# The Pinball Show Ep 179: Video Killed The Radio Star **Source:** The Pinball Show **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2025-08-12 **Duration:** 111m 56s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.thepinballnetwork.net/e/the-pinball-show-ep-179-video-killed-the-radio-star/ --- ## Analysis The Pinball Show Episode 179 covers Stern Pinball's August-September production slate including King Kong, Godzilla, Dungeons & Dragons, Uncanny X-Men, and Metallica Remastered, with strong speculation about a new Star Wars title as the September cornerstone game. Hosts discuss Jaws 50th Anniversary's strong sales performance despite initial mixed reception, confirm December as the final production run for the anniversary edition, and detail George Gomez's recent interview on Loser Kid Pinball covering Spike 3 upgrades, home edition releases at Costco, and market health comparisons between 2020 and present. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Stern is building King Kong, Godzilla Premium, Dungeons & Dragons Pro/Premium, Uncanny X-Men Pro, and Metallica Remastered Premium in August — _Host stating confirmed production schedule from Stern_ - [HIGH] Jaws 50th Anniversary will have three production runs: July (announced pre-July 4th), September, and December (final run), then discontinued — _Host confirms allocation details from dealer/distributor perspective at Flipping Out Pinball_ - [MEDIUM] A new Star Wars pinball game is rumored for September as the cornerstone release — _Host speculation based on timing, Spike 3 platform launch strategy, and Star Wars home edition at Costco; not officially confirmed_ - [MEDIUM] The Walking Dead Remastered is rumored for late October/November release — _Host mentions rumor but expresses skepticism about theme relevance given show's age_ - [HIGH] Star Wars home edition is launching at Costco with a bigger screen than Jurassic Park version — _Host confirms announcement; George Gomez interview on Loser Kid Pinball provided screen size detail_ - [HIGH] George Gomez stated next Stern home edition will launch Fall 2025 with a new (previously unreleased) IP theme — _George Gomez interview on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast cited_ - [HIGH] Spike 3 will feature improved power supply, new menu system, bigger display, better sound system (coming standard on LE models), and improved cabinet lighting — _George Gomez interview on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast; host relays detailed technical specs_ - [HIGH] Jaws 50th Anniversary premium sold out of July allocation and orders 'shot up' after initial hesitation — _Zach (Flipping Out Pinball distributor) providing sales data from dealer perspective_ - [HIGH] Jaws 50th Anniversary has colored powder coat, which is rare for premium models (similar to Star Trek Premium long ago) — _Host discussing premium feature differentiation_ ### Notable Quotes > "Stern keeps on building them. I don't know where they're putting them if that's the case." > — **Host**, ~3:45 > _Responds to market 'dead' narrative while confirming strong production activity_ > "It feels too soon. [Star Wars] We just stopped the last Star Wars and it did sell well... It went for a really long time." > — **Dennis**, ~5:20 > _Expresses skepticism about new Star Wars title announcement despite sales success of prior version_ > "Do I want it to look like a bomb pop? The red, white, and blue kind of thing... It's very patriotic." > — **Host/Dennis**, ~15:30 > _Community reaction to Jaws 50th Anniversary cabinet artwork color scheme and powder coat_ > "[Jaws sales] shot up since then... we sold out pretty quick of what we were allocated for the month of July... September we have full allocation." > — **Zach (Flipping Out Pinball)**, ~18:45 > _Distributor confirms strong sales momentum despite initial mixed reception_ > "Is this limited though? Is it not limited?... All pinball machines are limited because they're all eventually not produced." > — **Host/Dennis**, ~19:30 > _Discussion of semantic ambiguity around 'limited' vs 'non-limited' product designations_ > "George Gomez just such a likable guy. Just turned 70... I'd be blessed to have his current brain any time in a lifespan." > — **Host**, ~23:15 > _Praise for Stern VP and recent Loser Kid Pinball interview; confirms Gomez age_ > "The next home version is going to be a big IP that's very widespread relatable to non-pinball people... [will] be another home edition next fall... a new theme." > — **Host (quoting George Gomez)**, ~24:30 > _Hints at broad IP strategy for Stern home editions; suggests Pokemon possibility_ > "Everybody says these times were so great [in 2020]... but don't neglect the fact that we can crank them out now... we were styied a lot in 2020 as well." > — **Host (quoting George Gomez)**, ~28:45 > _Reframes pandemic-era demand narrative to account for supply constraints, not just demand strength_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer with heavy August-September production schedule; releasing Star Wars rumored as September cornerstone | | Jaws 50th Anniversary | game | Premium non-limited pinball released July; three production runs (July, September, December final); strong sales after initial mixed reception; features colored powder coat and glitter playfield | | Star Wars (rumored) | game | Rumored new Stern title for September 2024 as cornerstone release; potential Spike 3 platform showcase; speculation about original trilogy (Episodes IV-VI) or alternative versions | | The Walking Dead Remastered | game | Rumored for late October/November release; host skeptical due to aged theme and poor original sales despite improved rules by Lyman | | King Kong | game | Confirmed August production build; premium model mentioned for Q4 as well | | Godzilla Premium | game | Confirmed August production; referenced as precedent for anniversary-limited strategy | | Dungeons & Dragons | game | Confirmed Pro/Premium August build; mentioned as potential home edition candidate | | Uncanny X-Men | game | Confirmed Pro August build | | Metallica Remastered | game | Confirmed Premium August build | | Stranger Things | game | Pro model confirmed for Q4 (late September/October timeframe) | | George Gomez | person | Stern VP; recently turned 70; interviewed on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast; discussed Spike 3 features, home editions, and market health 2020 vs present | | Zach (Flipping Out Pinball) | person | Distributor/dealer providing sales data on Jaws 50th Anniversary performance; discusses allocation and ordering strategy | | Dennis | person | Co-host of The Pinball Show; skeptical on Star Wars rumors and Walking Dead remaster choice | | Host | person | Primary host of The Pinball Show; injured in van accident during summer break; involved in Flipping Out Pinball operations | | Flipping Out Pinball | company | Distributor/dealer operated by host; van totaled in accident; new Ram ProMaster being purchased for replacement wrap design | | Loser Kid Pinball Podcast | media | Platform where George Gomez recently gave detailed interview about Spike 3, home editions, and market conditions | | Spike 3 | product | New Stern operating system platform; improvements include quieter/better power supply, new menu system, larger display, improved sound system, better cabinet lighting; rolling out incrementally rather than grand reveal | | Star Wars Home Edition | product | Launching at Costco with bigger screen than Jurassic Park predecessor; positioning for broad appeal to non-pinball audiences | | Costco | company | Retail partner for Stern home editions (Jurassic Park, Star Wars); George Gomez confirmed success of Jurassic Park version | | Lyman | person | Designer credited with improving Walking Dead rules; sole justification host sees for remaster decision despite poor original sales | ### Topics - **Primary:** Stern Pinball production schedule and roadmap, Star Wars cornerstone game rumor and speculation, Jaws 50th Anniversary sales performance and features, Spike 3 platform upgrades and rollout strategy - **Secondary:** Home edition releases and Costco distribution, Walking Dead Remaster rumor and criticisms, Market health 2020 vs 2024 comparison - **Mentioned:** Limited vs non-limited product definitions ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.55) — Generally positive on Stern's production activity and Jaws 50th Anniversary execution, but skeptical/cautious about Star Wars rumor timing and Walking Dead Remaster decision. Host personal anecdotes (van accident, summer chaos) add casual tone. Appreciation for George Gomez's interview and market context. Overall bullish on product pipeline but critical of strategic choices. ### Signals - **[business_signal]** Distributor/dealer constraints on Jaws 50th Anniversary production through allocation limits rather than uncapped ordering (confidence: high) — Zach explains 'they would say Unfortunately, at this time, your allocation is this' and discusses future Patreon episode on dealership network inner workings - **[competitive_signal]** Jaws 50th Anniversary Premium positioned as rare colored powder-coat variant with glitter playfield; first premium with such features in years (confidence: high) — Host notes 'When have we seen a color powdercoated premium game? Is that Star Trek Premium maybe?' and confirms sparkle playfield unique to this release - **[design_philosophy]** Jaws 50th Anniversary playfield features glitter/sparkle infusion (rare premium feature) and excessive white space in cabinet art due to poster constraints, causing mixed aesthetic reception (confidence: high) — Host describes community reaction: 'a lot of people were like Do I want it to look like a bomb pop' and notes 'too white' cabinet sides from poster art angling - **[market_signal]** Market health debate: hosts confirm strong Stern production activity despite public narrative of market being 'dead' or 'mostly dead' (confidence: high) — Host states 'People are still trying to convince everyone that the market is dead, though... Stern keeps on building them' - **[market_signal]** Jaws 50th Anniversary sales momentum accelerating after initial mixed reception; July allocation sold out, full September allocation already ordered, inventory 'going fast' (confidence: high) — Zach (Flipping Out Pinball distributor) confirms 'sales just poof shot up' and fast depletion of allocations - **[personnel_signal]** George Gomez (Stern VP) recently turned 70; active in product development and interviews; highly regarded by community for expertise (confidence: high) — Host praise: 'George Gomez just such a likable guy. Just turned 70... I'd be blessed to have his current brain any time in a lifespan' - **[market_signal]** Jaws 50th Anniversary Premium priced at $9,700 with enhanced features (colored powder coat, glitter playfield) differentiating from standard premium (confidence: high) — Host states 'you're going to be spending $9,700 on a premium' with feature comparison to regular Jaws premium - **[product_strategy]** Stern planning home edition releases at Costco: Star Wars launching 2024, new broad-appeal IP (possibly Pokemon) for Fall 2025 (confidence: high) — George Gomez interview confirming Star Wars at Costco, stating next home edition 'going to be a big IP that's very widespread relatable to non-pinball people' launching Fall 2025 with 'new theme' - **[product_strategy]** Spike 3 rolling out incrementally with new features (power supply, menu, display, sound, lighting) integrated into recent releases before formal platform launch (confidence: high) — George Gomez interview on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast confirming 'softer roll in instead of this big grand reveal' - **[rumor_hype]** The Walking Dead Remastered rumored for late October/November Q4 2024 release (confidence: medium) — Host states 'The rumor is The Walking Dead remastered' but both hosts express skepticism about theme relevance and market viability - **[rumor_hype]** New Star Wars pinball game rumored as September 2024 cornerstone release; potentially Spike 3 platform debut (confidence: medium) — Host speculation based on timing, Costco Star Wars home edition launch, license anniversary windows, and Spike 3 debut logic; Dennis confirms hearing same rumors but expresses skepticism on timing as 'too soon' - **[business_signal]** Speculation that Walking Dead Remaster timing strategic: lighter-selling remaster positioned to avoid cannibalizing Star Wars cornerstone sales in Q4 (confidence: low) — Host theory: 'What if they're trying to strategically place games based on their ability to produce... instead of pulling a Ghostbusters or Lord of the Rings... maybe we do a lighter remastered' to protect Star Wars sales --- ## Transcript Warning, the following episode contains adult language and screaming goats. Listener discretion is advised. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, gather around the flame, the fire that is the pinball show. This is episode 179, I believe. And we've gone video, Dennis. Well, again, have we gone video again for at least for today? We're experimenting. We're trying new things. Just kind of It's been It's been three hours of experiment. That's right. And so it may look it may be non-existent next time. It may look different in the following episodes, but for now, uh just like good old times back in college. Den we are experimenting. Do you experiment a lot? So intros labs and science is what I was talking about. