# Episode 9 - Dead Pool, Pirates, Tigers and Bears...OH MY!

**Source:** Special When Lit  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2018-08-16  
**Duration:** 35m 58s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://specialwhenlitpinballpodcast.com/episode-9-dead-pool-pirates-tigers-and-bearsoh-my

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## Analysis

Ken Cromwell and Bill Webb of Special When Lit Pinball Podcast discuss their live reactions to the Stern Deadpool pinball stream, covering gameplay depth, art style, multiball accessibility, and animations. They announce an upcoming interview with legendary designer Steve Ritchie at Stern Pinball, preview Expo 2025 lineup, report on Pirates of the Caribbean shipping updates from Jersey Jack, and discuss rumors of dual code sets for Chicago Gaming's Monster Bash remake.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Deadpool is currently shipping and units are heading overseas in containers; machines should appear in homes and locations within a couple weeks — _Ken Cromwell discussing Deadpool's production and distribution timeline during live stream commentary_
- [HIGH] Jersey Jack's Pirates of the Caribbean first production units are expected to ship today or imminently, confirmed by designer Eric Menier — _Ken Cromwell: 'he's the designer of Pirates of the Caribbean, the new effort that is in production right now by Jersey Jack Pinball. And he had let me know today that the first Pirates of the Caribbean that is getting ready to ship out, he anticipated being in box today.'_
- [MEDIUM] Monster Bash remake may launch with two different code sets: original Lime and Sheets code plus alternate new code — _Ken Cromwell: 'there's a rumor that's going on, and I actually saw this posted on Pinside from a Pinside member who said that there's a possibility or there's rumors floating around that Monster Bash Remake may launch with two different code sets'_
- [HIGH] Deadpool is not complete code as of the stream date — _Bill Webb: 'And it's not complete code either' during discussion of Tim Sexton's stream demonstration of modes_
- [HIGH] Deep Root Design will have a public speaking panel at Expo with designer John Papaduke appearing for first time since earlier fallout — _Ken Cromwell: 'Deep Root will be speaking there for the first time since their last the last time they showed up on a podcast. So it'll be interesting to see what Robert Mueller has now. He is bringing in his design team to the conference.'_
- [MEDIUM] Batman 66 Premium models are available on secondary market in mid-$7,000 range — _Bill Webb: 'there was one locally that was for sale yesterday for $7,600 or $7,200, something like that. I mean, they sold fast'_
- [MEDIUM] Batman 66 has advanced past version 0.90 in code updates and gained momentum — _Ken Cromwell: 'I think they're over .90 with code, and it gained steam'_
- [HIGH] Deadpool features 90s/16-bit pixel art animation style (Sega Genesis/Super Nintendo era aesthetics) — _Bill Webb describing artwork; Ken clarifying: 'you're looking at like 16-bit pixel artwork which is ridiculously hard to replicate or to compile'_
- [HIGH] Deadpool animations include adult humor with hidden jokes (e.g., 'Pot meet Jack' puns on jackpot calls) — _Bill Webb: 'It's got a lot a lot of adult humor and um hidden ways' and Ken noting examples like 'Pot meet Jack'_
- [MEDIUM] Deadpool bonus calculation sequences take 8-12 seconds, potentially slowing multiplayer flow — _Ken Cromwell: 'there's two ways of looking at that. you're letting everybody else know that you racked up a pretty big bonus uh but i could see that maybe shortening up that up a little bit just to kind of keep multiplayer going'_

### Notable Quotes

> "it's really hard to capture that depth. So I think to have full appreciation of what's happening on the play field and on this machine, it's something that you're going to have to just probably with most pinball machines, you've got to sit down and play the game."
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~25:00
> _Addresses fundamental limitation of pinball streaming—flat camera perspective obscures playfield depth and complexity that only in-person play reveals_

> "There's a lot going on. No, it looks crazy as it is. You know, between the Juggernaut mode, the Chimichanga truck, which is pretty awesome in my opinion."
> — **Bill Webb**, ~37:00
> _Initial positive assessment of Deadpool's rule complexity and specific mode design highlights_

> "Love it or list it. Right. Save or drain."
> — **Ken Cromwell / Bill Webb**, ~45:00
> _Summarizes their stance on Deadpool—can't form final opinion until hands-on play; using collector/player shorthand_

> "for location play i think for a player to get into any type of multi-ball is rewarding and that kind of makes you want to put more money into a machine so i'm glad that it's easy to get to a multi-ball"
> — **Bill Webb**, ~32:00
> _Operator/location perspective on Deadpool's accessibility—easy multiball encourages coin-in for casual players_

> "He is bringing in his design team to the conference. So you will have for the first time in a long time people have an opportunity to hear or at least see John Papaduke J show up at Expo"
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~52:00
> _John Papaduke's public Expo appearance signals potential redemption arc for Deep Root after previous litigation and unfulfilled pre-orders_

> "So we have an interview that we will be conducting next week... Steve Ritchie, King of Flow, is going to graciously or we're graciously going to accept an opportunity to go into Stern Pinball to interview him"
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~73:00
> _Major announcement of upcoming Steve Ritchie interview at Stern; significant for community access to legendary designer_

> "I mean, the game flows. It's a good Gomez design. It looked like it flowed real well and fast."
> — **Bill Webb**, ~40:00
> _References designer George Gomez; indicates Deadpool design pedigree and playfield flow quality_

