# Pinball Expo 2025 Chat w/Doug "CoolToy"

**Source:** Mystery Pinball Theater 3000  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-10-22  
**Duration:** 67m 28s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkT-QWQwwu4

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## Analysis

Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 hosts Doug "CoolToy" from the Cool Louis Toy YouTube channel for a comprehensive post-Pinball Expo 2025 debrief, covering major reveals and gameplay impressions. They discuss Stern's new Star Wars machine (praised for clarity but criticized for safe design and early QA issues like Death Star reject mechanisms and playfield chipping), Jersey Jack Pinball's Harry Potter (acclaimed but visually overwhelming with AI art controversy), and Barrels of Fun's surprising Winchester Mystery House reveal (which sold out within 24-48 hours due to FOMO and strong community response). The conversation highlights manufacturer positioning, accessory pricing comparisons, operator vs. collector perspectives, and production quality concerns across the industry.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Rob Burke, organizer of Pinball Expo, lives in Ohio and plans the convention from out-of-state, which is a logistical feat compared to Texas Pinball Festival being run by local organizers. — _Host notes from personal knowledge; corroborated by Doug's acknowledgment_
- [HIGH] Star Wars Stern game had mechanical issues including Death Star reject mechanism failures and playfield chipping from the hyperspace loop ramp hitting unprotected back playfield areas, similar to Iron Maiden issues. — _Host attended Star Wars media event and documented QA concerns directly_
- [HIGH] Star Wars game was bumped up in production timeline and released earlier than originally planned, contributing to its safe design approach. — _Host stated this was disclosed during media day at Pinball Expo_
- [HIGH] Winchester Mystery House sold out within 24-48 hours of Pinball Expo 2025 announcement. — _Host and Doug discussing post-show reactions; Doug mentions checking Pinside threads_
- [HIGH] Winchester Mystery House game is 40% complete as of Pinball Expo 2025. — _Host explicitly states 'the game is only what? He's, you know, they threw out a number like 40%. It's only 40% done.'_
- [HIGH] Harry Potter (Jersey Jack) uses Molex connectors on end-of-stroke switches instead of direct solder, which the host considers a positive operational improvement. — _Host repaired Harry Potter unit after Pinball Expo and texted designer Eric about the improvement; received confirming response_
- [MEDIUM] Harry Potter backglass artwork may contain AI-generated elements, including three-eyed dragons and six-fingered hands. — _Host references community observations on Pinsite; notes IP licensors didn't catch these issues despite approval oversight_
- [HIGH] Stern Kong topper was completed and released in the same year as the game, which is the quickest turnaround for a Stern accessory kit. — _Host directly compares to X-Men (no kit), John Wick (over 1 year), Dungeons & Dragons (no kit)_
- [HIGH] Winchester Mystery House MSRP is $11,600 with 525 units in limited edition. — _Host mentions the exact number '$1,200 or 11,300, I think, is the exact number' and Doug edits without correction_
- [HIGH] Carl D'Angelo, designer of Winchester Mystery House, is a top IFPA player who runs Pin Clash and is a pioneering streamer. — _Host provides biographical details and establishes credibility directly_

### Notable Quotes

> "Rob's not located in Chicago. He lives and resides in Ohio and he plans this ginormous pinball extravaganza states away, which blows me away just from a logistical standpoint."
> — **Doug "CoolToy"**, early conversation
> _Highlights the logistical complexity of Pinball Expo management and Rob Burke's dedication_

> "It's a safe layout. And when I was at the media day, you hear the backstory of like, yes, they bumped this game up in the production and it was, you know, coming out sooner than they wanted to."
> — **Host**, Star Wars discussion
> _Explains Stern's decision-making for Star Wars machine design and business rationale_

> "Saw Molex on EOS. I effing love you."
> — **Host**, Harry Potter operational discussion
> _Expresses operator appreciation for design improvements that reduce maintenance burden_

> "They're three for three. Barrels of Fun... it's not like it's weird because the people on the West Coast who know about the Winchester Mystery House, people most people on the West Coast know about the Winchester Mystery House lost their minds."
> — **Host**, Barrels of Fun discussion
> _Acknowledges Barrels of Fun's track record and strong IP resonance with regional audiences_

> "I think if you suffer from FOMO, you're just a weak human being in general, but like this was running rampant."
> — **Doug "CoolToy"**, Winchester Mystery House discussion
> _Critical commentary on community purchasing behavior and market psychology_

> "It's for the mass market. It's for the, you know, the bars and places that 2017 Star Wars sold like crazy and maybe they've already moved on and got rid of it and let's bring another Star Wars back in."
> — **Host**, Star Wars business analysis
> _Explains operator/location market dynamics vs. collector preferences_

> "If you want to use AI as an idea generator or like something to spark a creative process, I'm okay with that. If it ends up in the end product, I'm 100% against it in every shape, way, or form."
> — **Host**, Harry Potter AI art discussion
> _Establishes clear community boundary on acceptable AI use in pinball art_

> "The Wizard tier, dear God, you're charging people thousands of dollars and you're just giving them that wonky McDonald's looking... it looks like a McDonald's prize."
> — **Host**, Jersey Jack topper criticism
> _Harsh critique of JJP's mid-tier topper aesthetic relative to price point_

> "You'd be terrible at your job if you didn't have Winchester Mystery House on site at the actual Winchester Mystery House."
> — **Doug "CoolToy"**, Winchester Mystery House location discussion
> _Logical marketing observation about partnership opportunity_

> "When you got this high-end market of $2,200, $1,500 toppers, and then you got a lower cost entry point that literally interacts with the game... I'm digging it."
> — **Host**, Stern topper pricing discussion
> _Positive reception to tiered accessory pricing strategy offering consumer choice_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Doug "CoolToy" | person | YouTube content creator from Cool Louis Toy channel; attended Pinball Expo 2025 Thursday-Friday, lost voice from speaking over loud machines |
| Rob Burke | person | Organizer of Pinball Expo; lives in Ohio; runs Pastimes Arcade in Gerard, Ohio; brings rare games including $20,000 Jersey Jack Pirates Collector's Edition to events |
| John Borg | person | Stern Pinball legendary designer; mentioned as greeting in chat; participant in Pinball Expo community |
| Carl D'Angelo | person | Designer of Winchester Mystery House; top-ranked IFPA player; runs Pin Clash; pioneering streaming innovator; described as 'one of the smartest, most kind persons' |
| Eric Meunier | person | Jersey Jack Pinball designer of Harry Potter; known for implementing Molex connectors on EOS switches; described as 'amazing dude' |
| Jeff | person | Associated with Barrels of Fun (possibly Jeff Dodson of Dirty Pool Pinball); provides answers about game availability and production |
| Zach Sharpe | person | Operates Flippin' Out booth with Nicole; displayed Star Wars, Winchester Mystery House, Dune, and Kong at Pinball Expo; praised as bringing 'one of every new, you know, desirable game' |
| Isaiah | person | Appears to be co-host or regular contributor; attended Pinball Expo media dinner; pointed out design redundancies (Metallica/TMNT topper overlaps) |
| George Gomez | person | Stern Pinball architect; likely responsible for accessories and game design; oversees Kong topper and related projects |
| Steve Richie | person | Designed 2017 Star Wars Stern machine; reputation for complex code criticized by host |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; released Star Wars (2025 edition) and Kong; led by Gary Stern; known for safe design choices and tiered pricing on accessories |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Premium boutique manufacturer; released Harry Potter (2025); known for innovative mechanical features and LCD implementation; operates collector-focused production model |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Boutique manufacturer; released Winchester Mystery House (2025), Dune, Labyrinth; known for surprise reveals and customer-focused approach; described as '3 for 3' success track record |
| Pinball Expo | event | Annual trade show held in October at Chicago Renaissance Hotel; 41st year in 2025; primary venue for game reveals and community gathering |
| Texas Pinball Festival | event | March event in Frisco, Texas; run by local organizers; mentioned as comparison point for Pinball Expo logistics |
| Winchester Mystery House | game | Barrels of Fun game; designed by Carl D'Angelo; revealed as surprise at Pinball Expo 2025; sold out in 24-48 hours; MSRP $11,600; 525 unit limited run; 40% complete; features Pepper's Ghost holographic effect and rotating turntable |
| Star Wars (2025 Stern) | game | Stern Pinball release; redesign of 2017 version; praised for clarity but criticized for safe design; experienced early QA issues including Death Star reject failures and playfield chipping |
| Harry Potter (Jersey Jack) | game | Jersey Jack Pinball release (2025); acclaimed for gameplay but criticized for visual overwhelm and potential AI art usage; features Molex EOS switches; noted design redundancy with toppers |
| Kong (Stern) | game | Stern Pinball release; features acrylic topper with interactive elements; topper completed same year as game release; highest turnaround for Stern accessory kit |
| Cool Louis Toy | organization | YouTube channel run by Doug; covers pinball gameplay and reviews; produces video content at Pinball Expo; known for quick video turnarounds |
| Flippin' Out | organization | Booth operator at Pinball Expo; displayed multiple new games; run by Zach Sharpe and Nicole |
| Pinside | organization | Pinball forum; discussed Winchester Mystery House sellout and FOMO dynamics; hosts community AI art detection discussions |
| Dirty Pool Pinball | organization | Associated with Jeff; appears to be in chat during stream; likely audio/sound design contributor |
| Pastimes Arcade | venue | Rob Burke's arcade in Gerard, Ohio; described as having 'anything and everything you could want to play' |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pinball Expo 2025 Overview, Stern Star Wars Machine - Design and QA Issues, Jersey Jack Harry Potter - Gameplay, Art, and Design, Barrels of Fun Winchester Mystery House - Surprise Reveal and Market Response
- **Secondary:** Pinball Machine Accessories and Topper Pricing, AI Art in Pinball Design, Operator vs. Collector Market Dynamics
- **Mentioned:** Manufacturing Quality Control and Supply Chain

