# Episode 941: "Kaneda Freak Out Friday!"

**Source:** Kaneda's Pinball Podcast (Patreon feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-04-26  
**Duration:** 28m 23s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-941-out-103091196

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## Analysis

Kaneda discusses John Wick's imminent release with a brand new male designer at Stern (not Tim Sexon, who handles code), code updates for James Bond and Jaws, criticizes Jersey Jack's handling of Guns N' Roses support, condemns Haggis Pinball and Marty for misleading customers on Centaur Oblivion orders, expresses skepticism about American Pinball's pipeline (Ryan McQuade's Cuphead game), and reveals that Dutch Pinball's Back to the Future will NOT premiere at Pinball Expo in October.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] John Wick is designed by a brand new male designer at Stern (first pinball machine ever), with Tim Sexon on code — _Kaneda directly confirms this; states he's hearing '100%' confirmation_
- [MEDIUM] John Wick teaser may come out next week; game release within 2-3 weeks — _Kaneda's speculation based on typical Stern release windows_
- [HIGH] James Bond code 1.0 has dropped; features Her Majesty's Secret Service-style wizard mode — _Kaneda read feedback on Stern code releases_
- [LOW] Haggis Pinball employee (ex-employee) in Melbourne told someone 'you won't be seeing any more games produced' — _Kaneda quotes Adam Szebus from Pinside forum; secondhand hearsay_
- [HIGH] Back to the Future will NOT be shown at Pinball Expo in October; Barry (Dutch Pinball) confirmed via text to Kaneda — _Kaneda states 'just got a text from Barry' and presents it as real-time confirmation_
- [HIGH] American Pinball's Ryan McQuade has been with the company for two years (since April 2022) with nothing shipped — _Kaneda verified the hire date and expresses frustration with lack of output_
- [MEDIUM] New Metallica and Back to the Future games will be at Pinball Expo; Cuphead may struggle by comparison — _Kaneda's inference based on market excitement levels and competitive positioning_
- [MEDIUM] Jaws code update includes more clips and callouts; game is coming along well — _Kaneda reports reading positive feedback in code update threads_
- [MEDIUM] Fathom machines sell for ~$7,000; Centaur Oblivion edition priced at ~$17,000 — _Kaneda references secondary market pricing and advertised Haggis pricing_
- [HIGH] Kaneda's second child (a boy) is due May 4th — _Kaneda announces at show opening and closing_

### Notable Quotes

> "I'm going to hit you with some confirmation news. It is absolutely going to be John Wick. And I'm hearing now 100% that it is a brand new designer making this game."
> — **Kaneda**, ~2:30
> _First public confirmation of John Wick's new designer status; major community announcement_

> "I'd rather have new designers than tribute games designed somewhat by Barry O. I'd rather have new designers than Dennis Nordman, Whitewater 2, or Galactic Tank Force."
> — **Kaneda**, ~4:00
> _Strong opinion on design innovation vs. nostalgia/legacy designers_

> "There's no excuse why Jersey Jack took their best-selling pinball machine of all time... and they did nothing on the code for three years."
> — **Kaneda**, ~12:30
> _Criticism of Jersey Jack's Guns N' Roses code support timeline_

> "You don't get to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from this community and know their pinball podcaster wants to call you out... You are a bunch of liars."
> — **Kaneda**, ~28:00
> _Harsh indictment of Haggis Pinball/Marty for misleading customers on Centaur Oblivion_

> "So you're hearing it here first, real time and live on a recorded show that Back to the Future will not be at Expo this year."
> — **Kaneda**, ~37:30
> _Real-time reveal of Barry's (Dutch Pinball) decision to skip Pinball Expo_

> "How is this game not done? Keith Elwin could design five games in two years and Ryan McQuade can't finish one game over at American Pinball."
> — **Kaneda**, ~35:00
> _Criticism of American Pinball's lack of output and Ryan McQuade's progress_

> "I mean, he's going to be making Back to the Future for the next 10 years and I'm super excited to see the game finally."
> — **Kaneda**, ~41:00
> _Expression of confidence in Dutch Pinball's Back to the Future as a long-term success_