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure. Sure. I did social sciences. A social science. Yes. Do you use a lot of test tubes in that? Well, we did a lot of so social uh psychology. So we a lot of uh what that's a lot of waiverss. You need a lot of permissions. you know, setting people up with electrodes and shocking them and and you know, testing the reaction and whatnot. There's a couple people in pinball I'd like to do that, too. But I digress. Over We've been gone for what, over a month? Yeah, I think we last recorded around I think like June 28th or 29th or something. So, totally my fault too on that one. I'll take I'll take that. It's been a lot like I've just there's been a lot going on. It's the summer, Dennis. I've had like I've had NASCAR. I've had manifestation hypnosis during sleep. I don't know how familiar you are. Uh boating, county fair, a couple of new pinball machines that I got. I totaled the flipping out pinball van. Uh it's it's been one hell of a summer. Wow. Mhm. All I know is you would say I'm too busy. Yeah. Okay. Too busy about to die. Well, yeah. I'm like we're probably near the probably near the end of the life cycle for this show anyway. So, are we getting closer? I don't think I think it's getting healthier. Like it's really I don't know. There's a there's a flipping out podcast now and there's a lot of conflation. The audiences are conflating and you know what I think of the conflation inflating. Everything's conflated. Lot of a little conflated but I think it's a food I So what happened with the van? That's the only one I care about. This lady out of nowhere. No. I was quick. Well, we got a lot of pinball stuff. No, not Nicole. I was I was uh using the van uh for non-b businessiness purposes. We were moving my son uh and he's at Purdue and he was in an he was in a little apartment and then he's wanting to rent a house with a couple buddies. So, we were we're going to transition everything from our house over the summer, all the items up there. So, I had them all loaded up and was driving up there f about five minutes from the place and I was driving through and there's a yellow light and the lady in front of me was like, I want to do a U-turn. And I bootmed her ass. Uh, and then that's what happened there. All the airbags deployed. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was scary, Dennis. Mhm. I was scared. Was your nose okay? Yeah. Sometimes those airbags will smack you. Still still bulbous as ever. No, I I got uh some shrapnel and the airbags are what got me. Yeah. My arms and my shoulders and everything. Uh for insurance purposes if State Farm. I still have that neck thing. I mean, it's still Yeah, they did offer me. Did you have you ever done that where where they're like, "What happened to you physically?" And I was like, "I got some lacerations on here and here." And they're like, "Do you seek medical attention or no?" Well, why not? I don't know. I just didn't feel like it. And they were like, "Okay, well, based on what you're reporting, we will offer you a claim of $1,50 to conclude any medical stuff." And I was like, "Oh, wait a minute. I see what you're doing there. You can't buy me off. My body is a temple. It's worth more than $1,50. Thank you. Right. That's where all those lawyers on the TV are like, "You need to talk with us before you take your settlement." Actually, no, it's not happen because I all my accidents I've been involved with are non-injury. So, it's not even come up. I refused it because I was like, I'm I'm a common sense kind of guy. I'm not hurt, guys. I don't need to take your money. It's fine. I'm good. And then if the pain manifests later, you can go you can still go after him then. Now, yeah, you got up to two years. That's just my own thing. No, I'll just I'll be a big boy. It's fine. Well, you never know. Sometimes I didn't even I didn't even PP or poo poo myself whenever I got in a wreck. I was pretty impressed. Yeah. Okay. B's already in. So, now's good. What So, what's going on? Are they loading up the like the flipping out moped or what? We we're we're purchasing a new new Ram ProMaster van. And uh that means only one thing, a new wrap. So now we got to design a new wrap. What's it going to feature? Is it going to feature Jaws? Probably. Is it going to fe No. No Jaws. I think John Wick. Oh, yeah. You mean not John Wick? Yeah, because in your I'm guessing you're back. Well, the van. The van. I'm I'm back. I'm trying to tie it all together, but you're you're not making this easy. You're like, Jaws. So, I'm trying to figure out what's going to be. I think maybe Jurassic Park and I won't want to give away anything, but there is a Stern game coming up. We may see at the end of the month listening and viewer that uh maybe that gets featured on the side. We'll have to wait and see. Stern Pinball. Dennis, let's jump into the news. We've been gone for a month. Stern Pinball has been heavily producing things. People are still trying to convince everyone that the market is dead, though. So, I mean, suddenly mostly dead. Yeah, that's what they keep claiming that. Stern keeps on building them. I don't know where they're putting them if that's the case. This last week, they've been building King Kongs uh in August. Busy month coming up in August, everybody. Godzilla premiums. They're going to be building uh Dungeons and Dragons Pro and Premium. Uncanny X-Men Pro and Metallica Remastered Premium. It's going to be a heavy fulfilling uh month of August. A lot of stuff going on. September comes along and we are going to get another run of Jaw's 50th anniversary which we will discuss since we've been back. Uh that's been an announced game. It's been hu Well, it's not black and white. There's that. It's been big. Should have been whatever. It's got sparkles. Joel's 50th anniversary. Another run is coming in September as well as Stranger Things Pro and potentially a new cornerstone game. I think that's I think it's going to happen at this point. The rumor, Dennis, do you know what the rumor is right now? What's the rumor? I mean, I've heard some people talking Star Wars again. That's what I'm hearing. It feels too soon. Borgi. Yeah. Where's Pokemon? Pokemon. Pokemon's feels like 2026. Feels I agree. I wasn't hearing this year for it, but I just I don't know Star Wars already. We just stopped the last Star Wars and it did sell well. It did and it went for a really long time. Will this new one what what new thing will crack open like a Cadbury egg? Well, achieve victory. It's not even Easter. John Bourke did the data east the data east version. I believe that's correct. Are we gonna have something like that? Are we going to have R2 bouncing around? Shoot the death star. Shoot the death star. No. No. How about no? Uh, people don't know what version it's going to be. Are we going to get the prequels? Are we going to get the original four to six episodes? Are we going to get a Darth Vader uh dedicated game? What are we going to get? Why not Andor? I mean, look, Andor's good, but is it enough for a game? I mean, King Kong's enough for a game, apparently. And King Kong, that's not been relevant. in a hot minute. That's more iconic than Andor. Yeah, I I agree. But I don't Maybe skeleton crew. So, what do we It's all right. It's all right. I mean, it's more likely to happen than Goonies. And it's basically just a better version of Goonies. Stupid. Not even Not even taking it. I'm not even Take the B. Why don't you Why don't you Why don't you bite? Why don't you bite? I think we may be seeing here's my I'm guessing episode the original I'm guessing episodes four through six because again numerous reasons we've got anniversaries coming up of those right then they like to pitch something right before the year of before the anniversary so that they can squeeze out an anniversary edition the following year. Okay. Uh we just had as we will discuss Star Wars in the new in the pinball news of uh launching the home version at Costco. Sure. maybe re-upping that license. Um there just a lot of things coming to a head here that make me wonder make me think Star Wars is kind of probably going to be it. And also just timing wise if we're looking at all of the uh the strings and the red strings and such. We had the launch of uh that game what like you said years back. Spike 2 system LCD screen. There are talks that the next game is going to be a Spike 3 game. So, what better way to showcase a Star Wars license on a new operating system, a new platform, if you will. I can see them saying, "Anytime we do a new platform, your ass better guarantee we're going to have Star Wars uh showcasing that." So, that makes sense, too. All the timing makes sense. I mean, okay. I I you like the Spike 3 thing, like I don't know. there's any rhyme or reason to like what game is going to launch Spike 3. I mean, what Spike 2 was launched with what? Batman 66 technically. I meant just justification of doing another Star Wars title because a lot of people would say, "Well, it's too soon to do the original." Steve Ritchie already did one. Well, as long as the layout's different, I'm not too hung up on that. It's Star Wars. It's going to sell no matter what. Mhm. Yeah. So, I think September, we're going to see that stuff. late October, November. I think we're going to see a remastered game as we did last year. The rumor is The Walking Dead remastered. I still think that's really weird from a theme standpoint to bother with. It's a strange one. I can just put try to put myself in their shoes if it is The Walking Dead remastered. If they decided it a couple years ago, no, even then the show's been off the air for years. For years. The comic finished before the show did it. It's old. It It never sold great. It It should have, but you know, Lyman got the rules to a good place eventually. Lyman being on rules is the only reason that really makes sense to me. Like the layout is is interesting. I like the layout because it's very creative. It's not the greatest layout out there. Uh but with how the rules use the layout, it it plays really well. I'm not saying it wouldn't be a good game. just like versus a Ghostbusters or something like this is there's so many other lowhanging fruits that would make more sense than Walking Dead. You're you're right. It doesn't mean that they won't still come out. I know. Okay. Well, we can look forward to a lighter selling game, I guess. Well, and the other thing is this, like what if they're trying to strategically, now I don't think this is the case, but this helps the theory. What if they're trying to strategically place games based on their ability to produce and such such as the following? Uh like they know if it is a rumored Star Wars is the cornerstone of September, they know they're going to be building a lot of games. So they're like we don't want to really cut the legs out from under a Star Wars. So, instead of pulling a Ghostbusters out of the or a Lord of the Rings or something big, maybe, you know, we've been working on a couple of remasters, maybe we do a lighter remastered uh that's very different and, you know, maybe we maybe we get it out of the way then instead of cutting our Star Wars sales, you know what I mean? Um, yes. But why make a remaster? Why launch a remaster at all if that's the concern? Like why not just let the cornerstones corner? It'll still sell better than most every other manufacturer launch games that they do for an entire year. I no I just I I agree. I just I don't see it as a it doesn't make sense to me as a strategy. And when are you going to throw that into the schedule? Because let's say we talk about January the rumor being a Pokemon. You got Star Wars in the summer and Pokemon in the in the uh winter. M like what the hell if you if if the executives and the owners say you've got to still push out this many products a year, what the hell are you going to put in the middle without then being just bogged down? H if I'm picking a remaster that needs to do well but not just sensational. I just don't see the point in pushing out a set number of products a year. I thought the goal was to keep the line busy. So if the line's busy with two games or five, who cares? It's busy. And to be uh to argue the other way, they can produce so many games that it's hard for them to get bogged down uh in in back orders. We do still have a lot of back orders with them, but all right. So that Q4 Stranger Things Premium is still in discussion. And then also in Q4 is King Kong Premium. December is going to come along and we're going to see the final run of Jaw's 50th anniversary. A lot of people were discussing that online. Are they going to make more runs? Are they not going to make more runs? I'm here to confirm that uh they made some when announced in July. I think they announced formally right before July 4th. They built a hell of a lot of games and then pretty much everybody's dried up on those games. September is going to be another run and then the final run is going to be in December. And then they have zero plans to they they're not going to it's an anniversary run so it's only going to be run throughout that year of the anniversary and then it's done. similar to uh similar to not King Kong. What was the other one? Not Jaw, but the prior anniversary Godzilla. Godzilla. Thank you. Godzilla. And then January that cornerstone. So, we've got some exciting stuff coming from the King of Pinball Stern. The Joel's 50th anniversary was released since we've been here. We told them, Dennis, we we told them, "Don't don't do black and white anymore. It's tired. you're it's like the lazy approach to let's just desaturate everything and they finally were like yes we Dennis is is right so instead we'll just have lots of white space initially upon release there were some mixed reactions I would say Mhm. Not to the glitter. People like the glitteriness. People love I call them sparkles. Just feels more manly than glitter. I mean, okay. Yeah. Spark sparkles right up there in the machismo factor. So there you Great point. Well, my your eyes glitter, your eyes sparkle. I like sparkle. It's like, oh, look, ribbons. And you're like, no. Uh, around here we call them streamers. They're streamers. Damn it. Says tough like pink streamers. Uh, a lot of mixed mixed reactions. What? I'm trying to think. I'm going to put some pink streamers on the new flipping out van. Mhm. My poor father that drives