# The Pinball Roundtable - LIVE from Pinball Expo 2025

**Source:** JBS Live  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-10-17  
**Duration:** 41m 51s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtgoSqnrNuQ

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## Analysis

JBS Live hosted a roundtable discussion at Pinball Expo 2025 featuring Jamie (Jamie Virtual), Rachel Best, Cale Hernandez, and Retro Ralph. The group discussed the expo's highlights, particularly praising the homebrew section as stronger than ever and stealing the show. Key games discussed included Winchester (sold out in 24 hours), Predator (a heavily anticipated homebrew with strong reception), Monster League Hockey, and various other releases. They also covered Stern's new All-Access leaderboard service ($99/year), Don's planned midnight launch event concept, and the homebrew topper contest.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Winchester sold out in 24 hours with exactly 525 units produced and no additional run will happen — _Jamie confirmed directly from talking to the designer (implied Van Gould or similar) about a pitch for '526' (one more) being rejected with the statement 'This is I'm not going to go back on my word'_
- [HIGH] The homebrew section at Expo 2025 is bigger than Stern's booth and represents about a quarter of the floor — _Multiple speakers (Rachel, Retro Ralph, Kale) confirmed this observation while walking the floor_
- [HIGH] Monster League Hockey was built on a modified Alvin G Soccer donor machine with six flippers and FAST/MPF architecture — _Retro Ralph's direct observation: 'taking an Alvin G machine and doing what they did, it's pretty badass'_
- [HIGH] Predator homebrew had zero bugs, no resets, and only required glass removal for stuck balls during extended play — _Kale's first-hand experience: 'it was flawless. Like we we only had to take the glass off a couple of times for some stuck balls. The the flippers were nice and no resets, no weird game, no bugs'_
- [HIGH] Stern Pinball-Access leaderboard service costs $99/year and includes factory tour access, merchandise discounts, and free shipping on accessories — _Jamie discussed the service details and pricing structure; mentioned early adopter pricing at $80_
- [MEDIUM] Bug from Spooky Pinball is not attending Expo 2025; he is hunting instead — _Don stated Bug is 'not here' and 'went hunting.' However, later chat claims say Bug announced on livestream he's coming Friday, creating contradiction_
- [HIGH] Jack Danger homebrew machine in an Iron Maiden cabinet is being rewired with FAST system during the expo to become playable — _Retro Ralph: 'they took all the wiring out and put the fast system in it' and 'Aaron from Fast Pinball is going to help him get that thing flipping'_
- [MEDIUM] Don is planning a midnight launch event for a future Spooky machine with pre-party at his house and organized march to factory — _Don described the concept in detail but stated 'I got one more person I got to clear it with and then we're ready to go'_
- [MEDIUM] Alan Sylvestri composed the original Predator soundtrack, and the homebrew's complementary composer impressed the licensing team so much they approved tracks without major revisions — _Retro Ralph recounted meeting the complementary composer who said: 'they were so happy with how well he kind of complemented the Allen Sylvestri soundtrack that they didn't really have a lot of back and forth'_
- [HIGH] Tournament qualifying at Expo 2025 was extended to 3:00 a.m. due to higher-than-expected attendance and queue times exceeding one hour per game — _Jamie reported: 'they ended up being way, way, way bigger...they're leaving it open until 3:00 a.m. this morning for qualifying'_

### Notable Quotes

> "homebrew is bigger than Stern"
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~3:00 min
> _Reflects the growing scale and quality of the homebrew section at Pinball Expo relative to commercial manufacturers_

> "This is I'm not going to go back on my word. My word was to these people that this is going to be limited to 525 games."
> — **[name withheld pending review]**, ~27:00 min
> _Confirms Winchester's hard limit and designer's commitment to scarcity despite demand_

> "it was flawless. Like we we only had to take the glass off a couple of times for some stuck balls. The the flippers were nice and no resets, no weird game, no bugs"
> — **Kale**, ~18:00 min
> _Validates Predator homebrew's build quality and reliability despite initial skepticism_

> "I think that's a great idea. It makes no sense. And that I love it because there's never been a midnight launch for a freaking machine."
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~36:00 min
> _Community enthusiasm for Don's novel midnight launch concept_

> "he's a new hire. He might not. He's not on all the emails. They don't He's not in the company Discord yet. He's not on the Slack. They don't tell him everything."
> — **[name withheld pending review]**, ~48:00 min
> _Humorous but revealing about internal communication at Spooky Pinball regarding Bug's attendance_

> "There's going to be an attract mode where the game plays itself...There's going to be a wire form over the flipper and when it hit that wire form it knew to flip."
> — **Retro Ralph (about Monster League Hockey)**, ~40:00 min
> _Highlights innovative technical feature in homebrew game design_

> "I'm okay with $100 a year, personally...the thing about free shipping on accessories is a direct purchase thing"
> — **Retro Ralph**, ~32:00 min
> _Community perspective on Stern's All-Access pricing and value perception_

