Gimme something to listen to wtf

In the future you should give us a 60-minute notice so that we can quickly establish an over/under for minutes before Travis experiences some type of technical difficulty...

What about if we have to restart a recording because he IMMEDIATELY has problems?

Ha, bet big on the under!

Great show! 100% agree with all your takes on Jaws. I saw that combo shot that Travis mentioned first thing and that was what really got me excited about the pin before the official gameplay release . I have a Premium on order with Zach so I'm biased, but I truly think this game is going to surprise some that have been focusing on the Shark.

Immature title. Grow up. Also 10/10 title will listen.

I heard the Flip n Out with friends Jaws breakdown referenced a couple times but couldn’t find it on YouTube. Assume it got pulled during all the leak stuff, any chance it can go back up? Love the pod, thanks!

Enjoyed the podcast... you guys do a great job.

I have a totally different take on the overall reaction to Jaws. I wouldn't extrapolate a small echo chamber of folks talking about a shark eating the ball to the "pinball community." I'd say the vast majority of folks fall into a camp of excited about the game, ball eating or not. I know a few dozen people decided to pound their keyboards about it... but I think most folks are looking forward to everything the game has to offer.

Cheers, Triple Drain! Keep the fun talk coming!
T

Agreed. I don’t care one bit about the shark eating the ball. Bash toys are fun. They also add some randomness.

He is dead. Like Paul.

To the Triple Drain crew, et al.

The love of early 90’s physical mechs and moments may stem from the fact that the story telling of the game came from sculpts and playfield components interacting with the ball. Instead we now have LCD screens, licensed content, and RGB lights/animations to do the work. Designers then didn’t have the technology to incorporate leveling systems into the rules or to immerse players with A/V content. As more intellectual property and world building gets put into the screen, the less reliant designers need to be on toys and 3D sculpts to create the feel of the environment. They can focus more on ball paths and geometry of the playfield than creating a world under glass. Maybe this is why some people say “shots are the new mechs”. The flow and combos lead to more things happening on the display (destruction jackpot, Foo combotron, etc). However, then you get people saying the game feels “empty” because it’s missing the unique set dressings they remember from those 90’s games. Busy artwork and flat plastics won’t cut it for them. This is why there’s such crazy demand for mod makers (Stumblor, Wolffcub, Swinks, Mezel, Lior). People want their playfield to feel more lifelike and inspired. They want equal parts tactile and digital. Labyrinth hit the mark for a lot of people based on the theme and inclusive licensing but it’s also capturing attention for its use of an additional LCD screen, popup characters, and use of physical sculpts to build the world. Given the choice I think most would prefer their machines this way. Again, that’s why the mod market is so hot. Still, technology is changing and with it the capability of the pin (think spike 3, Pokemon), so more effort (BOM) will be put into the intangibles such as rules, carryovers, displays, etc. It will certainly push the hobby forward and that’s a good thing but it’s clear that most still want to retain what has differentiated pinball from video games this whole time, mechanical components. Visual feedback of cause and effect. I did this thing and then that happened. There’s kinetic satisfaction and then there’s causation satisfaction. Pinball machines need equal parts of both. Godzilla had the building, tail whip magnet, and the bridge. JP had moving & eating T-rex, Jeep, and raptor pen. They were hits for a reason. Flow and fun as one.

This was very well explained. I hadn’t thought about the limitations of the screen. I’ll make sure to bring this up on the next episode.

Travis is a tournament guy, so flow is king to him. The idea that only high end collectors and casuals get Jaws is ridiculous. Many of us have been in the hobby a long time and still love moments in pinball that are epic and elevate games beyond shots and combos. That is what makes JP a great game, a mix of both.

I am doing a late night workout and listening to the latest Pinball Show episode and I am dying laughing at the special gift Zach and Nicole got each other... I can't even get my sets in. Thanks for the chuckles guys!

Zach, what the hell is "Jawls?" Is that anything like Jaws?

Zach and Dennis... thanks for all of the fantastic content. You guys are great!

Listening to this today …

Joel was talking about Halloween, and said when he had the game, he could only get the ball up to the top playfield like 5 times.

Your game was broken! There is a diverter at the top of the 180 ramp which puts the ball left or right. I understand on some early builds this was a bit hit and miss - but it’s adjustable in the software settings now.

On my Halloween I can backhand it up the 180 ramp to the top playfields. Never touched the diverter from new.

If you’ve only played that broken game, I’d implore you to get your hands on one that works properly (!) and check out the latest version of the code. Preferably in a dark, quiet room … somehow they managed to get the creepiness of the movie into the code. The new “don’t fear the reaper” (whatever it’s called) mini wizard and the full Wizard mode are very cool.