it. Like, I hate this truck. You need the little bell. That would be fantastic. Uh, but mixed reactions because people people didn't know about the artwork and the the red powder coat. I from I liked it initially, but a lot of people were like, "Do I want it to look like? Oh, what's it? What's that? Um what's that pop that What's the the the pop?" No. No. What's the ice pop that you eat in the summer? The bomb pop. Oh, the bomb pops. Okay. Yeah. It's very patriotic. The red, white, and blue kind of thing. And bomb. So, it's all very American. Boom. Mhm. See, I did. I just had it. What did you feel mixed on it? Did you like it? Did you think I thought the art looked fine to me? Uh, it, you know, it was very reminiscent of the poster. My only problem I had with the art package was because of the angling of the sides of the cabinet. You had a lot of literal white space because there's like, well, what do we do? We just got to make it more white because that's the top of the poster. And it just it looked lopsided to me because of that. But I thought the I thought the the the armor colors, I thought the, you know, the backbox, I thought the lock bar, the all the all the other the glitter sparkles, the brassish wire forms. Yeah, the brass wire forms. I thought everything I liked everything except the sides of the cabinet were just there's just they're too white. Yeah. And so that's why people were mixed. They're like, is it really do we need that much of the poster everywhere? Uh, and that red is awfully loud. The do we need sparkles? Uh, and then people joked and made fun of that poor commemorative Jaws 50th anniversary translite decal. And you know what? I didn't I didn't hear about that. Oh, they thought that because on whenever they revealed this game, they really made that a thing. Like it's even got the 50th anniversary commemorative decal. It's like this little bitty decal on the edge of or the corner of the trans light. Baby's first decal. And they were they were so proud of that. And people are like, "What? Really? Is that that you have to be that proud of that?" I would have been. Damn it. Yeah. I think it's cool. And uh so overall kind of people were mixed on it. Especially I like that it had a lot of features for it's a this is a non-limited game. It's a premium model. But that's where I thought people were they were they were not giving it enough credit because here Stern always hears from us hobbyists. We want more. We want more. We want more. They come out with a fully powdercoated premium game, premium model that When have we seen a color powdercoated premium game? Is that Star Trek Premium maybe? Uh, yes, I recall that one being, but that is a long time ago. And that is a pretty awesome feature to put on a premium because for the same price, you can get the regular Jaws premium and not get that colored powder coat. Mhm. So, I thought that was a I thought it was a pretty cool feature. You don't get You don't even get sparkle infused playfield ones of Stern. It's like the first time they're really kind of They may have done something with one of the Alvir versions, but I I was it the cuz people say they've never done this before. I think they may have done it on the black and white Alvra. regardless. You don't get that usually on a premium model game. So, I felt like we were really getting a lot because push comes to shove, you're going to be spending $9,700 on a premium. This one has more than this one. It just is that's Well, just I guess just tell us about how great it's selling, Zach. [ __ ] fantastic selling wonderfully. Now, initially I didn't know cuz it was it it mimicked uh that of the the limited or the um the first reactions. People were kind of hesitant like is it that great? It was selling good, selling good. And then all of a sudden, I think people started to realize like, okay, I was going to buy a Jaws and now that I have the which yeah, I'm definitely going to buy this one. And then sales just poof shot up since then. uh we sold out pretty quick of what we were allocated for the month of July and then uh we have full allocation in September. So that's already we put in a big old order and we still have spots for our September that is we as flipping out pinball but they're going fast too and I just think this is going to be we call this a non-limited product but I do bring up this to the viewers and listeners out there. Is this limited though? Is it not limited? I know it's not supposed to be limited. They can make as many as they would like to make, but at some point if you're limiting it per time, it is limited. Anything is limited. That's the thing. We've had this conversation before. All pinball machines are limited because they're all eventually not produced by me by that logic. But I think we can I think it'd be safe to say that this will be limited more limited less units than the regular premium because the regular premium is going to continue to be sold for years. Sure. Well, the regular premium will probably have more sales than this by the time this ends anyway because it came out first and people that wanted the Owen games committed right away. They've already they've already uh they've already shipped more regular premium. So, the non-anniversary has a leg up on sales regardless of this. There will be less 50th anniversary editions than there are Ellies. Um, Ellies, I believe, are roughly a thousand if I remember correctly. Maybe a little less, but I think it's No, I I think this maybe would top the LE count. Maybe. So, yeah, I think that it has the possibility to Yeah. No, no, it's hard to say. I mean, you know, Lwin title, very popular, uh, popular license. Uh, this is a heavy year though for the lot of stuff with if people want to spend money. You definitely don't need to buy Jaws now because, you know, you can get it later. I I So, that's the factor that works against it to be like, well, but I've got the the time limited Harry Potter or maybe I want to get Dune or what, you know, there's just this is a lot of competition for the dollar this year. Next year will be much weaker. So, do you think there are going to be more Jaws 50th anniversaries made than Godzilla 70ths? No. No. No. Do you think that Stern will limit them in the sense of we're only going to make so many regardless of what dealers want to order? No. From my perspective, I can see them. I don't know if it's true because the order that I placed has been accepted, but I could see a certain number if I wanted. They would say, "Unfortunately, at this time, your allocation is this." And they would walk away. This is we'll talk about this later especially in our in our exclusive Patreon episode about the inner workings of the dealership network uh units made manufacturers their decision-m uh but a lot of interesting choices that you think are not just common sense kind of things but a lot of companies will say we're only making so many even if it's a non-limited product and we're moving forward we have other stuff on the slate speaking of other things on the slate stern Pinball announcing Star Wars home edition launching at Costco already in there. So just just like the Jurassic Park home pin that that came to the the cos around the world. Might just be this country. I don't know. Uh but that was last year. They claimed it to be successful. So much so that they're rolling out Star Wars home edition at Costco for this calendar year. Are you interested? No. Neither am I. Okay. Hey, there George Gomez did say I think it was George Gomez that we'll see another one next year. We'll see another home pin next year. And he did talk about because we'll we'll discuss that. He visited the Loser Kid Pinball podcast. Really awesome interview. Great job over there, fellas. Um and George Gomez just such a likable likable guy. Just turned 70. Yeah, I did not realize that he was uh that old. Man, I'd be blessed to have the his current brain any time in in a lifespan, much less at 70, just [ __ ] rockstar. But he was talking about that over there and he said the the next home version is going to be a big IP that's very widespread relatable to non-pinball people. Yet again, we're going to see the same thing. Uh, and I was thinking about that and I'm like, okay, so if you're trying to do broad appeal IPs, you're not going to tell us. Well, he also said I think he said that we're going to see another home edition next fall. Uh, but it's going to be a new theme. H, so not a previous theme because I was thinking, all right, we got Jurassic Park's big, we have Star Wars. All right, what else is like big big? They might be able to go Godzilla. I don't They were asking about Dungeons and Dragons. They were like, he was like, "Yeah, I think it could war." But you know what is a big uh broad appeal IP that would be a new theme for them? Mhm. [ __ ] Pocket monsters. Yeah. Elwin's pocket monster. That didn't sound, you know, uh George Gomez visited the loser kid. See, now we get your reactions in video. For those of you who can't see or wondering what we're talking about, just go over to YouTube, the uh the pinball show YouTube, and you can watch it there. I think that's where it'll be. I don't know. We've really planned this out so well. We're we're we're doing a lot. This is going great. Uh my wife was like, "Why don't you guys do like why don't you just record this live so that people can join in?" And I'm like, 8 a.m. I do I do a live stream at 10:00 a.m. on YouTube on Saturdays, and there ain't a lot of people that like to get on that early. Uhhuh. There's some He did say, I didn't notice this, the home the home version of Star Wars does have a bigger screen. Got a bigger screen on it. Wow. And then they were asking him about the the differences within the market and uh sales and stuff between 2020 pandemic times versus 2025. Is it dead like everybody wants it to be or everybody a lot of people report it to be? He discussed the balance of demand in 2020. Uh, and yeah, it was interesting because he's like, okay, well, there was a ton of demand in 2020, but you've got to keep in mind that at that time though, getting parts was more difficult. So, how much more successful was it in 2020 if there was a delay with parts? If we were trying to get things that we were competing with Ford that makes the F-150 with certain electrical components that we were using for our machines, they were getting prioritization for that. They the ability to actually turn around the games with the parts delays uh and the versus the better ability to them to produce now new factory uh parts still always going to be parts delays and parts issues and management of all that. But but he just wanted to remind everybody like everybody says, you know, these these times were so great and they were the desire was super high, but don't neglect the fact that we can crank them out now where we were we were styied a lot in the in 2020 as well. Spike 3, everybody wants to know about spike 3. and he said what Dennis, you and I have been saying, a lot of components we're already seeing, we've already been seeing in the a couple recent releases. Some of these Spike 3 components such as a quieter and better power supply, new menu system. These things will be in Spike 3 and they'll be main features in Spike 3, but we're already seeing them. So, it sounds like they're rolling out features here and there and they're going to kind of roll into a softer roll in instead of this big grand reveal of Spike 3. They are going to have a much improved sound system in Spike 3. Sounds like uh may it may come standard this new expanded sound system on the LE models. So, what I got from the interview did you listen? I don't know if you got a chance yet. No, I haven't heard it. Okay. So, it sounded as if Mr. Gomez was saying it's going to come standard on the LE models of uh the new Spike 3 games, but that other models, the Pro and Premiums are going to be eligible for that upgrade as well. So, if you want to expand your audio, and it's kind of like that on the Ellies now, you get the Kenwood speaker system rather than the other paper woofer. They're all kind of cheap speakers, but they do sound a little bit better. There are some cabinet improvements we're going to be seeing because of the improved sound and display. Here's the odd part. All right. So, well, I'll get to the So, display, it's going to be a bigger display as well. We're going to see that. Um, what else is see bigger display iteration is going to have expression cabinet lighting is also uh going to be on the new Spike 3 and it's even better. So, better integration of that. Um what else was he talked about the breadth of games that they used spike 2 creating spike uh spike 2 but the flexibility and reliability of the system using node boards um a lot of improvements from spike 3 are going to be with technology processing power product refreshment etc wireless headphone compatibility improved lighting overall improved sound graphics I so I think it is going to be significant ificant, but uh it's not going to change the game entirely. Here's the odd part. He said spike three, the plan is it's coming next game, this next cornerstone game, but the cabinet and all of those uh iterations, the bigger screen and such, bigger sound, that's going to be on the following release. That's what confuses me. What? So why what what happened there? What do you think happened that they can't roll out spike 3 is truly the spike three and they're going to have this one I'm sorry if I offend all the redheaded stepchildren out there, but they have the one redheaded stepchild. Is that still a Can I say that or is that a bad thing? Have I just pissed off a lot of redheaded steps? I don't know. Okay. Um, they made too many of the current cabinet productions, you know, dying. It's dying games, bad sales, too many cabinets. Like, we just got to get through these cabinets. It's not unusual for uh when we've seen board changes over the history of pinball for