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The Great British Pinball Podcast Episode 22 - TPF25 Special

The Great British Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 33m·analyzed·Mar 20, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

TPF25 preview with new game announcements, pricing concerns, and manufacturing quality discussions.

Summary

Neil McRae and Scott Rundell discuss their upcoming trip to Texas Pinball Festival 2025, covering multiple new game announcements including Portal (P3), Merlin's Arcade (Terror Pinball), and rumored releases from Barrels of Fun. They analyze upcoming Stern titles, pricing concerns ($20k Harry Potter rumors), and quality issues with Chicago Gaming Company's Pulp Fiction playfield, while addressing broader market dynamics around licensing, production timing, and the sustainability of premium pricing models.

Key Claims

  • Portal is the first P3 game with playfield elements in the middle third beyond just the back third

    high confidence · Neil describes Portal's innovative use of the modular P3 platform

  • Chicago Gaming Company Pulp Fiction playfields suffer from inadequate curing time and lack edge cliffies

    high confidence · Neil discusses personal experience with playfield deterioration and compares to other CGC titles

  • Nine players including Neil are sending Pulp Fiction playfields to Ron Cruzman for restoration/upgrade

    high confidence · Direct statement about organizing group playfield refresh

  • Harry Potter LE price rumored at $20k with standard edition coming back

    medium confidence · Neil states 'I've heard it twice now' but acknowledges it as rumor

  • Lyman F. Sheets Jr. may have new code ideas for Medieval Madness remake

    low confidence · Neil explicitly states cautious about broadcasting this rumor 'out of respect'

  • Play Mechanics/Rob Thrills working on Halo pinball as next major release

    medium confidence · Neil describes Halo as 'Microsoft's Mario' and cross-generational title

  • Alien vs. Predator rumored as Pinball Brothers' next title, not Alien Ripley

    medium confidence · Neil expresses hope it's not AVP due to poor film quality

  • Pinball Brothers has 14-month backlog on replacement toppers, Neil still waiting on Alien Queen topper

    high confidence · Direct personal experience; Neil expresses frustration with supply chain

  • Barrels of Fun may announce new game at TPF (rumored to be Goonies, G.I. Joe, or Fifth Element)

    medium confidence · Neil discusses multiple competing rumors for third game at show

  • Stern appears to be holding Kong release to avoid cannibalizing other game announcements

Notable Quotes

  • “Portal, to me at least, is a bit of a niche license... very old license, let's face it, they haven't released a game recently. I'm just a little bit worried that a lot of people in the pinball world won't know what it is.”

    Neil McRae @ early segment — Expresses concern about Portal's mainstream appeal despite 8M sales; contrasts with Cyberpunk's 50M

  • “Goonies has aged very badly... I did a chump impression and you know I am... it's not it's a bit dated very badly in my view”

    Neil McRae @ mid segment — Questions viability of Goonies as pinball theme due to poor aging of 1985 film

  • “They haven't had time to let playfields cure. There's no question about it.”

    Neil McRae @ playfield discussion — Identifies root cause of CGC Pulp Fiction clear coat failures; indicates manufacturing pressure

  • “If the ceiling becomes 20 grand for an LE that's just ridiculous basically, 5 LEs you buy a house man”

    Neil McRae @ pricing discussion — Expresses concern about unsustainable premium pricing trajectory in market

  • “14 months is 14 months... the war is the excuse that I find that somewhat challenging... it's been frankly piss poor”

    Neil McRae @ Pinball Brothers discussion — Criticizes Pinball Brothers' quality control and supply chain management

  • “This way worse out there. I mean, it's not like Roadshow... And that was one of the upsides of the UKCS. Roadshow broke early in the day. Yeah. I had a small celebration whilst we turned it off.”

    Neil McRae @ UKCS discussion — Humorously notes reliability issues with classic titles at tournaments

  • “If Stern can't sell its home pin in Costco, which I heard the last rumor, some of the games were selling for $1,500, which is well below their sticker price, then how the hell is this company going to make any?”

    Neil McRae @ home pinball market discussion — Questions viability of competitor home pinball market given Stern's reported Costco clearance

Entities

Neil McRaepersonScott RundellpersonTexas Pinball Festival 2025eventPortalgameMerlin's ArcadegameTerror PinballcompanyChicago Gaming CompanycompanyPulp Fictiongame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Boutique competitors (Terror Pinball, Barrels of Fun) strategically timing announcements to avoid King Kong release cannibalization

    medium · Neil discusses strategic timing: 'if I'm Turner or Battles of Fun I've got to watch that when I order this it doesn't come out the same week as Kong'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Terror Pinball establishing strong brand identity through consistent design language; Turner's Merlin's Arcade immediately recognizable as his work

    high · Neil states Turner 'has built himself a brand' with distinctive backbox and wood side design elements

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Dutch Pinball's Alice in Wonderland criticized for clunky gameplay and improper playfield pitch angle at near-flat setup

    high · Neil states 'the gameplay is ok but it's clunky' and recommends raising pitch; notes hard to evaluate at flat angle

  • $

    market_signal: Emerging home pinball competitors (new Kickstarter referenced) predicted to have short lifespan; Stern home pinball games reportedly clearing through Costco at $1,500 well below sticker

    medium · Neil predicts competitor 'come-and-go business... about a year, then disappear'; notes 550 Kickstarter backers insufficient

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Phil's departure from distribution role affects Pinball Brothers supply chain and customer communication; creates tension between distributor and manufacturer

    medium · Neil references quality control issues traceable to 'Phil before he parted ways'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.279

0:00
Welcome to the Great British Pinball Podcast, and here are your hosts Scott Rundell and Neil McRae. Ladies and gentlemen, the twanginess of the guitar, the slightly bizarre and weird bird-shaped British flag. It can only mean one thing, Scott. the great British pinball podcast now. Hell yes and it's a very exciting episode because tomorrow I board a jet fighter plane not a jet fighter to fight in the war he's going to go fight in Ukraine, boots on the ground yeah, boots on the ground more like chef on the ground that's the only gig I would get in the army I'm off to TPF and in fact some of my comrades, Messrs. Silverpilo, the journey that is Collywobbles,
1:06
Ian, I don't drink too much, Waring, and that was sarcasm, and Mr. Scott W., all forum contenders are actually on a plane right now. In fact, they've got Wi-Fi because they're irritatingly texting me about the new, almost just announced, literally minutes ago, Venom topper, and asked if I'd like one, to which the answer is, of course I have, you stupid fools.
1:38
So, yes, it's TPF Day, I'm flying out tomorrow at 10 o'clock with Rob and Christian, and Tony and Monster from the club, who are also going over. and it's proving there's been a lot, I don't know if you've been paying attention to your pigeons of news feeds Scott but it's been a busy day pinball announcement wise yeah run through them, have you yet? one of you, yeah we've got Portal we have a new game from Portal, yeah from P3 that looks great and my good friend Ian is the coder on that so I hope it's a great game it might, because Ian's involved that might convince me to buy a game. Everyone keeps pinging me saying, Neil, when are you going to get one? Meaning that they don't want to risk it. They'd much rather I risk my cash.
2:32
But there's really not... The last two games have been pretty decent. Okay. It's interesting you bring that up because I've just been speaking with David at Retro and he's just signed a deal to actually distribute P3 in the UK. He has. I might make it slightly easier, but when Phil hears that, there'll be a small explosion and talk for her, whichever weird northern location he... But, I mean, the thing is, I've got an argument with one of the guys on Facebook over it, on their post, actually, on their announcement, because Portal, to me at least, is a bit of a niche license. I know you might turn around and say, well, niche is 8 million copies sold. I agree. I compare that, like, I did, like, obviously a Cyberpunk 2077 game for my brief theme, and that sold 50 million copies. and I don't think anyone in the pinball world, at least I knew, knew what the hell that was. So Portal, being a very old license, let's face it, they haven't released a game recently.

medium confidence · Neil discusses strategic timing concerns for Turner/Barrels announcements relative to Kong

  • “I think, personally, it's going to be one of those come-and-go businesses. You're going to see them for about a year, and then they're going to disappear”

    Neil McRae @ final analysis — Predicts short lifespan for emerging home pinball manufacturers

  • “He's built himself a brand because it just looks like a turner game and I thought oh he's done well at that right”

    Neil McRae @ Merlin's Arcade discussion — Acknowledges Terror Turner's distinctive visual design identity

  • “The gameplay is ok but it's clunky... please put some pitch on the game. Jack it up to the back. They had it almost lat level.”

