# DPP #227 "Bring on the Beach!!"

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-02-03  
**Duration:** 30m 49s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donspinballpodcast/episodes/DPP-227-Bring-on-the-Beach-e3ei2rb

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## Analysis

Don discusses major pinball industry developments including American Pinball's resurrection under new ownership (Orbit Games/J.B. Vincent), Spooky's Beetlejuice readiness for Pinball at the Beach event, Jersey Jack's Sonic the Hedgehog speculation, Stern's anticipated Pokemon announcement, and a retraction clarifying production sample vs. prototype terminology for Barrels of Fun machines.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] American Pinball (now under Orbit Games ownership) is planning to release Bally/Williams remakes, likely Addams Family, Indiana Jones, or Whitewater, followed by licensed games — _Don spoke with American Pinball contact (Ron); based on text exchange, not official announcement_
- [HIGH] Spooky Pinball has 10 Beetlejuice machines ready for Pinball at the Beach event in Florida, first commercial game already delivered to a customer with no reported issues — _Don directly observed box truck loaded with games; confirmed via social media posts and customer feedback_
- [MEDIUM] Stern is planning to announce Pokemon pinball on Friday (Pinball at the Beach weekend), with media day on February 11th — _Don reports hearing from 'fans of the industry' and inference from official Stern confirmations about media day; no direct Stern statement provided_
- [LOW] Jersey Jack Pinball's Sonic the Hedgehog CE cabinet likely features LED light-up elements embedded in the cabinet sides with Radcal decals — _Speculation based on hints from people who have seen the cabinet under NDA; Don's inference from JJP's technical capabilities_
- [LOW] Jersey Jack Pinball should delay Sonic release until Harry Potter backlog is cleared (potentially October/Expo timing) to avoid under-capacity production situation — _Don's opinion/strategic advice; not based on official JJP guidance_
- [HIGH] Barrels of Fun games delivered to customers use production parts, not prototypes, though certain details like wire harnesses may change during full production — _Don's clarification/correction of his own earlier terminology; reflects industry standard definitions_

### Notable Quotes

> "Pinball is hard. I'll tell you that right now. There are so many unencumbered consequences that can happen when you go down the road to take a box of lights and turn it into flipper steel ball bearing magic."
> — **Don**, Early episode
> _Core philosophy explaining manufacturer challenges and design decision-making_

> "So in my mind, I'm thinking, are they making Indiana Jones? Are they making Sea Witch? Like, was Sea Witch Stern? You know, are they making, like, classic 70s games? Are they making Mata Hari? Right? Has Mata Hari at $10,000 going to compete on the market?"
> — **Don**, American Pinball segment
> _Demonstrates market analysis of which Bally remakes make commercial sense vs. budget constraints_

> "When you're in a new town and everything is shut and then there's a Papa John's pizza that's open until midnight, you're like, all right, I guess. They deliver to the hotel? Okay, fine."
> — **Don**, Hot Wheels assessment
> _Colorful analogy for American Pinball's Hot Wheels reception—acceptable but unexciting_

> "I would spill my banana daiquiri on myself if I saw that work. Let's try it. Let's try to do a thing where everybody can get really quiet and we'll turn them all on and then we'll Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and we'll watch them all wake up."
> — **Don**, Spooky Speak segment
> _Excitement about testing Spooky Speak voice command at Pinball at the Beach with 10 machines simultaneously_

> "I want to see it. I want to play it. I want to catch them all. I want a Pokemon in my house. And failing that I've got plenty of other stuff to play."
> — **Don**, Pokemon speculation
> _Tempered enthusiasm; willing to be impressed but not desperate_

> "It's Sonic the Hedgehog. That makes total sense. Animated light action embedded in the cabinet. That's what it has to be."
> — **Don**, JJP Sonic cabinet speculation
> _Confident inference about CE cabinet differentiation based on theme and JJP technical history_

> "No one can tell me that the hyperspace loop is not awesome. When balls are racing around in there... you don't need a shaker motor because the whole machine is rattling you're rattling the floor. God i love it."
> — **Don**, Star Wars/Sonic discussion
> _Praise for Stern's magnetic ball technology and excitement about potential Sonic implementation_

