# DPP #154 Expo day one!

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-10-18  
**Duration:** 37m 15s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donspinballpodcast/episodes/DPP-154-Expo-day-one-e2prn2n

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## Analysis

Don covers day one of Pinball Expo 2024, featuring hands-on play of Metallica LE/Premium, ABBA, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, X-Men code updates, and extensive homebrew section highlights. He praises Metallica's visual upgrades and expression lighting, criticizes ABBA's weak flipper feel and dated theme, gives mixed reviews on Alice (great aesthetics, questionable upper playfield access), reports X-Men plunger issues with partial fixes in progress, and expresses wonder at the homebrew area's innovation level including Harry Potter (81 coils) and Borderlands machines.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Metallica LE and Premium feature full Spike 2 upgrade with screen, expression lighting, and updated band member animations on playfield — _Direct play experience at Stern media party; detailed description of visual upgrades and lighting integration_
- [HIGH] ABBA has flipper coil-breaking issues during drop catches and generally weak flipper response compared to Stern standard — _Multiple plays throughout the day; comparison to other machines; observation of coil failure during gameplay_
- [HIGH] Alice's upper playfield is not directly accessible and requires pop bumper-based mode cycling, frustrating for free exploration — _Extended play experience and conversation with game designer about upper playfield access mechanics_
- [MEDIUM] X-Men plunger issue affects most machines on floor but back-left Danger Room machine has new plastic protector tech fixing the problem — _Hearsay from other players and partial observation; not yet personally verified on the fixed machine_
- [HIGH] X-Men received new code with fastball special mode, mode progress persistence, and quality of life improvements — _Direct observation of new gameplay mechanics and interface elements not present on Don's home copy_
- [MEDIUM] Harry Potter homebrew has 81 firing coils and would cost approximately $60,000+ to produce commercially due to bill of materials — _Statement from Harry Potter game designer during play session; specification of 81 coils and motorized playfield elevation system_
- [HIGH] Stern factory is now fully operational with games available for public play and pop-up shop in lobby — _Factory tour observations and Stern's stated plans for public factory visits and shop integration_
- [HIGH] Alice sold out despite Don's mixed gameplay review and preference for Metallica LE over Alice LE — _Explicit statement that game sold out; market comparison with secondary pricing predictions_

### Notable Quotes

> "This thing looks amazing... the premium art on the cabinet, great. The premium trans light is just so many miles and kilometers circling above earth compared to like the original packages."
> — **Don**, ~8:30
> _Expressing enthusiasm for Metallica LE/Premium visual quality compared to original release; establishes this as generational upgrade_

> "It's like when you used to go to the Chuck E. Cheese when they had ball pits and you could just go play in the ball pit... that's what this game is."
> — **Don**, ~20:00
> _Core gameplay philosophy critique of Alice: fun but not engaging, exploratory rather than competitive_

> "The one takeaway I'd have... the videos and assets that were released... does not convey the game in actuality... the art is fine looking at it in person."
> — **Don**, ~28:00
> _Meta-commentary on pre-purchase decision-making based on online media versus in-person experience; important for understanding Alice reception_

> "81 firing coils... there are more diverters and magic and mayhem in this game... you'd have to sell this game for $60,000 to break even. Like, it's completely nuts."
> — **Don**, ~51:00
> _Homebrew innovation benchmark; establishes complexity ceiling unreachable in commercial production_

> "That's where the real show is... from this brewing laboratory... if the best parts start making it over into commercial games, that's where innovation is going to be driven."
> — **Don**, ~60:00
> _Signal that homebrew is driving future commercial game design direction and should be watched closely_

> "Knowing what I know now, over the last four releases, maybe I might have preferred a Metallica LE over an X-Men LE but I'm still happy with my Avatar CE pre-purchase."
> — **Don**, ~37:00
> _Establishes Don's preference hierarchy and signals Avatar CE as strong investment despite other releases_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Metallica | game | Stern Pinball LE/Premium release featuring Spike 2 upgrade, expression lighting, UV character effects; presented as visual/lighting generational upgrade with unchanged core gameplay |
| ABBA | game | Licensed Stern game with helicopter lock mechanism; criticized for weak flippers, theme fatigue, dated aesthetic; 500 base units and 300 voyage units produced; two units sold at Expo |
| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | game | Dutch Pinball game with armor-integrated expression lighting by Davey Stumbler and sculpts by Leor; features upper playfield with magna-flippers; sold out at Expo; praised aesthetics, mixed gameplay feedback |
| X-Men | game | Stern Pinball with reported plunger issues affecting most floor machines; receiving new code updates with fastball special mode and progress persistence; one back-left Danger Room machine has prototype plastic protector fix |
| Avatar | game | Jersey Jack Pinball release with CE and LE versions; high lines at Expo; Don has pre-purchase CE commitment; strong positive reception |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer with factory tour access for media; hosted media party with Metallica/X-Men/Bond60/Jurassic Park 30th on display; largest floor booth at Expo; expanding factory with public tour/shop plans |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer with Avatar CEs and LEs displayed at Expo; brought higher volume than previous year (Elton John); both CE and LE models had consistent play availability |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Manufacturer present at Expo with booth setup; Don inquires about new games but provides no details on announcements or products shown |
| Dutch Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; first game design by likely new designer with illustration/character art background; game sold out at Expo |
| Davey Stumbler | person | Lighting designer who created armor-integrated expression lighting system for Alice; known for Godzilla lighting work; recessed LED strips under armor routed into cabinet architecture |
| Leor | person | Sculptor/topper artist who created mushroom sculptures and other sculptural elements for Alice; praised for high-quality aesthetic work |
