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Pinball Industry News: May 2020 Re-cap

Pinball News & Pinball Magazine Pincast·podcast_episode·1h 50m·analyzed·Jun 1, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

May 2020: Illinois manufacturing restarts, Stern launches TMNT pinball, hires pro player Raymond Davidson.

Summary

Pinball News and Pinball Magazine editors Jonathan Euston and Marta Lev recap May 2020 industry developments, including the restart of Illinois manufacturing post-COVID lockdowns and Stern's official launch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball. The discussion covers arcade reopening prospects across jurisdictions, detailed analysis of TMNT game design and features, and Stern's hiring of elite tournament player Raymond Davidson as a software engineer.

Key Claims

  • Illinois manufacturing restart allowed from May 29, 2020 (Phase 3 of recovery plan) with 6-foot distancing or barriers between workstations

    high confidence · Jonathan Euston citing official Illinois COVID recovery protocols

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was originally scheduled to launch at Midwest Gaming Classic in early April 2020 but was delayed

    high confidence · Both editors acknowledge the two-month delay from planned April launch to May announcement

  • TMNT LE limited to 500 units

    high confidence · Jonathan Euston states production tier limits in game specs

  • TMNT game uses no video footage from original 1980s animated series due to licensing or quality issues

    high confidence · Marta Lev: 'no absolutely no footage was available and they just went on the LCD with their own images and artwork'

  • Stern implemented a two-week production ramp period before TMNT became available for purchase, unlike previous launches like Stranger Things

    high confidence · Jonathan Euston: 'Fern is allowing themselves two weeks to ramp up production before the games become available'

  • Raymond Davidson was the number-one ranked pinball player in the world at the time of his hiring

    high confidence · Marta Lev: 'number one ranked player in the world at the moment' from the Pacific Northwest/Seattle area

  • TMNT game features a bidirectional spinning disc mechanism on Premium/LE models but unidirectional on Pro model as a marketing differentiation

    medium confidence · Jonathan Euston discusses how flyers advertise bidirectional capability on all three models but Pro only uses one direction

  • Dutch Pinball Open Expo viability uncertain due to potential six-foot social distancing requirements making event unprofitable or uninteresting

    medium confidence · Marta Lev: 'if the six feet rule is still in place, then we can't do the Dutch Pinball Open'

Notable Quotes

  • “Manufacturing was allowed to restart with either six feet of distance or impermeable barriers between employee workstations, as it says in the details, and ramped up cleaning and disinfecting between shifts.”

    Marta Lev @ early segment — Key regulatory detail enabling pinball manufacturing recovery in Illinois

  • “Unlike previous models like Stranger Things that was immediately available when the games was announced, in this case, there's still a two-week period in which the games need to be manufactured and distributed amongst distributors.”

    Jonathan Euston @ TMNT segment — Notable change in Stern's launch strategy for TMNT vs. recent games

  • “Code-wise, I was sort of blown away but not in a good way in the sense that there is a lot to do in this game. And with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being such a kiddie type of theme, I think the game is way too complex for what it sort of looks like and appeals to.”

    Marta Lev @ TMNT analysis — Critical assessment of game design complexity vs. theme accessibility

  • “I was having a discussion with someone about that Raymond Davison being hired and that person was wondering, well, the press release that was sent out basically brags about him being such a good pinball player, but it doesn't say much about how good he is at writing software.”

    Jonathan Euston @ Raymond Davidson hiring segment — Questions about hiring criteria and marketing messaging around elite player recruitment

  • “For a brief moment of time I also had a teenage griffin ninja turtles pinball machine from data is in my collection which I actually quite enjoyed... since the turtles are always hiding in the sewers, this game has no sewer shot.”

    Marta Lev @ TMNT design discussion — Personal experience with classic TMNT pinball; identifies missing expected feature in new game

Entities

Jonathan EustonpersonMarta LevpersonStern PinballcompanyTeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesgameJohn BorgpersonZombie YetipersonDwight SullivanpersonJerry Thompsonperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern conducted professional TMNT reveal streams via Jack Danger with multiple sessions covering different game tiers

    high · Both editors reference Jack Danger streams; Jonathan notes 'second one a couple of days ago'; Marta mentions separate Pro/Premium sessions

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Game design complexity misaligned with child-friendly theme; may confuse younger/casual players

    high · Marta Lev: 'with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being such a kiddie type of theme, I think the game is way too complex for what it sort of looks like and appeals to'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: TMNT playfield lacks expected mechanical toys; cost-cutting visible in simplified side targets and hidden ball locks

    high · Marta Lev: 'seems to be mostly spent in ball lock mechanisms that you don't really see' and 'just dumping down the capability of the player'; targets 'looks cheap as well'

  • ?

    event_signal: Dutch Pinball Open Expo viability remains uncertain; six-foot distancing rule incompatible with event format

    medium · Marta Lev: 'if the six feet rule is still in place, then we can't do the Dutch Pinball Open' and no final decision yet on event cancellation

  • ?

    event_signal: Illinois manufacturing restart enables production resumption for pinball industry after COVID lockdowns

    high · Marta Lev confirms May 29, 2020 restart under Phase 3 recovery plan with specific distancing/barrier requirements

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.332

0:00
Pinball manufacturing returns to Illinois. Stern launched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Internet connected gaming, now a thing.
0:19
Hi, my name is Jonathan Euston, I'm the editor of Pinball Magazine, and I'm here joined with Marta Lev, and I'm editor of Pinball News, and we're here to look back at the marvellous month of May 2020, which turned out to be rather busy. We thought it might be quite quiet with all the coronavirus lockdowns going on. Yeah, but there's a lot of news to report, and we even have a new game being launched,
0:50
which I suppose was supposed to be launched two months ago already, but it was announced just a couple of days ago, but we'll get back to that in just a bit. First, let's look at the implication of the coronavirus.
1:07
Yes, well, manufacturing, people manufacturing in particular, in Illinois was all shut down when the sort of stay-at-home orders were issued, but from Friday the 29th of May, so we're recording this on the 1st of June, So just a couple of days ago, manufacturing was allowed to restart with, and that was part of phase three of a five-step recovery plan they're implementing in Illinois, which allows factories, plants and mills to resume operations with either six feet of distance or impermeable barriers between employee workstations, as it says in the details, and ramped up cleaning and disinfecting between shifts. which is enough to allow basically all the pinball manufacturers who reside in Illinois to get back to making games.
2:03
Raymond Davidson
person
Jeremy Packerperson
Gary Sternperson
Zach Sharpperson
Keith Elwinperson
Jack Dangerperson
Midwest Gaming Classicevent
Dutch Pinball Open Expoevent
Illinoislocation
Netherlandslocation
United Kingdomlocation
Pinball Newsorganization
Pinball Magazineorganization
$

market_signal: Stern changes launch strategy: TMNT includes two-week production ramp vs. immediate availability for Stranger Things

medium · Jonathan Euston: 'unlike previous models like Stranger Things that was immediately available when the games was announced, in this case, there's still a two-week period'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Stern Pinball hires world-ranked tournament player Raymond Davidson as software engineer

    high · Jonathan Euston confirms Raymond Davidson hire; Marta Lev identifies him as '#1 ranked player in the world at the moment' from Seattle area

  • ?

    announcement: Stern officially announces Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball after two-month delay from April target

    high · Jonathan Euston: game 'was announced just a couple of days ago' (early June 2020) with immediate promotional materials; originally due April at Midwest Gaming Classic

  • ?

    product_strategy: TMNT Premium/LE models feature bidirectional spinning disc vs. Pro's unidirectional; identified as marketing strategy not technical limitation

    medium · Jonathan Euston: flyers advertise bidirectional on all three models, but 'the Pro only does spin in one direction' suggesting deliberate feature restriction

  • ?

    licensing_signal: TMNT licensing prevented use of original 1980s animated series footage; developers created custom LCD artwork instead

    medium · Marta Lev: 'no absolutely no footage was available' due to likely licensing restrictions; no video assets used unlike potential alternatives

