Good job Blueberry! Fun to hear you on-air. For what it's worth, I didn't even notice an overabundance of "likes". I guess some people are more sensitive to that sort of things than others.

I listened to this episode yesterday on my way into DC and I enjoyed it. Was glad to not hear Deeproot talk and listen to some good pinball discussion during the drive.

Oof, bold take! I thought it was one of the more unique story arcs in the MCU, which was refreshing. Movie really stands on its own, even though some might say it was just a nostalgic "fan service" movie. I do agree that Dr. Strange's lackadaisical attitude and recklessness seemed pretty out of character, but I guess you have to suspend some of your disbelief if you want to establish an interesting premise.

FWIW, I thought Andrew Garfield was paid a lot of respect. He had a nice big emotional payoff, carried a lot of the comic relief throughout the second half of the movie, was featured prominently in the action, etc.

PS, Steve Ritchie's spirit animal is a Walrus. Case closed.

PPS, not at all surprised that blueberryjohnson is a great podcast cohost!

Agree .
There will always be someone who tries to find something to bitch about , no matter how good whatever something is .

It's hard not to do verbal tics and "filler" sounds. I still struggle with my "umms" and "likes", especially if I'm trying to think/remember while speaking, and I've been doing podcasts for years.

Great job BJ, don't get your blueberries in a bunch!

As a lifelong stutterer, I wish my only complaint was an occasional "um" or "like".

Good job, Blueberry.

blueberryjohnson was great. Hope he comes back for more.

TPN is free and puts out amazing content on a regular basis. Tip of the cap to all the creators taking the time and effort to give the community all this content at no charge.

Agreed and Dr. Strange f'd up enough other stuff in his own movies to make it more believable. My only complaint was that it got a little too sappy at the very end but William Dafoe absolutely KILLED it (again) as The Goblin.

Great deep dive into deeproot with @blueberryjohnson. Sounds like you got a dump of info right before that podcast so I very much would welcome a part 2. You two did a great job summarizing the timeline and breaking down some of the nuanced info of this crazy ride.

I still have not listened to the TPS for this week but looking forward to it based on the rapport between Zach and BJ. Great guest host.

Yes great job to the Blueberry Man for taking his time going on the podcast and sharing all the work he has put in on this fiasco! Very much appreciated and not once did I ever pick up on the excessive "like" that some posters are posting here. Great job blueberryjohnson and again appreciate your work on this and appreciate Zach again for being a gracious host and putting out top tier entertainment!

Thanks folks for the kind words. I really appreciate them. I also appreciate ZMeny for the invitation + opportunity to get a bunch of content out to a bigger audience than my typical stomping grounds.

Speaking of the deeproot thread, I held off posting leaks and employee accounts over the past month or so to bundle stuff for the TPN show. I'm still mostly doing that while seeing what's next with Knapp and any future podcast stuff. However, I did upload this fantastic whiteboard photo yesterday that was referenced on the show.

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I'm also going to go drop a few interesting financial things on the thread now. If you're fellow or budding deeproot enthusiast, feel free to swing by: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/twip-is-deeproot-the-next-misadventure-or-a-pinball-revolution/page/616

Great episode, love the insight!!

There is much less "PEPE SYLVIA! PEPE SYLVIA!" going on with that whiteboard than I expected...

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blueberryjohnson was brilliant, great insight, well spoken, and was a fun listen (to both pods) ... instant fan here. I have to speak at length during all kinds of meetings, and I just started using the transcript feature in Teams. And for some reason there are like (pun intended) hundreds of uuuhs and uuuums in the transcripts. Must be a bug ...

DennisK is always on point and continually cracks me up, never noticed a single filler word, but I gravitate to less formal pods ... sorta like having old buddies chatting about pinball in my ears. Don't care if it isn't NPR quality.

Ridiculous behavior DeadFlip

A full public apology and retraction should happen today.

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What is this?

Looks like someone is suggesting that just because you are "friends" with someone on a social media application that you are somehow responsible / accountable if they post a comment on your feed??

Shit I need to delete my whole friends list then. Starting with some weirdo named Bob.

Yep. Jack hasn't hidden his distain for a couple of those folks in the past but to somehow try to link them to an unhinged comment from some idiot is really reaching.

Ha! I'm just happy I made it higher on the list than Brazy !!

Really bush league Jack

I’m sure you’re fully responsible for the actions of everyone on your friend list

Don’t worry- he’ll bury it with 6 posts today and never acknowledge this nonsense. And he wants to be taken seriously as a designer

Looks like Jack deleted the comment with this picture on Facebook to “avoid confusion”. What was the confusion exactly? Lol

Removed the friends list photo to avoid confusion?? Right. The speculation/damage he wanted to cause Zach & Ken has already been done. Shitty move Jack.

