What can I say except you're welcome for the tides, the sun, the sky. Hey, it's okay, it's okay, you're welcome. I'm just an ordinary daily guy. I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said, I said. Who we got in the house here? We got Ryan, we got Cengiz, we got Eric, Christopher, Larry, Dan, Jay, Patrick, Conti. All right, let's talk pinball. Let's talk about what we think we're going to see tonight. We're going to talk about everything. You know, this week went from being, you know, just another week, Princess Bride. We've got stern rumors to discuss and deconstruct. We've got Pulp Fiction's making its way out the door. We've got spooky pinball Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We've got pinball mods all over the place. No one knows why we're gluing a bunch of tacky stuff to every single game. It's getting out of hand. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about, you know, the fact that TPF is right around the corner. It's just, what, like three weeks away? What kind of show is it going to be? Is it going to be underwhelming? Is it going to be worth the trip? You know me. I can't go this year. I've got a big St. Patrick's Day party with Colin Joust and Michael Shea from Saturday Night Live. We're doing it Saturday, March 16th. Right. So Texas Pinball Festival is Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And no twippies means no Ginnadis. Sorry, that's just, you know, it all kind of worked out like in some random, random roundabout way. Right. Right. This week in pinball is selling itself to a buffoon and destroying the award show has has absolutely made it made it a perfect scenario for me. So it all works out in the end. It all works out in the end. Let's talk pinball, people. All right. Let's start out. Let's start out. Let's start out with spooky pinball, because, OK, so first and foremost, there is a rumor going around. There is a rumor going around people that Spooky Pinball has the Sonic the Hedgehog license. It's not American Pinball. It's not Stern Pinball. Because remember David Fix said that they did not get the license to Sonic and it wasn't Stern who took the license. So if this rumor is true and spooky pinball has Sonic the Hedgehog, I mean, all of a sudden it gets really interesting. I think Sonic is a great theme for pinball. You gotta have a loop-de-loop. You gotta have gold coin spinners. You gotta have some mechs in a Sonic game, but you really need the loop-de-loop. Like, you've got to have a ball that loads. I mean, when the ball loads in the auto plunger, it needs to loop-de-loop into play. Like, that needs to happen. So I think Spooky, Sonic the Hedgehog, all the, you know, like, I got to be honest. The last two years of Themes Gang have been pretty terrible. And I think going through, like, two years of themes that didn't really hit on what people want. Spooky, Sonic doesn't sound like a spooky theme, but Looney Tunes does? Huh? Come on, guys. Rick and Morty does? Spooky pinball is not gonna only do spooky themed games. They wanna make Monday, all right? So are you sure it's not P3 Multimorphic that has Sonic? Well, I don't want it to be Multimorphic P3 Sonic. I'll tell you why. Because you can't relegate only mechs in the top half of the game for Sonic. Sonic needs to have a lot more back and forth. I mean, Sonic's got it, right? Even when you play Sonic, the video game, he bounces back and forth between pop bumpers in the video game. Like it is totally set up for a pinball experience. And he spins into a ball. I mean, that is the game. He spins into a blue ball and is like going through the map like it's a pinball machine. Now, look, look, here's the deal. Here's the deal. Let's talk about Looney Tunes first. OK, so I watched the Looney Tunes stream again and I saw them playing the game again. and I really like the way it really feels like you're playing the iconic Looney Tunes episodes. But there's a big issue I have with the game. I think other people are going to feel this way because I think there's something like 20 iconic Looney Tunes episodes that you can play. Spooky Luke, spooky bug, listen to me. Listen to me. don't make it random. I know that's currently how it's structured. Don't randomize the 20 episodes. Like Rick and Morty made sense to be random because when they opened up portals, they didn't know where they were going. Rick's adventures, Rick and Morty's adventures were always randomized. But I think it's gonna be more frustrating than fun if you can't select the episodes you wanna play and you're just randomly throwing stuff at people. So it's not too late to change this. You don't have all them in there yet. I also think by making them more selectable, you actually feel like you're progressing through the game more because you should hold some of them to be, like some of the better ones should maybe be unlockable as you get through the game, but not available right away. And that's Batman 66. The reason I love that game so much is like you get to choose, you know, how you want to go through the different seasons and how you want to go through the different villains and minor villains. And that's what makes the game so fun is like, yeah, you've got like, you know, your four villain modes that you're probably going to see right away. But then as you unlock like different seasons, as you get into like different mini wizard modes, that's ostensibly, you know, unlocking different episodes, if you will, from Batman 66. So I think Spooky should not make it random. I think that's going to be unrewarding. And I know why they're probably doing it. They're like, well, we've got 20 episodes and we want to make sure that everybody experiences the game. And I'm telling you, Spooky, if you make it random, people are going to see the game too soon. They're going to experience too much of what's in the game right away. And they're going to end up like moving the game on from their collection, but you always want to leave some stuff at the end of a journey that's not always easy to get to. I mean, that's what makes a game have replay value. That's what makes a game stay in people's collections. I agree, like, Lime and Sheets showed everybody how to do this stuff. I think every coder and software engineer should be spending nothing but time on lineman sheet games and absolutely just mirroring what he did and how he thought about pinball and pinball progression because it's perfect and it's perfectly balanced for scoring and when you get to the end of satisfying moments in a lineman game your score is also blown up so he knew exactly how to do that so that's that's uh that's just my advice spooky. Randomize it. Randomizing it is a mistake. Let people select what episodes they want to play and figure out how to do that. Okay. All right. Now the games are going out, which is nice to see. I think a lot of people are going to get time on this thing at TPF and we'll get feedback from this game from people who actually played it. The games are still not sold out. And I think that's an interesting testament to where we are in pinball. I think people have just seen too many people take a hit on Scooby-Doo prices. Too many people have taken a hit on all these Stern LEs. And a fully loaded spooky game is around, and we keep talking about this in my Patreon chat, it's about $11,600 with a butter cabinet before any shipping or taxing is included. So it's not cheap. It's not cheap. So, all right. So spooky pinball, getting games out, delivering what they said they would deliver. Ben Heck jumped into the stream the other day, or I think he came here last week, and he said, not Ben Heck, Hilton. Why snow? Hilton came in here and said, anyone guessing what the next spooky themes are? and he knows what the next three are and he said he's beyond excited. See, stuff like that works for and against the