| Jack Danger | person | Pinball designer present at Stern media party; associated with Stern Pinball; expected to attend Expo in full costume (referenced Elton John regalia from previous year) |
| Zach Sharp | person | Stern employee who hosted Don for factory tour and media party; credited for tour logistics |
| Rob Burke | person | Homebrew designer with large full-plywood playfield game at homebrew section; organizer of Pinball Expo |
| Ernie Silverberg | person | Homebrew designer/organizer; creator of Adventure Time homebrew; present at homebrew section |
| Wes | person | Co-founder of Missing Pin Company (pinball accessories brand); designed pinball leg bag and fanny packs; has booth 118 at Expo with color-customization options |
| Harry Potter Homebrew Designer | person | Creator of 81-coil Harry Potter homebrew with motorized playfield elevation and Quidditch mode; technical specs unknown but extensively praised by Don |
| Pinball Expo | event | Major annual industry event featuring commercial games, homebrew section, vendor booths, scavenger hunts/trivia; day one coverage by Don with day-long play sessions and factory tour integration |
| Missing Pin Company | company | Pinball accessories brand by Wes and wife; produces protective leg bags ($115-130 customized, under $100 prototypes), fanny pack token pouches, and apparel; booth 118 at Expo with show discounts |
| Homebrew Village | event_section | Exposition section featuring custom/homebrew pinball machines including Harry Potter (81 coils), Borderlands (hydraulic playfield), Led Zeppelin, Adventure Time; described as primary innovation hub of event |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Metallica LE/Premium visual and technical upgrades, ABBA flipper mechanics and theme reception, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland gameplay design and aesthetics, X-Men plunger issues and code updates, Homebrew pinball innovation and future commercial design influence
- **Secondary:** Stern factory expansion and public visitor strategy, Jersey Jack Avatar CE/LE availability and reception, Pinball merchandise and accessories (leg bags, vinyl records, toppers)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Don is enthusiastic about Expo experience, Metallica upgrades, homebrew innovation, and vendor quality. Tempered by specific criticism of ABBA flipper issues, Alice upper playfield access design, and measured Alice gameplay assessment. Overall tone is celebratory of industry activity and community while maintaining critical product evaluation.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Jersey Jack increased Avatar inventory at Expo compared to Elton John prior year, suggesting confidence in demand and improved production capacity (confidence: medium) — Don notes 'they brought way more than they brought Elton John's last year'; both CE and LE had continuous high-volume play access
- **[community_signal]** Stern implementing community engagement strategies including scavenger hunts/trivia badge collection and plan for regular factory tours with public shop access (confidence: medium) — Don mentions 'scavenger hunt or trivia game to win badge'; references Stern's stated plans for public factory tours and pop-up shop in lobby
- **[competitive_signal]** Metallica LE positioned as significant visual/lighting generational upgrade justifying re-release despite unchanged core gameplay (confidence: high) — Spike 2 screen, expression lighting integration, UV character effects, premium cabinet art all presented as new experience layer over original rules
- **[design_philosophy]** Alice's upper playfield not directly accessible, requiring pop bumper mode cycling; limits free exploration and satisfying magna-flipper play (confidence: high) — Don's direct feedback from extended play and designer conversation; identified as primary gameplay limitation despite aesthetic praise
- **[market_signal]** Homebrew section represents innovation laboratory that should influence future commercial game design; serious engineers and designers present; community recognition of homebrew as quality benchmark (confidence: high) — Don explicitly calls homebrew area 'where real show is' and 'brewing laboratory'; notes industry people asking technical questions; predicts best homebrew innovations will drive commercial game development
- **[market_signal]** Alice sold out despite Don's mixed gameplay review and secondary market pricing predictions; indicates strong collector demand independent of gameplay depth assessment (confidence: high) — Don explicitly notes game sold out; contrasts with his stated preference for Metallica LE; implies FOMO/limited production driving sales over design consensus
- **[announcement]** John Wick vinyl record collection previously Comic-Con exclusive now available at Expo for $35; graphical vinyl with LE candle art and full game soundtrack (confidence: high) — Don observed merchandise at Stern booth; three-disc set with graphical visualization of LE art; prices confirmed
- **[product_strategy]** X-Men receiving new code updates with fastball special mode, mode progress persistence, and quality of life improvements post-release (confidence: high) — Don observed new gameplay mechanics on Expo machines not present on his home copy; specific mode features and UI improvements documented
- **[product_concern]** ABBA exhibits flipper coil issues during drop catches and generally substandard flipper response for Stern-priced machine (confidence: high) — Don observed coil-breaking behavior during gameplay, weak flipper feedback compared to other machines; issue consistent across multiple machines throughout day
- **[product_concern]** X-Men plunger design flaw affecting majority of floor machines; Stern implementing plastic protector retrofit on at least one demo unit (confidence: high) — Multiple player complaints; Don corroborated issue; partial fix observed on back-left Danger Room machine; friend reportedly already received parts from Stern support

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## Transcript