    Neil McRae @ Alice in Wonderland discussion — Critiques Dutch Pinball's game ergonomics and playfield setup

    • Pinball Brothers
    company
    Alien (Pinball Brothers)game
    Barrels of Funcompany
    Multimorphiccompany
    Harry Pottergame
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Medieval Madness (remake)game
    Halogame
    Play Mechanicscompany
    Ron Cruzmanperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Alice in Wonderlandgame
    Dutch Pinballcompany
    Cactus Canyongame
    UKCSevent
    Ian Harrowerperson
    Lyman F. Sheets Jr.person
  • $

    market_signal: Harry Potter LE rumored at $20k with standard edition potentially $15k; Neil and Scott express concern about unsustainable ceiling

    medium · Neil states 'I've heard it twice now' on $20k rumor; expresses concern 'If the ceiling becomes 20 grand for an LE that's just ridiculous'

  • ?

    product_concern: Chicago Gaming Company's Pulp Fiction suffering from inadequate playfield curing, clear coat failures at scoop edges, and lack of edge reinforcement cliffies

    high · Neil's direct experience with two Pulp Fiction machines showing degradation; organized group restoration effort with 9 players

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Multiple unconfirmed announcements expected at TPF25: Barrels of Fun game (Goonies/GI Joe/Fifth Element), Medieval Madness remake code collaboration, Halo from Play Mechanics

    low · Neil distinguishes confirmed (Portal, Merlin's Arcade) from rumored; expresses uncertainty on Barrels timing and Medieval Madness code

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Goonies as potential Barrels theme generating skepticism due to poor aging of 1985 film; Neil's viewing with 11-year-old granddaughter confirms modern unwatchability

    high · Neil expresses reluctance: 'Goonies has aged very badly' and notes granddaughter also found it 'freaking terrible'

  • ?

    supply_chain_signal: Pinball Brothers experiencing 14+ month backlog on topper replacements; distributor relationship issues with Phil's departure compounding delays

    high · Neil personally waiting 13 months on Alien Queen topper replacement with multiple defects; criticizes Lior's management

  • ?

    technology_signal: Portal represents advancement in P3 platform design with playfield elements in middle third, expanding beyond previous back-third-only approach

    high · Neil describes this as first P3 title with this capability; Ian Harrower coding; playable at TPF25

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Portal considered niche license despite 8M sales; concerns about mainstream appeal in pinball community vs. Cyberpunk's 50M

    medium · Neil's direct comparison: 'Portal, being a very old license... I'm just a little bit worried that a lot of people in the pinball world won't know what it is'