> "Well, I mean, there's going to be, you know, I don't want to say this. There's going to be a lot going on at Expo this year, it seems like. You know, you've got more pinball manufacturers coming."
> — **Bill Webb**, ~48:00
> _Signals elevated stakes and industry activity at 2025 Expo—more manufacturers and announcements expected_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Ken Cromwell | person | Co-host of Special When Lit Pinball Podcast; conducts interviews, drives discussions, community engagement |
| Bill Webb | person | Co-host of Special When Lit Pinball Podcast; home collector with 10+ machines, trades/sells games, focuses on DMD/EM preferences |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer; releasing Deadpool and hosting interview with Steve Ritchie |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Pirates of the Caribbean; units shipping imminently per Eric Menier confirmation |
| Chicago Gaming Company | company | Remaking Monster Bash; rumored to release with dual code sets |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Manufacturer bringing Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle to Expo 2025 |
| Deep Root Design | company | Manufacturer with troubled history of unfulfilled pre-orders; John Papaduke appearing at Expo 2025 panel |
| American Pinball | company | Manufacturer with speaking panel at Expo 2025 |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Legendary pinball designer ('King of Flow'); Stern designer; subject of upcoming Special When Lit interview |
| Eric Menier | person | Designer of Pirates of the Caribbean for Jersey Jack; confirmed shipping timeline to Ken Cromwell |
| John Papaduke | person | Designer/principal at Deep Root Design; making public appearance at Expo 2025 after prior fallout |
| George Gomez | person | Pinball designer; credited with Deadpool design and classic titles like Monster Bash |
| Tim Sexton | person | Streamed Deadpool demonstration for Stern; manually demonstrated shots and modes |
| Robert Mueller | person | Leader/principal at Deep Root Design; bringing design team to Expo 2025 |
| Pat Lawlor | person | Legendary pinball designer; autographed Dialed In whitewood prototype mentioned as collectible |
| Deadpool | game | Stern Pinball machine; LCD monitor, 90s pixel art style, multiple modes (Juggernaut, Chimichanga Truck, Disco Multiball), easy multiball accessibility, currently shipping |
| Pirates of the Caribbean | game | Jersey Jack Pinball machine; first production units shipping imminently |
| Monster Bash (Remake) | game | Chicago Gaming Company remake; rumored dual-code feature (original Lime & Sheets + new alternate code) |
| Iron Maiden | game | Recent Stern Pinball release; positioned as comparison/competition to Deadpool for collector investment |
| Batman 66 | game | Stern Pinball; Premium models available on secondary market at ~$7,200-$7,600; version 0.90+ code with positive reception |
| Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle | game | Spooky Pinball machine; being showcased at Expo 2025 |
| Pinball Mafia | game | Team Pinball game; rumored/expected presence at Expo 2025 |
| Special When Lit Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast hosted by Ken Cromwell and Bill Webb; Episode 9 analyzing Deadpool stream; running contest for Steve Ritchie autographed Star Wars Translight |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Deadpool (Stern) - Gameplay, Rules, Art Style, First Impressions, Pinball Streaming Limitations - Camera Angles, Depth Perception, Design Visibility, Steve Ritchie Interview Announcement & Contest, Expo 2025 Preview - Lineup, Manufacturers, Deep Root Panel
- **Secondary:** Pirates of the Caribbean (Jersey Jack) - Shipping Updates, Monster Bash Remake - Dual Code Set Rumors, Secondary Market Pricing - Batman 66 Premium Availability, Home Collector Philosophy - Game Selection, Trading, DMD vs LCD Preferences

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.78) — Hosts are enthusiastic about Deadpool's potential but withhold final judgment pending hands-on play. Excited about Steve Ritchie interview and Expo 2025. Monster Bash dual-code rumor adds intrigue. Overall industry optimism despite some concerns (bonus cutscenes length, fighting game sequences not universal appeal, Deep Root litigation still unresolved). Tone is collaborative, speculative, and community-focused rather than critical.

