Alright, we're live recording with my friend Enzo once again. Hello buddy, what's going on my Australian homie? Thank you for having me back. Pretty good, pretty chilled. It's 11.30 at night, nearly morning, so technically I'll be in the future. So what's going on with Australia at the moment because it seems like everybody out there is interviewing George Gomez. It's funny right because I've been talking to George since like April and we finally the planets aligned because with us it was about getting me and getting Gonzo in the UK and getting him in Chicago all on the same and it was just never worked out and you know he had the release of John Wick then he had the release now of X-Men and yeah we had Ryan from Phantom 2 just Steven Gillian In Kids ONE Well, look at, you know, he told us some stuff that I didn't think he was going to talk about. He kind of mentioned, you know, the fact that he took over Deadpool because of the guy that was working on it got arrested, and then he pushed a little bit about Spike 3 and Insider Connect and I always had this idea that I'd love to be able to have my Shahzad play against I'm going to play against your Squirtle from Australia. My Squirtle's a badass. And he kind of was like, oh man, he just was like, George was like, that's where we're going. Dude, can you imagine? Yeah, look, he's not shy of the politics, he's not shy of admitting faults, and he's not shy of praising everyone, because it's one big old machine, it's not just one person. And yeah, what an interview. So you guys will hear that on there. So yeah, a few little things he's given us, some information I've never heard before. So yeah, I'm looking forward to playing it back. Dude, I'm hyped to listen to this. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to really kind of push your industry forward and your company if you're not willing to objectively take a look at it, you know, and say, look, guys, this just didn't work. Great idea. Didn't work. Let's pivot. Let's change it. So I get that sense from him. You know, Thanks for tuning in! The gist of that if you haven't heard, they hired Christopher Franchi on as an exclusive now artist for Spooky Pinball. Yeah, I mean that's big. I mean I've got his work sitting here behind me, my Munsters over here, the black and white, just awesome. The way that he captures human figures in particular, it's the best. Yeah, and you know what, let's talk about Spooky for a second. I'm a company that is like, I swear every day is releasing a code update. Right. But like they back their products and they make a very interactive bang for buck machine and getting, you know, getting him on board is yeah, just that's game changer. I mean it's kind of fun like we're finding like the big three companies are kind of all just like slotting into their own little niches, right, in the pie, right, and then everybody else is fighting for the scraps. You know, but Stern, of course, is dominating with their technology, the Insider Connected, the pace of machines that they put out there. Jersey Jack, after visiting the factory, talking with the guys, like they're really positioning themselves as like, what is the best machine, you know, that we can make? How can we make the sound better than everything else that's out there in the market? How can we improve the graphic? Let's do radcals on our collectors. Let's, you know, include a topper and really push it and just have the whole package. So if you were to go objectively, you know, on a spreadsheet, you know, their game seems to be like the best put together of everything. And Spooky Pinball is like, we're only going to do a theme if we can do the hell out of the theme. We want all of the assets, we want a code update coming, you know, every other week it seems like. And nobody seems to be hitting any production stumbles, you know. You know, with the exception of, you know, maybe Spooky, like if you ordered Looney Tunes today, your build may be pushed back six months or so. I'm not seeing anybody that's ordered a game and is waiting a year later and the game still ain't there. Hashtag Pulp Fiction LE. No sliding at CDC. I mean, their quality is great. The game is amazing. I rolled the thing the other day for the first time. So, like, holy crap, Pulp Fiction is great. But like, if I was, I mean, it took me a year just to get my standard edition. The LE owner is still waiting. We heard September. Still not seeing them. So, yeah, I'd like to see the big three just killing it. And this ad of, you know, getting Frangie as an exclusive now on art. Let's go, man. Look, it's a game changer. I think, you know, we know that I was really impressed with like the stuff that you put out being a JJP. I mean, it's very obvious that they are now really pushing themselves to be these boutique pinball, you know, immersive experience, cinematic experience We're going to have fun with it and it's going to be, you know, simple. Anyone can use it. Anyone can play it. Um, and at the end of the day, if Stern have, you know, I was saying this to someone today, I was trying to explain to them, Stern have 90% of the market share and 70% of that is residential. The rest is commercial. Now, most of like, sorry, 90% of the commercial product is theirs. You don't really see JJPs on a commercial product. So their machines have to be built where they are a bit more robust and a bit simpler and a bit easier, you know, and not as loaded, less mechanisms, less toys, because, you know, they are going into a commercial space as well, right? There is JJP have this like Hollywood director's cut machine that is immersive, right? Absolutely. Yeah, I was talking to my wife yesterday because, you know, Gomez has mentioned this a couple of times, 70% of their game sales from Stern are going into homes, but with Insider Connected and the data they can mine, 70% of the game play is on locations. Yeah. Yeah, so you've got to simultaneously now make a machine that's got deep enough rules and fun enough things in it that it's gonna last at home and not be boring after three months but it still has to be compelling and fun to play for the first 10% of the code that every 70% of the people playing this game are gonna experience on location yeah and so they're like they're right in that wheelhouse people have been reaching out to me like you know Don which is the better game come on x-men vs. avatar let's go and it's like all right you know I broke it down a couple of different ways but like if you're You're asking me like which machine is better? You know, as far as like speakers, graphics, finish, you