> "I haven't even unboxed my Guns N' Roses. And by the time I unbox it, it'll be almost four years since I bought it and the code is still not complete."
> — **Kaneda**, ~14:30
> _Personal example of Jersey Jack's code delay impact on customers_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Kaneda | person | Host of Kaneda's Pinball Podcast; outspoken pinball community figure and critic; expecting second child (boy) due May 4th |
| John Wick | game | Upcoming Stern Pinball title; designed by unnamed brand new male designer; code by Tim Sexon; expected release within 2-3 weeks per Kaneda |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; releasing John Wick, James Bond, updating code for multiple titles |
| Tim Sexon | person | Stern code programmer; handling code for John Wick but not designing it |
| James Bond 007 | game | Stern Pinball title; code 1.0 released; features wizard mode similar to Her Majesty's Secret Service |
| Jaws Pinball | game | Recent code update with improved clips, callouts, and positive community reception |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Criticized for 3+ year delay on Guns N' Roses code updates; known for unclear code versioning system |
| Guns N' Roses | game | Jersey Jack's best-selling title; code support delayed 3+ years; major source of community frustration |
| Haggis Pinball | company | Struggling manufacturer; Centaur Oblivion and Fathom delays; accused of misleading customers; business viability questioned |
| Damien | person | Co-owner of Haggis Pinball; target of Kaneda's criticism for misleading customers and lack of communication |
| Marty | person | Co-owner of Haggis Pinball; runs podcast; criticized by Kaneda for avoiding responsibility on customer delays |
| American Pinball | company | Small manufacturer; Cuphead game in development; struggling sales; Ryan McQuade designing unreleased title for 2 years |
| Ryan McQuade | person | Game designer at American Pinball since April 2022; designed Sonic the Hedgehog and Cuphead; next game not yet ready |
| Dutch Pinball | company | Barry and Melvin's company; producing Big Lebowski, Alice in Wonderland (500 units), and Back to the Future; Back to the Future skipping Pinball Expo |
| Barry | person | Co-owner of Dutch Pinball; confirmed to Kaneda via text that Back to the Future will not debut at Pinball Expo |
| Keith Elwin | person | Legendary Stern designer; referenced as productivity benchmark (could design 5 games in 2 years vs. Ryan McQuade's 1) |
| George Gomez | person | Legendary Stern designer; mentioned as classic pillar of Stern design alongside John Borg |
| John Borg | person | Stern designer; designing new Metallica game on Spike 3 platform; upcoming Expo reveal |
| Pat Lawlor | person | Legendary designer at Jersey Jack; criticized by Kaneda for lack of innovation in recent Jersey Jack games |
| Jack Danger | person | Stern designer; Foo Fighters designed by him; referenced as example of fresh, innovative design vs. legacy designers |
| Foo Fighters | game | Stern game designed by Jack Danger; code 1.0 drastically changed game with callouts; cited as example of fresh design |
| Pinball Expo | event | Major pinball industry show in October; expected to feature Metallica, Cuphead, possibly others; Back to the Future NOT premiering there |
| Adam Szebus | person | Pinside forum user from Melbourne, Australia; allegedly spoke to ex-Haggis employee about no future game production |
| Cactus Canyon Remake | game | CGC title; designer Lyman Sheets no longer with company; owners debating code vs. difficulty balance issues |

### Topics

- **Primary:** John Wick release and new designer reveal, Code quality and update cycles (Stern vs. Jersey Jack), Haggis Pinball financial and communication crisis, American Pinball's pipeline and viability concerns, Back to the Future skipping Pinball Expo
- **Secondary:** Game design philosophy: innovation vs. legacy designers, Limited Edition pricing and secondary market collapse, Difficulty balance and drain design in pinball

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (-0.15) — Kaneda is enthusiastic about John Wick and Dutch Pinball's Back to the Future, but deeply critical and angry toward Haggis Pinball, Jersey Jack (Guns N' Roses delays), American Pinball (lack of output), and HomePin. General frustration with industry practices, customer deception, and design stagnation dominates.

