You know, after you do 700 shows about pinball, this song just starts to play in your head. I can see clearly now the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Wow, 700 Canadas Pinball Podcast episodes. episodes. It's kind of crazy when I think about it all, when I close my eyes and I think about this journey of covering the pinball hobby after all of these years, right? Being banned from Pinside, not being silenced, feeling like I still had something to say about this hobby we all love. I want to thank each and every one of you for your support over the years. It's meant the world to me and my family. It's been a creative outlet. I really can't imagine my life without this show because this show has really been the one thing I have total control over. And it's been a fun hobby. I've made my best friends in life through pinball. It's true. I mean, I have more consistent friendships because of the pinball hobby than I did make at work, than I've made growing up, that I made in college. All of you are some crazy amazing people. And I love the diversity in pinball. I love the conversation. I love the fact that no matter what happens in the world, that each and every one of us could find a little corner of the universe, sit down over a couple of beers or even a glass of water, and just have a fun conversation about what's going on in pinball. It is such a unique device, and it's really hard to tell people who are not into it why we love it so much. But in this digital world in which everyone is unhappy, getting more and more depressed, scrolling on their phones, looking at other people's lives, overly consumed with all of the tragic stuff happening in the world, even though if you look at historically speaking, it is the safest time to be alive in the history of the entire universe. But somehow we've been convinced everything is horrible. The countries are falling apart. Our political systems have divided us and all of our kids are growing up with mental health issues. They don't know how to identify their genders. Everything is wrong in the world. And yet here's this device that's what, like 100 years old? It used to be outlawed. It was illegal. And now here we are in 2022, a world in which we are tempted with nothing but blockbuster three-hour movies and streaming services. And yet it is a physical steel ball bouncing around a piece of wood that cannot be replicated with anything digitally. You can't replicate the feeling and sensation of pinball with a screen. You can't do it with like virtual reality or some metaverse. You have to physically stand in front of the machine. And I love it. And I love the fact that we've got all these companies every year trying to show us the best they can do at creating magic and a world under glass. Now, here's what I want to talk about on episode 700. I don't have some big interview. I tried to get Ben Heck on the show, but he said, if I came on your show, Spooky Pinball would kill me. And I think he was being serious. And we know that most of the manufacturers don't really want to talk to me, so I do what I do. I cover what's going on in pinball. Now, I was thinking maybe I'd give you guys a little treat. Should I spoil something out there? Should I reveal something that you don't know is happening in pinball? And I have a little something, and maybe I'll do it at the end of the show. it is the game that Marty Robbins is working on over at Haggis Pinball. Now, I know you're all saying, we don't care about that, Kaneda. We want to get Steve Ritchie's game at Jersey Jack Pinball. And the reason why I haven't told you it yet is I need to get more confirmation on it because I'm a little bit skeptical about what I was told and I don't want to share it unless I feel better about the information I got. And yes, I will talk a little bit about the Godzilla topper drama that happened yesterday on Facebook. You probably missed it. It wasn't a big deal, but now John is a little pissed off at me over at Jack Bar. You know, one of my greatest skill sets is just pissing people off. I have a real knack for it. Like if I could make money, if I could be paid to piss people off, I would be the richest man on this planet. Now you might be saying you're making money on your podcast and all it does is piss off everyone in the pinball world. I don't think so. I think people who listen to this show and if you've listened to this show for five, six years and you've heard and some people have heard all 700 episodes. you realize that it's just entertaining. It's as entertaining as the pinball machines themselves. But the theme of this show is my reflection on pinball and what I've learned about this hobby. And much like our lives in general, you go through different stages of how you interact with stuff. Your thoughts and your points of view on things can change over time. Like the pinball world has changed significantly over the last couple of years. We've seen a significant increase in price. We've seen a decrease in mechanical mechanisms being put into the games. We've seen an increase in the amount of companies that are trying to make it in the pinball world. We've seen a global pandemic that shut down supply chains, so no new in-box games were going out to distributors for almost like a year. We've seen a backlog of orders over at Stern Pinball that caused them to pause their assembly lines on new games and just make the old orders. We've seen a delay, right? We've never had delays from Stern