All right, we're recording audio. We're recording video. So,
we are sitting down for the first time in a while. We uh we have to be very careful, Matt, because you missed it earlier. You were too busy uh pouring uh espresso shots,
hot steaming espresso shots,
serving beans. But uh this uh
I'm a bean slinger, you know, at heart.
This backdrop behind us not the most stable. It is uh a little sketchy. It did fall over once. It did not kill anyone.
I know. It was
three people were badly injured.
It was like a slow I mean it was it was agonizing. Like I I saw Sarah sitting there out of my peripheral. I noticed like the back slowly just going almost like a ship sinking. Like a ma the mass of a ship sinking. Hey, how's it going? Hey.
I I didn't actually see it. I didn't see what happened. I just saw the reaction of the person's face that I was making coffee for. Yeah.
And it was shock and horror as it and then I turned around and I just saw it was like already on the ground and I didn't see what happened. But you knocked it over. Good job.
Yeah. Well, I think we might need a bigger booth, man.
Yeah, I think we might need a bigger booth.
We've been slowly encroaching upon all the areas around us. I mean, we have a a pinball machine here. I don't know if it's in the shot. It's kind of hard to see. Maybe.
Yeah. Harlem Globe Trotters.
It's uh we're easily 6 in into the next booth over.
Yeah. Yeah.
And on this side, we're about a foot. We're past a foot over. Fortunately, we have um Lance, he's been amazing, by the way. You know, Lance, if you ever watch this, shout out to you. He's got, you know, I know pinball purists are probably going to crucify me for this, but uh he's got a like a virtual pinball cabinet. Yeah. slash I guess virtual pinball machine company. Like he has different packages that he sells, different levels of customization/comp completion. So if you're like a DIY guy, you can kind of finish it yourself for a cheaper price or get the full package a little more expensive. But like his whole like virtual pinball setup, man,
kind of surprised me, dude. Like I'm not even trying to sell this. We're going to show a little little bit more about that on a video that we're going to put out, but
it actually felt real.
Yeah, it feels really good. If you've ever played like virtual pinball on a phone or an iPad or a computer or something like that, this is a whole different animal and it feels it feels way more real,
right?
Um than you know because it it's full size. It's a it's a LCD screen that's the size of a pinball playfield. So everything's to scale
and it feels pretty real, man. It's got like solenoids and you feel the solenoid click when you hit the flipper button. There is a physicality to it. You know, even nudging it like you maybe once or twice like I found myself kind of forgetting it was virtual. Honestly, there's like obviously like a tiny tiniest bit of lag and if you really really try like you kind of remember that it's virtual but like
Sure. Sure.
Is it fun? Yes. Is it super fun?
Is it pinball? I think so. I was getting like I was immediately like nudging like just instinctively not not even like although to be fair I do nudge my laptop sometimes when I play VPX
but um but yeah it's it feels it feels real and like the music is good, the displays are good. Like I'm pretty like I kind of want one now because it's just like you can play crazy games like Big Bang Bar. Yeah.
That which we were playing earlier. Yep.
That it's just where are you going to play that? like unless it gets re-released. But there's so many there's like 300 or so games that you can play on there that a lot of those aren't readily available. And you know, Lance's thing was you can like learn the rules of games without going to the arcade, which is kind of nice.
Yeah, I think uh what was the name of his company? I want to give him a shout out real quick. Like an official
pinballc cabinet.com.
Hang on. PinballCC cabinet.com. Easy. Easy.
PinballC cabinet.com.
Thanks, Lance. Thanks for being an awesome uh booth buddy/ neighbor, letting us slowly take more and more real estate every day.
Before I got hardcore into pinball, I did start playing like the Williams pinball app on my phone.
I remember.
And I was playing that a lot and like it's not the same physically, but with this machine, it feels way more close to an actual pinball machine than than like playing it on a touchcreen. And like I was doing like drop catches and like little like all the little tricks worked. But that's what really shocked me is like all the little like flipper sensitive techniques. I was kind of blown away by that.
So yeah, I mean that's I just want to cover that real quick. Thanks, Lance.
The nudging is is kind of surreal, too. It's like you're shaking this machine and there's a digital ball moving on it. It's weird. Yeah. I think if you have like really limited if you have limited space
Yeah. It costs about the same as buying like one pinball machine
basically. Yeah. And you can have like 300. So, I don't know. It's kind of cool. A quick segue too and kind of like to finish this thought with the virtual pins. Uh the homebrew stuff, right?
Yeah.
I was talking to Lance a little bit about it. It's a great way to like make your own game and and kind of test out the shots and kind of see what feels fun or get inspired, right? And like before you cut some wood and start
going in on like an actual physical game, right? You know, Jack Danger came up with some of his first designs in in virtual pinball.
Yeah, it's a good way to just test out is this is this geometry feasible? I'm kind of a believer now, man. Like any pinball is good pinball. So, if you want to fight me about it, that's fine.
That's true.
Um, but I will take virtual pinball over no pinball. If you're a pinball purist,
how about virtual pinball over an em? It depends on the game, dude. because I I've had not not to be a EM hater, but like really like legitimately would you take a virtual pinball machine over let's say let's be controversial here and say Gorgar?
