Episode 8: "I suck at Pinball Tournaments, should I QUIT?"

The Flipside Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·21m 15s·analyzed·Aug 21, 2024

2613d315-0b30-4d2b-8ed9-551c7eebdfa6

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Tournament struggles, mental blocks, and defending modern Stern game design

Summary

Retro Ralph discusses his struggling tournament performance despite improved home play skills, attributing the gap to mental pressure, competitive anxiety, and potential differences in machine setup (waxing, pitch, tilt sensitivity). He reflects on his three-year pinball journey, defends game design philosophy against Kaneda's criticism of John Wick's toy count, and commits to continuing tournament play rather than quitting. The episode also hints at upcoming Stern announcements related to X-Men and news surrounding Pinball Expo.

Key Claims

Ralph's tournament performance (usually 4th place out of 5 games per night) doesn't match his home play ability with games like Godzilla and John Wick
high confidence · Personal tournament experience at Player One Arcade in Arizona; 2 of 5 games rank top-2, rest rank 4th place
Machine setup differences (waxing, pitch, tilt sensitivity) at the tournament venue affect ball behavior differently than home machines
medium confidence · Ralph observes inconsistent ball behavior in John Wick red circle club drain vs. his home machine; even good players complain about the waxing
Kaneda acts like John Wick is 'the shittiest game that Stern has ever created' due to insufficient mechanical toys/devices
high confidence · Ralph directly references Kaneda's repeated criticism of John Wick's toy count; presents this as a view he disagrees with
Modern Stern games (Jaws, Jurassic Park, Godzilla) have sufficient mechanical innovation and don't lack toys
medium confidence · Ralph's opinion based on his experience with the games; defends shark, T-Rex, and Godzilla's building mechanic
Ralph recently purchased Godzilla 70th Anniversary edition and lost money on the transaction due to mods and trading costs
high confidence · Mentioned acquiring the game and planning YouTube review; describes financial loss as 'stupid but worth it'
Pinball game prices are higher than historical levels, particularly LE editions at $13,000+
high confidence · Ralph expresses hope for price corrections and notes he won't be in market for $13k games
Game code ships incomplete on modern pinball machines across all manufacturers; games improve through updates
medium confidence · Ralph acknowledges this as 'state of the industry' and notes it doesn't matter which company
Ralph's primary barrier to tournament success is mental/psychological (getting in his own head, competitive pressure) rather than skill or game knowledge

Notable Quotes

“There is so much to these games and there are so many layers to these games that you wouldn't need to have every game.”
Retro Ralph @ ~4:30 — Addresses collecting behavior and game depth; references Kaneda's observation about underplayed LE machines
“I can't get my home play skills to translate to tournament play... What happens to me in that competitive element that I just can't repeat what I can do at home?”
Retro Ralph @ ~13:00 — Core thesis of episode; articulates the central frustration driving the narrative
“It ruined my whole night. My wife's like, you're not going to these anymore. If this is how you're going to come home.”
Retro Ralph @ ~24:00 — Illustrates emotional toll of tournament performance anxiety on personal life
“I don't gauge how good a game is by how many toys or mechs are on it... I am actually really satisfied when I play a game and it has fun shots.”
Retro Ralph @ ~36:00 — Direct pushback against Kaneda's design philosophy; defines Ralph's alternative value system
“James Bond looks bare... And that is one of my favorite games. But it does not have a bunch of mechs and devices all over it... I loved it because it was fun to play.”
Retro Ralph @ ~38:30 — Concrete example supporting his game evaluation philosophy; James Bond as counterargument to toy-count criticism
“I'm not a quitter. I'm not someone that gives up on something just because it's not going my way... I'm going to go back.”
Retro Ralph @ ~45:00 — Resolution statement; clarifies commitment to tournament play despite frustration
“The rumors are heating up, man, as we're getting closer to Pinball Expo. Even this week, potentially we're getting something tomorrow from Stern. Some kind of X-Men nonsense.”
Retro Ralph @ ~49:30 — Teases upcoming announcements and hints at X-Men related Stern news

Entities

Retro Ralphperson KanedapersonPlayer One ArcadeorganizationKevinpersonPinball ExpoeventStern PinballcompanyJohn Wick PinballgameGodzilla Pinball (70th Anniversary)game