Pinball. And the entire time I've been covering this hobby, there was never a delay. Like we kept getting new games every four months from Stern Pinball. We've seen the explosion of pinball media over the last five to six years. It's great. For those of you out there, if you took a time machine six years earlier, there was only a handful of podcasts about pinball. There were very few YouTube channels. There were very few streamers. Now you are living in the golden age of pinball content creation. I mean, there are so many shows to choose from. And I just want to say to everyone out there who sets up a microphone and does a show about pinball, my hat is off to you. It is not easy. There are way more critics who know how to do it better than us. But it is hard to fill dead air every week with a show talking about a toy in which maybe in a good year, there's only six to seven days of legitimate news in pinball. The rest of it is us waiting, speculating, and wondering what's around the corner. And then every few months, we get a new game and we talk about how much we love it or hate it. And that is why I want to say thank you to all the content creators, because I do feel like pinball content creators are some of the glue that keeps the community together. It's what makes you interested in pinball every week. I also want to say thank you to Pinside. Yes, as toxic as Pinside can be, without it, how many of you would really, really be into pinball? How many of you would have found this community if it wasn't for Pinside? Now, there are other places to go that are a lot more positive than Pinside. Like Facebook groups are better because people aren't anonymous. But for the most part, Pinside was the gateway drug that got a lot of us into our daily consumption of pinball content. And look, if it wasn't for Pinside banning me, there never would have been Canadian Pinball Podcast. I probably would still be listening to Nate Shivers and like Spooky Pinballs Podcast and like John's Arcade. And there was a few of those. In a weird way, my banning from Pinsight was the creation of this show. So I have to be somewhat thankful that they put my life on this direction. Now, you could argue this was one of the worst directions to steer your life in, Chris. Like, what are you doing? Spending all of this time and all of these hours talking about pinball, but I love it. And I'm glad that you love it too. And I enjoy doing the show. It's somewhat like therapy for me. So what have I learned about pinball over all of these years? And what do I feel about pinball right now? In this moment, this Monday morning, as I hit record, here are my thoughts on pinball and what I've learned. I've learned, ultimately, I know that this hobby is filled with very passionate people that love pinball a lot. And they love it so much, they're willing to spend inordinate amounts of money on every new machine that comes out. But I also think that the market is going to get so soft so fast because I do think the hobby is now overpriced. And I think the majority of people are feeling that. And I can't blame the pinball companies for trying to find where the ceiling is, but I think they found it. And even though some great games get flipped for more than they were new, I still don't think that a thousand LEs or a thousand collector's editions are rare in any sense of the word. When you zoom out a little bit, I don't think there are tens of thousands of people that want to buy pinball machines between $10,000 and $15,000. It's going to be really hard even to find just a thousand people that will commit at those prices. And the only way you're going to get those prices moving forward, and this also goes for like the $12,000 LEs at Jersey Jack. The only way you're going to get those prices is if you deliver an amazing machine. There is absolutely no room for mediocrity anymore in pinball at these prices And we are all looking at all of these companies through a much more serious lens because this is serious money now So we no longer looking at a company like Spooky and saying, hey, you're the little guy. I'll buy everything you make because we want to support you and see you stay in business for years to come. Because the truth is this, Spooky has been in business now for years to come. Charlie's probably put a few million in his pocket, which he's deserved. Make no mistake, Charlie Emery lived the American dream and deserves the success of his company. And he's at a crossroads now. And he's either going to hire the talent he needs to keep Spooky Pinball competitive at these prices, or his company will fail. And that's the truth with everybody, not just Spooky. It's the truth with Haggis. It's the truth with any pinball company that doesn't have ancillary income backing their company. Now, there are companies that are just immune to the market forces. The Abbas family has so much money that nothing could tank Jersey Jack Pinball. Ametron is funding American Pinball so they could stick around for a while. Chicago Gaming Company is funded by Churchill Cabinets. So that is how they're allowed to take forever and a day to get new games out because it's not their annuity. That pinball is more like a side business for the other millions of dollars coming in the door. You know, so I've seen you guys. I've seen how much we all love pinball machines and I've seen the frenzy around every time a new pinball machine comes out. Here's what I also think is going to soften. I think