# We are Pinball WAP Episode 3 Stern John Wick LE WWE LE & Data East Pinball machines

**Source:** We Are Pinball (WAP)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-06-21  
**Duration:** 74m 12s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wap5/episodes/We-are-Pinball-WAP-Episode-3-Stern-John-Wick-LE-WWE-LE--Data-East-Pinball-machines-e2l59qu

---

## Analysis

WAP Episode 3 features hosts Cengiz and Adan discussing Stern's John Wick LE pinball machine, secondary market pricing trends, and a newly acquired WWE WrestleMania LE. Don shares gameplay impressions of John Wick, details about a custom Combat Master gun shooter rod mod he built, and discusses Stern's accessory pricing strategy. The hosts also explore the WWE game's underrated audio quality and late-stage code improvements by Lyman Sheets.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Venom LE pricing has dropped to $8,300 new in box on secondary market — _Don states he saw an 8300 LE version of Venom and attributes market flooding to lukewarm reception of the game_
- [MEDIUM] John Wick LE may maintain value better than Venom because fewer units were purchased initially, reducing secondary market supply — _Don speculates that lower initial sales could mean limited secondary inventory, preventing dramatic price drops_
- [MEDIUM] Stern shooter rod accessories for Jaws are outselling less well than other Jaws accessories — _Hosts note that Stern's $125 shooter rods are the worst-selling Jaws accessory, while Barrels of Fun's $80 version sold much better_
- [HIGH] WWE WrestleMania LE was purchased for $6,000 with only 90 plays — _Don confirms purchase via Carolina Pinballs/Marco Specialties partnership, verified by hosts as legitimate seller_
- [HIGH] Lyman Sheets significantly improved WWE WrestleMania code quality three years after release — _Cengiz states Lyman Sheets 'worked his magic on the code' and the game became much better, though too late for market perception_

### Notable Quotes

> "I don't feel bad about the purchase at all. But yeah, it's pricey."
> — **Don**, Early segment
> _Summarizes tension between purchasing satisfaction and market cost concerns that defines current pinball collector sentiment_

> "If this continues to happen, maybe Stern will wake up and say, hey, if you want to sell your stuff...you have to pay something."
> — **Cengiz**, Shooter rod discussion
> _Speculates on potential licensing model shift where Stern might monetize third-party modifications_

> "If I was Stern, I would have a pinball hanging out there, and a shark just jump out and eat that ball."
> — **Don**, Topper pricing segment
> _Critiques Jaws topper value proposition; illustrates gap between fan expectations and actual product features at $1,000 price point_

> "It's so WrestleMania. Come on."
> — **Don**, WWE WrestleMania discussion
> _Defends themed game appeal despite mechanical shortcomings, emphasizing IP/fan engagement over design perfection_

> "I have to honor Kerry Hardy here with a full-scale gun. I don't care if it's impractical."
> — **Don**, Gun shooter rod modification
> _Explains creative motivation behind custom mod design, referencing community influencer (Kerry Hardy) and prioritizing authenticity over practicality_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Don | person | Co-host of WAP; recently returned from Florida vacation; purchased John Wick LE; designing custom Combat Master gun shooter rod mod; acquiring WWE WrestleMania LE signed by Hulk Hogan |
| Cengiz | person | Co-host of WAP; discussing market dynamics, pinball accessories, and cabinet design philosophy |
| Adan | person | Co-host of WAP (mentioned in opening); part of core hosting team |
| John Wick | game | Stern pinball machine, LE model; recently released; features expression lights, shaker motor, multiple gameplay toys in Premium/LE variants; code at 0.82-0.83 version; early code stage |
| WWE WrestleMania | game | Spike 1 system pinball machine; underrated 50/50 audio-video split gameplay; code significantly improved by Lyman Sheets; low initial sales (very few Pro versions available); Don's newly acquired LE signed by Hulk Hogan, 90 plays |
| Venom | game | Stern LE game; secondary market flooded; LE version dropping to $8,300; perceived as not holding long-term collector appeal like Godzilla |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer; John Wick and Jaws accessories (shooter rods $125, topper $1,000); George Gomez mentioned regarding Spike 3 improvements and accessory release timing |
| Jaws | game | Stern pinball machine; LE comes with shooter rod; has multiple accessories (toppers, inner art blades, shooter rods); aftermarket Barrels of Fun shooter rod ($80) outselling Stern's ($125) |
| George Gomez | person | Stern Pinball executive; mentioned regarding Spike 3 improvements (quieter PSU/fan), cabinet design changes, and accessory release strategy |
| Lyman Sheets | person | Code designer; significantly improved WWE WrestleMania code quality 3 years post-release; transformed game from poorly received to much better |
| Kerry Hardy | person | Pinball content creator; known for 'gun-laden rant' on YouTube that inspired Don's custom Combat Master shooter rod design |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Aftermarket modifier; created Jaws shooter rod ($80) that outsold Stern's official $125 version |
| Carolina Pinballs | company | Pinball retailer; selling WWE WrestleMania LE in partnership with Marco Specialties; verified as legitimate seller |
| Marco Specialties | company | Pinball parts distributor; partnering with Carolina Pinballs on WWE WrestleMania LE sale; based in Columbia, South Carolina |
| Spike 3 | product | Stern's next-generation hardware platform; expected improvements include quieter PSU/fan, cabinet design changes, possibly backbox modifications |
| Southern Fry Gaming Expo | event | Upcoming gaming expo where Don and Cengiz plan to verify WWE WrestleMania LE purchase in person |
| Godzilla | game | Stern pinball machine; referenced as example of game with strong long-term collector retention (contrasted with Venom) |
| We Are Pinball (WAP) | organization | Podcast series; Episode 3 features Cengiz and Adan; 155 Facebook group members; 780 Spotify total plays across 3 episodes; distributed on 10 platforms |
| Combat Master | product | Terran Tactical gun customization package ($2,500 real-world cost); Don's custom shooter rod is 3D-printed in full scale based on this design |
| Wizard World | event/venue | Gaming venue in Indiana where Cengiz played WWE WrestleMania LE and experienced improved gameplay appreciation |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Secondary market pricing and collector value retention, Stern pinball accessory strategy and third-party competition, John Wick LE gameplay features and code development, WWE WrestleMania LE rediscovery and code improvements
- **Secondary:** Custom modifications and aftermarket parts (gun shooter rods), Spike 3 hardware improvements and cabinet design evolution, Pinball topper pricing and value proposition
- **Mentioned:** Community podcast growth and listener engagement

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Hosts are enthusiastic about pinball games and purchasing despite pricing concerns. Positive reception of John Wick gameplay and WWE WrestleMania rediscovery. Some critical commentary on Stern's accessory pricing and cabinet design decisions, but framed constructively. Strong community-building tone throughout.

