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Winchester Mystery Hoax

Erika's Pinball Journey·video·50m 28s·analyzed·Jun 5, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Barrels of Fun's Winchester game, Pokémon at Fanime, and LGR's pinball discovery represent community growth and cross-market appeal.

Summary

Erika and Manu from Pinball Minority Report discuss three topics: the true history of Sarah Winchester and how the Winchester Mystery House pinball game by Barrels of Fun faithfully recreates a legend rather than fact; their plan to bring Stern's Pokémon pinball machine to Fanime (an anime convention in San Jose) as an outreach effort with sponsor Rewind Pinball; and LGR (Clint Basinger), a major retro gaming YouTuber with 1.8M subscribers, receiving a Stern Fall of the Empire machine on loan for review, signaling Stern's successful outreach to adjacent communities.

Key Claims

  • The Sarah Winchester haunted house legend was fabricated by the family that purchased the house after Sarah's death to attract visitors; Sarah was actually an innovative architect and women's advocate, not a superstitious widow.

    medium confidence · Manu, citing YouTube research, presents documented evidence that the medium/ghost story was invented by later owners, with historical proof that Sarah was wealthy, independent, and pioneering in architecture and infrastructure.

  • Barrels of Fun's Winchester Mystery House pinball game faithfully recreates the legendary (fictional) story of the Winchester house, despite the actual history being different.

    high confidence · Both hosts confirm the game's quality and accurate theme representation; designed by first-time designer Carl D'Python Anghelo with audio by Jeff Dodson.

  • Rewind Pinball, a new Stern and Barrels of Fun dealer, sold out of Winchester games within 24 hours.

    high confidence · Erika mentions that Rewind Pinball had Winchester inventory that 'nobody got sold out in 24 hours' (likely means they sold out).

  • Stern is actively reaching out to large YouTubers in adjacent communities (retro gaming, tech, collecting) to expand pinball awareness.

    high confidence · Manu praises Stern's outreach, noting Zach Sharpe sends marketing emails and highlighting that LGR reached out and Stern immediately agreed to loan him a Fall of the Empire premium.

  • LGR (Clint Basinger) is a 1.8M-subscriber YouTuber focused on retro gaming and computing who released a 17-minute pinball review of Stern's Fall of the Empire.

    high confidence · Manu provides channel details and notes this is significant as one of the largest retro YouTubers to cover pinball in depth.

  • Pokémon pinball will be the first pinball machine at Fanime convention (May 22–25), brought by Rewind Pinball as a sponsor for outreach.

    high confidence · Erika confirms she worked with Rewind Pinball to bring Pokémon, noting this is the first time pinball will be featured in the gaming hall and expecting high engagement.

  • Fall of the Empire is a Stern Premium-tier machine priced around $10,000.

Notable Quotes

  • “The point is to not defame Sarah Winchester's legacy with a fake story about her being crazy and running from ghosts. The point is to mark a person in history who was smart, innovative, and knew exactly what she was doing.”

    Manu@ 17:49 — Core argument about historical accuracy vs. tourist legend, framing the larger issue of how the Winchester house narrative was manufactured.

  • “I can't wait to see how big of a hit the Pokemon pinball machine from Stern is going to be when it's there. Because nowhere else in the world does it fit better.”

    Manu@ 30:12 — Reflects strategy of theme-venue matching and expectations for Pokémon at anime convention; demonstrates understanding of market segmentation.

  • “Clint said he reached out to them. He would go to conventions and he would see pinball and he would love to play pinball, but they were daunting... Clint, I don't know, check the video, he reached out to Stern and said, Hey, I'd love to do a review of one of your games. And they were immediately like, Yes!”

    Manu@ 38:52 — Demonstrates Stern's proactive approach to community outreach and influencer relations in adjacent markets.

  • “Stern is doing a really good job... they also are doing some outreach to bigger YouTubers.”

    Manu@ 38:13 — Positive assessment of Stern's marketing strategy and expansion into new audiences.

  • “There was never any – no researchers could find any proof that Sarah went to a medium and was told that Sarah had moved to California because of this.”

    Manu@ 15:06 — Key factual claim debunking the central Winchester legend; frames research methodology.

Entities

ErikapersonManupersonSarah WinchesterpersonWinchester Mystery HousegameBarrels of FuncompanyCarl D'Python AnghelopersonJeff DodsonpersonRewind Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Barrels of Fun's Winchester Mystery House game recently released; Rewind Pinball dealer sold out inventory within 24 hours, indicating strong initial demand.

    high · Erika confirms Winchester units sold out in 24 hours through Rewind Pinball. Game features first-time designer Carl D'Python Anghelo with audio by Jeff Dodson.

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern actively courting adjacent communities (retro gaming, YouTube influencers, anime conventions) to grow pinball audience beyond traditional collector/player base.

    high · LGR review loan, Pokémon at Fanime, Zach Sharpe's email outreach, HomegrownDB placing games in themed venues. Manu explicitly praises Stern for this strategy.

  • ?

    venue_signal: First pinball machine (Pokémon) to appear in Fanime convention gaming hall; planned as outreach and visibility experiment for Rewind Pinball and Stern.

    high · Erika confirms no pinball previously at Fanime; Rewind Pinball sponsoring Pokémon placement; Stern Insider Tournament planned (top score by Saturday/Sunday 8pm wins prizes).