### Signals

- **[product_launch]** Deadpool confirmed in production shipment phase; units heading overseas in containers with expected location/home arrival within 2 weeks (confidence: high) — Ken: 'I would imagine and there's some pins that have already gone overseas, right?' Bill: 'Yeah, because they typically start with their Europe stuff first, I think. Yeah, so these are in containers and boats, and we should start seeing these within a couple weeks, I would imagine.'
- **[product_launch]** Jersey Jack Pirates of the Caribbean first production units expected to ship today; directly confirmed by designer Eric Menier (confidence: high) — Ken: 'he had let me know today that the first Pirates of the Caribbean that is getting ready to ship out, he anticipated being in box today'
- **[code_update]** Deadpool code not finalized at stream time; additional updates expected post-launch (confidence: high) — Bill Webb: 'And it's not complete code either. Okay. I mean, as far as like exposing modes.'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Deadpool designed with easy multiball access for casual/location players; described as rewarding for non-skilled players to encourage coin-in (confidence: high) — Bill: 'it's pretty easy to get a multi-ball so the people that are just casual players... it's exciting so i do like the fact that you can get into a multi-ball' and 'for location play i think for a player to get into any type of multi-ball is rewarding and that kind of makes you want to put more money into a machine'
- **[design_philosophy]** Deadpool balances depth for serious/tournament players with accessibility for casual players; extensive rule set with quick-entry multiballs (confidence: high) — Ken: 'it's going to probably pull most in' regarding fighting game modes; Bill: 'There's a lot going on. No, it looks crazy as it is' and discussion of modes available without deep rule mastery
- **[event_signal]** Expo 2025 positioned as higher-stakes event with increased manufacturer participation, new product announcements, and notable design panels (confidence: high) — Ken: 'I found this to be interesting... 62 days left until Expo... Well, I mean, there's going to be... a lot going on at Expo this year, it seems like. You know, you've got more pinball manufacturers coming.'
- **[personnel_signal]** Deep Root Design's John Papaduke making first public appearance at Expo since prior litigation/fallout with unfulfilled pre-orders; framed as potential redemption/face-saving opportunity (confidence: high) — Ken: 'John Papaduke will have a public appearance. He'll be at Expo. I think a lot of people question the fact that he would ever be at a pinball expo again. So I'm wondering if there will be any type of additional redemption or saving of face that will happen'
- **[rumor_hype]** Rumor (sourced from Pinside) that Chicago Gaming Monster Bash remake may ship with two code sets: original Lime & Sheets code plus alternate new code; uncertainty on implementation (bundled vs. micro-charged) (confidence: medium) — Ken: 'there's a rumor that's going on, and I actually saw this posted on Pinside from a Pinside member who said that there's a possibility or there's rumors floating around that Monster Bash Remake may launch with two different code sets'
- **[market_signal]** Batman 66 Premium models available on secondary market at $7,200-$7,600; described as fast-moving inventory (confidence: medium) — Bill: 'there was one locally that was for sale yesterday for $7,600 or $7,200, something like that. I mean, they sold fast, but, so, I mean, they're out there.'
- **[content_signal]** Special When Lit securing exclusive interview with legendary designer Steve Ritchie at Stern Pinball facility; contest giveaway (autographed Star Wars Translight); announcement generating community hype (confidence: high) — Ken: 'We were fortunate enough to have an opportunity to sit down with somebody who's been in pinball for a super long time and is absolutely considered a pinball god by many, many, many people. And his name is Steve Ritchie.'
- **[design_innovation]** Deadpool features 90s/16-bit pixel art animations with Street Fighter-style fight sequences; game-within-game mechanic using LCD monitor as combat/animation display (confidence: high) — Ken discussing 90s style and Bill: 'there's a lot of um cut scenes for like video game type fight scenes with energy bars like Street Fighter' and Ken: 'you're kind of in Deadpool's environment where there's pinball machines and there are arcade games in the animations'
- **[product_concern]** Deadpool's end-of-ball bonus animations take 8-12 seconds; potential flow concern for multiplayer speed, though serves purpose of showcasing good play (confidence: medium) — Ken: 'there's two ways of looking at that. you're letting everybody else know that you racked up a pretty big bonus uh but i could see that maybe shortening up that up a little bit just to kind of keep multiplayer going... it seems like it could take 8 to 12 seconds'

