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Episode 111 – Are You A God?

Head2Head Pinball·podcast_episode·1h 28m·analyzed·Sep 30, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.021

TL;DR

Elvira stream and Ghostbusters 1.16 update spark detailed gameplay analysis and design praise.

Summary

Head2Head Pinball hosts Martin and Joe discuss two recent game developments: the Deadflip stream reveal of Spooky Pinball machine, which impressed them with its rule depth, toy integration, and Lyman F. Sheats Jr.' code design despite some mechanical prototype issues; and Ghostbusters code update 1.16, which significantly rebalances multiball difficulty, multiplier availability, and introduces a new God Mode minigame that addresses community feedback.

Key Claims

  • Elvira ships next week according to the Deadflip stream announcement

    high confidence · Martin states during Elvira discussion: 'they're shipping next week is what they said'

  • Lyman F. Sheats Jr. designed Batman 66 pinball and is known for high-quality code

    high confidence · Joe mentions 'Lyman mentioned that it's kind of on a long player-ish when he was starting' in relation to Batman 66 design philosophy

  • Ghostbusters 1.16 makes multiball significantly harder to achieve than previous versions

    high confidence · Joe explains: 'the multiball is now harder to get' and details that captive ball no longer lights all three locks, only one lock per cycle

  • God Mode was added to Ghostbusters as a result of community feedback requests

    high confidence · Martin: 'God Mode being a little minigame. Correct. And they're out of there' and 'Thank you for listening to us and doing it'

  • Elvira features public domain movie assets that shaped the game's narrative

    high confidence · Martin explains: 'because they're now public domain... they then got to use the movies and that's really what changed what the story of the Pinball machine is now being about'

  • Lyman F. Sheats Jr. has always wanted to do a haunted house theme, making Elvira a natural fit

    high confidence · Martin states: 'Lyman apparently had always said that he wanted to do a haunted house theme. So when this came up, it was a logical thing to give it to Lyman'

  • Ghostbusters 1.16 made scoring multipliers much easier to obtain via gear targets

    high confidence · Joe: 'you can almost always have your multipliers lit if you just hit those gear targets. It's literally hit ramp, hit gear, there's your 2x. Hit ramp, hit gear, there's your 3x'

  • Joe holds a 34th world ranking in Ghostbusters or pinball competition

    high confidence · Martin: 'you're now 34th in the world, I believe, is your latest ranking'

Notable Quotes

  • “That singular shot becomes something that you want to hit.”

    Martin @ ~5:00 — Summarizes his impression of Elvira's playfield design philosophy where each shot has defined purpose rather than being arbitrary

  • “You never not enjoy playing Lyman Code.”

    Joe @ ~12:30 — Expresses strong confidence in Lyman Sheets' code design abilities

  • “There's a lot of toys on that game. There's a lot of stuff. Now see it in motion, yeah. You're seeing where the money's being spent.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ ~13:00 — Addresses community concerns about Elvira's premium pricing by visually demonstrating production value

  • “I hate that stupid ramp. I like the other ramp better.”

    Joe @ ~30:45 — Expresses frustration with Ghostbusters Premium/LE ramp shot difficulty compared to Pro version

  • “I think every single thing on the Pro is better than the Premium. Like all the stuff that's added in a premium, I just think make the game worse and harder for no reason.”

    Joe @ ~32:00 — Strong opinion on Pro vs Premium playfield design philosophy for Ghostbusters

  • “It's like oof. But does it activate the multipliers or does it just light the stand-ups and then you've got to hit the stand-ups to get to multiply?”

    Martin @ ~23:15 — Clarifies confusion about new multiplier mechanics in Ghostbusters 1.16

  • “Especially when the Scolaries come up towards the end, you're like, Really? Really? I saw that. Come on, Dwight, you dick.”

    Joe @ ~27:00 — Humorous but pointed feedback on God Mode difficulty balance directed at code designer Dwight Sullivan

  • “They kind of need to make that harder. That looked really easy.”

    Martin @ ~26:30 — Initial observation that God Mode appeared easy when watching Joe play, contrasting with Joe's actual difficulty experience

Entities

MartinpersonJoepersonLyman F. Sheats Jr.personDwight SullivanpersonElviragameGhostbustersgameSpooky PinballcompanyStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Elvira prototype exhibits mechanical problems: trunk lock mechanism fails to open reliably, skill shot reportedly impossible to achieve even with optimal plunging, lock shot has excessive rejectivity. Hosts assume these will be resolved before shipping.

    high · Joe: 'the trunk, you'd light it and then it'd go down and then it wouldn't open again', 'none of them's ever gotten it', 'super rejecty that lock shot'

  • ?

    code_update: Ghostbusters 1.16 significantly rebalances game difficulty: multiball now harder to achieve, multiplier system overhauled to be more accessible, scoring inflated across all modes, add-a-ball mechanic changed from automatic to earned during multiball

    high · Joe: 'the multiball is now harder to get', 'three balls equals one lock', multiplier system now requires hitting gear targets which are 'literally hit ramp, hit gear, there's your 2x'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Ghostbusters 1.16 introduces God Mode minigame with timed combo sequence requiring all playfield shots within 8-second windows, escalating difficulty with four combo levels, stress-inducing music design, and ball-by-ball progression system

    high · Joe: 'you have eight seconds to hit that next shot. And then if not, it resets', music creates tension comparable to Lord of the Rings Destroy the Ring mode

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Martin's initial skepticism about Elvira reversed after watching Deadflip stream; moved from cautious neutrality to expressed desire to play the game, citing shot definition and toy integration as drivers of improved perception

    high · Martin: 'now having watched the stream, I think this looks a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be' vs earlier neutral stance

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.059

0:00
The Head to Head Pinball Podcast Welcome everybody to the Head to Head Pinball Podcast. This is episode 111. And my name's Martin. And are you a god? Yes. Absolutely.
0:47
Why are you a god, Jolimi? Because the game asked me and I said yes. You said definitely I am a god. And it even told me when you were asked if you were a god, what do you say? Yes. And then you get some victory laps and then you're like, ah, I'm so godly. Spoilers, everybody, by the way. Just so you know, if you don't want to know what happens at the end of that. So, too late. He's the god. Yeah, sure.
1:19
We're going to get to that. That's Ghostbusters Code. Joe got to play it. Before then, let's talk about one more time. Let's talk about Elvira because we now got to see the Deadflip stream.
1:33
And, you know what, I'll let you start. What do you think now that you've seen the stream? I mean, the rules seem cool. The sound, the way that they integrated some stuff, obviously there's still a lot that's not there. It looked fun to shoot. There were a lot of physical issues with the game that I assume are going to get fixed when they actually start making them and they're not playing on a prototype.
2:03
But besides that, it seemed like a cool concept and something fun to flip. Hmm. So, okay, so what I'd said, and really I hadn't sort of said either way whether I like it or dislike it. The comment I made was that, you know, the shots are all at the back, it seems quite an open playfield, but it's a good canvas for the linemen. And, you know, I've also been known, I'm on record many years now for flip-flopping and, you know, basing it on new information that comes to me. So now having watched the stream, I think this looks a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. And let me tell you why. It is because of what we've already said in that there's actually cool toys. And because there's cool toys, it makes you want to shoot those shots. So, for example, you know, the deadheads on the right where we've got the rotisserie, whatever it is that's doing that. But it's its own shot. You know what you're doing with it. It's got a whole set of rules around it. So that singular shot becomes something that you want to hit. The center shot into the castle and the castle itself has, you know, color-changing LEDs that changes the color of the castle and starts those modes. It's a house. What did I say? Castle? Yeah. I know. They say that on the stream as well. Hello, Medieval Madness. But it's the house. And the house is cool. The trunk shot, Junk in the trunk shot's kind of cool.

  • Elvira's lock shot has mechanical tuning issues on the prototype with excessive rejections

    high confidence · Joe: 'the fact that the trunk, you'd light it and then it'd go down and then it wouldn't open again' and 'just super rejecty that lock shot is on the side of the middle of the castle'

  • “It's not like it's given anybody an advantage over going modes because everybody will go modes and everybody will still get an inflated score.”

