# DPP #52 "Jason Knapp interview and rumors!!"

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2023-07-04  
**Duration:** 56m 51s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donspinballpodcast/episodes/DPP-52-Jason-Knapp-interview-and-rumors-e26h1mi

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## Analysis

Don interviews Jason Knapp of Knapp Arcade about pinball news and rumors, covering potential upcoming Stern releases (Venom vs. alternatives at Comic-Con), Masters of the Universe/He-Man speculation, King Kong revival rumors, Spooky's secretive Monty Python machine, licensing challenges, and exclusives on Twilight Zone Pinball likely not happening and 500 ramps ordered for replacement parts rather than new production.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] Masters of the Universe/He-Man pinball game rumored from a reliable Printside source, expected 2024, designer unknown — _Don citing Jason Knapp rumor from Printside; speculative on designer (not Jack Danger)_
- [LOW] King Kong pinball prototype machines exist in private collections, allegedly from back in the day — _Don discussing old rumor; seeking owners to play test_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky Pinball's Monty Python machine physically exists but is being kept under wraps pending licensing approval — _Jason Knapp confirmed existence to Don; given permission to share; emphasizes licensing uncertainty_
- [MEDIUM] Comic-Con San Diego (2.5 weeks away at time of recording) will feature a potential new Stern release, possibly Venom — _Don speculating; Jason Knapp discusses uncertainty around anonymous Reddit rumor on Pinball Party podcast_
- [MEDIUM] Twilight Zone Pinball likely NOT happening despite trademark filing, based on conversations with industry insiders — _Jason Knapp exclusive claim; conversed with people who would know; contradicts earlier trademark evidence_
- [MEDIUM] 500 ramps were ordered from Starship Fantasy for Twilight Zone, but likely for replacement parts only, not new production — _Jason Knapp confirming earlier rumor; notes ramps unavailable elsewhere; interprets order as stock for parts sites_
- [MEDIUM] Licensing for major themes (Gremlins, Goonies, Christmas Vacation, etc.) involves individual actor sign-offs and payments, similar to Sigourney Weaver absence from Alien — _Jason Knapp explaining licensing complexity; uses Alien/Sigourney Weaver as example_
- [LOW] Nintendo is difficult to work with for pinball licensing and prefers to do everything itself; non-established manufacturers may be entering the pinball market — _Jason Knapp citing conversation with unknown person; names one company but not the other; speculative on Nintendo_
- [MEDIUM] Jurassic Park bootleg movie code incompatible with Insider Connected due to proprietary SD card keys — _Jason Knapp explaining technical limitation; notes Stern would object to licensing violations_
- [LOW] Centaur pinball coming from Haggis (manufacturer unclear on timing per Don) — _Don brief mention; no expansion, no timeline confidence_

### Notable Quotes

> "Masters of the Universe. He-Man. Skeletor. Beastman, Evil-Lyn, Granger, Battle Cat, Castle Greyskull, Snake Mountain All in a pinball machine This man-child is fired up for this theme I can't believe it"
> — **Don**, early in episode
> _Expresses enthusiasm for He-Man rumor; shows community FOMO and theme aspirations_

> "For the two years that I've had my eyes as keen on this market, everything that's been strongly rumored has happened. For the most part."
> — **Jason Knapp**, mid-interview
> _Claims reliability of rumor mill in pinball; establishes credibility of leaked information flowing from industry_

> "They want to keep it under wraps in the hopes of actually making it, you know, at some point. It's strange how secretive these companies are."
> — **Jason Knapp**, discussing Spooky Monty Python
> _Highlights manufacturer strategy around prototype secrecy and licensing uncertainty_

> "I was going to make my die on the hill of Twilight Zone happening... I don't think it's happening anymore."
> — **Jason Knapp**, exclusive segment
> _Major reversal of earlier conviction; signals confidence in insider sourcing_

> "I think they're just going to be replacement parts... no Twilight Zone ramps available on any of these parts sites"
> — **Jason Knapp**, Twilight Zone analysis
> _Explains reasoning for reinterpreting 500-ramp order; identifies Starship Fantasy as supplier_

> "Everything that's been strongly rumored has happened... very rarely does something come out and no one's blabbed about it."
> — **Jason Knapp**, mid-interview
> _Observation on information flow transparency in pinball; establishes pattern that rumors leak early_

> "Now that so many people are reaching out to me, I have to be like, okay, did this person say I could talk about it? Did this – like, it's just, like, a little trickier, you know?"
> — **Jason Knapp**, discussing information management
> _Shows scaling challenge of Knapp Arcade as news aggregator; NDA/sourcing complexity_

> "If they wanted to do that [Mario pinball], and I don't know that they do, I'm sure they could sell a ton of games."
> — **Jason Knapp**, Nintendo speculation
> _Acknowledges massive IP potential but uncertainty on Nintendo strategy; reflects community wishlist_

> "DLC, yeah. Not just like the topper, you get an extra mode and stuff like that... if it was bundled with some sort of mod or if it came with a topper upgrade so there was some kind of tangible thing too"
> — **Don**, Jurassic Park DLC discussion
> _Proposes novel monetization model (physical + digital); references Amiibo/Disney Infinity paradigm_

> "At least I'll probably do it nicely. Yeah. Why not?"
> — **Jason Knapp**, discussing rumor reporting ethics
> _Justifies rumor coverage despite spoiler risk; reflects community tolerance for leaks_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Jason Knapp | person | Operator of Knapp Arcade, pinball news aggregator/blogger, interviewed by Don; primary source for rumors and industry intel in this episode |
| Don Garrison | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast, interviewer, pinball enthusiast with arcade lineup and collection |
| Knapp Arcade | company | Jason Knapp's pinball arcade venue and news platform; serves as community information hub |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; subject of Comic-Con speculation, licensing negotiations, Insider Connected platform discussions |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; rumored to have Monty Python machine in prototype; secretive about production pipeline |
| Chicago Gaming Company | company | Pinball manufacturer; credited with Medieval Madness remake by Butch Peel per Jason's mention |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Established pinball manufacturer mentioned in context of rumor reliability comparison |
| Multimorphic | company | Pinball technology platform mentioned as potential licensing option for Nintendo or other manufacturers |
| Starship Fantasy | company | Ramp manufacturer; received 500-ramp order Jason attributes to Twilight Zone replacement parts, not new game |
| Masters of the Universe: He-Man pinball | game | Rumored Stern title from Printside source; expected 2024; not yet officially announced |
| King Kong | game | Rumored Stern pinball revival; prototype machines allegedly exist in private collections; details unclear (Skull Island vs. Manhattan destruction theme) |
| Monty Python | game | Spooky Pinball machine in prototype stage; physically exists but licensing holds it back from release |
| Venom | game | Expected Stern release at San Diego Comic-Con per rumor; Jason Knapp believes this is more likely than Jurassic Park alternative |
| Jurassic Park | game | Recent Stern release; bootleg movie code exists but incompatible with Insider Connected; rumored alternative Comic-Con reveal dismissed as unlikely |
| Twilight Zone | game | Jason Knapp exclusive: likely NOT happening despite trademark filing; 500-ramp order interpreted as replacement parts for existing availability gap |
| San Diego Comic-Con | event | 2.5 weeks away at time of recording; expected site of new Stern pinball announcement |
| Godzilla | game | Recent Stern release; Don discusses new topper with King of Monsters mode; notes it as 'greatest pinball machine of our modern era' |
| Insider Connected | product | Stern's online platform for game updates/DLC; licensing limitation cited for Jurassic Park bootleg code incompatibility |
| Butch Peel | person | Mentioned as source for Medieval Madness Chicago Gaming announcement; Jason Knapp credits him for information |
| Paris Pinball Addict | person | Debated trademark/licensing question with Jason Knapp regarding Twilight Zone Pinball |
| Pinball Party podcast | media | Source of anonymous Reddit rumor about Comic-Con reveal (cited as unreliable by Jason/Don) |
| Medieval Madness | game | Chicago Gaming remake; Don mentions interest in homebrew Castle Greyskull overlay version |
| Mad Pinball | company | Topper supplier; Don credits them for Godzilla topper; mentions ongoing production runs |
| Centaur | game | Rumored pinball title from Haggis manufacturer; Don declines to speculate on timing |
| Nintendo | company | Discussed as potential pinball manufacturer or licensor; Jason Knapp notes Nintendo prefers controlling own projects; rumored difficulty as licensing partner |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Comic-Con San Diego Stern announcement speculation, Masters of the Universe/He-Man pinball rumor, Twilight Zone Pinball cancellation/reversal, Spooky Pinball's Monty Python machine status, Pinball licensing and intellectual property strategy
- **Secondary:** King Kong pinball revival rumors, Knapp Arcade as industry news aggregator, NDA complexity and rumor reporting ethics