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** WAP podcast listener growth signal; 780 Spotify plays across 3 episodes, 155 active Facebook community members, distributed on 10 platforms indicates emerging third-party media presence (confidence: high) — Hosts report Spotify metrics: '780 people have listened to our shows on Spotify' with discussion of requests for Monday/Friday episode frequency
- **[sentiment_shift]** WWE WrestleMania LE perceived as underrated; 90-play LE acquired at $6,000 signals collector recognition of late-stage code improvements by Lyman Sheets (confidence: medium) — Don's immediate $6,000 purchase of barely-played LE; Cengiz confirms game quality improved significantly post-Lyman Sheets code work: 'the game's code was so good, but it was too late'
- **[design_philosophy]** Custom mod design prioritizes authentic visual representation over practical ergonomics; full-scale Combat Master gun shooter rod designed to honor IP accuracy despite hip-bashing risk (confidence: medium) — Don explains: 'I have to honor Kerry Hardy here with a full-scale gun. I don't care if it's impractical. I don't care if your kid's going to bash his forehead on it.'
- **[market_signal]** WWE WrestleMania Pro versions extremely scarce on secondary market; LE listed at $10,000 previously (8 months ago, LA area) down to $6,000 recent acquisition indicates price decline (confidence: high) — Cengiz reports 'very few for the last year pro versions for five five five they are about there' and 'last time i saw one there was one about eight months ago in los angeles area for ten thousand dollars'
- **[market_signal]** Venom LE secondary market flooded with new-in-box inventory; prices dropped to $8,300, indicating lukewarm long-term collector demand compared to Godzilla (confidence: high) — Don observed Venom LEz at $8,300 MSRP new in box; stated 'people went out and they bought a lot of Venoms...and then they all got out there. It's not the game that – it's not Godzilla. It's not the game people want to keep long term.'
- **[community_signal]** Third-party modders (Lior) being hired directly by manufacturers (Dutch Pinball) to create licensed mods, shifting from independent aftermarket to official partnerships (confidence: medium) — Cengiz references: 'we have seen something like this already with Lior making those awesome high-quality mods, and then he was hired by Dutch Pinball to make mods for them specifically'
- **[market_signal]** Pinball topper pricing at $1,000 (Jaws) creates value perception gap; hosts expect sub-$500 price point would yield strong adoption (confidence: high) — Don states 'For $1,000, I built my own, and I'm happy with that one. If I was Stern, I would have...Now the shark eats the ball' and 'at a thousand it's like...If it was $6.99, I think they'd be very well received'
- **[product_concern]** John Wick LE differs meaningfully from Pro in gameplay through accumulation of small features (crate opening, drop targets, ball locks); Premium/LE features affect core gameplay satisfaction (confidence: high) — Don notes 'five different little gameplay elements and toys that they put in the premium le' and 'all those things really do affect gameplay like bashing that crate open is satisfying...the physical ball lock is fun'
- **[product_strategy]** Spike 3 expected to address noise complaints (fan/PSU), with potential cabinet design changes affecting cosmetics and compatibility with existing Spike 2 lineups (confidence: medium) — Hosts discuss George Gomez statements on Spike 3 solving 'a lot of problems' including quieter PSU/fan; concern that cabinet redesign will irritate collectors with mismatched aesthetics
- **[business_signal]** Stern may implement third-party licensing/approval fees for pinball machine modifications if aftermarket competition continues suppressing official accessory sales (confidence: low) — Cengiz speculates: 'If this continues to happen, maybe Stern will wake up and say, hey, if you want to sell your stuff...you have to pay something' referencing Nintendo seal-of-quality model
- **[technology_signal]** Stern shooter rod accessories underperforming vs. third-party alternatives; Jaws LE pre-bundling shooter rod creates channel conflict with aftermarket sales (confidence: high) — Hosts confirm Stern's $125 shooter rod is 'the mod that's that's selling the least' while Barrels of Fun's $80 version 'sold like crazy' prior to Stern release

