# Episode 145 - The Night An OLED Switch Came Home

**Source:** Eclectic Gamers Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2021-07-12  
**Duration:** 45m 53s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://soundcloud.com/user-465086826/episode-145

---

## Analysis

This Eclectic Gamers podcast episode covers two major topics: Spooky Pinball's announcement of Halloween and Ultraman Kaiju Rumble (same layout, different themes, 1,250 and 500 unit runs respectively, with new three-tier pricing model), and Nintendo's official reveal of the Switch OLED (7-inch screen, improved audio, better kickstand, $349.99 MSRP launching October 8th). The hosts discuss game design philosophy, mechanical concerns about Halloween's three upper playfields, and console upgrade value.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Spooky Pinball has launched one game with two different names/themes (Halloween and Ultraman Kaiju Rumble) sharing identical layouts and rules design — _Tony and Dennis explicitly confirm this is Spooky's approach; corroborated by This Week in Pinball deep dive articles_
- [HIGH] Halloween run is 1,250 units; Ultraman run is 500 units — _Tony provides explicit run size numbers and notes differences in collector appeal_
- [HIGH] This is Spooky's first venture into three-tier pricing (Standard $7k, Bloodsucker $8k, Collector's $9k) — _Tony explicitly states 'this is a first for Spooky' regarding three-tier model; previously used two-tier_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky sold out their direct allocation (625 Halloweens, 250 Ultramans representing 50% of run) on the first day — _Tony states 'I believe Spooky sold out on the first day of their share' with caveat 'I believe'_
- [HIGH] Halloween features three upper playfields, one of which is completely passive with no interactive elements — _Detailed technical breakdown from This Week in Pinball; Tony questions the design choice extensively_
- [HIGH] Nintendo Switch OLED features 7-inch OLED screen, improved audio, LAN port in dock, 64GB storage (double original), and adjustable full-length kickstand — _Dennis provides official specifications; matches Nintendo's announcement details_
- [HIGH] Switch OLED MSRP is $349.99, launching October 8th — _Dennis provides official pricing and release date_
- [HIGH] Summer Games Done Quick 2021 raised over $2,890,000 — _Tony provides specific fundraising total_

### Notable Quotes

> "There's not only a new pinball. There's two new pinballs. Who would ever expect?"
> — **Tony (Eclectic Gamers host)**, early intro
> _Establishes the dual-game announcement as major news_

> "I think it's a gimmick in order to be able to say, well, we have three upper playfields... I don't know that I've ever played a game where a full upper playfield made the game better."
> — **Dennis (Eclectic Gamers co-host)**, mid-playfield discussion
> _Direct criticism of passive upper playfield design as gimmickry; expresses skepticism about upper playfield value generally_

> "It's like it could be the tastiest crap sandwich in the world, but it's still a crap sandwich."
> — **Dennis**, Game of Thrones upper playfield comparison
> _Memorable dismissal of upper playfield concept despite good execution_

> "I have a personal love of just kaiju stuff in general is why I would have gone with Ultraman... If it had been like Jason movies... my favorite of those is still the super campy... Jason X was in space"
> — **Tony**, theme preference discussion
> _Reveals Tony's preference for Ultraman over Halloween; explains campy horror preference_

> "They open up for sales before they even let you see the gameplay... And they're sold out... I have to admit, I was very skeptical when they noted in their feature description, they describe these games as having lots of flow"
> — **Dennis**, sales/gameplay discussion
> _Criticizes Spooky's sales strategy (pre-release, no gameplay footage) and questions marketing claims about 'flow' given mechanical complexity_

> "The kickstand... The old kickstand was basically like on one side of the Switch. It wasn't even in the middle, and it was flimsy... we've broken all three of ours... The new one goes the entire length of the main body and it's adjustable."
> — **Dennis**, Switch OLED detailed specs
> _Emphasizes kickstand as most important practical improvement for portable play_

> "After October 8th, I think if you don't buy the OLED, you're just making a mistake because that $50 is worth it between the sound, the screen, and especially the kickstand."
> — **Dennis**, Switch OLED recommendation
> _Strong endorsement of upgrade value_