### Signals

- **[announcement]** John Wick confirmed with brand new male designer at Stern (not Tim Sexon); designer's first pinball machine (confidence: high) — Kaneda states '100%' confirmation; teaser expected next week; release within 2-3 weeks
- **[code_update]** James Bond 1.0 code released with Her Majesty's Secret Service-style wizard mode (confidence: high) — Kaneda read feedback from code update threads; describes mode accessibility issues
- **[code_update]** Jaws Pinball received new code update with more clips and callouts; positive reception (confidence: medium) — Kaneda reports reading positive feedback in code threads
- **[business_signal]** Haggis Pinball facing business collapse; ex-employee claims no future games will be produced (confidence: medium) — Adam Szebus reports ex-Haggis employee statement; Kaneda notes writing on wall re: recapitalization; long delays on Centaur Oblivion
- **[community_signal]** Community anger at Haggis Pinball leadership (Damien and Marty) for misleading customers on Centaur Oblivion deposits and timelines (confidence: high) — Kaneda reads customer testimony; calls leadership 'liars' and 'weasels'; demands accountability and refunds
- **[industry_signal]** Jersey Jack's poor code support track record vs. Stern's faster release cycles; Guns N' Roses 3+ year delay unacceptable (confidence: high) — Kaneda compares Stern's rapid updates to Jersey Jack's vague beta versioning and missed Q2 2024 deadline
- **[personnel_signal]** American Pinball's Ryan McQuade (hired April 2022) has shipped nothing in 2 years; productivity questioned (confidence: high) — Kaneda verifies hire date; notes no products shipped; compares unfavorably to Keith Elwin's 5-game pace
- **[event_signal]** Back to the Future will NOT premiere at Pinball Expo October 2024; Barry (Dutch Pinball) confirmed via text to Kaneda (confidence: high) — Kaneda presents real-time text confirmation from Barry; notes Kaneda suggested Comic-Con instead
- **[product_strategy]** Stern flooding market with LE/Collector's Editions (1000+ units); diluting scarcity premium; driving secondary prices down (confidence: medium) — Kaneda contrasts Jaws/Foo/Bond/Elton John LEs (many units) with Batman SLE (80 units, $30k value); notes all Stern LEs sliding from $13k to $10k
- **[design_philosophy]** Kaneda argues for new designer vision over legacy/tribute designers (Lawlor, Dennis Nordman); fresh design drives excitement (confidence: high) — Extended metaphor about roller coasters; praises Foo Fighters and Keith Elwin for 'fresh' feel; criticizes Elton John as Steve Ritchie reskin
- **[gameplay_signal]** Debate over cheap drains vs. fair difficulty; Pulp Fiction, TMNT, Wizard of Oz criticized for left-outlane issues; Jaws praised for balance (confidence: medium) — Kaneda discusses outlane post removal on Cactus Canyon Remake and Pulp Fiction; compares to Jaws/Elton John as well-balanced examples
- **[market_signal]** Secondary market LE pricing collapse from COVID-era peaks; Jurassic Park LE $18-19k in 2020 now crashed; market 'softer' and 'flatter' (confidence: medium) — Kaneda references COVID frenzy pricing and current crash; notes Dutch Pinball's 500-unit Alice in Wonderland plan seems misaligned with softened demand