> "The guy that did uh Friday the 13th...like that was one of the greatest games for him like last year for homebrew. And like dude killed it again the next year"
> — **Retro Ralph (about Big Trouble designer)**, ~44:00 min
> _Recognition of homebrew designer's consistent quality across multiple years_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Jamie Virtual | person | Host of JBS Live roundtable; pinball content creator and enthusiast |
| Rachel Best | person | Panelist on roundtable; pinball enthusiast actively searching for Winchester machines |
| Cale Hernandez | person | Panelist on roundtable; pinball player and community member |
| Retro Ralph | person | Panelist on roundtable; pinball content creator and enthusiast; forgets equipment (mixer) |
| Don | person | Host of Don Pinball Podcast; saved the expo live stream by providing his mixer; organizing homebrew topper contest and planning midnight launch event |
| Jake Danzig | person | Designer of Monster League Hockey homebrew; local to the area; game gaining significant attention at expo |
| Jack Danger | person | Homebrew designer; brought Iron Maiden cabinet with playfield; game that helped him get hired at Stern |
| Aaron | person | Representative from FAST Pinball; assisting with wiring Jack Danger's machine at expo |
| Erica | person | Co-creator of Erica's Pinball Journey; traveling with Aaron collecting homebrews across America for Predator display |
| Bug | person | Associate at Spooky Pinball; reported as not attending Expo 2025 (possibly hunting) |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Pinball artist/vendor; brought goodie bags and blankets to expo; created Space Hunt game |
| Alan Sylvestri | person | Original composer of Predator film soundtrack; music featured in Predator homebrew |
| Randy Martinez | person | Artist who created artwork for Soul Glow (Coming to America) homebrew and Star Wars Comic Edition |
| Monster League Hockey | game | Homebrew pinball game featuring head-to-head hockey with monster theme; built on Alvin G donor; dual-flipper design; gaining major buzz at expo with 100+ pre-orders reported |
| Winchester | game | Jersey Jack Pinball machine themed around Winchester Mystery House; sold out in 24 hours at expo; limited to 525 units with no rerun planned |
| Predator | game | Homebrew pinball game based on Predator film; received extensive play at expo with hour-long queues; praised for flawless operation and fun factor |
| Pinball Expo 2025 | event | Major annual pinball convention held in Winchester area; homebrew section occupies ~25% of floor; tournament extended to 3:00 a.m. due to unexpected attendance |
| FAST Pinball | company | Pinball electronics platform provider; assisting with homebrew machine wiring at expo; booth sponsor of JBS Live broadcast |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; customized machines at expo selling for ~$16k; flagship designer Bug's attendance status unclear |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; launching All-Access leaderboard service for $99/year; Jack Danger hired there after homebrew work |
| Don's Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast hosted by Don; running homebrew topper contest with voting through Saturday noon and playfield prize drawing |
| Marco Specialties | company | Pinball parts supplier; provided booth and Wi-Fi for JBS Live broadcast |
| Great American Pinball | company | Customizer of Spooky machines at expo with modded armor and internal upgrades |
| All-Access Leaderboard | product | Stern Pinball's new home leaderboard service; $99/year with early pricing at $80; includes factory tours, merchandise discounts, free accessory shipping |

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** Homebrew section at Pinball Expo 2025 is dramatically larger and higher quality than previous years, occupying ~25% of floor and exceeding Stern's commercial presence in scale (confidence: high) — Multiple panelists confirmed homebrew is bigger than Stern, with consistent quality improvements year-over-year
- **[product_strategy]** Jersey Jack Pinball's Winchester maintains hard limit at 525 units despite strong sellout demand, with designer explicitly refusing to produce additional run (confidence: high) — Jamie recounted direct conversation where designer refused '526' pitch, stating commitment to original word to customers
- **[gameplay_signal]** Predator homebrew demonstrated exceptional build quality and reliability during extended play period with minimal mechanical issues (confidence: high) — Kale reported zero bugs, no resets, only routine glass removal needed during marathon play session
- **[community_signal]** Homebrew pinball community showing sustained production quality and innovation; games like Predator and Monster League Hockey attracting mainstream attention and hour-long queues (confidence: high) — Extended play lines, positive sentiment from experienced players, technological innovations being implemented
- **[market_signal]** Customized Spooky machines at expo commanding ~$16k price point with heavy modifications by third-party customizers (confidence: high) — Great American Pinball-customized Spooky machines selling for approximately $16k with custom armor and upgrades
- **[product_concern]** Mixed community reaction to Stern's All-Access leaderboard service at $99/year; some view as justified infrastructure cost, others feel it should be cheaper or monthly (confidence: high) — Roundtable discussion shows split opinion: Jamie/Retro Ralph accepting $100 cost, others preferring $5/month or $60/year model
- **[event_signal]** Tournament area at Pinball Expo 2025 exceeded capacity expectations with queue times exceeding 1 hour per game, requiring qualifying extension to 3:00 a.m. (confidence: high) — Jamie confirmed unexpected attendance surge forcing schedule extension and volunteer needs
- **[design_innovation]** Monster League Hockey implementing auto-play attract mode using wire-form detection mechanism below playfield for self-play functionality (confidence: medium) — Retro Ralph described technical implementation with flipper wire forms triggering automated play
- **[personnel_signal]** Spooky Pinball's Bug (new hire) appears not fully onboarded into company communication systems including Discord and Slack, creating information gaps (confidence: medium) — Kale joked that Don/Bug may not have access to company emails or Discord yet, explaining potential attendance confusion
- **[community_signal]** Don proposing unprecedented midnight launch event for future Spooky machine with pre-party and organized group march to factory; community enthusiasm high but final approval pending (confidence: medium) — Don described concept in detail, noting need for one more approval; community expressed strong interest with people ready to book travel
- **[licensing_signal]** Predator homebrew successfully licensed and integrated Alan Sylvestri's original film soundtrack; complementary composer's work approved without major revision cycles (confidence: medium) — Retro Ralph reported meeting complementary composer who said licensing team approved tracks with minimal back-and-forth
- **[content_signal]** Don Pinball Podcast running homebrew topper contest with voting through Saturday, public choice voting mechanism, and playfield prize drawing for voters (confidence: high) — Don announced contest details: voting deadline Saturday noon, awards at 1:00 p.m., playfield prize for randomly selected voter