    Martin @ ~21:00 — Analysis of how 1.16 rebalancing affects competitive equality

    • Deadfliporganization
    Jurassic Parkgame
    Batman 66game
    Medieval Madnessgame
    Lord of the Ringsgame
    Scared Stiffgame
    Beatlesgame
    Tommygame
    Markperson
    Seawitchgame
    Dialed In!game
    The Addams Familygame
    ?

    design_philosophy: Elvira employs simplified fan-layout playfield to support complex code-driven ruleset, mirroring Batman 66 philosophy where every shot has defined rule purpose rather than arbitrary placement, enabling backhand accessibility for all shots except orbit

    high · Martin: 'even though it's a standard fan layout, none of the shots feel arbitrary', 'you can backhand everything on the game' except orbit

  • ?

    product_concern: Ghostbusters 1.16 readme documentation unclear about multiball changes; captive ball lock mechanic altered but not clearly communicated, leading to player confusion about whether change is documented intentionally or oversight

    high · Joe: 'There's definitely some changes that I don't think were really communicated well in the readme', 'It's not obvious in there that that's what it doesn't say, like, three balls equals one lock'

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern's Dwight Sullivan implemented community-requested God Mode minigame feature in 1.16 update, indicating responsiveness to player feedback; hosts explicitly credit their prior requests with contributing to implementation

    high · Martin: 'Thank you for listening to us and doing it. I say we take credit for it', 'God Mode being a little minigame. Correct. And they're out of there'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Ghostbusters 1.16 creates universal score inflation across all players by democratizing multiplier access and increasing base mode payouts, eliminating competitive advantage from random events but maintaining skill-based differentiation through execution

    high · Martin: 'everybody will do that. It's not like it's given anybody an advantage over going modes because everybody will go modes and everybody will still get an inflated score'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Ghostbusters 1.16 removes add-a-ball gimme and increases multiball entry friction to balance against scoring inflation, representing intentional difficulty calibration by designer who likely made earlier version overly generous

    medium · Martin: 'I mean, they're trying to balance the game somewhat. So the fact that previously you had an added ball straight up, that's probably because it has punished you up until that point'

  • ?

    product_concern: Ghostbusters machines exhibit significant unit-to-unit variation in playfield behavior: Joe's Premium exhibits harsh feed-through from right orbit to center drain, brutal right ramp rejection, and difficult left orbit feed, while Martin indicates other Premiums play more forgiving

    high · Joe: 'the feed from the right orbit coming down to the right flipper... would often go into the middle and drain', right ramp 'comes back down' frequently. Martin: 'the premium in LE is a lot more forgiving than the one that you've played'

  • $

    market_signal: Ghostbusters Pro version preferred by experienced players over Premium/LE variants despite premium's higher price and additional toys; Pro's simpler playfield geometry, cleaner shot feeds, and clever PKE ramp multi-hit mechanic create superior gameplay despite lacking Premium's visual enhancements

    high · Joe: 'I think every single thing on the Pro is better than the Premium', Pro PKE ramp 'three switches there. So if you hit it really clean... it's worth more... I don't think that's been done on another game'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Elvira's development narrative shifted when Spooky discovered B-movie film assets were public domain, allowing direct integration of film clips and actress voice work into machine's story, fundamentally changing game design from generic haunted house to specific B-movie parody theme

    high · Martin: 'because they're now public domain, they then got to use the movies and that's really what changed what the story of the Pinball machine is now being about these movies'

