Wedgehead Pinball Podcast

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In this episode we discuss 6 names from the EM era that you should be aware of, two from each of the Big Three of Williams, Bally and Gottlieb. This episode really is a love letter to EM machines, and all the very talented designers of pinball's most popular, but least celebrated era.
But as always, we use some adult language when we get really excited, and this is your warning that we are more hopped up than two fat kids on Mountain Dew in this episode!
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Support the show and receive a link to the private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast
AJ of Flip a Coin in Colorado is back to discuss the current affairs of operating brand new pinball machines in the year 2026 and beyond. AJ buys lots of new games from Stern, Barrels of Fun, JJP, and CGC and he's here to cut through all the marketing talk and just discuss the business side of buying NIB games and trying to make money with them on route.
As always though, we might swear a bit throughout...
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Support the show and receive a link to our private discord channel: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast
This episode we explore the period from 1995-1999 when Gary Stern successfully convinced another Japanese arcade game manufacturer to partner with him and rebrand from Data East to Sega for the North American coin-op pinball market.
These games are mostly pretty low production run games, with some clear cost cutting measures in place, and the art packages are pretty uneven too. Many pinheads haven't seen or played these games very much, if at all, but they still seem to get a bad rap in general if they have.  But Alex and Alan explore why these games are generally pretty fun, and they cover them all in this episode.
But as usual, adult language is used in this episode, as in all other episodes.
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Support the show and grab a link to our private discord: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast
In this episode we are joined on the show by veteran pinball machine mover, casual on location pinball player, and Alex's wife, Megan aka the Watergirl and she is here to give her thoughts on all the 2025 pinball releases from her unique perspective as a non-nerd, and non middle-aged man.
Hear about how the average pinball player views all these games, the results are guaranteed to surprise you.  But as usual, we do swear in the episode...this is your warning.

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Support the show and get access to our private discord: ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast
This whole episode is Alex trying to describe to the listener why there has never been a good center ramp in a pinball machine, and even the ones that you think are good, aren't actually center ramps (according to him).
As always when discussing niche nerd topics, we speak fluent profanity in the episode.
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