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## Transcript

It's going to be It should be live now. It's just going to take like maybe 30 seconds. All right, let's go. Maybe we got a delay. We're live. Oh, we are live, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome. Welcome to Pinball Expo 2025. I'm sitting next to my good friends Rachel Best, Kale Hernandez, and Retro Ralph. What's up? Howdy. I am Jamie Virtual, and uh we are live here at Pinball Expo. We thought, why not go live? And uh Ralph forgot the most important thing, which is the mixer. Yeah, this is a true story. And uh who bailed us out? Other no other than Don from Don Pinball podcast came and brought his road cer down for us, ladies and gentlemen. Pretty cool. Thank you, Don. So, uh let's go. Trash can ninja. He's been waiting. I know we're late, but let's just start off. Here we are. What do we think about Expo so far? You just did a woman in pinball uh seminar. I did. It was great. The expo was great. Uh Winchester is great. So is Do you think I know Kale's texting? We'll leave him alone in a second. Uh do you think it's stealing the show? In my opinion, it is. Oh, I think the two things are. I think the homebrew section this year is I mean every year it's stronger and stronger. This year it's incredible. It's like a quarter of the floor. It feels like home. Yeah, homebrew is bigger than Stern. And just the quality of the machines year to year, like usually it's that's cool for a home brew, right? And I think now we're starting to get past that point into just like regular. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I think um I that's that was my feeling walking through the homebrew section like that game Adam that you hug you sort of hug it and play it. Yeah. I played it uh it was either last year or two years ago and it's like he made so many improvements in it like codewise and just reliabilitywise. So it's just stuff like that like these guys come to these shows and they continue to evolve the things they bring and so like year after year like the Sonic game and Pokemon like those games. Yeah. What's going on buddy? Oh man, I'm just trying to hold it together. This is uh another fantastic expo and you know it's always about the people and I love hanging out with you guys. It's good to to see you again and a lot of of folks that we a lot of folks we only see once a year. Yeah, I know. Yeah, that's a lot of fun. Uh but this um this this homebrew area, it's crazy, right? Oh my I think this is stealing the show. This really is. Um, just the the amount of games here. The the Mad Max game, Elf. Uh, Coming to America. What's the one that uh what's the one that your buddy What happened to my No, no, that was me. I did that. Oh, yeah. Crank me back up. You're back up. Monster League hockey. Did you Monster League hockey? Jake Danzig. We might have that at the bat, right? Like, we got to talk to him and see. Well, I haven't talked to him, but he's local, so it a possibility. Something that's very cool here. Um, but it's not ready to flip right now. Jack Danger brought his the the Jack Danger homebrew machine. It's it's right there. It's got the what the playfield up in the Iron Maiden cabinet. So, that is basically like that is the game that got him hired at Stern. That's his CV. That That's correct. That's his CV. And uh before the 400 lb CV. Yeah. Before the end of the show, Aaron from Fast Pinball is going to help him get that thing flipping so we can actually play it. Oh, I didn't know that. Okay. Yeah, they took all the the wiring out and put the fast system in it. There you go. Dude, that's going to be so cool. Yeah, I didn't know that's what we were doing. That is awesome. What they're doing, not to be able to tackle that in one weekend, too. Um there over there, they've got some crimping machines. So, there's like uh big spools of molex. Uh it's just really cool to see how you can like make stuff instead of like by hand where it takes forever. So they can actually achieve something like that in a weekend instead of a month of arthritic hands. Well, thank you to Aaron. Your mic is too low. I'll put it up a little bit. Okay, maybe that's better. How about me? How's mine? Yours should be Is mine good? But Craig, you said, "Hey, Craig, you." Thanks, Craig. Appreciate that. Um, it has been just fantastic. Again, I'm only here till tomorrow morning, but I wanted to cram as much in as humanly possible today. I think you did that. And uh we forgot the damn mixer. So if you're just joining us, it's Ralph's fault, but Don from Don Pinball's podcast is taking care of us. And then thank you to Marco Specialties for hooking us up with this booth here with with Fast Pinball. The table, the table, the Wi-Fi, and most importantly, the power. Yeah, we need power. We needed that. So, thank you for them. Uh let's get to some of your questions. How many Diet Cokes am I in? I'm rocking eight. I'm probably low for you in a day. Rookie numbers. Those are rookie numbers. Do you have similar concerns about Winchester Alladun? Says Balo. So I came into it with those concerns for sure. So that was like we came to the show, we got onto the show floor early this morning and got to play it before, you know, the lines were wrapped around the building and it was so smooth. It really alleviated any of those concerns that we had had. I would um I think this game is fantastic and I would recommend it based on you know my experience so far this weekend and from talking to others uh 100%. This is a killer game this recommend. It's great to recommend it but there's none left. Hey you can't get sold out. Yeah. If you didn't get one too bad Rachel's been checking her phone all day from every distributor known to man. Yeah. There's a chance. I have one chance that it could happen, but I'm I'm holding off right now. I sent it to to Kale, so we'll see if it the guy comes. So, there is a chance. What you're saying is there's a chance for sure. That's great. All right. Uh the seminar was taped, so if you wanted to see the women in pinball seminar, I don't you're going to be able to check that out. Um all seminars are found. Yeah. I don't I think it's pinball news. Oh, okay. I think it's the pinball news site. So, um Okay. Uh so, we're just rocking here. We're going to do an hour. We're not going to do three. We're not going to do You can't see our shorts like we did the last live stream. So, you don't have to worry about any of that crap today, right? My legs looked good though. I I had Thank you, Rachel again, for the blanket. If anyone didn't watch that, you know, she saved my day with my little skinny legs with my blanket. So, uh what what's been your highlight so far day one, Kale? Uh well, of course, playing uh the Winchester M mystery house. Uh uh secondly, I think it has to be that m mothership game. That thing's wild. The one where you have to play it like this. I got I haven't flipped it yet. It's It's insane just playing something that big. Uh it's it's funny watching Rachel play it