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## Transcript

 The Special When Lit Pinball Podcast is sponsored by Two Brothers Pinball Pale Ale, a juicy hot pale ale that takes your taste buds on a flavorful ride. Woo! Coming at you out of St. Charles, Illinois, the Special When Lit Pinball Podcast starts now. Thanks for hitting that start button and taking the plunge. Here are your hosts, Ken Cromwell and Bill Webb. What's up everybody in pinball land? This is the special when lit pinball podcast And it's episode 9 Across the table from me today is my co-host Bill Webb My name is Ken Cromwell And we are actually going live but pre-recorded As we watch the stern pinball stream of Deadpool Deadpool In the Two Brothers Pinball Pale Ale Studio Right, so we are streaming Twitch TV right now And we're about, I don't know, an hour or so into the stream So we wanted to give some live or pre-recorded live feedback of this game as we see it. Now, we've got a pretty decent show in store for you guys today. We've got a check-in from Jersey Jack Pinball. We also have an interview, which I think most of you will appreciate, that we will announce a little bit later on in the show, which will be taking place next week. But we'll give a little heads-up on that. And an exciting contest to go along with that interview. Yep, that should be a good time. So before we do any of that, Bill, how's the life of Bill Webb this week? What's going on? We are good. We are good. Got my demolition man back together, so that's a good thing. It was kind of apart for about two months. I was going to ask. It's been about six or eight weeks. Yeah, just time. And then summer got busy and projects are on the house, so it was nice to actually finally turn that back on. Is that going to get a brand-new cabinet and be blinged out, or is that going to be just a serviceable, nice demo man? Just a serviceable, nice demo man. Okay. Okay. Yeah. We're saving that for the getaway. What's going on with the rest of the herd? Are you thinning anything out, or are you just adding at this point? Might be letting fishtails go and looking for a whirlwind. Fishtails for a whirlwind. So you're taking a DMD, and you're trading it out for an alphanumeric system 11. Never thought it would happen, but yeah. Okay. I mean, I think that's cool. I think our tastes are similar, and fishtails was something that you were looking to get for a little while, and you haven't. You're ready to pass it along now. Yeah, fishtails was a good game. It's a good game. I like it. It just hasn't pulled me in as much as I would have liked it to. And there's 10 games in my basement that are up and running. I mean, to make room for new stuff, something's got to go. Yeah, no, that makes sense. What is it about Whirlwind that appeals to you over Fishtails? It was one that I played when I was probably like 10 or 11, down at the local 7-Eleven. And honestly, ever since then, when I started getting back into the hobby, that was one that I was like, you know, that'd be cool to have that machine as well. And I've kind of had everything that I wanted except for a Whirlwind and a handful of others that I would really like. But, yeah, so if we can make something happen. So you've pretty much had everything that you've wanted pinball-wise. So far, yeah. Wow. So what else is out there? I know Wizard of Oz has been on your radar. Wizard of Oz. Potentially a Ghostbusters Pro. Yep. Anything else? I still wouldn't mind a Hobbit one day. Yeah, Hobbit's a great machine. I like it. And the code updates, we've talked about this, but yeah. Yeah, especially for the multi-ball. What about all these new pins that are out now in the marketplace? The LCD era of all these games, and again, we're going to discuss Deadpool tonight. Neither one of us have had any time on this game. We can only comment on the pictures we've seen and the stream that's going on currently live as we record this podcast. Is there anything – last week you kind of hinted that you may be in on Deadpool. I'm not going to ask you to comment on that yet, but we can talk about that during our little off-the-cuff review. I like the Deadpool. I like Aerosmith. Aerosmith is kind of a sleeper pin. I don't hear a lot of people that I know personally talking about Aerosmith. No, but you don't see them come up a lot either for sale. That's true. That's true. So, you know. Yeah, and Deadpool I wouldn't mind. Well, I want to play one first before I say that's one I would be in on. Right. But then Batman 66 would be another one that I'd like to have one day. So Batman 66, because of the lack of code, there were a lot of people that had complained in linemen since over the last, what, year now, right? Yeah. I think they're over .90 with code, and it gained steam. And I'm wondering, just because there was not a pro model of that pin, how easy is it to get a Batman 66 premium? Because I'm assuming you're not going in on Super LEs. No. No, no, no. My market would be for the premium. Right. You know, nothing too crazy. You know, there was one locally that was for sale yesterday for $7,600 or $7,200, something like that. I mean, it sold fast, but, so, I mean, they're out there. Okay. So, if you want a Batman 66 and you don't want to pay for a Super LE or a new in-box, you can get a premium in the mid-7s somewhere in there? Yeah. Okay. So, that shouldn't be too hard. But, you know, honestly, you know, I don't like doubling up new games too often because what happens then is, you know, you get two games and then suddenly you pick one over the other and you never really get a chance to the other one. We're currently watching this Deadpool stream. And I guess, Bill, I wanted to ask your immediate thoughts because, as we stated before, we were looking at pictures of this pinball machine and the artwork. And we looked at the feature matrix last week as far as what each model or at least the LE model was going to give you. Now, as we look at this pro model, and we've been seeing it streamed for about an hour and a half now, I'm curious to get your initial thoughts or your initial reflection on what you're looking at right now. So, in all honesty, watching the stream, I mean, the game looks like it flows. It's got a crazy amount of modes. The animations are cool because of the style in the 90s. um so when you say the style the 90s 90s style right you're looking at like 16-bit pixel artwork which is ridiculously hard to replicate or to compile yeah so you're looking at the age of like the sega genesis with as far as like the video game looking animation so you're looking at that kind of art style nintendo or super nintendo yeah right okay um so i think that style i think what they did there was cool um honestly the game is the the way the camera is position it's really hard to see everything because uh just how the the positioning of the the overhead camera is right it's a direct overhead camera which you're going to see in just about every stream that you look at yeah but uh from what you can tell you know so it's a little harder to differentiate uh you know plastics and assemblies and whatnot but that said i mean it does look like it flows really well you know especially the ramp shots um the animations are cool the little deadpool is pretty cool especially when you hit it um and the little deadpool animations are are well animated but they're they're cool animations i like them yeah it's got a lot a lot of adult humor and um hidden ways yeah right it's almost like you're watching like a little bit of a risky uh disney pixar yeah