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Generally positive toward Barrels of Fun and Winchester Mystery House success; appreciative of Jersey Jack's Harry Potter gameplay with specific design critiques; critical of Stern's Star Wars design choices and QA execution; frustrated with topper aesthetic and pricing inconsistencies; anti-FOMO and consumer-conscious perspective throughout

### Signals

- **[product_launch]** Barrels of Fun Winchester Mystery House officially revealed as surprise announcement at Pinball Expo 2025, with 525 limited edition units at $11,600 MSRP, selling out within 24-48 hours (confidence: high) — Host and Doug confirm sellout; Doug published gameplay video; Pinside thread documented market response
- **[product_concern]** Stern Star Wars machine exhibits multiple early QA issues including Death Star reject mechanism failures, playfield chipping from unprotected back areas, and plunge gate clipping problems; pattern mirrors X-Men production issues (confidence: high) — Host attended media event, tested machine, observed chipping on demo unit; noted Iron Maiden mylar solution was not applied; plunge issues reported in Pinball Expo playtest
- **[licensing_signal]** Winchester Mystery House game demonstrates strong IP resonance with West Coast audiences familiar with historic location; marketing opportunity at actual Winchester Mystery House location discussed (confidence: high) — Host notes West Coast audience reaction; Doug and host discuss placement at actual location as 'lowhanging fruit'
- **[collector_signal]** Winchester Mystery House experienced severe FOMO-driven purchasing behavior among non-West-Coast audiences unfamiliar with IP, who purchased $11,600+ machines based on surprise reveal and brand trust rather than theme knowledge (confidence: high) — Doug observed Pinside threads documenting people learning about Winchester Mystery House while placing pre-orders; Doug characterizes buyers as 'foaming at the mouth'
- **[product_strategy]** Stern bumped Star Wars production timeline forward, resulting in earlier release than originally planned and contributing to safe design approach and potential QA compromises (confidence: high) — Host disclosed this information from Star Wars media day briefing at Pinball Expo
- **[community_signal]** Community detects potential AI-generated art elements in Harry Potter backglass (three-eyed dragon, six-fingered hands) that evaded both internal QA and IP licensor approval oversight (confidence: medium) — Host notes Pinsite eagle-eyed community members identified issues; questions why IP holder didn't catch them despite approval requirement
- **[design_innovation]** Jersey Jack Harry Potter implements Molex connectors on end-of-stroke switches, eliminating need for direct solder connections and significantly reducing maintenance burden for operators (confidence: high) — Host personally repaired Harry Potter unit, confirmed Molex connector design; sent confirming message to designer Eric Meunier who responded positively
- **[product_launch]** Stern Kong topper completed and released in same year as game, marking fastest accessory turnaround in company history; faster than John Wick (1+ year), X-Men (none), Dungeons & Dragons (none) (confidence: high) — Host explicitly compares Kong topper timeline to other Stern releases; notes Kong arrived months before D&D accessory
- **[market_signal]** Tiered topper pricing strategy observed: Stern Kong offers $399 expression bar entry point, ~$1,200-$1,300 premium acrylic topper; Electric Playground offering $800 topper as competitive alternative; creates consumer choice model (confidence: high) — Host and Doug discuss pricing tiers; Electric Playground topper comparison explicitly contrasts with Stern pricing
- **[sentiment_shift]** Positive sentiment toward Barrels of Fun reinforced by Winchester Mystery House execution ('3 for 3' success); Stern sentiment mixed (business logic acknowledged but design and QA concerns undermine reputation); Jersey Jack strong for Harry Potter gameplay despite design critique (confidence: medium) — Host praises Barrels of Fun multiple times; describes Stern as 'safe' choice focused on mass market; criticizes Jersey Jack topper aesthetic despite gameplay praise
- **[operational_signal]** Operators prioritize ownership enthusiasm and personal preference over pure coin drop metrics; example: Sharkies Shootout placement driven by operator Matt Henry's personal liking despite lower expected revenue vs. Space Jam (confidence: medium) — Host discusses with Doug why Star Wars isn't being selected by operators; notes 'it's got to be either the owner, myself, or one of the other operators have got to be like really jazzed'
- **[design_philosophy]** Community criticism of design redundancy: identical logos appearing on both backglass and topper (Metallica, TMNT examples); Kong topper criticized for displaying same mechanical element as in-game feature, described as 'monkey on top of a monkey' (confidence: high) — Host and Isaiah identify Metallica and TMNT redundancy pattern; host critiques Kong's mechanical duplication; references allude to unrevealed 'added value' that Kong topper may perform