    • 3:36
    I don't know. I kind of just like the fact that even though it's a standard fan layout, none of the shots feel arbitrary. They feel important and they're all defined what you're doing with them. And like they even mentioned on the stream, yes, the shots are far back, but because they're far back, you can backhand everything on the game. Correct. Except the orbit. Which is good. Yeah. You know, that's always enjoyable to be able to do that kind of stuff because, you know, safety is nice. Yeah, I mean, it's by no means an easy game to play, but I guess, I don't know, I don't know.
    4:17
    I'll try and draw a comparison with Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park has got, obviously, an amazing layout and there's just stuff happening all over the place. There's long shots, there's side shots, there's crazy looping ramp shots, all that kind of stuff. So in your mind, you're trying to focus on where the ball's going and the rules of the game. With Elvira, kind of forget too much about where the ball's going. You can just focus on the rules of the game and you can focus on your shots. They seem relatively easy. You've obviously got to pick your shots, but it just seems now that it is all about the rules and the code. And you've also got a good layout as well. Yeah, and I think that's kind of the way that Batman is.
    5:02
    He started, like when they were starting, Lyman mentioned that it's kind of on a long player-ish when he was talking about the game, and then ironically it ate them all alive. Poor Lyman, he was just getting so pissed off and not being able to play.
    5:20
    But yeah, I mean, really the code and everything and everything around the game looked really good. Really the big things that stood out to me were like the weird mechanical issues that were going on. Like the fact that the trunk, you'd light it and then it'd go down and then it wouldn't open again so you couldn't get the ball in there unless you like snuck it in or it randomly came up later. Or just like how just super rejecty that lock shot is on the side of the middle of the castle. But, you know, that's probably all stuff that's going to be dialed in. It's probably just because it's a prototype. But also the fact that that skill shot doesn't seem like it exists because they even said that none of them's ever gotten it and that one time the lineman plunged behind it as slow as possible and it still didn't go in. It's like, okay, is that a thing? Is that really possible? So I don't know. Yeah, I mean, obviously there's some things they need to tighten up, but they're shipping next week is what they said. So hopefully it's not mechanical, it's just code. Yeah, but I imagine that the trunk is definitely code, that's obvious. Who knows about how that turnaround in the lock is? I don't know about that one.
    6:35
    I'm sure that's the prototype that they've been pounding on and was the first game they made, so it's not going to be the same way. The cool part, especially about the code stuff, which I haven't seen any of the other ones do, is that when they're playing the thing, Lyman's making notes and he's writing down things he's noticing, things he wants to change, things he didn't like.
    6:56
    So the man's a perfectionist. He will make that game great, even if it's not. I'm not saying it's not. No, I know. But I think what's there as far as rules framework goes is actually really quite appealing. I mean, it's, you know, because it's one of those studio games, it's premium and up. So let's kind of assume in a way that it's geared towards the home user. So it's got a fairly easy to understand rule set, but quite deep as well. Yeah, definitely. And I think that the different things that happen in the game are really cool. Well, the fact that she did live recordings for the modes and have multiple of them, and they mentioned that even more are coming. That's awesome. They mentioned that there's obviously more call-outs and everything in the game. You know, the way that the house works. I mean, everything, it seems really well put together, and I think that... And they got the guy back who did the other Scared Stiff games, the Scared Stiff guy! Yes, that's just cool. Well, that is him. So we kind of got a bit of an idea now on the theme really, which is basically it's about the B-movies. So all the movies that she's made fun of in the past have somehow come alive and they're all haunting her. And you've got to try and put those movies back wherever they came from, I guess. The movies, back in the movies. Yeah, there you go. So that's what she did. When you start a movie, a little clip comes up and then she has a call out about that movie and you are effectively attacking the movies are the ghosts, effectively.
    8:47
    So what they said on the stream is that they didn't originally have movie assets, but because they're now eminent domain.
    8:57
    Stop me. I knew that was coming. Hey, I described it right, which is kind of the same as being right. They do. So because they're public domain, they then got to use the movies and that's really what changed what the story of the Pinball machine is now being about these movies that you're attacking. So that's cool. Another thing was that Lyman apparently had always said that he wanted to do a haunted house theme. So when this came up, it was a logical thing to give it to Lyman because effectively there is a haunted house there. Castle. Yep. Seemed like a match meet in heaven. And plus he's a big Elvira fan, so. Correct. So that helps. The other thing I noticed as well, I just wanted to call out the risque-ness, which I don't know whether that's really a word, but it's, it's some of it's there. I think there was something that was called B-Restinator, which is obviously Brestonator. The house number is 69-6, so there's that. And then the lock shots are 36-24-36. So it's there, but I feel like it's been toned down a bit. What do you think? Oh, definitely. This is not even remotely close to Scarecetstiff.
    10:24
    Scarecetstiff is just so punchy in the face with that stuff. You know, little head, big head, and all the various different call-outs and all that are not... I mean, maybe it's going to be there when it all gets in there. Maybe it'll all be added in there, but it definitely seems like it's been toned down. Yeah, it seems like they're aware that the line to cross is a little bit closer, but they're still going to that line. Yeah, but in the most non-offensive one. You know, it's not super in your face. And it's not like, so far it's not in call-outs. It's just kind of like little art around the play field.
    11:04
    So, we'll see if... Yeah, my favorite call-out was the, I think it was for the werewolf one, where she's like, oh, yeah, he doesn't, oh, no, it was the zombie one, I think. And I was like, oh, he doesn't look old at all. He doesn't even look old enough as a teenager. Like, you know, 35, like me. And like a little bit she played with her hair. I'm like, that's awesome.
    11:28
    So again, it's great that she's done those clips and she's talking to you. You can just tell that that's kind of the effort and how much involved in the game she is, which is very cool. Yeah, and I hope there's a lot of those, like three or four per mode. And there's a lot of that stuff in there because it makes it stand out because you get to hear these specific call outs that were made for the game. And as usual, she looks exactly the same as she did 20 years ago. What is she, like 70 or something? I don't even know. Yeah, it's ridiculous. The ageless wonder.
    12:05
    She looks amazing, which is true. And she's still got the character down pat. Oh, yeah. That's never going to change.
    12:16
    She's 68. There you go. Wow. She looks amazing for 68. So that's bonkers. Yeah, it's crazy. So overall for me, color me impressed. I think that I now want to play this and I think I'll have a lot of fun playing it. I won't take it too seriously, but I think it's just going to be a fun shooter. Yeah, it looks fun. You know, I will never not enjoy playing Liming Code. And I think that the video hopefully shot up the people who are like, oh, the price on this game. There's a lot of toys on that game. There's a lot of stuff. You now see it in motion, yeah. Yep. Exactly. So it's like, you know, you're getting your money's worth with that. Yeah, you're seeing where the money's being spent. Yeah, it's not like this isn't a money grab or something. It's like there's a lot in this game, more than any, mostly any other premium they've made. So that's why it's more than those, because there's more in the game. Yep. You can now see it. So it is a premium game. There you go. I've said it. Absolutely. You know, shots are still far away. So, you know, on the surface, if you're sort of just looking top down, you wouldn't see where the money's gone. But it's there. It's there. You can tell. Absolutely. So there you go. Now, so going back to the whole Joe is a God. So the code for Ghostbusters did get released only a couple of days ago, 1.16. You got to play it. I haven't. What do you think? Um, it is better. It's definitely better. Um, the physical issues with the playfield still drive you crazy. Yeah. Like, uh, at least the one I was playing, it's just like 50-50. If it goes left out of the bumpers, you're dead. Like, it doesn't matter if you have two ball safes. Like, it's just, you're just dead. And it's the various other things, you know, where you get avatared on the outlanes, and it's just, um, but I mean, the changes they've made in the code, uh, really improve. Um, the playing of it, the scoring has gone crazy. Yes. In the game, like, it's, like, almost add a digit to all the other scores. It's, uh, but at the same time, to do that, it changes the way you play. Like, when I was first starting, I was just concentrating, like, oh, I'm gonna get my multipliers before I do anything. And I was just not doing anything because I was dying in the process. versus just being like, okay, well, I'll go for multipliers when I get to, like, you know, we came, we saw, I kicked its ass or something like that. Or when I'm in with the safety of a multiball because in single ball, it's a lot more dangerous. But, yeah, I think that a lot of the changes they made were good. You get way deeper into the game because even if you fuck up, you're still deeper. Yeah.
    15:10
    There's definitely some changes that I don't think were really communicated well in the readme that I noticed. Like, for instance, like I mentioned to you, the multiball is now harder to get. Yes. Which I don't – that's not what it says in the readme. It sounds like it's the same behavior where it's supposed to be. It used to be where you'd hit the captive ball once, it'd go blinking, you'd hit it again, And then it would go to the next stage of the captive balls, but then you'd light all three balls on the ramp. That's not how it works now. No, I know. Which is what I said to you last week, and you're like, nah, I think you're wrong. I'm like, oh, maybe I am wrong. But no, that is it. So you don't have the easy light your locks via the captive balls. I mean, I say easy. They're always dangerous on the captive balls. But if you wail on them during ball save, that can get you to open all three locks. Now that only opens one lock, and you've got to do what else to light the rest of your locks? Well, either you can keep pounding and do another set of balls to get more locks, or pretty much you just have to get the locks from ghosts or from the pop-upers. So honestly, I don't think it's worth going for that at all now.
    16:23
    Hitting that thing three times to light one lock is so not worth the danger. Whereas at least before, if you messed up a mode, you're like, okay, I'm just going to survive two shots and then I can light my multiball. Whereas this is like, you're going to survive like six shots and then that will light your two locks and then get ten ghosts or whatever. Or with pop bumpers, maybe get the third one and there you go. But it's much harder. But even they had a printout of the notes and I went upstairs after this and I read it and I'm like, It's not obvious in there that that's what it doesn't say, like, three balls equals one lock. It just kind of says, like, you cycle the three balls, and then that, you know, finishes the process. And it's like, no, it doesn't. It only likes one ball. Well, I think what it's doing is it's saying it likes one ball instead of saying it likes one ball in brackets used to be all three locks. Yeah, yeah. I guess instead of just saying it likes a lock versus it's all locks. Yeah, correct. But also the multiballs are harder now because they've taken away the original, at least in storage facility, they removed the original lit add-a-ball. Now you have to hit the captive ball three times the light in add-a-ball. So that one is a little harder. And then that's the same thing with the other multiballs too. You no longer start with an add-a-ball lit. You have to light it via the captive ball. Which is normal. It's just taken away. Well, I guess it probably has done that. I mean, they're trying to balance the game somewhat. So the fact that previously you had an added ball straight up, that's probably because it has punished you up until that point. So it's trying to give you a bit of a gimme to make you feel good. This way, now the game is a bit easier. It's taking that extra gimme away from you and you have to earn it during multiple. So, you know, it's balance. But one thing I certainly noticed after watching the stream, and I've spoken to a lot of people about it, I think it's done what it's needed to do, and that is it's turned the game away from being, you know, just get into multiball for some safety. Even though I've always known if you go for modes, you will always get a greater score than if you go for multiball. Now what it's saying is you're just going to get a shitload more points just doing modes and that's now naturally what people are doing. They are getting way more points than they used to do overall just by going through modes.
