# Episode 34: Harry Potter Drama Explodes on Pinside – Oh, and Predator Pinball Is Here Too!

**Source:** The Flipside Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-06-21  
**Duration:** 47m 32s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** 3d9499e0-884b-417d-87f4-91cfe478b60f

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## Analysis

Retro Ralph discusses the launch of Pinball Brothers' Predator pinball machine, covering its features, theme integration, and production details. He also addresses community drama around Jersey Jack's Harry Potter game and AI artwork controversy, emphasizing the need for positivity in the pinball community despite ongoing tensions.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Predator pinball is a widebody game with an MSRP of $10,995 launching with 800 units planned — _Retro Ralph citing Pinball Brothers production details_
- [HIGH] First Predator machines will ship to the US in mid-August, with some air freighted — _Retro Ralph citing official Pinball Brothers production timeline_
- [MEDIUM] Arnold Schwarzenegger's likeness has licensing restrictions; he won't appear close-up and may only appear in movie clips — _Retro Ralph citing Pinball Brothers interview details from Kevin's podcast_
- [MEDIUM] Harry Potter code quality has issues but gameplay is fun; the game was well-received at Southern Fried Gaming Expo — _Retro Ralph's personal observation and report from attendee Nick Madsen_
- [HIGH] Predator pinball uses the Fast Pinball platform, also used by Spooky and Dutch Pinball — _Retro Ralph citing platform specifications_
- [HIGH] An unlicensed Predator pinball machine exists at Galloping Ghost arcade but rarely works — _Retro Ralph's personal knowledge of arcade locations_
- [HIGH] Pinball Brothers used Bell UH-1H Huey helicopter model reference for the helicopter toy in Predator — _Retro Ralph live research during podcast_
- [MEDIUM] Evil Dead and Kong have strong code on release compared to Harry Potter — _Retro Ralph's comparative game analysis_
- [HIGH] Predator licensing is still in progress and may receive additional Arnold content and custom audio — _Retro Ralph citing Pinball Brothers podcast interview details_
- [HIGH] Pinball Brothers is shifting to standardized Bally/Williams parts to improve reliability and serviceability — _Retro Ralph citing manufacturer strategy_

### Notable Quotes

> "Pinball's fun man. Relax, chill... we're having fun, we're playing games. It's pinball baby, it's pinball."
> — **Retro Ralph**, early in episode
> _Sets the tone for the episode and the host's philosophy on community discourse_

> "I'm at the point where I just love pinball, man. I love it. I like playing the game. I'm not playing the artwork."
> — **Retro Ralph**, during Harry Potter discussion
> _Addresses the AI artwork controversy while prioritizing gameplay experience over aesthetic debates_

> "the game is so damn good from a gameplay perspective that I can overlook a lot of things because the gameplay is so much fun"
> — **Retro Ralph**, Harry Potter evaluation
> _Frames his position on Harry Potter despite acknowledged artwork and code issues_

> "Have they built a really fun pinball game? Yes... Are there some things code wise that could be better? Sure."
> — **Retro Ralph**, Harry Potter assessment
> _Balanced critique of Harry Potter acknowledging both strengths and areas for improvement_

> "I don't know how much of the movie clips are actually in and approved at this time. Kind of like what we saw with Dune, they released it and had it subject to license approval."
> — **Retro Ralph**, Predator licensing discussion
> _Highlights uncertainty around Predator's final licensed content and precedent from Dune_

> "Predator is one of those licenses that a lot of us would love to see someone make an American pinball machine of."
> — **Retro Ralph**, Predator assessment
> _Validates the value of the Predator license despite community concerns_

> "That Predator sculpt is really cool... The Predator looks badass, man... this sculpt is really cool."
> — **Retro Ralph**, during Predator toy discussion
> _Shows strong approval for the game's visual design elements_

> "I think that's a good move on their part... I hope they're really successful with this game"
> — **Retro Ralph**, discussing Pinball Brothers' parts strategy
> _Expresses optimism about Pinball Brothers' quality improvement initiatives_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Retro Ralph | person | Host of The Flipside Arcade Pinball Podcast; technology industry professional; casual/serious pinball player and content creator |
| Pinball Brothers | company | Pinball manufacturer producing Predator game; known for previous quality issues; transitioning to Fast Pinball platform and standardized parts |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Harry Potter pinball; currently facing controversy over AI artwork filtering without disclosure |
| Flip N Out Pinball | company | Sponsor of The Flipside Pinball Podcast; pinball distributor and retail company |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; uses Spike 2 proprietary system; competitive in current market |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer using Fast Pinball platform; produced Evil Dead with strong launch code |
| Predator | game | Pinball Brothers widebody game based on 1987 Predator film; $10,995 MSRP; 800 units planned; uses Arnold Schwarzenegger character with licensing restrictions |
| Harry Potter | game | Jersey Jack Pinball title; at center of AI artwork controversy; received positive gameplay reception at Southern Fried Gaming Expo |
| Evil Dead | game | Spooky Pinball title; cited as having strong code quality on release; widebody game |
| Kong | game | Recent pinball release with substantial rule depth and mode complexity; praised for code quality |
| Dune | game | Recent pinball release; precedent for releasing game subject to licensing approval |
| ABBA | game | Pinball Brothers game with band theme; Retro Ralph expresses lack of personal interest in the theme |
| Nick Madsen | person | Attendee at Southern Fried Gaming Expo; works for Retro Recreation; reported positive Harry Potter reception |
| Colin | person | Editor of This Week in Pinball; published article covering Harry Potter AI artwork controversy details |
| Pinside | organization | Major pinball community forum; site of AI artwork debate and community drama discussion |
| Southern Fried Gaming Expo | event | Public gaming event featuring Harry Potter pinball's first major audience appearance |
| Galloping Ghost | venue | Arcade location; houses unlicensed Predator pinball that reportedly doesn't work |
| Fast Pinball | product | Open-source/licensed pinball control platform used by Pinball Brothers, Spooky, Dutch Pinball, and homebrew developers |
| Olof Gustafsson | person | Composer credited with original music for Predator pinball; associated with Dice Pinball; music inspired by Alan Silvestri's Predator film score |
| Alan Silvestri | person | Original composer of Predator film soundtrack; Back to the Future composer; music featured in Predator pinball |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Predator pinball machine launch and features, Harry Potter AI artwork controversy, Pinball community drama and culture
- **Secondary:** Code quality and game updates in pinball, Pinball licensing and IP restrictions, Manufacturing quality and standardized parts
- **Mentioned:** Predator film legacy and nostalgia

