Thank you for watching. Thank you. Amen. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Welcome to the first episode of the Great British Pinball Podcast. I'm Neil. I'm Scott. And we're here to kick off a new podcast. Hopefully one that you enjoy Scott and I have been old pinball buddies For a few years And we thought we'd give this a go Hopefully we're funny and entertaining If not We'll kill this quickly So yes We're both pinball nuts from the UK And This Episode we'll do a bit of intros On how we got to pinball Actually I, Scott and I kind of met Because there's a bit of a story there And then we'll do the usual thing That most pinball podcasts do Cover what's going on But we're going to try and have a bit of a UK slant to it Although pinball is pretty much An international thing Given all the stuff Comes from All the different Parts of the world So Why did we set this up? Let me kick off. So Scott and I were having a chat about all things pinball, and there's some great pinball podcasts out there. Gonzo does a great one, Fliparama, but this is more of a video than a podcast, I would say. He's had some great guests on, some great segments, and he puts a lot of effort into his videos. But we wanted something that was probably you could listen to in the car as you're driving along, less about video, more about us just chatting. And also, you know, we're always talking about what's going on in pinball and, you know, trying to keep it interesting, trying to keep the community interested in what's going on. And then I was at Scott's house for reasons we will discover later. And we started having a chat about this. And it was kind of my idea to kind of do something, and then we came up with this. I don't know what you think, Scott. No, no, exactly. You know, from my point of view, at least, I'd say pinball has definitely changed the way, to be honest, I approach everything, if I'm honest. Back before pinball, to be honest with you, I could barely work my way around any kind of standard DIY. why? I think people ask me a lot of questions like going like, you know, how long have you been doing woodworking for? And I'm like, since about the same time I started pinball, if I'm honest. But that's obviously a story for later. But yeah, I mean, from my perspective, it's definitely one of those, I would say, niche hobbies that you end up getting so much information about how people have designed a game and how they've worked with different artists and how they build with different licenses. I think that's the part that I really love about pinball is that you have to involve so many different areas of creativity to get basically a ball to bash around a bit of wood at the end of the day. That is the thing that excites me about it which is there's so many different pieces to make a pinball thing happen. When you look at the games of all the different eras, you had the electronics experts, you had wiring experts, you had artists, then you had the game designer and the best pinball machines is where all those some of the parts all the elements combined they kind of deliver more than them individually and when you get a game like that it's just mind blowing and I should say I'm kind of a tournament pinball player although I'm not that great but I try to I play in tournaments go around Scott's kind of Collector type Restorer now It's insane to see your journey In pinball So Scott and I started talking I don't know was it three years ago four years ago No I'd say just over must have been yeah Must have been about three years ago And Scott had bought Actually one of my favourite games Star Trek Premium was that a premium Yeah it was it was a premium And Yeah You post on Facebook A problem with light boards Which actually I've had a similar issue Actually mine was new Literally the board wasn't working The day I got it The triangle board that sits underneath The modes And we just started talking And And Scott Now blames me for his mad addiction I definitely do I'm not going to lie. I mean, it is Neil's fault. I mean, the weird part of, I suppose, I'll dip into how I started with all of this. So the wife wasn't really keen on me having arcade machines. What I've got behind me there is, and people obviously for not benefit, can't see what I'm talking about, is a main cabinet, which is basically an emulation cabinet. I think from my perspective, I've always been pretty much like a 90s kid, if you want to call it that. So I was very much into things like Killer Instinct, Mortal Kombat, Time Crisis. But my wife was like, no, you're not having an arcade machine in the house. And I managed to swing building the main cab, but that was the extent of how I could push it. When COVID hit, we were just like everyone else, was looking to try and find time to try and fill what we could do with our lives. And of all things, back when I was like a kid, my dad had a pinball machine. I had a, I think it was called The Who. Do you remember that game, Neil? But basically, like, that game was in our... Yeah, yeah, Tommy, yeah. So basically, it was in our garage for, like, 20 years. Wow. It never got, like, never really saw the light of day. And then when it got taken away, the guy who went to repair it didn't bring it back. So I never actually got to try it. And I told her that story, and she was like, well, why don't we get a pinball machine? and I was like okay, I'm not going to say no I mean those things cost way more than an arcade machine but let's entertain that idea and obviously we stumbled upon that advert for a Star Trek premium and obviously I had loads of issues with it as you know, that game was far from a great condition for a first time buyer, I thought being a modern machine it would be free of issues but thankfully Neil as I say I think if I hadn't have got that I probably wouldn't have met you and I probably wouldn't have got into the the hobby as much as I did so I think it was for the best really. Yeah I mean I think it's the thing when people ask me about what game should I buy and they talk about I'd love an Addams Family and I'm like if you're not into pinball buying one of the older games can sometimes be an uphill learning curve and I remember it myself the first game I owned was Bride of Pinball And the I forget what it's called but the voltage regulator Where the power comes in It blew Within two days of Getting the game And it was like a real baptism of fire Because I was trying to track down Why is it not booting And it was obviously something power lead Luckily there was a guy That phoned And it was local-ish And he came round and fixed it And fixed a few other things But then I realised There's a lot to learn about these games So downloading The manuals and reading them On the train And just trying to get Much more of a view of them But If I Tiptoe back To how I got to where I am Which is I think we've both gone from zero pinballs to pinball crazies as I might call it but I played pinball when I was like you in the arcade so late 80s, early 90s and I was at uni in Edinburgh and there was a place in Edinburgh called LA Amusements, it was actually an over 18s place so when you went in you kind of stuck your head up and tried to speak yourself out To be taller than you were so you'd get in And I would Quietly, if you were kind of confident And you just kind of stormed in They Never used to really bother It was the little kids They just didn't want to, they had fruit machines and stuff And it was, I think back then Fruit machines you had to You weren't allowed to Kids weren't allowed to play them, in fact I think that's still the case But And I was, like you, I was an arcade Fan, Street Fighter The fighting games but I was just Terrible at them it used to frustrate the hell out of me We played There used to be a bunch of guys that Played for kind of pound notes And I would just lose all the time And then they got this It was actually Brian a pinball Pinball machine in And I started to play it Because it's such a straightforward Game I would get the multiball And it would be yay and I got my name on the high score A couple of times and I thought I'm really into this They then got a Terminator 2 And it went very Drastically the other way Because it was just such a difficult game I just could never Get out And of course back then The notion of When the ball was in the flipper You hit the flipper There was no skill There was no way of learning how to play pinball Because it was Such a niche thing To be honest with you I didn't even touch pinball until I literally got that Star Trek. So the learning curve for me was basically going from zero to something in a very quick manner, especially when I had to learn to fix it at the same time as play it, if I'm honest with you. But yeah, pinball is one of those things. I wish I, to be honest with you, had experienced it because I think I would have really enjoyed it. At the time, I just, I don't know why, I think I was intimidated by it, if I'm honest with you. I just looked at them and I thought, what the hell are you supposed to do? There's so much lights and so much stuff going on when you first come up to a pinball machine it can be a little bit like what am I supposed to be doing? What's the aim of the game? sort of thing. Yeah, and we kind of see that even today, but I'll be honest, I've got all these memories of being at the seaside, Blackpool and Scarborough, where they had these massive arcades, and you'd be playing something like Gorf Space Invaders and Pac-Man This was the mid-80s I guess Early 80s even And I'm sure there was pinball machines there But I can't remember anything about them It just wasn't something I Levitated towards I got into the arcade machines Because my grandad put ten pence In a Space Invaders machine In our local chippy back in Edinburgh I was just hooked on it I just thought this was amazing And Yeah I was all about the video games And I Like you Computers of the era Spectrum, Amiga, Commodore All that stuff I had all of them And I kind of loved those days Of those kind of bedroom computers With some 12 inch TV that Ghosted like hell But you were playing like J. Lee Thompson's The Catlin on it You know And Those times were just phenomenal And actually it's kind of interesting Because I was literally in Japan earlier this week And They've still got arcades like that They're not as big They're not as big as they were But I went into this place in Akihabara I think is how you pronounce it And Just seeing a room full of Cabinets and Ulexes where you could Play all the games that were there I was just thinking this is amazing They've still got a massive beat em up Scene there to be honest with you Yeah I would say Put beat em ups back on the map again Absolutely It was great to see and actually I was stunned by this I wasn't actually looking for pinball But there's Where Sega used to have their Arcades it's not there Sega World Sadly not Sega anymore But this other company Has taken it over And it's like Ground floor they've got all these crane machines And they've got I suppose it's all ticket machines now isn't it Yeah Different type of stuff And then they had the arcade with the video games Excuse me And then on the top floor I was amazed I see it on this map Pinball and darts And I'm like of course it would be like On the 8th floor So clamber up all the stairs Get to the 8th floor nearly dying And they got four pinball machines there Sadly Pirates of the Caribbean The JJP one wasn't it I saw your picture on there I was really surprised to see that I was blown away to see it And unfortunately it wasn't working JJP game for you Yeah It did make me chuckle And then they had a Actually it was three games so they had a Star Wars Premium which played really nice Although it's not one of my Most favourite games but Rare to see a premium actually I don't think I've ever seen a premium Star Wars ever And then they had a Simpsons The Stern Simpsons Pimple Party Yeah and again that played nice Again it's not a massive favourite Game of mine but