# Episode 3 - Boutique Manufacturers

**Source:** Wedgehead Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2023-11-06  
**Duration:** 32m 23s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** Buzzsprout-13904371

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## Analysis

Alan and Alex from Wedgehead Pinball Podcast discuss the rise of boutique pinball manufacturers outside Stern, examining companies like Spooky, Jersey Jack, American Pinball, and others. They contrast boutique vs. major manufacturer business models, explore operator vs. collector perspectives, and warn newcomers against purchasing from unproven first-time manufacturers or companies with delayed timelines.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] Stern represents 80-95% of all pinball machine production in the market today — _Alan and Alex discussing market share; Alex cites figures of 90-95%, Alan suggests it's 'got to be going down a little bit' with boutique competition_
- [HIGH] Spooky Pinball is the most successful and credible boutique manufacturer — _Both hosts consistently position Spooky as most reliable, with strong customer service and production schedule predictability; Alex owns two Spooky games (Rick and Morty, Ultraman)_
- [MEDIUM] Boutique manufacturers typically produce 1,000 games per title while Stern produces 3,000-6,000 — _Alan: 'Spooky's making 1,000, that's a big difference' compared to Stern's thousands; notes this is Spooky after 10 years of scaling_
- [MEDIUM] Rick and Morty and TNA are the only two genuinely good non-Spooky boutique games released in the last decade — _Alex: 'Nos Catanissis. They're the only two good ones that ever got made' (referring to designer Scott Denise's work)_
- [HIGH] Boutique games are unreliable for location/operator use due to QC and maintenance issues — _Operator from Pops Pinball reported Big Lebowski as: no (reliable) and no (earns well); Alan and Alan discuss widespread operator frustration with downtime_
- [HIGH] Major failed boutique manufacturers include Deep Root, Suncoast, Sidware, Highway, Skip B, and Team Pinball — _Alex lists companies that either took deposits without delivering or committed fraud; notes Predator and Raza as prominent failures_
- [HIGH] New boutique companies can be identified by pattern: announce, take deposits, then repeatedly delay with 'something came up' excuses — _Alex describes scam pattern: preview → social media → deposits → repeated delays → sunk cost fallacy traps buyers_
- [HIGH] Scott Denise (designer of Rick and Morty, TNA) is a fantastic new designer bringing fresh talent to the industry — _Both hosts praise Scott Denise as 'fantastic new designer' and credit Spooky for taking risk on new blood vs. established Stern designers_

### Notable Quotes

> "Stern as Walmart to Spooky as the ma and pa shop... I'll go pay twice as much for apples and apples might not taste as good but I like the people that run it"
> — **Alex**, ~27:00
> _Core philosophy of boutique appeal: relationship and values over pure product reliability; explains collector loyalty despite quality compromises_

> "When you're an operator and you have one of your two games sitting in a bar, you don't want that game down for a full week. The bar owner's gonna get pissy."
> — **Alan**, ~18:30
> _Stark contrast between operator and collector priorities; operator perspective fundamentally incompatible with boutique QC/service realities_

> "If you put it on the line and you do what you say you're going to do, I have the utmost respect. Do I like most of the games they make? No."
> — **Alan**, ~43:00
> _Respect for execution vs. product quality distinction; acknowledges effort while critiquing game design outcomes_

> "Don't buy an idea of a pinball machine from someone you don't know. Buy one that exists and you can play."
> — **Alex**, ~48:30
> _Direct warning against pre-orders from unproven manufacturers; core advice to prevent deposit fraud_

> "For your first game buy a Stern... your second game or when you're looking at a boutique one don't buy one if it's the company's first pin"
> — **Alan/Alex**, ~47:00
> _Clear market guidance for new collectors; risk-mitigation advice based on historical failed launches_

> "TNA is legitimately one of the best games of all time. Rick and Morty is also excellent."
> — **Alan**, ~52:30
> _Strong endorsement of Spooky's output despite overall skepticism of boutique segment; acknowledges quality exists in the space_

> "When 007 came out there was people on a Facebook group saying this game's never going to earn... It earns fantastically."
> — **Alan**, ~20:00
> _Example of internet criticism being wrong; casual players don't care about code depth or cosmetics, they play for fun_

