you're listening to the head to head people podcast find us on facebook email us at Welcome, everybody, to the Head to Head Pinball Podcast. This is episode 49, and my name's Martin, and with me... It's Ryan C. Time for another special guest, Marty. Who do we have today? Well, I think it's time to talk to somebody about a pinball event. What do you think? Sure. It's going to go fantastic on this weekend. How about that? I think that's a big event, and it's become a really big event. And, you know, in Australia, we've only really had one massive sort of like mega event. So it'd be really good to talk to somebody about, you know, what it's like putting on one of these events. Have we got somebody lined up? Yes, we do, Marty. It's Gabe. Gabe from Fantastic. How are you going? I'm good, guys. I'm great, actually. Fantastic. And with only, I guess, a few more days to go, I'd imagine you're still really busy? Pretty much. I mean, we have everything set up now, and we're kind of on autopilot right now, so just waiting for the show, actually. So can you give us a bit of a history on Pintastic? How long you've been running it for and how it's grown over the years? This is our fourth year coming up. We started in 2015, and we've grown about 30% in attendance every year since the beginning. I started with a partner originally, and, you know, we tried to do everything ourselves, and it was just way, way too much, and we ended up losing money, and my partner ended up dropping out. After that, I kind of expanded, and I brought in a bunch of help for the seminar program, Dave Marston and a guide to do the website, Gerard, and we expanded into different areas, repair team, and someone, you know, Dave Medornis had the free play hall. You can't do a show like this by yourself. You've got to have people to take over certain areas. Yeah, and what differentiates your show from others? I can see online you've got different levels of passes, kind of mirroring the stern pro-premium, limited edition kind of thing. So can you describe that for us? we wanted to when I started the show I wanted to do like a Texas Pinball Expo combination type of show and then also Allentown thrown in there for in the mix so it's a combination of those three shows in my head and then we added the extra stuff like what you said this year where you have three we have some premium packages so we have an LE package which gets you a lot of cool stuff like swag, you know, custom things that are done for just those people. And they get, like, we have an extra ball lounge, which is a 24-hour room. And most of my games go in there. And my games rotate throughout the show, but most of them are in there. And you can have access to that room 24 hours a day. So basically you can play pinball for 64 hours or 67 hours straight if you want. and do you find that a lot of people do use those those rooms and just you know i'm looking at the website now you sell 100 limited edition passes so yeah how many people are sitting there at 7 a.m that haven't gone to sleep playing pinball uh last year about 5 30 a.m there was about 25 people in there so basically with the with the premium package you can you can get access to that room between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. So, you know, the vendor hall closes at 9 p.m. And in the vendor hall, we have a lot of the new, brand new games. The manufacturers are all in there. And we wheel a lot of those games into that overnight room so that those games can keep getting played in that, you know, that room. The nice thing about the hotel is you go up, you know, in the middle of the day when it's really busy and there's long lines, you can go up and sleep in your room and take a nap and then come down for the evening and just play all night if you want. And so what do you think has been probably the biggest challenge that you've had putting this event on each year? Probably the biggest challenge is getting the games, getting people to bring the games, and getting the vendors to come and set up. And then getting the speakers is another big challenge. I go to a lot of Texas and Expo to talk with people. You've got to become friends with these people. You've got to keep asking them to come. and eventually they will come. We have a huge, every year we've expanded on our speaker lineup. We have a huge lineup of special guests this year. So who do we have this year? We got John Borg, George Gomez, Lyman Sheets, Todd Tuckey, which you guys talked about on your last podcast. Yeah. Yeah, we got Jack from Jersey Jack Pinball, Paul Faris. We usually bring in pinball artists every year. we got Butch Peel, Joe Bousler from American Pinball we got Dan Spallar from our charity, Adam Rubin Eric Stone John Greatwich and Adam Teasler Bob Thruman, there's a lot of guests this year and they do a lot of different types of seminars you know our seminar program is very well run by Dave Marston The reason why I guess I asked, you know, what's the challenge is that, you know, a bit of history for us. In Australia, we have a couple of events usually, you know, around a tournament. But we've only really ever had one big pinball show. And it was called Pinball Expo. It was four years ago, sort of in Sydney. And it hasn't been done since. And I think it nearly killed the organizers. There was only a couple of them. And, you know, it's probably well documented. so they probably didn't have as many helpers as they thought. It was a massive undertaking for the first time. It was, you know, it was 300 machines, so it was probably a bit too much too soon, but they've never done one since, and ever since that time, you know, every once in a while, you'll hear on the forums or in social media, people say, we really need to do another one. You know, let's just put another one on. It was such a great event, and you can sort of, people are sort of going, you know, this stuff is really hard. how do you as an individual and obviously the team around you make this such a success? Well, you know, after the first after the year ends, after the show ends we take about a two week rest and then we start again and it's every, you know once a month it starts off as a conference call between you know, about eight to ten people monthly and then as we get closer to the show it becomes, you know we have meetings and And then the monthly conference calls become two times a month and then three times a month. And then, you know, when I go into shows, it's a constant thing. I mean, you've got to stay on and it's like a second full-time job. Is that sort of your background? Have you done sort of management or project management, that kind of stuff, to be able to coordinate so many people? I am a manager at work at my job, so it definitely helped out. I run a crew for what I do at work, and it definitely helps. But, you know, you've got to change things up every year is what I think. You can't just do the same thing every year, year in, year out. You've got to have something different for people, something, you know. They're not going to come if it's the same old thing every year, you know. Well, in the U.S. you can't because you have so many options. In Australia, I think we just want the worst thing ever. We just want anything. So, okay, so what, besides, I mean, you've got that 24-hour access room. I think that's the first time you did it. I mean, last year there was a famous kind of booth babe situation, which I think you canceled. Is there anything else this year that you're trying? Yeah, the Pintastic Girls didn't work out very well, I'm sure. You know, it's funny because everybody wanted it, everybody wanted it, and then when they were there sitting there, and everybody was scared to go talk to him, you know. That's pinball, folks. Yeah. So, you know, plus my wife wasn't too happy about that. Maybe booth guys instead of booth babes. Yeah, well, that's what she said after I seen the girls over there. She said, we're the booth guys, you know. No, it's a family show. We bring in a lot of kids' entertainment, too. We have a clown there that's doing balloon animals and face painting for free. We have a character artist there that does character artists on adults and, you know, of kids and all that stuff. It's all free. And, you know, you pay one admission at the door and everything is free. So we have a beach. We have hotels on a lake with a nice beach. And we have a lot of nice restaurants around the place. so you can walk to restaurants, really nice restaurants. You know, there's all kinds of food in the area, and it's just a nice place to be, you know, especially in the summer over here, and it's all air-conditioned inside. Have you found that the growth each year has mainly been pinball-related people, or is the growth from people outside of pinball coming for, you know, a cool weekend with the family, face painting and all that jazz? No, I think that, you know, I always did the kids' entertainment stuff to grab the people, the local people and the people in the area to come. They'll come to that. You know, if you just tell them there's pinball, they probably won't come. But if you tell them there's space painting and balloon animals, they'll come, and then they'll fall in love with the pinball machines, and then that grows the hobby. So we have a lot of kids, a lot of women at the show, and that's how you're going to grow the hobby or else I feel that it's going to die, you know, eventually if you don't do that. So where do all the pinball machines come from? The pinball machines come from, well, me personally, I'm bringing 26 of my own pinball machines from my own collection that are all, you know, pimped out with all kinds of modifications, Titan rubbers, colored DMDs. I'm bringing 18 games with colored DMDs in them, you know, all coin taker LEDs, and they're all beautiful games, and I put them out there for people to play once a year. You know, that's what I do. And then the rest of the games come from the collectors, and the collectors bring the games for, you know, a lot of them for sale, and a lot of them are for show, just to show off, you know, because we do best-in-show contests at the show. And, you know, this year we started a new point system where, you know, we tried to sway the people to bring certain games that are, like, from our people, from our special guests that we're bringing in, you know, for rare games or for newer games and, you know, games in the top 50 of the Pinside top 50. We do a lot of that. And, you know, if you leave your game until 10 p.m. on Saturday night, we draw those tickets. We go around and we pull all the tickets off of all the games that are in the free play room at 10 p.m. on Saturday night, and we put them all into a hat, and we pull names out, and they win. And, you know, we give away about $3,000 in cash and prizes. I put up two grand in cash and all the prizes from all the vendors. That's what people wait for. That's why they leave the games. That's why we have so many games at the end. So how many games can people expect overall this year? Right now we have about 195 games registered for the free play room, and we have about another 60 or 70 games in the vendor hall, and then we have another 25 games in the VIP room. And we have another 12 games in one of our tournaments, another 10 games in another. We have two big tournaments. So we have a tournament room, which goes until very late, and then we have a regular tournament that's the Silver Bottle Rumble in the vendor hall, and that's run by the guys at the Sanctum. So my max is pretty bad, but I think that's about 3 to 350 machines all up? Yeah, it's a little over 300 total. Yeah, okay What sort of formats will the tournaments be? I know the Silver Ball Rumble is Papa-style tournament Okay They're going to run the Papa-style tournament And they're going to be doing the live streaming as well On that stuff And then the other tournament is in one of their own rooms And they're going to be running pin golf Three tournaments for each day they're going to run a separate tournament. It's going to be more casual, no points, more for just the casual person walking in to enjoy because we've learned that the silver ball rumble tournament is like the high end, you know, really. The tournament people who are, you know, they're very good, so someone could be easily intimidated if they're going in there and trying to play against them. So we figure we bring in this other tournament and I think hopefully it'll do well this year. And so I guess what's the profile of people that come? Are you getting a lot of the regular pinheads, or are you getting sort of a lot more just casual people coming along as well? No, I mean, we do get a lot of the pinheads from, you know, the New Robert Englunds area, New York, and Canada. They all come this way, all to the show. And then we do get a lot of walk-in people from the area that just want to play pinball. And then, you know, if they really like it, they'll buy a machine and take it on. And then the next year, they'll be a game-bringer. Okay. That's what we're trying to do, you know. Yeah. Again, I'm sort of asking that because one of the challenges that the Australian Expo had was, you know, they paid money to a PR company to do some advertising and it really wasn't well spent. So what sort of, you know, publicity do you do to generate people coming along to the event? We do a lot of Facebook advertising. We do radio advertising, local radio advertising. we do I send out about 45 to 60 packages of about 200 cards and 10 posters to all I have a list of people that want that promote the show within the whole New Robert Englunds area they go out they give out cards they hang up posters and that spreads the word they put it in all the pinball all the pinball arcades everywhere that there's a pinball machine