it's ok but I was just Blown away to see Pimple and actually I pulled out Pimple map and found there was another place with even more games but it was a bit far from me but yeah so fast forward to how I got back into pinball so I moved to London to have a company and it was a brand new start up and we were kind of just for 10 years all I did was like work work work work work the whole 90s is like a blur to me because I was just in the office constantly but I was at an event and This was in the US And at the end of the event they had arcade games And pinball machines around the Event room And I was like oh pinball that's awesome And my wife was with me I kind of darted over And I was playing this Harley Davidson Game which I knew nothing about But it was pinball and I was enjoying it And literally by the time I got back to the UK I'd bought this bride A pinball I bought it from Chris B actually It was a lovely beautiful condition It'd been restored New displays, new speakers And it's one of the things about Brighter Pinball, the sound on it If it's set up well it just sounds So great, it's great to hear There's definitely a thing My wife keeps pushing me to get Like a System 11 game So something of that 80s era basically Because she just likes that kind of I don't know, almost synthesised Music and synthesised voices That you get on it back then There's just a certain nostalgia area to that Absolutely. And I think just the crispness of the music, you know, when you hear it, you kind of, when you hear that era, you know it really quickly, right? It's so distinctive. It's definitely distinct. Yeah, so It kind of leads me into Why I love pinball Which is You've got all these distinct eras Like The kind of brighter pinball era The System 11's You've got I know you're a big fan of the DMD 90's games Definitely That Valley Williams And then you've got the 80's games Actually, even before that, you've got the EMs, Electromechanical. Yeah. And I love them, but I think I own a game from just about every year. I accept EMs because they're just tricky to keep running. Well, definitely, yeah. I mean, as they get older, let's face it, they're going to need much more love and attention. Yeah, and for me, I like to play. I like tinkering as well I like adding mods I like adding bits to the games but when I want to play I want to play right and you know we'll talk a bit later about Monster Bash but when I have a game and I want to play and I've got to fix something that used to drive me nuts I'm definitely in the opposite camp to you there Neil for me it's like I, I, I, everyone always asks me, like, do you ever play your games? And I'm like, not a lot. Like, I definitely spend more time fixing them. I mean, my, my schedule is basically finish work and then start my other job. Yeah. Like, that's what everyone, because everyone just says it's a job these days. It pretty much is. It's like, I, but I prefer it. I'm not going to lie. There's something I, up until now, I'd say I've always been a person that basically has always built my own stuff. I built my own PCs. I used to do a load of gaming machines, liquid cool computers, stuff like that. Nothing really I saw as a challenge because I was a very heavy background like you in tech. So for me, it was just a no-brainer to carry on down that path because it's just easier to make stuff your own. And when it came to pinball and I saw how exorbitant the costs were to get people to either apply a decal, let alone do a playfield swap I was like well time to learn something new and it definitely snowballed from there for me for me I can't play a game now unless it's playing at it's best do you know what I mean yeah I mean I tend to agree with that I think it would be interesting to see as you get older mate what your patience goes I'm very much like yeah I used to build my own PCs I'd always be tinkering stuff now And I think it's partly about How important your time is I've got grandkids And it's like If I find half an earth It's almost a scandal I've got this big games room here And I'm hardly ever in it And it's In some ways It's shocking But when I get half an earth To come in here I'm like here we go I can play And actually I tell my wife I work in this room now So I worked from home But I can tell my wife work starts half an hour earlier So I can get over and get a few games in But Do you always get the questions from people in the background If you've got your camera on Do they always go what's that Yeah I get it yeah Absolutely I think the I was actually on An event for one of my suppliers At the time And I didn't actually realise how big this event was, but we were speaking about customer service. And I had, actually my table was that way and I had Monster Bash, Attack from Mars, and Medieval Madness in my background. Trilogy, nice. My Twitter lit up. This guy Neil McCrea's got the coolest background ever. And I could see it blinking, like you know the corner of the screen, I'm like holy moly. And There was a few other folks That are in telecoms That are into pinball That appeared at Woodwork Which was quite cool to see That there was other people in the industry I mean I'm in telecoms It was cool to see them Come out And that was kind of One of the COVID side effects We all got to see a bit more of each other's lives Because we were working from home Oh yeah it definitely exposes your hobbies doesn't it i mean like amount of people i've found out that had similar like either shared hobbies or new other people that have worked in the pinball industry in the same thing to you because i've worked in a similar business basically as telecoms and managed services and uh and like yeah the people i speak to i'm like okay you actually know the designer i was like wow it's pretty impressive i was just like it just boggles your mind sometimes how well the small how small the world is despite the fact it's a niche hobby There's so many people that seem to, at least from my perspective, coming in this from someone who's only been in the hobby for like three years, how many lives it's touched and how many different people in walks of life that you run into that have a story to tell around it. Yeah, 100%. And again, that's the other thing that I love is I started working with some different people recently and they were talking about their hobbies. I play golf. I play tennis. And I'm like, I play pinball. And it's like, really? What's that? No one wants to talk about golf or tennis. No one wants to talk about pinball. It's great. And, you know, you show them a picture of the games room, they're like, oh, we need to come down, we need to come down. It's great. You know, that aspect of it is great. Although I think there's a, you know, I've had a few in this room, I've had a few suppliers down for, you know, for events where, you know, come down and play some pinball. I was like yeah okay come on down and bring some beats But they kind of Then the Zac Stark reality of how challenging Pinball is kind of hits them And it's like you know this was fun for a bit Although a few other folks That I've played have kind of got right into it But it's You know The nostalgia Versus the modern You know modern stuff appearing Is something that's kind of You know when people see a modern pinball machine and I'm like, wow, I didn't even know they made them anymore. I get that all the time. Yeah, because I have work colleagues. We have pairings where basically he's working like pre-sales, and he's always like, are you going off your second job then? I'm like, yeah. And he's like, because he just goes like, what's the latest release then? Because for him, just like at you, he thought pinball had died off in the 90s. So although he knew about it, he didn't know that it's had a resurgence. so now he's asking me when's the next release coming he keeps like everyone else going when's the next, they're going to do a Back to the Future and I was like that has been a long rumour for a very long time hopefully it happens but we'll see indeed yeah and then I met you Scott I met loads of other people through Pinball I also run Pinball Republic which is our club here in London and just a number Of kind of Friends that have got a similar interest You know I had them in the PC days But it was kind of online play And it wasn't quite the same Whereas you know we got A lot of events We'll talk a bit about them later on But a lot of great events where people come together And the social aspect of it Is Is fantastic as well You know people are excited to get together And you know The kind of excuse to get together is pinball Rather than the pinball itself But that's Definitely one of the things I really Enjoy about it And just the diversity Of people in the tournaments I go to events Across the world And just such a different You know I don't know of something like pinball where You've got this kind of Insanely diverse Collection of people There's just nothing Quite like it Even in video games it tended to sway towards A certain type Well that's got much wider with Sony And the mainstreamness of Oh yeah I don't know about you but when I was a kid It was definitely much like nerd culture Oh 100% It was absolutely a niche If you were playing games when you were a kid you didn't really admit to it Like definitely times have changed now Oh totally And in my respect I'm glad of it because it kind of Sent me on a career That I've really Loved and I've kind of been Fortunate about it but That whole Pinball community And it's Small enough that You get a few characters in it like Kaneda and Map Arcade They're kind of Universally known as opposed to video games and there's just so many people in there you can't keep track of them and then the internet my job is building the internet and it's great to see pinball come alive over the internet with streaming and YouTube, I mean the amount of pinball content on YouTube is just insane now and it's great because you can kind of Google something I got a broken thing and then you find someone who fixed it or you know Or found a way around it I mean there a lot you can imagine from my perspective coming from somebody who restoring them I really have to dig around every corner of the earth. I mean, like, we touched on it earlier about, you know, like deliveries and stuff like that. But, I mean, I've had stuff from Australia, Germany, Sweden, Netherlands. It doesn't matter where it's from. But you end up building relationships with the people that you're ordering from as well. I've actually had good conversations with a lot of the people I buy from on a regular basis because they start to realize just how much of a regular I am. And that's what I'm doing next. It's great. Yeah, I mean, I get a lot of stuff from, obviously, Phil at Pinball Heaven. I get all the games from a great distributor and a kind of challenging business, to be frankly. And then Marco I heard a lot of stuff from Marco And Pinball Life Both great organisations And there's a couple of times where I've Phoned them and said hey guys I need this quickly Especially around the UK Open The tournament we run And they're like oh yeah don't worry we'll get it to you And I'll show someone later on But someone that just arrived in an insanely Quick time it blew my mind How quickly it arrived from the US So and then I think of course For everything in pinball, there's the kind of latest The latest news And probably this week And last week everyone was talking about Venom New pinball machine from Stern Designed by Brian Eddy Who should be a favourite of yours I love Brian Eddy games I still, to be honest Want a Medieval Madness And I will get one, it will only be a matter of time Because I have to have it it's funny though I've only played it like once or twice I played it at like Nuneaton so which unfortunately is closing at the end of this month but yeah from my perspective it's a you know I've got obviously Monster Bash we'll talk about that later and I had Stranger Things and I love that game and I it's one of my biggest