> "So this is instead of that 3D printed, hand-painted, high-gloss sample that you built and you've been using in your prototype, you actually got the box of 1,000 of them from China, and you're using actual production parts in the machine."
> — **Don**, Barrels of Fun clarification
> _Corrects terminology distinguishing prototype from production sample machine_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| American Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer formerly owned by Ametron, now part of Orbit Games under J.B. Vincent LP; being resurrected with plans to manufacture Bally/Williams remakes |
| Orbit Games | company | Parent company/umbrella brand acquiring American Pinball; controlled by J.B. Vincent LP (Jan Michael Vincent) |
| J.B. Vincent LP | company | Investment company acquiring American Pinball through Orbit Games; owned by Jan Michael Vincent |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer with 10 Beetlejuice machines ready for Pinball at the Beach event in Florida; located near Don in Benton, Wisconsin |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer anticipated to announce Pokemon pinball; has media day scheduled for February 11th |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Premium boutique manufacturer with Harry Potter in high demand; rumored to be working on Sonic the Hedgehog with special CE cabinet features |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Manufacturer producing Dune and Winchester Mystery House; uses production parts, not prototypes, in released machines |
| Pedretti Gaming | company | Manufacturer that released Funhouse remake; mentioned for market comparison |
| Planetary Pinball | company | License holder for Bally Williams IP; made licensing deal with American Pinball/Orbit Games |
| Don | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast; actively networking with manufacturers and community members; provides industry analysis and event coverage |
| Jan Michael Vincent | person | Owner of J.B. Vincent LP who acquired American Pinball; Don humorously references him as also starting 'Airwolf' in 1980s |
| Ron | person | Contact at American Pinball/Orbit Games who communicated with Don via text about company direction |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Artist at Spooky Pinball; praised by Don for topper box design and Beetlejuice artwork |
| Kaneda | person | Host of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast; appeared on We Are Pinball episode with Don discussing manufacturer decisions |
| Steven Richie | person | Jersey Jack designer; credited by Don with best element of Star Wars 2017 (hyperspace loop); likely designer of Sonic |
| Pokemon | game | Stern Pinball title rumored for announcement Friday at Pinball at the Beach; expected debut at Texas Pinball Festival |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game highly rumored to be amazing; CE cabinet has special undisclosed features; expected release spring-fall with light-up cabinet sides speculation |
| Beetlejuice | game | Spooky Pinball recent release; 10 units at Pinball at the Beach; first commercial game delivered shows no issues after week |
| Dune | game | Barrels of Fun title currently in production; on A-line with Winchester Mystery House on B-line |
| Winchester Mystery House | game | Barrels of Fun title awaiting production; customers uncertain on delivery timeline |
| Pinball at the Beach | event | Major pinball event in Florida (this weekend) featuring 10 Beetlejuice machines, community gatherings, and anticipated announcements |
| Texas Pinball Festival | event | Next major event after Pinball at the Beach; expected to be Sonic the Hedgehog debut show |
| Mad Pinball | company | Pinball distributor/retailer from Ohio attending Pinball at the Beach; offers sales/reservation services |
| We Are Pinball | organization | Pinball podcast network featuring collaboration episode with Don and Kaneda discussing manufacturer challenges |
| Harry Potter | game | Jersey Jack blockbuster title with sustained demand; backlog delays may affect Sonic release timing |

### Topics

- **Primary:** American Pinball resurrection under new ownership and planned Bally/Williams remakes, Spooky Pinball Beetlejuice readiness and Pinball at the Beach event logistics, Stern Pokemon announcement timing and marketing strategy, Jersey Jack Sonic the Hedgehog CE cabinet speculation and design features
- **Secondary:** Manufacturer capacity planning and production sequencing (Harry Potter vs. Sonic), Barrels of Fun production terminology and Winchester Mystery House delivery uncertainty, Community event experiences and Spooky Speak feature testing
- **Mentioned:** Pinball design philosophy and unforeseeable production challenges