> "The big changes are the OLED screen, which is slightly bigger... Same guts? The big changes are... 4K looks like 4K. Doesn't exist."
> — **Dennis**, Switch specs discussion
> _Humorously dismisses 4K capabilities and emphasizes incremental nature of upgrade_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer announcing two new games (Halloween and Ultraman Kaiju Rumble) with identical layouts but different themes; implemented first three-tier pricing model; sold out direct allocation on day one |
| Halloween | game | Spooky Pinball game with 1,250-unit run, horror theme based on John Carpenter film, features three upper playfields (one passive), seven ball locks, Michael Myers hedge toys, designed by committee under pseudonym Chorus Barloff Sigh |
| Ultraman Kaiju Rumble | game | Spooky Pinball game with 500-unit run, sci-fi kaiju theme, shares identical layout with Halloween but different animations and artwork, more niche licensing than Halloween |
| Bug Emery | person | Co-host/creator at Spooky Pinball, Charlie Emery's son, credited with rules design on both Halloween and Ultraman games |
| Spooky Luke | person | Engineering lead at Spooky Pinball, handled mechanical design for both Halloween and Ultraman games |
| Charlie Emery | person | Co-founder of Spooky Pinball, father of Bug Emery |
| Jason Edmiston | person | Artist credited with Halloween game artwork; noted as well-known for Halloween-themed artwork in artistic circles |
| Matt Frank | person | Animator and artist credited for Ultraman Kaiju Rumble artwork and animations |
| David Fosma | person | Animator credited on Ultraman; previously worked on Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle; handles code on both Halloween and Ultraman |
| This Week in Pinball | organization | Pinball media outlet providing deep dive articles on Halloween and Ultraman; source for playfield and rules details used by hosts |
| Nintendo Switch OLED | product | New Nintendo console variant featuring 7-inch OLED screen, improved audio, better kickstand, LAN port in dock, 64GB storage; $349.99 MSRP launching October 8th |
| Nintendo | company | Video game hardware manufacturer announcing Switch OLED after months of Pro rumors that proved unfounded |
| Summer Games Done Quick 2021 | event | Speedrunning charity marathon raising $2,890,000; held remotely with selected staff/hosts together but most gamers remote |
| Tony | person | Co-host of Eclectic Gamers Podcast; leads pinball discussion, discusses game design philosophy and themes |
| Dennis | person | Co-host of Eclectic Gamers Podcast; provides technical analysis, critical assessment of upper playfield design, Nintendo console expertise |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Spooky Pinball's dual-theme game strategy (Halloween/Ultraman), Three-tier pinball pricing model adoption, Upper playfield game design philosophy and effectiveness, Nintendo Switch OLED specifications and value proposition
- **Secondary:** Pinball game sales strategy (pre-release sales without gameplay footage), Horror vs. sci-fi theme appeal in pinball market, Kickstand improvements as practical upgrade value
- **Mentioned:** Speedrunning charity events and remote streaming formats

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Hosts express qualified enthusiasm for Spooky's design variety and aesthetic distinctiveness but significant skepticism about mechanical choices (passive upper playfield, numerous ball locks, 'flow' claims). Dennis is notably critical of game design philosophy. Switch OLED receives strong positive endorsement. General tone is analytical and critical rather than celebratory.

### Signals

- **[sentiment_shift]** Online community expressing stronger positive reaction to Ultraman than Halloween; sci-fi/kaiju theme may have broader appeal than horror due to family-friendly concerns (confidence: medium) — Tony: 'Online, I was seeing a lot of really positive reaction to Ultraman... sci-fi, just even obscure sci-fi, may play better than horror for a lot of people' and notes families avoiding horror themes due to child concerns
- **[design_philosophy]** Community skepticism about passive upper playfield as gimmick; Dennis argues upper playfields generally do not improve gameplay despite sometimes being well-executed (confidence: high) — Dennis: 'I think it's a gimmick... I don't know that I've ever played a game where a full upper playfield made the game better' and Game of Thrones comparison showing upper playfield version is 'worst version'
- **[design_philosophy]** Spooky implementing reused-layout strategy (same playfield, different art/theme) to optimize production efficiency while maintaining visual distinctiveness (confidence: high) — Tony notes 'this is the type of thing I think we should see more of... same rules same layout but different art package' and acknowledges production efficiency benefits
- **[market_signal]** Immediate sellout of Spooky's direct allocation (625 Halloween, 250 Ultraman) on first day suggests strong collector demand despite design concerns (confidence: medium) — Tony states 'I believe Spooky sold out on the first day of their share' with caveat about distributor inventory visibility
- **[market_signal]** Spooky opens pre-orders and sells out without providing gameplay footage or video demonstrations to customers (confidence: high) — Dennis: 'they open up for sales before they even let you see the gameplay... And they're sold out' with personal caveat about new-in-box policy requiring gameplay verification
- **[market_signal]** Spooky applies three-tier model to capitalize on collector/enthusiast tiers; represents shift from previous two-tier approach and expansion of price segmentation (confidence: high) — Tony documents three tiers with different build order priority (Collector's first, Standard last) and deposit requirements ($2k/$1.5k/$1k) creating scarcity narrative
- **[announcement]** Spooky Pinball officially announces Halloween and Ultraman Kaiju Rumble with identical layouts and three-tier pricing model; represents first three-tier strategy for company (confidence: high) — Tony provides comprehensive specs, pricing ($7k/$8k/$9k), run sizes (1,250/500), and confirms official announcement via This Week in Pinball deep dives
- **[product_strategy]** Nintendo Switch OLED positions as value upgrade with critical improvements to portable play experience (kickstand, screen, audio) rather than processing power (confidence: high) — Dennis emphasizes kickstand as most important upgrade, noting old kickstand fragility across three family units; describes $50 premium as justified for cumulative improvements