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## Transcript

[Music] I'm sorry I turned off the redeems. Oh, that's not me. Damn it.
I start I start off. Well, I'll I'll show up in a minute. Ready? Watch this, Doug. Boom. There's Doug. Oh, I didn't. There I am.
I showed up first, so I win.
You showed up first. You win.
Yeah.
Um, what's up, Borg? What's up, Isaiah? What's up, Germy? Uh, once again, um, I am here with my buddy Doug aka Cool Toy from the YouTube channel Cool Toy. We both got to go to Expo 2025. Um, how's it going, Doug?
I'm doing all right. I'm finally getting my voice back. I lost it for a couple days and you saw me I was like sucking down cough drops just to try to not sound like you know a grally old person at a train stop.
How'd you lose your voice on on on
So I you know I got this naturally deep you know seductive Barry White voice as it is. So I always have to talk a little bit louder than everybody else. And so like I went to the Wednesday bumper blast, you know, welcome party and I was there for like 3 hours trying to talk over all the machines and everything and then did the same thing Thursday and Friday and by that time I was just I was gone. I was a horse.
Were you Were you Did you have your voice on Friday at the media thing? I think you did.
Yeah, I had I had a functioning voice. Um but by the end of the Friday evening it was back to being gone again. Um, another successful year at Expo, man. I think Rob Burke just was like looking at TPF,
right? And said, "All right,
hold my beer." Yeah. Yeah.
Like he he clearly knows how to put on an amazing show. And what people always fail to remember is like Rob's not located in Chicago. He lives and resides in Ohio. and he plans this ginormous pinball extravaganza states away, which blows me away just from a logistical standpoint. Whereas TPF, you know, it's run and organized and put on by people that live within Texas. But, uh, yeah, it's a whole another ball game when you're planning a different convention in a different state and organizing all these things over the phone and Zoom meetings and stuff like that.
I forgot about that. Marty and I
like
um Marty and I interviewed him two years ago.
Mhm.
Yeah. Yeah. And I forgot he's in Ohio. Wow. That's crazy.
Um and he brings he brought all his games out. Even though they weren't in the they weren't in a separate room this time, they were in the main room, which was great.
Yeah. And he even brings like, you know, heavyhitting expensive titles. He doesn't carry. He lets the people bang on them. Like, you know, his Jersey Jacks Pirates Collector's Edition, which is like a $20,000 game.
Was that there?
Yeah. He brings it every year. other, you know, rare games, um, he'll bring and throw out there just willy-nilly, which I mean, you know, more power to him. He's got a giant, you know, arcade, pastimes arcade in Gerard, Ohio that has like anything and everything you could want to play, and he puts him out there for public display. So, I mean, he's got that, you know, Mikasa Sucasa mentality, which got to love and appreciate.
Yeah, the dude is super cool, and I'm really glad that he's like, you know, 41 years of an event is is a is is a pretty big deal. If you go to the um website for Pinball Expo, there's a gallery.
It'll blow you away. You'll see young faces of the old photos, the old Polaroids and whatnot that were scanned in
um of all these uh legends of pinball. So, um terrific, terrific time. So folks, we're going to Doug and I are going to uh basically do what we do every year except this time like really really because Doug had to split early, but um did you you got to walk the floor a little bit, right?
Oh yeah, I was there non-stop open and close Thursday and Friday. I just missed Saturday this year. That was the only the only hiccup this year in the change in my normal schedule, but yeah, I was there for two solid days straight.
Yeah. And so that was um that was All right, I want to switch over to the I want to switch over to some video. We're gonna use uh courtesy of Doug. Doug put up a video uh really fast. I think you were the first one out.
Um
I I had to be cuz I had to be in the car the next day, so I had to do my stuff real quick.
I
You should have I Rod. You should have said hello. Absolutely. Or you should have said, you know, damn you or you know, whatever. I I'll take it all, you know. Um, but but uh Doug gets the job done. Uh, you got to check out Cool Toys channel because you've got Winchester. We're going to talk about Win Winchester Mystery House in a minute. He's got Winchester Mystery House gameplay video. Um, you I see you walking around with your portable um
Yeah, little mini tripod setup and everything.
Try to make it as like lightweight and un
unobtrusive as possible. Yeah,
it's so good. But I I I see what it's made of and it doesn't look like that on the other side of the camera. Looks like this professionally. I worked for 5 years to make it look like your little crappy setup.
Yeah. Gota love it. Got to love it.
All right. So, let's get to this because we got a lot to talk about. Um, surprisingly enough, there are um there are a lot of cool reveals and stuff. So, this is this is um Doug's video. So, we're going to run through it with the sound up, but I'm just using this because it has really he's got really good reference for stuff. Um, first of all, yeah, let's talk about Okay, let's talk about Stern. Let's talk about the elephant in the room.
Um, which was Oh, boy. There's a bunch of things to talk about Stern. So, let let's
let's say which which topic do you want to tackle first? Yeah.
Well, you went to the Star Wars media event. I did. Mhm.
Tell us a little bit about your Well, I mean, you did a whole video on your thoughts, but just sum summarize.
I mean,
I thought it was a more enjoyable game than the 2017 Richie version. I thought that was a little bit um lambasted with like complex code that needed like a road map to really understand and achieve what most players want to, you know, good players really want to get to and goal-wise. Um, so I thought this was a little more concise, a little clearer. Um, you know, had mechanical slash, you know, quality of life improvements because of the new Spike 3 and everything. Uh, but at the end of the day, I mean, it's still Star Wars. You're either going to be on board with it right out of the gate or you're not. I mean, it's not going to, I think, win anybody new that wasn't already a fan of the franchise or pinball as a whole. So, I think that's where it was a little divisive for a lot of people. It was like, oh, another Star Wars. like, "Well, they made three Alviras and you didn't complain about that." So,
come on. [Laughter]
But, uh, a lot of early adopters with Star Wars have been notating specific mechanical issues, um, with their games, talking about, you know, extra rejects from the Death Star, which is kind of integral for a specific multiball in the game. So,
shot, that's the center shot. You know, I shot it. So, I went over to Flipping Outs booth. They had I love Zack. I love Zach and Nicole. They just like they just bring it. They had a Star Wars, they had a Winchester,
they had a Dune,
they had a Kong. Basically, a one of every new, you know, desirable game out there.
I love those guys. But, um,
so I flipped it and, um, it was fine. Uh, it's a, you know, typical fan layout.
Well, I I think a lot of people criticize it because it it's it's, yeah, it's it's a safe fan. And when I was at the media day, you hear the backstory of like, yes, they bumped this game up in the production and it was, you know, coming out sooner than they wanted to and all that kind of stuff. But I'm like, yeah, I get it. It's it was safe. It was easy to market. It's easy to sell. Like, I I understand from a business standpoint why they would do all the things they did. That being said, it sounds like a comma is in your sentence.
I mean, I was I was concerned with, you know, we're the the QA aspect of it. So, like we're having these conversations about Death Star rejects and uh when I was there for media day, I'd noticed that it would already like started chipping on the playfield in the back cuz like if you hit the like that middle ramp that like launches through the back of the machine, it's like that hyper space loop or whatever. kind of like iron iron maiden like hit the ramp if it doesn't go all the way and hit that target it just like you know bounces and hits the back of the playfield. you do that enough time with a steel ball, you know, it's going to leave indentions and marks and if you don't have myar or anything back there, you're going to start chipping away. And we were there for media day and I don't know how long these, you know, these production prototype games had been around, but
yeah,
the fact that they already had artwork chipping and no myar back there, I was like,
you guys literally when you produced Iron Maid and realized this was a problem and you started shipping out myar things to customers, like how did how did we forget that this was a
a problem? then
and it's becoming an issue in the we came off all the like plunge gate and little mechanical issues that X-Men was getting plagued with and then when I was there I was having issues with the plunge it kept clipping a like a wire thing on the the right hand side and it the plunge ball wouldn't go all the way around for media day when I was playing at expo I didn't really that issue yeah so I was like again I was like whoa
I was like
did did you guys not learn your lesson with the X-Men that you guys sending out like kits and fixes and you're getting all these pitchforks and torches coming after you. But, um, like I said, the positive aspect of it is that the demo units that were out there at Expo, I didn't have any plunge issues. So, maybe it was just the the few samples that were there for me today.
Yeah. I I I bottom line is um it's a
it's a it's another like no one in my area that I know or Freelatch or whatever is interested in getting one. Um, uh, eye shadow,
not even from like the commercial aspect of it because you guys, you know, make those quarters.
Yeah. Those tokens.
Not I mean part part of it is a freelo watch. It's got to be either the owner, myself, or one of the other operators have to be like really jazzed about getting it.
Um, and that sometimes supersedes the the the the coin drop.
Okay.
Um, I you could ask rightfully so. I mean,
yeah. I mean, you ask Matt Henry uh straight up, why would we have a Sharkies shootout?
Because he likes it. Yeah,
because he likes
Yeah, because No, no other logical answer other than that because it's not going to draw.
We have a Space Jam.
Hey, Michael Jordan sells.
I know. Michael Jordan.
Yeah. Yeah. But
yeah, I I I get that. Yeah.
Yeah. But nothing really nabbed anybody to grab Star Wars. I I I'll say I shot it. It shot fine. I had fun. I think I put up about 160 million. I don't know if that's a good score. Um it's fine. Um