Oh god.
Would you take let's let's make this a really tough decision. A virtual pinball cabinet or a Gorgar.
How would you do that?
You could only have one and you have to keep it forever.
I would personally take the Gorgar. Uh, however, I would understand if you did not and you took the virtual pin.
Yeah, I think I would take the virtual machine honestly. Like just for
we have variety.
Yeah, it's just variety. Like I would get like I would get bored. Borg guard. Sorry.
I I would get bored after a while, you know, cuz those games are simple and this thing you can play, you know, hundreds of games without, you know, I don't want to sound like an ad for it, but
Yeah. Yeah. No, no, but
yeah, it did. It did kind of shock me a little bit.
It was cool. So the segue, right, was the homebrew,
right?
Right. Right. Right.
So this year, Chicago Expo 2025, dude, the homebrew section is like off the chain now.
Yeah. And they were they kindly moved it away from the bathrooms and the exits.
That was I don't know. It was fine last year, but now it's got like they the homebrew section actually has the biggest single booth square footage like bigger than Stern.
Is that true?
Yeah, it is. Like the collective homebrew section is bigger than any one. Quite a bit. Wow. Yeah, quite a bit. Speaking of which, how do you feel about the layout this year compared to last year? I mean, I honestly I haven't been able to just like run around as much as I would like. Last year was quite a bit different and my understanding is that they being the 40th anniversary, there was a little more uh happening and there was some partnerships with some some video game companies that were here. So, and I think that's the reason that last year they had all of Rob Burke's humongous, not all of his collection, but the the games that Rob Burke, the guy who started the Pinball Expo, his his collection of games are a highlight of Pinball Expo every year.
Right. Right.
And so last year, they were all kind of in a separate area from the main
Right. across. So, in the hotel convention center that we're at, Renaissance Shamberg,
uh, when you go into the convention area, there is a main hall to the left and there is a small hall to the right. It looks like
this year the smaller hall has the tournament going. Is that right?
Yeah. Yeah. And last year the tournament was up No, no, no. It was further down toward towards the Starbucks.
A possible third hall.
It was a It was a bit of a hike. Yeah. Now it's the tournament is closer and Rob Burk's collection of games has moved inside to the main hall.
Right. Right. Right. Okay.
Honestly, I kind of like I I think this is probably the more typical setup, but last year was our first time.
Got it. Got it.
And having having all those games in that separate room was actually kind of
special. It was special because you know the big hall it's loud, crowded. Um it's kind it's taxing on the ears. Like I I stepped outside today.
Yeah. earlier and it was just like wow, dude. Like the decibel level just went
Yeah.
and just like the air and
you kind of forget how loud it is. I mean, there's like hundreds of games on, people talking, podcasting,
announcements.
Yeah.
Yeah. That sound like they're coming through a megaphone.
Right. Right. Right. So, it was nice to have that like respit or a change of scenery.
Yeah. And also, I don't think there was any music playing in there. I don't think there was. There is constant music playing in here.
So yeah, that group of games is to me it's the highlight
because he brings like the craziest, weirdest games.
I know.
And last year when they're in that separate room, you could hear all the games really well because it was just like a smaller room. There was less people in there. There was no music. And so it felt like sneaking into someone's private little room and playing like you can play any of my games. And it just felt like kind of magical in there.
It did.
Yeah. I do miss that a little bit. I hope somehow that that comes back.
Maybe maybe next year.
It's still we can dream
like it's it's kind of splitting hairs. It's still the highlight for me. The thing that blew me away this year and the thing that I was wondering the most about coming here is is it going to be a different set of Rob Burke's games. And the answer is yes. Interesting. I remember the games that were here last year and I want to say it's like 90 to 100% different games.
So he's not just bringing the same games here every time. He's got the largest collection in the world and he's bringing different games every year that you come here,
right?
Which is amazing. Unreal. How many games does he have? Do you know?
I think it's over a thousand.
Insane, dude.
Yeah. Guinness Guinness World Record holder for pinball machines. He He actually came by earlier.
Yeah. Yeah. He was He hung out a little bit. It
was pretty cool. Uh we offered him some espresso, but he was like, "No, I don't want to."
Not a Yeah. Who?
I don't do that.
Yeah. Yeah. Not a coffee drinker.
It's He doesn't need it. For every
He doesn't need it.
For every like 10 coffee drinkers, there's one person who's like, "No, I don't touch this stuff. I don't I don't I don't relate to that at all. I don't understand."
Um Yeah. Yeah. I don't I'm not sure, you know, what what else we could provide. Maybe next year we should do uh maybe he likes root beer. Maybe we can just bring a kettle and make some tea because virtually everybody's like, "No, I'm a tea person." What about matcha? All right. Well, you're wrong. But you can be both. You can do both. It's okay. You can be a coffee person and a tea person.
Yeah.
Uh I am I am not like I like one or the It's not a binary choice. I am too.
Really quick before we get further into the stream, we need to cover a couple things including our Instagram giveaway.