know, I give it to JJP with Avatar. As far as like which game is a better game, that's completely subjective and we're gonna argue over that as we are, as we do. And, you know, people are, there's Team X-Men, there's Team Avatar and both people I think are right for them, you know. I can say this though, you know, fricking both games are amazing. So, I don't think you can lose even if you just flip the coin. You know, you're gonna have a good game play experience. I think maybe, and this is a little bit of the issue at the moment where I think we're probably to blame a little bit in a sense because we, everyone's click baiting where everyone's doing X-Men versus Avatar, obviously because they came out at the same time, right? Absolutely. The fact is they're not the same thing, right? It's not apples for apples. And on paper, which is the better machine? It is Avatar, JJP. You just can't, it's, you know, it's loaded, right? Mm-hmm. So it's like saying, oh, you've got an Aston Martin and I've got a Hyundai and we're going to do a video and compare those on Tokyo. They're completely different beasts. You know, which is the best game playing? Again, subjective, but a lot of people I've talked to prefer playing X-Men just because they've had more fun on it. You know, they can just keep playing it over and over again. You know, it's, but again, it's subjective. That doesn't mean that the next person is going to think that X-Men is better. It's kind of like this, like you could go out to a really nice stage production Broadway style show that's just you know immersive and has cool mechanisms on stage and a flying dragon and how they make that actor levitate for that song and like just have those moments right? Then you can go to a Metallica concert and just be in the pits slashing around and just having like a blast. But you know how do you say which experience was better? You know they're just they're different, they're complementary, you can enjoy one and the other. Vant 가장 ingringian di Next fall … … Great. I love this little trilogy we got right now. This trinity of pinball amazingness. I think what JJP have done with the production of the release, the little mini documentary, having the machines out for everyone to play, inviting everyone, setting the scene, setting the mood, getting everyone really immersed with the lighting, you know, they know how to do it. I mean hats off to them, right? They definitely know how to do it and it's gonna sell games. You know, it's a stunning game. I mean since Elton John they've been able to do something pretty amazing which is make me want a game that I was kind of just already a no based on the theme release, you know. I like Sir Elton as much as anybody else but like do I really need to have that machine? And then of course, you know, they came out with it, played it at Expo and it's like this game is amazing! What the heck? You made me want an Elton John machine. The same thing with Avatar. I heard it and I'm like, okay, I'm familiar with the license. You know, it's not, it's not Star Wars. It's not, you know, Ghostbusters, not Gremlins. You know, I'll see, I'll go play it. I'm sure the light show will be great. Whatever. Let's go play it. And then I see the thing and play it and like, you know, the eclipse is coming in. I'll play it through the different modes. It's not just like, you know, reward multiball after multiball, right? Like I felt like I earned them when they happened. You know, one's a little easier to get with the crab mech. The other one you have to lock balls traditionally until it comes out. But yeah, I was having a good time with it. and so like they may be one of the avatar game and that includes it's so good it's fun and like you know as you're playing the switches you're hitting whatever you're hitting it is is adding towards that you know event right and then you know somewhere between the end of all one the middle of all two you notice like a that this the the play feels changing right it's just subtle it's coming on in you look at the the big lcd screen that they have and you know there's a shadow moving across it and it's all progressive and you're building up points towards a potential jackpot and then once it hits the eclipse is there the callouts are telling you the music has changed the lighting has changed everything's bioluminescent and then all of a sudden you're like alright now I can try to cash out this huge, potentially huge jackpot it was just like such a cool mode because you're playing through the game and trying to hit the shots and having fun hitting the repeatable ramps and trying to get up to that banshee loop, the wire form, up the scram, you know off that right upper flipper and then all of a sudden it changes and it's like alright, eclipse is going I'm like, now I've got to focus on this thing. And it was just that that gameplay dynamic that was changing. You know, you weren't just playing the game the same way the whole time. Yeah. Which I guess we kind of getting that on X-Men with the whole like you're in the future, as are you in the past or in your present, which is set in the 80s. And then you go to the future and everything changes. The music changes. The machine gets darker because you're in that post-apocalyptic top future. Right. And then you can switch back to the past. And then the music becomes like, I think you said it's like 80s pop piano synthesizer. So that's what they were describing as that. That's the song that I've always been complaining about, right? You know, you start at X-Men and you're expecting like, you know, let's jump into this thing, right? You know, let's zombie yeti this thing up. I want to hear the guitars, like, let's battle. And it's like, you know, I'm in a 80s elevator, like, what's going on, man? You know, so they explained to me like the concept behind that. I get it. I don't think it's landing, especially not for people that are only going to see probably just that one mode of the game. So they've taken that and I think we're gonna get some more rockin tunes which I'm totally fine with. Black Knight Sword of Rage has an amazing soundtrack and you can go into the settings you can change it to a completely different set of music too so put that in as an option then you know there's no complaints right you can have it however you want. What George admitted today that, you know, that they, it's not finished and there's things that, you know, they, he said, we know people complain, he goes, but we, you know, we know that it's not right. Like he goes, we tend to think that people think we don't know