Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

# 16 - Houston Arcade Expo - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·31m 56s·analyzed·Nov 21, 2019
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

First-hand review of Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland prototype and Houston Arcade Expo tournament experience.

Summary

George from The Classic Pinball Podcast attended the Houston Arcade Expo (Space City Pinball Tournament) and provides a detailed first-hand account of playing the newly revealed Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland prototype, attending tournament matches, and experiencing Houston venues and hospitality. He addresses criticisms from other podcasters about video quality and player skill levels at the game's reveal, explaining that top competitors were occupied with tournament play. The episode is primarily a travel diary and personal tournament experience rather than industry news.

Key Claims

  • Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland's ride-the-coasters ramp is extremely difficult; across five games with multiple players, no one made it all the way to the top

    high confidence · George, direct observation at the show

  • Steve Bowden (Deep Root employee, #10 ranked IFPA player) said weak flippers are intentional to prevent machines from getting 'wrecked and busted all up'

    high confidence · George, conversation with Steve Bowden during tournament

  • George experienced two to three resets and couple of stuck balls/non-registered drains across five games of the prototype

    high confidence · George, direct observation

  • Most top Texas players were unavailable to play Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland on video because they were competing in the Texas pinball finals tournament until close to 11 PM Saturday

    high confidence · George, explanation of tournament scheduling

  • Deep Root plans to release the final version of Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland on March 25th

    medium confidence · George, referencing show announcements (notes this date is covered elsewhere)

  • San Antonio pinball community hub What's Brewing Coffee Shop has grown to 15-20 pinball machines

    medium confidence · George, reporting what Ray Ford told him

  • Colin McAlpine won the Space City Pinball Tournament, followed by Steve Bowden (2nd), Preston Monica (3rd), Zach Palmer (4th), Robert Byers (5th), Mark Meserve (6th)

    high confidence · George, tournament results he witnessed

  • George placed 17th out of 52 in the A division tournament session

    high confidence · George, personal tournament result

Notable Quotes

  • “I walked with a zombie, I walked with a zombie, I walked with a zombie last night”

    George @ Opening — Thematic opening referencing Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland

  • “The most frustrating part of this game was the ride-the-coasters ramp... over the course of five games a couple of those games with multiple players I saw no one make the ramp shot all the way to the top.”

    George @ ~19:30 — Core complaint about the prototype's difficulty/design balance

  • “Well, we don't want the game to get wrecked and busted all up. And if you do happen to only go three quarters of the way or halfway up the ramp give it a nudge at the bottom and it'll hit into the targets and you'll receive some points”

    Steve Bowden @ ~25:00 — Design philosophy explanation from Deep Root about intentional difficulty

  • “I watched your play and knew right then that you had absolutely no idea what you were doing. But with that said, you made all the shots that needed to be made.”

    Colin McAlpine @ ~39:30 — Encouraging feedback from tournament winner to George

  • “I cannot lose to a four-year-old”

    George @ ~33:15 — Humorous moment describing match play with young child

Entities

GeorgepersonKeith ChristensenpersonDavepersonSteve BowdenpersonColin McAlpinepersonRobert ByerspersonRay FordpersonPhil GrimaldipersonJeff Teolisperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland prototype's ride-the-coasters ramp is extremely difficult to complete; across five games with multiple players, no one successfully shot it all the way to the top. Flipper power may be intentionally weak.

    high · George's first-hand observation of five games; conversation with Steve Bowden confirming weak flippers are intentional design choice

  • ?

    product_concern: Prototype experienced two to three resets and couple of stuck balls/non-registered drains across five games played by George

    high · George: 'I experienced two to three resets on the five games that I played. I also experienced a couple of stuck balls or non-registered drains.'

