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PNP 612- CGCs MM Merlin USA ONLY+ END of TPN?+ Finesse Flipper is FIRE+ TPF Pintern HIRED&It's YOU!

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·49m 36s·analyzed·Mar 22, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Merlin Finesse Flipper success, CGC USA-only release, TPN rumors, and TPF listener challenges

Summary

Orbital Albert reports on multiple pinball industry developments from Texas Pinball Festival: Merlin's Arcade's Finesse Flipper modification working successfully, CGC's Medieval Madness Merlin Edition being USA-only, speculation about TPN (The Pinball Network) potentially shutting down, and announces five challenges for Poor Man's Pinball Podcast listeners attending TPF with a prize for the 'pintern' assistant role.

Key Claims

  • CGC has announced Medieval Madness Merlin Edition will not ship internationally due to lead times

    high confidence · Orbital Albert reports seeing CGC's Facebook post stating no international shipping

  • Triple Drain and Silver Ball Chronicles are leaving TPN

    high confidence · Orbital Albert observed these two shows leaving TPN feed, triggering concerns about network stability

  • Finesse Flippers on Merlin's Arcade require precise technique in bottom quarter/third for tap passes

    high confidence · Orbital Albert analyzed video posted by Don showing flipper mechanics and gameplay adaptation

  • Turner Pinball has increased tournament relevance through Finesse Flipper innovation

    medium confidence · Orbital Albert's opinion: 'Turner Pinball has made itself more relevant in the tournament pinball scene than they ever were with Ninja Gaiden'

  • Kaneda speculated or was told that TPN might be going away

    medium confidence · Orbital Albert reports Kaneda mentioned on livestream that TPN could be shutting down, source unknown to Orbital Albert

Notable Quotes

  • “CGC, listen to me, a proud Canadian. Let me speak for all the Aussies...we would be the ones who would have to pay the tariff and if we're willing to take that risk because we love how gorgeous the Merlin edition looks let us take that risk”

    Orbital Albert @ ~32:00 — Strong criticism of CGC's USA-only sales decision and its impact on international collectors; expresses frustration at being denied purchase option despite willingness to pay tariffs

  • “It's like when your dad's like, you're grounded from candy. And I'm like, oh man, I need a Joe Louis...I didn't really want this Merlin until they told me I couldn't have it”

    Orbital Albert @ ~40:00 — Humorous but revealing commentary on FOMO psychology in collector market; playing on psychological effect of scarcity

  • “I think it's a mistake trying to copy the Stephen Merchant voice character. His voice is too iconic. Also, I don't think the art matches the video game. It's too cartoony rather than dystopian.”

    Jason Vaughn (donor/community member) @ ~18:00 — Critical feedback on Portal Pinball design aesthetics from community member; concerns about theme fidelity and art direction

  • “P3s have 15 balls in them. I would have liked to see more use of the staging balls, so it looks like the ball enters a portal and immediately exits the other portal.”

    Jason Vaughn @ ~19:00 — Specific gameplay mechanic feedback on Multimorphic Portal 3 design; suggests missed opportunity for portal effect execution

  • “I want to love Multimorphic. They have amazing ideas...but after weird al never will buy one again. Oh maintenance nightmare and no one knows how to fix them.”

    Jason Vaughn @ ~20:00 — Negative experience report with Multimorphic machines regarding maintenance and support; warns against future purchases

  • “Turner Pinball has made itself more relevant in the tournament pinball scene than they ever were with Ninja Gaiden...because of that one reason the finesse flipper”

    Orbital Albert @ ~14:00 — Assessment of competitive tournament impact of Finesse Flipper technology; suggests innovation elevating manufacturer's tournament relevance

Entities

Orbital AlbertpersonKanedapersonChristopher FranchipersonKerry HardypersonDonpersonJason VaughnpersonJason DodsonpersonTurner Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: CGC's USA-only distribution of Medieval Madness Merlin Edition signals manufacturing/supply chain constraints; impacts international market access

    high · CGC announcement: 'unfortunately...they will not be shipping to anywhere internationally due to lead times, etc.'

  • ?

    community_signal: TPN network stability in question with multiple anchor shows departing (Triple Drain, Silver Ball Chronicles); rumors of potential shutdown circulating

    medium · Orbital Albert observed departures and notes Kaneda's livestream mention that 'TPN, the only other pinball network...could be going away'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Finesse Flipper mechanics creating new tournament-level skill requirements and top player advantages; bottom-quarter precision technique becoming competitive differentiator

    high · Orbital Albert analysis: 'tap passes only work in the bottom third...I bet you all the top 100 pinball players will get to be able to use a finesse flipper...to like dead in a tap pass'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Portal Pinball criticized for cartoony art direction mismatched to theme and insufficient portal mechanic execution with ball staging

    high · Jason Vaughn: 'I don't think the art matches the video game. It's too cartoony rather than dystopian...I would have liked to see more use of the staging balls'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: International tariff concerns affecting international collector purchases; CGC citing lead time issues as reason for USA-only strategy

    medium · Orbital Albert: 'we would be the ones who would have to pay the tariff and if we're willing to take that risk...don't make it so we can't buy it'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.149