what we're doing, but they know that the music and the animation still needed tweaking. But at the end of the day, the game had to be released and it is what it is. So like he said, in six months time, when everyone's got their early at home and their premiums and pros, this will all be We've forgotten about. Absolutely, yeah. So when I was there playing it was dev code that they had it on so I saw a little bit of that going past the future I still wasn sure exactly what I doing to trigger that I saw the effects were different they done some cool things with the GI lighting especially with the foil art blades on the LE and how the light kind of shows up off of there so you know it went from being kind of like brightly lit GI in the past to a more subtle like reds and blue hues so I get it you know initially there like four modes that you can choose from when you start a mode and then it goes up to what looks like nine on a matrix and then you The Winning Pinball Show, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams, Some of the best I've played. Well, a lot of people going like they were doing shots and the ball was just appearing from nowhere, right? Like, how did that ball get over here and how did that ball get over there? And like it's apparently the playfield from what I've seen and what I've heard from other content creators and the conversation you had with the other guy, I always forget his name. He was there as well with you. You shot the podcast with the other day. Come to me. Oh, Scott Larson, Loser Kid. Yeah. Yeah. Like everyone was saying the same thing. Everyone was saying that, um, like that playfield is so unique. That layout is so unique. Yes, we've seen elements of it before, but it's very special. That's the thing. So, um, I can't wait. I can't wait to play it. They took like one of the best shots on Deadpool, inverted it, and put it in this game. You know, because you still have that cross field shot that shoots the ball around into the wire form. And then instead of going up into a katana, it comes looping across the apron, and then it's danger room time. And the danger room is super fun. You know, it's not a drain monster at all. You know, it's easy to, you know, nudge and trap up on that flipper. You can take a break and then go, you know, hit the spinner a couple times and then hit the ramp to get out. Like, it was fun. It was satisfying every time it happened. It never felt unfair. And for somebody like me that just loves to put balls in left out lane and drain, now I've got more than a fighting chance to keep the game going. So, yeah, let's go, man. Are we still talking about pinball? So that question actually, did you spend much time, did you, that awesome going back to JJP with Avatar, that ramp where it's got the spinner in the air? Yeah, yeah, so that's fun. That's how you cash out your eclipse bonus when it's ready, when it's built up there. So I love this. So with this game when you plunge the ball it goes right up into the left orbit and then You can plunge a full orbit all the way around. I just played Guns N' Roses again recently and you know it's just not satisfying to plunge up about a centimeter and then the ball just kind of goes down and then there you go. It's like I want to jump into this game you know. Now I didn't feel like I didn't feel like I was a spaceship reentering orbit or anything but it was fun you know plunging in there. Yeah Alien was the same. Alien you plunge and boom you strike and the rock flew off. Yeah I'm like come on I want to like get it out in there you know and then let me vary streaming You don't have to go back to Paris this weekend and really start giving it your all when you start playing. Start now sit back and relax. Of niezGold Jr. We'll hit the spinner. So that's fun. It was fun. And I'm a sucker for upper playfields and lower playfields. Like I love Big Lebowski's bowling machine. Yeah, it's the greatest ever created. Yeah, or like even in, you know, Monster Bash. Monsters, ACDC. Yeah, like those lower, like I like those. A lot of people are a bit gimmicky and they slow the game down. But how did you find the little submarine underwater? So I've warmed up to my Munsters lower playfield. It's got that quarter-inch ball, but it does feel like these are tiny little flippers. It's more of just kind of like a gimmicky kind of thing. This one has a ball that's bigger than the Munsters one, smaller than a normal ball. But it wasn't as chaotic, you know, it wasn't like you were shaking a little plastic toy or something. So, you know, the ball feeds in first to the pop bumper and the stand-up target field, right, above the crabmech. Tim Tim Kitzrow, The Ball Will Just Bounce Across the Pop Target, and then your job is to move the lights along the stand up target to try to go through all the different colors. Once you do, then you qualify that little crab mech battle. Otherwise it will time out and the ball will feed down into the scoop and come back to your right flipper. Into the Crab Area, it was fun. You could trap up. They aren't the mini, mini, tiny flippers like we've seen on ACDC and Munsters. Tim Tim Kitzrow, The Smaller Full-Size Flipper Mechs, you know, whatever's they decrease the strength of them. So you're not absolutely just destroying that crab. So it's like, you know, it all feels good. But you can trap up, you know, smash against the crab, and then it'll light, you know, an orbit shot to hit. It was findable. It was fun. It was a good way to do a lower play field as far as like, where I feel like I actually have control over the ball. And it's not just flipping pray that this little ball bearing will get it to where it needs to go. I had more control there. So it's fun. And then when you defeat the crab, the hot rails strobe red and white on the sides. You get a little moment. Shaker goes off and then like play continues. So that was fun. You know, the first time you battle him, it's pretty straightforward. Just bash him until he dies. The second time you have to bash him and then hit an orbit to qualify it. And then that went into one of the multiballs. So it was good. It was good. You know, I like how it played, how it felt. It didn't feel like a gimmick. It felt like a good use of that real estate. I didn't see any air balls off of the plexi cover on there either like we've seen with some other games. That may be because you need to fine tune the screws there and make sure it's nice and flush but these were working really well. It looked like an impressive operation. I mean their factory was immaculate in the background where they