  • ?

    event_signal: Houston Arcade Expo (Space City Pinball Tournament) was successfully executed with strong organization, entertainment programming (bands, DJs, cosplay finals), and vendor participation. Keith Christensen received significant praise.

    high · George's detailed account of tournament structure, entertainment lineup, and positive feedback throughout episode

  • ?

    content_signal: George addresses criticism from other podcasters about Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland video coverage, explaining they reviewed without attending. George defends the lack of high-skilled play on the prototype due to top players being occupied with tournament matches.

    high · George: 'I don't understand why other podcasters are calling people out for not taking high res video. If you cared enough, you would have attended the show.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Space City Pinball Tournament final standings: 1st Colin McAlpine, 2nd Steve Bowden, 3rd Preston Monica, 4th Zach Palmer, 5th Robert Byers, 6th Mark Meserve

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.096

0:00
I walked with a zombie, I walked with a zombie, I walked with a zombie last night. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 16 of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George and unfortunately I'm not joined by my co-host Dave today. Dave is working on lots of pinballs for his customers and the holidays. congratulations again to keith christiansen for putting on one spectacular arcade show he's an outstanding host and demonstrated that texas hospitality that is so world famous so keith again thank you uh also shout out to his wife tina one of his uh many volunteers a gal by the name of Stephanie. So thank you again for making me feel so much at home.
1:30
I guess I'm a little late in publishing this episode and I've already listened to several podcasts talk about the big reveal of Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland. It appears most of the podcasts, reviewing the game having not been there. So I think I am one of the few people who actually attended the show, has a podcast, and can do a personal review. More about that later. This episode is going to concentrate on, I guess, my travelogue through Houston. I arrived there with my wife. We went out for the obligatory Mexican. It was quite good, a couple of blocks from the hotel. There's plenty of food venues in and around the West Chaste area of Houston. So if you do plan on attending the show next year, you'll have a wide variety of places to choose if you care to go out to eat. Thursday was a bigger day. I started the day by hitting the Waffle House, which is something we don't have here in the Northeast. I haven't had Waffle House probably in over 10 years. Later in the day, I went to Cork Screw Barbecue in Spring, Texas. Quite good. I would recommend it. I had their brisket sandwich. I saw and ate with someone who ordered the feast, which had a little bit of everything on it. The ribs looked awesome. Gigantic sausage, some turkey, some brisket, a little bit of everything. So the sampler looked out. Smokey Good. That's not the only reason I went to Corkscrew. Five minutes away is the town of the Woodlands, and it houses the Pinball Arcade, the Game Preserve, which is an all-you-can-play venue arcade up in the Spring area. The reason for that is I was hoping to play maybe a couple of games that were going to be in the tournament on Friday that I was enrolled in. Well, turns out there were only two games that were available or that were going to be in the tournament. Congo and Adam's family. Congo from November 95, a little outside our wheelhouse. but got to play it not a big fan that day came around and played it again on Friday a little bit more about that later played Adam's Family had not played that game that much a game that was done in 1992 I'm sure you're all aware of it biggest seller for Bali back in the day with over 20,000 units. I also had the opportunity to play Popeye. Now I understand why. Again, a 1994 game that you can keep. I understand why people don't like that with the playfield that is buried, I guess, or you can't see the bottom playfield from the top playfield. just not a game for me.
Mark Meserve
person
Preston Monicaperson
Zach Palmerperson
Nick Baldridgeperson
Deep Root Pinballcompany
Titan Pinballcompany
Retro Atomic Zombie Adventurelandgame
Space City Pinball Tournamentevent
Houston Arcade Expoevent
The Classic Pinball Podcastorganization
What's Brewing Coffee Shopvenue

high · George witnessed and reported final results

  • ?

    machine_intel: Deep Root Pinball has announced March 25th as the release/availability date for the final version of Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland

    medium · George: 'I believe they gave the day of, you know, 855 on the 25th of March or whatever the day was.'

