00 — Explicit ranking of Pinball Olympics over the traditionally prestigious Pinball Expo; challenges community expectations

  • “I wouldn't go back business-wise to Pinball Expo. However, I will absolutely go back to pinball olympics.”

Entities

JesspersonJeffpersonPaul DanielpersonDr. JohnpersonSean IrbypersonDavidpersonPhil GrimaldipersonSteve Bowen

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball Expo has poor vendor placement and game count despite being industry's major annual show; not viable for business purposes despite prestige

    high · It was not good from a business perspective... we just you know it was not a good business decision to go but it was nice to see everybody and get to play some new games

  • ?

    community_signal: Sean Irby (homebrew designer) maintains transparent design process with public progress videos and actively incorporates community feedback from shows

    medium · He has been posting progress videos... it'll look like everything's like all done and perfect. And then he'll go back and be like, oh, I can make this better... really pushing constantly to improve it and taking everyone's feedback

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Olympics provides comprehensive event experience (food, beverages, entertainment, creative installations) that generates strong community loyalty and repeat attendance interest

    high · Everything was included... The ticket price includes all of this... one hell of an event... I want to go back again

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Elton John's slow-song heavy soundtrack creates gameplay pacing/tone misalignment; questions whether theme supports location play success despite theme prestige

    medium · there are so many slow songs in Elton John i don't know how you flipped a Candle in the Wind... something in my brain goes, Nope, this isn't the way that this goes

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Labyrinth rules designed with scientific/pedagogical approach (Grimaldi + Bowen) balancing approachability for casual play with depth for serious competition

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.221

0:00
you're listening to the pinball podcast episode 222 right it's a nice number it feels good it does it's a nice accomplish something you can read it one way you can read the other way you can start in the middle and then read the edges and it's all the same oh you're so smart i love it 222 hi jeff hi jess how's it going oh it's going just great it's a sunday wonderful to hear yeah yeah it is a sunday so i'm getting that like end of weekend anxiety but it's been a good Sunday. So I'm also feeling good Sunday, like contentment vibes. So I like that. That's good. I, I don't have any kind of traditional work week schedule. So I worked like 11 hours yesterday, so it didn't feel like Saturday. Um, but today has been like catch up on a little rest day, which I've been greatly enjoying. Oh yeah. Catching up on rest. it's about the best thing you can do these days it doesn't happen often enough no this has actually been a weekend where I've been digging a rest deficit and so I'm going to pay for that tomorrow yes you are and it's going to be expensive the cost is high well aside from you resting properly me not. What else have you been up to?
1:58
Oh, you know, just did a little thing called the Chicago Pinball Expo, which is not in Chicago. It's in Schaumburg. So I take issue with the name.
2:11
But it was interesting. So it was a road trip situation. And I will very quickly say, side note, I pushed us to drive from Florida to Paducah, Kentucky to stop. So it was like a 12 and a half hour drive the first day because there's a Top Chef contestant who I love and I've wanted to go eat at her restaurant for forever and Paducah was along the route. So I said, hey, let's go through Paducah. And it was unfortunately like a fairly disappointing. There were a couple of things that were stellar, but the things that weren't stellar were terrible. So I was overall just feeling kind of, um, but the next day got to get up to Schaumburg and my friend Daniel from Brisbane was there and helped us load in and set up, um, delivered the flippy trophies that we made. So I wasn't really talking about them beforehand, but if you see pictures from expo of people saying, oh, we won, you know, best booth or best whatever. And they've got a picture of a little gold flippy trophy. We made those. So that was a learning experience because I've never done resin casting.

Jess put a deposit down on a Labyrinth machine

high confidence · Direct statement: 'so I am really excited about that game to the point where we did put a deposit down on one'

  • Pinball Olympics features a No Good Gophers machine with costumed gopher characters that provide commentary/trash talk

    high confidence · Jess's detailed description of attending and playing the machine at the event

    • Jess @ ~47:00 — Clear delineation of business vs. experience value; establishes Pinball Olympics as worth returning despite Expo's commercial failure

  • “Sean Irby he has made a game called 8 Ball Beyond... it's a combination of 8 Ball, 8 Ball The Champ, and 8 Ball Deluxe in space... it is so much fun... I cannot wait for more people to play this game.”

    Jess @ ~39:00 — Identifies notable homebrew game combining classic themes; shows enthusiasm for grassroots design innovation

  • “all of the work that Jay puts into pinball olympics he should get a medal I was going to say a medal, not just a pinball olympics medal, like a presidential one.”

    Jess (responding to Jeff) @ ~60:00 — Recognition of event organizer's effort; establishes Pinball Olympics as a significant community contribution

  • “The TNA bunker... makes you feel like you're on drugs. just being in that room it was a lot and everything was so great”

    Jess @ ~76:00 — Descriptive of immersive sensory experience at Pinball Olympics; illustrates event's experiential design philosophy

    • person
    Jayperson
    Matt Scott Danesiperson
    Joshperson
    Markperson
    Rachelperson
    Caleperson
    Kyleperson
    Rebeccaperson
    Jack Dangerperson
    Labyrinthgame
    Elton Johngame
    8 Ball Beyondgame
    Barrels of Funcompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Chicago Pinball Expoevent
    Pinball Olympicsevent

    medium · knowing how people learn and absorb information and applying that to pinball rules... it's a game that's really approachable but it's also a game that can go really deep

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Olympics has emerged as more valuable experiential event than traditional Pinball Expo, with Jess explicitly ranking it higher on bucket list despite Expo's historical prestige

    high · If we're talking bucket list items, I would actually say Pinball Olympics is ahead of Pinball Expo... I would like if I had to choose between the two, I'd take Pinball Olympics for sure

  • ?

    leak_detection: Sean Irby's 8 Ball Beyond homebrew has generated community interest through publicly shared progress videos and show attendance; represents emerging homebrew game gaining traction

    medium · He actually did a lot of videos... he has been posting progress videos of everything... really interesting... I cannot wait for more people to play this game

  • ?

    announcement: Elton John (Stern) shows improved flipper response based on JJP community feedback from previous titles; represents responsiveness to player complaints

    high · the flippers definitely feel a marked improvement over previous games with their flippers... I'm so glad that Jersey Jack Pinball took feedback on their flipper strength

  • ?

    product_strategy: Jersey Jack Pinball describes Elton John as 'most standard' layout in company's history—simpler shot-focus design vs. previous complex/unusual layouts, potentially aimed at broader market

    medium · this is like the most non-weird or non-crazy Jersey Jack Pinball layout... It's more shot focus and less like Louis centric

  • ?