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Don expresses enthusiasm for rumors and potential releases (especially He-Man, Godzilla topper); Jason Knapp is measured and pragmatic but shows excitement for news flow. However, disappointment noted on Twilight Zone cancellation and skepticism on anonymous Reddit rumors. Overall tone is optimistic about upcoming announcements but tempered by licensing/production realities.

### Signals

- **[rumor_hype]** Masters of the Universe/He-Man pinball rumored for 2024 from reliable Printside source; Don expresses high enthusiasm; designer unknown, possible Stern title (confidence: medium) — Jason Knapp: 'supposedly from a reliable source on Printside'; Don performs character impressions and expresses strong FOMO
- **[announcement]** San Diego Comic-Con (2.5 weeks away) expected to host new Stern pinball announcement; competing rumors of Venom vs. Jurassic Park special edition vs. Spider-Man multiverse (confidence: medium) — Don: 'two and a half weeks or so away from a potential new Stern release'; Jason dismisses anonymous Reddit as unreliable but expects Venom as most likely
- **[product_concern]** Twilight Zone Pinball likely cancelled or significantly delayed despite trademark filing; 500-ramp order reinterpreted as replacement parts sourcing, not new game production (confidence: medium) — Jason Knapp exclusive: 'I don't think it's happening anymore' based on conversations with insiders; notes lack of ramps on parts sites; patent may not relate to full machine
- **[machine_intel]** Spooky Pinball has completed Monty Python machine prototype; physically exists but being kept secret pending licensing approval before production (confidence: medium) — Jason Knapp: 'They gave me full permission to go with it...physically machine actually exists' but 'They want to keep it under wraps in the hopes of actually making it at some point'
- **[licensing_signal]** Major theme licensing requires individual actor sign-offs and payments (e.g., Sigourney Weaver for Alien); licensing complexity explains delays on themes like Gremlins, Goonies, Christmas Vacation (confidence: medium) — Jason Knapp: 'each actor has to sign off and get paid...it depends on how many assets you can actually get and how many hoops you're willing to jump through'
- **[leak_detection]** Unconfirmed reports of vintage King Kong pinball prototype machines in private collections; details unclear on theme (Skull Island vs. Manhattan destruction) (confidence: low) — Don: 'Some prototype King Kong games were made from back in the day, and I guess at least one person has one in their own home arcade'; seeking owners for verification
- **[industry_signal]** Jason Knapp receiving avalanche of tips from community; managing NDA conflicts (silenced during Toy Story leak, unable to discuss information everyone else knew); balancing early access with fast-turnaround reporting (confidence: high) — Jason Knapp: 'Now all of a sudden people actually have been reaching out...avalanche of news'; discusses Toy Story NDA silencing; notes work burden of official releases vs. quick blog posts
- **[content_signal]** Knapp Arcade website and social media (Facebook, blog) functioning as primary pinball news source for community; Jason Knapp receiving simultaneous releases from manufacturers alongside YouTube videos (confidence: high) — Don: 'yours is the site that i check before i go on to make sure i'm not missing something'; Jason: companies working with him on NDA coordination for media launches
- **[rumor_hype]** Venom vs. Jurassic Park Special Edition vs. Spider-Man multiverse debate ahead of Comic-Con; anonymous Reddit post deemed unreliable by both Don and Jason despite adding intrigue (confidence: medium) — Don: 'is it going to be Venom or is it going to be this new Jason Knapp rumor'; Jason: anonymous post 'full of it', expects Venom as most likely based on production logic
- **[licensing_signal]** Nintendo rumored to be difficult licensing partner, preferring to control own projects; speculation that non-established manufacturers entering pinball may include Nintendo-backed venture (confidence: low) — Jason Knapp: 'Nintendo is going to be a little hard to work with...Nintendo likes to do everything itself...one i know the name of but the other one i don't'; speculative on Mario pinball
- **[product_strategy]** Don proposes DLC monetization model for Jurassic Park movie code bundled with physical mods/toppers and Insider Connected kit; references Amiibo/Disney Infinity paradigm as precedent (confidence: low) — Don: 'first time ever they've ever done really DLC...if it was bundled with some sort of mod...wouldn't seem like I'm paying $1,500 just for code'; speculative proposal
- **[supply_chain_signal]** Starship Fantasy received 500-ramp order attributed to Twilight Zone, but Jason Knapp reinterprets as replacement parts for availability gap (no ramps on parts sites), not new game production (confidence: medium) — Jason Knapp: 'I think they're just going to be replacement parts...there was like no Twilight Zone ramps available on any of these parts sites, at least not that I'm aware of'