there to be what I think have historically been called transition games where it's got part of something and you like we've seen experiments with like I think there were I think there were bad girls games that were made by got that next system uh on them and they were actually sold like they were trying to figure out like they had some of the you know the new boards just like we started what was it Metallica Remastered where we saw the new power supply um come up out of spike three. So, we've already been dripfed part of it. So, supply-wise or or another option is something about the current configuration of say the cabinet is necessary for the game that's coming out. Um like some aspect of it wouldn't work as well with whatever the new design is. Like the screen being bigger gets in the way of of some feature or something. Could be. Yeah. I don't I mean, those are just blind guesses. I get like the the the the little upgrades that we can't see, but once you call it a Spike 3, visually, I would think you'd want it to look the same. But the systems are about the the guts, not the not the cabinets. It's like it's like with uh Sega, you know, we had some of those that had like the marquee uh translite or and and others that weren't the marquee and we had some that had the big DMD and others. Like this desire the I think the desire to say that Spike 3 is going to look different than Spike 2 stems solely from the fact that Spike 2 is so obvious because it had the LCD screens and Spike one didn't. That's it. This is not a normal thing to think that the games are going to look different because there's a new board set and that's all I don't even understand why people care quite frankly because no one no one people like you Zach are not articulating tangibly what meaningful improvement we as the player will see with Spike 3 versus Spike 2. Where are we getting like the whole movie in there? Like what more do you want? I want 4K resolution and bigger screen. You can't even tell on those baby screens. I can see pixels. You can't even can't even tell on little baby screens. It's a baby screen. Little laptop screen. Why do you have to be so damn pragmatic? I sure I just like the the fancy. I like the big I can understand people being interested, but let's not like you're trying to ascribe all these like visual difference. Oh, like we're here. We are talking about like lighting and stuff like JJP's been outdoing them on lighting since the get-go. like are they going to finally be better than JJP at lighting? That's the only meaningful comparison that is of interest to me. You're right. You're right. He talked about remastering games and uh talked about alignment sheets rule set. Mhm. They asked him like balancing you're going to remaster a game, you're going to take a lineman masterpiece. How difficult is it to find that balance of leaving the masterpiece? It is maybe adding stuff. Do you leave it alone? What do you do? And he said, quote, "It didn't escape us." end quote. He talked about the sensitivities of Lyman's exceptional work and being very cognizant of the consumers wanting, you know, players wanting that work to still be on the remastered game, but walking the tight rope of kind of adding more to a game at the same time. He went on to say, quote, "The man created a lot of masterpiece work, but you know, you just you can't ignore um you can't ignore that when you sit down to I'm going to make another one of them." End quote. Now, a weird syntax there in the way I I quoted it word for word. It sounds weird, but it made me think, did he just insinuate that the next remaster is going to be a Lyman game? You can't ignore that when you sit down to make another one of them. I'm going to I'll throw out a a hypothetical, a possibility that I that I've wondered about. And ultimately, I I'll just say up front that I I think the sales will be there no matter what. But let because we'd already been hearing about the Walking Dead rumors and we know Metallica remastered alignment code game very well remastered you know process. I would say that Stern believes and I believe it at least so this is my bias coming through that the remastered games are really they're not broad audience games in the same sense. They're really thinking about collectors that already know the classic stuff that are interested in, okay, let's celebrate this. Let's, you know, let's enhance something that we already know about and that's what they're leaning in on with that. Hm. I'm wondering though if the strategy has been the remasters are going to be Lyman games because collectors love Lyman and whether that's going to eventually come across as almost exploitative if they keep doing it. Oh, I was following you until the end. And that's what that's where I'm like because let's say it is Walking Dead this year and let's say next year it's Tron and then let's say it's Spider like like there's one thing unifying all of this and that's taking Lyman and and selling stuff off of what he built now. I think the sales are there. Like ultimately I think I think the sales are there but it's that I and maybe you know and we all have our own interpretations but it's it's just like with CGC with the Cactus remake and this insistence of calling it Lyman's rule set when he didn't work on very much of it. I we don't know. I I believe he worked a lot on it. it it then it makes it feel extra strange that we had to wait years for it to get finished if it was most it was mostly completed. Well, again it's like a what do we Yeah, but that was emphasized. That's I can see that argument. You see you see right and Stern didn't do that with Metallic like they didn't stress it in the materials. That's why I think it's probably fine here. But I'm just I'm just raising the I'm raising the spectre of are all the is the remaster strategy to sell Lyman stuff. Is that really what it is? If I'm stern, my argument is well, believe what you want, Dennis, and and hobbyist, but we're just selling the best games. So, if that happens to be a line game, then so be it. But it's hard to it's hard to argue. Well, based off of sales and demand, I would expect to see a Ghostbusters in this list. I think they want to make money. They will make a Ghostbusters. They will. I've told numerous uh I've told numerous manufacturers, non- Stern manufacturers, you need to be going out and getting Ghostbusters. Going out and getting it because I think that Stern's probably remaking it. So, the title owners or the IP holders of Ghostbusters are going to tell you where they're already working with the company. But uh but you need to be checking that out because that is a top five license in pinball history. Like that is one of the Well, but in the terms of the remaster, let me ask you this. Well, well, going in the in the areas of sensitivity, do you think Stern may be reluctant to remaster Ghostbusters because it is a Trudeau game? I don't think so. I mean, I'm sure there's some apprehension. How could there not be? But from a business perspective, if he was the only one painting a Picasso, okay. Uh but he's one of a ton of people and no, that's not an unchangeable. I mean, I I think again, I think it sells regardless. Uh I just I just was curious. I I think but you I bring it up because you mentioned like that that the phrasing of the quote that you provided regarding Lyman was awkward and I think that's because there is a I think I think George senses us I mean there they were friends with him. It's there's a sensitivity to this when you start talking about working on someone's legacy. Yeah. So but it it and it may be nothing but it sounded like they were saying they're going to make another one of them which but again that would align with the rumor. I still don't understand Walking. I mean, don't get me wrong, like I like Walking Dead's one of my favorite of all the the games we know of that he worked on, but like the community demand has always been for Tron. When we're talking about a Lyman game to be remade, it's always been Tron. Yeah. Lord of the Rings is the number one Stern remake that's desired, followed by Tron. If you're going to go with a Lyman one and then I would say followed by probably Ghostbusters. I still think Ghostbusters sells better than a Tron remake. I'm just saying like if we're going with like what what else is still out there with with Lyman? There's Spider-Man, but they did a remake of it already. There's Iron Man, which they vaulted like 12,000 times. Uh AC/DC, which um I think would be pretty smart because that's what put Stern back on the map was when AC/DC came out. And there's Walking Dead, which was his last cornerstone. Mhm. People I think a lot of people don't remember that that uh while Lyman worked for Stern for years after Walking Dead, he only did like the boutique premium plus stuff after after Walking Dead. It was his last cornerstone 66. Yeah. Yeah. Uh accessories. They asked about accessories. They George Gomez said Uncanny X-Men accessories hopefully before the end of the year. They're always I don't even want to repeat it here because I've heard this for three years. We're trying to tighten the gap between the release game, the blah blah blah. Stern, I you can keep that as a talking point, but you've talked about it so much and it hasn't occurred that I I don't care to hear about it anymore. What happens? In this case, I want to I do want to say let's let's give them credit. The accessories will be out before the codes 1.0. Okay, nicely done. Uh Uncanny X-Men accessories hopefully before the end of the year. And the topper topper alone is not going to disappoint. It's not going to disappoint. I've been hearing the same. I don't know. Might disappoint your checkbook. Kind of a trending game right now is all I'm saying. It's all right. I I don't need I don't need to hop on the bandwagon because I'm driving the freight train ever since release. But hop aboard everybody because it is that good. King Kong accessories. Maybe even before that. Wouldn't that be fitting? I swear X-Men is the slowest game to get across the finish. I thought nothing could do worse than Bond, but I I just I don't know. The thing is with Bond, you know it was licenser stuff and with Uncanny X-Men, you know it's not because they've already said how easy it is to work with like the comic side of Marvel with Deadpool. So, you know it's not the licenser. Brings up a good point though. What George did talk about is whenever they're making these accessories, he I think he used the term hangover. Bit of a hangover after designing this game and everything and then Wow. That that was Yes, I did. It sounded scary. Was that Do you have Gorgar? I have Harry Potter. Gorgar speaks back there with his LED rainbow LED. No, the uh he talked about the hangover of like making the accessories after you've just done all the game kind of thing. So, with Uncanny X-Men, we know that there was a bit of a falling out maybe uh with the the code falling out is a weird term. There's been a delay more so than most and they're using different people to come and resurrect and fill this game up. And maybe that's the same with the accessories. The reason I bring it up is because the fellas over at Loser Kid asked about the personnel changes for Stern Pimp. Okay. Jack Danger changing positions, Tim Sexton leaving. And George said when it comes to Tim leaving, like he just he wanted to go do something else. So that is what it is. But with Jack Danger, Jack Danger was the designer on Uncanny X-Men. He was in the process of designing another game to be released. It sounded as if that would be the January release. He was in quue, but we know that Jack Danger has now changed positions at Stern Pinball to be the what they're calling head of community. He George said he missed streaming and content creation, interacting with the public. Now, prior to this interview, I had heard from I think it was from Jack and and different interview stuff that he was just kind of out and another team was going to come in and finish up the the game design. That was my understanding. So, I thought he was done. It almost sounded as if I don't know the ideology of what came and why, but it sounded as if Jack Danger was missing his old position and maybe overwhelmed with the duties of designer. Maybe he didn't like the process of designing pinball machines after he had not even a taste. I mean, he had full course meals when it comes to um Foo Fighters and arguably the Jurassic Park home. His third one, he finally got across the finish line. Everybody [ __ ] on him and the coding team on that game. Did they The coding team's not him though, right? I mean, like ultimately in charge of the team now the management side and and I know loser kids in the in a prior episode that I I did hear discussed the you know the notion of maybe it was the team management pieces the a piece that Elwin has said is actually the hardest for him is the sheer amount of project management work that goes into this. So, he had that. I mean, if he did crap on the plunge don't work, there's a flipper hop. And then Stern had to come back and make these kids. I like the tone. Like, those aren't actual legitimate complaints. The the demigorgan doesn't eat the ball. No, that's fine. They don't need to eat the ball. Results vary. Sure. Just like the demigorgans. Some of them, I heard ate the ball. None of the early ones I played did, but I heard purportedly it was possible with a perfect setup. I'm I am confident and confident enough to say that based on all of the Uncanny X-Men different variations I've seen, I think that overall the complaints with Plunge and Flipper Hop and all that were exaggerated. If that if that makes me get kick kickback, so be it. That's just honestly how I feel. and I've played over 20 different versions of them. So, my at least my my uh pool of data is larger than most. Sure, it is. I I think for me, I'm not I'm not hung up like I didn't I haven't played