  • ?

    content_signal: LGR (1.8M subscriber retro gaming YouTuber) releases 17-minute pinball review of Stern Fall of the Empire, significant mainstream crossover moment for pinball.

    high · Manu emphasizes LGR's subscriber base and channel focus; notes this is among largest retro YouTubers to dedicate substantial content to pinball. LGR stated physical pinball experience incomparable to digital.

  • $

    market_signal: Thematic alignment between pinball game and venue appears to drive exceptional performance; D&D in game shop outperforms other Stern titles.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.151

0:00
This is Pinball Minority Report. I'm Erica. And I'm Manu. And we're two pinball fanatics bringing you real talk, wild stories, interviews, and everything happening in the world of pinball. Erica, what are we talking about on today's show? Today's show, we're going to talk about the true story of Sarah Winchester. And then we're going to talk about pinball at Fanime, which is an anime convention. Then we're going to talk about LGR gets a pinball machine. Yeah, I think it's LGR gets a pinball machine because that one's your story. Yeah, LGR stands for Lazy Game Reviews and we'll talk about that in a little bit. But how have you been? What's been going on? We got a lot going on. We've got a lot. Thank you for joining us. My next flight, I think, was Lufthansa. And then I also took Euro Wings.
1:34
Euro Wings? What is that? Is that new? I'm not sure. I don't know. They're, I think, a branch of Lufthansa. Oh. Have you ever flown Scandinavian Airlines? I have. Yeah. My uncle, I think, was a pilot for them for a while. Oh, wow. Yeah. So you flew into Stockholm? Yeah, I flew into Stockholm. I love that airport. I mean, there's not much there, but I love it. You know, so here's something stupid that you would never know, Erica.
2:06
In the bathrooms in the Stockholm airport. She's starting to laugh. This is why you do a podcast with me.
2:18
Okay? In the bathroom in Stockholm airport. They have urinals for dudes to go in and do their thing. The number one, not the number two.

medium confidence · Manu mentions the approximate price point when discussing Stern loaning it to LGR for review.

  • A content creator named HomegrownDB placed a Dungeons & Dragons pinball machine in a D&D game shop along with four other Stern games, and D&D is 'making so much' money, outperforming other titles.

    medium confidence · Manu cites this as an example of theme-venue matching, though acknowledges it's anecdotal rather than scientific.

    • Fanime
    event
    Pokémon (Stern)game
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Clint Basingerperson
    LGRorganization
    Fall of the Empiregame
    Zach Sharpeperson
    HomegrownDBperson
    Dungeons & Dragons (Stern)game
    Adamperson
    Pinball Minority Reportorganization

    medium · Manu cites HomegrownDB anecdote of D&D 'making so much' at D&D-themed shop, expects Pokémon to perform similarly at anime convention. Acknowledges anecdotal nature but strategic principle sound.

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Carl D'Python Anghelo credited as first-time lead designer on Winchester Mystery House; Barrels of Fun establishing new designer talent.

    high · Hosts identify Anghelo as 'first-time designer' for Winchester; game praised for quality and faithful theme execution.

  • ?

    business_signal: Rewind Pinball emerging as new Stern/Barrels of Fun dealer; rapid inventory turnover (Winchester sold out 24 hours) and strategic venue placements signal successful market entry.

    high · Erika thanks Rewind Pinball (Adam) for sponsoring Pokémon at Fanime; Winchester sold out immediately; Erika expresses gratitude for dealer support and visibility opportunity.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Barrels of Fun prioritizes faithful recreation of narrative/theme; Winchester game recreates legend (even though legend is historically false) with high production quality.

    high · Both hosts praise Winchester's faithful reproduction of Winchester Mystery House story; Manu notes game recreates narrative accurately regardless of historical accuracy of narrative itself.

  • ?

    historical_signal: Sarah Winchester legend (haunted by victims of Winchester rifles, hired by medium to build endless house) widely believed by public and perpetuated by Winchester Mystery House tourism; actual history reveals her as innovative architect and women's advocate.

    medium · Manu presents research from YouTube documentaries; cites lack of historical evidence for medium story, architectural innovations (forced air heating, indoor plumbing, intercom, electricity), innovation, and rooms suggesting women's healthcare refuge. Notes current estate management locked into scripted narrative.

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Stern maintaining market leadership through multi-channel outreach: direct influencer relations, cross-community expansion, and strategic partnerships with dealers.

    high · Manu identifies Stern as 'biggest pinball manufacturer on the planet'; praises their outreach to LGR, YouTube marketing via Zach Sharpe, theme-venue partnerships. Positions strategy as successful.

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Erika speculates about other anime IP licensing for pinball; excitement about Pokémon success may inspire demand for additional anime-themed machines.

    low · Erika asks 'what other animes can we convince these pinball companies to make?' in context of Pokémon success; identifies untapped market of anime fans.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Pinball gaining momentum in adjacent communities (retro gaming, anime, YouTube); hosts express excitement about 'winning' new audiences and growth trajectory.

    high · Manu: 'we're winning' in response to LGR pinball coverage. Erika emphasizes outreach to uninformed audiences and hope to grow community. Both note timing significance of major YouTuber coverage.