Oh, right, right, right. So, I do believe we have a winner. Is that is that right?
I do believe so. Yes, we do. So, we took all the entrance and thanks everybody for entering the contest. And we did draw a winner randomly using a spreadsheet. Okay. So, I wish we had sound effects. It's kind of It's kind of We don't do live. It's kind of weird.
Yeah, we can add the effects later.
So, I'll do my best here. Bis Fortuna. Biz_Fortuna is the winner of the giveaway.
Biz Mark Biz. Mark Biz is the business.
Mark Biz is the lucky winner of our giveaway.
So, congrats.
Dear Mark, I'm going to send you a message on Instagram. You are our Instagram slash email submission winner.
Yep. Um, and what we're giving away. Oh my.
Uh, looks like we got some
We need everyone in here somehow.
Get in here.
I don't know how. We only have two mics and two headphones.
Snuggle.
Hold on. Hold on. All right. All right. We're all here.
Brad, you got to get on the sofa.
Get a little Get a little further away.
You got to get on the arm.
And we got to hurry before this couch pops cuz it might pop right now.
And if it does,
Sarah, there we go. record right now cuz this couch is going to go.
It's called engaging content.
This couch is going to pop.
Yes. Video.
I'm worried.
Here we go. We got us all on the couch.
What if it blows up and one of our anuses just like get so filled with air, you know?
I'm worried.
Hey, I just brought uh just brought over a hoof farted.
It's perfect.
Isn't that what happens to to divers? Like if they land the wrong way, like air like water just injects and Yeah, it's terrible. I have never heard that greatest. Thanks. Thank you.
Hey, Brad, there's been a rumor going on. We just talked about this. Can you can you get rid of this Winchester rumor for us?
Oh, yeah. Ooh, dirt. I want to hear it.
All right. So, the the the planchet on the Winchester Mystery House artwork has a W.
It's kind of this like carved wood style W.
I see right here. Very relevant.
People are speculating that within the W are the letters LFS. LFS
for alignment sheets. That is
not intentional.
Not intentional. Okay.
Total weird coincidence,
but I love that people are looking at the details and that it's it's
like I'm I'd be happy to honor Lyman Sheets.
Totally. Batman 66 is probably is one of my favorite games. I mean, that that code is legendary on that game.
I was just playing 24 and um
that's a Lyman Sheets guy.
Wait, is it?
Yeah. First time I played, I was like, I like this game. Is it?
24 is awesome, by the way. Like how is that game good? It looks horrible. It's from like the Stern Dark Ages 2009
today. Like this Expo 2025 for me was a journey through the Stern Dark Ages because I I actively am looking for like CSI 24 like and I dude 24 was a really fun game. Yeah, I swear to you, we should play it later if we have a chance. I know you're busy.
I mean it's just like it's like Led Zeppelin. It's just Steve Ritchie's like ramped in the back and it's fun, dude. It's just fun.
Shoot's fun. I'm sure. There's little stand up guys you got to like hit that are like I think they have guns or something. There's like a house behind them that you have to like
There's a sniper tower and I don't know. It's not Where is that? I want to play it.
It's It's that way.
It's in Yeah, just walk the corner cuz this whole place is not, you know,
I'll just walk that way and
keep walking. You'll see it. Totally opposite end. Brad, you were saying you're playing I don't think it's even here, but I I played an Indiana Jones. I had no idea that the one Yeah. like it's at this new arcade near my house and wait. Oh, no. This isn't the one that that I just passed down the way. Like that's the the other one. Let's check this out.
Yeah. How'd you like it? Did you like that uh Arc of the Covenant multiball? Did you get that going?
I don't know. I felt like the game lasted forever.
Yeah.
And then it gave me a free game, so I kept playing and then I was just ready. I was done. I I think the one fun thing about that game is it has like a six or seven or eight or a ridiculous number of ball multiball. It happens like every time you're just like, "All right, enough with the multiballs."
I love discovering like new Stern Dark Ages games, you know? Like I'm like, "Oh, what? There's a roller coaster tycoon." It's like Sandwich, Ford Focus. Like, what other what other games am I missing?
Man, I do you want you want to sit on the couch here, dude? What What an awful host I am. Hang on, Brad. Hang on. Hang on. Uh,
I need someone to pull me out of here.
I'm perfectly comfortable here in my
Can you pull me out? I'm I'm stuck.
You're in, dude.
If I'm in, I'm good.
Look at you flail. Help me pull out. I'm stuck.
You're wedged.
Oh my god. I'm going to touch him.
Fully wedged.
I guess I'll slide over.
Pretty tangled up here.
It's okay. It's okay.
I don't know what's a cable. And
it's only like, you know, 42 cables.
So, would you consider uh Playboy part of the Dark Ages? cuz I played that in Houston a year ago and I was just cackling.
It was so hilarious.
It has like a a screen like a wire like curtain, right?
It has the curtain that and you can switch out. It came with like PG-13 or Rated.
This was the Rated when the center folds open up. It's just so funny.
Yeah, it's pretty hilarious.
