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Episode 101 – CSI: Special Pinball Unit

Head2Head Pinball·podcast_episode·1h 42m·analyzed·Jul 22, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.021

TL;DR

Star Wars home edition sparks community outrage; Game of Thrones code needs Lannister nerfs; TMNT rumored.

Summary

Head2Head Pinball hosts Martin and Joe discuss Stern's surprise Star Wars (Home Edition) release at Comic-Con, community backlash over pricing ($4,500) and positioning, and Game of Thrones 1.36 code update with balancing issues (Lannister exploit enabling 84 billion scores). They also speculate on Stern's rumored Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine.

Key Claims

  • Stern released Star Wars (Home Edition) at Comic-Con based on the Spider-Spider-Man (Home Edition) template with modifications including a ramp behind drop targets and a TIE Fighter target.

    high confidence · Martin and Joe discussing the machine's physical specifications and design changes from Spider-Spider-Man (Home Edition)

  • Star Wars (Home Edition) Edition MSRP is $4,500 USD but distributors are selling it for approximately $4,000.

    high confidence · Hosts discussing pricing; Joe confirms distributor pricing of four grand

  • Star Wars (Home Edition) Edition is not targeted at the existing pinball community but rather at mainstream Star Wars fans, similar to how Comic-Con was chosen as the announcement venue.

    high confidence · Martin and Joe's analysis of marketing strategy and audience segmentation

  • Game of Thrones 1.36 code update has a significant balancing exploit in the Lannister house where players can achieve 84 billion point scores by repeatedly purchasing multipliers through the ability button.

    high confidence · Martin and Joe discussing the Dead Flip stream featuring Dwight Sullivan and confirmed screenshots of exploited scoring

  • Dwight Sullivan added the multiplier rules for the upper playfield in the Game of Thrones premium/elite versions only a couple of days before the code update was released, contributing to the balancing issues.

    medium confidence · Joe paraphrasing what he heard from the Dead Flip stream with Dwight Sullivan

  • Stern is rumored to be developing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine.

    medium confidence · Martin introducing it as 'sort of announced recently as a rumoured title'

  • Star Wars (Home Edition) Edition includes wire ramps instead of plastic ramps and additional toys like a moving TIE Fighter compared to the Spider-Spider-Man (Home Edition).

    high confidence · Martin and Joe comparing the machines side-by-side with photo evidence in show notes

  • Community response to the Star Wars (Home Edition) reveal was heavily negative on YouTube with more downvotes than upvotes, despite widespread media visibility and engagement.

Notable Quotes

  • “It's not for pinheads. It's not for the pinball community. It's Stern's way of trying to get new people into it.”

    Martin @ ~13:00 — Core thesis explaining the strategic positioning of home editions vs traditional machines

  • “If these don't do well, then Stern doesn't do well. Then Stern doesn't do well in the things that everyone wants. So that makes no sense. We want Stern to succeed.”

    Joe @ ~22:00 — Economic argument for why community should support home editions despite disappointment

  • “It's the internet, isn't it? It does go crazy. I hate that. I really hate what you've done. I also hate what you've done.”

    Martin and Joe @ ~17:00 — Self-aware critique of community outrage dynamics on social media

  • “What actually kind of really the only thing that really annoys me about it is, let's say there was somebody and it was the first time they saw one of these things and they went, oh my God, I love the look of this... then you hear all this hate. You may be turning people off.”

    Martin @ ~18:30 — Concern about community gatekeeping deterring potential new players

  • “I just think when you add multipliers and there's significant... multipliers upon multipliers, that can get a little bit crazy if not checked.”

    Joe @ ~35:00 — Technical explanation of the Game of Thrones balancing exploit

  • “If you imagine like your best game of Game of Thrones ever, now imagine if you had 5X running that entire time. Yeah. And that's how you get to that point.”

    Joe @ ~38:00 — Simple explanation of how the Lannister exploit enabled 84 billion score

  • “I never put any thought into any of the other houses besides Martell and maybe Tyrell. So the fact now you have a legitimate strategies towards either of the house, any of the houses, and they all kind of have their own play style.”

    Joe @ ~43:00 — Explanation of how 1.36 code update increased strategic depth and house diversity

Entities

MartinpersonJoepersonStern PinballcompanyGary SternpersonDwight SullivanpersonStar Wars Home EditionproductSpider-Man Home Editionproduct

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Stern released Star Wars Home Edition at Comic-Con, marking the fourth home edition in their lineup

    high · Martin and Joe discussing the official announcement and specifications of the machine

  • $

    market_signal: Star Wars Home Edition priced at $4,500 MSRP but selling for ~$4,000 through distributors, higher than Spider-Man Home Edition (~$3,800) due to more expensive licensing

    high · Joe confirming distributor pricing and discussing licensing cost justification

  • ?

    community_signal: Significant negative community reaction to Star Wars Home Edition announcement with YouTube video receiving more downvotes than upvotes despite high engagement

    high · Martin observing YouTube metrics and noting widespread Facebook outrage; hosts discussing community anger as disproportionate and misdirected

  • ?

    product_concern: Game of Thrones 1.36 code update contains critical balancing issue in Lannister house enabling infinite 5x multiplier and scores exceeding 84 billion

    high · Confirmed screenshot of 84 billion score; Joe and Martin explaining the exploit mechanism involving repeated multiplier purchases via ability button and pop bumper gold rewards

  • ?

    code_update: Game of Thrones received 1.36 code update with significant rule additions including house-specific abilities, button mechanics, and upper playfield multiplier integration

    high · Martin and Joe's detailed discussion of new mechanics including Zac Stark cash-out, Lord of Light ball save, and Greyjoy cumulative abilities

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.069

0:00
Music Welcome to the Head to Head Pinball Podcast. This is episode 101. And my name is Martin and with me... Morning Joe. It is morning and it's very late here in very frosty Melbourne. I believe it's a bit hot over there.
0:48
Yeah, it hit over 100 yesterday. I don't know what that means because that's different. I know. 100 Fahrenheit is probably... It was hot.
1:01
Yeah, well, that's good. Great. Awesome. You're getting spent inside playing pinball. Yeah, well, I've just come off an epic stream of Wizard of Oz, which I'll talk about later. But the big news of the week is that Stern had a massive release this week of a new pinball machine.
1:26
It was huge. Which it was... Nobody saw it coming. I mean, we sort of knew it was coming. And when we had Gary Stern on, he mentioned that, you know, they are going to do another home edition machine. And they have. But I guess I didn't really see it coming that it was going to be Star Wars. I thought kind of like Star Wars, they've done it, it's dead, move on. But we saw Star Wars home edition. And what we know of it is that it's a slightly altered version of, you know, they've sort of mentioned that there's two templates that they use. One is the Spider-Man, which then became Supreme, and the other one was the Wonelli, which they didn't use. They've used the Spider-Man, slightly altered it. So one of the ramps on the left is now a ramp behind the three targets that goes up to the Death Star. Now, that's pretty much the change. Obviously, there's art, which is very reminiscent of the Stern Cornerstone game that they did. What do you think of it, Joe? I think it looks cool. Another change they did is they added that spinner in there and then did that TIE Fighter target, which was actually kind of clever. I was looking at it and I'm like, how the heck does that work? And I'm like, oh, it goes up, it hits the target, and then it's actually a drop. Because looking at it, there's no gate there, so you're like, how does that actually hit the target and stay there? But it actually has a lower level that it falls into that then completes the ramp. And yeah, I think it looks cool. It looks like it's fun. The changes they made are pretty cool. I like the fact that the ramp is behind the drops. That's a clever change.

high confidence · Martin observing YouTube metrics and community sentiment on social media platforms

  • Gary Stern previously indicated Stern has developed a successful business model for home edition pinball machines at a specific price point.

    high confidence · Martin referencing a previous interview with Gary Stern where he mentioned they 'worked it out' regarding positioning

  • Star Wars (Home Edition) Edition licensing cost is significantly higher than Spider-Man, justifying the higher price point.

    medium confidence · Joe's analysis of licensing costs between the two home editions

  • “I think Ninja Turtles is the one that's getting played the most by a good margin [compared to Beetlejuice and Superman].”

    Martin @ ~58:00 — Assessment of thematic appeal for potential TMNT pinball machine

  • “This is why this was at Comic-Con. Because, you know, Comic-Con is not a place where you sell pinball machines unless it's, you know, it's a theme specific to that.”

    Joe @ ~12:00 — Explanation of strategic venue choice for mainstream audience targeting

  • “Calm down, people. Calm down. Everything's going to be okay. The world's not ending. That's right. At least not because of this.”

    Martin and Joe @ ~20:00 — Direct appeal to community to de-escalate emotional reactions

    • Game of Thrones
    game
    Supremeproduct
    Deep Root Pinballcompany
    Comic-Conevent
    Dead Fliporganization
    Pinball Mastersevent
    Pinbergevent
    IFPAorganization
    Lannistergame
    Martellgame
    Baratheongame
    Targaryengame
    Greyjoygame
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesproduct
    Josh Rothrillperson
    Escherperson
    Chuckperson
  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern's home editions are explicitly not targeted at existing pinball community but rather at mainstream IP fans seeking lower-cost entry point; strategic venue selection (Comic-Con) and distribution differ from traditional machines

    high · Martin's repeated emphasis that 'it's not for us' and Joe's explanation of Comic-Con as strategic for Star Wars audience rather than pinball community

  • ?

    product_strategy: Star Wars Home Edition represents refinement of home edition template with improvements over Spider-Man including wire ramps instead of plastic, additional toys, and moving TIE Fighter mechanism

    high · Martin and Joe comparing side-by-side photos; Joe highlighting wire ramp upgrade and toy additions

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Stern rumored to be developing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine; community discussion about thematic appropriateness and current cultural relevance

    medium · Martin introducing TMNT as 'sort of announced recently as a rumoured title' and engaging Joe in comparison to other potential themes

  • ?

    content_signal: Dead Flip livestream featured Dwight Sullivan discussing Game of Thrones 1.36 update, providing early visibility to code changes and exploits

    high · Martin and Joe referencing Dead Flip stream as source of technical information about multiplier rules