    19:04
    But the downside of that is everybody will do that. It's not like it's given anybody an advantage over going modes because everybody will go modes and everybody will still get an inflated score. Yeah, storage facility is really not worth points still like it was before. Its main purpose is getting ghosts to go up the ladder because getting ghosts outside of that multi-ball is rather difficult.
    19:31
    But like the, I mean, the huge thing is like the modes are more or less kind of the same as they were, but that multiplayer, that multiplier rule is pretty ridiculous. Like, you can almost always have your multipliers lit if you just hit those gear targets. It's literally hit ramp, hit gear, there's your 2x. Hit ramp, hit gear, there's your 3x. All the time. It never gets harder than that. So pretty much all of your multiballs turn into 6x craziness where you're popping like 300 million shots. And it's like, what?
    20:08
    It's just, I didn't realize that the multipliers were going to be that easy to get. Like I figured maybe you'd have – and it's not even just hitting the captable. You can just hit any of that like huge section of the three stand-ups plus the captable. Hit any of that and then it lights all your multipliers. So it's like oof. But does it activate the multipliers or does it just light the stand-ups and then you've got to hit the stand-ups to get to multiply? No, it lights the stand-ups and then you just got to hit the stand-ups. Which, you know, that was the big thing I learned is that don't chase it in the regular modes. Just chase it when you get into the multiballs because then you have the safety of it. Or it just happens because it's like when you go to shoot the ramp, you're not going to hit it 100% of the time. So you're going to miss and hit those stand-ups and then profit. Because I remember previously, if you happen to get a multiplier, and you remember before it was, what was it? The Skull Shot. Spirit Guide or whatever. Or the Skull Shot, right? If you manage to get a multiplier, and it was a random what they would reward you from that. They just win. You would win the game. You would win, like instant win. Just hit two shots, bang, you've won. So it was always the haves and the have-nots. If you have it, you win. If you don't, well, then you're back competing with everybody else. Now, it's sort of giving it to everybody. Yeah, thankfully it's way more skill-based. I do like it that it's always the same. It's easily available to everybody. So I like versus just being like, did you hit the middle skill shot? Which, you know, a middle top lane skill shot is not something that you can necessarily do. No, that's hard on that one. That's just a couple bounces, and it's like... I did really like going for that every ball, and then coming downstairs, and then being like, okay, now I can go for my original. Yeah, because you get the two skill shots, so that's kind of cool. Yeah, exactly. So that pretty cool I trying to think of any of the stuff that I happen to notice Oh one thing which I don know if it a feature or if it a bug but if you drain the ball you don hit either of your skill shots and you get a ball save If you hit the flipper, your flippers at all, while the ball's being plunged, it changes your skill shot on you. which I had one set up and while I was plumaging I hit a flipper and it moved on me. I'm like, what the? I didn't want that to move. I didn't know that was a thing. So I guess there's some distance between either when it's sitting on the switch in the plunger or before it hits the top switch then it allows you to change it. So be careful of that. Yeah, I mean other machines are like, that reminds me of, Beatles is like that, you know, when you're trying to lock in the mode that you start with. If you flip as you're plunging, it will change until it hits a switch. So maybe it's not counting that first switch anymore. Yeah, maybe, but I mean like it always registers when it enters the playfield. Like whether, if you soft plunge, it still registers at least, well, it does on the premium because I was playing a premium and the goggles auto registers. So you can't even enter the playfield without it knowing it. So it's weird that it would not lock that in thinking that you didn't enter the playfield, I guess. I don't know. Okay. But yeah, I think that was the only weird thing I noticed. Well, the other thing that we've noticed is something that we requested last week, Joe. What was that?
    23:51
    God Mode being a little minigame. Correct. And they're out of there. So you can just start with God Mode. So it starts with a we're ready to believe you, get the hundred ghosts within 60 seconds, extend the time, etc. And then you get into your God Mode. Thank you for listening to us and doing it. I say we take credit for it, but I can imagine we were not the only people to do it. And they probably had it in mind anyway. But the good news is God Mode is now there, and I watched you play four-player.
    24:24
    It's a minigame, and it looked like hella fun. Yeah, it's really fun. The sound is great. And the further you get down into the God section, it's so stressful. Especially when the Scolaries come up towards the end, you're like, Really? Really? I saw that. Come on, Dwight, you dick. Don't make me hit these things. Thankfully, they went down. But when they're up and you come out the right orbit, it is so nasty. That is like an auto-feed to the middle. So I barely lived through that, but it's really cool. And the fact that the way it moves all around the playfield, and it makes you have to hit all of the shots, and it's also timed so you have the stress of that. And the music they're playing in the background is very stressful kind of music as well. It's kind of destroy the ring on Lord of the Rings, that tension that it adds to the whole situation. I barely remember that. I don't even remember the music. I was so just like in it. Well, that's really interesting because obviously, yes, you did it and you completed it and I watched it. And I've got to tell you, my reaction to you finishing it was, huh, they kind of need to make that harder. That looked really easy. Now, I obviously know. No, I know. I know, right? Because now you're saying to me, no, it was really stressful. And I've got to remember that you're now 34th in the world, I believe, is your latest ranking. Moving on up. So you're obviously very good. You just made it look really easy is what I'm saying. But apparently it's not that easy. No, because, I mean, you have to hit all these combos. I think there were, what, like four levels of combos? and they're all timed. You have eight seconds to hit that next shot. And then if not, it resets. So like I had a fit of just accurately being able to get things done at a particular time. And one, it was going to time out. And then I hit the captive ball at the last second and it continued back to where it was, which allowed me to do it. But I mean, it's pretty crazy. And the fact that on a premium specifically, a lot of the shots are not easy. Like that right subway shot is much harder because it has a cliffy on it so it's hard to hit. The right ramp is much harder because it rejects all the time. I hate that stupid ramp. I like the other ramp better. Well, I don't know, maybe your copy that you've played in actually goes up and doesn't reject, but like, I don't know, that copy rejects all the time. And that's like the only premium I've played. So I guess, I don't know, maybe other ones are smoother, but half the time it goes up, it comes back down. You're talking about the, because on the premium in LE, it's got that ramp that does little turnaround that comes back to the left flipper. Is that the one you're talking about? Yeah. It's always been hard. And so, you know, when we were talking again last week and we were talking about PKE, because that's where you do PKE frenzy on the premium and LE. That's what I said last week. I said, yeah, you know, even though it's worth a lot of points, it's via that ramp that is very difficult to get. And I much prefer the pro version because, one, A, I think it's way cooler, the fact that it goes up into the ramp and there's three switches there. So if you hit it really clean and get to the third switch, it's worth more. Like, what a fucking clever thing. Like, I don't think that's been done on another game. But also if you get it up there and then it doesn't even make any of those switches but still manages to get the way it comes back to the right flipper, it still validates it as a shot. Whereas that ramp on the Premium LE, if you don't go all the way around, it doesn't count. Yep, exactly. I think the Pro, I mean, like again, I think every single thing on the Pro is better than the Premium. Like all the stuff that's added in a premium, I just think make the game worse and harder for no reason. I kind of agree with you, except I said it last time, I'll say it again. I think the ramp shot is easier on the premium NLE than it is on the pro. That makes no sense, Martin. It's steeper and you can't backhand it like you can on the pro. Yes, you can. Well, no, absolutely. You can backhand on a premium NLE much easier than you can on a pro. That is fact. Well, maybe if you have the flipper kicker to kick to high instead of medium. Maybe if you do. You can on this guy. I've always found, well, I watched the copy that you were playing and it is more brutal than other Ghostbusters. Something as simple as, you know, the feed from the right orbit coming down to the right flipper? No, not on the one that you were playing. It would often go into the middle and drain. Now, that's meant to just feed really nicely to that right flipper, but yours was being brutal. Yeah, and whenever it'd come out towards Gozer, it was like just Deathmarch down the middle. It's like, okay, well... No, that's unique to your one. The premium in LE is a lot more forgiving than the one that you've played. Yeah, well, I guess because I don't have another... there's no one else I know around that has one. The other two that I play are pros, so I guess I just don't know. Maybe, yeah. If there's one where that right ramp is smoother or all the various other things, I could see why that would be more interesting. I mean, the fact—I hate the physical locks. I don't want to go into the bop bumpers again, thank you very much. Whenever I hit a lock, I don't want to have to live through a plunge with no ball save. Please. Jeez. I don't want to lock balls then. Because there's really no safe way out of that. And it'd be one thing if it plunged all the way around, which I think it used to do, so you could at least catch it or do something with it. Now it puts down the gate in the back, so now you just go into the pop bumpers and pray. One other thing I want to say, one more request for Dwight, is if you could make this accessible on location for the minigame. Like, hold in both flippers and then hit the start button or something like that, and you could start this on location so it doesn't require it to be in a home collection. It'd be cool that if you could start this on location and play these. Oh, God Mode? Yeah, God Mode. Yeah, okay. Like, hold in both flippers and hit the start button or something like that. It's not, it's, yeah, look, give it to people as a choice. It's not necessarily, I don't know whether it's value for money because you only get one ball. Like, once you've done one ball, that's it. Yeah, but they could make it so you get to try all three balls. Okay. You know, I mean, that wouldn't be that maybe on if you start via that way, it's a three ball game. You still don't get your replays. You still don't get any of that stuff. But it'd be cool to be able to like, you know, I mean, not most people don't have a Ghostbusters in a home where someone can go in there and put it on for them. So it'd be cool to have it accessible for people on location to just walk up and try it. You know, just saying maybe maybe that's possible. Maybe it's not possible. But I mean, it's the same