    • That's the manufacturing part. Our stateside stores will have to limit the number of customers in the store any one time. We're looking more towards what's going to happen with arcades and locations that might have pinball on location, barcades, that kind of place. retailers have half the usual capacity or five customers per 1,000 square feet of retail space now whether a store would include arcades in that is not clear but I don't think people are actually expecting arcades or barcades to open yet and become available Chicago itself within Illinois doesn't follow any of these rules until Wednesday, so in a couple of days' time, then non-essential retailers will be limited to 25% of normal capacity, I should say. So that's not very many, really, is it? And it might make it borderline as to whether they're actually able to make money by opening.
    3:13
    For the moment, bars and restaurants are only allowed to do outsource service. they hope to reopen when phase 4 is implemented which is scheduled to begin on June 26th so in just over 3.5 weeks time maybe they'll be able to open up properly even then it will be reduced capacity and social distancing and whether amusement coin-op machines will be part of that mix whether anybody's going to be able to look after the sanitising aspect of that. Right. As these games all get cleaned now, I mean, at least on the outside, I suppose.
    3:53
    Well, maybe, but it's going to have to be single-player games and the games are going to have to be spaced six feet apart, so it may not work.
    4:04
    Or at least you might have to take some of the games out or reposition them. But you won't be able to have your friends around and play a four-player game if they're all standing around the machine. At least not the same machine, that's for sure.
    4:16
    So that's the sort of coronavirus update from the US. As far as you're concerned, Jonathan, has anything changed much in coronavirus rules and what you're allowed to do and not allowed to do in the Netherlands? Yes.
    4:35
    Effectively, today, June 1st, the terraces for bars have been allowed to open again as long as there is a six feet distance between people sitting on the terrace, which in some cases means that certain bars that are on a square have enlarged their terrace so that they can still have the same number of people attending, but they just need a bigger terrace. and obviously not everybody can do that, but starting today, bars and restaurants are allowed to reopen again, and oddly enough, as soon as that was announced, lots and lots of people started making reservations, which is required just to make sure that they don't have too many people coming in. while I certainly do enjoy a drink or a meal in a restaurant or a bar,
    5:41
    I personally didn't feel the need to rush out and immediately go sit in the sun. But okay, other people have different needs, I suppose.
    5:54
    But that's a good thing, I suppose, and obviously everything is still being watched carefully in the sense that if it turns out that the second wave of the virus is,
    6:07
    well, if the number of people that need hospitalization goes up, then measures will be reduced in the sense that bars will be closed again and so on. Also with gyms and that kind of stuff, they already were doing lots of workouts in the open air. Apparently in the open air you're less vulnerable for the virus being reasoned over here. So lots of people took, or businesses took, an opportunity at that by doing stuff in the open air instead of within an office space or a closed gym space.
    6:55
    That's great, as long as the weather's good. Yes. Well, so far it is, but it's never. So with all that, is there any further thoughts about the prospects for the Dutch Pinball Open Expo later in the year and how that might work? Actually, I just had a meeting about that last week, last Friday, to be more precise.
    7:23
    And the thing is, well, nobody can look into the future. and we also have no idea what rules are still applicable at that time. One of the things that I think we decided on, if the six feet rule is still in place, then we can't do the Dutch Pinball Open. Right.
    7:50
    Because it's very difficult to... I don't think we can bring in enough machines or the number of games would be extremely limited, which would make it an event that for people is not that interesting to attend to in the first place.
    8:08
    So it would just devaluate the show for what people know it for. So that makes no sense. Sure. But we're not canceling yet. We're just hoping that we can go on under the normal circumstances and then we still have to see how many people are still interested in coming because it might as well be that people are like, well, you know, I'll pass for now and I'll just wait it out and maybe next year.
    8:41
    Yeah, I've seen some places that seem to not do a two-meter rule or even a one-and-a-half-meter rule. in over one meter rule now. I wonder whether that might make things, if that was introduced in the Netherlands, whether that would make it more viable or more achievable to hold that kind of show. Yeah. One of the things that actually crossed my mind today was whether it would be interesting if you have a lineup of pinball machines where you could place them in a sort of like zipper method in the sense that if you're in front of a pinball machine, the next pinball machine next to it would be reversed, so you have the back of the pinball machine next to your lock bar, basically. So whether that could work to create some distancing on the side and the person in front of you on the other machines. So just a random thought. Yeah, just a usable space. Yeah. So, oh, well. But, no, the event is still seriously considered, but there's so many factors involved that we can't make a decision right now. We just have to wait and see. We did pick a date, which I'm not going to announce, but we did pick a date where we're going to decide based on what is, at that time, expected to happen or will be allowed.
    10:21
    Because, obviously, you need time to organize such an event, and at some point, if it's too short notice, then we're just going to say we're going to pass. So that would be your go or no-go decision? Yes. Right. Okay. Well, over here things have been easing very slightly, not massively. Some of the shops and stores have been able to, some of the non-essential ones have been able to open.
    10:50
    But like you, actually, we seem to have exactly the same kind of situation with gyms and places like that. They can work outside, but inside, I think in gyms here, they're only going to be able to, I don't think this has happened yet, but I think it's happened fairly soon, maybe in two weeks' time. They're only going to be able to do sort of one individual training sessions, so kind of one-on-one type training, as long as people can keep their distance during that. And so people are working out with a trainer, and that's it. There's no sort of general access coming up, so that's not great.
    11:30
    Bars might be able to open in the middle of next month, so I think it's about the 14th of July they're looking at reopening some bars. But again, it's probably going to be outside only. In the meantime, they've been able to do takeaway service, but I don't think that's been massively popular. Oh, yeah, that's completely different. I mean, Sunday evening, 8 p.m., if you're out on the street, if you start counting the delivery people on bicycles going across town delivering food, you lose count, seriously. It's ridiculous. Because most of them are wearing a special uniform. Uniform, well, it's not a uniform, but typical clothing for these companies that are delivering food. It's really, based on the number of delivery people on the street, I'd say it's very popular.
    12:37
    Oh, okay. I was going to say, food delivery has, I think, remained popular over here. It was popular before, and it's grown significantly. but I don't think any of those places are trying to do drink sales. I don't think that's worked for bars because... Well, you could order anything you want from the supermarket as well. Exactly. There's no reason to do it unless the particular bar is offering something you can't buy in the supermarket, you know, a specialist craft beer or something like that. Well, over here I do have to say there is the bars that serve Italian coffee and that kind of thing, they did take away service, and that has been actually quite popular. So lots of people still prefer to go there, take out four cappuccinos and two lattes or whatever.
    13:32
    And, yeah, they did very, very well. I was actually surprised to see that. But there's no point in getting a beer, I suppose. No. I was surprised to see that some of the coffee places around my work were open about two weeks ago, where they've been closed up to that point. But also, I forget what I was going to say now. Oh yes, they've opened garden centres and a few other places now, so people can go and do the work on the garden at home. but generally speaking it's still quite closed down but it's gradually opening up and like you say if there's any kind of indication there's a return or a second wave or spike in cases then all this could be closed down whereas it's a strange position probably more akin to the US here because the United Kingdom consists of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and each of those four nations are all making their own decisions on these things. So you might be able to, you know, you might be able to drive somewhere to go and exercise in England, say, but if you drove into Wales to exercise, that would be illegal.
    14:51
    If you're going there to exercise, you might as well go on a bike and really get your exercise along the way. Yeah, but just don't cross the border, though. That's the thing, because you're not allowed to do that in Wales. or you weren't allowed to do it in Wales. It may have changed from today because they all have different timings as to when certain things are allowed and not allowed.
    15:13
    But anyway, we don't want to spend too long looking at the coronavirus news because the important thing is, as far as pinball goes, that pinball manufacturing is back up and running in Illinois, whereas previously it wasn't. So, as most of the major manufacturers are now in Illinois, that means that the pinball is being manufactured again. And although it may not be places to site the games on location yet, it's certainly available for home sales. Yes. And sort of leading into our second headline, CERN did launch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
    15:57
    Now, you have to sing it. No, I already sang it at the intro, so that was it, sorry. But, allow me to notice right away that Fern is allowing themselves two weeks to ramp up production before the games become available. So, unlike previous models like Stranger Things that was immediately available when the games was announced, in this case, there's still a two-week period in which the games need to be manufactured and distributed amongst distributors and so on.
    16:33
    Yeah, quite surprising, considering the game was due to be launched in the beginning of April at the Midwest Gaming Classic. And we assumed at that point there would be a whole bunch of games both available to buy and to play at the show. But maybe they just never got that far into actually building the game. Or maybe there have been some changes in the intervening months. Well, we definitely can see that behind the scenes the design team continued to move forward,
    17:08
    which I suppose is resulting in much more updated code upon reveal than I'd say would have been ready two months ago.
    17:20
    And also all promotional materials were immediately available, where usually it takes a couple of weeks for Stern to reveal flyers and that kind of material. Now everything was available immediately.