---

## Transcript

 Welcome to the Eclectic Gamers Podcast. Today is Sunday, July 11th. It is episode 145. I'm Tony. I'm Dennis. we got stuff. There's stuff. Stuff happened. Stuff actually happened. There's not only a new pinball. There's two new pinballs. Who would ever expect? There's a new gaming console. Sure. Why not? And there are a bunch of new video game announcements. That's true. There's been a lot. But what we start with isn't all of that. But our introductions. And that's been what's happening. So what's up? works busy, home is busy. Final Fantasy 14 is still fun for me. So there we go. That's my end. That's it. That's literally, I have been working probably 10 plus hour days consistently, which isn't that big of a change for me. I normally work like 10 hour days because I'll kind of workaholic according to, you know, people who know me, like my boss, my wife, you know, Pretty much everyone else. I had to go in and get some dental work done. That was great fun, let me tell you. But no, it's been pretty okay. Well, I've been, if not as busy, post my mid-year meeting, just surfing through some of that, have a couple of agreements, trying to execute new contracts. Still, some of that stuff's pending before I can start trying to find a new staff member and such. But I've got all my parts ready to go, trying to clean up on the last bit of an audit. The audit actually happened in June, but we're trying to get the final report out by July. So I finally heard back from the auditors, had a few adjustments, new things I had guessed at that I didn't guess at right. So it's like, you shouldn't do it like this. You should do it like this. It makes more sense. I'm like, okay, teach me what to do, and I'll do it. So I've been working on that. and I've made very little Gears 5 progress. I haven't played it this week. I played it last week though so I've made some more progress. I got through one of the open areas on that. And then over on the wristwatch hobby side, I've been really busy this last week because that, you know, what is it with hobbies and drama? There always has to be drama. There has to be drama. Like the moth to the flame. I had to fly into the flame and so I did a video on one of those doing one of those analytical style approaches on, hey, look, here's an entity that seems to be struggling. Here's where I think they've made their mistakes. Kind of like what we have done. Right. You did an analytical reaction video. Yeah. And so that got a lot more attention than I even thought it would. I mean, it was for the clicks, but holy cow. I mean, I'm used to pinball where people think like having 2,000 to 3,000 is something special. Right. And his is like, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, gosh. At least it's not 2,000 to 3,000 comments because I don't think I could reply to that many. So anyway, but that's been keeping me busy to keep track of all of that and, you know, try and be polite and respond to everyone reaching out. But that does not mean I have ignored the hobbies that we cover on this show. Yes. Despite the fact that I only put three bullets in for pinball because I was like, No, we're going to use sources. So that's what we're going to go ahead and transition into. And for pinball, we are going to talk about one thing. Well, two things, but they're really one thing. It's all a matter of perspective. And my perspective is Spooky Pinball has launched one new game with two different names. Halloween and Ultraman Kaiju Rumble. Now, This Week in Pinball does have separate deep dive articles on both of those. And I have links in our show notes to both of those articles so that people can go look at the pictures, see what the rule concepts are, and explore all of the details to their heart's content. So what we would normally do is what we will do yet again, and that is we're going to have a bit of a discussion on this. Now, as I noted, even though the game names are different, basically it's the same game in that the layout is identical for both of these games. I see for both of these listings that the rules design are the same rules people. So I'm guessing they're going to keep the same modes, but give them different names. the uh so just real quick the game design on both of these is listed uh as under a pseudonym of chorus barloff sigh um my understanding from other interviews is that these games were designed by committee so i don't know if there is one lead designer you think usually there'd be someone who'd be credited as lead but that doesn't always have to happen that way The game animations vary depending on which game we're talking about. So on Halloween, it's Ryan Palicki. I'm probably mispronouncing that, and I apologize. And then for Ultraman, it's listed as David Fawzma, David David Van Es, and Matt Frank working on the animations. The Fosma is code on both of these. I believe he did Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle. So I'll give you some context. He's also on rules for both of these Along with Corwin (Bug) Emery Bug is Charlie's son So they're doing our rules And since it's listed for both That's why I'm assuming that the rules are probably going to be the same Just thematically they're going to be adjusted That's my guess Artwork unsurprisingly is different The Halloween Games art Is done by Jason Jason Edmiston Who I believe is Fairly well known for having done Halloween art before In artistic circles And then Matt Frank did the art for the Ultraman game. And then Spooky Luke did the engineering for both of the games. And everything else is identical, essentially, as well, other than, I think, whoever handled the licensing. So Matt Reister did sculpts for both of the games. Matt “Count D” Montgomery did the music for both of the games and so forth. So those are the main leads in terms of the people involved on the game. But both of these games have gone three-tier in terms of the options that you can choose. And this is a first for Spooky. Spooky's for quite a while done a two-tier model where they used to historically, going back to the zombie days and stuff, have an LE version and a regular version. And then with Rick and Morty, there was the Bloodsuckers edition and the Standard Edition. Now there's a standard edition, a Bloodsucker edition, and a collector's edition. For both of the games, all of these on the pricing tier and the setup are the same. The standard edition is a $7,000 package, requires a $1,000 initial payment, and will be the last games built in the run. Bloodsucker's edition is the middle model. That's