    product_concern: Labyrinth received universal praise with no notable quality complaints; Jess explicitly notes even online trolls struggle to find faults, suggesting exceptionally high build and mechanical standards for a new manufacturer

    high · there's not a lot that you can find to say bad about it. Even I feel like the trolls are struggling to say bad things about Labyrinth

  • ?

    business_signal: Barrels of Fun delayed public reveal of Labyrinth until production readiness and shipment stage—confidence strategy for unproven manufacturer entering market

    high · they revealed it only when the game was in boxes ready to ship out to people... they have games and they are literally shipping right now

  • ?

    technology_signal: Barrels of Fun (new manufacturer) successfully implemented classic Bally/Williams mechanical design philosophy and flipper mechanics, contrasting with contemporary Stern designs that players perceive as too aggressive/fast

    high · It's like all Bally Williams parts, and it feels like a mid-'90s Bally Williams when you shoot it... it's just really hard to beat that early to mid-90s Bally Williams feel

    • 3:32
    But we hid pinballs in the bases to make them heavier. It was just a weird thing to do. So did those, delivered those. It was an interesting show. I've never been to Expo before. Have you been to Expo? No, that's the one like major show I have not been to. So everyone always says you should go at least once because that's where they have the biggest seminars and talks and history and all that. But somehow I've just never made it out to it. Yeah, it was something. It was something. It was not good from a business perspective. so yeah i've heard that i've heard that also it's not the best from like a just casually playing perspective um because just the game count isn't as high yeah but they had everything as far as the new stuff goes at least to check out yes yeah you could play all of the new stuff um you know they had a bunch of seminars which i wasn't anywhere near the seminar area for most of the time and they had some tournaments and stuff going on but The tournaments were, as they tend to be at shows, very far away from where the show is happening. So I don't really get to see any of my friends who are playing in tournaments because they're just in their space and we're over in ours. So a bubble. Yeah, bubbles. We're in our separate bubbles.
    5:00
    So didn't get to see a ton of people who were doing tournament stuff, which is sad because, you know, I like to be able to catch up with everybody. but did try to grab as many of them as I can to say hello because I've missed everybody very much.
    5:17
    So that was I got to see Rachel and Kale from over at Electric Bat, which is awesome. And Kyle, who's over at Stern now and Rebecca is over at Stern and Jack was there. So lots of friends to see and catch up with. And that part was awesome. the business soft plunge double danger portion we were just in a really bad spot placement wise so we just you know it was not a good business decision to go but it was nice to see everybody and get to play some new games were you keeping an eye on all of the games that were being released yes I was and I'm to tell you from a distance, just my little, what I could get from crappy cell phone footage and just impressions from people. It looked like Elton John was a pleaser, but Labyrinth was the big hit.
    6:20
    A hundred percent. It was the star of the show. It was, we talked about this, how the theme, you know, it's a great theme, how it looked really beautiful, but with a new company, you never know actually what you're going to get or, you know, build quality or any of those things. So that was pretty much the first thing that we were looking at and checking out was when they were setting up, Daniel and I went over and we were trying not to get in their way, but we're watching them unbox games.
    6:52
    You're like finger tight testing. Yeah. Just, yeah. Is there, you guys need help with anything? No. as you're walking around the back of the cabinet you hear this loud whack on the wood whack seems sturdy enough i thought you were going to say that was the whack of them like hitting my fingers with a ruler as i went to go touch it that came later that also could have been don't touch the plastics please um but it was pretty great because uh dr john friend of the show dr john uh friend in life Dr. John, his game was there and had the topper and the mirrored back glass and the shooter rod. So he got all the goodies with it.
    7:39
    So Daniel and I got to play the first game on Dr. John's machine. So we played split flipper and a little video to him. What's that? Did you crack a plastic? We did not crack anything, including probably a score because, you know, first game. You know what? I give John a hard time. He doesn't deserve cracked plastics in his machine. No, he does not. He is, you know, he's the best. And if anyone wants, like, real deep background on Labyrinth and Barrels of Fun, which is the new company that is producing Labyrinth, Dr. John's Aussie Pinball Podcast has a really great in-depth interview with David from Barrels of Fun. Oh, nice. I didn't get to meet and bother the whole time I was there. Sorry.
    8:31
    I was getting a bunch of people to order the games who weren't there to play it for themselves and who were asking how it flipped and stuff. So I think I had like eight different people I knew that I convinced to buy a game. And I would always run over and be like, look, another sale.
    8:46
    Trying to get myself a commissioned sales job. You're a labyrinth pinball influencer now. Enabler. I'm going to say enabler.
    8:58
    I'm not going to say influencer, but definitely enabler because it lives up to the hype. So I know there have been a lot of people kind of trying to trying to detract from it online. But there's not a lot that you can find to say bad about it. Even I feel like the trolls are struggling to say bad things about Labyrinth. And a lot of it comes down to, oh, it's not necessarily a theme for me. And that's fine. Yeah. The gameplay is so smooth, and the game feels so solid. It's like all Bally Williams parts, and it feels like a mid-'90s Bally Williams when you shoot it. And it doesn't feel like a remake, because the remakes feel clunky in certain ways. Right, yeah, for sure.
    9:46
    It doesn't feel like that. And that's probably one of the most encouraging things you could say, because I really, I like how certain aspects of all the different pinball systems out there, but it's just really hard to beat that, you know, early to mid-90s Bally Williams feel. It's just so hard to beat that, where everything felt consistent and everything felt controllable. I don't know. It's just the flipper feel, the way the mechs kicked, everything just is so, they had it so perfected. Yeah, it felt solid. You didn't, you weren't playing those games thinking, oh, well, this feels off or this is rattling here, you know, because you just played it and it played great and it was smooth and wonderful. Yeah, the ball goes around the corner correctly. yeah you weren't talking about like um balls flying because it's going crazy fast like the stern builds like your old man rants from last week um and it's not like jersey deck where like the flippers feel off and it doesn't nothing feels cheap on it and i love the way that they revealed it only when the game was in boxes ready to ship out to people yeah that was a good move for a new company that's a really smart thing to do it's so smart and you know that i love pulp fiction i love it but they there have hardly been any shipped out yet so when you come into the market as a new company and you're like yep we have games and they are literally shipping right now and they've already been play tested and here they are at the show and you know we're not really having any problems with them. And if they did, they were transparent. Like, you know how show power can be weird sometimes. So the power was higher earlier in the day and then they dropped the flipper power down. And then later in the day, as the flippers