  • ?

    venue_signal: San Antonio pinball community is growing with What's Brewing Coffee Shop becoming a hub, having expanded from several machines to 15-20 machines

    medium · Ray Ford reporting to George about San Antonio scene growth

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Deep Root Pinball intentionally designs weak flippers on Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland to prevent machine damage and encourage repeat play by making the ramp nearly impossible to complete

    medium · Steve Bowden explanation: 'we don't want the game to get wrecked and busted all up' and the nudge mechanic as workaround

  • ?

    community_signal: Strong sense of community hospitality and welcoming behavior from Texas pinball players toward visiting podcast host, including encouragement and information sharing

    high · Multiple instances: Colin McAlpine's encouragement, Ray Ford's welcoming behavior, other players providing match-play camaraderie

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: George describes Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland as a 'pretty game' that 'needs some work' and reserves final judgment until the March release version

    high · George: 'Pretty game, needs some work. certainly will probably see a much better version of it when it's released.'

    • 5:10
    Had the opportunity again to play Charlie's Angels. That game's starting to grow on me. Guardians of the Galaxy. Hadn't played that game since its introduction several years back. And having seen World Cup Soccer on several Twitch broadcasts, I played that as well. And that's a fun game. I would definitely play that game again, and that's one from 1994. It's showtime. The show opened a little early. I think I got there at 11.30 and had the opportunity to play Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland. I am a zombie.
    6:08
    I wanted to make sure that I got on the game early Friday before all the crowds arrived, and I could play multiple games in a row so I could get kind of the feel of the game. The most frustrating part of this game was the ride-the-coasters ramp. It's a clear ramp with a vintage jet plane mounted to the top. the jet plane has this retro cockpit mounted to the top of the fuselage like a bubble a blue bubble and it's got some red stripes with the cocked back wings it looks uh very very retro i'm giving deep root the benefit of the doubt because they kept stressing over and over again that it's a prototype game but over the course of five games a couple of those games with multiple players I saw no one make the ramp shot all the way to the top. It's an inviting ramp. You want to shoot it. It's just sitting there staring you straight in the face. So in order to hit this ramp, you're shooting from the left flipper. The ramp entrance is about halfway up the play field on the right-hand side. The frustration with this ramp is it would only make it up three-quarters of the way. you have a corkscrew and then a super steep pitch so if you think of it as a parking garage with a circular ramp you've got the ramp going from one floor to the next and then this super straight ramp that goes directly to the next floor so it is really really difficult to get that ball up there and it very very steep so I kept asking myself the question is this to keep people coming back to play the game in other words make that shot so hard that only few can make it and that you keep looking at this ramp saying I can make that ramp and if you don't make it on one game, you come back and you play it again. So I had to track down Deep Root employee and number 10 IFPA player ranking in the world, Steve Bowden. And I did have the opportunity to corner Steve Bowden during the tournament later on Friday, and I brought that to his attention and said, you know, why not have the flippers juiced up a little bit more so people could hit that ramp? I've heard people talk about hitting the ramp. And again, having played four or five games with a multitude of people, I never saw anyone go all the way up the ramp. So I attributed it to weak flippers or weaker flippers. The answer that Steve gave me was, well, we don't want the game to get wrecked and busted all up. and if you do happen to only go three quarters of the way or halfway up the ramp give it a nudge at the at the bottom and it'll hit into the targets and you'll receive some points so it needs a little work in that regard i don't understand why other podcasters are calling people out for not taking high res video If you cared enough, you would have attended the show. Most of the podcasts recruited others to review. This is my first-hand account. I experienced two to three resets on the five games that I played.
    9:58
    I also experienced a couple of stuck balls or non-registered drains. Again, I'm speaking facts from my experience. and understandably, it's a prototype game. They're trying to work out the kinks, so I'm giving them a break, and we'll wait until I see the final results in March.