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Game of Thrones 1.36 code update increased strategic variety by making non-Martell houses viable through house-specific abilities, addressing previous one-dimensional optimal strategy

    high · Joe explaining how players previously ignored all houses except Martell and Tyrell; new mechanics create legitimate alternative strategies

  • ?

    industry_signal: Community backlash against Star Wars Home Edition potentially discouraging mainstream consumer interest through excessive negativity on social platforms

    medium · Martin's concern about potential new customers being 'turned off' by community hate; discussion of potential unintended audience deterrence

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Stern invested in premium upgrades for Star Wars Home Edition including wire ramps and additional mechanical toys, suggesting iterative manufacturing improvements in home edition line

    medium · Joe noting wire ramps instead of plastic and discussing toy additions as evidence of design refinement

    • 3:15
    Have you played the Spider-Man Home or Supreme? I played the Spider-Man Home once or twice when it came out. I believe it was down at Automated for, I want to say, the launch party for Dialed In or something like that. And we were there and they had one and I think that was the first time I got to see one and play one. I thought it was really fun. Yeah, I played the Spider-Man Home Edition at Papa 20 and I was surprised at how much fun it is. I think the layout is great. It actually shoots really well. It feels like a proper stir machine. I mean, obviously the rules are pretty limited. They were. It's not meant to be a deep game. And from what I've seen of the rules of Star Wars, it seems the same. It's not a deep rule set. It just does what it needs to do. And I think overall the reception of it was quite positive.
    4:19
    It was the opposite of what actually happened. It broke the internet. It really did. And the response to this has been epic, I think is the best way to describe it. It's pretty sad and ridiculous.
    4:38
    The Pinball community just doesn't really understand how this shit works at all. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, I think expectations were pretty high. It had been announced that Stern were going to be releasing a game at the San Diego Comic Con and they did. And it's really hard. I mean, the obvious thing I want to say to people is this isn't the game for you, right? And it isn't. It's not for pinheads. It's not for the pinball community. It's Stern's way of trying to get new people into it. But there still is a caveat to that in that it's still got a price tag of $4,500 US which is pretty close to a pro model which is probably a little bit higher but for a used game or even a used Stern game you'd be paying about that kind of money. So when people have sort of gotten over the fact that, okay, it's a home game and it's Star Wars and it's the Spider-Man edition, then you go to the price and people think, oh, that's higher than what the Spider-Man home edition was. I think that was like 38 or something. So there's still a bit of a disconnect to the pinball community, but it's not aimed at the pinball community. I guess the big question is, do we think this will be successful? Yeah, of course it's going to be successful. Star Wars, I mean, this is, if you think of where this was actually marketed, this is why this was at Comic-Con. Because, you know, Comic-Con is not a place where you sell pinball machines unless it's, you know, it's a theme specific to that. And the fact that it's Star Wars, of course it's going to sell. The pros sold a ton. And the fact that this also remembers that this, yeah, the MSRP is, you know, 4,500, but it's probably actually going to sell it like four grand or something like that because it's always much less than that. That's right. I think a distributor has already come out and said that they'll take four grand for it. So that's not too bad. But I mean, I look at it and I say I would never buy it because it's a home edition, right? Yeah, exactly, but you wouldn't be the person who would want to buy it or should be buying it. That's right. It's not for me. And we still believe that around the corner we're going to see another Stern proper cornerstone game.
    7:20
    Again, it was just, it could never live up to the expectations because it's a home game, because it's got limited rules, and because of the price. So it's really hard to know. As Gary said, they reckon they've worked it out. They've worked out where the home edition sits. So, I don't know. We'll never know because Stern never really releases its numbers of what it's sold. I don't know. Yeah, but the fact that Gary says that they've figured out where it belongs, that means that it's succeeded at that said level. So, you know, that's – so their expectations are that that's kind of the price point that this should sit at. And, you know, this is more expensive than Spider-Man because this is a much more expensive license than Spider-Man.
    8:07
    So, you know, then you have that. But, I mean, it's – you know, I mean, I don't know what channels they sell the home pins through. I don't know if it's through the same distributors. Yeah, it is. Apparently it is through the same distributor network.
    8:25
    They must get advertised in a completely different way for that audience to know about it and find out about it. So I don't know how that works because obviously that has no visibility to us, seemingly. No, no, exactly. It's a tough one because we want it to be something it's not. We want it to be priced as something it's not. It's not for us, really, is the summary if I can mention that one more time. It is not the pinball for us. I want to have a go at it. I don't think I'm going to get that much more of an experience than I did on the Spider-Man Home Edition, but it's not for me. Yeah, then I wish that I could play out of these. Yeah. There's a lot of people that are. There are a lot of people that are so angry. It's just like, find something better to focus on, would you? Please. I know. And I think one of the comments I read somewhere, I think it might have been on Stern's Facebook page, was, you know, that's it, I'm done. I'm not going to give Stern any more of my money. I'm going to go elsewhere. Okay, well, go elsewhere. Bye-bye, child. But where are you going to go? Where elsewhere do you go?
    9:39
    Yeah, all because they didn't release something that wasn't for you and you're really pissed that it wasn't for you? Like, what a little baby. Like, that's, I don't know. I mean, one of the funny comments I saw was someone posted like, oh, it seems, this obviously is like a direct response to D-Broot. And this is, you know, they're trying to compete with D-Broot. It's like, no, one, Dep Root isn't a thing, and they don't care, nor do they need to worry about that. And also, this is the fourth one of these, so no, they did not come out with this specifically because of Dep Root. No, that's right. Like, what are you talking about? I remember, I think I just replied just as a one-word answer, just no, period. I was like, no, that's ridiculous. And then tons of other people came in, and Chuck got in there. It was just like, what do you, what, like, what, I don't understand what, I mean, yeah, I understand how the internet works and this is roughly about how the internet works, but it's just, I don't. I love that. It really is just the internet.
    10:42
    It's the internet, isn't it? It does go crazy. I don't. I hate what you've done. I also hate what you've done. Yeah, we hate what you've done. Yeah. Okay, I don't know how that helps. Yeah, but now I know that other people agree with me, so that makes everything better.
    11:00
    Oh, it's a funny thing, guys. I don't know. I've looked at the video that came out. I've stared a lot at the screenshots that we've seen of multiple angles of the machine. It looks all right. It's just not for us, and therefore we don't know how to resolve it because it's not for us. Yeah, then ultimately it will succeed, just like Supreme, and then there'll be another one that pisses off somebody eventually, pisses off someone when they release the next home edition.
    11:37
    I'm glad that they're doing it. I'm glad they're succeeding. The fact that these sell well is good for us anyway, so shutting them down and hoping they fail with these models is like cutting off your own foot. It doesn't make a lot of sense. If these don't do well, then Stern doesn't do well. Then Stern doesn't do well in the things that everyone wants. So that makes no sense. We want Stern to succeed.
    12:02
    I know. But, you know, look, they've added wire ramps instead of plastic ramps. So they've made it look a bit more premium. I've actually, in front of me, I've got a picture, and I think you do in the show notes, of the Star Wars Home Edition side by side with the Spider-Man Home Edition. It looks a lot more premium than the Spider-Man Home Edition. That's what I'll say. Yeah, definitely. Like you mentioned, the wire form ramps. It's got more toys in it. You know, the TIE Fighter moves. TIE Fighter in the spring. Again, they love that. We're going to do that again. And it's going to jiggle like the other one. It's just as good as Little Deadpool's Spring.
    12:47
    Yeah, which also got a fair shift. It's all Circus Voltaire's fault with the Ringmaster on a spring. And they're like, wow, that's pretty cool. Let's do it, but smaller.
    12:58
    So, look, I think that's as much time as we need to give this. Yeah, calm down, people. Calm down. Everything's going to be okay. The world's not ending. That's right. At least not because of this. That's right. I think in a week's time, hopefully, when we get to see the real machine, they're going to go, ha, ha, ha, this was a joke. It was not for you, but he's the real one. Yeah. Well, I mean, also, just the fact, I mean, everyone flipping out about this machine. How much do you think that that's worth money-wise of just marketing, free publicity from just this? Because everywhere on Facebook, all you saw was pictures of this and people screaming. Well, guess how many more people saw this game because of people's outrage and flipping out about it. So I'm sure they're just laughing their way to the bank going, thank you, pinball community. You know, just as like the emperor going, yes, yes, feel the hate that did consume you. But you know what? What actually kind of, I guess, really the only thing that really annoys me about it is, let's say there was somebody and it was the first time they saw one of these things and they went, oh my God, I love the look of this. And I've got, you know, I just have $4,500 US in my bank account. I want to, I'm really interested in this. And then you hear all this hate. You may be turning people off. And, you know. That's also true. People may actually just really enjoy this machine. So I don't know. I don't know why you have to have this mega hate. And I think the video on YouTube has got more down votes than it's got up votes. You know, I just, that's not good for people. It's the universal law. Universal law. People suck. And so does the internet. The internet does sometimes. It just amplifies all the worst properties of our species. It does. But I'm sure it'll be good. Hopefully they have one of them at Pinnball and I can tell you how it plays. It'll be... Yeah, I'd love to get your favorite. Oh, Maybach. It'd be cool. I don't think I've seen these necessarily on the circuit when they bring them to shows, but it'd be cool if they were added. I mean, they'd be fine in the free play area or something. Well, yeah. If you remember last year, Pimberg had this section that had all the new machines that were being released. I can't remember who it was, but I think it was one of the distributors there. They had a whole section of them, so maybe they'll have one of those there.
    15:39
    Yeah, and I don't know about the limited, but if this shoots good, like you mentioned, then I don't see why this couldn't necessarily not be added to Pimberg. Hmm. Okay. Well, yeah. Again, depends on how tournament ready the rules are. Yeah. I mean, if it's shallow but yet balanced, then it should be fine. Well, balanced rules are a really important thing. Do you see where I'm going with this? You're always so good. I know. Were you paid a lot of gold for that segue? I want to see what you're doing there as well. Yeah, it goes both ways.