    • 3:33
    I'm just a little bit worried that a lot of people in the pinball world won't know what it is. But I mean, I like Portal. It's a good game.
    3:41
    And I like the fact that in this P3, it's the first game to have stuff in the kind of middle third, you know, before it used to be just the back third. like for those that don't know this the p3 basically build the whole world on a modular platform and it's something where you take the top third out it's a modular component you can lift it out rather than the whole play field and then plot in your next game and they've got various games they've done in the past like princess bride and heist and all those other games they've done i think they've done like 20 odd games in total this is the first time i'd say they've done a license that's probably a bit more up there. Weird Al probably as well is probably kind of more mainstream, but this is more the big ticket I am. I haven't heard of Weird Al until the pinball machine came out. Oh, really? Okay. And I became an instant fan of Weird Al. His parodies are great, but again, it's old stuff.
    4:35
    And I think he is hilarious, frankly. and it was kind of a good theme for pinball I think this one seems more interesting because now it's the first game where they've pushed stuff beyond I think it's an extra, you can't just buy the module kit and expect it to also go into the middle third but that was my main criticism from my point of view at least is that every time you put in a game it was just the back third that would change everything else was the same I think we'll see what happens right? I'll get to play at TPF. I'll take some video and we'll put it on our YouTube channel. Oh, is it actually going to be at TPF, is it? Yes, it's going to be at TPF.
    5:21
    Ian has invited me to the booth. Nice, okay. GammaGo, if you're on any sort of gaming slash Discord slash whatever, that's his handle. He's a really nice bloke. I've known him for almost eight or nine years now. It's quite a long time. Really nice guy, even though he's Canadian.
    5:43
    Does that mean he's going to suffer in the tariff war that's going on with Donald Trump and all that? Well, he will be already if he's buying pinball machines from the US. He'll be feeling that pain now, which is an amusing topic. Of course, the other thing to mention that's new this week that I will get to play at TPF, I'm assuming, I don't know for sure, is Merlin's Arcade from Terror Pinball. do you know it's funny my i got linked to that and i was like i didn't know what it was i just had a graphic of the game but i instantly went is that turner game and i thought that's they've done well at that right like to me i was like it looked like a turner game and i was like oh he's built himself a brand because it just looks like a turner pinball machine absolutely i think he's he's done enough where um he's done enough that he kind of stands out a little bit although I actually thought it was a Jersey Jack game because of the yellow.
    6:44
    And I thought, hmm, is this a Jersey Jack game? But yeah, it definitely looks... You definitely have a kind of feel. For me, it's that the back box looks a bit triangular rather than straight. You know, the side, but the wood side,
    7:00
    that's where I noticed it. And the fact that it's got Turner at the bottom of it also helped. Oh, I didn't notice that, but yeah. I haven't seen any photos of the Playfield as yet, have they been out? If you look on Napa Arcade He's got a shot of it My good old buddy Jason Who signed up to be a Member of our Small cabal here Which is very kind of him Actually did you notice that we got Some crazy people Voted for us in the twippies I did actually See that Like when someone pinged it to me, I was like, yeah, we've got a lot of the votes. I was like, really? Who are these stupid people? No, I'm kidding. Thank you for those that voted for us. Yeah, it's nice. It was very nice of you.
    7:48
    So, yeah, so looking, actually, I'm scanning Nat Markey as we speak, hot off the press. In fact, the guy, the figure that they've got on the back looks like Conrad from one of our members from the club. and the woman at the back looks like my wife when I've pissed her off so I'm already liking the look of this, I have to say Turner's first pinball game Ninja Eclipse, I really rated it, I enjoyed it and I spoke to Mr Turner, I suppose his first name has gone out of my head and told him, look, this was at TPF last year in fact, I said look stop messing about with this stupid little cabinet. Put it in a proper cabinet and you'll sell all of them. And he did. He did. And I like the way he went with a reasonable number to succeed with. Do you know what I mean? 100 is like straight in. 100, low risk. Doesn't upset too many people if it doesn't go according to plan. But he's nailed it. Not only has he nailed it, he's got a new game that looks like a lot of fun. I like the fact he's doing original titles like for anyone out there that's always complaining it's always licensed titles out there there's your option it's and he's doing original titles and it seems to be he does them well well this is the thing i always feel that we overplay theme a little bit it for me it's always about there's two things that have to be good in a game the gameplay i have to know playing and the audio, right? I can live with a Whitewood if it's got good audio and it's a good game. A bit like TNA with Scott Denise, right? I mean, he's doing Portal as well and I hope the music on that is also good, but he seems to know what he's doing when it comes to music.
    9:40
    100%. And, you know, a good game, good music. And actually, when I played TNA for the first time, it was a Whitewood.
    9:48
    You're right. I remember 2016 at Pinball Expo, was it? And I was thinking, wow. And then they kind of, you know, they did the art.
    10:00
    Andrew Manners, I think his name is, did an epic job on it. And the rest is history, shall we say. So exciting that there's two new games at TPF. There's also a third rumour that there will be a new Battles of Fun game. so hopefully it will be the one that you you're dreaming of it seems to be not everyone's leaning towards Goonies or G.I. Joe but I'm like Goonies is alright right Goonies is like it's ok but I'm hoping that's just them throwing curveballs and trying to throw people off I really hope it's fifth element because I'm nervous about Goonies I know lots of people back in the day, myself included in fact, I did a chump impression and you know I am I would say Goonies has aged very badly I've got to admit, watching it back these days it's not it's a bit dated very badly in my view they're doing there's rumours of a sequel though isn't there like Steven Spielberg started making a Goonies 2 all the people are like they're like 50 or something well it'll probably be the next generation of kids right Goonies the next generation yeah one of them will be a robot so hey you laugh I mean look at the I don't know if you've been looking at like what's it called they're not called phase 8 it's 8 something figure 8 or figure you heard about figure look it up they say we're going to have domestic robots as in like, you know, robots in the household. Crazy. Sorry, I'm calling bullshit. Okay, go on. I saw one of these domestic robots in Barcelona at MoLowell Congress and honestly I would have shot the thing by the time I got it home. It was absolutely useless. They say by 2030 it's in your house. I have robot kryptonite. Okay. It's called the Scottish accent. That means nothing in this whole freaking wide world. You can turn on the biggest AI freaking cluster on the freaking planet and when I say Alexa, turn on the lights,
    12:39
    nothing happens. so honestly it is no offense though she's pretty useless i i don't know like we'll see right i think i i was pretty amazed by what they've done but as you say it can be all done through like quite easy footage vertical slice take the best parts about how not sure what happens genuinely they had this thing at uh mobile congress i was there in barcelona uh in fact in barcelona man it's got even worse there used to be a place i had pens there's none uh some private club i can figure out how to get there but anyway the um what they had this one of these robots so they got the dog thing that's pretty cool that i think that's got legs oh you're about like bear dynamics one yeah that yeah that is impressive when you see that so also skills it's not bear dynamics is it they're gonna everyone's gonna laugh at me now dynamics something it's boston dynamics i think it's like yeah um so the the that the dog thing is to... I've seen that three or four times and every time I feel scared by the sheer power it seems to have. If that thing kicked you, you'd probably end up in hospital.
    13:51
    Anyway, we should go back on track. Yeah, back on track. Sorry, I diverged. No to adding robots on way off. But anyway, the... Goonies, yeah. Goonies, I don't think it's aged well. Can they do a pinball machine that maybe deals with that? Maybe. but my if you'd said to me before Covid Goonies I would have been your hand off but I watched Goonies with my granddaughter and we turned it off when we threw it, it was freaking terrible even she thought it was terrible she's 11 and yeah I mean when I was a kid I think I must have gone to the cinema about 20 times to see it it's such a cool movie it was kind of the gang you wanted to belong to but the movie is not well let's see what happens do you think it will be at the show?
    14:51
    so the rumour is so I heard early doors that they were definitely not going to have a new game and then things changed and then I heard maybe they are going to have a new game and it feels like the thing is it feels like a long time to wait until October, the end of October now when they're at, what, game 800 or something of the thousand? Yeah, they lowered it down, didn't they? They say they're only going to do a thousand, but I think they're pretty much at the end of the production cycle. Yeah, so why would you wait to announce it?
    15:31
    Assuming they've got something that's, you know, 95% there, well it's the worry isn't it I mean we go back to the whole tariff war that's going on the economy's a bit in the bin especially in the stock market in America and that does affect people's buying power I imagine there are a lot of games being announced so it's like do you announce now or do you wait and then everyone you know throws their money at the games that do get announced well you know the £100 gorillas in the corner of the room Mr. Kong I think a lot of if I'm Turner or Battles of Fun I've got to watch that when I order this it doesn't come out the same week as Kong because that could be bad for your health so I would say given that they're close to the end of building they want to keep the factory running, it's a big fixed cost. Get it out before Kong.
    16:38
    You know, get people's £1,000 unrefundable deposit. The sceptic in me, or the salesman in me says, go, go, go, go, go. But I mean, I love those guys. They're all very nice. Yeah, I mean, my game's been... I'll tell you one thing, my playfield has been flawless. Like, I can't even see a dimple on it. I don't know what clear coat they're using, but it is rock solid are they bottom barrow playfields I don't know but the clear coat is really impressive on playfields we will tend for a moment so I my pulp fiction which is one of my pulp fictions because I've got two but one of them that I kindly put in the club for it to be played by the masses. The state of that play field gave me great cause for concern. So basically, any of the scoops or edges, it's starting to really suffer.
    17:44