    17:35
    Yes, in fact, even the manual, the game manual for the Pro model is available online if you go to the Stern website, a number of the flyers and, say, promotional videos. and Stern put out an email from Gary Stern, well, I think it was actually from Zach Sharp, but in Gary Stern's name, which was a different style. They launched a new method of promoting the game to... Right. Well, I'd say I received two different emailings. one, the typical traditional mailing, I suppose. Actually, there was a traditional press release on Facebook, that type of stuff with the single Gary Stern quote and so on. But, like you said, there was also this emailing in the name of Gary Stern who quite disturbantly mentioned that he had to beat his daughter.
    18:43
    I suppose playing the game of Turtles, but still it was a rather disturbing sentence to close off that email. But I assume his daughter is safe. And by now she's old enough to probably hand his ass to him if he wanted to beat her. So nothing to worry about, I suppose.
    19:08
    No, I don't think we need to dwell on that one too much. Well, it's worth pointing out that I actually received absolutely nothing at all from Sterling and Moore about this. Yeah, apparently as part of their move to the new system, I wasn't included on their mailing list. I wasn't transferred over from the previous mailing list.
    19:28
    So, anyway, I did get all the material. Actually, you got more than I did, because I think you got the translate images as well. yes they were put on Facebook by Zombie Yeti so they're actually the original artwork before they're not transalites as such because they haven't got the CERN logo or any of the copyright information or Nickelodeon stuff on there so they are clean which is nice so you can see all three versions in the Pinball News article yes obviously because obviously new Stern game means that Martin did a very in-depth review of the game or I'm not sure whether it's a review but at least a tour de place with all the features with images and explain how and what and where and why and so on So And it's kind of odd That we're Talking about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles All these Side news Type of things But yes There is a new game Let's talk about the game Yeah Well okay So it comes in the usual Three models Pro, Premium, LE limited to 500 John Borg's design As I mentioned just now Zombie SE Jeremy Packer On art Right Dwight Sullivan Is the lead coder For it and Jerry Thompson doing the sound and the music for it. Yes, it includes, as you were saying, it includes the original theme music from the 80s, isn't it? No, actually, I think it's a re-recorded version of the 80s theme song, but it's done very, very well, I have to say that. But that one isn't done by Jerry Thompson. all the other music which is also I found very 80s influence which I think actually fits very well with the game so compliments to Jerry Thompson for that and it's also interesting to note that they didn't use any video from the original animated series no absolutely no footage was available and they just went on the LCD with their own images and artwork, I suppose. Yeah, I was going to say that maybe the quality wasn't good enough for today's use, but... It's not such a big swing.
    22:15
    No, exactly, and they seemed to get by okay with Beatles, didn't they, when that was even older. So I'm sure they could have used it if it was available, but maybe it was a licensing issue and they decided not to go that route anyway and free all their own yeah and also of course it limits them as to what they can do with the storyline of the game in that they've got to then use what video assets are available I have to say what I understood in terms of the modes I think they look very closely at least to season one of the original animated series because I think several of the modes are named after episodes from that season,
    23:03
    which is interesting because, personally, I am familiar with the Turtles, but I had completely forgotten about Krang and the two dumb, what do you call them,
    23:19
    bouncers or whatever you want to call them. I can't help you. Okay, because I have actually no knowledge whatsoever of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Right. It wasn't one of my, it wasn't on my radar, shall I say.
    23:33
    And so I didn't know about it when it first came out as a Daytree game and don't know any more about it now.
    23:41
    Well, less on the ignorance, right? Well, it's, we can look at it from two different ways. You know, you do know who the characters are. Right. I know who the Turtles are, I know April, but other than that I don't know who any of the others are, and I've never watched or seen any of the animated cartoons or movies. Right. So none of that is familiar, so series names don't mean anything to me. To me, I'm coming at it as a total newbie, and the game has to sell itself to me on that basis, whereas for you, you look at it, and there are bits of it which are familiar, and you already know certain storylines, certain characters, and what you would expect from a I went on YouTube to actually check one of the older episodes of season one just to refresh my memory, basically. And I was like, really? Was it just now?
    24:43
    It wasn't like I remembered it, let's put it like that. so and I for a brief moment of time I also had a teenage griffin ninja turtles pinball machine from data is in my collection which I actually quite enjoyed I bought it because I used to play it on location a lot around 91 92 one of the things I found I wouldn't say disappointing but I was sort of expecting a sewer shot. Since the turtles are always hiding in the sewers, this game has no sewer shot. And if you look at the 1991 game, the sewer shot on that game is, after you completed a number of combos on the two ramps, the sewer lights for 10 million, which is completely unbalanced with everything else scoring in the game. So on that one sewer shot, I won many, many games.
    25:46
    And so, for me, in my recollection, a Turtles game needs to have a sewer shot. Well, if it's any comparison, I do remember, now you've mentioned it, and I've forgotten all about it until that point, that at some point I did go to a house in North London to look at buying a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine from something in the private collection, well, collection, it was the only machine they had in the house, and they were thinking they wanted to get rid of it, and I decided not to buy it. Right. Not based on anything particularly wrong with it, I looked at it and played it and decided that I didn't like it. So I chose not to buy it, even though it was a very good price. Right. But it wasn't for me. Oh, well.
    26:35
    That's okay, I guess. I wouldn't say it's a classic. It's not by... I wouldn't say it's Montserrat level or medieval madness.
    26:47
    It was nice for the time. But, yeah, this was a few years after that, so there's much better games out there, in my opinion. I spent my money on.
    27:01
    But, that being said, I think the new game looks rather interesting at least they with the turtles van they well I think they got created with mechanical engineering in order to have that lock bolt on the premium LE so I think that's interesting well there's this glider mechanism on the premium and LE where you can change the direction of the ball depending on which in lane the ball will end That's basically what you can decide on.
    27:50
    What do you think, Lucy? It's a ramp shot, isn't it? Yeah. The ramp returns, you can swap it over to the opposite ramp return if you want. Or stop the ball completely, I think, as well. Maybe that's just the game has that control. So when you start a mode or an episode, it can stop the ball on the ramp in the same way as the pro can as well. Right.
    28:15
    And, well, we've seen the spinning disc, the magnetic spinning disc holding the balls. A slight innovation there that the disc is now spinning in two directions. So they used a DC motor, I think that's what I caught on the Jack Danger live stream. Yeah, if you actually look at the Flyers, it's interesting, because the Flyers with the Premium Pro say that all three models have a spinning disc capable of spinning in both directions. But the Pro only does spin in one direction.
    28:54
    So I'm sure it's the same mechanism. and the same motor in the Pro and the Preview and LE. But I guess they just decided not to drive it backwards or in the opposite direction on the Pro as a more sort of marketing feature rather than any technical issue. But it's a unidirectional spin on the Pro and a bidirectional spin on the other two. It makes me wonder whether it would make sense to download limited edition game software or premium software and put that on your pro machine, whether that would change things? It would probably change things as far as the bits that don't exist in the pro, like the truck ball lock release and the glider mechanism. If I was trying to drive those, it wouldn't work. But I actually think that they have some kind of keying in the game to indicate whether or not they are pro, premium or early and they only let you download the appropriate software to them, or at least you'd like to think so. Right, okay So, compliments to Zombie Eddie on the artwork I have to say it's a style that I wasn't expecting from him But I think he pulled it off Very colorful, saturated artwork, I'd say Yeah, and three very different art packages as well, I'd say It's not like different colors of the same one Or just like tweaks They are all unique There's not much in common across them I'm not familiar enough with the theme to know exactly what each one is illustrating or depicting. I don't know if I should say. Pericles.
    30:35
    Yeah, well, they all seem to do that, but each one is in a different layout and has different other elements in them. I'd say, as my first look, and without having played it yet,
    30:49
    it was kind of a bit disappointing that there weren't more toys on the playfield. There is money spent in the game, but it seems to be mostly spent in ball lock mechanisms that you don't really see. So it's got the, as you say, it's got the truck, the party truck, ball lock mechanism for the premium in LE. It's just a single ball lock in the pro. And the pizza parlor as well, that's a ball lock mechanism at the back of the game. but it's all hidden you don't really see any of it so what you do see well spinning discs as you say we've seen that before many times with a magnet in it and the well the on the pro there's a ball stop on the ramp on both ramps returns right and well that's you know we've seen up posts on ramps before stopping balls and this is just one solenoid that actually stops the ball on two ramps at the same time, so it actually saves a solenoid. So that's quite advantageous in the bill of materials. Right. But other than that, I don't think there's a lot. There's a third flipper, which is nice, and obviously provides a lot of opportunities for side shots and the ramp shot and the inner orbit as well, and side targets. So, nice to see. But, you know, it seems a bit of cheapening there, but especially when you look at those side targets, You know, the layer And the equal ones And it won't be tough I've learned that on a couple of games recently And I think it's just Dumping down the capability of the player Thinking that they are not able to To spell all letters If they are not one target One giant target To hit the accurate An accurate shot to hit the appropriate I mean, even then they used to you know you didn't have to hit the exact target you could hit that one or the one on either side to get the letter if it was set to easy right and it got harder during the game but yeah I just think it as you say it comes down the play but it also looks cheap as well it's it doesn't have to be a drop target mechanism but just standards that would have been fine but obviously this is cheaper to manufacture I suppose less labour involved as well because all those targets are, as far as I understand, still made by hand. So this would be making... Yes, and all individual targets as well, as far as the control system goes. That's four switches, whereas now it's one.