an $8,000 game. It's built second, requires a $1,500 initial deposit. And then the collector's edition is $9,000, $2,000 initial deposit, and those games will be the ones that are built first. The run sizes are different for the two titles. The Halloween game is $1,250, and Ultraman is $500. They have not broken out how many per edition, so it's all together, there'll be 1,250 Halloweens. However, the orders have gone determined how many collectors there will be. You, in theory, could have 1,250 collectors, for example. Now, my understanding is that Spooky was, I believe, and I don't know this for sure. My understanding from reading online was Spooky was handling direct sales for half of the counts. So they had 250 of the Ultramans and they had, I didn't do the math of the 1,250. I almost said 750, but I realized that. 625? Yeah, 625. Yeah, there we go, 625. So they did the, I think, 50% of both of the runs, and then distributors are getting the other set. But I believe Spooky sold out on the first day of their share. Right. And given the distributors were handling the other aspect, I don't think there was a reasonable way for them to immediately know if those were all sold out or not. So those are the initial Initial basics I don't know if you want us to look at a particular One of these first Tony I mean again because the layout That's the thing is I've been And I've said on this show multiple times in the past This is the type of thing I think we should See more of Just changing the artwork on Machines like they did back in You know the 60s and 70s To put out a machine with the same rules Same layout but different a different art package, a different theme just to pick up. I think it's a good thing for them. Let's them keep one thing on the line with minor changes overall that lets them keep most of the work the same. Let's them push a little bit more. I like the idea. It doesn't bother me at all. Cause there are plenty of games out there that I like the game, but I think the theme belongs in the crapper. And if I had the option to pick it up as a different theme that I might like better would be a plus. Yeah, I think that's a fair point. And the only thing that really I don't disagree in the sense of the with Spooky and their inclination for more niche style licenses, this sort of approach makes a lot of sense. Yes, it does. The thing that surprises me, actually, is that they did it with Halloween. Like, Halloween and they're doing to 1250, which is way more than they have built of any game before. Rick and Morty is their current lead with 750 units, I believe. 1250 there, and then I understand identifying Ultraman as the more niche of the titles. I just think it's kind of interesting that you're doing such a large run of Halloween, and you still decided that you wanted to do Ultraman, and here we are, and we're using the Halloween layout. But I guess if you're getting ready to build that layout, do it all at once. I get it from a functional standpoint, I just thought it might have been more interesting to say, instead of doing this, you know, 1750 total, what if it was three licenses and they were all like 500. So you got a 1500 run of, of Ultraman killer clouds for outer space and Halloween three I had to go I had to go real obscure real obscure Yeah I had to go I had to go with the one that made the least amount Yeah So again it like whatever But, yeah, I see no reason to get upset about that. I guess, who would, I'm trying to think who would get upset. I suppose if you were, like, someone who felt compelled to buy every spooky title, You might start getting annoyed of your OCD compulsion to own everything by a single company. You were basically buying the same game over and over. But that's kind of on you. You probably have other things you need to work through. Hoarders. There are hoarders. Before you get to the being angry, it's spooky. Appear on Hoarders so I can judge you. You have personal issues that you probably need to work through. You show up on Hoarders so I can watch you on TV and judge you. Do it. Do it. Do it. Do it. Flip it. Well, let me go ahead and just using how, since it's the bigger run, I was actually a little surprised. Online, I was seeing a lot of really positive reaction to Ultraman. And I wasn't inherently shocked at that, given that it seems like sci-fi, just even obscure sci-fi, may play better than horror for a lot of people. Yeah. I know plenty of folks in this hobby that would not own a game like Halloween because they have young kids. And they'd be worried that the game would scare them. And it's the same sort of thing that's come up with some of the other themes that have been horror-based. So walking through and again using This Week in Pinballs deep dive as my guy, they note that for Halloween, all of the editions are going to have seven pinballs in them. Dual in-lane lifters, there's a triple, interactive Michael Hedge toy. That's a weird thing. I like the idea. It looks kind of weird. I think those are like each is a ball lock. And over on the left-hand side of the game, there is a hedge and then another hedge and another hedge. And there is a legless Michael Myers that pops out of each of those. It's simple but clever, I think. And it's not triple hedges, but there is a famous hedge scene in the movie that that's playing off of, which I like. They've got stainless ramps in it. there's a drop ball or drop target ball lock on the right hand side it's got the tombstone for judith meyer's the sister from the start of the game the tombstone actually features in that movie uh that shouldn't say start of the game it's just the start of the movie uh so that that lock looks kind of like a mini uh tna lock it does it's got a little cover a little plastic cover and all that uh then they've got the lighted uh jack-o'-lantern drop target bank uh it's a three target bank then this is the part where it's getting a little a little odd for me so they've gone with three upper playfields in this game one of which is the the sanitarium which is where the movie aside from the start when he's a kid he breaks out the sanitarium early in the film you don't see a lot of it because that's actually shot in the dark it's actually really hard to see you see a little bit of the fencing and some of the patients who are out uh so that's one playfield, interactive. Then there's another upper playfield near it where it is, I believe, the Myers house, or at least it reminds me of that because it's got like a little, it's got a spinner of him as a kid. And I don't know, maybe