This is the BlahCade Pinball Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Rebus, aka Shut Your Trap. Joining me from halfway across the world is Jared Morgan. Hey there, everyone. Long time no see. You might say that. You might hear it in my throat still, folks, and somebody commented on my video that I posted about Attack from Mars where they went, wait, is that Chris? Because, yeah, I've got the frog in the throat. We were going to record, was it last week they were doing it? It was. Or maybe the week before. May 7th was when we were talking about doing an episode, but you had to work. I had to work, and that's when my, and then. So that's when I had to work, and literally the next day I lost my voice. Yeah. And I've had this bad voice for like two weeks now. So there's no way, there's no way we could have done any sort of good recording at all. No, because I was coughing like a fiend during that time too. Oh, yeah. I know that. I know how that is. Yeah, that's lovely. So, yeah. Here we are. So hopefully we've managed to find the time. Yeah. So, quick update on a couple of things here. um one i've talked about the the fact that i need new boards for eight ball deluxe yep um not having planned on purchasing those knowing that all four boards are going to cost me just about five hundred dollars that severely cuts into my video card money that I was hoping to buy. Because video cards still are very expensive. Yep. The one I want is, I believe, $550 or $600. So where is the... It's made me go, okay, what do I need to do first? What do I need to do first? What is the priority? Right. What do I need? What are the needs? And so that put me in a bit of a holding pattern, except for the fact that I have this item here that I'm trying to sell. This would be a 100 to 400 millimeter lens. That's fancy. And these are rather expensive. And this belongs to a friend of mine. uh when i say belongs it's he got it from his brother who just passed away all right and he doesn't know what to do with it doesn't know what to do with it because he doesn't have the uh the proper camera to mount it on um nor does he shoot that kind of photography for that matter nor do i um so but what he said was we can split the money for what you get for it and apply that to a video card. Well, these things on Amazon go for like $1,200. Okay. Yeah. So now that's new-ish. This is the Mark I version. There's a Mark II version. So this is a few years old, too. And it's secondhand. So what's the rule? It's 33%, isn't it, when you're selling secondhand? Something like that. So I posted it to Facebook Marketplace for like $9.25. figuring people will negotiate. Maybe I get down to $850. And I've been getting, because graduation season, people want long lenses for those. So I've been getting notifications of people asking if it's available, but that's where it stops. I just had somebody. That's all you get on Marketplace. Is this available? Is this available? And they just walk away. Yeah. It's like, what are they doing? But as my friend said, he didn't want to post it on eBay because eBay will take a cut of what you sell it for. Do they still do? I thought they didn't do that for personal sales, but anyhow. Well, the other thing is I really don't want to have to ship this thing. What about Craigslist? I could. I haven't gone there yet. I might. I would say Gumtree, but it's your Craigslist, really, over there. Gumtree is what we use over here. So I had one person message me and go, well, would you do $750 because that's what I can get it from on this online website? And I'm like, that's an online website. I'm not shipping it to you either. You know, it's a local pickup. And so I was just like, I lowered the price to, like I said, $850. I'm like, how about that? Didn't hear back. Get another person responds saying $600. I'm like, no, I'm not going that low. And then they go, well, would you rent it? Like, no, I'm not going to rent it. What? I'm like, unless you plan on giving me $1,000 cash as a deposit, no. No? What would it look like? Right? So, anyway. People, this is the thing. I love getting rid of clutter in the house. I love selling stuff. But, jeez, dealing with people? It's just the worst. It's the worst, man. It really is. so like i said i'm i'm if i can get rid of that then i'm back into the ballpark of what i wanted to do but i'm like i'm just kind of in that holding pattern at the moment makes you wonder is there anything else lying around the house that you could um get rid of you know because one of the i read this article today about you know the the 12 things you can do to make what twenty six thousand dollars as aussie twenty six thousand dollars and one of those things was just have a look around your house and see the stuff that you've been holding on to and sell it because there's there's statistics out there that say that um the average household is holding on to around they said 16 things they don't need so you know it's an easy way to make cash yeah so but you got to go to you know it's that whole garage sale thing which we've had throughout the years um as we were ditching child toys and stuff like that and i've sold collectible items before um that i've had you know lying around so i just say list everything on marketplace and have a virtual one and say no shipping come get it and then of course you know that's your full-time job for the next month fielding off answers from everyone you know which i hope that's the reason why people don't do it because it's a cruel and unusual punishment yep right yeah well and there's also there's a certain point where people lowball me and i just go you know what i'd rather hold on to it in spite of what you're offering i'd sooner throw it in the trash and not let you get it for that cheap um listed so it's listed for 800 they are the lowball 600 and they want delivery short delivery is 200 bucks i usually do that too like yeah if you want to deliver it's 200 bucks for you yeah so anyway quickly go away that's uh that's where i'm at on the uh on the boards um it'll so if you had to choose one or the other what would you spend your money on well i'm leaning on the boards more heavily um for a very good reason we'll get into that in just a moment but I'm leaning more on the boards but the thing is is that if I get the boards well that means Abold Deluxe can go LED and then I'm going to want to buy LED lights and if I buy them for that I'm going to buy them also for Target Alpha and we're probably going to be at about $100 worth of LED lights when all is said and done if not more unless you're replacing with those nice