Episode 12 - Die on this Hill: WWF Royal Rumble

Explicit content warning

01/08/24 • 28 min

Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast
In the 3rd installment of our "Die on this Hill" series, we welcome back Greg Dunlap, former pinball programmer whom we interviewed on Episode 11, to defend Data East's 1994 game 'WWF Royal Rumble.
Hear why Greg thinks this an underrated game, and hear our reactions to the pile of bad reviews I found for it all over the internet.
...includes some adult language.

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Previous Episode

Episode 11 - Life of a Former Pinball Programmer

Support the show: https://ko-fi.com/wedgeheadpodcast
In this episode, Alan and Alex are joined by Greg Dunlap, a computer programmer that worked at both Bally/Williams doing slot machines and then later at Pat Lawlor Designs, working on programming lightshows and animations for Early Stern Pinball machine titles like Ripley's Believe It or Not, Monopoly, Nascar, and Roller Coaster Tycoon. Hear about how a lifelong pinball fan becomes a a part of the industry he loves, and about what it was actually like.
Greg is a great example of one of the hundreds of unknown people that work as a team to create a final pinball machine. We had a blast talking to him about shooting the Monster Bash whitewood with Lyman Sheets and going out gambling on a riverboat afterwards, working with Pat Lawlor at his house during the early Stern years (aka the dark ages), and discuss what it was actually like being a regular person working at a pinball company, including watching the conception of the infamous Pinball2000 attempt to save the pinball department at Williams, and his time running the Pinball Outreach Project (or POP) with his wife when he lived in Portland.
Greg no longer works in the pinball industry, which we think makes this a uniquely interesting interview. We found it super interesting to hear a bit about the day to day life of being a pinball grunt, and we hope you will as well.
Episode is made by adults, so...we may swear sometimes.

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Next Episode

Episode 13 - Superpins

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In this widebody episode of the Wedgehead pinball podcast, Alan and Alex welcome the return of Chris Rhodes back to the show. He is the other half of Wedgehead, and he is back to discuss the 7 widebody pinball machines released by Bally/Williams during 1993 and 1994.
We cover the definition of a "Superpin" and have a discussion about about each game, and what we like or dislike about each one. We also give a unique award to each game, and at the end of the episode, you can find our own personal rankings from best to worst, including the lists from our previous episode guests Zoe, Greg, Daniel, and Ty.
...episode might contain some swear words, we are adults after all.

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Wedgehead Pinball Podcast - Episode 12 - Die on this Hill: WWF Royal Rumble

Transcript

[00:00:00.170] - Greg
It was the fourth IFPA world championships. And the way that it worked was it was a 128 player double elimination bracket. And there were 25 of the most recent game from each of the main pinball manufacturers at the time on the floor. And that's where you play your games. And so the high seed would pick the first game and then the winner would pick the next game and so on. It was best of three double elimination and the four games. So there were four major pinball manu