    And Rob Cutler's got Seiko Kid on the forum. He's got these protectors, which help, but they're not going to solve the problem, frankly. so I think I'm going to be a little bit honest about CGC sadly because I love them to death I've got every game they've made in fact more than one of them and Pulp Fiction they've dropped the ball there's no question about it I have heard about clear coat issues I think it's probably it's got to be like is there cutouts around the scoop so that the clear coats adhering to the wood or is it actually adhering to artwork and then it's chipping on the artwork? No, it's the wood. And basically, there's no question as to what the cause of this is. They haven't had time to let play fields cure. There's no question about it.
    18:37
    So, with that in mind, I decided, and for me, so I'm less worried about the game at the club. Obviously, I want it to look nice and play nice and maybe one day I'll sell it if something better comes along and I put something else in it. but I want it to be playable. It's a great game. In fact, we had a big game of it at the UKCS, which we'll cover a little bit later, I think.
    19:00
    So I decided, right, I'm going to do something about this. I, the man of action that I am, decided I am doing something about this. So I bought a Playfield from CGC. Okay. And I had it shipped to one Ronald Kruzman. Ah, okay, it's getting the charisma treatment. It's getting the charisma treatment. And my idea was so good that nine, sorry, eight of my friends, and I was amazed I had eight friends, frankly. Some people will ask me to name them. You can, off.
    19:39
    They thought it was such a good idea. They said, Neil, I want in on this action. Okay. CGC did me a very good deal. and we sent nine play fields because I've got two, one for this game at home and one for the game in the club. We have sent them to the main man that is Ron Cruzman. He's going to be busy.
    20:00
    We've basically locked them out of business probably for the next year, I would suggest. I'm not in a rush for it. The great news is, the one in the club, we can smash the bejesus out of it. I don't care because I've got something. Did it have like cliffies around the edges? Any metal? Or is it just... No, and I think that's been a big mistake for them. As other PC games have. So I'm looking at Attack from Mars, it's got them. I'm looking at Mazda Bash, it's got them. Medieval Madness did not have them. But there was a cliffy set for Medieval Madness. It's exactly the same playfield. It fitted no problem.
    20:43
    Cactus has it. sounds like that's the mistake then really isn't it it's the reinforcement well I think if they even with that low score I don't think the playfield is the same quality as four other games that I've mentioned I think they've been under pressure to get you know they've had lots of challenges with there were lots of challenges with the game before it Cactus Canyon I think that spilled into the manufacturing, construction and pulp. I think a few things got rushed. There's no question about that.
    21:21
    And it's just not where they want it to be. Now, the good news is, you know, I already spoke to Doug about this, and he's like, yeah, you know, there's certain things you would do differently for the next game. And here is what leads me to the point I was aiming towards.
    21:36
    I understand that CGC will have a new version of Medieval Madness. And one of the rumours I heard, And I'm slightly cautious as to whether I want to broadcast this or not, out of respect for one of the people involved. But the original coder of Medieval Madness is someone we love, Lyman F. Sheets Jr. And there is a rumor that he had some new code ideas for Medieval Madness. Oh, right. and that this new medieval madness may have some of those code things in it which would be absolutely fantastic and amazing and by the way they better release the code for the one I've got otherwise I might have to deluke half of Chicago I love my Ellie I'd never get rid of it exactly so that is one of the big rumors probably turned out to be completely false but I do know he had some ideas to improve the code on medical madness, for sure. The other rumour, which is not really a rumour because I've already seen it, is that the upgraded kit for Cactus Canyon will be there to play. God, it's been so long, hasn't it? Yeah, it wasn't there in Chicago but it was there in their factory in Chicago and I got to play it and I thought it was very good. So I'm looking forward to that. And then there is a small rumour that there might be something about Halo which is allegedly Play Mechanics next game is it like Master Chief Halo yes that is right out of left field I've not even heard about that I mean Halo is a big title but wow I mean you talk about Portal yeah this is the game that's going to be cross generational because people will be playing it since Xbox through to Xbox One. It's Microsoft's Mario, right? Yeah. And I have been fighting... Man, if it plays the E-Dorian music, I'd love that.
    23:52
    So I'm... And people say, but I don't know if you know that Play Mechanics or Rob Thrills, which are the two brands that they go under. I've put out Halo Fireteam Alpha or Bravo, I can't remember what it's called. Yeah, I played that in the States. I mean I'll be honest with you it's not that great in my view doesn't compare to the game but for kids in an arcade covered in sticky goo it's delicious for them so that was the other one and then the other question is what do the big guys have but I think Star Wars just have D&D I think they might have a Venom topper I mean I don't know if Predetti stroke Pinball Brothers will be showing their game, but obviously Predator is going to be the rumoured title. Whether or not it's going to be at the show is another thing, I suppose. But they typically announce on April 1st. Yeah.
    24:51
    Which is April Fool's Day. I don't know why they do that. It's aimed at all our customers. You're so rough.
    25:02
    Iron is Alien vs. Predator. I heard that, and I'm really hoping it's not because that's a terrible license to do.
    25:11
    Alien vs. Predator is like the worst film. Worst film. I'm going to admit to someone. I watched AVP.
    25:21
    I don't know how but it was some sort of horrible pirate copy. Good, it doesn't deserve people's money anyway. I can't remember.
    25:31
    Yeah, I can't remember. It's a terrible movie. so I need to watch it again because I can't remember but I didn't think it was as bad as you're making it out to be so I need to watch it again it's terrible you can reuse all the crap stuff that they put on Alien in the game all those fantastic mechs and what's his name, Dior could do a top on that's maybe the right colour and I don't know to this day by the way I bought the original Alien Queen topper for my Pinball Brothers Alien about 13 months ago.
    26:09
    I'm still waiting on my replacement base. Really? They sent a new one and it had a crack in it. Oh, man. It's a joke. It really is. It's £1,400.
    26:24
    Is that from Pinball Brothers? Yeah, well, that's Pinball Brothers. You can blame Lior, though. it really is directed at him he's the main delay on this I understand the war but 14 months is 14 months it's like I should have had a replacement by now a war in Israel would stop if the war is the excuse that I find that somewhat challenging I deal with quite a few Israeli companies and they're not dramatically affected by the war it's been frankly piss poor I'm actually really furious about it I've been waiting for ages I had endless problems I've got a couple of these mods in my James Bond his stuff is normally good I think the quality control has been in my experience bad I bought it through Phil before he parted ways that's what's caused the part of the problem Jesus Just an advert For gloriousness Here's how not to sell shit Piss off the distributor Piss off the customers And Don't have a supply chain that you've got Any control It puts me off buying any other toppers from them Because of the experience I've had The game wise I'd have to see it open from them. Yeah, it questions the quality. For that sort of bullshit. I mean, I feel for you on that one, man, but it could be a happy day when it finally arrives. Just as well, I've had, you know, because I've obviously gone from Free Aliens, I've had the original prototype, which we know the story with that, and then I had an LE.
    28:17
    Yeah, that was a special edition, that one. I had the LE, which was fine. then I sold it, regretted it, bought another one got that, kept it I don't think I'll get rid of it because I still love the theme, the theme carries it you go back to what you were saying before how gameplay and music is important for you theme is also up there for me so I think it's one of the best theme integrated games and you do feel when you're playing it I've only I played the Progetti made one a couple of times. I played the original Dandy Hymey Man.
    29:01
    Won quite a lot with it at the club for quite a while. It's at Medway now at the moment. They put a good sound system in it.
    29:12
    When the music's playing and the call is, game over, man! It's got all the sounds of the computers made. it felt, you know, and if you turn the lights off and you're playing kind of in the dark and, you know, it was definitely an atmospheric grab there.
    29:30
    Just 20 minutes after playing that game though, I just wanted to go to sleep. It just put me under, basically, but it's not a worse game in the world for sure. No, I say I think it has got some, like it's a floaty game, right? It's wide body. But I feel like this way worse out there. I mean, it's not like Roadshow.
    29:52
    I'm Jesus. And that was one of the upsides of the UKCS. Roadshow broke early in the day. Yeah. I had a small celebration whilst we turned it off. Have we covered all the other titles? I think that's it at the moment that we know. Let's go on our... Oh, maybe potentially Harry Potter? JJP? Harry Potter, yeah. I mean...
    30:16
    Potter? Is it going to be there or not Cranky Spooky Released new code for Ultraman So I Cranky That's from years ago I tell you NAP's website Kind of does weird stuff With timelines sometimes Sales of Mully Muffet's wheel Open today, now they don't So I don't know what's going on with this website Yeah so the only other thing Is Jersey Jack are probably going to Bring out a cheap version of Harry Potter As well as the two Expensive versions Oh what they're going back to that kind of standard edition model That he did with Guns and Roses That is the rumour I see that because I'm hearing that the top end Price is going to be 20 grand No I've heard it twice now 20 grand No it's ridiculous this man no one's well there will be people that buy it but that's just far and few between look as a bond fan i paid 20 grand for that thing right yeah that ain't worth 20 grand i can tell you that much it's worth every penny me in fact you know what i'll do your deal i'll sell it to people 22 no um yeah sure i am i think people will buy it 20 grand um i think that will tank in value on the used market yeah well well the thing is people look at pirates of the terrible being and they think, you know, people still think that's a 20 grand game and I just think, what are these nutters? I've not played it since the code update to be fair, so it might be better.
    31:57
    Anyway, the long and short of it is I can see them bringing back a cheap version if the rumor is true. I mean, if the CE is 20 grand, you've got to think the LE is 15. I can't believe they could do that in this market. I really don't. if the pinball market goes for it my god they've got deep pockets yeah man it's you know the sound I need a sound button that does kind of a cash sound yeah but yeah I mean that is the rumour and then my mate's always in disbelief that I spent 15 on a Metallica and I was like yeah wife bought it, it's my excuse but it's like where is the ceiling then? 20? God if they go for it it's crazy I'm saying this, if the ceiling becomes 20 grand for an LE that's just ridiculous basically, 5 LEs you buy a house man so the other good news is that Alice in Wonderland, they started building them so I almost forgot about that game that was last year wasn't it those of you that have ordered them 2027 is coming soon hopefully I mean the apron looks nice I remember actually like I think it was Kaneda showed it or something like that yeah I mean it's a lovely looking game I mean the gameplay is terrible too strong a word the gameplay is ok but it's clunky but I couldn't convincing when I played it. I was like, guys, please put some pitch on the game. Jack it up to the back. They had it almost lat level. Oh, hey, when they do that. Pitch on the game, because it was flowing as hell. So it was hard to tell how it really played. I think a little bit of air could be good. And then the other Alice in Wonderland...