> "Spooky you might have a board failing a week later, they send you a whole brand new board no questions asked which is awesome... but when you're an operator that game's down for a full week"
> — **Alex**, ~17:30
> _Illustrates how Spooky's strengths (generous warranty) become weaknesses in operator context (downtime costs revenue)_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Spooky Pinball | company | Most successful and credible boutique manufacturer; family business in small Wisconsin town; produces ~1,000 units per title; known for reliability and customer service; games include Rick and Morty, TNA, Ultraman, Scooby-Doo |
| Stern Pinball | company | Dominant manufacturer controlling 80-95% of market; produces 3,000-6,000+ units per title; treats pinball manufacturing as industrial production line |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Premium boutique manufacturer; no longer considered 'boutique' by hosts due to scale and production capacity |
| American Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer credited as reputable; delivers games despite small scale; slower production than Stern |
| Deep Root Pinball | company | Infamous failed boutique manufacturer; presented as 'worst case scenario' example; projects like Raza and other titles never fulfilled; described as con operation |
| Barrels of Fun Pinball | company | Newly emerging boutique manufacturer; included in list of active boutique players |
| Pinball Brothers | company | Boutique manufacturer mentioned as active player in small-scale production segment |
| Multimorphic | company | Boutique manufacturer with modular/tech-focused approach to pinball design |
| Hexa Pinball | company | Spanish/European boutique manufacturer producing games like Space Hunt |
| Home Pin | company | International boutique manufacturer; produces custom and themed games for home market |
| Alan | person | Co-host of Wedgehead Pinball Podcast; co-owner of Wedgehead Pinball Bar in Portland; operator perspective; skeptical of boutique games for commercial use; respects effort but critical of game design quality |
| Alex | person | Co-host of Wedgehead Pinball Podcast; self-described Spooky fanboy; collector perspective; owns Rick and Morty and Ultraman (Spooky); enthusiastic about boutique games; advocates for variety and new designers |
| Scott Denise | person | Game designer; created Rick and Morty and TNA for Spooky Pinball; represents 'new blood' in pinball design; praised as 'fantastic new designer' |
| Wedgehead Pinball Bar | organization | Portland-based pinball bar owned by Alan and business partner; operates games on location; focuses on reliable revenue-generating titles rather than boutique machines |
| Suncoast Pinball | company | Failed boutique manufacturer; listed as cautionary example of companies that didn't deliver on promises |
| Sidware | company | Failed boutique manufacturer; described as range from incompetent to full-blown con operation |
| Highway Pinball | company | Failed boutique manufacturer; took deposits without delivering games |
| Skip B | company | Failed boutique manufacturer; part of broader pattern of failed boutique launches |
| Team Pinball | company | Failed boutique manufacturer; listed among companies that didn't deliver |
| Chicago Gaming | company | Boutique manufacturer; mentioned as reputable company that delivers games despite small scale |
| Pops Pinball | organization | East Coast operator group with Big Lebowski; reported game as unreliable and poor earning |
| Rick and Morty | game | Spooky Pinball title designed by Scott Denise; owns by Alex; praised as 'excellent' and 'legitimately one of the best games' |
| TNA | game | Spooky Pinball title (Total Nonstop Action Wrestling); designed by Scott Denise; called 'legitimately one of the best games of all time' |
| Ultraman | game | Spooky Pinball title; owned by Alex; criticized by Alan as 'one of the worst shooting pins I've ever played' |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Boutique manufacturer business model and scale challenges, Operator vs. collector perspectives on boutique games, Spooky Pinball as market leader among boutiques, Failed boutique manufacturers and deposit fraud patterns
- **Secondary:** Game quality and design in boutique segment, Reliability and maintenance differences between Stern and boutiques, New designer emergence (Scott Denise) through boutique route, Advice for new pinball collectors on purchase decisions