    16:24
    That's so good. So Game of Thrones code. We talked about it last week and, you know, I asked, what do you want to see? And we all went, well, we kind of hear what's going on. And it got landed. There was the Dead Flip stream. Dwight Sullivan was on it. And then the 1.36 code landed. I think it was probably about Thursday maybe that it actually got available for people to download.
    16:51
    And, hmm, there's a bit of a problem with balancing, Joe. I've heard. I've seen the pictures. I've seen the picture of somebody with an 84 billion score.
    17:06
    Yeah, Escher needs to be nerfed. He does. So what I've heard really is it's the Lannister house where you buy something. I can't remember what it was, but it was almost like the ability button allows you to buy something and you can repeatedly buy it. And one of them was the Lord of Light, so you get a never-ending ball save.
    17:32
    Incorrect. Yes. If you're on ACDC or something like that and your bell's about to time out and you have a VIP and you have the ability to count the bell, it's about to time out, you buy another multiplier, it continues.
    18:17
    Apparently this big thing seems to be that the pop awards give you way too much gold. So if you get into the Papa slots or whatever, that if you get gold up there, if you're Lannister, you get 750 gold, which is like more than halfway towards the next multiplier. So if you're in a multiball or something and you're just getting that gold, you'll have plenty of gold again by the time your multiplier is ending. So as long as you're doing well, you have more or less an infinite 5x multiplier and apparently he had that all through Hand of the King and Iron Throne and it just went on forever. Hmm. So, I mean, when I watched the Dead Flip stream, Dwight had said that he only put, and because I think he added like a multiplier rule up for the upper playfield as well in the premium and elite. And it kind of sounded like he'd only put the multiplier rules in a couple of days before. So that kind of stuff can just be exploited and blow up. And we saw that with Star Wars. So I remember they had to nerf one of those things because it was just, you know, you set something up, you just get this exponentially large scoring and they'll have to do that with this. Yeah, and I think that, but I believe that what Escher did, I think, was on a Pro. Did you notice if it was a premium or an Ellie? No, I hadn't seen it. I've just seen a screen cap of the actual score itself.
    19:59
    Oh, okay. Yeah, if I'm not mistaken, I think he did it on a Pro. Right. I just think when you add multipliers and there's significant, and I think it was multipliers upon multipliers, that can get a little bit crazy if not checked. And, you know, with a bit more time, you'd have to balance it. So they've added a lot of stuff. They've added, you know, different functions now, like button presses for each of the houses, which seem really cool. They're trying to make all the other houses more, I don't know, selectable is probably the word to use, rather than just doing Martell all day, which I think they've succeeded. If you can get an 84 billion score on Lannister.
    20:46
    But yeah, I think we'll see another code update come soon with some additional balancing. Yeah, I think that the main thing they're going to do is they're just going to scale back the amount of gold that Lannister gets. Because it's just, they get paid so much more and then they can continually keep buying the multiplier and keep it going. So I mean, if you imagine like your best game of Game of Thrones ever, now imagine if you had 5X running that entire time. Yeah. And that's how you get to that point. And, you know, and like I don't think that the multiplier rule is that big of a deal because it's kind of the same. The only difference is that, you know, for at least for the upper play field, the way it used to work is, you know, you see those 2x, 3x multipliers at the top. And they used to be connected to the main multiplier. So, you know, if it was whatever you were doing down that, it would also run the multipliers up top. And those were always connected. So now you can get those multipliers independent of the other multipliers and you just have to hit the castle shot up there and then it's 2x, 3x. And those multipliers only apply to the upper playfield shots.
    21:56
    But now they also times by the lower playfield shots. Yes. But outside of castle multiball there's not a lot of huge points on the upper playfield. So it's like it's not that big of a deal. I mean, it was on the stream when they were showing off the castle, but he said that he was going to nerf the castle multi-ball scoring. So it's not that huge of a difference in the multiplayer rule.
    22:24
    Yeah, I guess so. I can't remember it now. It's so long ago that I watched the stream. So long ago, it was like five days ago. But I think he was trying to make the shots up there a lot more interesting as well. And, yeah, as you said, like the times, like it could be three times on the bottom playfield and two times up, so therefore that makes six times as opposed to, you know, plussing them together. And I think also the other thing you said is that it's now easier to get Castle Multiball from the upper playfield as well. Yeah, mainly because now all your skill shot always feeds the upper playfield, and then on that feed, if you hit the castle, on that feed it advances you one step towards castle multiple. And that's mainly why it's easier. The rules are still the same where you have to hit all three targets, then you have to put it through, and then come back. Either you get lucky and it stays up there and you continue or you come back down, the drop comes up, you have to repeat the same process.
    23:33
    But the other changes that they put in there of how you can, the different ways you can finish houses, how you have Stark where you can just end the house for 5 million. Or you can go, if you're in the middle of a mode, you can go out the upper playfield and if you complete the shots up there and then hit the castle, You can then cash out that mode too for three times the value of Starks. So then that's like if you're in, that's a way to get through houses, I mean, yeah, I guess houses you'd call it, modes that you don't necessarily want to be sitting in. And if you're just trying to fast track to Iron Throne or something.
    24:10
    So it's a lot of really good changes in there. I mean, we got to use it, the new code in Pim Masters yesterday. The game didn't have, we took the ball save off so we thought it was clever to use. We put it in casual and forced everyone to play Baratheon so that, you know, they had a ball save but it was skillfully, you needed to use the button to get your Lord of Light ball save. Right, okay.
    24:36
    Look, I, as I was watching it, I was saying, you know, this is all cool stuff. But just a part of me which just absolutely loved Game of Thrones just felt that it was taking it in a different direction. I thought that it was kind of like it was fine the way it was. The way you approach it was very cool. It kind of changes all that. I don't know whether it really needed it. But what do you think? I mean, I think it did. Because I mean, I never would I, certainly in competition, even outside of competition, I still played the game relatively the same. Like I never put any thought into any of the other houses besides Martell and maybe Tyrell. So I mean, you know, it's the fact now you have a legitimate strategies towards either of the house, any of the houses, and they all kind of have their own play style that you could then, you know, maybe you're, You really good with the button and you fast being able to push it so that now every ball you have a ball save You have a Lord of Light that you can get back Or you want to go for Wall Multiball Well if you playing Baratheon those drop targets advance you towards Wall
    25:49
    The fact that you can freeze timers on Lannister, I mean on Targaryen, that's cool. You can use that if you can stay in your multiplier longer. I mean there's a lot of cool interesting stuff that it just doesn't become, oh I take this and I get an edible.
    26:10
    And I also like the fact that they left Martell as is, of just being like, yeah you don't get anything special. All you do, you don't have a house ability, all you do is you get an edible. Whereas the other ones have house abilities where it's just like, yeah, you still get a button ability, but your house gives you a passive thing that is always there for you to benefit from, which is also, I think, is really cool. And it's a good way of balancing it, just being like, yeah, you get this one thing for this if you want to keep it, but these other things, you get a lot more benefits of picking these other houses, which I think we'll see that the strategy is going to evolve. So the other houses are more involved. And also I like the way that they did Greyjoy where it's kind of like the way it was but when you beat houses you gain their ability for the rest of the game and then you get their button ability until you defeat the next house. Which is really clever because it's like if you go, you know, you can go for Stark first, you get Stark, you finish Stark, and then now you can go for, I don't know, say Martell or something like that. Then you get into Martell, you immediately hit your button, boom, Martell's done, now you have an Atta Ball. Now you can go, okay, now I want to have, or you can do Lannister, so now you have that gold in the background. You know, I think it's a lot more interesting. And I don't think that the core gameplay changes much. You know, it's just you get your little sprinkles of flavor around of, you know, there's a lot more different roads and detours on the same similar journey. I mean, it's not. I don't think it's that complicated.
    27:53
    No, I know that. But I just remember when it came out and this is, you know, pre Star Wars, right? When Game of Thrones first came out, people thought it was just overly complicated. And maybe that was just the step that people needed to go through to get to the likes of Star Wars. Because, you know, after time, as we've talked about, you know, we did when we did the Tip 100 and you did that game. And I know we've talked about a couple of times.
    28:23
    Once you know your path, the path is pretty standard. It was, you know, like pick Martell, do this, get your Blackwater, get your multipliers, do this, do that, and you're done. I guess this is adding more choice, which is fine for us when we've just already mastered Game of Thrones. But just think about the casual player. Are they going to know all that kind of stuff?
    28:50
    Yeah, I mean, the casual player is just going to, none of that stuff matters to them anyway. So it doesn't affect them at all because nothing, if they're just going up, pushing a button and playing, nothing that's changed changes how that happens. So it's like, there's this, yeah, it's there, it's happening in the background, but they're not aware of it. So it doesn't really affect their experience at all because nothing's changed as far as they know. Probably a better parallel, if I can, is the have and the have-nots when it comes to Star Wars. It's those people that really know how to work the multipliers. They'll get their scores up versus those that really don't. And that's kind of the parallel I'm drawing here is that those people that really understand the complexities and the choices that you have and they can navigate that versus somebody in a tournament that just goes up and says, I'm just going to hit the flashing light. Yeah, but I mean at the same time, you know, it's hard because it's like, well, if you're not interested in learning that level, then in I'll say you really shouldn't be beating people who are. Sure. Ryan Cards versus the multiplier get person who's chasing multipliers. They're going for that bank and that bank can easily punish you greatly for hitting it. So it's like at least there's the risk reward of that, but still it comes with far more risk. So, you know, in that case, it's like, yeah, yeah, you can go for the multipliers, but, you know, good luck living if you hit those things and you could easily lose the ball. Whereas here I am hitting ramps and, you know, I don't I'm in a lot safer space than you are. So, you know, Game of Thrones is not as risky as Star Wars is, but, I mean, if you're used to playing Star Wars the way it is, you can still do the same exact thing. And if you're good at doing that, you'll still be good at doing this, too.