similar way to like, you know, on like you mentioned on Tommy where you could hit start and hold in the extra ball and you could have the visors out the entire game. And now also you can, you know, hit the hold in the left and hit the start button to restart, you know, to kill the game. Maybe, maybe do right and the start button to get into this or something. I don't know. I just think it'd be cool or a fun thing that you could do out and out in the world. It'd be fun, like to play dollar games on it or something. Yeah. Okay. Well, yeah, just like give people the choice. Yeah, again, Dollar Games is just perfect for it because it's just level playing field, 60 seconds, whatever you can do, and get as far as you can and get as many points as you can. Yeah, and if you're watching the entire time, the first time I played it, so I got it on my second attempt, but the first time I did it, I almost got there. And then the person who it belongs to, Mark, was like, oh, yeah, I got way more points than that. I'm like, oh, I didn't realize this was a points thing, too. So then the stress of being like, all right, I've got to get my multipliers but still not die and still somehow do all this stuff together and make it more points driven, it's even more stressful then if you're trying to actually get the champion because the champion is based on points, not necessarily your progress. I mean, the further you get, I mean, you get to the – well, I won't say anything, but you get to the end and you get a big payout. So it's like – but if no one does it, it's all about how much points you get. It doesn't matter how close you get. Yeah. So it's the fact that the multipliers are running during that. It's one of those things you don't think of. You're only thinking get to 100 ghosts and that's all that matters. But points do matter, too. So it's that extra layer of stress. That's right. You say an extra layer of stress. I say an extra layer of objective. You know, it just it extends that minigame because you wouldn't want to go, OK, I've now got to the end. That's it. I don't need to do it again. You want to be able to be pushing yourself even further. It is super fun. It looks super fun. Good job, Dwight. Well done, Dwight. Speaking of well done, Dwight, Monsters also got a secret code update this week. It wasn't announced, but 1.01 has now been released. And it's, I can't even joke. I was going to joke about it being a significant, and in the notes it says huge update. It's huge. It's not. It's effectively added topper stuff.
    34:05
    It's added the left plus start to end the game and go back to attract mode. My favourite is it has updated Italian translation of enter initials to Iniseriski Lettu Inisiali. Nailed it. Oh, I am so continental. Man of the world. It really is. That's the update. But we mentioned that last week. Munsters is not going to get an update. Not for some time. I still think in the future it will be Ghostbusted. I think in the future they'll have time to come back to it and do something with it. It's my hope, but most people have just been saying it is what it is. It's meant to be an easy game. That's all you need. Yeah, I mean, he seemed to have closed the book on it. I mean, I don't remember him ever saying that Ghostbusters is never going to get a code update, and he kind of said that there's no plans to do another update. Correct. I mean, if there was stuff like Game of Thrones and Ghostbusters that he had a vision that he didn't get to finish, then I don't know why he wouldn't be like, yeah, when I get time just like this, I'd like to get back to it. But I think that he – it's exactly what he meant to do. So people need to start coming to terms with that and be – it is what it is. It might not be for you, but for the people it is for, I'm sure they enjoy it. So, you know.
    35:34
    Well, let's – finishing off the trilogy of Stern releases. Jurassic Park, L.A., is shipping. It's shipped. It's gone. It's out. People are getting them. Streams are popping up as well. Well, it's there. Yeah, yours is on the boat. It's now the 28th of September, so we've got two more. No, it's the 27th, I don't know what you're talking about. Yeah, so it really is.
    36:03
    And to note about the Munsters code, just so everybody, like that code update is going to go out for practically all their games, so you're going to be seeing these little updates because they're updating them to the new system, so slowly they're all going to get those changes. There you go. Just lastly on Jurassic Park, one thing I saw that was posted by Keith Elwin today, so this could also be social media watch. I don't have the social media theme, so, you know, we can just go do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Yep, there it is.
    36:33
    So he actually put a camera on the top of, or probably on the front of, the T-Rex. So you're actually watching the play field as the T-Rex is moving around. And it is such a cool effect that when I get my Jurassic Park LE, I am totally doing that. I'm going to strap the camera to its head and you can have T-Rex cam, T-Cam. Yeah, that's awesome. Speaking of Jurassic Park, did you see the pictures of someone posted that their captive ball for the truck completely snapped off? No, I didn't know that. Yeah, the bar in Montreal that I think Adam runs, he put a picture, it completely severed off. That's how much played it was. I was thinking about this, can you think of another captive ball that can be hit from so many different angles and has hit so much in other games as much as that one? No, that ball is definitely getting a beating. Interesting because it's getting it from the side, it's getting it from the front, and I just wonder if, you know, I'm sure they thought of this, but I mean, if you think that, you know, oh, the same thing we use in other captive balls is fine, and it's always lasted, it's always reliable. Well, did you think that, you know, it being times 10, the amount of times it's being hit, and then also coming from multiple angles, and maybe that that, it, like, it just can't, it's not thick enough to handle that much beating? I don't know. Maybe that was just like a weird, you know, fringe thing, but I can see because when I saw that, I'm like, holy crap. And then thinking, well, is there another ball, captive ball like that, that gets hit that much in games from multiple directions? And I can't think of one. I can't think of one either. So that just might be one of those things you don't know till you know thing. Like, well, we would have thought it's always all the captive balls have worked in everything forever. But you never think, well, but have those been able to be hit from multiple angles and are crushed all the time like a bash toy? No, well, not necessarily.
    38:51
    Hopefully that is just something weird happened with that ball. Ballgate. Yeah, Ballgate, there you go.
    38:58
    When I saw that, my main concern was like, okay. Yeah, exactly. Well, when I saw that, I'm like, well, what happened to that ball when it came off? And then, you know, obviously the one part of that ball was probably pretty rigid. So hopefully that didn't get flipped around because that was ripped up stuff. Yes, hopefully, yeah, they got to it immediately.
    39:17
    So there you go. Oh, well, so anyway, Jurassic Park, it's coming at some stage. At least, you know, we've got the pros here at least. So if I wanted to, I could go and play a pro. I kind of don't want to. I just want to wait so when I get mine I'm not already sick of it. I just want to feel the upgrade like this is so much better. I don't know. This is my big gripe and such first world problems. It's spoiled. I don't want to ruin the experience and I want to try and get as much new experience out of it rather than it being just an incremental improvement over a pro that I've just played to death because I've gone out on site and played it. Yeah, but what if it shows up and you need to replace the gearbox? Well, then that's a new experience, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm going to be spending some time on a pro tomorrow because we're going to play some Jurassic Park tomorrow. Oh, nice. Haven't had too much time on it. Not enough time on it. So, speaking of new games that don't exist. No? Ooh.
    40:35
    Segways. It is. So, we're going to talk a little bit about Deep Root. I don't know whether I want to go too deep into Deep Root. Oh, I see. See, I'm the one who should have these things. I know when it should be used.
    40:53
    You don't have enough power for your responsibility. I keep forgetting that I've got the drum kit. But look, this really came to light on This Week in Pinball. So everybody go to thisweekinpinball.com. Thank you, Jeff, for everything that you do.
    41:07
    So effectively, Deadpool had put an announcement on their website. I kind of, I don't know, I kind of guess what we're trying to say is locking down a launch date is very difficult in their world because there's just so much that's in flux at the moment. The quality of the machines, the actual machines, the completion of the machines. And so it really was just, you know, Robert Mueller sort of coming out, sort of still saying that there is going to be prototypes, but they're probably not going to be a launch. And so then, so Jeff from This Week in Pinball reached out to Robert Mueller and, you know, asked some questions. And again, it's kind of that I won't I won't necessarily say it's trying it's vague, but I think the summary for me is they are finding it very difficult to commit to an absolute point in time. And I'm going to say it's because making pinball is harder than they thought it was. But I also think that they've come out promising these machines are going to be the best machines in the world ever. The build quality is going to be better. He said it here. There's no dimpling. There's going to be no pulling. There's going to be no cracking of the clear. It's going to be absolutely perfect. He's also said that the video assets are going to be the highest quality that anybody's ever seen. So if you've gone out and said that, then you can't show anything that is below that. So I think that's why I think that all this stuff is moving out, not because it can't be done, but because, and he sort of said, you know, the last 20% or 10, 20%, whatever it is, is the most stressful because that's the hardest part. To get everything to a perfection state is really difficult. Yep, definitely. And on the topic of Jeff, I just wanted to give him a shout out because I had a really rough day this week and he reached out to check on me and it was really awesome of him and I did not expect it. So thank you, Jeff. Pimball is cool, right? Pimball people can be cool. Pimball people are the best.
    43:26
    Except for every episode where you've said Pimball people are the worst. But at least you can hold on the last episodes where you've said that. Well, 99% of them are the best. Everything off Pinside is good. But yeah, I mean, he's promised the world on these things. I mean, and it's kind of funny. I mean, the whole Dimple thing, like, I don't get that. It's funny because when it was over Mark's house tonight and we were playing Ghostbusters, I was wandering around between balls and he has a Doctor Who. And I was walking around like, oh, look, this is that diamond plate thing that I hear so much about. And, oh, look, dimples everywhere. No, no, no. Now, diamond plate doesn't stop you from getting dimples either. So I would dimples because steel is harder than wood So no matter what you coat that with it going to happen Unless they doing maybe play fields that are plastic or a different material then sure that could be possible I mean, he's promising a hammer test. It can't be wood, people. It just can't be. I don't care what you coat that with. A hammer will do way more to it than a steel ball. But yeah, I mean at this point I'm excited because if you're this close to – there's two sides of it. If you're this close to launch and you are spouting out the mouth like this and promising this shit, then it's like, well, he's got to be telling the truth, right? I mean he can't – you can't be this close to about unveiling and then miss on this shit. Like he's got to have this in hand, right? He can't be talking like that unless he's going to deliver. No. So it's like – Yep. And that's what I'm saying is that I think he can do it, but it's triple constraints. Look them up, everybody.
    45:26