there's a poster hanging for the show so that's that gets those people aware. The problem I always have with when I advertise stuff is that I never know what's working and what's not when you're running kind of concurrent marketing strategies. So how do you know which one is the most effective? I mean, do you have like, I used to do like different discount codes for all the advertising things and that's the only way I could kind of track it. Last year we started doing a survey. We did a survey at the end of the show and a lot of those questions were answered there. And as people walk in the door, we ask them how they heard about the show. We have a checklist for, you know, Facebook, Pinside, you know, radio. And then on our website, it tells us exactly where people are coming from, so that hits on the website. So what is the most? Is it Facebook? Is it Pinside? What's working? It's Google search first, then Facebook, and then Pinside. What are people searching for? Are they searching for Pintastic? Are they searching for like pinball shows? I don't know. It just says Google. That's all you need to know. We're asking very specific questions and then we're pretty interested in getting this right. We are because we are also wanting to encourage more events, obviously, in Australia. And, you know, if you've done all the hard yards and you've made, you know, all the mistakes that we can learn from, that can be only good for us and for other people putting on events. Yeah, I mean, you do make the mistakes, and you do change things up. Every year, I listen to people. That's why people love the show, because I listen to the comments. I listen to what they want. They want to play late. I extended the hours. They want to play all night. I gave them all night. They want a different T-shirt every year, where we bring in a different artist to do the T-shirt, and the artist is there at the show signing posters. We did that too, you know. All these things cost money. We bring in all these people, all these guests that nobody's ever seen. So that's what people want to do. That's what people want. They don't want just the... The pinball machines are the biggest part, you know. People come to play pinball, but the other stuff is really cool too. Yeah, I remember the T-shirt last year. It was like a custom Zombie Yeti design with like a Magic Girl style girl. I'm not sure if we can legally call her Magic Girl. and it was the Black Knight as well. It was a pretty damn cool piece of art. So who have you got doing the artwork this year? We have our in-house artist did the shirt this year. It's a dialed-in theme this year. There's a shirt. That's right. Yeah, I've seen that one. It looks really good. We've got a few stuff for the LE packages. The shirt is going to be full color, but the LE is a screen-printed, It's a screen-printed design, so I don't know if you've ever seen one of those, like a screen-printed poster. It's very cool. The poster, the Shears poster is done by Paul Faris, so he's doing the poster that's going to be the show poster. So let's talk about you and your love of pinball. So obviously your 26 machines are going in. What are some of the favorite machines that you're playing at the moment? Well, actually, I have 28 machines, but I have the Hobbit. The Hobbit and the Wizard of Oz are not going to the show. Yeah, they're not. They're just too heavy, and I just don't want to move them. I love, I mean, my collection is pretty much put together of about, you know, a hundred games that I've had up and down my stairs and then out of my house, and eventually I've come to love, this is my collection now that I really love, so I put it all together. And I love a lot of the, you know, ACDC, the Metallica. I got a really custom Metallica that I put together. It's just a lot of, you know, I like the Stearns games. I like the Jersey Jack games. I like a lot of the old Daddy's games, like Tales from the Crypt, one of my favorite games. Actually, the Royal Rumble, that's one of my favorite games. I play that all the time. And the Guns N' Roses, love that game. And there's stuff like that that, you know, it's just a lot of the, you know, the theater of magic, Tales of Riddie Nights, the two great games that I love and will never sell. It's interesting that you say, you mentioned a couple of Data East games because Data East games get a bit of flack, but they're actually great games for the year, right? Yeah. I mean, especially now that they've come out with color DMV for most of them, it just really makes them pop out great. I love the Daddy's games because it's easy to get multiple for one. They're just fun. I mean, they're great artwork. Like a lot of times I'll just walk around my game room and look at the artwork and all the machines. I don't even play them a lot that much. I just look and see how cool it is. Every time I walk by one, I see something different. Yeah, they definitely had a certain, a distinct art style at the time. Yeah. So what modern machines are you sort of playing at the moment? Dialed In is probably the game that I play the most right now. The TNA that I got is, that's a pretty cool game. I'm very bad at it, but I'm learning. Yeah. There's a steep learning curve. Yeah, I'm looking forward to I'm picking up for Houdini at the show That'll be one of the games I pick up this year And I've played that a lot at the other shows So I'm looking forward to having that into my Magic theme I have a couple of good cool Magic games So what are your thoughts on Houdini? Because we sort of Well, I got to play it during the week And we're going to talk about it more after this interview but I'm just keen to know what your thoughts are on Houdini so far. I mean, obviously it's likable enough for you to want one. Yeah, I actually had a really good game on it at Texas and I got the inverted and reverse flippers and six-ball and multiball going. It was very, very exciting for me. I don't think the shots are extremely tight. I mean, Tales from the Crypt has some tight shots as well. You learn them, you know. I mean, it just has a lot of cool stuff going on for it. And, you know, I talked to Josh after I played the game, and he went on and on and on about the rules and how cool it actually is. So I'm looking forward to really getting into the game once I get it to my house. Yeah, I think that's probably my summary, is that it's not an easy game, right? By any stretch, it is not an easy game. And in a way, that makes it more appealing, particularly for a home game, when you've got as much time and you don't have to put money into the machine. So you've got time to actually adjust your play style to the machine, and you have to adjust your play style to that machine. Yeah, I like Joe Balcer designs. I have The Hobbit, I have Wizard of Oz, I have Simpsons, and the Houdini, I feel some of his other stuff in that game. and one thing I love about Houdini is the magnets. I love magnets. Magnets in games are my favorite, so just the crazy magnet action in that game is very cool. So I really think it's got a lot of staying power, like you said, and games nowadays have to have that in order for you to keep it in your collection, in any way in my collection. So what do you think about Oktoberfest as a theme? It's rumored, I guess, to be their second game. theme wise obviously no one really knows much about it besides it has three flippers and different I think they can make something very fun out of it as long as they bring a lot of comedy back into pinball is really a cool thing that's been lacking as of late pinball is starting to take itself a bit too seriously as long as it has some cool shots, has some cool toys and some comedy in it. I mean, I'm sure they're not going to have all, you know, I'm sure it's going to be family friendly somewhat. I mean, I know Joe will probably throw some hidden stuff in there, but I'm sure it'll be a great game. Those guys know what they're doing. How do you, I mean, going back to the show a little bit, I mean, one of the, I guess the big things about the Chicago Pinball Expo and I guess Texas Pinball Festival now is that it's usually such a big show that all buyers in the industry are kind of on those events and people, companies, you know, if it suits them, might launch and reveal their new Camorra machine there. You know, do you ever ask manufacturers if they can do that? I mean, as I said, obviously they're limited by, you know, their schedules and stuff, but, for example, CTC, you know, they initially said, you know, we're going to show our game number three at Texas. back up the late. That was, what, three or so months ago. Are they planning to talk or anything in your show? No, we've been talking to Doug Duba and we've had our distributor talking to him and I think we're going to miss the launch of the game within a few weeks, I believe. Yeah, we're trying to get that and, you know, you can't go at them too hard or else they'll get discouraged. So you've just got to keep putting a bug in their ear and And if it happens, it happens. Like last year, we had the first Star Wars pro that was ever played at our show. So sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. But we're not going for it. We would love a reveal, but who knows? Someday we'll get one. But right now we're doing our thing, and it's working. So people will eventually realize that Pentastic is one of the top shows, and we're climbing quickly. So what do you want Pintastic to be known for? I call it a four-day party myself. I mean, it's very late night. You know, during the day it's family-friendly, and then at nighttime it just gets like crazy party. We've got the biggest liquor store in the whole area next door to the show. That sounds great. Yeah, you can get really crazy. And, you know, we get the speakers. We bring in the speakers, and they're not just like, They don't just like Texas, or maybe not Texas, but actually they don't just come in and then leave. They're there for the whole weekend. You can talk to them. You can party with them. They're drinking with them. You know, they're getting all, everybody's getting hammered, and you can talk to people. You can talk to, you know, ask them questions, and they'll actually, they'll answer. Oh, no, I shouldn't have said that, you know. It's pretty funny. Yeah, I mean, I met you, Gabe, at the pinball festival, and, you know, it was like 2 in the morning, and I was kind of ready to go to sleep, and you're like, hey, Ryan, do you want to, you know, Me and a couple of guys are going out here and there, and do you want to come? I'm like, I need some sleep now. I'm going to be up in a couple of hours. I actually need some sleep. But I guess you're a bit of a late-night guy, aren't you, Gabe? Yeah. I mean, at some point, you've got to just grab a Red Bull and hit it, and then you're ready to go for a few more hours. But even I go to bed. It's come 2 in the morning. The free playroom closes. is I wrap up the box office and I have security locked in the overnight room so my games don't walk away. I go to bed, you know. I can't. I've got to get at least four hours. I get about four hours sleep every night and then back to the show, you know. It's craziness. I know. And then two weeks of sleep after. Actually, I only take a day off after the show and then go back to work, believe it or not. Marty, is this conversation making you want to possibly run an event more or less? Okay, let me tell you what it's trying to make me do. Run an event just like this. And the reason why I say that is, if I think about Chicago Pinball Expo, it's very serious and it's an industry one. When I think of Texas Pinball Festival, again, I think it is quite, it's serious and there's all these different things and every second you've got to be somewhere. But I think this sounds like exactly what you just said, Gabe. This is just one big giant pinball party. I think this sounds great. As soon as you said, you know, there's a big liquor store right next door to it, I was sold right then. But I like that because really what it's saying is it's all about the fun. You just turn up and you'll just have four days of fun and you'll go away being very satisfied that you've played a lot of pinball and had a lot of fun. Believe me, there's pinball, we have a big auction at the show, we have the kids' stuff. There's a lot of stuff that you can actually view. There's a lot of people that miss stuff. There's just too much stuff to do with the show. I mean, we don't just give like a gaming area, a console gaming area that we have to the show. It goes on and on and on. I try to give everybody too much stuff to do so that they don't feel bored ever, you know. So that's my goal. One of the other challenges that I've known from larger shows with, you know, upwards of 200 machines is the maintenance of the machines throughout the tournament, sorry, throughout the expo, because they're going to get played a lot. How have you got that covered? Yeah, we have a repair team. Tony is the head of our repair team. We have about 10 guys, and they rotate throughout, and we actually have a very modern system where every machine has a QR code on the game card. So if there's a game that goes down, You can scan that QR code with your phone, or you can punch in the URL. When you punch in the URL, it brings up a repair ticket. You can click on certain things like, you know, ball stuck, game resetting, you know, all flippers stuck or something like that. You can do whatever you want. It goes right to our repair desk, and the guys go over, they fix it. We rarely have any games now at the show, maybe one or two at a time. That's insane. Is that like an industry first? Are you kind of modeling that off another system you saw? No, this is a new industry first system. We invented this system this year. We have