    33:37
    Right. So, yeah, from a cost perspective point of view, I can understand why they would go with it, but still I get the impression that you're not taking the player seriously.
    33:51
    That's my impression. I'm trying to save too much money. Potato, potato. Yeah, it is what it is, so there we go.
    34:02
    It's got nice artwork on it, so we can give them that. And I think, as you said, the artwork overall is a nice, impressive package. Right. And I think the graphics that we've seen so far look very nice and well executed. and I don't think you particularly miss seeing the original cartoon series because how relevant is that to most players anyway these days? Right. One comment I would like to make, although it might not be appreciated by everybody, code-wise, I was sort of blown away but not in a good way in the sense that there is a lot to do in this game. And with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being such a kiddie type of theme, I think the game is way too complex for what it sort of looks like and appeals to.
    35:03
    I mean, it's a very deep game. There's all sorts of things that you can do. And I'm just, obviously, I haven't played it yet, but I'm just wondering, will it still be fun enough for a 12-year-old kid to walk up to it and understand what he's supposed to be doing?
    35:22
    I'm afraid to be a kid. Yeah. It might be his first time playing pinball. Is that who it's aimed at, I suppose, is the question.
    35:33
    I don't know. Would a 12-year-old kid even know what all those episodes are? Or is it really aimed at them? There have been recent movies about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles anyway, so 12-year-old kids might be familiar with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but not with pinball. And then getting such a complex game,
    35:58
    while it looks so kid-friendly, I suppose, I'm not sure whether that would benefit pinball in general, but that's just my observations so far based on watching the Jack Danger stream in which the game was revealed yeah and that's very good I only saw the first one, I only found there was a second one a couple of days ago yes I haven't seen that either that was the pro model they were showing the premium in the first one which was good you have to appreciate these are promotional events, they're not just simply explainers or deep dives into the game they do that but they are designed to sell you the game as well but you won't hear any criticism of the game, put it that way don't say oh that's not very good what about wouldn't it be better if or anything like that everything is going to be wonderful Wonderful Yeah But anyway It does look a nice game And congratulations to everybody In the team Yeah, they finally got the game out Yeah, I mean it's been John finished working on that game About half a year ago If not more I was going to say six months ago Something like that, yes I did send out an email To John Borg asking whether he was interested in joining us on our podcast. He didn't get back to me, so I guess that's a no.
    37:40
    Yeah, John doesn't do all of these things, so it was a bit speculative, but definitely worth asking. Right. There was other certain news as well.
    37:51
    In the form of hiring Raymond Davidson as a game development software engineer. And as I understand it, Raymond Davidson is a very talented tournament player.
    38:03
    He is indeed, from the Pacific Northwest, Seattle area, number one ranked player in the world at the moment. I suppose that's in the case you're good at it, yes.
    38:16
    Yeah, either that or incredibly lucky, but I reckon he's good. Having played against him a good few times, I know just how good he is. And, yeah, even played against him in the Seattle League as well. once and that was good fun and he's not only is he an extremely talented player, he's also a very nice guy so double bonus there not only does he know his stuff but he can also be a valuable asset to a certain team I was having a discussion with someone about that Raymond Davison being hired and that person, who I will not name, was wondering, well,
    39:03
    the press release that was sent out basically brags about him being such a good pinball player, but it doesn't say much about how good he is at writing software. So, what's the biggest criterion that person was wondering about?
    39:20
    But I suppose that they do their homework at CERN and that they would not just hire somebody because he's a good pinball player. I suppose they look at his qualities as what he's supposed to be doing as well.
    39:34
    Yeah, so on that point, I was just wondering how many of, obviously with having Zach Sharp working there and Keith Elwin working there,
    39:45
    top three players out of how many, I wonder, in the current rankings? Probably the top half, the top three out of the top six players or top five players in the world are all working at Sten. now in various capacities right for game design marketing and software right well i'd say that elwyn has proved to be a very valuable asset for stark yeah well i think i think i think you'd have to say that zach has been as well i haven't seen any game design from zach yet but no for that easier to stay with with elwyn you know um and well zach is obviously in marketing and i appreciate exact for what he's doing, but I also get the feeling that he would like to do much more, but his hands are tied by management, which well, doesn't reflect probably what he could do with it, if he was given more free reign.
    40:45
    But that's a whole different discussion, let's not go there. It is. No, okay. I'm glad he didn't. Also at Stern, and they got this Stern Showdown thing, which was sort of like a kill your time while you're in lockdown type of... Yeah, that's right. They basically pitched pairs of games against each other, and you had to vote on which one was your favourite, and they kind of went their way through the ladder until we get to what is supposedly the best game from Stern Pinball. so it's continuing, they're down to the final eight at the moment I think and voting is going on through the Stern Pinball Facebook page and probably Instagram as well but I can't I'm not a member of that so I don't know but certainly on Facebook you can leave a comment under the Stern Pinball page and the Stern Showdown section to vote on each battle, as they call it, which one of those two games goes through to the next round. Yeah. I thought initially, obviously, they dragged this out for two months, which is, I suppose, nice, and a lot of people are following it and participating.
    42:06
    But obviously, I wonder, at the same time, if the games would have been shaken up in a different order at the beginning and paired against other games, then would the outcome still be the same?
    42:20
    in the sense that well eventually there is supposed to be one winner and the question is will there still be the same winner in the end or doesn't it matter I mean if you're pairing just from the top of my head let's say Lord of the Rings versus ACDC that could be an easy win for I don't know let's say ACDC but if you would be comparing Lord of the Rings versus NBA then I suppose that Lord of the Rings would have won and so you get a different Sure, but eventually if they were both the most popular games they would probably have met in the final and at which point ACGC would have won that challenge anyway assuming the same number of people are voting and the same group obviously it's going to vary but yeah, it's kind of like a tournament thing isn't it, eventually the best player should win no matter what route they make they take to get to the final they should get through anyway so that's the CERN showdown anyway it's going on here, go and vote for your favourite of the pairings on the CERN pinball pages as far as new code goes, well we've launched a new game all the attention has been on that but there has been one code update and that is to the Stranger Things game which was previously Stern's current title now it's out to version 0.92 on that point it's just interesting I was thinking and maybe it's something I'll do next month of going through all the recent versions of software from various manufacturers and see which ones have actually reached version 1 to see whether which ones are officially still in development and which ones are supposedly feature complete now.
    44:26
    And so I suspect there's probably quite a lot which aren't finished at this point, even with all the time spent working at home on updates.
    44:36
    I think the pressure to get new games out is always going to take precedent over updating older games to a certain degree. But anyway, version 0.92, Stranger Things. Yeah, they changed the upside-down mode, so the hurry-ups are collected in a different way now. There have been lots of rule tweaks, actually, and this version is quite a comprehensive one. Scoring adjustments have been made to various features as well, a few bugs fixed, and it's nice to see they've improved some of the lighting effects within the game as well. It's a game which is pretty heavy on lighting effects, particularly the upside-down mode and the UV stuff, But, yeah, some of the modes now have nicer effects going on with the way the lights work. So that's version 0.92, Stranger Things. If you've got that, download it and enjoy all the new stuff. Right. I'm still wondering how much these code updates will actually result in additional sales. because a lot of people might have the chance at some point to play a game, let's say Stranger Things in this case.
    45:46
    I remember when I played it in January, the scoring was very unbalanced and hitting the Demogorgon or whatever it's called, the bash toy in the game. The center shot. Yeah, the center shot hardly didn't award any points. it wasn't even worth going for.
    46:06
    And people quickly figured it out. And I think the perception of the game, because of the software at that time, was a lot of people, at least the people who played it, was like that they were not that fond of the game and they didn't like it that much. Now the question is, how many people are giving such a game a new chance when such a code update comes out? yeah because now the game might be more fun but if you're not giving it a second chance then you never know well personally that was the last time I saw the game so the next time I'll see it it's going to be you know well statistically more advanced with the software than it was then right and hopefully it'll be a completely different game with a very different experience but I don't know well enough to know what the changes they've made are and whether it makes it a more fun game or whether there are other factors. Hopefully it will.
    47:11
    But given your initial point, how much to change things, it changes the perception of people. If they see that the company is supporting the game and when it's released, that's not the end of the development of the game. And also, they are fixing bugs in it as well, and some of them might be critical for operators. They might be things which absolutely have to be fixed. So to get all these other fixes in is eye candy, but some of them are must-haves. Right. Well, I guess the risk in this strategy is that, at first the game might not be perceived as fun, code might be updated, but as many games just go to home collectors and are not out there in the open on location and so on, especially, and even if they were, you wouldn't be able to have been able to play them for the past two months anyway.