yeah, it's what's going to pay the bills and allow them to do the, you know, the creative releases later down the road. Like there's always going to be that that safe thing that a business does that pays the bills, keeps the lights on, keeps, you know, things going that allows you to maybe be a little more adventurous down the line.
There you go.
At least that's what you hope. I mean, you maybe if the next release that we see around the corner is another fan layout and it's boned in, then you're like, "Okay, then you can be worried." But I think it's just them.
It's not It's not for us, Doug.
It's It's for the It's market.
Yeah.
It's for the mass market. It's for the, you know, the bars and places that 2017 Star Wars sold like crazy and maybe they've already moved on and got rid of it and hey, let's let's bring another Star Wars back in. The last one did great. That kind of thing.
Yeah. Um, they got
What do you think of these acrylic? Yeah, I was supposed to say, what do you think of these acrylic toppers that everyone likes to love hate?
I think um I I don't know. Do you know what the price is like on this Deadpool? Do we know prices?
Yeah, it's like $3.99 or $4.99
for reals.
Yeah, cuz I think it's like $3.99 just for like the expression bar and it's like a hundred bucks for the acrylic.
Okay. Well, hi Erica. Hey, that's Erica. Oh my god. Um,
hey.
Um, oh, you know what, Doug? I'm going to be like, okay, well, okay.
See, I'm okay with that, too. Like, yeah, you already got this high-end market of $2,200, $1,500 toppers that they, you know, kind of hover around with recently. And then you got a lower cost entry point that literally interacts with the game. It's not just like a LED strip that flickers and stuff like it's wired in and programmed into their stuff.
I'm digging it. Oh, if it's at at that price point, if it's below 500.
Yeah, let's go, Stern. Keep doing that.
Yeah. So, you give multiple options. Then you got the high-end version for people that need a little more pizzazz, if you will.
Now, this I have a problem with.
Uh
oh. What What's your problem?
And my buddy Isaiah pointed it out. So, remember when everyone had a trouble with the topper saying Metallica and then the backlash saying Metallica again?
Yeah. I had the same issue with like Ninja Turtles. It was like Ninja Turtles logo was here on the back glass and then 3 in above it you would have the Ninja Turtles topper with the identical logo. I I get that. Yeah.
Well Well, this is worse. This is Okay.
It's a monkey on top of a monkey. It's it's a monkey. It's a monkey playing chicken. Yeah.
It's a It's the same mech from in the game.
Oh, it lit. It legitimately is. It's It's 100% extra parts. Uh and again, it's like, you know, from a business standpoint, I get why they did it. Um, if you're a pro owner, and I mentioned in my video, like if you're a pro owner, this this makes great sense. Like, you get the best of both worlds.
Could you rip the A?
Could you rip that off and put it in there? I mean, theoretically, probably. You'd have to like mess with the code a little bit, but uh they they in their press release, they said something like they allude to this was going to do something that has not been revealed yet. And I don't know what it is. I don't know what added value it could do, like what other kind of song and dance Mr. Kong can do to uh appease the masses, but in the grand scheme of things, like this is one of the more involved toppers to come from Elwin because as much as I love his games, his toppers have always just been kind of very bare bones. And
the uh the Jaws topper was basically the the AMD sign.
Yeah, that was that was rough. Um Jurassic Park was much better. And like I'm a huge Jurassic Park nerd and I was just like, "Oh, cool. You put the logo in some letters
coded
approving the topper." Erica says,
but also on the positive aspect of this,
they got this topper out in the same year the game came out.
Yep.
This this this is like the quickest turnaround for an accessory kit. Like X-Men still doesn't have an accessory kit. Uh John Wick took over like over a year, I think. Dungeons and Dragon still don't have an accessory kit or a topper. And it came out months before Kong.
This is mean, Doug. Why did you do this? Why did you show the electric playgrounds topper?
Cuz I mean, I have to
This is a badass topper right here. This is
It is. And it's $800. And you compare it to the Stern, which I think was $1,200 or 1300.
Like,
look at this.
People need to realize and hold these manufacturers accountable, whether good, bad, or indifferent. Like there's different places you can now disperse your funds and get sometimes more bang for your buck like in this case.
All right. Um Okay. Yeah,
I think it's actually George Gomez, Erica.
Yeah, it's probably Gomez.
I'm pretty I'm pretty sure he's in charge of like the entire accessories as well as the you know game design team. I think that both fall under his purview. Doug, did you get to see Just as a side note, did you get to see the the the new topper from Electric Playground, which is based on
I did. Did you? It's
It was kind of secret.
Yeah, it was secret. They wouldn't let me take a picture or video of it, which is fine.
But I got to see it in action and got to do do its thing. Did you?
Which I don't blame them. Yeah. Uh I thought it was a fun little gimmick that had on it. Um and they were open and honest to like, yeah, it's a gimmick, but you know, we we just want to have fun. It's a great gimmick.
Yeah, I thought so. But it's also one of those things like it would probably wear out its welcome really
really quick. You just
really quickly but it also the first time you ever had a friend come over that hadn't seen it, you'd be like so jazzed to show it to him. So like it's a double-edged sword.
Yeah.
Um All right, that's Stern. Let's talk about Jersey Jack. And
uh this is the thing I was telling you earlier. I says I may disagree, I may agree. Okay, this is where we're going to split hairs.
Um Um I think we both agree that Potter is effing amazing.
Yeah, absolutely. I I will take nothing away from its gameplay. Um, the only like small critique I have as far as the gameplay experiences, um, I think there's too much going on on like the the scoring display, like there's too many things that like trample on top of each other, sounds and movie clips and little things going off here and there that doesn't allow like the assets to breathe. I think Hobbit does a really good job of like mixing, you know, action sequences that are going on and giving them their their moment in the sun as well as giving you your gameplay information. I think Hop or I think Potter needs a little more of that because I think it's just
too much too much bright shiny going over here over here and then like uh the light rail thing like it
there's too much like rainbow color show going on out of those what are they called the hot hot rails or whatever their lighting system. the the Yeah, that like Hot Rails. Um
yeah, too much rainbow. There's There's no that there's never that much rainbow going on in anything Harry Potter related. So, I don't know why why that is so prominent.
Um I I I'll agree with that. There is a lot going on. I was playing it today with uh one of the top players in the San Francisco area and I was I was this was the first time I ever stood next to a top player and said, "Uh, okay, okay, shoot the center. Okay, okay, shoot, shoot. Okay. No, no. Your mode is on uh the pop bumpers. Okay. No. Okay. So, what do you want to do? Do you want to do the jackpots or do you want to do
like you're doing
Yeah.
That right.
Yeah. If you feel like you have to hit everything at the same time. Um the other thing you had an issue with was
art.
Who's Art? What's Who's this guy art you talking about? What's it? Why art? Art Robinson.
Art artificial.
Artificial.
Yeah. So the whole the whole uh controversy of uh using AI to uh supplement some some
supplement or assist or fill in or I
I would put it this way, Doug, and and we won't go too far into this. Um um I agree that the use of AI not to assist but to replace art is probably a no no. Um,
yeah,
if you want to use AI as an idea generator or like something to spark a creative process, I'm okay with that. If it ends up in the end product, I'm 100% against it in every shape, way, or form.
You know what the problem is? We have really eagle-eyed um people like on Pinsite or whatever because that had to get past the IP holder, right? Um, you heard all the stories about how they got really creative with like instead of putting I will not, you know, something in the back.
Yeah. And they were trying to like
you can't utilize our footage. Yeah. You can't mess with our stuff.
Yeah.
But nobody noticed the three-eyed dragon or like the six-fingered hands and stuff like that. Yeah.
Um, which also again goes to show you that just because things are officially licensed doesn't always mean the licensors themselves are the best. Um,
right.
You know, parental guidance, if you will, of the IP itself.
Yeah. But so anyway, um, you know, so, uh, Eric Miner, amazing dude. I actually had got to, um, uh, chat and we had we I was at a dinner that he was at. I I'm not going to say I had dinner with him. Uh, Isaiah and I showed up at a dinner where he was and we were at the same table. So, we got to talk and stuff like that with him. Thank you so much for the Who's that? Mostly pirate with the raid. Thank you for the raid. Welcome in Raiders. Uh Dirty Pool. Oh, Dirty Pool is here. Oh,
Dirty Pool. All right, we're going to talk about your game soon. Um uh uh Doug, do you know Dirty Pool is is uh Jeff from Jeff from Barrels?
Um Mory Party, thank you for the raid. We're talking here with Cool Toy uh Doug Cool Toy. Um and we're doing a wrap-up of Expo 2025. Um, yeah. So, Eric is um Eric and the team did an amazing job on Harry Potter, blah blah blah. Um, just yesterday I I came when I came home after Expo. This is the thing I got to tell you guys. This is this is great because I'm an operator now, right? And I fixed games and the end of stroke switch uh on the right flipper was broken on Harry Potter. And so I was digging in um Doug to do a 15minute desolder, you know, playfield up, juggling things with your hands to not drip solder and this and the
I open up the game and I look and I say, "Oh, this mfer put an endstroke switch on a Molex."
Popped the Molex out. Yep.
And unscrewed it.
Took it to my bench.
Changed the three. Boom. Plugged it in. And I texted him and I said, "Saw Molex on EOS. I effing love you." And he sent back an image of like chef's kiss.
Well, yeah. I mean, anytime you can like essentially, you know, change the norm that has been 40 years of pinball and direct solder connections and stuff like that. Like, I'm all I'm just like you. I'm giddy as can be when I see something like that cuz I'm like, "What? You're going to make my life easier at the as the end user of the product? Holy cow.