a programmer that programmed this whole system in play. We have a lot of cool stuff. We have an up-to-date list of the pinball machines in the free playroom and the prices of what, you know, it's real time. So if a game sells, it says it's sold. If it's for sale, it tells you the price. If they want to lower the price, they go on and they can lower it. We have an in-house programmer that has done everything this year for us and done all of this stuff. It's crazy. You need to sell that QR system thing to the Pimble Hall of Fame or something. No, we've been also fixed. You can go into your – if you register a game, and if you want to change the game, you can go log into your system, and you can change the game right on the system. It's very modern. It's very cool. You have to have that kind of stuff You have to innovate like that or else you just become a relic That the way I feel So just in general what do people need to know about the event this weekend where it is, how much it's going to cost? Yeah, it's at the Sturbridge Host Hotel in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and it starts for, if you're an LE package holder, you can start playing pinball at 11 a.m. on Thursday. If not, you can start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, and then it's open until 2 a.m. Thursday. Then the vendor hall opens on Friday at 10 a.m. and closes at 9, and then the free play room opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 2 a.m. That's when our other tournament room opens, and then the Silver Vow Rumble starts that day as well. Saturday, same thing, until 2 a.m., and then the overnight room is all night, of course. it's $25 so for an adult it's $25 you can play 16 hours and for a kid it's $10 you can play they can play 16 hours if they want as well that's the general admission we can't do those parts in Australia can we Marty like if we ran this it'd be a lot more than that I think it would have to be yeah but again it's one thing but we're we're a bigger we're a big country by land mass but we're small as far as population goes and then the pinball community is part of that smaller population. It's a limited amount of people, so we probably could have put more on. But also there are other, so there's two premium type passes, so you get a two-day pass or a four-day pass, and the four-day pass gives you a t-shirt as well. Yeah, the two-day pass we don't have anymore. Right as we started, I got rid of that right away because I didn't think it was a good idea. We have two four-day passes. We have a premium four-day pass, which gets you a shirt, and then that's it. They get you the four days and then the access to the extra ball lounge. And we have a Friday night after party that the big packages get you into the after party where all the special guests and everybody in those premium packages can go into this after party. They actually buy $3,000 worth of food out of my own pocket, and I pay for food for all those people. So I do that. And then with the Yelly package, you get a lot of different cool stuff, like you get the screen-printed poster, you get a limited-edition beer glass, you get a keychain, you get the 24-hour access, you get the T-shirt. You get some limited-edition new-in-box perfume as well to make sure that you don't stink up the entire place. You know, hygiene is important. You know, this year I brought in a couple of bathroom attendants to watch, you know, so make sure people are washing their hands. There's things I'm staying in there. That's awesome. Last year we had the, you know, the bathroom just gets destroyed. People, like, water all over the floor, water all over the sink. So I had to bring in people to keep up with the bathrooms. That was one of the big complaints. So, hey, I fixed it. Every year you learn, you know, year by year. If something else happens, you have to patch it up and keep on moving on. As you say, you know, you have to get better and not worse. So that's awesome. The website to buy the tickets and get all the information is pintasticnewengland.com. Your website is amazing. I'm actually blown away by that whole QR system. It sounds so simple, but, you know, when I was at Texas and there was a broken machine. Half the games had numbers on them, half the games didn't. If they did, I would text the guy and, you know, just hope, I guess it would get fixed. Yeah, all our game tickets are pre-printed. So they're pre-printed and then if the game changes, they come in. We have a printer right at the registration desk so that you get a new ticket printed with your, you know, QR code and all your information on there. And then when the game sells, you flip it over and you fill out all the information in the game, you know, so that people's games just can't leave. Yeah, it's a very high-tech system. Well, we look forward to talking about your events, I guess, next week. It would be run and done. So we thank you very much for coming on your show, and maybe one day either me or Marty will make it down there while Pintastic is on, or we'll have our own Pintastic Australian edition happening. yeah we'd love to have you guys we'd love to have you guys yeah well if we're going to license anything we'll just like that QR like that's like done yeah we'll take that one thank you very much put add to cart you guys have free admission okay no problem oh VIP awesome VIP love it awesome man we'll let you get back to it alright it was great talking to you guys thanks man thanks for having me on cheers alright see ya So there we go. That was Gabe, who is bringing Pintastic to the world. Ryan, what did we learn? The QR code thing was one of the coolest things he said. I know it's a bit nerdy, but I can just imagine Ron Hallett, because I believe he's going there, just nerding out. And just because, you know, he likes to pick on the machines that aren't working. I can just imagine him this weekend just scanning to see if he can win some kind of medal for the most broken to emotional insincerity. And did you listen to the latest Slam Salt podcast, Marty? Did you see he was having some jabs at you, Marty? You know, trying to get into the trash talker? I haven't listened to it yet. Oh, no. Okay, let me be the bearer of bad news. He was upset that you don't like Demolition Man. So much so that he said the moisturizer from your face must be seeping into your skull for you not to like Demolition Man. Yeah. Fair enough. Fair enough. That made me laugh. Only because I'm on team Demo Man, so I'm on one side on this one. But as a podcast partner, you have to... Fair call. Fair call. Fair call. I look ten years younger than him. I'm happy about that. Ooh, shots fired. The trash talker is heating up. If they get invited. If they get invited. Yeah. They will be invited. Okay. So we want to kind of start off, I guess, with the contest that we were talking about. So next week is a very special week. We will hit 50 episodes, which is a nice round number, half a century. Yep. Yeah. Nearly, you know, nearly a year that we've been doing this. I just, you know, it's crazy when you think that we're going to do 50 episodes. Yeah, we had no intentions of kind of saying, let's do it for a year and find out, or let's do it for five years. We just said, let's just do it and see where it takes us. We're still doing it. Yeah, we're still having heaps of fun. We're just kind of getting started, we feel. So what we're going to do is we're going to give away a really big prize, and it is an entire side decal of the Daldin pinball machine, and it is signed by Jersey Jack. So you can kind of, like, people hang up play fills on their wall. It costs like over a grand, usually, Australian to get one. This is the side decals. And Dialed In is a beautiful-looking machine, especially the side art. So we're going to make this really easy for everyone. All you need to do is email us and let us know your favorite moment or it can be your favorite episode from the last 49 weeks. So our email is head2headpinball at gmail.com. head2headpinball at gmail.com. We will be able to send this to anyone in Australia or anyone in the U.S. If you're in Pimberg. Yet another thing I've got to put you my package. It wraps up pretty small money. Okay. And all the other winners have been in Melbourne, so not rigged. So we will, I guess, we'll put everyone on a spreadsheet and we'll just generate a random number. So, you know, this is the contest that people want. This is a no-skill contest, okay? I know the bar has been set super high by a bunch of talented people in some of the previous contests, and people were like, come on, how about me? I'll listen to your show. I'm not talented. If you can write an email, you're in with a chance to win this thing. That's all the talent you need is to be able to send an email. And some people can't do that because some people will write head, T-O, head. It's the number two, like the one that's next to number one and three, like in between that one on your keypad. Yep. Head, the number two, head, pinball at gmail.com. Just send us whatever you like. You could almost write garbage. It doesn't matter. But it might be nice to warm our hearts and, you know, talk about us making you laugh in some fashion. and we did enjoy reading the comments about Sebastian Stallone coming on our show. Yes, it was great. Yeah, absolutely. It was really good that he came on. Yes. Shall we get to some news? Iron Maiden, Marty. They're in Australia. Well, they've been in Australia for a while in Queensland. Those guys are lucky. Down here in Melbourne, we had to wait for the shipment of pros. There are two of them on site in Melbourne. Yes. Marty, have you played it? Yes, I have. Yes. Ryan, have you played it? I got in trouble playing it, Marty. How come you got in trouble for playing it? I don't know how that would happen. I've been working a lot this week, as I've been telling you, Marty, and I'm all about life balance at the moment. So if I work hard, I want to play hard. And you've got no excuse. I got a taste of Iron Maiden a couple of days previous, and it was Friday night, I think it was. It was 11 o'clock at night. I finished up work. I wanted to go to sleep, but I was like, no, I'm going to go play some Iron Maiden. And I kind of snuck out the house, played Iron Maiden for two hours, came back home, and in the morning my wife was like, where the fuck were you last night? And so it was an awkward conversation. So big F you to keep, Elwynn, for making a very addictive game. But I'll get to my thoughts after yours, Marnie. What are your... Which one did you play? So I played the Pro at Pixel Alley. And again, I was sort of on the way home, so I just wanted to have a quick game. And I literally only played it once. One game, and that was it. I didn't see your name on the high school this money. No, because there was a lot of people there as well that were hanging around. So whatever score I did get up would have been beaten anyway. All I wanted to do I was just hanging right You know I've got one coming I just wanted to see it in the flesh Play it And that's all I didn't need to sit there for 4 or 5 hours Playing it I just wanted to have a flip And see if it shot well And did it shoot well Marty? Yeah Fucking hell I'll tell you what's the most satisfying thing Is that upper loop shot From the right flipper and when you can nail that a couple of times, it's as satisfying, if not more, it's as satisfying as the warp ramp shot on Star Trek when you can do that over and over again. It feels good. But it's cleaner because the ball's not dropping down. That's right. So it's like exactly where the ball is meant to be. Correct. So I stepped up to the game at Pete's house, right? He invited me over after I saw a picture on Facebook and said, hey, what's going on? invite me over to your house immediately to play this game. And I jumped over there, walked up to the machine, and I knew about the top loop, so I fully plunged, and I hit that, like, four times in a row, like, on my first game, and my eyes just kind of lit up, and, like, it's, like, the best feeling in pinball to be, for a machine to be instantly likeable. I couldn't repeat that in my next, like, 30 games, but it was just, it's just a fun game, and the sounds, Marty. Now, I played that one that you were talking about, Pixel Alley. The volume is turned down to like, it's like one. You can hear them playing their 90s Euro trash music on the big speaker. I had listened to is it Culture Club? Calling Mr. Vader, calling Mr. Wrong, calling him insane. Culture Beat. What did I say? Culture Club. Very different. No, nothing. Okay. Very different. Culture something. Yeah, the call-outs are the best call-outs ever as a package. I'm not saying the best individual call-out ever, like the super jackpot on Lord of the Rings or something, but as a package, like that guy, if you disagree with me, email me and tell me who has recorded a better sound package than this guy and implemented by, you know, Jerry and the team. He's, like, I was in a mose and I hit something, like I don't even know how to extend time, but I extended the time and he's like time extended ha ha ha and I just was like oh my god I'm a hero like I extended the time and I know I'm a hypocrite because I say like you know like in Ghostbusters when they do the triple super jackpot I'm like upset because it's like not a big score but it's a really good call out I don't know I'm a hypocrite because the time extended is not like that exciting but he makes me excited because the call out is so good yeah look and it was obviously the one thing that I left feeling that I'd missed was any of the sounds. Like you couldn't even really hear the song that was playing. So I just got to have a visual experience. And visually, it's fantastic. Like it is. The light show is amazing. And