    48:14
    Chances are, by the time people realize that the game code improved and the game is a lot more fun, games off the line and there's only so many out there and good luck finding one but they can always rerun them you know if there is demand is there right so oh well moving on to let's say Stern's neighbor Jersey Jack Pinball yes interesting you should say that because on a Facebook post this week, they showed an exterior picture of the new factory,
    49:00
    which is at 1850... That's all it said on the... 1850 Greenleaf Avenue in Elk Grove Village. Yes, which we now know is 1850 Greenleaf. There's a lot of people on there saying, well, what's the full address? and nobody was commenting on that, just tell them where it really was. But yeah, as you say, 1850 Greenleaf Avenue, Elk Grove Village, which is in an interesting position, I'd say, wouldn't you? Well, I'm not completely aware with the correct terminology, but it's basically two blocks over from Stern Pinball. it's literally it's across the street if there wasn't a block of buildings in between and on the adjacent road right and interestingly I was talking to Gary about it, I said it's a three minute drive from CERN to because you have to drive around the block to get to the other side and Gary mentioned that it's probably possible to just cross the parking lot on foot across the street and it could be a three-minute walk. So it's actually that close isn't it? Yeah so lots of pinball talent within two blocks in Elk Grove Village. Yes so if you imagine I mean they're 1850 Greenleaf Avenue and Stern are at 2001 Lunt Avenue. Right. They are adjacent roads, and 1850 to 2001 is a block and a half over, really. So, yeah, really incredibly close, and I guess that means that when they go out, they go to the coffee shop, they go to the restaurant, so the people from Stern and the people from Dirty Jack will all be going to the same places. Probably, yeah. Although, in what's already the case, of course, Don't forget that the design team was already located in Bensonville, five minutes from the Stern factory. But now all the personnel working on the floor, assembling games and so on, they will be able to meet each other as well, if they are at least able to go out for lunch. Or we might as well see a wall of microwaves at Jersey Jack as well.
    51:30
    Well, it would be distanced, of course. That would be six feet apart. Also in the microwave, okay. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah.
    51:40
    So, but no, that's interesting. And I have some interesting details about the new Jersey Jack factory, if you're interested.
    51:53
    Of course. Okay. This was handed to me by a source that doesn't want to be mentioned. so I won't reveal his name. But the property features include a 60,239 square feet building. It is a 2.83 acre site.
    52:23
    On there is 10,460 square feet of office space. It has a wet sprinkler system Says something about the power I don't care 11 exterior docks 2 drive-in docks 37 parking spots And 6 plus Trailer parking spots Oh Sounds like they're Gearing up to have a lot of trucks coming in and out of that place Right I'm not sure whether they are delivering pizzas Or they'll go to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle team right but no it's in it looks like an incredibly large hall the warehouse area so to speak is I'd say enough to probably in three pinball lines if they want to yes I put in a lot of stock what the size of the old factory was. I think it was about 40,000 square feet, and this is 60.
    53:31
    And they had room for two lines in that one. So, yeah, as you say, potential for three lines here, a bit like American Pinball were planning. Right, or store a lot of inventory, if they want to, have to, you know.
    53:49
    Yeah, or essentially make games for other people. Yeah, it's interesting to see that the office space is in the front, and then the warehouse area is sort of in the back.
    54:04
    That's pretty much what it's doing. Yeah, probably it is. I would figure, like, well, you could also do the office space on top of the warehouse, you know, okay? So everybody's on the first floor, and the warehouse has an even bigger warehouse, but that's just me and, I don't know, all these American rules for buildings and what have you. But that was my European view on it. So just... It was interesting that they showed a picture of the sign outside and they said, you know, Jersey Jack Pimble with their typeface and logo. But it didn't have the Jersey, New Jersey outline around it like it traditionally has. So I was wondering, with the move to Illinois, whether they're kind of dropping that part of the logo. I think I saw a comment from Jersey Jack that said that it was just a temporary signage for now. It looked pretty pertinent to me. In fact, originally I thought it was Photoshop because it has kind of embossed characters on the text. and I thought that looks too clean and real I thought it was too clean and neat to be real but then they commented that it is an actual photograph and not photoshopped So it doesn't look like a temporary sign, but maybe. But it was interesting that they didn't include the Jersey outline on it, the New Jersey outline, I should say. Yeah, maybe they should do the Illinois outline this time. Or both.
    55:45
    That would get confusing. and oh well so that's the new New Jersey Jack Pimble factory at 1850 Greenleaf Avenue in Elk Grove Village right so from Stern Pimble yes so anyone getting fired at Stern Pimble well it's just a short walk and you might find a new employee right away absolutely and vice versa you beat me to it so but there was more news from Jersey Jack Pinball interestingly enough they posted a video in which they basically said that more innovation is coming I would say they said something about innovating the games and innovating Pinball they showed the games that they did so far ending with a question mark and it concluded saying everything is about to change.
    56:51
    Yes, and I think also there was a comment on Facebook about that, and somebody said about Internet connectivity and the response was, if you think it's just Internet connectivity, then that's not even a tiny bit of what we're doing. Right. Well, they seem to think they're going to be doing something, taking the game, should we say. Well, yeah, it's interesting, and I have to mention Kaneda's podcast here, who did a show on the upcoming Guns N' Roses game, and apparently Kaneda has had a sort of sneak preview, And apparently the game of which everybody is assuming that it's going to be Guns N' Roses, although it has not been officially confirmed, but apparently the gameplay is going to be quite different than what we've seen lately, with easier objectives. So I'm very curious to see whenever Jack or Jersey Jack is able to reveal the game, what it will be like.
    58:13
    But I'm very curious, very interested in seeing what they might have discovered or come up with in terms of making the game more fun for novice players, I would say. Well, it sounds like that speaks to what you were saying earlier about how potentially Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could be a confusing game for a novice player and wouldn't immediately get what the objectives are. So maybe that's something which Jersey Jack Pinball would have taken on board with their software design for Guns N' Roses or whatever their next game is. Right. Well, they could have learned. What I understood is they listened to the feedback that they got on previous games, especially Pirates of the Caribbean being far too complex for people to understand with 22 characters to choose from and all that.
    59:12
    So they might be heading into a different direction, which I think might be good for pinball. it doesn't have to be extremely simple but it should be at least be fun and enjoyable for everybody who just walks up to the game and plunges a couple of balls yeah hopefully there's a bit more than that in the everything is about to change comment and innovative because we've had simpler games in the past so that wouldn't be innovation but there must be something a lot more coming up which is truly innovative and will change the way that the game plays right oh well, we'll just have to wait and see because as of now we have no indication when the next Jersey Jack game will be announced and as Jack used to say he would like to reveal a game when he has games ready to ship within just moving to Illinois is I suspect they are not ready to build and ship games yet. So I'm not holding my breath, but then again, I'm open for surprises.
    60:31
    Yeah, and on that point, it's interesting that having just moved and setting up their new factory in their new building, they have the potential, I suppose, even at this stage, late stage, to incorporate some of the sort of social distancing requirements that companies will need for the manufacturing of games. They've set up workstations which are further apart and will put up screens long before they actually start, they're actually up to full production, whereas other companies already have existing manufacturing and they need to modify that to make it compliant, to make it safe for the employees. so it's a benefit for them that they're not trying to churn out games at the same time they're trying to work out how they can do it safely, they can do that as two-second risks so what else has gone on at Treasure Jack? Well they also announced that they are launching a weekly 30-minute podcast Ken Cromwell is hosting this and the thing launches in June I understand it will have exclusive insider access community participation be fully family friendly like ours won't require any fees or registration and you can send questions for the team there to answer and they can be sent to podcast.jerseyjacktonmore.com and, you know, you never know, they might pick your question and give you an answer on their podcast. So that's launching later this month. Right. About 30 minutes, and it's weekly. So it'll be a date for your diary to put in as a recurring event to listen to the latest Jersey Jack Pinball podcast. Right, okay.
    62:30
    It will be interesting to see what they fill us with, especially if the company is not handing out or bringing any news recently. I mean, there's already enough podcasts talking about gameplay and so on. So I'm curious to see what type of news they are going to be bringing, especially if it's on a weekly basis. Yeah, there must be quite a lot of Q&A going on and development of the new factory as well and how that's getting on what they can do is talk to various people in the team about what they've been doing, what they've been working on and look back at their previous five games as well Right And talking of their previous five games I saw a post that Jet Eject People made that revealed that all five of the existing Jet Eject People games have a track mode music created by Waterbridge's Mark Tremonti. Now, I didn't know that, as that's news to me. And, of course, a lot of people tend to turn off a track mode music because it's unpredictable as to when it's going to suddenly start. And when you finish playing the game, do you really want to leave it on and wait two minutes for some music to suddenly start up? but if you do, then you'll be able to hear Mark Tremonti's musical compositions, which are in all the five Jersey Jack pinball games, and no indication whether this is going to be in the next one. If it's Guns N' Roses, it might be a bit out of place. No, actually, I think for Guns N' Roses, it's probably in your place.