---

## Transcript

 Are you ready? Yeah. Coming at ya! It's WAP episode number three! With Cengiz and Adan, let's go! WAP is in effect! Wrecking the place! Mack it all over your baby's face! What's up Cengiz, how you doing buddy? Hello, best of me, Ben Deva. It's so good to have you back here. It's so great. We're talking about pinball machines. We are pinball. We love pinball. Welcome, everyone. Oh, in English, okay. Welcome, everybody. We are pinball. We are so happy we're talking about pinball. Don is back in the house. Bringing that dance key. I love that, dude. Oh, Don, how was the vacation, man? I missed you. It was completely epic. I just spent over a week in Florida, just out in the heat, baking my brain. Playing some pinball as well. Dropping some content. I'm still trying to get caught up with everything that's gone on the last couple weeks. It's been nuts, man. And you just came back and you got your brand new John Wick limited edition pinball machine. God, this is like the greatest looking machine. I'm telling you guys. I'm looking at that backlash right now. Why is it not turned on, man? It's not lit up. Because of the loud blower fan that would kick in. Probably why it's not turned on. Actually, on my top list on Stern Spike 3, the top thing I want is a brand new, more powerful PSU with a silent fan on it. That's number one on my list. Don't you think that will be included on Spike 3? So, George Gomez did mention, like, we've heard everybody's comments and Spike 3 is supposed to solve a lot of problems, basically. So, I hope that means a quieter fan. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. So, you just came back from vacation. yes you picked up your beautiful john wick limited edition that game looks killer so tell me about the game you have played the pro you're probably the only le let's hear about the hilly is it worth the money no of course not are you kidding me look at how much these games are what game is worth the cost of it is now um i will say i'm having a blast with it um you know I don't feel bad about the purchase at all. But yeah, it's pricey. It's pricey. I don't know if we should talk about the market first because it's not a bad place to start. Don, you just hit the nail on that one. That's the most important part. You're having fun. You're enjoying. I mean, 90, 95% of the people are just so happy that you got this game. But we got this 5% that wants to, you know, be so negative and cry about you just bought this and you lost $1,000. box who cares you're having fun that's the most important part so if i was right there on the purchase like should i make it shouldn't i the thing that pushed me over the edge into getting it was probably that five percent of loud theater people just to cheese them off man so i mean each purchase is individualized for me i've been doing this thing where i've been trying to see if it's possible to have you know the brand new stern keep it for four to six months sell it get the next one and see if I could have a rotating game, if that made sense. And this is game number four. I was going to do four. This was the last one, so everything was kind of lining up. But the market now is completely different from where it was when Foo Fighters came out, which was that first one. And so a couple of observations I have. All right. People went out and they bought a lot of Venoms, MSRP, new in box, and then they all got out there. It's not the game that – it's not Godzilla. It's not the game people want to keep long term. And so they're just flooding the market. so the price is down like i saw an 8300 le version le version yeah it's a new game man so that has completely spooked everybody on jumping into inbox now john wick good game again not godzilla more like a deadpool or a bond probably very early code um but i think people would still want it it's a cool game especially with the expression lights and everything that you get and a lot of people are probably waiting like i want to get a john wick for 8300 i'll just wait but i think everybody is doing that and there's not going to be that many sold i don't think this is going to sell like like venom sold and so we might be in a situation where when we wait four months there's not a lot of these on the secondary market because there were not a lot of them purchased initially so you're thinking if it maintains value because of that yeah a few months back this scenario was with jjp games where people said i just wait and i'll you know get a couple of thousands uh cheaper so you're saying that same scenario has jumped over to stern games also right now probably everybody yeah yeah um but imagine that if there's still new inventory for msrp and there's not a lot of used inventory for these these might sell for like you know 12 11 5 or So they're not going to drop to eight. I mean, Zach is selling the Elise. He has no trouble with it. He's buying new. What was the last video he made? He put in some premiums in there, new premiums. So he's selling. But a lot of auto distros are saying that it just doesn't move. Nothing happens. Godfather CE was the same way. I think they were sitting. Toy Stories, I think, are still new in box if you want to get some of those. Pirates of the Caribbean they didn't sell and you know, Scranton things they were just in boxes I mean, many many years back Circus Voltaire they couldn't sell they were just in boxes but then we got shortage in the market and you know I think this game when it goes up to code 1.0 I think it will get much much more popular and not many games out there, I think I don't know, it's a cool cool theme okay it's a really cool theme and look at look at the quarter he's geeking out on every video we watch so a couple of days ago stern released a video where they showed that every explosion in the video will give explosion on the light on the speakers on the sides of the cabinet what do you think about that because me i don't look at the screen i would just be confused all the explosion you're just playing and all of a sudden it just explodes exposed blinks and the shaker goes but you're not looking at the screen how do you feel about that oh yeah so while you're playing i notice it mainly in the modes and i just got this new code in a couple of days ago um there was a very tiny version it's a 0.83 um i got the game with 0.82 code and there was a moment where it did do that so i was surprised but there is more of it now not an overwhelming amount but as you're playing a mode and i've got the le's i've got the shaker motor i've got the the lights in the cabinet the lights in the backbox and then you know i'm not watching the screen while i'm playing but as i'm playing i'll start to hear a mode where there are that gunshot pop pop pop pop and i'll notice the bright flashing lights and then it's like and i could feel it i could feel it with the shaker like you've got to have the shaker so it works it works so you notice it i'm like oh cool it's doing that thing yes this mode going because it's awesome i want to have the scene play out so it works because when when i just listened to the storm video i was like i I was like, I don't look at the screen. I mean, it's cool for your friends while they're watching, looking at the screen and these explosions and flashes, but it's just so new for the player. How will the experience be? But if you are saying that it gives you that effect, I'll tell you what, the ladies in the bar are going to notice it and they're going to come over and be like, oh, can I feel it when it rumbles? It's like, yes, you can. Stand right there. Oh, yeah, baby. They know what they're doing. yeah so all in all you're you're happy with the purchase oh man oh man yeah um so like i was fortunate enough that i live near chicago so you know as soon as the first you know pro wick was on site i was able to to be there the day it was unboxed and then i got invited to the factory to play that premium and um you know my takeaway from the pro was that it did shoot well the code was very early um it doesn't have a huge toy on the premium like a godzilla building you know or you know some some big mega upgrade but i'm counting about five different little gameplay elements and toys that they put in the premium le and you really do appreciate those when you play them i know a lot of people haven't made a premium play field yet because those are just getting out there but yeah there are fun little things in there and the sum of them is what make it makes it awesome um at first i was thinking this was going to be like bond where where you go from the premium or pro to premium there's not a whole lot a bond on a wand um you know an under playfield scene that doesn't interact um you know a little fully sculpted tank instead of a plastic you know kind of neat but nothing major but these things really do affect gameplay like bashing that crate open is satisfying the little drop the little drop target that traps the ball back there knocks the ball backwards that's fun the physical ball lock is fun that drops the balls into that play I feel like all those things that are missing on the pro, like I think, you know, I would have loved to see the Continental building explode or something. Like a helicopter or something would be kind of cool or some cars racing around the track. But it does add some gameplay and some fun. So if I can say that without being a shill, I'm having fun with the game. We don't care about being a shill. We just love pinball. We are pinball. We're just enjoying pinball. That's the whole reason these listeners are listening to our show. Talking about listeners. Wait, we're not done with John Wick, but on episode two, we just found out about we want to share the numbers, right? So let's share Facebook and how many listeners. Okay. So our Facebook group is just open for everybody. joint members on facebook right now on we are pinball page wop is 155 members so okay real cool real cool welcome everybody the fun part is when we make a post after an hour we can as admins go in and check how many people has uh you know was reading this post or you know yeah Yeah, but that number is double of 155, and I was like, what's going on? So this Facebook group is just open, so people are not members, but they can just come in and join. I don't know if we should close it to members only so we can say, but yeah, let's just leave it open. It's cool seeing people will just kind of come by and make their own posts in there. Yeah, absolutely. Here's a mod I got or here's something I saw. That's cool. We can just build this community that doesn't belong to a specific distributor or a specific media channel. It's not an official company page. It's just the community coming together. We are pinball. It's for everybody. We'll build a house on Facebook for pinball people to kind of drift in, drift out. Yeah. So we just leave it open. That's why the number doesn't really jump up, but there are many other users in there. That's really cool. So that's the first number. The second number I just want to share. This is what we're going to share our numbers openly. So last time when we did this, I said that we had like 250-ish listeners on our show. But that number