    31:19
    Whether or not it's, you know, I mean, it's hard. You can't say now because Lannister is so overpowered right now. But I mean, in a world where Lannister is fixed, then it should relatively be relative across the board. So that, yeah, you can still do your Martell and still be just as good as people who do other things, assuming you both do, you know, just as good.
    31:44
    Okay. All I'm hearing is there's still no Ghostbusters code. Yeah. Yeah. No. And that got as much attention as we thought it would.
    32:00
    Yeah. Yeah, that's, oh my god, they misspelled the stream, it says Game of Thrones. I'm pretty sure that's not how you spell Ghostbusters. No, I know. Poor Dwight.
    32:13
    Oh, poor Dwight. Just get Ghostbusters' code out, mate. So, on to, well, sticking with Stern News. So it was sort of announced recently as a rumoured title that Stern would be doing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And when I read this, I scratched my head a bit. So I'm wanting to hear from the youth of today, which you'll have to suffice compared to me. What do you think about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a theme for Stern?
    32:55
    I mean, I think it'll do great. I mean, Ninja Turtles still are pretty relevant. I know, I mean, I love them in my generation, and they're starting to come back again. I remember in my generation, one of the best games you could play was an arcade game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Oh, it was awesome. It was like a four-player game. And yeah, and there's a new one of those that's come out recently that's another four-player game, and it's a stand-up, I think. I want to say our evil overlord, Rothrill's Josh behind that one.
    33:36
    But I've seen that a few times, everyone's playing that, so I think that ironically it seems like maybe we're in a similar space as it was back then, Now it's a resurgence. Now we have another big arcade game that everyone's loving, and I'm sure it's on TV somewhere.
    33:58
    There's been animated movies recently. I like it. My only thing would just be, obviously, it's going to be what kind of Ninja Turtles. Is it the animated series that I'm familiar with? Is it the new, more next generation animated there? Who knows? Is it going to be the Ninja Turtles movie? Who knows? There's a lot of places you could go. Is there going to be Vanilla Ice in it? I don't know.
    34:33
    Was he in it? I don't know. He was in the first Ninja Turtles movie, yeah. It was so long ago. But I guess what I want to know is whether you think this is a better theme than Beetlejuice.
    34:55
    To me, yes. I'm more interested in Ninja Turtles than Beetlejuice. And certainly most, I don't know what the, currently in the ether of the world, I think Ninja Turtles is a much more current active, you know, theme than Beetlejuice is. I mean. Yeah, I would agree with you. Is it a better theme than Superman?
    35:23
    Well, again. You know where I'm going with this, right? I know. Again, to me, yes, because I don't like that character at all. Oh, that's why you said that.
    35:32
    But I mean, it could, but I don't know how – but again, then it comes down to the audiences, right? Like if you're talking about all the old people who buy pinball machines, then yeah, I suppose maybe Superman. But the fact – I don't think that anyone – I don't know how much of the youth of today know who the Christopher Reeve Superman is. Like that's not the Superman that they grew up with. That's not the Superman they see. So I don't know, you know, they could easily see that machine and go, that's not Superman, what's that? I have no idea.
    36:06
    But, I mean, still for me, I think if you put it in an arcade, you put all three of those next to each other, I think Ninja Turtles is the one that's getting played the most by a good margin. Well, look, we've sort of said this before, but as long as it's got a good layout, it's got good art, it's got good rules, you know, you can make a good machine out of a, let's call it a dodgy theme or a questionable theme, I think is probably a better way of saying it, in that I don't think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a slam dunk theme, but you could make something of it. But again, it comes back to, you know, we sort of said Jurassic Park's coming up, which is another one. We've already done an original Jurassic Park.
    36:58
    Obviously, Star Wars has been done. So it's another one where you go, okay, you've done this before. Did you need to have another Pimball machine? Do you use me Ninja Turtles? Data East is considered one of the worst games ever made. Oh, it is. I mean, does that count? No, I know what you mean. And when it came out, it's all relative. When it came out, I played it in the arcade when it came out quite a lot, and I liked it. It has not aged well at all. It is considered, in your words, hot garbage. It's really a terrible game with terrible layout and terrible rules. And one of my friends is buying one, so I'll be seeing it a ton now. It'll be the first time I've played it. It'll be sold to it. I don't know. See, this is the one with the Ice Ice arcade.
    38:00
    So this is a theme that's never going to leave because, like I mentioned, this is attached to Vanilla Ice. So this is going to be there forever. Wow. Okay. But, I mean, yeah, I mean, even looking at it, like, I don't, I'm not overly sure, because I don't think that's the animated series art either, so I don't know where, it's quite an ugly game, isn't it?
    38:26
    Yes. Is that a pizza? Or supposed to be a pizza? Yes. That is a very worn out nasty looking pizza. Yeah, that's the pizza that spins, like, you know, the whirlwind spin and twister and all that kind of stuff. And it's got the sewer thing that lifts up to be a captive scoop type thing. Oh, like Sega's, like X-Files, FBI.
    38:55
    I guess so. I don't think I've ever played that. Really? Yeah, there's a little trapdoor thingy that pops up. Yeah, there's a trapdoor. It's a trapdoor that I'm thinking of. It's the sewer door. So anyway, I don't know. I don't know. I guess I just think there's got to be so many better things than that out there. Well, yeah, but I mean, it's, I don't know. I guess it all comes down to what you grew up with, right? I mean, there's tons of people who grew up with Ninja Turtles that this is going to appeal towards. Every single one has its own pizza slice of the market. Oh, where is it? I don't know. You were slow on the trigger, so I made my own.
    39:49
    There it is. So, I mean, I think that it's just all a matter of, you know, and I've mentioned that I feel like Stern needs to try and focus more on the location side of things Instead of the people who are hiding their pinball machines away in their houses. And I think that if you look at these three that you specifically mentioned, I think Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is by far the stronger location game.
    40:17
    So by that logic, I think that they are thinking more about, okay, what is going to be a better location game? And they're still going to sell it for the home market, too, because there's tons of Ninja Turtle fans, too. So, um, and then Dill just comes, there are.
    40:35
    I will not get off your lawn, Martin. I'm just not buying it. I really. The argument or the machine. Yeah, well, either way. I mean, but, but I mean, so if, you know, if, you know, we know it's not Ellen, but I mean, you know, if Steve Ritchie is making it, you know, I mean, it's, you'd still like it. I mean, we're whoever's, wherever the art is, whether it's... Well, let's just think about Munsters, right? So Munsters had the one-two punch of Borg and Franchi, you know, and that's a theme that not a lot of people really know at all. And people, you know, again, they scratch their head at that. When you look at the machine, you go, oh, okay, when you put some great art and some bit of humor in a great layout, and, you know, hopefully the rules will get there, you can look at it and say, Okay, I can now see why that is a legitimate machine. And, you know, if it was Borg and Frangie doing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, maybe they could do that. I mean, I could just think of the great art that Frangie would do on that. It would be killer. But, you know, you just, I don't know. I just don't know what they would do with a machine. Yeah, I mean, if you had to guess at a designer, it would have to be Borg. I mean, Borg, he's so good at putting out and altering layouts to get things out. And of all the designers that would love Ninja Turtles, he seems like he would be the one who would be really into it.
    42:09
    So I think that if you look at the themes he's done, I think that he would really be into that thing. And we know that Stern, when they're given themes, they look at who in their design team is passionate about it. And if I could put money on one of them that probably would be into this theme, I think it would be Borg. Or maybe Gomez. I think Gomez would like it too, but I don't know if he's going to be jumping back in the ring so soon after Deadpool. Because he's a busy boy. Well, and also Star Wars Home Edition. That's true, yes. Because that's his.
    42:47
    Moving on. So speaking of other Stern games, so Color DMD have announced that CSI is the next game that's been supported via the Color DMD. Three people will buy that. Well, so I've put it here and I've got in the show notes and, you know, there's a picture of the play field. And I don't know, CSI is an interesting one for me. It's a Pat Lawler design and everybody knows what I think about Pat Lawler games. I think they're awful.
    43:25
    But this one... They're very, very hit and miss. They are kind of hit and miss. CSI doesn't get a good rap, I will tell you, but I don't mind it. And I just kind of just wanted to get your thoughts on what you thought of CSI. Uh, the only thing that I can't wrap my head around is the fact that you've posted a list of all the games from that era and there is a Good Morning America pinball machine? What? But I think that was a re-theme. What the fuck is that? Wait a minute. Uh, Good Morning America pinball. What? It would have been a re-theme where they would have done like a one-off for a show.
    44:07
    Oh my god, what? Really? Huh. What is it? I don't even know what this is based on. Oh, it's Family Guy.
    44:21
    It's a Family Guy game. Wow. That's three different... Huh. That's funny. Well, there you go. Impressively ugly.
    44:35
    I mean, I love myself some blue, but that is a lot of blue. So anyway. Sorry, that was distracting. But the reason why I did that was because I wanted to say that, as I said, it doesn't get a good rap. It was of a certain era, 2008, and that's why I said before it came Spider-Man, Wheel of Fortune, Shrek, which was obviously the Family Guy re-theme, Indiana Jones and Batman. And then after you had NBA 24, Batman, Dark Knight and Iron Man and then Big Buck Hunter. So it's of its era, I think. When was Monopoly?
    45:20
    Much earlier. Before that? I think it was, yeah. I mean, I don't know. Out of all those themes outside of Good Morning America, I could care less about this is the worst theme in the bunch out of all of them.
    45:40
    Well, I mean, I guess Wheel of Fortune too, but... No, 24 is pretty bad. I loved 24. Yeah, but there's a theme for Pimball. It would be a great theme if maybe they put the main character in it. Maybe that would make it better. It's like making a Thor game without Thor. It's like having a Pirates of the Caribbean or Alien without Sigourney thing, whatever the name is. What are people thinking? Ripley. Right, there you go.
    46:08