 what's up friends and family we are here from the pinball expo the first day is in the books and i just want to go through and cover everything magical that's happened so far it's only been a day man and in that day we got to play like five new games including the amazing homebrew assortment so i gotta drop this because just getting inundated with people like Dude, how's Alice playing? Is Metallica LE really the best decision I should be making right now with my money? What the heck's Spooky doing? Is there a new game there? Did you get to play Space Hunt? All of that. Let's get into it. With this royalty-free copyright music playing in the background. All right, guys. So, having a fantastic time. Started out early, actually, before the show floor opened. Graciously, somehow, by grace of the pinball gods, I was invited back to Stern, where they had a full-blown media party going on. I showed up slightly late. I just got there after work. But I got to tour the factory. Once again, I think I'm leading these tours at this point. And then they had both of the Metallicas in the streaming room to play, along with the X-Men and the Bond 60th and some high-end. Jurassic Park 30th, LE, they had one of the 500 or whatever that they made of that. So always a good time. So I got to get in and play both of the X-Men, the Premium and the LE. They were right there, X-Men. The Metallica, I'm sorry, guys, functioning on no sleep. So, bottom line of Metallica, it's great. It's Metallica. The gameplay is, you know, righteously the same. The layout is the same. Every little bit of it has been upgraded. The sparky character with the UV light effect, the UV light effect on the characters, the band members on the play field, great. The expression lights, looks like that part is still early with the coding, but it was there. It was fine. I really like the expression backbox lighting. It seemed to be more integrated, better than the expression lights are right now. But the game is still Metallica, so the game is still really good. It's got kind of that old-style kind of gameplay. I didn't notice a lot of gameplay mode improvements, but again, I only played it a few times. But the sounds were fine. One of the machines was turned up much louder than the other. The LE was a little bit harder to hear. But the graphics on the screen, fantastic. I mean, there's nostalgia for the Dot Matrix display. If that's your jam, it's out there. But, man, to see a fully-fledged Spike 2 upgrade for Metallica, I love it. This is the direction that they're going. You know, so with full Insider Connected ability, the screen that's there, all the lighting upgrades, like, it added a whole new atmosphere to Metallica. You know, like, the Metallica gameplay and layout was still there, but seeing it under kind of, like, concert lights with the band playing on the screen, like, a whole new experience, all right? The LE art on the back glass and the cabinet and the backbox is top level. The best I've seen. It's turned from like quite a while. This thing looks amazing. The premium though, the premium cabinet art, I love it as well. I love it just about as much. It doesn't have the foil accents or anything. But I'm not sad about the premium if that's the one I end up getting somewhere down the road. Or if I coax an LE out of someone's basement, fine. But the premium art on the cabinet, great. premium art on the back glass or the the trans light it's okay it's okay that's the only thing i could say but but let me say this uh the premium trans light is just so many miles and kilometers circling above earth compared to like the original packages for me for me personally that's just like my own take uh but yeah these games are awesome if you're into metallica you're gonna dig it if you just have to buy the brand new thing i don't know if it'll have the longevity if that's the only reason that you're getting it because again depth of gameplay is a thing that i don't think metallica ever really suffered from right it was a collect-a-thon fest which is fine and it's a great pinball machine but for me personally i prefer the adventure um so you know an avatar will hold a lot more longevity for me than a metallica but if you'd frick for a box of lights with metallica in it you cannot go wrong that stern factory is functioning like 100 right now too uh they've got all their games set up to play in the lobby i think the way that they're going with this is that the public will be able to come by and go on a factory tour eventually get to play some games and maybe shop at a pop-up shop you know when they visit the chicagoland area so that's fun uh the the giant uh pinball sphere sculpture out in front of the factory looked great the entry especially at night when it's all lit up with the banners in the windows you've seen the photos man nothing compares to this factory as far as like curb appeal my god uh no mistaking what it is when you drive by now. So fantastic job, Stern. Of note, I don't know who did this. I walked in a little bit late, and there's a table in the little lobby forecourt area where people can leave magazines and things. And somebody dropped a ton of Avatar flyers there. So you savage beast, who did that in the heart of the Stern? Incredible. Jack Danger was there. Shout out to Zach Sharp for hosting me and everything. It was fun. There was some great danishes and stuff. Anyway, it was a great time. Everybody has fun at Stern. Everybody's over there for the start tour as I'm recording this. All right, so I hit the show floor. I pick up my ticket lanyards and everything. And then I was planning on heading to Alice first. It took me forever to find it. But I happened upon ABBA first. So I played ABBA quite a bit yesterday. This was a game I was super excited to play. And, like, my first take was these flippers, man, they don't be feeling like a stern, man. They don't be feeling snappy. I was able to hit everything in the play field. I didn't have any balls that were solidly shot up or ramped that didn't quite make it because the flippers were weak. But they just didn't have that grounded feel like I feel like I'm part of this game, really controlling it. It was more of like I was gently coaxing a ball where I wanted it to go. Later in the day when I came back and played it, when I tried to drop catch, the force of the ball would just break the holding coil on the flipper and it would just roll out. And that wasn't fun when that happened. A couple little adjustment issues. Again, I played it at the beginning of the day, and I played it again at the extreme end of the day. And all four ABBA machines were cranking the whole time. I didn't see any glass or play field raised. So good on them for that. What the heck kind of theme is this for pinball? It's not made for me. Oh, my God. I can't think of a music theme I would like less than this. I feel like I'm at a wedding in 1983 or something. And even then, it feels dated. So I don't know. It was fun to shoot around. I'm going to go play it again. The helicopter ball lock was neat as the main mechanism that's in there. The way that you get it is by hitting a saucer all the way at the far end of the play field. It's hittable. It's not very too difficult of a shot to hit. You only have to lock two balls to start it. I don't know. It's ABBA. All the games on the show floor are $1,000 less than the MSRP. So if you want to get one, which two of them had sold already, great. If you like ABBA, fine. Now, I'll say this. They're building a run number of 500 of their base level and 300 of their voyage level. The only difference is cabinet art and that back glass or back plexiglass or whatever they use. It's not the game for me. It's not the game for me, dog. I'll probably play it when I go to an arcade if they have one. But, man, I think Queen's actually better