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## Transcript

 Welcome everybody, happy Friday, welcome to Canada's Pinball Podcast. I know I wasn't able to get a show up on Wednesday because work has been super busy. Also, by the way, the baby is due May 4th. So any minute, any hour, any second, this baby number two for Kaneda could drop into this world. I'm super excited, but I'm not going to stop doing this pinball podcast. So get ready. Now, I bet Stern Pinball has delayed the release of John Wick just to interrupt with the delivery of Kaneda's second child. I'm super excited for John Wick. I'm just going to hit you guys right now because you didn't have a Wednesday show. I'm going to hit you with some confirmation news. It is absolutely going to be John Wick. And I'm hearing now 100% that it is a brand new designer making this game. It is not Tim Sexton. He is doing the code. But the designer of this game, this will be the first pinball machine he's ever made. So I also know the gender of the designer. It's a man's world in the world of pinball design. Who is it going to be over at Stern Pinball? I don't even know how to guess who it might be. I was trying to look to see. Maybe it's someone who worked on the design team with Foo Fighters. I don't know where to find that list. But you've been hearing it here first from Canada's Pinball Podcast that John Wick is going to be designed by a brand new gentleman over at Stern Pinball. And we've all been waiting for this game. And I think we're going to see this game within the next two to three weeks. I think the teaser for this game actually might come out next week. So that is super exciting. Stern, just release this damn game. We've all been waiting for this game. And what excites me about a brand new designer is this. We're going to get a new point of view from a new individual on what makes pinball fun. This is what we need more of in pinball. I'd rather have new designers than tribute games designed somewhat by Barry O. I'd rather have new designers than Dennis Nordman, Whitewater 2, or Galactic Tank Force. I'd rather see what new young designers want to bring to the world of pinball. Because what's exciting about a new designer versus an old designer is simply this. When you're new and you want to make a name for yourself, you're going to work harder. You're going to work longer hours. You need to establish your legacy. when you're an old designer like Pat Lawler was with Jersey Jack. Did he do anything new? Did he bring any innovation whatsoever to all of his games at Jersey Jack? He didn't do anything new. And his older games are still better than his newer games. And that's that. So I'd rather have someone who's trying to make a name for themselves and become the new greatest pinball designer in the world. I mean, think about it right now. Imagine a world in which Stern Pinball didn't even get Keith Elwin onto its roster and every game was still just George Gomez, John Borg, and Steve Ritchie. Would we get new and exciting pinball machines? As great as Elton John is as a game, it's not a brand new design by Steve Ritchie. There's not a lot of innovative stuff happening in that game. If you've owned all of Steve Ritchie's games and you walk up to an Elton John, you're not seen some radically new way to create pinball. Sure, it's fun. Sure, it's fun. But I'm going to use a metaphor. It's like imagine building an amazing roller coaster, right? This incredible roller coaster that everybody in the world loves. And you build it at Disney World, right? That's Steve Ritchie making his games over at Stern. And then you build the same exact roller coaster over at a newer, nicer theme park. And that's Elton John at Jersey Jack Pinball. It's the same ride. It's just maybe got nicer lights. It's got nicer seats. It's maybe got more interesting things you see along the ride. But the track itself, the pathway of the ball, it's been done many, many, many, many times over again. And what people love about Foo Fighters with Jack Danger's first game, it feels fresh. It feels new. And that's why people love the game. Same thing with all the Keith Elwin machines. It's like it just feels fresh. It feels new. And it gets everybody very excited. Now, look, nobody loves the price of these new games. Will a new designer be able to sell you 1,000 units of John Wick at $13,000 a pop? I don't think Stern's going to sell those games out immediately, but there is going to be a lot of excitement for a new designer. When they roll this game out, here's what I hope Stern does. First and foremost, I don't know who this guy is, but I hope he's got some charisma. Because when you show a game to the world for the first time ever, and you're brand new to the pinball space, I do think marketing matters. I do think you're going to need to get people excited. You know, it's like every time they release a game and Dwight is on code, how boring is it watching that guy for 20 minutes, spoil everything in the game, take the glass off and just like mumble through like 20 minutes of complex code. It doesn't get anybody excited. So I hope whoever is designing this game, first and foremost, designs an amazing game. Secondarily, has some charisma and excitement and has some personality. And I know that doesn't really matter. It's like Keith Owen doesn't really have that charisma. He's very soft-spoken and no one really cares, right? Because he designed some of the best pinball machines