an X-Men where I had a plunge problem or anything, for example. Um I I guess I'm and every person's different, so I don't want you know, this is probably this probably means nothing. But I it it's interesting to me though that it wouldn't be enough to do what Pat Lawler and Steve Ritchie have done, which is like I I think the way I've always interpreted from hearing them uh have analyzed their own successes. How good do my games sell? And Jack's games sold well. So that's where I'm like uh and I talked about this on Eclectic Gamers podcast um last week. I'm just like I don't like Jack's had a lot of success with his two cornerstones. They both sold very very well. Uh regardless of the after feedback and and so I from Stern's perspective Oh yeah. I don't understand why they why they would I again it sounds like everything I've heard is this was all Jack's idea which totally makes sense to me because I'm like if I was stern corporate I'd be like I do not want you to not be a designer. The only one who's out selling you is Elwin. But but we don't we don't it could that's the problem. We don't know if it was it Stern pushing him out. Was it uh because there's more factors that go into that than just sales numbers or like there's a lot of factors in uh I guess but I mean they put up with Richie for example for years and you know everyone who was like on his software design team like would just like never I mean Dwight's made no secret like at the end of a project with Steve they aren't talking anymore like they're not friends anymore. It's because Steve is difficult. In fact, uh Tim Ston was supposedly the only one I'd ever really heard that regularly as a programmer like could get along with him well enough to be willing to work multiple projects in a row with him. Mhm. But again, he was able to regardless of how his project management style was. Steve lasted for years and years and years. He right saleswise from a business perspective, from a company standpoint, sold games. I I was arguing on our was it happy hour hangout that Yeah, I think so. I think so. Yeah, this guy got two subpar themes and sold the hell out of the games. Foo X-Men's not a bad theme. Foo Fighters. I agree. That's a weak theme. X-Men's not a bad theme. The uncanny X-Men. No one cares about the word before it. They just care X-Men. I think it hurts the branding put that putting that word in there. I mean, I guess, but it's like getting hung up on when they did the remake of Spider-Man and they did like the anorexic Spider-Man. Like, I don't remember the name of that art style one, but that, you know, they went with a very specific style of of Spider-Man that a lot of people weren't really familiar with. But the the the key thing was it was comic book Spider-Man. That was that it was that I don't think it was as strong because it's been done before to to a large degree. Um, it's not based on films. Sure. I I just don't think it was a strong theme. So with what he did on the first two, I was so excited to see and I when talking with executives of Stern, I'm I'll be happy to say this, but Jack and I have had our differences in the past. I think that's a for people that know publicly uh they know that, you know, there are certain things that have happened in the past for better or worse. And it's not just me, groups of people. And what I'm trying to say here, listener, is that we've had our differences of opinion very strongly towards one another. Uh, and I told an executive that they were just asking my opinion on things. And I told him that I said, "You gave that guy two themes that he still found a way to do sales." This is this was probably a couple months ago. And I guess in retrospect, it's funny now thinking of what that guy probably thought when I told him like one of your one of your gyms is Jack Danger. Like I selfishly want him to create games moving forward as a top three designer in our industry. I I was all in on Jack Danger as a designer because the two designed games that he has, Uncanny X-Men and uh Foo Fighters, I'll leave Jurassic Park is what it is, Home Edition, whatever. But those two games, I think, are two of the greatest designed pinball machines of all time. I'll stand by that. I have more fun playing on those. So, selfishly, and from a from a business perspective, too, sold a lot of games. So, if it is him wanting to step away, that sucks. That sucks bad because it hurts my pocketbook and it hurts my collection because I and that's coming from a guy that like like I said has a history. We're good now. But, so I think that that was is the most unbiased you can Well, maybe it's still biased because I'm still selling games. Damn it. I can't get out of it. I was wanting to prove a point of No, you're too biased. highly I I value his game. So, I was freaking bummed hearing hearing that. But then George Gomez in this interview, Dennis says, quote, "He's going to finish his game." I'm like, "What? Wait, that contradicts what what I mean, it makes sense that he'll be involved in some capacity, but I who knows how far along it is. It may be mostly already done and the the cleanup crew wasn't going to really do much. So, you know, whatever. It sounds like a team approach if you It always is though. Yeah, it always is. Sometimes heavier than others, but it always is. What? Where was I going with all of that? You were going to tell us about George's biggest accomplishment in his entire career. Oh, uh, yeah, they asked him that. What a question. How do you answer that? He said probably inventing in insider connection. I wanted him to just say Corvette. Hey, I love I just like he's like it's all been downhill since Corvette the Tron cabinet arcade cabinet. Yeah, my time at Midway. So he hire me back Midway. I'll make slot machines. I don't care. Inventing Insider Connected, he he believes probably is most impactful for people. Uh, but as a designer, maybe that's not his like favorite or most rewarding meaningful accomplishment, but he thinks his biggest impact will end up being his creation of insider connected platform. And I could I could see the argument. He to like I said before he turned 70 on June 1st. Is he going to retire? Is he not? What a legacy he has he has created thus far in pinball and throughout our lifetime. I don't think we'll see another like it. So, so he's he is a goat. Uh do you uh do you think his retirement's imminent? Like once Spike 3 is launched, he's going to step down. Anytime somebody goes up to the age of 70 and they're still doing as much as as he's doing, I have a hard time believing they're ever going to step away from it before they die. H because I mean because he at this point he could have walked away. Sure. But Gary Stern worked well past 70 and has stepped back finally. He's still working. He will be working. Yeah. But not near but he stepped he's stepped and again like George could retire and be a contractor or consultant or go part-time. Um who was it that did that? I think Wayne Nyions uh when he was lead designer at at Gotautleb after uh you know he he went and started consulting with Gotautleb and did a few years like that once he was sort of like yeah I'm at retirement point but I still want to kind of work I've known some people that that's the route they've gone where they've gotten to that 65 70 year age range and I worked with one for about a decade where I think he got to 62 retired and then went on to 72 working like one day a week was his just like and then just only now retired a couple years ago, like truly truly retired. Well, that kind of work though, continuing the work that you love will keep you alive. I do believe that. Yeah, it's where I could see where he doesn't want to be totally, you know, devoid from doing stuff that's I mean, he's an engineer, is he not? I like wanting to continue to use that part of his his mind makes sense to me, but only being one foot in or one day in a week. also the same type of personalities that become consumed and so passionate with things. It'd be hard just to put one foot in without diving all the way back in again and just doing it until you're dead. I don't know. I I couldn't imagine just doing it one day. But I mean, if they're letting Jack Danger invent like head of community and do that, I could see George saying, "You know what? I'm I'm done running everything. That's a, you know, it's a younger man's game. I want a deal where uh every 24 months I can have a game come out and I just design on the side. Gets to use his engineering brain, doesn't have the same level of responsibility, and then he gets to go fish. I don't know if he likes to fish, but I George feels like a fisher to me. So, don't you think he's a better COO or leader than he is designer? Um, I'll say yes, just given that it seems like he does have really strong leadership qualities. Uh and we know of other uh people who are really good designers and though where we don't know if they have good leadership qualities or not like like Keith seems to have a welloiled machine with his team and he has a really consistent team. I don't know if if Keith is a great leader or not. Like I have no sense of it. He's clearly a great designer. His team seem very happy. So I'm going to venture to say he's probably naturally pretty. He's at the very least a competent leader. Mhm. And you don't have to be the best. You just have to be good. Mhm. But for how much they put on those designers more than most people probably realize, I think that only works when you have a chief creative officer such as George Gomez. I Here's what I think from Stern's perspective. They would not want George to leave just like they shouldn't want uh Jack to not be a designer. It's like it doesn't there's maybe there's someone who's been proteged but that is that's some big that's some big shoes to fill thanks to that actually I've got the ego. See find a person like me that's like if anybody's going to do it I can do it. Like there's people out there. Yeah. But they would never hire you. No I'm not talking about me in general. I'm talking about my personality type. If I'm doing something I have full confidence that I'll do it as good if not better than anybody. Oh I see what you're saying. Yeah. And now what I said sounds really mean. No. No. In fact, they'll never I'll help you out, Dennis. You'll never be hired. Will never hire you. If I was given that position within one year, uh, I could do exceptional. How about that? See, so I helped you look better now because I look like a fool saying that I could do that. It would be interesting to sort of see them under the Zach Mini uh, business strategy approach because you would change a number of things up. They would succeed. That's what I'd be confident of. But you'd have to deal with the internal strife as they resisted you from within. Well, it either you want to make money or you don't. That's the follow me or don't. Interesting enough, if we're talking about insider connected, I all tongue and cheek cheek there people for the most part. Um I'm trying to entertain, but I am confident. They talked about insider connected as we were talking about. A really interesting question they posed and I'm sorry we're stuck on this but this is really good content and again nicely done to loser kids for for interview and maybe even more so to George Gomez for his continued transparency to the hobby but they said will insider connected API or application programming interface. We ever going to see the API insider connected ever used by a third party? Now I I figured you would find that an interesting question Dennis. Um, I'm surprised they asked only because I would have assumed the answer would always be no. It was a bold question, a very bold question. And their response, I think, and I love them. I think their response indicated why they were brave enough to even ask in the first place. But, uh, George George didn't turn him down. I like that he turned it back on him and said, "Okay, that's a tough question, but tell me, you know, answered the question if you're in a position like what what do you think it could be used for if you're going to ask that?" Like, now again, I love them, but I think they totally blew the assignment there. And they pitched Josh and Scott, I love them. They pitched like well it could something about making loser kid stuff and then they mentioned and then they mentioned pinquest and I'm like no what are you doing? Oh you were right there. You had the opportunity and you blew it and yeah. So after that if I was George I'd be like so that's the reason it would be a no. But uh so it's not a no. He said it's not a no. No. Well I think he was just being polite. Here's the here's the thing. Like if Stern was doing what Multimorphic did and had third-party people making games on the platform, there could be a value there to be able to build achievements and stuff. But short of selling insider connected kits to other manufacturers. So that hey JJP would you like to have insider connected uh to replace your whatever that what was the thing they were using that before there was that that score sharing scorbit. Yeah. Basically as a competitor to score and be like all right we're going to we're going to license this out and and let people do it. But it's like that's not their model. They don't sell accessories to other competitors and they don't let third party entities design games in a way where it wouldn't already have a coder at Stern putting the stuff in for connected like you know they you like how Dennis Nordman did the development for Alvivra House of horrors but Stern's programmers are who built all the achievements and stuff in insider connect. I there's just nothing. What I think you would more likely see is maybe people could reach out to Stern. This might be what the Zack Mini CEO challenge would be like. You know what? Instead of instead of promoting the next game, why can't there just be regular ads for like Pepsi showing on this