knew you were coming so they made sure it was clean but it was very well all machined that's for sure. Yeah, I mean, they're churning games out through there, and they will do, their line, they'll focus on one game at a time. That's kind of their thing, you know, Elton John came out 11 months ago, and now here we are 11 months in, here's their next game. So, you know, they'll be in Avatar production, I don't know, probably for eight months or so. And then if they need to, they can shift the line in a matter of a day, and then have another game going. I did see where they have a lot of Elton John parts all staged, you know, just off to the side of the factory, so when they're ready, they'll just kind of populate the line there and then go. Stop IT, PUNCH THEY GET IT compris and assembly. A lot of work went into really optimizing this line combinatorial start at one end up every e Brandon RDBCR The JJP Tour, that one sold out. Sold out, the tickets were free, you just had to register for them, it's probably why they're gone. Register, yeah. Yeah, but maybe for launches we could see something like this where we can get fans or something that are interested into the factory. Because it was super fun walking around there and like, oh, there's the sub-assembly for the lower playfield, can I hold it? They let me cradle it like a newborn baby. The thing felt like it was 15 pounds, like all self-contained, like I want to just play that by itself, man. And they'd probably sell more machines quicker too because people always, oh no, I won't buy it until I can play it, right? Yeah. If these guys can get into the factory tours early and not wait three, four, five months for a machine, why not? I mean, the day that we were there, that's when the first machines were rolling off the line and into boxes and now they've already been unboxed. They're on locations now in Ohio. They're there. So like, it's incredibly fast. They box that up, put it on a truck and it's already out there. So the LEs are out in the world. The CE Playfield though, man, you gotta see it. Oh no, I heard you, I was like, man, Don really likes his Playfield. Yeah, now they haven't, I don't think they've gotten the licensor to do the final sign off so they wouldn't allow us to distribute photos and everything, but just the extra colors of ink that are in there and the kind of the parallax depth effect that they each do, I wasn't expecting. I thought it was just gonna be like more neon colors, but it was really like the oranges look like they're deeper in the Playfield than the blues. Tim Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi, Mirco Playfields, Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. So all of these went into the decision to squander, cash in some pinball equity and go in on Avatar CE. I can't wait, man. This is going to be awesome. Well, I think it's probably the first time in a long time for JJP where they've released like with Elton where you saw it and you're like, I really want that. And then you see Avatar, you really want that. I didn't get that from like as much as I'm an Italian and I really love Godfather. I didn't run out with Godfather. I kind of waited till like a year later. You know, I didn't want it. It didn't like grab me like Avatar has. Yeah. Like, you know, I'm tempted by Avatar, but I know my friend Ash has ordered one and he just, he's here down the road. So it's like, you know, I can just play it. But you know, I didn't get that from Guns N' Roses. I didn't get that from Pirates. Like I want, it didn't captivate me like Avatar did and how Elton did. You know, so you can see that they're going the right way now. I think what we're seeing is the evolution We're all like, man, this is like the end of the world. We're like, man, this is like the beginning of the world. Like, we're like the beginning of the world. Like, we're like the beginning of the world. I think this is a great time to think about where we're at now. You know, this is Machine 10, I think, for them. And I think they're like, okay, I think we're getting it. All the pieces are falling into place more, you know, where theme is on point, assets are on point, you know, the hot rails that they introduced a couple of games ago are now being utilized appropriately. You know, UV inks, you know, we're doing cool things with a topper. Then, yeah, we're going to see some cool pinball here. Like, um, like Potter. Oh, you know, I did hear about a rumor about that. Yeah, yeah. It sounds like they're doing here, but yeah. So apparently it's coming, but like prepare your wallets. They didn't do a price increase for the last few games. Not since Toy Story four. I don't know if that'll continue if we're seeing Potter come out. Man, if you imagine all the assets and all the toys and all the mechs, and if they're going to be putting like floating candles in it And if we're going to start seeing like, you know, we can paint jobs and stuff. I'd be surprised if this machine doesn't add another, you know, two to $5,000 price increase. I was thinking about this last night because I'm a nerd. So imagine a Hogwarts castle fully sculpted, right? It's kind of the focal point of the game. Now imagine that hidden within the bricks are addressable LEDs all throughout the thing, you know, because this is a game about magic, right? What's more magical than just seeing like an illuminated castle just flash these different colors? They have a kind of sparkle glittery field of white like wash over the playfield up the castle spires as a spell is cast or something. The battle damage, you know, dragon flame hit ball hits it or something and part of the castle can be projection map to destroy. I guess there's so many things you can do now. You know, I'm looking at inspiration from, you know, what people are doing with drone shows, what Disney's doing with projection effects in their castles for their firework shows now, you know, We're making it look like the castle transforms, destroys, and then rebuilds itself. Like, that's all possible. We've seen projectors work in pinball before with Stranger Things. So, like, you know, put the money out there and you can do some incredible things. And, you know, I'm hearing whispers that, you know, this isn't just Hogwarts Legacy. This is maybe a full asset machine that we're getting. So, my God, man. Man, I'm a massive ambassador. I mean, I'll text you some fucking loopy ideas about innovation toys. Like uh uh pinball is pinball right You can the flippers and the ball Gourmet said this it never gonna change Everything else around that can change right The