    Something's got to suffer, and it's going to have to be time. If you are not going to compromise on quality, then something else has got to give. You've either got to put more money into it or you've got to, I don't know, put more time. And I think that's really what it is. It's actually time and money because for him, time is money. The more each month rolls out, he's got to pay people. So money's not an object for him. Money bags, we know that. So it's really about time. And I think that's what he's saying with this is we aren't going to lock down a particular date because quality is fixed. We are not going to compromise on that. So to get to that level of that standard, it's just going to take longer and more money. So it's frustrating for us because grand statements have been made and everybody's, look, literally, I'm sitting here with a bag of popcorn and it's folded out like it's microwave popcorn. I've stuck it in the microwave. I've put the amount of minutes and I just want to hit the start button for when it gets launched so I can go, right, here's my popcorn. Let me watch this unfold. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like, that's the second part. It's like the first part is just like, I'm really excited that this is happening and it seems as real as possible. So it's like, I want it to happen. But on the other hand, it's like, like, is this like, do you still got to talk like this? I don't see the positive end, I guess, of talking like this. Only bad things can happen if you're putting yourself out there like this and talking as much shit as he is.
    47:17
    It's cool if he can back it up, but even then, at this point, we're almost to the finish line. And, like, what's the point at this point to still keep going like this? Like, just let's get to the finish line. But he didn't actively go out there with all these answers. He was asked by Jeff from This Week in Pinball to answer some questions, and that's when that stuff. His statement really was just up on his website, which basically said it was effectively just qualifying what's going to happen at the Houston Arcade Expo, Of which he's clarified by saying there are going to be two early prototypes and don't judge us on these because they're probably not going to have the final art or the final code or the final everything. It's just to get some real world data. That's all he's really sort of said. You know, we expect to complete engineering and launch early next year. So really, I think what's happened is everyone's now expected that Houston is going to be the launch. And he's getting to that point. He's thinking, shit, I've got to let people know this isn't actually going to be the launch just to manage expectations. So it's basically saying 2020 is when it's going to happen. And to your point, we're all sitting here going, well, so far we've not seen anything. All we've heard is about this amazing stuff that you're going to do. And we're just sitting by saying, show us your goods. We are ready to believe you, but give us some evidence. And at this stage, I think people are sort of like, yep, whatever. Push it out as much as you want. We don't care anymore. But I still think it, well, I don't think it matters now. I think just release it when you're ready. And if it's as good as you say it's going to be, the waiting time that it's taken us, everyone will forget if it's as good as you say. Yeah, and I guess what I'm just saying is that it makes sense about these are the time frames, this is the timetable, handle expectations. I guess I'm just over the peacocking at this point. I get it. I know you've said this before. At this point, I'm good hearing it.
    49:30
    The next time I want to see you bragging about stuff is when you're next to it. No, I know. Every couple of months where you're just hearing this stuff, it's like, okay, I get it. I understand. And I'm excited, but. No, I know. But what I'm saying is that he didn't go out there to Peacock at this stage. He just put a statement up on the website. Then as part of the interview that happened. So it's not like he actually went out there to do yet another one, but he's got to answer in the same consistent way that he's always answered. So I'm kind of defending him in a way, but also we don't know what he knows and he is so backing his product that he can talk like this. And it might be one of those things. As I said, I'm going to get my popcorn straight out of the microwave and then I'm going to look at the product he's released and I'm either going to go, well, you didn't deliver, or I'm going to go, oh, okay, now I know why you said all that stuff over the years because you could back yourself. We just don't know. Yeah, it definitely seems like it's more that second one because it's just, it doesn't make sense if it's not. No, I know. But this is what we've got to remember is that, and he is a victim of other companies that have done the same thing. Other companies who have gone on record have said, we are going to build a machine that doesn't have the problems that all these other machines have. Home pin, there you go, I've said it. Mike said, Thunderbirds is going to have the best build quality and it's not going to have all the problems at all the other machines because we do all this. And it didn't deliver. You then also had other small boutique manufacturers that have come out saying these grand plans and they haven't happened. So the problem with D-Brute is he's come out saying the same thing and everyone's going, well, we don't believe you because of all these other people. He's like, well, hang on, that's not me. These are other people. Why am I being tarred with the same brush? Well, that's just because that's the pinball community at the moment. Well, to be fair to HomePin, I mean, they said that they have good build quality and, you know, whatever, which might be true. I mean, they didn't say the game wouldn't suck. So, I mean, you gotta be fair. They didn't make that promise. They stuck to the facts, true.
    51:43
    They stuck to what they could deliver. Yeah, they didn't go back on that promise because they never said it wouldn't suck. So, I know. Poor things. Anyway. Whatever. You know, that got brought up again tonight because we were talking, Mark and Aaron were arguing, they were trying to, like, what is the least favorite game? And then he answered some newer games and she meant to say, like, oh, what is your least favorite game that other people like? But immediately he gave one and then we were like, Thunderbirds? And then we were like, yeah, well, that kind of wins every argument all the time, huh? So we got to take that out. Correct. It really does. Is it worse than? Well, you've just got to take that one out, otherwise it'll just scoop the pool every time. That's like, yeah, exactly. We do a head-to-head battle royale that wins all the time. All the time. Straight to the end. In the finals. Insta-wit. My box with a rock, Thunderbirds. Who wins? I don't know. It's a tough one. The fucking box with a rock. I'm never going to let that go. It's awesome. It is awesome. So look, another thing that happened this week, we finally got our points from Pinberg and talk me through it, Joe. What about it? There's points now.
    53:01
    But what did it mean for you? It didn't, look, it meant something for me, like for those people that don't know, the way it works, every tournament's worth a certain amount of points. If you win, you scoop the pool of the points and the further down you get the less points you get. Blah, blah, blah, whatever. I'm not going to listen to Mrs. Pins. She's done a much better Pinball for Dummies tutorial of Whopper points.
    53:22
    But this particular tournament was worth a lot of points. And your ranking, your world ranking is determined by your top 20 points in the last, I want to say, three years. Is that right? Correct. Yep. Three years. And they also have less value the further you get behind. So my result this year might be worth 20 points, but if that was a year ago, it'll be worth less points. Does that diminish the further back it goes? It degrades by 30% or 33% every year. So right now, so my points, like we all remember I didn't do so well at Pinnberg. I think 218th I came. You still made finals though. I still made big finals. So my points this year for coming 211th are worth 11 points, 11 point something. And my points from last year where I came 74th, no, 84th, something like that, are now worth 9 points. So last year, those points were worth more and now worth less. So basically it means that the points I got from Pimber just now do materially impact my overall ranking, but not by much. Well, to answer your question, I ended up higher than I thought I was. The math of the day, I thought I came in 23rd, I came in 21st, and I pocketed 35.83 Whopper points. That's nice. So yeah, 21st out of 1,000, I'll take that. I think Keith got like 141 points or something like that. It was huge. Imagine that. 141 points on your board. Oh, God. Crazy. It's disgusting.
    55:10
    Yeah, and the other thing that happened was, because the other big tournament at Pinball was the Intergalactic. Now, the difference between the two was with Pinball, when you signed up, you had to put your proper IFPA number in as part of the registration. With Intergalactic, you didn't. So what's happened? Tons of people don't have their names correct. And mine included, because I'm in there as Joseph Lemire, and my IFPA profile is under Joe Lemire. But hopefully they never fix it, because I didn't bother trying really hard to qualify, which in hindsight, either you go in or you don't go in, because my rating is going to tank so bad because of that tournament. Because more or less, I lost to 100% of the 250 players who were playing. So I'm going to drop way out of the Power 100 because of that. I'm 44th now. I expect when that actually gets fixed, I'm going to not even be in there anymore. Yeah. Well, I came 520th in Intergalactic. I'm like 480, I think. So I didn't even think I did enough to even qualify, but I must have did like... Wait, how many entries were there? 10? I must have did like six or something. Yeah, I can't remember. I might have had five or six. It was just too hard to get it. It was just, yeah, it was way more of a pain in the ass to be bothered with. Unless you played on Friday. If you played on the first day it started, then it seems like it was much easier to do, which I guess next year I'm going to have to play early and often versus waiting in two-hour waits later on. But also because and also Pinberg is part of the circuit. So that gave me some points in the circuit, which I'm now down to the down to the 12th place in that. So I have one more left with the 24 hour. But if I want to make top 20, I might have to go down to Florida or something. Yeah, I'm going to have to go to Florida. Yeah. Because there's five events left in the year. Yeah. So, yeah. Steve Bowden is crushing it. I'm not bothered. I'm actually, believe it or not, I'm actually taking a break from competitive pinball. But then who's going to be my superstar in Australia? I'll be your cheerleader. That's all I'll need to be. I've just decided I need just a bit of a break from it. Well, when you described your scene over there, it doesn't seem like you're going to miss out on much. It was a great scene. Well, you had mentioned that getting points over there is very, very difficult. No, but it's all still contained. We've still got the Australian Championship Series, so depending on how well I do in tournaments, we'll give my ranking and then I can do the national championships as well if I get into top, I don't know what it is, top 50 or something. So that's still there. And the bit I miss is the social aspect because there's just about every week, sometimes twice a week, there's regular competitions on.
    58:26
    But I just, you know, I'm just done for a while. I'm putting on my tournament, obviously, and I'm going to focus all my attention on that. But the actual participation, I just wanted to just get off the whopper train for a bit. Well, that's certainly fair to do. I mean, sometimes you just got to walk away. I mean, I've had a couple stints where I just didn't feel like doing it. So, well, I mean, you're starting the dollar next year. So, I mean, that's when you're really going to try hard. So rest now and then go win the state championship. Yeah, that's probably true because we are going to. Well, actually, we've already got to start a state championship that's already sort of underway. So that may happen.
    59:08
    It'll be worth more dollars next year. Well, no, the year after, because it accumulates the points over the year. I think 2021 is when the funds will probably start getting released, maybe. I guess that's true. I think it is. So, anyway. Eh, who knows. Anyway, I still love playing pinball, but just the win-lose competitive side of it. At least you can go and hang out at the places. If I just dropped Pinball for my life, I would go into such a deep depression. I'm just missing the social aspect. Like you mentioned, it'd suck. Yeah, well... Just hanging out with people is the main reason I play. It's just the community is... The offline community is amazing. Yep. Absolutely agreed. All right, so there we go. Let's now do Joe Tips the Top 100. Are you ready, Joe? Oh yeah! Are you sure? Oh my god, of course I am! Okay, here we go Google Lady, you better do it right this time. No pressure. Hey Google, pick a number between 1 and 100.
    60:19