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.65) — Positive about Predator's gameplay and design; frustrated with community drama; optimistic but cautious about Harry Potter; advocates for community positivity while acknowledging legitimate concerns

### Signals

- **[product_launch]** Predator pinball shipping mid-August to US with 800 units planned; using standardized parts and Fast Pinball platform (confidence: high) — Retro Ralph cites official Pinball Brothers production timeline and specifications
- **[licensing_signal]** Arnold Schwarzenegger licensing constraints limit close-up appearance and visual representation; game released subject to ongoing license approval similar to Dune precedent (confidence: medium) — Retro Ralph discusses Pinball Brothers interview and notes gray areas in what content will be final
- **[community_signal]** Harry Potter game at center of AI artwork filtering debate on Pinside; users questioning transparency of AI use in artwork without proper disclosure (confidence: high) — Retro Ralph references article by Colin at This Week in Pinball covering the controversy; acknowledges pre-production assets may differ from final product
- **[gameplay_signal]** Harry Potter has code issues but strong gameplay foundation; Evil Dead and Kong released with stronger code; community tendency to repeat complaints about games without playing (confidence: medium) — Retro Ralph compares code quality across recent releases and criticizes hearsay-based complaints
- **[design_innovation]** Predator features animated Predator toy with motor tracking capability, Old Painless magnet lock minigun, interactive apron countdown timer, upper flipper, and helicopter toy mechanic (confidence: high) — Retro Ralph details mechanical specifications from Pinball Brothers official sources and pictures
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Pinball Brothers shifting to standardized Bally/Williams parts and Fast Pinball platform to improve reliability and serviceability after history of quality issues (confidence: high) — Retro Ralph cites manufacturing strategy change and rationale for parts standardization
- **[sentiment_shift]** Host expresses frustration with community negativity and drama-seeking behavior; advocates for positivity and focus on gameplay enjoyment over speculation (confidence: high) — Retro Ralph opens episode emphasizing need to relax and enjoy pinball despite community tensions
- **[market_signal]** Predator planned as 800-unit production run; limited accessibility concerns; Pinball Brothers games historically not widely available on location (confidence: high) — Retro Ralph discusses production numbers and notes limited venue availability for Pinball Brothers titles
- **[leak_detection]** Predator gameplay video posted in multiple places then pulled down; video reportedly filmed long ago and not representative of current build; content availability and authenticity questioned (confidence: medium) — Retro Ralph mentions clip was shared and then removed; notes rumors it was filmed long ago
- **[venue_signal]** Harry Potter featured at Southern Fried Gaming Expo for first major public appearance; positive player reception reported; Predator may appear at October Pinball Expo (confidence: high) — Retro Ralph cites attendee report from Nick Madsen and discusses show timeline expectations
- **[content_signal]** Retro Ralph cites Kevin's podcast as primary source for Pinball Brothers interview and technical details; recommends audience support that coverage (confidence: high) — Retro Ralph explicitly credits Kevin, Josh, and Scott's episode for Predator information
- **[industry_signal]** Fast Pinball platform gaining adoption across manufacturers including Spooky, Dutch Pinball, Pinball Brothers; represents shift from proprietary systems like Stern's Spike 2 and JJP's custom platform (confidence: medium) — Retro Ralph discusses Fast Pinball usage and attempts to document which manufacturers use it