Signals

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community_signal: Local tournament culture at Player One Arcade emphasizes teaching and mutual help among players despite competitive dynamics
medium · Ralph notes players 'genuinely want to help you out' and are supportive despite competitive spirit
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event_signal: Player One Arcade in Arizona hosts weekly Monday tournament play with ~5 games per session; competitive leaderboard-style format attracting mid-level players
high · Ralph participates regularly; describes venue, player skill level, tournament structure, and bracket seeding
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competitive_signal: Tournament venue (Player One Arcade) uses non-standard machine waxing that creates inconsistent ball behavior vs. home machines; even skilled players report anomalies
medium · Ralph documents John Wick drain variance; notes good players complain about waxing; multiple examples of unexpected ball behavior
?
event_signal: Stern expected to make announcement (possibly X-Men related) imminently; rumors intensifying as Pinball Expo approaches
medium · Ralph teases 'some kind of X-Men nonsense' coming 'tomorrow' (from recording date); expects news before episode publication
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community_signal: Kaneda criticizing John Wick as lacking mechanical toys; establishing design philosophy position in community discourse
high · Ralph directly references Kaneda's repeated criticism and characterizes it as performative ('shtick or not')

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.064

0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Flipside podcast. I'm your host, Retro Ralph, and I am so excited to be here with you because I've been gone for a little while. My wife and I went to San Diego to have a little bit of a break from the hot Arizona summer, and it was so, so nice. So anyways, it was nice to get out of here for a little while, but I'm back. And, you know, today, in today's episode, I want to talk a little bit about my tournament journey so far. So those of you that don't know, Player One Arcade in Surprise, Arizona is here. It's a great little arcade bar, so if you're ever in the area, they got a good, decent little lineup of pinball machines. They have these monitors above the game, so if you're playing in a tournament, you can watch the competition playing as you're playing or while you're waiting. It's really cool. He's got a good little vibe over there, and everyone's pretty cool there. I got to say, I've been enjoying my time so far, but have I really been enjoying it? I think that's kind of the problem is it's been a rocky road because, you know, I'll say I'll say this over the three year journey for me with pinball. In the beginning, I wasn't that serious about it. Like I would play, but it was ultra casual. I didn't even really care about the rules of the game. I just kind of hacked around. but then once I really started going to more shows and talking to more people and having people show me how to play the games that's really when the hobby took off for me I only had the one pinball machine for a while it was just Jurassic Park and uh but but I actually it kind of sucks because I feel like I really didn't get a good chance to learn that game because by the time I got rid of it I was it was when I was really starting to learn and I um I traded it in for Stranger Things which is the pinball machine I originally wanted to get as my first one. But anyway, so it's kind of a missed opportunity for me because I really truly never got to get good at Jurassic Park. But why I'm bringing this up is that over time, my skills have improved. They're still not great, but they're definitely way better. I can shoot more consistently. I do understand some of the rules of the games I have, so that's really great. So I've been really diving in. And, you know, I was listening to Kaneda's pinball podcast, and he talked about how, you know, it's crazy when someone has like an LE and they only have like 12 plays on it or 20 plays and then they sell it. Right. He's just he was trying to, like, make a joke that these people don't play their games. Right. Or a lot of people don't play their games. And if you did play your games, then there's so much to these games and there's so many layers to these games that you wouldn't need to have every game. And I actually agree with him there. once you start really diving in like people go oh one pinball machine you're gonna get bored of it no no not at all and especially in a game like let's say godzilla the rules are pretty deep there's a lot to do so you definitely wouldn't get bored of a game like that you know maybe eventually if you mastered it but it's it's a hard enough game that you're not going to just have it for a week and master the game right especially if your pinball skills are beginning level it's going to take you a while so there's going to be a lot to learn and a lot to go through And then the cool thing about a lot of these companies is they make pinball machines now where the code can constantly be updated. Now, you could argue that sometimes the code isn't complete, and so therefore that's why you get a bunch of releases, which that's just the state of the state, I think. It doesn't matter which pinball company it is. Most of them don't ship with the final code. It ships with some early code, and then the game gets better and better. so the thing i've been really struggling with with tournament play and i try to encourage people to go do tournament play because i want people to get out of their houses like i just feel like there was this period of time from 2020 you know 2020 to 2022 or maybe even around that time right whenever whenever the pandemic really officially ended but um yeah there were people that just stayed at home and bought all stuff for their house and didn't really get out there and i think I've been having a lot of fun. The positives about the tournament as I've been having a blast meeting people, like seeing and meeting other people that are interested in the pinball hobby that we love. Like that's really cool. And you talk about the games and you talk about play and you try to help each other out. I don't know if every tournament's like that, but the one that I've been going to, a lot of the players do generally, uh, genuinely want to help you out. Right. So, uh, they don't really want you to beat them, but they do want you to, uh, to learn. So it's cool. So I've picked up a lot. But the one really frustrating element to this that's been really hard is I can't get my home play skills to translate to tournament play. I've had like a couple of good games out of all the games I've played. And I'm just like beating my head against the wall going like, what is it? What happens to me in that competitive element that