# WAP

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast Live Streams (YouTube)  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2026-04-19  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKX4_j7VDgE

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## Analysis

Don and Chris conduct a live podcast review of the new Stern Pokémon pinball machine, discussing LE and Pro versions. They cover art design, audio/music, shots and layout, comparing the game favorably to recent Stern releases. Key themes include appreciation for the simple, satisfying layout despite limited initial code, excitement about future code updates locked behind Insider Connected approval, and observations about the Pokémon IP's secondary market value and collectibility.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] The Pokémon LE decal uses basic, cheap printing rather than foil or embossed materials like Batman SLE or Elvira premium editions. — _Chris and Don discussing premium finishes on LE artwork_
- [HIGH] Gomez (designer) is waiting for approval to enable Insider Connected features for Pokémon pinball. — _Don stating 'Gomez went into a chat recently and said that there he's still waiting for approval to turn on Insider Connected for this game'_
- [HIGH] The game currently has only one environment (forest) available out of four planned locations. — _Don noting 'right now there's only one environment out of the four even available. So it's the forest'_
- [HIGH] Ash will not appear in Pokémon pinball because it takes place in later seasons and the player is the trainer. — _Chris confirming 'Ash is not coming' and Gomez stating 'he's not. You play as the trainer'_
- [HIGH] A Charizard LE sold for $27,000 in the secondary market, and a collector paid $23,000 for an LE. — _Don mentioning 'the dude who bought the Charizard paid like $27,000' and Chris disclosing 'I sold the other LE for... 23,000'_
- [HIGH] The Pokémon Company prevented Stern from including character-specific plaques with individual Pokémon variants to avoid FOMO-driven secondary market segmentation. — _Hosts discussing licensing constraints: 'the Pokémon company didn't want it for that exact reason is they don't want people to feel like there are certain versions of the LE that are worth more'_
- [MEDIUM] Flipper power has been lowered on Pokémon compared to typical Stern machines, affecting shot accuracy and ramp backhands. — _Don noting flipper angle is 'dropped a bit' and shots requiring precise flipper placement to reach ramps_
- [HIGH] The game's code is sparse compared to typical Stern releases and will expand significantly when Insider Connected is approved. — _Chris: 'Less of code?' 'Totally' and Don: 'There's so much more coming for this game'_

### Notable Quotes

> "I think this is one of Stern's nicest LE art packages ever... I give it a 10 out of 10."
> — **Chris**, ~11:30
> _High praise for LE artwork design and presentation compared to other Stern releases_

> "For me, audio is just so important on the pinball machine... This is strictly like 11 out of 10 for me already."
> — **Don**, ~26:00
> _Enthusiastic endorsement of Pokémon audio theme and callouts_

> "I'm finally good at pinball, Brenda."
> — **Chris**, ~34:00
> _Humorous observation about the game's accessibility and forgiving layout_

> "It's uplifting for me."
> — **Don**, ~38:30
> _Unconventional but heartfelt assessment of the game's emotional appeal_

> "One paid for the other."
> — **Don**, ~42:00
> _Reference to profiting from secondary market LE sales_

> "You can kind of learn the rule sets and the foundation when there's very limited code because you sort of pay attention to the the fundamentals."
> — **Jeng**, ~24:00
> _Positive spin on sparse code as pedagogical advantage for learning baseline rules_

> "I think it's such a fun game to play... Pokémon, the colors, the sound, the audio, the combo shots... it's just so satisfying to shoot."
> — **Chris**, ~37:30
> _Summary of the game's appeal across multiple dimensions_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Don | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast, owns Pokémon LE #60, reviews pinball games, discusses operator and collector perspectives |
| Chris | person | Co-host/guest, owns Pokémon LE #50 with Diglett, secondary market seller, discusses player experience and layout |
| Jeng | person | Guest/contributor, owns Pokémon Pro with LED mods, discusses gameplay mechanics and code foundation |
| Gomez | person | Pokémon pinball designer at Stern, awaiting approval for Insider Connected features, designing rules and code |
| Jack Danger | person | Referenced as possible original designer of triple captive ball mechanism before Gomez took over |
| Zombie Yeti | person | Art director/arrangement credit for Pokémon LE artwork and cabinet design |
| Travis | person | Triple Drain podcast host, created tutorial explaining Pokémon rules and wizard modes |
| Raiden | person | Mod community member who created large whirlpool swirl mod and animated Pikachu tail mod for Pokémon |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Pokémon pinball, licensed major IP, managing licensing constraints and code approval |
| Pokémon Company | company | IP licensor imposing restrictions on LE variants and collectible segmentation |
| Pokémon (Stern) | game | New Stern pinball machine with forest environment, four character modes (Bulbasaur, Charmander, Squirtle, other), Charizard wizard mode, limited code in 1.0 |
| Insider Connected | product | Stern's digital ecosystem awaiting licensing approval to launch for Pokémon, will track captured Pokémon across plays |
| Batman SLE | game | Stern game with premium embossed thick glossy decal artwork mentioned as comparison for LE finish quality |
| Guns N' Roses | game | Stern pinball game Chris previously played, used as contrast to Pokémon's forgiving layout |
| Lord of the Rings | game | Historical Stern release mentioned as reference point for long-time pinball players |
| Medieval Madness (Chicago Gaming) | game | Referenced as accessible, influential classic that Pokémon's simple layout invites comparison to |
| Triple Drain | organization | Pinball podcast/content creator who produced rule tutorial for Pokémon |
| Don's Pinball Podcast | organization | Long-form podcast and YouTube channel, currently streaming live Pokémon review |
| We Are Pinball (WAP) | organization | Referenced in title; appears to be related podcast or community organization |
| Josh Cox | person | High-level podcast supporter mentioned in chat during live stream |
| Brad | person | Viewer/community member mentioned in live chat |

### Signals

- **[product_launch]** Pokémon LE features exceptionally well-received artwork using official Pokémon assets rather than artist interpretation, rated 10/10 by reviewers. LE visual package significantly outpaces Pro and Premium tier aesthetics. (confidence: high) — Chris: 'I give it a 10 out of 10. I think this is one of Stern's nicest LE art packages ever' and 'it looks so much nicer than the pro and premium'
- **[product_concern]** LE decal uses standard cheap printing without foil or embossing despite premium $15K+ price point. Collectors expected premium finish materials (rad cow, embossed) matching other Stern limited editions (Batman SLE, Elvira Blood Red). (confidence: high) — Chris: 'I wish it had rad cows or some sort of more foil... you can see it's cheap. It's a cheap decal' and comparison to Batman SLE embossed finish
- **[code_update]** Pokémon 1.0 code is deliberately sparse due to Pokémon Company licensing approval delays. Insider Connected features locked pending legal sign-off. Gomez reportedly waiting for meeting approval to activate digital ecosystem. (confidence: high) — Don: 'Gomez went into a chat recently and said that there he's still waiting for approval to turn on Insider Connected for this game. He's probably screaming right now'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Game completeable in 20-30 minutes with current code. Only forest environment active (1 of 4 planned). Four character modes functional. Charizard wizard mode available. Rule foundation solid but content thin. (confidence: high) — Don: 'you can literally get through the game in 30 minutes' and 'right now there's only one environment out of the four even available'
- **[design_philosophy]** Pokémon's minimalist 5-shot layout and forgiving ramp angles prioritize accessibility and flow over complex rule depth. Flipper angle lowered to reduce skill barrier. Design philosophy mirrors casual-friendly era machines. (confidence: high) — Don: 'Gomez dropped the angle of the flipper a bit. Like the shots aren't exactly where you think they'd be' and Chris: 'I'm finally good at pinball' when comparing to complex modern games
- **[collector_signal]** Pokémon LE #50 and #60 sold for $23,000-$27,000 in secondary market within weeks of release. Severe FOMO-driven pricing reflects limited 750-unit production and franchise desirability. Hosts profiting from flips. (confidence: high) — Chris: 'I sold the other LE for 23,000' and Don mentioning 'the dude who bought the Charizard paid like $27,000'
- **[licensing_signal]** Pokémon Company blocked individual character plaques on LEs to prevent perceived variant-based FOMO and secondary market segmentation. Wanted uniform product regardless of serial number's associated Pokémon. (confidence: high) — Don: 'the Pokémon company didn't want it for that exact reason is they don't want people to feel like there are certain versions of the LE that are worth more'
- **[product_strategy]** Stern holding back major code features pending licensing approval. Planned additions include: three additional environments, expanded Pokémon roster, Jigglypuff singing mode, Giovanni battle intensity, more character-driven callouts and anime clips. (confidence: high) — Don: 'There's so much more coming for this game. I mean they have access to all the so many more clips from the show like there's going to be a lot'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Pokémon catching difficulty increases with progression. Early catches require fewer shot combinations; late-game Pokémon demand more varied shot sequences. Designers addressing concern about repetitive 'chopping wood' mechanics through complexity scaling. (confidence: high) — Don: 'You notice how catching them gets harder too... it's not just going to be like chopping wood, it's always the same thing'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Community initially skeptical of simple layout comparing unfavorably to complex modern Stern designs. Live playtest reveals high accessibility appeal, especially for casual/non-competitive players. Sentiment shifting positive on forgiving mechanics. (confidence: medium) — Chris comparing Pokémon favorably to abusive Guns N' Roses relationship and noting satisfaction from 'wide open' shots; host summarizing game as 'uplifting' and 'heartwarming'
- **[design_innovation]** Triple captive ball configuration (ball carooms between three ball targets) appears to be designer innovation. Speculation that Jack Danger may have originated concept; Gomez implemented and refined for Pokédex insert mechanic. (confidence: medium) — Don theorizing: 'I was trying to decide like what what Jack Danger is in this game before it just went to Gomez... triple captive ball thing is probably something he came up with'
- **[product_concern]** LE units experiencing minor adhesive failures on purple stand-up target decals. Decals falling off after direct hits. Some units missing decals in shipment or post-impact. Low-severity manufacturing/assembly issue. (confidence: high) — Don and Chris both reporting missing purple stand-up target decals; Chris noting 'the adhesive is not good'