regrets selling that game yeah and I know Brian Eddy does his fan layouts and people everyone goes well the fan layout is the same from one game to the next but it's not always the same. I'm very interested in trying Venom, if I'm honest with you. I think the only thing that really puts me off purchasing that game is the pricing in the UK. I think it's been touched on by various people recently, that pricing, especially even for this game, is proving to be a bit of a sour note, even in the US. I would like to see pricing drop a little bit, if I'm honest with you, for New Inbox. I think that would allow me to maybe jump a bit more keenly into buying something like Venom. But I think, like, the artwork, I mean, Zombie Yeti, his artwork is always on point. I love his stuff. And I think, like, Brian Eddy, yeah, okay, it's a fan layout game, but the fact that it's got this weird fast lock system, I love it. I was struggling to keep up with the ball. I was thinking, I don't know how intuitive it's going to be for me to see a ball lock and then follow it around, but find that the balls were being fed to me before it's even locked. Yeah. I mean, that's pretty clever. It reminded me, that kind of reminded me of Star Trek Next Gen, but Star Trek Next Gen is so much slower in that ball lock compared to... Absolutely, yeah. It's the same principle, but just executed like 100 times quicker, and I was quite impressed by that. And, I mean, I was watching last night, There was a stream from The Southern Pride Gaming event That's on in the US There was a stream on last night From Stern And the distributor there Actually Marco I think it was And our good friend Michael Mattson From Sweden Who's based over in the US now He's a good buddy of ours And they've done a new code And I was just the speed of the game just blew me away I just think this is going to be insane it's going to be an insanely fast game and actually it kind of feels like a bit of a Steve Ritchie game in the way the ball moves do you know what, Steve Ritchie is obviously my first game with Star Trek and I did start gluing to his games from the get go, I had like a Black Knight again, very fast game to be honest with you it's weird with games for me I think I don't like games with deep code. So I'm probably one of the few people in the world here that probably says, Keith Wellwyn games aren't for me. And I know you're laughing at that. Because to me, Jurassic Park, Avengers, or even Godzilla, it's just not my kind of game. I'm coming from an era, I suppose, of Bally Williams games, where the code isn't particularly deep anyway. And I don't want to sit in front of a pinball machine, to be honest with you, for an hour flat playing the same game to get to the end of it. If I can get to the end of the game in 20 minutes, that's enough. I'm absolutely happy with that. And I think that's why I probably magnify, magnitize? What's the word I'm looking for? But, like, yeah, I gravitate, is probably the better way to say it, so gravitate towards these kind of games with more simplistic code. Because for me, it's more about I'm a bit of a crap player, I'm not going to lie, and I want to be able to reach the wizard mode. And, I mean, I'm not going to lie. I had a JJP Pirates of the Caribbean, so that was given to me. I didn't buy it. I'll preface that. It was given to me on a loan as a thank you for doing all these restorations. And I had it for like four months, and I'll be honest with you, by month two, I was like, it can go now. I don't want it anymore, really. I was very grateful to have it, because I always wanted that game. I mean, I saw the mechs behind it, and I thought, this is JJP, you know what I mean? When they make mechs, they are the innovators. I mean, that ship in the upper playfield and having the cannon shoot the other ship. There's so many what I call pinball moments, whichever way you coin that phrase now. But to me, that pinball moment was one of those kind of like when I had people around, they'd gravitate towards that game because they aren't into pinball. It has that wow factor. And I feel like going on what I was saying before, like I play like a JJP game. It's also got decode and it puts me off. I had the same problem with Gons and Roses. It got a little bit, especially multiball heavy, JJP games, they really do need to cut that bit out a little bit, if you ask me. But yeah, I'm in the other camp. I definitely prefer a simplistic Coke bottle, I'm not going to lie. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of interesting that people ask me what kind of game I like, and it's like, what kind of food do you like? There's stuff that you like and there's stuff that you don't. For me it's kind of the gameplay I can have a game with just about Any theme It doesn't matter I honestly don't care about the theme The music I do care about That's probably the one bit of the theme On a music pin I'm always amazed when people say to me music isn't a key thing for them Every game I do I invest a lot of money into the speakers Because I want it to sound as clear As it can And I find if music isn't good in the game I'm not going to like it Yeah 100% For me it's got to have some kind of rhythm to it And the music You know music is that kind of You know you hear a thing Or music and sound as well You know you hear a certain thing And you know oh I'm at this part And I mean look at like a Scared Stiff when you hit the wizard mode for that And they get the heartbeat Or a perfect example Be Walking Dead Horde mode Horde, yeah, 100%. That game had my heart thumping when I got to that stage. I love that, though. I love a game that brings you into it like that. Yeah, it's my favourite game. You know, you've just mentioned it. But the music is, you know, you kind of, and this is the thing, pinball's entertaining you in kind of different ways. There's motion in your hands, there's your brain thinking, you're seeing the lights, you're trying to connect them, You're hearing the sound, your brain's trying to connect it all. And if one of those elements isn't right, you know, like the lights are too bright or they're not working or the sound doesn't, you know, I hate playing on location where you can't hear the games. It just doesn't, it drives me kind of nuts really. Yeah, I can imagine. I think like, you know, we've touched on this before, like Chris Gonzo. So when he does his top 50, he's always saying he has to be in his house to play it. and I absolutely agree with that kind of review. You can't play a game on location and expect to have a good experience. I think you're going to get a feel for a game, and that's absolutely fine. You can tell whether or not it's going to shoot well, and it's going to appeal to you, I think, based on some elements. But you're going to be missing, to me at least, half of what I think is important, which is the music and sound. I mean, a game without music and sound is a hard sell for me. I agree. Although there's a couple of games where The music for me is The game has been good But the music's not so great I think it was Iron Maiden for you Yeah it's Iron Maiden And actually I'll say the music from Iron Maiden Kind of It grew on me a little bit But I just And this goes back to your point Where you're playing a game for a long time It's a very deep code game I've been playing it for a long time And there's only so many times you can play Run to the Hills Which is the most acceptable music On the game So that's why I rethemed the music And put disco music on it Which is kind of Probably sacrilegious for some people I'm now in two camps There's people who burn effigies of me That are Iron Maiden fans And there's heroes that want a copy of the code So they can have all their Iron Maiden So It's You know And it's not to say the Stone guys Didn't do a great job of the sound In that game, they absolutely nailed it For every bit of that game I think they nailed it It's one of the They don't do a lot right, I'm not going to lie I mean they're flipper mechs I've yet to find a game Sorry, a brand of company that does it better I find JJP's Flippers and hopefully now That Steve Ritchie's Moved over there, because he always said They need to change their flippers I'll be intrigued if that, his influence Changes that Because I'd love to see their mechs Get a bit stiffer They don't feel like lint noodles but they do feel different Have you played Godfather yet? No, I haven't had the How can I put it, the experience for it So Godfather, the flippers on Godfather I played it when I was in Texas Pinball Festival They have definitely Improved them, there's no question about it Oh great, that's good news And apparently there's a venue called Interium, which is Chicago. It's near where Stern and JGP are based. There's a Guns N' Roses there with these same flippers on it. And the feedback I've heard is that they're great. But, I mean, kind of spinning back to Venom. Yeah. You know. Pun intended now. Yeah. I mean, obviously, I'm a massive Marvel fan. Sure. Venom as a theme is great. I was surprised when people said they didn't understand who Venom was. I mean, to me, that's a big character. Even in the movies, was it Spider-Man, was it three or two in the old days that had it? It's kind of interesting where, I mean, this is the thing, which is there's people who are, you know, I'm a Marvel fan and, you know, well, you know, comics are like, oh, no, no, the movies, you know. And so when I was a kid, there was this science fiction bookshop that was about a 10-minute walk from my house. Sorry, a 10-minute walk from my gran's house. And I used to stay with her during the week because my mum was working. And I'd kind of disappear. And I'd be reading the comics. I couldn't afford to buy them. I'd be reading them in the store. And, you know, they just had this big, this wall of just insanely amazing stuff. It's like Avengers The movies are slightly different But you kind of know where the story is going If you've read the comics How do you know this? Because it's in the comics The story's already been told Yeah There's some changes to it, there's some twists But the core story Which Actually they didn't have to change because it was a great story It sold millions But for Venom You're right It isn't one of the, I mean, the movies have helped, but it's, you know. He's certainly not a main feature character, I'm not going to lie, but he's not, I would say he's unknown. I would say, I would put him up there with Deadpool as an example. Yeah, I agree, 100%. And actually the movies have made these guys a bit more famous. Sure. I think Venom, when it came out, it was probably, timing-wise, it was at the kind of peak of Avengers mania. Probably not the best time for them to release something And it was almost a sideshow. Do you think this game's been ready for a long time? It felt like it had been. The game? Yeah, I think they've been working on Venom for a long time. And I think the COVID and the supply chain issues. Dropping down to two cornerstones a year sort of thing. I think, again, the sense I get was that Bon was pulled forward. My belief is Venom was originally going to come out when Bond came out But they had to pull that forward For the 60th anniversary They were then going to do I think they were also going to do Foo Fighters But I think the drummer dying Made them have to move Foo Fighters And then Venom's Kind of been this ping pong almost But I'm glad to see it out I think it looks great I think the way it looks, it shoots is brilliant I mean the code With I forget the guy's name, Zach You mean Dwight? Dwight, yes, sorry Sorry Dwight He's definitely a Role player type Do you know what, I love the fact He brings, I said all to you Before about I don't really like complex code But I like the fact he's bringing something fresh To pinball as well the fact you can have a kind of RPG element as you say, where the character can be leveled up I'm hoping there's a bit more with it, like when you do the boss encounters and stuff like that, I hadn't