out there. All right, so new designer, John Wick, coming out any day now. All right, what else is going on? A lot's going on in the Stern world, people. New code for James Bond has just dropped. It's at 1.0. That doesn't mean the game is done, but it does mean that the rule sets are in place. I think that's what 1.0 means. And just reading the feedback on 1.0 code, they've added a wizard mode like Her Majesty's like Secret Service or something like that. And it's funny about these final wizard modes. When I was reading what you need to do to get to that final wizard mode, I was like, man, no one's going to get here. Like 99% of you are never going to get to this mode. And then what Stern's going to do is they're going to be like, well, you got to buy a topper. And that's your shortcut to getting to the final wizard mode. And for many of us out there who are never going to be good enough to lining up all those things and getting through all those modes, all you got to do, you never have to buy a topper or some DLC to get to the final wizard mode. All you got to do is take the glass of the machine off and then stretch your fingers and just start hitting all the switches to get through the game. And then you can get to the final wizard mode with the glass off. And then you can experience it for free. I did that with Lord of the Rings. I was never going to get to like Valinor or whatever the heck the thing is at the end But I did it with the glass off and I don care I had fun cheating on my own pinball machine So James Bond 1 The other thing after reading all the feedback I still think a lot of you out there, you do like the game, you're happy where this game is at, but you just want a lot more clips and you want a lot more call outs because that's the thing. It's like a lot of times they'll drop these code updates and there's like balancing of score and there's fixing a lot of the issues or they're finally turning on inserts that don't do anything or they're giving features to the lock bar button. But what you really want is you want more of the theme you love in the game. And you also want to see that as you're playing the game. It's like when Foo Fighters dropped Code 1.0, it drastically changed the game with all the call outs. It felt like an all new game. And I think what I'm sensing with the James Bond code is a lot of people waited six months and they installed the code and they were expecting a radically awesome new way to play James Bond and all this new stuff was going to come at them. And I just don't think they're feeling that. We also got new code for Jaws Pinball the other day, which is really great. And I'm hearing in that thread, there's a lot more clips and call outs and stuff happening in that game. So Jaws continues to come along very nicely. I have heard from people who work over at Stern in the coding department, it's a really tough job, right? It really is. Like they're under so much pressure to get these games coded after they're released. But I will say like Stern has done a really good job recently of not making people wait years to get to a final code update, It's not like Guns and Roses where it's been over three years. And even the way Jersey Jack releases code, I don't like it. Like Stern officially releases a code, puts a number to it, and that number does indicate how far they have to go to get to somewhat of a code complete game. Jersey Jack doesn't do that. It's like all these weird like beta drops of code. I don't even know what number it's on. I don't even know what number signifies it's going to be done. And they promised this major code update for Guns N' Roses by Q2 of 2024, which would be by June of this year. But there's no real release date and all these beta things are trickling out. It's just a little confusing, but I will say this. I've been reading really positive things about the Guns N' Roses code and I think people are enjoying the game much more now that they've sort of addressed a lot of the issues and complaints on that game. Now, look, it's a little day late and a dollar short for a lot of GNR owners that have been waiting this many years. I mean, there really is no excuse why Jersey Jack took their best-selling pinball machine of all time. It's Guns N' Roses. This game has sold more than Wizard of Oz and any other game they've made. They had the most amount of people excited about their product, and they did nothing on the code for three years. through all the complaining and all the this and all the that, it makes absolutely no sense. And think about all the coding resources they put towards two games that nobody wanted, Toy Story 4 and To Godfather, right? And they really should have done a better job of making sure GNR was exactly where it needed to be within a year of that game coming out. So shame on you, Jersey Jack. I'm happy that you're finally doing it. I mean, it's just so funny to me that I haven't even unboxed my Guns N' Roses. And by the time I unbox it, it'll be almost four years since I bought it and the code is still not complete. Shouldn't be that way. It just should never be that way. So we've got that happening over at Stern Pinball. The reason why code is so important in pinball is we really want a game to have great coding. It's what keeps you coming back. It's what creates that replay value. The code is what creates those pinball moments. It is, because think about it. If you don't have code in a pinball machine and you just have a white wood, even if it's lighting up left and right, there's no moments. It's the combination of the design with the code that creates the pinball moments that we love so much about pinball. And that's why code is so important. You know, what's funny to me is over in the land of CGC, all these guys that bought Cactus Canyon remake, right? They bought that game thinking Lyman Sheets was going to make that game his next masterpiece. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us. But how many years ago was that? How many years ago has this game been out? And they haven't done anything to improve the code on Cactus Canyon remake. And what's getting funny really now in the thread is that these owners are like, well, it's not the code that's the problem. It's that the game is too easy. Let me read you something that someone wrote on Pinside. This is from Pinball in Reno. He writes, he said that you have to open up the outlanes at least 65% in Cactus Cannon to make it more fun. This makes the game fun, enjoyable, with good ball times for multiplayer games. The mission is to have fun, and once in a while, get on a roll to blow up the score, and once in a great while, get to high noon. The game is amazing, witty, sarcastic, with great William-style humor. People who say it's too easy don't know how to set up a game. If you are getting to high noon on ball one, remove the outlane posts. My game is brutal, yet balanced. Tons of fun. I mean, really, is this where we're at? You got to remove the outlane posts, make the game harder, and then it becomes more fun. I don't know. Some people might subscribe to that. I don't. I think pinball is hard enough. You know, when I went over to Jack Bar and John like raised the outlane post on Pulp Fiction, I don't know why. It's silly. You have to keep nudging the game left and right. And he's like, improve your pinball skills. And I'm like, why do I need to improve my pinball skills? Why don't you not make the game harder than it came from the factory? I don't understand why people want to play pinball and just be nudging all day long to keep it out of the outlanes. Does that make it more fun? I don't know. Maybe some of you love that. Some of you love throwing the machines around and that's where you get enjoyment. But I think the best pinball machines out there have that right balance where the ball times are not super long and you don't have to adjust the post to have fun. Like I had a lot of fun playing Jaws and I don't think you need to make the game harder. I had a lot of fun playing Elton John. You don't have to make the game harder. And when I was playing Pulp Fiction, I just felt like there were a lot of cheap drains and that made the game not fun. You know, there's certain games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is another example of a game where you just get all these cheap trains on the left out lane side. Same with The Wizard of Oz. And it makes it not fun. And I think that's bad design. And the pinball machines that people love the most, they can be hard, but there shouldn't be anything cheap. Everybody hates cheap trains in pinball It just not what we want So do I have to talk about this HomePin version of the Blues Brothers I mean it absolutely atrocious The art package is terrible. The layout is horrendous. This is gonna be the first and last open source pinball machine ever. Mike over at HomePin, it's an absolute tragedy, everything he's putting into these pinball machines. I think Spinal Tap now has a third flipper installed in the game. Has anyone even got a spinal tap machine? And now he's announcing this. This company makes no sense. Nobody wants to hear me talk about HomePin. Stick a fork in these guys. They're done. Now, speaking of companies to stick a fork in, let's talk quickly about Haggis Pinball and American Pinball. I was reading Pinside and someone over in Australia said the following. He said, I live in Melbourne, Australia, and I know a Haggis employee. recently ex-employee all I can say is you won't be seeing any more games produced wow now this is coming from Adam Sebus in Melbourne Australia now look I'm not sure if this is true or not I'm just reading what a guy is saying now do you believe that they're done I mean look we all know the writing is on the wall there is no way they're going to recapitalize and get enough money to keep this ship in the ocean and now that like fathoms are selling for like seven thousand dollars and they're easy to get and they're losing money and they're so expensive for damien to make nobody's going to go in on this seventeen thousand dollar or oblivion edition and now it's probably going to be a dark cloud going over those distributors you know i think it was nitro and flipping out, they've got those deposits on these Centaur games. And the more and more time goes on where there's no remarks from Damien, it's going to come down to a point where at what point do people deserve a refund? I mean, you got to remember the time frame, people. You got to remember the time frame. And I'm going to remind everybody what was said to these people when they gave deposits on these Oblivion editions. Let me read this to you. And this is from a guy who ordered these games from Damien. And he's not a frequent poster on Pinside, but this really just gets right at the heart of why what they're doing is terrible and why Damien and Marty should be ashamed of themselves that they've taken