    • 2:28
    And so I land in Stockholm and that's when I used to go out there to teach dance. So I land in Stockholm, got to go to the bathroom, walk over to the bathroom, see the urinal. And I noticed that there is, I'm like, oh, they must not keep this place very clean because there's a fly down there. And I look close and I go, well, wait, there's a fly on every single urinal. Wait a minute. Are they giving me a target?
    3:01
    Dude, they literally give you a target to hit. Hello. Pinball minority report right here. No, but I immediately was like, the Swedes, they're brilliant. This is amazing because they're telling you the optimal place for you to aim so you have less splash.
    3:30
    It would be the Swedes. They're trying to be efficient. They're awesome. I love them. I love you guys. You guys are great. Okay, so anyway, that's my story about the – You've been many times to Sweden though. This was something we learned or I learned about you a little while ago. Yeah, I miss it though. I've flown to Stockholm like eight times. I miss it, but yeah, so there you go. We'll go sometime.
    3:53
    Yeah, yeah. I also have to make a trip with Isaiah to Japan to find some pinball in Japan too. Yeah, I want to go to Japan really bad as well. But yeah, I made that quick trip and just been working on a bunch of other stuff otherwise. So lots of pinball. That's a pinball. We're going to tell you right now, if you want to skip this and believe whatever you want to believe, Erica will chapterize this podcast. So you can just skip this chapter? Yeah, you can just skip the chapter about the truth of Sarah Winchester.
    5:03
    Yeah, I mean, I'm about to have everything being told to me. I grew up with the Winchester house. I remember going on field trips as a kid to this place. They tell us the story about Sarah Winchester. And then Manu comes to me and wants to reveal Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, everything. He does it all.
    5:31
    I blame YouTube because I watch too much YouTube. But I'm very interested to know because you were the one that did the research on this and not me, so I'm ready to be surprised just like a lot of the listeners. So yeah, I'll put chapters though so you can skip this whole story if this is not your jam. Yeah, you could cut it right out. So anyway, all right. So here's the deal. Because, Erica, I also was taken to the Winchester Mystery House when I was a little kid, scared the crap out of me, all that other stuff. But just to keep all our pinball people up to snuff, you guys probably already know this. The Barrels of Fun recently released a pinball machine based on the license from the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. So the Winchester Mystery House pinball game was designed, actually the lead designer was first-time designer Carl D'Angelo with audio and stuff like that by our own buddy Jeff Dodson from Dirty Pool Pinball. Beautiful game, beautiful artwork. Faithfully recreating, Erica, yes.
    6:31
    Oh, wait, wait, I got one. Wait. If you're listening to podcast, Eric and I are both all praise the mighty pyramid that we both have. I have a different one than you do. Yeah, I got the OG. There's a QR code on the back of this. I never noticed it. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Anyway, Brad Albright and Jeff Dodson did the design for this. Both great people. All right. All right, so Barrels of Funs, Winchester Mystery House, faithfully recreating the story of the Winchester Mystery House in a pinball context.
    7:07
    But Erica, that story, is that story a fact or fiction? I thought it was fact. What makes you doubt that, the fact that we're doing this story right now? Yeah, the fact that you sent me all these YouTube videos and I was like, wait, what? My whole life has been a lie. All right. All right. I'm ready to learn, though. No, now I think it's fiction. I mean, now I think I get it. Like, you got to go to theme park for something. So hit me, Monique. Well, it might turn out that. Now, don't get us wrong. The pinball machine is amazing. Faithful reproduction of the story of the Winchester house. But it might be just as true as the faithful retelling of the story of Twilight Zone by Pat Lawler. Right. Or the faithful retelling of the story of the Addams Family. Real family. You know, that actually existed. They lived right next door to the Munsters. So I'm watching YouTube, which is the worst thing for you to do as a person. All right. Erica, because like you, my life was based on the fact that Sarah Winchester went to a medium or some kind of fortune teller or something. Sarah Winchester, the wife of the Winchester estate, the gun that won the West or whatever, right? The Winchester actual rifle, the repeating rifle. Sarah apparently went to a medium that said to atone for the deaths of all the people killed with a West Winchester rifle, you must go west and build a house and continue building and confuse the spirits. So that because Sarah's husband died and then the daughter died and everyone like died in her life. Thank you for watching. I haven't gone to it since I was like 12. And for context, I'm 31 now.
    10:10
    I haven't gone to it since I was 12 either. For context, I am also 31 now. Ah, yeah. This is the game. How do they compare? There's a pinball machine. We swear it's coming out. And they're like, okay.
    11:22
    I think I remember you asked the staff when were they getting their pinball machine. Is that right? Yeah, I asked the staff if they knew and they were like, not sure, but we know it's coming. And it's going to be right over there with all the other games that we have that are like from that. Well, those are older games. This is not a newer game, but like kind of the game section, I guess you could say. So I still haven't played it at the Winchester house yet, but I do plan to make a visit back there at some point.
    11:49