movie where you got the adult undertone jokes um but obviously they're meant for adults. Yeah, like the holy shih tzu or whatever he said on the one. What was the other one? Pot meet someone and someone meet pot? Jack meet pot. Pot meet Jack. Or one of the jackpots, which I thought was pretty cool. Right, right. So overall it looks cool. From the stream it looks like it flows real well. I kind of stopped watching after about a half hour just because it looks like something that We're looking at it right now. Yeah, but I'm not totally engaged totally engaged just because honestly i just want to play it now for sure before i give a final you know opinion and guess what my opinion doesn't really matter i mean everyone's no but you know what i think your your opinion is valued and and i think people would like to hear your opinion and and i have to piggyback on what you said with with this particular art package the art is so packed on the play field and on the plastics the way that the lighting is happening on the stream right now It's a great view of everything that's happening, but it's – I don't want to say the artwork's busy, but I just want to say that it's difficult to decipher the plastics from the play field. And so it's really hard from the perspective of the cameras to kind of get that depth. And I was talking about that last week too. A pinball stream, it's really hard to capture that depth. So I think to have full appreciation of what's happening on the play field and on this machine, it's something that you're going to have to just probably with most pinball machines, you've got to sit down and play the game. Yeah. Well what we looking at is like a 2D following of it because of how the Everything is flattened for sure Where you need like a 3D to see all the different mechs and plastics and everything else So it's just a little harder to see. Well, there's a lot of red going on on the play field. And it's hard to tell with the light. Like there's red in the plastics. I can totally track the ball. I see where the ball's at all the time. Oh, yeah. It's hard to see where the dimensional aspect of the game is. And that's not just this stream. It's most streams that I see. And it's to nobody's fault, but this is a great opportunity for you to kind of get a preview of the game. What did you think about Tim Sexton when he came on? He kind of started the stream off by walking everybody through the shots, not by flipping, but by taking a ball and kind of manually manipulating shots, getting into modes, that sort of thing. I think he did a nice job. I think he went a little far with it. But, I mean, there's probably, when I say a little far, like you saw a lot of the modes. Yep. I would have probably kept some of those back. But you know what? Honestly, there's probably so many modes in this freaking thing that it doesn't matter anyway. And it's not complete code either. Okay. I mean, as far as like exposing modes. But I agree with you 100%. Like I would – part of – and I've said this before. Part of me playing a pinball machine for the first time is I kind of like to explore a little bit. And if you're going to stream a pinball machine, it might be more fun to kind of explain the basic rule set versus exposing all the modes. But for what Tim did, he did a great job. He did. it really helped i also realized that it's really difficult for me to follow all the rules on this game uh without actually playing it because it's there's just so much going on um and that's that's good or bad for depending on what you're looking at uh or looking for in a pin i i like depth so i'm excited about the opportunities it looks like it's a great pin for um number one depth for somebody that's not just a casual player i mean there's so much stuff going on in this game it look kind of insane and it also looks like it's pretty easy to get a multi-ball so the people that are just casual players or somebody that doesn't know really what they're doing you say hey hit this three times you're gonna get multi-ball life is good and they feel like they're a winner because you know they got multi-ball multi-ball that's when they win you know well for location play i think for a player to get into any type of multi-ball is rewarding and that kind of makes you want to put more money into a machine so i'm glad that it's easy to get to a multi-ball yeah and in a home setup too it's you've got people that come in they haven't played a pinball machine before or maybe they haven't played one in 20 years they don't understand that there's rules they're just flipping to survive and when a second or third ball gets on a on a play field it's exciting so i do like the fact that you can get into a multi-ball i'll tell you the one thing that i'm not completely down on and this is just my personal preference because there is like a lot of this 90s kind of pixel artwork it seems like there's a lot of um cut scenes for like video game type fight scenes with energy bars like Street Fighter. For me personally, and I'm in the minority, I never was a big fighting game fan. So if I'm going to play an arcade machine, I wouldn't go to a Street Fighter machine first. That's just my personal preference. So I don't know if that pulls me in as much, but I do like the fact that when you start playing the game, you're kind of in Deadpool's environment where there's pinball machines and there are arcade games in the animations, in the LCD. And the girl on the disco pole. Yeah, right. So depending on what shot you're hitting, it's kind of exposing or tilting to panning to different parts of this room that's like a game room. Well, it's like Deadpool's man cave. Yeah, so I like that. I really, really like the animations. As far as the fight scenes go, I think that will appeal to most because a lot of people that came up in the arcades are Street Fighter fans. for me that just wasn't my cup of tea so that doesn't call me in as much yeah but you know i i i wasn't as much into the to the fighting games as much mortal well mortal combat the wife and i will still throw down on yeah super nintendo finish him finish yeah steve richie finish him i forgot about that yeah yeah so steve richie did voiceover work for mortal combat yeah that's right which you know we'll have to talk about that at the end of the podcast for sure um but uh yeah i think it's cool because it's kind of a game within a game um so i think it was a great way to utilize the lcd monitor um not going to pull everybody in but i think it's going to probably pull most in and the hard part is is to follow that while you're shooting the shooting the ball right so i'm wondering as this game is on the line right now and and has to be shipping uh i would imagine and there's some pins that have already gone overseas, right? Yeah, because they typically start with their Europe stuff first, I think. Yeah, so these are in containers and boats, and we should start seeing these within a couple weeks, I would imagine. We'll see these showing up in homes and on location. So I'm curious to see on this next level of pinball, be it the LCD era, how it goes ahead and stacks up against the most recently released Iron Maiden. And it could be a one-two punch from Stern. I'm really curious to see how this compares to those that have played both. It's a tough choice money-wise. I mean, where do you put your money in, Iron Maiden or Deadpool? I think that Iron Maiden fans are appreciative of having that Iron Maiden pinball machine. I think the advantage of having Deadpool now is Deadpool has been so widely