    64:19
    I'm familiar with what it is, There is this video where you have basically a pinball going clockwise and drawing the outline of the state of Jersey.
    64:34
    The music under there, there's a guitar riff, a bit 80s rock, I would say. I think that this post is referring to that. So I don't think it will be out of place in the Wisconsin Roses at all. I probably figure it is more out of place with Willy Wonka and The Wizard of Oz, so to speak, because that music is not like a heavy metal soundtrack.
    65:08
    And all of a sudden there is this logo coming on and that heavy guitar riff. So, but... If it's just the logo music, then that's all less exciting, I should say. I took it to mean, when I read it initially, that they all had different music tracks in a track mode. Right. But what you say actually makes a lot more sense.
    65:36
    Right. So, well, maybe that's something to figure out, whether who is right on this one. So we might get back to that in a future podcast Yeah, absolutely Right, so let's carry on And let's move south to the state of Texas And see what the team at Multimorphic have been up to Because they launched their new internet-connected gameplay For the Cosmic Cart Racing game this month it's something which they've been training for quite a while and they demonstrated local network gaming at the Texas show two years ago. Yeah, a year before. So it's something which has been known and when I went to the factory there, we were able to play, well, you and I went to the factory and we were both able to play the leaked games that were within the factory. but now they've spread that beyond a local network into a wide area network called the internet.
    66:46
    So anyone with a cosmic kart racing game on their P3 can link it up and start a network game with other people anywhere in the world. Right. So it seems an exciting option, particularly in these times where we're not able to go out to locations and play pinball and you want to play against someone else. someone who isn't a member of your immediate family, you can now do it. Right. I noticed on your website you wrote a very in-depth article on this new feature. Thank you.
    67:24
    I haven't read it all because for me it was rather technical. But are you able to basically see, if you're on the game, can you see whether other players are online?
    67:40
    You can start a there are two choices you can either choose to host a game in which case your machine is the master game or you can join in existing join in with other players who are hosting games of their own and wait for my players to join right so yeah it can work both ways you can say, okay, my machine's ready to go. Anybody wants to come and play, join me, and then people can join. Or you can just go and say, well, who's out there, and you can try and join their game.
    68:19
    Right. Okay. Well, that's it. Yeah, that's available now for Cosmic Heart Racing, and it's also coming very soon for the Heads Up game as well. So this is a thing that I think they're going to be rolling out onto future releases.
    68:37
    Right. Who knows whether it will be incorporated in updated versions of Heist, for example, or Lightspeed. it might trigger developers to exploit such feature and see what else they can do with it yeah it's certainly part of the framework the underlying framework that's available now as a feature that people can build into their games and to demonstrate it Multiball Freak had what they call a WAN party, a wide area network party for those people who had the software, who had installed it on their Cosmic Kart racing game, that was on Saturday 23rd of May, so there was a little window there, where basically everybody who had it could party and start playing against each other over the internet, just to check it out, because it's a new feature.
    69:40
    I did actually ask about whether they were going to retrofit that to previous games, but Jerry said it's not a priority for them, and the priority is to add new games and to make those games more fun by using this feature rather than try and sort of, you know, fit it into games which were never designed for that kind of play. So, yeah, it's not ruling it out, but it's really probably down to the developers for some of those as well, because they're not all developed in-house either.
    70:13
    So, yeah, it could definitely be something which could add an extra level of fun. but it's something that I think Jerry's had a certain rise as people have been speculating on what Jersey Jack Pickleball's video about innovation might be and saying, oh, yeah, it might be internet play and he's been, or it might be this, it might be that, and Jerry's just been going, oh, we've had all this for years.
    70:38
    This isn't new, this isn't innovative. So the P3 was in many ways ahead of its time, But now some of those features are coming more into the mainstream with Internet-connected play. Well, hopefully, with the corona rules being less tight, hopefully that will also mean that Multimorphic can start shipping more heist games, because that release sort of got buried in all the corona news, which is a pity because it was a very cool game to play. And I think they deserve to sell a lot more units of it.
    71:21
    Yeah, I think once they can get it out to shows as well so people can play it for themselves and see it, I think that will also help, and the CCR as well, I think.
    71:31
    Once that's been demonstrated and shows are back up and running, and it will be a good promotional event for them as well to show what these are capable of. Right. Okay. Now, speaking of Internet connectivity, we didn't announce it yet, but I think this is a good bridge to announce that.
    71:56
    As you might be aware, over the past couple of episodes, Gary Flower has been trying to connect with us by interrupting calling either me or Martin on our cell phones. And with the coronavirus and Zoom gaining a lot of popularity for making conference video calls and so on, we figured this time we turn it around. So at the end of the show, we're going to be calling Gary Flower via Zoom. so finally we'll have Gary Flower on the show I figured that was a nice bridge from the internet connectivity from Multimorphic very good ok so that's later on moving on to I suppose Spooky Pinball yeah they are not in Illinois of course no they are in Wisconsin they are in fact as I noticed on their website it says they are the I have to say it correctly They are the best Pinball company in Benton, Wisconsin Wow That's some boast I hope they can They've got that Yeah Well They're probably true But they are back in production again Anyway In their new factory Making Rick and Morty Yes, making Rick and Morty games and I've actually been watching Rick and Morty during this lockdown period, or relative lockdown that we've had. Gameplay or the TV show? No, the actual cartoon series. Right. Yes, so I can understand the game more when I actually get my flipper fingers on the buttons. Right. So it makes sense now, hopefully.
    73:50
    So, yeah, and so that Rick and Morty, that is back in production. having started before the lockdown and continuing. There's suggestions they might have some shortages of certain parts, particularly the cabinets for the butter finish on them, but I haven't had that confirmed yet, so that's only a rumour at the moment. But the good news for Spooky Pinball is that they have finally sold all the Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle games that they were producing. yes it was a limited run and they've had the last few available for a while now but no that's finally so what is the twist to this whole coronavirus situation people are so desperate they bought Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle well it's not nice to say it's a very nice game so but it is I think people I think it's what would probably be termed a slow burner in that people have got to people who got to play the game realise it's actually quite good.
    74:58
    It's a good role. It is, yeah. Yeah, but it's kind of a feat on itself. If there aren't many out there, not many people get to play it, so not many people realise that it's a good game and doesn't generate more sales. But it has done now. And, yeah, so if you wanted one, too late. We're getting a brand new one. Right. Unless any distributors have any in stock. but I suspect they're all taken now.
    75:26
    So, anyway, good news for Spooky. So they can now concentrate on marketing Rick and Morty and then their future titles because everything else is sold out. Right. So, and then from one pinball company on the move to another one, American Pinball, who finally, and this has been a long time in the making, I suppose, moved to their new factory in Palatine, which is in Illinois as well, and they started the manufacturing of Hot Wheels.
    76:03
    Yes, Hot Wheels, we talked about that last time, I think, didn't we? It's not the time before. Right. It's been announced a while, but manufacturing hasn't been possible due to the lockdown, but now in their new factory which they are sharing with their, I don't know, parental sister company, they can start building there, although their website still shows their previous address, but their new address is actually the flying power of Atari. The flying power of Atari, yes. Ah, right, okay, very good. okay well their actual address is 500 South Hicks Road in Palatine so while we're giving out the address and American Pimple South Hicks Road in Palatine and yeah so as you said they'd actually when we'd been there they were saying they thought they'd been in and up and running by the start of last year and Well, you know how it goes. The moving effect really is hard.
    77:16
    Or was it the other way around? Either way, I think it's taken just over a year longer than was originally planned,
    77:26
    or originally envisaged. I didn't think they could possibly got in at the beginning of last year. That seemed very adventurous to suggest that. Well, the coronavirus probably didn't help either. No, probably not I think they were saying That for a long time they were waiting on permits From the city Or from the city council In order to be able to operate And to bring guests in And get staff into the building But obviously now that's all happened And So congratulations to them On their new premises Right, so let's hope that they will Start cranking out those Hot Wheels games soon, but there will be shows where they can actually show them, because we haven't seen gameplay yet.
    78:13
    No, that's right. No, I'm very much looking forward to that. Apart from a couple of very short promotional videos which were released at the time the game was announced, yeah, there's nothing much out there.
    78:27
    On the plus side, it's given them plenty of time to work on the code and animations and lighting effects and all the good stuff that goes into the game. So when we do get to see it, it should be pretty impressive. Right. Now, speaking of nothing, how about Deepwood Pinball?
    78:44
    Oh, can we just mention that American Pinball have also been hiring. Oh, sure. Sorry, I was too quick.
    78:55
    Oh, we should mention that, remember that Barry from American Pinball went over to work with Jersey Jack Pimple after, well, I wouldn't say it's after, Butch Peel left, but around about the same time as Butch. So, we've just got a kind of technical service manager role vacancy at American Pimple. Well, they've hired Dave Brennan to take that position.
    79:25
    He's a, I'm not sure exactly whether he's got any experience of dealing with customers in the same way, but he's certainly a very knowledgeable game restorer and repairer and maintenance guy. He goes by the name of TurboGrafx7 on Facebook and on his Twitch channel as well. That's TurboGrafx7, G-R-A-F-X-7.