it represents an EGNARIC house. It doesn't really matter. But there's a flipper there. It's interactive. And then they have a third upper playfield, but it's completely passive. I mean, that's what it's described as, is one passive play field where the ball is just rolling along like a ramp. So what do you think of, let's pause there, Tony. So what do you think of the idea of having a play field that you don't play on? I mean, it's not like it's the first time we've seen something where there was, where you were somewhere and the only real control you had was like nudging. Yeah, but my understanding is there's nothing to hit. maybe I'm misunderstanding. Like there's no, you know, there's, there's a non, there are things where you might not have a flipper. Right. Half of the dead. But it's just the rings, but there's things you want to achieve. Like, I think it's, it's my sense was, it's just decorative. Like could be, I don't know. I, I think the whole triple upper play field thing is just, we'll see how it works. I mean, I'm going to be very kind by saying, we'll see how it works. I think it's a gift. I think the passive one is a gimmick in order to be able to say, well, we have three upper playfields. Better than loss. But here's the thing. I don't know that I've ever played a game where a full upper playfield made the game better. Yeah, I'm not. I mean, I have to admit that I have struggled with enjoying. I suppose I've had better experiences with upper playfields than lower playfields. Right. And I'm not sure why that is the case. And, like, the games, now, there are games out there that have upper playfields that I think are good, but most of them, they don't have any play field underneath the upper play field. Right. So, it's just like a raised rear section, kind of like on Flash Gordon. Right, right. Or on Black Knight 2000, where, you know, just the back half of the machine is up. it's not like a separate, it's not like the upper play field on Game of Thrones. And we all know that that's the worst version of Game of Thrones is the one with the upper play field. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's the thing with Game of Thrones. I don't think that that upper play field was badly executed. It's just the pro is so much more fun to play by comparison. When you know that you're sitting, you're sitting there going, so why they make a version with an upper play field. Right. It didn't make it better. Even though you had all this ball control with the upper play field, you, you know, There were goals. It was full-sized. I mean, a lot about that upper play field was done right. It's just ultimately, though, it still wasn't better than just not having it. Right. Which is interesting. There's almost like an irony to it. You did all this work to create a decent upper play field, but as decent as it is, it's still not as good as just not having it. Yeah. It's like it could be the tastiest crap sandwich in the world, but it's still a crap sandwich. So, yeah, and then they have a bunch of stuff on the lighting and things along those lines. And seven physical ball locks. Yeah. Which, I mean, again. That's a lot of physical ball locks. A lot of things that can go wrong. I mean, that is a lot of physical ball locks. And I know a lot of people who love physical ball locks. And I can understand. A physical ball lock is always better than a virtual ball lock. I think. It feels better. It's more immersive. Yeah. It feels better to me. Yeah. But at the same time, is this going to turn into with the rules where it's the, hey, can I stack all of the ball locks and then trigger them all to get just insane, stupid scoring? Is that the kind of game it's going to turn into? Or, yeah, we'll see. yeah according to the I mean Twip's summary on the rules this is what there's a hedge multiball where you lock a ball behind each of the hedges and then once you've done that you can start hedge multiball and then you have a goal to looks like there's a what does it say reveal Michael behind each edge by shooting the left ram and then shoot the Michael for the jackpots okay then there's a sanitarium mode there's a house mode so those two playfields have modes associated with them then there's pumpkin modes boogeyman wizard mode and if you get through all the modes there's the night he came home wizard mode so I'm not clear and maybe I'd have to read through the rules of the modes or if I don't know if say all seven ball locks are released at like if there's a seven ball multiball Maybe of the wizard mode I don't know We'll see how it is So did you buy this? No Did you buy Ultraman? No but if I was going to buy one I would buy the Ultraman So But that's just because for me Halloween isn't the When I watched horror shows A when I watched horror shows I watched the campy horror movies It wasn't so much about Halloween for me as much as it was about stuff like critters. Oh, critters. That's the kind of stuff. I was into like campy, you know, critters, leprechaun. That was the kind of campy, silly horror stuff that I was more a fan of back then. But because I have a personal love of just kaiju stuff in general is why I would have gone with Ultraman. I've seen some Ultraman. I've not seen a lot of Ultraman. But just the whole Kaiju portion of it would have made me go that way over Halloween. Now, if it had been like, you know, one of the Jason movies, that might have been different because I enjoyed those. But even then, my favorite of those is still the super campy. was it which one the one where Jason X was in space and it's just like it's just pure ham that's because half the cast is from one of those sci-fi TV shows you watch it was it was like it was like half the cast from like Andromeda it was from Andromeda it's like it's like they just like took time out of filming the TV show to go film Jason real quick then went back to filming the TV show they probably used some of the same stuff probably Like, oh, it's just the kills were so funny. It was. It was so great. We did love Pre-Married in Sex. Want to smoke some pot? For those that don't know what scene I'm referencing, you should go see it. It is definitely worthy. It's so funny. Yeah, it's so campy. I mean, my issue was the same. That's often been the case with Spooky, and this was true for Rick and Morty. I mean, it'll say how the game plays. So they're in no way out of order without, I mean, I've always had a rule with new in box that I need to try the game first, but I can't even see the game for, I mean, see it shot. I haven't seen it shot. So