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.35) — Hosts express respect and admiration for boutique manufacturers' effort and ambition, but are fundamentally skeptical about product quality, reliability, and operational viability. Alex (collector) is notably more positive about boutiques; Alan (operator) is more critical. Both appreciate the new talent and variety boutiques bring but recognize substantial risks and limitations.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Boutique manufacturers struggle with production scale, QC consistency, and supply chain economies that Stern optimizes through volume (3,000-6,000 vs. 1,000 units per title) (confidence: high) — Alan: 'they don't have the scale... they can't buy 5,000 of them [parts], they have to buy a few hundred'; Stern gets bulk discounts boutiques cannot access
- **[community_signal]** Wedgehead bar community expresses excitement about new boutique releases; hosts receive 'a million DMs' when new games announced despite their operational skepticism (confidence: medium) — Alex: 'At Wedgehead every single time a new game gets released by a new company I get a million DMs from people'
- **[design_philosophy]** Spooky willingness to take design risks (games without ramps in 2015-2016) that larger manufacturers like Stern avoid due to market conservatism and established designer roster (confidence: medium) — Alex: 'Spooky took a gamble making a production game without ramps... Stern wouldn't have done that'
- **[leak_detection]** Discussion of failed/attempted manufacturers reveals pattern of vaporware: announce → take deposits → delay repeatedly → never deliver (Predator, Raza, etc.) (confidence: high) — Alex describes scam pattern: 'They'll start taking deposit money... three months comes up there's a new post, oh something came up right, and they keep stalling'
- **[market_signal]** Stern market dominance (80-95%) may be declining with increased boutique competition, though still overwhelming; boutique segment represents niche collector/home market rather than revenue threat (confidence: medium) — Alan: 'it's got to be going down a little bit' with boutique competition; Alex cites 90-95% Stern dominance as starting point
- **[operational_signal]** Fundamental tension between operator needs (reliability, revenue, quick turnaround) and collector desires (variety, boutique games, home ownership). Operators report boutique games unreliable and poor earners; collectors value uniqueness and design philosophy. (confidence: high) — Pops Pinball operator: Big Lebowski 'no' reliable and 'no' earns well; Alan: operators can't afford downtime; Alex: collectors excited by novelty regardless of earnings
- **[personnel_signal]** Scott Denise represents successful 'new blood' designer brought into industry via boutique route (Spooky); praised as fantastic designer breaking mold of established Stern house designers (confidence: high) — Alan: 'You get somebody like Scott... everyone's like holy shit this is awesome... where's the room for the new blood at Stern?'
- **[market_signal]** Boutique games now priced competitively with Stern (approaching $10k-$12k) but without Stern's quality assurance, reliability, or resale value, making value proposition unclear (confidence: medium) — Alan: 'Why are we going to spend $8,000, $9,000, $10,000, $12,000 on something that's going to earn less and be less reliable?'
- **[product_concern]** Widespread QC issues across boutique manufacturers: connector failures (Rick and Morty, Ultraman), hardware iterations, design changes mid-production causing compatibility problems (confidence: high) — Alex: 'they're always trying new stuff from game to game... sometimes it works good and sometimes it doesn't... how many iterations of game does it take to find a connector that doesn't work'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Community sentiment toward internet pinball criticism is dismissive; examples like 007/Dr. No release and Foo Fighters QC complaints show fans overreact to minor issues (confidence: medium) — Alan: 'When Foo Fighters came out... someone took a picture posted stuck ball... 30 second fix... already shit talking on Internet'