were getting weaker, they had to bump them back up because the show power was deep. Power at a show is always problematic. So just some things that they were navigating there, but are now very aware of and handled beautifully. So I didn't just play it in the morning. or during vendor time or getting into line early at the hall. I played it at night. In the evening, they had an event upstairs where they had even more labyrinth machines and played it up there. So I've played on a whole bunch of different ones at different times of the day after different amounts of play, and they all feel amazing. so I am really excited about that game to the point where we did put a deposit down on one yay I'm jealous and excited for you have to come over I'm going to have a labyrinth party perfect everybody's excited can we just get someone to sneak into the code a hidden bowie and space track um that would be amazing but i don't know if that would be you know uh possible lawsuits i'll do it you know someone will do it everybody you know comes up with their own ways of messing with stuff but if they keep doing music pins and themes of times who have gone past why can't we get a concords pin yeah okay speaking of music i'm gonna jump really quickly because when you're talking about music pins elton john comes out there are so many slow songs in elton john i don't know how you flipped a candle in the wind or tidy dancer right it's just it's just like something in my brain goes, Nope, this isn't the way that this goes because most of the time when I'm playing pinball in my mind, it's just like a disco Inferno, but it was just, and there were some great tracks in there. Yeah. You could tell that just from the trailer, like Benny and the jets looked perfect for it. And tiny dancer looked really weird for it.
    14:09
    Yeah. I don't know. Like Saturday night's all right for fighting. Great. Crocodile rock. I thought was going to be cheesy, but it was like in a fun way. I didn't like the toy, the little crocodile.
    14:21
    Yeah. I mean, it was a fun game. It wasn't something where I felt like super compelled to stand in crazy line for it over and over again. I played it like three times. Yeah. And, you know, the flippers definitely feel better. So I'm so glad that Jersey Jack took feedback on their flipper strength and did something about it because the flippers definitely you can feel a marked improvement over previous games with their flippers. And everyone's saying that this is kind of like the most standard as far as a Jersey Jack layout has ever been.
    14:59
    I wouldn't say flowy because I think both Dialed In and Wonka both flow really well. Wonka has some insane combos, actually. but this is like the most non-weird or non-crazy i guess jersey jack is gone i i would probably say that yeah it's more shot focus and less like toy centric yeah like they weren't throwing eight million things in but everything's glitter yeah i could see that i could see while people were playing it it just looked like people were off to the side, like, shining light through a prism, creating, like, a rainbow color effect on the person's face while they're playing. It is just color on color with that thing.
    15:45
    A hundred percent. They didn't go with our topper idea. They did not. But the topper looks cool. Yeah, that's fine. There was a little projection thing coming off the top of, I guess, the collectors, but they had this like white circle thing over the game. So you were supposed to be able to see it, but I don't know if it was because of convention hall lighting. You just couldn't see, or I couldn't see what it was supposed to be projecting.
    16:17
    But it was an interesting, it was interesting that the way that they were trying to show it. So it was, I mean, I'm glad that I got to play it. I don't know.
    16:29
    It's a weird one for like a location game, you know i don't know how it would go over it's hard i'm not an operator so i don't tend to think in those ways but i do take care of games on location and seeing the ones that get played more than others i just don't i can't anticipate how an elton john would do that's kind of how i felt about the godfather as well it's like yes classic film one of the best of time but is it exciting is it yeah it's like i gotta go i don't know i it seems like to me godfather may or may not have that draw but it looks like it was built for the home where it's crazy on the rules and all that stuff yeah and it looks like elton john might be a little pullback a little more uh location friendly i would say but yeah i'm with you i don't know if that theme supports that um or not i guess i'll have to see yeah but i will say i'm they're definitely gonna hit a sweet spot audience with you get like some hardcore elton john fans out there who have been forever and ever who have money and like collect things like that and that's going to be a showpiece for them for sure it's going to be something that you're going to have a lot of non-pinball people probably buying into because of the theme of Elton John. Yeah, I can see that. It'd also be cool for collectors to throw one of those next to a Captain Fantastic or something. It'd be... to see the difference in time between those releases is crazy. Yeah, the evolution between the two.
    18:10
    It's a massive step. It's not like Elvira's where you see, okay, here's three clear different eras. Yeah. Oh my God they threw this machine into space and it came back through a time machine And now here we are Yeah That that pretty pretty wild The the time between the two So, well, I'm glad you, um, I'm glad you got the timing on labyrinth. Cause that was just perfect timing for that to roll out for you. Um, Elton John. Yeah. I just, I want to flip on it, but I'm way more excited about labyrinth as well. Just from someone who's just observing at this point. Yeah, I will say everyone be excited about Labyrinth because it's incredible. And even so, I mean, congrats to everyone who's involved with it. But Phil Grimaldi and Bowen working together on rules and stuff just fills background with like, you know, science background. knowing how people learn and absorb information and applying that to pinball rules i think is really very smart because it's a game that's really approachable but it's also a game that can go really deep so it has a great balance of just being able to walk up to it and flip and then also going deeper into a rule set so they had a great balance with it so fun to play can't i'll stop gushing about labyrinth now but everyone who is trying to naysay just stop there you don't have to be negative about things you don't have to say nay oh everyone say yay pinball yay oh gosh i set myself up for that one bringing it back um okay but the other yes and pulp fiction was there and i love playing it again it was kind of quiet and that game i think really needs to be bumped up because the music is great um but my other highlight game of the show was in the homebrew area okay and there it was not elf was not there um this was from a seattle pinball player named sean irby he has made a game called eight ball beyond okay have you heard about this? I heard it mentioned, but I did not get a chance to look it up. So tell me the deets. So 8 Ball Beyond is a combination of 8 Ball, 8 Ball Champ, and 8 Ball Deluxe in space. Oh, in space. In space. Pool is far more exciting when you remove gravity.
    20:57
    Right, but also you think of classic non-licensed pinball themes, a ton of space themes, a ton of like billiard themes. Weird mashups of space too, like Future Spa. Yes. Space Cowboys. And it is so much fun. It's so much fun. We got to play a game with Sean and this is the second show that he's brought the game out to. He brought it to the Northwest show because that's his local. This is the first trip that he's taken with it. And it held up nicely. He was always in the area, like, talking to people and showing them things, and it was so much fun to play.
    21:37
    I cannot wait for more people to play this game. I'll have to look it up. Maybe it'll make its way down to Texas?
    21:44