seen a lot of it yet so far, but I noticed there were some things like the flippers getting reversed a bit like Rick and Morty kind of esque kind of play there where they can play around with the flippers and reverse, left is right, right is left, I'd like to see more stuff like that if I'm honest with you I'd also like to see if I'm honest, some sort of online play. I know that's like probably a bit controversial to what you were saying before how it brings people together but for me at least, at least in the UK, it's very hard to get into some locations and I like the idea of the NBA Fastbreak where you could link two games together. I'd like to see something similar to that with code where you could do co-op together with someone else who's playing Venom. Because I know that game has got co-op code And again, as I said to you, I'm not the best player in the world, so if I can play with someone who also is better and play with them in a linked session, that would be quite clever if they can work out, I suppose, the network technicalities behind that. Yeah, I mean, I think, so, I mean, I love Dwight's code because he does experiment with things. So Mandalorian behind me has got this impossible mode where you can't cradle the balls. And you know You think ah That's when you lose power on the flipper isn't it Yeah you hold the flipper up And after a while it's got this energy bar It's a bit like a gun in Fortnite where the laser guns in Fortnite if you use them too long they overheat And you can't use them for a while That's how I think of it And actually I was thinking I'm not sure about this But actually when you play it it's a lot of fun And actually a couple of Tournaments have had that turned on Because it just makes the game A bit harder to play Makes it play faster Sure And you know Dwight did the Co-op mode in Turtles And other Stuff so he does He does like to experiment And actually if you watch The video I was talking about earlier on It does feel like He's heading in a way where If they could make the network code work That you could see some Network interaction I kind of hope they do try and experiment With that, it's difficult You always have people, well How do you know that your tilt set the same up It's not what it's about It's about Coming together to have some fun Over the network Yeah, exactly We're not playing for money or trophies It's just a bit of fun And actually, if they do it, we have to have them side by side. And, you know, we get a few events where you bring a couple of the games together. I don't know if there's any other games that do that. But NBA Fastbreak is the only one I know that had that kind of link to play option. And I go back to the element we were talking about with beat-em-ups, you know, how just like COVID for everyone else, tournament play got affected. And then a guy had to reverse engineer code to make some of the old retro games work over, you know, wide area network and it worked well they did like predictive moves so it could understand like basically a frame by frame action of how like you know Ryu or or like Ken was doing a kick or whatever it could predict it and it would do error correction based on whether or not it knew someone through a high kick or a low kick and stuff like that it's way more complicated than the way I'm trying to I suppose poorly uh describe it but to be honest with you it took off really well to the point where people like, you know, big brands like Capcom have been putting it into their games now. Excellent. And I feel like, you know, okay, pinball, it's not even anywhere near that yet, but even if someone just entertained the idea of doing it, I think it would be interesting to see what they could come up with. Yeah, I mean, during COVID, you know, Jack Danger, Deadflip, who now works at Stern, he ran a few Zoom-based pinball events on a Friday night. It was a lot of fun. I took part in a couple of them. Of course you needed a streaming rig But it worked And then Karl DeAngelo IE Pinball Doing Pin Slash again It was an online thing Because there was no tournaments Don't get me wrong It was a lot of fun But for Carl and Jack setting that up It was heavy lifting for them Because the apparatus isn't there For them to do something online properly So I would love to see I would really like to see Stern do that There's also the guys at Scorbit Who are doing Not online play but they're doing They're adding to Older games The ability to Challenge each other They're adding I forget the name of it The whole Achievement side I really like The fact and I'm not sure You have to correct me but my understanding Was Scorbit kind of pioneered that and then obviously we've got other people like Stern now have done Insider Connect and that definitely is a step in the right direction for me, when people start saying oh you know, it's cost, it's raised the price of the game and everything like that but I thought, actually I got myself an Elvira House of Horrors premium recently and that came with it and I've got to admit that really does add to it for me it gives me personal goals to go okay I haven't got this achievement or I haven't done that yet so I definitely feel like They've hit onto something there and I hope they keep Pushing it to be honest with you Don't forget with Elvira I think there's a Halloween Achievement that you can only get on Halloween Oh really? And also there's a Halloween one And I think there's a Christmas one Because I was I remembered about the Christmas one I thought I must go play Elvira, I've got it as well And then I forgot and I was like damn I can't do that again For a million years Yeah I mean just those little things That you have With something like achievements And you know You're right I think it definitely Increases your own You know Personal play Same when they brought it To video games I'll move us on a little bit A couple other rumours Kicking around The He-Man and the Masters of the Universe Is that a theme that excites you? You know what? I mean, again, it's definitely of my era. I think He-Man, I mean, I know a couple of people definitely would buy one. I think it would have to be based on, obviously, the original cartoon. I'm certainly not really a fan of the recent, if you want to call it remake, that Netflix did. It didn't really tick boxes for me. But I would say, yeah, I mean, it's a tricky one to pull off. It's a bit like Scooby-Doo. You know, when I first heard that spooky doing Scooby-Doo, I was a bit like, would I really fancy that in the game? Then I saw the theme, and to be honest with you, it's a good-looking theme. I haven't had the privilege of playing it yet, and I would like to try it. But, yeah, I mean, He-Man, I think my concern, I suppose, was always with Stern. And, you know, I know they may even be listening to this, so I'll try and put this as politically correct as I can. But I find that the pros are definitely stripped. And I feel like there's some games where I think it's absolutely fine. Like Stranger Things was a good example. Okay, I'm missing the projector, but was it enough to make me say I'm missing a lot of the game? No, not really. I really think, to be honest with you, that's one of the few games, like Turtles as well, where you can pretty much say, I've got a pro and that's enough. I hope, given that, you know, the license they have, I hope they get good assets if this was to happen, that it would all tie together nicely in a way that Spooky's done it. You know, they tie in all the voice actors, they get the video assets, they get the music, and hopefully they put their own spin on it as well to make it work in a pinball setting. And I hope if there is a pro, it doesn't feel like, you know, a bit like, I suppose for me, and we touch on Venom quickly there, if I had a choice between the premium and the pro, Given what the premium has In terms of that mech where it says Choose your player, change the game I don't want that to be a digital change To the experience, I want it to be a physical Change to the experience I'm hoping that if there's a He-Man That they do it justice And that the Pro Is a worthwhile purchase Well there's a bit of Gossip I think this was yesterday Where Canada's basically Position that Stern don't have this License And apparently American Pinball has got the licence Sorry Which yeah But Jason from Napa Arcade Who runs A really great site Full of Great Visits to arcades He goes out and Sees arcades And does a great job of it When I'm heading towards an arcade I always check out his site to see if he's been there But he's There's a bit of a, he's convinced Stern's got it Whereas Kinnaid I think American Pimble have got it But I think as a theme It's not something Like Bond and Mandalorian For me were like must buy themes I just Love those themes Star Trek as well But He-Man It's not a theme that The game needs to be good For me to want to buy it Absolutely It's probably You know The thing they need to capture Which actually I think Keith Elwin And the team did a great job on Godzilla Is the kind of campness of He-Man And there's An underlying Comedy in He-Man I don't know if you've ever watched An episode recently but I recommend Not for a while I would say go watch one because there's definitely a veiled idol theme hidden in it that as a kid watching it I didn't quite pick up on but I kind of watched it again actually I was trying to get my grandson into it, see if he would like it The animation definitely looks dated these days I mean all those animations of that era was that Hanna-Barbera? I don't know if they were Hanna-Barbera No idea, to be honest with you Timur, Ulysses and those guys it's kind of The Ulysses stuff, I take it as if it holds up better. Yeah, definitely. That intro was insane. I still remember watching it to this day. Yeah, because I think it had such a strong storyline that, you know, that I think resonates even today. 80s kids cartoons were pretty much almost built for adults. It's crazy, like, the level of animation they threw in as well. Like, the intros were insane. Yeah, but also, I mean, I was just amazed with Ulysses they actually ended the story because so many... They never finish it most of the time Exactly, you never get to the end of it I remember watching it and thinking I can't believe they ended it And what am I going to watch now So interesting to see What happens with He-Man I kind of think it's a bit of a Brave choice as a theme I've got to admit There's plenty of other themes out there that I would Probably put at the top of that list For me on a personal basis Over things like He-Man But it's also how much did they pay to get it If they go out and steal, then they might be able to put more in the game. That brings me back to that whole Bill of Materials argument. If they spend too much on the license, that tears away from the Bill of Materials, and then we end up with a stripped-down game. I mean, Led Zeppelin probably was a good example of that. Yeah. I mean, I like Led Zeppelin as a game. I think it plays really well, but it isn't one of the most, especially the Pro. I mean, it's like two ramps and you're done. Yeah. I didn't realize quite. I've got the LE here I loved it And I played a pro And I can see why people are frustrated about it Because there's not a lot There's some pros that are perfect Like Black Knight I argue that flows better on the pro Than the LE or premium The other rumour And I have to say this one This one makes me chuckle Elton John Rocketman by JDP I can't JDP if you're listening to this please stop doing music pins I'm done with music pins Guns N' Roses I had it I loved it best music show in the world I mean i put it the music and the art package and the sounds and the lighting i it to this day i still think it got the best lighting package in any game yeah but i think another music pin i can't i can't have i think when you've got the band involved in the way that that slash was it was great right absolutely give you such an advantage versus led zeppelin that probably