cuz there's there are two sets of buttons you can use. You can actually use the buttons on the machine and you have to I mean Rachel could barely reach them but there's also like the these buttons on a controller uh which are kind of more reasonable. So uh it's fun. It's really interesting. Obviously the flippers are pneumatic. You can hear it. They're like compress. Yeah. You hear it's cool. Uh it's fun. I think it's more fun than Hercules. Definitely. Yeah. I'd say so. Now, you guys had at the bat, so the three of you got to play it last week, which is Predator. Yeah. And Aaron and Erica from Erica's Pinball Journey have literally been picking up homebrews across America. Yes. And bringing it to Chicago, right? And check out Erica uh Erica's Pinball Journey because she's documenting it. It's really great. But you got to play Predator. I got to play it today here. What are your thoughts on it? We we were everybody was blown away, right? Absolutely blown away. Uh there there was a massive long line to play the thing. Ralph was there. Yeah, it was there was it took a little while. We did took about an hour to get into the queue there. Yeah. And um Aaron and Erica were just like toward the end of the night. They were like, "Everybody's having so much fun. How about we just leave it here for the night and then you can pack it up for us?" And I was like, "Yeah, totally cool." I mean, we stayed there till like what, like 1:00 in the morning? It Yeah, it was like midnight or something. It was like people People People couldn't stop playing it. And we would have stayed there until 5:00 a.m. if we wouldn't have just kicked people off. It was like there was that much and it was flawless. Like we we only had to take the glass off a couple of times for some stuck balls. The the flippers were nice and and uh no resets, no weird game, no no bugs that I could see. Everyone was surprised at how fun it was. Yeah. Awesome. Did you like it? I I really did actually. And uh I wasn't I I had a little bit of low expectations going in because we know we all listen to all these people talk about things. No one had really ever played it. So it was kind of like Well, we'd played ABBA. Yeah. Well, yeah, there was historical reasons to maybe think the that way. Yeah. But um but no, when I played it, um you know, there's there you know, obviously there's the obvious they couldn't license Arnold. So you you do see him in the game, you just don't see his head. So there are scenes where like you see his arm and a gun or you see him fall back. We don't see him. know he he started doing that to me. He we were playing it this morning, Rachel, and he goes, "That's Arnold." And it's just an arm, but you could see it was like his cat. I mean, you can tell. He goes, "That's Arnold." And so, you know what actually impressed me about that game a lot is the And I know you we've talked about this in the podcast before, but Alan Sylvestri is the one that did the original soundtrack or the orchestra, the Yeah. the music for Predator, Back to the Future, a whole bunch of different movies. But the guy, I met the guy that that had to do the rest of the music because there's only a couple of the Allen Sylvestri tracks. And they said they were so happy with how well he kind of complemented the Allen Sylvestri soundtrack that they didn't really have a lot of back and forth. They just approved it. They were like, "This is great. We love it. It sounds awesome." So, um, so I got to meet him this morning. So, the musical soundtrack and score to the game is really good, too. So, there Yeah, I I like it a lot. real quick cuz we got to get Don on here cuz it's his stuff, right? So, uh I'll take off for Don. You guys can interview Don. I'll take a break. Okay. Is that all right? Hold on. It's a JBS show, man. You got you got to stick around. I can go off. I don't want to kick anybody off. No, no. I'll go do something. I need a favor for everyone. When you see Bug from Spooky tomorrow, tell them you want a midnight release of Beetlejuice. He's not here. Well, that's going to be difficult because I think Bug Well, we can ask Let's ask uh this guy. Where the hell is Bug? Or where the hell is Beetlejuice? Like, let's just Oh, yeah. Let's just get it over with. Let's get I mean, he works for them now, right? Can't we just do that? Can't we just ask? Yeah. Come on. Let's see what kind of leaking you're going to do here, buddy. Hey, Don. Don. Ah, he's busy chitchat. I was busy chitchatting with his fans. But he did save the day. So, thank you so much, Don. I really appreciate You can get them in me. I mean, go grab them. I like having you on the round table. Yeah, it's once a year. We do it in X. I I I absolutely love having you on the round table. You You spice up the joint. Okay. Kale, the manicer. The man who saved the day. You saved the day, dude. In a fine t-shirt, I might add. What happened? Yeah, this electric bat arcade. Can you believe some clothes in the dark? Can you believe someone left this on the the restroom countertop? That's crazy. It's it's drying out. Ladies and gentlemen, Don from Don's Pinball podcast saved the day. And and Christopher Franchie is rolling up in the front of the table. I wish we could We could flip the camera, but Christopher Franchi is right here with his poor daughter who's she's been so sweet. Sweetest time. That's great. I want to hit that vape. Franchie, whoa, hit me. Thank you, Franch. Can we should we flip the camera just for a second so they can see Franchie? We should. Hey, Kale. Hold on. Look, there he is. He's right there. There's Franchie right there. There he is. Yeah, all right. I don't know if I fixed Oh, did I screw up the camera when I put it back or are we good? No, no, no, no. It's okay. Let me Let me know when this is streaming live. It is streaming. It's streaming live right now. Oh, perfect. I'll stop picking my nose then. Yeah, now now is when that time is. So, Franchie got me. I'm not going to take it out of the package cuz it's a lot. This is a super soft blanket with bats all over it. That is cool. That's lovely. It's great cuz I'm always cold. And you got a goodie bag. And I got a Christopher Franchi goodie bag. Shout out to Franchie on that one. Oh my god. He hooks you up. He's always giving us super nice stuff, you know. Um, before Jaws came out, years before Jaws came out, he gave me a Jaws translate that he that he drew. So, it was nice when we got the game to finally we we put it on the game and that's that's the translate we have on there now. I would do that. That's awesome. So, hey, Don. Yeah, we got to get some difficult questions for Don. Really difficult ones actually. I need a favor from everyone. When you see Bug and Spooky tomorrow, tell him you want a midnight release of Beetlejuice. Why don't you explain why there that's not possible because he's not here. Yeah, that rumor just will not die. So, I think this is a great idea, right? Like, um there's never been a midnight launch in pinball like we're at GameStop or something trying to get a game, right? Or Call of Duty. So, the idea is, you know, we start with a pre-party at my house. 