little circuit board mounted strips. Yeah, I'm not doing that. Which is what I would do. I'd do it again. Honestly. Like I said, I know what you're talking about. The strips, I don't have any of the lights that are... Your tools, they're cold. Yeah, my lights aren't that difficult. I'm not dealing with that big old chain of them all and they're kind of walking in place. Yeah, no, I'm not dealing with that. So I don't have that issue. That's good. But... Like I said, And I want to change the rubber on 8-Ball. And we talked about the Mylar. I don't know. Did we talk about the Mylar on the show? Did we talk about the Mylar on the show? Yeah. I don't think we talked about it on the show, but I saw it on the video. That's right. I did mention it in the video. Yeah. Anyway. It's going to happen. It's just, hey, this has been mucking me up, and we've got some other things we've got to take care of around the house. So that's just going to kind of put on the back burner because I'm like, let me take care of the stuff that's important first to make sure I don't need extra funds. You know, anyway. Yeah. But here's... I mean, honestly, life admin will trump any sort of discretional purchase like symbol stuff or video card stuff or whatever. Like, you know, as much as you like it not to, unless you have a sudden death in the family that gives you money, you know. Money doesn't grow on trees except for that circumstance, which is not the one you want. Well, and I got news for you, too. Any money that suddenly comes into the house, my wife has it spent. And I'm not saying that in a bad way, either. She handles our finances amazingly. But she's got earmarked projects. If those kinds of sums ever came into place immediately, it's like, well, now we're doing that. so um yeah we're replacing this aging piece of equipment we're placing that we're doing this yeah yeah and honestly that's how it should be right we we both know as much as we would like to spend it on nice things that that is where the money needs to go it's always on the house you know sometimes yeah sometimes having a house that doesn't have leaky roofs is a good thing yeah that's kind of nice i've heard yeah all right so here's the reason why the video card can wait a little bit. Obviously, I'm enjoying the heck out of playing on the Ab Games Legends 4K machine. Right. To the point that I really hate playing in landscape mode on the PC right now. And I went back to rotating my monitor. I just don't. No. You never fire up the game. I don't fire up the game because I'm... And I can rotate my monitor, and I did that the other day. just to try out some of these new things. But when I tried it in landscape, at first I was like, why can't I read anything? And, oh, these angles. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I've gotten used to seeing something in full cabinet. They just released... Jeez. Okay. We've got a ton of games to talk about. Some of these we're going to talk about in terms of the Steam version of Pinball FX. but for right now I'm talking about what's been released on the Alp 4K. They released all three of the Xen original Trek packs, or Trek tables. They released Attack from Mars. They released Star Trek Next Generation. They released Twilight Zone. They're about to release the Kong 3-pack. That's a lot of content. That's a lot of content. All of a sudden, on a new platform. Yes. That's a lot. Um, the lag issue has been getting better, uh, to the point that Attack from Mars is very playable. I'm number three right now on the leaderboard. Um, and that's without having conquered Mars. If I could just freaking conquer Mars, I'll blow that score out of the water and have number one by a country mile. Yeah, with an instant billion. Yeah. and Trek and Twilight Zone are interesting because they are wide bodies and I was very curious to see what was going to happen considering what happened with Farsight and Black Hole where they just narrowed the entire thing. No, Zen did the proper thing, they scaled out a little bit but what has happened because of that, things are a little bit smaller and because they've also decreased graphical fidelity in order to make the lag less significant. On a table like Trek that has all those circles and spirals in the ramps, I mean in the wire trails. Oh, there's aliases everywhere. Oh, it's big time alias. Yeah, yeah. Jaggy City. Trek does not look good. Twilight Zone looks pretty good. Yeah, because it's only got that one cross playfield rail on it. Yeah, the text is a little bit hard to read. I mean, because it's thin now because, again, it's scaled down, plus it doesn't have the graphical fidelity. So some of the text looks like it's, like, poorly written in. Like, there's pixels missing kind of things. Looks like someone's put it in with a Sharpie sort of thing. Yeah, and, like, you can't read the apron card hardly at all. Clearly these are not 4K. And we all knew that this was not going to be a 4K thing. but no it's made it so these are very playable trek you got to be able to play it it's a fast table twilight zone is a top table are king yeah it's got to be the frame rates that's what's king it's got to be a constant 60 yeah otherwise you're just going to lose track of the ball and i have every confidence that make these playable so that people aren't complaining about the lag so much i mean people are going to complain about the lag no matter what but of course i'm finding these very playable and then once you get your optimization figured out you can start ramping back up the graphical fidelity uh yeah because adam's family looks pretty damn good especially in comparison to all these other tables it looks really good but adams has the worst lag of them all so so they need to optimize so they need to work out what lever they're going to pull they need to go yeah are we going to pull it towards the frame rate or are we going to push it towards the graphics and i think really at the moment here's the middle it needs to be more towards the frame rate yes yes until that's what people see until zen hires their unreal engineer which they have i don't know if they've completed that uh hiring or not it's was up on their uh website as looking to hire um because they're definitely looking for somebody that can optimize Unreal Engine, and if they can optimize it, then Bob's your uncle. It goes all the way down. Because there's plenty of people... Yeah, even playing on Steam, there's people that are complaining about graphical fidelity because of... Pinball FX is a beast. It takes a lot of resources compared to FX3. Yeah, it's Unreal all the way