Great show guys!
DI cleaned up. TNA was a breath of fresh air and either pin deserved the honors.
Like him or not, Kaneda’s podcast is by far the most entertaining.
IMO the awards were pretty spot on.
Keep up the good work.

Agreed and that's why he got the votes.

He also brings up the topics that other podcasts can't speak about because of the pinball politics, forum cliques and resultant ostracism that would occur.

I enjoy listening to all of them but with due respect to the content of our local podcasts there is no way either of the nominees from Australia would ever dare to devote a podcast to calling out a serial prototype builder and IP "borrower" as a racist homophobe or the local forum AussieArcade as a hive for bogans for the reasons stated above.

As an Aussie who travels abroad regularly, the fact that someone from overseas brought both of these issues into the light to a global listening audience gets both my respect and resultant vote.

I think DI winning did that and again with TNA coming in 2nd.

Great show all around. Tip of the hat to Greg & Zach for making what could have been a boring reading of the winners to something I enjoyed watching. It was good to see so much of the community come together and watch.

Dialed In deserved its accolades. TNA as well. I don't understand totally the absence of Alien, other than it wasn't considered "this years" game?

"Theme of the year" is kind of a silly award. I laughed.

It was easy to call out the winners before they were announced, and there really was only one surprise.

I don't listen to any pinball podcasts regularly, but there's one I just can't listen to (I've tried multiple times). More superlatives per breath than even the most orange of world leaders, with the ability to craft buffet tables full of word salads consisting of little more than self promoting narcissistic nonsense.

Must be doing something right, but I just don't get it.

Good show, TWIP and SDTM.

Well put and fully agree with what you said!

Good stuff thank you. It’d be great to to a retrospective awards now from the last say five years. When JJP came on the scene and onwards.

Very entertaining show. Congratulations to all the winners and all the 'losers'. A fantastic year for pinball.

I didn't vote, but I wish I had. Next year.

I didn't watch the whole thing, but you're saying Alien was never read as a "final 3"? It was in the list of "Released in 2017" candidate games, so then if it's name did not get said at all during the broadcast it never made the top 3 votes in any category.

I think the vote was as fair as can be, and likely had some good numbers and participation. So, the market is speaking at this point. I'm sure not everyone will agree, but a vote is a vote.

Huge night for Zach & Greg! Very well done gentlemen. SDTM a Pinball show is the most informative, non biased and incredibly entertaining show in ALL of pinball. It has been my privilige watching your show and brand grow this year. I could not be happier for you guys. Congratulations on all of the well deserved sucsess.

Thank you
Jonathan
Amusement Services of America

I thought the show went pretty well. Congrats SDTM, TWIP, and anyone else involved in production.

I tend to agree here. Yes, there were some original themes in the running. However, licenses vary in price. Some companies can afford licenses that others can't. That doesn't seem like a level playing field to me.

What was the total amount of votes cast?

By the way, great job to all of those who were involved. It was a fun event.

Head 2 Head did address it... and basically said they weren't going to cover Homepin anymore. But, you're right, Kaneda has definitely been a welcomed voice of reason!

Great show.

Got to ask how in the world DI won best code though.

I guess I have very different tastes as I didn't agree with most of the winners. Lots of good games made this year though.

Congrats to all winners and to TWIP and SDTM. The results of these awards I find quite interesting. The biggest winners are clearly Dialed In and Total Nuclear Annihilation, both original themes. Stern Pinball, while being the largest manufacturer, only won in two categories with two different games. In one category TNA was a very close second (behind Star Wars), which is impressive. I can only hope these result will translate into well-deserved sales of games.

That was a fun show, far better than I was expecting. Congrats to all involved, you guys did great.

What about it’s code didn’t you like? To me it’s so clean and polished, it teaches as you play. Lots of modes, great toys the video is great, scoring, all of which take great code to make work.

I think it might just different understanding or definitions of code, what would your winner be for code?

The games are only eligible for voting if they're released in 2017. Stern's 2017 games probably won't be finished until later in 2018 or (likely) beyond. That's how they run their business, unfortunately.