I just can't repeat what I can do at home? And for instance I give you one example before I rewind back a little bit but I last week I got a bunch of different games but the one game I landed on was Godzilla and I was stoked I like this is gonna be awesome I'm pretty good at Godzilla, right? So I get up there, first ball, total shit. Second ball, crap. Third ball, more crap. And I was so disappointed. It set the tone for the whole rest of that tournament that day. I was already not feeling great that day, and this was just not what I needed. So, of course, I didn't do well in that tournament. This was the first week of the tournament I'm running now. The last one is over. So it's a new six-week tournament. So I go home. I'm like, screw this. I'm going home. I'm going to put the best score I possibly can up on my Godzilla. First ball, $425 million or something like that. I'm like, what the hell? I'm so frustrated. I'm sure there's some things like my tilt bob is maybe set a little looser. But the game I had wasn't even like I wasn't even playing ultra aggressively. And so I'm like, what the hell, man? Why can't I? And I do realize is also other elements to the way you set up games for tournament play. Right. So sometimes the pitch is a little higher than normal. I have my games all set to the standard stern pitch. Right. The pitch that they recommend. It's six point five. but the Jurassic or sorry, the, the Godzilla at the place I play is also a similar pitch. So I'm like, what in the hell? Like, what is it? So I've been, I've been like seriously, so frustrated trying to figure out what is it that I can't translate these skills. You know, they're not amazing. I I'll keep saying that I'm not great, but I'm okay. You know what I mean? Like I can hold my own and I just can't do it in the tournament setting. I just, I've, I've thought about it. Is it the way the machines are waxed? Is it the pitch of the machines? Is it that the tilt bobs are too tight? I don't know. Well, some of the tilt bobs at this guy's place, even though I love him, Kevin, I love you. I know you don't listen to my podcast, but if you do, you're a really good dude. But holy shit, you have those things tighter than something. I don't know, whatever's tight. I could have said something really gross. Sorry. No, no, no. I'm not that kind of i'm not that kind of podcaster but just tight these things are tight man like what's that saying what is that saying in uh what is that saying in uh ferris bueller's day off where he says that cameron's butthole is so tight that uh you could put a piece of coal in it and get out a diamond or something i can't remember this what he says in ferris bueller's day off but that they're that tight man these games are tight anyways so you're probably one listening under their end being like, okay, we get it. They're tight. Okay. Move on. Next, next thing. So, so I just, I was trying to think of all the things. Cause I'm like, all right, at my house, every game has Invisiglass. I can beautifully see through the play field. I can see every little element, right? My, my games are all perfectly leveled. They're all the stern 6.5 pitch. You know, there's the, the, the tilt bobs are all set the same on all my games, you know, not super easy, but not super hard either. So it's like, maybe that's it. But I'm like, no, that's not it. That's not it. Cause you can adjust to that. I was like, it's not that. I think I just can't get out of my own head. There's something about playing pinball in when you play a ball and then you have to wait for three other players to play. And what will happen is the players at this place are pretty decent too. They're pretty good. Like a lot of them have been playing for a while. So you go up there, you have a shit ball, right? First ball, total crap. Next person goes up there, you're on Godzilla, 75 million, right? And that's not, you know, that's decent, right? 75 million. And now, while I'm in line waiting for the other two people to go, I'm looking at that 75 million like, shit, I gotta have a good ball. I gotta have a good ball. I gotta have a good ball. And like, I am actually really competitive. So it's good and bad. I am a super ultra competitive person. I don't like to lose. Most people don't like to lose. And I never went in this thinking I'm going to win. Like, I'm not going to go in there and win. That's not going to happen i don't have enough experience i don't have enough skill but to be like fourth place on like the majority it usually uh now at least the way it's going because it's actually gotten worse instead of better usually at we'll have five games in a night two of them i'll rank in the top two and the rest will be fourth place almost always and it's like the most frustrating thing in the world. So what am I going to do? Like, what can I really do about this? I can, I was last week. I was so irritated, man. I almost came home and did the podcast, but I would have been cussing up a storm. I was so mad. It ruined my whole night. My wife's like, you're not going to these anymore. If this is how you're going to come home. She didn't say it like that, but she was like, come on. Like, this is something you really love doing. Like, is this, maybe you just don't enjoy these tournaments. And I'm like, no, I'm not going to give up like that. I think what it really has to do is, sure, it really upset me, but I think like anything else, number one, there's a lot of really good players there. Number two, I get in my own head and I know that. The pressure and the anticipation of playing gets to me. I got to get over that, right? I got to get more relaxed and get more, and that going to take some time But I also think like there is one thing he puts some funky wax on these games I not blaming that Even the good players complain The ball will do things on these games that they won do in a home setting It's just weird. And I don't really wax the games. I clean them, and I put a little bit of wax. But it's not – I don't know what he's using, but it almost, like, makes the ball sometimes go in – I'll give you an example. In John Wick, if you... Shoot, where's the ball coming out of where it does that? Oh, when it's coming out of the red circle club, typically it's going to go to the top of the slingshot. It's going to hit the top of the slingshot every single time. It never just drains off of that. Rarely, rarely ever will it go out of the red circle club and drain. It goes out of the red circle club, and it hits that top of the slingshot, and it usually feeds your left flipper, I think. or maybe sometimes you're right, but it's almost consistent at my home machine, always, every time. And I was anticipating that same thing to happen on the game last week because I was like, I own John Wick. I should be great at it. Nope, nope. And it went drained out the right outlay. And I was so pissed. Because John Wick's not an easy game.