11:00 p.m. we start marching down the street to the factory. We hang out out front. um make sure the local police know about it so we don't get called on. And then at midnight the rollup door comes up, there's the game, whatever it is, and then we can put down our guaranteed deposits right then and there, be the first people to get in, play the game. It's going to be madness, and then like sales can open at noon that day for everybody else. Like, yeah, I think it's a great idea. I've got to I got one more person I got to clear it with and then we're ready to go. Everybody's asking me like, "When are we doing it?" They want to buy plane tickets like right now. And I'm like, I don't know. That's actually awesome. I want the date to be 100% before we have people like booking travel. Dude, that is really cool. Actually, fog machine. You need a fog machine for when the door rolls up. Absolutely. [] that up. Yeah. Some nefarious stuff over the loudspeaker and then boom. Yeah. So, y'all are saying it's a good idea to invite just random unknown pinball folks over to Well, it's a dog. Sure, why not? It's not my house. Yeah, it's fine. It's fine. It's time. Oh, yeah. They'll be social lubricants, so we should be good. Okay. It's all good. Yeah. But like there's never been a midnight launch for a freaking machine. I think that's great. I think that's a good idea. It makes no sense. And that I love it because last question is really and we can all answer this question here. Oh yeah. What do you think about the all access $99 a year for home leaderboard says Balana? So, I spent probably, so this is really nerdy, but I had a TV in my game room that I had Mason make the artwork for that had all my games, and as my scores would change, I'd give it to him and he would update it. So, it cost me more in in me paying Mason for graphic design work for my leaderboard. I actually really like the idea of having a home leaderboard. I don't think that's that bad of a price to ask someone to pay for a year. And there's some other perks to it. I didn't read through all the perks, but there's some other stuff that you get like it's a once a year access to the factory tour and you get some discounts on some merchandise and stuff or free shipping. So, there's some other things that they give you. So, I think um you can go to the factory now, right? Like I've I think anybody can I mean maybe that's changed recently, but it used to always be like, "Hey, if they're available, they'll give you a tour." So, the thing that gots it gets it for me is your name is a different color. So if I go to electric bat and I play, I get a Pimp Daddy logo. That is worth it right there. Yeah, I'm sold now. Before I was like, this is ridiculous. But yeah, yeah, your name will be in gold. Like that's Don's pinball podcast that did that. Boom. I I don't mind that. I don't know. I don't mind. You don't mind it? I think it's kind of amateur hour to charge people for something that they've been clamoring for is home leaderboards. But it takes infrastructure. I I understand it takes work. Then just charge us $5 a month and get it over with. Would you rather pay a monthly fee? So that's $60 a year instead of 99. It should it should only be five bucks and then if you But then there there's a a a time frame that if you buy it now it's only 80 and if you wait it's 100 some. So there's a transaction fee a monthly transaction fee on there. I'm just thinking like if I was implementing for business-wise, it makes much more sense to do a one time thing. And also for me, like if I'm paying for Prime, I'm paying for it once a year. I don't want to pay for I don't want a bill that I'm thinking about all the time. I think a lot of it has to do with like they they don't host it in house. It's all Amazon Web Services. So that's like imagine how many people are going to be using this thing. It's not going to be there's going to be a big cost to them to do it too and continue to develop it. So, I'm I'm I mean, sure, of course, I'd love it to be $59.99, but I'm okay with $100 a year, personally. Well, also like the thing about free shipping on accessories, I believe, is what? Yeah, I think that's what it is. Sorry, I had that wrong. So, um that's an interesting choice for people that buy accessories that are currently buying them from dealers. Yeah, right. So, Oh, true. That's a direct purchase thing. Okay. So, so taking the fun out of it, Rachel, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. If I need a replacement sticker for my Ellie armor, I can save on that shipping. That's fantastic. What great value. I love it. It's going to be great. I don't know. The other perks I don't see as like really that much value. I'm just more in it for the leaderboard. You You want uh you want the leaderboard and your name in gold and that for you that you want $500 for that? Well, I don't know about that. That's a little excessive, but I'll pay 100 for it. Here's another question. With Winchester selling out in 24 hours, what are the chances Vaness saying, "Okay, I'll do another run." Um, not zero. Zero, right? Zero. Bro, not going to happen. Not going to happen. Not going to do No chance. No chance. I can tell you because I've tried to You tried to get 526. I just wanted one more. Um I was walking behind her and she goes, "David, one more." Just one more. And see, my sales pitch was it's on brand because it's a secret extra game, right? This turns out this run had 526 games, but you didn't know about the other one. And his response was, "Absolutely not. This is I'm not going to go back on my word." My word was to these people that this is going to be limited to 525. And people bought this game sight on scene knowing that it was going to be a true limited to 525 games. And uh you know, I can I can commend him for that while also silently cursing. It would be on theme to build a game to nowhere that had no mechanisms in it, but you otherwise got it. It was just nonfunctional. Yeah. Right. What's your uh favorite homebrew? One of the questions. Yeah, that was everyone wants to know. Oh, there's no way to say that. Have you seen Monster League hockey? Yeah, I know. And I'm looking at the Harry Potter that looks complete now from last year. Monsters Inc. is incredible. Uh there's a um Did you see Coming to America? Somebody did a home roof for Soul Glow. It's right over there. That has won my heart. So, I'm saying that one. Randy Martinez did the art for that guy who did like Star Wars Comic Edition. Ridiculous. For those of you that don't know, Don has been heading the topper contest for Go ahead. It's the home brerew topper contest. Yeah. Did you make a home brerew topper? Bring it. Enter it. Win some awesome prizes. Voting is live right now. It's all public choice. And when does voting end on that? Uh I'm I'm noon on Saturday cuz at 1:00 is when we're doing the awards. All right. Sweet. Yeah. And it just for voting, you're