they open up for sales before they even let you see the gameplay. And they're sold out. And they end up being sold out. And they, and they note, and I have to admit, I was very skeptical when they noted in their feature description, they describe these games as having lots of flow but I see all these ball locks and upper playfields and I'm like I'm not sure that word means the same thing to you that it means to me I curious too how something with so many ball locks and so much it seems like there a ton of stuff to stop I think you going to be sitting waiting for the ball to get back to the flipper a lot But maybe not I mean I guess it all a matter in a way of perspective It depends also how they execute. I mean, they're not necessarily going from upper playfield to upper playfield. Could keep things moving along. So, I mean, there is that. But I'm not sure there's a lot of stuff underneath those upper playfields either. So, I don't know what we've really gained. It looks very unique, though. And so full credit for that because they have continued in that realm where spooky games don't look like what's coming out of the other companies. Right. That variety alone, I think, is what a lot of people are embracing. Yeah. And I do think that these machines look real good. Both of them. I like both of them. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot about it that visually I'm really impressed with. The back glass on Halloween is a phenomenal piece of art. Yeah, I really like the back glass. I'm not as big of a fan of the play field art. No. But full credit, at least from the photos on Twip, I think Halloween is the orangest game I've ever seen. It is, which makes sense. I actually overall like the art of the play field a lot more on Ultraman. Yeah, the playfield art on Ultraman is better. I think the back glass art is better on Halloween. The side art, I think, is kind of a push. Yeah, yeah, that's fair. but I do like the the collector's edition on the Ultraman has the speaker the speaker grills that look like the Ultraman head it's so awesome that's just so good that's just one of those little things that just jumps out it's like oh that's so good I also kind of like the I think they've got different Kaijus for what is the hedge pop out on the Ultraman, which feels a little better than here's Michael upon Michael upon Michael with a triple hedge, even though the hedges are super iconic. Yeah, I'm not sure. I can't tell from the pictures if they're different or not. Maybe they're not. It looks like they might be the same. No, I'm wrong. I'm wrong. I think I saw one popped out and one not, and so I wasn't thinking about that. I was looking at one horizontal. Yeah. Never mind then. They lost it. It's all over. It's all over. The Hedges win for iconic, not generic building. But I'm not certain. My guess is that the Playfail was developed with Halloween in mind, and then Ultraman just got what it got. Which is understandable. And I think that's a safe bet given Ultraman's a 500-unit run and Halloween's the 1,250-unit run. Right. I don't know about the knife handle shooter rod on Halloween. It doesn't look comfortable. I have a big problem with a lot of shooter rods. I do like the collector's edition topper for Halloween a lot better than the Ultraman one. The knife moving is just so iconic. It is. And it didn't cost an additional $43,000. Right. Yes. But if you will go on eBay, where people part out their collector's edition. Right. It will. It will be super exciting. Well, that's it for Pinball Tony. So speaking of super exciting, I want you to tell us about Nintendo. There has been. We discussed before E3 the suspected, all the rumors were this Switch Pro was imminent. Not just imminent, that it was almost certainly going to be announced before E3. And that E3 would have all these games that were going to be for the new Switch Pro. That obviously didn't happen in terms of the announcement. and we also didn't hear about any Switch Pro exclusive games. But there is news on the console. There is. The Nintendo Switch Pro doesn't exist. It's not real. They are putting out a new Nintendo Switch. They're putting out a new console. Then why are you talking out of the sides of your mouth? It's not the Pro. It is a general update. Call it a Mark II, if you would. A Mark II. To the regular Switch. It's the Nintendo Switch OLED, and that's because they're replacing the old LCD screen with an OLED screen. The screen's going to be slightly bigger. Okay. It will look better because OLED just looks better. Everyone loves OLED. But the resolutions are the same, docked and undocked. 4K looks like 4K. Doesn't exist. No. Because the actual guts of the machine are the exact same. Same guts? The big changes are the OLED screen, which is slightly bigger. It's seven inches. They have improved the audio. They have revised the dock. They've gotten rid of one of the USB ports internally and replaced it with a LAN port, so you don't have to get this weird USB to LAN adapter to hardline your dock into the Internet, and you don't have to use wireless if you don't want to. They've doubled the storage in the system itself from the original 32 gigabit to 64 gig. So, yay, but, I mean, it takes a – you can put a chip in it to – I think most people I know have to have those. Yeah, you've got to have an SD card in it if you want to have anything decent. I mean, that's the first thing we did was get SD cards for my wife's Switch and both kids' Switches because I don't own a Switch. The biggest improvement, though, and probably the greatest reason to get one, is it has a new kickstand. I've heard about this kickstand. The old kickstand was basically like on one side of the Switch. It wasn't even in the middle, and it was flimsy. And I think we've broken all three of ours at one point or another because we've got replacement kickstands for ours because they break so easy and they don't really hold it up very well. But the new one goes the entire length of the main body and it's adjustable. It will lock into different positions so you can put it in different positions. And it's just a massive improvement overall for people who play mobile and handheld. it's coming in a white and black color scheme for those people who have to have everything being that crisp white look that has become so popular for some reason lately it starts going on sale on October 8th with an MSRP of $349.99 that's $50 more than the original version is currently selling for in like a hundred and some odd more than the light version, which is the one that