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## Transcript

 Hello everybody, welcome to another Wedgehead Pinball Podcast. My name is Alan, I am one half of the Portland Pinball Bar Wedgehead. And my name's Alex, I'm one half of the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast. And that's about it. And not affiliated with the bar in any way. Yeah, not paid to be here. Anything positive I say about his bar, you can trust is genuine. What are we talking about today, Alex? Today we're talking about a topic near and dear to my heart, boutique pinball manufacturers, which basically means in today's pinball landscape, everyone outside of Stern, I would say. Right? Would you consider JJP a boutique? I don't think JJP is boutique anymore. We're immediately throwing acronyms in. It's Jersey Jack. Yeah, Jersey Jack pinball. uh yes we're talking about boutique pinball manufacturers i call it the rise of the small guys do we have actual title episode or episode titles now i'm trying to we'll see how it goes yeah no when we mean boutique manufacturers we mean in this day and age what's what's been happening over the last decade or so has been a lot of people starting up new pinball companies and they'll they'll come out with a prototype game they'll take it to some shows and they will than try to manufacture it. Usually taking deposits, taking a lot longer to make the games than they said they were going to. Different approaches from there. Some good, some bad. Yeah. So what we're saying is when we're talking about boutiques, we're talking about companies like Spooky Pinball, American Pinball. There's a brand new company, Barrels of Fun Pinball, Dutch Pinball, Pinball Brothers, Haggis, Home Pin, Pinball Adventures, Multimorphic. There we go. Hexa. You remember Hexa? oh yeah you sent me that yeah that's the spanish guys huh i think yes they made that weird i don't know yep and then there was that ninja game that you just said turner yeah oh yeah so so anyway there is a lot of them popping up yeah which is very interesting are we gonna work from are we gonna kind of like do a rundown here of the brands from biggest to smallest i don't i thought i sort of did them in biggest to smallest you kind of did there but they these are all companies that started really small, started with some people and they really are like kind of can do. They're DIYers that decide to make pinball and most of them did. Most of them did. Or tried to. The ones we listed are either new new or they've successfully put games out. We didn't touch on any of the real fun ones yet. Yeah. You want to touch on the fun ones? Not necessarily because I don't think anyone really needs to get too far into it, but I think it's impossible not to mention Deep Root. specifically as an example of like worst case scenario yeah i think that there's some of these companies the failed companies will need their own proper deep dive yeah like i think us doing we don't have it in our notes yet but i think we should add a deep root pinball episode i think someone should do like a netflix documentary about deep root that is an insane story for real he's hella litigious though yeah that's the funny part that's i mean it's all so good dude it's so good yeah he's he was a con man uh for no doubt con man um but uh some of the failed companies are suncoast zid rare highway team pinball Skit-B there's there's been others what i'm trying to get at is what's happening now in the pinball industry is very interesting that's never really happened before and we're seeing it in our daily lives as well you know you and i are podcasting we're able to release this yeah that this used to be a medium for real broadcasters yeah with chops right like yeah now any schmuck can do it yeah now two idiots can be in somebody's basement and talking about pinball and release it to the whole world yeah and but it's the same way with pinball and and those are both good and bad right like it's democratizing to a certain extent you get to see different philosophies different designers or people that want to start building pinball that would have never got a chance to in in the old system you know back in the day there used to be a lot more pinball manufacturers like if you go further back in time you had you had four or five pinball manufacturers at any time big players in the game big players but they were all ish no i mean there are some clearly bigger than others but yeah there were a lot of guys that you'd see a lot of different variety of pins en route. If you go back to the 60s and the 70s, you had Bally, Williams, back when they were separate companies. You had Gottlieb, you had Chicago Coin, then you had European stuff like Zacharias and Sagasas and Sonics. Yeah, Interflips. There's a lot. Once we get into Spanish pins, that could also be its own topic. And maybe those Spanish pins, maybe those are the first boutique makers. Yeah, but they were still i think we need to kind of come to terms with what what defines a boutique pin to you okay so i the way i look at it is like in back in the day and in even today like the way stern makes pinball machines the way jersey jack makes pinball machines is they have a factory like a dedicated factory with full-time staff and a production line so they have to feed their production line They have to buy parts in bulk and they have to assemble them and get them out the door. What happens with these boutique guys is they are making games at much smaller scale. So they'll build a game and they'll be like, we'll make. I mean, what did they make of America's Most Haunted? What did Spooky do? Oh, is that a hunter? They came out and they were like, we designed a game. They showed the game. It was America's Most Haunted. We're going to talk about Spooky here for a little while because they're the most successful boutique manufacturer. I think they're the most credible as well. Like, if you buy a Spooky, you're definitely not buying a game that's built to the same quality standards as, say, a Stern. But you know you're going to get a game. You are going to get your game. They will deliver what they say they're going to deliver. yep they can give you a schedule they have a production schedule which is you know something that a lot of boutique guys struggle with hitting this hitting and they started small and they've scaled up but they're still small potatoes to stern to what i think is the only true real pinball manufacturer today is stern we have we have