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## Transcript

I think we're live. I think we're live, too. I have no idea. It says connect to connect to a YouTube channel channel, so that could be awesome. Drop the link down to your YouTube. Is it just Don's Pinball Podcast YouTube? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, on YouTube. It's not showing up on here, though. Dude, I just got a message. Don's Pinball Podcast see live now. Whoop. I don't know. We are live. Oh my god. [laughter] That's cool. So, Chris, are we live on your YouTube channel, also? No, no. We're just live on Don's. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay. All right, there's the link. Yes, it's working. [laughter] This is cool. Yeah. So, can we talk trash about Pokémon now? Let's do it. No, man. I love Pokémon. [laughter] So, okay. So, this is being recording on as a podcast and also on your YouTube channel, right? Absolutely. Hello, everybody. Welcome to Whoop. I got Jeng. I got What Canada? We got the triple threat headed monster master of pinball. I don't know. I recorded this cool intro. I could drop it into the actual one, but the people that will suffice for now. Hi, everybody. We're live. What's up? Happy Saturday. People are showing up. This is crazy. people on the chat. [laughter] This is awesome. Hi, Daddy. Oh, my wife is here, too. I'm working. Monica Jack? [laughter] Hi, Monica. Jack was her ex's name. She just kept that email. [laughter] Nice. Okay. All right, everybody. So, we're live. We're going to have some fun. We're going to talk Stern Pokémon pinball today. Look at the background on Canada's I got a I got one of the LEs. Everybody's waiting on their LE, it seems. It's a pro, man. He just installed some lights on the side. [laughter] Now, finally. Have you ever bought a pro before? No. No? No. How about you, Donnie? I got a I got a Black Knight Sword of Rage Pro because that's the one to get. Other than that, but I put [clears throat] a metal apron in it. I'm not a savage. [laughter] Yeah. All right, guys. So, we're going to start the show with Pokémon. Chris has got the LE. How about you, Donnie? Yeah, yeah. I got I got to unbox two LEs, actually. But yeah, number 60. It's in It's in the house. I got Poliwhirl. Okay. And what number do I have, Chris? Number 50. You can see Diglett. I got Diglett, baby. Have you seen online some people are making some plaques with with Pokémon on them? We know who. Yes. [laughter] Who I Is it Who is it? Zac. It's not Stern. It's Zac cuz he sold some to Like I heard the dude I think the dude who bought the Charizard paid like $27,000. So, the least you can do is make the dude a little plaque. Yeah, yeah. I think that's fair. [laughter] Dude, that's cleverly done. I love it. I mean, if I had the if I had the LE, I would have done it, also, but Yeah, it's a missed opportunity, right? Well, the the Pokémon company didn't want it for that exact reason is they don't want people to feel like there are certain versions of the LE that are worth more. Yeah. People would go bonkers There was a handful of like foil red-cowled LEs and you could like randomly unbox one. But everyone wanted to know had the Pikachu version or or Jigglypuff version or whatever. It's a great idea. [laughter] Yeah. I think they were they must have intended to originally do it. It was weird, though, that when they sent the order form for picking your special number LE Did you guys see the Google Doc Stern sent to the dealers? It had the characters next to the numbers. Before people didn't know the plaques were not going to contain that. That's why everyone thought they had to order specific Pokémon editions. So, Stern could have done a better job managing all of that miscommunication. They didn't. But they're not allowed to, right? They wanted to. Yeah, I think they wanted to put a card, too, on the specific game, too, and they were like, "Yeah, no, you can't do You don't understand. You can't do that." Yeah, these people are literally armed security guards are like protecting the dudes that drop off the cards at like Costco or whatever. Dude, I've been exploring this fandom, right? Cuz there's people that just have whole YouTube channels of just unboxing cards and things. And like people are finding out where they live and they're breaking into their apartments and stealing their whole collections. Like it's crazy. [laughter] I saw this like break You know how like people are like robbing Louis Vuitton, you know, flash mobbing it? They did it to like a Pokémon card store. It There's a great like recently. It's just nuts. Like just smashing and they're just grabbing like the new boxes of the sealed cards and just running out. Like Who knew? Yeah. [laughter] Do you know is it only the old cards that are worth a lot of money or can you buy a box for like 10 bucks and have a card that's like $20 or something? No, I think the new stuff I think the new stuff you some can be worth like a few hundred to a few couple thousand. You're not going to get the $100,000 $500,000 like first-run Charizards. I think those are the ones when people weren't collecting them is the ones that are worth the most. This is fun. Let's listen to pinball guys try to explain the Pokémon card hobby. [laughter] Like for like like I was trying to wrap my head around it like why are people paying so much for these cards, right? And then like a Team Rocket edition or like set came out in Japan and people were going around to 7-Elevens. You can only buy two booster packs at a time, so they were buying them all and they were trying to assemble the entire collection of that, you know? So, if you're somebody that needs three cards to complete that collection, that's when you'll pay money for that specific one online just to finish your collection. So, you can have that binder that's full. So, I I think I'm finally starting to understand. Not that like I don't think I would get into this. But I think that's that's that's why some cards if you get them, you can sell them online to somebody. That's who's buying them. Okay. Makes sense. Yeah. Makes sense. So, Chris, the version you have got was with Diglett, right? No, I just have I'm number 50. You're number Isn't that the Diglett number? What's that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We already said that. Catch up. [laughter] How cool would it be if you bought small Diglett figurines and put it on the I'm not saying somewhere. Could you make a Diglett version? So, Don, you have the LE, too. I just I like the I like everything about the way this game comes out of the box. I The the mod community has thrown all this stuff on everywhere. It's just Just enjoy the beauty, the simplicity of what is Pokémon. Yeah, like the huge whirlpool swirl that Raiden made. It That That ball And that ball already takes up so much room, so it's like that's just even more. I I could see little things like putting a little Psyduck above the Psyduck shooting would be kind of cool. Getting your specific numbered Pokémon and sticking it on a plastic somewhere might be okay, but although I didn't see Raiden added that animatronic tail to Pikachu. Someone his head turns, the tail wags, which I kind of want it. Yeah. I saw that. It's like It's like 200 bucks. That one Yeah, that doesn't bother me as much. And then someone put a little Pokédex because, you know, it's not really clear that the captive ball is the Pokédex. There's no figure above it. It's just an insert. Yeah. Makes sense. I was trying to decide like what what Jack Danger is in this game before it just went to Gomez. And I think that, you know, triple captive ball thing is probably something he came up with cuz that could have just been a simple captive ball with a little stand-up target behind it. Didn't have to be a ball that caroms to another ball that caroms to another one. So, I think that might have been a little bit of what he was thinking. Just make it a little more fun, which it is. It's cool. Yeah, it's cool. It's really cool. Yeah. I mean, they could have just made it a stand-up target, right? Don, on the sneak-in What's the guy's name? The sneak-in shot? Psyduck. When it ejects, yeah, is it supposed to eject strong enough to hit the captive ball up? Cuz mine like hits the captive ball, but not with enough force Oh, to register. Mine's ejecting directly to the stand-up target next to the captive ball. Yeah. Okay, so that's that's I think the default power does that, so it So, it should hit that target, probably not the captive ball. Yeah, but I my my game may not be perfectly centered left to right cuz I didn't bother with that nonsense. I seem to be playing just fine, so I just keep playing it. Um So, I guess that would be a good question for the designer. Like is it supposed to go anywhere specific? Can you control the power that's in there? Is it a saucer eject or is it like a coil? I don't know. I haven't looked under there. But I I I only played the pro. I have no idea what you're talking about. Jeng, is on on the pro, I know. Can you backhand both ramps? Yeah. Yeah, easily. Easily. Easily, yeah. I'm like mine's like I think I need to up my power. I I took the power down on the flippers. People s- I don't know. People gave me some suggested numbers. Maybe they're they're too low. But on the default you should be able to backhand both ramps. Yeah, on the pro you can. I'm It's the same. But did you take power down on the trough? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, okay. Oh, [] I have to do that. Thanks for reminding me. That's important, man. I know. Yeah. So, how many how many games have you played? Do you have any flipper stop issues? Nothing? I've had a little sometimes my left flipper might flip on its own. Like like an intermittent flip at times. I Maybe maybe maybe not. I [laughter] don't know. I don't know if Did you go into the AO mode in Pokémon? Yeah. [laughter] I mean it's been pretty um mine's had really hasn't had any issues. I just one of the stand-up targets, the purple one next to the left ramp, just the decal fell off. So I had to just little dab of super glue underneath it and then Yeah. Are you Are you talking about the stand-up targets by the left ramp? Yeah, the purple one. Okay, I just noticed mine are missing too and I can't find them. So they must have fallen off somewhere. Yeah, the adhesive is not good. So that and it's taking a direct hit like hard, so Yeah. There's somewhere there was something on there and I noticed on mine like two of them were missing and then usually they sit in the middle of the playfield and you can grab them stick them back up there, but maybe they went in the trough. I don't know, I'll be on the hunt for that. Um I was listening to triple drain and Travis did a good job like talking through what code is in this game now. I didn't know there was a battle Charizard wizard mode I got to it the other day after listening to him. So that was fun. If you play like all four of the character modes then you can shoot the Pikachu ramp and then you get this battle of Charizard. So that was fun. Yeah, I got to that for the first time today and it's not super easy to go through all four characters and catch your Pokémon. You notice how catching them gets harder too, which is I like. So people keep saying you need more You need more shots. So it's not just going to be like chopping wood, it's always the same thing. I think they're going to really add a lot of variety in what you need to do to catch Pokémon as they get more advanced in the types of Pokémon available. But it's hard to be, you know, it's hard to do a good code on this because you have very limited shots. But you're saying it's getting you need more shots but if you want to catch 100 Pokémons because because you only have five shots to yeah, to lit up, you know, you want to your Pokémon number five you need these two shots five times. Pokémon number eight these two shots five times. But how about Pokémon number 18? What do you cannot mix it anymore because you have but what you could do though I mean even five shots exponentially you could create thousands of different combos and requirements with just five shots. What's up, Brad? Um You know, it could be like you have to hit the right ramp three times in a row and no other switches in the game. I mean you know what I'm saying? You can still make it challenging with like Yeah. timers and countdowns. Um I was