Is it okay that I use your pocket for my elbow?
Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. Dude, I like it. Do you guys can we shift gears?
Yeah.
Because I really want to talk about your game.
Yeah. Yeah.
We have we have like part of this is an opportunity to talk about this free the game of Expo 2025, you guys.
Oh, I don't know about that, but
it is. It is. Don't be modest.
Come on, guys. Like, we haven't even been able to play it because the lines are so long.
Yeah. Tell tell us about your
That's tangled.
Tell us about the game we haven't been been able to play yet because you won't jump us to the front of the line.
Come on. Everybody Everybody has a chance. It is important. We got to We can't make exceptions, right?
I don't know. It was a giant team effort.
Jeff, you played it way more than I have, so you've probably experienced more of the the like growth of code and light show and everything.
So, I I was driving out to Carl's place to play the Whitewood cuz we had a prototype uh and he lives fairly close to me in California.
So, I would drive out to his place with Sid and she would bring the camera so we could get B-roll and we would play the game, see what worked, we what didn't, you know, talk with Carl about what was fun, what wasn't, and obviously the sound stuff which was my my portion. So
awesome. Awesome.
Dirty Pool, we love you, man.
Thank you. I love you, too, dude. More people should be watching your podcast. It's criminal that people don't,
man. No, no, no. Serious. Thank you. No,
I'm I'm a huge Bash podcast advocate. Thank you. Thank you so much, man. We just We just want to have fun.
Glenn Wctor turned me on to you guys.
Glenn is basically my family now after this trip cuz he sent me a text. He's like, "Hey, I made it home." Cuz he he drove he drove pretty far like immediately last night. I think he drove like straight through uh to see his daughter pitch softball and he sent me that like I made it okay text and I'm like we're family now.
Yeah. Yeah. Glenn Glenn he's like our best friend. He's like just our pinball friend.
He was the first person to ever email us saying hey I really enjoy your show. Thank you. And that means a lot to us cuz we we were doing this for a while without even knowing what is do anyone even like this. You know what I mean?
Yeah. Now we've just been doing threeways with Glenn. Three-way text. That is
three-way text. Yeah.
That's an important thing to clarify. I'd like to add that later. But
are you like Does that mean you're best friends when you do the check-in if someone got home safe? Like is that the metric?
Family.
Oh, it's family.
Family thing.
Is it like Olive Garden?
We'll go to Olive Garden together. Yeah, that's that's for 2026.
Hopefully with you guys. Can we all go to Olive Garden next year?
Are you more of an unlimited soup guy or
bread sticks all the way?
I wasn't I wasn't even on the menu.
That wasn't an option.
Well, sorry to side rail.
Yeah,
back to the game.
Yeah, let's talk about it. Uh, I got to watch the art develop on Slack, which was pretty cool, which Brad, I think maybe you have something to say on that.
Yeah. So, I had a terrifyingly short time frame to work on the thing, but everyone was gung-ho with the direction right off the bat and under pressure, it just seemed to work.
I I love that Brad like went ham with a really aggressive color palette for the game like right off the bat. Yeah, that did go through some like tweaks of hue shifts, but like
yeah, I mean, uh, when David asked me if I was available or what my schedule was like, I was like, woo, depends a lot on what it is, you know? And when he told me what it was, I immediately was like, "Oh, man. Oh shit."
Because like Disney's Haunted Mansion and do you guys remember that old uh CDROM game, The Seventh Guest?
For sure.
Those were clearly directly inspired by The House. So I could turn that inspiration back
by the actual Winchester house.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes. So, uh, Carl and I definitely were like eye to eye about the inspiration and and I think the color scheme just sort of happened on its own. Sort of. And
Carl had sent Seventh Guest as a audio reference to me and I was like, "Bro, you don't need to. I know this theme. I played this game."
Yeah, totally.
That's awesome. That's awesome. So that yeah the the the lack of time really that parameter I think cut out the internal critic you know and we didn't have enough time to second guess much and just went for it.
Pure instinct
skill.
Yeah. And if the theme hadn't like resonated with me if the vibe wasn't something that I was really stoked about that would have been a lot harder I think.
So you're officially a guy who can make things happen under pressure. Do you want to be known for that or you're like, "No, give me give me like a year next time."
I would love to have more time next time. I mean, the the by contrast, you know, Portal was my first production game and that was a very long, you know, meticulous, detail oriented process.
Yeah.
Uh by choice. I was going for that with it and I I'm equally proud of that. So, I think it's nice to know that I can do anything in that sort of spectrum at time. I'd rather fall somewhere in the middle next time probably. Do you I don't Do you think Winchester would have come together like it did if we if we had time though?
No, probably not. I mean
I mean cuz everybody really like literally double crammed double time whatever.
When did you come on?
3 months ago.
Oh, okay. So about the same time then.
Yeah. Three and a half something like that. But I mean as audio I'm brought on later in development like the Whitewood had already been made and all that. So
Well, it's easy for you, right? You just like push some keys.
Yeah. I just sit on I just fall asleep on a keyboard and it makes sounds.
It's pretty easy.
Just use AI.