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Don expresses qualified optimism about industry direction, particularly American Pinball's resurrection and Spooky's execution. Enthusiasm for upcoming reveals tempered by past disappointments and skepticism about design choices. Genuinely excited about community events and product anticipation.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** American Pinball acquired by Orbit Games (J.B. Vincent LP); company being resurrected with Bally/Williams remake focus (confidence: high) — Don received text confirmation from American Pinball contact; company headquarters in Chicago with functional facility infrastructure
- **[community_signal]** Don plans coordinated Spooky Speak group test at Pinball at the Beach with 10 Beetlejuice machines; testing simultaneous voice activation (confidence: high) — Don proposes specific test protocol; enthusiasm for testing feature in high-noise environment
- **[sentiment_shift]** Positive reception to Spooky Beetlejuice packaging and artwork; graphic boxes appreciated over plain brown boxes (confidence: high) — Don's wife wanted to color the topper box; Don praises packaging design; describes graphic boxes as 'fun'
- **[design_philosophy]** Manufacturer design challenges highlighted: concept-to-production translation failures due to unforeseen mechanical/software complications (confidence: high) — Don's reflection on American Pinball's prior releases (Galactic Tank Force, Professor Pumpkins) and general industry complexity
- **[event_signal]** Pinball at the Beach event this weekend in Florida featuring Beetlejuice machines, community gatherings, and planned Spooky Speak group test (confidence: high) — Don confirming attendance; Mad Pinball in attendance; 10 Beetlejuice units already allocated to event
- **[licensing_signal]** Stern implementing NDAs for Pokemon reveal, possibly hedging against licensor approval delays (confidence: medium) — Don notes NDA requirement mentioned by Stern; speculates it's precautionary for potential last-minute licensing issues
- **[market_signal]** Barrels of Fun production samples distributed to early customers use production parts; customers uncertain on Winchester Mystery House delivery timeline (confidence: high) — Don's clarification of production sample vs. prototype; customer sentiment on delivery uncertainty
- **[community_signal]** Christopher Franchi (artist) credited with Spooky Pinball's Beetlejuice box design and topper artwork; represents boutique manufacturer art direction excellence (confidence: high) — Don praises box truck topper design; wife appreciated visual design; Franchi credited for artwork
- **[announcement]** Spooky Pinball Beetlejuice in final production stages with 10 units ready for Pinball at the Beach event (confidence: high) — Box truck observed by Don loaded with 10 games heading to Florida; first commercial unit delivered, week of customer use with no reported issues
- **[product_strategy]** Stern Pokemon announcement delayed multiple weeks; teaser expected Friday at Pinball at the Beach, media day February 11th (confidence: medium) — Don reports fans told to expect teaser for 'last six or seven Fridays' with no announcements; official confirmation of media day date but not reveal date
- **[product_strategy]** Jersey Jack CE cabinet differentiation strategy for Sonic likely includes embedded LED light-up elements with Radcal decals on cabinet sides (confidence: low) — Don's inference based on JJP's technical history, Sonic theme appropriateness, and hints from NDA-bound observers; no official confirmation
- **[product_strategy]** Jersey Jack Pinball Sonic the Hedgehog release timing potentially pushed to fall/Expo to clear Harry Potter production backlog (confidence: medium) — Don's strategic analysis based on Harry Potter demand levels; no official JJP statement on timing