it's not just that it's a good light show, like a good pattern of lights. It responds well to what you're doing in the machine. You're getting that visual feedback. And I'm assuming you're also getting an aural. feedback as well. Yeah, I mean, with you missing the sounds, there are a lot of sounds in the pinball machine, and this is like my only thing that I guess I have to get used to. Every other pinball machine, like when you're playing ACDC and you're playing Thunderstruck, like you can really hear Thunderstruck, and when you do the thing in the mode, you hit the Thunderstruck target, it's like you hear the Thunderstruck bit even more, and TNT, you hear the oi even more. And every other pinball machine, Metallica, like the modes have absolutely nothing to do with the music, but you can still hear the music you're playing. There are so many sounds in Iron Maiden, I feel like the center stage is taken by the sound effects, and the music takes a little bit of a backseat. Maybe it's just my ears, maybe it was like the subwoofer, I don't know. I feel like there's a lot of sounds, and the music is kind of in the background. I guess I'd have to play it more to see. I mean, you can adjust those settings anyway in the... Yeah, of course. So what do you think? So what do you play? Do you reckon they're until winner? Code-wise, I have no idea. I mean, I don't think it's a... I haven't heard much feedback about the code sucking. But I need to play, like, 100, 200 games for me to enjoy the code. I'm just in love with the the way it shoots and the sounds that's two out of the three boxes that I need, the sound the way it shoots and the rules so rules, the jury's out until I play it more there is a big difference right, like that machine at Pixel Alley was not playing anywhere near as good as the machine set up in the homey family environment, even to do with the shooter rod spring. I feel like it's the wrong spring in there. When you fully plunge, I'm pretty sure it's meant to go all the way around, and this is barely making it halfway up the loop, and it's not set up steep either. Okay, well, I think that they may have adjusted that, because when I went in there and played it, it did do that. It did do... I went all the way around. Okay. So maybe it's been... Well, why would they adjust it to make it... Yeah, I don't know. it did play very pretty long in the home use only environment but at Pixel Alley it was a little bit shorter so I guess like any machine you can tweak it to yeah I don't know it's a good pinball machine for you know as Keith Elwin said like the theme lends itself to pinball as opposed to say the Beatles which is a rumoured theme, and we'll also touch on that a little bit later, but I had so much fun playing Iron Maiden, I just kind of thought, Beatles is like, the band is huge, and they were the best band ever for that era, and whatever. How do you play pinball to the Beatles compared to playing it with Iron Maiden? Like, Iron Maiden's just high energy kind of stuff. Yeah, I don't know, but, you know, it's Rolling Stones as well, right? They just have music that's in the background. Forget about what I think about the machine itself, but it is similar in that it is that sort of rock from the 60s and 70s, and it's just background music, and visually they've got Rolling Stones. So maybe that's kind of what they're going to do with Beatles. I don't know. But again, with Iron Maiden, because it is that high-energy music, you're just lucky to have that as your backdrop soundtrack. Yeah. Yeah. And so we'll be talking about it plenty more when you get your machine. I'm sure there'll be like a 10-minute segment on Iron Maiden every week. I guess one thing that I wanted to note is it doesn't feel intense like The Walking Dead, but, you know, Walking Dead had that one more game feel because it's intense and it kicks your ass. This had a one more game feel because it was fun. like it was nothing to do with the game kicking your ass or anything it was just like I want to see more of the game because that was really fun I wanted to see how many loops I can shoot in a row I could just do that the pinball machine could just do that loop thing with the sound effects and the visuals so yeah, just let me do loops that's why I like Demoman I don't like any of the software in Demoman I just want to hit the shots so here's another thing that I want to sort of as my first impression of this game so you know when you put your money in and you hit start on a brand new stern machine, the first thing that I've experienced probably the last five or six stern machines is that very, very familiar stern feeling that you get. It's stern. You know it's stern just by how it feels and how the shots are. What I liked about this is that there was that familiarity, but it wasn't so apparent. Like, there is something that's different about it, and I think it is the layout. Where everything is, it feels different to a standard stern. Okay. What do you think? I feel like the flippers, yeah, I feel like there's a, you know, the flipper feel on a stern machine is the same across all their games. Like, when you tap a ball and then you let go and you hit it, it's the same on every stern machine versus like TNA. I struggled with that because the flipper power was kind of different when you do different moves. Yeah, I feel like the flipper strength had been dialed back though because they don't want the ball flying out of control, you know, up that center shot. They want you to hit that kind of that bullseye target in the middle. So that shot for me was a lot harder than I thought. I know that sounds stupid because it's the easiest shot in the game, but you really have to hit it properly. You can't backhand it willy-nilly off the right, but you have to backhand, you know, hit it off the left to be able to be a more powerful shot. Yep. Anyway. But I also think another thing is that when you come up to recent turns, you go, okay, I've got a bash toy and I've got ramps and I've got orbits and, you know, they're your regular shots. With this, and maybe it is code, It never felt like all you were doing was the same shots over and over. You just had to pick different shots and go for different things at any one time. And, you know, this is what Keith was saying, that he wanted it to be a highly situational game. And I think that's really come through. Yeah. I mean, I grabbed Game of Thrones a few this week, and I was kind of looking at it, and I was like, man, there really isn't much on this Gimel machine. But then I kind of thought back to Iron Maiden, and I'm like, well there isn't like an insane amount more on that you know besides the two upper flippers if you kind of overlay it you know I'm not talking about bill of materials or anything like that I'm more talking about kind of you know what you can see above the playfield but it just it doesn't feel empty it doesn't feel like you're missing out on anything and I'm not sure if that's the artwork being more congested than the Game of Thrones artwork or if it's the experience where it's just fun you've got the sounds, you've got everything, whereas for me Game of Thrones doesn't hit me on any of those levels, so I don't know I don't need big mechs slowing down the ball, if you have a pro you've got a winner people argue all day about Metallica like, yeah you've got a pro and it's cool, but you don't have the spinners and you can put the spinners on using Time Bandit's little mods but the pro kind of has everything except for You know, the sarcophagus lock and the lock underneath the captive ball and that kind of stuff. But I think regardless of which model you get, it's going to do well. You're getting a good machine. All right. Moving on to Dutch Pinball. Dutch Pinball. So they need money, mate. They, they, oh, wow. they need money and I don't even know where to fucking start with this they need more money a GoFundMe let's do a GoFundMe if anyone deserves money so this is right this is the problem that I've got is you've already put a lot of money into this you haven't got machines it is the fault of these people it is nobody else is to blame. You can talk about the contract manufacturer and all that kind of stuff, but it's ultimately the people that set up this company promised you your machines and they are the ones that need to ensure that you're getting your machines. You are not getting your machines. They are being sued by the contract manufacturer. Everything is put on hold until they can settle that lawsuit. Then they have to work out their new contract manufacturer and in the meantime, they want more money. I'm saying fuck me. How about you? I thought you were going to say fuck off, Marty. Why would I be fucking you? Well, again, I just despair at this. And I'm not even just despairing at the stuff that you can buy on their specials page. Hey, it's a pretty good price. You can buy a Translight, Marty, for 210 Australian dollars. 135 euro plus shipping for a fucking Translight. Jesus Christ. You can buy an apron, Marty. You know, like, it's a prototype apron, right? So it could be fucking, it might not fit in a pinball machine. 500 euro, which equates to, all right, For everyone in the U.S., $576 U.S., or if you're in Australia, $775 Australian dollars for an apron. For an apron with a couple of stars in it. I hope nobody buys this shit. I know, like, there's collectors out there. Whatever. If you want to buy this stuff to be a collector or to support them, then whatever. But also, they got a big Lebowski pinball engineering sample for going for 15,000 euro, which in Australian dollars is $23,500 or nearly 17,500 US dollars. Now, Dutch pinball aren't known for telling the truth. Hey, I just noticed there's heistigons in the background of their website. Just putting that in there. Mm-hmm. Thanks for mentioning. Yep. So they got caught out in a lie not once, but twice, I believe. I mean, once was when they said, oh, hey, there's a bit of a delay because of computer issues, they're sorting it out. No, that was when they were arguing with ARA. And the second lie, I guess, the second big lie, I'm sure there's been a million of them, is saying that they tried to increase the price on ARA of saying, no, we didn't, they just didn't pay us. So why would you bid on this thing? This is not on eBay, this is on their website, and it says here, if you want to order one or more of the items, please email us at shop at dashpinball.com. So do you think there's really someone that's bidding on this or do you think they're just pumping up the price and then some rich collector slots in somewhere and says, okay, I'll do the final bid of this? There's no end date. It just says current highest bid. Yep. So, and that's what I'm saying. Like, they want more money. Just, oh. oh, you know, you want a T-shirt? Fucking get a T-shirt. You want, what else have they got? A big Lebowski pinball dude's car. You know, there's going to be some people that are going to go, oh, fuck yeah, that's really cool. I'm going to buy one of those for, you know, 200 Australian dollars or whatever it is. It's, I think it's, I think it's buying into, you know, people's desires, you know. They want this stuff and, you know, we want to help them out. But, dude, if you've given them all this money so far and you haven't got a pinball machine and we still don't know if you are ever going to get a pinball machine, why would you sink more money into this? Pinball plastics has to be the most overpriced thing in the hobby. Like, if you look at those plastics, €175. It would literally cost them. I mean, I know there's like... 200 US. ...poppy and stuff like that. Like five bucks or something to make them. Anyway, maybe they'll just sell a whole bunch of plastic sets and then they'll win the case and everyone will get their machine. So who... Marty, they've got a brighter slot playfield there as well. Yes. I never noticed. I never know, because I've never seen a bare playfield. I've only seen the, you know, populated machine. I never knew that it was like, it was her body on the playfield. That's a pretty good thing to mention. Yeah, absolutely. So there's a rocket... There's a rocket going up her... Yep. Have you not noticed that before? There's a rocket blasting into her vagina? Yep. How can I play the game again knowing there's a rocket blasting up into her vagina right through the flipper gap? Wasn't this Python Anghelo? No, no idea. Well. So the big wheel is her womb, and she has four hearts, and she's got circular titties, and then she's got the ball goes in her mouth. I couldn't believe that you didn't know this. Yeah. Yeah. It's been well documented, particularly the thing going in between her legs. So there's that. So here we go. Anyway, so there is the email that went out, and I'll just kind of read out some of it. It says, You'll understand that this situation is extremely frustrating, not only for you, but also for our distributors and also for us. We are now awaiting the lawsuit with our former contract manufacturer to get you and us compensated. You know, you get that language? You know? Come on, guys, we're in this together. You're going to get your money and... So, there's a next thing called the Seattle 7. But like the dude and his friends, we won't give up. And we're not alone. There's a group of pinheads who call themselves the Seattle 7. They contacted us because they wanted to start a GoFundMe campaign to help us with funds for our attorneys and to start the production with our new contract manufacturer, Zytec. We are very, very grateful for this initiative. As soon as there's more info about this campaign, we will inform you as well. In the meantime, we are... Where the fuck is everyone's money? Like, if they want a fund to fund their lawyers, as they say in the movie, where the