    That would be great. Look it up for sure. He actually did a lot of videos. I don't know if it's on YouTube or we should find a link and put it, But he has been posting progress videos of everything that he's been doing and building this machine from the start. And they're really interesting. And then it'll look like everything's like all done and perfect. And then he'll go back and be like, oh, I can make this better, which is really encouraging and wonderful to see a designer being so open with their process and then really pushing constantly to improve it and taking everyone's feedback of the show. but it was just like joyful to play. I love it. And I'm so happy for him. And, uh, he won best homebrew. So well-deserved trophy that, um, contains some of my blood and definitely some tears from when I was trying to make those. But, um, yeah, no, that was, that was my other game highlight. Very cool. I hope it shows up in Texas. Me too. Actually, I will message him and say, bring it to Texas.
    22:54
    Add an or else at the end. Okay. And then in parentheses from Jeff. Yeah, that's how things get done.
    23:06
    So, yeah, that was Expo. Oh, no, but the best part, the best part didn't actually happen at Expo. so I wouldn't go back business-wise to Expo. However, I will 100% go back to pinball Olympics. Okay. Tell me about your pinball Olympics experience. It was the best and craziest day. It was so good. So I brought Daniel and his wife, Nicole, and they were getting on a flight after. So we like ran over there. You get your little name badge and you go around and then there are clipboards where you can put your scores and then they give out medals.
    23:48
    So we were at Scott Denise's house and two nights prior. Anyway, he he was like, OK, he was like, make sure you get a pink medal because it's a participation medal. So even if you don't win anything, you still get your pinball Olympics medal. And it's like hot pink. And I love it. And he was like, do not do the treadmill challenge. He's like, these are the things I'll tell you. Don't do the treadmill challenge because everyone who does the treadmill challenge either A gets hurt, B throws up or C all of the above.
    24:25
    So, yeah, yeah, there's way more effective ways to get hurt and throw up than pinball. I mean this one seems pretty efficient so but he's like do come and listen to the commentary because there's a running commentary that they do on the people who are doing the treadmill challenge which is very fun my first stop was like the dirty room so playing paragon by pulling on delbos to flip the flippers and there's a video someone posted like a walkthrough of the Olympics that someone posted and they walk into that back room and I got a message from Jimmy and Brisbane saying of course who's playing Paragon in the video yeah it's me it's you so if you want to see me just plugging on some dildos on Paragon it is on the internet somewhere and in the same room is when you had to fist some butts to play Xenon and I was really good at that very very good at the fisting flipping. I'm really proud of you right now. These last two little anecdotes you've had.
    25:40
    Doing the show proud. It was my favorite room. And then there was, let's see, a barricora where you laid down on the floor and you looked up into a mirror that was over the playfield and the flipper buttons were on the legs. Oh my goodness. It was really cool. and then let's see there was an area that I had totally missed because it's so easy to miss stuff because there's so much Jay's game collection first of all is incredible even if he didn't have all of these amazing contraptions he's built his collection seriously it is top notch he's got a bunch of weird stuff that I love but all of the work that Jay puts into pinball olympics he should get a medal I was going to say a medal, not just a pinball Olympics medal, like a presidential one. Something for all of his efforts because it is the best time and your ticket price includes everything. So he has this incredible taco truck come and set up a whole thing so you can go through and get all of these like fresh homemade tacos and like all the fixings and everything. And then he has guys walking around like Chippendales situation. So they've got the bow tie neck piece, no shirts, black pants with little drink trays. So like all the drinks for free. And then you just tip the bartenders or you tip the servers.
    27:11
    Everything was included. It was so amazing. And then there was like random cupcakes, like all different areas of the house. And we went upstairs to this one room where I didn't think we were supposed to be, but apparently we were. And it turned out to be this raised platform in the garage with this giant spinning table on it. And in the middle of the spinning table was a Dolly Parton rethemed as a subhumans machine.
    27:42
    Okay. And you had to hop onto the platform when it was your turn and then hop off when you were done. And it was just spinning you the whole time you were playing.
    27:53
    Did you get dizzy on it? It was really fun. Oh, yeah, yeah, 100% dizzy. When you were looking at the play field, it was better. When you were watching other people go around on it, that's when I was getting dizzy. I get dizzy easy, so that would demolish me. Yeah, this one would have been tough for you. But that was super fun. I loved there was a stern kiss that was inside one of those booths, you know, where they have contests and they stick someone in a booth where money is flying all over and they have to grab it.
    28:26
    Yeah. TV game show. Yeah. So it was one of those. So there was money in it, but there were also like a ton of ping pong balls. So you had to put on a helmet and goggles. Okay. And then someone had to lock you in and then they had to turn the blowers on. So you also have to count on someone being there to turn the blowers off and let you out when you were done. Yeah, not a good time for them to get a phone call and walk off. Right. So you were just waiting on like the next people who wanted to come in and do it to be standing there and know what to do. But I went in with my friend Josh from Savannah. they're like it said the sign said one person only two if you're feeling saucy or something like that so we went in with two of us because then you're just standing there watching your friend play while you get pelted with ping pong balls like for extra time for no apparent reason um and then the reason is comedy yeah people were sliding money into there's like air slots on the side because there was a sign that said, do not take the money. These are Jay's tips. So I was like, oh, that's great because he's built all of this stuff. Of course he should get tips for putting on this giant event. And then I talked to him afterwards and he was like, oh, that's fake money. And I was like, no, no, you want to go check that because people see how much of it's fake now. Seriously. So that was so, it was so much fun. There was a Dirty Harry, where you have to get down on your hands and knees and climb inside of a washing machine to play it. Because, you know, Dirty Harry. Yeah, it was great. I was just the hard body that you played with the shake weight wasn't working. There are a few. I didn't get there right on time. So I think a few of them had been put through their paces already.
    30:21
    But it was just so great. And then he built this, like, what I can best describe as a TNA bunker. I saw that with the lights up above. Oh, my gosh. That thing was crazy. It was like crazy intense light show, smoke fog machine kind of thing. The sound was deafening, and you weren't allowed to wear earplugs or anything there. And I heard someone say, and this is totally the best description, they're like, it makes you feel like you're on drugs. just being in that room it was a lot and everything was so great um and I want to go back again and do all of the the ones that I didn't get to play I want to play everything and then he adds new stuff all the time or update stuff so I mean hats off that was one hell of an event that's one of the most fun I can't say tournaments but like kind of tournaments that I've ever, ever participated in. I loved it so much. Yeah. I'm glad you got to do that too. Cause that's something I've always wanted to do as well. I mean, ever since I saw the, the, I think it was Ironman where they were hanging and suspended playing it. Yes. I did that. Yeah.