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## Transcript

 Now hear this, Don's Pinball Podcast is now online. And I'm here to bring you everything off the top of my mind, here on this exciting Pinball Podcast Retreat, for collaboration, that we're putting together right now, episode 227. There is so much going on, so much to get caught up on, and so much to get hyped for. Let's go. Hit it. Shout out to all my mythical pinball players, lovers, and the glovers out there. 227, let's get back at it. So much has gone on. So much has transpired. And like a weight is off my shoulders. A mental weight, as it were. the 14 days of dawn they came and went my mind completely absent for at least nine days of it i had every intention of dropping some hot content each and every day and i did something interesting each and every day but there was just no way to convey the spray that was coming my way out there in the outback of the northern eastern united states of america hi everybody we're back and i'm I'm feeling much better now. I want to start the 14 days of dawn right now. Because I could do some awesome contentual escapades nonstop. And the pinball news has been stacking up. There was a big deluge and delivery yesterday. Check it out on YouTube. Check it out on Spotify. We Are Pinball had the masked marauder with us, Kaneda, of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast. and we put our heads together just to try to make sense on what exactly is going on. There's like seven different pinball companies, five of which are at note, and they're making decisions that, at least empirically, from the outside, from the enthusiast perspective, we're perplexed with them. You know, why this instead of that? Why did you waste all this time and then this is what you were working on? Why don't you make the things that we want to make? Pinball is hard. I'll tell you that right now. There are so many unencumbered consequences that can happen when you go down the road to take a box of lights and turn it into flipper steel ball bearing magic. You just can't foresee. You've got to move as they come. The challenges will come in. The boards will blow up. What worked great on paper would work great on prototype. When you go to put pen to paper and white wood into cabinet, all of a sudden now it doesn't want to play nice in the sandbox. Like you can't foresee all of that. But like it's got to be simple from the perspective of look at the themes that are out there that people are asking for. I want televisions. I want movies. I want 1980s. I want 1990s. Heck, I want things that are culturally relevant right now and make them. Give me interesting mechanisms. Two, I would love three, but I'll take two. Give me a bash toy. Give me a physical ball lock. give me art that doesn't look like something that i could have done with an ai illustrator okay like start with that you know some of these uh games that have been produced in the last three years it's like what were they thinking what were they think to be a fly on the wall in these planning and pitch meetings which brings us to uh the phoenix that's currently rising out in east palestine oh uh illinois yeah i think it's where they're at uh american pinball no name change uh a bit of an AI upgrade to their art. Orbit Games is still a thing. Jan Michael Vincent from Texas came in and he bought this company. I think he also started Airwolf back in the 80s, another theme I would totally buy. Bought this company and is resurrecting it. And what they have planned is to be determined. The proof is in the pudding. The proof is in the pudding. The rum is in the punch. I need to see what they're actually bringing. But what they're planning on has me a little excited, had me a little perplexed. So I reached out, like I do, heard right back, Ron, how you doing, buddy? Good to see you. I'm glad you're doing well. Hope the move and everything went okay. So from what I understand, they're still going to be headquartered in Chicago. That part makes sense to me. American Pinball, a subsidiary formerly of Ametron, has some office space and glorious marble floors in the entryway. My God, the best entrance of any pinball company ever. They've got in there everything you would need to run a line of pinball, to produce games, put them in the cabinets, put them in the boxes. They've got the loading dock. They've got the rotisseries. They've got their, I don't know, what do you call it, octo construction set up. I think it's a septa. It's not quite octo yet. But, you know, everything is there to just like let's flip the lights on. Let's get the parts in receiving. Let's put things together. There's office spaces. There's spaces for engineers to work. Hopefully they've got the staff. That I don't have the confirmation on. But what I've been trying to do is nail down exactly what kind of Bally games or Bally Williams games that this company is making. So they reached out to Planetary Pinball, holder of the license, like a bird of praise talons on a chipmunk from the woods. Just dug in selling those IP licenses. Anyway, they made a deal with this guy. But, like, what are they doing? I've heard Bally Classics. I've heard Bally Williams. So in my mind, I'm thinking, are they making Indiana Jones? Are they making Sea Witch? Like, was Sea Witch Stern? You know, are they making, like, classic 70s games? Are they making Mata Hari? Right? Has Mata Hari at $10,000 going to compete on the market with everything else that's out there? No, of course not. And I don't want to see that, the road that they're going down. So I reached out. And it sounds like what the plan is formulating to be like, not necessarily written in stone, but it sounds like we're going to get a remake, and they're not looking at going back to the 70s classics. I think they're looking at something that hopefully Whitewater, hopefully Addams Family, hopefully Indiana Jones, hopefully something substantial to come out, followed by licensed games, and that is exactly what we've been wanting to have come from America Pinball this whole time, right? Their only license that they have had is Hot Wheels, and it was okay. So it's fun enough to play. I wouldn't own it at home. I don't love it that much. It didn't wow us with the animations and everything, but it was there. It was competent. When you're in a new town and everything is shut and then there's a Papa John's pizza that's open until midnight, you're like, all right, I guess. They deliver to the hotel? Okay, fine. Okay, fine. So if you checked into a hotel and everything else was closed and there was a Hot Wheels in the lobby, it's like, I'll put a dollar in it. I'll play some pinball. I'm going to go to bed. That was the level of satiation I was getting from that. And then we got Galactic Tank Force, which we were all initially really excited about. Christopher