0:00
All get around, he's on the rebound Hear the sound of our buddy, oh lordy, it's Orby Pinball now to rejoice He's tugging pinball, craft beer and coffee Miffed with syrup and honey Almost a laugh with his family in a random tangent Stories of his boys He's on the poor man's pod network We're gonna get more listeners for the Pinball Nerds Podcast.
0:32
Coming to you from beautiful River Hibbert, Nova Scotia. Welcome back, Pinball Nerds, to episode 612 of your fifth favorite pinball podcast. My name is Orbital Albert, and on today's show, I'm so happy to report to you from so many rad pinball content creators doing their hard working job out there at the old Texas Pinball Festival. And I have not one, not two, not three, but four pieces of news. Well, I guess three pieces of news I want to report on. And one challenge. That's right. You, you the listener. You have to be a listener of this show. Okay. If you're listening right now, that means you, and you're going to be at TPF. I have five challenges at the end of the show that I'm going to give you. Now, does it mean you have to try to do all of them? No. I'll just say this, whoever does the most of the five challenges is my official, unofficial assistant to the manager for my Pinball Nerds podcast, pin turn of the year of 2025, okay? I can't be there, so you're going to be my spirit animal. You're going to be there in lieu of Orby, if you will, all right? So I have five really fun, easy challenges, and I don't care if you just do one. And, you know, to me, you're a winner even if you do one of them in my books because that's just really cool. And honestly, quite a few of them are fun. Most of them are easy. None of them cost you any money. You know what I mean? They're just fun. You're going to see. Those challenges will be at the end. But let's get into everything else.
2:10
I'm not going to lie. I'm starting to lose my voice. I've podcasted way too many days in a row. now I do have to start by giving a big massive massive thank you to the pinball junk drawer shout out to craft beer sally over there uh and foghorn lakehorn thank you so much for doing a show yesterday it saved my voice because I made a promise to all the listeners that if anyone else donated yesterday I would have to do a show and thank you Jason Vaughn awesome Jason Vaughn Jason Von Rad, Jason Von, let me be clear, I can't pronounce your last name. But, thank you, thank you, thank you. You did write Von at the bottom. He's done a little bit of a long speech here. So I'm going to try to do it very quickly. But not speech, but a longer comment than typical. So I'm going to try to get through it very quickly. And there's part of it I'm going to have to censor out. That I'm going to have to, I'm just going to censor out because I can't say it all. But I appreciate the sentiment, okay? The other things we are going to talk today about, though, include, but are not limited to, Merlin's Arcade. Sorry, Merlin's Arcade Finesse Flipper works like a boss, thanks to Don. We're also going to talk about the Medieval Madness Merlin Edition that was released. We got, thanks to Kerry Hardy, showcased a little bit of it last night, but then we got more information today about it, including some news that just came out very recently on their Facebook page that had me shocked. that's right if you live in Canada no uh-uh that's a niche niche you can't buy it you live in the UK you can't buy it Holland home of one of the greatest pinball museums on planet earth which has a much higher percentage of working machines than the Las Vegas one you cannot do it if you live in Australia you can't buy it so I'm not really going to review it that much as to say I'm kind of disappointed that we can't even buy it here in Canada even though I didn't necessarily want one even my friend Dylan shout out who's got a a tournament there in Fredericton tomorrow Flippin's Arcade downtown Fredericton make sure you meet me and David Dennis there David Dennis and I I should say hey dude is also going to be coming with us that's right my oldest son who got second to me last year in the 2024 New Brunswick Pinball champions uh championship he's going to be kind of uh he's he's a little bit more stable at his new job he's been there quite a while now and he's going to try to play more tournaments this year so we're so very excited for that and it looks like owen will also be coming because he's coming to help me work the card show in monkton before that so very excited to see everybody at that but we're also going to be talking about oh sorry i was going to say dylan has cactus canyon and now has to decide if he's going to get the cactus canyon continued code because it is out now as well but we're also going to touch briefly on Kaneda mentioning on his live stream yesterday that TPN, the only other pinball network in existence other than the poor man's pinball network right here that you're listening to, it could be going away. This is something, this is complete news to me. It's something I knew nothing about. And I'm very curious why he would say that and what made him think that and who told him that. Now, hopefully he's just being trolled because the funniest part of his announcement on the live stream yesterday was saying, Orbiter Albert, Orbital Albert, he was just going over there to TPN. Wouldn't that be funny if right the day after he got to TPN, they canceled him? Yeah, wouldn't that be funny, Chris, if I got canceled? You wanted everyone to feel sorry for you when you got canceled. Now you're laughing at me getting canceled? That's not very rad, bro. Anyways, it's all good. I think he's just having fun, and let's all have fun. So let me have fun, Chris, and just say, Franchi was trolling you on my Facebook page. I shared a memory from like five years ago or four years ago when I was on the Pinball Network, very close to when they started, like the very first year they were around. And Franchi, for some reason, either A, was trolling Kaneda, which I think is most likely, or B, didn't read that it was, I know sometimes older people in my family, not necessarily saying this happened to Franchi, but sometimes like my dad and stuff like that, they don't really read that it's a shared memory. As you can tell, Franchi, by that picture, first of all, I'm Matt Pemberg. Second of all, I don't have a show on, as you know, because I know you're listening to me here on the Poor Man's Pinball Network, I don't have a show on TPN, even though I wouldn't be opposed to it. I mean, if I was invited to go on as a guest, I think I was on there with the final round a couple of years ago and such. So, you know, I'm not opposed to it. I'm just suggesting I'm very happy here, right on the Poor Man's Pinball Network. I would like to stay. Shout out to all the tribe members, by the way, and there's a special challenge of the five that relates directly just to the tribe members. So I'm very excited to talk about that as well. But I have no clue if it's ending, but we are going to pontificate about that briefly as well. So let's just hop right into it. First, we're going to talk about Merlin's Arcade, the Finesse Flipper. I was the most excited to talk about this of any of the stories, because this is a good news story, and those are my favorite to share with you. Of course, if something bad happens in the industry, I'm going to have to report on it.
CGC Pinballcompany
TPN / The Pinball Networkorganization
Poor Man's Pinball Networkorganization
Merlin's Arcadegame
Medieval Madness Merlin Editiongame
Portal 3 / Portal Pinballgame
Texas Pinball Festival / TPFevent
David Dennisperson
Triple Drainorganization
Silver Ball Chroniclesorganization
Ryan Barryperson
Russell Daggerperson
  • $

    market_signal: FOMO psychology confirmed in collector market; restricting access increases desire for previously marginal product

    medium · Orbital Albert: 'I didn't really want this Merlin until they told me I couldn't have it...when your dad's like, you're grounded from candy'

  • ?

    product_concern: Multimorphic machines reported to have significant maintenance issues with poor customer support access

    medium · Jason Vaughn: 'after weird al never will buy one again. Oh maintenance nightmare and no one knows how to fix them'

  • ?

    product_concern: CGC machines criticized for minor flipper lag and perceived playfield mechanics inferiority compared to originals

    medium · Orbital Albert: 'I feel like there a tiny little bit of flipper lag...sometimes I don't feel like they play quite as good as the OGs'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Finesse Flipper modification on Merlin's Arcade represents new flipper technology gaining tournament relevance; requires precise technique and creates competitive differentiation

    high · Orbital Albert: 'Turner Pinball has made itself more relevant in the tournament pinball scene than they ever were with Ninja Gaiden...because of that one reason the finesse flipper'