a lot of people's enthusiasm for new in-box games is going to really diminish. not that we're not excited to see it but I think the majority of people are starting to be priced out of the hobby it's at the point now where nobody wants three games to cost thirty thousand dollars or forty five thousand dollars it's just not there like the experience is just not there now look each and every one of us we put a personal price on stuff like we look at something like a Snoopy watch from Omega. And some people look at that watch and they see the $6,000 watch that Omega charges people. Some people look at it and say, it's rare. It takes two years to get one. If you want one today, I'll pay $30,000 for it, even though it's a $6,000 watch. And I've been noticing this in different collectible communities like pinball and in watches and what people are paying over for cars is also ridiculous. It's why I sold our Honda Civic this weekend for $35,000 because it's three years old. It's got 8,000 miles on it, which is not a lot, but I paid 34.9 for it. I was able to drive the car for three years and get exactly what I paid for it in a car that's a Honda Civic, and it didn't even diminish in value. The world is upside down right now, and it's been a long period of people taking a lot of loans at 1% to 2% interest rates, and I think everyone's starting to feel like the world has been printing free money for way too long. We've all been spending money on stuff like this for way too long. And I think also there's going to be a period in pinball where a lot of us are just going to say, you know what? I'm content. How many more new games do we need to own before it's diminishing returns on our satisfaction? I was thinking about it this morning when I was thinking about this show. Like how many music pins do you need? How many pinball machines based on movies you like do you need? How many pinball machines based on comic book characters or superheroes do you need? Before you could actually just line up 10 amazing pinball machines and say, hey, look, we've got enough great pinball that covers a variety of themes with a variety of layouts and toys and experiences. Why do we need more? Now, look, it's human nature to keep moving forward and to keep progressing. But that's the other thing I've been feeling about pinball lately, is if we just keep making more pinball, is that a good thing? I think a lot of us want to see more innovation in pinball and progress in pinball. And what I mean by progress, it doesn't mean we have to completely change the game. No, I just mean like new experiences, new moments. And I want to see designers take more chances and take more risks. I want to see stuff like the UV kit in Stranger Things and creating the upside down world. That's a moment in that game that's incredible. I want to see more stuff like a Godzilla building that goes up and down and changes the pathway of the ball. That's a moment in that pinball machine. I want to see more stuff like Guns N' Roses in which when you start a song, you're teleported to the concert and you feel like you're there. Like Live and Let Die took 40 hours to code people. I want to see more stuff like that. You know, and that's why pinball is so fun because every time they take a theme and they translate it into pinball, there's a golden opportunity to create more pinball moments that we're gonna fall in love with. There's also just a limit to how many games you need before you're happy. There's a limit to how much room you have in your house. There's a limit to how much money you wanna spend. And I just, when I play a pinball machine, I just don't see an experience that really should cost more than $10,000. And that's just my own personal opinion. But it's like I said with the Snoopy Omega. It's no longer about the material costs. It's about the emotional value of this machine for people. Like some people out there love Elvira. And if they really want a 40th anniversary edition, they might spend $20,000 on it without blinking an eye because it makes them happy. And that's fine. Like that's all this is. These things are designed to just make us happy. And if they make you happy and you want it, sometimes you might have to spend more than the game originally cost. And nothing I say is ever going to change that. And that takes place in every single collectible marketplace. But what I think is happening now in pinball is these manufacturers are getting greedy. And the greed is going to hurt them. Because it is greedy. Because when you lift the playfield on some of these modern games, You are not seeing anywhere near, near the stuff under that play field that there should be under that play field if these games are going to cost $12,000, $13,000, $15,000, heck, $20,000 for Elvira. You just don't see it. So then it's all about an emotional appeal because it's not like the physical value is there. It's not. The physical stuff is not there to warrant these prices. So my observation of how pinball has changed is I think these manufacturers are now guessing at what is the emotional value of these machines to you. And I think they're about to overprice it because only dream themes can warrant a super high price. Like you're not going to be able to charge $12,500 for Venom. Like I don't think there's enough Venom fans to buy a thousand units at $12,000. There's definitely not enough Toy Story 4 fans to buy 1,000 CEs at $15,000. And so now, right, it gets really interesting for someone