Franchi's on art, throwback design, original theme, 1950s, 1970s spacemen, kind of kooky, could be fun. And then we got Professor Plumpkin and his sprinkles and all that business. And they resurrected Sonya Blade for some reason. It was just kind of all over the place. And then the game played in WoW-less, and it was just 3D-printed parts that were on the play field, to interact with the ball. What are we doing? And then barbecue just buried everything. Just stick a barbecue fork in it. They were done. We wanted Masters of the Universe. We wanted G.I. Joe. Heck do some X cartoon series from 1997 Like that what I would have totally dug But we didn see it But it sounds like they got the message It just they weren in a position to execute at the time And I think that has changed now based on my short text exchange that occurred earlier today. Thank you, Ron. Keep me updated, man. Let me know. If you've got something to hype, give it to me. If you've got some information you want out there, like, let me know. If you want me to swing by and bring some donuts, I can do that, man. There's a great donut place, Chunky Dunkers, right up the street just past the Amazon warehouse. in East Palestine. It's awesome. A great place. So I'm excited to see, and this is what I told them, I'm excited to see what their next game launch is just so I can kind of get a sense. It's going to be a couple of releases from them that come out, they're successfully delivered until we can kind of plot a trajectory on where they're going. But I'm hopeful for Jan Michael Vincent, Brian, sorry, to see which way they're going. So exciting. When are we going to see something? I don't know. As I was talking about with the guys yesterday morning, You know, if I'm in late August and, you know, I can just detect the wisp of the orangutan, the olive spice, the pumpkin spice coming in from the Starbucks, like fall is coming in. We're seeing the spirit Halloween places pop up. You know, smokiness is hitting. The haunted attractions are opening. And we're not seeing something from American. I'm going to get a little bit worried. All right. So that's what I'm expecting to see. Something is like early fall, way late summer, and then like some rumblings of something that's going on. So we'll hang on. We'll hang on the hype train for American and see what they've got to bring us. I mean, they certainly could do a lot better than that funhouse that was revealed and released from Pedretti. And, you know, we'll see what the market can bear with that. That's the information I have on that. It's exciting, and I don't think they're going to come out with Centaur 2, hopefully. But it'll be something else that's interesting. I hope it sells moderately well enough that, you know, Interium will have it so I can go play it. And, you know, there are games that I entertain myself having. Bram Stoker's Dracula, wouldn't mind having one of those for a while. I had a Star Trek The Next Generation. But what I've come to find out is games like those, unless they've already been HEPA restored, they can be problematic. You know, you open them up, you lift the play field, it smells like Grandma's closet in there. You know, it's not, things are dusty, you know, wires are old. You know, how long are these things, you know, you've really got to work to keep them going. I would love to have just a fresh new build, like some new old stock, but that was made new. So new, new stock of old theme. I think I would be excited for it. So let's wait and see what they have that's coming towards us. Spooky Pinball, my new neighbors up the street. They have a panel van. No, strike that. They've got a box truck right now loaded with 10 Beetlejuices in it. Have you seen the Beetlejuice topper boxes, by the way? They posted those on the social medias. They look amazing, right? They're black and white. My wife saw one, and she's like, I want to color it. And I'm thinking, yeah, dude, get some colored pencils. Get some colored markers. When you get that Beetlejuice box, go ahead and color it in, man. Give it to your kid. Let him play with it. It looks super cool, man. I dig the packaging. You don't need to do that. Brown boxes would make us just as happy, but this is fun. This is really fun. I like the graphic boxes that are doing it. Franchi, your art. Love it. Love it. So it was great to see this box truck. Ten games in there. It's gassed up. It's heading down to Florida right now. We are in the preamble, the pre-week, the pre-game week. week not just for the Super Bowl but also for pinball at the beach we might be freezing our butts off down there in Florida although relativistically speaking it's 14 degrees out here in Benton Wisconsin so even if it is 60 I'm in flops and shorts and I am on the beach buddy and I'm getting a sunburn it's going to be fun it's going to be fun to just a break a nice winter solace from the frozen tundra arctic that we live up here uh to get down to pinball at the beach Pokemon sadly won't be there. But we're going to see 10 Beetlejuices. Now the first Beetlejuice has gone out, went to a friend actually, lives, I don't know, next state over. Been to his house, helped set up the Evil Dead there. He's got a loft situation. It's very cool. Anyway, he posted that picture of Beetlejuice right next to Evil Dead. And I'm like, that's $30,000 worth of pinball at least right there. Fair market value. But only $20,000 if you went in on it. It looks great. I can't wait to see that replicated the entire earth over, and I think we're going to get into that. So the first commercial game has gone out. It's in somebody's house. They're enjoying it. That's great. And so far, the feedback I'm hearing, I just checked today, that guy's had this game for a week or so, has had no issues. Knock on all the wood. Knock it on wood. There won't be any further ones or at least nothing that Mike Tori can't wrangle there. But there will be ten games at Pinball at the Beach. They're already bought, so don't try to show up there. Well, I mean, show up there with cash. Maybe you can make a deal with somebody. But there's people eagerly awaiting these, and it's kind of like, listen, either these were already destined to be show games or these are some of the early numbered builds, and the customers have said, you know, in exchange for getting your game like right now and not having to wait eight months, it's going to be played at a show for a weekend. I think that's a fair trade. And so we're going to have ten games lit up and playing the whole time. It looks like there's at least five or six toppers I saw in that truck. I think everybody that got this game bought one of the toppers. I know last year there was like two of the Cheryl toppers. The rest of them were all the plastic ones. I think it's going to probably be half and half just so you can show off the one that's included with