was Spotify listeners only. That wasn't because you upload our shows on many, many different platforms. Ten different platforms. Yeah. So today's number is the 21st of June. Only on Spotify, total plays is 780. Wait, that's just Spotify or is that total? That's our Spotify listeners. What? Total of our three shows. That's amazing. Yeah. 780 people have listened to our shows on Spotify. That's so cool. I don't know how to check out Total, but I am so humble. I'm so happy. So people are listening. People are enjoying, and people are writing. We need to make more shows, and some people are saying we should make Monday and Friday shows. I think that would be too much, Don. That's a lot. That's quite a bit. I'm trying to keep up with just all the news on the regular podcast and the live stream and everything. Absolutely. I just want to ask you, with this microphone, how is my voice? Is it too high, too low? Is it okay? It's sultry. I feel like your voice is like a warm hot tub enveloping me. Nice. All right. So one more thing about your John Wick machine. So we talked about on episode two that you were modding this gun shooter rod. And you installed it and you shared pictures. How does it shoot? Is it cool? It's definitely cool. It's almost there. It's almost there. So what I did is I took one of the Terran tactical makeovers of one of the pistols from the John Wick movie. I found an artist online, bought the model from him, and then I set to work trying to find a way to do this. Now, every gun shooter rod has been essentially just an auto launch. You pull the trigger, the ball auto launches. I wanted to still be able to do skill shots I want to find a way to turn it into a plunger and what moves like a plunger on a handgun but the action right the slide on it the slide on the top so I cut the file up and separated it so essentially I turned the whole slide um of the the gun uh on the receiver into the shooter rod and then I found a way to mount the rest of the gun to it so yeah it sticks out but it's full scale it's a full scale gun and it does work it's so amazing now I I have a little clearance issues I have to tighten up. The tolerances are very tight with what I'm doing. So it does bind just a little bit and doesn't give you like the full satisfaction. But a couple of more revisions and I think it's going to work great. Yeah. Few adjustments. And do you want to, are you planning on selling these if people want them? If people want them, I'll find a way for people to have them. You know, just like most of the mods that I make, I make things that I like. And then people are like, hey, I want that too. And then it turns into a product. This gun does stick out because it's full scale. It mounts to, it's all one piece printed for the gun body, and it all mounts and bolts to the existing stern shooter housing, using those little holes that are utilized for some of the light-up shooter rod LEDs. So it does mount pretty well. It sticks out a bit because it is full scale. I'm thinking of making one that's about, you know, has half the barrel cut off, but the grip is still full size, so it'll only stick out a couple of inches, and you'll still get that nice slight action. That was my first impression when you shared with me from a month ago or something. The first thing I think, it's just too long. Cut a few centimeters or what do you say? Cut one inch in the U.S. That's like two and a half centimeters. At the time, this idea came into my brain. It was right after, you know, Kerry Hardy's gun-laden rant on YouTube, which was just fantastic. And so I'm like, I have to honor Kerry Hardy here with a full-scale gun. I don't care if it's impractical. I don't care if your kid's going to bash his forehead on it. You need to be true to a gun enthusiast. Did you hit your hip with it? If you jump around too much, it's pretty robust, though. I've reinforced it where it attaches there because you can have it print at full thickness, 100% infill around there. So, I mean, casual bumping activity is not going to hurt it. So for gun lovers out there, what's the name of the gun it's designed after? Do you know the name? I can't remember exactly what it is. Let me see. Nine millimeters something. We have to honor them and say it's designed by this. Yes, I'm trying to find the exact one. So what it is, it's a gun, not the PIT-5, Combat Master. Combat Master. Terran Tactical takes a gun and then makes it over with this Combat Master package that makes it look awesome and so that's the one that I found and just that it's like $2500 to have your gun made over apparently and it's cool man I kind of want one of these now man I don't know well I have the gun on my last action hero but yeah it is an auto plunger but it looks cool man but it hits my hip and the same happens on my deanna jones bam you just walk into it when you're repairing when you're walking around the paywall machine bam i'm like what the hell it happens but it looks cool in my home lineup this thing's gonna be perfect because you can put it right up against the wall where you're not really gonna bash into it and it'll just be kind of fun and if it works great i'll keep it on there if not i'll i'll just put a bullet on a shooter rod and have that whatever this is just this was fun to make it's just fun a lot of work it's been interesting talking about shooter rods yeah we just got from stern again we're talking about stern still uh we got accessories for jaw spin ball and the shooter rod is the uh the mod that's that's selling the least we got that we got toppers we got inner art blades i'm thinking you know what because stern is waking up stern sales are not like before stern is not like illies are sold out day one blah blah blah if this happens because we have another company that that sold these uh shooter rod mods for jaws it looked like the ones that was on the illy same size same shape half the cost yeah how about if stern wakes up and says you know what because of this mod community we not selling our mods they should pay just like if bosch will make disc brakes for your car they should pay true christ or whatever how about if stern wakes up and they say these mod people if they want to put stuff on our brand they should pay us 20 or something licensing licensed third party mods yeah yeah it could right now they don't care yeah right now you can do whatever you want to do and sell them that would have to come with the stern seal of quality on it though too just like if you were making games for nintendo right oh yeah you make a game you submit it to them rigorous testing and then they put that seal on it right or you can just make like some some budget black market crap or something you know yeah i don't know seal of quality stamp that would be a seller i mean that could be nice and that in that way maybe we could get different toppers because we have huge mod community out there we could get five different toppers and you know all approved by stern where it could be you know blinking after the light system off the game off the modes it could be so awesome just an idea what happened though you know what happened um you have to submit your mod to stern they'd have to go through and quality test it and then maybe they would approve it but stern has to has to license the license from the license holder right so then it would have to go to you know amblin entertainment or whoever spielberg or whoever owns the license to jaws and it would probably sit there for two years waiting to get Oh, that's not a shooter rod or something. I should. Yeah. But it's like like with the Nintendo example, if I was making a Nintendo game, I would go to the licensor first, get approval to make the game, then submit it to Nintendo for quality testing and then get their seal. So I don't think that the hold up would be necessarily if Stern was interested with them approving it. But then it would have to then go to that licensor unless the mod maker went to a licensor ahead of time, which would be, you know, I don't know. That just seems fraught with problems. Well, I get that side of that. But in this scenario, Stern releases these shooter rods, and mod community has already filled up the market with it. It doesn't sell that much. If this continues to happen, maybe Stern will wake up and say, hey, if you want to sell your stuff, maybe it shouldn't be approved by them, but if you want to sell anything that goes into any of our machines, you have to pay something. Now, we have seen something like this already with Lior making those awesome high-quality mods, and then he was hired by Dutch Pinball to make mods for them specifically. Oh, yeah, that's another – that's a very cool scenario, very, very cool. But you know what I mean with these shooter rods? I mean I got told that they didn't sell that good, so it's interesting. That's probably why. The LE for Jaws came with that shooter rod. So the people that want all the accessories, the LE buyer, they've already got it. So they're not going to buy another one. And then everybody else wanted to be like the LE. And the barrel shooter rod from Balls of Steel was like $80. And it sold like crazy. And it came out before Stern. Yeah, yeah. And so a lot of people probably, like myself, I've got one on my premium already. So I don't need to buy the $125, I think it is, shooter rod. That destroys Stern sales. Yeah. So that's why maybe they will wake up and say, hey, what's going on here? If they would have turned around at the launch and said, here's our LE. It comes with the shooter rod. Everybody else, we have it on the web store. Go buy it now. They would have sold them all through right then. That's it. But George also said in an interview that all the accessories will come up earlier. They will stop this two years waiting thing. It was already approved from the licensor if it was on the LE. so I think they want I'm sure the shooter rod had been done maybe the topper was waiting for approval they wanted to wait and release everything all at once but yeah if they would have dropped that the same day Jaws dropped if the shooter rods were in the web store they would have just been sold like crazy I think yeah so what do you think about the topper thousand dollars it's not two thousand it's only a thousand it's so cheap cheap so I feel the same way about the Foo Fighters topper I think the topper itself, it looks cool. You know, I dig it. It's going to have cool interactive lights. As far as like, you know, what all's in it, it's some flat plastics, a lenticular graphic, some flasher lights. There's nothing that moves in it. You know, there's not a shark that pops up and pops down. There's not a monzo rally on skis flying across it, you know. So for $300, $399 all day, I'd get one. For $1,000, I built my own, and I'm happy with that one. If I was Stern, I would have a pinball hanging out there, and a shark just jump out and eat that ball. Just to say to the community, here you go. Now the shark eats the ball. I would have thought that. If it was $6.99, I think they'd be very well received. I don't think you'd hear hardly any complaints. at a thousand it's like but i'm i am glad it's not two thousand that would have been insane oh yeah oh yeah