    • 7:19
    Okay. But I'd like to talk to you much more about something great like this, where the finesse flippers are working. And, you know, we didn't get to see them the other day on Kerry Hardy's livestream. And it's so good now. Don posted this. It's over on Don's Pinball Podcast Facebook page. Take a look. He probably will also post it on his YouTube.
    7:42
    I don't know if it's Don playing for sure or not. I don't know him that well to be able to tell by the hands. There wasn't much speak or talking, so I couldn't really tell. Don, if that was you, work on your pinball skills. You kept hitting it in the top one-third of the flippers at the start. No, I'm just kidding, Don. Obviously, you're just getting used to the brand-new finesse flippers. No ones have ever played with them before, but if you're someone who tap passes a lot, like I do, you know tap passes only work in the bottom third, sometimes the bottom quarter if they're real. if they got some giddy up and go in those old flippers they just replace the coils or whatever like if they're if they got some oomph to them you gotta tap pass so gently okay you gotta wear little baby gloves all right so but by halfway through the video you see they figure it out oh this only works to do a tap pass over perfectly to the other flipper if I do it in the bottom quarter and I'm kind of happy it's not a gimme it's not a hundred percent of the time like you have to still when it's coming real fast like you're going to have to look at the differential the speed depending on which in lane it's coming through left or right and which feed it's coming from um and it would be very hard to use on the fly but i bet you some of these top i bet you all the top 100 pinball players will get to be able to use a finesse flipper while it's on the fly to like dead in a tap pass and do like a live catch almost like it's really interesting some people will probably do the finesse flip into the regular flip to cradle it's it's going to be interesting to see and I think because of that one reason Turner Pinball has made itself more relevant in the tournament pinball scene than they ever were with Ninja Gaiden or I always call it that I'm sorry Turner Pinball I forget Ninja's Revenge okay let me have a sip of my happy dad I'm happily drinking some cherry happy dad here kind of Canadian kind of American sort of like me I'm half American half Canadian half my family is from Texas and the other half is from well kind of Holland, but... Can we go back to being friends? Why can't we be friends? Why can't we be friends? Canada and the United States. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Wait, why am I saying? Because we hit the fundraising goal! That's right, we hit $500. Okay, it's like $488. $88 is my favorite number. You know, in Back to the Future, the DeLorean can go forward or backward when it hits $88. So I'm going to call that a W. If I'm short by $12, I'm calling that a W. So thank you, thank you, thank you to Antonio Verdesco. Don't remember your last name. Don't have it pulled up right now. But thank you to Antonio. Thank you to everyone who donated this year's telethon, whatever, PBS-a-thon is done. I'm sorry for begging so much. I just like getting it done early. I like getting it done quick. Not when I do everything, especially not when I'm, you know, playing pinball. I don't want that to be done quick, right? You know what I'm saying? But when it comes to fundraising for the year, I like to get it done over within a week, like a band-aid, real quick. That's what I did. I pulled it off quick. So I don't have to go back to begging or bartering anymore. I don't have to go back to slinging coffee. You might hear me later on in the year, when and if, I'll just say when, not if, I finished finally the Pinball Nerds Podcast trading cards, which have had like five iterations. We've pivoted, we've bounced, we've cancelled, we've changed. Lots of people have got different iterations of the promos. I would say pretty close to as much of a failure as it could be so far. But, can we turn the page and have redemption? Now, speaking of redemption, I have to talk about the Medieval Madness Merlin edition. Merlin. How many Merlin pinball machines are going to come all at once? It's very confusing. CGC and Turner Pinball, y'all couldn't chat. No, I'm just kidding. Obviously they don't, but they should. And be like, hey, by the way, if you have the name Merlin in your upcoming pinball machine, can we talk? Can we buy you out? Can someone else just be like, like, what's next? We're going to have Jersey Jack's Merlin's beard. The follow-up to Pirates of the Caribbean. Caribbean? Caribbean. All right, Orby. Anyways, I am celebrating a little bit. I'm having a couple drinks. Hayden and I have been having fun, hanging out. Father, son, doing as we do up here in Canada, having a great time. Friday night with no one else home. Owen's actually gone out on a date night, ironically to Moncton, the same place where Drop Target Danielle is. His mom watching a hockey game. I think they called the Wildcats Moncton Wildcats They actually in first out of all Canada right now and the one level lower than the NHL And the only team the second team out of all Canada is actually London, Ontario, our old hometown. So shout out to the London Knights.
    12:38
    That's one of my big regrets moving away from London. I didn't go see more London Knights games. There was multiple times when I was invited to go. Friends had free tickets, and I would sometimes be right downtown a couple blocks away and I go, I don't know, I could just go next week, I could just go next week. For 40 years of my life, I could go see the London Knights, like the greatest, probably, arguably the greatest non-NHL hockey team of all time. Of course, I lived there, so I felt that way and I'm sure many of you feel that way about your local towns as well, but a lot of great players came from there. So let's get back to pinball though for a second. And before I talk too much about pinball, I have to thank the sponsor of the show, Jason Vaughn. Freaking awesome. Thank you so much. So he says, and I don't necessarily, just the same way if you donate to me, you don't necessarily agree with everything I say all the time. You donating to me is just thanking me for all my hard work. It's not saying, oh, I agree with everything. You're not stamping everything, obviously. So I don't necessarily stamp everything Jason's saying here, even though I do agree with most of it. Definitely not all the portal stuff, but some of the stuff near the end. So I'm going to read it. I am not Dennis of the Eclectic Gamers. I'm not that good at voices. I don't even know where he's from, like what part of the United States. He sounds like he has a German possibly or perhaps maybe even a Dutch last name. So shout out. If you're not, if you ain't Dutch, you ain't much. No, I'm just kidding. See, that's rude. That's mean even right there. Who cares? All right. Portal 2. No, wooden shoe. Rather be Dutch. Man, I've worn the wooden shoes there. They are not comfortable. Dutch people will tell you, oh, they're pretty comfortable when you use them. No, they're not. All right. Jason says, Portal 2 is my favorite game of all time. Portal 1 was just an add-on to Half-Life, but 2 is fully fleshed out game and it's hilarious and it has a two-player mode, which is a blast. I do agree with you. I remember playing that a little bit and it was really fun, Jason. So he goes on to say, I think it was a mistake trying to copy the Stephen Merchant voice character. His voice is too iconic. Also, I