don't even know what a pinball machine is. You can kind of see the difference in it. And then even Rush, I mean, I'll be honest, Rush is a great pinball machine, but I cannot listen to the music. It's dreadful. Sorry, Rush fans. Yeah, I'm too young to even know what Rush was. I mean, I remember they had one song, I think it was on a I used to be on Paper Round as a kid, and now with what I call music in my Walkman, and there was a Rush song on it, I didn't know that it was Rush but it came up on when I was playing it, we got one at Pinball Republic we got a premium there it's such a great pinball game and everyone loves it I've heard that a lot, everyone who says obviously the game didn't sell well over here because again I don't think the UK really had much exposure anyway to Rush but I think from what I heard the game plays solidly, it's very well built absolutely But Elton John I am a bit of an Elton John fan I have to admit it When I hear Rocketman Or I hear a bit of Daniel I mean don't get me wrong I was so excited when I heard Pinball Brothers had Queen Because I love Queen But again it hasn't really landed that well We know that In terms of how it plays But I think for me at least I just want to see some big titles out there. I mean, I'm a massive horror fan, so I like the fact that Spooky kind of try and do things like, you know, what's his name? Nightmare Castle won. Yeah. Alice Cooper. Alice Cooper, yeah. My wife didn't want it, ironically. She's as much of a horror fan as me, because we obviously got the Dracula, we rethemed it, and we made it even more gothic and dark. And I think, like, you know, I gravitate towards games like Elvira, stuff like that. I just like, and I did things like, you know, Monster Bash. We'll touch on that later. But Creature from the Black Lagoon. I like a horror kind of game. Yeah. Although Creature from the Black Lagoon isn't really a horror, but you know what I mean. It's kind of like a monster theme. I think, for me, I'd love to see The Thing. Yeah. That would be a great game. I could think of a million things you could do with that in terms of the modes. I'm hoping that somebody at one point Picks up that license I mean there's so many licenses to pull from Yeah I mean And if you think of how well Elvira's done When I heard you were doing Elvira Gamassican what? But I mean when they nailed the game It's such a fun game Lyman knocked it off the block With a code on it It's not super deep But it's deep enough It's deep enough for me Yeah, but also you'd have to play it to get to the depths of it. It's just a fun game that you can enjoy. I think they really nailed it on that game, and the demand for it is huge right now. Always. The pricing of it is not reachable for everybody, unfortunately. but I do agree that I think I sense that with Venom and to some extent with Foo Fighters it definitely feels to me like we've found a price ceiling I don't know I think a lot of people have said it before both on community forums in the UK even and on Pinside, if the right licence comes about I think there won't be a ceiling if I'm honest with you, and whoever makes that licence will cash in. It's just getting, I suppose they've got to just get everything to line up. I know what it's like. We've seen it with James Bond. When the licensee dictates what you can have on the cabinet, and I know you love James Bond, so I'm going to be trying to be delicate here, but that artwork on the cabinet is terrible. I love it. I know you love it, but it's just a bunch of posters. It's like someone just took clip art and slapped it on the side of the cabinet. When you look at stuff like Zombie Yeti does, I get the feeling they could have potentially done it, but then the licensee would go, no. Yeah, I mean, I think... Directly from these archives and this content. I think the challenge is, I mean, if you listen to what they had to do to get the Godfather over the line... I can imagine. Well, basically, you know, I forget the name of the actor that played the Godfather, but he's got he's got like an advisor that says look if you do this they'll just say no and I think if you're a zombie yet and you do an art package say you did an art package for Bond and then they say no the time that you're trying to recover from so I think that's why the Marvel comics are a bit easier, to some extent Batman as well but you know Do you know what though, if they did a Batman based on The 90's cartoon, I would probably get that Yeah I wasn't a massive fan of Batman 66, I think it shot well But the film doesn't do anything to me I think like If they did a 90's Batman I'd probably be interested I prefer that over He-Man It's kind of interesting because They did that with Spider-Man, the vault of Spider-Man And it didn't go down so well I think partly because of the call outs And also there's a lot of other good games at the time. I think you're right. I mean, everyone's watching if Elwynn's new game, if it's really Jaws, I can see people getting their wallets out for that. I only hear rumours, though, that the assets are cut down, and I hope that's just bad rumours. It would sink my heart if someone said it doesn't have Jaws in it, or it doesn't have the theme music in it, or it doesn't have the actors from it. That's one of the things I'm frustrated about Bond is there's no Shirley Bassey I mean I'll spill my Secret but I am working on a remix Of the sound for Bond Oh nice And on my Bond when you hit start It goes Like that It makes such a difference And you're right If there's, you know, I think this is going to be one of the challenging things in Jaws, which is Jaws is about the build-up. You know, you go, and then it slows down. And it's that kind of breathing build-up to the action and capturing that. The music's crucial to it, first off. If you don't have that music, it's dead. Yeah, it will be. It will be dead on arrival. It will get such a It's like Guardians, I mean the original Guardians Pin had none of the music in it And it was dead, no one was buying it Stern quickly realised They needed to get some of the music They did, they got it in and they Turned around We have to alarm people I remember I had a Conversation at one time with One of the owners of Pinball Brothers back when I had an Alien And he was always telling me about Like you know There's always a heavy mod community and they have to dance the line between their licenses to say if they've locked down the game enough to kind of say, you can't alter this IP. And I've always found it a little bit, I suppose, relieving in some way that you've got people like Cleland doing his code or other people, like when they did the movie Code for Jurassic Park, and you can kind of make these alterations to it. And JJT, I find that's one of the biggest pains for me is like the drives are encrypted. Yeah. Which is why you never see anybody do anything outside of the assets. like Pirates of the Caribbean, I found it really strange when you're playing through the game, there's literally no actors on the videos, there's just a door opening or a sail going down, it's like, obviously Disney was just like, no you haven't got the rights to show these actors Well, I think it's more you need to pay more money Probably, yeah You can get all the assets but you've got to get your checkbook out and I think that was a challenge for Pirates it was even worse on Wonka, I mean So I love Dialed In I think it's JGP's great game And then Wonka Phil loaned me one To play During Covid And I'll be honest with you After two games of it I turned it off and didn't play it again It was You can't have Charlie In the Chocolate Factory or Willy Wonka If you don't have the Candyman That's true It's one of the most Memorable moments I'm like Nah this is terrible And the game didn't shoot great either It wasn't terrible but I just thought no And to me Kind of for me Star Wars it kind of Felt like that but you know this is the thing You know turning Elton John into a pinball machine Turning Jaws into a pinball machine and making it feel like you're an Elton John event, which I think JGP... I think they can do with the expression lying, right? Yeah, I mean... I think you're wrong. There will be people out there that will 100% buy that game, and I wouldn't blame them. It's a massive, massive IP. And also Elton John, you know, he's got a history in pinball with... True. You know, I forget what the name of the game is, but the game that he's on the front of it, it's... Yeah, not to mention the song. Yeah. Pinball Wizard. Yeah, he's in Pinball Wizard, obviously. I mean, he's got a lot of pinball references. Absolutely. But, you know, it's the thing I always, you know, my daughter's a massive Harry Potter fan. She's like, when are you going to do a Harry Potter pinball? And I was like, I've seen it a few times, hasn't it? But J.J.P.'s got it. Yeah, I'll be honest with you. I pity the designer that has to do Harry Potter because this is a world of everyone in their own mind has got a view of Harry Potter. Sure. And trying to match up, and it's such a big IP, trying to match up what people want versus getting it on the pinball machine, I think is no easy task. They just don't use magnets is all I can say. I was always, let me go back to Mandalorian quick. For the biggest sin that they ever did was Grogu doing absolutely nothing in the top left corner. I was like, what are you doing? They obviously had that little mod that people made Where the toy would animate And that was really clever So I've got that mod on mine You've got to have it You're right I think partly for Australia because They were also trying to do something else With a ship that didn't quite work If you watch The making of The Razorcrest They were trying to do something with that ship actually moved I think they spent a lot of dollars on that, couldn't get it to work, so killed it. And then you look at it and think, what else was there? And I think doing something with Grogu was the fact that they didn't, I think, was kind of criminal. Luckily the mod guys have kind of... This brings me on to why I love Pimble, though. I love the fact, and some people always say to me, Scott, what are you doing? The purists hate me. There's people out there that go, why are you even putting LEDs in it, let alone, do you know what I mean, because they love their incandescence, let alone changing the artwork or changing the sound files. I mean, I just, that's one of the things I'd probably like that over the arcade scene. The arcade scene, it's very much like you have to keep it as original as possible. I find, at least in Pinball, people will allow you, even both, like I say, technically, you know, the owners of it, so like Stern and that, they kind of at least give you avenues to kind of put mods in, you know, and add power or manipulate switches and I feel like that's one of the main beauties of pinball is that you talked about like IP and things like Harry Potter you know it's really difficult to kind of get what everybody wants underneath the glass modding fills that gap for me absolutely yeah and there's some you know there's some great mods that have come out I think our good buddy Stumbler has done some amazing amazing work he's almost like a national hero we should probably try and get him on this I'm going to Chicago Expo and I'm helping him out a little bit he's doing a talk there and I'm helping him out a little bit he's a bit nervous about it and he's like Neil can you help me out and I was like yeah of course he'll nail it lots of people have never spoken at a public event Whereas in my job Yeah it's probably different for you or I right I'm used to talking in a setting where I'm presenting So it feels more natural to talk I spoke to 10,000 people And it's a lot off the ducks back for me But if you've never done it before I was like yeah I'll help So he's doing a talk at Expo I'm doing another talk as well It's a good one on Pinball Republic So bring me to the kind of next We kind of touched on it Favourite pinball So we're