    79:50
    And he's been showing the restoration work he's been doing on a Gottlieb Alien Star on his Facebook page for a little while now. And so you can keep track of that there. and follow his repair work there. And see Dave before, well, actually he's already taken up his role, I think, as Technical Services Manager at American Pinball. But you can see him and who he is and the work he does on his Facebook and Twitch pages or streams. So congratulations to Dave and American Pinball on their new hiring. Right. And speaking of new hires, then I'm going to bridge to another company, It's not yet to be approved. We'll get there.
    80:35
    Because you mentioned recently Butch Peele being let go at Jesse Pinball. Good news. It has just been confirmed after the news was already announced last night by Canada. Congrats on that scoop for him. Butch Peele has been hired by Chicago Gaming.
    80:58
    Yes, it's now confirmed in the news. from Chicago Gaming themselves. They've put out a press release, or are about to, if they haven't already. Well, I already received a press release, and I can read it out loud for you if you're interested. Hold on. Let's give us the top, first paragraph. First paragraph. Chicago Gaming Company is very excited to welcome Butch Beal to our team, which will be serving as our lead service engineer.
    81:30
    Oh, okay. Very good. Well, congratulations to Butch and also to Chicago Gaming on a very wise hiring. We did say at the time we didn't think it would be long before one company snapped him up, and Chicago Gaming have done so. So it makes perfect sense. Yeah. Happy for Butch, happy for Chicago Gaming. Yeah.
    81:53
    And I think in this position, it also is actually very good news for the people who bought games from Chicago Gaming because having Butch on board probably means that you get an in-depth manual if there isn't one yet. Although obviously with Chicago Gaming millions of manuals already exist for those games but I'm quite sure that Butch can give his own twist to it and you'll end up with a much more interesting or colorful if you want manual if he does anything similar to the ones that he did at Jersey Jack Pinball yeah it's just something that just popped into my mind as you were talking about that I guess that means that Butch will be back working with Lloyd Olsen on home service as they were working together at Jersey Jack Pinball and Lloyd does technical advice and helpline work for Jersey Jack Pinball but he also does it for Chicago Gaming or Planetly Pinball So yeah they back together again as a team so even better news Right So yeah excellent And speaking of Chicago Gaming we assume that they are back at work as well since they're based in Illinois.
    83:15
    Yes. If they're not, I understand they've certainly been shipping games recently, but they do tend to have a large store of games which are awaiting shipping. So having two of the factory, you can go into the storeroom and there are an amazing number of boxed games ready to go.
    83:35
    So I don't think there has been any shortage of Chicago Gaming machines available if you wanted to buy them from your local distributor. Right. Okay. So now getting back to Deep Root, where I was trying to break into earlier, is there any news from Deep Root Pinball that we know of? Well, no, actually. Nothing's changed, as far as I can see. Nothing has changed on their website, which is pretty much the same as it was in March. Still showing details about the launch event they were going to hold and the fact that it's been cancelled. but still asking people to submit their details for accreditation. No indication at all about what's going on at the company. No really scheduled launch event or reveal details or anything about what it is they're actually doing. Right. Have you heard anything? Well, I heard anything, but I don't think it's worth mentioning online because it's not confirmed to me. It's just a rumor. via via through someone else who heard it from someone else so I tend to go with ok let's wait and see what happens before I start spreading any rumours and giving people hopes that might not be justified so no ok well so no nothing from them so let's go back to a company where things are happening and in fact they are building games and selling games and shipping them, some of them, to people who have already bought them. Wow.
    85:23
    And this is your area of speciality, as it's your good friend and fellow native, Barry, over at Dutch Pinball. Right. Who is cranking out the game team. Right. Well, it's interesting to note that Dutch Trimble did send out a newsletter to their customers, people, their early achievers who are still waiting for a game,
    85:50
    the Big Lebowski game, to be delivered to them. And it was quite a lengthy update with lots of photos from the new factory. basically they very indicated that they were able to continue to work on the manufacturing of games during the lockdown period as there was enough distance in between the several people working there and there are only four people there so So it's not that difficult to keep your distance if necessary. He announced that a fifth full-time member was starting last week, I think.
    86:39
    Oh, another half-time. Yes. And, well, it might be not that special, but it was his daughter Tara who is joining Dutch Pinball in a full-time capacity. although it didn't say in what function she will be active. But I'm sure that she has her qualities and that she will be a valuable asset for Dutch Pinball. No argument there.
    87:07
    And what's interesting about the newsletter is that for the first time Barry indicated the ratio. Well, first of all, he indicated that the first early achiever games have been shipped.
    87:24
    And I explain briefly what that indicates, because recently when Dutch Pinball was able to buy their assets from their former contract manufacturer,
    87:37
    obviously they needed money to buy these assets. And in order to do so, what they did was they sold Big Lebowski games that were already manufactured and had been stocked at their former contract manufacturer for a couple of years. Obviously, that means that the people who were still waiting for those games and the games that weren't even built yet would have to wait longer. and when the new factory was set up Barry continued to sell games, build games and ship them out immediately so quite a few people who recently ordered a Big Dabasky game were actually able to get one while others who ordered one like 4 or 5 years ago were still waiting for one those are the early achiever games and obviously the intent has always been to deliver those early achiever games as well but the company first needed to recreate a financial stability and they reached that and they started building and shipping early achiever games and currently they are doing so in a one out of four ratio ratio. So one out of four games being built goes to an early achiever who is still waiting for his game. That's not a very high ratio, I would say. I was hoping it would be either one out of three or one out of two, if possible. But I understand that the frequency might still increase. at least we know something because prior to this we didn't know anything so that's a good thing if you're waiting for a game like I am being an early achiever so I guess that's quite some interesting news and I really that's certainly what Barry was promising from the start wasn't it that's how it's going to happen and a lot of people and clearly my staff to a degree were sceptical that he'd ever get to the situation where he'd have built and sold enough games to be able to start fulfilling the early achiever orders. But all credit to him and the team there at Dutch Pinball. They've done it. And they've made a start on fulfilling those early achiever orders. So, unfortunately, it looks like their plan is one that's working, even with all these shenanigans around the coronavirus.
    90:29
    So, yeah, good news, I see. Right, yeah. And I texted very earlier this afternoon, and there is a plan to do a live stream from the Dutch Pingles factory. Actually, the plan has already been there for a couple of months, but coronavirus, you know how it goes. I asked Barry whether he already picked a new date for such a live stream and he hasn't but since the rules for coronavirus and distancing are less strict right now I figured they might have thought about a date he hasn't yet but I think I put it back on his radar so who knows he might be able to announce something hopefully soon good Good. Well, on other Luby Grabowski news, I saw on the Dutch Pinball Facebook page, they said that they had done a film project shoot in a local café. The name of the café is not what I'm going to attempt to pronounce because it's in Dutch. It's called Café de Heterbrae.
    91:49
    Yeah, it's a haterbrae. So called, spelled, Het Bridge. But the Café de Heterbray was some rather dubious-sounding food. Some hot gruel or something like that. Yeah, I think prison food, something like that. And actually being warm, that sort of covers it, I suppose. Yeah. So anyway, they had a big Lebowski machine set up there, and it was used as part of this music film project. And when that project's finished and released to the show, I'm sure that Dutch Pinball will post the link to it on their Facebook page and elsewhere, probably on their website too. Right. So a little more publicity for Pinball and the Big Lebowski in particular. Right.
    92:39
    Okay. Moving on to the other side of the world, I suppose. Is there any news from Pegas Stimble? Absolutely none or at least none that they've made public they have not produced any new videos at all in the past month or at least they haven't put them on their Facebook page or on their YouTube channel either which is unusual but I'm sure there are reasons why that is and we've had this in the past haven't we where there's been a sort of silence for some period of time, and then they're back, and just say, oh, we've been busy, but we're back at it now full-time. Right. I'm sure that will happen again this time as well. Absolutely. Nothing to be unduly worried about. But with no pinball shows or deadlines to meet until, well, currently October, there's time to be working on the new games. But no, basically no. No news from Agis that we know about. Then that's bringing all the news from Circus Maximus. Ah, well, it's all been going at Circus Maximus, where there's no news either. So, no, they don't update their social media stuff very frequently anyway, and they haven't done it at all in the past month. So, yeah. Good. Then, well, we're crossing the globe, hoping, in Taiwan. these days. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, not much from Homepin, from Mike Kalinowski over there. He did show a couple of pictures from his new Taiwan factory, showing that they're still unpacking and setting everything up after their move from China. But it's a long process and they hope to be completely set up in their new home sometime this month so they can start production. In the meantime, they seem to be focusing their construction efforts on making replacement circuit boards for various pinballs.
    94:51
    In particular, the strobe board for a Catra Marsis, which they've redesigned and have a new version available. So manufacturing is still going on. Homebins is not pinball manufacturing or not pinball machine manufacturing. at the moment. But hopefully, it's based this month and we'll be back next month to give you details of that. I definitely hope that they will be back into production soon because I've seen some video of that China Zombies game, which I thought was rather interesting. So I really hope they can pick that up and put that actually into production.
    95:33