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## Transcript

 Hey, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the Flipside Podcast. I'm your host Retro Ralph and we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it because there's so much to talk about. I don't even know. I say that every time. There's so much. There's so much because there always is because this community is crazy, man. There's always something. New games coming out, rumors, people freaking out over AI artwork. I mean you got Predator. Oh my gosh, the clips are there. The clips are gone. It's always crazy. There's always something. I feel like I'm I'm going crazy because of the crazy. I don't know man. People need to relax. Pinball's fun man. Relax, chill. Chill, we're relaxed, we're having fun, we're playing games. It's pinball baby, it's pinball. We're supposed to be having fun. I'm not getting all pissed off about everything. What fun is it when you're pissed off all the time? I don't have fun when I'm mad. I like to be happy most of the time but I try to get beat up for it but I don't really care. I don't really care. Because we're having fun over here. Look at all these people! There's no one here, it's just me. But it doesn't matter. You're here watching this, listening to this on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, I don't even know. I don't even know, I don't care. I'm just glad you're listening. I don't care which platform, media, whatever. I don't care which one you use. I'm just glad that you're here. Here with me. We're gonna talk about all this stuff but we're not gonna be angry, we're gonna be happy. Gosh, these energy drinks kick in and I just go nuts. Alright, let's kill the music. Let's kill the music. Before we get started, as always, this show is sponsored by Flip N Out Pinball, my boy, over at Flip N Out Pinball, Zach. You guys know him well, Zach Mini. And before we run this show and start talking about it, let's hear a little bit about Flip N Out Pinball. They can handle all your pinball needs. They ship anywhere in the United States and they will give you the best experience in the business. Check out the link to Flippin Out Pinball in the video description for more information. Now back to the video. Okay, let's get this show started. All right, here we go. We're going to talk all about Predator because that's the game that launched this week. I'm a little behind on stuff. You know, I've been busy with work and all that stuff, but, man, I made the mistake this We're still in the middle of the week of going in hard on Pinside. I go there from time to time, but I go there to buy mods and I sometimes go into the owners groups of games I have or whatever, but I don't, you know, the hype threads, but I don't spend too much time there. I know enough to get in and get out. You don't want to stay for too long. It's like, I don't know, I'm trying to think of a place you could walk into where you're like, ooh, if I stay here for too long, it might not be good. I don't know. I'm trying to think of a place, maybe it'll come to me. But anyways, I go in there, I'm like, Oh, you know, I'm gonna see what people like. тыİ جااء аб mate venir sub I mean, it's just like you got people fighting over whether AI is good, whether AI is bad, whether AI should be used and not used. People going, oh my gosh, hey, you better be on the AI train because it's left the station. I do agree with that. It has. I work in technology and lots of money is going into AI and we're selling lots of our systems. We sell data storage platforms into customers and startups that are doing AI. So for all different things. You got autonomous driving cars, you got tons of stuff. You got telemetry data coming off of rocket ships, you got all sorts of crazy stuff. And a lot of that is using artificial intelligence. So, anyways, yeah, I don't even want to get involved in the conversation because it's honestly nuts. Some people are making some valid points but, I mean, my take on it is I've seen how it's influenced my industry. I work in technology. So, I know there's no getting away from it. Now, if you want to get real quick before we get into the meat and potatoes of the episode, I never say that, meat and potatoes, by the way. It's so random that I just said that. But, before we get into that, you know, there's a lot of arguments around AI as far as artwork goes. And, you know, I love art. I love artwork on pinball machines. It's been a big part of pinball for a really long time. But there's also some really crappy art in pinball from the historical stuff. You can find me on Twitter at the hashtag Knapp. I'm also on Twitter at the hashtag Knapp. And I'll see you guys in the next one. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. To把t지�록 Subtitles by the Amara.org community And I love it. But not everything is perfect. Not everything is the way we expect it to be. And so yes, there are some issues with this artwork. I don't know at this point which side of it is factual, which side is not. But Colin at Kinetisys just released an article. Go check that out. I'll have a link in the description to that. He kind of goes through all of the things if you're unaware. I'm at the point where I just love pinball, man. I love it. I like playing the game. I'm not playing the artwork. Do I, when I was there filming that I'm not that uh when I was there filming the episode or the featurette I'm obviously not painstakingly looking at every inch of the artwork but also what we were dealing with was pre-production stuff and if you watch the video you'll see this little disclaimer saying there's pre-production assets in here so I think some of the scrutiny is happening on pre-production assets some of the stuff may be already fixed and resolved in the actual cabinet and some things may actually just exist that way and we'll just have to live with it right but the game is so I'm so damn good from a gameplay perspective that I can overlook a lot of things because the gameplay is so much fun. And honestly, right now, as you're listening to this, Southern Fried Gaming Gaming Expo is going on. It's the first public appearance technically of Harry Potter in a main audience with a lot of people. And I was talking to my buddy who's there, Nick Madsen, he's there selling ice cold beers. He works for a, I can't remember the name of the company, Retro Recreation something, I can't remember it. But they sell these ice cold beers which are recreations using modern technology. It's a really fun game if you've never played ice cold beer. It's a game anyone can play and it's a lot of fun. But I was like, what's the reception to Harry Potter and everyone is loving it. So that's the thing. Have they built a really fun pinball game? Yes. And I think if you play it, if you haven't played it yet, you will find you will also