what used to happen is there was a lot of big manufacturers jockeying for market share now there's now there's one and then there's a bunch of little guys fighting for the scraps yeah it's hard to get actual numbers on it because stern doesn't put out production yeah but i would say stern's probably 80 to 90 percent of all the pins i've heard i've heard 90 to 95 i think it's it's got to be going down a little bit with all the extra competition and the and the boutique competition has gotten better like the games are looking more finished but i do want to talk more about spooky and i want to i want to give ron or alex the floor here sorry he goes by many names the water boy ron alex uh if you call if you hear me calling him that it's because he's a man of mystery but as long as i've known alex He has been, how do I say this charitably, a raving spooky fanboy? No, no, that's not true. You know, I just think they're the best pinball company out there. Okay, a spooky apologist. Maybe. I will definitely I eager to give them second chances And third and fourth chances And make excuses for shortcomings on games because I like the company and what they represent And you'll create dummy accounts on Pinside to defend them, right? No. Oh, that's fabricated? Okay. That's just something I made up and wrote in the notes. I'm sorry. No, it's just I like Spooky because they did so many things right that other boutique guys did wrong. They don't take big money deposits up front. They don't make you pay for your game up front. They actually can hit a schedule. They scaled organically. They've stayed, you know, everything's sourced in their little small town and everything. So there's a lot of stuff I really like about them and how they handle the company. They've also made some really good games, some really pretty games, some that might be both. But, you know, that's all up for debate. Everything's subjective. but at the end of the day um the objective things you can look at about spooky are very good the subjective things you know not everyone might like how their games play and sometimes the code can take a little while to get there or whatever but you know they're you know they do stand behind their products i think at the end of the day and it's like this customer service they've been making scooby-doo so for full disclosure i own a rick and morty which was the first new inbox pen i bought and i own an ultraman which was the second new in box pen i see raving spooky fan ultraman and and ultraman uh the code it's still i mean you had to be talked off a ledge from buying a scooby-doo new in box as well that's true yeah it's safe to say that when spooky releases a game you want it unless they can they can prove to you otherwise why you don't need it yeah which is very different than any other company releasing but but and so but that's a big part of that for me is that i like owning games at home and i've said this since we first met i like owning games at home that i can't play everywhere on location sterns actually work when you see them most of the time spookies when you see them on location traditionally don't have such a good reputation and so you don't see them as much and so it's one of those things where it's it's easy enough to keep any pinball machine working at home anyone that complains about maintenance on a home use pinball machine oh that's that's 100 true there's i mean maybe if you're troubleshooting an old pin or something troubleshooting can be difficult but the kind of stuff you have to do on a modern pin with factory support is so easy that it's just laughable you just might have a pin that's down for a week while you're waiting for parts but to go back to that yeah you don't see the spookies on location so i do go into every time they release a game i kind of you know i'm already excited i'm a potential buyer i guess immediately so it is kind of funny when you say like that i guess that makes me you're a fan boy okay i still don't consider because i think i'm pretty hard i'm pretty critical on the i think you're invested though i think the thing about it is like i am what makes this boutique thing interesting is like stern's stern's a monolith they're they're a mega corporation even jersey jack is now so like but spooky you're like oh it's charlie and it's his whole family work there it's like a literal family business in a small town i mean it's literally it's like comparing like stern as walmart to like spooky as the ma and pa shop and you're like yeah i'll go pay twice as much for apples and apples might not taste as good but you know i like the people that run it and that's kind of how i approach yeah they're they have some quality issues you're you're gonna see that across the whole board we're using spookiest because they're kind of the biggest and the most known and they're really the most reliable yeah and but yeah but that's what we're sort of touching on is like buying slash operating a boutique game so you've had some experience buying a few boots boutique games we've owned a few we've usually bought them second hand not not brand new like we got our yeah uh total nuclear annihilation which is a spooky game we got that second hand in a trade and we had an american pinball houdini yeah um that yeah i said a lot i'm trying to be nice here uh yeah we're trying not to dog on things too much there's good things about that game i think overall that thing's a steaming pile of trash but i think it's i've had fun playing i've had fun playing okay so there's so here's the thing is is like i think with ron or alex here sorry i'm gonna keep calling you wrong people are gonna be so confused no i think the thing about like i'm an operator we have a bar so we have to care about the games working and like being and and not only working like out the box and putting them on the floor but then also are they gonna earn like are people gonna play them like because the games aren't cheap and when spooky first started they were selling games for cheaper than stern so when you would get some of the weird quality stuff like hot glue on the connectors or you get some of the goofy stuff that they would do you like yeah you know like they're they're just doing it you're like it's small it's small batch and they're doing it at cheap prices which they still are pretty affordable but they're they're gotten to the point where their their pens now compete with stern pros and when you when you get into that realm and i always