    34:01
    Is that worth even talking about? But go on. It is. They funded it. When the barrier is that low, 100,000, anybody's going to... They've just got easy money in the bank there, but I don't know.
    34:18
    He's got his customers. What are they called? Investors now. All these customers are investors. This is the guy that originally was one of the founders of 1UP.
    34:34
    That ended. Let's face it, that 1UP lightning in a bottle scenario where people were buying stuff because they didn't really think they could buy a full arcade machine. They didn't want the hassle. The quality was crap, let's face it. It was Chinese junk that you just got for like 200 quid or $200. I've got, in one of my pinball stores, I have got the Atari Games one up because I'm a massive Robotron fan. Okay, yeah. I'm sorry, not Robotron.
    35:07
    Centipede? No, it's gone in my head. It's the one where you turn it and you're on this thing where you... Missile Defender? Or what it's called? No, you're on this round... It's going to drive me nuts. I'm going to have to look it up. Well, you do that. I mean, I'd say, like, for me, those titles, they were okay when they were at the low end, but then they started jacking the price up, and then it was like $1,000.
    35:32
    And I was just like, what? It's cheap crap. Yeah, the game is called Tempest. Oh, Tempest. Yeah, that was a good game. They've got a smaller arcade that's the same shape. Atari arcades have this weird overhang.
    35:48
    It's the same shape. I'm such a big fan of Tempest. I thought I'm going to have one of them. I still don't see the pinball market going I don't know if they still make pinball machines anymore. A bit like the arcade market was. That was far more general audience that bought that rather than hobbyists. right and i feel like anybody who knows about pinball knows that these machines are available knows they're being made knows that you can get like used ones for around the free 4k mark why the hell would you spend a grand on that i don't know yeah i mean it's i mean this is the thing i don't remember i remember like rq1 ops being out of 700 quid or something but then you went to costco's and they were there for 100 quid and i'm like yeah is that because they're not selling I'm trying to get rid of them, but I don't know. I mean, if Stern can't sell its home pin in Costco, which I heard the last rumor, some of the games were selling for $1,500, which is well below their sticker price, then how the hell is this company going to make any? And if you look at the Kickstarter, they've only sold, I think they've got 550 backers. That's not a lot. I mean, it really isn't. I think, personally, it's going to be one of those come-and-go businesses. You're going to see them for about a year, and then they're going to disappear off the face of the earth. But prove me wrong, I suppose. We'll see what happens.
    37:10
    Yeah, I mean, I was just looking at that. The Costco... I don't know the place anymore. But it looks like they were selling them a thousand bucks cheaper than what Star Wars sells. Some places were selling them, as I say, on manager's special clearance. It's kind of a shame, because it is actually a good game. Yeah, it is. I was at the MDF playfield, which would put me off. As many of you get the slightest bit of damp, that'll just explode. Swell, yeah. That'll put me off right away. Anyway, let's move on. Sure. There's a bunch of other stuff that'll be there. You saw the vendors will be there.
    37:51
    I'm hoping that the homebrew section is as good as last year's. Yeah, mine was packed. It was good. It was great, the homebrew section. Davey Stumbler's also coming as well. Forgot to mention him. and you know I'm you know last three TPFs I've managed to buy a game and I get it shipped back so let it be four for four have you bought Evil Dead I forget I have bought Evil Dead nice and I'll be honest with you that's one of the games if they've got a spare one kicking about and I like it I can easily find its way into my carry-on luggage nice but I don't know if I'd want two of them though so Phil may get upset if I have to cancel it it'd probably cost me two grand but anyway I'll cross that bridge when I come to it but I might go down here and try and get out of it anyway but there's so many neat things about Evil Dead every time I see someone playing it, it just seems to flow and it's a wide body as well right it's crazy, it's so quick it looks phenomenal and I'm excited, if I haven't played it It's rare that I don't get to play a game close to Liftoff, but I am moving forward to it. I'm looking forward to playing Portal as well, to see all Ian's hard work.
    39:12
    What else? I got... Oh, I know, I'm picking up a John Wick topper in the US. Have they released it? Oh, yeah, they did, didn't they? They did the egg timer. The egg timer. I mean, it feels somewhat ridiculous, but nonetheless, I've got it. Oh you might get the Venom topper while you're there I suppose Nah they won't have it It was the same last year they released the Foo Fighters topper And they only had A prototype there They'll probably have the prototype there But I doubt they'll have them for sale It's on the website That means the only topper I'll be missing will be Uncanny X-Men Oh yeah that hasn't been done yet Until Connor arrives Actually until Dungeons and Dragons Scott Have you bought Dungeons and Dragons? I forget.
    39:59
    In fact, I almost forget that I bought it because it's been since it's been two months since I handed over my hard earned lolly. And it still hasn't arrived. And I said to Phil, for God's sake man, get this thing on a plane and get it over here because if Trump keeps doing what he's doing... Well, we could have tariffs, right? you could lose some money on it Phil that's an incentive yeah exactly I thought that would cheer him up just kidding anyway the whole tariff thing is a bit scary it could really hurt Dutch Pinball really hurt them because all of a sudden their expensive game has become 25% more expensive.
    41:00
    Hopefully not. It's definitely affecting Canadians. If you want to order a pinball that isn't in Canada, the price has gone up 25%. I buy some parts from Canada sometimes and they even had to put a reciprocal tariff on some of the stuff like coin doors and that and said 25% more. It's got like a 50 Canadian charge on it. But the thing is, the mad thing is the person who buys it pays the tariff, right? Sure. Wait a minute, I'm paying for this thing, I'm paying 25% more if I buy it locally, so steel for almost the same price. The problem with it is the steel makers become, oh, that's cool, we've got a captive audience. We can be lazy, we can do a bad job, They're still going to buy it from us. And this is why tariffs always fail because they're protectionists and they don't work. There's a million papers on them in business schools about tariffs in the past. They just simply don't work. The only way if you want to control what people buy and how they buy it, the market controls it. and if you try and fiddle with the market,
    42:22
    you risk side consequences or side effects that you didn't think of, and that's what's happening. I kind of feel for, I mean, we've got tariffs on British steel, but I think we only make one bolt a year.
    42:42
    It still will hit us, but not nearly as bad as it would Canada, I think. they're really going to be suffering for that I think but also it means that you know rather than sell it to the US people will sell it to other countries so China's probably rubbing their hands saying oh we're going to get all this steel coming over our way because they can't sell it to America it's just a bit short sighted we'll have to see what happens hopefully as you say it doesn't result in pinball suffering because that's what it feels like will happen So, actually, one thing, when we need to spend a bit of time on this, but not for this podcast, but the next podcast, Scott and I are going to do a guide on buying pinballs. Are we? Okay. We are, yes.
    43:34
    It's the thing with Neil. He says you're doing this, and I go, okay. Yes, because we, as pinball buyers, remember that our… I'm such an expert, by the way. There aren't many podcasts where you have buyers like us. I definitely have experience.
    43:52
    Yes. You can learn from my mistakes. There you go. Exactly. That's it. We're going to help you out. But the reason I want to do this is I went to a work colleague who bought a pinball machine. Right.
    44:06
    And despite me saying, before you buy it, let me have a look at it. Of course, the FOMO in him over to his normal bodily and brain function. He bought a pinball, got it back and it looks great from the outside. You lift the playfield and it's rust central.
    44:32
    He's like, I didn't know to look for that. I was like, no you wouldn't. It's one of those things. It is increasingly common for people to be storing games in their garage. Oh, absolutely. In their shed. Not a shed like this. No. It's hermetically controlled air conditioning.
    44:54
    That's more like a summer cabin. We're talking like your kind of shed that you put together on B&Q. Yeah.
    45:03
    There are people also storing them in those containers, cheap storage. I picked up a Deadpool, you know, in a shipping container and it was left in that in the summer heat and it had rust. Yes, it was. That was literally like eight months old and it was rusting. Yes. So what I want to do is go through the things to be looking out for. We'll cover this in more detail because we need to kind of put effort in to make sure we don't miss anything. But there are so, you know, and that's basically what he told me was, yeah, the guy he picked up from, he met him at a shipping container depot. so look I'm not saying don't buy a game but maybe pay two grand less in case I'll tell you what it is it's probably less of an issue for Americans I find at least because they're much more willing to do it but we as a nation aren't really good at haggling I really don't think we are I don't think this is haggling though I think this is asking for the facts I bought a lot of cars in my life, don't ask why or what,
    46:16
    but I remember buying my first car, I was terrified of the process, right? And now I'm like, do this do that do that make sure you done I know more about buying the car than the sales guy selling me selling it to me And I helped many friends you know you bought a car help me out with this And, you know, the finances, you know, super complicated. And the, anyway, the, and, you know, the, you just, I want to try and help people get the most out of it. And with pinball machines, it's kind of the same. if you've not bought one before the first game I bought I got lucky because I bought it from Chris B who's a superstar when it comes to buying games he's not going to sell you junk but if your first game you order it off eBay you get anything and there's other stuff like has the game been stored in a place that doesn't get down so you've got the cold and the outdoors you can be indoors and warm but if it's in a damp room it just attacks the electronics corrosion is your enemy absolutely trust me I'll give an example I had a Dracula one of the first games I actually rethemed I say it's rethemed that's an exaggeration I made it black and white edition a bit like Elvira did the Switch Matrix had corrosion and i didn't realize it till very late into basically trying to troubleshoot it that the pin headers needed to be replaced and i got weird gremlin issues like switches would just randomly fire off the game would then you know think it's in a missed mobile when it's not i was trying optos i was looking at everything but the switch pins and it's the switch pins that we're talking like inside the header you've got that little bit of metal that makes contact with the header of the MPU, that had a little bit of green on it. And then that little bit of green was the corrosion that was stopping the conductivity between the wire and the header. And that caused the problem. Well, and look, I just saw, I bought a Lord of the Rings. And it was, and actually, to be fair, it was cheap. Sure.