going to have a kind of segment Every episode Where we get a guest on To talk about their favourite pinball machine You know And as we're new We couldn't find any Suckers or volunteers To come on So We're going to talk about Scott's Favourite Pinball machine I do have a couple of other folks lined up I've got Paul Rubens wants to come and talk about Roadshow. That's a good game. You know what? I'm going to put it out here. I used to think it was horrific. I think those puppets or whatever you want to call those mechanical faces were something out of Chucky and that they were going to steal my soul when I was restoring that game because I had to do one recently. And after I restored it and I played it, I wanted one. I still do. It's a weird game. I'm not going to lie, the theme's horrible But there's something Quirky and fun about the show I mean, I've played in tournaments It's not, we got one at the club I mean, it's not the worst Game in the world, there's definitely Games that are worse I think it's a wide body, it's got a lot of flow to it Yeah, I think it's probably one of the best Wide bodies Star Trek probably being the other one Oh yeah, that's fast And Indiana Jones But it's For me it's That freaking country music Just boils my freaking blood I just want to That is a bit weird Yeah But yeah I mean Paul's going to I'll let him do his talk We'll hopefully get him on And he can talk about it Because I know it's his favourite game But yours is Monster Bash It is I got offered one about four months ago, bought it sight unseen because I was like, they don't come up. They never come up. And I was like, it's in the Grail list for me. It's well up in the top three at that time. After owning it, I'd say it's never leaving the house. It's definitely my favorite pin in my collection at the moment. There's just something about it. One, it's an easy shooter. It appeals to my crap pinball play skills through and through there. I can get to the collect all the band and get through to effectively what you want to call it the wizard mode. I've done that multiple times. I think I even did it on my third game. It's not hard to reach that. I feel like it's got a great light show to it. When you activate Frankenstein's monster, you've got the pylons lighting up. I like those moments in games. I don't mind pauses in games if I'm honest with you. I like the fact that you can just sit back. My wife's like, push both flipper buttons. I can't be bothered to watch this animation. I can't stop watching it. Every time I get to it, I'm like, no, I'm going to sit there and enjoy this bit because I like it. And again, going back to what I was saying about restorations, I have to have a game playing right. If that doesn't feel right, like something's not working as it should because a switch is broken and Dracula's not coming out or Frankenstein's monster's not coming down, that would irk me. I have to have it playing perfect. And that game is packed. it's got toys everywhere I mean they couldn't put any more on that play field if they wanted to it goes back to that before we went on air I said to you before like Monster Bash for me was kind of like the last gasp of air from Bally and Williams for me like to say we're still relevant we can still make great innovative games and it definitely felt like there was a lot of innovation in that game the whole as I said piece The music was really good. The call-outs were really funny. I love the humour in it. I think it's like Elvira. If it's got that kind of... I don't know what you want to call it. It's not snide humour, but it's kind of like innuendo humour. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. I love it about it. It's a great game. Yeah, I love it too. It's one of the games that pulled my wife a bit more into pinball. We were down at Chief Coffee Big shout out to Sam And He's got a great coffee shop The west of London and he's got a bunch Of pinball machines downstairs and actually A Japanese arcade Upstairs now And some epic coffee but We went there We wanted This was the early days of my pinball Career if you like We had brought the pinball We wanted to play Ghostbusters So for me Ghostbusters is like one of those Themes that's like Ghostbusters Gotta have it We went down to the Chief Coffee Played Ghostbusters I liked the theme And actually I wasn't Pinball savvy enough to really know If the game was good or not And I'll maybe cover that In another episode But they had Monster Bash and I knew nothing about Monster Bash, I'd never heard of the game Right And actually they had Medieval Madness And this was This was Probably and actually Cactus Canyon And It was probably me getting to Know what were the good pinball Machines and Me and my wife Were playing Monster Bash And she was enjoying it And I finally get to Monster Bash The first Wizard mode And you know They're all playing their music and band And I'm like this is awesome right It's such a great Moment in pinball and I was like And you know We came away From Chief walking home And Mandy's like we've got to get one of these We've got to get one of these So that was like a green light for me getting another pinball machine I was like yay here we go I imported one from Germany And it was okay It wasn't perfect Had a bit of weird mylar on it The cabinet was actually in reasonable shape It had been re-decaled I think But it It needed a real clean I scrubbed it but also I had two big issues with it That kind of frustrated me First of all Dracula The motor was just really flaky And actually I bought, so they do replacement motors For it but none of them work that great I ended up buying An NBA I ended up buying two NBA fast brakes One that was a Donor machine The other one was working great And on the donor machine I nicked the motor off It's the same motor And the game played beautiful after that But then The other issue I would get was You know this 20, 30 years of being in the arcade The switches The wire kind of Loses it's springiness Sure The ball would roll over a switch And it wouldn't register And it would drive me nuts Because I'd have to rip it out Sold a new one in Yeah yeah And it would just It's like That is the biggest pain with Bally Williams games Is getting them all dialed in Back to like Factory condition really Yeah Because when you get a game they always have that problem some switches won't register or as you say a motor i mean like even mine recently i've just finished like restoring the cabinet i was going to do the playfield but i just don't have time to do it not ready for pin fest anyway um and my motor's blown like yours but hasn't it's just the board's gone mine i've got to do is replace some components but i thought it's just sod's law you get everything working you go to test it and then dracula's not coming Out of his coffin Again it's that Dracula It's just Awesome right When that first happens it's just like wow And you know These little things drove me nuts And actually I did look at Who could I send this game to To really polish it up And at the time there wasn't really anyone Before you started doing Your restoration so When they announced a remake So I was all in on it And I know for some folks The remakes are a bit sacrilege But for me I think they're great Chicago Gaming Company is probably one of the Finest examples of games that come out Rock solid I never hear any issues with them I've got all of them I've got Mario Madness Monster Bash Attack from Mars I've got Cactus Canyon on the way Same, I've got Cactus Canyon early as well I'm looking forward to that hopefully they'll arrive soon, anyone know when? Last night I have to say I got the Ouija board out I was going to say shake the magic eight ball and it was asking you again later I know our local distributors were frustrated about it and then Pulp Fiction asked for it from CGC but in terms of reliability they nailed it and actually I was kind of weird my wife doesn't like the remake Really? Yeah I was like what? Why is it that she doesn't like about it? Is it the screen? I don't know. She just doesn't... She just says it's not the same. I'm like, it's exactly the same, but there's something about it that she's not so keen on. I mean, they've modernized things, right? I remember watching a... I can't remember if it was Kerry Hardy did a piece on Cactus Canyon. No, I'll tell you what, it was High End Pins did it, actually. High End Pins. That guy is in a class of his own by the way, since you've all watched his videos. But he did a Cactus Canyon restoration recently, and he had to utilize some boards from Chicago Gaming Company because some elements weren't available. So he modified them in using their opto boards versus the old opto boards around the ramp. And they make some design changes because, obviously, as you know, some old Bally Williams stuff, especially George Gomez, he loves his 90-degree bends on his ramps. And if they're made of plastic, they love to snap. And it's just stuff like that. They just think about the design, they reinforce areas They give it a bit more longevity So I don't think there's not much to love about The CGC stuff if I'm honest I mean, Booch Who's one of the Tech guys at CGC Did a presentation at TPF On What they've done to Cactus Canyon And I was amazed They rebuilt all the drop targets They rebuilt They added artwork to bits That we're missing on Cactus Canyon I think it's on YouTube The video of it And just the effort that they've put in To not just remake the game But as you say modernise it Is mind blowing It's not just like I think there's a misconception that people think It's got the original light boards in it And stuff like that It's not at all They've completely modernised it To the point where it's not even using I don't think it even uses the original transformer Does it? No there's nothing in it There's Probably the stuff on the top Is where they're reusing You know the The assets underneath You know it's hard to Of course there's some bits that are the same You know the bracket that Dracula moves Why would you change that It's exactly what you need But the motor and board that drives it Are different You know and the LED To input Multi-colour LEDs in the GI And reprogrammed all that Which adds a bit of suspense to it That's what it means It's more than just like a How can I put it, a re-release at that point It's a remake Yeah But I love it And the upgrade, the sound on it The graphics on the big display And obviously the topper Which a lot of folks have seen But I'm really It's a game that You talk about you want someone You a quick game of it If I come in I'll play Attack or I'll play Monster Or I'll play Medieval, a quick game of something I typically head towards Monster Bash Because it's just a lot of fun And you know it can be Can be quite challenging But yeah The other issue Are the switches and they just drive me nuts So I sold mine And that's the great thing about that game is it's one of those games that's in demand, so it wasn't hard to sell it. If it went up for sale today, I don't think it would last five minutes on the forum. Exactly. Even in this climate. Absolutely. And then the remake, they powder-coated it and they added a few things. Just a beautiful job of it. It's easily one of my favourite games as well. So, great choice. And, you know, Gomez and Lyman Rest in peace Just nailed it on the rest of it He's a legend let's face it when it comes to coding I hope someone can fill his boots 100% I mean I'm hoping that The Lyman code for Cactus Canyon I know Feedback from Josh Sharpe Is that He thinks it's doable that they can get it out I certainly hope so One of the reasons I bought the game Was knowing that there was New code from Lyman coming So moving on to kind of my next segment which so Scott what the you know what are the restores you're working on now? So we talked about this before. I was going to say, before I came on, I had to have a shout out because I look like, almost like the mummy from Monster Bash, I'm not going to lie. I was top