stuff? Okay. I like I I don't mind that. You ever seen an NBA game? Now they got patches all over them like a car. Sure. Yeah. Branding uh you know uh offering offering sponsorship and licensing and advertising really advertising I feel uh options there. But again, it's not so much opening it up through API. That's really just using it as a platform in a broader way other than, hey, you know what? Let's try and sell a $7,000 game to someone with this screen because I bet you they've made all of zero sales based off of doing that. It's just something you to be, you know, entertaining while while the game's in game over mode. As George Gomez successor, I'll say this. I I would be interested. I think that there's some I think that this could work. I think that financially it would make a lot of sense to sell this platform to other to quote unquote competitors. I think that um if I'm spooky pinball and I know if I'm spooky pinball, I'm I'm years from this. I'm years from if ever anything like an insider connected, but I would love to use use this in my products. So, if I'm Spooky Pinball, I'm reaching out to Stern and saying, "Hey, what does that look like? What does that number look like per unit for us to, you know, negotiations would be that we don't have to call it Stern Insider Connected, but we'll gladly say equipped with Insider Connect and we'll run off the same API, the same platform, and we'll pay you royalties for every single uh unit that we place in a game and or accessory that we sell. What there's a number there. I think there's a number there that makes sense for Spooky, and I think there's a number that makes sense for Stern Pinball. Um, I don't know what that number is, but that would be fun to sit down and and negotiate, but I think that makes sense for both parties there and to the consumers that uh will will be purchasing the products they go in. I can see it. Especially if I'm stirring pinball, I want to hit while the iron's hot cuz nobody's even close to second, third, or fourth place when it comes to this stuff. And we already see competitors trying to trickle in. And though what they're going to do is you're going to see competitors try to trickle in and do everything non- stern. They've tried it with that uh with the what we just talked about scorbit thing. They're so far from it and util using it within different operating systems would be a [ __ ] But strike while the iron's hot. Do it do it now to lock in those and give those manufacturers no other reason. And now a lot of those manufacturers are hard-headed and they would never do that. But I think there's a number there. Okay. I did see a Goldfinger mirrored back glass on George Gomez desk. I'm just saying. I'm sure everybody else saw that. But yeah, I'm sure they entertained a lot of options when the Ellies were being developed. Oh, future Premium 70th anniversary black and white with a gold finger translation. I love gold. Okay, what else we I think that's about it with the George Gomez interview. Wonderful. Go listen to it. Stern continues to bring that summer heat, Dennis, with more big code updates. New code update since we've talked last. Metallica remastered now at version 1.02. Star Wars version 1.29. Jaws 1.01. That's a hefty one there. The Uncanny X-Men, another big one. V0.92. So much more. And people are already raving. John Wickv0.96 getting close and that one's feeling much more uh secure with people. People like it. Flipping Out Pinball has some gameplay videos I wanted to remind viewers of. Uh the Jaws 50th Jaws 50th anniversary with lead programmer Rick Nagel visited Joel and Jared over Flipping Out Pinball. That was that was highly entertaining. And of course, we do giveaways and they always go overseas and it pisses me off and they get a kick out of it. They think it's just so cute and funny. I do not you know how much it costs to ship cheap foam I call cheap foam uh the player mat fatigue mat to Australia. Nope. Over $100. I can't sell to people in Australia. So why are they eligible for giveaways? I don't know. I didn't make those rules. I wonder if there's going to be I was thinking about uh Jack Danger's head of community. Do you think there's going to be an assistant to the head of the community? No, I do not. What coder is going to be like, I'm done coding. I'm going to be the assistant to the head of the community. I mean, the only Well, who's the one left that has streaming experience there? That would be Ray. Don't you do it, Ray. We need you. Okay. And oh yeah, another gameplay video over at Flipping Out Pinball YouTube. Go check it out. With uh with Uncanny X-Men with the rules developer, Mike Vinor. M yeah. Jersey Jack Pinball in the news. Potter continues to amaze, to dazzle, to wonder, especially the dragon art. See here the three-eyed dragon. Come on. He's a true abomination. What can your third eye do? Uh we do have a new straight down the middle review of Jersey Jack Pimples, Harry Potter. Go check that out. and they continue to build them. I'm going to give them credit. Jersey Jack Pinball, nobody's complaining about the pace of what they're producing. They're producing at a really decent pace. A lot of a lot of games leaving the factory and no giant hiccups in production lately. Yay. Nicely done there. On the other hand, uh them them communicating production timelines and allocations to their sales network a bit of a frustrating place there for their not only their sales network but the consumer enthusiast community. So that's their only hangup and a big hangup to me it is. Do you know what I mean by that Dennis? No. If people ordered a game and they message their dealer and say, "Hey, uh, when am I going to get my game?" I don't know why they sound like that. Because they're excited. And their voice went up because of it. If and they say, "Hey, when am I going to get my game?" What What should my answer be? Two weeks. got me a good spit take there. Whoa. I was like, "Listen, two weeks. It I should have an answer." Now, some would argue, well, right when a game comes out, they don't know how many orders they have, so it's hard to project and all that stuff. This game's been out. Uh, yeah, but only for a little while. Months? Yeah, just a few months. I believe that consumers should be able to have some type of rough estimate at this point in time when their $15,000 pinball machine will arrive. Even if it's a window, even if it's a window, I think they deserve that. Uh I think the sales network who have to answer that question 10 to 20 times a day, uh I think they deserve that as well. I think that without answers to rudimentary production questions and distribution questions as such that all but one that I think of manufacturer in the industry does well tell you when their game's coming or an estimate without that it creates a lot of frustration uh and with frustration kills your brand not only Jersey Jack pinball but those associated with church jack pinball which is my company. So when uh when a business partner does not communicate adequately it hurts everybody and it's very inefficient. We'll talk about this again. Like I said we got a really fun special uh dedicated subscriber episode this month. this month this year that and it talks about some of the I'm I'm trying to become a more efficient business owner running and managing a business. Dennis, I like to be efficient. I like to be transparent and honest with people and I like to for people to know and have expectations of what they're getting when they go when they give money to another entity in this industry. I don't think it's too much to ask. If you were to call a dealer right now, for the most part, and you said, "If I if I order a Harry Potter today, when would it come?" If that dealer has an answer for you, they are lying because they they have no clue. To my knowledge, based on the data that I have, they have no clue. H Dennis, ask me, if you were to ask me, okay, that's fine. But when uh what's Jersey Jack making next? Yeah. What did they make a next? I think they're making collector's edition or was it the collector's edition? Yeah, I think I meant the next game. Oh, no. I'm I'm talking about like what are the what are they making right now? I think they're making Harry Potter collector edition. I think it's for the 220 the overseas. I think just again nothing official but through the grapevine the second half of August is going to be CES. Have they officially told me as one of their larger business partners that they haven't? Mhm. Um, but if you said, "Okay, let's say that we're guessing that they're making CES." Do you know when I'm going to get mine? Like, I don't know. Surely they've told you how many you're going to get from this batch. No. No clue. I don't even know. Are you sure you're one of their larger dealers? Maybe I'm not. I don't know. Uh, well, when are they making the arcade editions next? I don't know. When are they making the Wizards? I don't know. Well, could you based on what you do know, can you just guess amount? I don't know if they're giving me one wizard edition and I don't know when. It could be a month. It could be a year. Whenever it does come, a month or a year, they could give me one. They could give me 40. I have no clue. So, when somebody asked and I say, "Well, Dennis, your game's going to come anytime between one week and 16 months." H would that be broad you? Yeah. Yeah. Piss you off. My point being is uh that's the frustration right now surrounding Harry Potter is just the lack of any type of just rough estimated schedule of anything and the and I'll leave that for the Patreon. How about that? I was going to leave that for the Patreon. So hopefully we get some updates so that because Spooky does a good job of that. They pretty much build an order. So, you kind of know like for example, uh right now they're shipping Evil Deads around number 340. There you go. All dealers know based on however many they order what numbers they have. So, I know the list of let's say hypothetically I had 20 evil deads on order. I know all 20 different numbers so that I can kind of gauge when abouts customers would get them so I can ask for money and and everything else. Stern, they produce so quickly that they're able to give really accurate estimates. Hey, you're we're building Jaws 50th in September. You have this many total on order. This many are going to come in September and the remainder will come in December. Well, very nice. Dune, same thing. You have this many on order. Right now, based on the cadence of our production, you're going to be receiving this many a month. Right now, we're looking at the first week of every month is when your allocation will come. And they've hit that every single time throughout Labyrinth and uh throughout Dune. So, I can measure when it comes to Harry Potter. They say, "Zack, you have got you've got a ton ordered." But uh and that was it. And then you hear crickets. It's tough. Spooky pinball. The the one newsworthy thing here, Evil Deads are still just freaking killing it. The damn things are selling for so much more than MSRP, even on the secondary market used. Next game, likely going to be a November release, I'm I'm guessing. And what I'm calling a list frenzy, happened a couple of weeks ago. Did you hear about this controversy? I did not. So, Pinball Star, one of their large dealers, um they claim largest dealer. I'll say a large dealer. Pinball Star, uh very positive, uh to the community, uh in all the respects. He's a good dealer. He posted up, hey, we're now taking a list for their next game. Spooky Pinball's next game. So, if you want a guaranteed game, get on the list. That that works. That works. Because if you're a consumer, you see that and you're like, "Yes, [ __ ] I can get a guaranteed game if I act now." Mhm. There are problems with that. So, what's the problem? I don't think there's necessarily any inherent problem because we all have like interested lists already and stuff. Interested list. Interested list frenzy. I'm now interested in spooky game number eight or whatever it is. That's why I don't think there's inherently a problem. Yeah. But when you're saying that you can put in the pre-order, uh even if you're not taking money, you're I don't think it's a problem. Pre-order. Okay. The problem is that in my opinion, if I'm Spooky Pinball, I'm I'm being spooky pinball and I sell direct. I I sell direct. So if my competitors or my dealers, See, that's the problem when you have this system where you're competing with your own sales force. They sell direct. So if all of these dealers are then publicly saying, "We're taking pre-orders." This was the Harry Potter thing. Remember Jack was like, "Yeah, order now. Order now. Dealers can take money now." But let's say all these dealers start taking all these orders. Then if you're Spooky Pinball, you can't take orders now. You can't take pre-orders now. You can't list to be on interested list. So you get behind all of your dealers on sales. So when this game comes out, you could have capitalized on a lot more sales, but dealers have sucked them all up. So, I say it's a potentially a problem when US dealers do this because it puts the manufacturer who is also a direct seller in a bit of a uh you know, okay, but yeah, but do distributors like that manufacturer's direct sell because it just seems to take money off the table for the distribution network. We hate it. So, this is a way to this is a way to stick it to Spooky. Sorry, bug. What surprised me is Spooky is just so accepting and like well they shared Pinball Stars thing like hey get on Joe's list. So then I scrambled like so now you need a list and hence a frenzy. Yes, hence the frenzy. Are you friendsing out? So yeah, a lot of people on the list but still spots open. It it also works if you have an allocation you know about how many you can get. So you can communicate that with see it's all about communication. So that spooky pinball people are in a