    Yeah, that was a super cool visit. And Barrels of Fun and Carl and the whole team did an amazing job of recreating the story of the house. We even – remember we took the cellar tour. Was it the cellar tour or the basement tour? Yeah, it was like a basement or a cellar. It's been a hot minute since we went. It was back in November we went, but it's May for context. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, that was fun. They gave us, we had to wear these little helmets so that we wouldn't hit our heads. Oh, I forgot. And that's where people said that they've seen the most ghosts, that they've seen the groundskeeper, that they've seen the people. Like things are just weird down there. And we, I personally didn't expect to feel anything while I was there and I didn't. So maybe if I kept going I had a friend that used to work there and I believe that they said they kind of felt little spooky vibes Sure sure Well I mean yeah it was a fun trip We saw it was like they faithfully reproduced it in the game. So the issue right now is and that's not so this is not the only video that I saw, right? The popular legend claims that Sarah believed that she was haunted by the spirits of people killed by Winchester rifles and that she built a house in order to appease or confuse them, possibly under guidance of a psychic.
    13:06
    According to the story, construction could never stop or she would die. Now, people, they have been kind of going through the house recently, you know, recently within the last, like, I guess, five years or so and finding more rooms and finding things that were not in the blueprints and discovering that Sarah Winchester, number one, wasn't, you know, going back to the Sarah Winchester history, she wasn't necessarily crazy. She probably was the most brilliant construction mind, architect, what else is there to say, super awesome person protecting the rights of women, saving children. There were a lot of things in the house that spoke more to sanity and predisposition of what she was doing as opposed to ghosts and stuff like that, right? And I wrote some of this down. I'm happy. Eric and I are happy to give you guys the information. Go look at the videos. There are many videos on YouTube explaining why they discovered that Sarah wasn't crazy and this is not the real story. is because when Sarah died, the house was purchased by another family completely who tried to do something with the house, couldn't figure out what to do until they discovered if they made a story up and made it a haunted house, people would start coming. And so this is clearly documented. The family that owns the house now, the estate that owns the house now has nothing to do with Sarah Winchester. And so they needed a reason to have people come to visit. And thus they made up the story of Sarah Winchester being told by a medium. There was never any – no researchers could find any proof that Sarah went to a medium and was told that Sarah had moved to California because of this.
    15:20
    And there are also many stories about Sarah protecting women because back in the day, abortions, you couldn't get an abortion. Like if you were trapped or, you know, unfortunately impregnated, let's say that way to keep the nasty words out of the stream, there's no recourse for you as a woman. And Sarah was – Erica, there were like medical rooms in her house prepared with all kinds of things. And this is all kinds of stuff that's not just for Sarah. It's for like many people. She had rooms that kept people safe. If you had to go off the grid for a little while, Sarah was there for you. I have something here written in my notes that says, Sarah was an independent, wealthy woman with an interest in architecture who continually redesigned her home, sometimes rebuilding sections simply because she didn't like them. Okay, not because of ghosts.
    16:23
    Her reclusive lifestyle and the strange design of the house helped fuel rumors of superstition and madness. Sarah had very innovative ideas in architecture and was intricately involved in the construction of her house. She pushed boundaries and innovated in many areas, including, now we saw some of this when we saw indoor plumbing, wasn't popular back. Right. Forced air heating. The floor was warm. Gas powered lighting on demand across rooms. Erica, remember the intercom system that she had? It was crazy. It was like you could tell where everyone was in each room at any point. So, yeah, everything we saw was there. Remember the floors that collected the water and the water would run off? There was like a greenhouse room where the water would run off in a certain way and recollect and do all this stuff. Sarah had electricity.
    17:30
    Sarah had a bazillion dollars and was smart. So the point here in the story is, once again, we'll link to YouTube videos that clearly show the history of the house. The point is to not defame Sarah Winchester's legacy with a fake story about her being crazy and running from ghosts. The point is to mark a person in history who was smart, innovative, and knew exactly what she was doing and exactly how to do whatever with her money. That's a pretty big thing for me because if you're super smart but you're, you know, I'm just going to say that the family that took over the story maybe could have went a different way with it and not, you know, tarnished Sarah Winchester's legacy. Yeah, to make her come out to be someone that she really wasn't. Yeah, what you've told me and what you've researched and what I plan to watch later as well to like kind of get more into it.
    18:53
    Yeah, man, just that's so wild to hear what you were telling me with the earthquakes happening and changing parts of the house and how they just decided, oh, we're just going to say this happened. Yeah, well, for two case in points, I bring up to Erica, which was discovered in a couple of those videos. Number one, the room that goes nowhere.
    19:17
    You open the door and it drops right off the side of the house. Yeah, that would happen if you didn't rebuild the porch that was there. They have – literally they have pictures of that side of the house and the door led to a little opening area where you could step onto and look out. They literally have pictures of that side of the house that's constructed. And when the earthquake happened, that side fell off. They just didn't rebuild it. Sarah didn't do it to make ghosts fall. Because what's the best way to kill a ghost? To make it fall and die. Wait a minute. What?