like me because now, in all of the years I've been covering pinball, in all of the years I've followed this hobby, there has never been a time in pinball where marketing mattered more than it does now. Now these companies really need to think about the marketing and the market research. Marketing isn't just the salesman side of it. It's also the research. It's also trying to figure out how much can I charge for this and still have demand. That's all a marketing decision. And Jersey Jack got the marketing all wrong on Toy Story. It was a perfect storm of mistakes for them. They got the wrong title. They got the wrong mechs. They got the wrong toys. They got the wrong price. They got the wrong volume. and they packaged it all together in a beautiful, colorful game, but it's just not what people want. And so why do you think Jersey Jack is sending out a survey right after they launched Toy Story? They're obviously trying to figure out what we want. Now, it's a little day late and dollar short with Toy Story 4, but at least they're trying to understand what we want. The only thing that wasn't in that survey that was interesting is they didn't ask you how much would you want to spend on a pinball machine. And I think what Jersey Jack needs to do is more of a private focus group and get people together of different economic backgrounds and really understand where the market is. I think the thing that's hurting all these pinball companies is they just charge the same thing for every game. Once they raise their prices on machines, every Stern LE is now going to cost, what, $11.50? every jersey jack le is going to be 12 000 or 15 000 for the ce i don't think you can do it like that these aren't movie tickets like these aren't video games these are physical things that have different levels of craftsmanship in them and i think they need to look at this more like a watch i do i think if there more materials in this game charge more for it if it took longer to make this game charge more for it If the theme is more expensive charge more for it But you can charge me the same amount of money irregardless of what in it And that's the main thing I've noticed in 2022 is we're all starting to ask about every single new game now, is the value there? And if the value's not there, people are going to close up their wallets real fast. Now, the problem with pinball is if you have a miss now, right? If you put out a game into the market and it's a miss and the sales are slow, you can't quickly pivot and get another game on the line. Only Stern Pinball can really do that. Like they could have a miss and then just rerun a game they know people love. You can't really do that at Jersey Jack. American Pinball can't do that because they haven't even had a game people love. Like it's a really difficult time. Spooky Pinball couldn't do that. The only game they could rerun is TNA, which is what they're going to do, but they don't have a portfolio of in-demand games. And stupidly for them, and this was a stupid decision, it was a marketing decision, when they said they were only going to make 750 Rick and Mortys. I mean, don't you think Chuck right now would love to do another run of like 1,500 Rick and Mortys, which he could easily sell because people would much rather have that game than Halloween or Ultraman. But he can't do it because he made a marketing decision to limit the number of them because they were trying to create FOMO. And they did. And it worked. And it sold out in just a couple hours. But I think a lot of these companies are learning. it's not about winning the sprint. It's about winning the marathon. And that's what Stern wins. They win both the sprint and the marathon. But it's much smarter to be able to make money on a game over five years than to just sell out in five minutes and that's it. You can never make the game again because you put an arbitrary limit on the game. I think the market research these companies do is going to be super important for them to nail it and get it right at these prices. The other thing that's changed in pinball now, and I'm just going to say this, like scalping and flipping machines for money, it's now going to come with a lot more risk. And this was coming all along. And you almost needed it to come with a risk, right? And I'm the worst offender of this. I'm just going to fall on my own sword and I'm going to take the arrows I deserve. Like I was one of these scalpers. I was a guy that would get on multiple LE lists and I would simply get a game to sell it to make money. You know why I did it? because there was no risk in losing money because I could read the market. The deposits on Stern Games were refundable. I didn't even have to give a deposit, right? There was no non-refundable deposits. I could just get on a list, get a game, realize that more people wanted Ghostbusters or Batman than there were games available, and then sell it for a few thousand dollars, money in my pocket, everybody wins. But those days are over now. Now that the deposits are non-refundable and the deposits are $2,000 or $2,500, if you speculate and lose, you're going to lose that deposit and you're going to lose $2,000. I lost $2,000 on Ultraman. When Toy Story was revealed and you had a chance to see it and a distributor asked you for a deposit after you saw it, you are committing to that game in that moment. Like the 100 people who bought directly from Jersey Jack Pinball in like three minutes, It's sold out on the