don't think the art matches the video game. It's too cartoony rather than dystopian. P3s have 15 balls in them. I would have liked to see more use of the staging balls, so it looks like the ball enters a portal and immediately exits the other portal. I want to love Multimorphic. They have amazing ideas, and this is a near dream theme for me but after weird al never will buy one again oh maintenance nightmare and no one knows how to fix them don't spend this on american goods okay you put dot dot dot so i think that's the end of that now i don't know anyone with a weird al who's had issues with it but i'm not in all the the uh pin side groups reading about you know i don't like reading about fixing pins because i don't like fixing pins i haven't personally heard that before and i hope maybe you just got a dud maybe you didn't get a great version of it i hope if you reached out to p3 multimorphic i I would assume they have good customer service that could help you. But if you are having issues, I would try to reach out to other owners on, you know, one of, it doesn't have to be Pinside, but one of the message forums. And if not, talk to your distro and if not, talk directly to them because I think they would actually help you get that fixed up, Jason. But who knows? I could be wrong. Anyways, he goes on to say here, don't spend this on American goods. Buy Canadian. We deserve the world's derision. I think it says right now and deserve to be punished for electing the word I'm going to take out, racist Cheeto cheers Vaughn. So Vaughn, thank you very much for that. I do appreciate the money. And you know what? Just because you said that, I added on for my family. It happens to be actually, so I did have to spend $1 of my own money, but it does happen to work out because $50 US is about $68 after fees or whatever Canadian. It's $69 for my favorite box that I wanted to get of the new Japanese Pokemon set. So as I was doing order of the Canadian one from some of the funds that I generously got from many of the Americans that did donate, I spent it on an American Pokemon box for my family and I to rip. Ironically, it's an American company printed by it, but it's coming in the Euro packs, which are 18 packs, which means Hayden, Owen, and I will each get six, which is really fun. Thank you guys again so much for donating. I couldn't be more stoked. I told Danielle I thought it would take at least a month to a month and a half of me selling my soul and putting it out there and asking for donations for me to just get $10 an episode, which is probably not even breaking even on the, never mind the time, but just even the money I spent on pinball, pinball tournaments, traveling, Twitch, just Patreon, you know what I mean? Everything else. Definitely not even, no, it wouldn't even cover my Patreon bill for the last year. It would come probably, you know, probably 150 bucks, right? So maybe a third of it.
    17:31
    Anyways, let's just get back into that. Thank you, Jason, so, so, so much. And I did get one other donation. Now, they did not do the minimum 25, but I actually thought it was kind of funny because it's part of the message. So Russell Dagger, here you go. Their comment is much shorter, guys. It says, how about 25 cents an episode? What will you spend your Aussie dollars on? Honestly, I'm going to look into some really cool stuff. I'm going to type the word pinball into eBay, and then I'm going to go to location and just type Australia, and I'm going to go shipping and price the lowest, and I'll probably look at auctions instead of buy it now, but we'll see. It could be open up to like $12.50. And honestly, even if it's just cool like stickers, maybe I can find some neat Haggis stuff, right? you got to support a company that good um no i'm just kidding but no i you know i could maybe i could go you know what oh no the frog's back i could spend this in the phantom tilt i just saw they interviewed mark silk my buddy ryan barry over there i've not listened to it yet but i just i could go spend it there because he's so generously hooked me up with that t-shirt uh ryan you'll be happy to know i did do my acceptance speech uh for the d jennies on the Pinball Podcasts, while wearing my Ninja Turts shirt, by the way. Go support him and buy some stuff. I could use the $12.50 towards getting some other cool thing. I've got to go look in their shop. If I can't find anything awesome in the shop, which I bet you I can, I'll just buy something on eBay. Those dollars will go to Australia. Thank you so much for that. That actually got us to $488. I'm going to call that a W. Thank you so much, everybody. Who cares if I only got $9 and whatever, 80 cents per episode. That's incredible. You're just listening to a man talking how he would if we were buds and we were hanging out on a Friday night just chatting about all the weird stuff that happened at pinball this week. And it was a weird, weird pinball week. A lot of stuff happened. So let's get back into it.
    19:36
    So we did talk about Merlin's Arcade and how awesome the Finesse Flipper was. Go give a sub and like to Don for him doing that. next I have to talk about this is over on their Facebook page and I didn't know what to do I saw a lot of people put the laughing sign and I hope that was not ill-willed but CGC just posted a comment on their own post it's not the main headline it's a comment saying unfortunately and I'm just going to surmise them here I don't have it open currently I was too disappointed I had to exit out and get off there they will not be shipping to anywhere internationally due to lead times, etc., etc., etc. Excuse, excuse, excuse. Look, maybe there is some truth to that, but it's got to be partially because of they don't know how to deal with the delays. And now you're hitting us, not just in our pocketbook, but in our hearts.
    20:29
    CGC, listen to me, a proud Canadian. Let me speak for all the Aussies. Let me speak for the New Zealanders. Let me speak for the Japanese. let me speak for all the Europeans Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and definitely Greenland for God's sake we would be the ones who would have to pay the tariff and if we're willing to take that risk because we love how gorgeous the Merlin edition looks let us take that risk now are we going to bitch moan and gripe about it after we have to pay that 25% if we actually do yes, will we hope to God our distro will split it with us or just buy a whole bunch now and hold it until after the tariffs are gone or vice versa or something.
    21:12