company. Like I'm really excited to see what Hilton's talking about. Maybe one of them is Sonic the Hedgehog, but it also now makes it easier to wait on Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw because for a lot of you out there, is Looney Tunes a dream theme? There's gonna be 880 of them in the world or 888. Most of them are going to be ordered as collector's editions. You're not going to have a hard time getting one. And that's just going to be the new reality with so many companies making games and so much product in the marketplace. Securing any of these games is not going to be difficult. I mean, you can still get a Jaws Elite today for $12,999 from automated services. I saw Mike still got them listed for sale. Jay hello from Argentina brother well you know I wouldn't I wouldn't start getting people excited about what Spooky has down the pipeline when they just started making these current games uh so you know but again I think we're at a point now everybody where it's gonna be it's gonna be really competitive in the pinball space because I've been hearing some things, good things. So let's go from spooky. Let's mix it up a little bit. Let's randomize how we talk about these companies. Let's go from spooky to Jersey Jack. All right. So I've been hearing from people that know people inside at JJP. And what I'm hearing is good news. The good news is this, is that the post Pat Lawler error of Jersey Jack pinball is really going to turn the corner on the culture, on the vibe, on the games, and on everything. I think Pat Lawler, you'll never really know the truth, people, but Pat Lawler really did derail a positive company culture of collaboration, of creative idea sharing. he was not a nice man to have running that company um there's a reason why they called him lord lawler i don't think he was like a great mentor to people like eric i don't even think he he helped out i think it was all about him and i think he delivered when you look at his portfolio with jersey jack pat lawler delivered three games that were underwhelming in terms of their sales and their reception by the pinball community. And he never really made a hit. He didn't have a hit game. And Jack Guarnieri invested so much in Pat Lawler, paid him X amount of millions of dollars or whatever. And Pat never really delivered. You know, he took forever to get dialed in out the door. He took forever to get Willy Wonka out the door. Like it was just a series of delays. and the games, and look at the games. None of them really had an original idea. None of them had like a wow mech that we hadn't seen before. Like nothing he really developed was worth it. That's the past. Jersey Jack's future. Elton John is the beginning of the future of Jersey Jack. Okay, Elton John is. Pat Lawler still had his hand in on Godfather and obviously Toy Story 4 because he made it. And I think we're seeing a new Jersey Jack. I think Elton John is the beginning of a new era in Jersey Jack pinball. I think having Lawler out of there is going to free up that company to feel more liberated, more creative, more collaborative. I think the vibes are going to be better. I think the results are going to be better. And I think the themes are going to be better. I think the executions are going to be better. I think everything about Jersey Jack's future right now feels really good. It feels really positive. And I think what's going to happen at TPF, more people are going to play Elton John and realize that I'm right. It is an amazing pinball machine. It is not one to overlook. It is not one to write off. It is still overpriced, in my opinion. These things are all overpriced. It's a very expensive proposition. I really think Elton John at 9,500 for an LE and 12,500 for a CE is selling like hotcakes. I think at 12 and 15, it's not enough of a dream theme to make people pull the trigger right now. And that is not an indictment of the game. It is an indictment of the theme's popularity in the community and the hobby we're a part of. And I've always said that. Sometimes people try to say, oh, he's flip-flopping on Elton John. I'm not. I still think it's overpriced. I still think it's not worth the money. I still think it's a great game. That's what I've always been saying. I don't have any FOMO to buy it right now. There is no way that Elton John, unless they say we're only making one run of it, there's no way, unless they Pirates of the Caribbean it, there's no way this game is going to be hard to get ever. and I think we're all in the same boat with this and I don't think it's a negative I don't think it's like me trying to like be unfair and I don't think I'd have you know people watching this every week or over 800 club members on Patreon I don't think I'd have any of that if um if I was imbalanced and unfair and not calling it like it was okay so Jersey Jack really good things I don't think we're going to see Jersey Jack's game until like the winter. So like, I think we're, I think we're going to see a slow burn of Elton. Whatever they have next is going to be, um, I, you know, I don't think it's until like July, August, the earliest. Okay. So that's Jersey Jack. I think they're just going to have a, you know, a little bit of an Elton John half the year. All right. What else is going on in the world of pinball that we want to talk about. So, you know, I put up the posts about we have so many pinball companies and some of them are most likely going to fail in 2024. Well, Chad, Harry Potter, clearly Jersey Jack has it. Joe Kamnikow, Kamnikow's post about it is, I think, right. You get Turner Pinball. well Turner Pinball can't go out of business because Turner Pinball is not even in business they are not going to sell any of those games you know when I say like there's going to be some companies that go under you can't go under if you never even got up so I don't think Turner Pinball is like a real pinball company I don't think that look we've got what was it Pinball Adventures is another one Like they're done. They're not selling games. Andrew McBain knows that. He's not, there's no way forward. Home pin is done. Nobody's buying spinal tap. There's no game after the spinal tap coming out. It doesn't matter though. Nobody's buying Turner Pinball's Ninja Clips. Like it doesn't matter. Unless that whole thing is just a design study game so they can learn how to manufacture. There's just no way. And also like, there's no way they have a path forward to manufacturing. You know what I'm saying? I get that three to five guys could sit in a studio and prototype a game. That's one thing. But to actually take orders and manufacture is another thing. Where's Joe Balcer working these days? Not Joe Belser, Joe Balcer. I don't think Joe's anywhere. The last I heard, well, he was dabbling with home pin a little bit. We don't need Joe Balcer back in pinball. And it's nothing personal against Joe Balcer. I don't think we need Dennis Nordman back in pinball. I don't, look, gang, I think we need new young talent in pinball. I don't think we need a Barry O game. I just think we need new young talent in pinball. I think the old guard that's had so many years to make a hit game, Joe Balcer had a company at his disposal. He had American Pinball at his disposal, and he never made a hit game. The thing is this about Steve Ritchie. And even though Elton John is borrowing elements from each of his different games, it's an amazing design. design. Like it's, I mean, it's really hard to hate on what Steve Ritchie did with Elton John. Will we ever see Whitewater 2? I hope not. I don't, I don't want to see Whitewater 2. And most of the pinball buying public does not want to see Whitewater 2. It is a niche within a niche within a niche. And what I mean by that is like, it's an old game. You're in a niche already, right? You're not part of the new pinball excitement. You're