site. Those people are committed to buying that collector's edition. And look, everyone knows the reality now. The demand is not there. They are already selling for below MSRP. Both VLE and the CE have already lost money before the games have been made. We saw the same thing happen with Halloween. It's just happening a lot faster this time because the games are so expensive. and if you put out $2,500 for a Toy Story CE and you know you don't really want it now and you know there's no money to be made, well, you're going to sell your deposit spot for probably at least $500 to $1,000 less than you spent on it. And then this creates the problem, right? Because imagine if you want the game. Well, then wouldn't you want to just buy it for cheaper and buy someone's spot who doesn't want it? This is what happens when you get the market wrong. If this game was great and people really wanted it, we wouldn't have this problem, but it's not a game where the demand is there. And now the market is speaking and every single flipper is going to lose money on this machine. And then it's not fun, right? It used to be fun to flip pinball machines a few years ago in which you could easily pocket a few thousand dollars. This is not fun. You lose money. You are basically setting your money on fire if you run in on these non-refundable deposits. And look, I go back and forth on this. Like, is it a good thing if we have scalping? Is it a bad thing? Like, you're never going to stop it, but it's definitely over. Like, the days are over. Like, you can't do it anymore. Even these Stern games, like, I don't know, a thousand of them. And I'm seeing games just sit. I'm seeing games sit on the secondhand market. And once they start making a ton of Godzilla premiums, people are not going to be spending $16,000 on the LE or $18,000 on the LE. You're going to see the LE slide back down because everyone is having the same exact experience. It's the same game. And that's my other takeaway from pinball in general is I think the FOMO and the anxiety to have the best version of the game, I think that's wearing off because I think the flex is gone. It was all about the flex. It was about, hey, look, I got one. It was hard to get. I got one. Those days are over. And you could argue on a philosophical level that that's a good thing, that this is going to force everybody to go back to just enjoying the machine and buying a machine you know you love. When you remove the flex and you remove the vanity of it all, then all of a sudden you're not chasing after these super high-end versions of the game, especially because you can have the same exact gameplay experience with every single premium. Like, there is no reason to buy Toy Story Collector's Edition. There's absolutely no reason to spend $3,000 more. The LE plays just fine. In fact, it plays exactly the same. And once you put inner art blades into the LE, no one's even going to feel like they have the second fiddle game. And so even this like three-tiered model might start to get really soft. Again, like I'm not sure it's going to go that way, but I do think you're going to see less and less people obsessing over the version that's the flex. because I think flexing with your pinball collection was so like three, four years ago. And I think it's getting to the point too where like people just don't care anymore. They don't care because the market is oversaturated. It would be different if there were fewer games, but there's just too many games. And I think all of this, right? We're all on this journey in our own personal lives. Like how many toys do I need? How many cars do I need? How many watches do I need? How many houses do I need? You know, for some of us, the questions become bigger based upon how much money we have. But it ultimately boils down to this in life. All of this stuff is meant to just cure some of the carnal boredom of life. Like if you really think about it, like all of us on some level get bored. We get bored with stuff. We get bored with how to fill the time. And when you're bored, you usher in stuff that cures you from the boredom. But everything has a cost. Like some stuff costs you time. Like you could sit on your couch and watch Netflix shows all day long. But the cost of that is the time you could spend doing other stuff and making yourself a better person. You could eat delicious fast food every day and feel like you're getting a great meal at a great cost. But that comes at the cost of your health. You're not going to look good. You're not going to feel good. You're not going to be the best version of you. And so same is true with pinball. You could have 10 pinball machines and be happy. You could have one machine and be happy. You could have no machines and be happy. You could just go to your local operator and support them every week and be happy. Everyone has a different agenda, right? It's like the distributors, their agenda is to sell you games. The manufacturer's agenda is to sell you games. My agenda is to just entertain you. Your agenda in life, only you know your agenda. Only you know what you need to do to be truly happy, to be the best version of yourself, to be the best version for your partner and for your kids. Only you know what it takes. But I can tell you this, in no manual in life, you will never find anyone who's become enlightened and the best version of themselves. Nobody will ever say the pathway to true happiness is to fill your life with stuff. And as I