That's true. It's fine.
Yeah, the whole game's AI top bottom. Brad didn't actually work on it. We just put it into or something.
Generate me a song about a haunted house that has booze and ooze.
Definitely a Theamin layer.
Can I tell you Can I tell you guys something kind of secret?
Yes, please.
So, when we came over here, uh we just wanted espresso. Oh, man.
Are we going to reopen the espresso bar for like VIPs?
Yeah. Yeah, we are.
How do we How do we keep it on the DL, man? How do we How do A crowd always starts to form as soon as the espresso
smell like Yeah, people smell it.
My favorite part of Pinball Expo this year is absolutely the espresso machine that you
Yes. Delicious.
You are not the first person.
I concur. like from doing, you know, dozens of expos and events over the years, the one thing that is always missing is good coffee. This is insanely good coffee.
Yes. Thank you.
I I ironically took a picture of the like concession court. Concession,
whatever you want to call it. Their coffee machine literally said no espresso. There's not even that espresso. There is no espresso.
That's messed up.
It's messed up. It's a problem.
Why even bring espresso up that way?
Why even say espresso? Don't have it on there. They know
they they must be getting a lot of questions.
Serious serious things that need dancers at Expo.
Maybe that should be your booth next year. Just the concessions concessions.
Yeah, let's do it.
So, let's get back on to
I really want you to play the game.
Yeah, we do.
We clearly don't want to talk about it anymore.
Yeah. I mean, I know you guys are probably tired of talking about it at this point.
I know. It's, you know, it's sold out so like we like theoretically don't have to talk about it, but like but we want everyone to know that the hype is real. It's a really fun game and like we want people to play it like
Okay. So, if it's
I can't wait.
Tell tell me about this sold out business. Does that mean it's sold to like nobody can get one anymore or you have to get one from a dealer who's bought one?
Yeah. Canada talked about this about sold through versus sold out. It is both sold through and sold out now. There are no dealers that we are aware of that have.
Okay. All right. Well, that answers that question. So, this is like an instant classic. It's going to be like $30,000 in four years.
Oh my god.
So, we can't get one at all anymore.
I mean, if someone puts If someone sell That's correct. There will be no David is on record. There will be no second round.
Oh my god.
So, this is the new Pirates of the Caribbean, basically.
Wow, dude. I mean, that's cool.
Congratulations, guys. Seriously. Seriously. That That's a big deal, man. For real.
Thank you. Yeah, it's really surreal and weird. Uh, I'm just thankful that it was important to me before knowing it was going to be awesome that I was going to get one myself. So,
nice.
Much to my financial detriment, I made sure that the game was a big chunk of my compensation. And I can't can't wait to play the thing for years cuz I will it'll be bolted, as they say.
I'm I'm also stoked that mine is bolted to the floor.
Nice. That's cool. Like, so if you guys ever decide, you know, we haven't played it yet, but just from what I'm hearing, it's pretty incredible. It's an incredible shooting game. Like, everything about it, we just haven't heard a a negative thing about We've talked to everybody. Like, that's the question we ask everybody like, "What game are you most excited about? Every single person's like Winchester Winchester."
And now we're just mad that we haven't played it yet. And maybe we're never going to get to play. Come out to Los Angeles, do a little mobile bash podcast. We can play some damn wind chest.
All right, we can do it. We got to come down to Dallas. I have espresso and
road trip and pinball
road trip. I I found it's funny like the you know we at barrels have been I at least I have for sure and I know a few other people have been certainly watching the pinside like forum talking about the game and the people that have concerns about the game certain things that they bring up the people that have actually played the game do not have those concerns and I I I urge anybody I know it's rare and this is a dumb thing to say but if you can find one play one and I think that you will see that a lot of the stuff that people are saying it's like too hard or the left's too out drainy or whatever it's like it's not the game's Super fun. It's not too hard. The shots are really satisfying. The turntable functions exactly how you would imagine it. It's just it's a really wonderful pin. Nice.
So So Carl D'Python Anghelo, this is his first pinball machine that he's officially designed. Is that correct?
That's correct. Yes.
And so him being I don't know the one of the greatest pinball players ever in history. Uh I guess it's maybe a legitimate concern that he's going to make a hard freaking game. Sure. And also like does that mean like does that translate to being a good designer? Like I know Ellen is obviously a great pitball player, but that doesn't mean you're like going to be a great designer. Like I can I can eat a lot of hot dogs, but like I'm probably not a good like hot dog chef.
Can you cook one? Yeah, you probably are.
Yeah, you're probably right.
Uh but what's a hot dog?
Wait, do you do you boil it first or
I don't know. See, this is why I wouldn't be a good hot dog.
All right. All right. All right.
But uh so like I remember the first time I went over there and like Sid and I were driving over there and I was like I I hope it's good. Like I'm I'm like I'm like kind of worried and I plunged it and like I just took like four or five shots and I was just like yes.
Like yes.
Brad, did you feel that way too?
Nice.
Oh yeah. Well, for me it was kind of funny cuz I I played it like 2 weeks ago after there was already art on it. Okay.