not a modern, You're not a theme that has real energy around it. It's only got nostalgia value to diehard pinheads, not outside of that. Then it like oh you have to be a Dennis Nordman fan to really want that That not a large enough audience Look what it did for Galactic Tank Force And then it an unlicensed theme in a world of like the greatest pinball licenses are coming out over the next two years And it's not going to work. I don't care if Ballster had his hands tied. I don't care. I don't really care, Dan. You know, it's like you are what you are, you know. I think that we need new young talent. I would rather have Jack Danger than, you know, Dennis Nordman right now. And that's just that's just how I feel. I feel like Jack Danger is trying to make a name for himself in the pinball design world. And I feel like Dennis Nordman is just going to go back and recycle what he's done before. Look, Dennis Nordman had his shot. He had American pinball. He made Galactic Tank Force. they put marketing behind it they put development behind it and the fact that nobody stood over that game and was like this doesn't this is not going to work man this is not going to sell this is too hokey this game's not there like the magic's not there the everything about it like this it was executed so poorly from a to z and so he had his shot right it's like he got tossed the mic at a karaoke outing and he he didn't hit a single note and you get booed off stage and that that is what galactic tank force is look and and dennis being where dennis is right now you can't afford to have a miss you can't afford to have a flop like you know you're only as good as your last game nobody cares that you sold games 40 years ago uh and and nowadays like what is it And also back then, those games were not huge sellers. It's a decent game. See, the problem with American pinball, and let's talk about it, is David Fix doesn't know what a good game is. And he's leading the company. So the burial game is going to be a barbecue game. All right, so you've got this barbecue game that nobody wants. And he thinks that barbecue restaurants are going to order them up. And so what? And it comes out there. And I heard their new boards they're making aren't ready yet. So they're still prototyping their new board set. I think they're going to be made in India. And so they have an unproven board set. They're going to make a game nobody wants. And they're going to release it right as people are paying for Pulp Fiction's and Jaws is and Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You know, right as all this other stuff, Princess Bride, all these licensed games are out in the world. and now what do you got a barbecue game maurice is not going to save these guys and and also like american pinball gang like they've just they're sort of becoming like the joke of the industry and when i see pictures of like fix maurice and Steven Bowden i mean if that's the executive board over at the company and was it vishaw or mukesh's son or cousin or nephew i I don't know their relation. They don't look like they know what they're doing. And I just don't get it. I don't get it. And look, we're three weeks away from them unveiling this game at Texas Pinball Festival. And I'm telling you right now, this game is going to go down with even less enthusiasm than dialed in. it's gonna it's gonna be crickets in the room at texas pinball festival when this game gets gets unveiled uh it's another reason why i'm not i'm not going to tpf spooky luke you missed the spooky part you you can't make the modes in looney tunes random you gotta give the players options to choose the episodes they want to watch you have plenty of time to implement that down the road. Don't make it random. Don't. I know you want people to see like all of the game, you know, but don't do that because then after like 30 plays, people are going to see everything. All right. Trust me on this bug. Trust me. Yeah. Remember David fixed it. They got 3000 orders for what is it, Legends of Valhalla? It's just so funny. Look, I think American Pinball, I think David Fix has one more game before Mukesh just says, we're done here. And I think they were trying to sell the company a few times. I think that nobody wanted to buy it. And I think those rumors were accurate. I enjoy Legends of Valhalla. there's nothing wrong with Legends of Valhalla there's just nothing great with it either like I don't know gang like default in pinball is like it's a toy of course it's fun let's do it Spooky Luke let's do it try it out try it both ways Spooky Luke trust me Batman 66 you select you select your journey it makes it so much more rewarding so you can like you can choose your own adventure and you can make the game work for you instead of like randomly having to like play the game that the game is throwing at you don't give him advice John I just gave him that advice your advice is no better than my advice John you know we said the same thing I just said it like this and you said it like this so tonight we get to see the Princess Bride 8 o'clock Eastern Standard Time I am going to hopefully live stream it here for a little bit so you can watch me watching them stream the game for the first time I will be in the chat it is also date night with me and Brenda it is also Killian's birthday on Monday so we are setting up some balloons for Killian on John. I'll send you the invite. I'm not sure you can make it. You might be at work, but we're doing a little get together at the apartment. So I am going to watch it and try to be positive about it. Well, I don't know you guys like whenever I enter a Twitch stream in which a company's game is being played for the first time, I'm always very positive. I know the team on that worked hard on making the game, and I'm not there to crap on it. If I want to crap on it, I won't do it on the Twitch stream. I also don't want to get moderated or booted from the stream itself. Look, I'm excited to see the first ever movie translated onto the Multimorphic platform. I think from the little bit we've seen, we're really going to feel like we're in those moments. And unlike, gang, this is what's interesting. Unlike Looney Tunes, where you might be missing a lot of the episode because you're busy flipping, right? You're busy looking below the glass. I think what's interesting about Multimorphic from what we've seen is you're not going to miss anything because I think all those clips are going to be taking place on the play field dynamically as you're playing through the game. And none of us, none of us have experienced a pinball experience like that ever before. So maybe this is gonna do something really interesting for our, maybe there's gonna be a newfound belief in this platform after we see how it trans, how it transfolds. Transfolds, I think transpires is the word I was looking for. Transfolds, is transfolds, is that a word even? I don't even know. Sounds all right. Jerry made a big mistake with the collector's edition. It's not selling. It's stupid. He should have just done the LE. Nobody's going to go $500, sorry, in on a 500 unit 1375 game. And everyone who loves Multimorphic to date can't buy it. everybody who loves Multimorphic to date that has a Multimorphic can't upgrade to the collector's edition. That was the stupidest move I've ever seen, maybe in the history of pinball marketing. The reason why it's the stupidest move in the history of pinball marketing is you always want to take care of your most loyal customers. And he made it so his most loyal customers can't buy the nicest version of his most impressive game to date. Jerry, that's boneheaded move. I don't know who was, who you were, who you're, what you were trying to do. I know what you're trying to do. You're like, oh, we're going to get new customers with this package only they can get. And