than this game. So that's my own personal take on it. Come play it. It's on the show floor. It'll be here all weekend. The games are running great. See what you think. Let me know, man. All right, so I saw Abba. I had to stop and go play it, by God. So eventually it did happen upon Alice's Adventures in Amsterdam, or Slash of Wonderland, I'm sorry. There's two games available. Both of them played just fine. I think I played both of them. No, I just might have played the one. Anyway, lines were about 20 minutes the whole time. They've dropped it to only two balls per player now to try to move the line a little faster. The game's a long player. Even me, my first time playing it, I was able to achieve decent Scorage I guess Not as far as modes But as far as I was able to explore the whole play field I was able to hit every shot The main ramp in the game right at the middle Very satisfying, easy to hit, forgivable Even like a mediocre shot Tends to carry itself around there Which is nice, safely returns to flipper It's a fun environment to go play in This game is like when you used to go To the Chuck E. Cheese when they had ball pits And you could just go play in the ball pit You're going to have fun You're going to throw balls around. You're going to lose some quarters, and that's what this game is. It's a fun playground to go and play in. It's not a very high-energy game. It's not a game that, you know, I'm like, all right, one more time. Let's freaking go. I'm going to get the knave of hearts this time. I'm going to give those cards hell. Like, it didn't feel like that. It felt like, okay, look at this resplendent-themed area. Let's go play in it. I want to go run around the hedge maze. That's what the game feels like to me, if that makes any sense. Is the game good? Yeah, it looks amazing. I was talking to Davey Stumbler last night. He did a lot of the lighting. He has those lolly boards that he makes, and he does lighting package upgrades for games. His stuff is some of the best, what we see in Godzilla and such. So he did the individual addressable LED light strips that run up and down the side armor of the cabinets And when people walk up to this game more than anything else that what they seeing first is these racing lights just slowly moving methodically It like expression lights but for the armor You know I talked about how this was done He ran this LED strip under the armor, actually routed out the cabinet. So they are recessed in there. So in essence, what Stumbler has done is made expression lighting for the armor interactive with the game. And that was one of the main things on having, you know, Davey Stumbler involved in the production of the game. This isn't an aftermarket add-on. This is integrated into the code. So really, Alice has expression lights on the armor, and I think every pinball machine needs to have that now. It's awesome. They were receiving some criticism online for the wordiness, I guess, of the passage that's written in laser-cut etched armor on the sides of side rails of Alice. But no, with the lights there, it totally works, man. You don't want something simple. I think that was great. The one takeaway I'd have from this and i'll go back to the gameplay review is that the videos and assets that were released that you had to base your decision on immediately if you want to get one of these games does not convey the game in in actuality i mean seeing this thing in person every bit of it that i was a little bit critical looking at originally online uh like didn't matter anymore like the art is fine the art is fine looking at it critically on a computer screen you know you can take it apart, you know, but, you know, the Alice on the side of the backbox, you know, looked like she had, you know, grape jelly on her leg or something instead of blood, you know, it just looks a little weird when you're critically looking at it. I didn't even really notice much seeing it in person. You know, the armor and the powder coat, that all looks fine, it comes with a shaker motor, I think it's got Invisiglass on it. The mushroom sculpts themselves are awesome, like every bit of sculpt that Lior did in this game, completely amazing. All right, the shots, you know, there's five or six main shots, and, you know, there's some captive balls hidden in there for a total of like eight shots in a fan-ish type layout. The upper play field takes up a lot of real estate, and I didn't find that it added a whole lot. When I was talking to him, the main thing I wanted to do when I was playing this game, aside from hit every ramp, was how do I get up to the upper play field? How do I play up there? I want to try the magna flippers out, right? And so how it was explained to me is that one of the six main modes, the knave of hearts incorporates that upper playfield into its mode. And then there's something else where you can paint the white roses red or something, and if you do that, then you qualify the upper playfield and you can get up there. The way you get up there is by shooting the right orbit, and then the diverter will knock the ball into a vuck or some such, and that vuck will then send your ball up there. So there's not a ramp to hit to access the upper playfield. This is the part that I think I'm most critical about. I wanted to just try going up there and playing on the upper play field for a while, and there was no way to do that. You know, you have to hit the pop bumper so it, like, randomly will cycle through the modes, and then when your mode is lit, you then hit that shot, and then that will activate it. You know, so that was kind of frustrating, you know, because there's not, like, a select-a-mode feature. It's more of, like, it's either Spinner or the pop bumpers that cycle through the modes. A lot of other games do this. Pop Fuction does this, you know, I think with the pop bumpers and choosing modes and things, which is fine. You know, it's kind of like an older way of doing things. I think that's okay. But there's no way to directly access that upper play field. And then there's some kind of mechanism in there where there's a ball save where a ball is either staged or something, where, like, your ball will drain, and then your ball will be saved by kicking it to the upper play field. And so that happened to a couple of us when we were playing, and we're like, oh, cool, all right, I'm up there. I don't know how I got up there, but I'm up there. But the Magna Flippers were not functional. You just wait until your ball kind of bounces around and drains, and then gameplay continues. So that part was weird. I think it could be fixed with code. I would like a way to be able to access that when I want to go up and play there, even if it's outside of a mode. But right now it doesn't look like there's a way to do that. So that's kind of weird. Otherwise, I didn't really get to experience the Jabberwocky lock. One of my friends I was playing with did. I haven't been able to