they're frothing for this next release because of this is the whole like uh Rob Zombie thing again. Like the the one was so scarce and everybody was be able to oversell it for so much more that they jump in blindly to whatever's coming next especially if the rumor is true. So many pe people are predicting this will be an instant sellout. Okay. What do you think? Uh you know what are we going to say instant day one then? No I don't think so. I don't I I there are too many instances Rob Zombie being a perfectly accept but that happened. Spooky did that for a while because they had those they were they've always done this le approach where there's just this raw flat limited count to the total number of games and that works for them but the speculation period we you know we saw that early on with not just Rob Zombie the same thing started I think happened with Alice Cooper and then you see but you saw what happened with like Halloween and stuff where people scooped all these up and then the values fell further than the percentages on a lot of other competiting competing games and that's other than Evil Dead which as you've noted is selling for more than MSRP right now. I don't think that's true for pretty much any other game of theirs. So it doesn't make sense and I don't think the market will really behave that way overall uh for the next title. Now once the theme is known that that could that's why I have to hedge. So, like if the theme is is Goonies or Beetlejuice, for example, then I could see it actually selling out day one. Not because of the list and the and and stuff, just the sheer demand for the theme. And the theme is Motorhead. They don't sell any. I They still sell something. I'm just being mean. I know. Yeah. You're entertaining. Yeah. I I was talking to Spooky. Uh I talk to them often and I have to be watch what I say because of what I know. But Mhm. I always like uh what under underpromising and what was that? What was that? Underpromise and overd deliver. Thank you. That's what that's what I like to do and a lot of what I do. So I told them, I know what you got. You know what you got, but curb your expectations a little bit and be happy if it does happen. because I reminded them that what games sell out on day one? They don't. They just don't. Stern games don't. Jersey Jack games don't. Like, one could argue that, okay, Chicago Gaming Company's Merlin edition, but that's a different like I don't I don't even think it did. Evil Dead didn't sell out day one. I remember they were really happy at TP at TPF. It was sold out like at the start TPF. They're like, "We've already sold them all out." And they were really really happy and they sold out, which is a good reason to be happy. But no, it's it's not normal. It's not. And again, I don't know how many of whatever the next game is going to be. Like they were really smart. I thought with Evil Dead, they reduced the number further down than what they did with uh Looney Tunes in Texas. Mhm. Knowing what I know about their next game, I will say that it would not surprise me at all if it sold out day one. I wouldn't surprise me. Nope. Not at all. Wouldn't surprise me. Um but do I think they will? I just think that's a tough thing to do. I would confidently say it's going to sell out way before their Evil Dead did. Way before Evil Dead did. But but day one, I I would get scared if something sold out day one because then as a business I'm like, uhoh, maybe I [ __ ] up how I did that, right? You could have made more. Yeah. Something. Yeah. All right. Barrels of fun. Pinball. Continue to ship Dune. continue to receive that slow and steady sales with enormous help from recent code updates that they've dumped a lot in this game. This is like this dark horse that keeps on creeping back. Like usually it's that first week of sales and then we see nothing. But this one is like a nice little consistent seller, but not nothing huge as a seller. Just nice and consistent. And the game is really showing well. It's around 90% complete now codewise. It's got all six main modes, six harvester modes, two multiball modes, two multi uh or two mini wizard modes, the pain box save, five skill shots. It's got the call outs now. Tons of footage from the films, more immersive than a lot of pinball machines ever made. It's it's doing everything it's supposed to be doing um and more. They plan on 100% of the rules being complete by the end of September, including an additional wizard modes, the main wizard modes. Um, I think this will be a dark horse that people will love and respect for years to come. But the way they launched it with what they were launching, how they launched it, yeah, they stubbed their toe. Stubbed their toe on that one. And maybe they had to. Maybe they stubbed their toe in in order to avoid getting hit by a train, but needless to say, they stumbled out of the gate, which has affected sales significantly. But I still think it's going to be a uh overall a good selling good selling game because what are they limiting them to a thousand? I think a thousand. But do they sell a whole thousand? My advice, my advice to them would be once your next game's ready, make a surplus of them and just cut them off. Just cut them off and it will the the the secondary sales value will hold strong which will then bleed into future products that you that you make. That's what because it's going to be a loved game. Uh speaking of uh Dune, there's a flipping out pinball tutorial that Joel did. Thank you Joel for that. Go to YouTube and check that out. We got to give the people that pay something special, Dennis. How do they pay us? patreon.com/thepmailshop. I thought you were just going to give them your your wire information. Just Yeah, I just Let me put out the routing number and my account number on onto this YouTube channel. I think it'd be smart. As long as as well as your address, we want to come visit you. Yeah. patreon.com/thepinball show. If you want to become a subscriber, a member, an official member of the Pinball Show, it helps us out a lot and we're going to give you the goods, too. This week's going to be special. I'm going to call our special episode content the tales of a pinball distributor. We've done this before, another iteration of it over the last month. A lot of why I couldn't record is because there's a lot going on in the flipping out pinball company and a lot that I'd like to share and just a lot of work and I think you guys would be very interested to hear the behind the scenes of how this works and all that a person all that a dealer does and and a very niche kind of thing I'm aware but also one that our company just functions a little bit different. So, we have things that we're doing that might differ significantly from from other retailers. I I think it's going to be a good time. I'll talk to you about what stresses me on a day-to-day basis. And maybe some of these things, honestly, like the um like it surprises people to hear what a designer does. I think it would it would it would uh surprise even those in the that work in the industry. it would surprise them uh the the depths of what goes into selling pinball machines. So, please join us there. We're going to talk about uh we're going to talk about used games. We're going to talk new games. We'll talk about shipping. We'll talk about growing a business. We'll discuss communications with customers as well as with manufacturers. We'll talk about adding to a product line, preparing an organization. it takes to run a company such as this. Media, marketing, advertising, and more. Hop in. Let's go for a ride. We're going to thank some people. Mhm. Who do you want to thank first? Maybe Rodney, as we always do. Yeah, I probably should start with Rodney. Thanks, Rodney. Thank you. And now we can blow him kisses, too. If you guys aren't watching on video, do that. And uh this might be edited out because the video doesn't work, but who knows, but I think it'll work. So, Rodney But I don't think most of these folks are going to switch over to watching video. The whole value to podcasting is to be able to listen to it while doing other stuff like driving. YouTube Premium. I mean that then they can listen. I don't even think our channels monetize to force. Well, YouTube may force ads on people in when the channels are tiny. I think we do have a YouTube. Do we? I don't know. You have to figure that out. I don't know. I'll figure it out. Thank you. That's not That's not Dennis stuff. That's That's Zach's stuff. Uh there's a bobcat. Uh, and we're thankful for him. Not as much about the wife. Finn for yourself. Oh, shoot that [ __ ] Rob, thank you. Thank you for your continued support. I love you. You're our panther. Snarl, Frank. Hey, Frank. Thank you. Truly, thank you, Falcon, for the continued support. Charlie, you can always ring my bell, my friend. Thank you so much. There it is. Yes. Clinkity clinks off to the uh dingdong and thank you Charlie love William the dude. Thank you brother Ken died. Yes I saw that. Oh makes me sad. Then there's all kinds of political stuff. I was like oh I just I just want to celebrate Hulk Hogan the character. Please just let me have him. I don't care like as a person whatever. But rest in peace, Hulk Hogan. Rest in peace. But William, you're alive. You're well. You're sexy, youthful, spry. A nice Mormon. Uh Williams, you would think William wasn't going to run out of room. Even Williams running out of some room. He's got some games coming in. Time for an addition. An addition to the addition. Just look, you just keep expanding. That's right. All it takes is land. Land hoe. We We have a new member of this Wow. club. We do a person that I was I mean I've been waiting for this person to join. Um they were a they were a Dennis Nordman level member for quite some time and they felt special. They felt like it's a new day and that they they're coming to welcome us. Their name is Adam. Adam, welcome to the Screaming Goat Club. Hell yeah. We'll work on getting you all the stuff and the shirts and but now he has direct access to us asking all the juicy behind the scenes questions. He can do that uh and all the other fun stuff that goes with it. But he also gets a nickname. A tough one. This one was a tough one because he is very normal. So you can't really and he's good-looking. So there's nothing that you can like it's not like he's got big ears or anything. There's nothing that we can make fun of. Uh he has a normal job that I know of. Kind of private so I don't know. But we do know one thing about him. And if he doesn't want uh us to let people know them this then we'll see him unsubscribe next month. But for for now we know that Adam has recently become a father. Yeah. And you know how much I love the babies, Dennis. I love them babies. You better not steal this baby. I want a baby. He on our happy hour hangout, he showed the baby. Mhm. And I was I wanted that baby so bad. Yes, you did. I wanted to nestle with that baby and I wanted to poke his little nose and I want to bite it. I want to bite the baby. My god. Just get us through this. smells so I just trying to eat the babies. I'm just Austin Powers nonsense. So we're going Adam is now known as Papa. Adam is Papa. We could go so many ways with this, Dennis. Oh, the Pinberg thing and the Papa He's our fajia. He's Papa. He's he's everything to us and he's he'll forever be big papa over here at the ball show. So, welcome Papa. You are like Papa. Oh, man. We're going to have fun with that one. The Papa Bear. He is the Papa Bear. I bet he hasn't slept in three months. Maybe that's why he signed up because he was deleted. Oh, it was a mistake. Yeah. Yeah. I just was like, I don't care what is life anymore. I'll just sign up to just I'll join a Patreon. Oh my god. Again, for those of you who sign up to patreon.com/thepinball show, you'll have access to our privateish Discord where we discuss things. And if they're super juicy, somebody's going to screenshot them and share them just to call it [ __ ] But hey, that's part of the fun of it, isn't it? Man, I have been I have been uh like going into other Discords. I never go into Discords just because I don't care enough, but I have lately. Who Dennis, there's some juicy Discords out there. Some some juicy juicy Discords. Uh we got a happy hour hangout for those. Uh part of the Dennis Nordman and Screaming Goat Club levels. Come hang out. We do it once a month. We'll have it later on here in August. And we can't go anywhere without giving the people the juice of this show. The low rent version. No, no, no production. I know we're doing video, but this is no production. This is a podcast. This is what we do. This is pinball market trends. Technobing up this week, dude. is everything Zach's selling. Starting with Jaw's 50th anniversary. Trending up this week is Jaw. I thought I almost felt like Oh, was that Randy Newman there? No, it was Randy S. You've got a trend in me. Yeah. And that was I wanted the Hulkster man. Oh, Hulk Hogan. Man, I loved Hulk. the character people. I don't want letters. Turning up this week is Jaws 50th anniversary. It's a seller. It's a grower and a shower. It's a big Look at that bomb pop. That's a That's a healthy one there. I I love when people come out and they want to shoot on something and then super successful. It's almost like that kisstopper I just sold used. Man, people came with big rocks and they were going to try to throw at me. You son of a [ __ ] You're trying to sell that kiss topper for how much? You know how much it sold for, Dennis? Nope. They made You know how many emojis, laugh emojis? You're crazy. I remember it was $300. Like yelling at clouds at me. I had a price for $3,500. I know. That's the Yeah, people were People thought I was crazy. It sold. Yeah, it sold. [Music] So training up maybe as a kiss topper. I don't know. Jaws 50th anniversary training up because this is going to be this is going to be the one. If you're going to buy a Jaws, people