listening to triple drain and Travis did a good job like talking through what code is in this game now. I didn't know there was a battle Charizard wizard mode I got to it the other day after listening to him. And I wonder if they're going to have it set up so you have to capture the lower evolution first before the next one will appear. That'd be kind of a fun way to implement that. Yeah, like Charizard and the Charmander I know Charmander. Do you guys know if those Pokémon that we're catching now that they will be registrated when the Insider Connected comes up? So we don't have to catch them again. They're registrated. Registrated? I don't know. Will they be there? Have you got anything think I don't know and I agree I think I'm seeing repeat Pokémon. I've caught Jigglypuff like 15 times. So [laughter] I think they will be I'm not sure. But it said I think Gomez went into a a chat recently and said that there he's still waiting for approval to turn on Insider Connected for this game. He's probably screaming right now like you guys we know it's coming. I just we have to wait for this meeting to get approval. Yeah. Still waiting. There's so much more coming for this game. I mean they have access to all the so many more clips from the show like there's going to be a lot. It's It's barren. It is very barren. I mean you can literally get through the game in 30 minutes. I agree. I mean the license of this game wasn't cheap, so I think there will come a lot of more code. But everybody's waiting. Come on, man. Come with the code, right? Donny, did you did you go through twice or something? No, I've got to I got the Charizard which is like I I think it's as far as you can get. Although I haven't started changing locations. I don't know how to do that yet. I don't think you can yet. I think right now there's only one environment out of the four even available. So it's the forest. Notice how like it's always the forest as the you know, on the screen. We That's what I'm saying like we haven't even gotten to the other three environments. There's so much else missing. You know there's going to be like a Jigglypuff singing mode. There's They've got to have a lot of that campiness of the characters like come through more and I think it's going to, but it is it is Okay. Guys let's review the game, okay? Can you see the chat? We have got Josh Cox here, man, our high-level supporter. We have Brad in there. Welcome everybody. Welcome. So we're going to review this game. You two has got have got the LE. I got the pro over here. So we're just going to take it from the top to the bottom. How How do What do you think about the art, shots, and layout, blah. So let's start with the art. You're reviewing the LE. I'm reviewing the pro, okay? So Donny you unpacked two of these games. Two of these. Let's talk about the art of the cabinet and the playfield. What do you think? Dude, the LE looks great, man. Like I mean look at that thing. Like the the bold yellow that's in there. Um I like that they have that nice pastoral scene in the back and then just like the Pokémon words there and then they put Pikachu and Eevee like front and center. Like come on, what else do you want, man? And you know, this wasn't some artist's interpretation of Pokémon. This was like these are the actual assets, use them. So of course it looks great. Yeah. So rate it from one to 10. The LE art. Yeah, I'll give it a nine. Nice. Let me hear your thoughts about the art of the LE. Yeah, no. I I I I love the look of the artwork and I love that and also like Zombie Yeti and his daughter are the ones who arranged all of this art. So kudos to Mr. Zombie Yeti. I think it's refreshing too. This is ironic that it's not Zombie Yeti on the art itself. That it it looks different and it looks just like Pokémon and it's so adorable. It's so colorful. It's so inviting. I I give it a 10 out of 10. I think this is one of Stern's nicest LE art packages ever and especially maybe it's a little bit of relativity, but it just looks so much nicer than the pro and premium. But the LE really does stand out, which is what an LE should do. My only knock on it and it's not about the art I wish it had rad cows or some sort of more foil. Like it you know, I could see my It just feel It just It's almost It just you can see it's cheap. It's a cheap decal and I it just for this much money and this beautiful of an IP you're only going to make 750 Pokémon once in your Stern career. It deserves something a little bit nicer. Um but other than that, I love it. 10 out of 10 on art. Oh, nice. Why do you think we don't get the foil on this game? God. I mean they had the excuse that when they foiled it it didn't quite look right. It didn't match or it wasn't what like the creators wanted. Which is fine, but you can still print the same graphics on a rad cow and it really would have felt more premium. Yeah. First of all, the Batman SLE decal is not foil. It It's this beautiful embossed thick glossy decal. They know the technology exists. Just use it again. The The upper trim levels of Elvira were like that too, like Blood Red Kiss and 40th anniversary. And like you just feel the shiny sides. Yeah, that was That would have preferred that for sure. Yeah. So you give it 10 out of 10. Okay. So I unboxed the pro and I must say pictures are one thing, but I'm seeing it with your own eyes in front of you. I just love everything about the artwork. I made a three-minute turbo review and because of English not being my main language I just said, I love the artwork. It's so beautiful. It doesn't look like Stern. It's so good. And I should say it's not the Stern we're used to, you know? So I got bashed for this, but I I really like it. I really enjoyed it. The pro I will give it like eight and a half because on this game art-wise LE is just amazing, but so much yellow and purple. I love purple. Such a cool mix. Look at the background on Chris's image there and with the lights and everything. Oh my god. So the LE yeah, I agree. It's a 10er, but pro eight nine eight and a half. That That's it for me. Go Go with the LE on this one. Pro looks like a four, bro. It's like all red. Come on. Besides but the playfield. I mean I I when I check art it's it's playfield for me and the back glass and I think it's both The other thing is if you have an LE, don't change the green start button cuz it goes perfect with the green lawn in that image that's right there. I see people changing it out for like the Poké Ball. I got a Poké Ball. You got to Don't do it, Donny. Don't do it. No, like the color like there's no red at all on the front. If you add red, it's going to like distract from the beautiful yellow and purple. Trust me. Don't do it. Do you have something on the plunger there? Do you have the Poké Ball? The master The master ball, yeah. Comes comes in a separate box when you unbox your LE and you can install it in like five minutes. Okay. Fair enough. Cool. And both of your games when you unboxed it, no issues, nothing? No. I'm good. Oh, that's so cool. Oh, something is happening here. Chris L, hello. I'm going to highlight some comments here. Look at this one. Holy ghost. Doesn't look like Yeti slop. Stop it. [laughter] There's more stupid stuff. You think we see Yeti on Fallout cuz he's not going to do Transformers? Oh, did he mean like Yukon Yeti or like zombie Yeti? Yeah, we're going to need clarification on when you say Yeti. All right, the next thing I want to ask you about this game, Pokémon, is audio. When you press that start button, how does it feel for you guys? Once again, the Pokémon are coming. I like just pushing the the flipper buttons in attract mode and just hearing the Pikachu. Man, that's the best. So, let's rate it, Donny. Music and callout from 1 to 10. Just to get an idea how do you feel with the play of the game? early to call that. Man, this thing's going to improve so much. I mean, you know, right now I guess I guess if I'm basing it on what's in there right now and just expecting more of it, yeah, I'd give it a 7 1/2 or 8. I mean, I wish there were I wish they had Ash in there, of course, you know, it's more of the characters being talking. Or even even just like clips from the show are played. Maybe we'll get that. So Ash is not coming, right? Because Chris told me that. He told me that. He's never coming. And Gomez yeah, Gomez has said it he's not. You you play as the trainer and it's not going to be Ash. And it takes place in later seasons of Pokémon, so he's not in it. Oh, okay. But Yeah, I think How do you feel about the audio package? When you press the start button? It's great. It's super fun, right? It's got that sort of anime energy vibe going. I love when you get into different story modes with the characters, you get that nice switch over to a different sound. I think Bulbasaur's is really fun and Squirtle's like it just you get that guitar riff going. It's very very fun. And the callouts are really fun right now. I love My favorite part is when you discover a new Pokémon, you identify it, and it explains to you that Pokémon, right? What what their qualities are. It's it's just real fun and campy. Yeah, there's still just not a lot in it though, right? There's But when the battles are happening it's it's cool. It's got a lot of potential, but yeah, I would give it right now it's probably around like an an eight just because it's it's you know, everything in it I like there's just not a ton in it. Fair. Fair, you guys feel like that. For me, audio is just so important on the in the pinball machine. When I press that start button and the music plays and all those Pika Pika that Don can say one to one Yeah. Yeah, [laughter] I get in a great mood. I'm in Japan. It's just it's so good for me already. I know I know with all the new stuff they're going to put in, but for me I enjoyed this game when my son was playing it. Just listening to the audio part. This is strictly like 11 out of 10 for me already. Really. Love it. If they can if they can add more of the announcer callouts during the battles, too. You know, like after you capture a Pokémon or something go into that like territory battle or something. Like I've never seen a Pokémon battle like this before or something. Like more of that. Make it more intense. Make it like WWE callouts, you know, like Yeah, and they've got Giovanni doing a lot of the callouts, too. I think getting him, you know, more in there give the intensity of like the Team Rocket kind of, you know, that's who you're battling throughout, so. I love Imagine when you can progress far enough in the game that like you go head to head with Giovanni in a battle. Like yeah, okay, I can see kind of where where this game's going. When a code update finally comes out, it's going to probably be pretty well baked cuz I'm sure they've got a lot more content now ready to go just waiting for approval. So, yeah, it's going to be a a cool drop when this happens. So, is this because of license approval? Because we know when Stern games come out, the code is like 80% or something. This one just feels like there's less in it. Don't don't don't you feel like it, guys? Less of code? Totally. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, there's not much. But the foundation's there. Kind of what I like playing it now is you kind of get you can kind of learn the rule sets and the foundation when there's very limited code because you sort of pay attention to the the fundamentals of of what the rules will be. And and you learn, you know, what are these training targets do, battle targets. Like these are the four characters, you shoot them twice, you activate, you know, um you know, Travis did the great tutorial where like, all right, like that's what those X's mean where you can choose which shot becomes, you know, two times scoring. Works. Yeah. You It's not It's not having too much to think about right now. You can kind of put to memory what's in the game and the foundation of how this game will will work. This will be a fun one to watch grow because this isn't a game that they're going to kind of get halfway on and then just lose interest in and then there's not going to be like ongoing code updates. [laughter] Do you Do you guys like it when the code grows or do you want a 1.0 when it gets released? I like it grow. How do you guys feel? I like it when it's not forgotten. Okay, it was it was hard to try to grow with X-Men. That was brutal. It was hard to try to grow with with Wick, but it got there. You know, but a game that's going to be like popular, you know, sales juggernaut, they're going to be commanded or compelled to continue to produce code for it. I think that's the one to get. So, maybe you have to suss that out. You know, if it's like Has Walking Dead been completed yet, the remaster? I know they had a lot of ideas for code, but you know, it seems like that's kind of been forgotten. Don't Nobody bought it. [laughter] Right. Yeah, nobody bought that game. The The Aliens are still for sale over here. I don't know in the US. The owner's club page is like four pages long. And it's just like Neil McRae and Ice Man fighting with each other. It's good. [laughter] Wow. Convince me that it's good, Donny. Yeah. The next one. Shots and layout. Chris, let's start with you. Let me hear. Let's hear your thoughts on shots and layout. I keep saying I'm a bad person to answer this cuz I came from Guns N' Roses. So again, I keep saying it was like going from an abusive relationship to dating someone who's just like really cool and down to party. So, I I love I mean, it's a fan layout. The shots are wide open, right? For most part. Like there's an it but it but there's something kinetically so satisfying about the shots. Like I love ripping the left orbit and it goes up that back ramp and flies around to your right flipper. So satisfying. The Charmander orbit, same thing. The ramps are so satisfying. And I will say the upper battle arena area, even though I know when you're just like looking at photos, it's like, oh, this is boring. This sucks. With the magnet and with the action happening there, it's a lot of fun. And even just shooting the the center shot, you know, so far up the playfield, it's not as easy as it seems. So, while it's very simple in its layout, it's very satisfying to shoot. And and I I I don't know how you can like pinball and the feeling of flow and speed and get on this machine and not enjoy it. So, I love the layout. And for someone who's not great at pinball, makes me seem much better. That's another reason why. You're in god mode when you play this. I'm I'm finally good at pinball, Brenda. [laughter] How do you feel about it, Donny? It's really fun. The Empire's got that center shot, too, right? Up the ramp. And you can just loop that and I can play one-handed. Like one arm in the air and just like hit that four or five times. But I think it's because Gomez dropped the angle of the flipper a bit. Like the shots aren't exactly where you think they'd be. Cuz to shoot straight up the middle, it's pretty high up on the flipper. It's like the first quarter of it is where it'll actually go up there. If you try mid, you're going to just be in the battlefield the whole time. And I'm still trying to like I'm trying to find a reliable way to be able to hit the ramps, too. Cuz I think that would exponentially improve my enjoyment with the game if I could just start comboing more frequently. Yeah. I I When you lean over to play like Lyman used to you know, when you lean, cuz the artwork really comes down and gives you the the trajectory towards those ramps. And it helps like it's like putting in golf. Like if you aim just in front of your putter, that's where you aim. You don't aim at the hole. That's that's where I've had more success with these ramps. Do you do that when you play? Do you go down like Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, nice. When I trap, I do that all the time. Yeah. Oh, that's cool. You can't do it on the fly, but when you trap Yeah. really helps. Especially when you need to collect the Pokémon and you got to hit that left ramp. Then you can just backhand it. How do you guys feel about those flippers that Donny mentioned that they're a bit down? How do you feel about that? It confuses me, man. I don't like it. I know you don't like it. Why don't you tell us how you feel first? [laughter] Well, I have been playing for I mean, I remember when Stern released Lord of the Rings pinball. So, I go back. I have played for many years. This game with this layout usually I had this talk with my bro yesterday. You And and he said if this game was Princess Pony, you wouldn't care. But because of it's Pokémon, the colors, the sound, the audio, the combo shots like Chris said, the right orbit with the spinner it's just so satisfying to shoot. Maybe if the theme was something else, I wouldn't feel like this. It's simple. You go into guard mode. You combo, combo, combo. You get through the whole game in 20 minutes. I think it's such a fun game to play. Yeah. So, for me, if I should put one word, and I want you two to do the same. One word about this game, it's uplifting for me. Really? I'm really The corniest adjective to describe a pinball machine ever uttered on live. Uplifting. Yeah, and I don't even have a machine. Let me Let me tell you this. It's uplifting. It's It's inspirational. [laughter] Okay. It's heartwarming is what it is. All right. I take it. You guys bought two LEs each, so you must love it. I mean Yeah, well, one paid for the other. Right. [laughter] Chris, have you told people how much you sold the other LE for or is it Yeah, 23,000. Did you hear that, Donny? I I hear it in my dreams. Yeah. But no one's getting that anymore, though. [laughter] I mean, I was on like one list and it was like, maybe I'll get one or something and then everything it just went chaos on launch day and then somehow I ended up with a spot and so what do you do? What do you do in that situation? Yeah. You go for it. You don't back down. It's slowing down, though. It's slowing down. Like the latest reports are at now in the 2,500 over, 3,000 over is kind of like what people are getting now. And you got to think too cuz so many LEs haven't even been made yet. It's going to keep going more down, but I think once they all find homes and the code is good, I think it's going to settle on a nice price, but now's a time to maybe grab one if you missed out. Yeah, now's not the time to be, you know, like number 499 hoping to flip it and get in your hands cuz Yeah. Too late. I never understood stand why some scalpers wait to I guess they're playing the market or maybe they listened to Kaneda being like, "It's going to be 30 grand." Um but they waited too long. They knew. Yeah, [laughter] they waited too long. Your best bet is you're preying on that irrationality. Yeah, on uncertainty at first, you know. Yeah. And that's what the FOMO I I think I think 80% of the reason was Kaneda. He was on this hype train. LIKE 25 BY CHRISTMAS. 30,000. It wasn't it 40,000 on eBay? That's it. Yeah, that's it. Like I just saw someone pay $100,000 for a Vespa scooter on Barrett Jackson. So, 40,000 for Pokémon seems too cheap. There there you go. And if there is one guy here that one guy in whole pinball media that can market, it's it's Chris. [laughter] So, yeah, well done. The the FOMO pump and dump, it's been around since pinball collecting has been around. It It's It never sees The guys who go in impatiently at high prices at the beginning, though, money is of no object. Nobody who's thinking, you know, fiscally, like with responsibility, buys like that. They just don't care, these guys. They're such big whales, trust me. The guy who buys it for 23 or 27, he's not losing any sleep. Mhm. Yeah, nobody spends that much money for something and then is not happy about it, you know. Totally. Yeah. In his head he has a $27,000 Charizard edition of Pokémon. [laughter] If that's what it takes to sleep at night in his 10,000 square foot home, I'm okay with that. guy's got a ton of friends that are also in a similar situation, know nothing about pinball, and they're going to come by and he's going to show off his $30,000 machine and that he got for 27 and then they're all going to have fun. Yeah. And they should hopefully invest There's only one. Look at my Charizard box. I've got a sticker on it that says Charizard. [laughter] He got That's what they did. They put the stickers on the boxes, too. Like I didn't get a sticker. Have you guys tried when you have people over, normal people, not geeks like us, and they find a pinball machine in your home and they ask the price and you say 13,000. Have you tried how they react to that? Usually they're just like, "Oh, wow." But I can tell they're silently judging me. Yeah. How about you, Chris? I I always think it's rude to ask what something costs to begin with. Like, I don't go over my friend's house and ask them how much like things cost. No, no, but people see the pinball machine, they're like, "Wow, this is cool." I I I usually I usually give people the range. I say like, "A machine's like anywhere from 6 to 15,000 if you want to buy a new one, right?" And cuz there is There's a There's a range. Like, you don't need to spend $13,000. I mean, a newbie's not going to be like in need of an LE. I mean, we all know the LEs are vanity purchases. Like, nothing about it is truly like in there at the money. But yeah, no, people like people are I don't know. In these towns, though, I mean, I don't know. If someone rolls up in your house with a $100,000 car, are they going to be shocked at, you know, you spent 15 grand on a toy? Okay, you Yeah, you live in a rich area. I I understand, but I have I'm the brokest guy in the block. That's what I'm trying to say. [laughter] These guys have like $100,000 watches on and I'm like, "Yeah, man, like I'm not flexing with a pinball machine, trust me." Well, okay. Okay, that's fair. What do you guys think about the animation of the new Big Spike 3D display? What do you think? How do you feel? Let me hear. That's good. Have you got the like I just got the the secret skill shot where somehow it plunges into the side duck little hidey hole and it plays like a little cartoon clip. It's super awesome. So, I got to see that. People are discovering that now. So, if I can see like more of that when a ball stalls and I can watch a little cartoon up there, like it's perfect, you know. Of course, the video assets are going to be great. They're from the show. So, so cool. It just What I think, though, in in addition to that cuz it does look amazing. I think it's the best Spike 3 presentation to date because it takes up the whole screen and it looks amazing and they don't overcrowd it, right? If you look at where the scoring is, just a little score bubbles at the bottom. Full screen animation, right? Like Star Wars is all broken up. Walking Dead, God help us. You know, Walking Dead like the DMD in the middle. Everyone's like, "Yeah, this is cool." No, no, no. You know, so it's it's it is the nicest inter like usage of the Even like you can see now, they they really fill the entire real estate with just the image. It reminds me of like when Dialed In came out and it was just like so nice to just have that JJP screen for once. Just have a nice big image on it instead of like 18 different things happening at once. And so I think they're they're crushing it. It looks so good. Oh, nice. Do you guys like that? You know, of course, it's 18 inches is much better, bigger. You can feel the difference. Should it be bigger? Should it be JJP style or is it good? No, I think it's perfect. Yeah, I think it's perfect. I don't know that you would get anything else by making it take up the entire backbox. Oh, okay, fair. I can also see the difference, especially when we put it next to the Spike 2 systems. Wow, you can really see and feel and listen to the difference. I think the audio package has been upgraded pretty well, also. So, yeah, yeah. Welcome, Spike 3. We just need a price reduction still. [laughter] I also think that the the Poké Balls really do make the speaker grill look better on this game as well because it's got the round Poké Balls on it. You know, sometimes when you look at the Star Wars speaker grill and Walking Dead, it it just doesn't look as nice as the older rounded grills. So, it it's Everything's working really nice here. I I I don't think you need to change much. I think out of the box the rails? Lit up rails? Right? Look at that. Look at them go. And they dance They dance with each other. They go And then the inside and the outside are like synced up. It's beautiful. Oh, yeah. Really enjoy it. So, Don, you have nothing to mod this game with. I know, right? I made some flipper toppers. Um I I made some some shooter rods for some friends. But yeah, there's not much