they need it feels like if it has got something that moves they want a bit more a bit double the price you know yeah but you know i've been talking to people though and they say i buy every official stern topper i don't care i have to have it so yeah so if they have like six games with a topper on and they get game number seven and it's it's missing that topper it looks odd and us pinball nerds we really want everything to shine everything to look good with this stern spike 3 the cabinet design is going to change that's gonna irritate so many people like you that has got 18 stern games in a line and then spike 3 will come in and change that is it a good thing a bad thing i don't know maybe it will accelerate the spike 3 purchase and people wants to get out with their spike twos because they want the new design it i don't know it's it's weird yes i mean i don't think we're gonna see a huge redesign of the cabinet as far as the dimensions i think we're you know they've got a formula that works it's worked for a long time they've got hinges that work it fits through doorways how about the backbox it's the backbox i'm thinking about i think yeah i think that's where we're gonna see some changes maybe not in the overall outside dimensions but probably the position of the screen the the size of the speaker grills you know that doesn't matter i i i i was thinking about when george not george lucas what i was star wars when george gomez says the cabinet design will change i'm thinking if that backbox gets a bit lower you know that would just irritate everybody or i don't know lesser or not that because it has got one little board inside i mean they could make that backbox half the size they could remove that backbox and have the score screen down in the like on circus voltaire we don't really need that backbox the only reason we have got this backbox is because in a bar or you know location to lure in people so yeah i'm really looking looking forward to it man to spark Yeah, so Turner Pinball, on their first iteration of Ninja Eclipse, the backbox didn't have a back to it. It was empty. There wasn't anything in there because, really, there doesn't need to be anything in there anymore. Boards aren't huge. They're smaller than a license plate. So he put all the boards under the play field, and then he didn't need all that cabinet space. He didn't need all that backbox space. And then you got a product that looked like it came from just the department store. I still want that full-size aesthetic. yeah you're right you take the back glass off one of these games and there's just like a little little computer board little node board like that's it you know yeah that that's yeah and you could have that little board on the play field also so yeah yeah it's it's only a matter of screen but audio it's so good to have speakers in front of you that just blast audio and on Jersey Jack, they put the speakers up top. That gives a whole other audio aspect because I'm really an audio guy when it comes into pinball machines. I love the audio. That's why I want to talk to you about the next game if you're done talking about John Wick. Yeah, I can talk for an hour. Yeah, sure. It's so cool. Okay, so the next game I'm going to talk about is a game that no podcaster, no YouTuber talks about. This is the third Spike-1 game that's called WrestleMania. Didn't it? If I had John Cena queued up there, man, that would have been perfect. So about a year ago, I bought this WrestleMania Pro, and I made a video where I listened to the audio package, and I was amazed. I could hear John Cena. I could hear The Rock. And it was just while filming, just about the same day I got the game, I was like, who made the audio for this? this is so cool and donnie you are like whoa man that game it looks awesome and it feels like you're having fun jengis and you love wrestling and you have been looking for wrestling and the pro versions very very few for sale because this game just like you said on john wick this wasn't a popular selling game so today we have seen very few for the last year pro versions for five five five they are about there so you you hit me up yesterday and you said what yeah yeah i said i found i found an le of wwe and it's signed by hall cogan oh it's uh it's got less than 100 plays i don't know why i'm asking you for permission because i already bought it but congratulations man so we had we had this talk because you hit me up and you said you found the early version and that's with the hulkster and i am a real american i love that it's so 80s i love it i love it and yeah it's 50 audio and 50 video that that visual that's how people list and the audio package on this game on wrestlemania it's so good you hit me up and you said that you found this for six thousand dollars only six thousand for a limited edition and i was like whoa i really want the limited edition but there there's nothing for sale nothing here in skin last time i saw one there was one about eight months ago in los angeles area for ten thousand dollars for a pretty nice looking home use only le you know and i i was like i i want it but i I don't know when. And so, yeah, the other day I saw a Facebook post. It was only 15 minutes old, 6,000, and like barely played. And I'm like, that's it. Yeah, you wrote to me and you said it has – you sent me a screenshot. It had 90 plays. Yeah. That's crazy. And I said, I didn't know who the seller was. I just want to protect you as a friend. I just said, okay, this is a Spike 1 system, Donnie. you can actually go in on on not spike 2 new spike 2 but spike 1 systems you can actually go in and reset total place so i said this game can be reset it it can have you know a thousand games but this is and then you told me that the seller was it's a carolina pinballs was selling it in in conjunction with marco specialties so yeah i mean marco columbia south carolina so i think these guys are going to be legit so here's the thing you're gonna let me come pick the game up at southern Fry Gaming Expo. So we can go do the deal there so I can make sure it's completely legit. Oh, man. This is insanely played. This is like a jewel. $10,000 for a limited edition. You have the screen? You have the screen where you can watch wrestling? You have LE speakers? I'm in there. Yes. So I played this game before the pro version, and I'm like, okay, I get why people dog it, but it's WrestleMania. Come on. And then I played an LE at Wizards World in Indiana. And I was like, oh, my God, Titan Toronto is there. I can pick the wrestlers. I can pick Hulk Hogan. I can pick the – just a fan of wrestling. If you hated wrestling, didn't care about it at all, this game would be a dog. That's over half of it is just like I can play these guys with this music and just like yell at the thing. Look at Miss Elizabeth over there. Don't you look at her. the top mean gene you know like the call outs they're like yeah yeah it's so good i mean the music is amazing on this game the music in the background it's so awesome okay shots and layout it's not it it's not a it's not an l-wing game we all know that when the game came out it you shot everything nothing really happened for two two and a half years until Lyman Sheets just took this game and he worked his magic on the code. So three years later, the game's code was so good, but it was too late. Stern just stopped producing them. Right now when I play, the code is so cool, but nobody has experienced the newer Lyman Sheets code. Make sure to update it to the newest code. You will enjoy this game. If any game needs an audio package upgrade too, this one, man. Oh, wait, wait. So when you buy the LEs on Spike 2, they put Kenwood speakers. I don't know how it was with the Spike 1. Did they put better speakers? I have no idea. I've never been able to get my hands on a Spike 1 and look inside it. Okay, because today when you buy the Pro and Premium, you get very cheap speakers. When you got your John Wick, you will get Kenwood, and the sound is just so good. Same happens. We had our discussions with Iron Maiden Pro. You said, is that an okay game? And I said, no, get the Ellie, the speaker system, more toys on Iron Maiden Ellie. It just, that game you need the Ellie. I love it. But if you have got the great speakers, then it's cool. But if not, you need to get, I just installed Pinsound speakers in my Pro. The floor is shaking. It's so good. When I listen to the rocks music. and every time you are in game and then you need to hit the drop down targets all three and they pop up and you need to hit them one more time and then he says something the announcer says coming from west Florida something something 265 pounds the rock and the music it's so good it's just 1989 for me I'm watching you know under the dragon so your video and the enthusiasm as a muse show today was what kind of put it back in my head that like let me take another look at this because casually i had played it a few times in big arcades but and i was like you know let me take another look at this game and then playing the le myself i was like all right let me just put this game on the list so if i ever do come across one in like great shape i can just you know maybe now of course it happens like as soon as i got the same week i got my wick when i should buying anything else. Last we were talking about you should sell a couple of games. Now you've got WIC and you want wrestling also. I mean, you need to sell something. There's some room up now. So I got two games going out this month. Oh, going out? Which games? Which games? Let me hear. Let me hear. Jaws Premium is heading to Bellingham, Washington, Washington State, to 1UP Lounge. These guys are like, Don, we like what you do making over these games. We want to put them in our arcade. And I said, bet. so that's shipping out here next month and i'm going to go out there congratulations invited me out there to do the unboxing we're going to have a tournament and i'm going to eat a bunch of seattle pizza it's going to be nuts man oh so cool man congratulations to them yeah yeah this this is the prettiest jaws premium that exists on the planet i just it's pimped it's pimped we know it has got the cantographer bucket and everything it's so good man it's so good what's the what's the other game you're selling oh just a godzilla premium over there what ah what did you sell it it's godzilla man it's number one available and i've got again one of the best looking premiums it's modded out stumbler mods are in there all of yours mods are in there the top is on there the full powder coat and the apron cards eric i went over did you get did you get okay amount or was it like 8-5? It was 8-5. It's a friend prices. Going to a friend of mine. Is that the guy that hit you up that wanted the game? Yeah. This guy made a video of his cute little seven-year-old daughter just pleading like, Don, can we please have this game? He sent me that damn video every day for three weeks. I'm like, hi. Okay. Let it go. let it go so here's the other thing there are a lot of godzilla premiums modded similar to mine for that price all over pinside right now people have heard this rumor that the black and white 70th anniversary edition is coming and