enjoy it. Are there some things code wise that could be better? Sure. But I'd say that about every game that Subtitles by the Amara.org community I'm going to be a little bit more aggressive in this one. Let's enhance it in a couple of the code updates. It's been really good, so I'm excited to see where that goes. But if you're being fair this year, who came out with a code, a game that felt code-wise really good in its first version, I'd say Evil Dead. And I would also say Kong has a lot, being fair, Kong has a lot to chew on for being a brand new game. I was just playing it and it's a Paradactyl, I can't remember, the mode, Paradactyl, whatever. It's kinda cool, like, what you have to do is you have to shoot the, uh, on the drop targets, right? The drop targets over by the river? You, there's one in, that's like blinking and moving. You have to hit that one. And then you have to go to the cave, which is a really fun shot from the left flipper and you, you kinda pull up your right flipper, shoot your left flipper, and if you time it right, you go right into the cave, and your flipper kinda pushes the ball back in there. It's really cool. That's not that easy to keep doing in sequence. You have to kinda keep repeating that sequence to finish that mode. So, there's some things in there for you to chew on. It's not like when people say, when people say the code isn't good, it's like, I question, like, like I'm saying this to people that say that, have you played it though? Because if you haven't beat all the modes, then you're complaining about something that's there and there's stuff for you to chew on and you haven't even explored it yet. So anyways, I think in this community the problem is is that people find someone says something and sometimes it propagates and people repeat it and sometimes what they're repeating isn't necessarily even true accurate or they haven't even played the game themselves. So I really try my best to do my analysis based on a game I've played. In this case, we're going to talk about a game I haven't played and probably no one's really played except for one random dude. 3 2 3 Can Dus twinplinballygusalte canyon realise revelations pronunciation acht perm gleichzeitig depress optimism enfin endangered jackets doll traineeiver assez Key blend oat interference prays CRA encouraged tan The Lot of suspense in that movie there a lot of action there guns people love their guns People love their guns plenty of guns in that movie guns everywhere and uh And there's just funny stuff like The fear factor of that movie like one of my favorite scenes of predator is the one where they just completely annihilate the jungle I mean they completely what's funny is I'm like I just watched rewatched it the other day I was like, how much damn ammo did these guys bring? Like they're running through the jungle. Like how much ammo did they really bring? Cuz I'm pretty sure whatever ammo they had after that, there shouldn't have been any ammo left. Like they completely annihilated. The thing is the predator was long gone. Like I don't even know what they were thinking. Like hey, let's just plow down the whole... It was just funny anyways. And then you see his blood on some of the leaves and stuff. If you haven't watched the movie in a while, it's great. And one of the things actually, Jamie, my friend Jamie Burchill, He thinks the soundtrack in Predator, you can give him crap for those of you who want to, go to one of his videos and make comments, he thinks the soundtrack for Predator is cheesy. But, that's Alan Silvestri. He is the one behind the back, in many movies, but Back to the Future. So if you love that, his musical score in Back to the Future, you can totally tell it's Alan Silvestri. He has a very unique sound to him, to the way he creates his musical scores, but I love it in that movie, that Aוסкивado Hoy por hoy tarantox co Soon CrewCinema.com y катno I saw it probably on like HBO or something, but I remember taping it. I remember taping it on the VCR and watching it over and over and over and over. And I loved it. The only thing I don't get in that movie though, before we go into this game, we're never going to talk about the game. Why did the, do you think the, the guy that sacrifices himself on sort of that like bridge thing or whatever, did he do that because he knew he would like, he knew there was no chance in fighting this thing? Like, why was he so certain that he was gonna die and he just decided to like sacrifice himself to the predator? I don't, I never quite got that, but it was like, I don't know, it's kind of sad to me, uh, watching it as an adult. Like, what are you doing? Maybe he was like, look, Arnie's got this, I'm out, I'm sacrificing myself, Arnie's gonna take care of it. Uh, the only thing I'd say that looks a little cheesy and doesn't hold up well is the thermal, the thermal view of the predator, cuz he sees heat, you know? The That didn't really hold up in 2025 whenever you watched it right I was like I don't know about the heat view in 2025 But it's still I still love it I still don't care, but anyway and the gun the gun I mean the mini the gatling gun the only other movie I think where that gun was so that gun probably made its way into I don't remember the model of that Gun because it is a real gun. I believe I think that gun was actually a gun that belongs on a That gun would be mounted to something so that's why that was so interesting is because that gun wouldn't have been How have you seen the five greats 산 тур sofort expedition, toys for Five, a Breakfastilted Video Rodrigo한 contracted 98離폼곳, interessant spansť polít ladiesa,Yeah舜μ er Chef pr报嘷Ñ, The things where it's like, you're against all odds, there's no way you're going to be able to do this, and sure enough, the main character finds a way to make it happen. Which is why Predator makes such a good pinball machine. And if you know there is that one that was made with no licenses in place, and it sits, the only one that I know of sits at Galloping Ghost, it never works, so if you go, you can go look at it, but you're going to be disappointed because nine times out of ten it's not working, I'm not sure if that's how it came or if Doc did that. I don't know. But anyways, it didn't matter because it wasn't even a real product. It was like a real product that they had no licensing or rights to even make. But hold on to that idea because there might be some of that happening here too. But uh, but but but I don't want to get into too much drama, but I am going to bring it up. So when what we're going to do from here on out, I'm going to quickly I'm going to quickly run down the things I know about Predator and here's the thing, I learned all of this from my boys over at Loser Kid, Josh and Scott. So what I'm saying is stuff they covered in their episode. So if you want to go support