fuck's the money? I'm asking, like, they took all that money and they've burnt through it all and they got nothing. Like, they're never going to dig themselves out of this hole, ever. Yep. But in the meantime, we're working on a solution with Zytec on how to set up production pending the lawsuit. So it's almost like that pending the lawsuit, just like a little tiny font. Pending this big fucking lawsuit. Come on. And so because we receive a lot of emails from people who want to buy parts, plastic decals, etc., we've decided to set up a temporary shop. Please check out the website for more information. You'll also find T-shirts, the official Dutch pinball decals of the Brighter Pinball 2.0, plus opportunity to place your bid on one of the engineering samples. Oh, my God, mate. We should get them on the 50th show. They can be the grand guests because they've just got so much integrity and, you know, just handle the situation really well. You know, and look, maybe I am coming across a bit harsh this week about Dutch Pinball. Maybe that is the truth. but guys you have lied you have you bent the truth maybe in your words you want to sort of tone it down a bit And now you asking for more Just get people these machines Just fucking sort this shit out Get people their machines. Because you are just tainting this whole hobby. There you go. I've said it. Start a GoFundMe and ask your friends and family. Stop asking the fucking pinball community to bail you out of your mess. That's what I wanted to say. Like, use some of your own money, you know. I don't see them selling their houses, like, they wasted everyone's money, and they just, like, yeah, we picked up all these scraps off a floor, we're going to print a whole bunch of these, you know, playfields, and instead of giving a machine to a customer, we're going to sell an engineering sample for $25,000 a strain. Anyway, there it is. Let's move on. I'm done with Dutch. to go to the next one after this JGP they released a flowchart great company I had a quick look at it it looks like 5 pinball machines in one like the 5 rules that kind of like flow into each other the 5 movies so you really got like 5 separate pinball machines in one yeah Yeah, and that's how I like one of these. Yeah, I like the look of it. I like the flow. You can sort of look at it and read it and go, yep, I now know what I need to do. At a very high level, there it is. But where's the Pimble Machine, mate? We need the Pimble Machine. I really want to play it. Yeah, come on, guys. Yeah, you can do this. Same, same. Yeah. You know who's kicking goals and just making everyone... Delivering things all over the world. Yeah. Mm-hmm. All over the world. Mm-hmm. Deep root. Are they? Deep fuck... Yeah. Yeah. Sure. They released some exclusive information on this week in Pimble. Jeff is like their new source. They're basically just like, Hey, Jeff. We... Okay, this is not a real conversation, by the way. This is just how I imagine it. Right? Hey, Jeff. we fucked up and we painted a really bad picture of our company. Like, we need to, like, release news for you because you're, like, you're trusted in the community. So put the feelers out there. We see Supreme pinball machines selling for, you know, crazy amounts on eBay. I want a piece of that pie. How, you know, J.D. Jack tested the market a couple of years ago by releasing, like, a $6,000 pinball machine. Even though they were losing money on it, right? it went even higher. Now we're at like 9,000-something, right, for an Ali Pimmel machine. How far can we go? Put the news out there and let's see what the reaction is. Alice in Wonderland, there will be a variation of the Pimmel machine from us for 50 grand. Yeah. Let's see if people will take it. I would absolutely buy that sight unseen. So this was originally planned by John Papadiuk. Alice in Wonderland. I mean, that's huge. This isn't serious, Ryan. It's not serious. Hey. It's not serious. Ryan, it's not serious. No. No, it's not serious. No, yes, it is. No, it's not. Yes, it is. It's not. Yes, it is. Nope. Yes. Absolutely not. It can't be. What's going to be in a pinball machine for $50,000 that's worthy of that price? Exclusivity. What's in a stupid fucking handbag that costs like $10,000? a logo of a company that says I'm better than you and you can't afford this shit. That's all it is. Okay? So I reckon this is serious. Even if he's joking, it's serious because if there's a market for it, he'll make like 10. You know, like here's Alice in Wonderland for, you know, 7 grand or 10 grand or whatever it is. Okay? And then there's this version and there's that version and then there's the ultra platinum $50,000 edition. and there's only ten of them, send in your fucking videotape, and it's going to be gold-plated this. It's going to be... Yeah. No, I was going to stop what I was going to say. Hey, when you're doing... If it's the same pinball machine, it's just dressed up differently. I mean, Josh Kugler talked about it. I mean, they don't want to do limited editions like Stern does, where the machine is different, but they wouldn't say no to making a dressed-up version and calling it a limited edition because it's the same. They just need to finish the machine differently. Okay. Alice in Wonderland, Marty, are you a fan? Yeah, very much so. No, you're not really a fan. Yeah. Which version? The Disney movie or just the story in general? So, what I saw, and I've seen various information, but isn't there, like, someone has actually done, like, a very sort of dark sort of cartoon version of it. Do you know who that is? Yeah. A good mate, Zobby Yeti. Yep. So that's kind of what I like. I like what I saw there is that taking it to a dark place, it's almost a Tim Burton type version of Alice in Wonderland without all the colour and all the... I like what they've done with that. So I don't know. Okay. 50,000 points. I'm the opposite. This is by chance of bringing that story from the other day. So I went to an Alice in Wonderland, like, art... What do you call them, Marty? I told you about it. It's like an art walkthrough kind of thing. Sure. At the art centre. I don't know how to describe it. Anyway, when I think Alice in Wonderland, I think of the Disney movie from my childhood. So I just thought I was going to walk in there and it was going to be like walking through that movie. But I then remembered as soon as I walked in there that Alice in Wonderland as a story, and this is why it's not licensed, has been around forever, like over 100 years, right? Which is why you're allowed to kind of make a variation of it, kind of like Houdini. I don't like any of it besides the Disney movie. It's really fucking twisted. I don't like twisted, weird stuff, okay? My favorite pinball artist is Christopher Franchi because I like sunshine and rainbows, okay? And hexagons. I don't like... And hexagons. I don't like ugly shit. I don't like... I can appreciate the artwork on something like Iron Maiden, okay? I know it looks good, but I don't like looking at weird guys with, like, Afro. Like, Eddie is the most, like, disgusting-looking man. Oh, I love that. I would never... Yep. I hate it. I'm the opposite. that said, give me a Batman with ten times less lines and details, just with colours spewing out of it. That's what I want to look at. No, I like it when artists take regular things and turn them into a darker version of them. I like that stuff. Why? Why do so many people... That's why I never listened to heavy metal when I was a kid. I just... Anyway, getting off track. Yeah. I mean, you know. Yeah. So, Alice in Wonderland is weird as fuck, okay? Like, if you think that Alice in... And they're not making a pinball machine. They do make a pinball machine based off a Disney movie, because that still is copyrighted. So, that's what I would like based off... I really hope, like, Stern or someone just does the same thing. They're probably not, because no one's ever going to double up. But, yeah. Okay. I don't know. The Mad Hatter. He's really fucking... You know what's the Mad Hatter, right? Because there's lead in the hat and he's gone fucking crazy. Yeah, of course. He's absolutely bonkers. Yeah, in the Disney movie, it's funny, but if you actually take it in a liberal sense, it's actually quite scary. Anyway. Are we done? Well, yeah. Where's Monster Bash, Mark? Where is Monster Bash? Surely it's going to be here any second now. Within the next 48 hours. surely I said that last week or the week before. I feel like as soon as I said that, I'm like, didn't I make that joke a couple of weeks ago? Surely in the next 48 hours we're going to have the reveal. We reviewed it way too early. I think Gabe said in the interview, I'm not sure if you remembered, that it might be like two or three weeks away. He kind of missed the boat on that one. So I guess that's roughly when it'll be announced. But we thought it was time to possibly talk, because we haven't talked about it for a while, what we think the rest of the pinball landscape will be in terms of manufacturer releases for the rest of the year. For sure. Because things change all the time. We could be absolutely completely wrong, but let's just do it anyway, right? Yeah. So let's just spray everywhere and hope that something hits you in the eye. Oh, God, no. Stern Pinball. Let's start with Stern, right? So they're releasing stuff this year. Yeah. I made it. I mean, I'm here, but, I mean, it's been out and announced for a while, months. So I think we're almost due for their next Pimble Machine writing. And so what we know, the only thing that they sort of on record have said is coming out is Elvira 3, right? Which they didn't really want to, but they did. It's now out there. We don't know. It's probably one of the ones that we don't really know when it's coming out, do we? Sometime next year. I think. So you've got a choice of now, I'm just going to put out these names and you tell me, Ryan, what you think is going to be the next Stern title. Is it going to be Deadpool, Monsters, Beatles, Black Knight 3000, Superman or Beetlejuice? I think we know it's going to be, well, we think we know it's going to be Deadpool. I guess they missed their marketing hype window with the second movie, but I guess maybe they plan for it to come out when the DVD comes out. If they plan to release a machine at Expo, the window for them to release the next machine has to be somewhere around now, right, like in the next couple of weeks. It makes sense, right? If you kind of have a timeline of when Iron Maiden was released and Expo as the other one, somewhere in the middle is, I think, around now or a couple of weeks from now. So I think we'll be seeing that soon. What we think we know about that is it is by George Gomez. He did a redesign. Zombie Yeti Art, Jerry Thompson Audio, and Tanyo Kleiss' first pinball machine as a lead developer. That's what we've heard as rumors. It's a new team. It's exciting. What's Tanyo Kleiss like as a coder? We're going to find out. I don't know. He's done work on pinball. Yeah, we're going to find out. It's going to be exciting. What do you... For the rest of the year for Stern. Yeah, so what do you think about the Munsters? Like, did you watch the Munsters at all? Nothing. No? Nothing? No. I only heard of them like a year ago. Right. It means as much to me as Thunderbirds. So when I grew up, when I grew up, the Addams Family and the Munsters were equally popular. as equally popular I actually liked the Munsters better because I preferred the silly humour what the Addams Family has that the Munsters doesn't is a movie remake that absolutely refreshed the licence yeah Munsters has pretty much well I'm not sure I haven't done research but I'm not sure if we've had this conversation before but when I did some research about the difference between the Munsters and Adam's family, because they seem very similar, is the Munsters are actually monsters, and Adam's family are human beings that like to be monster-like, and that's the main difference. Sure. Yeah, so we think Munsters might be the title that is released at Pinball Expo 2018, and that will probably wrap up Stern for the rest of the year. Joe Kamikow said in his Twitch interview with Neil McRae that I think that the other Kapow title which is rumoured to be Beatles will be sometime next year so there was an initial rumour that they were both going to be released at the same time at Expo which we talked about making absolutely no sense at all so I guess that's some confirmation that someone like Joe who's calling the shots with his licences you know, they're going to be separate. Yep, so there you go. So Jersey Jack, so we've obviously Pirates of the Caribbean is going to come out any second now, as in manufacturing. They're obviously not going to release any other machines this year, but will they announce another title this year, do you think? I think this is one that you know the answer to, Marty, and I'm not sure they're going to give us the answer. Are they, Marty? I actually don't know. In, you know, theoretical sense, as a marketing standpoint, it would make no sense to do so, but I guess that really depends on how well Pirates of the Caribbean is selling. I mean... I actually don't know. I agree with you in that I don't think it would make sense for them to make any announcement until they see how many pirates they're going to be able to ship. it's weird because Daldin stands up against every kind of release that's been announced since Daldin has come out. But ever since they announced Pirates of the Caribbean, the focus shifts to that, and then everyone's kind of comparing it to that, like, oh, I would rather an Iron Maiden than a Pirates, because you can't get Pirates now, and it's a wide body and this, this, and that. People could have been making those comparisons to Daldin, and