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We're back to honor another year in pinball history, with the Pinball Hindsight Awards of 1985!  This was a major downturn of the industry, but that doesn't mean that there still aren't some great games released this year, and we honor all of them in this episode with some awards given out with the power of hindsight!

This isn't network television, so we do swear on the show.

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This episode is all about the rise and fall of one of pinball's most magnificent and enigmatic designers, Mr. John Popadiuk Jr., sometimes better known as JPOP in pinball nerd circles.  He made a string of some the absolute best games in the 1990s including World Cup Soccer, Theatre of Magic, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and Cirqus Voltaire.

But after the closure of Williams' pinball division, and his last production game Star Wars Episode One for the Pinball 2000 platform, the story gets really exciting, sad, and interesting.

Obligatory curse word warning, just like all of our episodes.

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Join us as we discuss with frequent guest on the show Greg Dunlap to discuss the important role that programmers play in the design and development of pinball machines as we talk about all the many different ways that programmers can influence a player's perception positively or negatively through their work.

But there's some tasteful swearing present throughout.

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This episode features former guest on the show, and dot matrix pinball programmer Greg Dunlap to discuss how Gary Stern ends up surviving TWO pinball extinction events at the turn of the millennium, and then another one at the end of the decade.

This is the only era in pinball's long history where there was only a single manufacturer in business.  Gary made a lot of tough calls and hard decisions to keep pinball alive during this dark age, and contrary to some popular belief, actually made quite a few awesome games during this period as well.

So sit back and listen up as we discuss and give our flowers to Gary Stern, the man who saved pinball in this episode.

Although we do cuss a little bit...

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This is the first ever award show that attempts to get the calls right, all with the power of HINDSIGHT.  So, for this first Pinball Hindsight Awards Episode, we chose the year 1990, and are giving out the test of time awards to games like Dr. Dude, Funhouse, Whirlwind, Rollergames and many more.

Warning: adult language and no-no words are used for effect.

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This episode Alan & Alex are joined on the show to discuss the short-lived Pinball 2000 platform, and Ian defends SWE1, the last game that Williams pinball ever made against a flood of bad reviews.

I mention in this episode a fantastic documentary that you should check out, called TILT: The Battle to Save Pinball check it out to learn more about this incredible project.

As always though: this is an adult show with adult language.

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This episode is all about why pinball's natural habitat is on location, and why location pinball still matters (and matters much more than private collections) in the year 2025 and beyond.  Our whole podcast is basically centered around the importance of pinball being put on location, but this episode in particular is a love letter to on location pinball ...with swearing.

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This episode is all about the joys and fun that a hard game of pinball brings.  For whatever reason this seems to be a minority opinion in the modern era, even though we set out to prove that pinball was always supposed to be hard, and that challenging games are way more fun in the long run.

Obligatory naughty language warning. 

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This episode has been teased multiple times over the run of the show, and is a solo episode based upon what I started out writing as a short article about the business of location pinball, the economics of it, and the feasibility of pinball earning money on location.  What started out as a short article quickly grew wider in scope, and eventually I just felt like it would make a better podcast episode rather than an article.

If you like this episode and want to hear Pinball Econ 102, 103, or 104 in the future, reach out to me on the discord channel and let me know.  There's definitely a lot more to cover if y'all are interested.

As always though: I did swear while recording this episode. No surprise there.

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Good friend of the show and all-around expert solid state assassin, Ty Palmer joins us on the show once again for his SIXTH appearance to defend his DOTH game, 1979's Future Spa.

Designed by George Christian and released by Bally in their golden era, this game is a super wide body with a very weird and very horny art package, but it's also a game that is widely mocked. At least it was, until this episode where Ty sets the record straight.

Oh yeah, we are a pack of swearwolves though, so this is your explicit content warning.

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