Like, like, who cares about what's underneath the playfield, right? Well, no, some people do. That's the thing. Um, I just want to catch up with chat real quick. Who's in charge? Uh, totally, George. That's why, and that's why Harry Potter sucks. Thank you, Isaiah. Um, uh, very nice to meet you. Dirty Pool says, "Great to meet you again, Doug. Fastest edited
nerds
on the bathroom floor."
Yeah, it's cuz I don't have a life. Doug's Doug's cutting in the bathroom.
Yeah,
Doug is a hard
working here. Get out of here.
He's a hardworking mofo. Trust me, man. I was watching his I was watching Doug's expo video at Expo. I was sitting up in the room with Isaiah. I'm like, yo. Um,
look at this idiot. Yeah,
look at this dude. No, but I watched the whole thing. All right, let's see what else. There's nothing else from Jersey Jack. Yeah. So, we talked we talked about a lot. People had
people had fun. Um, by the way, the toppers are terrible. I don't like their toppers at all. Um,
yeah. I mean, the the the higherend one is better than the was the middle tier, the wizard tier. But that wizard tier, dear God, you're charging people thousands of dollars and you're just giving them that wonky McDonald's looking like it looks like a McDonald's prize. is like you'd go in there and you see like they had the cardboard displays that showed the Happy Meals like behind the little plastic box. Like that's what I see when I see like the the Quidditch match going on on top of that wizard edition.
All right. I started it and I'm like, "All right,
that right there. Just garbage.
All right, it you said McDonald's. Now I'm not going to be able to unsee McDonald's." Um, so thanks for that. All right, let's go to barrels. Let's talk about barrels. Mystery house. Yeah, that I I I for the life of me, I I was sitting there editing this video and I I probably had to like clip out four different times I said the name wrong for whatever reason. I kept wanting to always call it House of Mystery. I don't know, maybe HBO House of the Dragon or something is like train my brain, but yeah, Mystery House.
Were you familiar Were you familiar with the actual Winchester Mystery House before this? And
yes, I've never like visited it or, you know, been there or anything like that, but I was familiar with the the story, the lore. I've seen uh like a History Channel documentary they did on it. My dad's a huge gun nut, so he's always about the, you know, any chance he can get to like connect something that he likes with me being a nerd, he's like, "Let me tell you a story about this Winchester chick."
So, I'm not familiar with I love that.
Yeah.
Let me tell you something about this Winchester chick. Well, yeah. Um this is the debut game from new designer card Carl D'Python Anghelo who is a top ranked IFPA. He also runs Indisk. He ran um Pin Slash.
He is one of the smartest, most kind persons I've ever met. I used to
streamer extraordinaire.
Streamer invented invented the streaming rig that literally every streamer now
utilizes.
Yep. I uh he's amazing at um uh what's the VR game? Golf game during the pandemic. I used to play golf with him and Jordan and Becca in VR. Super super and and super super smart guy. Well, this is his game. And Doug, you got a you got a reveal uh gameplay video up on your channel. Um
I wouldn't say revealed. Carl did his his
Carl did his but like a real person playing. Yeah. Yeah. Don't watch that.
A real person. you're a real person playing his game. Um, now mind you, the game is only what? He's, you know, they threw out a number like 40%. It's only 40% done. Um, what are our thoughts on it? We don't have to we don't spend too much time on it because it's amazing. So, but what are our thoughts on
No, it was great. Like every this it was the talk of the show. Everybody was waited in, you know, concert footage lines that Yeah.
you know, they wanted to jam on this new game. It was a surprise reveal and it was like Monday before the show. you know, everybody just expected it to be Dune Labyrinth, and that would have been okay. People still haven't played Dune, which is fine. Um, you know, so I I fully expected it just to be a lineup of, you know, Dune machines and a couple Labyrinths. I I thought that's what we were going to see from Barrels of Fun. And then boom, surprise. Here's here's this game that, you know, no one expected to see that it's already ready to be released. You know, that kind of quitessential barrels of fun like, hey, we're not going to give you the promise of something tomorrow. We're just going to show up today with, you know, the thing in hand, which is like the coolest thing you can always do.
I I I don't know. They're three for three. And I don't know, you know, it's not like it's it's it's weird because the people on the West Coast who know about the Winchester Mystery House, at least the people
most people on the West Coast and some people outside of the West Coast know about the Winchester lost their minds. I lost my mind. I went, "Oh my god, they did a game based on this house." I've been to the Winchester Mystery House like five times. We still have yet to take Skyler and scare the [ __ ] out of him, but we will.
This perfect opportunity now because they'll have one of these, I'm sure, on site. Yeah.
Um, that's a good question. They should have they should have one of these.
Oh, I guarantee it. If they don't, somebody's dropping the ball big time on that, whether it's on the Winchester side or not. Yeah, I'd almost guarantee I would literally probably guarantee that's going to happen.
Jeff, do they have one on site
right by the gift shop? answer the question. Damon Jeff, do you know if they they will have one?
Yeah, I was about to say that's such lowhanging fruit. You'd be you'd be terrible at your job if you didn't.
Um there Yeah, I know. I'm not going to presume like I'm not
I will presume for both of us. Yes.
Okay. Um anyway, I I you know what it sold out. Um u people who are not on the West Coast or didn't know about the Mystery House. What basically said, um, what is this slash I need to buy this? Um,
yeah, a lot of it was FOMO for real, which I always I'm always like a big anti- FOMO person. I think if you suffer from FOMO, you're just a weak human being in general, but like
this this was running rampant. Yeah. Sorry, that's that's a hard hard line there. But uh but yeah, like I was reading the penside thread and watching it like explode. Like people were just foaming at the mouth to like get this and once they saw like Carl's name attached to it and learn more about it cuz there was people literally like learning about the Winchester house like as they're trying to place an order for this $12,000 machine which I was just like holy cow like y'all are nuts. But I mean that that's what happens when you get, you know, a good crew of people behind something and like an established uh company like Barrels that already has this, you know, nice history of like customer um service and just like, you know, doing things right by the the the end user that people are willing to say, "All right, sure. I'll gamble, you know, $1,200 or 11,300, I think, is the exact number."
Yeah.
Um on something new. Well, um I got to shoot it. I'm telling you the the second time the first time I shot it was like um the first time I shot it. Who said who mentioned something in the chat? Uh Twitch Twitch AO99. Um I you said you mentioned something like the first time you shot it, it was like kind of a brutal game and it may have changed your perception of it. Um never ever shoot a game once and then decide that's what you like or not. Um
Oh, absolutely. Play multiple times. Try to play multiple copies of a game if you can too because
Yep.
the nuances of a a single machine versus, you know, a different one that's maybe even 5t away from it could be completely different gameplay just based on how it was set up.
Yeah. And and the other defense is like, you know, uh we're not getting one here. I was mad at barrels. Oh, okay. Well, yikes. Um um what was I going to say? Uh the code is very early, but it does represent like kind of the basis of what's going to happen in the game. We won't go too into a deep dive what's going on in the game, but the second time I shot it, Doug, I shot it with some friends with three other people. We played a four-player game. That way, one of us could watch and the other one could do. And by the end of the game, we figured out
how cool it was. And I thought to myself, "Okay, I need this in my house."
Like,
and I I 100% agree with you. Every time I go to like Expo or TPF or something like this and try to like record gameplay footage or play a game for the first time, I always I'm like, whoever's near me, I'm like, "Fourplayer game?" And they're like, "Oh, yeah, sure." It's like because I want to watch and learn as they play as opposed to feel stressed of all right, I got three balls. I got to absorb everything that is to, you know, know and see and do in this game while other people are tapping their toes waiting for me to get out of the way. So, like that's I'm always fro like, hey, make friend in line, play this game with buddies. That way you can all learn and see and do.
I love that. Make friend in line. Let's also shout out Jeff Dirty Pool Pinball who's in the in the chat who uh did the sound design and the music for this game. Um uh and also I really appreciate Jeff for uh what he does for um pinball in general. Came up came out of nowhere and all of a sudden has one of the top
I'm going to be in Yeah. I'm going to be in your face. I'm going to be in your feed every single day and you're going to love it. And I do. So I appreciate it, Jeff. You do an awesome job. Um, I appreciate your tour of the entire homebrew world. Yeah. So, anyway, shout out to Jeff. Shout out to Barrels of Fun. And, uh, I think that's all we need to say about that. You're not going to buy one because it sold out.
They gone. Yeah. So,
they gone. But I asked I asked David Van Es and I asked Carl and I didn't get even real answers about if there's going to be another, but so that's that. Um, please rate your ass.
Another game or another run. another run.
Oh, no. You you would you would slap everybody in the face that you know ponyied up their money that first day and a half.
You think so?
No, they
Oh, absolutely. Anybody if you were one of those 525 people and then you found out they were making another 500, you would you would feel slighted.
It's not like
I mean a lot of people would. I don't think if I was in that situation, I wouldn't. I don't give a crap. I've got my game. I don't care if anybody else gets I more the marrier for me. But like from a business standpoint, like they said again, they're kind of trying to create that that want versus need, you know, from consumers. You you try to build up that demand. You want to, you know, make it a desirable entity that is, you know, illustrious and rare. And
wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Just let's park this for a second. You think the 525 number is because they want to?
Yes, by design. Absolutely. I mean, as well as also I think they've learned with Dune, um, you know, maybe a lower number is better in the long run from a logistical production standpoint if things are maybe not selling as well as they'd hoped.
Okay.
Yeah. 525 is
yeah it's also the address like you can you can tie it in to the marketing there and you know assign significance to the number in that way
when okay let's keep going
but also yeah like and to uh you know Twitch's uh point there the guy at barrels told me they honestly didn't think they would sell that much like when you got first time everything you know kind of assigned to certain stuff it's like yeah um what number do you come up with you just basically come up with a number and cross your finger fingers and you hit publish, you know, that's that's the best you can do and hope for the best. And obviously, I believe it exceeded everybody's expectations.
Yeah. Two days, but you know, two hours or whatever it was.
Um, surprise hit of the show for me is Predator. Um,
it I will I would agree too because I literally went in there like I don't want to say the lowest expectations, but very low just considering the previous games with Abba and Queen. Uh just man, I hated those games. It's just I tried I I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt numerous times. Tried to play them every chance I got at Expo and TPF and I just kept walking away like I played that game for free and I still felt like it owed me something.
So when he got Predator, I was like, "Oh god, what you going to ruin another one of my favorites? I love the band Queen and you ruined that for me." People in chat are like, "Wow." Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's Let's get back to
But it is a great game. They did a good job on it. Like I said, my only critique is that it's very expensive.
Yeah. Thanks, uh, current administration. Uh, out the gate, you're paying 1,200
and then, but for I got I got on good authority on very good authority that they sold as of Saturday, they sold 15 when it came to the show. They sold 15 from the show
because of the show
they sold 15. Um
they have
I mean that sounds insignificant probably to a lot of people but if you multiply 15 times the MSRP then you're looking like okay
doing all right for a weekend.
They are uh very limited. It absolut Yeah. I was playing it with uh I think it was with Matt Thally from Lind Arcade and we stepped up. Um um the only time, by the way, the only time I got to play games, Doug, is because I had a vendor pass and I can get in an hour before and it was still a line because vendors want to play each other's games.
My Winchester gameplay footage was me, um Johnny Crap, and another one of the vendors from Chicago Gaming. That was us playing before the hall had opened after we had already waited in line 30 minutes with the other vendors cuz everybody wanted to play the new games. Yeah.
Yep. Yep. Um but we played it and we played a couple of games and I was I I was loving it. I didn't notice Arnold wasn't there.
Um
well when it first came out there was like all this weird like we've got the rights to Arnold but we don't have the rights to Arnold and we got this. We don't. So, like there's all these weird questions about it and then you actually got to see it in play. You're like, "Okay, they they have Arnold assets to a degree uh more so than was led on to believe. They've got a Arnold impersonator doing certain call outs and he doesn't sound, you know, horrible. Obviously, a trained ear, you can say, "Okay, that's not Arnold, but it's also not a terrible impersonator either." So, I mean, it's like the best of both worlds. Like, do we want this to be a $20,000 game? Of course not. And maybe that's what it would had to been if you got Arnold to do everything and sign off on everything.
Well, um, let's put it this way. I I I know the Pinball Brothers guys and um um remember what happened to Bond from Stern and it was a licensing nightmare.
Oh, absolutely. And there's a reason why this hadn't been done prior to that. Cuz yes, there's a specific character that is not in this game that is in the movie Predator that has never been associated with any Predator merchandise or releases because of licensing because he just absolutely had a falling out with the people that created the movie. He's in the movie and he wants nothing to do with it and he will never associate himself with this movie.
There's a lot of that.
Who are you talking about?
Uh the gentleman's name is Billy in the movie Predator. He's
Oh, okay. Yeah, like the Native American character from the film. Yeah.
Right. Um um let's just let's just say there there there's a possibility that Arnold uh wasn't disagreeing on being in the movie, but it was a licensing nightmare. So, let's just put it that way. Let's put that way. Don't blame Arnold. Don't blame Arnold.
Yeah. I I was about to say I I don't think that nobody tried to make it happen. I just certain things are insurmountable, whether it be financially or logistically.
Right. Right. Exactly. But anyway, at the end of the day, Predator hopefully sells well for uh Pinball Brothers. Well, well-made game. It's they changed to fast pinballs um system.
Yeah. And I heard that's, you know, been the night and day improvement they needed because um all their Alien made games by Pinball Brothers, everyone's like, "Yeah, it's a great game as long as it's working." And that's always the big thing. It's like it was always down because it just issues with hardware. But and is also alien is also in metric system. I love the metric system but not on my pinball.
Uh let's keep
spoking like a true American.
Spoken like a true American. Don't put your metric system in my pinball.
Damn you, Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Carter.
Um
yeah, he tried to make America over to the metric system. Well, we were we were supposed to
I heard in my I heard I I heard in school when we were going to move over to Metrics, so it didn't happen.
Um
Spooky was not really there, but they were showing off their games and they're still awesome.
Although I I saw Bug show up on Friday. I saw him walking around. I was like, "Okay." I'm like, "Well, if you guys are not like officially here, why the hell are you here?"
That's all right. Their games are awesome. They had the best one.
They are. And they're great people. I was just I was a little I I assumed they were being represented by a vendor cuz they couldn't be there and then they were there and I was like why don't you have a booth then
that week we tried
because they did last year
they did. Yeah, they did. They did.
Yeah.
Yeah. Um Chad is just so funny. Um I'm gonna skip over Spooky because the Spooky's cool.
Yeah. Um yeah, they're cool and it was it's Evil Dead. I mean it's sold out against like Winchester. You're not gonna get one. So
yeah, it's
great game. You just Good luck trying to find one.
Um I do
homebrew.
Homebrew. Okay. So I do want to take a moment and say um um I had a blast working with Marco uh on the home in the homebrew section and fast pinball in the homebrew section. Um streaming home brerews as many homebrews as we could. Um I do have the video footage. We're going to try and put together little uh moments of homebrew. So, you can check it out on marco pinball.com. I will be editing a lot.
Um,
you need any extra footage cuz I got a lot that I didn't use.
Do you really?
I do.
Uh, let's talk afterwards. I can give you a a place where you can upload them if you want.
Okay.
Um, I have all the awards also. All the award winners for the home brerews.
Yes, please tell me.
Borg, thank you so much. Um, I can't go through all of them, Doug, because there's so many.
Uh,
you can you can give me the the A-list titles or the winners.
The winners. Okay. So, okay. Well, I'll do this. I'll do this because what they came up with.
First of all, shout out to whoever's dusty laptop that is that I've just now noticed besides this beside the steambo. That thing looks like it's been through a homebrew uh garage for sure.
It does. It was It's definitely a homebrew laptop. Um, okay. We'll do this real quick for Hollywood because this we have to we can't ignore Hollywood. I had um chicken with uh cabbage and potatoes. What did you have for dinner dog?
Uh I had a Sonic cheeseburger. So Sonic Drive-In.
I don't know if you guys got that on the West Coast.
Speaking of Sonic.
Mhm.
So we'll skip all the
the hedgehog.
The hedgehog. Uh, legends of pinball and video games
judged this. Legends. Larry Demar.
Yeah.
Eugene Joe,
Joe Kamakar, Roger Sharp. Holy [ __ ] Right.
I I was blown away when I was hearing all the judges. I was like, that's made me nervous. Yeah. Ed Boon. Like everybody. It was a who's who of all these like magnificent creators and coders of pinball for 30 years.
This This was insane. Um, but I'll run off the quick the best of first. Um, we have best best back glass art was awarded to Luau, which was an em, which is pretty. Best video game graphics award was Cuphead. Not the Cuphead you guys are thinking. Not the the dead and buried American pinball Cuphead.
Yeah. No, the Humber one, which was good. I saw that one. And that's based off of a virtual pinball Cuphead that you can download on VPU right now.
Yeah.
Um, most fun to play award was Sonic Pinball. Best ramps.
Best ramps was Tony Hawk.
Best Rams.
Yeah. See what they did there? Yeah.
What an award.
Um, best cabinet art was Invaders. Did you check out Invaders? That
I did. Um, because were they French or Italian? I can't remember. French. French
French. That's what Yeah, I was about to say. Um because I remember it popping up in like my Instagram feed a couple months ago.
Me, too.
And like it had the the mech with the UFO like grabbing the ball and I was like, "What is this?" And why have I never heard of it? Like how
I know you think it's a new manufacturer.
Yeah. And it was just it was like this guy that took it upon himself to make a pretty awesome, you know, game. So I was like I was excited. I got to see him play it when I was over there.
Yeah. Cool mechs and everything. Once again, guys, if you want to check this stuff out, check Marco Pinball's um site over the next week or so, and you'll get to see some of these. Best shots was Sonic the Hedgehog again. Best Playfield art were best playfield art is Coming to America, which we had a chat about earlier.
Yeah.
Best original theme, it looked pretty. Best original theme, Enigma. Uh
I remember that one. Yeah, that was the that was the one um with the like
was it the one with the CRT TV or No,