Jerry, Jerry, you're not selling 1200 princess brides. You're not. You're not even going to come close to selling 1200 of these, bro. It's a fun campy theme, but it's not a it's not a take my money now theme for most. It's also really expensive, brother. your games are more money than Stern LEs. Your game's more money than an Elton John Platinum, bro. And like, you got to make sure, the people that would have bought the CE package are your existing owners. I don't know. The whole thing is weird. Now you're going to be able to have like a Princess Bride cabinet and play cosmic kart racing inside it. That's going to look so stupid. the old cab can't support the CE add-ons until it's upgraded to the new standard I don't even know what that means Matthew so what the hell was the point what the hell was the point Elton John is the biggest surprise of experience in the hobby John are you more surprised by that than Turner Pinball how many jackets does your son have you guys have seen his jackets look at that but look at where his dad is at look at that boom boom like father like son i mean they're all i mean look it's he's got a couple bomber jackets he's got a camo jacket he's got a couple winter jackets a black winter jacket, raincoat. The rest of those are like vests. You know, when you're a little kid, it's like you got to every five, 10 degrees is a different jacket. It's a different jacket. There we go. What about the woman's panties on the pinball on the pinball floor? What are you talking about, Bill? The birthday party theme is so he loves Lion King. So the theme is, I just can't wait to be three. So well done. Brenda's got all this stuff planned. I got the cake coming. Your row of jackets is probably worth more than my house. I hope not, Albert. I have Jaws and Elton John. I play Jaws, Elton more. So Kelly, it's interesting. Kelly, why do you play Jaws more? Do you want to join the show, Kelly, and tell us why you play Jaws more than Elton John and what your feelings are? It might be easier than just watching you type. Thank you, Gavin. My brother made that 80s mix. It's been like a Canada classic. That mix has been around for years. It'll never get old. It's really a lot of fun. Brenda is amazing She is like the best mama An Irish mom To have an authentic Irish mom As your mother for your entire life Is the best Well look David likes Elton more Kelly likes Jaws more You know look Everyone's getting different strokes for different folks It's only worth it Albert When you sell it If I had a dollar for all my friends Who have been bragging to me about how much money their homes went up in value. And I'm like, cool. Are you moving anytime soon? They're like, no. So I'm like, so you don't have the money. The only time they're going to have the money is when they sell their house. Problem is, if you sell your house, where are you going to go? If you want to get a comparable house in the same neighborhood, you're not going to make a penny because you're going to have to pay that much or more. where even though I don't have a house yet, I'm making money off of my portfolio, like real money going back in. Like it's liquid. It's just funny to me. Like everyone, you know, America is like, my house is the main part of my net worth. It's not supposed to be that way. You're not supposed to only have your house be the only, your major net worth item. Because your house does not create any cash flow. it only creates cash flow the day you sell. So like, I don't know. You can't enjoy life as your house goes up in value unless you're borrowing against the equity of, it's just, I don't know. Like I study finances. I got a bunch of like advisors. Like it's just weird to me how everyone always uses the house flex on me. They use it all the time. I mean, look, I live in a one bedroom. I'm renting out place next door. Renting out the place next door. But I have I have tremendous monthly cash flow. And that's why I'm happy. It's why I use that to invest. One of my paychecks goes into investments every month. No, I'm not picking individual stocks. I'm basically buying funds, you know, like index funds. one of my paychecks and then the other paycheck goes for my cost of living and goes for like anything else like like eating out and buying pinball machines and spoiling my wife but that way every month I know that I am not going to go into the red because I'm not going to spend more than I make each month. And I'm also putting money aside each month because I want to retire a multimillionaire. You see what I'm saying? I want to retire a multimillionaire. Bill, I've never, I've never, I've never like used credit card, like if I did use a credit card, just for the points, but I've never gone into any debt buying a pinball machine or article clothing or going on a vacation or a car? I'm guessing you have 200K if you plan on putting a deposit down on a $2 million crib. Well, Jacob, you know that a $2 million house is a $400,000 deposit. You know that, right? So where are you guys living? It's not 10% down. It's 20% down where I'm living. Is it 10% where you guys are living? So to get a mortgage, you're looking at at least 20% down. Anyway, all right, so let's talk pinball. So are you guys going to be watching The Princess Bride tonight? And yes, yes, I have more than $200,000 saved up. I don't think anybody should be buying pinball machines if you don't have at least $200,000 saved up. Unless you're in your 20s, I get it. But I don't think you should be buying $10,000 to $15,000 pinball machines if 200K is what your nest egg is. What's the point if you're not in the house until you're 60? Well, I'll be in the house this year. I'm not going to be 60. Yeah, I mean, look, I think the multi-morphic platform gang is like still going to be, still going to be, it's still going to be questionable whether or not people are going to invest in it. You know, the most important parts of family gang, you know, everyone is happy and healthy, right? There's this like notion that, and I'm going to go off a little bit, right? And Bill, this is not about economics. This is about life. My observations is I grew up and, you know, I went to some private schools here and there. Like my parents gave me the best education money could buy. I had friends that were broke, friends that were loaded, friends that were billionaires, friends that were like when we went to boarding school. Heck, some of the kids, they were from like royalty, like Saudi Arabian royalty coming over. The king of Hussein's kid was in my boarding school with me from Jordan. Right. The CEO of Korean Airlines kid was in my boarding school who tried to burn the dorm down because he had so many issues like mentally. Like I've seen everything in life, gang. And like ultimately, ultimately, it doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter like how important you think you are. If you don't have your health, right. Health is wealth. If you don't feel good, if your health is not there, nothing matters. So first and foremost, as long as we're all healthy and happy, like that is the most important thing in life. Bar none. Bar none. If you're waking up in a good mood, you're succeeding in this planet. You absolutely are. Right. And it's harder than ever to do that as a world in which all the content coming at you is trying to make you feel consistently inadequate. Like, look at my Lamborghini. Look at my watches. Look at this. It's like that's all that gets thrown to my my way through Facebook, like stories and reels. and look, all these people, all these people that are influencers and uploading how great their lives are, they're lying. They're in therapy. They're popping pills every day to deal with their anxiety. So all that is fake, right? It's fake. So I really subscribe to this notion of living a rich life is what all of us should aim for. And