going to get randomly chosen to win a playfield if you're present to win. So you get something just by voting. Look at you. Right. Look at you, Don. Saving the day. Real cool thing. Um, do we all go through and say a homebrew or we can I I really like monster hockey, monster league hockey. I think that that taking an Alvin G machine and doing what they did, it's it's pretty badass. And I got to play Alvin G a lot. So, they did a really good job there. No, I thought it was cool. I had a lot of fun playing that with you. problem is with all these homebrews this year to pick a favorite one is really difficult because there's so many good ones and there's ones that have been here for years that have evolved into even better games. So I I I know this one's been around for a while, but I really liked Sonic and I really like Pokémon. I know those aren't necessarily brand new ones, but I would also say Monster League Hockey. Like I had so much fun playing it with you. It felt it was like it was like headto-head joust was obviously an older we're going to rematch that. Oh wellicial we have the Jamie Ralph tournament has still been going on and I just won two additional games. So I think I think we're tied seven maybe I think we're tied I have a question. Yeah with two people playing if you tilt like who does it count against? Oh I don't think there's a tilt button. I think there's one in here. All right. I don't think there were You know what they're implementing in this thing that I thought was so cool? There's going to be an attract mode where the game plays itself. Yeah. How cool is that? It's super cool. Super super super cool. How's that going to work? I don't know. But they're like telling us about G you could play one player because they had wire forms over this the flipper and it when it hit that wire form it knew to flip. Okay. So it was really cool. So then what they did is they took that mechanism. I'm not technical like you guys. And we're able to put it underneath the play for field and still have that identification that it it needs to That's clever. Did anybody play Big Trouble? Because people are asking about it. I didn't get a chance to play it yet. 100% I did. Yeah. It shoots great. It's got professional art, professional powder coat. Like it looks like a game that some company made. I mean, it's the guy that did uh Friday the 13th. I can't remember recall his name at the moment, but like that was one of the greatest games for him like last year for homebrew. And like dude killed it again the next year with like a like a commercially produced ready game. Looks like I haven't played it yet. I just saw it on my team. The line is too long. I hit it early rubs me, you know. I just can't get Jamie doesn't do lines. I get a line with Jamie to get dancing. You need a vendor badge. When you go to Disney, do you get the fast pass or not? 100%. Okay. So, I need a fast pass. Yes, I need a fast pass. All right, Don. Thank you so much, dude. I appreciate it. Can you get kale? We're only going to try to do 1 hour cuz we've got your [] Yeah, we have your gear. We don't want to keep you. All right, like and subscribe. Like and subscribe and subscribe podcast. Thank you, Don. And of course, we are pinball, which is one of my favorite podcast with him and his boy Jenus. And you cannot beat that. Sorry to kick him out. Was I rude there? Kind of, but it's fine. I mean, I got to keep it moving, right? Yeah. Keep it moving. It's you he's going to be upset about, not me, so it's cool. No, no, no. That was a good move. I think that was a good move. Someone's taking pictures of us. Good meeting you early this morning while you were waiting for B-roll. Sprout. Oh, that was me. Yeah. Thank you. That Sorry. Thanks for being uh patient with me as I was, you know, trying to film and stuff. So, sorry about that. He has a you know, he has a videographer. Yeah, he's got a team. You're very bougie about the rest of us are running around with Well, Kale has his Ray-B band. Okay. So, I am a little bougie. I'm a little bougie in the bougie scale. Ralph Ralph Kale and then me and you. Yeah, I totally agree with you. How close are Kale and I in the bougie? Well, so a big distance between him and I. Well, you did forget the equipment. Yeah, I know that was bad. No, you have But here's how unbougie I am. My iPhone case is gaff taped together like cuz I refu like it's it still takes pictures. It still works. You know, Chris Turner should buy Big Trouble and produce it. What do you think of that? Oh, that'd be cool. We played Merlin's today. I did not get a chance. I didn't play it yet. He sold it. So, he sold all three that he brought to the show, which is cool for him. And what are those selling for? 10, I think. Yeah, I think they might be like just maybe a hair under 10. Maybe they're five or something like that. I think the show ones. Yeah. Okay. I don't know. But it's cool that he sold them. I think that's awesome. Did you see the price of uh the Spookies? No. So, you know, spooky. Uh, hey, welcome back, buddy. Hey, for giving up your spot. Did Don tell you what he's working on? Yes. Everybody know everything. We know they all know. I can't believe he said what he said. Yeah. The the spooky There's a a row of spooky machines, but they're selling for like 16 because they're loaded to the tease. With what? They like modded them with stuff. I think it's Great American Pinball that did it. Okay. Oh, but Spooky isn't here. No, but they customize like the armor's all custom. It's like a fully custom. How baller is it that Spooky's like we ain't even coming. I'm going hunting. We going something else. He went hunting. We're doing something else. We got other stuff to two. One, two. Oh, hey, it's Jamie. It's not a podcast unless I e something up. Amateur night. It's amateur hour when Burchil's involved. Brian Eddy just walked right. I stepped right on the thing on the power strip. Sorry about that, guys. Yeah, that was Jamie. Jamie did that. Um Jamie did that. It says Bug will be here Friday. Trash can. How do you know this? That's not I don't know. He Don just told us he's not going to be. No, he said he's not coming. He's like hunting. I think he's hunting, dude. I think he's hunting. Uh has anyone played Space Hunt? No, not yet. There's like four right there. Yeah, I haven't played. Maybe we'll play it when we're done. That's the French game. That's the Christopher Franchi. That was the one that was here last year but kind of I tried to play it last year and it didn't work. Yes. Okay. Yes. So, making another run. Is there only one portal here? I really want to play Portal. There's one portal and one um uh what's the one before portal weird? No. Princess and Princess Bride. And the line's too long again. I don't have it though. You keep telling me I got to play a P3. I want to play it. It says bug is coming. He said it on his live stream. Trash can's telling us we're totally wrong. We're wrong. All right. Well, get Don back over here. How I mean, Don said he's not coming. Listen, he's