no, that was Beimo.
There was one was like a little Yeah, I was about to say Beimo. Yeah,
that was Beimo. Um best art award, Steamboat Willie, which um actually you guys uh Doug had this one right here. Steamboat Willie was great. Oh man.
Yeah, he did it. I mean, there's so many neat things on that game, like the, you know, the the the paddle wheel on the front there and then, of course, like, you know, the steam coming out of the topper. Things that, you know, grab your attention like right out of the gate. You're like, "Oh, wow."
Really fun one. Demo was the most fun I had on the homebrew. Nice.
Um, best implementation award was Pokemon. So, what they mean by implementation is implementing the actual game.
The theme. Yeah.
Pokemon was pretty sweet. And I don't I I was surprised by that one cuz like I'd walk by it at first and just like dismissively assumed it was the the Rob Burke one that he had like made had made a couple years ago that was a different game.
And then I circled back and I was like, "Oh, wait. This is no, this is a different game entirely." And I started looking at it closer. I was like, "Oh, well, there's a lot going on here." So, uh, full disclosure, like I don't know if Dirty Pool is still in the chat, but, um, correct me if I'm wrong. The the guys who did Pokemon are working for Barrels now. Is that correct? I think that's I think that's the I think that's correct. One of the guys who was working
I hope they are because I mean, they clearly were talented. I was I was impressed with what I saw in that Pokemon. I was like, "Oh, wait. This is this is a little more involved than a kind of a a skin that the other game I I thought it was was." Yeah, I think he split. All right. Um, best theme license award, Monsters, Inc. Did you get to see the Monsters Inc.?
I did. I played it a lot. So, I've got a a three-year-old that is obsessed with it, and that's like what his Halloween costume is going to be. In fact, I played Monsters Inc. with Eric Miner um while we were there. And uh it had a mech on there that was really impressive. It was like a magnetic slide rail.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I kept trying to like watch it work and try to understand
try to figure it out
you know just like from a coding aspect I'm like how do you make that work like
how are the ones and zeros programmed to you know keep the connectivity along it
so I was impressed with it
the uh god I'm forgetting everybody's name but the guy who did that also did the beas and game um
yeah he's the one that runs tryet pinball does like the basically he'll cut a play field for you and huge into the homebrew and He was actually working on uh uh the the mothership pinball. He was out there like Yep. You know, take taking it apart and putting it together while I was playing on it. So yeah, I I forget his first name. I always feel bad about it, but yeah, I know exactly who you're talking about. Great dude.
Forgetting his name. Um that's right. Isaiah got kicked off of Monsters, Inc. by Roger Sharp to play.
I mean, if you're going to get booted from a game, you might as well get booted by a legend.
Yeah. Um
hold your mustache, sir. I'm playing.
Yeah. And he it was really it was really cool to have Roger come in on the stream. Um, best sound Sonic the Hedgehog.
Ernie, thank you Ernie. Thank you. Oh my god. Fixed magnet. Okay.
Um, best music was The Greatest Showman, which was the
um the rethe of whirlwind.
Whirlwind. Yeah.
Yeah. And it's top to bottom. Nothing nothing left of whirlwind on that.
No, nothing.
So So here's the big ones. Um, best of show. Second runner up for Best of Show. And these are the top three, you guys. Best of show. Second runner up. Mad Max.
Yep. It's great. Great looking. I like that. I like that he didn't use clean wire forms on that. It It goes really good with the theme.
Everything's like, you know, rusty and just crusted.
Um, first runner up was Invaders from France. And the big winner was what, Doug? The big winner in the Little Homebrew area was what?
For best of show.
Best of show. Big winner in the little homebrew area.
Big.
Are you Are you alluding to Mothership because you're saying the word big several times?
No. No.
Big trouble. Okay. Big trouble a little time. I was about to say, well, you the way you were like emphasizing big and little. I was like, I'm like mothership. I don't even think it's in like the running because it's, you know, it's Rob's little passion project. I'm like, surely it should have been. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Big Big Trouble Little China is one of the more I mean, if not one of the most polished games there. Uh, similar to Jason. I mean, you got
you got the who's who of you know, artists involved on it. You got Scott Danesi on music. You you know, there's you got call outs from an actor that was actually in the movie for crying out loud. like no stone was left unturned for this
project.
Yeah. Uh uh this this this was fabulous. Always a line to play this one.
Yeah.
Always and rightfully so. There, you know, there's one of them. It was, you know, connected to the electric playground booth. So, there's, you know, cool stuff going on over there already. Um but yeah, this this was an awesome game, especially I mean, if you're familiar with the movie, like the little touches here and there that go into it are just amazing. Um, and if you're quasi familiar, you're like, "Oh, okay. That was a movie from the 80s or whatever." It's still a cool game to play. Even if you didn't know a whole lot about the IP.
Yep. Yep. Um, now, Monster League Hockey did get an award. Let me check to see.
Um,
I loved this. I thought this was fun. The only downside is, you know, you got to have somebody else playing with you.
True. Yeah. Monster League. Okay. It got the Eugene Jarvis best light show award. Yeah, I can see that. It had like black lights, uh, you know, UV reflective art and rubbers and stuff like that. So, I mean, it was
it was awesome looking. Yeah. See, there you go. Nice. Look at that lighting. I mean, it's perfect. That whole black light setup there with the tent and everything. Uh, Brad Albbright artwork.
Um, yeah, Brad Albbright kicked kicked butt on this. Now, the only thing that was the only thing, Doug, that was weird. I'm going to share it with chat because it was just a weird moment and I and I'm I'm pretty sure he's not going to watch this.
He's not going to watch this podcast. Um there was the uh so some of the guys who worked on this I saw the night before and I got excited because they came up to me and they said, "Manu, oh my god, I'm we're glad you're here. We used your video with Emodo to to to figure out how the original this is this was done. the this is based on Alvin G's um soccer ball
um which is which is an existing Alvin G was existing two-player game and I went wait a minute you you watched me and Emoto play it
um they they they thought Amodo was my friend Audrey
and this was back in
I don't know how long ago but check it check this out so this
is soccer ball
that we streamed back six years ago
no okay here we Let me turn that me turn that off.
So, um, this is what the game is based on. You can tell. And here's the thing. What's what they they changed a lot of they basically threw the rules away, which was great because the rules on this is garbage.
Um, it really was. It was kind of fun, not really fun. They turned it into a fun game. Um, they also got rid of the metal in front of the flippers because that was the only way the ball could the flipper could detect the ball. You could play a one-player game.
Terrible design. Yeah.
Yeah. It wasn't great. But um
I when we interview when I interviewed one of the guys at um
for the stream, I asked I said, "So this is based on the Alvin G. What what gave you the idea that?" And he said, "No, no, no. This is a completely original idea."
I went, "Wait a minute." Okay. Well, and then as an
inter none of that. I went, "All right." Okay. Yeah. All right. Sure.
Um I just I just thought that was kind of interesting. But what the thing is that this is so professionally polished that I feel like they're going to sell it
top to bottom.
What was the idea?
I think it would I I think it would sell. I mean, I don't know
other than, you know, just the lack of a manufacturer that's willing to take it on why you would wouldn't.
They they they had a list. They said they had a list that's interested and if they can get like a hundred people interested and would want to put money into it, then they would figure out how to get a manufacturer to do it. They wouldn't do it themselves, but they figure out how to get into into a line and get them done. But, um,
yeah,
it's a it's a great game. Like you said, Doug, the only problem is those two-player games always suffered because they were two-player games.
Yeah. And
but I mean, if you're putting it on location, then that kind of like, you know, solves that problem itself. It's just it's it's something not not likely for the home home use crowd. It'd be, you know, location playbased where it would really succeed.
Yeah, sin. Uh I agree. They took too much time to give you the ball back. You just wanted to get the ball back. I mean, we can we can talk Yeah, we can go deep into whatever, but the fact of the matter is they
they caught the interest of pretty much anyone who passed there
and they all wanted to play it. Yeah. So, that's that's
it was an eye catcher. Mhm.
It was an eye catcher. Uh, talk to me about Wonderland because every time I went over there to play the game, it was broken.
Yeah, they were definitely having reliability issues. Um, they like funneled me to a specific machine. They had two and they're like, "We much rather you play this one." I was like, "You guys having issues with that one?" They're like, "Yeah." I mean, they weren't trying to like hide anything, but
Right. Right.
Um, yeah. Um,
this is the th just tell for people who don't know, this is the the thousand pinball machine Kickstarter, whatever.
Yeah. This is uh the $1,000 slightly scaled down. I think it's like 75 80% scale to a traditional commercial pinball game. Um they showed up last year with just like an empty box and a curtain and uh they were like here's we're a new company. We're kind of an old company. You may have known us from our other dealings designing machines for Arcade OneUp. to like we're we see the need for the market to have a cheaper, more accessible pinball machine that, you know, can be purchased by the masses. He's like, I've got retail connections. I should be able to get this in big box retail stores. I'm going to come back within a year and I'm going to have a fully playable functioning game and it's going to be $1,000. I was like, "Holy crap." I'm like, "That's the checklist of craziest things I've heard in a long time, you know?" I was like, I I I believe you can, you know, do the manufacturing, all that kind of stuff. Like, I I get it. You already have those connections and you got that lined out, but like to create something from scratch that's scaled down. So, it it's going to be dependent on using,