    Yes. But for the love of God, don't make it so we can't buy it. Now, that being said, this is in a roundabout way better for us Canadians and everyone else who are not Americans because we can only buy one used. Okay? Can only buy one used or if you have a friend or family member in the United States, you can trust them with a pinball machine to not steal it, which I mean, a lot of us do. A lot of us do have friends or family members. I mean, something like 90% of Canadians live within 100 kilometers or 100 miles of the border or something silly like that. So we're very close. We feel very close to Americans. They're like our brothers and sisters and friends and family members. And for many of us, co-workers, right? We have a lot of us have, I mean, so many of us work for companies either north of the border or south of the border or vice versa. But this is not about politics. Let's get back to pinball. So Merlin, I'm not going to do a big, long speech about it. lots of other content creators are going to talk about it. I honestly don't, I haven't, I don't follow remakes. You guys kind of know that, especially the long-term pinball nerds, okay? The ones that are part of the nerd herd, they know. I really don't like, I did cover the Metallica one because it had all different code. The art was 100% like uniquely changed. To me, this was like they put a new trim level on it. They put some different T-molding on it. um carry hardy did show that one bracing there for the the back glass was black which was kind of like yeah it wasn't that wouldn't be a make or break for me but it's kind of like guys you were so close you were so close to making this a gorgeous gorgeous to making it a gorgeous machine and then you just miss that one little detail guys um but there's lots of differences you guys can go to cgc pinball i even tried to click the link on facebook and at first i thought i was doing something wrong so then I tried a different way no you will get a gateway error you cannot even go from the link on the CGC Facebook page unless they've posted the wrong link to their page or unless like I can't do it on Microsoft Edge and Chrome from Canada it's very strange but when I click on it it won't even link to it so I don't know if CGC has turned it off so if you don't live in America you can't click over but it's kind of weird because in a weird way I didn't really want this Merlin until they told me I couldn't have it and then I was like you know when your dad's like, you're grounded from candy. And I'm like, oh man, I need a Joe Louis. Wait, that's too much of a Canadian reference. I need some Doritos or whatever, you know, like a Big Turk. Wait, I think that's Canadian too. I don't know. I need a Wunderbar. Wait, isn't that Sweden? I have no clue. I need a Kinder Egg. Wait, no, they can't have those in the States. Man, I am screwing up with the snacks tonight. All right, let's get back to the pinball. So Merlins are not allowed anywhere but America. Overall, from a company standpoint, if they know that they can sell out completely just to people in America, it's actually just smarter because it's less of a pain in the butt for them. And honestly, their lead times were horrible before when they were servicing the whole world and America. So hopefully for Americans, this will mean their service times are better. And I think if I wasn't America buying in America, I would be happy that Americans are getting American made product first. I mean, I don't want to be too nationalistic here or anything, but I kind of get that right if it was a Canadian made company I would kind of hope that we got a swing at getting them before Americans got them so I kind of get that I kind of understand that so it's really weird it's in a weird spot right now I don't want to fence it too much but I love the CGC machines sometimes I don't feel like they play quite as good as the OGs that could just be in my head or something I feel like there a tiny little bit of flipper lag I could be wrong you know what I mean But CGC other than taking forever and ever and ever to make the machines actually makes some gorgeous machines And this one is no different. It's maybe got more sparkle than Elton John. So that just makes it tremendous. All right. So we talked about everything except for TPN with Kaneda. Now, let me have a little sip of the old cherry. Pop my old cherry dad open here. my cherry happy dad um kaneda said and i'm i was kind of just being facetious at the start i had heard some stirrings and some rumblings uh you know we could all see that uh triple drain left and i started going hmm now when pinball party left i didn't think that had anything to do with like tpn changing i think uh uh jason just wanted to kind of do his own thing and not worry about saying something that pissed off someone at DPN, which that totally makes sense. I've had that feeling before, so I totally get him. And shout out, he put out a new show. It's almost like, yeah, it's great. So go check out that. That was a really fun listen. And I, for the most part, agree with almost all Jason takes. I think sometimes maybe he buys and sells pinball machines too fast. For me, for my comfort level, I would want to have a new inbox pin minimum for a month before I gave up on it. If I spend that kind of money, that's just me, but I am half Dutch and I kind of feel that way. Like, you know, this is the same guy that loves Fireball Classic and I had that for three years and didn't want to sell it right most people hate that pin so you know I'm a little bit of a glutton for punishment so I either love it because it's too easy and then I find new ways to play it but anyways I can see the beauty in every single pinball machine and I can also see the beauty in every single solitary pinball podcast out there and I will be honest and say I listen to 90% maybe even higher well I don't remember how many pinball podcasts are on there but I listen to almost every pinball podcast over on TPN and when I saw that Triple Dream was leaving and then after that I saw that of course um Silver Ball Chronicles they're leaving their feed so I started to think well something feels like something's going on here like those are two of the anchors I would guess other than the pinball show those you know Silver Ball Chronicles and Triple Drain are right up there with getting you know those got to be like their I would assume I mean maybe final round used to be up there but final round doesn't really record very often anymore yeah yeah T-O-List come on now how are we ever going to be on TPN I can't be your co-host on the final round. Apparently I got fifth on that one. I was his fifth favorite. No, I think he said third, but I also lost to like Pinside Petey and Ryan C. No, I don't mind losing to Ryan C. That was actually really fun to hear him on there. I love everything Ryan's on though. Okay. I guess I'm too much of an optimist. I don't know. Call me too much of an optimist. I've been called worse. So, but then why did Kaneda go on the rant saying, oh, I think Orbiter Albert's over there. That's because earlier on in the week, Franchi said something about, oh yeah, Orbital Elbert is going over to Zax Network or TPN or something like that. And he's like, oh really? I hadn't heard about that. And Franchi was like, yeah, I think you'll get even more listens over there and stuff. Good luck, buddy. And I'm like, what? Dude, that was, so I don't, so I don't want to say anything in the chat to Franchi because I think, is Franchi trolling Kaneda? So if Kaneda, Kaneda and I are blocked from each other so we can't see our personal Facebook pages, which is how I love it. So we can't talk. And honestly, that's been keeping us like decent that we can only talk in public because if y'all saw if someday i ever wrote a tell-all uh if i ever wrote a tell-all i've had some messages not just with chris but i mean probably more so with chris and others we've had four or five follows where we're very mean and rude to both each other so i won't say he was worse to me or i was worse to him we were both just horrible despicable people in our chat to each other and have said some nasty things which i would never share with anybody but i i just like being blocked from him better because if I'm a little bit drunk or if I'm just having a big ego or if he's having a big ego and he says something I hate I'll just go at him really really really hard and then we have a big blow up and then we hate each other and I'm trying to stay on the level of keeping my frenemies my frenemies you're my friend but also you're you're you know sometimes we disagree but you're also my friend and that's how I like it a little bit of arm's length right so I don't want to say anything but I actually think now that I think about it maybe maybe Franchi was actually just trolling him so know everyone, I'm not going anywhere. I love it right here on the Poor Men's Pinball Network.