a new hire. He might not. He's not on all the emails. They don't He's not in the company Discord yet. He's not on the Slack. They don't tell him everything. Not fully on boarded. Oh, man. Donnie, they're they're holding out on you, man. All right, we have to ask Ralph, what is your name on Canadas Pass? Why is your name on Canada's path? So, I didn't even know that that was a thing. Someone told me cuz I've been off Facebook. I've been so enjoying the show so much. I haven't even touched my phone. So, I haven't even taken pictures. I've just been playing games. So, I didn't know that until later in the day, but I think his pass says uh Cana and then underneath says Retro Ralph. So, so yeah. What time is the joint open till tonight? The the hallway here. I think it's midnight tonight, right? So, midnight tonight. Then we'll go to a little fireside, sit by the hotel, have some cocktails. So, check this out. The tournament area though, so many more people have. They were expecting a smaller crowd this year at the tournament and it ended up being way, way, way bigger and they've had to add games. And we were looking at the queue times and it was like 6 hours on some games. Now, I heard that because there's multiple copies of every game that the queue times and it's not an accurate representation, but we're looking at over an hour per game. So, they're leaving it open until 3:00 a.m. this morning for qualifying. So, if y'all want to stay up and volunteer, the the floor closes at 11:00. Oh, so we have 18 minutes. No, it does. Why would they do that? They just made an announcement. I didn't hear it. Yeah, we didn't hear Oh, welcome. That's a bummer. Yeah, it's okay. We'll get to the bar quicker. All right, we'll go to the bar. Well, it means we get to uh get to bed early and get up early. I wish you were here tomorrow. That bums me out so bad, dude. I don't know why you're leaving. You're staying. I'm not staying. I am going to this wedding and I'm I although I'm sad to be leaving my friends here, I am totally pumped about this wedding and I can't wait to see my friends at the wedding. But uh you get cake, you know, that's good. Yeah, I get to do both. It's pretty exciting. But I did say this on the last round table, Rachel. I don't care what happens or who dies in 2026. I'm not missing expo. Okay. So, you need to put it on the calendar. I would love that. Well, I told everyone, listen, be healthy for 2026 cuz I'm not leaving. And you're coming. You're coming and you're staying the whole damn time. That's it. Okay. Trash can. I can't. I got a great I got a great So, it it does close too early, which is Look, I don't want to talk about another expo while I'm here at this expo, but if I can one day get you to the Houston Arcade Expo, I know I need to go. You keep talking about it. It does not end. It doesn't end. I can't party till 4:00 a.m. anymore. I'm just like I don't have it in me. I don't I usually You know what I do? I usually Irish goodbye. Yeah. And I'll do that around 11:30. I support I support that. You support the Irish, right? It's a good move. The When do you do that? I haven't seen you do that. Well, I don't do it to you guys, but when I'm at uh Eureka Heights, I'll just Irish my ass out. Yeah, I did see last night you were roaming cuz you couldn't find me. And I think you were you you I think you might have Irish goodbye then. But we did see each other and then you stayed. And sometimes we do that at the bat only because there's like a hundred people and they're all our f like I'm not going to say bye to a hundred people. That's true. So like it's it's not necess offense. I wouldn't be offended if you Irish goodbye me. Oh, I mean I totally would if No, I would never Irish goodbye Rachel. Maybe maybe Ralph, but not you would. Not Rachel. It's fine. Maybe Kale, too. Uh, Walking Dead. Do we cover that real quick? Why do we think Walking Dead Do we still think that it's coming out or we've we've we kind of put the stamp on it's not happening, right? It's not happening here this weekend. Um, and yes, I do think it's on a spike three. Uh, I think every game coming out, I don't think you're going to like do Spike 3, Spike 3, Spike 2. Yeah, that would that doesn't make any sense. You're not going to step backwards. And I think, you know, they're probably Star Wars just came out. You don't want to step on your own sales. You don't want to compete with yourself. So, I think that they're just going to postpone that. They don't want to [] where you eat. They don't want to [] where they eat. Uh, can we talk about the Death Star shots? Okay. So, yours works at the bat. Now, we went to Logan's last night, and I'm not crapping on Logan's cuz it was fantastic and and they I had the best time. But we played two games on it, four player games. The second game, all we did, we played a game just trying to hit the Death Star. That's all it was. And guess who got multiball? You did. None of us. No, none of us did. You got to play at the bat. So, we did. We ran into the mechanical engineer from Stern there and he said that these show games have a fix already implemented in it and that that fix if it works if it stays through the weekend then they're going to ship fix kits to distributors to ship to customers. That's kind of cool, right? So yeah. So that's kind of cool. I don't know what that kit would be. Ours works 100% out of the box. They were saying you got to you got to take the whole Death Star apart and there's like I don't know what it looks like inside but there's something some piece of metal and it's curved in a specific way and this one's curved slightly different. Yeah. So, hey, real quick cuz they're going to kick us out of here. Uh let me ask you tomorrow when is the AI uh does anyone have that? Uh, I got because I know, you know, one of the things I know I'm bummed about missing is the AI with uh with Ian and that crew. Uh, I think it Good luck reading that. I think it might be Saturday. Good luck reading this. Uh, the rise of AI and pinball art 11 a.m. Saturday, October 18th with Ian Jacobe, Brian Allen, Johnny Crap, Colin Alzheimer, and Brad Albbright. Great. Yeah. So, Zombie Yeti and Franchie are no longer on that. They switched it up. They they didn't want to get sued or something tomorrow. Jamie, are you bummed about missing that? I am bummed. I was going right from AI to you. So, give me a second. Give me a second. I'm trying to steer the ship. Uh, you've got a panel tomorrow with Josh. Josh and Scott from Loser Kid. Loser Kid. And who else is on there? Oh, Joel and Jared. Joel and Jared. I haven't seen Joel. Have this. I haven't seen. Nope. And And uh Oh, and then just me. Yeah. I'm a solo actual. Yeah. So, it's going to be cool. We're going to talk all about uh content creation, trying to bring new people into content creation. what it takes to do it, what, you know, what issues, gear, all sorts of stuff. So, it'll be fun for someone that um, you know, is trying to get into pinball streaming or just creating content. No matter what