Another hard hitting interview! Thanks Nate! (Sorry, couldn't resist) #jpop #offthehook

In some ways I agree with RD 100%.

I just had a whole group of friends over to play bubble hockey. Pins only get very few plays in those nights... It's mainly beer, chatting, some darts, and bubble hockey.

Any mention of pinball games and "rules" typically induces a total look of confusion and surprise. The average pinball player... Your typical person... (1) doesn't know that pinball machines have rules (2) likely doesn't care and (3) doesn't have any type of skill that allows them to control a ball enough to look at a screen. Those are just the plain and simple facts.

This talk of screens vs DMDs is only a concern to a very small sliver of the pinball playing public. The rest of the public - the ones that feed the machines - have zero interest and don't care.

LCD screens and the complexity offered by games such as WOZ are great for the handful of home players and collectors that exist. I love WOZ... Screen is great... But the learning curve is steep for an experience that's already confusing enou

That's kind of my point and why I agree. But, as I search for my next pin I'm not looking for something that I'll learn in the first 5 games either. Despite the best closest location pinball for me being 1 1/2 hours away, Pinball on location is on the rise or so it seems; so someone is doing something right.

Right on. Metallica and TWD had those hooks for me. It was the sound and gameplay that hooked me in a handful of plays.

Why is it every time I see comments like this, I think of this photo??

Internet-Tough-Guy_o_88538 (resized).jpg

If you think I was trying to be a tough guy then you are wrong. I was being critical.

Now if I said I'd beat the shit out of you for talking shit then that would be acting all internet tough guy.

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Critical of a guy that does a 100% free podcast?

Are you kidding?

Tell you what, you start your own podcast. Let us all know when it's up and running... you get Gomez to come on your show...and then we'll all compare your show to C2C.

See how that works out for ya

So let's say he did create a podcast in this fictional world and let's say it did become biggerer and betterer than C2C. Would he be able to criticize Nate then? You would probably accuse him of bullying. I agree with you. Porkchop you're a stinking bully picking on C2C when you're fictional podcast is so much bigger than Nate's. Leave the little guys alone.

Obviously you can't assume anything about what I would or would not do. The point is, C2C is all donated time on a format that's 100% free. Don't like it? Don't listen to it. It's far from a paid professional or paid investigative format. Same goes for every single other free pinball podcast out there.

If someone feels like these free podcasts aren't asking the hard hitting questions they want answered...then they should go start their own free podcast and ask their own questions. Much better than getting on a computer and complaining. Action will get them way closer to what they apparently want.

Re-fucking-lax guy. I didn't say I hate Nate or Coast 2 Coast.
Tell you what, take your meds bro.

Exactly. I'm a buyer and still enjoy the podcast. I look forward to your next episode. Cheers

Oh come now, I'd give your podcast a chance. Let's hear it!

In a lineup of modern A list titles, the people who have no idea how to play pinball gravitate to Wizard of Oz. Source: I'm an operator.

I agree with you about the small sliver, but you're overlooking the massive "moth effect" of a giant color display. They don't look up at it at all while playing, but it's the thing that lured them over to the game in the first place.

Good point

Gomez says its all about the back glass being the focal point of the initial attraction.

I'll go with my common sense and the operator that puts these pins out there and collects coins.

The LCD is great for the Operator. But I want it for HUO because its awesome!!

When games were 4-4500 for NIB the focus and BOM should have been focused under the glass. With the price point that Stern asked for GBLE it's laughable they didn't even create colored dots for that game. Spooky on their second title did something Stern never did in their entire time creating DMD games. The worst part of the art package on GB is the freaking lousy looking DMD.

There's a location near me that has RZ and GB side by side, and I never thought I'd say this but - I'll take GB's red dots over Spooky's Color display if their games are going to look as shitty as that. The display itself was very washed out, and the animation was created in such a low, blocky resolution - it looks like an Atari 2600 with a dot filter over it. Give me GB's nicely animated scenes in red over that garbage.

I fully agree with this. I was at this same location and had the same exact thoughts. RZ is fetching near $8k prices when it looks more like a $3k pin. jjp machines make sterns look cheap, and stern machines make spooky pins look cheap. The good news is we have 3 company styled pins to choose from and with sterns PF issues and ever increasing prices, this is a good thing; but I'm with rarehero, the dots on GB are outstanding and I'd take GB red dots over RZ colored ones.

But I do agree in that stern needs to finally get on the ball and be done with their dmd...and that day is coming!

I'd have to admit, I had similar thoughts when I played RZ at the Allentown show. Although it was tough to tell if the display had been setup properly. It looked like someone had gone into the menu and turned the display brightness way down. Perhaps this is how the game ships? Weird.