to do with it. I think you could replace some flat plastics in the back with some little scene or something, but yeah, not much. Definitely don't take mini figures and hot glue them all over the damn game. Okay. Yeah, I see you guys love like the flat plastic where the town scoop is that has the different like battle, mystery, you know, I I've seen people try like thinking about making more like 3D printed like thicker. I don't mind it, though. Like when you To me, the beauty in this game just aesthetically when you look at the big Poké Ball into Mew it into Pikachu, they're in this nice symmetrical line. Yeah. That your eye follows. The moment you add more elsewhere, you're breaking up that symmetry. And and this is always my thing with don't put too much in. There's a beauty in some of the blank space and areas of a game. If you keep Cuz your eye want Cuz then your eyes fighting to go to different stuff. So, I do think there's a lot of beautiful symmetry and you see it in the artwork. There's a lot of like heart You know, look at that symmetrical line going across the middle. Like Yeah. It all kind of flows nicely. Zombie Yeti knows He knows what he's doing. Yeah. But to be honest, I'm going to be a bit mean now. That mod with the whirlwind water at the left side, yeah. It's too dominating. When you look When you look at it, it just your eyes goes down there. I think it's just Mod, but not the standard world pool. No, the mod. It's the all that blue water mod. It's too dominating. I mean, I wouldn't put that in the game. No. How about you, Donny? Yeah, no. Maybe I mean, I I know. You want to be able to see the inlane and everything. And it was weird. I went from playing Pokémon like five times in a row and I have Evil Dead right next to it. So I jumped over there. And Evil Dead when you jump in there and it's like got all that room and doesn't have a fishbowl over the inlane like you can see so much more of the game. It was like such a weird palate cleanser jump from like cute Pokémon over to like this undead playground of Evil Dead and then back and forth. So fun. They did a good job with the Squirtle whirlpool adjustments over the Star Wars whirlpool which is stays in there, right? It's so What I love about the whirlpool too is like it only activates when you're in Squirtle story mode. It's really cool cuz like just and again I know it doesn't seem like a lot but just opening up a new area of the game to play as you're progressing through a mode. It's just great. I mean that's what makes pinball really satisfying is like it's not just immediately on. Right. a question. That left side side dog side, how do you shoot the ball in there? You don't. random zone. Yeah, it just randomly will go in there. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. Which makes it super hard to do it from a plunge. I mean it was just some kind of crazy bounce and it went in there. And then plays this really great animation. It just sucks you probably won't see it very much. Have you guys heard anything about the topper? Yes. I asked George Gomez this week. What did he say? You want me to read his response? No, I just Did you ask about when it comes out or did you ask about what it's going to be? Is it a Pikachu or what? No, it's it's it's the fish. It's the I don't know his name. Magikarp. Yeah. Oh, the fish you collect to get the uh what's that snake? Gyarados. Yeah, Gyarados. Okay. Yeah, he did the fish? No, he didn't He didn't tell me it was the fish but it it is the fish. Um That's that's sad. No, it's going to look awesome. It's going to look like It should be Gyarados or Bulbasaur or something cool like that. No, no. It's like a fish tails fish. Yeah, they're going to make it like move and Dingus, what are you talking about? No, come on. Give me a cool Pokémon up there. What's the What's the big fat one? That's white fat Pokémon. What's the ball? Snorlax Snorlax. Snorlax up there jumping That could be awesome. [laughter] I'll make you a Snorlax topper. All right. So he said that cost-wise it's not any more than any of the complicated ones. Whatever that means. Between 1,500 Yeah, 1,500 dollars. That's what he means. We're about to announce it but again not certain on dates. You'll want it when you see it. It's very cool. Nice. George. Will it unlock some new modes? Do something more code-wise? Of course. Yeah. You know it's going to come with a mode for that Pokémon. Oh, Magikarp mode. Yeah. Magikarp challenge. You need to hit 400 collect 400 Magikarps only with the topper to get Gyarados. That's it. Dingus, I think I think I think I think you underestimate the beauty of the depth they can create even with just the five or six shots. Yeah. No. Guys, Yes. No, wait. Explain to me Explain to me what three more shots would do. You can multiply the shots by three. Have much more options. Yeah, no. You're going to end up with Houdini and no one's going to want to play it. No, no. Okay, Houdini I I understand but I don't know [laughter] if it has four shots in there. Yeah, name me the game a moment in pinball that where if shots six, seven, and eight really made that mode come to life for you. I I can tell you this game reminds me of playing Medieval Madness or Attack from Mars, right? It's the same layout, right? Mhm. Damn layout. Yeah. Orbit, left front, right ramp, and a best shot in the middle. After some time it just gets stale because it's five You either shoot the left side or the right side and it's just And this one you can What's it called when you make a mark in the middle and you can close it symmetrical. It's very symmetrical also. So it's shots on layout it's just not easy to engage in different cool code modes. What else would you put in here like an upper flipper with a a warp ramp up to a little upper mini playfield? That could be awesome. A right upper flipper that could do the Picard shot. That could be awesome. Why not? I mean the look look at Evil Dead. Look at Every time you go into a mode you Mhm. It's very different. So yeah. Different life very different. It's just harder for the coder of Pokémon when it has got five very simple shots. I'm not saying it's impossible but you know You you could have had something like like the Pikachu could have been a lift ramp. So sometimes it could lift up, you shoot underneath it. There you go. You do a subway or something. I don't know. Yeah, I mean they could have made Meowth it maybe have more functionality and move over more and block more pathways. But grab the ball with a magnet like on Godzilla or something. If you're going to Pokémonify Pokémon or you could probably have a Meowth balloon open up and you could put a ball in the basket and then it could lift up for a physical ball lock that could drop out later. But would that sell one more of game than they otherwise would? No. So that's probably that's why. That is the one mod I'm waiting on is a Meowth basket. Yeah. To make it look more like a balloon. Yeah. I don't know. That's just how I feel. I mean but for a medium player it's great. Shots on layout. But I just think for the coder more shots will you know, do it a bit more engaging. That's what I'm saying. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I love shooting the game. I think it's got the same amount of shots as like Elvira's House of Horrors does. I also think this game's going to really again like the code it's it's so right there for like a there and back again mode. You know, after you collect all four characters there's like a beautiful like music starts in and you remember and you know, moments with each of those Pokémon like in a adorable way. Jigglypuff I still think there needs to be the Jigglypuff mode where the game starts to fall asleep slowly and you start to lose switches and pop bumper. You know, like so that's that's the Those are going to be the moments cuz I would I would say like right now if you were to say what's the moment in the game that's just magical that you remember that you can't wait to get to again. I don't know if it has that quite yet. Yeah. Don is saying it has five shots like Elvira and the Party Monsters but those shots on Elvira are very different on the playfield. They're not symmetrical. It's not just It's very On the right side it has got this opening The crypt? Yeah. It's just It has it Yeah, the the stand-up targets on the left could have been drop targets and you could have shot behind them once you dropped them or something and Yeah. You probably could have got creative with subways and things. But I like from Stern's point of view that's more complexity to break and it probably wouldn't sell one more game than they otherwise will. So I don't know. You have You guys have got the magnet. For me that's a huge plus. Oh, yeah. It does It does the random stuff. Doesn't happen for the pro owners. It's great and it like the magnet can even throw the ball up the center shot sometimes. It's got a lot of action. It's really strong. Yeah. And if you're missing one of the purple blinking stand-up shots you can, you know, hit that for you. That would could be cool. We just lost Chris Kooluris. Oh, he had to go to the He's got to go to the toilet. He just texted me. No, okay. [laughter] That's fine. That's fine. Okay. It happens. Dude, my stream is working. How cool is this? I mean This is awesome. Hey, look. We have got chat going on also. Guys, this is just a tryout thing. This is my idea. Let's try this. Bam. And This is fun. Chris Sellers here. Jason Long is here. I can just grab somebody's comment and be like boom. Drop it right there. Getting slop. [laughter] It's cool. Let me see here. So yeah. So I think people are digging Pokémon. I know it is fun to play. It's not the most complex game ever. And you know, when I talk about palate cleansers jumping next to next door to Evil Dead and playing that it was like there's so much more room here. There's so much more fun stuff to do. So like yeah, I would have liked it if there was you know, 10 ridiculous shots and five awesome max but I'm having fun with it. So there you go. Oh, he's back. It's a keeper for you. Welcome back, sir. Yeah, now now you now you get Don's logo. [laughter] Yeah, Don's My computer died. My computer died. Welcome back. Oh, is that a Ferrari 348? Yeah, 308 GTS Targa. Oh, 308. Okay. Damn. Sitting at 340,000 dollars for a car that goes zero to 60 in eight seconds. Damn. Okay. So Pokémon as of right now both of you guys it's a keeper. You love it. I mean yeah, for me I mean Kids love it. Wife loves it. You know, for now, nothing's a keeper forever. It Show me $20,000 and we'll talk. [laughter] $30,000. I got to get that Magikarp on there first though, man. I can't wait. Yeah. I think by the end of the end of the month, we'll see it. Cool. Okay. That was the review. All of us, we enjoy Pokémon. I think the the theme was awesome for I love everything Japan. Let me see. Uh Why do you like let's talk about like but like there's a lot of people that don't like this game, right? And I think it's been fascinating Well, it's it's a fascinating like there's a lot of vitriol I think from a lot of more seasoned players who And I I get it. Like I think it I then I've said this, I think this game makes a hypocrite of all of us a little bit who cover pinball frequently because of the things we look for in games and what we've indicted other companies for in terms of effort and innovation and you know, Jenga shots and mech and then then this game comes out seemingly devoid of what we normally indict companies for. And we're like it's amazing. It's amazing. Like this is the best you know, it's like So like I I and that's that's the thing is I think this game just No, because I feel personally it's it's a theme that I like. It's music that I like. It's Pika collabs that I like and it's just bright colors and it's uplifting. I love it. [laughter] I enjoy So who who's saying bad things about this game? Jeremy Schmits. I played the pro twice. I'm good never playing it again. So like okay, so if you like find Pokémon grading annoying or like crazy childish, like you're not going to like this game. Right? Like if like you don't want to like hear Pikachu just like constantly saying stuff. You're like no, I don't want anything to do with this. So those are probably the people that don't like it. I would love to Jeremy to go a bit more into details. Oh my god, do I have TNT amusements in there? Of course, man. But like