get older, I see this more and more. I don't want more work all the time. I don't want more pressures. I don't want more things to worry about. I was happy when I sold the Honda. One less thing to worry about. Now, pinball machines don't really make you worry. And for many of you rich collectors out there, you don't even play your machines that much. That's why they never break down. But most of these machines, for the most part, are pretty bulletproof, and that's a good thing. But I think everyone's going through that journey. And I think coming out of COVID, I think all of us have reevaluated our lives in a lot of different ways. And for me just personally for me if I just have two to three really awesome pinball machines in my home I will be happy I will stop there I won keep chasing machines I don think there more happiness to be had if I keep buying these things. And again, I had a lot of fun flipping and scalping machines, but those days are over. I'm priced out. I can't do it. I'm not losing money anymore. And there's not really much money to be made on the flips anymore. I don't know about you, but I also think about it like this. Like what's another three to $5,000 gonna do for my life? Like absolutely nothing. It's nice to have, sure, but it's absolutely going to change nothing. It's not gonna change what I get Brenda for her birthday. It's not gonna change what vacations I can take. It's not gonna change my job. It's not gonna change my physique. It's gonna change nothing. It's just gonna add a few more numbers into my checking account, which seems embarrassingly low considering how expensive everything is in the world today. Sure, I could give it to my financial advisor on our plan for my retirement, but even that makes me sad. Even though I'm very responsible how much I contribute to my retirement every month, it's just like this weird thing of like planning for your life to end, which isn't really that much fun either. So that's my personal journey. A few great machines, and I will enjoy doing this podcast for hopefully another six to seven years. Like I'll be an old man yelling about the pinball games Can you imagine me still arguing about pinball machines over the next five years? We'll see. I mean, I'm not burnt out. I'm really not burnt out. I do want to like try to minimize the drama this hobby can bring. And I know I create some of that drama. So long story short about what happened at Jack Bar yesterday. And then I'm going to leave you with what Marty Robbins' game is over at Haggis Pinball. So yesterday, I've got like serious cabin fever. We were inside all day long. The temperature is too hot to bring Killian outside. And I was just getting antsy. I'm like, I just want to go play some pinball. And Brendan's like, cool, yeah. So I take the subway to Jack Bar. I walk in. John is there. And like, there's not many people in there. There's like four to five people in there. And I see a topper on top of Godzilla. And I'm like, wow, like that's a really cool topper. It looks just like Zombie Yeti's artwork. Is that the official topper from Stern Pinball? And John said, no, it isn't. And I said, okay, I'm going to share it. And he's like, well, can you wait to Tuesday because there's going to be a big reveal? I did not say, John, I won't share it. I said, I was like, come on, man. And this is what I, the topper is on top of a machine in a bar that anyone can walk into. And this is what I do. Like, this is what Canadian Pinball Podcast does. I share what's going on. And this is where, like, I have to be objective. I don't do like NDAs. I don't hold things back. Like, I share what I see when I see it. And so that's where we left it. And then I shared it and he got mad at me. He's like, I can't believe it. I asked you not to share it. And I hope John forgives me. I said I was sorry this morning. I took down the content. And here's why I took down the content. Because it's not a hill I want to die on, not with our friendship. And yeah, I probably shouldn't have shared it after he said don't share it. But he also probably shouldn't have put it up on top of the machine if the guy didn't want it revealed until Tuesday. So I think we both were wrong. And we'll talk it out and we'll figure out our differences. But here's the thing too. The topper itself is illegal. Like this isn't an official Stern topper. And it's basically copying Zambietti's artwork. and Zombie Eddie himself chimed in and said, that's not the official topper. That's kind of stealing my artwork. The official one will be coming out soon. Okay, so then this guy who's waiting for his big reveal who did all this hard work on the topper, and don't get me wrong, the topper looks great, but it doesn't matter how much hard work you do on something if you're not allowed to release it. It's called stealing the IP that Stern paid good money for. It's not just the stealing of the IP that's the problem. he's hijacking Zombietti's artwork. I mean, it's basically like the same artwork being reused on the topper. Like you gotta know if you're gonna do something on an IP, you gotta know what the line is if you're making a mod for something that has an IP. We saw the same thing happen with Guns N' Roses. Remember when that game came out and everyone started to launch toppers that had the Guns N' Roses logo all over it? And it's like, no, you can't do that. Remember when Batman Elite came out and someone was able to recreate the Batman topper, right? With them