the game. But there's going to be a ton of Beetlejuice snakes up there looking back and forth. Everybody's going to be wanting to do the Spooky Speak thing. This will be a good test for it. I know Spooky Speak works in the factory. I know it works in the home. Is it going to work in a busy show tent with ten games lined up next to each other? That would be fun. We should do a thing. we should do a thing where like everybody's just super quiet we have all the games turned on they're ready to go and they're like in that hibernation mode and then we'll see if we can do one spooky speak command and turn 10 machines on all at the same time I think that would be super fun I would spill my banana daiquiri on myself if I saw that work let's try it let's try to do that anybody listening that's going to be there myself included let's try to do a thing where everybody can get really quiet and we'll turn them all on and then we'll Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and we'll watch them all wake up. That would be super awesome. This is like, where else can you do this? This would be hard to do at TPF. This would be hard to do at Expo. But I think we could pull it off here at this event. I can't wait to hang out with my friends from all around the country. In fact, the world. My friend Martin A will be there. But also the folks at Mad Pinball will be in attendance. These guys are always awesome. Super fun to hang out on the beach with. Info at madpinball.com if you want to get yourself on a list for a game, which you should by at least two different companies, which we'll get into. Info at madpinball.com. Tell them Don sent you. These guys are super cool. They're from Ohio. They're the best beards in the business, man. What can I say? So haven't heard any issues. Again, knock on wood, trying not to jinx anything, but I'm super excited for this. Everybody's waiting for the game reveals, and this is like the first chance that people outside of the Mindus Madness Party get to play the game. We're getting to a fun time now, right? As far as I'm considered, winter ends this weekend when we're down there. I'm going to be in Florida. I'm going to be at the beach. I'm going to be at the theme parks. I'm going to be playing pinball. And then once this event happens, the very next month, Texas Pinball Festival, things are blowing up even more, and we'll get to see finally Pokemon in person. I guess Pokemon will be the game of that show. I haven't heard yet what Multimorphic is bringing, but, man, we've been getting Poke-teased, and I think we've been doing it to ourselves. We've been hearing the rumors that Pokemon from CERN Pinball is coming. It's the January release. It's either this or Transformers. All signs are pointing to Pokemon. Everything I'm hearing is pokey, pokey, pokey. So I know that going to be the game Now what the holdup Is it licensing Is it cleverly marketing windows Are we reading way too much into this Probably Probably But I think for the last six or seven Fridays I've been told by fans of the industry to expect a teaser that week on that Friday. And so far, absolute crickets. Absolute crickets. We're starting to get some official words from Stern. Not that they're definitely releasing a teaser on the Friday of Binball at the Beach. this weekend, like this is finally the week. But, you know, that's kind of what I'm hearing. TPF is saying that that's going to be the show that the game debuts at, like it will be its debut show. So I think we're going to finally get this release out of the way. It seems like we've been not quite as bad as Predator. Remember how Predator was just dragging us along with, like, you know, sips and nibbles of, like, different reveals? At least there's been nothing officially revealed and, like, teased and then pulled back, right? But I don't think we need to have an announcement for a teaser announcement or none of that business. But Friday is probably when it's going to happen. Who actually designed this game? I guess we'll find out. It sounds like the marketing videos and everything have already been recorded. Those could be dropped at any time. And in lieu of spending millions of dollars for a Super Bowl spot, it sounds like we'll get a teaser probably Friday. Although I've been telling myself that for the last seven weeks. And then this game will be out when? I don't know. I know that we did get a official confirmation the media day is happening on the 11th. Correct me. I believe it's the 11th is media day that, you know, all of us that have a podcast or a YouTube channel or something have been invited over to Stern. We love that we're invited. Thank you so much. Thanks to the Portillo's and the memories and all the factory tours. The day before, distributors will be seeing this game. That is in line with every release that I've seen since John Wick. At least that's how long I've been involved in them. so I think we're going to get more and more at least bits and nibbles coming out about what this game is like after the distros get to see it because those guys cannot keep their lips buttoned and then shortly thereafter we'll probably get the reveal now they've said NDAs are going to be necessary for this game's reveal and that may be them just hedging their bets in case they don't quite get licensor approval by the time the media day happens but it's probably going to coincide right somewhere in there so if anything whoever sees it may get exclusivity in their brains for a day or two, and then I'm imagining this thing's going to get released, and we're going to have another Stern Cornerstone out there. What's it going to be like? I don't know. It still could come out and completely floor us. I'm expecting it to come out and be like, yeah, that's kind of what I expected, but I want to be blown away by these games. I want to mortgage my future in order to get one. I want to want it that bad. So Stern, I'm right here, man. Impress me, man. Show me what you got. Show me what you got. I want to see it. I want to play it. I want to catch them all. I want a Pokemon in my house And failing that I've got plenty of other stuff to play So I think we'll be okay Alright Jersey Jack Pinball Not a ton of news Although does there need to be It's the house of Harry Potter right now It's just boom boom potter potter potter I still don't think they're caught up with all their orders And when it comes to the launch of this next game Highly rumored to be Sonic the Hedgehog Highly rumored to be amazing As far as gameplay And highly highly rumored to have a CE cabinet That's got some new features that looks pretty cool and I got an idea what that might be. It wouldn't make a lot of sense to me. I'll get into it in a second. But essentially, they probably have this game just about ready to launch, you know, spring, summer, fall. But I think, honestly, they don't