cabinet shape could change the size of the cabinet can change the depth of the glass can change uh the the screens can uh everything can change I wanna see more I wanna see holograms in playfield I want to see more projection systems I want to see you know like it endless I still I don know how because I understand moisture is an issue but I want to see like smoke filling up a playfield and like you know you got a like a dragon flying through the bloody sky and all elements being used like water and fire like show me something Like you know the top of the square water at me like a fire MC O. It's like opening free, the Subs are making Scott Game PodcastYes Sir and Tanya this is a free MCурdy for the Tu First sam I've got here our present brand new Take your finger off, you know, what these guys did. So, I don't know if we need to be putting bear traps in games, but as far as like implementing gameplay, I want to do the thing, you know. I want to play, I want to get qualified, then I want to make the castle explode, I want to make the light show go off, I want to make the building collapse, you know. I love these things that you can do, you know. Yeah. So, yeah, more of that. And the eclipse is a heck of a mechanic for Avatar. I think it works. Super fun. Every time it happened, it was like, alright, forget it, it's eclipse time, let's focus on that now, you know. Did you find, um, like, I found sometimes certain shots that people took from the machine further back, like that topper looks really rectangular, big and boxy. Yep. Like there's no real kind of like shape to it, it's just a box. Yeah, it says, it's really designed to be viewed from the player's perspective. Even when I was trying to get video of it, all I was getting was weird glare, unless I was at eye level as a player, and then you can see kind of what they're doing. Yeah. You know, it's a 45 degree sheet of glass in a box with a rectangular LCD screen facing up at it that lies on top of the backbox. It's got addressable LED strips on the top and the bottom of it so they can do different like, you know, color effects with everything. But really what you're seeing like when you look at it from a player's perspective without a camera so there's not ridiculous glare from overhead lights, you see an illuminated background of like a space scene, you can see the planet that's back there, some of the architecture of the ship that you're in. And then it really does look like the information's floating there holographically. And it's feeding back like real-time information, you know, showing how many Pandora letters you've lit, your eclipse progress is up there. Now when you're playing the game, you're probably not going to look up there at all. Like this is an eye candy piece, it's not an integral part of the gameplay. You know, maybe if you trap up you can take a look and see, okay, while the scene's playing on the screen I can see where my eclipse is. But, you know, for the spectacle and for everybody else that's watching, it's super awesome. But hard to convey, you know, otherwise. With how boxy it is, I'm wondering if I can devise an aftermarket topper for the topper, because it's flat right up on top. Yeah, like a cover. Just a cover. Let's put something crazy up there. Oh, I see what you mean, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so... Oh, like, I've seen, like, overgrowth of, like, fake plants over it. Like, so it looks like the plants were hanging over the side of the cabinet, you know, over, like, so it kind of... I don't know, just to add some greenery, some real greenery to it, you know,� 있었as They came years later after the release. Pirates of the Caribbean still has hanging code. So I had this sense that, you know, okay, I get this game, but maybe the code never gets fully fleshed out like what I get is what I get. With this though, it looks like code-wise, 80% or so of what should be in there is in there. Wizard modes aren't coded in yet, but like they said, they're just, you know, they're finishing up those. I get a sense that as long as they can deliver and complete the 100% game on this, Tim Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi, Mirco Playfields, Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. Winněn Wołеня, from색 Är fullest din Ouch Hж độ Ingifter I was looking forward to see Jack Danger having a game of Avatar. Yeah, he came by Interium after hours. We had a little exclusive event for a couple of hours to play Avatar on location at Interium. And then yeah, Jack showed up and played. I had already bounced by that point. I had to get back home. But yeah, everybody seems to be kind of celebrating each other here, you know. The JGT folks. It was good. It was good to see him and Mark hugging it out. Yeah, everybody had good things to talk about each other. The Stern people independently said this, the JGP people said this, that competition is good for the industry as a whole. Because if it's all about we really got to bring our A game to go up against these rumored themes that are coming out, that's going to force everybody to put that extra effort and extra polish into the games, bring us things that we haven't seen before even though they're difficult. Much more at www.fitxo.com and that would be all over buying that machine and then they're not independent machine before yeah um... you know lol the testing though was the parannak pulling people across uh... greyاص 나�mandias this they saw me this iranians to chalk weights just certainly excited by saying like they were stressed i'm also next to have that is an october sometimes it will play and do the roller coaster with uh... but casual friends will be late but that is that i want to try that for us at But if I say like, dude, the new Gremlins game is out, like this is the only location that has it right now. Let's go, man. Jump in the car, 150 miles. Let's do it. You know, I can get people like that. You know, I get people to click on videos, you know, to hear people give impressions of that. You know, Legends of a Howl is out. It's like, OK, well, I don't know what that is. You know, it makes it hard. So theme, we're in an era of theme right now. Yeah, but, you know, it's about creating experiences, right? Like everything's about creating experience. And I think if that means that you can get excited to jump in the car and drive, you know, 200 miles, 300 miles because you want to buy, you want to play Barry O's barbecue, so be it, right? Or, and that's probably being a bit optimistic, but, you know, just like even Georgia saying that one of the things that they