    10:24
    The other call-out I've heard on several podcasts is that the video that was taken, there were no great players. Well, you need to understand that Friday morning, most of the good players, or into Friday afternoon actually, most of the good players were playing in the Texas pinball finals. So all the best players in Texas, and I'll talk about some of the people that I played with, were in that suite playing in the tournament. So of course you're not going to see at that point in time anybody on Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland for a video. And that would hold true for probably the remainder of Friday and most of the day on Saturday. All those good players were either doubling up and playing a second round of matches, or they were in the finals. So the only time that they really would have had, and it didn't end until probably close to 11 o'clock on Saturday night, none of them really would have had the opportunity to go out there and play the game. So I have to say that's my experience with Retro Atomic Zombieland. Pretty game, needs some work. certainly will probably see a much better version of it when it's released. I believe they gave the day of, you know, 855 on the 25th of March or whatever the day was. You can go read all the other blogs and listen to the other podcasts for that information.
    12:16
    It's been covered. I was there, again, like the game. I'll reserve judgment until it's complete so that leads us into later Friday on Friday night well actually Friday afternoon I played in the A division of the Space City Pinball Tournament So there were four different sessions that one could get in. I was in the A session. And as you've heard in prior podcasts, there was some reservation on my part in even going into this tournament. Well, things worked out pretty well for me. Not terrific, but pretty well. Much better than my expectations.
    13:14
    So we'll leave it at that for now. tournament registration started at four o'clock i elected not to do any warm-ups and decided to just take it easy since i had played a bunch of pinball earlier in the day i decided just to take it easy and let the chips fall where they may five o'clock came and the matches began well it's a match play event so you're playing four people scoring would be three two one based on how many people you actually beat so first first place would get you three points second place two third place one and obviously fourth place zero. So the first game comes up and I'm introduced, first game being Jurassic Park, so I lucked out. I'm like, great, this is something I played earlier today, have some familiarity, understand where the shots are, so I'm not going to be in too bad a shape. So friendly gentleman and Robert, and believe it or not, two very young children. One was four, George, and another young lady by the name of Elena. Now, George belonged to Thomas Cornell, who was the gentleman that I got to meet, and I found out that small George, or little George, was the fourth, And obviously my name's George. I told him, hey, I'm here. You know, George, just stick together. You need anything, let me know. Also, in the back of my mind, I'm saying I cannot lose to a four-year-old. With that said, I didn't. The children played well, but not well enough. And when the game was over, somebody came up to Robert and said, hey, Byers. I finally figured out, oh, it's Robert Byers. That's who I ended up losing to. I didn't feel so bad because I knew he was a ranked player in Texas. So on game one, I took a second. I was pretty happy. Second game, played for the first time was Indy 500.
    15:49
    People that I had no idea who they were. You can go out on matchplay and take a look if you care But with that said I play second Feeling pretty good about myself Third game we come up to Tron
    16:04
    Another game I've never played before. I took second to that. Again, to a gentleman by the name of Chad Lauer. Chad ended up placing, I believe, second in the B division of this tournament. So, again, another great player.
    16:25
    Fourth game, The Shadow. Yet another game that I have never played before. Guess who I ended up playing on this game? The one and only Colin McAlpine.
    16:42