it does make sense. I mean let's face it. There are 55-year-old dudes who have never seen Pokémon or you know, they don't care. Like you know, I I wouldn't jump on it if that was my perspective and be like yeah, like you know, especially coming off of like some of the most amazing games we've seen over the last few years. I get it. Like I get it and but I see my thing is you got to look at Stern as a portfolio of products. This product was I think designed the right way for the right kind of mass audience on the biggest I entertainment IP in the world. So you made the most inviting pinball machine Stern's ever made. This is the easiest Stern machine to play ever. I think we'd all agree, right? Monsters is easy also. But this is like but that was a smart decision by George. If you make even if this had like the Foo Fighter layout or Iron Maiden or Godzilla, it it wouldn't have been as approachable. Approachable for most. I mean I'm definitely grading on a Stern curve here cuz there are games that are you know, have more mech heavy, uh more creative shots that are in here. I think you know, can you imagine Pokémon if had the Dune layout? So giant Diglett would come up from the back where the worm is. [laughter] Oh my god, guys. TNT Amusements. TNT is in here. Todd Tuckey. Let me tell you guys something. Before all these Hello, Todd. Before all of these great videos we have got on YouTube, we had Todd Tuckey. He I mean we go like 15 years back. He made great videos and I really enjoyed those videos. It was much different than now. But as soon as it was quality It was quality content back. [laughter] But as soon as TNT upgraded to high definition, they deleted all the old videos and they were so technical. They showed the weak points on system threes, on system elevens. He deleted all those videos. So Yeah, why did you do that, Todd? Why did you do that, Todd? Answer for that. Right? [laughter] Todd, we we want all those old videos back, buddy. Now I mean he said something like now he only wants the full HD quality, but yeah. Well, welcome, Todd. Todd, what's the next game you were pushing off the roof? We couldn't get the Pinball Adventures. Is that guy still Andrew Colin MacAlpine still making games? Wasn't that Elements or Elemental or was something? Yeah, Elements was is not the one he should make next. Um that was kind of a side project he was doing cuz he's got a couple of other businesses, too. And so right now I don't think they're building anything. Um but like I don't know. I celebrate that because the man had an idea and he put it together and got them out there and damn it bless him. It was Punny Factory. Did you have one, Don, ever? I streamed one though. I I think I'm still the only person that's ever done that. Um no, Mad Pinball bought one and they took it Mad Pinball's probably the only people in the world that made money on Punny Factory besides the people person that making them cuz like they they would tour it around and people would come there just because it was such a rare freaking game. Um and so they would tour it around different arcades and things. Um and then like my first time streaming something in public, they're like yeah, here just go do this. So they turned this on it. What a strange game that is. He reached out to us a couple of times. He's a real sweetheart, man. I like him. Oh matter TNT said they never deleted any videos, Jenga. What are you talking about? Fake news, Jenga, strikes again. Low resolution very old videos. Todd said they never deleted anything. Hmm, okay. I'm sorry. I believe Todd. He says Pinball Adventures is silent for an entire year. Yeah. Ask Todd how Wonderland's Alice is selling. Is that the small home version? That's the $1,000 one? Yeah. I don't know, man. They're making Ninja Turtles now, right? Are they? Yeah. That's what they said they were doing next. Yeah, they showed pictures of it I think. $1,200 or something. Great game, man. pinball table, too. And it's it's such a different category. Like it's technically pinball, but it's really it's really I I remember people were like the warped playfield and I'm like no one No one's going to notice this who buys this thing. [laughter] Okay. Fair. All right, guys. That was beautiful Pokémon talk. Let's talk about the different companies. What are they doing? Let's start with JJP. Donny, we have Chris in here. Chris knows everything about upcoming game. Yeah, I mean year for them. I'm sure it's going to be great. I'm sure I'm going to want it. What I'm not sure of is if I want to spend $15,000 right now. And I don't know that I need to because again, this is probably going to be made in large numbers and always be available. Yeah. I'm sure it's going to be fun. Harry Potter is holding the price. For now. Yeah. Yeah, there's no way that holds for much longer. Yeah. Is it I mean is this going to be a victim of its success like Guns N' Roses was where it just sold so many that even though I mean and Harry Potter is a much better game than Guns N' Roses is, but still if there's so many out there, like how can it maintain price? I still think it'll Godfather though. Zach just sold one for like $8,600 $15,000 LE. I think I think Sonic Yeah, Sonic's going to knock Potter's hype down a lot. I think cuz I think it's going to shoot just as well, but have a lot more in it and be a lot more like rad. I mean like Potter, there's no denying its success in the market. It's done great. Um it's a beautiful pin. I think I got that's another example though where like the CE is gorgeous, right? It's like head and shoulders like so much different than the other two models. But I do worry about this unlimited CE nature. To Don's point, I feel no FOMO to get one right away at 15 when they're just going to make them for years. So I do think it's going to be a test of that unlimited CE approach. If if it's really the right way to go because because again like then you're not really preserving any second hand value for people spending that much money on a single pin and I kind of would want a little bit of exclusivity and and long-term value baked in. But that being said, isn't it fantastic that it holds the price, right? Well, it's just Potter though. They have no other example of that happening ever. So that's the thing. It's like you literally lost $8,000 on a Toy Story 4, maybe 9,000 like on one game. So like Potter's an anomaly cuz Potter is an anomaly. It's it's a huge IP. Like Sonic isn't like nearly as big as Potter. So we'll see. Don, you said 8,000 for Godfather. Was it a CE or LE? That was a CE. That was the gold lion, baby. This is $7,000 LE. Yeah. Now it's it's Godfather and you would have had to wait 3 years or something or whatever it's been. You know, I don't know. I think from the perspective of the collector, of course you want exclusivity. You want to have something that's hard to get and other people want. From JJP's side, if they can sell a few thousand extra CEs, then then that's the right decision for them, right? Well, and and talking to Brett, they made money on Godfather. They didn't make as much as some of the other titles. They don't care. I mean they see the millions. Sometimes it's 20, sometimes it's 50 on a on a single game, you know, in terms of total sales, not not like profit, but that's how they look at it. And if they if they can at least break even and make make some, they're on to the next. Look at the how important theme is. Yeah. I mean [laughter] Any more captain obvious statements Jenga is like what what do you mean? You said that like like nobody There might be something to this whole theme idea. Yeah, maybe it's important. Just look at how important it is. I mean for these different companies sometimes when they you know, use a lot of millions choosing terrible themes. Yeah, I don't want to say weak themes. Yeah, just just rethink them. I mean just it's so important. I mean look at Pokémon. As we said, very simple layout but the but the theme is just theme is everything. Theme and music. [laughter] That's how I feel. Oh, we have got Aussie in here. What up Aussie? Well, I'm seeing the themes in that image I created, right? Of all the themes coming out this year. Oh, yeah. I mean it's beautiful. They're on everyone's on point, right? This year. Like it's going to be really and then my [laughter] other thing is next year is going to suck. Not for everybody. Why? I heard you say that. Why? No, no, yeah, like I just feel like we're this is like amazing. Like are we going to keep this up? But maybe, right? Because I think everyone realizes now Well, all right, let's talk about a theme that's not like on that list. Like you can Yeti. What do you think? Good theme, bad theme? Would you wait 2 years at 12.5? 2 years? It will come this summer. Yeah, but if you if you order today, you're waiting 2 years. Oh. Jenga, do you not follow pinball? Sometimes I'm like these are like the latest you get angry at me. Yeah, cuz I'm like yeah, cuz I'm like you're you're like you're not doing anything. No, cuz he's in it every day and then you're like these are like just the the latest things that everyone is sort of discussing and you're seeming somewhat confused by it. I I don't I don't listen to much. When you hit me up Chris you know Don hits me up. I get all the news there, but yeah, I should listen to more stuff. Turner basically said that they will complete all 500 basically within 2 years. Yeah, he just did a he just did a loser kid episode and I think what what he what he's trying to say is that now is that that's the longest you'll wait, you know, maybe they'll accelerate once his new facility's up or something, but he didn't want to he didn't want to put out a date and then not be able to meet that. So it sounds like they'll all be made within 2 years, but I mean, you know, who who's this game for? It's for somebody like me. Like I've wanted a Chris Turner game. I just didn't want one anyone that I'd seen yet. So like this is the first one that I'm like, oh, I'm interested in. Plus I've been obsessed with the idea of the sequel to Whitewater that's been floating around the rumor mill forever. So like these two things crossed and it was you know, easy for me, but you know, would you step over a a Sonic arcade edition to go get one of these? Probably not. But you you guys said if you buy it today, are the 500 games not sold out? They sold like 250 or something. So I don't know where he's at now. But they're not sold out. Because because only because like you know now if you place an order you're waiting like a year and a half. If if like let's say 300 have sold, he's not going to get to 300 until sometime late 2027. Okay. Yeah. going to put 600 in my cart right now and see how many there are left. Don, what number are you? Do you know your number? Number one. I don't know. No, he didn't give me a number, but like I put my deposit in during the reveal stream. So um and I'm going to But you can build your own game there, Don. Yeah, he's going to let me know when the parts come in and I'm going to fly down there and build one together. So Is that is that true? You're going to make it? I'm going to well, I'm going to at least go down and help. Yeah. Okay, that's cool. How cool would that be? If I jumped on the line at Stern, I'd be like, you know what guys, I'm good. I'm good. [laughter] I just want to I want to I want to Yeah, I just want to squeegee my own decal. Yeah. Like wait, let me let me build somebody else's game. I want you guys to build mine. Yeah, which one is Jenga's pro? [laughter] But the same thing with your Beetlejuice. You could you could just go on and build it. Have you built it already? I'm going to go finish it up when I get back. I got the the backbox and I just got to finish the playfield. Don, we're going to get in trouble by Frenchy for rating Pokémon art as high as we did. I just Oh, yeah, of course. That's why I said I was I was grading on a Stern scale. He is [laughter] he's already unsubscribed from my show because I talk about Pokémon too much. He'll come back. Why? Does doesn't he like the theme or what is it? Well, I know like everyone we've been nothing but complimentary about Beetlejuice and everything associated with it. It's just like he gets mad if you praise Pokémon for some reason. [laughter] Like there could be two things people like happening at the same time, Mr. Frenchy. Like it's okay. Not it's not a knock on what you did. And