I I I'm looking forward to getting better at playing it because uh I wouldn't say I'm like a great player.
I generally start just by knocking a ball around. I don't pay attention to what I'm supposed to do. Same.
But the the geometry of it is really kind of fascinating and the
Cool, man.
I'm stoked.
I Dude, we have to play this thing, man. Should we just end this now and go play it?
So, can we talk about Carl a bit? Carl, is Carl here?
Carla's here. He's over at the uh booth.
I love that you try to get him to do the uh pyramid and
Yeah, he doesn't.
He didn't f He didn't [ __ ] with
Dude, that that cracked me up, man. That was awesome.
So, can we look forward to more Barrels of Fun Carl D'Python Anghelo games? Is that an official thing that's maybe happening?
I can definitely say that Barrels of Fun is going to make more pinball machines.
Cool. Cool.
Cool.
They're making pinball machines. Nice.
Good enough,
dude. So, how long do you guys have? I mean, we don't we don't want to keep you hostage,
dude. My legs are killing me. This is the first time I got to sit in a while.
I'm just so freaking hot. I'm like sweating, dude. I don't know. Oh, it's a sweatpants. That's what it is. I'm sweating.
These are, by the way, these are vintage real Jenkos that I had when I was like 13. These are real. warm just for the uh couch.
I thought I was cool, but I'm actually like burning up. So, it was really a mistake.
You got an N64 in there somewhere?
Yeah, exactly. Probably fits right here, man. It's there for nothing.
So, Jeff, can you tell us a little bit about what actually other than just like falling asleep on your keyboard, what went into making the music and producing the audio for this?
Yeah, for sure. So, like I guess Carl like sent me a bunch of references of things that he was like, "This would be cool if this inspired it, but I really wanted you to kind of like do your thing." So I did and I sat down as soon as he sent me the references and I like sat at my piano and I played like a 30 secondond piece and I was just like I think this is kind of moody and this could work for like the Winchester and I sent him the video and he was like this is exactly it and that was the theme that ended up being the theme for the game.
And then you know he's he's got this 100page document or whatever. It's just like every room has descriptions about what the characters are. You've seen
that thing. Yeah, that thing is remarkable.
Wow.
Yeah. I need to go back and reread it now that it it's become what it's become cuz I was reading it before I had done any art, before you had done any music. But the amount of like narrative detail was like nothing I've ever read. I don't read
I don't read rule sheets,
but I found it very impressive and very uh it was clear that he had a a clear vision.
It had it had like poetry in it. It had like the names of the rooms and like their chapter names cuz the every room is like uh like what's it's like flicker and flame is one of it's like the Venetian dining room and then it says flicker and flame like flicker and flame is like kind of the mode name and the other one is the room name. Yeah.
So it it's kind of a tribute to both the house and pinball modes at the same time. But so this document explains like all this stuff. And so like you know I'd read the mode and just be like okay this room's kind of like
actually supposed to be a scarier room like the basement. So, let's make it in that vein where this room is not. And then, you know,
the multiball music, I wanted it to be something that was like kind of like really driving and just in general like we were like,
"Hey, we're going to this is a weird IP, so let's like really be bold with these choices and try to do something different."
Thank you. You're welcome. I mean, will you send me the audio files that so I can use them on the podcast?
Yeah, let me talk to David about that. I don't have any problem with that. I mean, all right.
Yeah, I got them.
That'd be awesome.
Cool. But yeah, and there's lots more. I mean, we got music that's ready for the for the game and and we're just as we're code stuff and Eric has got I mean like we worked really hard. There was a lot of obviously criticism about the State of Doom when it came out and like the whole team was like we really want to make sure that this game not that any team wants their game to not be in a good state coming out, but like there's just a lot of stuff that like is hard that shows up in code and and fixing certain things breaks other stuff and like all of us just banded together to try to find every single thing that we could possibly do and get rid of it all. The games have been rock solid this entire expo and people have put thousands of plays on it. It's just incredible,
dude. Look who it is.
Speaking of
Okay. No, everybody.
I know. You can't see him.
So, yeah. Famed voice actor
Mark. Can you Can you stand in front of the little camera?
Yeah. Marc Silk is delightful.
In front of people.
Can you stand right here in front of the camera? Just look at that camera right there.
Just put your face in and then just say it's Marc Silk. Everybody,
can you just look at the camera right there? the one looking at us on the table.
Yeah, there we go.
There he is.
Yeah, there he is.
Now, do a slow push in on the camera. Just push your face towards it.
So much better,
man. Mark. Mark is awesome. By the way, Mark, we love you. We love you. Thank you.
The last half hour,
the last half hour, all I've done is gone around and said, "There's these guys who've got uh coffee and uh coffee and microphones."
Yeah. You need them. They're making us talk instead of making us coffee. It's really intolerable.
Sorry about that.
There's There's a price to pay.
I can barely hear me.
I cannot hear you. I can barely hear me.
What?
Very loud.
Very loud. Sorry. Sorry, Brian.
Thank Thank you. No, no, thank you, man.
No, that's you guys. This is,
you know, dream team.