in the Batmobile? they couldn't sell it. They couldn't make it. You can't do that. You can't steal the IP. So that happened yesterday and it kind of bummed me out. And I'm like, I always find ways to like make myself feel bad about pinball every once in a while. It usually involves a few drinks. It usually involves me doing something on Facebook or Facebook Live. And so I took it down because I don't want John to be upset at me and I hope he accepts my apology. But the real culprit in all of this is not John. It's not me. It's the guy who made the topper. That's illegal. If that illegal Topper was never made. John and I never have this dispute. It's funny the way the universe works. So let me end episode 700 by telling you the game that I'm hearing Marty Robbins is working on. Now, why am I revealing this when you're like, Chris, they need to make Centaur next. This game is a while away. Well, I'll tell you why I'm going to reveal it because I release rumors when I hear them. And I also just want to say this. Something rubbed me the wrong way. And I'm going to tell what rubbed me the wrong way. I was listening to Marty and Jeff talk on their show about how they knew it was Toy Story 4 before everybody else did. And Jeff was saying specifically how he knew 10 games that are coming out down the line and how he's signed NDAs and he knows what's coming out in pinball. And that's fine. You know, Jeff has relationships with all those manufacturers and they can share stuff with him and they can trust him. But I also don't like the fact that certain people get to know that information and you don't. I don't think this information should be secretive. I think this information, sure, it benefits the manufacturers so they can create that one day of FOMO when they do the reveal. But I also don't like the fact that there is a circle of people in this community and they're not manufacturers. They don't work for the manufacturers, but they know everything. And those people are able to make decisions based on that knowledge. But this is what Canada does. It's what I've been doing for years is I tell you stuff when I hear it. Now, this is a rumor. This is a rumor that this is the game Marty Robbins is working on over at Haggis Pinball. There is a Whitewood for it. Now, this is a smart choice by Marty because even though he's doing an original game, it is not an original IP. It is an IP that is now in the public domain. And that's a smart thing to do. Like Sherlock Holmes is public domain. Like you can make Houdini because it's public domain. What's not smart is to make galactic tank force or galactic space force because there's no emotional connection to that whatsoever. I think it is smart to take something that people know, that they recognize, that has some sort of historical prominence and then make a pinball machine based on it. Okay, so what is it? You know what? I can tell you what it is with an audiophile. And then you'll be able to know exactly what it is. Now, I'm not sure if he's using this, but the good news is this for them. This is also public domain. So this game can use this audio file and use this radio address in the game because it is now public domain. Anyone can use it for their entertainment purposes. Everybody, thank you so much for your support over all of these years. I know this was just more of like a discussion and a reflection episode. I will get back to covering what's happening with each company, but it's a milestone for me, and I just want to share what's going on inside my head as I reflect on doing a pinball podcast all of these years. Thank you so much. Have a great day, and we'll talk to you soon. Ladies and gentlemen, here I am, back of a stone wall that joins Mr. Wilmer's garden. From here, I get a sweep of the whole scene. I'll give you every detail as long as I can talk and as long as I can see. More state police have arrived. They're drawing up a cordon in front of the pit. About 30 of them. No need to push the cart back now. They're willing to keep their distance. The captain's conferring with someone. Can't quite see who. Ah, yes, I believe it's Professor Pearson. Yes, it is. Now they've parted, and the professor moves around one side, studying the object while the captain and two policemen advance with something in their hands. I can see it now. It's a white hexer tied to a pole. Flag of truce. Those preachers know what that means, what anything means. Wait a minute, something's happening. A humped shape is rising out of the pit. It can make out a small beam of light against a mirror. What's that? It's a jet of flame springing from that mirror and it leaps right at the advancing men. It strikes them head on. Lord, they're turning into flames. The whole field's caught up by the wood. as far as the gas tank, the tank for the automobiles is spreading everywhere. Coming this way now to about 20 yards to my right. Ladies and gentlemen, due to circumstances beyond our control, we are unable to continue the broadcast from Grover's Mill. Evidently, there is some difficulty with our field transmission. However, we will return to that point at the earliest opportunity. In the meantime, we have a late bulletin from San Diego, California. Professor Endelkofer, speaking at a dinner of the California Astronomical Society, expressed the opinion that the explosions on Mars are undoubtedly nothing more than severe volcanic disturbances on the surface of the planet. We continue now with our piano interlude.