and everybody's dumping their godzillas so like that's the market price right now so yeah i'm not getting i'm not getting the 10000 five that i would have liked for this game but if down the road i want to get it again i can pick it probably back up for about that price or if i know you you will just buy the black and white person we know you're done it's like you know elvira you had an elvira and you hit me up man they just came up with this one should i do it should i do it and yeah actually one of the times when you hit me up you said i have a trade i have a trade over jengis i can give i don't know which pinball it was but Yo, wait, wait. It was you could give your spooky Halloween and you could trade that with GGF Galactic Tank Force Yes, that was your question. And this was like a year ago or something. I don't remember now. So what do you think? What do you think? And I said, no, don't do it. Don't do it. Back then. So you didn't do it and you enjoyed your spooky for some more time. Yeah, that wasn't a straight up trade. either that was like trade us this plus two thousand dollars for a show floor used galactic tank force deluxe edition and i said no no donnie you're new don't do that don't do that actually when you said two games are leaving you had eight you have 18 games or something on 20 how many games do you have now do we have numbers on let's say 20 i don't know it's 18 including the the homebrew yeah yeah so the usual listener will think okay two games are going out at this game this guy really likes his game on episode two we talked about all your games and how you rated them yeah people would think you will maybe sell one of your spookies because they're identical you have you know the texas chainsaw and the loony but but you're keeping them both the same layout but you're loving it loving it man yeah these games are fun they're just they play so different and And Spooky really commits to theme. I don't think any other company could have done. They could have done a Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but they wouldn't have done it the way they did it. They wouldn't have made the play in the pillars and torture Pam in a freezer and do it to that level. These guys, I don't want to tell them this and give them any ideas, but they didn't have to put like three quarters of what was in this game to make a satisfying, commercially successful game. They went overboard. that's the spooky way when you buy a CE you get the topper, you get inner operates, you get molded sculptures man powder coated ramps how's that powder coat holding up still good how's the magnet and the door everything just like on the shadow does it hold up, does it work fine for the most part, occasionally there's a little bit of a weak pulse um but uh more times than not it's functioning just fine because you mean when when it wants to suck the ball into the door it doesn't shoot all the way in or what do you what do you right yeah yeah sometimes it just kind of weakly comes off of there and a roll down okay so that that does happen occasionally now you can quote that and give it some more power actually i did hear from luke and he does have a way that there's you go to the menu and you can adjust all that stuff i just haven't bothered to do it because It really hasn't been enough to bother me. It's, you know, out of 10 times, maybe once or twice it'll happen. Okay. That's fair. Yeah, for the most part, it's smacking right up against that door. I'm seeing some wear on the sticker on the door where the ball smashes into it. But the coin box has extra stickers in it. So that's... Is the door made by plastic or metal? I think it's 3D printed. Okay. Okay. But it appears... It's just a sticker, man. Yeah. So you have probably played a lot of games on it too. It's so like, yeah, when you just get in the mood and go over there and just like play that game, like it's just a vibe. It's hard to casually go by and like play that once and then go play Elvira and then go play Jaws. It's like you got to be like, all right, I'm going to spend some time with TCM here and get into this mode. And then you put the headphones on or you just listen to the audio. It's nuts. Actually, I want to ask you, because we're talking about J.J.P. and Stern prices tanking in the U.S. How is the used prices on these newest spooky games? Have you checked the market out there? Yeah, so the new ones... Or are they holding value? The new ones are doing a lot better than Scooby-Doo. So when Scooby was about halfway through its build, you did see a lot of them show up on the market, and then they were selling cheaper. And then those are all sold, and the market's really tightened up. There's not a whole lot of Scoobies available anymore. I did see one Looney Tunes pre-sale. Someone sold it, I think, for $1,200 for the $2,000 deposit. But that's kind of like the only one I've seen. Okay, so no really used games for cheaper price out there in the U.S.? No, there was a time if you did wait on Scooby-Doo, you could have bought somebody's $2,000 deposit for around $1,000. And some a little bit below. There was a time when that was happening. And then it looks like that's dried up now. I mean these days if their newest games are holding up that's that's telling me something that's really cool man yeah absolutely do you think they will come up with their next game in December or September like all the I mean September of 2024 put some money to the side it's going to be crazy September month I'm telling you guys yeah I gotta dig my heels in and not buy anything because i don't have to sell you need to sell two more games i mean i have to sell star wars and i'd have to sell my big lebowski no no no no i'm not a good value man geez um how you were also thinking about um what's it called labyrinth yeah maybe it's still that maybe if you're done with that but it's not easy i know but you know what i've i've played the heck out of Labyrinth. I know that feeling. Yeah. I know that feeling. When people say, when my friends are over, they say, why don't you have, for 10 years you have had medieval madness in your life, but why don't you have medieval madness at home? I'm like, I've played it so much. If I listen to it one more time, I will go crazy. I cannot. Super jackpot! yes yes absolutely i really like the love the colors of that drunk king yeah king of bourbon or something knock knock let's go out and fight or something he was really cool i missed that guy but i just when you play a pimple we have these terms it's bolted to the floor it's bolted blah blah yeah but when you have played it so much i mean if you give me a theater of magic i will not take it if you give it for free i would not take it because i don't have room i don't want to play it it's just i'm just done so i know what you mean by that so no games are ever bolted to the floor it is what it is it keeps the lineup fresh you know i love have it like what how much how cool is it to have like the newest game in your home it's like all the hype is there the code is really you get to play the game as the code comes out that's that's so fun and you can only do that once when it's new you know and then you get all the plays out of it you had a great time with it and then you get it on to somebody else and then then you get now you can go buy something else that's the exciting part you know and then if you lose a thousand bucks i mean so many people are not so many but they're just this five percent so negative about it i mean it's a hobby it's an experience if you have car hobbies or whatever i ride motorcycles they lose they lose value When I ride 2,000 kilometers, I want something else. It loses like 30% of the value first week. It is what it is. We're just used to these about COVID times that everything just jumped up in value. But back then, Stern couldn't produce. They were backlogged. You know how it was. Those scenarios are over. So let's just treat pinball like every other hobby. Yeah, and Jake is like you can take your family on a Antonio Cruz and spend between $2,000 to $6,000. Monitors have a great time, and then you've got the memories, but no physical machine to then sell and offload. So yeah, if it costs you 20% of the cost to have that game for six months and just play the ever-loving crap out of it, mod it, put little things in there, and then get it off to somebody and then get something new, I don't see a problem with that. You only live once, and you're enjoying this. I'm not saying go ahead and take a loan and buy. I'm not saying stupid stuff like that. No way. Home equity, line of credit, a second mortgage. No, no, no, no. Nothing like that. Just if you have the money, if you have the room, because let's face it. Now, I don't want to sound like a smart ass, but we're like grown kids that have extra income, that have extra money. We want some more toys. I mean, people in this hobby, how can I say it in a nice way? They have money. They have money. Okay. They know what's what. And if you want to go ahead and enjoy this, I think you should just do it without all the negativity. If you don't have money to buy a $13,000 John Wick, that's also okay. that you can go like Don here, buy a $6,000 WWE limited edition version. The games are out there. I, right now, after 20 years in this industry, I always shit on Data East games, like 99% of the people. We said, you know, in some episode, I'm going to go 20 years back, I'm going to tell you how the market was. You won't believe what I'm telling you. but we all said you know belly belly williams games nobody wanted the dead east games but now i'm buying these dead east games for 2 000 bucks upgrading with pin sound you know it's the audio package is the worst part of those games yeah just upgrading everything under 3 000 i'm having so much fun what's the kid's name that unveiled john wick on youtube first day everybody was about him do you remember his name is it like a pinball i think his name uh youtuber vick pinball vick yeah yeah okay yeah yeah yeah what gosh yeah yeah i think his name was vick pinball okay so i was i was on youtube watching some people this guy's pinball video popped up and you know what he bought a two thousand dollar data east wrestling game he was streaming it he put a color dmd screen on a pin to dmd screen on that for two thousand dollars this guy had was he was just having a blast he was having so much fun and next to it he has got you know godfather and and toy story and now he has got this two thousand dollar game from dades wrestling and he's just having a blast so it is possible you don't need to be a millionaire just find about a theme now wrestling we're talking about wrestling it's not a thing that people want it's not a thing that people like but some people grew up with it if you're in your 40s it's awesome and look at look at this vic pinball guy he's having so much fun look at donnie when he buys his game you're gonna have a blast so just think logical when you go into this hobby it's so much fun yeah you know i met somebody at a conference that uh you know didn't have a lot of disposable money but they found a busted game somewhere and they spent some time with it they fixed it up got it functional