you can't dock. It's just a portable is selling for. And honestly, after October 8th, I think if you don't buy the OLED, you're just making a mistake because that $50 is worth it between the sound, the screen, and especially the kickstand. It's worth it. If you ever plan on carrying it and using it portable. So that's where we're at. I think my best, my favorite coverage of this was the Penny Arcade comic, put out a comic where someone was in the kitchen baking and two other people are standing outside. Oh, they're baking. What do you think they're baking? I don't know. I think they're making German chocolate cake. And oh, I love German chocolate cake. German chocolate cake is so great. And the person comes up, who wants cookies? I don't want your dang cookies. I want German chocolate cake. But I was, yeah, yeah. It's what it was because the rumors were ever present. I mean, they were everywhere. But I think what we ended up with makes sense from the way Nintendo tends to handle things more conservatively when it comes to upgrades. So I'm not surprised. And I think it'll be good for people who don't have a Switch yet. it's definitely not something to go and replace your Switch unless you have to replace your Switch with. That makes sense. Summer Games done quick, Ran. Yeah, I was watching that. And it's over, and I watched almost none of it, because, you know, Final Fantasy 14. Yeah, because you hate games. And I hate games, and all the other stuff. I also like yeah. Yeah, I'm just going to leave it there. but what I did watch was enjoyable they raised over $2,890,000 this one was like Awesome Games Done Quick it was fully remote yeah I think they had some of the hosts together the staff but they didn't have the normal all the gamers no crowd I can see the bonuses to doing it this way. I'd kind of like to see a hybrid in the future when they start going back because I kind of like having the crowd there also. But I can see where it would be a mix of having some people in location and some people remote because it lets you bring in – there's a lot of good people out there who just can't afford to go. Yeah, the bringing in people has always been a struggle for them, especially internationally. Right. So I think it would be good to see it go to a more hybrid in the future just because I miss some of the joyful stuff you get from having crowds there. I've heard that. What was the name of the game? The one that I didn't see that was most recommended to me to go see was a golf game or to go watch a golf stream. It was like going golf or golfing. I saw a really good rhythm game where this guy's playing a washing machine. it's like an arcade it's some arcade game it looks like a washing machine and he it was really interesting interesting where there's you're like hitting all these parts around the washing machine I think it does clothes too that's how you get to do clothes yeah I heard there was a blindfolded Mario run that was a there was a 70 star Mario 64 last night and I watched that and yeah he got all 70 stars. He's working on getting all 120. He's got 10 more to master. Apparently that's a 12-hour run, though. Wow. Well, that was one thing I heard. They did a lot. They didn't do any of the big runs like they normally have. It was lots of three-hour runs or under. Yeah. I did not. I mean, they ended with Kingdom Hearts 2, and that was just like three and a half hours. That was kind of at the upper end. Back in the day, they used to often end with an RPG that was like six or seven hours. Well and then I remember they went for a while where they started they time it so they run like a six to ten RPG that would start around midnight Yeah they often get through the night with some and maybe that makes more sense in person. Yeah, because you get a couple people who come in and out during the course of the run. Right, right. Well, it's less people to bring in to, I mean, I remember seeing some where there'd be someone who'd be like, hey, I'm playing the Chester Cheetah Cheeto game, and he's like at 4.30 a.m. Right. Right. Because no one cares. No one cares. And it's like, if you're going to be there, sure, but you don't want to bring someone in where there's not going to be much in the way of donation or audience to witness it. Yeah, I remember staying up late watching a Final Fantasy IX speedrun where I fell asleep like halfway through the game. And then I woke up and the game, they were like getting to the end. So I was like, hey. Yeah, I mean, overall, I would just say it seemed like, and maybe it'd just be more of my tastes. Usually, primetime has all the really good games. It didn't seem like every primetime did to me this time. Like, some of them seemed more meh, but maybe they were just genres that I was meh on. Most of the nights, it was okay. As long as they didn't have too many of the weird hack game ROM things. Yeah, thankfully, I didn't see any Tazbot. I don't even know if it was there or not. I don't care. I'm not a fan. I think it's stupid. I have no interest in watching people use machines to write games. Yeah. The glitched Pokemon Blue Run where you... But, good for them. I like the summer game. All the games done quick. They're enjoyable. So, there was a big video game auction. and sealed copy of the original Legend of Zelda for NES from the second production run made in late 1987. It was sold at auction for $870,000. Wow. It's from the smaller second production run late in 87. there was a different version that was run in early 88 and later on with the different slight adjustments to the box and stuff of the third production run and beyond apparently from one of the articles I read on it there is supposed to be a single sealed unopened version from the first production run but it sounds like it belongs to a company The article I read said They've heard of it existing But they've not actually seen it And they don't expect it to ever Go for sale So that To me that reads that it belongs to A company or something like that Yeah I guess It's just weird to me that there are Sealed unopened copies of games from the 80's Yeah I mean I don't know we did Start to collect stuff around then And so I guess it's sort of conceivable that someone might buy something and think, hey, this will be worth something someday. I don't know. It was different, though. Yeah, that's just weird. It's like those people who refuse to open up. They'll buy Funkos, but they don't ever open the boxes. And they put the boxes in bigger shield protective boxes. A box within a box. Because you've got to protect the