    I knew I was not going to beat that gentleman. But, again, I came in second. And after the game, he made me feel really good. He said, I watched your play and knew right then that you had absolutely no idea what you were doing. But with that said, you made all the shots that needed to be made. and as it turns out, I only ended up losing to Colin by 7,000 points, I believe. It was very close. So I was happy. I believe he was fourth in that game, so I don't believe he played the rest of his ball, but it made me feel pretty good that I competed with Colin, and Colin, I thank you very much for the kind words. I went up to him afterwards and said, you put a big smile on my face. I won't forget that for a long, long time. So game five was The Walking Dead. I happened to play with two folks from San Antonio, a shout out to Lori and Jamie. I placed first on a game that I had not ever played before, So I was feeling pretty good going into game six. And that's when the wheels came off. Sixth game was Earthshaker. I played against some pretty stiff competition. Bob Matthews, Mark Reserve, Courtney, I'm sorry I don't remember your last name. I ended up placing fourth on a game I had never played before. And when the final tally came up for the entire session A, I was 17th. I was pretty pleased 17th out of 52 certainly made me smile and I didn't come in last far from it so I had a good a good first tournament experience and I'm pretty happy there were three more sessions one on Friday night and two more on Saturday morning to complete the tournament and I'll have those results in a few few minutes friday night was a blast keith christianson and his band loaded popcorn great rock and roll band followed by a very unusual act called atari matt who was playing atari console music very different uh take a look out on youtube i'm sure you can find some video on atari matt and followed by scott denisi who became the dj for the remainder of the evening during scott's set keith threw out star wars sabers plastic gnomes cracker jacks anything that wasn't nailed down it was a lot of fun i'm sure there's video out online somewhere but keith really does throw one heck of a party saturday was the swap meet early in the day some stuff but not a lot of pinball it seemed like there was more arcade than pinball although someone did come in a 20-foot truck with a bunch of play fields and games, but other than that, didn't stick around for long. Played some pinball on Saturday morning for a couple of hours when it opened at 10, but ended up leaving for a couple hours to go spend some time with my wife in Houston and one of the things we ended up doing was going to the Carbock Brewery.
    20:43
    The Carbock Brewery was a lot of fun. Had the opportunity to sample three different beers from there. An IPA called Light Circus, a Bach beer called Crawford Bach and the third was called Love Street, which I was told is the number one selling light beer in Texas. Found it hard to believe that they are number one compared to Bud Light and to Miller Light, but the barkeep told me that there's a lot of millennials in Texas and that that is the go-to beer. So shout out to Carbock Brewery, had a lot of fun there. After Carbock, my wife and I went to an area of Houston called The Heights, kind of bohemian, millennial, a hot and upcoming spot or area of Houston, lots of little shops, coffee, you know, bars, etc., an up-and-coming area in Houston, so if you're visiting the Houston area, an area to be seen.
    21:54
    Several people recommended that if you wanted the true Texas experience, one should visit the Taste of Texas. Not only are they known for their Angus beef, but they're known for their Texas collection of memorabilia and artifacts. The day that we attended, unfortunately, those artifacts were not there but in its place they put up their holiday decor which was outstanding talk about getting into the holiday spirit in november the place looked unbelievable i'm told that one of the owners nina is responsible not only for collecting those artifacts but for also all the holiday decor that one sees in that restaurant. My wife had a sirloin strip, New York sirloin strip that was terrific. I had a cowboy steak bone-in. One of the items that stood out on the menu that I had not ever seen before was something called a bone-in filet mignon, which I guess I'm going to have to get the next time I'm in Texas.
    23:11
    Staff, attentive, food, terrific, old-fashioned salad bar, make-your-own-salad, chilled plates, they go the extra mile to make your visit one that is unforgettable. at the end of the meal a gentleman in a blue suit came over to ask us how our meal was and i noticed that he was one of the only people in the restaurant that did not have a name tag on so i asked and said are you the owner of this establishment and sure enough he was Ed Hendy is his name along with his wife Nina and they put on one terrific they put out one terrific meal and an outstanding looking restaurant Ed spent probably five or 10 minutes chatting with us at the table, not only asking us about the food, but where we were from. And, you know, certainly an engaging individual. Turns out that Ed and Nina's grandson is going to school here in New Hampshire, where I live. And I invite Ed and Nina, if they do happen to visit their grandson sometime this year, that they should look me up. And I'd love to take them to my favorite steakhouse here in southern New Hampshire called Buckley's Great Steaks. Michael Buckley is the proprietor. He puts out one outstanding meal. So if you are in the southern New Hampshire area, I invite you to take a look at his restaurant in Merrimack, New Hampshire. And for all those who are visiting the greater Houston area, make it a point to go visit Ed and his wife Nina at The Taste of Texas, a terrific restaurant with unbelievable food. After the meal, we made our way back to the hotel where I spent several hours with a group of people watching the Space City Pinball Tournament Finals. I'd like to thank Phil Grimaldi, the Tournament Director, for putting on one outstanding event.