My point was that Spooky tried something new, regardless of opinion on how it looked. You'd think the only real manufacturer of pinballs would have had some sort of innovative idea with the display over the last 20+ years.

There should be an option when starting a game. Sound and video, "Do you want to watch a short lesson on how to play this game? Press the right flipper for yes." Screen can play a tutorial, playfield lights stuff to follow along, flippers flip when appropriate.
Pinball Arcade app instructions do a decent job.

I too feel the full screen backbox display is nearly useless. If critical game info is up there the game needs to secure the ball and present the info. If you're trying not to drain you can't watch the screen.

With how nuanced the rules are getting more information is better when the playfield cannot display it all. Look at IMs new code and the inclusion of drone targets needed in the status reports. If all of that could be dispalyed on the screen at once it would enable the player to steal a glance than having to get the ball to a dead stop.

woo hoo. Love me a new episode!

Powerlifting isn't an Olympic discipline. Weightlifting is

Otherwise, great meme

Taylor, I couldn't agree more about the red dmd's. They're worse looking than the orange! I don't want to buy a nib pin, only to pay another $400 to colordmd it asap. Btw, our local GB already has a red line down the display... No, I don't need a 50" big screen tv on the backglass. 14-15" cheap laptop screen will do nicely! Dutch Pinball has figured it out. These should've been standard 10 years ago.

Big thumbs up on the no kids decision! My wife and I made the same choice.

Anyone else having an issue with the episode? I get an error message through Podcast garden and it's not showing up on ITunes

Try www.podcastgarden.com/login/audio/272/230.mp3

please have more Theresa on the podcast. I think she would make a really good co-host and enjoy the banter. Enjoyed the extra part at the end. Wish we could get back to 1 C2C every two weeks but I understand the difficulty with the move.

I don't think you addressed it on your podcast... Are you keeping any of the games during the move? I know you said some people were interested in TZ. But I hope you keep your AMH.

Great show Theresa! You were good also Nate.

But here is the big question. The name of the show is Coast 2 Coast. I thought that was because you were bouncing between East and West coast USA. With this move does the name remain? Isn't it more of a Fjord 2 Fjord?

I hope the amsterdam pinheads welcome you warmly with a nice cleaned up Dr Who waiting for you for a killer price.

also, Chicago weather is much preferred to Amsterdam, but they are all so high that they just tell you it is better

???

I don't know. Never been out there. How about C2C (Canal 2 Canal) lot of those right?

Dike2Dike since he'll be in Netherlands?

Nah - better not.

C2C - Coffehouse 2 Coffeehouse?

I'd like to hear more about Joe Kaminkow's involvement with Batman 66, and what the future of Ka-Pow Pinball is.

At first I thought it might be a one-off (the name plays off the old Batman series), and that he was able to bring the license and assets. But the application for the Super Mega Infinitely Awesome Edition asks about other titles we'd like to see. So that makes it seem like Ka-Pow wants to do more small run machines. And would those be based in some part on previous titles.

Maybe you can get Joe to come on C2C.

cathouse 2 cathouse? isn't prostitution legal in amsterdam?

I didn't when I was in school so why would I now?

Besides, I thought it is next to Germany. So wouldn't it be "Coast 2 Germany"? That's a pretty bad idea Nate. You should have thought of the global implications in the beginning. At least you got it right with that other show. You know the one you should be working on now.

There are no issues with Nate using C2C after the move to Amsterdam. Once you learn it stands for - sea to sea - you'll realize that you liked it all along for good reason. Keep podcasting

How about, "Pinball below Sea Level"?

What about "Continent 2 Continent"?

I was wondering if the Ka-Pow thing was to do this one-off. But, "Ka" is the beginning of Joe's last name, so maybe there is a relationship there instead of the Batman visual effects. I would say that anything Joe has worked on for gaming is now a potential Stern title.

how about Wide World of Pinball?

Nate said near the end that a new episode for that is coming up soon. I enjoy those and remember that they have a good list of things they want to talk about, just can't remember what was near the top of the list.

I checked out Aristocrat's site, which is the company that made the Batman 66 slots. They have made a few other games with licenses. TWD and GOT have slot machines and I wonder if they could use the assets of the slots to make color displays for Stern's existing games.
The only other licenses they have are Big Bang Theory, Sons of Anarchy, and Britney Spears. I really have no interest in any of those licenses but Sons of Anarchy has some potential. It's been a long time since someone has done a good biker gang pin like Centaur. Maybe they could even reuse the old Harley Davidson layout, which wasn't too bad, and tweak it a little bit.