Hey - it’s never going to be a tournament players flow fest - but it isn’t supposed to be. Not all games need to be that.

Cheers!

rd

Since you mentioned it in the latest episode (and FWIW) - bidets are fabulous! Besides being way more sensible and effective from a hygiene standpoint, they feel downright luxurious. Dennis has no idea what he's missing out on!

I installed a combo TOTO toilet and "washlet" (bidet) as part of a bath remodel and am never going back to old fashioned toilet paper alone!

Ok, back to pinball ...

All you need is the garden hose.

I've actually played 5 different versions of the game at different shows and other locations. I had ramp rejects on all but 1 of the machines but I will say that one was a lot more fun to play. I know some people really love the game which is awesome but 4/5 of my experiences were not enjoyable. My local friend just got a Halloween so hopefully I can put some more time on his!

Lots of in-depth bidet discussion currently going on in the TPS discord. If you're not already a member, you may want to consider signing up on patreon to get in on the action

Funny - my experience is exactly the opposite! Mind you all the HW and UM pins here in NZ are later builds.

As I mentioned, the earlier ones had some diverter issues — the owners should have sorted them out by now. I fully understand that if that diverter wasn’t working properly, then the game would be a shit show. Goes a long way to explaining the negativity to the title, if people can’t access 2/3rds of the game.

As an aside (to that) - lots of newby owners who buy these NIB machines have no idea how to adjust them or repair them - you can see that in the owners threads here. Some of the repair “concepts” they come up with are pretty funny at times.

rd

Dear Zach,

Stop trying to make INDISC a Stern-ament happen, it's not going to happen.

Do you wanna see some really compelling pinball action? Soldering a broken switch on a live game of Batman Forever. This is what the people tune in for!
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2025685155?t=06h34m41s

You'll be happy to know that Stranger Things was also in the Open bank and on stream during the Open Finals.

Just imagine how truely awful that would be to watch. Yuck!

Not to mention it would take 2 hours per round, most likely …

rd

I’d much rather watch them pick (remember - they pick the games!) interesting older games than watch Escher and all the whiz kids play Rush for an hour.

Most high level tournaments force you to play games from all eras. Old, mid, new. To win, a player must exhibit skills across all eras.

Hey, I appreciate you want them to showcase the new games to push sales - but (luckily) competitive pinball is about playing pinball, not selling them.

Stern sponsors the Stern Pro Circuit, and fittingly all the finals are played on Stern games. As they should be. Perfect!

Signed ..

IFPA NZ Country Director RD.

rd

Let's be honest, here.

Competitive pinball is only watched by a sliver of the world's populus. We're talking 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% of people on earth. No one cares. Even in this small hobby, the only people that care about competitive pinball are the ones actively and routinely participating in it (and that's okay! I think it's totally cool that it brings joy and happiness to those players!).

Using it as marketing tool to sell games is a kin to sending a radio transmission into the depths of outer space.

If that is true-(not arguing) why did the event maintain 14-15K viewers. I do prefer to see the older games too as ALL pinball are limited editions = to the number built and playable. I watched Whirlwind, Wheel of Fortune, some of the others and enjoyed the excellent quality of the stream and the excellent commentary/explanations. There is always a motive behind FnO. He didn’t get successful being conservative. Even if you don’t like his marketing and aggressiveness, pinball has grown in part to SDTM, TPS, FnO streaming, Monday Night Pinball, Twippy’s.

“motive” may be unfair-“goal”…a “point” per say

I'm not a regular tournament player, but I do play in local tournaments occasionally to se my friends etc. Realistically, there is no scenario where Pinball will ever be a televised sport with major advertising. For one, It's far too small of an industry. Second, a vertical playfield under glass is hard to put on a horizontal screen in an interesting way.

It's just not going to happen. Competitive pinball has evolved, over many years, to a mixture of new and classic games. If you make every machine in a tournament (or even the finals) a modern game, you will loose a segment of the very small pool of potential participants.

Zach, I appreciate that you are often tongue and cheek with your podcast persona, but it appears you are the sole proponent of this Sternament Valhalla. That's not fun to play in or watch and the games would go on for hours.

Trending down this century.... Sternaments!

If you are still reading... I must credit small tournaments as the way I (and many of my friends) personally discovered the joy of older games. I can name countless games I would have never tried , or owned, if not for playing one in a tournament.

I also prefer when high level tournament end up having some moderns in the streams

Bots

Fair enough. I appreciate your passion. All good.

Name change needed TPs discord ===>> BIDEscord, much more hygienic

The last time I turned on final round the c word was thrown so much it made the movie "fury" blush.