    66. 66 is Indianapolis 500. Interesting, okay. Okay. So, a Dennis Nordman game. I quite like this game. And I actually really quite like this game in a competition setting. Except for the freaking lock shop, which never bloody validates. But besides that... Which is the whole game. Which is pretty much the whole game. But I guess the reason why I like it is because if it's not going to work for you, it's not going to work for everybody else. Until it does and you get really angry. It's a fast, flowy game. There's good call-outs that really communicate to you the game. I don't know how top players would rate Indy 500 as a game, but certainly the tournaments I've been in, it's been a fairly levelling type of game. It doesn't feel like it's an unfair game, is what I'm saying. No, it's super fast. And it's a pretty rare game. There's not a lot of these. So I don't get to play it that often. And because it's so fast, it's really hard to get dialed in on it and live. At least I've found. But when you do get dialed in, it's super satisfying. But if you play against someone who either it's their game or they play it a lot and they're dialed in on it, you're in for a world of hurt if they can hit those turbo combos. Yeah. Because it's like, oh, shit, he can do that and I'll keep missing. I am screwed.
    62:01
    Because it's not like you're like, well, he can do that, sure, but I'm going to go modes. Nope, don't work like that. It's not like Adam's Family where someone can crush multiball and you go, well, I'm just going to tour, so I'll beat you another way. Nope. So you do the thing or you're fucked.
    62:19
    So what are you doing? When you're starting the game off, what are you going to do? So the first thing you do, I tend to do, is first you have the skill shot. So the weird thing with these is these ramps, especially the right ramp return to the in lane and the plunge, it's like one of those cut-off habit trails, so it comes fast. It's not like it comes down, drops, and then rolls. It flies. So I tend to not go for the skill shot because, you know, it's chump change. Who cares? What you really want to do is hit the left orbit. That's the money shot of the game. You have to hit that left orbit, which lights your locks, and then it's going to come around. And if you can put it into the lock shot in the same combo, you'll get a turbo jackpot or a turbo combo, whatever lock jackpot which is on top of your locks. You get one in there, you're going to plunge another ball, you have to do the same thing again, get two, that'll start your multiball. And really, the multiball is where your bread and butter is in this game. You're putting in your ramps or your jackpots and then you can... They alternate as well, just so you know, people. It's not just hitting ramps all the time. The first two ramps are lit and then whichever one you go first, it unlights it, then you've got to get the other ramp and then alternate back and forth. Yeah, it's kind of like scared stiff. Yes, correct. Stiff in the coffin. The only wrinkle is that if you put the balls back into the lock, it'll hold them. It's kind of like Indy, where if the balls are in the lock, you get double jackpots or triple jackpots, I think, if you can get two of them in there. And I think that if you lock two, or if you lock all the balls in there, you get an add-a-ball, I think. Is that right? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, so if you're down to two balls, you can put them both in the lock and you'll get another ball in play. And then also while the balls are in there, I believe your jackpots are doubled. I don't know if they go to triple because they couldn't because you're getting a new ball. So I think it just doubles your jackpots. And that's pretty much what you do. And that's the multiball and that's pretty much the big points in the game. I mean, you can try and go for kind of like a whitewater where you can get the 5x playfield and then try and do that. And then you get the ridiculous points. But unlike, well I guess not unlike Whitewater, it's a lot easier to set that up on Whitewater than it is this game. This game, again, I don't get to play it that often, so maybe you can specifically change your laps in the middle to pick your mode to try and get that one. But I believe it's kind of random via, I assume, the pop bumpers. Changes what's lit. So, and those modes are lit via the middle and the right orbit, is that correct? Oh man, so that's what I was hoping that you were going to do, because I know that there is that middle scoop right up the middle that gives you, I guess it's kind of like a mystery, but then you've got the right orbit that goes to the scoop that does, I don't know, what is it, hit the wall or something? The wall, yeah. Yeah. And then is that the one where you've got to, you can hit the right flipper and change it and it'll go to points and then all of a sudden it'll go to one point or that. Yeah. So you've really got to push your luck with that one. Yeah. So that's, yeah, that's one of the, I think that's like the mystery award.
    65:58
    What is that? Start setup. I can't. And then I believe that also lights like your pit stop, which I believe that then you can put it in the ramp and then you can get like a two ball multi ball. But yeah, I just literally I've only seen one in this area. It's up in Vermont and I get to play it once a year if that.
    66:20
    So, I mean, that's generally what I remember doing. Like it has souvenirs in it. I think that you can collect or like purchase like in Roadshow. I don't think you should do that. I think it's best not to do that.
    66:35
    But I mean that mainly it I believe it I pretty sure it up the middle in the right orbit No I think you correct I think they called Speedways or something And effectively they kind of modes
    66:47
    So, because one of them... Yeah, they're tracks in the middle. Yeah, because one of them is actually like a multiball. I can't remember which one that is. But there's things like, well, there's also the pit up the middle. We are not doing this game justice, but I do actually have the rule sheet. And it's talking about, yeah, I think there's 10 modes and then there's a bonus 11th one as well. So really what you're trying to do is get your modes where the points are and if you can get multiball even better.
    67:18
    Yeah, like Turbo Boost multiball is literally one of the multiballs, which I believe is just hitting the lock. Yes, correct.
    67:26
    And it's a 3x playfield, not 5x. I don't know why I thought it was 5X, but then there's a couple other ones in here. Yeah, Turbo Boost is the two-ball, multi-ball. That's a fun one. I like getting that one because you're in two-ball, so you've got safety. It just means you've got more time playing the game, and as you said before, the game is pretty brutal, so you want to be able to get that one. Yeah, and that literally is just putting in the lock, so it's like a good thing. It would be cool if you could set that up or if like on Funhouse where it automatically defaults to the two-ball, multi-ball in tournament. It would be cool if that was the default for this so that in a similar fashion you can like, okay, well then I can use this multi-ball because that's the combo. So it gives you a chance to try and find where this combo is. Right, okay. Kind of similarly to like on Funhouse where quick multi-ball is getting you used to the things you need to do for the main multi-ball. Right, okay. So it'd be a cool thing. So change setup was the one that I was talking about. So again, Senghe, hit the blue target and then you can, I think the right orbit goes into the captive ball there and then, sorry, the scoop there. And then you've got on the screen, it'll tell you things like 10 million points or 10 laps or light lock. and you've just got to keep scrolling through them until you find one that you like and then wait for it to time down and you'll get that. But you can go from something like 20 million points, which can be, you know, yeah, that's notable. So just nothing. 15 points. Yeah. It's like you think you're going through and you're like 10, 10 million. All right. Keep going. 15. Yeah. 15. I'm going with 15. Oh, that's 15 points. Yeah. Oh, shit. Correct. Yeah, I've definitely seen people do that, and they're like, ah, no! Yeah. It has these weird stand-up blinky targets that, like, every time you hit it, it locks in a quadrant, which seems cool, but you don't do anything with them at all. It seems like one of those, like a throwaway feature. But it's a cool concept if maybe there was a feature around it that was worth doing. The only thing I noticed about this game that I've seen a couple of times I've played is that that race thing in the top right, that spinny thing with the car, you've got to be careful with that because that actually shakes the game a lot, which it can tilt you.
    69:55
    Or if you've gotten a warning, it'll finish the job for you. Well, so that right ramp is actually quite a satisfying shot, and it's a repeatable shot, right? And I think that's the one where the car spins around as well. You know, if it's not in tournament, it'll effectively get you to light your extra ball, and effectively what it's really doing is advancing your speedway to get you to your modes, I believe. Yeah, there you go. It's a good game, but really it's just all about multiball. Yeah, it's fun, it's fast, it's difficult. I mean, if the lock is receptive to hard hits to it, and that's sticking, and you get those turbo loops in, and that combo down, it feels so good.
    70:47
    But getting there, it's very fast. Yep. But it's a fun game. I like this. I like this in a tournament because I feel the layout is, I mean, it's deadly because it's fast, but it's controllable. Yeah, and you have multiple, you know, the left ramp feeds the upper flipper, so if you can't hit the orbit and the lock slit, you know, that will help. I mean, it's a completely different shot because of that. Yeah, it is easier. You're right. The left ramp does feed to the upper right flipper and it takes momentum off the ball. So it's a more controlled shot into the lock on the left hand side. Yeah, a much lower shot. Yeah, it is. And what I've also noticed is that it's one of those games where it's actually got like a guide rail. That's probably not the right term. But if you do a shot of a left orbit and it goes so fast, it will actually hit something that slows the ball down and then feeds it to the right flip up. But sometimes the games don't have it or it misses it. And then it's just so hard to get that shot on the fly. Yeah, it's like super early. Yeah. And also, the multi-ball start on this thing is crazy. Like how fast it throws those balls to the flipper. And then the fact that the balls don't really stop, they continue down. So it's like, nothing starts and your first shots are just like, oh crap. Yeah, you're right. But you've got a ball save. But I know you're right. It's like, okay, hang on. I'm now in the middle of this. This has gotten hectic very suddenly. Yeah, this is the polar opposite of, say, like, starting multi-ball, corkscrew multi-ball on Oktoberfest. You're like, all right, here come the balls. Yep, all right. And they're still coming.
    72:35
    Oh, there's another loop. There they are. Yep. Oh, and, yeah, because this is the first time. Yeah, we'll get to it later. Never mind. Continue.
    72:49
    It was a This Week in Pinball thing. Yeah, well, there you go. Well, we're done with that. That was Indy 500. It's a great game. Go and play it. Let's move on to this week in pinball. What's happened in your week of pinball, Joe? I played at Stomp. Oh, you did. How did you go? I heard that you went really well. Yeah, I played like shit all day.
    73:13
    I know you did. I had literally, remembering it and the day of, I played one good game. I played one good game on Whodunit. I put up like four or five billion, and then the rest of it was just like play okay, play hot garbage, play okay, play terrible. I think I qualified, so it was 44 people I think, something along those lines, and they took the top 22, and I qualified 21st I think. And that only happened because I won the final round and I came in last four times in the tournament, I think. So yeah, I just had some just brain farts, not playing well.
    74:03
    And I had get to the final round. It was on, I'm like, oh, please, modern, give me a modern, please. And I got Harlem Globetrotters and I was like, ah, I'm like, okay, well. So, and I put up, I think, 550K on the first ball. I was like, okay. It was against Alberto. So I was like, ah, shit. And me and him played in the finals last year, and he beat me in the finals. So I was like, ah, cool. And we had the same record. Both of us were playing like ass. So I was like, oh, cool. It's like it happens to everybody.
    74:35