I love playing Stern games, but it's on them for releasing them with poor code. Congrats to JJP and TNA for producing quality and complete games! They've earned the awards.

I also thought it was interesting Stern won those two, they hired a great artist and they paid for a great license.

One thing's for sure, Stern has the artists and the themes.

I don't dislike it but it's certainly nothing mind blowing or overly original. It's just ok for me. I was very surprised to see it win best code, best theme integration, and best display. I don't think it's the best at any of those. It's a good game overall though.

Great show guys !!! Very well done. What strikes me about the winners is that it clearly shows that the best games get made when there is no constriction on creativity. what I mean is this:

TNA: This has been a labour of love. Scott did exactly what HE wanted to do with the machine. He programmed it, made the music, made the rules, did almost everything. He has done better than all the "professionals" at Stern can do. And that is saying something. Professional means constricted by funds, not better than a non-professional.

DI: Pat got carte blanc from Jack and it shows. If this would have been a themed machine it would probably have become the best machine ever.

Great job guys! Had a blast

DI got more votes than Alien for Best Theme? That vote tally can’t be right

Nice show guys. I agree with all the winners, which is kind of odd

DI certainly has the best code, and is deserving of game if the year.

What would you rank above it in those categories?

Best code = SW
Best theme integration = BM66
Best display = BM66

I think DI for best overall is probably the right choice for most people. I just don't get how it won some of those other categories. Like I said, it's a really good game that deserves a lot of praise. Some of those just don't make sense though.

Well that does sort of confirm what I alluded to given the events which transpired and that anything broadcast regarding the subject matter from that point on would have to have contained at least some level of critical condemnation to maintain content integrity.

In any event, I'm not out to poke at either of our two local podcasts as they both do a very good job in holding the middle ground under trying circumstances.

Respect for both H2H and pinheadz and I hope their broadcasts continue.

This is very true. Maybe Stern machines should be considered of the previous year. I suspect that when a great number of people get to play Batman with the current software the votes for callouts and code would be very different. I know I hated the (lack of) callouts before and now they are among the best already and the code is not even finished.

I’d say it’s just partly because many more people have played/own a DI versus some of the other pins

Most are missing out on a great BM66 now because of their initial impressions.

Lyman games will never fare well in annual polls because it takes so long to get em finished

How many people have played an Alien pin?

TNA should really continue to pick up sales steam. Another finished pin

As a Batman66 owner I can see the tide changing for the title, but at the same time I acknowledge that the game Stern shipped this past year, and the version most people played over the past year, isn't going to win a best code award.

I think it having a "good showing" by being in the top 3 for a lot of categories is fair though, and I expect more people will be impressed with the final version as it gets completed.

"Shawshank Redemption" was nominated for Best Picture the year it came out, and no one had heard of it or saw it. It didn't win. Only as the years passed that people discovered it and its one of the best loved movies of all time.

Woot Woot for TNA and Kaneda!!!

Nope, Stern should just have better code when they release games.

Need to add a new category: "Public Personality you'd most like to have a beer with"

Zack and Greg were masters last night and really made the show entertaining. I'd buy those guys beers anytime.
I haven't been watching SDTM but I will now.
Congratulations to all.

Uh that’s a deal. Greg’s mouth is watering already not only because he loves beer but because he’s a tight ass and loves free beer. Thanks for the support and welcome to the SDTM team!

That was being sarcastic.

Great show guys, congrats to all the winners.

You guys are picking up even more fans!! The production of the show was superb. Can’t wait to see what happens next year with this now annual event. Good job guys!

Great show guys-very professional from the SDTM team

Great Show Guys and to all the Winners. TNA won, in spite of having very few games released. Having a few thousand games out is enough exposure for all to see and judge, but with probably only 50 games out, it says a lot that TNA was a recognized winner. BM66 was also another surprise. While it has plenty of games in the wild, it suffered from a whole year of lacking code. Now that has been improved, people are embracing the title now and love it.

pm if you want feedback for next year's presentation.