    25:39
    And a shout-out to Jeff Teolis and Mark Meserve for handling the broadcast duties that were on Twitch. They were doing the play-by-play for the finals. But I'd like to recognize some people that were in the peanut gallery and that stuck with the finals for probably three or four hours. The Good Guy Award goes to Ray Ford. Ray enjoyed being with you on Saturday night in the crowd, watching the game. He was telling me all about the San Antonio pinball scene and how it's grown. And I guess there is a coffee house, What's Brewing Coffee Shop, that has grown from several machines to, I think he told me, they're up to 15 or 20 machines now. And they've become the pinball hub of San Antonio. So, Ray, thanks for being so welcoming to an outsider like myself and extending that great Texas hospitality. So the finals ended and no surprise, Colin McAlpine, number one, number two, Steve Bowden, number three, Preston Monica or Monisha and four, Zach Palmer.
    27:07
    Robert Byers came in fifth and Mark reserve sixth. So that's how the Space City Pinball Tournament ended. But that's not all. So we're coming to the final close. And on Saturday night, I had the opportunity to see Radio Cult. They were, again, another rock band, quite good. Clive Farrington joined them for his song. And I think it's what I promised. He was very good as well. Midnight comes. It becomes the Yacht Disco Party. Again, Keith at his finest throwing out Captain's Hats, more Star Wars swords, more plush, more plush toys. He just was going nuts. And the champagne toast along with the Margarita sing-along, and that ended the party for Saturday night. I don't know how long it went. I was, you know, I had had my fill. I think it was 12.30, 1 o'clock by the time my day had ended.
    28:16
    Some of the things that are nearby, oh, before I forget, cosplay. There are some great costumes. That's a whole other piece of the show, and the finals were also on Saturday night. So you had Mario, I don't know, there were so many different costumes. I'm not from that arcade era, so forgive me, I don't know all the characters. but people were dressed up and it was a lot of fun. I play a lot of games that I had not played before.
    28:52
    I think that pretty much does the show. In wrapping up, I did Attack from Mars remake. I got to play the Munsters again with the dungeon. You can keep the dungeon. I just don't get that piece of the game. Munsters is a fun game, easy shooter.
    29:13
    I also want to thank Titan Pinball for bringing seven games to the show. The two that I played were Alice Cooper and Total Nuclear Annihilation. Games were a lot of fun, and I thank them for bringing those games to the show. I'd like to give a shout-out to Nick Baldridge. What a great guy. He has a podcast called For Amusement Only. I call him the bingo guy. he had the multi bingo game and if you're not familiar with it it's basically an all-in-one every bingo game ever manufactured put into one cabinet he took the time to explain how to play and played a couple of games and showed me how to play a bingo so thanks to nick also doing my tourist recap. Plenty of things to eat around the hotel. Whataburger around the corner. Great empanada place in the strip mall next door.
    30:21
    Old Town Kolache a couple of blocks away. Again being from Czech descent. Kolache is a Czech pastry that is made either with meats or fruits. I had both. So those are a couple the restaurants that I visited near the hotel.
    30:41
    So in closing, there's a couple of games I forgot. I played a Stern Stars, which was fun to play. A game from my youth called Space Time. Could have used some better flippers.
    30:55
    The game Super Straight, which was in a plexiglass cabinet and head. Hard not to miss that game. Houdini Tough Game Tight Shots I'm sure you've heard that before Oktoberfest a game I played at Pintastic that game's starting to grow on me so I thank all of you for listening and be good and be well and we'll see you with our next episode
    31:34
    I like to visit California It's the goldest thing A lot of pretty girls on that road escape But my heart's in Texas Can't stay away too long Got to get right back Hey baby that's my home