Wow. Yeah. I would work with every single one of the people on the team again. The entire team was amazing. It really was.
Absolutely.
Well, I I don't we don't Thank you, Mark. Thanks, Mark.
We We don't want to hold you guys hostage, man. If you have to go, this is your second.
We're not leaving until you make us some goddamn coffee.
That's the thing is like this [ __ ] I'm not going. That's why you're here.
Also, I told David I would bring him one. So, we needed We needed David Vanas one.
Is that Is that what's going to help us play the game a little later? It's not going to help. But
I I am going to go back up there to hang out with the people. I will hold a place in line if you'd like and or you should just come up and hang out with us.
We do have to break down at some point.
Thank you guys. So I don't know if you want to.
Yeah. Emotionally do
this is this could be an outro if we want it to be.
So before we do I don't know how long it's been. How long has it been?
It's been a while.
It's been like 30 minutes.
I don't even know what time is anymore.
Other than let's just say real quick. Other than Winchester, obviously everybody's excited about this game. What other things at Expo have you guys been excited about or into? Or it could be a game, it could be like a mod, could be anything. Like what has caught your attention? I know we've all been busy and haven't been able to like check out everything to the extent that we would like.
For me, there's a vendor over uh sort of close to the entrance, Art of Vision.
Art of Vision,
and they make these incredible shadow boxes. just like you know threedimensional like glass panels dividing the images. Some of it's like
classic game back glass imagery and stuff licensed
and uh it's it's exactly the kind of thing that inspired me to do the kind of work that I do which is like try to bring things
off. Yeah. Like this stuff is so clean and awesome. Like I got to find something to do with them. Brad's booth has all these like multi-layered wooden pieces that you did a you did a Winchester one, right?
Yeah, kind of. It's like a seance thing.
It's got a plant. It's got the same plant in it. It's a Winchester. Oh.
Oh, okay. Oh, yeah.
Not really Winchester.
No. Got it.
Unofficial.
Jeff, what about you?
Um, I have not been playing as much pinball as I want because I've been stuck trying to talk to people about the game cuz I want to talk about about the game to people. But I did make a walk through and Manu gave me an escort through the entire homebrew section and that place is popping.
Incredible. It's really good.
Incredible.
Like those games are like they could just be in your home.
Yeah, we were talking about
Did you guys check out this um what is it? Monster League hockey.
Yeah, the I'm I have a game that I'm supposed to play with sit on it. I haven't done it yet, but I've heard it's pretty amazing. And I heard that some guy did the artwork for it is a huge
guy sitting next to me. Yeah, the art's okay, but the the gameplay is really really something,
man.
No, it's it's cool. It's one of those um it's it's a head-to-head, you know, so it's a hockey game and you're playing against a friend, but
that's like Joust, by the way. He means like it's a single play field, not like
Yeah. There's no backbox. It's
doublesided pinball machine basically.
Yeah.
I I thought of a second thing that I think is my favorite part. Uh, someone showed me a picture from the pinball Olympics and it's 30 men without their shirts on lined up like a human centipede
for for the pinball sexy men count.
Oh my god.
It's like like one long
one giant line of dudes.
About 30 dudes.
It's about 30 dudes.
Wow.
Yeah.
You said shirtless, right?
That's right.
Just trying to get the full
I mean, you can't do a human centipede wearing a shirt.
Yeah. I want to I want to undo that image right now. I can't do that.
It's locked. It's locked in. It's locked in.
It would be a human caterpillar, I think.
I'm sure we'll see. They had their shirt on.
That's true. That's true.
When When do you upgrade to a millipede? That's That's my question.
That's like a 100.
That's a really good question.
Is it about the quantity of men or how many arms they that they have?
Yeah. Well, that I got to do some math for that.
Sure.
What about you guys? Like what what's uh some What's something weird that you've never seen at a show before that you saw here? I mean, the thing for me that the the one like mod or random thing that I really actually just bought was the snake thing.
The pin snake.
The pin snake.
Oh, that guy's cool.
That dude is cool. He's a makeup effects artist.
Yeah. Yeah, he Yeah, that's that's what he said. And
is it Anthony?
That sounds right. Yeah, I somebody referred me to just go check that out. And like I've got a T2 at home and he's got a T2 over there and he's just like demonstrating this thing. And I'm like, "Oh man, it has saved me so much trouble."
That would be useful on Winchester with that damn turntable.
Yeah,
that is very useful for
I would think it'd be super useful for Dune.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Basically like a cleaning tool to snake uh a cloth through, you know, difficult parts of the playfield to reach. And it's just like a simple idea, but it's just like really well executed.
It's got segments that kind of like rotate and adjust so it can go through places. Kind of like a centipede. Kind of like a pinball centipede, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, that thing was cool. That That's That's the only thing here I'm going home with because I can't buy a Winchester apparently.
Uh-huh.
I know. Yeah. Otherwise, I would I would have, but
I'd sell you mine, but there's absolutely no way in hell I would ever sell it cuz you won't be able to get another one.
Not only that, but
Yeah, obviously.