play enough to figure out what all that's about or if that's satisfying getting into a multiball. But that's the game. And right now it's down on two ball. There's only two machines here. There's going to be long lines. So the only way to get people through this in a timely fashion would be to reduce that, which makes everybody's playthrough just slightly less whelming, right? Again, it is a longer-playing game, so it's not a drain monster at all. It feels comfortable. The flippers feel fine. You know, they're between a J.J.P. and a Stern. They weren't super snappy, but they weren't slop, you know, so they weren't like ABBA. So I think the game is fine. Game looks great. Looking at it, it looks great. It plays okay. So, yeah, and the game sold out. So my opinion clearly doesn't matter. What we'll see ultimately on how the community is receiving this game is what happens over the next year. If we start seeing, you know, 18 pre-order deposits up on Pinside for $7.50 each, then the game, you know, is kind of falling right there. If we see occasionally a pre-order listed for $3,000 or something, which I believe is more than what the deposit was, then, yeah, game's a success. so that'll be borne out in the future. Am I sad about missing this game? No. You know, I wish there was more so I could have access to it on location. But even if they said, you know what, people have backed out, there's 20 available right now, knowing what I know now, I still wouldn't rush out and get one. Okay. Knowing what I know now, you know, over the last four releases, maybe I might have preferred a Metallica LE over an X-Men LE but I'm still happy with my Avatar CE pre-purchase so that's where I'm feeling with everything. So Alice shoots fine. It's fun to play in. Great to look at. I love what Stumbler did. I love what Lior did. I can't wait to see what DPX has next. I may be interested in one of these in the future. One of their releases. Their build quality is amazing. The gameplay of the game is the only thing that's kind of like the B- right that everybody gives to a game that they don't want to just totally trash right but still save some face so yeah it's fine i want to go play it again but only if the line's not super long hey uh fortunately i'll be able to walk up to an ab and play one of those whenever i want um i'm not taking either of them home with me all right so those those that's those two all right stern's got a booth set up they've got a danger room where you can go and play some of the x-men what i wanted to do is try to play as many x-men as i could and check out that plunge and see like am I the only one with a problem? I am not the only one with a problem. I've heard some mixed things. Apparently the machine in the back left of the danger room setup at Expo has some new tech in it so that the plunge is, like, flawless and is having no problems. What I think they may have done is put a plastic protector back there to help keep the ball from gaining air and draining momentum as it's rounding the corner. That would probably be the perfect fix. That's probably what's going to happen, plus or minus some mylar to put down over that metal diverter ramp. So we'll see. I haven't got to play that specific one yet. Now that I have this knowledge, I'll head over and check that out. But just about everyone was having a problem. I played a premium out in the main lineup on the floor, and, yeah, it was like half or three-quarters of the way up the ramp and the back was all you could get in a full plunge. But strangely, the auto launch seemed to work a little bit better with that one. So still a bit of a mixed bag. I'm going to try to play more of them so I can get a sense on what's going on, and then we'll see what happens. I know I've had a friend already reach out to Stern and put in a ticket, and he's already got confirmation that he has a part coming to him. So maybe there's something in the works there. More as I learn of it. Stern's got the biggest floor area blocked off for their games and everything. Everything's out there. Go play it. Stern's a fun time. What I did notice over in the Stern merchandise booth, those John Wick vinyl record collections that were sold at Comic-Con as a Comic-Con exclusive are now on the show floor for $35. They have graphical vinyl discs that are in there. I think it's a three-disc set, a two or a three. And one of the discs has the LE candle art. And I'm just, I think my $35 is going to go to Stern so I can get that. It plays all the game music. The disc looks really sweet. I kind of just want it just to go all in on WIC even more. I'm still hopeful for WIC. Haven't seen any code updates. Of code update news, I do have something to report from X-Men. It's running some new code that I don't have at home. And I don't know if that's being loaded on game shipping now or if we're going to have another code update coming. But a lot of little improvements to the game that I've noticed. There's a shot similar to the Jaws shot, you know, with the harpoon shot. The fastball special, right, where Colossus is throwing Wolverine through the air. I'm not sure how it's triggered, but the up post will come up on the right in lane. The ball will hold there. A little strobe effect will happen on that ramp back there. and then the post will drop and you have like kind of one shot to try to get up there and then, I don't know, magic happens or something. Didn't manage to hit it, but managed to see it. So that's kind of cool. I like that there's extra little gameplay elements in there that are coming out. A couple of quality of life improvements for modes when you play them in X-Men. If you fail a mode by either timeout or draining, you can go back into that mode once you qualify it again and pick up where you left off. There is a progress bar. It's like a life meter. As you hit shots it fills up and when it full then you completed the mode So now when you go to select a mode again after I played through one before your progress will be displayed on that little tile So if you played a couple different modes and didn finish them you can go back and see kind of where you were at Oh, okay, I want to go back to that mode. I'm almost done with it. There's only two shots left. So that's a fun quality of life improvement. So a lot of little different tiny little things like that. I saw some new graphical animations that I haven't seen before. So I'm excited about the next code update. I think it will really come with some gameplay compelling stuff in it. So thanks, Stern. Super cool. I want to drop a quick shout-out to the Missing Pin Company. My homeboy Wes and his wife, I think, have a clothing company, and they've done an offshoot where they're making pinball accessories now. The chief one that they have launched is a pinball leg bag. So this thing is fabric with zipper closures. It's got stitching in to make individual compartments. So what this is is basically a felt that you can open