down. All the way down the stack. That's the problem with it. And people have identified that like even there's some other triple a titles that suffer from very similar things i don't quote me what they are because i can't recall but i do remember a thread in discord saying that even top tier games have problems with the things that people are complaining about the most in the game yeah it actually an engine issue yeah um it not anything that I don know what that thing is doing So what I did learn that i didn know previously was that magic pixel and their titles that are on uh the alp 4k they run on linux and linux yeah and or linux i don't know what how do you how do you pronounce it is it linux or Linux. Linux. Linux. So hang on. All their games, is that on the chip? Yeah. Is that on the actual system on the chip that they've got in the game? Yes. It's actually, they're running a Linux build? Yes. Which apparently talks much nicer to the Android chip, the Rock chip. That's what somebody, and I'll put it to you this way. the difference in file size the file size for any of the um magic pixel stuff is like call it like three megabytes small right compared to and i i take that back it might be like 300 megabytes i can't remember what the number is but the zen stuff is like three gigabytes i mean It's huge in comparison. So... I think that'll just be because Magic Pixel are not using Unreal. Correct. They're using... I think it's... I don't know, actually. I don't either. I'd like to say it might be Unity, but it doesn't say Unity, so it's probably not. I think it's their own thing, actually. Whatever it is... If you know what it is in the comments, let me know. But it's much more bespoke to the Alp 4K and the chip that they're using. The real solution is a better chip being used. Look, I think AtGangs is going to have to acknowledge the problem for what it is, and it's that system on a chip is the bottleneck. Well, not only that, but here's another interesting thing, And this is back to why I can wait on the video card. There was just an announcement with Zen and AtGames. Zen plans on releasing 45 new packs for the Elp system. 45? 45 new packs. Let me just go through what the first 14 packs that have been announced are. we have Sorcerer's Lair we have Wild West Rampage Fishtails World Cup Soccer 94 we have a three pack of the Universal Classics so that's E.T. Back to the Future and Jaws you have the Jurassic World three pack you have the Universal Monsters so Monster Bash and Creature you have the DreamWorks three pack you've got Chucky yay if you hear it for Pinball M the thing, Pinball M the Universal TV pack which is a three-pack, the Gearbox three-pack, Garfield, My Little Pony. So that's 25 tables. This is 17. Jeez. So that's 14 packs with 25 tables. So I started going through going, well, what are the other packs going to be? I'm eliminating Star Wars. I'm eliminating Marvel. those I believe are going to get their own deal you reckon? I think a lot of licensing has to take place with those again because their licensing probably, not lapsed but putting them onto new they can still sell them but their ability to put them onto new platforms is probably expired right? and who knows if it's an issue with waiting to finally clear out completely from arcade one up oh i don't know if that's a situation but it might be we need to you know probably get out from underneath there um yeah it's possible but so i went through the rest of the titles and i can literally squeeze every single other title that's in pinball fx into the remaining uh well packs there's 14 45 so the remaining 31 packs um so literally everything that's in the game at the moment is coming out because like you'd have the game night pack there's three tables pack rim would be its own table world war z would be its own table charlie brown christmas would be its own table um south park would be a two pack uh noir curse of the Mummy and Sky Pirates would be the three-pack. Zeus and Adventureland, two-pack. Samurai, Vern's Adventure, and Wrath, three-pack. Bio, Pasha, Rome, and Secrets of the Deep, four-pack. Castle, Epic, Quest, and Excalibur, three-pack. Super League would probably be its own pack. Crypt of the Necrodancer would probably be its own pack. and then Funhaus Space Station Sword to Fury 3 pack just like they came and then Doctor Dude Pinball Party in its own pack and then each of the remaining Williams tables would each be their own release individual because they were sold separately weren't they based on pricing any of the Zen originals are going to be only $5 any of the license tables are going to be $15 on their own. I would not be surprised if they release Indy, that Indy is a $20 table. Yeah. Just because everything's been $5 more than what it is on Steam. Because everyone's got to get paid, right? Yeah. Yeah. Everyone's got to get paid. But if I'm going to get all of that content coming natively onto the machine, I'm pretty happy. I can wait on the video card. That's... Yeah. You know, and full disclosure here, I'm getting these packs from AtGames. Hmm. So... Yeah, you're being provided them under... Media. Media reviews. Media reviews, yes. For which I'm going to have a review of Twilight Zone and Star Trek Next Generation coming out. But, yeah, so that's why I say I'm kind of, I can wait. Because as it is right now, I literally spent the other night probably an hour and a half on Attack from Mars trying to beat a score. And I just spent today an hour on Twilight Zone. I'm not hurting for boy I wish I had more tables I've the magic pixel tables have completely fallen off the earth for me yeah so which like I'm not surprised yeah really but it's not because they're bad it's just because they're it's debatable my Dr. Seuss packs that I've been looking at those are terrible tables they're just terrible right okay they look not the original the original magic pixels they're new ones what i have on here right now is the remakes and uh and the remakes are just like they're overstuffed messes that the ball does not flow well at all no um it there's just some fundamentally bad design in the layouts where you would think that a ball would funnel right to your flipper so that you could then immediately combo into this other thing, and instead it does this weird dribble that makes it nearly impossible to make a shot with. Right. That's frustrating. And then the Dr. Seuss tables, literally you're only playing like a sixth of the table at a time. Oh. And what I mean by that is you'll start a mode, and it's this little corner over here is where you need to hit to score. Nothing else on the table scores during that mode. Once you clear that mode, well, now this corner up here is what you need to be playing for. It's very herky-jerky. So there's not even like 10 points available on any other part of the table. Is that what you're saying? No, there's literally no motivation to flip the ball anywhere else but that one little section. Yeah, that's silly. It's mind-numbing, which is why I laugh when people are like, oh, but the ad games, look at how complicated they are, and the visuals look great. I'm like, well, yeah, the play field's complicated, but the code is very simple. The code is like alpha-level code, like rules-wise. If, put it this way, that was a real table and Stern released it, there'd be Reddit posts and Pinside posts going, oh, this code's rubbish, it's a trash game. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So, anyway, one other caveat to note with this pack. In the announced releasement, it does make mention of a subscription service. So currently, it hasn't gone live yet. There's going to be, instead of ArcadeNet, they're calling it PinballNet, which is a subscription service through AtGames that allows you to play all the pinball tables that are available. All except for Zen. None of the Zen tables are included in that pack or in that subscription model. Right. So. Good. I'm assuming that there's going to be a subscription model just for Xen, if you want to go that route. Right. Okay. So there's, yeah. Okay. Interesting. So maybe Pinball Pass is going to be discontinued on Steam and Epic and all that, and then added to AtGames. That's what I think is going to happen. Yeah. And by the sound of it. It's controllable. You can actually do it there. Yeah. I feel like Zen, they tried this, they went, yeah, this is going to work for us, and now we'll go full hog and we'll make a go of this and really do that. And this is what I'm hoping happens when Zen finally goes into VR again, is enough of this, here it is, and that's the end of it. no here it is and now just release and release yeah and release and release yeah i think the days i definitely get the impression that the vr version of pimple effects is is either going to be if you get it as a native experience on your headset because i'm pretty sure they would look for actually having like a native experience in the headset as well as you know a pc driven experience um but if you buy it on there i would absolutely expect it to just be like another console and get day-date releases with all the other platforms on there and off you go you know and the same with you know i really didn't like vr i've got some thoughts on it like honestly which um i won't go into too much here because i've got a big show but it's i reckon it's going to be a native on-headset experience for those people who don't want to bother with a PC. And then the PC version is going to be essentially managed like Magic Pixel, where you just turn on VR. There's a common pattern now with it. And I've seen it. You look at the new pinhole. Which we're going to look at in a moment. Yeah. I mean, this is something that we've argued for for a long time, and I know we talked to Mel about it, that we're fine. We got the pinball hall. We don't need all the other bells and whistles that go around in the VR space. Let me stand at the machine in my own space so that I can look around and see all my little trophies that I have up on the wall. I don't need a shark popping out of the water or a zombie leaning over the table. It's unnecessary. I have my pinball hall. They've done it. They've got – they don't have the bits and pieces flying around everywhere in VR, but every single table, the new ones now, apart from Belly Williams' ones, have got a themed environment around them. Right, but what I'm saying is I don't – we don't – we have said we don't need it. The licensors, I believe, have said we need it, and that's the problem. That's why you then can't just flip the switch and let us be in VR like magic pixel does. Yeah. But I would argue all the 3d assets and they need to mocap everyone. And like, honestly, some of the, the mocap in star Wars is like, I'd rather turn it off. Right. Like seeing creepy Palpatine, like do this thing in, in the game is like, I don't want to see that next to my camera. It's gross. Yeah. Like, uh, so, I mean, and, and that's where it's just kind of a shame. Cause it's like, you could give us all the experience that we all want and it's an experience that people are doing right now with that unreal engine vr trick you know um that's fine that's all we need that's all we want just give us the things in vr um so since jared mentioned it let's take a look at the new so there was a major update uh that transpired in uh yeah the content update that they released with all the things in there. It's brand new. Yeah. Brand new. Everything's new. Let's go. There's our pinball hall. And there you go. That's VR ready. Look at that. Yeah. My shelves are empty. Absolutely VR ready. Yeah, you've got to do some decorating, man. Yeah, I've got to play. I wish, you know how they've got that Onferencia machine and the electric circus machine? I wish that those were actually, like, playable. Yes. Yeah. It's like, or Circus Electric, that's what it is. I mean, if you're going to have them there, let me play them. Yeah, walk up to them, and that's like an in-app purchase where you can just buy it and then play it through. Because, like, Operencia is actually VR capable. Yeah. Yeah, it's actually, you can play it. I don't know about the other ones, Circus Electric. Give you an idea of, let's see, there's this whole quest line thing that's live. Here's our tournament wall. That's been there for a bit. That's been there. No events at the moment. Events are completely... There's the whole pinhole. Lovely. Yeah. It looks great. Like, just put that carpet on all the Belly Williams table environments and I'll be happy. Like, keep the rest of the lounge. Oh, there's the store, yeah. Anyway. All right, let's get into... So, sorry folks, you're not going to get audio for any of these tables. But I just wanted to give a... We've got so many to get through. So many. We're just going to... So many. ...get through them, basically. Wait, why is it saying everything is on a trial? Oh, because for some reason my network didn't connect. Really? I was literally just playing all this stuff. Okay well that means the game things are going to be really short All right let take a look real quick at the ones that are new So Battlestar Galactica here So you'll notice Starbuck's missing. Yeah, there's no