you know, components that don't exist.
So, you got to fabricate all these different things on your own. I'm like, plus we were already even a year ago messing with issues with China and services and shipping issues and rate increases and all that kind of stuff. I'm like, I don't see how you can, you know, pull this off. But they showed up and they did. And uh yeah, it's it's better than Thunderbirds. I'd say it's even better than Blues Brothers.
Um yeah, so uh good luck for them. I mean, what an ambitious project.
Yeah. I mean, very ambitious. They they achieved what they said they were going to do. Uh I mentioned in my video, you know, pinball expo is not the demographic for them. They even said last year, they're like, "Hardcore pinball people are not our people." I'm like, "Then why are you here?" Um, you know, I think that they and I asked them, I was like, "Why didn't you guys go to New York Comic-Con? Like that's that's your demographic. You have an office in New York already. like those are your people, that's your, you know, target audience, your spending range. And they're like, we wanted to, we just, it was too much money to get in the door.
I'm like, okay, I get it. But I'm like,
yeah, I mean, I appreciate you coming here to, you know, follow us through and say, you know, look, we we did what we said we're going to do, but um the people that are there for Expo to play all the Expo games are not
Especially Expo.
Yeah. I mean, you'll get some people that, yeah, this would be great for the kids in the basement type of thing that would probably say that in passing, but the ones that were going to potentially buy this were not really walk around at Expo.
Not at Expo, like any of I mean, I'd seen them at TPF. I'd seen them at anything else but expo. Expo is traditionally like a B2B kind of thing. It's like owners and operators talking to other owners and operators, talking to the distributors.
It's much more industry based than it is like the party hangout, let's play pinball for everyone type of stuff. Yeah. So, I mean, good luck to them, but I I I wanted to play it. The problem, one of the problems for me is that physics doesn't scale. You know what I mean?
No. Um, it played better than I thought. Like, I you know, I'm like you. I know that just because you shrink it down and make it smaller doesn't make it, you know, pinball. Like, there's a reason like the the Stewie pinball party, you know, on Family Guy feels considerably different. And same thing here. Um, it it didn't feel like I was throwing a marble around,
which is what I thought it was gonna like. I felt like I was gonna be throwing a marble around.
Um, so like the flippers and the pop bumpers have a kinetic feel that it would remind you of traditional pinball. Um, but just watching how the ball moved no matter what the pitch is set at, it just it's not what you're used to if you're used to playing pinball on a regular basis. Um, kids wouldn't know the difference if they
kids would know. No, exactly. That's why
have fun. Like I said, yeah, this is this is going to market out there.
Yeah,
this is Comic Con. This is uh
But the people that have been playing pinball for eight hours in an expo hall that walked into this No.
No. You're not going to have Roger Sharp interrupt our stream to play.
No.
Um Where is it? There it is.
Whirlall. The last breath of life from American Pinball. Do you like ski ball?
I do.
What if we ruined ski ball for you?
No. It's not that bad. First thing they did was put pineapple on pizza and now
yeah it's it's they didn't ruin ski ball. I I just I make that joke in light. But um like
they ruined ski ball. I'll say it. They ruined ski ball. They took the fun part.
They took skiball. They tried to reinvent a mouse trap and you know they're they're trying somebody told me this was like a you know $13,000 machine or something like that and I'm like
god damn
it's not a $13,000 machine like I I get there's profit to be had but I'm like if you're a Dave and Busters operator or whatever like I don't know who who invests
look. Hey chat, you could tell that Doug is not into this by the way. He like, watch this. Watch this cut. He slowly goes, "Oh, what the hell is that?" And then he goes and he goes, "Oh my god, what the hell?"
Oh, I was because like I expected nothing from American Pinball other than, you know, a lineup of their games and they had that. So when I walked over and I saw this and I was like, "Okay, I didn't expect Cuphead to be there." like, you know, I no, I am like everybody else. I you you guys are dead in the water. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be mean, but they are. They've laid everybody off. There's no one there.
Um,
but when I walk up and see this and I'm just like, why? Why? Why? Again, why? Like, it's like when I'm taking the American Pinball tour, David Fix won't shut up about the Polycade. And I'm like, dude, your name is American Pinball. Why are you spend 38 minutes talking about the Polycade in a 50inute tour and you're not talking about pinball? Like, it's in your freaking name.
Okay. Okay. Wait, wait. We got a hot tip. Something more interesting to talk about in chat. Uh, who actually likes pineapple on pizza?
Oh,
Stephen Silver likes it. Do you like it, Doug?
I'm not into pineapple. Why would you I'll eat I'll eat it above cheese pizza because I've always been a adamant person that says cheese pizza is like pizza that is not done. Like somebody started to make a pizza and then walked away. Like cheese is a topping on pizza. It should not be the sole ingredient.
Then walked away. Um all right. Let's I I love you Stephen. Even though uh when we go, Stephen, if we go out for pizza, um I'll just have I'll I'll just have a veggie pizza. Thank you. I I won't.
You you He's He's saying he he'll share his pineapple with you, though.
No, it's okay. Um Okay. Is there anything else? Uh let me think. Let me think. Let me think. We talked about Home Brew, which I'm really happy about. We talked about all the vendors and stuff. Any any any final thoughts to uh Oh, you know what, Doug? We did there was a new version of Scorbit that came out.
Yeah. Um the gambling version.
Gambling version. The version of
No, not really. But I mean um they they rebranded essentially. I I guess that'd be the best way to describe what what has happened. They're rebranding. um you can now essentially utilize Scorbit to um host cash tournaments and other you know different enticing methods for operators um which I thought was cool and I downloaded the app and checked it out you know to see the new and improvements everything and from what I used it seemed to work all right
yeah it looks
I think they were having site issues on some of the games they were trying to have integrated with it but as far as like the the app itself it did what it was supposed to do and you know worked worked how I anticipated it,
right? Well, there you go. There's a new app for Scorbet. You guys download it. There's the new app. Um
I downloaded it. Uh hopefully we'll have this guy back here. This Matrix thing um on Scorp
Bang. That's my plug. Doug, tell us about your channel. Tell us about your world. And uh
Oh, okay. Yeah. If you like mediocre content about anything and everything so good, shut your face.
No. Um, I've got a video that'll be out tomorrow on a pinball project that I did. It'll either impress you or piss you off. It's one of those things because I I did something goofy custom with a machine that no one asked me to do. I just I had a wild crazy idea that said, I wonder if I can do that. And I spent two months doing it and I did and I finally got the last piece of the puzzle showed up. I've been done with this project for 3 months. I literally just been waiting on custom artwork that I had made for it and it finally arrived. So I can finally say, "Hey, I'm done. Here, look at this thing that I've been enjoying secretly for months."
Oh, I can't wait for this. Cuz I loved your Teleg Telga Nights uh restore. Um Yeah.
Um you've gone through a lot of Do you ever do you
you think you're going to make a home brerew like an original home? Do you think
Oh, absolutely. I'm I'm like inching my way there in baby steps. Like you you'll be able to see like my creative like confidence build each and every custom thing I do because I'm like all right that's not as hard as I thought I can do this now. Cuz that's the way I am. I'm not the guy that's like cannonball just dives head. I'm like let me let me take this in incremental steps especially when there's money involved because I got to finance all my own stuff.
Yeah. There's a lot. Do you have a Patreon or anything?
No. I I refuse to do it. Sorry.
Okay. Okay. So So you can help Doug out most by subscribing to his channel. It's cool toy.
Subscribe. Watch the video. Say thumbs up, thumbs down. I hate your content. It doesn't matter. The algorithm likes it all
and people don't remember that. So I'm like, if you want to flame away, flame away. You're not going to make me lose any sleep.
I'm going to drop that channel in the chat. Um guys, thank you so much for joining us once again on uh this expo. I had a I had a blast at expo. It was really a lot of work. I was really tired. But um
but you survived and you had you had a blast.
I had a blast. Um and I I hope you have had to.
Absolutely. You're going to be at TPF this year.
Yes, I'm hoping to be at TPF. Um
Okay.
If you if you do catch up with either me or Doug, um please say hi. We love meeting you guys. We love saying hi.
Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, if you hate me, even if it's a, you know, flip me off in passing, I'm all for it.
Okay. And last but not least, uh, if you enjoy Bows of Fun, make sure today's show is sponsored by Vegemite. Um, is that backwards?
Yeah.
Okay. It it
that's what it took took me a second to, you know, decode it there. But what is is that a flavor pouch or is No. Okay.
David gave
it was so thin. Yeah,
David.
First of all, I love that David Van Es is walking around with pouch or little samplings of Have you had that before?
Oh, I've had this I've had this in Australia. I've been to Australia many times. It is terrible. You know what? I'd rather
Oh, it is.
Uh don't don't get veggomite. Get Tim Tams. Tim Tams are the best.
They are great. I've had those. Yes,
guys. Uh Hollywood Doug M3K. Doug, thanks for joining us tonight. You guys got it. You guys are Make sure you follow um subscribe to Cool Toy and we will see you guys later. I'll see I I I probably will see you guys on Friday for the next movie. We'll put a vote in the Discord. Love you guys. You later. See you.

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