I think that would have made more sales for Daldin, because Daldin is a very good game. it's rated highly on the Pinside Top 100 and collectors like it and casuals like it, tournament players like it but the conversation isn't about Dalton anymore it's about a machine that people can't buy so it's a pity, we'll see what happens at Expo in the last, I guess, two years, so this will be the third year running if they do it again we'll probably find out closer to the date but I I hope if they do announce something that it's kind of close to being ready to go and then people have the option hey do you want a Willy Wonka or a Pirates and they can just kind of run all the lines together kind of thing. So that's what we reckon the one after Pirates is? That's going to be Willy Wonka not Toy Story? That's the rumour that people are going with. I don't have any information directly from any source. That's just what people are saying. Yeah, fair enough. And Chicago Gaming, obviously, the reason why we're onto this topic is because, you know, Monster Bash needs to come out. What else do you think they could make? Yeah, well, nothing would be announced this year anyway. And I guess the theme of what we're doing is we already go through, like, we know what they're planning in the future. But it's funny because the longer it takes for Monster Bash to be announced, the longer people say, I reckon they've switched to the next game. It's got to be Cactus Canyon continued, and they'll just release Monster Dash whenever. Who knows? These machines are already out, so I don't care too much about them. That's Pinball. They're doing absolutely nothing. Spooky Pinball. Alice Cooper started production, I believe, this week or in the last couple of weeks. So as is tradition with them, I think they start off really slow just to make sure they get everything right with training, everyone that's making them. they're going to be busy for ages, like a year and a half or something, making Alice Coopers and TNAs. So their next game doesn't need to be announced. They won't be announced at TPA. They won't be announced for ages. They don't need to. They're busy making and delivering games. Yep. Yep. So people will continue to be happy with their games. Yeah. And so we did hear that Scott Danesi has started working on a second game. whatever that is yep yeah they didn't need to announce that but you know I don't think anyone's going to say oh I'm not going to buy this this and that because I want his to save my money for his second game nobody knows what it is nobody knows if it's a licensed thing or unlicensed nobody knows how many ramps it's going to have it'll be something they announce possibly two years from now when it's ready to go because they're busy they don't need to do anything for a while Deep Root They're doing nothing this year except just trying to test the market to see what they can get away with. They're not releasing anything until March next year. The Pinball Bros, they're the offshoot from the Collapser Highway Pinball. I don't see them doing anything this year, Marnie. What do you think? No, I think they've got to set themselves up as a proper company and do everything from scratch. So I think we're two years away from something from them, I think. American Pinball, we discussed with Josh last week if they would announce their game number two at Expo, and he said if they're ready, they will. If they're not ready, they won't. Yeah, if I was them, I probably wouldn't do it anyway since there's already going to be a confirmed release from Stern. I mean, unless you're, you know, I don't know. When you release two film machines at once, like when Dialed In and Batman got released at the same time, I don't know, there was so much back and forth about those two machines, this camp saying, ah, you know, Batman's amazing, and Dialed In, like, what is his theme? And this other camp saying, at least you can play Dialed In, and Batman was behind ropes. I don't know. I don't want that drama. I just want each machine to have its own little window for people to talk about. No, exactly. I absolutely agree. What else have we got? Well, Home Pin. So Thunderbirds will ship this year. Will it, Matty? Well, I think so. Apparently. We did hear, I saw today, that it's actually going to be at ReplayFX. So I will get to play it, Ryan. I look forward to your in-detail, in-depth review. I hope the Crash Talker Invitational Selection Community... Community. Oh, my gosh, I can't speak English. Chuck Webster, I hope you organize the final to be played on Thunderbirds. It has to be. The entire competition is for fun. The final to be on Thunderbirds. Who can figure out what the hell these rules are? Okay. I don't think they're going to be announcing a new PMO machine at the end of the year. P3. I mean they just kind of announced their new machine at Texas I don't think there's anything planned for the rest of the year I might be wrong and rounded off Circus Maximus they're busy with Kingpin and they had a pretty aggressive schedule that I can't even remember what it was but I don't think they'll be delivering any machines by the end of the year so I think what we're really saying is you are probably going to see a maximum of three, maybe four machines by the end of the year, if you like. That's a lot in six months. Why not a couple of years? It was just like whatever Stern gave you, you know, in two years or something. That's right. But I think two of those announcements will be Stern. They will announce one soon, and then they will announce one at the end of the year, and it may ship at the end of the year or early into 2019. All right. If we haven't put everyone to a sleep, let's go on to this week in Pimble's top 10 limited edition Pimble machines and argue about how the hell some of these things got on there in the Pimble community. I know, right? These are the people that we have to get us to convince them to vote for us in the Twippy, Marty. I don't like my chances. No, I don't either. So, from 10 to 1. So, the number 10 machine that came in was the Walking Dead Limited Edition. What do you think, Ryan? There is absolutely nothing special about that machine at all. This is my grade. No, this is my grading for it. It has to be different than the one level down. Okay, so I'm going to compare it to the premium. Sure. All it has is a slightly different art package. It's still an amazing game, but as an LE, it's not special at all. Yep, okay. Gotcha. Yep, I totally agree. So I was getting confused. So obviously over the Pro, you've got better lighting and you've got the crossbow, but you're right. You've got that in the Premium, so it's not that special as a limited edition. Number nine, Iron Maiden. Yep. The same thing as... Wait, wait, wait, wait. Except, except, they actually put a lot more effort into the limited edition with the four decals. And I haven't seen it in person, right? But the update is there as well. Yeah, yeah. So that is more of a true limited edition than some of these other ones that are further, higher up the list. So I would actually probably put that higher up. Okay. Wizard of Oz Ruby Red, Ellie. It's red. It's red. They forgot to powder coat the shooter knob. Stacks silver. Compared to the green version we have. When I went to pick up my Wizard of Oz, I had a choice of the Emerald City, which was at the time the Australian, the Down Under limited edition. So the green one, the Emerald City edition, or the Ruby Red. and do you know why I picked the Emerald City? Because... Because it looks sugar red. It looks very green. I didn't mind the red. I didn't like the topper. What's the topper? Okay, the 75th anniversary, kind of everyone crowded together. I didn't like the topper at all and that's what made me buy the Emerald City. Yeah, it's a nice machine. pretty much every Jed Jack machine is limited edition in their eyes it has a lot of stuff on it it has like much more figurines and castle walls and stuff like that I guess it probably deserves to be up there yep what about Metallica limited edition? now I have this pinball machine and I reckon it doesn't deserve to be there either because it you know yes it's called the Master of Puppets and it has the album artwork on the side and this this and that it doesn't have anything special over the premium. Nothing. No, it doesn't have to be there at all. This is where you've got effectively the one thing that's different and you've got a little plaque saying that it's limited edition. Yeah. That's it. That's it. And every time I see the side art of the machine, it's one of the only machines that I can see the side art of because of where it is in my room, I think, and it triggers in my head every single time, that I have these massive circular kind of scratches because they've got the puppet strings hanging off behind the crosses. My brain, every time I see it, thinks that someone's come through and scratched off the machine. Right. So I don't like... Yeah, anyway. ACDC? This shouldn't even be in the top 20. Why? In my opinion. Because it's the loser. It has nothing. It just has the words ACDC on the side and some custom cut armor. That's all it has. Yep. Okay. Batman 66? Yep. I think it's... Well, I mean, the play feels the same. Yep. But you do have the signature and a special episode number with custom artwork for that episode. You know, Adam West's signature there. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I think it deserves to be somewhere there. Okay. Dialed in. It's number four. No. Best game, but the limited edition doesn't have anything super special that the... Actually, sorry. No, it does. It does. It has the custom... The ramp lights. It has the Perspex lighted city in the back. Yeah. Yeah, no. Fair enough. That's alright. Yeah. Yeah, it's certainly more of a limited edition than ACDC or Metallica is, is what we're saying. Okay. Attack from Mars remake is number three. The giant screen, yep, thumbs up for that. And the topper that everyone thinks is the best. I'm not a topper guy, Marty. Sure. It looks good, but I don't, it's, I'm never ever going to buy a film washing for the topper. Ever. I'm the same. I could take it or leave it, although, admittedly, just a few minutes ago, I said that I bought a machine because of its topper. But, you know, if it was a choice between having a topper or no topper, I'm not bothered, as long as the machine's good. Yeah. So, yeah. Here we go. The only two Pimel machines that are worth talking about on this giant turd of a list. It really is. The number two is Tron Legacy Limited Edition. Absolutely. A couple of major things, obviously. Because there's no premium. The premium doesn't exist. The premium is people that have pros that want to have limited editions that mod the shit out of their machines to make them as good as a limited edition. That's right. Now, admittedly, some of the mods on my machine are third-party mods, like the arcade is absolutely mind-blowingly good. but it's the ramps. I love the ramps. You know, it's got the 3D backlash, a whole bunch of stuff. You can mod your pro to be as good as an LE anyway. So you're right. So the reason why this one really stands out is because there's no premium. Now, I was listening to the Eclectic Gamers podcast a couple of weeks ago when I had Zach on the show and they made the interesting point when they were talking about the Star Trek Vault Edition coming out and they were saying, What if they do release a Tron Vault Edition that everybody's been asking for? And what if they release a Premium? Yeah, you would think that they would because the Pro is super-duper bare-bones. I mean, if they do release a Pro, then everyone's going to kind of mud it up anyway. But I mean, there's rumours that it's going to have an LCD and it's going to be based off the old Tron. But I mean, these are just people kind of talking. I don't think we've got confirmation. VE's are the only real secret of Stern, right? Yeah, that's right. Everything else seems to get out except for VE's. No one knows what the hell's going on. I guess the team for those are a lot smaller. Well, I think it's also because they've already got all the assets there, right? So all it is, it's a business decision that says, right, we're reopening up this line. Everything that's there, there's no sort of, you know, six months behind closed door where secrets can get leaked. It literally is, okay, we've all come in. This is our monthly meeting. and we've all decided that we're going to release this as a Vault Edition. Zach, go and announce it now. Everybody, it's on the line. That's it. Like, there's actually... There's not, like, a lead-up to it. They can just go, well, we've got everything there ready to go. We can just turn these on at any stage. Well, they still need to order parts and stuff. I don't think they have, like, a warehouse with... No, of course they do. I don't know. But it's not like they have to design the parts. Like, they know what's already there. I said, unless they're doing a true vault edition with a whole bunch of things changed. And just to reiterate, Metallica Alley is special, but if there was no premium, that would be maybe number one. Like, oh my gosh, there's a hammer that bangs the ball into the playfield and all this cool stuff, and the cross rises up. But it's on the premium. We saw this week on Gumtree, a... It is Master of Puppets, isn't it? Limited Edition. For $17,000. It doesn't mean that it's sold, Marty. No, I know it doesn't mean that it's sold, but it means that somebody thinks that they can sell it for $17,000. That's crazy. Anyway, let's move on to the number one. Yes, the real true Ellie, the Star Trek Limited Edition, because what does it have, Marty? Is that the premium doesn't have. Well, it's got the brushed metal back, it's got the