Biggest feedback would be to come up with a system that is not ripe for abuse/ballot stuffing.

It appears you are attempting to make this a thing and build momentum. If so, then the primary thing that needs to be done is to come up with a better system that does not allow someone to easily just make it a social media popularity contest to stuff the box or make multiple accounts to vote multiple times.

Other thing is to publish the actual number of voted and not just percentages.

How many actual votes were cast for each category? 100 or 1000?

I'm surprised that TNT didn't even get into the top 3 for best pinball youtube channel. I agree with the winner but I just feel like with all the hard work Todd and his crew puts into his videos, he should have been up there.

I'll mention a few considerations high on my list that effect the voting process. Clearly define how candidates will be considered and be transparent about it.

Having a general idea for qualification is not enough, the description has to be longer than five words. For instance, using any game in production is too vague. It means a specific Stern game might be eligible for 3 or 4 years. So if GB was super hot, it could win best game of 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Other award shows use the year of release, but even then sometimes that is ignored and the title is counted in subsequent year for political reasons. Define it with rules and follow them.

What about vault editions - are they considered to be a new release and eligible for voting? How about if ve has very few changes like IM?

Is there a minimum number of games shipped to be considered or is three games enough?

For 2018 what are dates for cuttoff for consideration of an entry, date for opening polls, date for closing poll and date for announcing? Once they are figured out let us know.

Publish list of candidates ahead of closing for voting. This lets the public scrutinize your process and fairness. Then close the candidates list before the ballets go live to keep playing field level. You did a really good job in both these areas.

This happens with every type of awards. Forget about the winners, sometimes there are straight up snubs in the candidates. Daft Punk not being nominated for an Academy Award for Tron Legacy soundtrack comes to mind, and is relevant to pinball. Every year there are new ones.

In this case, the top 3 were for the 3 with the most votes, so not even a direct snub by an organizer. I agree Todd is great, but sometimes the old guard gets looked over.

I guess my point is, these things will happen. All the organizers can do is make sure nominations are fair to start with.

I dunno dude I haven’t heard anyone else complain about this but you... and it I bet if kenada didn’t win you wouldn’t be complaining either..... and yes enjoy the sweater.

Agree with everything here, and I would also suggest making things like the Best Mod only apply to ones that were developed that year. Many of the mods that were nominated had been around for several years, if not longer.

I voted a bunch of times myself, just because...

I dont care that Chris won for podcaster. Glad people find joy is his shtick as it gives him the attention he desires and keep him from doing stupid things it appears. I have not listened to him for probably a year when he banned me from his channel and went on his tirade podcast against Robin. I gather he still has a hard-on for me with all the sweater comments? Something about buying me a Gucci sweater to wear if he won podcaster based on PMs I got. Strange, but whatever floats his boat i guess.

My feedback is that for any thing to grow like this awards show, you need to have the consuming populous feel it was not rigged and a reasonable representation of the actual community votes. transparency and confidence that 1 person = 1 vote is a good thing... My comment was based on knowing some people felt it was rigged that some Stern games did not do better in the polling.

Billy has been doing a similar end of year vote for a bit now and with at least using pinside polls there is transparency. There is no transparency with this polling system, anyone with multiple gmail account can vote multiple times, and without knowing the actual vote totals that sway could be large. If only 100 people voted then my handful of votes could have had a big impact

The problem I see is that not everyone has the same amount of time on a machine. To take myself as an example, I only played the TNA whitewood at TPF last year. That was nothing like the TNA that Spooky makes now, so I cannot really judge that machine. The same goes I think for Alien. Only played it twice and all the bad rep it has gotten is very likely to influence the votes. The things I hear about Alien now are much more positive than say two months ago.

So everybody that votes does that with his own experience. While that is great and shows how the community feels, it does not mean that the votes would be the same as when for instance a group of enthousiast was to judge every machine and get it in their house for a while.

I do think it is a very interesting and enjoyable show to watch and hope you keep it up for years to come !!!