up and put your pinball legs in there when you're moving games around. if you've got a game with powder-coated armor and legs and you really want to protect it. You can put them in individual slots. The whole thing rolls up. There's a zipper pouch for your leg hardware. So if you're moving games frequently or even just occasionally, or taking them over to someone's house to deliver or pick up, this is a great way to put all your legs into a bag where they're protected. They're not going to bang into each other. You're not going to trip any of the powder coat if you've got LEs. And then the whole thing rolls up. It's got a carrying strap and a clasp enclosure. So he got me one of the prototypes about, I don't know, it must have been a year ago or so. And I took to it right away. I loved it. As somebody that moves games frequently, especially, you know, going to the powder coater, coming back from the powder coater, this is a cool way to do it rather than taking cling wrap and wrapping the entirety of the leg, you know, or trying to wrap the whole thing in a blanket and they're, like, falling off the sides. This is the way they're protected. Throw them in the truck. They're not going to get banged up or any of that. He's got several different trim levels that come in different color packages. Check out the Missing Pin Company. They're on Facebook. I think they have a website as well. They're also on the show floor with show discounts, including some prototype bags that are selling for under $100. And for around $115 to $130, you can get it color customized. You can get it emblazoned with your logo if you want. They're doing cool stuff. So go check them out. I think they have booth 118 all the way against the back wall next to Rocket City Pinball and some of the jukeboxes behind American Pinball. So go say hi to Wes back there. Also, they make their own shirts, and they've got some cool stuff. They also have these cool little fanny pack pouches for your pinball tokens and such. A lot of cool little neat things. Go check him out. Tell him Don sent you and give him a what up. He's a cool guy. I spent like an hour last night in the homebrew section just being gobsmackly amazed by the level of creativity that's happening. I played the Harry Potter game, you guys. I played the Harry Potter homebrew game. Remember the one that was rumored to be coming out from Jersey Jack but was actually just, you know, years old photos of that play field. This game existed also virtually, so you may have played the virtual version of this game. I played the real one and it's nuts I'll just say that I incredible I was talking with the designer he was taking me through we all probably made it through a quarter of the game all right this game just to give you reference has 81 coils in it right 81 firing coils there are more diverters and magic and mayhem in this game this is a game that could never be commercially created because the the bill of materials would be you'd have to sell this game for $60,000 to break even Like, it's completely nuts. The Quidditch play field, okay, you know, it's got those decorative rings from the movie, right, where you throw the Quidditch ball through the quaffle through the rings or whatever. There's a mode activation where the entire play field, it's on screws and motorized screws to separate motors, and the whole play field will levitate and allow you to, including the flipper, and allow you to hit the ball through those rings to qualify that mode or something. like like insane insane what is going on over here um there's like six different playfields all stacked together there it seems the ball goes in one place comes out another each different time i don't even know how it happens i asked him like what the hell just happened with that ball how to go there and come out here and he's like that's the mystery and it's like my god you mad scientist what the heck this this game couldn't exist commercially there's no way it would cost so much money it's incredible i can't wait to to see like where this thing ends up in completion the play field looks like a really good jersey jack play field like it's loaded with like the right kind of graphics it's amazing there's magnets under there for like a wizard's duel where like balls are magnetically being moved around the play field as they're battling each other with like splatter lighting effects like it's insane like game of show for real like more than anything this thing was awesome if this could be a real thing holy crap i'm gonna go back there and oogle my eyeballs on it some more and play it. I play the Borderlands homebrew where, like, the whole game goes into drunk mode and the play field is on some sort of hydraulic system where it drops into the cabinet and starts moving around in crazy directions. This looks like if you made a Snoop Dogg pinball machine and you wanted to have, like, a low-rider hydraulics mode and the whole play field starts bumping and moving around. Anybody that's creating a Snoop Dogg game, that has to be part of it. Oh, my God. Everything else. I saw the Led Zeppelin homebrew pinball machine with the stairway working. I saw that monster-wide full sheet of plywood playfield game that Rob Burke has created. I hung out with Ernie, played Adventure Time. It's insane what's going on over there. That's where the real show is. I mean, go see the pump. Go play ABBA. Go play Alice. Go buy some Stern stuff. Go collect your badges. There's supposed to be some kind of scavenger hunt or trivia game or something to win a badge today. Go do all that stuff. and flip through old back glasses and whatever, buy a pin sound board, but then go over to the homebrew area and just walk around and see what these crazy people are creating. It's just completely amazing. I can't wait to go back over there. This isn't just a lineup of games against the wall that are half broken. There's some serious ingenuity going on here. And I did notice some industry people over there very enthusiastically asking questions. How did you do that? How did you make that? Wait, this works how? So from this brewing laboratory at the homebrew where these crazy ideas are coming from, if some of that stuff then starts like the best parts of it, start making it over into the commercial games, that's where the innovation is going to be driven. Those are the guys that are going to have games that I'm going to get excited about, commercially produced games that are incorporating some of the magical stuff that's happening in the homebrew laboratory. Like let's do that, man. I can't wait. I'm excited. I'm going to go home and fire up my homebrew project and see if I can get something flipping now. Because holy crap, man. Seriously, go check out the homebrew area. I've never seen an area that's like this. All right, so what did JJP have going on? They have a tent set up. They've got a couple of avatar CEs in there. There were lines for them, not 30 minutes