really like is doing the badges because you might be at home with a John Wick contract comes out, but you don't have the machine. You're going to jump in your car and go to the arcade down the road because you want that badge and that mission. It happens, yeah. Yeah, that's compelling. What a way to bring more people in, especially with all the competition you have with online gaming and Fortnite and all that other crap that everyone's playing at the moment. But let's get some people across. I mean, a Fortnite pinball machine? That'd get some people across. Fortnite, Minecraft, come on. Minecraft movies in development. I think if it's compelling enough to be a big summer release movie or a theme park land or a Lego playset, I think it would work with pinball too or you should have a look at it. People say we wrote these original themes and they're out there but the problem with an original theme is when you need to go create animations and call outs and voice actors, you've got to come up with all of that de novo. You've got to create that. If I'm doing an avatar pinball machine, I've got six hours worth of movies and director's cuts to pull from, clips, audio call outs, theme integration, mode ideas, it's all right there. So yeah, you have to put out that licensing cost, you have to work to get approvals with the licensor, but so much of the other work is already done and done better than you would ever hope to create. Plus, you're automatically going to connect with a player, whereas an original theme, you've really got to put a lot behind that to get a story across. Who are these characters? Why should I care? You know, and now that, you know, LCD screens are so prominent, like, you have to put in compelling animations that don't look like a cellphone. That's not easy to do. That's not cheap. You know, so maybe cheaper to pay for a license and work with a licensor than to hire an animation company to just come up with all this stuff, you know, from the ground up. Yeah. No, you made a valid point. I mean, obviously having that connection already... Hell yeah, I did. Yeah, yeah, I did. Having that connection already with the theme is huge because I think, you know, you already like, they were saying that when they said they were going to do Iron Maiden, they were shitting bricks because they were like, you know, no one's asking for this in America, but the Europeans are. But then, you know, like already it's a niche hobby and it's a niche hobby because now you're putting it into a musical pin and then you're putting it into a band that only a certain amount of people listen to. So you get a niche or a niche down the funnel, right? So that's what happened. I think when the theme's brand new. Yeah. Yeah, so that's where the originality can still exist in pinball is with a music pin, right? Because you've got music but not necessarily audio video. You know, you have some images you can draw from but you know, you can take the band's music and then put them into an original situation like we saw with Foo Fighters. And I think that was a perfect way to do it. When I was thinking about, you know, how would a Foo Fighters game be like, I was thinking, well, what if we were with them on some sort of adventure? And then it turns out like they were thinking along the same lines Tim Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi, Mirco Playfields, Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. Well, what about this rumor about Goonies? Yeah, man, that's hitting on nostalgia, right? You know, so here's this movie. It's from the 80s, right? Sean Austin's in it. Frickin' Samwise Gamgee, right? That kid that's currently tearing it up on the doing music production now. What the hell's his name? One of the Cory's. Right? Was it him? Cory Felton. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Back before the whatever's going on now. Cindy Lauper did the soundtrack. The goodies are good enough. The music video has classic WWF wrestlers in it. There's so much you can pull from to put in there. I'm going to throw some Christopher Franchi art on there, a butter cabinet, one-eyed Willie's ship. Let's go. Let's play. Let me put the ball on the scales with the gold coins and everything in there. Let's travel through the sewers. Let's run from the Fratellis. Let's partner with Chunk and then have a Chunk multiball. Hey you guys, let's go. It's all right there. It's all right there. It's an adventure. It can take place in an ocean cavern with a pirate ship. Come on, man. It's all there. Skeletons, adventure, true love! Yeah. Well, you know what? I think the most powerful thing about it is nostalgia. Because nostalgia automatically is one of the most powerful things where in that moment You literally walk back in time to the moment that you remember touching that thing or the toy or the movie and then you get pulled right back into real time. But it's like, you know, I always say you touch a toy that you had as a kid and you automatically go back to when you had it and like it creates another experience already there. Like, and if you can capitalize on nostalgia, dude, you got, like you're winning or you're printing money. Right. Kihei... Wait, what's that guy's name? Uh, Data. Kihei... Quack? Yeah. Josh Brolin's in it? I mean, like... Yeah, dude, he was Thanos, man. He was the teenage older brother there. Yeah. Um, you gotta have the David statue, you know? Like, you have a certain amount of time that you have to hit the pop-up enough to rotate the part into its appropriate orientation before your mom gets home. Like, there's so much fun stuff you can do in there. Put a little stepper motor on that to have it turn. Transcript provided by Transcription Outsourcing LLC I heard people say like do people really want that It like I think it could really work man I think people want it You gotta get the Cyndi Lauper music Goonies are good enough man Yeah, I would do it. Who's doing it, I wonder? I've heard... Well, I heard that it was meant to be spooky. I've heard spooky, I've heard barrels of fun. I'm sure somebody said American Pinball at some point. Like, it's out there. What I have heard, like, the most concrete thing I've heard about it is, like, if you want to see it, you're going to be happy. So, I think somebody's doing it. I don't know if somebody's doing it in three years. I don't know if someone's doing it in three weeks. No idea. But I think the pieces are there to make something pretty cool. Yeah, well, look, it's exciting. I'd like to see... To the goon docs. I'd like to see Transformers G1 from the 80s. Yes. I'd like to