people on this journey. You know how I feel about both of them. I think they're weaseling their way out of all of this by not communicating every week with these paying customers. And yeah, Marty, you're in it with Damien. And yeah, you have a podcast and yet you never talk about it. And then you tell people like, oh, Damien's the official spokesperson of Haggis Pinball, not me. Marty, we know those are your shoes in the corner. Step out from behind the curtain, brother. Man up and give people a response. And it's not funny that you go on the airwaves and you're ignoring your very own customers. It's absolutely pathetic. All right. So this guy writes, well, imagine being a season ticket holder and paid in full for not one but two fathoms and I ordered a Centaur Revisited or Oblivion. Okay, so right away, this guy is in on a lot of money. Receive the request for payment and finally make the payment on 1-26, only to receive their email on 2-16 like everyone else regarding the problems and delays. It royally sucks, but it's my fault for proceeding. I've only made a few posts in all the years I've been on here, but felt this one deserved a real story and a person associated with it. I just want to say this. It is not your fault. This whole victim blaming of people that have been abused, they've been abused, manipulated, and let's just use the word, they were lied to. So when Damien and Marty took your money on that 126 date, they were lying to you that the business was doing well. They were lying to you that you were going to get your game in just a few weeks. They were lying to you the entire time. Because the entire time they knew that that 216 email was going to go out. They knew they were up SHIT Creek with money issues. They've lied to us. And we need to stop this false narrative that they're good guys that are just trying to figure it out and making pinball this hard. And we understand all that. But the moment they decided to shield this centaur oblivion edition, the moment they got all these content creators to shield the game, the moment distributors were trying to give you confidence on sending more money to Haggis Pinball after they've lied to us year after year after year. We're going to finish the games by the end of the year. All of it has been lies, people. When they've been telling people it's going to be eight weeks until you get your game if you pay me in fall and then you pay in fall and nine months go by. And then there's a dude in Europe who's got like eight or something fathoms. And now he has to sue them and get a lawyer. It's all been lies. When that duck pinball guy went over there and he was all excited to make games with Damien. And then what happened? He's no longer with the company. They don't mention anything. They've gone radio silent. They are lying to everybody. If they don't want to lie to us, then tell us the truth, Damien and Marty. You don't get to hide like this. You don't get to take hundreds of thousands of dollars from this community and know their pinball podcaster wants to call you out. You don't get to go on your show, Marty, and hide your sneakers in the corner, Marty. You got to come out, man up. These are people's hard-earned money. These are people with children, people with mortgages, people with things to pay, people they'd rather spend this money on, and you took their money and you misled them. You are a bunch of liars. And if I ever see you at a show, I'll tell you that to your face because this is lying. When my boss asked me, Chris, when am I going to get these ideas? And I say, you're going to get these ideas in eight days and then I don't give them those ideas for eight weeks? You think I still have a job? Why are you guys doing this? Why are you still misleading people? I know it's tough. I know you're waking up and you're sweating it out. I know you have children. I know you have families. I know you probably have family members that invested in Haggis Pinball, but at some point the lying's got to stop. And if you need more money, don't come to us. Don't come to the community, the content creators, the distributors, and fill all of us with your lies. If you need more money, go to a bank, raise capital like a grown adult. And I'm so tired of this. It's 2024. Haggis, you're done. You're done. And the next company that might be done is American Pinball. So let's think about it for a minute, right? American Pinball. No one's buying this barbecue game. Nobody, nobody's buying it, right? Nobody. All right. So that means Ryan McQuaid's game is up next. Okay. Now look, I was looking and wondering when did Ryan McQuaid join American Pinball? And I was shocked to see that he joined American Pinball two years ago. It was April 22nd of 2022. Okay So what is Ryan McQuaid been doing over at American Pinball for two freaking years Nothing has come to market He got nothing out the door He doesn work on Sonic the Hedgehog And I think it Cuphead And this is what I don't get. So no one's buying the barbecue game. And now we're hearing that Ryan's game is not ready to go yet. They have to rush to get it to Pinball Expo. That doesn't make any sense. How is this game not done? Keith Elwin could design five games in two years and Ryan McQuaid can't finish one game over at American Pinball. Is it because Steven Bowden is sleeping in the corner? I mean, what's going on with this company? David Fix, what are you doing? This whole thing is a disaster. Nobody's going to care