them, definitely do that after the fact, but I'm going to rapid fire through what we know. Okay, first of all, why did the team over at Pinball Brothers make this game? It's because they're wicked big fans of the movie and so they were doing it because they wanted to pay respects to a movie that they really enjoyed. I'll be a little bit more specific about what you're going to be seeing in the next few minutes, but I'm just going to get right to the point. So, the theme integration. So, people have complained about the fact that, hey, is Arnold in the movie and there was all this mystery, is he in it, is he in it. Well, you play as him. So, is he in it? The answer would be no, but he may appear in the movie clips, but that's the thing. There was, what was interesting is when they did the interview with Pinball Brothers, they We were talking about, yeah, we can put them in the movie clips, but we can't have them be close up. And they never defined what close up was or means, so I don't know. But the original, you know, some of the original voices are in there and the movie clips are in there, but I don't know how much of the movie clips are actually in and approved at this time. Kind of like what we saw with Dune, they released it and had the subject to license their approval. I don't know where they're at in this process and there was a little bit of a gray area in what's actually gonna be in the game versus what's not gonna be in the game. And we'll get to, we're gonna hold on to this because there was a little bit of controversy around this game when it launched the other day. But they did say on Loser Kid that they're still working through the licensing and they're gonna potentially add more Arnold content and some custom audio from the cast members. No promises were made but that was something that they said during Loser Kid's podcast. Okay, so that covers sort of like general gameplay concepts and theme integration. Very basic. Okay, we'll go into it a little bit more. Shots and layout. So, it is a widebody game. The reason why they chose for it to be a widebody game to me was a little confusing. I don't know if they felt like they needed more room to accommodate all the stuff, but from what I see it looks like there's some empty space there. I don't know if it had to be a widebody, but that's what they chose to do. I have no problems with widebodies. I think some widebody games can play a little floaty depending on how they're designed. But, you know, I mean, Spooky with Evil Dead, completely, that game is not floaty at all. So it's very possible that you can make a great, fast-moving widebody game, so we'll see. I don't know. No one's really played it, so I can't really say. There is a upper flipper that looks kinda cool, so that's there. Closed caption, Cє insulation Speed, Subtitles by the Amara.org community It says initiated under a spinning helicopter toy. The helicopter toy is there. I'll show you pictures of that in a minute. There is a model of that helicopter. That helicopter is a Bell UH-1H. That's the model number of the helicopter that was used in the movie. Now I don't know, let's look that up really quick. Let's see who made that helicopter. I'm not sure if that's like an American helicopter. I don't know. Let's see who, let's just look because I'm curious. Who designed this helicopter? I'm doing this live, so I'm not taking any, um... Okay, let's see. It's known as the Huey and it was designed by Bell Helicopter, an American aerospace company. Okay, so, that being said, it was developed by the U.S. Army. Uh, oh wait, developed for the U.S. Army. Sorry, not by the U.S. Army. It was developed by a company called Bell Helicopter. It says, Bell developed a helicopter in response to a 1952 United States Army requirement for a new medical evacuation and utility helicopter. So, it wasn't really even a combat helicopter from what I can tell. So anyways, that's what they're in. Now there's going to be people who'd say why didn't they use the model, the actual model of that helicopter in the game. Well I will show you a picture of the helicopter they used. It does not look like a direct model of that. It just looks like something that was inspired by. I don't know who you'd need to, I mean, is Bell, I don't know, I have no idea if Bell helicopters still exist. But I don't know why you wouldn't just use that mold. Maybe it was a licensing thing. I don't even know. So just know that's the name of the helicopter and that's really that. There is a predator sculpt in the game that's very cool. That predator sculpt is sort of the central toy in the game and it's surrounded by three drop targets. Once you hit the three drop targets the predator comes out of the bottom of the game I believe or rises up and he can move, he can ball track. It's a very good high quality sculpt. I actually really dig it. It's pretty damn cool. There's also a magnet in the game. Orbit shots feed a magnet lock which drops the ball into a subway system leading to the old painless turret Lock. Okay. That I didn't cover, I don't think, earlier. Alright, the game balances, this is their words, not mine, the game, this is from Pinball Brothers, it balances calm and eerie moments with intense action to mirror the film's pacing. I think that's cool if that's what it actually accomplish accomplishes because that movie does go from calm to intense to almost eerie scary you know when you kind of see you know that when you're looking looking at it from the vantage point of the predator he's kind of stalking the people in the movie which is which is great so he's stalking the main characters of the movie all right so that covers like shots and layout in a basic way mechs and in features there's the main predator toy it animates it's got motors it can rise up it tracks the Subtitles by the Amara.org community I not sure if I going to be able to get to the Pinball Podcast until Expo in October is what my guess is unless it shows up at a show somewhere else I don really know Okay so that that Where are we at Alright we got the Predator toy old painless I sorry I took notes on this because there was so much stuff that was buried in this show You got the old painless which uses a magnet lock to fire balls across the playfield during multiballs and hurry-ups. That old painless thing looks pretty cool. It's got some lighting effects to look like muzzle flashes. Kinda neat. Choppers Lock, spinning rotor above wireform, starts missions, multiball. Choppers are important part of the game because it's what starts your missions and multiball. There is an interactive apron that is very cool. That's sort of the countdown timer that's on the predator's arm at the end of the movie in that climactic scene where he just blows himself up. I do love in the movie something though. I do love that in the movie, and I don't