see Fifth Element. I'd like to see... Oh man, like I was having this conversation with one of the guys here in Perth, like he was like, you can't have like dream themes, you can't have a dream theme. And I was like, Jason, dream themes, I could have as many dream themes as I want, right? Yeah, get out of here. He's like, no, it can only be one. And I was like, it can't be just one. Don't limit my dreams, sir. We've been given lots of work and ﷻIzogenbiosüllä. and they're like i'm just so surprised especially america being so sport heavy yeah as well especially if you could like use the left flipper button and select your team and then start you know and then like the the color changes the lcd screen changes to like that's your team um you know uh if you could get the official license from nhl for the likenesses and everything or whatever the national league is that could be a way in to do that i think that could be fun and compelling we're still playing dog soccer and and that was about the world cup in 1994 you know come on I don't even know if there was any... What a game that was. Right. And are there even any like, you know, like player characters used in that? I just play, I hit the soccer ball, I hit goals and I hit ramps and I have a good time. And that was from, that was World Cup 1994, right? Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I think it could work. Even the NBA Fast Break, fantastic. You ever played one head to head? Holy crap. I'm not a big sports guy, but I like pinball and I think that would work. NBA Jam is fun, you know. So I think there's, I think there's room for it. Yeah. Tim Burton, Nightmare Before Christmas, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Batman 89, Beetlejuice, The Movie's Killing It in Theaters, Michael Keaton, Mr. Mom, Multiplicity, I'm a little strange, but you know, yeah, there's themes for days. There's so much out there, you know, why do you have to come out with laundry day, right? Yeah, no, I think there's just so much you could do. I mean, I know licensee and, you know, it makes it hard for them, obviously, because they want things done a certain way and whatnot, but yeah, man, like, honestly, so many. There's so many I can't even think. That's all. Cause you're like, well, if you could have any machine, what would you have? I was like, well, I can't just answer that because it's just so many different themes that you could just go, man, I'd love to play. Um, yeah. Tell you this, I'm excited for like what the next 12 months are going to bring us, you know, X was going to be here. We still haven't really seen much from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Um, I don't know if there's still a lot of excitement for that, given that we have these two major The prices have dropped, and we still haven't seen anything from ALICE. They haven't even confirmed the price yet, even though we've heard it's strongly rumored to be less than an LE from Stern. They're saying $500, I think, but I don't even know if that's been officially confirmed. Get this game out already! And then Dutch, where you at? When are you coming? Spooky's gearing up for stuff. They're starting to do news drops now. So this is an exciting time for pinball, even compared to what we were a year ago. To now, man. Yeah, well Dutch, I mean, I was expecting six months ago that we would have heard about Back to the Future by now. Yeah, you know, at this point, you know, that's a company that you may order and you may be waiting a while, you know, to get a game. So, you know, at this point there's just so many options that are in boxes ready to buy that I don't know if my pinball funds cup will fill up to the point that I can jump in there without it already being snatched up by something that's in front of me ready to go. The Do you think you think sometimes when rumors? Circulate for so long that people kind of get over it because the machine doesn't come out and it just takes too long And people get over it a bit But yeah by the time it's it's unveiled you're like well that already kind of feels like old news like that was exciting Yeah, months ago when I first started hearing about it. Yeah, and you know, you don't want to rush it out there But you kind of want to hit up appropriate cadence I think, you know, dropping breadcrumbs for six months is probably not the best way to build up for that launch date. I think, you know, like, it's coming and then next week we're doing the drop, get ready, everybody's build up hype and then go. I think that's kind of the way to go with it. Yeah, well, we'll see, we'll see. I think one thing that I really want to really spend some time on is John Wick because I don't, I get beaten by really easily to the point where I think it's easy to the point where I was, for a few weeks I didn't play it, just because it was a bit demoralizing how hard it is to hit those three. Because I think with the understanding I have is you hit the three ramps, you load up your support characters, and then you start a mode, and then off you go. The problem is hitting those three ramps. Yeah, yeah. And because they're tight ramps, right? Like they are tight ramps. But then when you drain the ball, you've got to hit those ramps twice. And then you gotta hit those ramps three times after the third ball. So, um, it's, but it makes me go back. Like, yesterday I spent three hours being raped by that machine and I kept going back for more. The game's fun, it's just there needs to be more of a game there, you know. That's where I really think callouts are gonna help. Hopefully they're just held up in licensing, getting coded in and getting approvals. I took the glass off and just tried to play through each of the modes to find out, like, What am I supposed to even be doing? And maybe I was doing it wrong, but it felt like I was hitting, you know, each of the shots like 30 times total until I could finally hit a scoop and complete an actual mode. For me, I've gone to playing where I just get in the mode, I try to hit a couple of shots, and then just let the timer end so I can go back and get into another mode. And then that helped my scores out. I don't know if that's the right strategy to play, you know, but instead of like frantically trying to go as the timer's counting down, I was like, you know what, it's going to end. Let's just let it end. Let the points cash out, and then we'll go into the next thing. Up debuts, Up debuts, Up debuts, Up debuts, Up debuts of I had built up the support characters going into it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he, you