thought that from an operator's perspective is like all these boutique companies are are great provided you get your games we'll touch on that in a little bit but if you're buying from a reputable company like spooky you will get your game it may take a year and a half to two years but you'll get it likewise with chicago and american all of the ones have been putting out a few titles you know you're gonna get it they're reputable companies american chicago they're all reputable companies but they make games slowly at a much smaller scale But when we're talking about operating the game, you kind of need to game game. You don't really. It's it's really inconvenient to like lay out a deposit and then wait and then wait and then wait. Yeah, it's not the boutique model in the products they often deliver aren't really aimed at. They're not. Now, operators do buy them and they do try to do it. And they're usually that's why you'll hear the frustrations on their voices in Facebook groups or on Pinside or whatever. They're like, I bought this thing and it's already fucking broken. Like, you know, and like it's been down all weekend or whatever. Yeah. Which I imagine. I mean, it's completely different. That's the big thing that I think a lot of people don't really realize, especially when they're, you know, arguing with each other on pin side or Facebook groups or whatever, is that coming at this from a collector, a home pinball player perspective versus an operator perspective is completely different. And, you know, like I said, spooky, you might have a board failing in a week later, they sends you a whole brand new board no questions asked which is awesome and it's cool that they always are eager to do that but when you're an operator and you have you know if it's one of your two games sitting in a bar you don't want that game down for a full week the bar owner's gonna get pissy and the customer base the pinball location basis it's fickle like if if they show up to a place and the games don't work they might not want to go back to that place and then they might not yep you know there's dude it's insane how how quick people are to dismiss locations pinball locations based off of a single experience that they went in and stuff was broken and in people i mean people are quick to dismiss that's what i was gonna say is like if you show up in a game's always broken or it was broken the first couple times you played it or you showed up in the code was just broken you remember when when foo fighters came out and there was the ball trail misadjusted and someone took a picture posted the stuck ball on red and they're like oh no you're more QC issues for Stern. And it's just a joke because you're like, dude, that's a 30 second fix. This game came out of the box today. Just chill. But no, he's already shit talking on the Internet. Oh, yeah. No idea. When 007 came out, there was just people, loud people on a Facebook group that pinball operators and they were just like, this game's never going to earn. This game sucks. It's not finished. The shots suck. Like, this game sucks. Like it doesn even say James Bond It says you know it says Dr No Like nobody going to know our fucking James Bond earns great dude Fantastically dude It a Gomez game It a Stern It earns very well I love it. Yeah. All the casuals call it Dr. No and start 007. It doesn't matter. It turns out they still play the pinball machine. Because it's there, it works, and what's in there is fun. So did it release with shallow code? Yes. But will Stern update it? Yes. And they already have. um yeah sorry we're kind of i brought us off topic a little bit but i guess that's all the podcast is is just a series of tangents of diversions no but i i think i think it just we're speaking to the difference in companies but really what we're talking about is the challenges of manufacturing very complex games without scale so what the boutique companies struggle with is they don't have the scale and the scale means when you're building 100 or 200 or 400 of something and Stern's building thousands. If Stern's making a run of game, nobody releases their numbers. But if we look to the pinball past, say Stern is making 3, 4, 5, 6,000 games per title release and Spooky's making 1,000, that's a big difference. That's a big difference. And that's Spooky after they scaled up for 10 years. and so what what's happening is they don't have the amount of full-time staff they can't keep them they don't have the the square footage they don't get the price breaks on nuts and bolts and and all the little parts because they can't buy 5 000 of them they have to buy you know a few hundred of something and i think one of the pitfalls of spooky specifically and i just am speaking a lot about spooky because it's what i have personal experience with but they change hardware and stuff they're always trying new stuff from game to game in in hopes of improving and sometimes it works good and sometimes it doesn't but it can be tough because it's like how many iterations of game does it take to find a connector that doesn't work itself dear god in the spooky connectors they've apparently done a new generation even since my ultraman i think scooby-doo has new ones that are supposedly even better and my ultraman connectors have actually been awesome my rick and morty connectors are yeah our tna are constantly fiddling i've replaced a bunch all the punch through one suck in it you're just like come on man you've made i mean rick and morty a small batch game they made 750 of them but at that point they'd already built a couple thousand over yeah over their years not at once right over many titles you're like a couple thousand stern does that many of one yeah of one i was just i was talking to an operator recently i can say it out loud we've talked about him on the first episode the pops pinball guys on the east coast and they have a big lebowski and they posted like hey big lebowski's back up so i message them because we don't have one we don't buy boutique games so spoiler alert before our conclusions at the end of this podcast we don't buy boutique games and i'll explain a little bit more why but i was talking to them and i was like oh i have a couple questions for you one is that game reliable and two does it earn well and then he said no and no so he said you're like well that's a compelling argument to spend twice exactly that's the other thing is that and he's like for 12k absolutely not worth it but i guess