that doesn't mean just having tons of money. What living a rich life means is you can wake up every day and live life on your terms and have the things surrounding you that you value. And to us, it's pinball machines, right? To a lot of us, pinball machines are the things we value. So we want to be able to be surrounded by these things, both the people who love it and also the products themselves. Because think about it, gang, like if I gave you each of you $100,000 tomorrow, are you going to go buy a gold Daytona Rolex or, you know, or are you going to go buy a bunch of pinball machines that you would value more You know somebody might go buy a you know a hundred thousand dollar bottle of wine that they always wanted right I don know It each their own There a bottle of Middleton whiskey that just got unveiled and people are spending $3,200 just to have a sip. Joe's going to the casino, right? So like that is the thing. And I'll tell you this, and I mean this, I mean this. Let me sit up a little bit. If I had a dollar, you know, and I know that I've basically lived in a little bit of a non-traditional way. Like I didn't move out. I didn't get a house. I didn't do this. I didn't do that. But what I ended up doing in life is I sort of maybe moved through it a little bit slower than I wanted to, but I was waiting, you know, I didn't want to marry someone unless it was the right person. So I found the right partner in life a little bit later in life, right? I married Brenda. I found, I met Brenda when I was 37 years old, right? Man, some people met their love of their lives when they were 17, right? So having a great partner and the right partner to me is the ultimate foundation for life because I don't believe that being lonely and people waking up with nobody is a way to go through life. And I also work with a lot of people that marry their careers. And I work with mostly women. And when you marry your career and you didn't take time to invest in yourself and find someone else and all you did was work, work, work, work, work. And then one day they just tap you on the shoulder and all of a sudden your job is gone. You're in your mid 40s and you don't have anyone to travel with. You don't have anyone to you know, spend the lonely nights with, you don't have family, you don't have kids. What do you got? You got a bunch of wine and you got a cat probably, you know? And it's like, and it's, how is that, how is that how anyone wants to sort of go through this one journey, right? I mean, I can't imagine that. So you find the right partner, you know, you find the right, like, like person to go through with. So that's super important, you know? So I did that, right? And And then so we took our time. We dated for a few years. We got married five years in. We had Killian. We're so happy to have another. And now we're going to invest heavily in a house this year. The market opens up in the spring. There's nothing on the market right now. Been very, very smart with our money. We budget all the time. And we want to make the right decision. We don't want to buy too much house, but we also don't want to buy something like too cheap, right? You want to find that right balance. Pinball machines are part of that budgeting, if you will. Look, and for some of you out there, we also are in a new world where these companies are requiring people to go back to work. So there's no like, oh, come live in Indiana or come live in North Carolina, come live in Nashville. Look, I would love to go live in all of your towns and throw a million and a half dollars at a 6,000 square foot home. My job will not allow me to be remote. If I go remote, I'll go broke. If I go remote, I'll be out of sight, out of mind. I'm in an industry where you have to be there. That's where the work goes. That's where the clients are. You can't hide out on the Internet. Okay? And so like, you know, I need to be around here. So I'm looking at houses within, you know, an hour radius of New York City, and they're all just really expensive. You know, two million is the new one million. Three, three to four million is what two million got you 15 years ago. It's just the way it is. It's just the way it is. It's just the way it is. All right. Now, I'm not looking at Jersey. gang, it doesn't, you know, Bill, I can't go to Vancouver. We don't have offices there. I will come and enjoy the King's Fisher, but there's no offices there for us. Look, I'll tell you right now too, what's really going to, I mean, my industry is going to get destroyed by AI. Like the whole marketing and media creation industry is going to get destroyed by AI. Like AI is going to take over. Like it's taking over in design departments, copywriters, like anyone who's creating media is going to get destroyed by AI faster than they realize it. Like Tyler Perry was about to build an $800 million movie studio, right? Sound stages, everything. so they could make films. He got shown what AI is going to be capable of doing when it comes to movie creation. He canceled the $800 million studio because he's like, I don't need to build this. If I need to be in the Swiss Alps and film a scene, I don't need to have a huge sound studio with the set. They can now use AI to put you there. And it looks real. so don't you what i i'm like so here's the thing here's the thing as much as ai is going to make certain industries obsolete it will open up all new jobs and all new types of abilities to because here's the thing think about like this so imagine like ai comes out and the people that it's going to put out of business are like makeup artists, right? And people that build sets with wood, right? It's going to put out of business like these large production teams and lighting and all this stuff, right? Out of business. Okay. But what it's also going to do is make it much cheaper for anybody to come in and start making movies and start making content. So it's going to It's going to open up the door for more people to actually make revenue by creating stuff using AI. So you're either going to be someone who embraces the technology and utilizes it to make a living, or you're going to be so stuck in the old ways of doing things that you will be obsolete. And look, when we used to, you know, my old boss, Gary Vaynerchuk, uses the example of the tractor. People have been farming forever, right? Even before there were tractors. But when tractors got made, they made a lot of people's jobs obsolete who plowed the fields. Did we stop farming? No. No, we just utilize the new technology and those people that used to farm the fields had to figure out something else to do. So, you know, I think it's it's I'm just happy that I'm at where I'm at in my career and I'm not starting out like I'm not 22 and I'm a copywriter or I'm a journalist. right or I'm a I'm a media person like a broadcast producer like it's just it's going to be tough it's going to be tough but look ultimately what there's eight billion people on the planet and only a handful of people are actually doing something that's necessary in the world I also believe I firmly believe this that you know the world is upside down like the you know well, you know what phrase I hate the most is unskilled worker, right? It's like this, this discussing one of the, one of the marketing ideas I really want to do is, is just eliminate that phrase from the vocabulary of society. Like the fact that people that bust their asses and, you know, bus tables at a diner or are changing, you know, the sheets on a bed in a hotel are considered unskilled workers, right? Unskilled workers. and yet just pretentious elitist guys going into an office selling stocks and bonds what skill do they really have could they if you put those guys in a diner and told them to keep this diner going for a month it would collapse instantly but if you took the the hard-working