illuminated insignias on the side, it's got one of the coolest, coolest effects in pinball, and that is the photon torpedoes that go up the outer side and inner side of the machine. Yep. They really threw the kitchen sink at that in terms of making it special. yeah, I guess we thought that they were on the right track with Iron Maiden Alley, with the kind of the effort they put into that. And that's why I think that kind of maybe should be further up the list because it really has something special with the foil decals that isn on the premium at all And I think that what limited editions should have Horrible mentions Horrible mentions Star Wars Alley. Star Wars Alley has nothing. Oh my gosh. What does it have? It has all three translights. I don't know. Yeah, it's got the... Yeah, it's got the rails that go up. Yeah, this list, if it was a top two or top three lists, I'd be like, oh man, this is really cool. But that actually almost made me sad that these machines should be... And I've got some of them, right? So I'm not being biased or anything. I've got... What have I got? I've got Metallica Alley. That's it. I've got Wine and Tron and Star Trek. I've got two. I've got the top two. But, you know, Metallica, yeah. I only have it because I bought it at a decent price, and yes, the Alley holds its value more. That's the only reason why I like it. Oh, I know. Look, we're looking at this from a practical point of view that says, look at the feature list and tell you whether it's worth the extra money that you spent. You know, if you want to put a dollar value on how special you feel by having one of these, well, that's a very different story, and we don't begrudge you on that. Like, having, you know, one of 250 or whatever it is, so bad, you know? Where's Avatar in this? You get a Navi ball. Navi. And you get the coffin that rises. No. But even saying that, at least that has... It has a mech that does something different. It's got some additional toys. It's got the coffin that opens... Oh, wait a second. And it's not a Navi ball. There's no premium version either, is there? Yes, that's right. Yes, that should be there. That's right. Guys, how many people are voting for this? Come on, guys. Can you shit together? I think it's the fact that everyone hates Avatar. It was never going to make this list. Yeah. All right. Anyway. So what else? Is it time? Is it time for Slams? The top 100. 100. So last week was Martin with Joker Poker SS Salt State versus me with Black Rose. Unfortunately, I had the better gift and I won with 55% of the votes. So can I just ask a question? Who puts the gifts up there? Mm-hmm. Yep. Cool. I... Wait, wait, wait. No. I put the gifts up, and I give you the option of changing yours if you want. I do your job for you, and I say, if you want to change it to a better gift, if you can find a better gift... My job is editing. That's all I'm doing. I'm editing. You can be the gift, bitch. All right. This is where we be honest, Marty. Which one would you rather play, Joker, Poker, or Black Rose? Oh, Black Rose. Any day. I actually quite like Black Rose. And it was just, it came out at the time when I was in my heyday of playing pinball, when I should have been working. And I played this machine a lot. There was something about it that I really liked. The designer. No. So, yeah, I mean, if they were side by side right now, I would pick JokerPoker because I really had fun playing it when I did. But it's simply because I haven't played Black Rose. Hey, Raymond Davidson likes Black Rose, and he's the number one player in the world. Yeah, he does. Right? I should have used that as part of my argument. Yeah. All right, let's do this week. So I want to generate a number from 1 to 100. It corresponds to a machine on the pin side, top 100. Me and Marty are going to argue for as long as we want on which one is better, and then we leave it up to you to tell us who won the vote. Please generate a number from 0 to 100. Okay. 13. Ah, yes. Star Trek Next Generation. Ah. Have we done this? No, we haven't. No. Please generate a number from 0 to 100. Okay. Give me 10. 10. Adam's Family. Adam's Family. One of my absolute favourite games. Can I do the editing tonight where I can insert the clip where you talk about how shit Adam's Family is? Didn't happen. This is going to be hard. Didn't happen. Good on Google for putting two classic Williams machines together. Thanks, Googs. Thanks, Googers. All right. You ready? Wait, what the hell is Adam's family doing at number 10? I thought Adam's family was in the top five. I know. That's the sacraments I'm getting confused with. Sure, we don't need to look at the flyers for this one. Just wing it, Marty. Go for it. Okay. This is Pat Lawler's masterpiece. It really is. This is what earned him the right to do whatever he wanted in the pinball world. We talked about it before tonight. Adam's Family was great because it had the movie that came out. This has got, hands down, the best theme integration ever in a pinball machine. And I'm going to call out a couple of things. The thing hand that comes out the back. When I first saw that, I just went, wow, that is the most amazing thing that I've ever seen. The other thing that really stands out is the multiball start with the showtime and the lights and the sound and it going absolutely crazy. That game makes you feel amazing. It's got a great rule set. It's got deep. It's got varied modes. It's got a very cool wizard mode as well. It's a freaking fantastic game. Love it. Adam's family. Do you need to do anything, the wizard mode, besides just start everything? No, just start everything. Get all the modes done. I just realized I can't fucking use that as a shitty thing because Star Trek Next Generation is out of the market. Okay. Is it my turn? Yes. Star Trek Next Generation, clearly the more superior Star Trek film machine that's out there on the market. You talk about thing integration, Marty. Do you have the entire cast of Adam's family doing call-outs? No, you don't. But on Star Trek, you have multiple people from the critically acclaimed TV show that you love, Marty. You said on the first episode, you're a Trekkie, okay? So you love this demo machine, right? You've got the amazing warp ramp. You've got a fast-shooting widebody. You have those ever-reliable cannons on the left slings that definitely don't block your outlines and are just really fun to shoot in modes. You shoot the shot, it loads the other cannon, you shoot the other shot. it's almost like an ACDC from 20 years ago what else you got? You've just got flow for days, you've got a little, the twirly ramp, you've got an amazing wizard mode that takes I think 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 shots to get into, you can literally just trap up and hit 7 it's accessible, okay, this machine makes you feel good great call outs great demo machine I really wish I had 30 seconds you're so nice so So let's talk about Star Trek Next Generation. First of all, the machine breaks down. Even Steve Ritchie was on record when someone said they got a Star Trek, he goes, oh, and it's still working. Particularly those cannons are known to break. Balls get stuck all over the place. Too ambitious. The cannons also do block the outlanes, and those slings are angled downwards, so you just feel unfair all the time. and not to mention that sent a shot to start modes. Unless it's set up perfectly, it is a really difficult shot, and then once you start a mode, time out the mode to get into wizard mode. What a useless game. Adam's Family, the most popular pinball machine of all time, okay? That doesn't mean that it's good. It just means that people, I mean, we just saw with the top 10 alley list, people, they're not the smartest, okay? They like putting money into pinball machines. They see the little hand come out. They're amused by this little simple thing, okay? It's not a great pinball machine. It might be good in competitions, but it's boring. Marty's been on track. There is a drunk rant from Marty where he goes on for about 15 minutes about how Adam's family is the biggest piece of shit over at a pinball machine because it's just, there's nothing good in it, okay? it's just popular for the sake of being popular. Like Twilight Zone, he hates both these Timber machines. If you vote for Adam's family, it's a vote for Marty lying through his teeth. No, see... I give you... Start back next, then. No, I love how you threw Twilight Zone in there, because it was actually Twilight Zone that I had the rant about, not Adam's family. I will find the rant, Marty, if you want me... No, you've probably deleted it, haven't you? You've got twists I'll say for like one week. Things flips Who gives a shit If things flips Because the magnet's Fucking going off People You know why people Want it now People want it Because they had it When it was like A three four thousand Dollar pinball machine And now in Australia They're going for ten grand Because no nostalgia This is the one That I played as a kid Blah blah blah blah blah That's what people want People want it Because they're like This is going to keep Going up and up and up Yeah That's what people want But why are people Buying that bloody Star Trek It is just There's a great machine there if it worked. And if they just fixed up a couple of the shots as well. It just... It can be really clunky if it's not set up right. Clunky. Guys, Adam's family sold so well that it led to the demise of yours and my favourite Pimmel manufacturer of all time, Bally Williams, okay? This is the machine that fucked them up because, you know, they kept on putting them on site and it out-earned everything, okay? Because people are so dumb, it out-earned everything. So, I'm pretty sure that's not the reason why Pinball stopped. This is really sure that was South Park. It wasn't South Park. It wasn't South Park. I was about to say that it was. Guys, it wasn't South Park. This is the reason. The machine is so popular, it's just South Park. It might be true. It probably did. I mean, would you rather play, if you were a Pinball noob, would you rather play Revenge from Mars, this weird-looking thing, or South Park? It's South Park. Yeah, it was one of those things. Revenge Remarks is the better machine, but South Park just made me smile. Okay. Jack. That's why I'm top 100. Wednesday or Tuesday, depending on where you live, you will see that on our Facebook page. Follow us on Facebook. We're getting lots and lots of votes, which makes us happy close to 100 every single week, so keep your votes coming in. Shall we do This Week in Pinball? What did you get up to, buddy? Yes. Can you talk about Ross Towns first really quickly? Last week, I told you guys I qualified as, like, 14th or something, and two people had to drop out because Marty somehow got his way into this final thing, and two people had to drop out for me to make it. And I had my fingers crossed, and what happened? Jared Mendoza came back from overseas. He had to qualify. He didn't qualify, but he somehow, like, screwed with the result that I jumped up a place. So I was next in line. Sorry, no, I somehow made it, but it was a tie between me and Tim Chapman. And there was no way I was going to go to qualify to lose and then go home and not make the finals. And another miracle happened. Somebody got into a car accident and needed surgery. Not a car accident during the week. I'm not like my jinxing and my finger crossing isn't that powerful. But they got into a car accident a couple of weeks ago and they need surgery down the tendons in their hand or something, so they can no longer play pinball. So through some miracle, I am in the finals that are going to be held this week, Marty. Me versus you versus 10 other people. Great match. Yeah, I somehow came second last year. I'm looking at the format, Marty. Last year, I didn't know what pinball tournaments were, so I was just like, just tell me where to play and I'll play. This year, I'm looking at the format. And I'm like, man, it goes from 12 to 6, and then from 6 to 2. How the fuck did I get from 6 to 2 last year? That's not fair. Four people get eliminated in that. That's harsh. You've got to win a three-player match play series thing. Anyway. Absolutely. Houdini money. What do you think about it, besides the f***ing time? So we got to stream Houdini on Wednesday night. you couldn't make it because you were really busy with work or playing Iron Maiden whatever do I have to explain myself Marty nope you don't Iron Maiden wins every time no no no it wasn't that it was five hours it would have taken to drive there play Houdini and come back and I had more work to do than I could give up with five hours and then I finished it about four hours in and I was at your stream and you were like packing up so I went to play Iron Maiden anyway fair enough I would too. So, here we go. Got to play Houdini on the Melbourne Super Bowl League Twitch stream for a good three hours. And here's what I'm going to say about Houdini. Well, you know, everyone said that the shots are tight, right? Do you think that the shots are tight? Do I think the shots are tight? Yes, they are. They are tight, but the more you play, the more you know where they are and they're easier to get. And it feels satisfying, doesn't it? Like once you finally make the shots, you're like, oh yeah, this is rewarding because I couldn't see this before. Correct. It's actually not just that the shots are tight. You know, it's a Joe Boucher layout, so it's not going to be conventional. So what that means is where you would normally hit a shot, you've got to unlearn where you would normally hit a shot. And it's either just to the left or just to the right. And that's how you learn your shots. That right inner orbit, which is the lock shot, you know, when Josh Kugler was on