that their location uh bought it and they just operate for him so they it's not a game that they bought and operate so yep and that's one thing that i will say i think there is value even if the games are unreliable and even if the games don't earn that much i always think there is something to be said for having some unique titles at your place just to make it more of a pinball location you're talking about wetcha here that's all we do dude exactly i was gonna say but that's the big thing is that some operators think they have to buy boutique stuff and you're like you can also go grab any em and you'll probably have the only one of those on location for 500 miles so there's kind of different ways to go about how to make yourself stand out and some guys go some guys go the boutique route you see a lot of locations that only have games released in the last 10 years and those will be the ones that are always hankering to buy a new american or a new spooky or whatever they think will you know work and that's good i mean i like opportunities to play these games and i respect them for putting their money where their mouth is but it's um yeah it's just different ways to go about that i think it's noble because you always want to support you're rooting for an underdog we all love an underdog story as a small business owner myself as someone that you know we we built wedgehead from the ground up with our own hands we've made lots of mistakes there there have been issues that bigger companies don't have to deal with right like so it's like i empathize with the smaller companies and i obviously want that but if there's a if there's an issue of like we have to decide what we're gonna buy with limited funds and we have to decide what's best for our business and we need to buy a quality product and really for us it's come to the point where my business partner he he owns the games and so he's the final say in what we buy or what we don't buy and at the end of the day we don't buy boutique games right now because we're operators we're not private collectors it's it's it's not worth taking a flyer on for us and it takes a valuable floor space not only in wedgehead but if we put it in a different location it's it's something that we already have a lot of really cool old games that we like a lot why are we going to buy a brand new game for a lot like like if you take an old game that we think is cool like frontier or mystic or something cool like that like an old george christian game and we put it on location like the game's not going to earn a lot of money but also So we bought that game for $2,000 years ago, right? So it's like, okay. It's already a cost that's gone. Why are we going to spend $8,000, $9,000, $10,000, $12,000 on something that's going to earn one of those games and be less reliable? And we might not even think it's that cool. Yeah, and that's something we haven't even really talked about in our 20 minutes is what we actually think of how a lot of these games play just from our own personal. Well, I think that's how this is how we're going to end is because I think we we appreciate we both you and I both appreciate. I appreciate anyone who goes out and fucking does anything because it's the easiest thing in the world to criticize. People criticize everyone. Everyone's a fucking critic. Everyone will criticize everything you do, but everyone has an opinion on how something should be done. Very few people go out and actually do much of anything. So if you put it on the line and you do what you say you're going to do, I have the utmost respect for Chuck and Spooky Pinball in particular, for Nermal and for American Pinball and for all these other companies, for the ones that actually release games. Total respect. Do I like most of the games they make? No. As far as like, not even from an operator. As far as like, we're going up and playing. Do I enjoy playing it? No. Most of the time. See, I'm the voice of positivity on the podcast, and I enjoy most little boutique games. If you put one next to other things, I might play other things more, but I like the variety always. There are some that, though, I think, I don't know. I guess we're going to wrap this up here pretty soon, but I would say if you were going to pick one boutique game from the last 10 years or whatever. Okay, one that's not a spooky, so Nos Catanissis. They're the only two good ones that ever got made. it was scott denisi made rick and morty and tna and they're both phenomenal games both of those games are like legitimately great you haven't you haven't put much time on or any time on galactic i haven played yet and that thing listen i a dennis norton fanboy you know this about me we haven covered this on the pod but we will in the future dude there good games Because there some that I don know there always ones that I want to play more but the problem is you don see them because they don earn and they expensive But I'm hoping Alien. I'm hoping that we see more Alien. Alien is pretty cool. That's a pretty cool game. I'll say that too. Yep. I think I like Big Lebowski. I play it every time I get the chance. I haven't played it. It looks fun. Past that. I would play it. There's a lot of them because it's like they are so rare and that's still like the novelty to it so when you're like that kind of player that wants to play everything which some of us in the hobby are you're trying to check i'm always excited to play a new game always yeah however i it's like that a lot of times they will i'm gonna throw your ultraman under the bus i think it's honestly one of the worst shooting pins i've ever played ever ever no you can't say that like really it irritates me uh but i think that we can probably do a very interesting episode one day of games that we like leave us wanting to quit pinball and i think that i'll mention that game i promise you unbelievable there's no pin that bad for me but we're gonna we're gonna end this i will say that there is a there is a final warning for anyone that's new to the pinball hobby is and you may be looking at you like oh wow there's all these options now there's all these options i would implore you if you're going the new inbox route at least your first game buy a stern like pick they have a lot of options you're going to get your game you're going to get your game quickly and it's going to it's going to be reliable and it's going to have a good resale value if you need to move on but then you can go ahead and buy a boutique