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## Transcript

 happy pre-4th of july it's 4th of july eve everybody and don spinball podcast is back here for another amazing episode number 52 can you believe it i've got an extensive interview with the goat mr jason knapp of knapp arcade coming up for you hope y'all like and settle in for a good conversation between two good best buddies right also got some rumors and things that cover it's always dropping news rumors here on Don's Pinball Podcast and I'm bringing it all to you for free unless you're on Patreon then you get stickers it's worth it I would hazard a guess that everybody there is having a good time welcome to Don's Pinball Podcast the only exclusive podcast from my studio to your ears I'm covering some rumors I'm covering some news I give reviews thank you to all the new listeners coming in I'm so glad to have you and special thank you out to British Airlines. When I got a flight canceled recently from my trip back to Europe, they took great care of me and did reimburse me for a flight that got canceled, and I had to get rerouted a little bit. It was a little dicey, but they took care of us, and I wanted to give them a personal shout-out to British Airways. Go British Airways. Okay, that's enough of that business. Hey, have you guys seen this new Godzilla topper? I know I've talked extensively about it. We've heard about the plume and everything, but I'm telling you, This King of Monsters mode, which we can navigate from the start of the game if you've got this topper. Currently, man, I've been playing the crap out of that. Five minutes, unlimited balls, unlimited drains, kill all four monsters, and you get to go to a bonus mode. What's better than that? I haven't quite completed it, but I've gotten down to where I needed to hit that last shot just one time. So I think it's just a matter of time. But what an exhilarating breath of life into the greatest pinball machine of our modern era. Run out and get a topper now. Call Mad Pinball. I think they're still taking orders for the next run of them. Anyway, that's where I got mine. Homie hooked it up. Homie always got the hookup of Mad Pinball. What else are we going to get today? A couple of Jason Knapp rumors. I interviewed this guy. We did it late last night. I'm ready to upload the interview. But in between the time that we were talking and the time that I am uploading, there's even more news nuggets dropping. This guy is nonstop. Now, March we got hit with an incredible amount of pinball news releases. And I thought we would be kind of in the doldrums here waiting for things to come out. But it doesn't stop. And I don't see it stop because we are just two and a half weeks or so away from a potential new Stern release at Comic-Con San Diego. I mean, San Diego Comic-Con is coming. Is it going to be Venom or is it going to be this new Jason Knapp rumor that he dropped supposedly from a reliable source on Printside? You know how reliable Printside can be. Anyway, doesn't matter. Masters of the Universe. He-Man. Skeletor. Beastman, Evil-Lyn, Granger, Battle Cat, Castle Greyskull, Snake Mountain All in a pinball machine This man-child is fired up for this theme I can't believe it Hmm, that's right, Beastman We're gonna take over all of Eternia With this magic scepter and Evil-Lyn's magic potion He-Man and those fools at Castle Greyskull Won't know what's coming to them Rah, that's right, Skeletor Hey, Granger We need to get ready and get over to Snake Mountain and battle Skeletor. I don't know, Prince Adam. I'm a little green cat. Well, Power of Grayskull's coming out. That's right, Battle Cat. Let's mount up and get on our way. Watch out, Skeletor. We're going to get you up. I mean, I'm fired up already for this game. I was already kind of like trying to figure out if I had a homebrew method to like reverse engineer Medieval Madness with a Castle Grayskull overlay. I mean, Castle Graves, go pinball, make it happen for me, please. Okay, I'm going to move on from that rumor. That was just dropped, and my wig is still fully blown back with that news and speculation. When's it coming out? 2024. Who's doing it? Not Jack Danger. I don't know. That's a speculation. What else? King Kong, this old rumor coming back from the grave. Some prototype King Kong games were made from back in the day, and I guess at least one person has one in their own home arcade. So, homie, whoever you are out there with this vintage prototype King Kong game, invite your buddy Don from Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com on over to go give it a play, man. I will give you a fully shout-out, and I'll give you a dang T-shirt, man. Come on, let's hook it up. I want to play King Kong Pinball. So my only question, though, regarding King Kong is, well, it's coming from Stern, who's making it all that business, but are we talking about like a Skull Island adventure King Kong, or are we talking about King Kong damaging downtown Manhattan and climbing buildings like a Godzilla, but like with King Kong? Or are we talking about like a mashup of both? Will Jack Black be in it? Will it be black and white? Old assets, new assets. How many woolly monkeys will be in this game? All of that and more we may never even see because it's just a rumor and it might not come to fruition. But that's what's floating around out there. Okay, I don't want to hold this up. I want to get to the Jason Knapp interview because this is fantastic. Did you hear Centaur's coming from Haggis? Well, when is it coming? I'm not even going to speculate on that. Let's get to the Jason Knapp interview. Come on in, guy. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I'm very happy to have a special guest on another interview, another Don's Pinball Podcast interview. I have the illustrious, direct from New Jersey, from Knapp Arcade, Mr. Jason Knapp. Hello, sir. How are you doing? Hey, Don. Illustrious. I have to look that one up. I think it means you're an illustrator or something. I don't know. I'm still new with vocabulary. I'm definitely not an illustrator. That's for sure. My talents don't extend to art. thank you so much for coming on so you're having me man you are you are the man as far as you know pinball information and news drops i mean yours is the site that i check before i go on to make sure i'm not missing something oh thanks yeah it's it's been doing well lately yeah i i have been flow i it depends on what how much kid stuff i have to do with my boys and and uh you know what kind of mood i'm in but i've been kind of on a roll lately i guess man this last week yeah like I was out of town, and I was just getting my phone blown up periodically by just, like, constant rumored updates. I was like, bring it. This is great. You're sitting on the Eiffel Tower getting bling, bling, bling. I'm over the Swiss Alps, and I did a live stream up there for fun, and then I'm like, oh, man, Jason's got more content for me. I love it. I tell you, that's dedication to actually broadcast from the Alps. That's impressive. I was surprised I had 5G. I figured I'd take advantage of it. Why not? Breaking new ground in pinball podcasting. It's wrong for the fancy European plan. Absolutely. Is that still a thing? I don't know if that's a thing. Like, you used to have to get an overseas cellular plan to go places. Like, I don't know. It doesn't seem like that's a thing anymore. I don't know. AT&T just blew me up every time I crossed the country line. I'm sure it cost me money every day. You're dropping $10 a minute to stream Don's live on the Swiss Alps. These are the links I'm willing to go to, yeah. That's dedication. Yeah, yeah. So your form, your muse, is the written word. in the form of what are basically blog posts about news drops that come. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it started on the Facebook page, really. I was doing that for a long time, and then I just kind of expanded it to the website. So it's a little bit of both, I guess, at this point. But it's definitely all written. I mean, as you can see, I just bought a new microphone. So considering dabbling in the spoken word, is that how you would say it? I mean, yeah. I think we are both blessed with a face that's perfect for radio broadcasting. Yeah, I'm not so sure I have a beautiful singing voice either, though. Maybe talking is okay. Oh, man, yeah, my voice is clearing out from today. The allergies have been nuts. How is it out in New Jersey where you're at? Land of the View, a skew-niverse, and Silent Bob, and Great Adventure, and Wildwood. Yeah, you know it by the theme parks because you're a theme park guy. Absolutely. It's been smoky, actually, because all those Canadian wildfire smoke stuff has been floating down here. So it's not as bad as it was like last week. New York City was just orange. Like, it was unbelievable. It was definitely a sign of the apocalypse a week ago. But the last couple days, it's just been kind of hazy, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Wisconsin's been the same thing. I kind of landed back in the smoke. So, yeah, so how's the site going? Like, I'm trying to find out, you know, what space you come from. Is it strictly pinball, or you seem to be an arcade guy too? Yeah, no, I mean, I really start – I think it's a similar story for a lot of people in the pinball hobby. I started with the classic arcade stuff, and I kind of eased my way into pinball. I think just from a pure cost standpoint, that's a logical progression anyways, because you see on, especially back when I started collecting, you'd see something on Craigslist for $300. You can devour that, no problem. A pinball machine now is like 10 Gs. It's a little bit, I guess our classic arcades are the gateway drug to pinball. That's what kind of got me in. And in terms of playing, I