    31:39
    It's more disorienting than you would think. No, I'm sure. I'm sure. I don't think people realize how much when they flip, they put weight into their feet. yeah it's a lot and then like you need to get your arms in the right position because mine were like outstretched and I was like I want them to be bent but then you're trying to position yourself proper it's a whole deal there was this big like spinning drum room that you were in with a black hole in it so it's like black light painted all around the big drum that you're standing in so that's rotating around you the floor feels like it's moving to the side so you feel like you're about to flip over upside down and the disc on black hole is spinning that was so disorienting um oh oh and i forgot one of the best ones um so there's something i've seen from like videos of your past but they had a new one where they had a no good gophers outside and they're they didn't do anything to the machine the machine is a totally standard no good gophers however on either side of the machine there's a little like uh podium and behind each podium is a guy dressed up in a gopher costume with a microphone and they just shit talk you the whole time you're playing yeah i saw i saw some of that that looked hilarious it's so great it's so great it's like if you combine holy moly with pinball i don't know it was really wonderful and just silly and i just i loved it i loved it so much um there was a playboy that you played by um basically putting your hand through glory holes and peeping through like a little hole at the top to try and look in jeff we're going to pinball olympics next year okay go embrace the madness Woo!
    33:38
    I'm all in. All in. Very nice. Is that it for Pinball Olympics and Expo? Yeah, I mean, I hit some high points, I think. I think I talked too long, is what I think. No, no, no. I mean, Expo was huge this year for Expo, I guess you could say.
    34:00
    But Pinball Olympics, that's the real sauce. Seriously. So great. And you can do that without having to have an Expo pass or anything like that. It's just getting your ticket to the Olympics separate from anything else. Very cool. Yeah. If we're talking bucket list items, I would actually say Pinball Olympics is ahead of Expo. I know that everyone should see Expo at some point, but I would like if I had to choose between the two, I'd take Pinball Olympics for sure. Because you're a smart man. don't accuse me of things that aren't true starting the rumor right now oh no okay then well I'm glad it was a good fun nice swell trip sorry that the restaurant wasn't quite what you thought it was going to be I waited to ask you about that for the show because I thought you were going to geek out about it but it sounds like it was just mixed at least it wasn't all bad on the restaurant but anyway I'm glad you guys made it back safe because that was a lot of driving it was so much driving our friend Mark totally saved our lives we convinced him to fly out like second day of the show and he drove us back and I'm not good sleeping like sitting up so on planes I'm hopeless if I'm not reclined we put everything in the car so it was packed so um on the way back i was in the passenger seat and i was i guess falling asleep because i was just exhausted from everything and i kept apparently doing this thing where my head would just like collapse and then i would bounce back up um nod it's a big no it's not just a little nod like they thought they were going to have to um strap my head to the headrest for safety so you don't give yourself whiplash yeah i woke up because when i did it i bit my tongue so hard that it like shook me awake but there were several states that i just completely blacked out through because i was so tired well i hate being that tired and that's how i get on airplanes too where i just it's i get to the edge of like delirious tired yeah but um yeah nice that You had a little recovery time getting back here. Yeah. No, Mark absolutely saved us. And then we dragged him to some escape rooms that were actually really fantastic. Well, yay, Mark. Yeah. All right, then. If we beyond the Expo Olympics segment I think you might know what time it is I don know Wait is it hurry up time
    36:54
    Hurry up. Yeah, it is, actually. That would be cool. I thought it might be. So we each come with three games to either mildly disagree on, vehemently disagree or agree upon.
    37:15
    Those are the only options. I can't think of any other options. Strongly agree is maybe the last one. We had a few of those last week.
    37:29
    I think I brought properly divisive titles this week. Let's see how this goes. Do you want to lead off or should I? I can lead off. Okay. Lead us off.
    37:45
    All right. I'm going Trident. Oh, okay. That's a good one. I'm going to, I'm going to say so hard. Cause we only have three levels of, it's like nailed it sloppily i don't know like um i i like trident i'll say you know i'll just go nailed it let's just go with the first gut reaction good see i told you you were smart it's for sure okay good uh yeah trident's great um but i understand what people complain about with that so there's the uh 2.0 version now that someone has come out with that i did get to play a little bit in Australia. So not enough for me to comment a lot about it. The scoring was really unbalanced because all of a sudden, I was playing with Jimmy in a group and all of a sudden his score was like 10 times what it was a minute ago and I was like, what did you do? It just happened. That's not normal Trident. That's kind of a cool game to have a 2.0 on though because it's not like you see a lot of them. So someone, labor of love to that one. Definitely. Okay, here's my first one. Okay. Munsters.
    39:10
    Oh. Pro or premium? Whichever one you have, I guess, the most favorable opinion of. Oh, well, I see the pro more, so I have to work on one on location, and it has a couple problem spots, so I'll try to not let that color my opinion. I mean, I'm going to say Slop Shot. I don't love it, but I don't hate it. Oh, I hate it. There you go. It bricked it so hard the pinball cracked in half, and there's no more enjoyment to be had at all.
    39:48
    I hate that game. I need not say more. What's your number two? Oh, my number two is Mandalorian. Oh. Okay, this is complicated because I don't like it, but if it's in a tournament, I will always pick it because I can just, in eternity, backhand the green shot for as many times as I need to and grind out a win. I don't care if I play for 45 minutes, but playing for fun, I will say bricked it. when you say backhand the green shot do you mean the multi-ball shot or like it's got the little hanging target it starts yeah it does start the multi-ball i just realized if i don't focus on anything else in the game i just sit and collect hurry ups and start multi-balls that's enough yeah and it will make for a very long game but you just backhand it and catch the ball just live catch it and backhand it catch it backhand it catch just never stop and you will win the player two will be scowling at your back the entire time because you're the cheesiest player to ever play the game of pinball, but you will win.
    41:06
    It's a brick dip for me, so... Yeah, I'm not a fan. Yeah. I tried, because I like the theme. Don't like the game. I know. I know, I like the theme too. Okay, here we go. This is the one that is going to be community divisive if it's not for us, at least in the grand scheme of opinion out there. This one's pretty divisive. It's Batman 66.
    41:35