    48:42
    And got it to the club, lifted it up, and it had been in a place next to the seaside. and I don't think it being stored bad I think it being stored bad just next to the sea right yeah and basically it was all rust and I was like so we kept it in the club for a little bit then I sold it I mean I took a grand and a half hit on it because in my view because of the rust it wasn't worth salt air can really wreck it yeah but I sold it cheap deliberate and I said look I'm selling this cheap because look at the place look at underneath here that place is fine and played fine, but at some point in time, that rust is going to act.
    49:24
    Yeah, we'll go into it more in depth. There's a lot of things that you need to think about and we'll do a bit of work on it. We might even do a PowerPoint slide.
    49:37
    Love it. But, yeah, that was the other thing. So, Luke, our normal agenda, I believe, Scott, you have a new incoming yeah it's not as exciting well no let's change that it's not as expensive as a pin at least not yet I don't remember that my friend but it will be but yeah my wife actually found out she was pregnant about what now 12 weeks ago and she was then I think she's in week 14 week 15 now so congratulations Neil has a glorious name for a boy I'm already sticking to my guns it's going to be a girl we don't know yet but we'll find out on the week 20 scan I think it is in about 5 weeks are you going to find out then? yeah absolutely we've discussed pins I want to know what it is before it's announced it's the same thing I don't want to wait I'm sure that the 24 people that voted for us are very happy for you along with me yeah and I think it was 24 something like that but no still pretty good yeah thank you it will you know you'll start to have hair like mine I'm already there but like yeah look for me it's just the matter of getting my body into shape because I'm going to need it when one starts running around that's literally running circles around me so yeah yeah it's the you want to you want to get like you want to go to costco and you want to buy all of the pro plus um so that when you're not sleeping for the next six months my mate mate has just had his newborn as well so he literally like his wife gave birth the week before last and he's telling me all this stuff like they're having to do stuff they run patterns together they shift patterns this is so they'll do like 3 hour stints I've got all that to look forward to a friend of my mother's had twins oh wow Jesus I mean I was I moved to London but just the effort that was required my mum said to me every time I go around there the house looks like a bomb's hit it and it smells of kind of you know baby and there is a unique baby smell by the way it's just it's a phase right and they were just like for the first year they were just right they just I mean they looked like they aged like we pretty much like hadn't really even we've been trying for a long time and it was getting to the point where it just got to a point where it's like okay it's probably not gonna happen and then suddenly it just happened so yeah it's it's a it's a great surprise and i'm really happy for it we're all very happy for you and when's the due date then is uh september i want to say ninth no yeah that was it was nine because it was easy to remember okay okay well obviously it was shifted around that day i imagine it's not that not that far away then no no well um that's why i have to try and get this pin behind me done because i'm just like i'm just constantly trying to wrap stuff up now i'm just like get it out of the way so before i don't have any free time left yeah well look congratulations mate i'm sure it'll be all good and uh you know um well uh we might we might need to find a temporary stand-in whilst you're off doing nappy duties. Maybe, yeah. But no, we'll figure it out.
    53:42
    We'll podcast from the hospital with cigars. Big, big... Arnold Schwarzenegger style. Yeah. Cuban cigars.
    53:53
    Yes. Give me your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle. Moving on before I do another bad impression. so pinball in and out I bought one game I bought the World Cup soccer oh nice okay yes and it's good old puppetry game yeah I mean I'll be honest I mean too much I don't know if I like this game or not but it's kind of one of those games that does well at tournaments people like it it's kind of easy and it's a good game and with the World Cup being hosted again in the United States this year They've got so much going on They've got the Olympics and the World Cup In one year So it's going to be It's going to be a lot of fun To have it So it's currently In my storage room Here in Moking There's a couple of things I need to do At some point it will end up in the club And I also I've also acquired a loan of another game skateboarding game the name of it's got on my head skateboarding? it's a ballet game radical is it? radical yes I'm borrowing it from someone basically in the club we don't have a so I'm a stern classics fan and I like modern games and I don't really buy a lot of what I'd call late 80s, 90s games. You know, your month of action. System 11 stroke WBC games, basically. We don't have a lot of them and I kind of want to change that a little bit because people are fans of the games. I love Taxi. Taxi's good. Yeah, I like Taxi. I'd love to get a hold of one. But no one wants to sell them. Or if they do, they want enough money I could actually buy a real Taxi and go out and Uber myself to death. So, no, it's not... if someone is selling a taxi let me know I'd definitely be interested in it predominantly use it for the club in the UK Open what else I will need to cover yeah I mean the twippies don't know if you watched any of it or I did Jaws I kind of think that was fair I disagree with the animation element I didn't really understand why that won Best Animation when you've got Metallica remastered with what I think is probably the best animation they've ever done in any game.
    56:39
    Yeah, I think that's an unfortunate timing one. Yeah, maybe. I mean, it's all community votes, isn't it? There's a lot more Jawsies out there than there probably is Metallicas. Absolutely.
    56:52
    But actually, did you get a Metallica fix-it kit? I did. You did? Okay. I haven't bothered to reply yet, but I've got it. I've got my blue springs and I've got my plastic protector for the top left ramp. Awesome. Good. Yeah, I got mine. I just suddenly realised that it was a thing.
    57:12
    So yeah, other pinball news. There's one thing I wanted to kind of say to everybody because I've kind of been hit by this twice. captive balls on Stern Games. Okay. Ah, yes, to Jurassic Park. Yes, to Jurassic Park, but actually also my Foo Fighters.
    57:39
    Just keep an eye on your captive balls. So the one on my Jurassic Park in the club's completely snapped off.
    57:46
    And we're just kind of sitting in the middle. So what gave way? Was it the Fred? Yeah, it kind of just snapped midway through. that I was going to ask you, I didn't really understand what caused it so here is which way is it oh wow that's a shear and a half yeah I actually think I'm going to turn the flipper down a little bit is that the right way round it looks it, yeah because of the machined end and it has this washer which I was trying to because I couldn't find it, so it's sheared off but I couldn't find this bit yeah I remember because everyone said check the manual and I thought the manual doesn't list it but yeah um so and then i looked at my foo fighters and noticed that the ball at the top it turns oh it's got loose okay but but no no no it's not loose it's very tight the ball's turning but the screw isn't uh so in the future i see that becoming a problem so just on words to the wives check that out have you thought about trying to put in the Williams style version of it from Pinball Life to see if that would fit I've ordered it and actually I'm hearing from a reliable source at Pinball Life that it's actually the same thing, oh it's the same part it's exactly the same part so I've ordered it my Theatre of Magic one holds up just fine yeah but I think fair magic flippers versus stern, modern I see what you're saying, yeah, does it belt it harder, yeah I don't know, maybe, maybe not we'll see, I've ordered a bunch of them, in fact they got delivered today to my hotel room in Texas ahead of me, this is a great thing about Texas Pumo Festival, I get everything sent there and I end up buying a case to add to the 12 cases that I've already bought since going there nice yeah, so that's the that was my one other kind of moment of pain and I'll quickly do a kind of rundown of the UKCS which is the UKCS is like it's a championship and I'm not a big fan of the qualifying for it because I think it's bollocks frankly we've had this debate before but basically last year you played in any tournament your points got added up and if you're in the top 64 in the UK you got a place in the UKCS.
    60:17
    I managed to scrape in because people dropped out. And the event was on Saturday at the club. I should have streamed it. Although, while I did stream it, but didn't. I'll come back to that.
    60:32
    So we had 64 players. It was a match play. So we had eight rounds, three games each, an old, a mid, and a new, which is where this kind of mid thing, because I realised, wait, we've got weakness here in the club that I'm now trying to fix.
    60:47
    And the event was absolutely fantastic. We had some challenges with organisation that we as the club need to learn from.
    61:01
    But everyone loved it. So the first day was qualifying, and it was great. I was streaming. I'll talk about the stream at the end because it'll be easier and then the top 32 players qualified for the final I played like a chimp because something happened at the beginning of the day which took my brain away from playing and then we got to the end of, so we got to the second day, 32 players qualified and then we had a seven round head to head so you play the player best of seven and then you go so then you go to the next round and whoever wins the final round is the winner which actually was a guy called Ben Moser who flew over from Switzerland from it and again everyone loved it, thought the format was great and this format we used is the World Championship, that's how they decided it's the World Championship so people really loved the format, loved the event James was there for Majestic did a great job went really well and all the club kind of founders and helpers did a fantastic job actually special shout out to Diane who always goes above and beyond and it was a really great gig so I went to stream it and I knew it would be difficult because we don't have fibre or broadband it's all mobile broadband and I had all four networks in Sims that had these dual these routers that would route over wherever one was working and all of them were shit so basically they had roaming networks on and it still couldn't pick up a decent signal no it was actually four separate connections oh wow okay and so basically 9 in the morning, life was good 10 in the morning till about 4 in the afternoon it was garbage on all the networks and basically too many people Have you not got a Starlink? I have and the problem with Starlink is you need to be able to see the sky so I was thinking about how could I get a dish on the roof and I was thinking about that it's just not easy to do but that would have been the perfect solution definitely at the UK Open I take my Starlink there it would be easy to use Starlink at the hotel that we use yeah and it was infuriating but to make a bad situation worse and I kind of knew this was going to happen it wasn't a surprise so I thought I can record it and I'll upload it to YouTube after the event but I did try to stream it and that was a mistake because there was a new bug in OBS which is the app that we used to stream and basically whenever the stream flaked out, the connectivity OBS would basically get into a state where you couldn't do anything Oh it locks up, lovely I basically had to kill it and restart it several times anyway I pinged OBS guys actually fair play and they got me a patched version the next day and I go up and run and it was It was like sweet after that But I was really frustrating because it meant that we had lots of recorded bits that I had to glue together