accepted that if you just couldn't bring yourself to spend money on an Iron Maiden pin because of the theme, Deadpool's a very nice follow-up where that money will go to Deadpool. Yeah. You know, so we can continue to monitor the stream here and see if anything jumps out at us. But as far as first impressions, generally pretty good. And I'm sure as code evolves, and I don't even know if code needs to evolve, to be honest with you, Bill. There's a lot going on. No, it looks crazy as it is. You know, between the Juggernaut mode, the Chimichanga truck, which is pretty awesome in my opinion. The Disco multiball looked pretty cool. That was pretty cool. Yep. But, I mean, there's really not a whole lot that they'd really need to improve upon. I mean, I'm sure the code's going to come along even more. But, yeah, I mean, the game flows. It's a good Gomez design. It looked like it flowed real well and fast. I think my small critique would be the bonus cut scenes, like at the end of a ball. If you have a good ball, it goes on for a long time. So there's two ways of looking at that. you're letting everybody else know that you racked up a pretty big bonus uh but i could see that maybe shortening up that up a little bit just to kind of keep multiplayer going yeah um because it seems like it could take 8 to 12 seconds to kind of calculate your bonus if if you're knocking it out of the park but yeah it takes a little time but hey that's nitpicking right yeah i mean what like i said it's all opinion you're right um but yeah overall i mean the stream's been good The animations do look pretty cool. The modes look pretty awesome. So I think our biggest complaint now is that we just need to play it to see if we're in love with it or not. Yeah, love it or list it. Love it or list it. Right. Save or drain. Save it or drain it. So I did want to shift gears really quickly because I found this to be interesting. I reached out to Eric Menier today, and he's the designer of Pirates of the Caribbean, the new effort that is in production right now by Jersey Jack Pinball. And he had let me know today that the first Pirates of the Caribbean that is getting ready to ship out, he anticipated being in box today. So for those of you guys that are waiting for your Pirates and waiting for shipping, I can verify that directly verified by Eric that he's expecting games to be out now. So that's pretty awesome. I wanted to touch base on Expo real quick. How many days do we have left? 62 days left. 62 days left until Expo. Again, I'm super pumped up about Expo. For some reason, I can't wait for Expo to come. I'm like, normally it comes at a good time in October, and it just kind of shows up, and I go, and I have a good time, and that's it. But I'm counting down the days, 62 days. Well, I mean, there's going to be, you know, I don't want to say this. There's going to be a lot going on at Expo this year, it seems like. You know, it seems like this year, you know, the stakes are kind of raised. You know, you've got more pinball manufacturers coming. You've got a lot of conferences that I think will be interesting for people this year, like for talks. Yeah. Yeah. Deep Root will be speaking there for the first time since their last the last time they showed up on a podcast. So it'll be interesting to see what Robert Mueller has now. He is bringing in his design team to the conference. So you will have for the first time in a long time people have an opportunity to hear or at least see John Papaduke J show up at Expo How do you think that will be received And people that go to this presentation and I speculating I wonder if this will be considered the first day of Deep Root the first of the five days of Deep Root Expo seems like it would be a logical choice to kind of let people get to know the designers. Just speculation. Yeah, but they're not going to release a whole lot of stuff going on. I don't know what they're going to release. I don't have any idea. But, I mean, you've got the floor for an hour or however it is. You can't just go up there and not say anything. I mean, no, no. Yeah, it should be interesting with that seminar. So John Papaduke will have a public appearance. He'll be at Expo. I think a lot of people question the fact that he would ever be at a pinball expo again. So I'm wondering if there will be any type of additional redemption or saving of face that will happen during that interaction with the public for the first time since there was a little bit of fallout that had happened with some pins that did not come to fruition. Yeah. Well, I mean, you're talking lots of money that people put on these things that they didn't get back on. They didn't get back anything, but to Deepridge's credit. Yeah, they're trying to help make right on that deal. They're helping out J-Pop, and they are trying to help out those that did not receive pinball machines. And then you've got litigation that's still going on with those that did not want to accept any type of relief efforts by Deep Root. So all in all, I can't wrap my head around it totally because I'm not involved in this. I never purchased a pinball machine. None at all. None at all. So I just, again, this is a podcast. We talk about subjects. I'm just curious to see what will happen in regards to his first public appearance since a little bit of a fallout. So we'll see what happens. Let's keep it on the up and up with Expo. Yeah. Well, here. Okay, so maybe I'm thinking Pinball Mafia might be there that game. That'd be cool to see. So that's Team Pinball. Or Team Pinball, yeah. That did Mafia, right? Yeah. Right. So, yeah, they will be there, and they'll be talking about their machine. That's interesting. You will have American Pinball that will be speaking. I mean, all the major manufacturers are going to be there, designers. Scott Denise is doing a talk on TNA? I believe so. Okay. We must earn. Who else are we missing? I mean, there's going to be just a lot of people. Well, Jersey Jack. I mean, pretty much all of them are going to be there. But, I mean, I think there's more skin in the game this year. And then you've got Spooky Pinball with Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. So, I mean, there's a lot going on, it seems like, this year with new games coming out and that kind of stuff. Well, and the elephant in the room also is going to be Chicago Gaming Company with the release of their remake, Monster Bash. And the reason that I wanted to bring that up right now is because there's a rumor that's going on, and I actually saw this posted on Pinside from a Pinside member who said that there's a possibility or there's rumors floating around that Monster Bash Remake may launch with two different code sets, which would be the original code as it was released by Lime and Sheets for the George Gomez design, and potentially an alternate code that would play two different games. Now, whether or not both codes would be included or the second code would be like a micro charge for an upgrade, or whether or not this even makes any sense and it's all full of it. Or it's all crap anyway. Right, exactly. That does kind of intrigue me because if you're able to make or remake these pins, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Theater of Magic, and you're able to release with two different codes or code sets, two different games that you could kind of toggle between, that's what a cool value that would be, even more so than just having a remake that looks brand new with unbelievably awesome additions. So now you've got new code. Who doesn't