11:49

John Wick is hard. But I've been getting consistently better at John Wick where I can have a good game the majority of the time and get like 40 million is like where I is my baseline. Like if I if I don't if I get off of John Wick and I do less than 40 million, I'm disappointed. I couldn't break 10. So it was like, I don't know, man. I think it probably sounds like I'm whining a little bit. I hope it doesn't. I'm just trying to have an open conversation with you, because if you're getting into tournament play, you might experience the same thing unless you're just like just just really good under pressure. and I just feel like this kind of pressure, it like has the opposite effect on me. I'm not, I don't get motivated. I get like demotivated and I get in my own head and I get stressed out. So I've tried a couple of different things. I've tried the headphones. It's kind of worked like to dry one out the rest of the room. But I think the bottom line is I got to take the good of it, right? I really enjoy hanging out with people. I enjoy the social element of it. It's something I look forward to on a Monday. And as a matter of fact, right now it is Monday, August 19th at five Oh three. And in like 20 minutes, I'm going to be driving there. So I decided, I was like, I'm going back. I'm not going to give up. I'm going to keep going. I'm new to this. There are people there that have been doing tournament plays for 10 years. So if you're someone that's that, that maybe you listen to my podcast and maybe you decided to do a tournament because of something I said, stick with it. It's going to get better. and you know there is no unfortunately there's no like ranking system at at these tournaments so there's no way for them to like put more intermediate players with themselves and maybe separate some of these guys that always seem to win it's fine whatever i just want to i just want to consistently do well you know so it's just going to take a little bit but anyways i wanted to get to one more topic before we wrap this up i did get the godzilla 70th i think i might have said that on the last podcast, the thing looks awesome, but I'm going to do a YouTube video on it here shortly. I'm trying to get that out this week. So it'll be out on Saturday. So hopefully you get a chance to, uh, to see that if I can get my, my act together, because we just got home, I've been working a lot. So I haven't really had a time to film anything, but I want to film it. I want to give you guys my perspective on it. Cause I, for me, I am so glad I did it. There was some negatives. Like there was a little bit of money lost between the mods and getting rid of it and that's not smart that's kind of stupid but when you want something sometimes you'll do stupid things i don't really enjoy losing money but i definitely did in this one uh i do want to mention one other thing uh you know this really bugs me it only bugs me because i don't think it's a fair representation of the game but i know that pinball is really subjective and i am one of the people that invested and bought a john wick pinball machine but it irritates me so much that it really does he he's in my head like i don't know if it's shtick or not but kaneda acts like he literally acts like john wick is the shittiest game that stern has ever created and usually his reasons are that there aren't enough mechanical devices or toys on the play field and i am keep in mind i know i say this a lot i'm kind of sick of saying it because i feel like I've said it a million times. Let's just say for someone that's been in the hobby for 10, 15, 20 years, someone being in the hobby for three years is still relatively new. So I'm still relatively new to this, right? But I don't gauge how good a game is by how many toys or mechs are on it. And I also don't think that in a lot of the modern Stern games, there's a lack of those things. Like the shark in Jaws is really cool, I think. I don't know. there's nothing about that that I think is cheesy. I think the shark is really cool. I think that the T-Rex in Jurassic Park is really cool. I think that the mechanical building is really freaking awesome in Godzilla. Now, does John Wick lack some like