    That's why I just put little bits of notes here. So to Pat Lawler design, the art was John Yowse and Margaret Hudson. Music was David Thiel, right? And then you've got software. Now, this was all taken from IPDB. Now what we know about this is it's not always 100% accurate and it doesn't reflect equality in the amount of effort. Lyman? What? You're right. This is what I'm saying. So there's four people for software. You've got Lonnie D. Ropp, Lyman Sheets, Keith Johnson, and Mike Kizovat. So I don't know who was lead and who did what. Lonnie was lead. I think you can tell by the game. Well, you probably can, but there's some big names on it. Why is it? You know, I wonder if Lyman's there because he did that special code revision to get rid of the three switch rule. Ah, yeah. I wonder if that's the only reason he's on there. Or do some lighting effects or something. I don't know. He might have been the Timballs of his time. I don't know. I mean, it's, you know, honestly, if, I mean, the layout is not terrible. It suffers from some of the other games from this era where the flippers are just not strong enough to handle the game on any kind of long play. Especially with the main shot is so far back in the playfield. It doesn't shoot well. Well, if you, I mean, the layout, if you make this, you know, you rethame this as something else, I mean, I could, maybe this is a potential future vault or something like that. Or would this be a home edition?
    47:49
    There you go. I mean, they're not going to know the difference. So this is the whole thing, right? You could take some of these games where it was, you know, the era of Sturm where they weren't necessarily putting all that many units out. We refer to those as the pre-ACDC days.
    48:09
    You could re-theme that layout. And it's not, as you said, it's actually quite a good layout. There's actually quite interesting shots in it. Yeah, I think that if you go through it, fix the code, there's just some things in the game you just should be doing over all else things. And there's a lot of stuff in places on the play field that you just never shoot. Like shooting the left orbit, anything to do with that upper flipper.
    48:39
    So it's just like you're hitting the centrifuge, you're hitting the middle ramp, and you're sometimes hitting the microscope.
    48:50
    There you go. That's the word. So outside of those three things, you're really not shooting in much else. But if you could balance it out a little and, you know, I mean, it could be a good game.
    49:03
    It's every I've never I've never played a good working one. Every all the ones I've played, it's, you know, it's just by the time I get to it, it's I die trying to hit the middle ramp because it just goes up and then it comes out. It's like, oh, my God, like it's good. Would it kill to put like the Lord of the Rings, Ellie flipper coils in this thing? No, I've had the same experience, I must admit. I've only ever played one that has been a Melbourne Match Play, which was a yearly tournament that we used to have. One of the local distributors used to bring a CSI along, so it was the same machine each year. And it was that same thing where you had to absolutely nail that ramp shot from the left flipper for it to just slightly dribble over the top to make the ramp. Otherwise, it would just shoot back down and it was just pain having to try and get it up there. So I've had the same experience, so that must have been just systemic with the game itself. Yeah, and it's got cool toys, like the way the locks light in the skull, that's cool. With Centrifuge, the Centrifuge toy is cool. The way that it goes in and it counts spins, that's neat. The way that the little magic mushroom from Time Fantasy over there works, that's pretty cool. But it's just, you know, like anything, poor software, poor physical problems, poor theme can really ruin a game. And I think that this, you know, I mean, the main thing in the game is some of it's like you're going to just get some colored spheres, some colored circles, and then that's one multiball. And then, you know, just try and hit the skull as much as you can. And, you know, I think the call-outs in the game are pretty terrible. Right. So, yeah, I mean, I don't know what theme you can... Home edition it! Home edition it! There's not really that much on it, bar the centrifuge. You could take out the stupid microscope, take out the skull and just have some other cheap lock mechanism up there. You could vault this. Home edition it Easy Yeah I mean yeah I don know if they want to put a upper flipper on a home edition but yeah they could I don't know what you'd make it, but yeah. I think it's, I mean, of all their catalogue, I mean, it's not, it's certainly one of the games that could be a lot better.
    51:41
    So. I guess, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to make of it. I guess because the home editions now, they've got their template, they're going to use it. There's probably a lot of R&D that would go into taking a previous machine and remodeling it for today's usage. So why bother? Yeah, and also the benefit of a lot of these titles is that there's not many of them. So there's a market there for them if they feel that if they can make a better version of it, It's not like they're going to be stepping on their own market because there's not many of them to start with. So if they put out a better version of it, there's not a lot of, oh, I have the shitty version. Well, there's not many people who have the shitty version, so that's fine. Wow, and they've all got the shitty version. Yeah. Yes, they do. That is correct. I mean, if you look at 24's Playfield, I don't think there's anything wrong with 24's Playfield. So, you know, it just needs, just like this one, it needs stronger flippers. But, I mean, it's got a neat play field. The safe house is cool.
    52:48
    You know. It's got crazy rules. I just didn't dig the rules of 24. Yeah, a lot of the games from this era suffer from, oh, play the game, and then there's this one thing that's going to stop you from getting to wizard mode that you're going to get so aggravated with, you're not going to bother. Like, I think for, you know, it's like on Batman. Oh, you get to get to 75 gadgets. So hit the center ramp until your fingers bleed, and maybe you'll get there. And like the rest of the game, it's like, oh, I'm there. Oh, what's left? Okay, fuck it. Like I just not even done it. Like in 24, I think it was like you had to get like five snipers or something. Like, yeah, sure. Sure game. That'll happen. Thanks. I don't know what it is on CSI because who's ever tried to get to the wizard mode on that? No, I'm not bothered, obviously.
    53:39
    Yeah, maybe it'll happen. I mean, eventually they're going to run out of vaults, right? I mean, eventually they're going to have to dig into their older catalogue to start coming out. I mean, they can't just keep on vaulting the Trons and Game of Thrones of the world, right? Well, yeah, but I guess that's why I was thinking about it for Home Edition. And people have sort of been saying they should go back to the Stern Electronics days of your Quicksilvers and your Meteors and all that kind of stuff.
    54:10
    Well, that's fine if you're going to do another Beatles type thing with a single level playfield. But how did that go for them as far as brand goes? It's a great game to play. But again, Pinball fans with their pitchforks, they were out in force like they are with Star Wars Home Edition. They're going to be out in force for whatever you do. They are going to be for anything. And they would, again, if it was a CSI modified layout as well, they would as well. Because we all just think that it's really easy to come up with a new layout and engineer everything it takes to manufacture it. It's not that easy. Nope. This can be the original theme. It could be like Gary Stern, the detective. He's going around trying to solve pinball crimes.
    55:01
    He's trying to shut down internet trolls. Yeah, SSI. Stern Scientific Investigations or whatever. It's not going to happen. There you go. There's your original theme. There you go, guys. Make that happen.
    55:17
    So I'll just skip ahead one. And last week we talked about that art that Zombie Yeti had put out there and we sort of speculated, which, you know, we do, whatever, fuck off. And, you know, he basically has said since, I apologise for getting anyone's hopes up. I do a lot of work with licences outside of Pinball, albeit less so since Pinball tends to get much of my schedule. I'll have much more info on this project soon and can assure you it's a dream thing for me, so I'll always push it. So please keep the excitement out there. Really what Zombietta is saying is that Bill and Ted art wasn't for Pimball.
    55:57
    Or is it? It's not. I mean, if you want to talk about a theme that's definitely below the previous three we talked about.
    56:08
    Bill and Ted? Well, Bill and Ted's got a new movie. Yeah, but I mean, you're not, I don't know. This seems like – I don't even know if I've seen those movies, nor have I thought about those movies since I was in high school. Yeah, I saw the first two. They were Excellent Adventure and Bogus Journey, were awesome films. But I will go back to my discussion with Gary Stern and the whole Matrix discussion where they picked Lord of the Rings instead of Matrix. And he was like, well, because it's always a risk when you're creating a machine before a movie's out because the movie might be a bit of a dud. So that's probably why we're not seeing a lot of machines and things that have come out from Stern that are at the same time as a movie because there's just too much risk involved if it's a shit movie. And that's going to be like Bill and Ted movie three. It could be really, really bad. And nobody's going to take risk on that. Not today's climate. No, and I don't know. I don't see why that is a theme that deserves a pinball machine comparatively to all the other themes that are out there. Because it would be hilarious. There's other hilarious themes you could do there. Plus, it's going to be hilarious if you can't get either of them to do anything for the game.
    57:30
    I mean, yeah, if you can get Keanu Reeves in there and he just talks to you and mocks you, then yeah, absolutely. That'd be awesome. I mean, if it's just literally clips or a couple things from the original movie in the 80s or whatever, I don't know. Do you have enough member berries to spend seven grand on that? I don't think so.
    57:56
    No. I just feel you're not going to give anything a go unless it's got vanilla ice in it. Oh, I mean, obviously. That's all the thought I'm hearing. Between them, I mean, that clearly is the branching point. All those current artists. That's right. That's a massive fan of... It's such a good song. Stop, collaborate, listen.
    58:19
    So, anyway, there you go. We've cleared that up. Speaking of clearing things up, last week when we did our Bally Williams Battle Royale and Ryan was on the show, We then did Tournament Edition.
    58:34
    And the last two games we put up against each other were Shadow and Bram Stoker's Dracula. And we put that to the internet because you know you can trust the internet for a valid opinion. That's right. And they agree with me.
    58:49
    Do you know what was really funny? As I looked at it, I went, I can't remember which one I went for. I think you said Dracula. I must have said Dracula because that's why I went to a tie. Yeah, me and Ryan were picked Shadow.
    59:02
    Yeah, but Ryan was a big fucking Joe fanboy. He picked everything you liked. I mean, clearly, it's because, you know, it's the sidekick. It's the sidekick mentality. No, it's not. He was always picking everything against me as well. We were just very different. So, anyway, the Shadow won 59% to 41%. What of it? And they're both just not that great. And I don't know how we managed to get them as the top two tournament games. They're good games. They're great games to play in tournaments.
    59:34
    And that's what it was. That's what it was about. That's right. Now, next week. When I say next week, I'm assuming that everyone's going to be listening to this on a Monday night, which is a Monday morning. So let's say next week. What's happening next week, Joe?