    29:01
    I would be kind of cool if we got a third podcast. I don't know if Tribe Multiball would ever come back. I'd love to hear from the Ray Ray Show again. I loved that. That was very fun. I got so excited to hear Raymond Davidson and Rachel Risto because honestly like for maybe at the very start of recording, Rachel was, you know, in and around my level, but by the end Rachel was asking all the questions to Ray Day that I would be asking going into a tournament. So I really like that perspective of it because I know Ray Day's on a total different level than me. Shout out again to him for winning Pinmasters, by the way. And Jared August, I believe, won the North Americans, right? So hopefully I don't have to do a correction on that. I believe it was, I was there watching it. I should know. I did miss out on the finals, to be honest. I mean, there is 14 hours of pinball a day. You can't watch it all. I try. I eat, sleep, and breathe pinball. But like when I'm sleeping pinball, I can't actually be watching Twitch, guys. Come on. All right. So anyways, shout out to Chris Franchi uh I don't know if you were I don't oh and also well speaking of Franchi the other thing he did share was his version of how he wanted to have like a 25th anniversary for the Big Lebowski it is stunning it is absolutely stunning the back glasses to die for the cat everything is stunning it's just incredible so shout out to you I don't know if they'll ever actually do that if they do you know me I'm an ordained Judas priest I'd be first in line to grab that, okay? Now, let's finish this up. Let's get into that top five. Everybody, I can see Franchi waiting there to go for a walk. I don't want to have another accident like last time where he has to run outside, but let's just get into this top five. So, I'm so, so, so excited that y'all donated to help me out. I appreciate it so much. I don't necessarily actually, I mean, some days I think I deserve it. Other days I go, nah, you're just talking to a microphone. you know what I mean but you know what I think next year I want to deserve it so I'm going to tell you guys as a treat as a thank you I'm bringing back interviews that's right it's Orby's year of redemption I'm going to try to get Raymond Davidson back on the mic um some of you may know we had a slight disagreement right around when I put my podcast on hold for about nine months before uh it wasn't mainly him I was disagreeing with to be honest though, but I've always wanted to get to interview him since then. Not about that, but just about Metallica and just Rush, everything else, you know, hang out with him there in the States. I've got to get Rachel Risto back on, of course. I really like, I really want to talk to Tim the Lion Man Lee. I got to get, I got to get Jack Danger on here. I got to get him on here. I got to find this man some pickle beer. If not, I will brew it myself, Jack Danger. I will grow The organic cucumbers, turn them into the most beautiful, organic. Owen's Dills will give you thrills. Pickles, that's right. My son had a dill pickle company for a couple years. We will use his world secret recipe to make the most delicious dill pickles. I will figure out a way to incorporate them into a beer. That's right. I've brewed over 125 beers. I used to be part of the London Home Brewers Guild. and I also was part of the Plaid Brothers Brewing every Friday night as many of you know my buddy Drew he was the fourth man out my good buddy there unfortunately we lost him last summer from Plaid Brothers Brewing but the three or four of us are still alive and kicking and going and we're doing well and we I will implore them they don't have to but I will implore them and say I could get the interview of my life with Jack Danger if only we could brew a pickle beer. Emily, fan of the show, that came on the show before, recently married. Her new last name is Gross, I think. I've never heard her pronounce it. I'm not 100% sure. But she recently got married. Shout out. She talked to Jack Danger and asked him if he would do an interview with me. And he said, okay, but Orby has to send me a six pack of pickle beer. And it's been very hard to get. In fact, the only place that brews in Canada is Pickle Newfoundland. And they don't ship and they're not allowed to ship here. and they don't ship direct to the States and they're not allowed to ship direct to the States. So I would have to go on either a 16-hour ferry then drive for seven hours or go on a 24-hour overnight ferry spending thousands of dollars to get Jack Danger's beer then ship it to him. And I want the interview with Jack Danger. I just can't afford it.
    33:23
    I will get it. This will be the year of redemption for Orby. But let's get into this top five for TPF. And then guys, I'm going to be like Snuffleupagus and I'm going to disappear for a long time. Okay, you're going to hear Big Bird saying they saw Orby somewhere, but I will not be there. Now, I am going to be chatting with David Dennis tomorrow, and I might ask him. I'm not going to ask him. I don't think to be my first interview, but I might ask him if sometime in the future, like a couple months down the road, if he would be on the show. Because believe it or not, do you guys know David Dennis got the most listens of any person I've ever got? I'd have to go back and check. I still have access to that account. I think they're around like 1,400. Wait, it could have been right here on the Poor Man's Pinball Network. I think it was around 1,400. Don't get me wrong. I think Craig Bobby's was 1,200. Oh, and that reminds me. Go check out Craig Bobby on the Pinball Degenes. And I'm not asking you guys for a single dono for me today. But if anything else, I'm not even going to ask you for a dono for Joe Chervino and the Pinball Degenerates. But Joe has done a really good job getting the audio as good as he can get. They obviously took the one source and not the other, and he did some magic. Listen, does his mic still pop a little bit from time to time? Yes. Are you going to want to listen to it on full blast? Probably not. On earbuds? Probably not. But it's on YouTube now. I will post that in my, I will post the link right here down below. Click on it. Go watch it. And I'll tell you this. I'm not going to post a link to donate to him. Because you can see it on Facebook on the Pinball Degenes. And I'm sure he has it linked right there on YouTube under this one. and you can even scroll right down here on the poor man's pinball network to one of my last podcasts in the last week where i linked him to that the one talking about the d jenny's actually from a few days ago but please go watch it if you agree like me all of the talent that he hired to go there and do everything all of the time all of the energy all of the skits all of the music everything that was done that was choreographed um the live show and everything else and he he if anything, he probably only broke even, if I had to guess, and I haven't confirmed this with Joe, if I had to guess, he'd only broke even on maybe a quarter of it from the tickets from the few people that were there watching it live. So, I'm sure Joe still needs to, I don't think he needs to make maybe 5k, I think that was, you know, a bit ambitious, but please, for the love of gosh, guys, go support Joe, but go watch it first, and by all