people in the unskilled category and threw them into Wall Street and asked them to learn how to trade stocks and they would do just as well. And I think society is like this weird thing. It's one of the reasons why I love Japanese culture, because unlike American culture, we demean people and we talk down to people and we're rude to people who are serving us. in Japanese culture, you know, even at the very most like trivial job, they have so much respect for the work they're doing and put everything into it. And there's pride in that job. And they're not looked down upon. Right. It's an insult. It's an insult in Japan to tip somebody because that means they feel like they didn't do their job right. Like you shouldn't have to pay me more. When I go to my Japanese jazz bar, and this is just a Sicilian to me, and they let me in, and Bill, are we going with your parents? I think they're going to love it. You know, they won't, they don't, I can always tell, because I always want to give the guy like some money when he lets me in, you know, the back entrance, and he's a friend of mine, but he's always like, I can tell you, it's like he's visually and physically does not want to take a tip. What I did do, and it wasn't a tip, is this holiday I did go around and I got everybody's name who worked there and I gave them all personalized holiday cards with a nice holiday, you know, some money as just to say thank you for being a part of this place that means so much to me. You know, when Brenda asked me, who do you want to like give gifts to this year? I mean it when I say it like, yeah, like, you know, you got to give gifts to your family. But trust me, my parents don't need another like Marc Silk scarf or golf club, you know, or my brother, like, you know, like I could give to my family. They just expect it. I really wanted to give gifts to the two places that I go to all the time. And the people who work in the service industry that break their backs every day, crazy hours, making it so that, you know, everyone who goes in has a good time. Like when I think about pinball gang, I think it, let's bring this back to pinball a little bit. how many of you know the name of someone who works on the line at Stern Pinball? How many, like, why aren't we talking about the men and women more who are waking up every day and soldering pinball machines together, making sure your decals are on straight, making sure your game goes into the box. John just said Jose. I mean, I think that's is that is there Jose there? Are you just are you stereotyping, you know, Stern's? I think there's like a lot of Mexican women, right, who work the line. I don't know, game. I think about this stuff all the time, you know, and the reason why is like. You know, you have really a short amount of time alive and you've got 365 days a year and only 24 hours in a day. And what you put into your mind equals what comes out of it. And if you're negative all the time and if you listen to the political banter of this country all the time and you're getting in fights on Pinside all the time, it's not gonna make you enjoy your day. I like to think that Canada's Pinball Podcast is very entertaining. I like to think that when you listen to me, the only people really getting agita for my show are the companies that are not doing it right. And look, I also think there's a room to call people out, right? We can't live in a world in which nobody's held accountable. Probably shouldn't waste it listening. Well, Bill, I'll tell you this. My pinball podcasts are 20 minutes long. I mean, I am the most concise, to the point most current and most relevant pinball podcast happening right now. And ever since I changed even my own format to be more weekly, more on top of it, more consistent, it's been better. And I have over 800 club members. There's more club members for Canada's Pinball Podcast than every other pinball podcaster combined. And that's great. It means I'm doing something right. Oh, geez, Bill. Bill, you guys are like, I don't even know if this stuff doesn't sound appropriate. All right. So do you guys think Haggis Pinball goes out of business? Do you think Haggis Pinball goes out of business? I'm curious what you think of Haggis. Albert I'm never sure I'm never sure where there is I think they already did I've never Albert where is your podcast on now like I don't like is it on poor man's like that channel is all over the place I can't figure it out I think Haggis is I think they're The reason why I think Haggis is done, and a lot of you are saying it, I just don't see how they're going to get orders for Centaur. And if they need to recapitalize now and they're going to slow production down, then there's no money coming in. And I mean this, gang. Like, if you have a deposit on Centaur and they ask you to pay in full, I would refuse. I would absolutely refuse. I would be like, look, I'm not paying in full. Everything that you've said makes me feel like there's a lot of volatility. Mail my game to the distributor or show me my game in a box and then I will pay for it in full. you know i am curious to hear from the three distributors of haggis like what what's next you know we didn't hear yet from flipping out nitro or rs pinball but those are the three haggis distributors and you know i'm curious to see what they say over the next few weeks also really interesting to see if like damien and marty go to tpf if these guys show up at tpf as they're recapitalizing, as they're trying to save money, I think that would be a terrible look for this company. And, you know, part of going to the shows, part of the reasons of going to a show is, you know, is a reward, you know, but also like if they go to the show to try to hook new centaur orders, and this is why they probably need to go to the show. This is like, they're stuck. If they go to the show, it's a terrible look for them because of where they are financially. But if they don't go to the show, then they're not going to be able to hook new orders from people who have no clue what's going on with that company. Because remember, there's a lot of people that are not on Pinside, that don't listen to Canadian Pinball Podcast, who are just walking around Texas Pinball Festival and they see a centaur. and then they meant, oh, this game is beautiful. I'd love to order one. Sure, we'll take your deposit. But I think it's over. I think it's over because like, Damien is a day late and a dollar short with a product that's just not enticing enough considering how much better everybody's executing. I think Haggis is gonna be done in 2024 and I think American Pinball is gonna be done in 2024. for. I would be shocked if by the end of this year, Haggis and American Pinball are still going. That's just my personal opinion. I'm allowed to say that. Okay. I would be shocked. you know in it for the long haul American Pinball so Alice in Wonderland is getting closer and closer and closer there's a fully playable version fortunately I can't see it because but I've been told I will be the first to see it when things are ready to be shown well the series ticket holders david these guys are like most of those guys are australian you know they backed an aussie they really want to back an aussie and they they're gonna get what they paid for nothing in the end they might get their second game i mean isn't it crazy like center is only the second game they paid for four like two more after that well look the thing is this there's only one way out for damien there well there's two options here he either lands an investor or he goes under now he could land an investor and survive i mean like if he does that that that's one option i i don't know how you're going to win i i i haven't i'm just making a guess here. I would have to guess that he is both personally heavily invested in this and so is Marty. And for