like new code? You know who doesn't like new code? People that don't like new code. That sucks. So if you're going to replace code or add code, it's got to be decent code. Oh, yeah. Right. Yeah. I mean, especially on those games. I mean, those games were kind of coded pretty well, I would like to believe. I mean, Cactus Canyon, maybe not. But I think some of the complaints on some of those older pins is that once you kind of learn how to master or exploit the code, it becomes pretty easy. I've heard of people saving the princess and tales of the Arabian nights two or three times on their first ball. So I can see where that's like, yeah. So if you have the addition of new code, that's cool. The nice thing is as long as you're not paying extra for new code, that's not good. Assuming it wasn't, you still have the original code that you're playing. And this is just kind of an additional code that at some point could be updated or, or changed. So I don't know. I I'm, I'm in favor for having these classic pins that might not be as in depth with code to have updates as long as the the people that are coding are doing a good job and making it more fun well it throws a new twist on that old game you know i mean how many old games out there could you say hey new code would be awesome on x y and z for sure quite a few you know um especially on those older layouts that you know flow um adam's family let's just throw that one out there i mean new code on that game would kick ass yeah yeah i mean just something new something different these games have been in you know circulation for 20 30 years yeah so to add any new element even a new mode or or a wizard mode for games that didn't really have wizard modes would be kind of fun um or adding an extra multi-ball or adding some type of dynamic to kind of add or a couple of video modes to the you know like i hate to say this because i know every week i say this and i'll just be the last time i say this but yeah it's a baywatch no t2 oh t2 You know, T2 and the left lock. I mean, they could do some more wicked video modes in that game. I mean, that game flows awesome with the two ramps and, you know, the loops. I mean, there's more that they could definitely do on that if they remade it. Yeah, I guess from the research that I've done, we had talked about this before, animation seems like it's the more pricey, more difficult thing to do when you're looking at coming up with fresh content. But, yeah, you're right. I mean, they were able to take existing. I like how they enhance the dots on Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness to make them look higher definition. And on that bigger DMD, I think it's really cool. Like, do you think that DMD pins are dead in the water now that the LCD error is out? Or do you think that it's just a natural progression and you'll still have people that appreciate both? I think it's a natural progression and you'll have both. you know i mean you're still going to have those people that can't go out and spend six grand on a you know a starting pro right now and they're going to be looking for you know three thousand dollar world cup soccers and you know games of that nature um so i mean there's there's kind of a mix of everything you know here i i'm talking about taking a dmd pin and trade it for uh uh you know system 11 alphanumeric yeah you know um so i mean it's just kind of what you're into at the time remember when we had the interview with terry at pinball life you brought this up uh recently and it was interesting to hear how he said that when you get in collectors they want to get the classics and then they want to get what's new and then eventually it seems like your your serious collectors kind of revert back in the time and they go backwards and instead of lcds and dmds they're going into system 11 alpha numerics and then you know even getting into like ems and that sort of thing so your older got leaves and haunted house yeah stuff like that for sure and terry loved haunted house just kidding right in case he's listening i'm just kidding no he does not like haunted well it's not that he doesn't like it he's just it's there's no rule set according to terry there's you just flip and you get to the upper play field and then you go to the lower play field and then you figure out how to get back to the upper play field and how do i get to the lower play field so yeah that is haunted house so maybe that should be if it's remade should be a code adjustment or addition that'd be a cool one to see redone too So, Haunted House is too busy for me. With a coat up there. Yeah, yeah. So, cool. No, it is busy, but that's all right. So, we have an interview that we will be conducting next week, and our hopes is to have that finished up to be, I don't know if it will be released next week or the week after. But we were fortunate enough to have an opportunity to sit down with somebody who's been in pinball for a super long time and is absolutely considered a pinball god by many, many, many people. And his name is Steve Ritchie. Steve Ritchie, King of Flow, is going to graciously or we're graciously going to accept an opportunity to go into Stern Pinball to interview him So we be in his natural habitat sitting down and talking to Steve about his early career I think I like to get into and everything that led up to him working at Stern I would like to know about things that are currently going on. Obviously, we can't ask him about what he's working on specifically, but I'd like to kind of see where we go with that. Now, in addition with that interview, we're going to be running a pretty cool contest. So for anybody that has been listening to our podcast, we are going to – and it's only been eight episodes up until now. So it's not a lot of listening if you are just getting caught up. So the odds are forever in your favor on this one. For sure. You know what? You can – I encourage you to listen to our past podcasts, and we will be asking some specific questions. Not a ton. We're not going to make this completely difficult. But if you kind of have an understanding of the show, we will give you an opportunity to answer a couple questions, submit those to us. and then we're going to give away a Steve Ritchie autographed Star Wars Translight, which I think will be nice for somebody to throw into a frame and to appreciate in their game room or maybe even throw into their Star Wars if they own one. Oh, yeah. I mean, they sold a lot of Star Wars, so I could see somebody being like, that'd be cool to have that. It'd be cool to have anyways. You know, one thing that I've noticed that I appreciate is if I can't own a machine, it's kind of cool to own like a Translight or a piece of art from that machine and be able to have that on display. eric minier had given me a uh on my wall right now it's a it's a prototype dialed in whitewood that uh was autographed by himself uh eric and pat lawler so it's just cool piece of history and it's hanging on my wall and i'm looking at it right now and i like it i don't currently have a dialed in but i have a reminder of dialed in yep well same thing i mean you got a ghostbusters play field that i got from you downstairs in the pinball room just for that reason don't have the game but you know it's cool just to stare at the artwork it is cool to have and i've got trans lights i mean that have been signed and not been signed but i wish there was a way for me to display all these things all over the place and there is i just haven't gotten around to it but uh to have just a i think a nice