    64:48
    Yeah, because imagine the editing on that She's uploaded and you see if you if you watch if you look for my youtube page where the podcast is you'll see the qualifiers the finals are almost done that's what I was doing before the podcast but great gig well done the thing that was big about UKCS is whichever UK player got positioned the best they qualified for the IFPA World Cup World Championships which is in Austria I want to say end of May or beginning of June can't remember, round about then and Will Dutton or Will Jarvis qualified he played beautifully well, great player and with some great performances for me, man of the match was Anton, one of our club guys he knocked out some big players, knocked out a couple of big players played really well and it was great to watch some amazing people, I was actually watching the stream back as I was editing, I was just getting distracted by watching it rather than editing it but it was a great gig and I just wanted to say thanks for coming so everyone said we should do the same next year and I was like okay here's the problem right putting on an event like that is a lot of effort and it's expensive so the club we probably broke even maybe not even on hosting that event but the bigger issue is for the club members that help us myself, Matt and others it means we're busy running the event rather than playing in the event.
    66:57
    And it definitely has an impact. When you're running the event... Yeah, I can imagine. Matt went out quite early. I didn't even qualify. I mean, I was in the bottom four or something. I played shockingly, but there were kind of reasons for that.
    67:11
    But partly because I was trying to run the stream, I was also a TD. And we were there all week cleaning and getting games set up. And it's a lot of effort.
    67:25
    And we run, you know, in the club, we run pretty much all the big tournaments in the UK now. You're on the UK Open. We've got this new one, the British Masters, which is replacing a tournament I used to run here. Because we ran it. I could do 52 players. I put the marquees out. But there's way more demand than that. I hate turning people away. So we're doing this big tournament at the club.
    67:51
    And then we run a monthly tournament at the club. and we did that partly because people wanted it partly because we need to pay the bills and we ran the UKCS the one before it we ran at the club, the old club and I said to Matt I don't think we should do this next year because it'd be nice to go somewhere else and just compete and you know Matt said but then the format that we used that everyone loved there's no other venue in the UK that can do it now what was kind of slightly annoying was lots of people moaned well it was at Pinball Republic last year that gives them a big advantage let me tell you it gives us no fucking advantage and then ah you know guess we have to come to London and pay for a hotel I'm like yeah okay so tell us where you want to host it so I think I mean Matt's ultimately Matt's decision where to host it is by country director you know I think the club me and some of the helpers were like it'd be nice just to be able to drive to somewhere, check into a hotel go for the curry the night before have a few beers with the players then play, then either do grey or bone then go home um so you know i said you know let's see who else wants to wants to host it but i i kind of my prediction is as we will end up hosting it at the club next year but we'll definitely charge more for it because we didn't make enough money from it um for this weekend um and and actually i think people said is that going to be the same for ukcs or do you think you still going to do that one no that the i talking about ukcs okay so i ukcs i don you know i my take is i'd rather go somewhere where we're not having to do all the effort um and honestly getting 70 games to a place where they play super well i mean we do this day and day but put a little bit of extra effort in for an event like this and we'll do the same for the masters yeah just um it is huge effort and um and you end up like you know i float in on sunday saturday morning at eight in the morning to get stuff up and running and after being there kind of wednesday thursday friday and i'm like no man this is this is tiring um uh anyway the the short of it is, if someone else would like to host it, go talk to Matt, because I think both of us, I mean, Matt's always going to be involved in some way because he's the country director, but you know, he chose to, he wants to do that, that's cool, but ultimately, you know,
    70:58
    I think we as the club would like to just be able to go somewhere else and not do it. I should say that the challenge is space by the sounds of it. No, I mean, space, there is no other venue. Space accessibility and, yeah, everything else in between. So, look, I suspect we'll end up posting next year, which is fine.
    71:19
    But suddenly I kind of came away from the weekend with a, cranky, it would be great just to be able to play.
    71:28
    And I don't play in a lot of UK events because I'm travelling and when I'm back, I'm not travelling and there's an event on, I'll play at the Texas Pinball Festival tournament because of work I travel a lot so when I'm back I'll usually run one tournament a month at the club so when I come to our tournament I'm like actually I'm going to go home and see the wife so it's just a little bit challenging when you're there's so many things that you want to do by the way I'm not saying that we're not grateful to host it. I'm just saying, hey, someone else fancied doing it, just for the UKCF next year.
    72:17
    Well, let's see what happens. And then also, you know, volunteers and helpers. So we've got British Masters during Easter. If you want to help us, please contact me.
    72:33
    And by the way, help, right, isn't coming, say I can play a bit of extra pinball. No. Help is, we've got games that need to be set up, we've got bins that need to be emptied, we've got floors that need to be mopped. You know, it's the whole plethora, you know, lifting stuff, putting stuff on the wall,
    72:57
    going to the book of cash and carry to get coke for the machine. You know, it's the full plethora of stuff. and then we're in the UK Open, it's like, yeah, we're setting up a temporary thing and it takes a lot of effort and it feels to me like it's getting harder and harder to get that help. Our club members do a great job on a Thursday they come down and they help but we're there during that day we're there to get stuff done for the club otherwise if we fall behind on maintenance trying to catch up it's just so difficult it's the reason why we decided actually we need a full time kind of tech because trying to do it ourselves is just too much work is that why James just stepped in is he doing that I mean we had Bob before and then James picked up and you know James did an amazing job he's a great guy a lot of fun just gets on with stuff it doesn't need to be told what to do it just cracks down and yeah so I'm looking forward to the next gig at Pumbo Republic but you know we can't host everything as I think the message that you know I'd like to say or you almost sound burnt out on it Neil the sounds of it I'm not burnt out I'm just kind of maybe I am a little bit I don't know I'm just saying, hey, we need more help, folks.
    74:36
    And help isn't on the day, because by the time the day comes, we're kind of done, right? Sure. If we haven't got stuff done by the time it's the event, it's probably too late. So, you know, Matt and I, actually, Paul Goose was there a couple of hours. We were there Wednesday, Thursday, Friday doing stuff. Matt, Mike, Mike Parkins as well. so I'm not this isn't a complaint or a moan or anything it's just, it's more of a you know we've got to run pinball in the UK in a properly sustainable way and right now it doesn't I look at the numbers, so we're the biggest location, I look at the numbers of players, I look at the numbers of events and I'm super nervous about how sustainable we are right now the club's fine I mean worst case if the club ran out of money I'd pay it I'd be quite happy to do that because I'd have to find somewhere to host all my games so it'd be cheaper to keep them in the club so I'm not worried about the club I'm just worried about other I'm just worried about the whole ecosystem you're just trying to keep the hobby alive in the UK to the mass audience Yeah. And the studio says, you know, it's not going to be here next year. So obviously it doesn't think so. So, um, yes, use venues. Um, and we're, we, we don't, we're also price conscious. So we don't, you know, put it this way. We're running the British bastards, a tournament that in the U S would be probably about 200 bucks for that tournament, which we're charging 55.
    76:22
    You know, it's pretty cheap. I know, don't get me wrong, for some people that will be a lot of money, but ultimately it's cheap. When you look at the market pricing, it's kind of cheap. Anyway, let's move on from that. So the great thing is the club's doing really well.
    76:41
    We got changed some machines around. We got 72 games there now. Actually, we got a couple of things going on at Easter. with some, there's a school that wants to come to learn how to design pinball machines. Wow, okay. That's good. So many disciplines with pinball. That's what I love about it, really. I'm looking forward to meeting these kids. We aren't normally open for that, but I'm going to take the day off and go down there and open up for them.
    77:09
    There's another charity thing where they help kids during the holidays where the parents can't afford to have childcare.
    77:21
    They want to come down. So I'm going to hopefully try and do them on the same day. But if not, I'll do a couple of days off and open for them.
    77:30
    It would be great to have a place full of kids although I'll probably regret it three minutes after letting them in as they bash on my pulp fiction.
    77:42
    I think that's it from me. Yeah, I think we're good. We're at the 1 minute 20 mark so I think we're good. yes we are and do you need to bring you anything back from Texas that might fit on a plane yeah no play fields this time around I might do a colour DMD with you so I'm going to pick one up for this World Cup soccer so if you want one let me know are you buying it at the location or are you having it shipped to you in the hotel I'll be honest with you I haven't thought about it too much I'm hoping that they're there and that they've got they're there and they've usually got a few to flog so I was just thinking are they actually there?