mean, I still love the classic video games, you know, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, all that stuff. But, you know, I've really shifted way more towards pinball at this point, for sure. I mean, which is probably pretty apparent in my posts, my posting frequency on the hobby lately. Yeah, of course. I mean, I feel pretty hard. You know, a couple of years ago, I started with the arcade one-ups, as one does, you know, and kind of got two or three of those. I started before those existed. I bought the first one ever, though, just to see what it was like. I bought the Centipede that came out that, you know, they had to send out the clear Plexi afterwards because, like, the deck was just, like, smearing or fading or something like that. Absolutely. I remember those from Walmart. Yeah, it's just totally gone. And then what was it? Rampage Next, probably. There's a couple of them that are pretty good. I have the Pong bar top, you know, the one that's like a pub table, but it's Pong. it's four-player Warlords, which is badass. That's awesome. Four-player Warlords is like a grail for so many people, but the machine is like, you know, would make even pinball machines blush almost in terms of how much it would cost to get a four-player Warlords cocktail original. So I picked up the pub table, and I actually use it as a pub table in my bar, in my arcade downstairs, so that's a pretty good one. Yeah, yeah, so I guess we'd go for that. Take me on a little virtual tour of your arcade. What are you flipping downstairs? uh yeah right now my lineup is uh mandalorian stern mandalorian it's very stern heavy i've gotten as it should be wanting to work on older games so i'm just like let's just get some uh some newer stern so i got stern mando pro deadpool pro game of thrones pro uh star trek pro which was like my first new inbox uh guardians of the galaxy pro and Jurassic Park Premium. I think that's it right now. Man, man. Yeah, I put some time on Guardians just recently here. I was at a theme park in Germany, and they had a small arcade, and Guardians is one of the games that they had. So it's growing on me. It's growing on me. Those theme park arcades, the pinballers, just, like, wrecked usually. Oh, man. Yeah, two of the games that were there didn't actually have back legs on them. It was just, like, a cabinet, and they'd remove the legs and just had the backbox sitting on this cabinet. The back? I've got a picture of it. It's fantastic. I can't even imagine. I just was reading they brought the Indiana Jones pinball machine back to Disney World. I saw that. Disneyland. Yeah, sorry. Oh, Disneyland. Yeah, I just wrote an article about it. That machine, I know there was like a whole story about it at some point, maybe on Pinside or something, but that thing is really tricked out. I mean, it's got like an old-style wooden cabinet that sort of looks like a container, like a crate from like Shipping Crate. Yeah. It's really cool. But, you know, it's sad because you know that thing will be like the rest of the pins at Disney soon, and it will be just, like, dirty. There's got to be, yeah, somebody in Imagineering has to be also a pinhead to bring that in for the personal collection. If they can maintain a freaking roller coaster, they can maintain a pinball machine. Come on, someone's got to be able to do it. Absolutely. Now, it's missing a topper, so it's not perfect, but. It doesn't have the Indiana Jones, what was it, the Ark of the Covenant super expensive duper duper topper. You know that one that just came out. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, God. Was that the same guys that did the Black Pearl one, too? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They did that. That one has the video screen in the back. Yeah. What is it called? Ultimate Toppers? Yeah. Wasn't it like $1,500 or something, which at the time seemed absurd? Oh, yeah, dude. Absurd. And then here I am looking at the Star Wars Topper. Now they're all... That's so funny. Like, you know, the old pin side saying, like, 10K by Christmas. And it was, like, such an outrageous joke. Yeah. Because nothing would ever be 10K. Now everything actually is. I was like, wait, you got that for $10? Oh, deal, yeah. I keep telling myself that my drop ceiling in my basement arcade is too low to get toppers. That's how I'm saving myself money. That's a good dodge, man. I never actually measured it, but I'm pretending that it is. So I don't have to go open that door. Do not go in on one because those things multiply worse than tattoos, man. They're like rabbits. Yeah. So you'd be the guy to ask. So I just want to put this out, just a real straightforward, simple question. What are the next four games from Spooky Pinball? Spooky. I don't know. Other than, you know, where I got it from you was the Monty Python one. That was passed through to me, and they gave me full permission to go with it, and I didn't want to hang on to it. So, yeah. I know it exists. Like a physical machine actually exists. Yeah, yeah. So I remember getting that other background. So this thing – It's just a question of licensing. How does this thing exist somewhere and, like, somebody hasn't just shown it off? You know, because if it made one, how is it different from a homebrew? Like, can't you tour this thing around? It's a good question. I think they want to keep it under wraps in the hopes of actually making it, you know, at some point. It's strange how secretive these companies are. Like, you know, that's the one aspect I've been trying to wrap my head around is, like, you know, what the thought process behind you know these companies here because you just have to listen just a little bit to hear these themes being screamed out constantly Gremlins Goonies Christmas Vacation And so it's like, you make that, and then we get Godfather, we get Toy Story 4. It's like, there's got to be much more to it. For these themes that we all seem to collectively want have to have some kind of roadblock with licensing or something is why they're not happening. Each one is probably its own puzzle in a way in terms of like, okay, you can get the main license, but can you get each individual actor or do you want them? Because I think the way it works is like each actor has to sign off and get paid. And that's why Sigourney Weaver is not in Alien and stuff like that. So I think it depends on how many assets you can actually get and how many hoops you're willing to jump through to do it, I guess. And then there's the question, you know, if you can't get everything that you're looking for, at what point do you just say, you know, we're not going to move forward with this theme? Is it worth it? Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, that was like Jurassic Park. You know, they didn't – that's why everyone loves the bootleg movie code. Sure. But then you can't run your machine on Insider Connected because the two are incompatible. Right, right. I don't know what would happen if you were – I guess that that bootleg was based on pre-Insider Connected code. Is that why you can't do it? I don't really know. You probably have to switch out an SD card or something because there is, you know, if you do the Insider Connected Update Kit, there's an SD card you're supposed to put in. Right, right. And so there's probably a key or some kind of proprietary stuff on there. Stern would break your machine if they caught you. Right, yeah. Well, they'd probably run afoul of their licensing agreement is the thing. Well, I know that. I can see from their perspective why they don't want to do it. But then that's one of the recent rumors was the whole, is Venom really coming at Comic-Con, or is it some sort of special Jurassic Park edition? You know, like, it was all based on that Pinball Party podcast Reddit thread, and the mysterious Reddit poster. So, I made this comment, too. Is there cursing allowed on this or not? I don't know. Are you a cursing or not? I try to keep it family-friendly for these. Okay. Well, let's say that guy was full of stuff. Yes. That's what I finally decided, is that that guy's full of it. I think it's going to be Venom. I don't think they're going to. But what was the last time we were actually like, what? Like just completely out of left field surprised by something. I mean, for the two years that I've had my eyes as keen on this market, everything that's been strongly rumored has happened. For the most part. I mean, it does happen occasionally, but very rarely does something come out and no one's blabbed about it. I mean, at least from like Stern or JJP or, you know, for this point in matter, Spooky, right? You know, Hexa Pinball, nobody knew that was even happening. The one they didn't know the whole company existed. Yeah. I heard someone mention like a Jurassic Park comic art edition. Yeah. I don't know. What I thought, you know, I was thinking about, you know, if it was Jurassic Park, first of all, why on earth would they do that when they literally were making the current Jurassic Park like a couple weeks ago? There's so many out there. I saw it on the line. Like, you know, they did the Factory Friday, and there were Jurassic Parks. They were coming out. So, like, you're making the old one a couple weeks ago, and you're going to come out with a new one in July? Like, that doesn't make a lot of sense. Yeah, yeah. Now, what would make sense, and I'm trying to will this into existence, is, like, an SLE edition of Stranger Things with the newer seasons or something. You know, because the SLE, because the guy who dropped the weird rumor said it was not a vault, but it was a re-release, is that what the rumor was? And that it had teeth, and I was just like, oh, come on, I don't feel like playing these rumors. The guy that took the time to create an anonymous post yet wouldn't reveal what the news is? Yeah, so, you know. Yeah, I don't know. I don't put a lot of stock into that. The anonymous stuff is always kind of bleh. But, you know, it adds a little, I mean, the bottom line is all this, talking about all this stuff is fun, and it adds a little, like, if we knew it was a slam-dunk Venom, then it wouldn't be as interesting, and we wouldn't be like, ooh, what's it going to be when Comic-Con's coming up? So it adds a little bit of intrigue to it, which is fun. Oh, I love that for sure. Now, now, devil's advocate, maybe it's not Venom. Maybe it's a Spider-Man multiverse, huh? Well, some people, you know, there's been people who have been saying, like, a vault of Spider-Man or maybe Spider-Man is on the Venom game somehow. I don't know about the multi. Oh, you mean the last Spider-Man where it had, like, all three actors? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Maybe with the year off, they've expanded on it. I don't know. I can't see them doing that. They've got a game ready to go that's going to sell no matter what. My out-of-left-field guess was Jurassic Park Movie Code DLC. Ooh. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, they reached in it because Jurassic Park is a humongous presence. Like, there was an Entertainment Weekly article I shared in my article about it. Like, they have a big gate with the fire there and, like, the T-Rex with the toilet and stuff. Like, they have a whole set of them. I think it was, what is it, 25 years? I forget what it is. 30, I think. Is it 30? Whatever it is, it's going to make me feel old. For sure. But my thought was, okay, they're not going to be making those machines and then issue a completely different machine soon. So why not maybe issue, okay, because Stern wants people on Insider Connected, so they don't want people using the bootleg stuff because they want to get your account active. So why not Insider Connected movie assets, clips, films, DLC for your machine? They could even have it bundled with, like, an Insider Connected kit, so if you want to go that way and update your game and get that code. That would be the first time ever they've ever done really DLC. DLC, yeah. Not just like the topper, you get an extra mode and stuff like that. Yeah, so DLC with Pinball, if it was bundled with some sort of mod or if it came with a topper upgrade so there was some kind of tangible thing too, it wouldn't seem like I'm paying $1,500 just for code. Right. I emailed Spooky. Or doors in Cactus Canyon that are rumored to be copied. Yeah, like give me those and that code and bundle that together. I would go on that. The Skylanders business model. Did you ever play that? It was like these little figures, and then you would put the figures on like a portal thing, and you could play with that character in the game. Yeah, it was like RFID. It was like a physical figure. Yeah, Nintendo does it with the Amiibos. So, yeah, Stern Miibos. Or they did the Disney Infinity. That's what it was. Yeah, yeah. Infinity for a while. Like that sort of thing. So you have to buy a mod part to get the DLC. That would be interesting. So a little RFID reader on your Stern Insider Connected apron, and then you take your little Godzilla figure, stick it on there, and unlock some code or characters. Well, Nintendo has all those, right? Absolutely, yeah. Nintendo sure loves to make money. I mean, yeah, yeah, for sure. And Nintendo themes would, too. The rumor I heard, though, is Nintendo is going to be a little hard to work with to get a game approved now at this point. because you know someone was saying that nintendo likes to do everything itself really likes to do everything itself and what was interesting is i know there's at least one maybe more companies that are not established pinball manufacturers that are going to start making pinball and one i know the name of but the other one i don't so wouldn't that be wild if nintendo was like we're going to make our own Mario pinball machine. Man, I mean. They would sell the heck out of it. Absolutely. If they could do it right. Yeah. Now, do they come out with a platform that's interchangeable? Do they license the technology for multi-morphic? I have no idea. They're going to borrow the old highway pinball model. Wasn't that the swappable playfields in the highway? Oh, sure, yeah. Remember the first aliens had the interchangeable side art and stuff like that? Yeah, I do remember watching a video. That was pretty wild. That goes back a ways. Yeah, but I could see them maybe licensing multi-morphics technology or something and building modules you could drop in there. I think if Mario does come, it might be Nintendo trying to do something itself because I just had a conversation with someone about this not that long ago, and they kind of like to do their thing. That's what I had heard, and I would be interested for sure. Zelda, Metroid, and Mario? Animal Crossing? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if they wanted to do that, and I don't know that they do, I'm sure they could sell a ton of games. Yeah. All that intellectual property, that's the only reason why Switch exists. Things like the Steam Deck and everything are so much better than Nintendo Switch, but you can't get Mario. You can't get even the arcade archives. You can't get on Steam either for some reason. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I hang on to my Switch, man. Breath of the Wild, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so it's been a busy last couple of weeks. It's weird because, you know, every once in a while I'll put out there, like, oh, you know, if you hear anything, you know, give me an email or send me a message or something like that. All of a sudden people actually are. Like before it was just like screaming into an empty room. Now all of a sudden people actually have been reaching out with interesting stuff. That's why there's really been much more of an avalanche of news or predictions or guesses coming from me on my side. Yeah, like a pinball rumor news lightning rod right now. Yeah, that's really why. And before, I was kind of like, I don't know, do I want to say what's coming and spoil it? But now I don't think a lot of these companies really care that much. I mean, I don't know. Someone's going to do it anyways. At least I'll probably do it nicely. Yeah. Why not? Now, I've seen some releases recently where, like, all the information showed up simultaneously on NAP Arcade as well as, you know, the YouTube videos from the companies themselves. So have they been kind of, you know, working with you to kind of feed you to get everything prepped to help with the media launch of new titles? Some of the companies do. That requires the signing of an NDA, and that's a little tricky because, okay, let's say I sign an NDA a couple weeks before a game comes out, and then someone leaks it beforehand, which happened with, was it Toy Story? Yeah, Toy Story. It happened with one of the games. Yeah, but an hour or so before, yeah. I'm like, I better not talk about this. So I literally couldn't talk about something that everyone else in the entire hobby was talking about for like a week or two. Right, yeah. I had to be intentionally silent about it. So it's a little tricky. Plus, a lot of that, it's a lot of work. Like, I like to crank stuff out fast. Yeah. Like, I can write an article in, like, five minutes, like, boom, boom, boom, and just out, you know. So, like, I feel, like, obligated to do a good job and really put a lot of effort into something that's an official release in conjunction with the manufacturer, so to speak. Sure, sure. I don't want to not do it. I do find it interesting getting the information early. But it's tough, too, because if you know something and then you can't talk about it, you're like, ugh. You know, it's a – Like, I have to be – now that so many people are reaching out to me, I have to be like, okay, did this person say I could talk about it? Did this – like, it's just, like, a little trickier, you know? Yeah, yeah. And, you know, the thing is, and I've mentioned this before with rumors, is, like, you know, a rumor can be true at a certain point in time and then change before the product comes out or whatever it is. Everything happens. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, just I don't think there's anything to be lost by reporting like this is the best information we have right now. You know, you're not being disingenuous with anything, but it's like, hey, I heard they're working on this. And then maybe it morphs into something else. Someone in the comments of one of my posts just called me a liar a few minutes ago because I said Medieval Madness was coming from Chicago Gaming Company. I'm like, dude, that's what they said. Butch Peel said that on one of the podcasts. It wasn't me. Yeah. I'm like, OK. It's supposed to be fun to talk about this stuff. It's not contagious. But, you know, there are two games that I've been writing about a lot lately that I thought for sure were coming, and now I'm kind of like, hmm. You know, I went out. I was going to make my die on the hill of Twilight Zone happening. Oh, man. I don't think it's happening anymore. Really? I don't know. I've been talking to some people that would actually know, and I don't think the Twilight Zone is coming. I don't know. I haven't written this yet. This is an exclusive here. Nice. I got a couple more for you. Oh, perfect. Lay it on me. You know, it was funny. I was having a debate with Paris Pinball Addict about it because I'm like, look, they did specific trademark for Twilight Zone Pinball. I was like, how could it not be coming? And then also, a long time ago, someone had emailed me. this was one of the rumors before the avalanche and they're like I think it was pretty cloak and dagger stuff that like someone has ordered 500 ramps for Twilight Zone it's coming and I was just like what so I was able to confirm that what is it Starship Fantasy I think they're the ramp maker okay 500 ramps were ordered from Starship Fantasy but I think they're just going to be replacement parts I think that's it I don't think it's because there was like no Twilight Zone ramps available on any of these parts sites, at least not that I'm aware of. At least that's what I was told. And I think they're going to be just replacement parts. And this patent stuff, I don't know necessarily that it's – I think it's probably related to pinball but not a full machine. That would be what I'm currently heard, and I haven't written that yet. but the other one that I the other hill I was dying on was that Jack Guarnieri you know you remember the whole Joe Cam and Cal Jack Guarnieri big hullabaloo when he said that Harry Potter Oh, absolutely. Jack has Harry Potter. Absolutely. What? Story of the year. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Someone who knows their stuff I had a conversation with and said, those expecting a Harry Potter pinball machine are going to be very disappointed. I don't know what that means. I don't know if that means it's a Zizzle. I'm kind of thinking maybe more Zizzle-esque. Obviously, the company Zizzle doesn't exist anymore, but you know what I'm saying? Not straight-up 15K JJP pinball machine. I've got an idea, a little hypothesis here. And so I see this in the theme park world too. So it's not going to be the classic Harry Potter, Ron Hermione, Harry, all the characters we know. but they'll spin it as this is going to be your adventure within the Harry Potter universe where you're free to make your own way through. Like a grassy park. Yeah, and so they build the world and then kind of fill it with just whatever and you're like a generic character on an adventure in the Harry Potter universe. Harry lives here, but he's not in the actual game, so you don't have to pay the licensing. You saw Disney do this with their Star Wars land that opened where it's like you're going to live your own Star Wars experience, so there's no Darth Vader walking around. You know, they just introduced a Boba Fett, you know, but you're not going to find, like, those core characters in there. You know, yeah, it's funny. Sometimes there's a ton of smoke and just not fire. Like, the Twilight Zone pinball trademark and the ramp order, I knew for a fact those had happened, but it's just not necessarily mean what everyone would think it's going to mean. And with this Harry Potter thing, you know, I heard pretty good information that everyone's going to be disappointed, and then it's coming a lot sooner than we think. Huh. Okay. Do you think – I mean, who – am I right? Am I right? I don't know. But that's what I was told. And it's not like just like someone walking down the street. Like it's a credible situation. Interesting. Man, so this stuff is great. Speculate on this stuff. Yeah, yeah. You want to get to your next one? Let's keep going. Sure. I did Fast and the Furious I talked about. Oh, yes. That was hot off the press on – that was actually Friday. I had signed off for the weekend. I'm like, yeah, I'm done. And then all of a sudden I found out this. I was like, oh. So I was like, okay, I'm back an hour later. Was this something that was leaked to you? Like, was it that, hey, somebody got this license or this company has this license and is making this game? Well, it was a couple. I mean, I had been talking to people, but then, you know, I didn't know the whole story. Like, apparently there's a story where Stern was going to make Fast and the Furious years ago, but Paul Walker passed away. And so that whole project was, at some point in the process, that whole project was scrapped. That's what I was told. So there is a trademark for Fast and the Furious pertaining to pinball. I found it and put it in that article on Friday, but it's old. But if it was created back when the original one was working on, it's still live. It's not dead. There's two types of trademarks, live and dead. Like if you go into the database, you'll look at, say, American Pinball, and it'll be like Sherlock Holmes, American Pinball, dead. So they did a bunch of themes that people were talking about at the time, and they let a lot of them lapse. like this Fast and the Furious trademark is still live. So then when I saw that, I was like, oh. And then someone told me about how it was in the past was worked on and scrapped. I'm like, well, that's why the trademark is so old. And then I had heard that it's probably coming through the grapevine. And, you know, I didn't mention in the article who it was, and a lot of people were guessing Raw Thrills, and that makes a ton of sense. Sure. They do the racing games. Play Mechanics is getting into the whole pinball thing now with Pulp Fiction, and they're associated with Raw Thrills, and they have a relationship with CGC. So that would make a lot of sense because Raw Thrills made the Fast and the Furious arcade games, which were essentially the sequels to the Cruisin' series, the Eugene Jarvis Cruisin' series. They rebranded essentially that line for a while. For Tokyo Drift and all that, yeah. I'm pretty sure in the middle somewhere they were rebranded as Fast and the Furious, even though Cruisin's back now. Well, that was a digression. That's fine. I think it's a Cadillac theme. It's not like one of my top ten dream themes that I have, but I think it absolutely works for pinball. In any event, it's not Rothwell's that I've heard. I've heard it's Stern. Oh, okay. Not that I'm going out on a limb by saying it's Stern, because they probably are responsible for 90% of the licenses that are absorbed because they just make so many more machines than everyone else. Oh, and for... You know, if I was going to guess, I mean, that would be like throwing at a dartboard where, like, one number was ten times the size of any other number. Sure, sure. Being like, oh, I hit it. And I'm sure for every game that Stern releases, there's probably, you know, five or ten licenses that just lapse that they didn't end up doing anything with, you know. And maybe we've already played a game that was Fast and the Furious, but it got rethemed, you know. That's possible. I don't know the whole back story. I should really look into what happened because that's all just, I mean, at this point speaking with someone in the comments of a Facebook post, you know. But it does make a lot of sense, and I do think I vaguely heard about that previously. Love it, love it. The whole previous scrapping, yeah. So, yeah, we're on the cusp of another release here maybe from Stern. That's pretty strongly rumored. That's fantastic. Imagine we get two because that hole in the production lineup. The December hole. The pinball network that Zach Minney on the pinball network was talking about their production schedule. I always love it. People go bananas for that. I love it. When he talks about that, I met someone at a party one of my arcade friends in New Jersey had a couple weeks ago. And he's just like, I need to know the production. Get the production. More production posts up. I'm like, well, I have to take it from Zach. But I'll give him credit. He's the one who has the inside info on the production usually, not me. Sure, sure. I did have the info on the Pulp Fiction production, though. That was something. That was great, yeah. Thanks for that. So I'm looking at my birthdays in February. I'm Pisces, so I'm looking for a February game. Someone had told me it was delayed three months from what they had initially said, but then I got more information that was basically what I wrote. What was it? I said that the first machines, and Butch Peel had said this previously, that the first machines are going to be operators and try to get some out on location. And then some of the lower-level games with the dollar bill-accepting coin doors, the SUSO half coin doors, so they can get them out on location and also make sure the line is perfected before they make the higher-end versions of the game. Yeah, yeah. I think that pace makes perfect sense. Yeah, you know, get the – February is what I was told for the top or the full Bad Mother Flipper. Mother Flipper, yeah. Bad Mother Flipper edition. Bad Mother Finger with Soundgarden. Yeah. I'm dating myself with 90s alternative rock. I saw a meme today that said, you know, I told my kids today that I was born before Google existed, and they didn't believe me. Yeah, or like you didn't have email until college or something like that. If I wanted to call a friend, I had to go find a machine, put coins in it, and if they weren't home, I just didn't talk to them that day. Oh, yeah. I remember my friend in college had a cell phone that was like a suitcase, and I was like, oh, my gosh, what is that? Oh, man. How revolutionary was the StarTAC cell phone, man, that tiny little thing? Oh, yeah. Back in the day when I was young in the 90s. We're going to start freestyling. Oh, man. Is it that part of that time? Well, I did a little project here because one of the other rumors, since you were coming on here and you were showing your pictures of your mixing board, was that you were going to get into podcasting, into the thrilling and profitable sphere of pinball podcasting. I bet I'll triple my zero profits from my website. So in that spirit, I have created for you, feel free to use them, some intros for your future podcast here. So I just want to play you these samples, and I'm still workshopping them, but give me your honest feedback. All right, here, number one. Welcome to the Nap Arcade Podcast. Guess who's back? Still doing this. You know, a little something for the hip-hop heads in the clinic. I like the look who's back, because I used