    19:58
    Wait a minute. Hold up. If it walks out the door, it's going to fall. It'll probably break both its ghost legs.
    20:08
    And it's just tons of that. The other thing, probably break the ghost legs. Yeah, if you put all that together, it's like, let's go break some ghost legs. Now they're only going to stay on the bottom.
    20:23
    I mean, come on. Sarah had more money than most people back then. She was so incredibly wealthy. So, Erica, do you think she could afford a chandelier with 13 candles if she wanted? Not a chandelier that's there that has 12 candles and then some busted up add-on candle.
    20:49
    She could be like, can you just make it with 13, please? Yeah, she could have done that. Yeah, there's a lot of crazy stuff with this story for Sarah. And she, like, it's so interesting from when we took this tour and, like, all the things that they're talking about her and that they're saying what she did. Yeah.
    21:12
    And, yeah. I can see clearly now that she was, that they were wrong. They had to stay on a script. Everyone who works at the Winchester Mystery House has to stay on script. They cannot vary from script. And there's documented cases of people who used to work there that one woman said she felt so sad that she had to say this thing about this wonderful woman, Sarah Winchester. That was not true. But once again, we reiterate the game is amazing and the game faithfully reproduces the story of the Winchester Mystery House. Whether you guys want to believe it or not, that's up to you. We give you the information. We'll give you the links. Go check it out. Let us know what you think. Yeah. And if you want to prove us wrong, if you want to prove Manu wrong and say you've got facts to fact to fact to fact to back it up.
    22:13
    Bring it. Bring it. Let's go. Break the legs. Speaking of ghosts, and this is a terrible segue, but does Fandomay have any ghosts at it? Oh, Fandomay does have ghosts? Probably.
    22:30
    People pretending to be ghosts. But I thought Japan didn't like ghosts. I mean, people cosplay and they could be cosplaying as ghosts.
    22:42
    So. Tell me about Fanime. I'm new to this. What's going on? So Fanime is this fans of anime convention that happens in San Jose as well. So another thing in San Jose, it's actually pretty close to the Winchester Mystery House. So Fanime is in May. It's a fans of anime convention and it's happening during May 22nd to the 25th. It happens during Memorial Day weekend and it's just like Halloween in May. Like so many people come dressed up. People bring, there are dealers, there's artists, there's cosplayers, there's dances, there's all sorts of stuff. They have speakers like voice actors from animes and stuff like that coming out. And I've been going to this show. I'm a fan of anime. I really do. I'm like in my anime era right now, Wanu, actually, because like I watched, I watched Pokemon growing up as a kid. Yeah. Right. And I watched Pokemon and I remember Sailor Moon and I watched some like Winx Club and maybe a few other things like a lot of Cartoon Network as well. I mean, like Nickelodeon and stuff. It's fairly odd parents or. Oh, man, everything's escaping me now. Kim Possible.
    23:59
    Oh, yeah. I heard of that. Yeah. Like I grew up with a lot of cartoons and some of that is there as well. And now I'm like I'm on Crunchyroll and I'm watching Demon Slayer. Oh, really? And Jujutsu Kaisen, My Hero Academia, all these names that like some of you are probably like, what the heck is this? Some of them are really good. And if you want some anime recommendations, be happy to give some more. But I go to the show to go look at like it's I go to go look at stuff. Right. I go to look at people's art. I love going to. So they have a dealer's hall and they have an artist alley. And those are the two places I spend a lot of time in. And the dealer's hall has just like people that are selling like official merch slash like their own t-shirts or swords. Like there's literally like a sword vendor. You can buy any sort of anime sword from whatever video game or show you've watched.
    24:55
    They've got people that sell pillows, posters, some really interesting things there. I like going to the artist alley, though, because these are people's real art. Thank you so much There a lot of conventions that are now being like hey you can have AR art at your booth which I think is great because keep artists doing art And I have a lot of posters I probably could plug in a few pictures or whatnot that I've bought from the years I've been attending the show. I don't go all the time, but I would say I've been to the show at least six or seven times. It's something I really enjoy going to when I get a chance. And, yeah, I just think it's a lot of fun. There's a gaming hall. So now the reason I'm talking about Fanme with you in this episode is because I will be bringing pinball to the show. So they have a gaming hall and this gaming hall has a lot of like Japanese games, Dance Dance Revolution. They have a lot of console stuff and there's other vendors and stuff that bring those. But I was able to talk to my sponsor, Rewind Pinball, who is going to bring some Pokemon pinball machines. Wait a minute. That's Japanese. Yes. I thought of this though because, yeah, they're just, you know, Rewind Pinball, they're a new pinball dealer. They deal with Stern and Barrels of Fun games. So we just talked about Winchester. They had Winchesters for sale and then they didn't because nobody got sold out in 24 hours. Yeah. But this is sort of like a way for their outreach. But also, I just thought it would be super cool to now do this. Like I haven't had a pinball machine that I felt like I could bring to Fanime that would have this sort of impact Pokemon will. So I'm actually really excited. And I've even invited you, Manu, to come. I can come too? Yes.
    26:56
    So we're going to get to go to the show and we're going to get to show people. I'm all set. You're all set with your little ticket. Nice. For those of you that are visually not watching, for those of you that are listening and not watching, Manu just grabbed out his tool belt that he's going to bring to the fan event.