know, he's like, you want to complete the mode and that mode alone was worth, you know, so he's hit like 800 million. Oh, that's the way. All right. I'm not good enough to do that because by the time I collect one, maybe two characters have already drained and screwed the whole thing up. I got a feeling that, um, like Baba Yaga does nothing. Baba Yaga. I have no, I have no idea what it does. Yeah, I don't think it does anything at the moment. Winnie The Poopie, You look at Bond, right? Like I said to George, all due respect, but when Bond came out, I sold it within three months because I wasn't gelling with it. And then my mate Ash was like, dude, a year later, he's like, it's the best Stern game ever made. You need to get it back. Sure enough, I get it back, and it was like a completely different bloody game. Yeah, I go back and play it on location now, and I get what people are saying, but, you know, my impression is still from that first three months when I was playing it. And I'm like, okay, I get it, but there's just, you know, to me, the only shot that feels satisfying is that left orbit to the ramp. I love that, but everything else it just feels like I'm lucky if it goes into the DB5 eject hole or if I manage to get the henchman ramp or something. It's like, okay, but it wasn't like, oh, sweet, dude, watch the ball go through this whole circuit, now I finally got it. Yeah. For me, but I know people love it and I get it. I don't have to love every game. No, no, no. But, yeah, look, I mean, and then obviously there's, I mean, you look at code, what's done to JAWS, I mean, that's just, you know, that keeps changing and changing as well. Bring us more 8-bit, bring us more 8-bit. So, I think Stern's receptive. Okay, I was just there last weekend and I'm like, you guys, because they have a bar top made out of old Playfields, I'm like, you guys should just have like a scratch and dent that we can come by and just pick up Playfields to decorate. And then what did they announce? If you go buy an in stock new in box game right now, you get a random Playfield scratch and dent. They're shipping those now. Yeah, that just happened like two days ago. So, either I'm good at kind of sensing what they're doing or like they're listening to me. I don't think they're listening to me. I think we'll start calling you Nostradonis. Yeah, see I'm not going to comment on that because my take will probably get a lot of negative comments but I don't have a problem with the pricing. I don't have a problem with the pricing of the toppers. I don't have a problem with the pricing of the machines. You know, I always say to people it's not easy. I own businesses and run businesses, right? It costs money and you've got to spend money to make money and you've got to charge a certain price to be affordable and to be profitable. Um, you know, people think $2,000 topper's expensive. Go make one that's so interactive and the basic ones, I get it. I get the basic ones that are just an acrylic stand, right? And you're charging two grand for it. I get that. But like Mandalorian, Elvira, like those type of toppers, I think it's justifiable. Direct your hate mail, Caravanzo, to this address. Um, no, I get it. Well, I've had so much of it lately. The one thing that really sets apart like the official accessories from like what I can produce is that integration with the game. AD Sisdean and Schuffman, Scott Ianez répond document á la traducção. AD struggles with verbal communication andacing drag. I don't know if they're doing what Beats by Dre headphones do and just put weights in there so it feels like it's worth more because it's heavier. But like I was expecting like a really light, you know, 16 ounce frickin' plexi blocks and lights. But no, it was cool and it does cool things and you're kind of paying to unlock that integration if that's important to you. And it matches the modes and the colors and all that type of stuff. So, you know, look, I get some, some toppers, like Jurassic Park, for instance, is like, you know, it's just acrylic on acrylic and I'm like, yeah, I can see why people don't want to spend too grand on that. But the Foo Fighters topper with the head, which is basically just like not really. I think it's more R2D2 because it's just like a single, single axis of rotation. It doesn't have the nodding effect. Right? Yeah, true, I guess, yeah, didn't really think of that. I didn't have a problem with the Godzilla topper, they could have used a nicer Godzilla, maybe, model. That's about it. I mean, that was one that was already approved by the licensor, did not require extra tooling, I get why they did it. The Plume Cloud, but the effects were really cool, so I dug that. So, if they're gonna keep the prices where they are, keep packing innovation in there. I can't wait to see what the hold up of the Venom one is, I'm sure there's a story there. Yeah, and I'd like to see, like, you know, in Cactus Canyon where you can play on the topper. Yeah, that's fun, man. You know, or Scooby Doo where you can play on the new topper which has the bookcase and you're throwing Scooby Snacks down the corridor. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's fun. Yeah, yeah, you know, I think playability with the topper just creates another dimension, right? So... Oh man, this is fun. Alright guy, I don't want to keep you up all night. What is it, 12.30 now, man? Yeah, yeah, we're coming up on an hour here, man. All good, all good, man, I appreciate it. I love the Chimwag. We call it on Gonzo's channel, the chinwag. I love my appearance that I had on there for sure, man. Yeah, we actually said we're going to get you out and just crack it, do it on a night where we can all crack a drink and just have a laugh. For sure. I almost want to like jump on a British Airways flight and just go record live there. No, he'd love that. How much fun would that be? Honestly, he would. He would. He's a busy man, but he'd probably let you just play in his room while he works. Heck yeah. All right, I'll go move in with Gonzo. Well cool Enzo, shout out your channel, Gonzo's Pinball Flipperama. Yeah, yeah, so if anyone doesn't follow Gonzo's Flipperama, please do, because he's a hell of a guy. It's wholesome pinball content. I like to think of it as the top gear of pinball. You know, he does... Good day, good afternoon, good evening. Yeah. Yeah, he does everything. He does chinwags, he does reviews, he does gameplay, he does mods, he shows everything. It's a great channel, so like and subscribe. I never miss some Gonzo content. Enzo, come by anytime, man. Yeah, for sure. Thank you.