need to really turn and burn and drop this thing until there's an attrition with the Harry Potter sales. If they've got, like, six more months of just solid full-scale production until they're even, like, close to being caught up with Potter, I don't see the need to necessarily release this game early. You don't want to get into a situation where you're putting your new game on the shorter line because the big one is still going, and then we have everybody hyped for the new game, deposits are paid, people are calling their distributors every week, when's my number going in, have you heard any updates? We're starting all that, and then capacity is only at 20% or something of what it's going to be. That's not fun. Just use that extra 20% of capacity and crank through your Harry Potter orders. get caught up so that you can then completely flip the lines. So the primary line is churning out the Sonics. This game is building up a lot of hype. If it's halfway as decent as it's being hyped up to be, I think it's going to be another sales killer, and it's another game that, like, if you had waited six weeks before you put a deposit on there, it's going to be six to 12 months before you get your game. Hard place to be, and, you know, if that's going to be the case, at least set yourself up for success. So I'm okay if they don't drop Sonic right now. I'm okay if they don't drop it in March. I'm okay if it's like an October game you know, Expo is there in Chicago get caught up by Harry Potter's between now and then and then bring us that blue bomber of a cabinet so what's special about this cabinet? I know people have seen it, they can't talk about it but they're hinting at it that you're going to want it you're not going to want to put it in the middle of your lineup because you're going to want to see the sides of the cabinet, obviously so what's special about it? We've seen the top two tiers of JJP come with radcals thickened plexiglass rear printed you know glossy decals stick on things uh they go on your machine that feel a lot better than just a vinyl decal while you know still a fair bit from you know uh the spookies butter cabinet where it's actually clear coat to direct printed um but this is the next best thing i love radcals i'm a fan of them when i buy art blades now i buy radcal art blades and put them on there because i just love that shiny look that they have it's gorgeous man It's gorgeous. So what are we going to see on the sides of this cabinet that's not just a Radcal? And I think the only thing that makes sense to me is light-up glowing LED rings on the side of the cabinet. It's Sonic the Hedgehog. That makes total sense. Animated light action embedded in the cabinet. That's what it has to be. We've seen light-up glow rails. We see people making aftermarket upgrades for Harry Potter to give it that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland look from DPX. That Stumbler did. so is it a far stretch to say the jjp is going to do some routing and then the wood panel of the side cabinet throw a vinyl decal over there and embed some leds i don't think that's you know out of the ordinary uh realm of uh possibility maybe it's routed straight through and the leds are mounted from the inside of the cabinet and then the uh acrylic decal the rad cal that goes over it has translucent segments in it that makes sense um embedded leds inside the cabinet that are drilled through and then covered with a rad cow with translucent accents and then you have rgb lighting underneath there that's got to be it man that's got to be it that's fantastic you can do it on a cnc machine um leds are dirt cheap now they do amazing things they can be programmed they're addressable um if anybody knows uh rgb leds and pinball jjp's been doing it the long longer than anybody else so it's got to be an rgb light up cabinet it's going to sparkle it's going to look amazing. The CE is going to be the one to have. I hope it has a much better topper than Harry Potter came with. Would you get blue rails? You'd have to have blue rails instead of the chrome ones for this game. I can't wait to see what this thing is. It's supposed to be the fastest playing pinball machine ever. Remember, Richie, Mr. Steven Richie, Sir Steven Richie, I'm going to knight the guy. This is the guy responsible for the best part of the Star Wars 2017 game from Stern, that hyperspace loop. No one can tell me that the hyperspace loop is not awesome. When balls are racing around in there, when you get that hyperspace multi and you get one ball up and then you put the next one up there and you got two balls racing around in there and then that one time that you got all three up there that was a moment that was impressive you were like i think one of these balls is going to fly out of here and break the glass and break my face like it looked dangerous like it was exciting and so you know the drawback of course was that the shot was super tight to get it up in there that's the only thing that made it not satisfying but that effect was amazing magnetically accelerated balls running around that racetrack you get three up there you don't need a shaker motor because the whole machine is rattling you're rattling the floor god i love it what an exciting moment in that game imagine that all right but sonic the hedgehog 16-bit graphics are on that giant lcd screen um we got the music the cabinets lighting up there's under cab lighting behind backbox lighting the toppers going nuts uh rings are being gathered like you're going into a bonus mode like that sounds exciting you put that in a pinball machine i i think i'm interested especially when I just saw what you did with Harry Potter, and now you do it with the blue rodent 16-bit heartthrob from our childhood? Come on, man. Come on. Forget luma legs. Forget light-up leg protectors, like light-up cabinets that lift from the inside, shining through that rad count on the side. Yeah, I'm here for it, man. I'm here for it. That's what I'm expecting now, based solely on my own self-hype that I've been doing in my brain. But that's got to be what it is. I won't take just fiber optics. It's got to have shine through Radcow illuminated RGB LEDs from inside the cabinet. It's got to be that, at least on the CE. At least on the CE. Paying all that money, I want to get something that I can't just bolt on. That fits the bill. Let me know if I'm right. If you know, just send me a wink, send me a like, send me something. Let me know I'm on the right track. Dude, I'm hyped for this game now. I want to run over to East Palestine and go pick it up and whatnots and what have yous. What else have we not talked about? I have a retraction. I need to eat some crow Stand corrected With my buddies over there at Barrels of Fun Currently running through dunes And I'm worried in a similar situation With Winchester Mystery House