because i do think the boutique games are are are made for the home collector market i'd say my my follow-up bit of advice on that is for your second game or when you're looking at a boutique one don't buy one if it's the company's first pin unless you know somebody at the company or you can go look at the game physically too many people have been burned putting money down for a predator or a raza or some shit that never came that never came through and just don't do it everyone everyone sees it they get drawn in like moths to a flame a fool and their money are quickly parted you will find that is true in pinball in general there has been a lot of companies we mentioned some of them suncoast sidware highway suncoast i don't think that they really uh lied to anybody but sidware highway uh Skit-B and the whole predator fiasco as well as deep root yeah there's there's a whole history of like at best they were incompetent at worst they were full-blown con men that just took people's money and ran pyramid schemes and started telling you yeah and the way you can usually tell is if you don't have that six cents here's what they'll do they will announce a preview of a game they'll start a social media thing they'll get it on pin side maybe they'll start a thread they'll take it to a show or two they'll bring some prototypes they'll let people kind of play it a little bit and then they'll start taking deposit money and then they'll be like well we're gonna start shipping these games three months from now three months comes up there's a new post oh something came up right and they keep stalling and there's and it gets that sunk cost fallacy where you have money down and you don't want to back out because you want to you want to get your game because you're so excited about it yeah but it's happened so many times and it just pays to be smart especially i see a lot of people that are in and they're like i just saved up this money or i got this inheritance or i got whatever chunk of money and I really want this pinball machine. I really want my first pin. You want a pinball machine. So don't buy an idea of a pinball machine from someone you don't know. Right. 100%. Well, I think we covered boutique manufacturers pretty well. We didn't dive into specific ones super hard other than spooky, but that's because you're a spooky fan and they are. Yeah, we happen to have one sitting in the room with us right now. I think that they are the best at what they do as far as the boutique manufacturers. And they have made some really fun games. I think TNA is legitimately one of the best games of all time. And Rick and Morty is also excellent. Scott Danesi is a fantastic new designer. And I think that's what the beauty of. That's exactly. That's the thing with the pinball companies. Some of them. You get somebody like Scott who gets a chance to design these games. And everyone's like, holy shit, this is awesome. Yeah. you get a chance to do something different because it's like hey like spooky took a gamble making a production game without ramps in whatever that was in 2015 2016 and um yeah stern wouldn't have done that or they have a bunch of in-house designers like john boer was already there Steve Ritchie's already right like all these guys that are established that are good designers that they're not going to lose their jobs but where's the room for the new blood which will be another episode that we do in the future is about the new blood in pinball new design philosophies and all that kind of stuff but uh yeah i mean i just wanted to i thought this would be a very interesting topic especially since alex himself is he's a big fan of boutique companies and he always gets very excited i get excited about everything in pinball so and i will say that at Wedgehead every single time a new game gets released by a new company I get a million DMs from people that are like dude did you see this and when are you getting one and so if you're listening this podcast now we're not like we will get every new story that comes out you'll see it and and occasionally like Chicago is making their first game but they've made a bunch of remakes that we bought and trusted and they're making Pulp Fiction so we put an order for that so that's technically i would say they're basically a boot their boutique in the pinball world even though they're attached to raw thrills and they they they manufacture a lot so they're kind of their own pinball is like their side hustle but they're good at it so we trust them so we're going to get one of those but the answer is my business partner and i we don't buy them because it's not economically smart or a location play it's the unfortunate reality of that's how it goes can't buy and we're not and we're not against it in the future if if if one of these companies grows bigger or they start making absolutely killer games that you cannot ignore we'll buy them i mean that's the thing about it is like yeah if that's that's what i know if i know anything about roads your your business partner if uh labyrinth comes out and he plays one and it kicks ass and he thinks or he's in a facebook group with other operators and like dude this things earn in buckets of cash he's going to scramble to get one yeah 100 so because operators follow them you have to i mean that's literally their job so that's uh but well i think i think we've covered it pretty well end on that note um yeah thanks for joining me for another episode of the wedgehead pinball podcast i'm going to sign off like i always do which is to implore you to go out and play some pinball on location you're supporting small business you're supporting operators you're keeping pinball alive in its natural habitat and uh i will say that since we talked about boutique manufacturers if you haven't played any of these games or heard of these companies for the love of god go support an operator yes brave enough absolutely because they're dying on the vine man they're taking a big risk that you don't even know that they are they could have just bought a venom go play that october fest yes yes so play play some of these games if you see them and they're working go out and play something and you go that's not a stern and you don't know what money into put a lot of money into it put a lot of money into it yeah maybe you'll like it but if not at least it went to a good cause until next time you

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 736eb8d1-65c6-4e14-9f5f-72eef56d1670*