Brief aside from the new drama: 1,000 internet points to the person who found the animal commercial I mentioned on this episode! I'm fairly super impressed to have nailed the line 36 years later.

^ Important platypi info, ZMeny (and video confirmation of the animal's existence)

I bet its all about those hdmi output adapters!

wtf happened to those adapters anyways? Did Stern ever end up selling them again at an inflated cost?

Nope.

Spiderman, No way Home is the third highest grossing movie of all time. Yikes, there really is nothing else to watch out there. I'll take your advice Zach.

I liked it quite a bit. I'd personally recommend it. Especially if you have any nostalgia for the older Tobey McGuire or Garfield movies.

This seems like a great place to interject my beliefs on the theme of next the pin. What if Jack Danger were to choose from Stern’s backlog and design the pin after the best theme after Star Wars or Jurassic Park, as ranked in Pinside 25. I am talking about Godzilla, Deadpool, AIQ, Stranger Things or Star Trek. All of which are strong and Jack could be known as The Pin Guy. I have heard what you all have that he is developing a full feature title. A lot of possibilities with the pin imo.

Hey TPN folks, just caught your After Hours stream (https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1462349898).

I'm pretty sure I can answer your #1 question without inside info (though I can get confirmation if desired): Who would have been giving the Gladiator "rising action" whiteboard presentation?

Answer: Quinn Johnson.

Quinn was hired as a storyteller to develop stories for deeproot games based on his work in comics and other media. "Rising action" is a standard plot component of storytelling (whatever the medium).

In some old interview(s), Robert explained that the stories in other manufacturers' games suck, and deeproot is going to blow everyone's mind with Pixar quality pinball storytelling (which is why they also needed an animation studio, of course).

Putting 2 and 2 together, this how you find a whiteboard outlining the narrative composition and arc for maybe game number 7 (?) at the auction inspection day for a failed pinball startup that blew tens of millions dollars.

If someone is being a dick head , call them out but why try to make it into a race thing .

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was thinking the same thing, a dick is a dick, what's the relevance of his skin color?

Enjoyed the show. Standouts ~ Craig Bobby is trending up and so is the entire pinball industry, go high prices! Good impressions of Chewbacca and Hydra’s. Dirk and Dragons Lair would make a good pinball theme. Fun.

Topic for a future discussion ~ super toppers have snuck up and are now officially a thing. There are toppers and there are super toppers. CGC has sold 3 toppers for $2.5k each and Elite has sold two. Depending on your definition of a super topper, if you considered toppers that have be issued but since cost $2.5k huo. I can quickly think of five of these and there are probably more.

So we have 10 games with a topper costing thousands. Thousands for a pinball topper that sits atop the pinball machine. Buy, buy, buy because they are only going up further. Something about the threshold these have reached, that triggers a skin crawling response.

Any truth to the rumor Stern has a new promo, buy a LZ topper and it comes with a LZ pro pinball machine for $99? I am holding out for a better deal. But if it has the rumored Stairway tune, I am all over it.

Will listen to this tomorrow on my drive, caught up with the last few episodes last week while driving up and down the country, love the content and TPS with Zach & Dennis is always an easy listen, thanks for all the hard work Zach!

Duckbill Platapie. Not sure what was funnier, your use of the plural of Platapus or Zach's reaction to it!

Re: TI-83 calculator games.

There was a pretty popular one in circulation when my older brothers were in high school, basically a drug-trade simulator. I don’t recall ever getting to play it but I do remember it being particularly taboo at the Catholic high school we all went to. Probably the most controversial thing to hit calculators since “8008135.”

https://www.wired.com/story/history-drug-wars-calculator-game/amp

When I made it to high school it was pretty much just Tetris, a 4-game combo thing called “PuzzPack,” and trying to graph the weirdest equation of a line possible using the plot function.

Edit: I was obviously VERY cool in high school.

As a kid, I actually had the Wildlife Treasury Kit. I don't remember what happened to it...

Ron...

nevermind i’m an illiterate child, i took this for an anti-zach post

jack is a talented fella but boy does he love his drama

You forgot pin Pingraffix rock topper .
They haven't sold out yet , but with less than 200 available , I'm sure that would change if Zach did a review on SDTM

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Really cool, I like it. It is unique. It is strongly theme integrated. It adds to game atmosphere. It uses tons of custom programming tied to game play. It does no harm. It doesn’t have game’s name plastered on it. I will have to get one.

It was a late night drunken purchase , the next day I thought , what have I done .
But after having it for a while now , I have no regrets . It really adds so much to the game experience .
The lighting is different for every song and the wiring is Incorporated into the frame , I understand now why it is so expensive .
Apparently it's made by Dave who does programming for jjp .
If you get one you'll have to get the extra back box and under cabinet LEDs for the full experience .
I'm a topper guy so I'm bias , but I think it's totally worth it .