    59:55
    I have no idea. It's there in the show notes. It's right in front of you. I'm sorry, I can't read. What is that? Something in Pittsburgh? What's Pittsburgh? Something like that. I think that might be a town, maybe? Where is it? I don't know. What's in Pittsburgh? They just have a bad football team, right? Is that what? Oh.
    60:17
    You're losing me now. I have no idea when it comes to football in general. They have a new roller coaster that's opening in Kennywood in Pittsburgh. Oh, I've heard of Kennywood. That's the theme park near there. Yes. I don't know why else we're in the area. There you go. Pinberg is next week, everybody, from the 1st to the 4th of August. And you're going, Joe. I am. So really, there's only one thing that you've got to do, and that's just do better than what we both did last year. Because I'm just going to remind you that just because you're now a top 40 player in the world, 38 current ranking, we ended on the same spot last year. So I'm just as good as you is what I'm trying to get, state with my case here. I mean, I can't argue with that. I mean, no, well, it's true. I mean, the results are there. Yeah, I mean, but you're kicking my ass in every other category. I mean, you're far more attractive. Your voice is way better. Sure, true. You know, you get to live in Australia, which is a lot more fun. I don't know. That is true. Yeah, well, I mean, just however good I do, you can just imagine you did just as good. Okay, I love that. So I can disappoint you from a distance. Because I've never really done well in Pemberg. Really? No. I mean, I remember even back at the Papa facility where I would either be in a B or I'd be in the bottom of A. And I remember one year I was super sick and I made it into D and I couldn't even qualify in D. It was awesome. So it's just, I don't know, like it's just, it's, you know, like half of the banks are not necessarily within my skill set, are certainly not as good as the others. And the games are set so hard that on, even on the moderns, I still can trip up and mess up on. So it's just, I can't get consistent throughout the bank and putting it all together has always been a problem for me. Like sometimes I'll do good on the first day and then tank on the second day. It's just playing those four different ered games in a row, I just have to figure out how to do it properly. And when you're playing on Modern, you're live catching and doing all the crap, and then you go play a Solid State or an EM, and then you do the same flipper move, and you punch yourself in the face because you try to do a thing that you shouldn't be doing on that era, and then you lose the ball, and you're just like, God, nah. So yeah, I just gotta get over the mental hurdle of playing the other games properly. But, you know, it'll happen eventually. It's still the most fun tournament of the year, so I'll see what I can. I'll just tell people, whoever took me in their fantasy draft, I'm sorry.
    63:19
    I put you in my fantasy draft. I'm sorry. How could I not? You're my bro. Yeah, but you were basing it on if you were playing because we are the same person in Pinnberg. So, I mean, I don't know. I was also basing it on the fact that I probably only had about $40 left of my $400 budget. See, that's when that happens. That's when that happens. Well, I mean, you've made that cut. And also, so there is, so you can actually, you can bet on this. You can bet on Pinnberg. And some people are anti it. Some people don't care. It really is a mix of indifference and hate.
    63:59
    That's really what it is, right? So the internet. It's so the freaking internet. I don't like it, therefore you should all not like it as well.
    64:11
    That's effectively the internet at the moment. Yep, because if you bet on me, and I know you bet on me, playing, I'm going to know you bet on me, which means I'm going to feel so much pressure, and then when I lose, I feel like you're going to come break my kneecaps. So it's terrible.
    64:27
    Or if you bet on yourself, you're therefore going to play so much better because you've bet on yourself. Yeah, that's not fair. I mean, fuck me, people. Fuck me. Whatever, who cares? I don't know. I looked at the fantasy thing and I'm like, nah, this is too much work. I don't even want to do that. Well, anyway, guys, the latest Pinball Profile podcast has got the guy from MyBookie. Go and have a listen and learn more about it. You'll either like it, you'll still be indifferent, or you'll hate it even more. Up to you. I have a feeling it's going to be the third one. Yeah, probably. The other thing I also noticed, there was a bit of a what to expect or what you need to know video for Pinball 2019. I have to watch that today. I forget about that. Yeah, it's very, very cool. So a couple of guys, Doug Polka, one of them, I can't remember the name of the other guy, but he's amazing. That's all he needs to know. Or Fred?
    65:29
    No. When you say Fred, you're saying Fred Cochran? Yeah. No, I know those names. No, it's someone else. But he was awesome as well. So we will link that in the show notes as well. It's good for a bit of a watch. So for all those people that are going. And the last thing that I want to talk about with Pimberg is that there are two tournaments that are running at the same time. So you've obviously got the main Pimberg tournament and then you've got the Intergalactic tournament and the machines are being revealed. So you've got Bonebusters. Oh my God, this isn't real, is it? This is where I read it somewhere. Bonebusters, which is a shit game. Fireball, that's a funny game. Flip-flop, I don't know. High Hand, I do know.
    66:15
    That's Josh Sharpe's favourite game, right? High Hand? Probably. I think so, yeah. Ice Fever. I don't know Ice Fever. I've played that. That is such a one-dimensional game. That's a Shats the Lane, Hit the Spinner. Really? Yep, that's it. Ice Fever Pinball. Let's look at it now. Chuck had one.
    66:37
    Because, you know, hockey, and he's into that. And then he had it and realized he shouldn't own it. Because it's a bad game. Okay. So it's a Gottlieb game. Yeah. Okay. Sure. Yeah, so like looking at it, I believe that it's, yeah, pretty much you see that light on the left, you shats that, and then you hit the spinner. And then you do it again. Again. Okay. All right. That sounds like a game that's wasted. Anyway, so then you've got Jackpot, we know, Judge Dread, Meteor. Judge Dread. I can't stand Judge Dread. Hopefully that right flipper holds up because that's a lot of ramping. I mean, there's just a lot of quirky machines on this. So Revenge for Mars, right? That's a bit of a weird one to have in a tournament. And I know you love it. Ripley's Believe It or Not, I do like that game. I think that's one of Pat Lawler's better games. I agree.
    67:39
    Rocky and Bullwinkle. Now, isn't that one of the ones that's got a massive exploit or something? Or the do the thing?
    67:48
    It has a couple. I think it has a double your score feature that's relatively hard to get to. I mean, I've played it. It's fine. It's better than a lot of games from its era. The dimension is the Ripley's. That's going to have the mod on it that you're going to have to remove the shooter lane. Oh, so it's auto-plunged. Yeah, you have to hit the buttons and flip it out. No three-switch for you, sir.
    68:15
    Oh, Space Invaders. Spacy Taters. Oh my god, I hate that game. Now, you know, so many people hate that game. I don't, but I haven't played it in a tournament ever. I've just, I've seen it and I love playing it because I loved playing it when it came out. But I'm salty about it because the one copy that I've played has been Chuck Webster's copy and it's just been passed around to other people and I've had to play it in multiple people's collections. And his specific copy, so there's two things you can do in that game. Either you silver ball the middle and you do that or you can go for the captive ball. So there's two supposedly valid strategies in that. The problem is, on his copy, if you hit that captive ball, you die. Like, almost 100% of the time. It just hits it perfectly, dies, left that lane. So it's like, okay, so then, more or less, you just middle and do the loop over and over and over again. And then, which just boils the game down to that. The only difference is you don't have a ball save down the middle, like silver ball. Really gets a lot of height. And I don't get it. Because it should have been aliens and people just... Oh, yeah, Geiger, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, it looks nothing like alien at all. You couldn't possibly make that connection.
    69:40
    Super Orbit. Now, Super Orbit, the one that's got the sort of the very target type thing on the left, the people backhand? Yeah, and one pop bumpers that score a lot.
    69:51
    Super Score, which is an EM. Doesn't matter. Target Alpha. Now, that's a well-known EM, Target Alpha. There's 75 different variations of that game. Is that the one that's the same as that City of Gold? El Dorado, yeah, that's the one. There's multiple tons of versions of that game. I think it's considered the most copied game ever.
    70:15
    Yeah, probably. Twilight Zone. Oh, actually, just go back to Target Alpha. So, yeah, that was El Dorado, which was an EM. And then they did a solid state version of it, which was El Dorado and the City of Gold, I think it was. City of Gold. I just read a cool story about that on Twippies. That's what I was just about to say. So, good friend of the show, Dennis Creasel, who does, from time to time, does some articles for This Week in Pinball. In fact, I believe he might have been up for a Twippy. So he did an article this week on Milestar which was a 12 month in the life of one of the many variants of Gottlieb. I think he was saying it was like 1983, let's say that year and one of them was El Dorado City of Gold. The other one, I think it was about five or six of them, but the other one that was really good that everyone loves is Alien Star.
    71:15
    The reason I'm mentioning it because you mentioned it as well, it's a great article. I really, really love Dennis' article. So go to This Week in Pinball and check that out. In fact, I might even do a link to, I'm going to type it here, link to Twip.
    71:30
    So there we go. So Target Alpha, Twilight Zone, Whirlwind, and Xenon. Yeah, all fine. Yeah, I was like, yeah, I look at those and go, sure, why not? Fair enough. The bank got way better the further you got down. It really did. But as I was saying, there was just a couple of really odd games there. Yeah, because it's roughly, I mean, those first two, I don't know. Bonebusters. Fireball, it's just. That gotly one that's terrible. Fireball is just like, did you hit this gill shot? No? Alright, let it drain. Yeah. Do it again. Okay. Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. So, is that got zipper flippers as well? Is that the one with the... Yeah, zipper flippers and... And it's got the scoop so you can get multiball. Is that the one? And it's got the slopey skill shot up the top. Yep. Just like, what's it, 20,000 BC or whatever. It's just, if you don't get that skill shot, like, the rest of it, you can play for another 10 minutes and you won't get the amount of points that you'd have if you had hit that skill shot. It's super important.
    72:43
    Well, there you go. So there's Pimboog and no doubt we'll hear more about it next week-ish because it'll be closer to it. So there you go. Yeah, Fireball. I mean, it sounds like a type of candy. They have that type of candy, right? Like round. Fireball whiskey, maybe? That's the stuff that Mosse's name, Jachiel, was talking about? See, I do a segue and you don't even know what's going on. No, I don't. Oh, but I do now. Ah, there you go. But it was terrible. Fireball, Candy, Willy Wonka. I'm not really getting that. I don't know. Hey, I tried. I'm not awake yet. Leave me alone. Look, I don't want to make you feel bad. I want you to keep trying. So, you know, we can do that again if you want. Okay, I'll see if I can come up with a better one later. If you can, that'd be great. Anyway, all I'm saying is Wonka Code is out 1.09, I think it is. And, you know, there's not much to it, but update your machines, guys. But big code news from Jersey Jack is that 1.70 code for dialed in is coming out. And the Buffalo Pinball, so probably by the time that you're listening to this podcast, their stream's already done. But if you go to Buffalo Pinball, Brodie, Weave and Pinball on the 22nd of July, they're going to be streaming the new code. I do not know what's in it.
