Episode #24 is now available:
We’re set up now for the finals of the Pinball Designer Tournament. However, most of the episode is recapping the interesting (and less-than-interesting) happenings of 2016. Pinball is the bulk of that discussion as well.
Direct link to final round voting: https://goo.gl/forms/05Yg8iM68KS5mGiC2
Episode #25 is now available:
Results of the 2016 Modern Pinball Designer Tournament are discussed. American Pinball is discussed in the context of the advertising flyer included with Pinball Life purchases. A lot of time is spent talking about our pinball “hopes” for 2017.
Oh, and in my intro I spend a bit of time talking about Atari Superman, since I finally got done working on it and moved it into my line-up.
Gomez shut out in the semis… ouch!
Yeah I didn’t expect it to be close but closer than that! Not that Nordman fared much better.
I’m amazed Brian Eddy didn’t do better. I think he is underrated by folks due to his low number of titles.
Agreed. I think a mix of him not having anything new in 20 years coupled with the limited designs.
Episode #26:
Lots of pinball topics. The 2017 Widebody Tournament we’re running, Aerosmith reveal, Zidware happenings on the legal front, Batman 66 gameplay, Keith joining Stern, and the social media activity of American Pinball.
Here’s a link to the first round of the widebody voting: https://goo.gl/forms/Y87yxEbIuMD8riDA3
Episode 27:
Large pinball section where we talk Jetsons, our widebody tournament, Skit-B legal, P3 production, and AFM remake.
If you want to vote in round 2 of the 2017 Modern Widebody Tournament, here’s a direct link: https://goo.gl/forms/UOjCljoy416jpANt2
Episode 28:
In our pinball section we cover the Kansas State Pinball Championship. After, we launch into the 2017 Modern Widebody Tournament (going over round 2 and setting up round 3). From there, we spend a little bit of time thinking of games with fun layouts but terrible rules. Finally, we talk about the upcoming Texas Pinball Festival.
If you want to vote in round 3 of the widebody tournament, here’s the link (Google sign-in required): https://goo.gl/forms/fGd0BcDT5SZ0CfbR2
Episode 29:
Lots of pinball topics. We do the round 3 results/round 4 match-ups of our 2017 Modern Widebody Tournament. We talk Aerosmith gamplay. We discuss Alien Pinball shipping. We cover the announced “Great Purge” of trolls on Pinside. We cover the IFPA changes to deal with Super League. We touch upon the 3rd recorded hearing of the Skit-B debacle. We discuss the problems Dutch Pinball is having with their contract manufacturer regarding The Big Lebowski. And finally, Magic Girl.
Here’s a link where you can vote in Round 4 of the 2017 Modern Widebody Tournament (down to the final four!): https://goo.gl/forms/F221K0Zuro5LsglT2
I admit I pay very little attention to heighway and dutch and super league and pinside and… basically, I’m not on the pulse of pinball news. So I learned a lot from this episode. You explained super league well, as well as the potential implications of pinside purging trolls. Interesting stuff! And thanks for reading all those pinside threads and pulling out news and info 
Edit: 1.5 hours in: ah, J Pop = Popadauk (sp). I thought you guys were reading pinside threads about Japanese pop music.
I can’t believe I never thought that JPop could make people think of J-Pop. It’s so obvious now that I am embarrassed it never crossed my mind! I probably need a legend for the jargon anyway… everytime I see someone write “FG” I can’t tell if they mean Flash Gorden or Family Guy. 
I’m pretty strongly against using initials for game names. I don’t care how in-the-know your audience is (aka, I don’t care if you’re posting on tilt forums). There will always be people who don’t know what you mean. As someone who works on a site that is intended to be accessible/useful to everyone (especially newcomers), I believe the less barriers to entry the better. “FG” is a barrier. I think I’m sensitive to this because I’ve been on the radio and have spoken at events for my line of work, and it’s been drilled into me that I shouldn’t use seemingly-common acronyms, abbreviations, or initials. I’ve also worked as a journalist.
A good principle. I always feel bad in podcasts involving Zidware because I know I always say RAZA (I think I spelled it out one time… ever). I always say the others, I think it’s due to always forgetting Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland is the full name when I’m at the mic, and I just babble out the acronym to avoid the awkward silence of failure!
Ha, yeah you guys are smooth on the mics - no awkward silence of failures. Just for total clarity: I wasn’t criticizing your podcast with my comment. Like I noted, you did a great job of covering your topics for a range of listeners.
No worries, but we do welcome criticism as well; it’s the only way to improve after all! 
Episode 30:
The pinball segment is the set-up for our final round of the 2017 Modern Widebody Tournament. We discuss Alien Pinball now that we’ve been able to watch a good portion of gameplay. And lastly, I go into a regression analysis I did examining pinball ratings on Pinside to see if there were any statistical relationships to those subjective ratings and actual, objective measures (spoiler, there were a few).
Next episode will be a day late, since we’ll be coming back from Texas Pinball Festival on Sunday and that’s when we normally record/release. Feel free to say hi if you’re at TPF, Tony and I will be around, probably standing in line or something.
Edit: Oh, here’s where you can go vote in the final widebody round. Google sign-in required: https://goo.gl/forms/laVwA51PnaGbu8L03
Episode 31:
We cover our 2017 Modern Widebody Tournament conclusion at the start of the podcast, but the vast bulk of the episode is our report on the 2017 Texas Pinball Festival (what games we played, news we learned, and all that fun stuff).