Where it's kind of like it's on the B line Because you still have dunes to make on the A line And they need to flip them But then I haven't been there to see if they have true parallel construction Or whatever I think this would be a good moment When you guys get a time Jump on a YouTube live And just be like here we're going to walk around and show you our parallel construction Here's where our games are at just so we can kind of get a sense, well, there's 500 of us that are all waiting for Winchesters, and we, you know, we don't want to bug anybody, but we just kind of want to, like, am I, like, a one-month wait? Am I, like, a five-month wait? Am I, like, an eight-month wait? You know, just curious and ballpark with me. I'm not going to hold you to a date, but, like, am I going to get this game now? Do I need to wait later? Like, I still haven't told my wife about it. Like, am I cool for a little bit, at least through Valentine's Day, or do I need to, like, kind of prep her? Like, you know, that kind of thing, that kind of thing. So I had mentioned that the games that have gone out Aren't the ones that were built on necessarily the final production line And I called them prototypes I said that they were building like, you know, one-off kind of prototypes And getting them out to their customers Now, that was the wrong word apparently Prototype is the game that, you know, when you're in your lab creating this thing That's the prototype When you're, you know, we don't have a final sculpt in yet Because we haven't ordered them We don't have the final design But we have a 3D printed one that's been clear-coated, and we're using that in the machine. Like, that's the prototype. The production sample or the production machine is one that uses production parts, right? So this is instead of that 3D printed, hand-painted, high-gloss sample that you built and you've been using in your prototype, you actually got the box of 1,000 of them from China, and you're using actual production parts in the machine. Now, certain things may change. Wire harness decisions may change going down the road once they hit full production. but the games that have gone out are not prototypes but they're production machines, maybe production sample machines I hope I don't get in trouble again, but I just wanted to clear that up the other thing I mentioned was that I was in the situation where I kind of have some money on a game and I'm not sure exactly when it's coming in and I hate being in that position but I feel good about it because my homies are barrels of fun I know they're not haggis I know they're not CGC that's going to take months and months and months, I know they're working on the game I've gotten updates as well. Like, I can't tell you exactly when you're getting it, but this is kind of the time frame. Thank you, sirs. Appreciate that. You know, so I didn't want to insinuate that, you know, they were in any way like a haggis situation where, like, are we sure we're going to get our money back? We're going to get our games. They got our money. We're going to get the dune toppers. We're going to get all the stuff. I'm okay with that, you know. It's not even a situation like my friends over there in the Netherlands where, you know, you were promised a game in a year and they did 300 and something of them and you still don't have it and even some of those 300s that went out didn't get toppers and people are getting toppers now and nobody knows when they're coming like i paid all this money where's my stuff like that's a situation i don't want to get in that's not where i'm at with barrels of fun i think we're in a good spot i think that this company's you know starting to is continuing continuing to grow out in its capacity and uh you know the fact that they're even considering two lines now is fairly commendable. Now they just have to pull it off, and I know that's a lot of work, but I'm appreciative for it because it means we're going to get our great game soon. So everybody waiting on a Dune, everybody waiting on a Winchester, we're going to get them, they're going to come, everything's going to be fine. I just wanted to clear all that up. I wanted to clear all that up. Now I'm heading down to the beach in a couple of days. I saw my homies from Spooky. They're all on their way down there right now. They're going to hit the beach early and hang out because they've got Beetlejuice's all queued up to just go into complete production as soon as they get back. Ten games were produced. They're working. They're in boxes. They're in the box truck. They're heading down there. I'm heading down there in two more days. I'll probably show up around Wednesday-ish. I may bounce over to Epcot for a little bit. But then Thursday evening, I'm going to be over there in Tampa. We'll be checking in, getting everything kicked off. It's going to be fun. We're going to stand at the Rumfish this time, but it's right next door to the other one. I think it's going to be cool. Can't wait for Boardwalk Grill across the street. Food's pretty good. I think they even had cheese curds, if I'm not mistaken. I know they have fried pickles, and I think I ate half a dozen of them, probably a couple of times. So it's going to be cool. So coming up, programming note, in this weekend, there will be updates from Pinball at the Beach. I'm sure we're going to hear more. We're going to have a bunch of drunk pinball employees that all get together, that all know each other, that all worked at Bally Williams back in the day even. So I don't think Pokemon is necessarily going to stay a secret for long. and so since I have not signed an NDA if I hear anything I'm absolutely going to keep it to myself and not share it with anybody else so we'll see what happens I'm sure there's going to be news out of this weekend definitely going to be reporting back on how Beetlejuice is holding up on location at the show what people's impressions of it are are we going to see ramps road trip anywhere are we going to see Monster League hockey down there is there going to be a multi-morphic machine anywhere in the state of Florida for us to play All of those questions and more will be answered on the next episode of Don's Pinball Podcast. That'll be 228. It'll be a dispatch from the beach. Man, this is a jam. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. Email me directly. Go check it out on the Facebook page. Go to the patreon.com backslash Don's Pinball Podcast and be a bro and join up. Throw some shekels my way. I appreciate it. Info at madpinball.com to go ahead and order yourself a game. Everybody else, go check out the We Are Pinball episode. It's on Spotify. It's on YouTube. We had a good time. It's pinball, man.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v1)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 5c0e0a3b-0bfe-4b13-8120-0b4be0a568e6*