    Oh, all right. So I didn't like Batman 66 at first. Let me just say that. Well, it was a train wreck when it was released. It was a train wreck when it was released. But also, I really don't enjoy The Dark Knight. and I was just seeing it as the Dark Knight because it was reimagined from the back. Yeah, it's 80% the same. Yeah, so I was focusing a lot on those things. But once the code got updated and I completely blanked the Dark Knight from my mind and I was playing it, I really enjoyed Batman 66. That's a nailed it for me. Okay. So if there was a way to split scores, this is the game that would do it. Because like you, I think the code's fantastic. But I hate the layout of that game.
    42:30
    So many things are sloppy on it. And it drives me nuts to the point to where I can't, I just can't do it.
    42:39
    That's so interesting because I love the flow on it. Like the Catwoman ramps. They feel so fluid. Sometimes your jacks to the balls going too fast. that what sometimes rejects because the ball's going too fast well i mean that sounds like a personal problem or or the whole mech around the phone gets wonky at times or okay now this is when we get into me as a tech having opinions on things because if we did a hurry up from a tech perspective i would have fully different opinions on a lot of games so there's a batman 66 right now where the turntable's been some kind of wonky for like two years. But now the entire thing has crapped out. And guess what? We need these specialty boards that only Stern makes. And guess what? They're all out of stock. And who knows if there will ever be another one of them. So I just need a dead Batman 66.
    43:38
    Well, at least someone will get the ball stuck on it while they're playing it. No, no, no. No, disable the turntable. Have it so the phone is answerable. Like, put the phone in the front so you can at least play through your modes.
    43:54
    Balls are still somehow getting stuck in the turntable, Jeff. It's because it's a Gomez, and I think he designs ball traps into his designs.
    44:07
    It's like a sand trap in another life. He was in golf courses. George Gomez has made wonderful contributions to pinball but when they make his statue they need to stick a ball somewhere on it that's just stuck on his statue maybe back behind his ear or something that's like the worst uncle magic trick what's behind your ear oh we're going to have to shake really hard to get it out of there sorry you're tilting on ball three of the tournament okay before that grows into anything more than that give me your third game oh my gosh champ pub oh I almost picked this one this week and I actually have it written on paper and scratched out to save for later okay I'm going to say I'm glad that you did I'm going to say slop shot Like there's a lot of stuff I love about it. Um, but it's one of those games that the more, if I'm playing it too often, then it feels just too samey. But if I see it once in a while, I enjoy it. Okay. That's totally fair. I just, I mean, I think they nailed it. I love all of the little asides. Like, yeah, like the jump rope as a ball. Like it's good. So silly. And it's so good. Um, It has good shot geometry, too. It really does. Yes, it genuinely does. And I don't know. I think it's such a fun game to play. It's a great game to play with friends, you know? Yes.
    45:52
    I don't know. You just have a really nice time playing it, and I like all the weird little stuff that they stick in there. It's just a fun game. It's, like I said, the longer the times you go between playing it, the more novel it is when you play it. So I think that's why I don't think it's a bad game. It probably just wanted, it was in my personal collection.
    46:15
    I would go through very like short spurts of playing it a ton and then long droughts of not touching it and then coming back. And so, okay, here's my third one.
    46:25
    Also divisive. And it's the third stern of the segment for me. And that's the Beatles. And you can, again, pick whichever package you want, but the Beatles.
    46:38
    None of the above packages, please. The overpriced package, the very overpriced and the insanely overpriced. Why would you take Sea Witch, which is my favorite game, and bastardize it this way? Why in the world are you going to throw... Okay, you do not take a classic stern and then throw a spinning disc in the center of it, shove a magnet on the top, and then have some like hidden behind drop targets and then slap a crazy expensive license on it and be like it's better and also putting it in a cabinet that's that deep a modern cabinet where the ball's just going to ricochet because guess what that game is a slow well slower playing game than a modern stern is so then you throw a spinning disc in there and yeah nope all that terrible idea so check this link i'm sending you i tweeted i i is it still called tweeting i don't know on october 23rd just does that open up if you click on that on your phone let's see i'm trying things we never ever needed the spinning disc on the bls yes that is a true true facts yeah okay so is it a brick a slop shot or did or you can say nailed it despite the rant no it's a brick it is a hundred percent of brick it never should have happened yeah so here's my feeling on the beatles are we gonna fight no because i'm gonna say slop shot but here's the thing i also adore sea witch and i think the original is better than the beatles i think the beatles would have been fine without the spinning disc and magnet because I'm not against layouts being reused but that spinning disc and magnet are the dumbest additions you could have made to it other than just putting a giant gobble hole in the middle of the orbit.
    48:41
    Oh, bring back the gobble hole. Bring back the gobble hole but maybe not on a game where you're trying to hit orbits repeatedly. No, not on Sea Witch. Don't touch Sea Witch. Leave Sea Witch alone, leave all of my classic Stern Ladies alone. However, make a new, modern game with a gobble hole. Yeah, because you could build mechs around it where it's like sometimes open and sometimes closed off and you could do all sorts of different things. But yeah, with the Beatles, my big issue is that disc and magnet ruin the reimagining of it. Because again, like I said, I think they could have differentiated it far enough from Sea Witch and say, hey, this is a classic layout, a totally different take on it. But you should not take it and just take a dump in the middle of it. But just if I can play that game with the disc and magnet disabled, I actually like it. If it's there and it's doing its stupid disruptive thing, it drives me crazy. Plus the sternum X are a little too fast on it. But so I'll say slopped, but they almost had a really good thing there. They just poorly executed. No, no, no. They started with a really good thing. And then all they did was make it worse. Yeah. But it is hard to think of a worse mech that they could have stuck in the game.
    50:04
    Trolls? See, but trolls would only slightly screw it up. If you put them lower in the play field. But that disc is an abomination.
    50:17
    It's so terrible. But anyway, okay. And I understand the full bricked it. critique on that because I almost went that way too. I just, for some reason I enjoy playing it but I get so mad at it. Yeah. I like the Beatles. It's not that I hate the Beatles. I like the Beatles. They did focus on the wrong periods of the Beatles though. They should have started with the drug era and gone through to the end. Yeah, that was the other thing. It's like were the licenses to those songs cheaper than another era of Beatles songs? No. It was going more casual because everybody knows, like, the non-Beatles fans recognize those songs a bit more than, say, like, you know, trying to sing along with Rocky Raccoon or whatever.
    51:08
    Yeah. But, okay. All right. Well, that was a fun hurry up, Jess. It was almost contentious, but we were politely disagreeing in that. oh and then how did i not play this on batman 66 anyway um that brings us to uh what we're looking ahead to so what's going on what's coming up oh let's see um things that are coming up um the houston expo that i've never been to have you been to the houston show i have not i know people have gone but i've never personally gone yeah i i always hear that it's a big party show um and that is coming up um i think november 11th 12th somewhere in there i think it's the same weekend as free play florida which has moved from orlando um west to lakeland kind of middle of nowhere florida so we won't be doing that one that's expo was kind of our stand-in for Freeplay Florida this year.