them to give up equity, I think they're going to lose six, seven figures easily, easily on this thing. And it's like, and they must be really, really wondering why they did this. Like, why did we do this? Why did we go from a million dollars and now we're staring at like, we need a few thousand dollars every month to stay afloat. It's just hard. The problem, Carl, is the product is not, it's not like the big Lebowski. Like the product doesn't have enough demand. And I think the only way you can survive is if you still need to have a product that can show demand and there needs to be scalability Like when Jersey Jack went bankrupt it wasn because people didn like the product is to like Jack just mismanaged the finances of it all And it just costs more to make that game than he realized. Same thing with the big Lebowski. But there was still a heavy demand for the product. There was not a heavy demand for Fathom or Centaur. That's the problem I see. now look if haggis had back to the future or this or that i don't know they might they they whatever happened to marty's game you know we don't even talk about marty's game marty's game was supposed to be out two years ago and it's based on war of the worlds and it's sitting probably somewhere in his house or in a garage over at haggis it's going to get very interesting to see what happens with all those deposits though there's a lot of um you know there's a lot of risk being taken guaranteeing that if haggis went under that everyone's deposits would be refunded i just never would have done that now that's the thing all right we didn't even talk about stern bill you're right look we got 20 minutes. We didn't even touch on Indiana Jones. All right. So let's go to the Stern rumor bank. All right. Stern rumor bank. That Indiana Jones is next from John Borg. That John Wick will be made by Jack Danger. That Pokemon is the code name for John Wick. Poke-E-Mon. Poke-A-Man. I think, I don't know. Is that John Wick shooting people poking a man? That is what I'm hearing. And then after that will be Metallica. So maybe not two Keith Elwin games in one year. You know, look, Bill, if you're looking at the current pinball landscape, most people don't own a Bally Williams, Indiana Jones. And Bill, you got to remember, Bill, there's just Stern collectors. Most new buyers are buying Stern. so that is why that is why like i don't know it's not a bad idea for stern to make a new indiana jones game so i think um i think i don't know i think john wick is not a good theme for pinball i'm sorry i love the movies but i don't know like i don't i just at these prices i just i don't know like there's not like enough nostalgia it's not a nostalgic theme it's a new theme but that's not really, they would, Stern would sell five times more Barbies than John Wick. Five times. The fact that Stern Pinball didn't ink a deal for Barbie blows me away. Barbie is such a bigger franchise than John Wick. And that bright pink pinball machine would be in the homes of every single corporate executive who has a little daughter. They would not be able to keep Barbie pinball in stock, especially if it's based on the Barbie movie. And I'm just going to tell you that. I mean, it's true. Heck, I would buy a Barbie pin. Could Pinball Brothers remake the Williams Indiana Jones. I mean, I don't see why not. I don't think they're going to. It's an Instagram filter. It is, John. Should be. Yeah, like, gang, look, I think Indiana Jones will be a sales juggernaut if Stern does it. Metallica, they're supposed to be. Maybe it's not a new design layout like I heard. It's just going to be new artwork i i don't know like if stern if stern runs more metallicas with the old design with new artwork aren't you going to piss off 6 000 people that have the original metallica and just flood the used market with more of those games it's just the amount of games for sale right now it's such a buyer's market i love it i love it being a buyer's market collecting is dead nothing is collectible anymore gang you all know this if you want to collect a machine that's going to hold value or go up in value you you got it there's only a handful of games that i think are still something you should even consider um games like guardians of the galaxy le that's one i would try to find for a good price all right guardians le i'm going to give you my list, if I was like, if I had $100,000 and you asked me, Kaneda, what machines would you buy on a collector's speculative run, right? All right, you ready? You ready? And I'm going to give a reason. Guardians of the Galaxy LE, all right? I'll tell you why. That theme alone with the music, there's a reason why, Cengiz, you don't see a single one for sale. That means people ain't letting them go. Again, I'm giving you, there is always going to be demand for that theme. The theme is amazing. The music is amazing. Like the code got to a really good place. I think a lot of us wrote that game off before the code became amazing. and that is why you're not seeing any of them listed for sale. There's zero. There's only one that's routed on eBay for $20,000. You can't find the damn game anywhere. All right, so Guardians LE, that's one I would buy. Number two on my list, and I'm not just saying it because I have it. I'm just saying from collectability, if you can find it for the right price, Batman Super LE. But no brainer. I mean, people laughed at me when I bought one again for $25,000. You're never going to find one again for $25,000. You're never going to find one again for $25,000. There's one for sale right now for $48,000, which is a stupid price. I think the going price on a Batman SLE now, if it has a playfield protector, is $35,000. If it doesn't, you're looking around like maybe $30,000. Okay? Look, Bill, this isn't about good game, terrible game. It's about collectability, all right? You guys don't get it. You don't get it. That's not just because collectability is different than the game being good. Godzilla is number one game. I would not buy one as a collector, as a speculative collector. I'm just talking to you about collectability. If you buy this game today, it is going to hold value or go up. All right? We understand what collectability means. it doesn't mean that this was the best baseball player it just means that his card might be just the rarest alright Batman SLE, Guardians LE alright, next on my list of things I would collect that I think are going to have future value if you can get it for the right price and it's not a lot it's not a lot and I'm talking about today, right? Like I don't think, you know, Pirates of the Caribbean is something that always gets thrown out there and Medieval Madness Royal Edition. They're gonna make more Medieval Madnesses and they're gonna come from CGC. So I would not chalk up Medieval Madness Collectors Edition, Royal Edition as something I would invest in. I think anyone who buys one for $20,000 is going to kick themselves or $18,000 because they're making more. And they're coming. And they have the parts in-house. And they're just waiting. Now, the game I would get as a collector is Pulp Fiction Limited Edition. Okay? Pulp Fiction Limited Edition, brand new, $9,750. I believe they're making 1,000 of them, right? um pulp fiction le is going to be another game that you will never see it for anywhere close to 975 it's just the topper the backbox everything about it is is nicer than the standard edition game um and it is going to be bolted to the floor because of the theme tarantino's first pinball machine. And again, I don't care about the gameplay. Okay. Now look, Bill, a lot of these games are fun though, too. All right. So we've got Guardians LE, Batman SLE, Pulp Fiction LE. What is the next game on my list? Again, from a pure collector standpoint. You know, and this is like, it pains me to say this because the game