Starbuck. But strangely enough, her sound-alike is in this game. Oh, really? Does a reasonable job at sound-alike. Okay. I would say, yeah, it's close enough to how it sounded in the show. You got, is it Adama? Is that his name? Adama, yeah. Who just likes to... I think he's a sound alike as well. Yeah, I agree. He likes to just tell you that roll a hard six or whatever a lot. Yeah, you know what? I cannot make the skill shot in this game to save myself. I have not been able to dial in the strength I need to get those top rollovers at all. I cannot do it. It's almost unmakeable for me. So please, if you've managed to do it, tell me what finite little adjustment I need to make between the top, like fully open, and then the next one down. Because that's, like, you can't do it. Oh, video mode. So I actually like this video mode. It's pretty cool. It is. But I have a hard time aiming in it. So you aim with your flipper buttons, fire with the launch button. yeah it's just that the the cannons i find it hard to like work out the blasts and how they connect but i like that they're coming down at different speeds yeah but i don't know i just find this i mean it feels different to say something like the other firing base video modes like for for example like the ones that you see in um uh home not homecoming home world um home world where it has like a tracer fire on it so you can sort of see what's going on and maybe just a i don't know something like a laser beam or something to like like laser finder to help where you're aiming would be helpful i don't know it just feels like when i fire i don't get the connection that I do in some of the other firing modes. But I don't know. Yeah, it's one of those things you've got to adapt to. So one thing I don't like is, so you can stack modes, I think, or you can collect modes along the way. They don't necessarily stack. Each lane is a different mode. So, like, you see Exodus here. But you have to read the DMD for it to tell you that you've got to hit it three times. There's no indicator on the play field itself of how many times you've hit it. You're correct. And I don't like that. So, yeah. I mean, I think out of all of them, I like it the most. Really? You do need to read the rules, though. You really need to read the rules. All right, let's take a look at Xena here real quick. Yeah. Xena, a show I never watched. You never watched Xena? No. It was like the staple down here in Australia, man. We were all into Xena. No, too cheeseball. That's what it is. It's like MacGyver, how it was said, cheeseball. I mean, I also never watched Hercules. This table is one that you absolutely need to read the rules for because it makes no sense. Yes, and that's my problem. I haven't read the rules. Everything's flashing. Everything's flashing. When you start off, look, all the lanes are lit. It's like, which one do I choose? What one does each one do? And here is a major gripe that I'm discovering in the design of these tables. if you're playing this game on a monitor in your lounge room at a reasonable resolution at this view like at a view like view two which is like honestly it's going to be the most popular view because it gives you the whole table and yeah view at the time there you've got zero chance of reading anything on the play field like any text or anything now think about how belly williams does their tables right everything is viewable from afar you can see everything from a distance there's no chance you can do that here you've got to upscale the font guys when you're doing this you've got to realize how people are playing this game like if you're playing on console on your tv there's there's no chance yeah you cannot see it so anyhow like i love the game it's This game is nice in the fact that it's really well-themed. It really hits on the Xena theme. You've got to read the rules. It's just opaque otherwise. Now, are you thinking these are sound-alikes also? Oh, I don't know. Lucy sounds pretty accurate. I haven't watched the show recently enough to know whether they're sound-alikes or not. The only reason why I ask is because, and again, our audience isn't hearing any of the call-outs, because I got the volume not on. Yeah, find a sign, don't complain about it. But these are all, it sounds like pull quotes. It's not game-specific quotes. Oh, they're definitely pull quotes. As opposed to... You can tell because the audio is different across a whole bunch of them. Yeah, as opposed to Galactica, which is specific to the table itself. Yes. So... Yeah, well, that's because there's definitely sound likes on Galactica. Yeah. My favorite is this one, Knight Rider. This thing is freaking awesome. Yeah. Now, this is also a game by Deep. His first design in like three years. Wow. Okay. You have the option of playing... Yeah, see, this is that one wide or whatever view, which is like impossible to play in. Yeah. How do people play this? Yeah. No. This is the view. This is... I don't know. It would be really interesting to see the data from Xen about what views are actually popular because I can't play this game in anything other than this, and it's the most zoomed-out view. Yeah. That's a problem. It is really zoomed out. So when I played this in cabinet mode, I do use view one, and it is wonderful. You can read everything. View one is good, is it? It's really good in cabinet mode. Okay. So view one is the view you use in cabinet mode. Yeah. Now, the beautiful thing about this one, you can play with both the original soundtrack, do the show, or you can play with the altered audio, and the altered audio, believe it or not, is a very good simulation. Where's the option to do that? Yeah, when you first play, if you hold down your flipper button, both of them, it gives you the option of how you want to do the audio. Oh, never even realized. Yeah. The kit is a sound alike, and there's a sound alike. Michael. Michael. Fortunately, they didn't pay the Hoff for his picture. I'll tell you what, it's a very good sound to like because it even sounds like they've lifted it from the show. Yeah. It really does sound like it's been lifted. I just know they didn't pay for the Hoff. No. But this is a really fun shooting table. it's it's easy to get things started but it's also like frustrating to complete anything the other thing that's really cool is once you start a mode you continue it if you lose your ball and I love that you don't get punished you can keep playing and it's just really good honestly I've just defaulted to playing this in realistic physics I don't play classic anymore and I am playing this in realistic physics and