boxes because they might be worth it. They're Funkos. They're not going to ever be worth anything. It's like all the people who are collecting Beanie babies for their retirement Beanie babies Yeah When you try and force it It doesn't actually happen So The last big thing we have in video games Is Sony ran a state of play On the 8th This was basically their follow up Since they weren't at E3 And what was interesting is they announced beforehand that there were not going to be any of the big name franchise titles in this thing. Oh, okay. I didn't see this. Yeah. So there were no big name franchise titles. There's nothing about Horizon Zero Dawn sequel or any of the big tentpole games. Uncharted? Nope. None of the big tentpole games. So I'm just going to go through the highlights, the stuff that I thought looked kind of interesting. There was Arcade Geddon, which is a very cartoony hero shooter. It feels like Splatoon. Okay. It's got that kind of art style and that kind of feel. It's in early access right now, and I'm not sure what that means on PlayStation systems, but it's not slated for a full release until next year. Tribes of Midgard is a 10 player action RPG, it's an isometric hack and slash, it's Diablo very Norse religion based, it's got the season based gameplay where the seasons have storylines there's going to be 8 different classes in season 1, the classes synergize together it looks cool that sounds like it could turn out well Yeah, we'll see how it goes. It is available on, or it will be available on Steam when it launches. It launches on the 27th of July. You'll be able to know then. I'll be able to. Now you'll be too busy. I'll be playing Final Fantasy. Yeah. Final Fantasy is life now. There is no other games. There are, there, I got, I could be. What is best in life? To take the Final Fantasy and to play it to the ruination of my enemies. And hear the lamentations of their winning. I would love to see a new Conan movie with Arnold as Old Man Conan you know it would make a lot of sense because they show there's a lot of stuff from it that suggests he became an old king yes I would love it it would be so much fun I mean that would fall into that campy movie thing but that's not video game related I just that's just it was important to mention because it just feels like it would be so cool uh there's Fist it's literally F period I period S period T period I don't write down the subtitle because it doesn't matter it's furry space marines okay I mean it's a side scrolling grim dark furries in power armor the main character is literally a bunny in power armor. So, sure. Why not? The Brotherhood of Cottontail. Basically, furry in space tactics. I mean, it's just, but, it's fine. It's cool. I mean, the art looked alright. Of course, they had to have the gratuitous okays. If we've got furries, we have to have a cat girl doing all sexy pose because, you know, and beating people up because that's how that stuff is. That's a requirement. That's just a requirement in this type of thing. So it's coming out on September 7th. If you're a big side-scrolling shooter, or not shooter, but a side-scrolling game person, maybe. Who knows? I don't know. It just cracked me up that it's called Fist. To be fair, the Power Armor has a giant fist. Okay. It's fine. But there's a Sifu Fight Club has been delayed to 2022. I'm not familiar with it. It was supposed to come out later this year. It's a martial arts brawler, but the basics from what I've read are that you're a martial arts student who is going after revenge. But it has an aging mechanic where your character, like years pass and your character gets older. But what I really liked was during the trailer itself, They'd show, you know, like your character fighting and stuff. And then it'd show like your age. And then it'd show the age and it would scroll up. Then you're, you know, older. And it just kept doing that. And it kept showing your character getting older and older and older as you fight through stuff. And then when it ended, it flashed up the title of the game and the release of, you know, whatever, 2021. And then it scrolled up exactly like they did the age thing and said 2022. so they just kind of combo they segued the whole theme through it it was really clever I thought it worked really well I was actually kind of like you know that I can handle that that's a neat way to do it Jet the Far Shore this game looks beautiful it is an exploration game that has some combat but it's not combat centric it's literally about exploration and it's not about like, you know, explore, find resources, exploit resources. It looks like it's pretty much just about exploring and investigating a planet. And you fly around in this little jet pod thing. And it's got a very, very artsy art style. I thought it looked pretty cool. And the last thing I've got is the game that nobody knew we needed. Death Stranding. Director's cut. I never knew we needed the first Death Stranding. I didn't know we needed a director's cut. It's a Kojima thing. I thought it was pretty much, the whole point was just. No, apparently he was held back. Apparently somebody held Kojima back from his Kojima Studios release of this Kojima game. Kojima fights against himself. So, yeah, he held himself back. He felt bad. They added new enemies, new missions, new weapons. They did a whole bunch of other improvements and changes. and I don't know. I didn't realize we needed this. I never played Death Stranding. I never got that interested in it in the first place. Yeah. So, but that is the whole new thing, completely expanded, remastered for PS5. Sweet. So, yeah, we'll see. Maybe it's like the Taylor Snyder Cut of. Yeah, that's probably what, the Taylor Snyder Cut. It's the Taylor Snyder Cut. We need to release the Taylor Snyder Cut of everything. Yes. It's so precious. So, all right. That's all I've got on Video Games Day. There are links to the trailers from the Sony State of Play that I included. So you should be able to track those down. And that's what we got. All right. Well, if people want to track us down, they can email us at eclecticgamerspodcast.gmail.com or go to facebook.com slash eclecticgamerspodcast. We're on Twitch, Twitter, and Instagram as eclectic underscore gamers. And we'll be back in a couple weeks. Will there be yet another pinball release? Sure there will be two more. Three more. They're on the same layout. Oh, that'd be amazing. Beautiful. More beautiful. Goodbye, everybody. See ya.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 3ef1ff51-1c1d-47c9-a930-634d0cdadbdf*