I look I I still think Beetlejuice artwork is better than Pokémon's. But they both can be 10 out of 10 in their own right. Right. Of course. And Frenchy, what he does, we love it. Nothing bad there. Yeah, but you know, that's not good enough. He'll come back. He'll come back, Chris. He he misses you. Yeah, well. He'll come back. Yeah. All right, we covered JJP, but Sonic in June. That's when it's coming out. Can't wait. I can't wait to see it. I'm going to play it. Hopefully they do a media day again. I know they didn't have to do one for Harry Potter. It'll be out within 2 months or around 2 months. Nice. see it. Hope so. And while we were covering JJP, you covered Chris Turner also. Mhm. 2 years in the making. Yeah. All right, let's jump over to American Pinball. We have heard they will come out with 16 games this year. How's it going? They didn't say that. [laughter] No, you know how it is. They have a lot of projects going on, man. I'm excited especially of the what do they call them? Re re-imaginating or what's it called? Remastering remastering Yeah. Yeah. Remixing. I'm waiting for the rumor from AP that excites me. I haven't heard it yet. Damn. I agree though. I mean what what's right now it's Circus Voltaire. It's excited? Houdini. Are you excited for Circus Voltaire? No, ringmaster's creepy. I I think it I think it'll sell. I I think Brian Allen's artwork is like my main concern and you know, I don't know if you saw the I mean I went off on the Fishtales artwork the other day and I did hear that. sure he hates my guts, but No, but like I I I I just I don't know. It's like that game was known for its art. So like to redo the art on games that were famous for their art being amazing is just an interesting strategic decision. Um it didn't work on conversions. I'm with you 100% It didn't work on Funhouse even though I guess maybe people thought Pedretti's quality was crap. Um it's just you know, $12,000. I get it. Like go find a mint Circus Voltaire somewhere for anywhere south of 10 and you can't. It's just it comes down to the remastered code has never really elevated any of these old games, right? Other than maybe Cactus Canyon's new code. Mhm. Right? I mean like Definitely not the Whirlwind code. God. Not the Whirlwind, not the Funhouse, not there's something I guess about new people coding an old games like building on top of someone else's code, right? It it just hasn't really elevated it to the level where you know, I have to now get the new 2.0 version of a game. So I don't know. Also with all the exciting stuff coming out gang like I don't need to look back to the mid-90s. There's the new stuff is so amazing. Right. Did they say something with I mean will they remake some of the licensed Belly Williams or is it only non-licensed one? No, you mean like an Indiana Jones or Twilight Zone? Well, Twilight Zone is coming from CGC. I I just think Rick You have been saying that for 10 years now. No, but like CGC it's not my fault. 5 years. My whole thing is this and I've said this to Melvin and Brian who runs the new AP. Just start your new chapter. Like starting the new company by looking back to old games from someone else to me is not how you start a new chapter of American Pinball. It it just feels like a way to maybe train the employees, keep the line moving, get some revenue in. Exactly. I that's I'm not Yeah, I'm also not excited by it. Like I'll excite me with like we're making He-Man and it's going to be all new. please. Yeah, let's do it. Frank says no super chat, Donny. Did you activate super chat? Yeah, let me know how to do that and I'll go ahead and do it. on a free version of this software. They're not going to let us make money off of their free software. Sorry, guys. Frank, this wasn't planned. It was like Zencaster didn't work and Don just entered this StreamYard thing. This is just a test thing. But I'm enjoying we have chat going on down here. Isn't it cool? Absolutely. All right, that's what we got. Let's jump what we got the company you're at. Who Pinball, man? How's it going? What numbers? How's the build going? Quality? Tell us. Oh, it's beautiful every day every day. Yeah. What what the next game? Um gosh, I have no idea. They haven't told me. Well [laughter] guys, I want I want to share something. 2 days ago I'm at this work thing meeting and we're having dinner and Don calls me. He calls me. He calls me and we're eating and we're like 15 people around a table. So I just I said, "Excuse me guys, this is my dear friend Donnie. I have to answer him. He's from America. It's very important." They're like, "Ooh, a guy from America. Okay." Everybody stops eating. So I answer and he makes a video call. I answer and all these days they're looking down my phone. Donnie's outside. He has no clothes on. [laughter] Like no clothes on. I'm like, "Donnie, do you have pants on?" And he just "Yeah, look look at my pants down here." "What are you doing?" "I'm just enjoying everything." And I And I ask him, "So where is Where is the Spooky factory?" And he just turns phone "Just right there." I mean, he's living the dream. You can literally just walk over there. So walk over there, build your Beetlejuice man. It's a great story. It's ridiculous. There's somebody hyperbolic moments that went nowhere with Jenga's description. It's beautiful, man. Like everyone in the restaurant heard an American's on the phone. Like what what? They think they're going to bomb the restaurant or something. I'm going to call you more often. That's right. Yeah, I don't know the power we have. It's good. I'm excited. I'm excited for the rumors I've heard from those guys. Everyone knows they're sold out for the next few years. So like it's incredible. It's just going to be fun watching the feeding frenzy happen once a year for them. I'm excited for it. It's been fun at the shows too and just watching like you know, you set up and then the doors open and all of a sudden the public just comes hoarding in and then it just descends on the Spooky booth and then that that crowd maintains the entire length of the show. It's It's crazy. With like 15 machines there, you know, there's still lines. It's crazy. Are you planning the night launch already now? Are you kidding me? We got some cool stuff. There's going to be a thousand people over there next time, man. We need to buy some more inflatables, man. I don't know where I'm going to put everybody, but yeah, 150 people. Sell them direct. Um the thing [laughter] is the You know what it is and I've said this about direct. You know what I'm saying? Decent amount. They could sell them all direct. We all know that. Okay, 500? No, not that many. I wouldn't I don't think so. Um but I will say like we're all excited, but again Spooky continues to be the company that has over the years like listened to all the feedback and just keeps getting better. And it is it has been a pleasure to watch the ascension from America's Most Haunted to Beetlejuice. I don't think you could on a spectrum of beginning to today see it you couldn't see another pinball company make that kind of progress. Now albeit you don't necessarily want to start with America's Most Haunted, but that's what it took, you know, and looking at Beetlejuice now a game that is easily looks more expensive and nicer than anything Stern is putting out on par with JJP. It is is pretty incredible. Amazing. I love it. They also We picked up the We picked up the Beetlejuice. It's going to fly through Denmark Monday or Tuesday, I hope. So at the end of next week I'm going to unbox the Beetlejuice over here. I'm so excited. There's some extra special stuff in there for you. Oh, thank you. [laughter] I I will maybe have mine before yours. Don't worry. They're going to put my 999. They know in the last ones on the line. Throw everything at it. What you going to do? You're going to have your Pokémon, you're going to have your Beetlejuice, you're going to have your Transformer. I got to buy one of these houses. You're Sonic. This is my pin cave. What what you going to do? I mean you'll figure it out. We'll get a retail seller or I might get more than one up here. I can probably put three against this wall where the TV is, but I again I just got to like There's programs where I can lay it all out to see what it would look like and how I could arrange the pinball machines. But Chris, I mean putting the games against the walls one thing, but you're going to have to add more windows too. I know. [laughter] Believe me, just this catty-corner. It's not in front of the window. It's just catty-corner. [laughter] It looks like it here. I've moved on from pins in front of windows. My new thing I make fun of is men holding translites and or $40 on league night. That's my new Don when he writes when he when he sent those pictures to us. I mean it's just You're So Chris is going to make a calendar, right Chris? You're collecting these pictures. They're awesome. [laughter] So but is it some Okay, I don't know about this. Is it just something you say for fun or is it true that people play for hours? Yeah, it's to win a translite. [laughter] Is it true? Yeah, it's true. It's often what the bars and you know, will give as prizes on those like league nights as just an incentive and a reward. It's what Stern sends them for like being part of Stern Army. Like here's your Here's your stuff. Here's your plaques to give away and then here's a bunch of translites for prizes. So that's what they get. They get banners and translites. Yeah. Was that Killian I just saw? Killian! He's [laughter] back here. Oh, I love I love Killian. I watched him grow up, man. Love Killian. Yeah, me too. [laughter] You Oh, that was nice. Look what Pat's Arcade is writing. Retro Jenga's disappearing in the what ass? Yeah, baby. Oh jeez. I don't think he's Yeah, okay. Chris Chris, you have to understand you're on a whop show, man. You have to understand. I know. I get it. I knew it from the moment it started. [laughter] This is the level, baby. All right, that's cool. So what's the next company? Barrels are fun. Barrels. What number Winchester are they on? Is it anybody's guess or should we know each week? 400, I think. No, they're not on 400. They're not even on 150. When did it release? It was October. It was at Expo. But they didn't start production right then. What about your guess? I think they're around like 150. No, Chris. No, it must be more than that. Don, what number Winchester? What's the last Chris L is like an expert. I don't even know. 25 is the numbers. I don't know what my number is. What? What is happening? Killian. Killian wants to play Spooky Pinball, man. 98 just landed. I saw that. Yeah, Aussie got 98. Thank you. I think I'm 522. So it's going to be a while for me. What number they on? High 90s, see? Yeah, 998. I think it's a mixture of them getting a bunch of orders for Dune when they announced kind of that last call thing. Plus, you know, just the the difficulties of running a pinball company and you know, everything coming out. Chris Chris L says I think 60. Chris L, is that Chris from our patron Chris L? I believe so. I saw 98 balls. Here it is. I saw 98, but never saw 70s or 80s. Oh, maybe they got shipped to EUROPE OR SOMETHING. [screaming] [laughter] KILLIAN IS ANGRY. I'M GOING TO RUN OVER THERE. THEY don't know what's happening. Cass has got a fever. Kill has He can He can watch something after he cleans up and he's melting down about the cleanup. Aussie's waiting for a Dune order that ended in December. That's months. Yeah, okay. Well, that's when they got those Russia orders. Well, that's the thing is like they're they don't really have two full lines and so they've been like kind of you know, five Winchesters a week while they still make Dune on the main line. It's like been a kind of like that kind of ride. Really curious to see what they come out with next. Yeah, the NeverEnding Story rumor, right? And then you've got I think it's Big Trouble in Little China. And then Oh, don't joke with that. No, cuz they keep saying it's going to be a theme everybody knows. I mean, does everybody know NeverEnding Story? Yes. I mean, there's there's very few themes that have like a theatrical release that people don't know. But Big Trouble is like 45 million times better than than NeverEnding Story, man. Yeah, I think it also could be GI Joe or He-Man. GI Joe? Cuz they Did you guys play with GI Joe dolls when you were kids? Are you