is terrible. But I do think Ghostbusters L.E. is, you know, is on that list of like, I understand. OK, why Ghostbusters would like that art package? You got to have the topper. You know, it's a terrible shooter, but it's Ghostbusters. So that that would be one I would consider. Someone just said Attack from Mars L.E. yeah like i think i do think i do think here's what's going to happen i do think all of the original cgc le's right are going to be good buys because i think the pedretti gaming or the european pinball company remakes are not going to be nearly as good and i think anything that comes out of the cgc factory is gonna is gonna be like coveted you know especially with these remakes haggis centaurs um so i look i do think like you know cactus canyon not so much i don't ever think they're gonna redo the code in that game i cactus canyon just doesn't have the same it never was as good of a game as attack from mars or medieval madness um and monster bash um so i think look those games are all good they're all solid you know i think they're gonna they're gonna hold value nicely um and when it comes to jersey jack you know it's interesting because like you got the pirates i don't think elton john's ever gonna like i wouldn't i wouldn't go in on an elton john i think they're gonna i think they're gonna make more than there's ever gonna be demand for um and also you know they're never gonna be like oh we're never making more like they did with pirates they could always do future runs of elton john down the road when there's a little bit of a gap period. I think JJP is going to do that. I think 1,000 CEs absolutely destroys the collectability. Hector, I want to address these two games. Absolutely, Tron LE is on my list. I think Tron LE, with only 400 in the world, and it had the Daft Punk multiball, and it's got the chromed-out armor. Absolutely. Stranger Things LE, not so much. I don't think Stranger Things LE, now that they're rerunning premiums left and right, I don't think there's enough reason why that having a Stranger Things LE feels like that special. Tron has a unique thing to it. but i also you know i worry of a potential remake of a tron with an lcd screen i worry about that i also you know i also think what could happen again this is this is it's just fun to think about this stuff gang and by the way i'm not taking a hundred thousand dollars and going to buy all these games um it's just fun to think about this like where's the market going to go on these like, you know, highly sought after games. I think what's going to happen though is this. I think we're going to see some really awesome pinball machines that are finally going to check all the boxes. And I think that's going to make the prices of everything go down from yesteryears. Like I think we're going to see Back to the Future, Matrix, Harry Potter, Top Gun, like holy cow themes are going to come. And that's just going to drive down the prices of stuff that, you know, that came out and has less in it or, you know, cheaper cabinets and not a lot of mix. And you just get old. You get you get tired of stuff. I think it will make everything go up. Now, the market's oversaturated. How is the market going to go up when it's already oversaturated? You know, the thing is, the scary part, and this is not even talking about collectability, is with all of these pinball companies making all of these games, who's buying all of them? You know, I mean, and with the old model, how long can the distributor model last? That's the other thing I always wonder, like, how are these distributors going to survive carrying games from six, seven manufacturers? like how are they going to like like they're like they're the profits they make on a hit game are going to be eroded by a by a mediocre seller like they're not going to be able to absorb all of it and and it's too expensive right this isn't this isn't cheap like distributors have to write checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars to get yeah but jeng is even the trade and stuff's going to stop. Like, no, because the thing is, is we all know this. A distributor is going to offer you garbage on the trade-in deal. Garbage. Like you're going to lose, you're going to get a good $1,500 to $2,000 less on a dealer trade-in than if you sold the game privately. Joe, I don't know, man. There's not a lot of room to keep increasing the prices. These aren't watches you can put in a top drawer. They're big, 300-pound boxes. People are going to just run out of room before they run out of money. I mean, that's really what's going to happen. Yeah, Albert, I think location pinball is going to absolutely have such a stronger growth. And Stern Pro is obviously the smartest offering in the market. I mean, I would love to open up a location. You know, just too expensive here. There's so many vacant storefronts in Manhattan. So many. But I just could not see how you would make money with a pinball bar. All right, we got about five more minutes, people. We had a fun show today. Only 121 stars. I don't know, gang. I mean, like, not for nothing, but this star count. this is not worth it I mean at the end of the day now I feel like I could just I could just make this video for my patreon club members and it's come on come on Billy B there we go you know it used to be Dana and Pete Rosen were my two guys times are tough well i'm excited for what's about to happen i'm excited for tonight so guys just to recapture what we're going to do uh eight o'clock tonight i will be watching the princess bride stream the pinball uh was uh brody even talk pinball are they doing it i think they're doing it. No, Buffalo Pinball. Buffalo Pinball is streaming it. And I will be watching live here. I thought this was all for the pinball community. It is all for the pinball community, Bill. But you know, it's nice to kick some stars. You feel good about yourself. You'll feel better about you than I'll feel about me, Bill. Trust me. I guarantee you that. But in a world in which, how do you send stars? I guess Shane doesn't come up. Do you guys see the stars button? It won't let me, I would like, I want to show you guys, that's weird that you can't attach a photo. Oh, here we go. No, that's turning around. I wanted to attach Killian's birthday invite to this, but it won't let me. Bottom left corner is a star. Yo, Ed, try it out. Oh, getting doxxed. I love that people were like, if you give someone's email address, it's doxxing them. having someone's email address is not doxing them. Oh my gosh. Is there anything cool happening at TPF? I mean, I can't wait to see David Fix and Maurice up there unveiling this new game. It's going to be funny. There we go. 250 stars, Michael Jones. I'll be doing what you would make. You're going to go. All right, everybody. Look, have a great Saturday. A lot of fun stuff happening. I look forward to doing more shows next week. Thank you for the 570 stars, everybody. And I will be back tonight around 8 o'clock, a little before, so we can see what's happening with this Princess Bride. Let's all go in it with a little bit of an open mind, right? I mean, like, I'm not buying one. I'm not buying one. But I want people who do buy it to be happy with their purchase. I just know what's coming from other people. And there's just too much. And now that, like, Spooky might have Sonic and Stern might have Indiana Jones, like, man, you can't have it all. You can't have it all. And it's more because everyone's going to run out of room. I just I don't want to have $100,000 tied up In pinball machines I really don't I really don't I feel the same way About cars lately I'm just like This doesn't make any sense Alright Guys Be good Later I'm sailing away Away You're welcome Welcome Now we can do Everything but close You're welcome You're welcome You're welcome You're welcome And thank you