long, but they had a ton of avatars. They brought way more than they brought Elton John's last year, so thank you for doing that. People are enjoying the game. Every LE was full of people playing nonstop the whole time. The two CEs looked great. The toppers are working fine. I think one of the games had a problem booting up or something early on. I don't know. I didn't really investigate. But they seemed like they were working just fine. And the booth is so full of people that it was hard to, like, wedge myself in there to get a full rundown on, like, what the UV projections look like. But I'll head on in there and I'll check it out today. There was only so much time in the day. So the JJP booth is huge. Every game is out there. Jack was out there. He wasn't dressed as a Na'vi, though. But we'll see what happens on Saturday. He did come out in full Elton John regalia last year. It was awesome. So we'll look for that, man. Expo. It's great. It's cool to walk up to an Elton CE that doesn't have a line either. That's awesome. Go play it. Spooky Pinball's there with a load of their three recent games. There's a butter cabinet on a TCM if you want to go check that out. Touch the sides of it. It's so fun. Super cool. A lot of merchandise that they have there, too, and a lot of interest in the games that they brought. Nothing rare or unusual for this show, but I'll go back and hang out there some more. Every game of Looney Tunes had people on it the whole time I was there, as did TCM and Scooby-Doo, for that matter. So people are digging it. I think there was a guy there that was sniffing his nose around and was taking a Scooby-Doo home with him. So those games are still selling. They're still compelling. They're still really fun. So, yeah, cheers to the spooky guys. Plus, they have the booth that's probably closest to the snack bar. So, you know, get yourself a hot dog and go play some Looney Tunes, man. Why don't you? Tell Bug I said, you're a swell guy, dude, and ask Luke how his nose is doing. Otherwise, American Pinball is in the same spot they were last time. They had their Galactic Tank Force Limited Edition, the tank one, the one that's, like, motorized. And it has a thing on it saying it's listed for, like, $10,000 or something if you want to go buy it. Are they talking about selling the motorized one you can drive around your house? Because, like, that might be actually more interesting than the actual game maybe. Otherwise, I think they had a signature edition you can play if you've never played one of those. A bunch of the other games are over there. It's American Pinball. Nothing new, nothing exciting, no Cuphead. God, that would have been like a contender for maybe Game of the Show if they would have brought it. But it needs more time to cook or whatever their next rumored game is. I can neither confirm or deny that it's Cuphead. But, you know. So that's what AP's got going on. I did stop by. All right, so let's talk about some other stuff. The Wonderland Amusements is there All right so these are the guys that grew out of the arcade one realm I guess these are some of the guys that founded the company and then the company started going in directions that weren great They like you know what We the ones with the talent. Let's go spin off our own company. Also, let's make a pinball machine. Also, let's sell it to consumers for $800. Also, let's bring a mock-up of what size and scale we're looking for. Let's bring that to Pinball Expo and then we'll go and ask people to join our Kickstarter. That's what's going on over at Wonderland Amusements. I talked to the guy for a while. I don't think he realized that I'm quite in media, and that's fine because I got to kind of like slowly get like what's going on with this company. So they went with the Alice in Wonderland theme for the same reason that probably Jay Papaduke did it back in the day. It's public domain, right? There's no licensing fees for that. There's a wealth of art to draw from, you know, to create whatever you're creating. They did mention that they had their own artist for this, and they're making incredible stuff or whatever. But then I'm looking at the background, the backdrop for Wonderland Amusements, which is obviously AI generated. And I'm thinking like do you have an artist or do you have like AI or is it probably both? Now, when I do AI things, it's hard to get text to come out properly. So maybe they have an artist that's doing some character faces and some words and things. And then they use an AI to generate backgrounds or something. It's like some sort of hybrid. Not that that's the worst thing ever, especially if you're only asking $800 for your game. I mean, AI it all day, dude. If you're not charging me $6,000 for this thing, who am I to complain if the game is fun to play and the animations are there and all that? So I think we may get an AI box of lights and a bunch of plastic mechanisms and stuff. They're planning on producing in China and doing flat packing, so you assemble this together, just like an arcade one-up. And, I mean, if you're looking at mass-producing a commercial game that's going to be able to ship for under $1,000 MSRP to customers at the Costco at the Toys R Us at the Walmart, That's how you do it, right? Quantities of scale, economies of scale, and then flat packing. I think there's a car on the freeway outside here that's like, oh, no, it's overpassed. Sorry, I thought there was an accident outside. Anyway, flat packing and shipping from China is the way you do it. They're making all of their own mechanisms. They're not using commercially available ones. That's probably allowing them to budget engineer everything down as well. And it adds, like, so you're winding your own coils because that's a thing, and they said absolutely we are. so i i think whether and they mentioned that you know china is a place that you can get folks to build these things um of high quality and repealability but the uh the ingenuity and things isn't in china you have to do that here so the artist studio creating this game will be in the u.s assembly and parts will be china and then you know everything will come across on container ships to whatever market it's going to and then there'll be an actual flippable machine I think what we're going to see is a zazzle in a box, right, with plastic pop bumpers, plastic ramps, and probably not a lot of mechanisms that interact with the ball, you know, stand-up targets with springs on them, just, you know, bouncing back. And they say everything will be user serviceable, so Molex connectors, not soldering. So if a light goes out, which for $800, it's probably going to be full of light to go out, you'll be able to just, like, buy them from the company and swap them out there. I told them to try to focus on gameplay aspects, you know, more so than trying to, you know, put your whole budget into a mechanism. Because for $800, man, how do you create that? So if you have