it's brutal oh it is yes it is absolutely because i switched it over to the regular physics or whatever it was so much easier yeah yeah i know and probably if if i was because i'm looking at the my frustration levels on xena like the outlanes are just horrible horrible in um realistic where's pacific rim i don't know why they're that bad but they they just make me i was swearing my head off at it last night and I was going I hate this table so much but I don't want to switch it back to Classic because I see the grinds that are on the leaderboard like there's I think maybe on Knight Rider it's like 22 billion is the top score it's like ain't nobody got time for that I don't care so yeah you know yeah that's ridiculous I think I'll play it on I'll play it on realistic because that's more of a challenge and you'll feel like you're actually earning more okay pack rim so this feels very much in line with the godzilla kong packs yes so i i i appreciate it for that um very basic simple layout i mean it's a yeah it's a simple fan of fans um it really is fan it's fan it's vanilla common in all garden variety fan yeah um i hate this the delay it takes to get my ball back here yeah i wish i could speed up that animation because it drives me nuts well this is the funny thing that i've that we comment with zen they'll do things like that when you're just like hurry up and give it to me but they won't do that when they need it most which is when important information is happening on the dmd screen yes why it's like guys that's when you pause it being animated my ball out like honestly so this one you need to read the rules for as well because there's like each lane does a different thing um and like depending on like you gotta shoot the lanes in a sequence sometimes you gotta like the left and right right lanes gotta shoot to i mean it's telling you hit the late lanes sure yeah i'm having a hard time getting the left or right it's really annoying me right now yeah there we go there's one i can hit the A in the I all day. It's the P in the C that I'm just like being brutalized by. Yeah, yeah. So, obviously, when you complete Pacific, you get a Mystery Award lit at that thing, and yeah. Now, here we go. I'm kind of disappointed that the Kaiju is just a cardboard cutout. Well, you know, do you want a big, massive 3D rendered thing on the table? You already got that with the Jaeger. No more 3D rendered things for you. It would have been good if that was like, even if they did like a Godzilla Kong Kaiju Battle sort of thing on the play field, like little mini versions of them. Right. That would have been cool. Right. You know? I can't shoot. My trial time's over. All right. Anyway, that was a specific room. So those were just the four that just dropped. Oh, but wait, there's more. Let's hear it, everybody, for the return of... hold on super league football super league super league so happy for super league to be here super league is one of those that it is tough to understand what to do at the beginning once you figure out the shots and it's not just like i know what to do but i still haven't dialed in what the shots are now that i'm playing in realistic physics mode um yeah because it's hard it's hard but once you figure it out it needs to be hard and yes it comes out there ridiculously fast i also got stung by it the other day and i went hold up your flipper every time um so it's all about like shooting all the lanes and getting like combos basically so you can open up the upper ramps for the strong goal and the shot on goal is like the goalie on World Cup Soccer 94 on steroids and it's just so much fun and hard, so hard sometimes to get the ball in there oh just got it I love the fact there's no music it's just crowd noise and the crowd amps up every time you do a combo shot it's just the best bit of sound design really is I love it. But I do found it a little frustrating that the bounce of the ball is actually a little too bouncy, honestly. Like, it really is like a soccer ball. Yeah. Which may be what they're going for here. But, yeah, it's very bouncy. And sometimes it's hard to get control back again when you want to take a shot or a time-limited shot. It's like, just give me the ball back on the flippers. Like, help. I mean, I'm trying to shoot the ball in between bumpers, and it's hard. It's so stressful. It's really hard. Yeah, I know. It's like, oh, I just got the shot, and it's so hard. And you got this countdown music going at you, and if I don't do it, they're going to score on me. It's like, I'm going to lose a point. Ah. Yeah, it's like, oh, my God. Unfortunately, Zen did not... There we go, I got that one. Oh, and then I timed out. Bastards. Just getting into it. Unfortunately, Zen did not update the code in any way, shape, or form. Which means when you get the halftime multiball, you're going to go, Why? End already. Well, sorry, the jackpot multiball is nice. The halftime multiball, because you do get jackpot opportunities. I just don't find it... To me, it just takes me out of the game. I'm also disappointed that they didn't update any of the photos of the Zen team. Because a lot of those photos, the people that are there, don't exist at Zen anymore, to the best of my knowledge. Yeah, that's probably true. You know. What else got added recently? Excalibur and Epic Quest. Those have been out for a while, right? Yeah, they have been. Yeah. Um, but yeah, definitely, oops. Where's Star Trek? There we go, Star Trek. There it is. So we got these three new Trek tables. Um. I mean, these have been out for ages. Everyone's seen gameplay of them. This is nothing new. Yeah, but we haven't commented on them. We haven't given out 2.5 cents on them yet, so. So, the voice acting on here, there's, I think, they've got Cisco's voice. Okay. I think they've got Sisko's voice, but I'm pretty sure you don't hear any. Basically, you hear mention of Worf's, but Michael Dorn's voice is not in there. You hear the engineer, the, I'd like to say, what is his name? Anyhow. I never watched the show. There's three voices in it. Yeah, there's three voices in it that you hear. There's Odo's voice, which I think sounds pretty much like they got his voice. If not, I'll tell you what, that's a very specific voice sound. It's specialized in that voice because it's very good. But yeah, I think there's only a few voices that star in it. But they do all right. So my thing with this table is I'm just not really thrilled to shoot anything. it's it's a lot of just little holes and narrow ramps i don't know it doesn't flow well to me um the thing that's interesting as well is that