about freaking Ryan McQuaid's cuphead at Pinball Expo because now we're hearing that Back to the Future is coming to Expo. And so is John Borg's newly designed Metallica game. So this is why if you don't got talent and you don't got a theme people want, you're going to march into Expo with Cuphead. And then we're going to get Back to the Future. And we're going to get a new Metallica game on all new Spike 3 with all new features. Or Cuphead, it's game over, American Pinball. you had your window and you failed. Kaneda is the only one who talks like this. It's a reason why you're a club member. And speaking of being a club member, I want to give a big shout out to Drew S who just became a member at $30 a month. Drew, you are a member of the Omokase Club. And that means if we're ever in the same city together, Omokase on me, brother. Thank you, Drew S, for joining the Kaneda Club. And you know some of you out there, you're ready. you're ready to go from $5 to 10 or 10 to 30. You know you're ready. You know you don't even need me to ask you to get there. You know what? As I was just saying this though, this is funny. As I was just doing that whole thing about what's coming to Expo, I'm here to tell you right now because I just got a text from Barry. It just came through. And you're hearing it here first on Canada's Pinball Podcast that they are not presenting Back to the Future at Expo in October. And the reason why he responded to me is I said to him, you should not be revealing this game at Pinball Expo to 2,000 people or however many people go through that show. You should be revealing that game at Comic-Con in New York City to hundreds of thousands of people. And that's going to get you way more exposure for your Back to the Future pinball machine. And he said that's not a bad idea. So you're hearing it here first, real time and live on a recorded show that Back to the Future will not be at Expo this year. And speaking of Dutch Pinball, that kind of makes sense because I can't figure out, and I know Barry and Melvin might listen to this show, I can't figure out how this company that still has to make all of these Lebowskis by the end of the year, and they still got a bunch of orders to go through, and then you're gonna try to make 500 Alice in Wonderlands. I know those games are slated to go on the line in July, But how are you going to make 500 Alice's, all of these big Lebowski's and get Back to the Future on the line in October? My guess is that Back to the Future won't be on the line in October, but they might show it by the end of the year. I also think Barry, knowing that he has Back to the Future, he doesn't have to take a penny. He doesn't have to take a dime in preorder money. Like there's no like, oh, we got to gauge the interest on this title. let's take some non-refundable deposits I don't think he has to go down any of that shenanigans road I don't think he has to do any of that stupid stuff you know he knows he's got a winner I mean he's going to be making back to the future for the next 10 years and I'm super excited to see the game finally and the more I think about Alice in Wonderland the more I'm like I don't know you know 500 of these games I don't even think Jersey Jack can sell 500 Elton John collector's editions so how are you going to sell 500 Alice in Wonderland's for like 14,000 something I just don't know I think a lot of these people were planning this stuff during the COVID frenzy and the market is so much softer right now it's so much flatter I don't really know now that being said I have interest on my Batman SLE you know and that game is always going to hold value around $30,000. And every time Stern releases another LE with a thousand units, guess what that does to the price of my Batman SLE? When there's only 80 in the world and all you're doing is oversaturating what an LE is and what a collector's edition is, all that's going to do is make collectors seek out games like Batman 66 SLE even more. Because everyone's got a Jaws LE. Everyone's got a Foo LE. Everyone's got a Bond LE. Everyone can have an Elton John CE. And not just that, because there's so many of them, all of them are just tanking in price. I mean, everything. Every Stern LE that was $13,000 will slide down to being around $10,000. Trust me, everybody. Wait and see is always the way to go. I remember back in the day, like it wasn't impossible. Even after Stern launched Batman SLE, when they only made like 80 at $15,000 a pop. If you go on Pinside, we were still normal then. Like it was still a normal marketplace. And there were people that bought it. And then when they went to sell the game, they got like 16 or 17,000 for it. And you could get it. Like they popped up every once in a while. You know, the world just becomes stupid now. I remember during the height of COVID, Jurassic Park LEs were selling for $18,000. $19,000 for Stranger Things LEs. Stupid. Those games are all crashing back down now. They're all crashing down in price now. Everybody, thank you so much for being a member of Canada's Pinball Podcast. The baby is coming any day now. It is a boy. We are going to have two boys. It's going to be nuts. Their daddy is the world's favorite pinball podcaster, and you're my favorite audience. We'll talk to you soon. Later. Streetlight people Don't stop believing Hold on to that feeling Streetlight people

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 8df8009b-d1a2-433b-96fd-125d725edce7*