a layout that's at least fun to shoot balls around in and you can put some cool gameplay stuff in there, some Switch-activated events, some moments, you know, maybe a holding post or something, I think they could have something here, especially for that price. It's almost like if you were in, you know, Top Chef or something and it's like, here's what you have to work with, and you got like $800 bills. What could you do with that? And I think you could see some creativity come out of that type of limitation, but we'll have to see. And I guess it's going to all be through a Kickstarter, so who knows? But what they brought was a box with nothing in it and an Android screen displaying nothing just to give you an idea of the size and everything. So I don't know. This is the Chicago Pinball Expo. This is more of the trade show than the fan event, although you wouldn't know it by looking around because there's like pinball fans everywhere. So, you know, but if you're like a retail buyer or something, maybe this would be a product you'd be interested in and putting in a Walmart, you know, selling it for $800 MSRP to consumers. I got to think that the invoice would have to be $650. So how cheaply can you make a pinball machine? We'll have to see money will be made on the margins. And will the Kickstarters ever be made whole? More to come on that. I have no idea. But yeah, but it was cool chatting at everybody at the booth. Somebody sent me a photo of the man that saved pinball standing over this thing. So maybe they're getting some good advice there. So that would be awesome. The other awesome thing that happened, and this was something I was hoping for, but I wasn't sure if it was going to be real. And then I found out halfway through my day yesterday that in fact it was Space Hunt from Hexa Pinball from Toulouse, from the Bordeaux region, right? The pride of La Vie en Rose is here at Pinball Expo and I got to play the damn thing. I got to be spherous. I got to send my ball through all the ramps. I got to get it up to that little weird tampon hanging string mechanism thing, and then I drained a couple of times. I got to play Space Hunt. So a couple of takeaways. Shots all feel fine. The build quality feels okay. This company can make pinball machines, all right? Design-wise, a couple of weird little things that were going on. First off, where the hell was that awesome bomb slamming music? This game is at the pin sound booth, and what the hell? this thing should be blasting out that space hunt jam. And nobody was there. I played it like five or six times. Never heard that song. Never heard that song from the reveal trailer. That freaking space hunt that got me all fired up to play it. Like, it was not there. Gameplay-wise, every ramp is easy to hit except for the main one that goes to that upper play field. I swear, you guys, I hit like several just decent shots cleanly up that ramp. They'd make it around three-quarters of the way up. It's like an elevating orbit ramp. Like it runs the whole length of the back of the machine. And it would just be so sad to see it get up there, almost make it, and then roll all the way back down. And it's like, my God, the shot is a little bit tight, you know, so you can't backhand it. It's got to be, you know, hold the ball on the right flipper, get a good full flipper-sized strength, lop up there. The orbits you can hit easily. But this ramp, it was a little difficult to get in there. But when you did, it wasn't going up there. finally after five or six plays i managed to hit it a couple of times where like the shot was absolutely perfect and then yeah it did carry some velocity all the way up there and i'm like okay i get now where it's supposed to be probably i can get this dialed in if i you know had spent some more time with the game um but like as far as getting to an upper play field and being able to do something i didn't really notice a whole lot of that that was kind of disappointing the game looks great the mirrored back glass is fire the powder coat's great it feels like a solid machine It doesn't feel like just a toy that you can throw around. I'm hoping they turn the sound up, but I'm going to go play it again. But what a rare treat to play this game. It's the only one in the U.S. I think it's Rob Burke's only one, or it's his, and it was one of the only ones to get here. It's kind of short. Hex, I can't sell these games commercially here until it's UL listed, and that costs like $35,000 to get that. And right now they're selling them in France, and so they're kind of like not, it's like, is it worth it? So you can get them here if you import them as a prototype. but as far as listing them for commercial sale through distributors, that's not ready yet. Maybe it'll get there or maybe they'll do it with their next game. But it's their first game out and for a first game out, I think it's fine. I think it's fine. A couple things that would change here and there, I'd probably open up that shot a little bit wider, make it a little bit easier or put in an alternative way to get access to that upper play field. But it's fine for a first game, original theme. I just wish that music was thumping, man. I wish that music was thumping. there's so much more going on marco is selling uh like loot crates of like blind boxes full of pinball parts you can go get that's nuts they're 60 bucks i want to go get one the the uh door prize raffle tickets ten dollars each it's for a venom premium new in box they're gonna do that drawing 8 p.m saturday night i bought myself six of them so i would love to go home with a venom premium please let that happen went to the media mixer last night thanks to everybody that organized that and volunteered to put that on it was awesome i'm having a great time i'm exhausted it's 11 a.m. I'm going to go grab a sandwich down the street, hit the show floor, and it's going to go nuts. Fire. People have already bought a couple of the X-Men shooter rods I bought. I still have a few left. They'll probably go, too, because people dig them. I pull them out of the bag, and people are like, yeah, I need to have that. And I'm like, well, here you go, man. I thought it was cool, too. That's why I made them. So I'm having a great time. I hope this conveys a little bit of that. And then who knows what's going to happen next. Maybe we'll drag some people back for interviews. We'll get some other personalities these together. Let me know comments below on the Facebook page. Blow up the Discord. What do you want to see? Maybe we'll do some lives and stuff. But that's like a recap of just the first 24 hours I've had here at Pinball Expo. Man, it was awesome. Let's get back to this royalty-free music. There we go. We'll go out with this one. I'm going to head back to the show floor and go get my sandwich. Y'all be good. And we'll talk later. Pinball Expo 2024.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 17806cae-7131-44fd-8938-b04b67f2dcfa*