major thing? Sure. But there's some really cool things in there The crate is the crate whatever It not the coolest thing in the world I like bashing the car The Red Circle Club is super cool with all the slingshots that bounce the ball around in there I don know The thing is there are people that will ridicule you for saying you like a game because it shoots well and has fun shots but I am actually really satisfied when I play a game and it has fun shots Like I'll tell, I'll, I'll, I'll give you one more example. James Bond looks bare. It doesn't look like there's much on there. And that is one of my favorite games, but it does not have a bunch of mechs and devices all over it. As a matter of fact, the one I owned when I owned it was the pro. So it has almost nothing like there's really nothing. It's the rocket. And that's really kind of it. There isn't a whole lot because it's missing the, the jet pack multi-ball thing. So, but i loved it like there but i loved it because it was fun to play like i just i guess i just don't get that argument that like oh it should have a bunch and you know he does sort of go and talk about well it's a value for your money thing but even that i do think that the pinball prices are a lot higher than they used to be right i i can't i can't like argue that they're all high all the manufacturers and and i do hope that we do see some kind of lowering to something lowered down a little bit especially with the like le's i think those are getting really expensive like i'm not going to be in the market for a bunch of 13 000 games but uh maybe there'll be some sort of a correction but i haven't i have been very happy with all the stern games i've purchased i've had various small little issues here and there, but they've been relatively easy to fix. But also I do know that I'm coming from a hobby that all I did was restore and fix arcade games. So there's a lot of work that goes into doing that. So I feel really comfortable now after having a lot of exposure to pinball machines and I mod them a lot. So getting under the hood and really checking it out and doing things like fixing an optical sensor or stuff that's just basic that happens, I don't have any problem doing. But I do understand if you were brand new and you never had one before, of course you want to have the best experience. But so far, knock on wood, I've never had a game out of the box that had a major issue. The only thing I have had is on my Venom, the start button or the action button, the leaf switch underneath needed to just be moved slightly to the right. Like you just had to push it up and it works fine now, but it wasn't working consistently. And that action button is pretty important to Venom because it's how you cancel your multi-ball when, when you can, you can cancel your multi-ball. So anyway, and then there's also, there's other things that it does, but guys, I don't know. I hopefully you enjoyed this short podcast about me ranting about tournament play it. I'm going to keep stick to it guys. That's it. Like the thing is I'm not a quitter. I'm not someone that gives up on something just because it's not going my way. But I was just having one of those days last weekend, and I was like, I'm done. I told my friend Rudy, I'm like, I'm not doing this anymore. Tournament play is over. But that's not true. So I'm going to go back, and we'll see how it goes tonight. I'm going to try to stay out of my head because, man, I just get in my own head. And it's tough, man. It's tough. But I want to enjoy the hobby, continue to enjoy the hobby. I'll tell you guys, it has been so much fun to get out of the house. if you work from home or you just don't socialize with a lot of people outside of like social media it's gonna work wonders for you and you're gonna meet a lot of cool people i can't imagine that mostly everywhere in the united states or wherever you're listening to this your local pinball pinball tournament doesn't have a lot of cool like-minded people sure every now and then i'm sure you'll get some jabroni but there's a jabroni in every hobby so you know just know who the jabroni is and go hang out with the cool peeps and just know your role and anyway, whatever.