to do podcasts a couple years ago as a guest, and then I hadn't done one. This has probably been, I don't know if they were pre-COVID. I did like a co-hosted pinball network with Dennis when Zach was gone. Okay. I always go on Eclectic Gamers. I love those guys. Oh, those guys are great. Yeah, I was on Slam Tilt once or twice. I think maybe twice. But then I really didn't do anything for a while. And then so, you know, now I'm starting to do some guest appearances again. I am toying with the possibility of starting something up. We'll see how the guest appearances go. But I think it's headed that direction. Perfect. All right, let's go for number two. Here we go. And now, welcome to the Jason Knapp Podcast with your host, the sultry sounds of Mr. Jason Knapp. He's one bad mother. Watch your flipper. A little BG5. Heck yeah, man. Straight out the 70s. Solid gold with that one. I feel like I should dance. Okay, we're getting close. We're getting close. Okay, one more, one more. One more. You ready? Life is like a hurricane. Get in. Naps Arcade. Race past lasers, aeroplane. It's a podcast. We might solve a mystery or rewrite history. Pinball. Woo! Every day that I've been in. Rumors. Rumors. Canada did what? All right, just spitballing here. We don't commit to anything right off the bat. The production value of that third one is just off the charts. You must have spent hours doing that. Well, it's still hung up in licensing a bit, but yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's funny. No, I thought that would be fun. Yeah. I've got some friends that are in music production and stuff like that. If I wanted to do a song or something, I've got to talk to them. Maybe they'd hook me up. I do like learning new things, and doing a podcast would be learning because literally I bought this Rode microphone I'm talking to you on on Friday when we talked about doing this. So it would be basically starting from scratch. You're 95% of the way there. The fact that people can hear your voice. It's a microphone. is one of the more important parts of a podcast. It shouldn't be as easy to get on the airwaves as it is. You let people like me through. The website thing, like, I just got, like, really, like, I was just like, all right, that's it. And I just cranked it out. Like, I built that site by myself from scratch without knowing anything in, like, a day. Oh, man. So, like, you can do it. I just have to – I find that kind of thing kind of entertaining. Perfect. You're hired. I need a website. Wix. Wix is good. That's why I did it through. I did it through Wix. It was pretty self-explanatory. All right. Fantastic. So have we covered all the Whoppers that you had? Or do you got more for us? We got Stern, we got Fast and Furious. It's so funny. I should look at my own website. Sometimes people do that, and they're like, oh, yeah, this is what's going on. Let's see what we have here. Fast and the Furious. Oh, Godzilla the Premiums are on. Yes. Oh, the Haggis thing, we could talk about that. Oh, yeah. Centaur, right? Or is it? I think it's got to be Centaur. I mean, that's what we've been hearing for, like, ever. Yeah. Forever, ever. And even if someone told me that, like, a day ago or something, that their distributor was like, it's Centaur. Yeah. I will say, me personally, Centaur plays a lot better than Fathom does. But if you're Damien, right? Like, are you trying to trick people with those sound effects in the background? Because there's clearly pool balls in the background. And I'm like, are these supposed to be pinballs banging around into each other? But no, I mean... That's definitely billiards. Absolutely, yeah. And the billiards is first. The motorcycle comes later. Maybe... You know, the half-man, half-motorcycle dude sound, I guess. Maybe we're all about to be snookered, and those were snooker balls we were hearing. Is that what they call it in Australia? I don't know. They call that in Europe, I think, like in Robert Englunds or something. They call pool snooker. Yeah, I mean, there's a different game where there's no pockets and... Slightly different, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm just throwing that in there. But, yeah, I actually sent those guys out an email inviting them on. I want more information from these companies. I want to know more about the process that leads them to picking, like, this is the theme we're going to go with over this one. And then what does the actual production look like? I mean, there's got to be roadblocks and things because these things aren't just streaming out 1,000 games a week. So is there one part that's the limiting reagent to this whole process? Is it manpower? Is it just, you know, for every game they make, there's five that don't quite pass QC and they, you know, go into a bonfire? That's what I imagine CGC does. It's not very hard to believe. It the most inefficient manufacturing process We throw out four pinball machines for every one we send out to a customer This is not perfect Destroy it It not over It not like a piece of candy or something you talking about Yeah. But, yeah, I'm just curious. So we'll see if I get invited to Australia because I'd fly out there for a site visit. That would be awesome. I'd love to go to Australia. It's on the list. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to definitely be stepping up my travel game. I mean, you know, I'm a father of two sons who both play sports. Oh, yeah. And that's one of the reasons why I considered maybe starting up a podcast at this point, because one of my sons went away to college, to Virginia Tech. So I have half as many sporting events that I go to now. Oh, your life just opened up. Yeah. Well, I mean, I know because I never miss a single game of any either of those guys. I refuse, you know, so it's half as much of a responsibility at this point, you know, in terms of and my younger guy, he's going into high school next year. So then, you know, I'm going to relish every second of it, but things will definitely change once he goes to college. And I'll be like, what am I doing with my time? So I'm going to have a lot more time on my hands in the future than I do now. And I used to do a lot. I mean, that was one of the things that really started on the site was I used to do a lot of arcade visits. I would do, you know, visit an arcade, write it up, say all the games that are there, and really go from place to place and talk about the arcades. and I haven't done as much of that lately as my kids got older. You know, I used to just have them in tow all the time, but now, you know, I might get back to that more, the traveling and visiting different arcades across the country. What places do you – I work 100% remote, so I could do – Oh, man. I could work from a hotel room and, you know, go visit an arcade at night, wherever I wanted, essentially, you know. Which ones do you have on the list that you really want to hit? Well, my good friend Rob and I, we started doing an arcade road trip every year, and we'd go to different places. Like, we went to Midwest Gaming Classic one year. We went south to Mom's Organic and Crab Town, which is, like, the mid-Atlantic area of pinball. And we went – where else have we gone? We went up to Fun Spot one year in New Hampshire. Oh, I've been there. Yeah, yeah. They just opened up a brand-new pinball room. No kidding. Yeah. Before one of the main qualms with them was that their pins weren't exactly greatly maintained. Right. But I'll still go to my grave saying, if you can drop $20 and play all day, like 14 hours, and not even go through the $20, I'm entertained. Yeah, yeah. That's what I did right there. I don't care if this isn't playing 100%. I just spent 14 hours and $20. Yeah, yeah. Try to do that in Vegas. No way. Yeah, so they have a dedicated pinball room. They just opened up like last week or something like that. Well, that's great. Well, I live adjacent to the Wisconsin Dells in Wisconsin, and it's generally like just a big year-round resort with the huge indoor water park hotels, you know, like the Great Wolf Lodge in Kalahari. There's about three main huge ones in town, and a ton of smaller ones. It's like water park capital of the country. But each one has its own arcade, and a lot of them are running redemption games and things. But it's one place you can go and hit tons of different huge arcades, mainly redemption games and things. But there is a few pins in town there. So it's adjacent to Chicago. It's actually on the way if you're going from Chicago up to Minneapolis. Minneapolis, I keep getting corrected. So lit pinballs up in Minneapolis. So that might be a cool road trip to fit in there. Well, I was thinking about going to – so there's two pinball places called Pastime Pinball. It's kind of confusing. The one I just went to in Vermont is unbelievable. It's fantastic. That's called Pastime Pinball. But the one that just opened in Ohio, that place looks like it's unbelievable. I definitely want to make my way out to that one at some point. But then Galloping Ghost is just like, you know, Galloping Ghost. It was just there. Interim, Galloping Ghost, and Logan Hardware, which is just Logan Arcade now, I guess. Yeah, Logan's the one I haven't done yet. But, yeah. That's like a must visit for Rob and I, one of our road trips. So something's coming up in the fall, and we'll go on out there. Well, perfect. Come swing by the game room up here. I'm not that far. That would be awesome. I'd love to. Yeah. It's always a question of how much can you fit in in one weekend. Right, right. Wisconsin's, you're in the Wisconsin area. There's a lot of good pinball in Wisconsin. Man, I'm near the epicenter here. Yeah, I mean, you know, from tournaments and, I mean, District 82 is only like 90 minutes away. When we went up to MGC, there was like 10 different