    27:18
    My Marco tool belt, sorry. Not a sponsor, but I love this tool belt. Yeah, we love Marco. They're great. Amodo and the team there are amazing. If they want to sponsor us, it's fine, but not yet. Go ahead.
    28:00
    After being in pinball for as long as I've been, I sort of forget what it's like, right, in the beginning. And when I talk to a family member or a friend that doesn't know something about pinball and I start talking pinball and then they have to stop me, I get kind of excited because I'm like, oh, thank God you've reminded me that this isn't normal or like that this isn't like all well known to everybody. Not that pinball isn't normal. Pinball is very normal. It's just some of what you might know in pinball. It might not be the standard pinball knowledge. And I really like that. So I'm very excited to also know what animes that I want to make in the pinball industry. What other animes can we convince these pinball companies to make? A dream come true. Have you, in the times you went, have you seen any pinball there or no? It's kind of not part of it really? I've never, in the gaming hall from my understanding, I've never seen pinball at the show. They have all these like Japanese games like the Candy Cabs and like Dance Dance Revolution and like, I don't know, I've seen like those crazy dance games. A lot of people like those washing machine games. Those washing machine games where they come dressed with, they have their gloves on and they're just going nuts. The gloves are everywhere. The gloves. I've gone to Stone's Town and we went to that little arcade that's at Stone's Town. And yeah, they're pretty serious. Yeah. No, it's sick though. I like it. And a lot of – I would say this is Halloween in May because so many people come dressed up. And that's what's I think so fun about it too is like the culture of cosplay that happens and getting to see the obscure ones, the most popular ones. Like a very well-known anime is Attack on Titan. A lot of people for some years were dressing up as Attack on Titan. You also have the classics like Naruto and Dragon Ball Z and One Piece. The amount of One Piece loofies out there is a lot. And just for some video games too. Maybe you like some Devil's May Cry or you like Zelda. I don't know. I'm trying to think of all the video games I play right now. I'm telling you though, like I can't wait to see how big of a hit the Pokemon pinball machine from Stern is going to be when it's there. Because nowhere else in the world does it fit better. I'm surprised Stern didn't already think, wow, let's take Pokemon to anime conventions. Because if you were to plop down a Twilight Zone or like say like a, you know, I don't know, a John Wick or something like that at a fan to make convention, you might get a passerby or two. But to drop down Pokemon, which is literally the artwork from the original Pokemon artists.
    30:57
    It's got Pikachu in there. It's got all the guys in there at an anime convention. I can't wait to see what the reaction is going to be. Just that alone, Erica, you know what I mean? Yeah, because I originally was going to just attend this convention anyway. It is something I just enjoy going to. I'd probably go a day or two. Now I'll be there for most of the convention in order to be there at the games and kind of talk to people.
    31:24
    But yeah, I just thought that like, wow, wouldn't this be so cool? And then I talked to my sponsor about it. It's like, hey, I think this would be a really great place for you to bring Pokemon to try to show it to people. So I'm really grateful for Adam at Rewind Pinball for, I guess, what's the, indulging or like, what's the word? Yeah, I guess indulging. Yeah, to help me bring out this fantasy and show people this world that we love so much. And yeah, I'm like really, I'm stoked, man. It's in two weeks, May 22nd to the 25th. And I think we're going to have a blast. It's going to be an incredible, I think it's going to be an incredible experiment. Does the theme work where the theme really should work, right? Like a buddy of mine who also streams, named HomegrownDB, who works for the Simpsons, he put Dungeons & Dragons pinball machine at a game shop. So a place where they literally go to play Dungeons & Dragons, right? He put a Dungeons & Dragons in that shop along with four other Stern games. He says the D&D is just making so much. He's just like, it's just killing, which it should. Right. So by that rationale, I know that's not a really scientific method, like one specimen. But by that rationale, Pokemon at an anime convention? Come on. I mean, let's go. I was just thinking about the people that maybe saw it, you know, like people saw that Pokemon was a released pinball machine, but didn't know like how to buy one or how do you even find one. And so also helping to be like, not just to give visibility to Rewind Pinball, but to give visibility to pinball in general. Exactly, exactly. To help the community grow and for people to know about arcades and stuff. We'll have some little things. We're going to be running a little Stern Insider Tournament. So whoever by 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday has the top score on Pokemon or Dungeons and Dragons will get a little prize. So we have some little fun things we want to give to the people. And I'm just excited to talk to so many new people and hear their experience playing the game. And there's so much that that's going to come from this experience that I'm really stoked for. So it'll be a little collab. We get a little fun time and then helping Rewind Pinball get some visibility since they're our new dealer. I'm very excited for them. They've been given this really exciting opportunity to start to sell pinball machines and I've been very grateful for their support.
    34:13
    Cool, cool. Yeah, I can't wait to see what that experiment looks like. Speaking of people who are new to pinball, story number three today, I managed to grab just today. So once again, I'm watching too much YouTube.
    34:28