know, this is my interpretation of it, I don't know if there's any way you could interpret this, but when Arnold's covering himself with mud so the Predator can't find him, and finally Arnold has injured the Predator to some degree, I kinda love the idea that, like I love that they went with that idea that the Predator was like hurt, and so it became like a man-to-man battle, you know, between the two, you know, like let's do this old school style, like the Predator was, you know, the Predator's like, look, I could just blow you up, but I'm not gonna, like we're gonna do this old, and I don't know, they don't ever like really I don't know if they show, maybe they do, I don't remember if they show like is he actually wounded to the point where none of his like laser shit can work, I don't know, I don't remember that now, I just watched it back. I don't know, but anyways, I love that whole thing like hey, let's do this man to man. And uh, you know, I don't know, it's just a cool scene. I love that scene too where Arnold is like all wrapped up in those like tree roots. Such a cool, so many cool visuals in that movie. Alright. Audio and music, like I said it's got Alan Silvestri's original score which is great. There was some additional music done by someone named Olof Gustafsson of Dice Pinball. I think that's what it says. So he made some music that's original that I guess was inspired by Alan Silvestri's soundtrack that's supposed to compliment the Alan Silvestri score. And it says that the sound design includes some ambient jungle noises, movie quotes, and callouts. I don't know who did the callouts. I don't know if they mentioned that. I don't know if I have that in my notes. So the build quality has always been in question with Pinball Brothers, right? I think I've played a couple of their games. I've never owned one, so I can't really question, I can't question the build quality, although I do have some operator friends, you know, Kale Hernandez pretty well over at Electric Bat and Rachel. You know, they've had some, excuse me, spotty pass with certain Pinball Brothers games from their other operator friends, but they are using now the Fast Pinball platform. A lot of homebrew games use the Fast Pinball. It's like sort of an open source platform that you can, I believe, just license the capability to use it. I think so. I think you do need to like license it from them or something. I'm not sure. Maybe it's open source to the point where you don't have to license it. I'm not even really sure. But as you know, most pinball manufacturers have their own proprietary things like JJP has their own system. Stern has Spike 2. This is sort of a platform anybody can use. I believe Spooky uses Fast. I actually tried to get notes of all the companies that use fast pinball. Let's see if I actually have my notes read. See, I don't even have my... I normally don't do a show with notes at all. Yeah, it looks like Spooky uses it, Dutch Pinball uses it, and obviously, Pedretti uses it. So it's popular with DIY and homebrew and hobbyists as well. I just don't know if you have to pay them a license or if you can just buy the hardware. I'm not sure. That part I don't know. I'm not sure if you have to like actually license it out. Let me see a modular system. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, there's probably some I would imagine if you're using it for commercial use, they should probably want some licensing like some money for it. But I'm not sure exactly if anybody knows, let me know. So here's the thing when you buy this thing, what are your what are your available options? Now, the there's one version of the game, right? And that's $10,995 MSRP. That's the use Advertisement Invisiglass, Jungle Green Trim, RGB Backpanel Lighting, Ammo Crate Style Swag Box, Limited Edition 80 Style Poster, Obviously, I wanted to add a section of what I've seen people talk about when it comes to community concerns and things like that. There's definitely people that are a little bit on the fence about this game because of the limited use of Arnold and his likeness. So I'd say right now, this is completely up in the air. We don't know what they're using of Arnold, what they're not using of Arnold. You are playing as Arnold, AKA Dutch, which is his character's name in the movie. But I don't know how much of that is actually going to be him in visuals or his voice and things like that. I'm going to show you a clip that got pulled down. I'm only going to show a little bit of it. I don't even know. I mean, it is, it does exist. Someone, I saw it when it first got posted. Many of my friends saw it. We all were sharing it around going, Hey, look, there's a gameplay. No one was under any suspicion that that wasn't something we should be looking at because it looked like it was posted in multiple places. However, after the fact, it got pulled down, but it is, it is still out there. So, I mean, at this point, it's been leaked to the point that it's out there. I mean, there isn't, but I'm hearing I'm hearing rumors that that video clip was filmed a long time ago. So I am going to show you pieces of that clip, but I want to let you know I have heard from people that this is something that was filmed a long time ago. It's not really a great representation of the game now, and we shouldn't take anything that's in here as being in the game now. I don't know. I mean, other than the physical attributes of the game. Like, some of the video clips we see, those could or could not be in the game. We don't know. None of that's really been confirmed. There was some talks about is Predator a license that's even worth really doing. I think it is because I think it's a very nostalgic play for any company that were to make it. I kind of wish that, you know, this game is probably not going to be as accessible. They're only making like 800 of them. So a lot of us may never even play this game, right? Because I don't think Pinball Brothers tends to be on location in many places, at least not around here. I know Starfighters, I think has an alien. I don't know any place around here that has an ABBA, but I also don't I'm sorry, this is no offense to Pinball Brothers, but I don't have many friends that are like all hype for ABBA. I just die. I don't get that one. Like I don't get, I don't get ABBA. It doesn't, it doesn't do anything for me. Um, and I'm okay with like, there are games sometimes where the themes do nothing for me and I play the game and I love it. But that's a theme that I'm so not into that I like, don't even think I would seek it out. Like I just don't care. But I think there's a lot of people that fall into that bucket of ABBA. and Abba, it's just not it's not a band that that we're like all hyped about. Alright so Pinball Brothers has faced some, some, you know, history of quality issues and I think