    78:26
    Apparently here we'll have a stall there. Yeah, so we'll be able to get them on the stall. We just need to get there, aren't we? If you want one, let me know. Get one for my indie, maybe. Yeah, how's that going? It's holding up fine. It's great. Yeah, Sergio did a good job on it. It had some weird hackery on it. Someone loved Chalkbox. All I can say is if you don't know what Chalkbox are, they're like weird little basically mollux jobs that people put in when they don't want to wire things properly i said unpick that and unpack it but yeah i've got to do that and then i've got an extension going on in my back garden so the guy's doing a patio for me um and then i'm going to build a shed there and that's going to be my new workshop so i can finally go and do the cabinet i'm going to squeeze that in before my wife squeezed something out so i'm getting there The house move is temporarily on hold. The house move is on hold while the baby is born, and then after the baby is born, we'll then put it out. I just think it was too much to do at the same time. No, definitely. We don't want to be doing that. I mean, moving house is the most painful thing. Because I was going to bring a pin to the pin.
    79:37
    Second or third house. I was going to say I was going to bring a pin to Pinfest, but my wife will be the size of a watermelon by that point, so it's not likely to happen. I don't think I'll be bringing a game this year I'm not planning on taking any games again it's partly the same thing it's like I mean I said this before when I went to Pinfest all I had to do was just be a bozo there I wasn't running stall ball I wasn't doing anything and it was just glorious I can just enjoy it so at the moment I'm not planning on taking any games up I think most of the folks at PBR aren't planning or they're taking one more or less to get a free ticket basically that's going to impact the list isn't it? I have noticed that the list is looking kind of on the slim side at the moment, hopefully people pick up on that I can't remember, I don't know if it was at this time last year I thought it was and then it had an injection from yourselves though I think from Matt and them I went by looking at it and I said to Matt Phil looks like he might need some help why don't we see if you know, if he gives us a nice space, we'll bring, you know, three loads up, which we did. Yeah, so that ended up being the biggest, I think, that they ever had in terms of machines. Yeah, then loads of other folks suddenly came away. Part of the belief was that the rooms, people who brought pins didn't get a room, so weren't coming. I don't know if that was actually true. He resolved that this year, I think, because he did an early call to people to book before the rooms were opened up to the general audience. but the odd thing is I haven't seen the games materialise behind it yeah I've actually bought a ticket rather than take a game basically but I mean never say never I might take a game yeah I had plans to take one but I think as I say life's got in the way of that I think for me it's like it's a no brainer basically yeah I can't be doing that on my own I am not made of Matt's kind of stature where he can just deadlift a bloody cabinet. I've seen him do it. I don't know how he does it. You say that, mate, but he's injured himself. Oh, has he? Yeah, so he's hurt himself. Actually, not anything pinball related. I think his daughter's laser tag and he did his knee in and he was definitely struggling with it over the weekend. Oh, sorry to hear that. Yeah, I think he's okay, but he had a knee. I think he pulled a muscle or something in his knee but he seemed alright but again he was running that event and through that pain you probably never hear Matt Moan about it but at the end of the we were sitting waiting for the last game and he got up and it was like a real challenge for him and he felt the difficulty in his knee so actually I was just looking at the pin fest actually let's just quickly do this to fill the last five minutes if I go to the forum and one of my many secret accounts I'm just kidding I guarantee you they all think you've got some extra burner accounts lying around there I've got 376 it's basically pinball dude one to 376 and the password is pinballdude1 376. It's the only way I can remember, mate. Only way I can remember it.
    83:15
    Right, here we go. Let's have a look at the machine donation thread. So, Mooseman has got three games called TBC. And we've got Whirlwind, Taxi, Pinbot, Torpedo Alley, Atlantis, Elvira, and the Party Monsters. GoldenEye, James Bond Pro, Black Knight, Sword of Rage Pro, Galactic Tank Force LE, Kiss Pro, Dungeons & Dragons.
    83:40
    Which Dungeons & Dragons? Sorry, is that still one? Obviously, Valley. Luke Wells has got a pin called TVC, Dave Vai, otherwise known as Mr. Roadshow as TVC. Roomstick.
    83:54
    An interesting name. It's bringing Metallica Pro and another game of TVC. I think we should have a big TVC competition where we can all play the game TVC and see who wins. Ski Jump. Kings and Queens, Twilight Zone, The Shadow, Vector, Black Knight, the original one, Space Shuttle,
    84:14
    then two TBCs from Andy Foster. Then we've got Majestic Pinball, TBC. That'll be some weird godly, I have no doubt. Austin Powers, Data East, Star Wars, Demoman, Orbiter One, Super Who, Royal Rumble, that's what Phil himself is bringing. then Witness Bernie interesting then because it's Bernie from Witness must be 8 Ball Deluxe LE Blackout, great game Getaway then Judderman is bringing Star Trek Lord of the Rings, Getaway two getaways, hooray Star Wars doesn't say which one and then a game called Robocop I'm assuming that's a take on Robocop, which is a glorious game, from Rob D, Wizard from John B, Spider-Man, Aerobatics, Pac-Man, Nautilus, Farfalla and Circus, all from John B. They're all very... I've noticed in that repeating theme of Bally Williams era games, no Stearns in there, no JJPs. No, I mean, these are the kind of games that everyone brings, the same... I mean, they're pretty much the same games that everyone's brought for the last 10 years, I think, which is fine. and in the open competition Steve is bringing a game called TBC, Wayne is bringing Beatles Gold then Creech and Guardians of the Galaxy and John Wick ok so those are the stand titles they're going to be the competition pins the classics, Ballyloss World Pulp Fiction and Classics are you kidding me nah home fiction isn't in classics that's ridiculous and then either Dolly or Evil Deluxe or Haggis Fathom I wouldn't bring Haggis Fathom it will never make a tournament like that I heard the code's a bit sketchy isn't it the code's sketched the quality of the game can be sketched not all of them but some of them for sure I tested one for the UK Open it didn't pass my test Metallica in the ladies comp and then the NBA comp unsurprisingly has two NBA fast breaks I still like that to be honest with you I like the co-op play on it so to speak or the competitive play actually two of them came up for sale oh yeah and I was sorely tempted but they wanted like four grand was it four grand or three and a half grand per game and I was like I'm afraid that one of them okay maybe three grand for it and I think that's too much I think it's a two grand game all day I thought I bought two for less than that but and then sold them without really playing them but and this was someone selling them as a pair but the second one isn't as valuable as the first one if you know what I mean it's like an add-on but not a whole do you know what I mean? As he was saying, as a single combined sale price, it's going to be less than selling it individually.
    87:35
    But sell them together? Anyway, I made an offer that unsurprisingly was rejected. I was like, that's what they're worth, I'm afraid.
    87:47
    So, anyway, yeah, I mean, basically only numbers, only 50 games, probably 60 games including the competition games pledged so far the competition is actually downstairs so there's a whole bit of space upstairs to be filled and look folks if you're planning on bringing games let Phil know or put them on the forum because he needs to know I suspect Matt will take some games up because he always does because he wants to try and sell them obviously but I'm not planning on bringing any games at this time I just want to be there, be a bozo and when it ends jump in my car and disappear like all the other ones so on that and tickets are on sale for that quick note about UK Open so it is going to be at the Hilton I'm just waiting to sign the contract I've not signed it yet and it's the last weekend of September We'll be playing pinball to the early hours And Scott will be changing nappies To the early hours No doubt And we've got a couple of I'm going to hopefully announce a couple of Exciting players that are coming I'm really Pleased about They reached out to me and said we want to come So watch out First of July to get some on sale I will be at the Hilton We've got the British Masters, you can buy a ticket now, go to UKopen.net and get your UK Pinfest tickets at UKpinfest.com or bring a game and get free entry.
    89:33
    And then next year, a quick mention to this, the guys in East Anglia are going to run a big tournament. I think 100 players, I can't remember exactly, maybe more than that.
    89:45
    Sometime in March next year, good luck to the East Anglia Pinball Gang that are running that a bit old as well. I will miss it because it's the same weekend as Texas Pinball Festival so it's almost a year away.
    89:58
    So I won't be going to because TPF takes precedent. It's just such a big gig. It is. Lots of friends there. Lots of steak. Lots of barbecue. I'm jealous. I'm not going to lie.
    90:16
    That's glorious. Right. And one small snippet of rumor before we go. Go on. Harry Potter. Are you ready? Go on.
    90:37
    My spies inside Jersey Jack are telling me it's not a game. I might have said this, actually, thinking about it. I've got a bad case of deja vu. game does not have a lot of toys oh no I haven't heard that ok that's even more damning if it goes back to that whole 20k sticker price and it's not got a lot of toys underneath the hood because the homebrew I don't know if you've seen the homebrew Harry Potter that's very impressive yeah it's pretty cool I was impressed by that I mean I don't like the theme but it's more supportable dude Scott on that bombshell we shall end it Where can people send used nappies?
    91:20
    I definitely don't want that. A bit like used, what are they called, dummies, half-eaten... Broken pacifiers. ...apple cider desserts, two gallons of cowpaw.
    91:40
    Anyway, Luke, always a pleasure to see you, my friend. and one day we will do this podcast together. In fact, I think we might do a live podcast at Pinfest. We should try and do it before the baby is born, is what I would suggest. I will come to yours because I've got a blast to bring as well. I'll just come to yours. Oh, yeah, to escape. I can try Dungeons and Dragons. Start with milk four hours later. Or maybe you'll have Evil Dead because you'll come back with one. We'll do a British pinball podcast. Maybe I'll have Dungeons and Dragons. I don't know which is going to arrive first.
    92:18
    I'd like to think it was Dungeons and Dragons. I'm going to have to get a shop free by shipping that.
    92:25
    Anyway, Luke, big shout out to everyone who got a TPF this weekend. Big shout out to everyone who got up for UKCS. It was a great weekend. Everyone enjoy it. The YouTube video is up for the main and I'll shortly be, once I've done this, I'll be doing the finals. With that, everyone, pinball, it's about the folks that play it. Don't forget it.
    92:52
    Indeed. It's goodbye from... Goodbye from Scott. And goodbye from Neil. And goodbye from me. Thanks, guys. Cheers.