    So, yeah, so I pulled that off and then got in the finals and just played really bad. I made some really poor decisions. Like the first game was on Dirty Harry and like I was going for my – I stepped up the game. I'm like I'm going to go multiball. That's what I'm going to do. So then after the first ball, I played a mode, blah, blah, blah, tried to get a couple badges. There were two badges I was missing. The stupid safe house, which I think that's what it's called, the scoop up in the middle that's next to the upper ramp. Sure. Whatever that little saucer is. So the next ball, that was like only one I need. So I went after it and like three times I rejected, I died. So then a normal person looking at their score as being like, wow, I'm only down like 20 million or something like that. I'll play a mode or something else, anything else. And nope, I'm going to go for multiball. And again, I bricked out of that stupid thing like two more times, died, of course. And then I lost and came in third by like 20 million. I was like, oh god, start a mode and hit one shot. Stupid shit like that is what loses you games in tournaments. So I get that, and then we play a play over on Cheetah, which I think I told you about. So like we got a double DQ, was another great part of my tournament, is a double DQ in a game on Cheetah because I was playing with another Joe and I don't know why I didn't check or forgot that I checked. And the other Joe, so it was player three's turn and the other Joe said I was up. So I'm like, okay. So then I went up and why I didn't check, I checked literally every other round, I think, but I didn't check this time. So I go up, DQ myself. No one notices. So then Joe goes up and plays. He DQs himself because we were opposite to each other. Because you both played each other's balls. Yeah. Yeah. So then they're like, oh, wait, that was wrong. So we both DQ'd each other. So then they're like, well, okay, you're both DQ'd because you both played out of turn. And then like, well, but the software can't, like, you can't put in two zeros. So what do we do? And they call Josh Sharp and he's like, well, they need to play a playoff to figure out who gets third place DQ.
    77:03
    Oh, wow. Yeah, so back on Cheetah and they decide it's one ball. So he puts up like 250K or something like that. I get one flip and I die. I'm like, god damn it. This is just my luck. So that was another one of my forts. But yeah, so it was just, and then we played Cheetah again in the, back to the finals. That was like, I think the second game. And this is shit like that you just outthink yourself. So like on Ball 1, I had a pretty good Ball, or Ball 2, I had a pretty good Ball. And the way that they have their Cheetah, they have a special software ROM on it. So you can only get the bonus collect once. Yeah, you can't repay it, yes. Yeah, so I had it lit. I had max bonus and I had one drop left to get another X. I think I was on 2X. So I'm like, well, you know, I have that that's right there. So I'm like, well, I'm going to try and get that and then I'll get the bonus X. And I was trapped up on the right flipper. So I'm like, yeah. And so I played more. And of course, I died. But I'm like a moron. It's like, just shoot. Just take it. Like I was just I wasn't in the right state of mind and I was making dumb decisions the entire time. And then we played Fear, I think. Oh, no, it was three games. And so the last game was Spider-Man. And Ed was winning. He won. That was it. He didn't matter. And then it was tied between me and another person. We were both at five. And whoever won between us, advanced. Yes. So, so me, I was so out of it. And I didn't, the other two people in the group besides Ed, I didn't know who they were. And like, I didn't know their names. So I thought that the person that I needed to beat was player four. And, you know, I played terrible in my two balls, but I beat him. So I'm like, yay, I made it. And I went to go submit scores. And I'm like, yeah, I came, you know, I came in second, and then blah, blah, blah, blah. And turns out that that was not the case. And the person I was playing against was another person, was the other person who ended up beating me that I didn't even notice. So then he was there. He's like, oh, no, I came in. I'm like, I felt like such a dick. I'm like, I had, I'm like, man, I'm so out of it. I completely just fucking gave the wrong results. And I'm also not moving on like I thought I was because I was just, we left immediately after that because I was like, I'm just so bad. Oh, my God. Well, I just felt like I did that. I just felt like, oh my God, he's going to think that I did that on purpose.
    79:33
    That I purposely... Oh, absolutely. Win at all costs. We know what you're like. I know I'm terrible. But yeah, you'll be happy to know that the first thing I did when I got there is I said, hey, like, Ron, will you show me why Lethal Weapon doesn't suck? So he went over and gave me a tutorial on Lethal Weapon and I will say that the game doesn't suck. It actually is cool. It has like three different strategies and he brought up a specific story that he heard that he had a comment for you specifically about hitting the ramp and just hitting the ramp. So he was like, well, we played in a whatever tournament and he was playing Alberto and he was like, Alberto just did that. All he did was do Marty's strategy of just hitting the left ramp, and I went the 1-2-3 strategy. And he said, I'll let you ask him how that turned out.
    80:29
    So apparently that is also, it seems the 1-2-3 strategy is also a valid strategy. I guess yours is also a valid strategy, and I guess the multiball is also. Yeah, it depends on, I think it really just depends on how, you know, what shots are comfortable for you. Because if you can just nail that ramp shot, it's a really safe, repeatable shot. That's all. It's boring to watch. It's long and it's dumb. And again, it's like, you know, Star Wars with the old code does the same thing. It's lucrative, but it's boring. Yeah, and the – it has some cool, really cool, neat things where you have to, like, pay attention to the DMD because you have to hit the gun when you see Sparkle Eyes and you get points, which is kind of cool. Although I hate the gun. The gun on that is just – I fucking hate it. Like, the trigger is just unnatural and it's just – I don't like that part. But it has a really cool thing, which Oktoberfest, they remind me of this, is that if you hit the jackpot and then you hit the jackpot again before the other bulb makes it to the switch, you get a double jackpot or like a double-double jackpot or something. Because it has a very similar habit trail to Oktoberfest, so it knows that you just registered this ramp again before the other one registered the out, so you get a big bonus for that. So I wonder if something like that could be done on Oktoberfest, because you think of how long it takes for a ball to come down. Potentially you could get two or three balls up there, just like it is when it releases locks. So that would be a neat feature to add other games that have really long ramper feeds. That seems like a cool thing that you could just throw in there. Like, well, if you can get two balls up there at the same time, the game is smart enough and we will reward you for that. But that made me think of that because the first thing I saw when I saw those Habiturals, I'm like, it's Oktoberfest. Yeah, I know. I know. Anyway. So you've also got Pinmasters coming up. Is this correct? Yes, so yeah, the final tournament of the year in the series before finals is coming up on October 12th at Mystic Pinball. It's Pinmasters of Massachusetts.
    82:57
    And currently we have no waitlist, so the tournament is currently full, but if you want to get on the waitlist, it doesn't cost you anything. And if we have any more dropouts, you will be able to get in. So if you want to, you can check out pinmastersofne.com and you can find the links on there to get to Massachusetts. Or you can message me and I can get you on the wait list. But it's super fun and yeah, it's the final one of the year to give you a chance to qualify for Pinmasters of New England finals in December for the entire year. So there you go. Get into it. That's right. And I think that's most of my Pinball. League was fun, but nothing overly special. I got to play with my boy Nick, and I inched him out by one... Yeah, who you got to meet in the chat today. I did, indeed. Yeah, and I inched him out by one point, which he was super happy about. But when I got to play Oktoberfest... Yeah, no. Especially with him. He just entered the scene a year ago, and he's like almost my skill level. Yeah, it's annoying. And he's like 15 years younger than me. Not 15, but he's much younger than me. It sucks. But he's like my brother from Another Mother. He's awesome. Awesome. Well, there's really only probably two things in my week to mention. One is that I streamed Star Trek this week. Oh, you know, whatever. No big deal. I have streamed that game more times than I've streamed any other game because obviously I've owned it and I've owned it since 2013. Something happened this week. It is my favorite game. But something this week happened that has never happened before, and that was I finally got to Enterprise Amok. This isn't even the final wizard mode. This is just the second wizard mode. Enterprise Amok. I finally got to it. And what was really interesting is that I had somebody over, Paul RJ, how are you, mate? He comes over because he likes tutorials. He likes me to do flipper skills and rules and all that kind of stuff. So what was really interesting was that I was literally just calling my game, going through the rules, calling the shots, calling the modes. And then all of a sudden I sort of looked up and went, hang on, I'm two modes away from Enterprise Amok. And that's when I started panicking and you can see. But I finally got there. It's really funny in that I got there and I'm like, I don't know what to do. I knew that it was a switch mode, but I was just so caught up in the fact that I got it that I drained within seconds. Did you break your game like Keith did in his video when he got to that? No, it was fine. I just sort of moved on. I got a couple of extra level 3 modes and that was it, but I was just happy to finally, after 6 years, 6 years, Joe, I finally got to Enterprise Amok. So I was very excited about that. Well, you've done something that I have never done. Well, there you go. I mean, I haven't, like, parked and gotten used to a Star Trek to get good enough at it to get that far. I mean, I don't think I've gotten, like, close. Like, I think I've gotten maybe, like, three level two modes done or something. But I think if you owned the machine and had the machine as much as I've had it, you would have finished the whole game a long time ago. Just, I don't know. It's just been my, ugh, there's one thing I've always wanted to get and I finally got it. So I'll link that in the show notes. And I got one more. That's right. So did you get to play any of the level three modes? Yeah, yeah. I got a couple of more level three modes. I've done level three modes before because, you know, sometimes I was... Oh, because you went straight down. Right, yeah. But I kept going. I got to Enterprise and Mark on Ball 2. So Ball 3 was just going through some additional level three modes, which I'd done before because I always wanted to show on stream what perk you get when you complete. I've been through them all before, but I've never completed them. So, anyway. I did it on ball two. Well, this is the whole thing. It actually surprised me that I did it with relative ease. It was just one of those games where everything was happening. It went well for me. All comes together. So, the other thing, there's been discussions about doing a 24-hour stream and just for shits and giggles. So, I think I'm going to do a 24-hour stream just for some fun. How are you going to be in the drink for that long?
    87:29
    Wait and see. Wait and see. Oh, that's a challenge. I know, but I reckon we could do it. So, you know, I'll tell you when it's going to happen, but watch out for it. We might do a 24-hour stream on the Melbourne Silver Bowl League Twitch page. So, anyway, there you go. That's early planning stage is what's happening. You should do that eventually when I visit you. Wow, yeah. Yeah. Both of us just head-to-head 24 hours. Yeah, sure. Why not? So there you go. That's my week. And now I've got the rest of a long weekend. It was a public holiday yesterday. You know we get a public holiday because there's a football game on. Did you know that? Really? Yeah. We've talked about it before. So AFL is the Australian Rules Football, and it's the grand final today. In fact, I think it starts in about an hour's time. And in Melbourne, where I am, because that sport, AFL, is so popular, on the Friday, we get a public holiday. And that public holiday has been designed for everybody to go into the city to watch the players parade.
    88:29
    So you can imagine how much of that I've watched. None of it is the answer. I just get a good public holiday. So I've got the rest of my long weekend to enjoy. I am going to go and enjoy it. You now need to go to bed because it's past midnight. Thank you for staying up. My pleasure. And we'll do this all again next week. Thanks, everybody, for listening. Later, guys. Bye now.