    52:15
    But those shows are both coming up, which should be exciting for people who are going to attend those. Especially everyone in Houston, go play Labyrinth, because it's going to be there, and I'm excited for you guys to play.
    52:32
    And then here, I don't remember if it's that weekend or the following weekend, so maybe ignore my dates. fact check my dates because my mental calendar is entirely screwed up then the pinball asylum out in Fort Myers is having a charity fair strikes tournament that I may head out to but that's about all that I have on my radar how about you um for me personally nothing for a while but in the extremely um near near future like as in right now i do have a little bit of a rant and complaint to go through oh all right i'm going to frame it more as a helpful i'm going to i'm going to frame this more as a helpful suggestion wrapped in a plea okay um if you have shot indicators through lights that flash when they're collectible or flash when they're important, such as a ball saver, don't flash them when they're not active. Like, oh, you hit a jackpot, so I'm going to flash every bulb in the game. Don't do that, because it looks like your ball saver's on. It looks like your extra ball is lit. Or the worst, and Borg, I'm looking at you on this, don't flash the rollover in lanes when you need to collect rollover i mean not in lanes the upper lanes when i need to do that to like get my bonus multiplier up or something when those suckers flash and the ball's up there pisses me off so bad guardians of the galaxy is famous for not knowing which rollover you need to hit because they're flashing so stupid stop you don't need to flash everything go back to the days when you had flashers on the machine and those flashed we don't need to flash every insert we flash inserts when they need to be hit or we flash inserts when the ball's not in play otherwise stop it just stop it please stop it i'm so tired of thinking i my ball savers i'm like oh cool i'm not i'm not going to take a tilt warning i'm going to let that go oh it's just flashing because it's just flashing because we need to flash everything at this point and and they're getting so bad about it like venom you can't tell it to hit because everything's just flashing all the time during every mode. I don't know what... It de-emphasizes all the important shots, and I'm tired of it. Yeah. Plus, it hurts my eyes after a while.
    55:03
    Well, I mean, we're getting old, so of course our eyes are going to hurt a lot. Oh yeah anything like Game of Thrones or Winter Coming When it goes crazy or in attack from mars when you get like the strobe yeah just murders my eyes but then i found the new king of horrible flashing effects and it's batho sub on i think it's batho sub on james bond i got into the mode and it was so bad that i stopped playing walked away from the machine and just closed my eyes for a minute because it was the flashers over it's the flashers over the slingshots just firing wildly that's so bad it's terrible yeah the the ball probably was stuck anyway so it wasn't a big deal yeah the spidey sense on um venom when you like hold it down in the white shot i literally can't see anything else i cannot see what i'm doing so i'm just flailing wildly okay so that was my um that was my moment on flashing yeah yeah flashing can be great but it can also be the worst it's usually the worst though so i will i will agree um did we have any mailbag goodies from last week we absolutely did and i'm going to run through them real quick and give them the respect they deserve on the next show does that make sense yeah but uh glenn wrote in and he gave you yeah hi glenn he uh he he talked about how um his friend eric has some uh uh 3d printed plastics that help keep the ball down from flying on on uh orbits and um that sounds lovely i just wish it was designed to where we didn't have to do those things but he was he was saying that on the uh pinball olympics that if you do the treadmill challenge and this is going to be the tip we'll throw it out for everyone now um and they can use it next year he says make sure to preserve your multi-ball for the beginning of a ball while you solve energy so don't collect it at any old point skill drain and start at the beginning of your next ball so let those guys make fun of you for draining and then show them you knew it was up um i mean people were doing better playing that game than i thought they were going to because Scott had told me that it starts at 15 miles an hour. I think it builds up to 15 miles an hour because there were people who were like keeping pace. Yeah, it can't start. It can't start at 15 or else the kick in would put someone on their knees. Yeah, that's where the injury and the puking happens. And the comedy.
    57:51
    All the comedy. Also, I'm going to say the greatest scorekeeper of all time, Dick Curtis. He contacted us. He sent a picture in. By the way, if you play in the TPF tournament, just thank him at some point. He's been doing volunteer tournament stuff for years, and he's the best. Anyway, he sent in a picture, and I will make sure you see this, Jess, but his wife picked up an Oregon Trail card game that's based on the old Oregon Trail game.
    58:27
    Oh, that's fun. at a garage sale so I'll show you it says on big letters in the front of the card game you have died of dysentery yeah to come and then we got two emails from Joe one has a pinball popcorn that we'll all enjoy at the end of this episode yeah based on Fast and Furious thank you Joe one of my favorite ridiculous franchise yes uh then he brought up the idea of kind of what's going on in the pinball market the oversaturation the hey signs of a crash but to give that more breathing room we'll talk about it on the upcoming show but um it'd be interesting if people have thoughts about it ahead of time like do they think that a crash is coming in or just a mild price adjustment because we're kind of seeing some of that or do they see it like nah the train doesn't stop it's gonna keep growing i just kind of we'll talk about a little bit more but um sounds good he had a lot of thoughts so we'll talk about but essentially there are 14 pinball companies right now um that range from major manufacturers to smaller indie companies i don't know how you'd say it but there's a lot of them Lighting time for pinball. Yeah. So what is your forecast? Doom and gloom or sunshine and rainbows?
    59:53
    Be sure to write in and let people know. How can people email you, Jeff? Or I guess us. It goes to Jeff. Yeah, that's the unfortunate part that comes to me. It's just pinballpodcast at gmail.com.
    60:05
    That, once again, is pinballpodcast at gmail.com. You're so good at this. What else are you playing that is not pinball? So the given is Super Mario Wonder, Super Mario Brothers Wonder on the Switch. That's the one on my list. That's the one I chose. So I'll let you say stuff about that. It's just pure joy. But the weirdo mention I have, and this is kind of like growing virally right now, it's called Suica Game. It's a Japanese game, and it translates as Watermelon Game. I think it's been released now on touch arcade. I don't know, but it's on the switch. And then there's a browser version. The browser version is not as good as the switch version, but it's a game kind of like 2048 meets Tetris. Uh, you're dropping fruit and, um, it's like a, in a space kind of like the Tetris screen. So if you get to the top, you lose. But if you match two kinds of fruit together, like they're touching, then they combine and make another kind of fruit. So if two cherries merge, they make a strawberry. Two strawberries merge, they make like a tangerine or something. And you're combining them trying to make watermelons essentially. And you just go until you run out of room. It's got physics. So as they merge, it kind of jostles the other fruit around and stuff. It's stupidly addictive and fun. And I like it. a lot. Alright. And it's $3 on Switch.