    74:06
    I don't know what could be in it. I don't know. I mean, what's left? I don't... The game seems pretty complete to me. Yeah, I don't know either. Maybe it's just implementation of new features that are in Wonka. Like, they've done... Like, every new game that comes out that comes up with something, they backfill it to all the other games. Like, when Hobbit came out with the reserve ball play and other things, they got pushed to Wizard of Oz. Who knows? Okay, well, let's see what happens.
    74:41
    So, Joe. Social media watch. Gotta carry the torch on that one. You really do. So, it's social media this week.
    74:59
    Should we just change this to the Keith Elwin segment? It's going to have to be the Keith Elwin section because he is now an epic troll. Just of the epic kind. You know, we had the original two-week thing from, what was that movie again? Total Recall? Total Recall, yeah. And so this week he sent a note saying, you know what, it's probably just a very innocent, you know, social media post saying, Haven't played pinball with my dad in 30 years. A picture of his dad playing pinball.
    75:35
    That pinball happens to be Jurassic Park. Come on. So subtle. So this is what I said to Joe. I said, either it is or it's completely not. You just can't tell with these kinds of posts. Is he trolling us or is he giving us a hint?
    75:55
    My pick either. I think he's doing both. Or is it just a picture of his dad and he's saying, hey, I haven't played Pimball with my dad in 30 years? I think he's, yeah. I mean, I think it's just, it's both. It's him also just a picture of dad, but also making sure, I mean, he knows what's going on. I mean, even on the Loser Kid podcast, is that what it is? They weren't talking Jurassic Park. He's the one who mentioned it. He's like, oh yeah, that old diddy's Jurassic Park. Great game. I love Jurassic Park. Like, he's just, you know, he's so good at it. He is so good at it, but what I'm saying is... He's a good multiple goat. He really is, but it just doesn't give you any confidence either way. Like, it could be or it couldn't. You just can't tell with him. You know what would be great is that, you know, in Jurassic Park, we know that the T-Rex loves eating goats. and it'd be funny if as an easter egg, kind of like he has in Iron Maiden where sometimes it's him running away, the T-Rex should eat him. Nice. As like every five or six animations it's just... Are you listening Keefe Elwin Do you need to put this in your machine I mean that be awesome Great content Speaking of great content did you know that HomePin has got a new machine coming out It's so good. It's going to be 100% better than the bad other one, right? Which still leaves it bad, right? It's still not good. I don't know. Who knows? It's an underplay field. But don't ask for more details because we won't be releasing any just yet. Yeah, that's why we're just giving it to you. So you can just... I don't know. Why? I don't know. I don't get it either. Are the flippers at the top or the bottom? I can't tell.
    77:48
    I don't know. You assume that it's going to have flippers. Yeah, I'm just trying to figure out the orientation of the playfield. Looks like it's at the bottom. So then it just has these drops in the middle and whatever those giant blue things are. What are those? I don't know. I said it looked like a car wash. It does, doesn't it? If you just put that drop targets thing, put a nice little, like a BMX, put a little couple cut cloths and be like, yeah, working at the car wash.
    78:16
    I love that song. Maybe that's what it's going to be about. Maybe it will be. I think it's time for Joe Tips the Top 100. What do you think? Is it? Okay. Here it is.
    78:32
    Hey, Google, pick a number between 1 and 100. Coming right up. 92. Oh, geez. Space Station. Oh. Do you know it well?
    78:49
    I think I know everything you need to know on it. Okay. We'll be told if I do or not. You will, indeed. And my mate Clarky, he will let me know because he has this and he streams it often.
    79:04
    All right, Space Station. So one of the main things, I mean, the only real thing you're going to be doing all game is going to be trying to go for multiball. So on the start of, well, the first thing to remember, and this is, if you're in a competitive environment, this is log sailing. So keep that in mind.
    79:25
    So when you plunge, you go up to the top lanes. There's three lanes up there. There's not like there's any action that goes back up there. You're only going to get it every time you get up there. You're only going to get one light.
    79:35
    And pretty much the – every time you go up there, every time you complete those three lights, it relights your locks. So it's important to know that if you're going up there while your locks are lit and you might – Three of them. Do not complete them. Keep one away until you've used your locks, or else you're going to have to go up there another three times to light your locks. So very important that you do not collect those until your locks are not lit. So the locks are the left orbit. It'll be a nice green arrow. Shoot it over there, and you'll get your lock. You have to lock two balls, and then you have to start the multiball via the release, which is underneath the space station, or you can do it via the right ramp. And then during multiball, you're just going to try and relock balls, and when you relock balls, you relock all the balls that you have, and you're going to get a jackpot. I believe in tournament and with the ROMs, it tends to be like 200K or something like that. And then once that's over, you keep doing it. So that's more or less the strategy. Once you get a jackpot, relock them again, get more jackpots. But see, that sounds really simple, except for one thing. The lower half of the playfield? Yes.
    81:07
    The flipper arrangement? Correct, because there are no inlanes. So controlling it is quite challenging. Now, from what I've heard, people have said this is a drop catcher's dream game because you have to be able to drop catch to try and get some sort of control. Yes, and actually, probably if there's a game that you could buy that would probably help best with your flipper skills and your ability to just gain control and subtle flipper movements, this is probably one of the best ones you could get because, like you mentioned, it's really good for drop catching. But if you drop catch, you know, you've more or less committed to shooting with that flipper.
    81:52
    So where more, you kind of, if you can, you run about trying live catch and then of getting a trap on one side. And then the subtle, say you have a trap on the left, the subtle flipper moves you're going to need to do to get to the right. So if you have a trap on the left, you have to like flutter the flipper some, get it moving, rocking back and forth. Hopefully, your goal is to try and get it towards the tip of the flipper so you can do another flutter to get it to the other side. Because mattering how sensitive the slings are, you can maybe get it up a little on the slings, and then it becomes a game of how far you can get it without putting the sling off so you get enough momentum to get to the other side.
    82:31
    But it's super interesting and fun. I mean, it's super stressful because the locks are hard because, like you mentioned, getting control on the right flipper, and then also making that shot is difficult, and it's lock stealing. So if you don't consummate that lock, that multiball, it is super agri-fitting because I remember I think the last time, the last Pinberg at the facility, I locked two balls every ball and never got them because they kept on taking them from me and I never finished and actually got the multiball. So that sucked for me. So yeah, that's more or less the cycle, what you're doing, you're going for multiball. Upper lanes, in the upper playfield, relight your locks, not the bottom lanes where the above the pop-up. Yeah.
    83:21
    Other important things, one of, I think the third from the bottom of the awards, if you spell shuttle or space station, no, that's the other game. If you spell Space Station, you'll get whatever the arrow is pointed at. And one of them is a bonus ball that you'll get at the end of the game, which allows you to keep on playing for a little bit. And a timed feature, which ends up being how many times can you... Which also in the game, it's a really big deal that you drain each ball by the right outlay. Because that is worth $100,000. And if you remember, the jackpot is worth $200,000. So that right outlane is hugely important on your balls if you can drain over there. It tends to be like if it's going that way, you tend to just let it go sometimes. And then during the bonus time, that's constantly lit and you keep on getting fed balls. So it's kind of like how many times can you get it over there? Because you don't have enough time to get into multiball or anything. So that's kind of the mid. You get various other rewards, some points, you get the bonus ball.
    84:36
    And then the other main feature where the only other place really there's points or a secondary strategy that can be used is the right ramp. So the way the right ramp works is it's a drop target. You hit the drop target and it counts down. It's very similar to Space Shuttle where you knock it down. It's a timed feature. Eventually the drop will come back up if you don't hit it in time. But the score will be cycling on the screen and then pretty much when you hit it up, that's the score you're going to get. But unlike Space Shuttle, this one can be multiplied. So you can end up getting pretty big collects if you're closer to the 99,000 and then you can get that times 2x, 3x, 4x. I forget what actually increases the times of those. I think it's the lanes above the pop bumpers. I think this is what increases the multiplier for the times the stop and go score.
    85:47
    But that's pretty much the other thing you can possibly do if you're on the left. You can try in going for that. That ramp is pretty difficult to hit. It's steep and in the lower echelon of the flipper, so it's a pretty difficult shot to hit.
    86:04
    But I think that those are mainly the things that matter. I believe the targets above the right ramp are what relights your kickback. And the small target to the right of the right ramp is what will cycle and change your middle arrow if it's not on something you want.
    86:29
    And I think that's kind of everything you need to know about this game. It has great sound. Well, I was going to say, there's two other things to know about this game that are not rule-related. One is it's got great sound, and the other is in multiball it all goes green GI, which is a very cool thing. I've never noticed that. Yeah, it does. It's very cool. It was one of the first games that really had that kind of effect. So it's really good. For the era, this is a pretty... it's a really cool game. Yeah, I do prefer Space Shuttle myself, but mainly because I really haven't played this one that much. And also, I just find it very difficult to control it, so it's not as enjoyable. Cool.
    87:17
    Yeah, but playing it will certainly make you a better player. And then also, there's a lot less of these than Space Shuttles. This is also a lot more complicated game. You tend to find a lot of these games that Space Station in the upper right in the wild doesn't work properly. And if that does not work properly, it kind of ruins the game because it's the diverter that decides where balls go. And if the left orbit feeds into that and then it goes through there to feed into the three different locks that can be held, and if that is not rotating properly, it will not put it in the correct lock.
    87:54
    And if it puts it in the same lock that there already is one, it'll just cycle that ball out and you'll never be able to get multi-ball.
    88:00