means, you be the decision maker. Listen, if, say it's a comedian, Joe wouldn't say this because he's too nice, I'll say it, if it's a comedian that you don't necessarily love or say you don't love stand-up comedians, you can just fast forward it. If it's, well, watch the girl doing the hula hooping. That is freaking awesome. And the girl with the stapling. At least watch the stapling if you're not going to watch them stand on each other. But the main thing you want to watch is like Jeff Teolis and Roger Sharp and David Dennis. And I think Josh Sharp was there as well. And Jack, like there's so many cool people doing cameos in the first half and the second half. The first half wasn't even available there before. You get to see the cameo with Franchi and Elwin, my dogs cuddling up with me, with my wife doing the video. Like literally it was Friday night before I had to hand it in. I felt like a kid in high school again. I was like, oh no, I told Joe I would get it to him this week. And I was like, wait, we'll just pretend I was asleep because I am kind of half asleep on the couch. I don't know. It turned out okay. Lots of other people had way more creative ones. There were so many funny bits and songs and you get to see Glenn the skateboarder do at least two bits. and just make a night of it. Make a fun time with it. Grab your partner, grab your friends, throw it on in the background. If you own a pinball arcade, throw the D-Jennies on YouTube on the background. It's some, maybe not if there's children there or like, you know, at a late, if it's, don't do this at a family center on a Saturday. There's some non-PG stuff in it. But man on a Friday night well you have league going and it all adults Like that would be hilarious if it 21 and up or 19 and up Anyways and afterwards after watching it if you agree with me that you want to see this again next year I'm not going to say that Billy B, Joe's probably too kind to say it, I'm not going to say they're on life support, but in looking at how much of donations they got in comparison to how much that show cost at the minimum, I don't think Joe's trying to profit a penny. I think Joe's just trying to minimize his losses at this point, and they did a great time, a great job, but I think people like me that were watching on Twitch and then back to Facebook and then back to Twitch and then YouTube not working, which would add the most viewers, kind of caused some issues that night. So just be a sport if you're listening. Rape Meow sometime in the next week. You don't even have to do it right now, okay? The date today is the 21st. So sometime before April 1st. This is not an April Fool's joke. Please just go watch the D-Jenny's. You can skip ahead just to the cameo parts. Those parts are cool. They're in like two big hunks. There's a couple other little small bits you should really watch. I encourage you to watch all the awards, though, of course, and, you know, shout out and give awards to the, you know. I'm not saying you have to shout me out. I'm just saying, like, if someone wins that you're a friend of, let them know congratulations. That was awesome, right?
    38:20
    Anyways, that's my spiel. Have yourselves a rad TPF if you're going. If you're driving there, hello from Morby. Have a great time at TPF. Don't get, don't party so hard that, like, the next day sucks. You know what I mean? Party just hard enough. make it the perfect day you know those days when you have like for me it's for me personally it's between five to eight drinks and you have a little bit of water and food in between and you're not so hung over the next day you're like and sunlight's like giving you a headache and like you know what i mean like you want to enjoy you're going to be there a couple days pace yourself at a medium pace all right pimble nerds until next time thank you so much for listening wait i didn't give you your TPN. I'm such a dork. Alright, it's possible the shatter is kicking in well at the same time the happy dads are kicking in. Let's just go. Okay, number five on the list is, number one, if you see Don, just say, Don, listen, Orby made me ask you, did you do any adjustments, color changing, any adjustments, any filters or anything on your t-shirt eyes? Just be honest. Your eyes are gorgeous but they're even prettier on that t-shirt. Just be honest. And if he admits it, let me know. And if he doesn't admit it, let me know. Either way, say, Orby loves you though. He's kind of just half kidding. Bye, see you later. Cheers, whatever. Something like that. Tell him how much you love him and Orby says thanks for the free t-shirt. But he's just curious about the eyes because I'm wearing them all the time. Whenever I'm looking in the mirror, your beautiful pearlies are staring at me. I know he's obsessed. Donna's obsessed right now, okay, with basically he made these truck nuts which go on the the new venom shooter knobs which kind of do look like blue balls sorry uh but he's just obsessed with them well i'm just obsessed with knowing are don's eyes real so there you go you get one point if you just simply ask him you don't have to get a photo you don't have to get a video he doesn't even i don't even care what he says he just laughs you just have to ask him and let me know you did it okay somehow some way all right Number two. Oh, and then you can challenge him. You can say, oh, and by the way, Don, let's listen to your newest podcast, and every time you say, I ain't even mad at it, you gotta take a shot, because he said that like 37 times. Now I know how y'all feel when I say y'all too much or something. all right number two get a video this one I do want to see video evidence I would prefer it to be you not like a professional pinball player but whomever I don't really care actually get a video of someone doing five I want to see if anyone I know someone can but I would say this uh gold silver bronze the bronze level would be five tap passes so minimum five to get a check mark for this one but ideally silver would be 10 and if you can get 15 I I've once at least in my life I've done 15 tap passes in a row on Skateball. I posted the video to Facebook not too long ago under Albert Agar. And I'm telling you right now, if you can get 15 in a row using that finesse one by just using the bottom one-third of the flipper, Bob's your uncle. You got the gold standard, okay? Now, don't be doing like 20 or 30 and taking up the whole day and ruining everybody's experience. Don't be that person who's in line who plays forever and ever and ever. If you're in line and you're a really good player, maybe just play one ball or two. You know what I mean? But anyways, all right. let's keep those I can't wait I can't man people I think Portal's gonna have the longest lineups but Merlin's Arcade or the Medieval one of the Merlins will be second but I really think Portal will have the longest lineups depending on how many are playing and how many are working and how many issues they're having and I mean it is new it is new they probably were under the gun by getting it out on time so all right number four is play Merlin's Arcade and Portal and tell me which you like better an open and honest answer don't say oh I like one because it's traditional pinball oh I like the other because it's uh got like a larger video screen no I just want to know which one you enjoy which one you had more fun which one wowed you more and I'm sorry to use the pun which one had more magic under the glass I would guess me personally even with the finesse flip and that cool foosball spinner that is also legit I would guess portal would win, but I