it is, Instagram, Tik Tok, whatever, we're going to talk all about it. So, it should be fun. People love to hear about gear and how to do it. I think that I think that'll be a great So many ways to do it and you don't have to do it. You don't have to spend a ton of money to start and I think that's where people like trip up. They try to buy all the best stuff or they, you know, it's too much money. You just start small and then work your way from there. All you need is a cell phone. Yeah. You got a phone? Yeah, exactly. Anything, Kale, you're looking forward to over the course of the next few days? Uh, Saturday, I think it's 6:00 p.m. Uh, I'll have to check the schedule, but uh, the making of DND. Yeah, that'll be a good one. Dwight Sullivan and the crew, uh, Brian Eddy, when is Dwight Hamoto, I think, is laughing at us right now. She's laughing at us. She's very amused by this. She's getting a kick out of us. Oh, thank you. Uh, is so sweet. She's the best. Say hello. All right. Ato real quick and we'll probably close it there. I like the set y'all chose. Thank you for helping us out. We got we had to get permission from Aaron because Fast Pinball and he was like uh we we went up to him. Kale went up to him and said, "Are you okay, kid? That these guys are going to be representing your name because they say stupid stuff sometimes." So, are you okay with us? Just full disclaimer, we're a bunch of idiots over here. Not Rachel. The best. Okay. But me and this potato head. Yeah. Boneheads. Oh. Someone asked about Serge and simulation theory. I can tell you that Kale and Serge and sometimes John Chopp and I talk about this in the back room at the bat after uh Tuesday Night League quite frequently. I do think at some point Serge can be talked into talking about simulation theory. It's something the three of us uh read and follow like we both we all have very strong opinions and uh I think you'll hear about it. This is captivating but I got to go. You guys are got to go too. I know. You should you should keep rolling until the security guard kicks you out. So then you get that audio of like it's time to leave. What are you guys doing? I gave you that permission to be the degenerates and keep going until you can't hear you. All right. Are you taking you taking us home or what do you I think we should go home. I mean they're kicking us out in 10 minutes. What do you think? I [] leaving. I love her so much. I love it. I adore her. I love that he's in front of us getting the live stream on his phone listening to it. He's listening. How far behind are we? All right, 10 seconds. Thank you, brother. Hey, buddy. Hey, we should get Kyle to talk real quick. Let's get Kyle to talk. I think closes at like 2 a.m. tomorrow. Oh, yeah. So, it does stay open late, just not on a Thursday. How? Okay, we're about 15 seconds behind. We're talking We're talking to other people. We're not even talking to each other now. But Expo Expo closing at 11 on a on a Thursday. It's not It's not terrible, but No, I'm putting my foot down. I don't do that very often. It should be midnight at the superhat. Oh, he's super We got a super chat that just came in. We got super chat. I was with Can you monetize yet? This is hard. We don't know. We're using We're using Don's soundboard, so we don't You never know. Let's just press one more to see what it did. The purple one. Just press it. Oh, there you go. All right. Yeah. This is Don's pinball podcast. Where's all the ladies out there? Welcome to Expo 2025. X Expo, short for expose. Yeah. Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Let's just try the green one and then we'll be done. [Music] That one's not that fun. That's not That's okay. I like that. Oh, this is his intro. That's his intro. Hey everybody. Darn announcement. Welcome guys. How are you? That wasn't bad. That was pretty good. Yeah, that was great. All right, we're get we're getting kicked out of here. Out of here. This is perfect. We got the outro music. Expo fans, it looks like we're getting kicked out. Ladies and gentlemen, Spinball. Oh, wow. That's way too loud. I could rock that. I can rock that. Thank you so much. Part nine or 10. We don't count anymore of the round table joined by the lovely and wonderful Rachel Best. Uh I am Jamie Burchil. I am Retro Ralph and Kale Hernandez. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate you all for joining us here. And uh again, come to Pinball Expo, go to the home brerew section, support these home brewers. Kick him really quick. We got to thank Do you You don't have yours, do you? I left it upstairs. All right. I got to thank Vic VP cuz he made the coolest shirt. He made this custom for me and he asked and and he made one for Jamie. But he asked me and Kale and I Oh, you got you got Okay. Oh, cool. All right. Are black. Oh, yeah. But look at this. He put my my initials like I use on games. He put my name and my logo. This is just cool. Like this. It was very thoughtful. So, thank you, Vic. I didn't realize he gave them to everybody. So, but no, that was really cool. Um, anyway, thank you guys so so much. Uh, I'm going to walk around with these two. It is a little strange to walk around with these three people because they get stopped a lot more than I do. I was wondering who the two was. Like which one of us when you're walking around with these two? Mostly you two. I glob on to them like a [] virus sometimes. I feel bad. Don't you? You're getting stopped a ton this year, buddy. You're a celebrity now. You're a pinball celebrity. Syndrome that you were talking about at your expo at at your meeting uh today or whatever seminar or whatever the hell those things are called. So, all right. Let's get out of here. Normally, it's Kale that keeps stretching us out, but you're quiet tonight. Yeah, I'm just hanging out. I'm over here hanging out. Can I interrupt real quick? Yeah. Uh, my shirt, Jay Addet. He came up to me and he says, "Chris, I know your desire for high-end fashions. It is the only one that was created that is Gucci." Thank you for letting me. You didn't know that. Well, the bar started earlier. The bar. This is great. Let's go to the bar and hang out with that Christopher Wells Graham. Everybody, let's do it. Let's hang out with that dude. Christopher Wells Graham. All right. Well, Christopher Wells Graham, thanks for interrupting and not I don't even know what he said, but I was I have no idea. He wasn't even on a mic and you probably didn't hear it either. Well, now he's lifted his shirt up and Wow. Oh, wow. Okay. What is he doing right now? Oh, no. No. What's going on, ladies and gentlemen? That is Pinball Expo after. We need that music again. Pinball Expo after dark. All right. Don't show it. Nobody wants to see that. What is that? Thank you so much to Marco Specialties for letting us use the booth and the power and internet and all that stuff. Thank you, Marco, so much. I really appreciate you guys.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-08-04 | Item ID: 6687f451-4c11-402d-9592-1bd58aca1344*