    61:46
    Yeah, if you want it on the Switch, you have to buy it in the Japanese store. If you don't know how to get Japanese games on your Switch, just Google it. There will be explanations.
    61:55
    Wait, I just... I didn't have to go to the Japanese store to get it. Did they bring it over? Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Is it called Watermelon Game? No, it's called Suike Game.
    62:09
    Awesome. But I googled Watermelon Games Switch. It brought me straight to the page on Nintendo, and it said $2.99, and I had points, so I got it for $0 direct download onto my Switch. Okay, yeah. And just so you know, the real goal of that is to try to get 3,000 points or up. Okay. So if you can get over 3,000 points, then you done did it. That's basically winning. it is there oh wow so i went through the huge pain in the butt process of downloading this thing from the japanese store about three weeks ago and apparently i'm a stupid idiot well but i'm now i'm curious if there are other japanese only games that i would really want to play that you're gonna have to teach me how to get let's assume no okay uh i'm sure there are And because I bought eShop credit to get it, I have Japanese money sitting in my Switch. Well, there you go. But it's very fun. And it's great. It is great. I might re-download it in English so that it's in English because mine's in all in Japanese.
    63:28
    I mean, that keeps you guessing. It does. but well i will play it once i um can stop playing super mario wonder that's a hard thing to do especially since we're going to be playing it together absolutely it's so good it's just it's adorable and it's all new you know everyone knows a mario game but this is so new and different and the multiplayer is such a fun approach to multiplayer with like the other players being kind of ghosts around you who can help save you if you're dying. Yeah. Friendly ghosts, not spooky ghosts. Yeah. It's really, really fun. And just all the different things that you can turn into all the different transformative possibilities are fantastic.
    64:27
    Oh yeah. the power-ups are so fun yeah they're so fun i am very much loving playing this game um and like the mainland mar it's it's insane how old of a franchise it is um so the original mario brothers had was like a five-person team four of those people worked on super mario brothers wonder which is crazy four people out of the five original team yeah they still worked on it so that's why it carries forward with the spirit of the franchise so well but they're also bringing in constant surprises and new stuff it's really fun oh yeah no there are several times where I've just been like oh my okay alright someone else has to see this because it's so good yeah it is really good and the singing Prada plants will never not be just endlessly adorable more singing piranha plants yeah we don't have enough of those they've heeded the call they knew what the people wanted and the people the people were right because it's great um any other games or is it i mean mario wonder is just sucking up all of the time i i started spider-man 2 on the playstation but i'm only like half an hour into it yeah not enough to give it a fair shake.
    65:55
    Yeah, I haven't been playing a ton, so I didn't bring my Switch with me to expo or anything because I figured we were going to be super busy.
    66:04
    I would have had plenty of downtime at the booth to play it, but no, just didn't even have it. So when I got back, it was like, oh, and Super Mario Wonder's out now. Yeah, it's way back. So I just kind of went straight into that, which is awesome.
    66:22
    Very good. I am tapped as far as useful information or even entertaining information. I never have useful information. Do you have any?
    66:35
    You're supposed to save me. I mean, no, I think we did a great job, Jeff. I know. Stay tuned for the pinball popcorn. Yes, please. Thank you so much, Joe. Thanks, everyone, for listening.
    66:50
    Yeah. And thanks for being patient with the transition to Spotify and the new feeds. So, and just a note with that old episodes, they're evergreen. So don't treat them as old, just treat them as different, are going to be popping up in your feed, but they should be showing like still in the correct order by release date. And that's just so you'd be surprised how many people still listen to the old episodes.
    67:19
    And so we want to have those. So if the old archive somehow goes boom, which it could do at any day, they'll be transferred over to the new shiny. So if you're waiting for those, they're coming. If you're mad they're coming, they're still coming.
    67:41
    I'm not sorry. Thank you for fixing that, Jeff. It's been a tedious process. It has been. but it'll all be good and I I'm excited about how much smoother the publishing process is now so that's great good awesome yeah so everyone be patient everything is a work in progress and friend me on switch and come play Super Mario Wonder with me and Jeff and Watermelon Game and email us pinballpodcast at gmail.com all right i'll talk to you next week jeff i will i will that was a stupid thing to say at the end we've got to stop this okay bye I need Novus.
    68:55
    No. Multiple. Topped out at 140 miles per hour this morning. Amateurs don't use playfield wax. I've seen the way you play. You got a heavy hand. You'll blow yourself to pieces. I need one of these. One of the big ones. Actually, you know, let's make it two. And, Harry, I need it by tonight.
    69:15
    Okay, Hector. Yeah, what's up, man? Yo, what's up, Edward? We're doing this tonight. One tournament. 2G buy in. Winner takes all. Hector you're gonna hold the cash. Why Hector? Because it's too slow to make a way with the money man.
    69:35
    Okay good luck guys. Hey wait hold up. I don't have any cash. But I do have a bill of sale for my pinball machine. You just can't climb in the ring with Ali because you think you box? He knows I can box. So check it out it's like this. I lose, winner takes my... Pinball. Clean and clear. But if I win, I take the cash and I take the respect. Respect?
    70:02
    To some people that's more important. Is that your pinball? It's got flip coil fans, an OCD LED kit, color DMD, subwoofer, and art blades. Not a bad way to spend $10,000.
    70:23
    So what do you say, am I worthy? We don't know yet. But you're in. What are you smiling about? Dude, I almost had you.
    70:40
    You almost had me? You never had me. You never had your pinball. Monkey flipping, not cradling. Do it like you should.
    70:53
    Now me and the mad scientist gotta rip apart the driver board and replace the transistors to fraud. Ask any tournament player. It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning.
    71:23
    What the hell is this? What do you got there? This is your pinball. My pinball? I said a ten thousand dollar pinball, not a ten dollar pinball.
    71:39
    No faith. Oh, I have faith in you, but this isn't a junkyard, this is a workshop. Hey, pop the lock bar. Pop the lock bar?
    71:50
    Medieval madness? No shit. And what did I tell you? I retract my previous statement. You know what? This will decimate all after you put about 15 grand in it or more if we have to. Overnight parts from... Pinball life. Well, put it on my tablet. Terry's. Yes! I gotta get you... Playing. ...so I can make some money off your ass.
    72:16
    Tell me what you think about this. We'll sand the whole playfield and then do a nice automotive clear coat Alright This is your basic layout of the Playfield And that's pretty much what it could look like when it's finished Red, green LEDs Man, you should be going to MIT or something Yeah, right Now I got that Ow, what's it called? That attention disorder Or ADD Yes, that shit Yeah You know, I was good in algebra and like math, everything else. I failed, dropped out of school. I don't know, it's something about pinball that calms me down, you know.
    73:07
    I live my life a quarter of the time. Nothing else matters, not the mortgage, not the store, not my tournament and all that bullshit.
    73:18
    For those ten minutes or less, I'm free.