sold it off for a small profit used that to buy another fixer-upper and eventually they ended up with a totally decked out bally williams diner and it was like so good looking they're like this is what we did when we first got our first game it was full of cockroaches it was out in a it was out in a barn they've been 20 years it was gross but we spent some time with it we fixed it up we got it sold and then we used that to get a little better game and they just worked their way up like there's a way to do it man absolutely and it's so cool to find these born finds with small mouse droppings in there and clean everything up vacuum clean put in some melodies just deck it out and make sure it's placed if you want some help you you have so many facebook groups now you can go in and ask for help you have pin sign pin site you can go in and see i have got this uh whatever pinball machine i have got this fathom from 1981 the flippers doesn't work what should I do so many people in there. They're just – everybody is so helpful. The community is so nice too that if honestly people just like, here's my budget. I want something. Does anybody have anything? Yeah. And somebody will reach out and say, hey, I've got this. Here you go. Yeah. And on that Vic Pinball video – sorry, I mentioned it again now. He said about that game. He bought it for $2,000. He will put – I mean he's enjoying it, that day-to-day game. He will put it out for sale for a profit or trade up to get better, better games. And wrestling was one of his themes that he really wants and likes. So it's so cool, right? So in that way, just if you don't have the means for it, just start it up that way. And you know what? It's so satisfying. It's so satisfying. So I did this for many years, right? So one day I found this old belly game that was called Emperor Ming. What is it, man? The guy from 81 that flies. Flash Gordon. Flash Gordon. Yes. Yeah, exactly. So it was for sale for 500 Danish kroners. And 1,000 Danish kroners is, let me see, $150 or something. Okay. Did you just? I'm looking it up right now. Okay. Let me see here. Let me give you the, is it 6.8? It's like $73. 1,000 kroner, 143. No, no, no, 500 kroner. 500 would be $70. what yeah yeah yeah this is like 10 years ago and those old belly classics don we're gonna make a show about this they were unsellable unsellable and i'm gonna tell you how we got parts you won't believe what we did people will be angry about what we did we burned the cabinets i'm gonna tell you everything yeah yeah we we burned them like no good gophers we burned them those cabinets okay I'm going to find some pictures. That's another show. That's another episode. It's so dumb. That's why we don't have that many used games left. But yeah, Flash Gordon, $73. It was like 20 minutes for me. I was out with my girlfriend. I said, should we pick this game up? Okay, so we wrote there and we picked it up. It was in a barn and it had got this red doo-doo inside. Yeah, cleaned it up. Okay, after that date, I cleaned it up. used a day on it okay cleaned it up just make sure everything worked and i sold it for 12 000 danish nice and i used a weekend on it that's like let me see here 12 000 divided by 6.8 that's 10 700 us dollars and i bought it for 70 so you can do this you can get these beat up games and just you know make them beautiful build them up and i mean after 20 years of estate sales i finally i i got one from somebody that that their parents had this game in the basement for 10 years and they're like you know make us an offer it turns out it works and i picked up a wipeout a gottlieb wipeout you want to pay the price yeah 800 bucks is it is it playing can you turn it on Every mechanism works. There you go. A couple of burnt-in pixels on the DMD, that's a quick swap out. I don't think they took the glass off in 10 years, so I need to go tighten up everything. But everything's working. Everything's working. And it's so satisfying to repair this and make sure that everything just works. Then you can get, I don't know, maybe $2,000 for it. I don't know the prices, but you can get more than $800. Trust me on that. I've got plans for this thing. I've already talked to Frank with Cab Customs. He's got updated graphics that look amazing that he's done with the wipeout. We're going to do custom purple powder-coated armor with, like, cutouts in the side of it. This thing is going to fucking sing when I'm done with it. It's so cool, man. So they are out there. So this hobby, it's still a beautiful hobby. Don't get mad. Don't get negative. But just because you can't get $20,000 for your tryout zone anymore, it is what it is. you can't get 40 000 for your pirates anymore it is what it is that's the market look at the housing prices they just i mean look at the houses they're getting so cheap every day and cars are getting i mean it is what it is some people are just so angry about it just leave it think like don does he is now selling his um godzilla for eight five and he if you want one six months later he can get the same game again it's so easy to find these games everywhere everywhere yeah still it feels like if you're a pinball connector you need to have that game right it just feels like it's great it still plays man yeah yeah everybody has one if you're right if you if you if you visit one of your pinball buddies it is absolutely still in production too i can go out right now and go get a brand new in box one straight off the line and have just a brand fresh new game again and then i get to go and mod it again so yeah that's the cool part just Godzilla forever and i don't think that's a bad thing yeah and i can't believe how the rest of this year is gonna go um what i'm thinking of doing is actually not buying anything the rest of the year so i can go i want to go back i want to go back on location and play games x97 i want to then i want to have a reason to go to the bars and go play this game in public you know um so you're telling me now on episode three that you won't buy more games for 2024 new games, new inbox. Look, listen, I lie to myself all the time. So this is nothing. I should make this a joke by saying that companies should just invite you. Then you buy everything. People are saying that but that doesn work because you got invited by Dave fix and you didn buy barbecue so that joke doesn work anymore oh man have you played have you paid that game more since i played a lot of barbecue and uh yeah um there's things right it's yeah six it's under seven thousand dollars yeah like 69 or 68 is it getting better do you want one or is the location pin how do you feel about it it's a great location pin when i go into the arcade and i see it there i'm like all right let's put throw some dollars in barrio's barbecue challenge let's take the selfies let me take one of my podcast stickers and stick it on the the side of the backbox there's no one to tell because it looks like there's stickers on it already and then i'm good man um oh man talking about those stickers you sent me stickers from the chinese wall yesterday what we need to give that guy a kudos what's his name i guy i don't want to release his name i don't know if he wants me say his name okay okay but thank you from here this was a guy that that i was doing a live stream and i'm like okay let me give away a couple of chicken buckets and and he was one of the random ones that guessed right and i'm like i'll send it out to him and he's in australia so i'm like great that's going to cost me 40 bucks to send this little plastic bucket out there so i stuffed it i put a shirt in there i threw some stickers in there and i'm like here you go guy and then the other day he texts me this picture of my sticker on a brick wall and i'm like oh okay that's whatever And then he zooms out on the video. He's on the Great Wall of China. Down, bimbo, bop, bam. That sticker is the Great Wall of China. And I'm like, my God, man. I'm going to be like internationally pursued now from the Chinese people. Do you know why they built that wall? Either because of the Mongolians or probably because of an easement. I don't know. Because of Cengiz Khan. Cengiz Khan. That's how I got my name, man. We can't have that. It's so cool, man. So, Donnie, on our shows, this is show number three, but we give these shout-outs. We talked about Zach's show, about Zach, and shout-out with Loser Pinball and all over the place. Today's shout-out, I want to share something here. Yeah. I'm so bad with names. I don't remember names or I say them wrong, but this name is really cool. So a month back, I made a show with Jason from Pinball Party on my YouTube channel. Cool guy. I listened to one of his podcasts and I was like, whoa, this guy seems like a cool guy. Invited him. He said, yes, we made a show. All right. So I went into his Facebook group and I joined. And then a couple of days later, I see a show he puts up with a guy called Kale Hernandez. Oh, yes. Yeah. I don't know nothing about that person. So I go in and listen to this show with John, Jason, I'm sorry, Jason and Kale Hernandez. Hernandez. I love that. Hernandez. Yes. And this Cale guy, I'm telling you, he has figured everything out. Such a cool guy. I mean, when he talks, I mean, I can really relate to how his thoughts are, what he's thinking about. Really cool guy, Cale Hernandez. And then I found out about that he has a location with his wife. And they do a podcast show called Electric Bat. Electric Bat. There it is. and they talk about location pinball they talk about earnings i can only talk about this you know openly with my brother and yeah but we do this and i love it and when i went in and listened to their show it was so good so in today's shout out jason from pimple party kael hernandez from Electric Podcast and his wife Rachel yeah she's so cool also she has the sweetest laugh ever so I met them a couple of times first time at Pinball Expo just briefly here and there super cool people I went out to their arcade in Arizona it's the coolest place and they got two locations one in Tempe Arizona one up in Flagstaff but the big one is in Tempe which is like the Phoenix Arizona area how many pinball machines like 45 or so so here's the thing you walk into this place and it's in a strip mall that looks like it's been closed for 20 years and i'm like am i in the right spot it doesn't say pinball on the outside it says yucca tap room right yucca is a type of desert plant you go into this place and it's like a punk rock bar with a stage and cool people they're doing drinks and it's dark and and smells a little musty i love it and then you walk into the next room and all of a sudden here's a China pinball machines and Japanese rhythm games and a little tiki bar with a skeleton on it. And it's like such a cool vibe. And then there's one more room when you keep going. And here's all these games. That's where I played Tales from the Crypt most recently. And then when I got one, like they've got a good one up there. They've got a Bond 60th anniversary you can play. Like they've got a great collection of games and they are all working exceptionally well because they know what they're doing. They know how to keep these games working, keep them