    So that mech is hugely important to the playability of the game. Well, there you go. That was Joe Tips the Top 100. Well done. You just seem to know all these games really well. There you go. So, what did you get up to this week in pinball? Ah, this week in pinball, which kind of includes last week, because we never really got to talk about that, because I was sleeping on that episode.
    88:28
    Yeah, that was such a brutal weekend of pinball. I'm in that spot now. It's now nearly 1.30 in the morning here. How does it feel?
    88:41
    After I've just streamed and got absolutely smashed, it feels awesome. Yeah, so Friday was a knockout tournament at Jim's Real House, which is a really clever name because he used to have a pinball pizza place called Jim's Wheel House. So now he built a thing at his house, so now it's Jim's Real House, which I thought was really funny. That's very clever. So yeah, he has a really good collection. It's the first time I've been to the new place.
    89:16
    And it was fun. He has Alice Cooper and not so good Rob Zombie, but tons of other great games. And he has all the good. He's got a Fathom and a Centaur and a Sea Witch. He even has a Spectrum, which gave me a strike because it's confusing. That's right. You were rooting me on and giving me crap the whole time trying to figure out what was going on.
    89:44
    But yeah, so I ended up winning that, which ended at 11.30. Then I got to the hotel around 12.15, and then we recorded until 2 in the morning.
    89:58
    And then after that, I had to get up the next morning to do Pin Mania, which started at doors open at 10. We got there at 11, started at 12.
    90:11
    I got eliminated, I think, in 6, which was at like 11.30 at night. And the finals, I believe, went almost close to 1, which Phil Birnbaum won. My favorite Canadian.
    90:26
    And so then we got to the hotel again at like 2 a.m. And then Sunday was New England Pimball League Finals.
    90:37
    And that started at 10 a.m. sharp. And then that got over. I made it to the Final Four, which is one of my crowning achievements is that this was, I think, the 21st season. And I've only missed the top four once out of all 21 seasons. So that's always my goal. I came in third.
    91:01
    I didn't have a lot left in the tank at that point, and I was just making really stupid flipper mistakes. So yeah, I came in third there. That got over around, I don't know, seven or eight.
    91:16
    So glad that weekend was over. I was dead. That was way too much pinball and way too much late pinball. And then this week it was all preparation for Pin Masters of New Hampshire and that happened last yesterday. And thankfully, thank God that I have a great team around me and we have a new marketing person, Colin, who's been helping make it not so crazy on my end. And he's been doing an awesome job with the marketing for it. And I was able to get Jeff Parsons, the other Jeff, as he was referred to in the last episode. People play his book, huh? And he was playing and he also was TD'd and he did an awesome job. And we got to have – it was at the Ice Ice Arcade, which is an awesome, awesome collection. It's like all the Sterns you'd wish that were there. We got some people to bring in some new – some guest games of older games. Was this the one that had the awesome trophies from Mrs. Pinn? It is, yep. They were awesome. Everything she does is awesome. I know. I mean, we keep saying that as if, like, eventually we're going to be like, no, this one wasn't. Nope. Not going to happen.
    92:31
    She'd be devastated. Yeah, so thankfully, yeah, we were able to get trophies made for that. Although on her episode, she said I only gave her 12 days. It was actually 18 days. That was such a big difference. I know. It's huge. It's like a week.
    92:47
    So, yeah, so they came in. It was funny because the – I don't know if you saw them, but they had a golf club on them, and one of the golf clubs broke in shipping, and it broke into three pieces.
    93:01
    But the trophy it broke on was the fourth place trophy. So I just laid it on the grass and I was like, well, this is thematic, you see, because this person broke their club because they were so pissed they didn't get first, second, or third. Yeah, so everyone loved the trophies. As usual, any good trophies, I never play good enough to actually have them, so I don't get any cool Pin trophies. But we're going to have her do – she's working on the Pinnmasters of Massachusetts ones now. And I think that we're going to have – I'm going to have her – if she wants the jobs, I think I'm going to have her do all the trophies next year because they're so freaking amazing. They're so good. And the amount of money that, like, it makes – like, those trophies cost like $43 with shipping. Like she's so crafty and thrifty that she can make all these amazing things cheap. They look so much better than that. They had like a glass with ice cubes in it and it was on like fake grass. There was plaques. There was the gulf. Like just crazy. I said ice, ice baby because of the theme of his thing. And they even added in, I assume, is that the ice cube that was sitting in the shot glass. I assume she did it with some kind of like hot glue. She had a melting, hanging, like, water droplet.
    94:26
    Like, come on. Attention to data. Crazy. Ridiculous. So, yeah, so then I came in, I played well, I qualified second, and then went out in the second round on Avatar. On Avatar, I know. Yeah, but he outplayed me, and there was some, I didn't play well in the couple first games, So I came in fifth, but my boy Nick won, so that's super excited. He beat Jerry and Frank, which is always good to hear that somebody beat Jerry and Frank, because normally those two are quite unstoppable.
    95:07
    But yeah, so that qualifying ended like around four, and the finals ended around 8.30, which was perfect timing, and everything went smoothly, and it was great. We had a couple game problems, but nothing we couldn't overcome, and everyone loved it, and it was mostly cool.
    95:27
    That's my pinball weekend. You play a lot of pinball. I do. You don't get this good by not playing. I've said that before. Well, I haven't had, really, tournaments for a couple of weeks, but I had a couple of streams this week. One night streamed Willy Wonka and I, you know, I'm known to flip-flop, right? And I'm, you know, I like to have new experiences that will change my opinion. I will say that I think the layout is really good. I really like the way it shoots. I just don't understand the rules at this stage. and that's I would say that's a lot of Jerser Jack games are like that where they don't really spell things out. You've got to just experience it to know what's happened and I'm too busy keeping the ball alive. I'm not thinking about what's happening. You've got to go look at that flow chart they put out. It easily explains everything. It's just so easy once you look at that. So you streamed to Willy Wonka. Is it yours? No, so this is at Mr. Pinball who's the distributor of Jersie Jack in Australia.
    96:43
    Were you able to jack up the flipper strength so that it... Yeah, actually. So probably played at about, you know, half the stream normal. And what I really noticed was that the, it was really the tip of the flippers were really quite weak. So if you were going for a slap save, more often than not, you would just have no power. So you just wouldn't recover from it. So I then jacked the flipper power right up and it just eliminated that. And I mean right up, almost up to the maximum that you can have it at.
    97:22
    Yeah, well, I guess now you can say that you played a good playing Willy Wonka. I have yet to play one that had the flippers up to the appropriate strength, so I can't say that it shot well because it didn't.
    97:37
    Hopefully, presumably, I'll take your word for it, that because the flippers were too weak and that hinders how well the layout shoots. So eventually, I mean, I don't know when I'm going to play one. Maybe go chill over at the pins and play theirs. Well, yeah, it's a good game. It looks really good. It shoots really good. I just need to understand the rules. But yeah, so that was a... Wonkatania Mania?
    98:07
    What's that? That's the boat ride? That's what it's called, Wonkatania Mania. No, no, I didn't. But I did get the Wonka Vader multiball. That was kind of cool.
    98:18
    Well, next time you play it, you have to try and get that. Yeah, okay. So that was at Mr. Pinball. Mr. Pinball, he actually is the one that puts on the Flipout Pinball show each year and that's where I run the big tournament and we have locked in the dates for that. So everybody, that's October 25th to the 27th at the Sandbilt Hotel in Moorabbin. So it's going to be over three days. There will be a schedule coming out but effectively what it really means is that I'll be able to have two days of qualifying the Friday and the Saturday with the Sunday for finals. So last year was only one day of qualifying and one day of finals. So this is allowing a much longer time to qualify which will be great because it's a pump and dump so you want more money to go in because it all just goes to prizes. So anyway, good news is it's been locked in. And just the other thing that I did this week was I streamed, as I said earlier tonight, Wizard of Oz. Now, that's not a big deal, except for the fact that, oh my God, I got so close to the final Wizard Mode. I had seven of the jewels and all I needed was the Mega Jackpot for Rescue Multi-Ball. And I only had one letter to get in Rescue to light the Mega Jackpot. But the problem with it is now that they've changed it so if you hit the doors up the top, it only registers once. And that was my strategy. I had a safe strategy to light rescue, which was always just bash down the door, get the ball in there, and it lights two letters. It just takes so much longer now. Don't play a loop. Yeah, I know. So I didn't get there. I was close, but it was a freaking epic game anyway. And I'm making the point of it, not just because I got so close to the wizard mode, but I said on the stream, and I say it now, it was, and the game went for an hour, right? It was a long game.
    100:22
    It was just moments like that, that you just forget all the bullshit drama that's going on and the home edition dramas and all the hate and all this kind of stuff and all betting is bad and it's illegal and what a mess it is. When you have games like that, that's when you remember, Pinball's fucking awesome. Pinball is awesome. Let's just remember, playing Pinball is awesome. Everything outside of that, you know, your mileage may vary. Well, that is certainly an amazing game of Wizard of Oz. I have never done that well or remotely close to that well on a Wizard of Oz. The benefits of owning one, right? Well, it is. I do know mine quite well. But, you know, I had to have those flippers set up nice for power as well. Yeah, I haven't changed the power on them. They would just set up well when I got them. Ah, excellent. So there you go. And just final thing for this week, just wanted to have a big shout out for everybody that got in contact with me, with us on the Facebook, on Gmail, with support for the 100th episode. I really appreciate everybody writing in, taking the time. And Joe, yet again, so many people calling out that they really like you on the show now. So well done. That was half a sleep, Joe. Absolutely. A lot of upward mobility there. Yeah. You've got a long way to go from there now. We can only go up. So thanks, everybody. And again, thanks to those people that won in the competition last week. And we hope to do it again soon. Yes. Thank you. So thanks everybody and we will speak to you next week. Thank you Joe. No problem. Get some sleep man. I'm worried about you. Hydrate. I don't want to hear about your headache tomorrow.
    102:15
    You will. What does that be like? Ginageddon? Like Armageddon? Gin Armageddon? Ginageddon? Ginageddon, yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. That was what was on the menu today? I assume. I've never heard of you drinking anything else. It's all I drink.
    102:34
    You should get a sponsorship. I know. Some gin company must want to sponsor this podcast. Four Pillars needs to sponsor me.
    102:46
    Anyway. All right. See you, guys. See you.