star wars is such an iconic theme and to have such an iconic designer sign that translate and to be able to kind of get that for free just as our thank you for listening to the podcast and uh for listening to that steve richie interview you can't beat it you can't go wrong no no i mean that man has stories you know just to just to hear the story about you know how the high speed game came to came to be you know we've we've sat down and talked to him so we know the story but not everyone knows how that game you know that story came to to be and why that came up to being a pinball machine so that's cool you know there's a lot of cool things to talk about? I'll have a follow-up story of Steve Ritchie driving myself and my buddy, Stephen Martin, who works at Stern and Greg Ferrer is out to lunch to a Chinese restaurant one day. And the flashbacks that I had about the high-speed getaway stories immediately sunk in as soon as he put his foot to the pedal in that car. So that was interesting. So gas was either off or on. I don't know. It was interesting to be. Yeah, it was a getaway. Nice, nice. It was the first time in my life where I was kind of happy that there was a little bit of traffic. Yeah, you're trying to get to that fortune cookie. Yeah, I don't need to get there that fast. No, no. I'll be in the fort. Yeah, but no, Steve's a good guy. He's always fun to talk to, and he's always got stories. And he's kind of uncensored. He just kind of tells you how it is, and that's what makes him interesting. And just to be able to kind of pick his brain a little bit about what's happening currently in pinball. and hopefully he shares an interesting story or two that hasn't been heard in the past. So we're thankful. We're going into Stern. We're going to be talking to Steve Ritchie. Yeah, that's exciting. And you know what? Maybe we'll do one more episode before the interview and then push the other one to Friday. We'll see. We'll see when we can get that one released. Yeah, so I think we'll continue. We delayed our podcast one day today because we wanted to kind of see this Stern stream of Deadpool that we're still watching. So that's why we delayed a day today to kind of comment on that. But, yeah, you're right. So we'll continue the regular schedule next week. We'll get in Tuesday, record, upload Tuesday night, and then we'll get into Stern later that week, get that interview done, and potentially have that for the end of the week or next week. Yep. So if you have a question for Steve Ritchie, you can go ahead and e-mail that question to us at specialwhenlitpinballpodcast.gmail.com, or you can message us or post on our Facebook page, which is special when lit pinball podcast so that's the way to search us out and to post those questions yeah one thing about uh you know the steve richie dwight thing um one of the first games that they actually started working on together for the first time was getaway and then they got williams got the license for t2 so they shelved getaway to work on t2 and in that process you know t2 was a long time for when the movie was going to come out gilligan's island was actually the first one to make it to market with the DMD. But Getaway was the first one they started. Terminator 2 was the first one that was done. Because they had to wait, Gilligan's Island came out. So Gilligan's Island was the first pinball machine released with the DMD? Correct. Okay. But T2 was supposed to be. First finished, just they had to hold it because of production, because of the movie. Okay, I got you. Interesting. I did not know that Gilligan's Island jumped in front. A little sidebar there. And then they came back to Getaway right after T2. I like it. So the Stern Deadpool stream just wrapped up. George Gomez said they've got more in the tank, some secrets they have not revealed. Jack Danger jumped on and assured everybody that the stream, if you weren't able to catch it, it will be archived. Then you can go ahead and stream that on a delay or on a recording, and it will not be deleted. Yeah, he said YouTube, and then what else? George Gomez said there's a lot more animations to come on this game. So that's pretty cool. Yeah, the animations are – I like the animations. again we need to sit down and play it especially the unicorn one yeah I saw a unicorn animated on the machine so you like that huh? I thought that was cool yeah not sure how I feel about unicorns well it's because you know the wife and I joke about unicorns with our daughter and stuff like that I don't know what that means our daughter has a unicorn and she always calls it you know where's corn ah ok Yeah. Okay. I didn't know if there was like some code going on. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. All right. I wasn't sure. And then the daughter showed up. No, no, no. Yeah. I could see bringing Deadpool into the basement and my daughter seeing the unicorn on the screen being like, corn. Yeah. Well, she might be thinking of other things if she's watching Deadpool in the basement. So. Yeah. Yeah. Like the chimichanga scene, right? Well, that's another thing you have to consider. I mean, we have kids. We both have kids. Yeah. And I've got a three-year-old. You've got a three-year-old. Yep. So it's, you know, and what do you bring into the house? I mean, I've got more kids that are from 3 to 12. So it's interesting because when I had Scared Stiff here, the kids were young enough where I didn't think they'd really understand any of the adult humor that's going on. But as I got older, it was a little bit more concerning. My daughter running around the house saying, don't worry, I'll get them up. I mean, you don't want to hear your 7, 8-year-old daughter saying anything like that and laughing. It's just a little scary. So the risque pins, I have to go on hold a little bit until they're a little bit older. And I can feel comfortable bringing it into the house. I didn't catch it. Does Deadpool have like a family mode? Nothing was rated R that we heard on the machine. It was just more kind of like. Yeah, adult humor. Yeah. So, yeah, there will not be an R rated version released. They had stated. So I was just curious if that's whatever is on there is what's on there. if there's any additional censorship that you can put on it. I'm not personally concerned about it. No. You know. No. Whatever. I mean, it's a little on the line, but not like Scared Stiff or something like that. Yeah, and even that's not horrible. No, it's not. It's just fun. Fun. Yeah. It's not like Demolition Man with the home swear rhymes installed into it. Yeah, so there are some pretty vulgar additions you can make to your pinball machines, depending on what you have. And, you know, with being able to modify sound files with pin sound and pin browser, you can kind of customize a pin to just whatever you want, audio-wise. Yeah. Interesting. Make for a good time. Yeah. So let's look forward to getting into Stern next week and sitting down talking to Steve. We'll have another episode for you guys Tuesday of next week. We want to thank everybody for listening. Again, our listenership's been increasing, so we thank you guys for that. Yeah, thank you guys for listening. We do appreciate it. So everyone have a good morning, good afternoon, or good evening wherever you're at Yeah, and don't forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball So for Bill Webb, I am Ken Cromwell Thank you for listening to the special When Lit Pinball Podcast

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 31e90918-19a6-4be4-b7d6-9a5f8576caba*