the the way it highlights what is to shoot for is all the lights sort of scroll towards a shot or scroll this way to a shot and there's been some points where I been thinking what is it wanting me to shoot Yeah Like all the lights are like going towards a point but it not clear what the point is because there not enough lights around the point for it to zero in on and often that that medallion shot that you see in the top left just above the left sling is what it wants you to hit and all the lights are scrolling towards it but it's like until you realize that's what it is you go what what is it all the lights are lighting up What am I supposed to shoot? Yeah. So it could be useful if they just, I don't know, put a, like a more, like a flasher effect under some of these important lights or something, you know? Everything is just, everything's an insert. It's like all they've done is they've gone, this is a 1980s table and all we have is no flashes. Yeah. Or we do have flashes, but we're just not going to use them for features. Like, you know, those big, you know, if they're stacked lights, there's like one, two, three, and then a big arrow lens with a flasher and a regular bowl underneath it on a regular table. Just do that. And this table. Yes. I'm going to call this one the Masters of the Force. Yeah, this is... Because... I hate it. It's got some bizarre shots. Okay, look at the upper or the middle left flipper. And watch how it, depending on which way you flip, it goes... Does this weird floaty thing. I kind of... Look, that's really cool innovation. And that's a digital-only feature, obviously. Yeah. And how cool is it that it does that? But... Because it acts as three things. It's a left flipper, a right flipper, and a gate. That's really cool. Good luck, Stern, trying to copy that like you did with the pop-up oscillating target in Jaws recently. Yeah. Which is a direct rip-off of all the cardboard cut-out pop-ups in Zen Studios tables. yeah good luck copying that um but everything else is like look at that big discovery bank of targets that you got to hit that dude those are hard to hit you know that alignment reminds me of rainbow targets in um uh wizard of oz just jack that big thing of like that that is homage to that table starting a mode on this table again this one you have got to read the rules on and i really dislike the fact that they they have virtual ramps in this where they just appear and beam you to the ramp there's it feels like such a disconnection of kineticism when you see the ball just morph from here to there i just there's something about it i'd really dislike I don't know why but it just yeah I don't like it this table I I don't know what it is about it I want to like it because I really love Discovery but like I don't know what I'm supposed to do yeah again you've got to read the rules for this one very carefully because there's a lot that's explaining the rules that you kind of just got to memorize and that's bad you shouldn't have to memorize things don't make me think just let me shoot anyhow anyhow that was our that was our three second two second minute and a half review of that's what we're getting on these minute and a half alright and then Star Trek Kelvin timeline which the positive I'm going to give on this it actually has the correct music yes that's where it ends yeah watch this thing is weird okay watch The skill shot is virtually impossible to hit because it is a direct launch around an orbit, and then you have to hit a flasher, a light. But the lights turn out almost immediately. So watch this. There's no way of capturing the ball. Yep, bye-bye. And the lights are out. Yeah. So what the hell? Yeah. you gotta like basically do a on the fly flip and now just at the right time I'm looking at this what am I supposed to shoot at cause literally nothing is lit up I wonder if you do a short plunge do a short plunge or is it only a full plunge no it's only a full plunge oh well there you go that's silly yeah it's it's just like weird weird weird um this is a table where you just literally are supposed to just bounce around and all of a sudden a particular color will light up. But again, there's nothing lit up. There's no lane lit up. Nothing right off the bat to tell you what to do. Yeah. Just shoot places. Those side orbits you can tell here, they're like a really steep banked ramp. Yeah, they are. but they don't show up like that no it's a problem like this table would look quite a lot better in vr but it's really hard to understand in flat layout there you go it's gone to the thingy tube glued and now you got like and they're little upper flippers as well they're not little but again they're it's one of these cases where they have a flipper but it only does a half stroke not a full stroke and it just annoys me I don't know why they only do a half stroke for a reason I know why they do a half stroke but it just feels like I'm being cheated out of a full stroke of the flipper I don't know it's silly it's just a perception thing but anyhow you're doing exactly what most people do on this table, I think. Just flail around. Well, it's really hard to control the ball. Yeah. And now it ends up in the tube again. The Jeffries tube. Man, that was that. It's from the movie, basically, where the dude gets sucked into the... He gets transported into the water tube and has to get flushed out. So, I mean, you know, interesting attempt. Out of all three of those, it's probably DSpace9 that I've played the most. And that's the funny thing is, I agree. And even though I don't really think it's a great one, it's the one that I will play the most because it's the most accessible. Yeah, the missions are really fun in DSpace9. They're long-running and you've got to do a lot of, they're like a three-stage sort of mission, so you'll probably drain in the middle of it. It's much more enjoyable to play that game as a five-minute challenge. That's how far you get. You can usually get one mission done in a five minute challenge although i've seen some pretty big scores in five minute channel so people are obviously doing different things on that table to me um so yeah it's you get a good you get a good run out in five minute challenge um but you're playing it normally you it's a little frustrating but um so yeah there's your your quick look at uh what's new um if you haven't picked it up already super league is free on pc still it was free for 30 days from may 16th so may 16th to june 16th um super league is free get it it's a lot of fun it really is yeah um and you can't complain it free no you can't i mean people are complaining