our show and he said, you know what, people find that it's much easier to backhand it from the right flipper. Absolutely spot on. That is exactly what you do. It's got just enough power to get up there. So the shots are fine. The shots are fine, and the shots are very satisfying. The presentation on this machine is fantastic. It is a beautiful machine, an absolutely beautiful machine. It's glossy. The light show is fantastic. the attention to detail on the art and on the toys and on the chains fantastic the catapult that flings the ball to the backbox worked every time just doesn't get old every time you see it is it a chatty game? yeah it is but you know hold your flippers in and move on did you try that out Mindy? does it work? yeah it does so it isn't just a clack you need to do it a little bit longer? You do need to hold the flippers in very, very briefly. It is honestly half a second, but it's not just a click of the flippers. But, you know, once you work out how to do it once, you can then do it on. Okay. The soundtrack in it is amazing. I really, really enjoyed the music that they put in there. I sort of likened it to the Quake soundtrack that I think Trent Reznor did from Nine Inch Nails. very sort of sort of bungee electro it's very cool the what? the Quake I think Quake the video game the video game Quake I'm pretty sure that Tim Resington is a character that which Quake are we talking about? Quake 3? no Quake 1 the PC game that was like how long ago was that? a long time ago so I love Quake by the way I love his music Rocket Jumps amazing yeah I this game is fantastic. The biggest compliment I gave it is it's a premium game like a Jersey Jack. Yeah, you can certainly see Joe Belso took what he learned at Jersey Jack and tried to apply as much as he could with that. I was... This is one of Ryan's weird little rants, but I had a headache when I was watching your your stream. So I was in another grouchy mood like I was last week with Avatar, but I wasn't there, and I was trying to kind of watch your stream while I was working. I had to close it multiple times because of a certain sound, Miley. Do you know what the certain sound was? The woman's laughter? Yes. Why? Why does the woman laugh when you hit the slings? And it just overlaps with each other. Yeah. Why? I don't know. It didn't bother me at all. Didn't bother me at all. I mean, I'm not in the market to buy a new film machine. I'm not in the market to buy a Houdini. If I was, that's a deal-breaker for me. I would say, please give me access to the files so I can remove that sound completely. Okay. That's just me. That didn't bother me at all. In fact, I didn't really notice it until someone called it out in chat, which was probably you. Yeah, it was me, bitching about it. Well, I am actually in the market for a new pinball machine. Well, even though I've got Iron Maiden coming, but you did come and pick up Game of Thrones, so I am now down to... Wait, Marley, how many pinball machines do you have right now? I am now down to two actual machines, but three because I've got one coming. Are you still qualified to be a reputable pinball podcast? How many pinball machines do you need for that? Oh, you only need one, don't you? I think some of them have none. But I just... It was so weird walking into your house. Since I've known you, there's always been three or mostly four. Yeah. And I walked in there. We took Game of Thrones down. I looked at it and it's just empty. It just looks so weird. I know. I know. Iron Maiden will be there soon. Iron Maiden will be there soon. But, you know, as I said, I'm now on the hunt for my fourth machine. So Houdini is a real contender, as is total nuclear annihilation. So then they're both... I thought you wanted a cheap pinball machine, Marty. Yeah, so I'm not going for cheap machines like I said I was. But I'm still looking now every day. If something comes up that I kind of go, yeah, that'd be fun to have, then I'll pick that up. And it doesn't need to be a Stern. It can still be a Belly Williams, right? it'll be a Bally Williams, as long as it's going to be a different enough experience to what I've got with the other three machines, and it's not a complete stinker. So there'll be no Gottliebs. Dennis! Yeah, so I picked up your Game of Thrones this week, Marty, and it's going to go on-site. I also got a... Sorry, I think it was last week that I got a Nega Gophers, that I finally kind of put into the house and I have played one game on it. I'm just too busy, but it's not a machine that sucks me in. No, I really don't like that game. You know what's going to happen, though? I'm going to, you know, it's going to go to its owner and then one day I'm going to play Naked Go-To-Fish and have a little game and I'm like, oh man, I wish I could play that pinball machine. Yeah. And that's just part of it. If I play a pinball machine, if I take this pinball machine non-stop for two weeks, it'll be out of my system. Like Christian from Black Lagoon. I no longer want to buy that machine. I've had my fix. Yeah, fair enough. Anyway. Okay. Yep. So tomorrow I'll be heading to Pixel Alley to play in the Three Strikes competition because I like the competition, but also Iron Maiden will be there as well. Will you be joining me, Marty? I hope so. I'm very busy with my work at the moment and I don't seem to be able to get out in time, but my aim is to be there. Okay. I should be there. I might see you there. Okay. That'd be awesome. Cool. The mailbag might be... Yes. Shall we actually read the mailbag this time? I know. So we actually did get this email probably just over a little bit of a week ago and I forgot to reply. So sorry, Paul. So this is from Paul. He says, hi, long-time listener, first-time emailer from Canberra. I've actually met Paul. So he has three children under five, full-time job, and golf and touch football commitments. Can't do very few decent pinball machines, so I find myself spending more time listening to pinball podcasts than actually playing. So thank you for filling the void. So he just wanted to give some thoughts on pinball. So he said, pinball is definitely a sport. As far as I'm concerned, if you do something pointless just to see how well you can do it, it's sport. Yeah, fair enough. so I look forward to hearing about your battle to reach Enterprise Amok Ryan ah shit we've got to talk about this yeah did you get to Enterprise Amok yeah I did did you I got there early in the week and I now fucking hate Star Trek because of it because it's weird I used to wizard hunt you know wizard mode hunt all the time and I used to really enjoy it after setting up my machines really brutal and kind of just seeing what I can get away with without the ball draining. Yeah, I kind of enjoyed the first week of it. By the second week, I was just sick of playing Star Trek. But I got there. I used the strategy of playing the second mode straight away so it wouldn't be daunting kind of going through all the second modes in the first round. I did so... I did really well in the modes, okay? So what the mode... Can I spoil the mode for you, Marty? No. No, you don't want to know. No, I won't get there. Okay. Okay. It has a lot of levels in the modes. It's not like the first mode where you kind of just like hitting shots. Sure. It has a lot of levels. Okay. I got to what I thought was having it finished, and I kind of took my phone to take a photo, and then I realized there was still one more shot to go, and I fumbled the ball trying to take a video of it. But I was still satisfied with the 800 million score or something. I will not turn on Star Trek for another two months after that. I'm done with Star Trek. I did stream it last night with the intent. I'll say the intent of getting there. Yes. And what happened in Steadmoney? Well, it didn't go well, Brian. It didn't. I started getting messages I watched a little bit I kind of tuned out you know and I started getting messages on my phone saying hey Ryan can you check on Marley is Marley okay I'm like what what happened to Marley like what happened on the stream did he slip over and hurt himself no he just drank a lot of gin yeah so yeah it's the second time a certain event after my stream has happened that happened again involving my pot plants on the balcony. They got a special kind of watering. And I always know, I always know when I've overdone it, when the next morning I have all these people that watch the stream reaching out to me to see if I'm okay. He does. When Marty drinks, he really drinks. Yeah. I didn't get to Enterprise Amok that's in fact I didn't even get you're blaming it on alcohol Marty come on no I'm I'm blaming it on next week being so anyway you're easily a better player than me so if you if you like stop reading I reckon if you tried without doing the chat I remember when we first started doing the podcast we were talking about what's your highest score on Star Trek and yours was like say like 400 million or something and then I had a game and it was like $405 million. Literally the same night, you were like, $500 million? It wasn't on the stream or anything. I reckon if you did it off-air, you would get the easel. Yeah, but I did want to do it on-air. That was the problem. There's no proof that I actually got there, right? No, that's exactly right. Just your word. No, I'm just pushing. Just your word and Dax Pinball's word. That's the Pinball word. So anyway, back to Paul's email He said, I bought a Star Trek Pro about two months ago And have yet to get there Done it once on location and completely botched the wizard mode Apparently that's what happens He played that same machine during lunch breaks For about a year before we got there He also wanted to bring up the whole Kai or Khan Do you know what? Ever since that happened and I listened to it I'm now hearing Kai instead of Khan yeah we realized that we totally messed up that segment by doing the wrong call out um the call out is the my name is kai kai slash khan it's not the khan bit at the end yes so i i went and found that call out and and one of our listeners lucas um found it as well and made a little video and when i listened to it i was like oh it's khan so it must be getting mixed with all these other audio things. But then I listened to his video and it was Kai and he was going into the pinball browser and doing the same thing. So I listened to it on my phone and it was Kai and then I plugged in my headphones that have a lot of bass and it was Khan. So this is one of those Yanni Laurel pieces of shit things. the game. So, anyway. So he said, I love the interview with Josh Sharpe. I'm an IT guy and he's dead right about us loving the ranking system and statistics. He said, my two cents on the ranking system, you should not be able to get to number one in the world without taking on the best. It's a shame, but as Australians, we either need to travel or track the best to come here. And the Southern Hemisphere tournament seems like a step in the right direction. so there you go yeah it'd be cool if it was like boxing where you know you have to take down the heavyweight champ to claim the title you know or you have to retire and someone else takes the belt but yeah it's simple and people live pretty far apart so yeah so there we go the next email is from Andrew McLean and he was just talking about the poll he created on Pinside and what we'd like in terms of J.J.P., Wonka or J.J.P. Pirates. And there's a long conversation on Pinside, you can go and read it, but for me, it's theme-wise, it's Wonka. I have no idea what the layout is. Do you think they'll go back to standard bodies, Marty? I don't know. Wonka seems like the kind of game where you wouldn't mind if it was a white body because you just want more of that world in there, right? Like Harry Potter, I don't think people like I want to you know I want to send the buddy Harry Potter just the widest buddy you can think of just put it in a bloody Hercules cabinet I'd be happy is that it for this week mate? that is it for this week so if you do want to get in contact with us please do go to our Facebook page Twitter is at H2Hpinball email us head2headpinball at gmail.com Instagram is head2headpinball yep oh Bruce Yorning. Bruce Yorning. Bruce Yorning will ever play. Yeah. Wow. Bruce levels of size. Yeah. Fantastic. Just remember, if you want to enter the competition, it's for one week only. By the time we are filming the next episode, episode 50, the big 5-0, the competition's over, okay? And this literally just rang an email. So stop what you're doing right now. Head2HeadPimble at Gmail.com. Anyone can enter. Keith Elwin, I know you're listening. You can enter. I know you love. Dial in. Okay. Yep. So you can send us in anything that you like. You could do a poem. You could do some audio if you wanted to. We don't care. We just know whatever talent you've got, just send us an email, even if it is a picture of Ryan. That's fine. Or just text. You can just write the Rusak bit and you're entered into the competition. But if you want, if you, you know, we don't make money from this, so if you want to make us laugh and make our day, you know, Do something cool, and we'll talk about it next week. And we've got a couple of special things lined up for next week, so we're looking forward to it. A lot of special things. It's a big one, though. Huge guest, Marty. I know. One of the biggest guests we're ever going to have. We're saving him for number 50. He confirms he's going to come on the show today. Or he or she, sorry. There's a lot of important ones. Yeah. There's a lot of women that do it. There's a lot of ones, Marty. I listen to it. There's a lot of ones. so it could be a girl or a boy so yep and we will catch all you mother cluckers next week yeah see you later bye now see ya mother cluckers so dumb let's fix that