It's really It's like my first game game everything. So, like it's just it means a lot to me and and
of course
it's just a special game.
Wait, what serial number did you get?
I don't have mine yet. We're letting we're letting the customers get the first wave.
Okay. Okay.
I'm curious about that myself. But uh yeah, I mean for me too it's it's really important to know that I'll have the thing cuz then I'm emotionally invested in it. Like I'm looking forward to having it and I want it to,
you know, reward repeat viewing and all that kind of stuff. So, like,
yeah, that's really cool that you knew up front that you were going to get one and you're like, I'm making this art for this thing that I'm going to have in my house.
That was always part of the dream and that's that's like a non-negotiable for me.
Yeah. Yeah. I think me and Don are now going to have to figure out some way to make a game or put music in a game or do something
something. We'll figure it out. I mean, the whole section is really inspiring and I think um
put an espresso machine in a game.
That's a great idea. All right. Coin box.
Dumb.
Espresso machine.
Oh my god.
What's What would be the name of it?
The name of our uh espresso game.
Yeah.
Uh espresso with an X.
That's horrible.
That's horrible, John.
That's a horrible name.
Doesn't know. He's
I'm not a good opt man. Yeah.
Yeah. And And you don't know anything about coffee either. So I
I really don't.
It's a tough question.
I really don't.
Well, shots. There's shots in a game. Shots of espresso.
Oh. Oh, good. Good. We're on to something now. The perfect shot. I don't know. That's too generic.
Okay. How about bean village? I don't know. Bean village. I like it. I like it.
Live in a bean village.
We'll work shop it.
Bean traders.
Ooh.
Nah, it's like a coffee company.
Or like Bean Enforcers. It could be like an 80s buddy cop movie.
Bean Bean Boy.
Ooh, Bean Boys. Bean Boys. Or you could just It could be like Human Centipede.
Just It's got an espresso machine in it.
I I think that could work. Oh man, the visuals, dude. You know what I mean? Like
I don't really want to think about coffee in that context. It's just like kind of not doing something.
It would solve the food through the next person issue though.
Yeah.
You just had coffee.
Feed him.
I mean, coffee enema. That's the thing, right?
Feed him caffeine.
Oh god. Especially this espresso, dude. Come on now.
Wait, what? I have to get on a plane tomorrow. What are you talking about?
No, no, no. He's just saying it's strong. It's not It's not inducing any uh No, no, no.
Oh, man. Uh can can I go with you? Can we go play Winchester?
Moving on. Yes.
I think I think we can we can wrap this up. We can make maybe make a few shots of espresso and uh call it call it a weekend.
I have the perfect uh outro in a way.
Okay, go ahead.
Uh I couldn't think of anything weird right away, but I would say, you know, like cuz we're all weird,
so it's really hard to think of that. But anyways,
speak for yourself, weirdo. Dude, I've been I've had so much fun. Even though we're stressed because we've had to set all this up. We have to figure out how to ship this back tomorrow even though we're leaving in the morning.
Dude, everyone has been so freaking cool, including you guys, man. Like, you've come by multiple times. I think for us a little bit. I mean, mostly for the coffee, the espresso, but also for us a little bit, cuz you got to hang out with us for a little bit.
I didn't know you had espresso when I came by.
Okay. But thank you guys, man, and and everyone else that isn't here, but that we've talked to and interacted with today. Like, I'm just very grateful for everyone that has been like cool to come hang out and just talk to us.
Yeah. And and it's and it's a micro I mean, our experience is is everyone's experience. Like pinball people are cool people. If you haven't come out to Expo, if you haven't like hung out with other pinball people, you should cuz it's like it's such a cool community. I I've made more tight tight friends in the last like 3 years just doing shows than the rest of my adult life because it forces us to see each other like regularly.
Even if it's just once a year, it's still regular and that like like contained audience or whatever.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Captive audience.
Captive audience. Thank you. Yeah. It's like uh I see a lot of these people more often than my own like oldest best friends at home. It's true. Yeah. It's crazy. Like you got to be thankful for that weird shared passion that brings all these different minds together regularly.
True.
To like have an experience like Expo.
Yeah. Yeah. It's It's pretty amazing.
Thank you guys, man. Thank you.
Thank you for having us, man.
Let's go play Winchester and drink some espresso.
Yeah. All right. Thanks everybody for tuning in. We're going to probably edit this at some point and make it into somewhat of a podcast episode. Hey, do you want to be in our live stream for a second?
Oh, do you want to be on our live stream,
ladies and gentlemen? All right, we gota we got to end this with the most epic thing.
This is Mattie Johannings.
The most epic monster league hockey game. There's going to be a delay on the screen.
Can you tilt your head down so that it it angles the hair
there? There. There's a delay.
Yes,
there it is. There she is.
Unbelievable. Maddie, thank you. You are the most epic Mohawk in the history of the world.
Like an expo celebrity.
Thank you. Thanks for coming by.
The mohawk celebrity here.
She's fully decked out.
Yeah, that is unbelievable. That's so cool.
That's how we end it, you guys. Awesome. All right,
bye
bye bye. A nice great