that's why they went with this shift to the fast pinball platform. They're also using standardized Bally and Williams parts, so they're using flippers and pop under bumpers and slingshots and all things that are standard parts that you can get at like Marco or Pinball Life. So that's good, because that will actually help with number one, replacement parts, and it should feel similar to things that we've played before. So I think that's a good move. That's a good move on their part. And I hope they're really successful with this game, because I think Predator is one of those licenses that a lot of us would love to see someone make a pinball machine of. So they said production is underway. The first machines are going to ship to the US in mid-August. So I don't know where these machines are going to go. I'm assuming they're going to go to distributors, and then we'll see where they go from there. I don't know how many of them they're going to do. And it said the first machines are going to do an initial ship. I don't know if those are going to go by sea, I'm guessing. Well, then they but they made it a point to say some would be air freighted. And reach the U.S. shortly after, so I don't know if this first round is going to go by boat and then they're going to airfreight the other ones, I'm not really sure. So but their target was to get it out here in mid-August. I don't know if there's any mid-August pinball shows, but maybe we'll see it before because you got August. Google 6 or 4 jeg roommateinitradio.com fr tell me if that's your real name if you didn't I did want to show you guys some of the pictures. If you're listening right now, this is going to be a little less interesting to you. I'm going to pull up some of the pictures. This is a picture of... Why is it not playing? Oh, there we go. Oops. Hold on. I'm messing this up. This is a picture of old Painless in the left. This is the minigun that was used by Jesse the Body Ventura in the movie. So that's the iconic scene where, um, shoot, I can't remember the other character where he... Was Jesse dead at that point? Did Jesse get his chest blown open and then the guy, when they shot the jungle down, was Jesse already dead? I can't remember. I think he was. Man, the Predator shot that laser right through his chest. It's funny because nowadays if that scene, hey, nowadays if that scene, if that scene was in a movie nowadays, that would have been so much more gory. Like, that seemed as a kid, I know it seems intense but... I mean, really, it was very light in comparison to what they do in today's movies. In today's movies, they were like BLOOD SPLATTERED EVERYWHERE. I feel like that was, I don't know, they did it in a way that looked dramatic but it wasn't like, Oh my God, everyone's super grossed out. But anyways, so there's Old Painless. Then from there we're going to show you... Let's see I have another picture here. This is the, um... I guess it'd be the camp. And there's some cool sculpts here. You see like that Jeep truck thing and then, You know, it kinda looks cool. And there's, I guess, a scene, there's something you can do where it blows up the camp or the base and there's some lighting effects there which is kinda cool. These are all the Pinball Brothers official pictures. The Predator. The Predator looks badass, man. That's all I gotta say is this sculpt is really cool. My only negative for me is I really wish it was a bash toy but I can live with the fact that it's not. I'm sure it's still pretty cool. So I really dig this. I think they did a really good job. Whoever made these sculpts, I think it's solid. They did a really good job. I think they look nice. At least the Predator one. He's got like the skull in his hand with the two... You know, he had those blades he could like retract out, kind of Wolverine-ish. These are side drop targets that are kind of near the camp, I think, on the left-hand side. You do see this in the official trailer too. I just going to show you the pictures I not going to run the official trailer I will show you some gameplay though So that there You can see the drop targets are below there And you can see the camp is right above it And the truck It cool The little base area. Let's see what we got after that. Alright, so here's the helicopter. So this is that Huey or the Bell UH-1, but it was nicknamed the Huey. This is it. I mean, I don't know. It doesn't... It actually looks the general shape of it. So it's not like that far off, I guess, I guess? I don't know, if you go look up the Huey helicopter, it looks similar to this. I just feel like that looks a little, I don't know, people have said it looks cheesy, I don't know. I haven't seen it in real life, sometimes you see this stuff in real life, it doesn't look as bad, but I mean, I guess, generally speaking, it does look a little cheesy. The helicopter does, the, the, um, the rudders do move on it, which is pretty cool. And I think there's a sound that goes along with it. Pイット Ф Schol ningún, traits, War cambio-Time thank you. Flare rainy Merorgan, ¥10 yesterday for rent-A-Hour Myst Xu소¥ horizontal AP AND P Cent〜™ altMP3터�DING 202427過去 KundE&OFTER¸Cł♡ţ行 00핳ºZ? , 159°59©204 Capt cage, I don't know how they use this in the game. It'd be really cool if when you drain your last ball, this thing counts down and he does that sinister laugh. I don't know. That'd be cool. Or if they incorporate it some way. It's there, so I'm curious how much it gets incorporated into the game. This is showing you some video assets. These were official pictures, so I'm assuming these video assets are approved. I don't know. It kind of shows you main characters in the game, like you collect Mac. I don't know what that means. Strές, The Sack, S Ω R Keidaajo and you got Blaine aka Jesse Ventura He's such a badass in this movie Oh here's a playfield shot I love the little like helix lookin ramp on the righthand side or the wire form I think that looks pretty cool um that right flipper has like a right flipper shot over on the left that ramp and so there's two shots there's the right flipper over to that ramp on the right and then there's a spinner shot on the left I love shots like that, those are fun I think those are satisfying when you hit em So those will be, I think, fun to play or fun to shoot. Let's see what else we got here. I don't know what significance the playfield has in the map. I'm assuming the map is as you progress through the game. Maybe the map changes color. I'm not sure. There's an overhead view of of the predator himself, which looks which looks pretty cool. Like I said, I think that sculpt is pretty awesome. It looks very high quality. There's a backed up view of the whole entire playfield. and I went in my house and I met there and I met good friends and said thank you for that coin and P Bird influential bodyoquip where they can utensils