places we went, and we didn't even hit District 82. Yeah. There's that many amazing places. Yeah, so we're blessed of riches up here in the region. Yeah, that's good. And a ton of great Hallmark 8s, too. We have more than New York City by far. I mean, yeah, there's actually Godfather in the area. Yeah, well, Jack Bar has tons of good stuff. And then Sunshine Laundromat used to, and then they closed during COVID. and then they've finally opened back up now, but they only have maybe a quarter of the number of pins they used to have. I know. That was one of the locations I think that was a supreme for public display and consumption. Well, actually, it was broken when I went. Oh, dang it. I've seen it there. I went to Sunshine Laundromat the week before COVID blew up in New York City, and I met my brother and his girlfriend there, and I went with my two boys, and we played pinball for hours with our hands and then went to a Mexican restaurant and ate all this stuff with our hands, like all this food with our hands. Like the day before COVID was just like destroying the entire world. I was like, uh-oh. Perfect. Did we just become patient zero? Almost, probably. Man, remember back in the innocent times of like 2019? We didn't know any better. It's funny. I think we're getting back there again. People are just like, I give up. I was being so careful for so long. Now I'm just like, whatever. I've had it twice. At this point, we've all had it enough that we're just naturally protected and boosted. But, man, that was a rough time. Oh, it was horrendous. I mean, we were like, my wife and I were like taking each individual food item from the grocery store and wiping it down with like wipes, like bacterial wipes. Oh, yeah. Before bringing it in the house. Like everyone's like, we're dying. I remember when all of a sudden there was a switch to like pizza delivery, just some guy leaving it on your porch, and now that's like how all food is delivered. That is. That's definitely like a thing now. Yeah. Anytime you can – it seems like anytime nowadays you can reduce human interaction. People want to do it. Yeah, yeah. You text in your order or use the app, and then don't see anyone who's bringing it to you. That's what it seems like is the big thing. Well, fantastic. All right. Any last nuggets or anything for us? Oh, yeah. Let's see. We'll keep going down the list. So Pulp Fiction Production. Love it. Jurassic Park Mystery Redditor we talked about already. Are we getting any JJPs this year, you think? I think they really want to do a second one within the same actual calendar year. I know they don't like the fact that people don't give them credit for getting out two machines within the last 12 months. Toy Story and Godfather lasted 12 months apart, but it was not the same calendar year. So I think they would like to do one the same calendar year, if at all possible. Whether or not it happens, it's hard to say. Because I remember, you know, when did Godfather come out? It came out, do you know the exact month? My brain's melting. March, right? Wasn't that? It was like March. That was in the big March wave. I was talking to, I went to the Coin Taker party. There was a big party at Coin Taker. It's a distributor up in this area. And Eric Minyer was there, and I was talking to him. Yeah. And I was like, do you think you guys will get another game out this year? And he's like, we might. And so that ended up going all the way to March. So I think they have the intention to get things out, but it's just pinball's a lot of work. It's hard to get everything done. Sure, sure. I wonder if they would kind of approach some of the Stern model where you release these games, and then you can always go back and run some of your other games in production. Stern's unbelievable. Every Friday I'm like, wait, what? I'm like, they're making Iron Maiden now? I'm like, how long has that been around? This is like, oh, my gosh. They could just do whatever they want. Imagine they started vaulting stuff at the new factory. Jeez, man. Every Friday you would never know what was coming. It would be like the Forrest Gump box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. Hey, here's 500 Trons. Contact your distributor. I would even want that. The EL wire ramps, just everyone mods the regular ones, but they came on the LEs. Yeah. That's the coolest looking thing in all of pinball. Right, yeah. I love that thing. Yeah, so I'm excited about their new production house once that gets running. I can't even imagine what they're going to do. I mean, they're going, what is it, 50% larger or something like that? And they're already so humongous. They need an expression light line. Well, I think the reason we're not seeing those is because it was blowing out node boards. That's what I'm thinking. Oh, I hadn't heard that. I think it's more that than, like, they just don't feel like it or don't have the time. I thought it was blown out in node boards, the expression lighting. Okay. Well, I can't say don't quote me on that because we're on a live thing. But someone had told me that, yeah. Well, put off feelers. I haven't heard that from anybody. But, yeah, anyone listening, if that's occurred, holler at me. Don's been bullpuckers at gmail.com. Sorry about that, Stern. If that's not true, I apologize. Because that's not something I've personally experienced firsthand, but I have heard people say that. Yeah, we'll happily welcome a correction. Yes, yes, that's fine. I apologize, George. Sorry, George. So, yeah, I was going down the list of things here. Let's see what else we got. We talked Twilight Zone. That was a bomb that I was like, oh, maybe not. So that one was good. And we talked about, here's you, Don's Pitbull Podcast Rumor. Oh, appreciate it. For real. I have arrived when I was on NAP Arcade. This was a good one because people have been talking about Jaws and how the rumor is that Keith Elwin is doing Jaws. I mean, people have known that Stern had the Jaws license since it was – Jack Guarnari dropped on a podcast like years ago. They looked into the Jaws license, but they couldn't get all the assets, so they let, quote, unquote, some other pinball company. Mm-hmm. So that was basically when everyone's like, okay, so Stern has the license. So, yeah, so can you imagine, like, Killer Layout and Shark? I think that's all you would need. Yeah, you know, I mean, they could easily do it as, you know, how they did Jurassic Park. Right. Obviously some people would be irritated by that, but if it's Keith Elwin, they're going to sell a bazillion of them and no one's going to care. Sure, yeah. Man, maybe there could be, like, a mechanism of an actual Sharknado that Jaws appears in and just travels across the field. Speaking of, like, something over the top like Sharknado, there was Randy Martinez is rumored to be the artist on it because he drew a big Jaws poster for Comic-Con last year, I think. Nice. So he has work doing it. So there was a quote on one of his social media pages. I don't know if it's Instagram or if it was Facebook because someone sent me a snapshot of it. But he says, I have a ton of new paintings that I'm working on for Comic-Con, which is coming up, commissions, and an all-caps huge project that I cannot tell you about. So that's what everyone's thinking is Jaws. But then he says, let's just say you'll be seeing it next year. So, okay, Jaws 2024. 2024, yeah, that lines up. And concerning the art, we are going to be doing something that has never been done before. Oh, yeah, that's when the Jaws 3D rumors came out. That's when I was like, all right, let's say that the thing they've never done before is they're going to do Jaws 3D. That was my over-the-top, probably wrong guess. But think about it. That would be cool. I mean, they did, you know, Brian Eddy did the blacklight on Stranger Things. Yeah, yeah. Projection on Stranger Things. So Stern's willing to try new stuff, so why not try 3D? That projection mapping is magical, man. I still want one of those. I saw the other day they had the bowling expo. Expo. I go off on just tangents. Sure. And the Bowling Expo is now this time of year is de facto Arcade Expo. So like all the big arcade companies bring their stuff. And they had projection mapped pool tables. Okay. Like you shoot billiards, but like it's like your ball is a laser hitting the other things and when it hits the hole it like explodes like it was all projection mapped billiards. What a fun new world we live in. I was like, whoa, that looks really cool. All right. yeah well great um yeah that was fun thank you so much for coming on i really do appreciate it oh absolutely it's been a blast anytime i can talk about pinball i love it so that's a it's a fun thing all right man thank you so much jason well done thank you so much for all of that great information what a swell guy i hope you guys enjoyed it please be sure to email me at don's pinball podcast at gmail.com and let your homie know how he's doing. Or buy a t-shirt. $25 delivered to you domestically anywhere in the United States. I've got double extra-larges, extra-larges, mediums, smalls on special order. I think I've got a couple of larges kicking around. I've got four styles to choose from. Email me. Let's communicate. Let me know what's going on. Don's Pinball Podcast remains at full effect and I will keep bringing the content to you. What do you guys think about a Friday night spectacular, funtacular with Don live stream? I can do it regularly, let me know. Also, I'm going to get on that streaming tip soon. Matt Pinball is sending me some more goodness. I love my distributor. I can't wait to get my hands on something. What will it be? You'll have to wait for the unboxing video to find out. Later.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 906f0c49-b321-47ef-82e7-5f5b3325c301*