    Good. Okay, I'll look forward to seeing that. Hopefully they'll be able bring out a version aimed at the Western market as well, so we can get to play it. Maybe you should change the title to Corona Zombies.
    95:48
    Yes, I'm sure everybody will be itching to get their hands on that. So, right, okay. Do you have any other news before we get together? Only, yeah, only as far as what's been going on with the IFPA. and remember that all tournament events were no longer to be sanctioned from the IFPA so no Woffa points awarded at the start of this lockdown in March.
    96:21
    So no plans, no declared plans to change that situation at the moment. It's obviously a tricky one when various parts of the world are coming out of the lockdowns and restrictions in different stages, even in the States. You know, different states are doing different things. So it would be difficult to suddenly start sanctioning events globally when many countries and many areas are not actually able to hold tournaments due to local restrictions. So that's not happening at the moment. But what they are doing is they've teamed up with Match Play Events to launch the IFPA Challenge Ratings, or ICR, which launches today, the 1st of June. And it's basically remote play, almost an internet play of a different type, not as direct as the multimorphic version, but you can do it over Zoom, you can do it over Skype, you can do it over various other methods, in that you and somebody else with the same game can set up a head-to-head best-of-three game where you both play your own games and you record the results on the Match Play Events website and there is actually some money behind all this as well. The IFPA are donating up to $1,000 for the top eight players at the end of all this, whenever it calls for an end. and trophies for the top four as well. So, yeah, it might be something worth looking into. Go and have a look at the IFPA website, ifpapinball.com, and you can sign up on the matchplay.events website. You both need to have an account with Matchplay in order to do this. And, yeah, you can challenge people from all over the world to play various games. And who knows, you might come out with some money at the end of it. So best of luck with that. Right. Okay.
    98:29
    While we're on other news, I did see an update on Pinball Expo. What do you make of that? Ah, yes. Well, it's kind of like a holding message, really, to say we haven't made a decision. We're keeping an eye on things.
    98:48
    We're still working away hard behind the scenes to make sure that the show goes ahead in October, but ultimately it's not their call, it's beyond their image to determine whether or not it's a safe environment for people to gather, and whether they're actually legally allowed to do so anyway by the city of Wheeling or by the governor of Illinois.
    99:15
    But they're working on the basis that it is going to happen. they're advising that if it doesn't for any reason never you will get money back and hotel bookings can be cancelled free of charge so it's a risk-free thing to book and if you do want to go then you certainly should book a hotel room there because it always sells out and people, well it has sold out I don't know this year it's a guessing game which is actually what's going to happen but if you've got nothing to do and you can cancel it for free why wouldn't you book? So I'd recommend doing that. And also, if you do want to go, then I'd recommend pre-booking your admission package with Rob Burke or Bridget and showing them that there is a demand for the show, that you're supporting them. And again, if it doesn't happen, you get your money back, so nothing to lose really in that regard. But it's, I think, something which, if you wanted to go, sign up for it now and the more people that do the bigger the resolve will be to make sure it does happen right ultimately as I say it may well be down to state or local regulations as to whether or not they'll be allowed to do it or not hopefully they will fingers crossed because I don't think any of us particularly want you know pretty much the entire 2020 show season to be written off it'd be nice if we could at least get something out of this year yeah and then we still have to see whether you and I can travel to America, for example.
    100:49
    Yeah. That's also still up in the air, not pun intended. Well, yeah, and also, you know, we were talking about the Dutch Pinball Expo, the Pinball Open Expo, as well, and whether or not I would be allowed to go to that.
    101:04
    Without getting, or being fined with two weeks of quarantine when you get back home. That's right. Yeah, which is what the current situation they're talking about is. Anybody who flies in or out of the UK, has to do a 14-day self-quarantine, or self-isolation. Right. Which obviously turns a... And you have to have somewhere where you're going to do that. You can't just say, oh, we're sold, do it, and then ignore it. You have to... If we were flying to the US, we'd have to have somewhere that we could go to for 14 days before we could even leave that place and start our travels. So, yeah, at the moment it's not feasible, but, you know, things change fast. and both for the better and for the worse. So let's, again, fingers crossed and hope that we can still enjoy some good pinball shows later in the year and play some of these wonderful games we've been talking about. Right. Okay, then, well, there's one last thing to do, and it's been, well, over two years in the making. We've figured out a way that it could work this time. we're going to be calling Gary Flower on Zoom so that we can finally hear what is he trying to tell us for God knows how long so Martin I'll let you do the honors because you know your way with Zoom yeah well I've been using it for work and it's a good system and I'm sure you all know and we've got the latest updates to make it ultra secure so nobody should snoop on our private conversation with Gary because obviously we don't want anybody else to hear what we're saying. So I'll call him up right now. So it's just on there. And where is it? Oh, there it is. Right, yes. Okay. So it's calling in now, waiting for him to join the meeting. We did tell him that we'd be doing this around about this time.
    103:02
    And he's expecting us. There he is. Are you seeing him? I'm seeing him, yes. Hello, Gary. I'm waiting for Gary. Yeah, Gary I see his lips moving but I don't hear it Yes Unmute your microphone, Gary Right, Gary Turn the microphone on Can you hear us, Gary?
    103:24
    There's a button somewhere How do you explain this to an elderly? I'm sure we have plenty of people who would be in that situation Turn the microphone on, Gary your mic is muted unmute your mic stop talking can you hear it he's talking away but we can't hear a word he's saying because he hasn't turned his microphone that's the problem with Gary once he starts talking good luck intervening well yes there is that but I know that's the thing with Zoom sometimes when you launch it it's muted the microphone but you have to remember to unmute I don't think we no we can't get a word in He's on a roll.
    104:10
    Too bad we can't hear it. Yeah, yeah, it certainly is. Well, we tried. We tried. God knows we tried.
    104:18
    Okay. Well, we'll point out where the unmute microphone button is to Gary, and hopefully we'll hear from him in the next podcast, and he can tell us all the things that he was streaming across the Internet to us in video-only form. maybe we should get a lip reader involved so they can tell us what it is he's saying. But probably easier to get it to. I'm not going to wait for that before you, but, oh well. No. We tried. We did.
    104:54
    It's not that we're always trying. Well, we have our listeners who can attest that we try. So it's not us, Gary, it's not us. anyway I guess this wraps it up for the month of May and I have to say that let me close up with a brief announcement usually I try to send out mid month my monthly newsletter I usually do that right after our podcast and then I figure like it makes more sense to do it two weeks later and capture the news of the first two weeks as well.
    105:39
    This week, or this month, I was extremely busy with other stuff. There wasn't that much news, so I figured I'd let it slide a little bit, and then I was faced with a crashing hard drive, which I was able to save most of it. But as it goes with those things, those are immediate priorities, which also caused further delay of such newsletters. So I will be sending it out after this podcast, including a link to this podcast as well.
    106:11
    But that explains why the newsletter didn't rise this past month, mid-May. And I have a new record company. You didn't lose anything too important. No, no, no, that's true. And I have a new record coming out on Spotify on June 12th. It's called Japanese Disco Game and the artist is Remix the Remix.
    106:37
    But I won't bother anybody else with that over here. I'll just spam you on Facebook. I do have to ask you one question, though. Is there any more progress on the next edition of People Magazine? Yes, there is. as you may know the cover story has been transcribed that's 181 pages and I got to editing the first 90 pages now of those 181 pages and the plan is to move forward this week with the rest of that so that's already edited and there's still more editing going on with those last 90 pages, so 91 pages that still need to be edited because they need to be sort of woven into the first 90 pages that already have been edited. But yes, I have been working on that. So it's slow progress, but it's still progress.
    107:46
    Good. Okay. Well, that's good news too, and which to end this month's look back at the previous month. Right, okay. Well, thank you once again for your contribution.
    107:59
    Oh, you're absolutely welcome. I do hope everybody enjoyed it, and it looks like June is going to be another exciting month. We honestly don't know exactly what's going to happen, because Maine was, as you said, So it started off as a very quiet month, and then all of a sudden a whole bunch of news came towards the end of it. Right. So we look forward to seeing what's going to happen in June 2020. Right. Well, one interesting question that we can ask ourselves.
    108:32
    Several pinball companies may have been in a position to review games and haven't yet. So the question is, when will they? and now that the now that the manufacturing is slowly starting again hopefully that will result in some more new releases yeah it's probably a very good time to start releasing games isn't it to get in there well before any of the big shows start up and people definitely have try and tie in new game releases with those. Now would otherwise be a bit of a dead time. So you can get plenty of publicity and excitement around your launch. Well, that's for sure. I do understand, by the way, why Stern went ahead with Turtles instead of the earlier announced contract heavy metal game. But obviously, I guess their margin is bigger on the Turtles game than on a contract game for somebody else. So, sorry, for me it makes sense that they went ahead with Turtles instead of the late heavy metal contract game. Yeah, as I remember, the heavy metal game was seen as being quite expensive. So the Turtles, I don't know, it gives them a bigger margin that certainly gets the volume up. But if they sold anything like the same number of heavy metal games, they would have Turtles. Right. Oh, well. Anyway, so that's it for this month.
    110:13
    Hopefully, we'll be back at the beginning of next month. Hopefully? Definitely. Look back on. That's as serious. Yeah. So, until then, from me, Martin Leigh, and from my co-host, Jonathan Houston, stay healthy, stay safe, play pinball, and until next month. Okay, goodbye. Bye.
    110:38
    you