    We all do. Yeah, I know. We all do it. We all have to. It's like television now. It's weird. It's exactly what they wanted it to be back in the day. One of my favorite YouTubers, besides Doug Cool Toy, is Clint Basinger. Now, Clint Basinger, better known as LGR, which Erica so wonderfully managed to get through at the beginning of the show. Originally, it's an initialism of Lazy Game Reviews. So I've been watching Clint's YouTube channel forever. It's got to be for the last 8, 9, 10 years. Commitment. Yeah. Clint is an American YouTuber who focuses on video game reviews, retro computing, and unboxing videos. His YouTube channel of the same name has been compared to Tech Moan and the 8-Bit Guy. So if you are a retro YouTube watcher person, you know who Techmoan is and you know who the 8-bit guy is. They are all in the area of – Erica, they're all in like the world of retro video games, retro computers, retro arcades, sort of like similar to Retro Ralph, right? But so Clint – Retro Ralph is a popular YouTuber. Clint, the LGR, is at 1.8 million subscribers, okay? So, Clint, this is his job, what he's doing. He also builds and restores many vintage, let's say this five times fast, vintage video games. I would watch Clint and see things like old mouses and this and that and old computers or whatever. I tuned in today to find him next to Stern's Fall of the Empire pinball machine.
    36:30
    Ooh. Ooh, is right, because it's like, oh, my God, my worlds are colliding. What's going on? So happening. Well, they're getting into pinball. We're winning.
    36:45
    Well, you know, it's funny. This isn't the first time. Right. So we just mentioned Retro Ralph. We just mentioned Cool Toy. This isn't the first time that people from the retro community have kind of crossed over to say, oh, pinball, hmm, right? This is not the first time, but this has got to be one of the largest, most popular YouTubers putting up a 17-minute long video about a pinball machine. Wow. And he said it himself in the video. He says this is not about – because he used to play Epic Pinball on the PC and he loved Epic Pinball. He goes, this is not that. He goes, there's nothing that really compares to actual physical pinball, the balls banging around on the table and stuff like that.
    37:38
    And yeah, it was great. We'll post a link to the video in the description. John Wick Pokemon Lord of the Rings Godzilla In short Erica is that this is amazing for a lot of things Number one he didn buy the pinball machine full disclosure He reached out to Stern
    37:55
    And this is where I think Stern is doing really good for themselves. Okay? Number one, Stern is Stern, right? Biggest pinball manufacturer on the planet. Okay? Stern is doing a really good job. Zach Sharpe sends out these emails and says, hey, we got a new game coming. Check it out. But they also are doing some outreach to bigger YouTubers.
    38:21
    Here's what's funny. Clint said he reached out to them. He would go to conventions and he would see pinball and he would love to play pinball, but they were daunting. The pinball machine is – you and I both know, Erica, they don't look like they're very friendly.
    38:40
    It's a big object. You know, they weigh anywhere from 250 pounds to 400 pounds, and that is, like, pretty big. Yeah, that's a major, that's like going to get a refrigerator.
    38:52
    But Clint, I don't know, check the video, he reached out to Stern and said, Hey, I'd love to do a review of one of your games. And they were immediately like, Yes! I'm sure they looked at the number of subscribers and they were like, Yes! Yes. So they sent him a Fall of the Empire premium for review for three months.
    39:13
    Okay. So it's not like he got a free pinball machine. So people stop. Don't go there. Even Stern is like, look, that game is like, what, $10,000? Yes.
    39:24
    But they sent it to him. He put it together. He did have a noteboard problem immediately. Thank you. So get ready for an onslaught of new, even newer people to the pinball world. But basically, watch the video. Clint wishes he didn't have to send it back.
    40:14
    He's like, I mean, Eric, what do you think about Fall of the Empire, though, as a game for a first-time home casual player? I think it's great. I think for like a casual player, for a home game, it plays really easy. Recently, I saw a list of five pinball machines for beginners somewhere on, I think it was Facebook, like Pinball Enthusiast 2.0 or something. And some guy posted a list from what seemed like a questionable website, to be honest. Maybe it's not super questionable, but I looked at the article and I was reading it and I was like, does this person play pinball now? Have they played pinball now? And like just some of the ways that they were talking about they're like that nasty left orbit on Pokemon. I'm like, excuse you.
    41:05
    They fixed it. They fixed it. But like the games they were recommending was like Scared Stiff, Getaway. I think they had Monsters and Medieval Madness was on there. Of course it is. That was my game that I was like, okay, I have pinball. I bought Lord of the Rings, and then I was like, I don't need it anymore. And if you've watched the last episode, you heard me buy Big Guns, which is another pinball machine. And then I was like, ooh. And then like maybe a month or two after I had big guns, I bought a new in box. Oh man, I bought a new in box Deadpool. And I've since unfortunately sold – fortunately or unfortunately, I've sold that Deadpool.
    42:21