operating, get a bucket full of tokens. and they're always doing events and things. Such a cool place. How much does it cost per play? $2, $3, $1? $1, $1, four tokens. All the games only $1? Like Wipeout. Whirlwind is like $0.50. Okay. Wow, we charge much more than $1. That's for sure. Okay, so if they can make money that way. They have a cool promotion every month. I think it's every month. they pick a game that they do like a month-long tournament on. Whoever gets the highest score gets like a cash prize. And so you put in $2 to play that, and then it will record your score somehow. And then, yeah, so they kind of do that cool promotion. So like the day I was there, it was Godzilla. So if you put in $2, then you can try to play towards winning maybe $50 at the end of the month. That was so cool. When you said that it was punk rock in there, His wife has got this punk rock Gothic theme going on If you have met her So cool But Cale Hernandez He doesn't look like a punk rock guy I really like him So yeah That's today's shout out Those three guys Can you say guys for women also? Yeah Those three guys They are today's shout out Just go in and check their stuff So amazing, man. So cool. Donnie, we have some questions. I mean, we should do this show only for an hour maximum, but can we answer two questions? Of course. You have time? Okay. So on our WAP page, we are Pinball Page, I asked, do you have some questions? We have incoming questions. First of all, from Kenneth. Next pinball theme rumors. Zach and Greg got me wondering about Stern and JJP and Spooky's next ones. I got distro info. I can't really share that. Can you share anything? Or should we talk about rumors only? Yeah. Or should we just shut up about this? No, no. I think it's totally fine to talk about rumors. I don't have any inside information, which is good. I like to be in that spot. You know, I don't want – I know I'm friends with the Spooky guys, but like we keep a good wall of separation. We're like, um, you know, I, I haven't been in their office and look at the next upcoming four games from them. I've been to the office door, but there's no way to see into it. And I didn't try to like peek under the skirt or anything or drill a hole in the wall. And I think that's fine. So I don't ask them, Hey guys, what's your next theme? What I asked them is, Hey guys, how excited are you for your next theme? And their eyes light up. And that tells me something. these guys are more fans of pinball than even i am so if they're digging it i can't wait so um you know i don't yeah the beetlejuice rumor came out and then kind of fell flat i don't think that's next that's the gist that i'm getting but um you know they've got you buy that game build you i'll buy let's just talk about rumors that we're allowed to talk about rumors without juice i would for sure buy so and and which company should make that because i think if Beetlejuice was made by Stern, if it was made by JJP, and if it was made by Spooky, there'd be three completely different games. Yes, absolutely. I mean, Beetlejuice, I would completely ignore it. But if I should choose one company to make Beetlejuice, it would be Spooky. Or maybe, wait, Spooky, or maybe Barrels of Fun. Those two companies. Okay, I guess. Yeah, I would – yeah. So other rumor, Metallica we heard about from Stern. Would you buy that? Maybe down the road. I don't know if I would jump to get it when it first comes out. It depends on the price. Not in 2024. You cannot buy more new games in 2024. If it's $14,000, I'm going to go play that on location. But I do have an appreciation for Metallica, and it would just be so cool if it had like some live concert footage playing and some better expression lights in there. I think that would help. An upgraded audio package. Yeah. So if that's a new game on the Spike 3 platform and it's got better audio, better visuals, better lighting, that would be a great showcase for it, I think. I just need a new layout for that game. I need more toys, more stuff, more stuff. I mean, I like the hammer knocking down the ball down to the coffin under the playfield. But visually, it takes a lot of space. You can't really see what's going on in the middle of the game. But really, really cool effect. I'm not the guy that, you know, toys are not a must for me. If I want toys, I turn on my, I don't understand this game, never has been remade yet, my Totem, Tales from the Arabian Nights. Somebody remade that. Jail bars at the outlanes, when they pop up, you can hear the magnet. You can hear the coils. They're just holding up there. And they're holding the ball. and my jail bars are made of gold and it looks yes so good the lamp the magnet at gd it grabs the ball and then the ball vanishes onto the playfield so you shoot a ram and it can divert in different directions and one of the directions you can just shoot it and then it will go to the left or the magnet can magnetize and suck the ball you know vertically it's so cool so toys i play that game but toys are not a must for me i can still enjoy metallica pro have you played the pro version i i have mostly i've played the pro and just recently again at wizard's world i was able to play the top end edition and yeah i just i i want the game if it's got spinners on the better one i want the spinners yeah you know just like i must be able to get the premium because i I wanted the extra little stuff, man. Of course. I mean, after I started this Data East madness, I have great respect for spinners. It's just you have bought details from the crypt. Three spinners. Yeah. Perfectly located. On Last Action Hero, it has got a spinner. Your middle shot is a spinner shot. And when it's shooted, the ball goes in there. And I have oiled my spinner clean. And all of a sudden, it spins like an opto spinner. and it gives this gunshot no no no no no when you spin and just the ball goes into three pop bombers and they give gunshots so every time you shoot there with pins on audio it's like machine gun in here when i play the game it's so cool man yeah i love spinners i mean yeah godzilla greatest game available right now three spinners oh yes yeah dude the spinner next to the building on Godzilla, you can do that shot all day long and it's so satisfying. Is it Eberra? That spinner on Godzilla to the far left, that's not an easy shot. So you got an easy spinner, you got a medium one, you got a hard one. When I find Eberra, I go for that hard one first because if I get that, I know I can finish the mode. Oh yeah, so you can get that over there. Such a cool game, man. I want to end this video by talking about Metallica. So back in 2024, I moved to this new place. I had my little game room with Medieval Madness, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I got my Metallica, right? 10 years ago, Donnie. Yeah. So I was in my Metallica mode and I was playing and the music was rocking. We love Metallica in Europe like crazy. And the drummer is from Denmark. So it's, yeah. so i was playing and the door was knocking and i was like i have no appointments with nobody so just go away i just ignore i don't open my door if people doesn't call me up first i was just playing and this door second time third time it was knocking and i was like what's going on lars from metallica no no no much much better okay i go to the door i open up this door there is this lady so beautiful very short hair she had her hair to the left very short i usually i don't like short-haired women but she was so pretty and i was like who's this is it somebody my friend sent me or something hi metallica running in the background and she was like hey i'm your neighbor okay and she lifts his her hands up and she has got two six-pack beers and she's like i could hearing you were listening to uh metallica and i love metallica i just want to say do we have a party inside what's going on i want to join i i got two two six-pack beers i was like no man i'm playing pinball machine and she's like and she did this lady she was 27 back then she said what's that you don't know what pinball is no i was like okay come on in inside so she came in and she saw when I play games I turn on all my games I love the light show so she went in there she was like whoa this is like Tivoli you have visited Tivoli in Denmark a music park whoa this is and I said yeah come and play so I showed her how to play pinball and she lived here for about two months she should she sold her apartment before but we had a relationship for those two months We still write, you know, happy Christmas, something, something, Merry Christmas. But, man, that Metallica game gave me one of the, what's it called, best experience with a total stranger. So I scored a beautiful, beautiful lady with a pinball machine. I'm trying to find some of these porn music to put with that score. You should have played that, man. It was just so cool. I got this beautiful lady with, yeah, what a pinball machine. Isn't that amazing? That is so much better than Lars showing up at the door. If you want to listen to 90s porn music, start a new game in Judge Dredd. Yeah. Oh, my God. That's porn music. Shout out to Ryan Barry. That's his favorite game, Phantom Tilt Podcast. Oh. Yeah. Didn't you say that Ryan, his name? Yeah. Yeah. Didn't you say that he wanted to join this show? Oh, yeah. We got to reach out to him, man. Oh, man. Come on. I also have got some requests. Yeah. Coordinating a time zone between Denmark, the U.S., and Australia. That'll be fun. This show is international. I mean, if you're a good friend. I don't know him, but if you're good friends with him. He's a top bloke. Okay. Okay. Then he should join. Absolutely, man. Maybe he could be here on episode four. Why not? All right. I'll put the feelers out. Yeah, baby. Okay, Donnie, put out some awesome outro music, and let's say see you to all these great, great people. Oh, we had more. We'll take the questions on next time, okay? It's our email address. Oh, wearepinball69. Remember, wearepinball69, gmail.com. Remember that 69. Because a troll took wearepinball, so just ignore that. wearepinball69gmail.com or just join or just join our WAP group on wearepinball on Facebook and just ask there. Just come on in and check the page, man. It's so cool. It's so interactive. More interactive in there than a page with a couple of thousand subscribers. I'm really enjoying it. For sure, man. Yeah. Come on in the door, everyone. Absolutely, man. Let's get some cool outro music, man. Are you done with your 70s porn? No, I think I'm going to listen to this for the rest of the day. Yeah, let me hear. Have a great day, everybody. RETROCENGO and Donnie out. Oh, wait. I'm Django here. I'm not RETROCENGO. I'm just Django here. We're out. I'm in 70s porn mode, man. Get it more up. Let me hear it. Yeah, baby! Everybody down is dancing like crazy. Oh, the plumber's here. Are you here to listen to the hype? Dude, can you imagine if they made a pinball machine with music like that? All the 60-year-old people would buy it, man. Oh, yeah, baby. Come on down and get some groovy. I ain't talking about no gravy. Just some grooves, man. Solid gold. Solid gold!

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 5c285a4b-7cd5-4edd-8851-13c5836e86c8*