to tail in sawdust. I'm in the middle of restoring your cabinet at the moment, which is the third theater of magic I've done this year. So, yeah, I think the nice thing about being the third one is I definitely know this game in and out now. Typically, when I do restorations, I always label everything up, and I'm still doing that now, but I'll be honest with you, I could probably do this almost blindfolded at this point. I know that game definitely in and out. And, you know, going on like we were saying before about favourite games, a lot of the Papageo games I love. I know you're not a fan of Circus Voltaire, but to me I had to have it. Same goes for Fear of Magic. And I really would like a World Cup Soccer and a Totan at one point. Yeah, it's not that I don't like those games. It's just the hype for me is not in balance with where I think they sit. Tottenham is one of those games people will pay 20 grand for I'm like what? and World Cup Soccer again I think it's one of his better games I think it's one of his better games and this is probably arguably his best one but there's a lot I like about Theatre of Magic I like the magnets on the outside it's a bit like the ball safe from Black Knight I like the magnet that grabs the ball as it's coming down the left ramp. The trunk, obviously, that's a great mode of play with that, which is an absolute sod, by the way. Thanks very much for giving me this game, because fixing that bloody mech when it plays up is an absolute pie. It's a pain in the neck. On mine, I never had any issues with the trunk, so I'm hopeful. Yours has got, like I was saying, some weird quirks on it. Like, when we first got it, like, obviously, as you know, the playfield was, for some reason, enveloped, I think is the word to use, in Mylar. Someone was obviously afraid of getting damaged to the plate. It's literally plastered with the stuff. The mech for the trunk does make a bit of a grind noise. I think I'll have to check the grease on it. The weird part is when it sits inside your cabinet, it catches on the lock bar receiver. Obviously, I've changed it a whole lot. I mean, as part of the restoration, I basically just ditch a lot of components to be honest with you, sometimes I used to refurbish parts and tumble them and that but I'll be honest when I want to go all out on a game I just push the envelope and say here's your bill of materials it might be a bit more than you expect but I think it just looks better to have everything fresh if you can get away with it so this is a game my wife bought me for Christmas she actually bought it and it's kind of funny she wrapped it in Christmas paper I think you probably figured out it was a pinball machine Yeah, I suppose you got into it Anyone got a clue what this is? It's kind of funny, but I mean, I like the game Again, it's one of those Quick play go-to games But it actually plays It's such a flow game, it's an enjoyable one And it's probably not the biggest Tournament game, but I enjoy playing it It's a great game It's the game that my family plays the most. My daughter loves it. Because I think it's got a lot of flow in it. It's that left orbit, you know, when it goes up to the ramp. I mean, you have to get that game perfectly level and at the right pitch with decent flippers. But then as soon as you make that hit, and then the gates, the optos obviously lift up, the gates lift up, and then it makes that nice, neat swing right across to the right return ramp. I think that's amazing what he did with that. It is a very, it's a great, it's a great shot and, you know, as you see, I like the ramp shots on it and that shot where it spins around. That horseshoe is fast. Yes. And I love the fact you can hammer it. Like, when Holly was playing at one point, she actually got the code muddled up because she was hitting like 8, 12 loops on that horseshoe at some point. It got muddled up. The game actually froze up for a second. I was like, bloody hell, don't break it, I just fixed it. Well, I, like I say, I knew that when I bought it, I knew that it was going to need some work. Yeah. And, you know, I did a few bits and pieces to it myself, but I knew the play field needed to be done. So I'm super looking forward to it. I mean, and I have to say, Scott, you are a machine. You know, when you get started. I don't stop. I'm like, holy moly. So literally in the space of a day, the cabinet's gone, The game's gone from full game To all of its parts Sanded down, I mean it's just insane The pace that you've Got on that And I look at it and think Holy moly, and having seen A couple of other restorations that you've done I mean, I'll say mate You've definitely got a talent for it And coming from when I first Met, when we were first talking Let's face it, I was asking you It's like the basics Yeah Again it's all Part of the time Could I do a playfield swap I'm pretty sure I could do one But you know Playfield swap is one thing but a proper restoration Of a game is an entirely Different kind of thing The one thing that I always found difficult With playfield swaps is that the information Out there is sparse And people's opinions on how to approach things Is varied and I mean very varied. You will have somebody that will swear by a certain process that they'll do to restore a cabinet and somebody will say no. I mean like when I first started out I had people telling me just get the decal down to the white layer so as you may or may not know but a lot of decals are called silkscreens so that means that they're layered so that basically they put like a layer of black on and a layer of blue and a layer of green and that will build up the various parts of the image basically on the decal or deco if you will and um if you get it down to a point there's a white layer which is basically the i would say base layer of the decal i used to think that was sufficient it certainly isn't yeah you have to get it down to bare wood then you have to prime it then you have to sand it then you have to reprime it and you have to use this this uh automotive kind of putty paint they call it and it stinks and at the moment as you know my wife is not happy with this like i have like i swear to god i like for another reason the police came around not for me just so you understand it the police did come in my house they were just asking us some questions about what happened in the neighborhood yeah and we've got this big big grow tent in the middle of the kitchen well i say in the middle it's in the right side of the kitchen it's a big open plan kitchen and it used to be where the dining table was and it's about a two metre by two metre square cube and it's typically bought by people who use it for weed farms. I'm not going to lie. The looks I got from them, I'd kind of just say, no, no, it's not what you think. I got the respirator and everything. They probably think, yeah, he's definitely doing something there. He's cooking something like Breaking Bad. Yeah. But no, it is legitimate. I'm using it at the moment. They've got a drawing in Europe. they've got a drone going over your house probably seeing how hot it is, the infrared it will be hot, I mean I bake in there when I told you when I came out of there looking like a mummy it's like 40 degrees in that room when you've got the orbit sander on and the shock rack, it generates heat in there like no tomorrow I mean I always want I've got a garage in my plant I was always going to do stuff like that in the garage but I just never got it it's just, you know, my hat's off to you because you've kind of, you know restore your own games effectively to make it more cost effective for you I think that's an amazing thing but I just never get the time to do it it takes a lot of time I've worked down to a bit of an arc now yeah like I say, the stuff that you've had come off people always say to me you've got to slow down, you're going to kill yourself yeah I was I think I'm on the opposite The way you're wired to play them, I'm wired to fix them. I think like I just – I don't know why. If you're enjoying it, then that's good. I absolutely love it. It's when you're – you know, actually, when I saw that you were starting to do it, in my head, Scott, I was thinking, Craig, don't turn a hobby into a job. Sure. Because quite often people think, oh, it's the best thing in the world, doing my hobby as a job. But for some people, it wrecks it. Could be, yeah. You know, and you've just got to, look, it's like everything in life, it's about balance, right? You've just got to get the right balance and stuff. But, you know, when I dropped off Theatre of Magic a few weeks ago, I was very impressed with the stuff. I'm looking forward to seeing it. Well, you know me, I'll keep you updated. Oh, no. When I get going on it, I progress very quickly. I don't do it in a rush. I just work long hours. That's why I was messaging you at 10.30 last night going, I'm standing. And look, if you go on Pinball Info, Scott posts a lot of photos of the restorations. Have a look at them. They're mind-blowingly amazing. And, you know, what's your backlog right now, Scott? I mean, I've been told by obviously you have yourself, and then I've got a guy who's going to be – this is the positive news. My wife would be so pleased to hear it because she knows it's coming. in. I've got a guy called Stavros and he has done a deal basically where I'm doing a restoration for him but he's going to help me out by building me a cabin in my back garden. So I can actually have a dedicated workspace. One thing I'm very jealous of is Ant's workshop. I look at what I have and what he has and yes I've got the tools, I just don't have the space. I mean there's games I've just been turning down because I'm like well I have to use this space for projects. And I'd rather have it for a game And it's so hard sometimes when I see a game come up on the forum and I can't buy it. Absolutely. I mean, if there's one thing about it, the guy who makes pinball machines miniaturizable, so you can just miniaturize them, put them on a shelf, and he'll be a hero to us all. But that is one of the challenges of pinball is it's a space-consuming, it's insane the space that it consumes. The only reason I sell now is for space. And a lot of people say to me, just stick it in storage. I can't do it I just can't I cannot stomach the idea of a game sat in on it's tombstone never being played for me I have to keep to that at the moment I can fit 10 in the room I'm about 10, I'm technically at 11 including yours I feel like one game is in parts at the moment but that's another episode for another day for me I feel like I've got a queue of 10 machines I think at the moment Wow. So nine, if I exclude yours. I'm definitely happy that I've got it. I would love to do it more full-time. I know you said talk about the balance of work versus this. I think, to be honest with you, I wouldn't mind doing this more full-time. I think the problem is the reassurance of the workflow and the money coming in. I mean, it's no great myth. There's not a lot of money in doing these things. I feel like there's definitely more money in what I'm doing at the moment as my primary job so at the moment I'm quite happy to kind of just burn the wick at both ends and do it because it helps me in the end get more games what I've loved about Restorations at least is I meet people through it and they they're very generous with their collections I never got to play a Pirates and I know you've invited me down on more than several occasions to come play your games like Foo Fighters and that, so I love it To me, it opens doors Yeah, absolutely And Luke, I think in a world where Quite a few of the Restorers here in the UK Are either retiring or Taking it at a slower pace, I think it's great For you, I mean The other guy That restored my Quicksilver, Keith, knew for his Pinballs, he did a phenomenal Job on that, just unfortunately Just a painful Playfield swap that he's going to do Again hopefully but It's great to have someone You know So you know In many