    But it became – sorry, this is a little side story. Just like just real quick. I sold Deadpool and it was so cool because the guy that I sold it to – so every pinball machine has like a birthday on the back, right? Jocelyn McCollum I can't remember that word. Yeah, that's okay. He had a virtual pinball machine. Oh my God. And then I brought him Deadpool and I like unloaded it. And as I'm like talking to him, I'm realizing like, oh, this is like literally your first machine. He's like, yeah, I play it at the arcade all the time and I absolutely love it. And so I then like took that moment to kind of give him like what I wish I got from the guy that I bought Lord of the Rings from because he was very nice, the guy I bought Lord of the Rings from. But I barely got any information from him about like how to put things together, balls in and out and all that stuff. He was kind of like, here's your machine. And I was like, cool, can you help us put it in the truck? So, yeah, I was just kind of letting him know like, yeah, you're going to need to do this with the balls. You can do this in the settings. This is how you turn it on and off. And there was so much that I felt like I was able to give him, which felt really nice. But yeah, this is super cool to hear that this big YouTuber is catching on to pinball. I've been seeing pinball show up in some other of my Instagram and YouTube videos from other creators I really like. There's another Erica, Pixelated Erica. She's with a C. And she does a bunch of Star Wars stuff, Lord of the Rings. She's so fun and so funny. And they gave her a Star Wars machine as well to probably hold on to for a little bit and make a video on. So that was super cool.
    44:26
    And yeah, I'm glad that Stern is doing this outreach because this is like where it is, right? There is no, I love pinball, but there is no sole pinball dedicated channel with 100,000 subs. Like, right? Like there is no pinball channel that solely talks about pinball. Not gaming, not arcades and other stuff, just pinball that I know of, right? Is that true? Would you say that's true? Is there any sole pinball YouTuber that has 100,000 subs?
    45:03
    You got me. Maybe if people out there, if you guys know, hit us up. Let us know. Yeah. Yeah, and I watch a lot of crap.
    45:11
    Yeah, I'm like you too. I don't know. I watch a lot of different things. Like I'm really grateful because there's still a lot of gaming. You have Retro Ralph. He's at like 75,000. Sure. And you have Cool Toy. Cool Toy is a little over 50, 50 something. A little over 50. And then, you know, just some other ones that I know of and watch, like even Stern themselves, only like what, 25,000 or something. So I do understand that there is this thing about pinball, that there is a barrier to entry as well. And it's not as easy. It's big. It's a big item. You know, like you said, it's a big daunting thing. And I do recognize, I say the word, maybe I've said it before, but I believe pinball is a little bit of a privilege.
    45:59
    Yeah, yeah. Because if you're not buying it yourself, then you're going someplace to play it, which, you know, then you have to get yourself there, you have to pay the tokens, maybe you buy a drink, maybe you get some food, maybe you hang out for a while. There are some places that are really great that I love where you pay 20 bucks, you play the whole day. These sorts of arcades though, you know, things.
    46:22
    Yeah, I could go all into that. That's a whole other thing. But yeah, LGR getting his first pinball machine. I'm really, I'm stoked. I got to watch this video now. So it goes back to the saying, right? The old saying, a rising tide lifts all boats, right? LGR gets to benefit from enjoying pinball. They sent him a great game. He loves it. He says he might just buy a game, right? Boom, Stern gets a sale. At the same time, Stern gets some cred from 1.8 million other people who probably wouldn't have seen pinball, let alone Star Wars pinball. So they benefit. And guess what? Jersey Jack benefits because if there's an insulat of people into the pinball world, they might discover other games. Barrels of fun. Everybody benefits from this. Even you and I, Erica, we might catch another listener to our podcast. Yeah, I did see. All because.
    47:24
    Yeah, all because of this. I'm stretching this analogy. What did you see? I do see like some random like waves of views for some of my videos like where maybe something came out and then like all of a sudden randomly now I have like 200 extra views on Pokemon or I'll have this many extra views on this other video. So people are interested and they want to know more and there just needs to be, we're going to figure it out. We're going to figure out how to get people into it a bit more, at least help that barrier to entry. My thing with pinball, I think my biggest goal that I even think with my channel and just with talking with you is hopefully that more people will just know that pinball still exists and they're still making it. Because that's probably the number one phrase I get from someone I tell that I play pinball or I'm into pinball. They're like, pinball? They still make those? So it's really awesome to hear that a channel that big is getting some pinball action. That sounds kind of questionable, but I'm glad that pinball is being introduced on their channel. I think so many more people can enjoy it. I think that we need that innovation. We need that drive. We want to see those licenses and with Pokemon entering and you've got even Harry Potter. You had Tom play. You had Malfoy play Harry Potter. Yeah, play Harry Potter. That was such a great video too. I'm sure that they got some extra people from that as well and knowing about the game. So, yeah, just more pinball outreach. I love it. Yeah. Well, we'll post the link to that also so you can watch LGR and enjoy Fall of the Empire in the show notes. Yeah.
    49:16
    Oh, man, Manu, just talking to you makes me so tired. So. Leave this in. Please leave this in. Well, that's going to be it for the Pinball Morning Report.
    49:36
    You can check out our socials. I'm Erica's Pinball Journey. That's Erica with a K. And we have Manu of Mystery Pinball Theater 3000. He has actually – guys, someone has stolen Manu's identity. So Manu doesn't have a YouTube channel right now, but you can go on his Instagram. Yeah, I'm working on it. Be careful with getting in Manu's DMs right now because you might not be talking to Manu, which is really scary and sad and makes me confused. Even when you texted me, I was like, Manu, is this you? Use our safe word. Use our safe word, Manu.
    50:08
    Pineapple. Hey, why would you tell everyone our safe word? Well, we have to change it now because that's what I said in the text, right? Okay, all right. We'll change it.
    50:18
    My safe word is no date. No date, Manu. Oh yeah, that's it. Bye guys.