could be wrong. All right. Number four on the list is do a shout out to Orby or shout out from Orby to Kerry Hardy on any of Kerry Hardy's live streams. And I'll say he's a close second on Don's, but I already had Don in there. So if you can, if you're on any, at any point, if he's live streaming, don't jump in if he's in the important interview or something, but if he's just about to do like a like if he's just about to do sorry I just realized I've got to plug in this bad boy if he's just walking by or whatever you can just say hey Kerry Hardy Orby says hello or shout out from Orby you know what I mean or if you're sitting there talking to him I guess you could say can I give a shout out to Orby something like that just you know you know me I've got a big giant ego and I've got to feed it and I just think it would be funny as hell And if you really wanted to knock it in there, you could say, shout out to Orby and River Hibbert. Because I just like hearing where I'm from. I like the idea that this little tiny village that I live on the outskirts of gets a shout out on the largest pinball YouTuber's channel. You know what I mean? Like, I just, I think that would be so cool. And maybe Retro Ralph, if he's there? I saw Retro Ralph was just at this other arcade convention where you had this gun shooter thing that it filled up with gel, and then you shoot it at, like, this fabric vest, and it can tell when you get hit by it. and I was like, whoa. Before I was a pinball wizard, I was a laser quest wizard. Well, I was actually a pinball wizard then a laser quest wizard. I was actually a pinball novice then a laser quest. Doesn't matter. Laser quest. Just like Barney from How I Met Your Mother.
    44:16
    It's for legends. It's awesome. Anyways, still like playing it. I actually did win my last two games at Palisade London at Southdale and Wonderland. shout out except for your only game was wrestlemania come on that can't be your only pinball machine all right what is number five on my list okay so number five this one's really from my heart this is to all the tribe members that have supported me over the years this is to all the tribe members that work their butt off to impress ian and drew enough to get into the tribe in the first place this is to all the buttholes out there that i don't get to hear from enough that even though I don't reach out to you and you might not reach out to me, I love you and support you. From Tribe Member 26, I know many of you, I would assume Rachel and Dan are going to be there. I know for sure Stephen Silver is going to be there, Tribe Member. I know Ian Hairwer is going to be there because he's there with his new game, of course. Shout out. I know there's going to be many different Tribe Members there. So all you have to do is, if you are a non-Tribe Member, you're not allowed to call them a butthole. Oh no. Only we can call each other buttholes. You can't do that. That's a niche niche, okay? But what you can do is you can go up to them and you can just say, Orby says, hey, thanks for being a tribe member. That's it. You know, thanks for being a tribe member. You don't have to say, oh, thanks for listening to Bimble News Pocket. No, lots of tribe members don't listen and how could they? They had to endure through like, I couldn't even endure through like 10 of my episodes. And multiples of them got through dozens of them. And it was like, well, I tried. You know, he's on our network. I tried. You know, I get it. But, you know what? I love you all, and just the fact that you listen warms my heart. I've been doing way too many shows as of recent, and for someone who goes off topic a lot and doesn't even talk about news that often, I don't want to bring you too many shows, so I'm going to go on a short little hiatus. Now, that being said, if there's a trailer video for Jersey Jack's Harry Potter on Monday, I'll be here, and I'll do it. but I'm just going to take some time off. I want to thank you all profusely from the bottom of my heart, not just to everyone who donated, but everyone just for listening. You give me your time. And there is tons of people out there, even like, and I don't think he would be mad saying this, but my buddy, Glenn, the skateboarder, very rarely, very rarely. I think a couple of times he's donated a little, but very rarely spends monetarily, like on our coffee or our tea or any of that stuff. But he has helped me by writing songs. He's helped me by being positive when I'm down. When I'm going through a bit of a crisis, he's the first one to reach out and be like, dude, you know, you kind of maybe could have done better, but just move on. He honestly has been a very good stabilizing kind of friend through a lot of my ups and downs and all that kind of stuff, even though I don't get to talk to him that much. I do talk to my best friend, Matt McGoffin, more often, but he does not listen to any of my shows ever, so I don't really bring it up or talk to him about it. He did hear, though, that I won the Pimbaldy Jenny thing and reached out to me and wrote, Degenerate! So that's Matt's way of saying congratulations. And that's all I need, really. And you know what? All I need from you is the fact that you took time and energy out of your day to listen to me today. So thank you for that. You win the gold star. I'm going to take some time off, enjoy time with my friends, my family. We now have an American board set up there, so the Australian dollars are spent in Australia. Okay? but go over and watch the D-Gennies when you get a chance they're incredible if you just want to skip to all the cameos and the awards you can you don't have to watch the stuff in between I enjoy some of the stuff in between some of the stuff I'll probably skip through when I watch it the second time but I'm going to make a night of it you should make a night of it enjoy it and find it if it's possible if you can afford we really really I want to see this continued I want to see it get bigger and better each year and I think because of some technical glitches and issues that are live streaming is hard guys it's very everything that can go wrong murphy's law will go wrong they found out the day of they couldn't use youtube because you had to do a live premiere set up more than 24 hours at a time with whatever number of stipulations they had and they couldn't meet that and then the day of there ended up being you know they're trying to do audio out to two different platforms at once which is very very very hard to do for even the top streamers and make sure the audio is good on everything. So it is very, very, very hard. And Joe put so much time, energy, and work into it. And now that the volume is much, much, much better, it's far more watchable. It's far more listenable. It was always watchable. It just wasn't very listenable. But they've cleaned up that audio. They've gone like a pin snake. And they've gone all through. And they've scrubbed it out. And they've made it look beautiful and sound even better than it was before. So if you haven't checked it out, go check it out. and if you tried to watch it before and you didn't get through it because of sound, go back and watch at least the parts you missed. So thank you so much. Have a rad night. Have a good weekend. Get out there and play some pinball. Spend your pinball dollars locally if you can. When you're at the place that has the pinball machines, buy some extra food there. Buy some extra drinks. Have a good time. Play some more pinball. Go in more tournaments. Have a wonderful time at TPF. And until next time, pinball nerds, Remember to eat, sleep, and breathe.