respects I levitate more towards the newer games But I love the Stern Classics but like you I want them to play Like they just rolled out the factory right And you know the only way You can do that is you know these are Games that are 40-45 years old You know you've got to just bite the bullet And put the effort in And it's great to have you And Keith and there's a few others That do this work We're far and few between But we do talk to each other And I talk on a regular basis Credit to him He does cabinet work That I would say makes even high end pins look Not mediocre But the same He's very good at what he does I feel like the difference between me and him I suppose is that where we focused more on the artwork. So I've touched on it before, but Holly's very good at doing artwork for, for a lot of the stuff we've done. We did a custom back glass for our, our Dracula. We've got a custom reefing going on at the moment for another game, which we'll talk about another time. But she's doing the whole lot. She's doing the play field. She's doing the cabinet art. She's doing the backbox. She didn't do the plastics. And, you know, credit to her. She's very talented at drawing, and I'm capitalizing on that because that saves me an absolute fortune. I dread to think how much it would cost me to kind of engage with an artist and get them to draw this stuff for a one-off. And I won't give away the other side of it, but it's a re-theme of a Johnny Mnemonic that's happening. It is, yeah. Let me tell you, we'll talk about this next episode, but I've seen a few pre... I've even enlisted in, what do you want to call it? I don't want to use the word imposter but it's like an impersonator for some of the voice lines and that so I've gone all out on it that will hopefully be finished for next year the playfield's currently in Australia literally as far as I've seen of it it's going to be mind blowing and I think we'll join two universities together the pinball universe and the other universe. I'm not going to give anything away but it looks mind-blowing, which moves us on. One of our segments, we were talking about this earlier, which is the amount of stuff that you can buy for pinball is mind-blowing. It's huge, honestly. Absolutely huge. So this segment is the kind of, what have you bought this week and what's arrived this week? So I got this Bond topper Love it Actually I've already got one Because it's on the 60th It's the same topper that's on the 60th edition Which I have to say I'm a bit irked about Because it was supposed to be What was exclusive But it's not so exclusive As we first thought Obviously they've released it for the Pro Premium LE As well as the 60th And on the flyer For the 60th It's very specific They've used the word exclusive Very badly I actually don't think they ever thought The topper was going to be exclusive I think they meant included right Yeah something like that But they're also There's a couple of other things that Stern Are doing that I have to say If they come out with another Super exclusive like that I'm not sure I'll be so Bond it was a done deal It's a done deal right I'm just a Bond nutcase And it turns out Keith Elwin's 60th is just a phenomenal game There's some people who have Given it a bad review Those people you should ignore Fair enough I'll be honest with you I reserve judgement for a game until I've played it Yeah exactly Keith has done I'm a big star in electronics A classic fan I love them And Keith has created a modern day version of that With a theme that blows my mind And you've got Top players like Carl D'Python Anghelo Jermaine Some of the best players in pinball Buying this game because it plays so good From a tournament competition Point of view For me that Shines a symbol Yeah it was ridiculously priced The value for money on it is very low Unfortunately Which is frustrating But I think again I think Stern's probably learned I hope they've learned from that And next time they do this they'll be Perhaps a little bit more sensible But I'm fortunate enough I can afford to buy it But For me it's I collect space, Apollo stuff The price of that would make your eyes water So But it's You know Fine I paid the money That's cool but then oh well this bit isn't exclusive I'm like what the hell That is frustrating I have to say But I've sent some stern words Pardon the pun To those that That Should know better Really And Yeah well look I'm looking forward to seeing more about the theatre of magic I think next time It would be good to talk about Some aspect of it that here's this fiddly bit. Oh, there's plenty of those. Don't worry about that. How do you solve for them? I can talk you through all kinds of things, even the playfield restoration elements. There's some tricks of the trade to ensure that you don't get problems. Keith may or may not be aware of them, especially when it comes to the clear coat. Share the knowledge is the way I'm at. There's no secret source to me. It's like, just make sure everyone's aware of it so they can avoid the pitfalls in my view. Absolutely. Absolutely. Superb. So, coming up to close, we've got some events coming up. Obviously the first big event here in the UK coming up soon, UK Pinfest. Scott, you're going to that? I'm not going? Indeed, yes, I'm going to it. I've got two games going there, so I've got my Monster Bash and I've got my Lord of the Rings. It's more accurately my wife's Lord of the Rings. She's actually done the restoration on that. I left her to it. I said to her, do you know what? You just crack on and you do what you need to do. And if you ask me for help, I'll come over. And there was a couple of times I had to do that. But to be fair to her, she stripped the play field out. She changed some of the plastics around. She's added some of her own custom plastics. She put a couple of mods in. She's done new artwork for the cabinet. And then we bought a custom back glass from Zianic. I don't know if you know the guy. It's a really nice back glass, to be honest with you. But, yeah, I'd say we'll bring those games there. And, yeah, we're there for the full duration, which I think is the 25th. Yeah, 25th, 26th, 27th. I think 25th is for VIPs only. So you have to have the VIP access to get access on the Friday evening. But it's open to the general public both on Saturday and Sunday. And I'd recommend anybody who's living in the UK to go and visit. it. There'll be plenty of games there including Adam's Family Machine which has got like a smoke machine in it. It's definitely worthwhile going down there to experience all the pinball machines that'll be there on the show. Excellent. And then after that probably the next big event is UK Open. There's five tickets left for that. You've practically sold out haven't you? Yeah. UKOpen.net if you want to pick up one of those tickets 29th of September And And then before that I'm going to Pinball at the Lake In the US No, Pinball at the Lab it's called now, sorry Well I need to get a ticket first It's a match I like match play tournaments It's a big match play tournament So I'm looking forward to that Carl and Jim, the guys who run Indisc run it I was there last year, it was a great event And I think you're going to have Venom There at your show as well, right? I'm hoping to, so Frustratingly, and I'm probably A bit stupid on my part, but If you think So, they're launching it now The event's in October, so I'm thinking I'll easily get a game I'll just buy it and it'll come But I got wind that they're making the pros for what is it? Location people in August. Yeah, operators first. This is what Stern do. It's a good thing because people get to play the game quickly. On location, yeah. The operator ones go out, the pros. In August, I think next week, they're going to start shipping. Then Starn are moving factories Oh right I remember that rumour Because they were talking about using the second factory To catch up with their backlog right Yeah well they're moving Big school To a big new place I've seen where it is it's huge And actually their old place The reason they're moving And this is a bit of the industry I'm in I kind of knew this was coming Probably before most The Cern's old factory Is surrounded by data centres And their Old factory is going to be turned into A data centre And It's in a For certain workloads Location is important Are they still staying In the same kind of geographic Rough area yeah They're moving to a much bigger facility And also they're splitting the manufacturing String in the office but separately Which I think is always a good thing to do So I think they'd be in office for like the Blue collars as they were Or the white collars and then The factory I think they're close by but I think they're separate Separate locations so Which means that they're not making The rest of the Venoms, the Pros And the Premiums and the LEs for Until September Which I was like ah So I don't think So I thought my LE would arrive in plenty of time. Yeah, because I must admit, it's normally the case, isn't it? The announcer, their latest release, and then they're out. They back up their orders in quick succession. Yeah, I'm hearing September is when it's going to ship, which makes it borderline as to whether it'll arrive. If it was shipping in August, it would definitely arrive on time. So I've kind of sent a couple of emails trying to see, well, could you maybe make mine as well and then get it over here for the event? But we'll see if there's a way That I can get one to the event Even if I have to buy a pro And ship it over air freight Then I'll do it Yeah I mean it would be good to I say I think The one thing that I think you do really well in that respect Is push pinball for the UK And getting like Licences like I know obviously Bond was going to get released last year And you were helping to do the announcement around that I think it's a good thing What you do and I appreciate the fact You're running these tournaments and giving away These prize pools because It helps keep UK relevant In that respect Yeah I mean I'll cover this maybe in the next episode But the prep for the UK Open is insane in fact my Whole desk is covered in stuff for the UK Open There's bits of UK Open stuff Camera stuff and tickets And also I've bought About I don't know I'm going to say 10 Games I haven't counted them but I've bought a Tron I've bought A Kiss I've bought James Bond, Gottlieb James Bond Oh so you're trying to get all the James Bonds We will have all the James Bonds Even the Sega Goldmine We will have them all at the UK Open And A few other Surprises to come Although we've announced most of them But yeah I mean it's just You know I have got a load of games now in storage Yeah but you have the excuse That they're going to be put up on location And we're Pinball Republic So pinballrepublic.com It's our big place in South London Where we kind of rotate games in and out of there We just got Foo Fighters Premium in Which is going down pretty well But we also got Dolly Parton Bally Dolly it's called It's a great game, actually it's owned by Keith Plays beautifully So we're always trying to get A multitude of different types of games In there but We'll pick up next episode On the UK Open Prep And dig into some of the details On what you're doing Restoration wise so Scott It's been a pleasure mate our first podcast We're at the end of it We didn't have any dull dark moments Where we were like But But we probably talked a bit longer than we planned But that's not the worst thing in the world Next time We'll have a guest on To talk about their favourite pinball And we're going to shake this over the next Few episodes as we get used to Doing it It's a new thing for both of us So we hope you enjoy it If so let us have some feedback And if you did enjoy it Tell your friends If you didn't tell us We'll try and shape it A bit better but hopefully This was interesting And Scott it was a pleasure to talk with you And we'll see you on the next show Yep thanks very much And I'll catch you on the next show