kidding me? I still play with them. Oh my Chris L said Big Trouble or Dungeon Cuz where isn't Brian Savage over at Barrels? Yeah. And he was big into He ran the GI Joe fan club for 30 years. They also might be making a Transformers game. What that be? Cuz what people don't know is that it's not exclusive. That's an interesting like a lot of these licenses are not exclusive that if another manufacturer wanted to make one, they also could ostensibly obtain a license. Why does that not happen? Why don't we get Star Wars from other companies? Because I think you've got to really you know, if you're second, [clears throat] you could be screwed. Why? I want I want Predator for all from all the companies. I want Predator from all the companies. Let's use Transformers as an example. Like if Stern nails Transformers, which I keep hearing good things about and has all these resources and throws everything at And then And just think about it. Like if thousands of people buy Stern's Transformers, you come out with it. You know, it's going to be hard, but you know, the nice thing about all the boutiques is that Stern just came out with Star Wars, right? They just came out with it. Yeah, okay. They sold Yeah, decent, I hope. It's a popular theme. How about if Spooky also got it? Can you imagine how much Some of the How much toys would be sold? Go get on Star Wars right now. I think it's going to be hot. Well, some of the Yeah, look and and also some of the companies Why they do it? It irritates me. Yeah, while the licenses might not be exclusive, the companies may want to stay more exclusive with the manufacturers they choose as well. So, that's why you see a lot of Warner Brothers with Jersey Jack. Um Stern seem seemingly has a great deal with like Disney and Marvel. Yeah. it's sad. You know, they're used to working with whoever the marketing representative of that licensing is and so you build a relationship with that person and then it makes it easier. Although they change a lot, too. So, um but if you like you're you're comfortable going to the studio for things going back to that well, it's easier to go back the second time, I think. Yeah, 100%. And they're going to want like they're going to they're not going to want to burn the people they've been doing deals with and and hand it to somebody else. Unless unless like there's a like more money on the table. Well, the Predator only [laughter] It's funny. Will Predator Arnold guy do the Jack Burton call outs? So, what I heard with Big Trouble was like getting the talent to do new stuff would be cost prohibitive, but they could get all the assets from the film itself. Which that is a kind of movie that probably has a ton of call outs. Yes. Already. know, I heard somebody say the call outs are the most important thing ever and you can't just call them. [laughter] Is Spooky are they redoing them? I are they I keep I I heard like I don't know. I heard someone say that today. I can't confirm nothing. All right. No, like I like I don't I think they help. [laughter] Yeah. Um but yeah, I do think that David's next game he know I think they want to feel what they feel with Winchester on a more like mainstream level. I think Winchester I I again was a anomaly for them because it was like the right game at the right time with the right designer. Yeah. Yeah, if it wasn't Carl and it was like a I mean it is a it is a difficult game. I think there's a lot of people who haven't played it that have been cheerleading it that that is kind of funny. Like it it is not an easy game. And wasn't wasn't Star Wars really revealed around then and it was kind of like lackluster, you know? And so it's like, oh, but then here's this. Oh, fine. I already had money ready, but I don't really want that, but oh, let me go on this Carl game. So, Perfect storm. Perfect. That was perfect timing of a drop. Sold in an instant, man. So, what's what's John Borg working on now? You'll have to listen to my show this week. OOH. NICE. I KNOW A BOARD. Neda knows. Well, it's going to be an interesting one. We'll see. Okay. Okay, that's nice. All right, did we uh we we're missing Pinball Brothers? No. I think I think I think we're we're missing them. Yeah. We're we're missing They're not even They're not even brothers. That's the part that always kills me. We're missing Pinball Brothers, either. Guys, Spooky Pinball gaming is about to release a game soon. So, isn't that a It's it's uh Isn't it Theater of Magic? No, who cares? Yeah, these remakes are just Yeah. You don't like It's fine, make them, but I'm not going to get excited about them. How is Funhouse doing doing in US? Do you guys know? Yeah, they bombed. Yeah. Ozzy Ozzy here said it. He's like, "Th- Those games had their time. That time is over." Like it's just I get it if you want to put one in your collection, but again the discernable discerning with discernable discerning collector is going to want the original for the most part if you're a real collector. It feels like the most expensive non-licensed Bally Williams games has always been remade, right? Yeah, Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars. I mean, are you going to sell 1,500 Fish Tales right now with updated code? Like I don't know. I don't think so. No, not with that art package. Depends on the price. 7,000 people will buy not Fish Tales, but Theater of Magic for 7,000, that would sell. It's not going to be 7,000 now. It's going to be like probably 11 or 12. Yeah, that won't sell. I mean, 12 Gs, no way. The real magic trick will be finding customers for that. Yeah. The thing is today, if you want more than 10K, you have to put more in a game than Spooky does. That's it. Unless you're unless you're Pokémon. Yeah, we start the show by saying theme is everything, but yeah, with the prices and all, so yeah. Anthony in chat, what's up, buddy? Is that the new rule? So, like So, let's let's let's let's ask one final question cuz I think we covered all the major stuff. Do we think we will see Back to the Future this year? Of course not. [laughter] I'm so sad about that. what I'm hearing. I'm hearing we're actually going to see it sooner than people think cuz they don't have really anything on the line now that they're losing Raza develop you know, manufacturing. There's going to be a Lebowski anniversary edition, I think. No, it's the Jesus version. Sorry, not anniversary. There's going to be that. Yeah, that's what I'm hearing with like purple armor. All the characters to pick. [laughter] Right. And so like we'll see what that does, but then I think we're going to see Back to the Future sometime in like summer before you know, the end of the year. I think who knows? Unless I heard unless I heard the game still wasn't like done yet. Like not ready for production. Yeah. they think they finished it? Yeah, I think it's been they've been developing it for at least a couple years now. Um I I I don't from what I heard from someone who saw it that it's Look at the chat. It's like, no. doesn't I think Wait, I heard the same. What what were you were about to say there? Me? that has played the game. Yeah, I think I heard the same. Well, no, I just heard that it it just didn't like it just felt like it was missing something. Like it it you know, like it was it it was it was fine. It was a Whitewood, you know, the art wasn't out yet. I know Frenchy's doing the artwork, but just that it was missing that like that that like wow thing in it. Like it you know, where Lebowski had the the bowling alley and the rug. I think The other thing is this is that there's a lot of Lebowski that was designed by Yap and other people and I think you know, Barry is designing this game in a little bit of a vacuum now and they don't have the resources people think and I you know, that's the thing that's going to hurt this game more than anything. Was it a bad thing that Melbourne stopped at Dutch? Yeah, I mean, I look I mean, I you know, I love the dude. I think um I I I don't know though, either, right? Cuz it's like I can't say that you know, making the foam core Alice into a working game is is a is a resume item for you know, like you know, missed potential on Back to the Future. I just think it's I think in general Dutch is hard because they've only made one game in like 15 years and you're not iterating, you're not like look at Spooky. Imagine if Spooky just made one game 15 years ago. And then they got Back to the Future as a license. [laughter] Like you know, you haven't been you know, learning and trial and error and advancing and innovating and you know, and then the pressure's on you to like nail it without a lot of experience and and so, you know, most people at Dutch, what experience do they have? They've just been screwing together a game that's 15 years old for the last 15 years. It's I think it's going to be it might come out feeling dated before it's even out. I don't know. That's what I'm hearing. People are excited for this theme. No, because like I'm just saying like I think Fallout and Transformers and Beetlejuice and pop like the the pinball scene is just is like is going, baby. And like I'm not sure they have the team Back to the Future is going to be revealed and it's going to feel like 10 years old. Yeah. That's Right. And like like remember like originally, Don, like it leaked like with the cabinet was just a logo and that's it. And it was like very much like Lebowski and it's like that was then, but look at now. Like that's not good enough. Now, it's good that Frenchy's working on it, but it's it's going to be tough, you know, to to nail it. Those The expectations are so high for it. It it might be like the Chinese Democracy of pinball. Yeah, I wish Multimorphic would have got the Back to the Future license. I wish Spooky. I Seriously, I wish Spooky just sit down with Spooky guys and say, "We have been waiting for this game for years now. Just contact get Back to the Future." So, now that So, now that none of these deals went through, I I know all the deals that were on the table and Stern Stern wanted it and was going to have Elwin design it and Barry was going to just make like a like a good cut per game sold. Like imagine just a hypothetically, 500 bucks a game, you're just the executive producer of it and they sold 8,000 games. Bro, just sit back on a beach and get your 4 million bucks and stop pretending you can you know, you can you can meet the demand. And then Jersey Jack also wanted it, but Barry wanted too much money up front and also just wants like the pride of bringing it to market and I think he's going to realize when the orders come in and he can't fulfill them what a headache it's going to be because of that, but Just imagine when when you got to you sell 100 games and then 50 of those people are still waiting for the toppers. Yeah, Alice. Yeah, that I don't even know what's going on there. I mean, it's just like how I can tell what's going on here in Europe. People are trying to sell their Alice's in secondary market and it's not going very well. So, it's like 10 5 10 and they're not No, it's just no And that's that's in euros. There's no game there. I mean, like I I I Mel didn't accomplish what he needed to do. I mean, he made that game in less than a year. He brought a phone cord to life. But again, relative to what's in the market today, it's not a satisfying ownership experience and the art wears off real quick. And also like none of that art is like in the code, is in the game. It's like this isn't like a storyline of this like [] Alice like making her way through this adult wonderland. Like you know, and like it's so disconnected all of it. discordant Yeah, it's not No. And that upper price deal. Sad, man. All right. All right, guys. It's It is. It is. I'm not sad about it. It's like easy to just like I don't I'm sad about it because I want all the companies, all the pinball machines to just rock and be awesome. Uplift you to uplift you. I want to be uplifted. Trust me, that Pokémon does that for me. Every time I press the start button. All right. I'm going to go I'm going to go try to I'm going to try to again. Yeah. Skirt gets uplifted. All right, guys. That was fun. Yeah. All right. And thank you guys and thank thanks for the chat also. This was cool, right? Yeah. Let's subscribe. StreamYard. All right. Later. Yeah. Later. Bye.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-06-06 | Item ID: 000d21cc-078f-44bb-bee2-e7ca47278138*