and equipment that is going to the cross combine line at the place row Sandra was so nice and say I would I became a zoo is this particular kind of good I'm gonna play some Predator gameplay footage real quick. Okay, so you can... Okay, hold on, I'll pause it. So, you can see right away, Arnold is shooting at the Predator, and that is a very close-up clip of Arnold, so I don't know... When they say you can't have a close-up clip, I'm not sure what close-up means. This is, I think, Get to the Chopper multiball. Get to the Chopper multiball. I don't know who's narrating this clip, because they're speaking French, I think. But, um... I think and I don't know who recorded the gameplay but it's definitely with like a webcam because it keeps going in and out of focus which is super annoying so I think they're doing it with like a Logitech webcam or something because the quality does not look great on the gameplay and I actually enhance this I put this through uh tensor pics which is a website you can go to and enhance via AI enhanced video clips so I AI enhance this whole thing this is the best it could make it but I can't help you with the focus issues it's gonna so anyways they go through a couple of different things in the game I'm going to play a game. You can see, let's see if that, let's see if that right shot, what shot is this? Let's see, he's got a right flipper, left flipper, I don't even know what he just hit. Well, it's all going out of focus, so. Okay, it looks like there's a shot, I don't know if I could tell, it looked like he shot it under the, like, under the camp and that looped back to the left flipper. I'm not sure, that happened so fast, I'm not really sure. Okay, and then that right ramp goes to this wire form and then I think feeds the right. Yeah, the right flipper. Okay, he just hit the hit the predator, but like I said this is all like early code and I guess this isn't considered Oh, I didn't notice there's a pin in between the two flippers Okay, so that does look like it loops back Okay, that loops back around, so it feeds the right flipper I don't know. I'm trying to figure out how he gets up to the helicopter. Is that the far right orbit maybe? Let's see if he does it in any of these I don't even know where that ball went. It was on the right. Oh. Oh! Oh, interesting. It goes, ah, like, um, I did not notice that. So that's like X-Men. Check it out. It goes... Oh, does it, is there a subway that takes it there? That's kind of cool. Okay, I didn't even notice that. That's kind of badass, actually. Check that out. So look, he hits the right ramp and then it must drop into like a subway or something and then it goes behind the flippers. That's kinda cool. Into the old, oh shit, into the old painless. That's pretty badass actually. Okay, I dig that. That could be kinda fun. Alright, I'm into that. I don't know what, I haven't seen anything with the helicopter. I'm literally watching this for the first, okay, alright. So the right ramp feeds the helicopter. Check this out. So watch this again. And by the way, before I play this, keep in mind, these clips, none of this shit is approved. So whatever you're watching right now, the gameplay obviously is the gameplay. But whatever's happening on the LCD screen, I have no idea whether that's gonna be in the movie or in the game or not. And that's been kind of the topic of controversy. So okay, it hits the right ramp and then it looks like it goes into the helicopter and does it lock the ball? I don't see anything that says like ball 1 locked. That's why you're here. I'm going to play the trailer. You've probably seen the trailer a million times. I'll put a link in the description to the trailer. But I don't know. Overall, hey, it's new pinball and more pinball that comes out is great. Am I personally going to get this? No, but I am excited to see it at Pinball Expo. And I can't say that this wouldn't be, if it plays well and shoots well and it's fun. I do love Predator and depending on how many assets they put in there, it's not a deal breaker for me, but maybe, maybe down the road if there's one used or something and I can get it for free. I hope Pinball Brothers does well and sells all 800 of them. Because hey, it's new pinball and we love new pinball and the more these companies can learn and progress and PinballBrothers actually did some good stuff here. They're actually trying to improve their quality. I think that's amazing. You know, it's like what's, you know, I don't know, I wasn't around in the early days of Spooky so I don't know if Spooky got shit on while they just, while they, you know, progressed right? Spooky has continued to get...my viewpoint of Spooky in the time I've been in the hobby, I've seen them get better game after game after game. I get Evil Dead, I'm like blown away. It's been rock solid. I haven't had a problem. But you know what? If we don't continue to give them feedback and support these companies, you know, providing they're making something and showing an effort to make it better, then they will eventually go away. You know what I mean? I hope that the reception of it is great. I hope at Pinball Expo people really love it and are excited about it and then maybe in August we'll start to get some more feedback of people playing it. I'm not really sure, but yeah, I'm excited to see where it goes. Anyways guys, that's kind of all I had. I didn't really want to cover too much. I didn't want this to be too long of an episode, but I will say this. I am very excited that you decided to listen to this podcast because that excites me that you're excited too. I don't even know what I'm talking about. I just really love this community. I realize that sometimes people say I am too positive. I like to think that I'm a positive person in general. If you ever met me in real life, you would find that out. But also, I will give construction constructive criticism, but I will do it in a way that I think is The LostPinball Astra Students asleep Star Men's Pinball Dician, Hee,Jackmanhowerstar ForceyPinball box, ha x意丁 A x X i r A k I G X A x X i R Kô XIII, G Yu x N A K I A N Y B Stri健, phoenixible huen xê跟大家разư I really love that game and I know I was part of that project and I question to myself does that impact my opinion because I got to know Eric Meunier a bit more and I really like these people. They're good people but I'm going to try my best to also be constructive about it even though I was involved with the project and probably have a little bit more of a connection to it because of that. I'm not naive to the fact that I really want to see Eric and the team over at JJP succeed. They're really good people. Subtitles by the Amara.org community And we will see you on the flipside. Thanks everybody.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 12635765-b2e2-4df8-be0e-49f75ec975ac*