it free but you know i've seen them complain really about super league yep one person said well Well, Zen, thank you for ruining... Thank you. How did you manage to ruin a soccer-themed pinball, which I love so much? It's just bouncy and blow. It's like, wow, you're complaining about a free table that you got. Okay. This is what... This is apparently how it works. That's amazing because... And you mentioned it about the balls. They have a different bounce. They are very bouncy. What's that? They really do, yeah. You think they're bouncy? I think they're flat. I don't think they bounce hardly at all. I think they still feel very much the lead weight that Zen tables used to have. For me, I think they bounce, but at the wrong times. They feel bouncy when you're trying to control them. When you're trying to actually get control and get a shot on, they're all over the place, and the thing won't stop bouncing around the playfield. And I think overall, I think they do have a bit of extra bounce to them, which I think maybe people... I don't think this person in particular that was making the complaints about a free table played the original one, maybe? But I think it was new, because they'd never seen it before. Oh, yeah, they'd never seen it before. Yeah, read the rules. I just like it because whereas World Cup soccer is very much a pinball machine, you know, a pinball game that is soccer-themed. Yes. Super League feels like you're playing a soccer match. It really does. It's a very unusual... Much the same way that NBA Fast Break feels like playing a basketball match to me. It's that same... Because you get... It's still got pinball tropes in it. Sure. NBA still got pinball tropes. Sure. But I'm paying no attention to my score other than how many goals I'm scoring. I can care less about the high score. All I care about is beating the other team. And that, to me, when you can transport me that way, where I'm like, it's 1-0 and we've got three minutes left on the match. Can I hold them off? You've done your job. You've done your job. um so is i i was playing realistic the other day and i got i think a hundred million in a like a match i lost for three balls and i ended up with a hundred million um and that's a long that's a pretty long game um i got to like the second round i got halfway through the second round i think before i ball out um so it says outlines man when they don't trap the ball and you oh they're they're quick yeah yeah it just goes and it's okay that was unexpected see i've made it to i think i've made it to the third round before um and when you've made it to the third round that's where those halftime multiball become just gets get going um when you do the whole victory uh celebration at the end of winning the match i'm like just give me to the next match i don't care because again i'm not caring about the points so i don't care about the super jackpot i just want to get to the next team and try and defeat them right right you just want to play the play the play the play the match yeah yeah and then and that's the other thing too to realize as you go up the ranks the competition gets harder so the amount of time for shots you have Less time for shots, and it becomes more shots that you have to hit in order to gain control of the ball back for yourself. So it becomes brutal. And that's what I really love about it. I think it is. That's the part of the code that I think is absolutely fantastic. I just wanted Zen to tighten up the actual gameplay a little bit more. But, you know, for what it is and how much it costs, perfect. Shift kiss. Yeah. shut up and don't take my money because it's free. Just to circle back around to the Ant Games cabinet, Attack from Mars is only five bucks. Totally worth the five bucks. Five bucks. Five bucks. That's pretty good. Twilight Zone, Next Generation, both $15. Your mileage may vary. I personally... It's not a day one buy. You wouldn't say it's a day one buy at the moment for those tables. It depends on how much you like them. I personally would go Twilight Zone over Next Generation. Yeah, Twilight Zone's got more to do. Yeah. Well, it comes back to me being a Lawler fan and not as much of a Ritchie fan. And so I'm going to take a Lawler table any day over a Ritchie table. Yep. And that's a valid point. Like, we have our design preferences, that's for sure. Oh, the other thing with the truck table, the one area where the lag really is noticeable is when you've got the big ball in the cannon. Oh, really? So what they've coded is that you no longer have to push the launch button to make a powered launch. you can actually pull the launch, the plunger, and that'll do those things. But in your head, you're thinking, as soon as I pull back, that's going to be the firing. No, it's as soon as you release it. So when I do the cannon, I'm pulling, letting it aim, and even as I'm letting it aim, I have to release a little bit early in order for it to get where I want it to go. Oh, no, that's not good. Yeah, so it's not, that's where you really feel the lag on next generation. That's not lag, that's just controller input. Yes. Like, a quirk with not using a digital plunger to, like, fire a cannon, which should be a micro switch. No wonder you're feeling lag, that's silly. And what they really should do is, and I'm going to pitch this, they really need to... Just use the flippers. Well, no, if you have the arcade stick with the control buttons on top, let's be able to use one of those buttons for the fire button. Just let's be able to reach over, go pop that, boom, it goes. Absolutely. That would be fantastic, and I'm going to make that suggestion. It would certainly solve that kind of an issue because then it would be immediate direct input. And I'm also thinking about when you get to a game like The Getaway, when that comes out, same thing with shifting. I don't want to have to worry about pulling the plunger. No. Excuse me. So. Yeah, exactly right. So there's no launch button on the game? No. Oh, okay. Yeah. I'm about to have a coughing fit. Bah. Well, well, well. I think we should call it, Jared. All right, no worries. I held out as long as I could, folks. Now I'm beet red, too. Oh, God. All right, let's wrap it there, everyone. Thanks. I'll do the talking if you like. Thanks, everyone. Take us out of here, Jared. our two and done two minutes and done overview of all the tables and for, uh, tuning in this week. Um, we'll be back, uh, next time at some point, um, where I'll be doing your favorite thing of stuff and things. Uh, have a lovely, lovely time. Everyone. See you next time. Bye. Bye. Thank you.