are buying this one. They like the red. Ain't that right, Papa? Papa his f Charles 50th is trending in the right direction. And needless to say, I think it's going to run in September. I think that's going to sell out pretty quick. And then December that's going to sell out pretty quick and then it's going to be gone. I think people are learning from the Godzilla 70th thing cuz people would people would pay good money for a Godzilla 70th right now. All trending up is Evil Dead. You see what those are going for? Used they're going for like 15 grand. It's a $10,000 game. Dennis $15,000 for a used Evil Dead. Wowers. That's nuts. That's nuts. Almost almost makes me think about selling mine to be honest. Anybody who's interested in the US, but uh I I think I want to keep an evil dead. I really do. But when I get an early one, and when you get a super early one, you can't get a butter cab because you're just trying to get them out, right? I do like butter. So maybe I sell mine and then get one with the butter. I don't know. trending trending down or the God bless them. So many people that may be entering into the hobby or just they don't know enough about what games are going for what. I still get messages multiple a week. Hey, can I can I get a Evil Dead, please? Or can I be put on the list? And I'm like, March called and uh they said they're pregnant. They're late. There's a joke there, I think. But there's none. I'm sorry. There's there's no there's no Evil Deads. Okay. Can you put me on a Here's the Here's the kicker. I might have talked about this before. They're like, "Can you put me on an overflow list?" Here's me AI. I need to learn AI because I have to type this all out multiple times a week. So, I have to like explain to them, okay, if I took an overflow list, this is how it would look. Nobody would ever get one because since they're selling on the secondary market for more than what they are MSRP, anybody who on my list that already has an order, if they decide that they no longer want it, they're just going to sell it for a profit rather than lose $1,000 non-refund or $2,000 non-refundable deposit. Thus, I can put you on this list, but it really doesn't make any sense. And then they're like, "Well, you're an asshole." But I'm just trying to, you know, like there's no reason to put all you just need templates. You need to have some files where you just open it up and cut and paste the answer for those things. That's not really an AI thing. You just need to have something that you can go and pull from a template to I need an algorithm if then like because then I'm opening file, clicking, dragging, copying, opening up another file. There's a way I'm sure to Automated Amusements but uh with some keywords, but it's the efficiency Dennis. I'm dying with the efficiency. Just make 10 do all of this. Also up that he's too busy taking sales. Also turning up this week is Dennis's favorite game. D The Hobbit. Jersey Jack Pinball. The Hobbit. It's not their worst game. For whatever reason. Now I'm trying to figure remind me in the Patreon to tell you about one of the trade. Oh, if I don't see another was I'll be okay. The Hobbit. Uh yeah, for whatever reason, the hobbits are selling for like a lot of money again. Like n grand again. What is that all about? Remember when back in our day, they were like 6,500 and people made fun of them. Yeah, I guess people like uh I mean the dragons still look great cuz you can't hit the hit them with the ball. Oh, but they still might not work those in the jaw. I just remember the loud obnoxious click click click of the the draw individual control drops. That was their big showoff thing for the for the skill shot. Sounds like a damn machine gun. Yep, I remember those. But the Hobbit for whatever it is, what people what collectors are really craving, they like that smog edition. They really like that. And if you can find a smog edition, lower plays, sub 500 plays with the uh with the rad cows on them, that was an accessory at that point in time. So it wasn't standard. That is like the primo. Those low plays is pretty easy though cuz the games were like 30 minutes long each and they held up well. Those playfields held up well. Um but yeah, that's the primo. Like those go north of $10,000. as a hobby and they sell like that. I tried to overpric one because I kind of wanted it to hang around and oh, it just sold. But what comes up must come down. Trending down this week are the oddballs. That's not Dennis and I or other unnamed media providers. No, no, the oddballs. What I'm finding in the market right now, listener, is that the oddball games that were once uh they piqu the interest of many collectors. They would take a risk on having something different, they're just not holding up on the secondary market with price or sometimes quality. What I mean by the oddballs, the examples trending down this week are Highways Alien. Remember the the the Highway version of Alien? Yeah. Yeah. Those are [ __ ] dogs. They are dogs. They don't [ __ ] don't work. They don't hold up. They're horrible. And uh but a lot of collectors, you know how it's like cars or anything else? Like I don't care how shitty it is. It's rare. The secondary market's not suggesting that higherend collectors care anymore. They don't. The prices are dropping on the oddballs. So Highway Alien, Haggus, Fathom Revisited, people don't care how pretty it is. That damn thing is dirt cheap. Uh Queen to a certain extent. Queens. Nobody will even take a chance on a wonderful IP. They don't like the game. Funhouse remake. I'm going to put that in this oddball discussion because prices are plummeting on that game. Every time we're getting them in a lot as trade and they are selling for very low amounts. Uh Alice Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I that damn thing ain't even produced yet and it's already dropping in value before it even leaves the damn factory floor. Uh even I think they're selling pre-orders for less than I mean people are just trying to get out at a loss. Uh the delays after delays now the Oh, is it the delays? I I had the thought. Did they finally come around on on the art? I mean it's just not that art wait anymore in into its aesthetic. A tornado would be compelled to hit it. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Yeah. that people just don't I like hearing people try to argue like oh it's a ton of fun and stuff I'm like eh so is Dirty Harry but I know but people like Dirty Harry I just it's not that fun. Ninja Eclipse I'm throwing Ninja Eclipse in there. That should be like that is a game that people really like. They love Ninja Eclipse. They even like how it looks, Dennis. But on the secondary market, it's it was selling for low out of the gate. So, it's maintaining that value, but there's just not the hype isn't there. People don't care about these oddball games anymore. It's it just seems to me just looking at the market every single day, multiple hours, that people still are they're like the the enthusiast community and the collector, but they like the big dogs. They like the Sterns, the JJPs, the the the games that have been built in the thousands or the hundreds, some high numbers, but they like the triedand-true and they like those rare editions or those top editions, those Ellies, but the oddballs just it ain't working no more. All trending down this week, I've been out of it uh quite a quite some time. The whole mod community thing and buying mods. Every once in a while there'll be a stumblord mod um or really medicinal mod, just the high quality stuff that I'll I'll definitely purchase even if I don't own the game because I just respect the quality of work. But I I I haven't looked into the mod stuff as much. I I did because of these issues, but I've been getting a lot of tradeins. And with these tradeins come enhancements or additions or modifications or accessories that people add to their games disc. And what I want to relay to the community, nobody loves mods as much as yours truly. So I assure you, I love mods. But moving forward, for the majority, I've got to tell you guys what it put down the mods. Step away from the 3D printer. Please put them down. There's no use for some of these mods. Some of these mods are cash grabs. Some of these mods are going to start your machine on fire. I've never like I get a trade in and mods generally aren't going to hurt the price but I'm starting to question it. Dennis, there are so many atrocious horrible mods. Like when I lift the hood on a game and I see [ __ ] spaghetti of wires and alligator clips and like glue and [ __ ] the LED strips that they got on this The hokey ass stadium lighting is hot to the touch. I'm smelling plastic. Like, guys, take this [ __ ] out of your game. It's like adding all of this junk to a beautiful sports car. No. No. We don't want stuff hanging in the rearview mirror. We don't want any of this. It's poorly done. So, so many of these mods now, I would say 75% of the mods that come out, I think, are tacky as [ __ ] They look like [ __ ] They're making your game look like [ __ ] and they're making you look like [ __ ] because you bought them. Get rid of them. Throw them away. I throw them away, man. I'm like, I could sell this for $10. Snape. No thanks. 3D printed filament. [ __ ] off you ugly mods. They're so Have you not seen them, Dennis? I'll send you 45. No, it's fine. It's just so bad. People just just refrain. Just refrain. They can't. They can't. Why are you trying to put all these businesses out? Sure. You're going to put them all under. Sure. Either bring a products or go home. I'm going to start calling them out. They're so bad. Sorry. I've been in a tizzy cuz I just I'm like, "Oh, look at this chachki ass machine that I have to start stripping out." [ __ ] Don't get me started on these bootleg ass blades. [ __ ] What is that? It I don't know. I get so upset because Yeah, it's the wiring like and they tap them like they'll jump into like original factory wiring. They will just tap right into it and I'm like, "Oh my god, I can't undo that." You know how much tape and electrical tape just to make a [ __ ] Iron Man chest brighten up? Like stop. They don't need war machine to have the thing on his chest. But baby Yoda can wave his arm. Yeah. Oh, Dennis, I'm glad you thought I used to love that animated grop. I know you did. I used to love it. There is one in our showroom right now and everybody's like, "Is that game broken?" It's off. Uh but it's not broken. It's because when you have that animated grou tapped into because people don't know how to like program anything or so they tab it into like an insert light. So in attract mode all you hear is that godforsaken alien Yoda [ __ ] in the back going [Music] and my father was like that game. I'm like [Laughter] like that's the world's strongest servo motor. How can it run continuously for weeks? It's turned off. Damn, they're so bad. I'll I'd never have it. It would drive me nuts. Get rid of the mods, people. They're just so bad. All right. I don't even know. I'm pinball marketing. Bye. Deals of the week. Bye. Bye. Bye. Look, if you guys want these mods, I will start collecting them and I'll I'll mail maybe give them away on uh Joel's stream. You know what? Anybody that wins from Australia or Canada, you're going to get these industryleading mods that uh I don't even know if they burn. I would burn these things. They're so bad. We need to showcase one every week. Look at the shitty work this is. Oh, so stupid. Okay, so put the mods down. Step away from the 3D printer, please. Even like the I'm thinking right now like start buttons like they all break just so bad. So, deal of the week. Deal of the week is a queen. Speaking of trending down games, the odd balls that nobody wants. I've had a queen. We had it in 6,000 and I marked it down like 5900 then 5700. I I'll give this thing away for like $54.99. Deal a week. Just take this thing, please. It's like in great condition, too. If anybody wants to see what the queen, not a bad game, but yeah, people just don't like it. And that's your deal of the week. I'm sorry. My brain's still stuck on the You got to move on. I can't I I'm just going to be And as always, I'm just here to report the facts. Call it as it is, people. Numbers don't lie, and neither will I, but some of these mods could start fires on Pinball Market Trends. Damn. Where can people catch you? Make an email quickgamersodcast@gmail.com. Easiest way to reach out to me directly. Uh the pinball show@gmail.com. I sometimes check that too. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you all for the support. patreon.com/thepinballshow. Deeply appreciate it. We're going to continue experimenting here because we've been doing this long enough. We just want to have fun with it. And uh that's what we're going to do. Go check out Straight Down the Middle. Follow, subscribe, like there. And uh what do we have next? I think we're gonna do a who wore it best. An update to that. No, Sooie. Oh jeez. Suie. I should have trended that down. We got one of those in on trade. Those whirlwind evolution 2.0 things. Yeah. 2.0. Oh, and Suie came home finally. I was waiting for him. I knew it. He's You know what? Not a horrible game, honestly. Not really that bad. It uh I I wouldn't want it on my whirlwind, but it does spice things up. Kind of like that fun house. But I just it's it's one of those things where it's so bad that it's kind of endearing. It's like the GTF kind of thing. But sponsor sponsor this show is Flipping Out Pinball. When I buy my pinball, I buy from Flipping Out from I've got it figured out. Figured out when I think of it all. I flipping out. Zipping out. Figured out. When I buy by I buy from Flipping Out. We're going to go to Expo. So, the product showcases. Come to Chicago Expo. Say hi to us. We're going to have a booth. We haven't had a booth in years, but Ken Cromwell's wanted to run a booth. So, we're going to do that. Uh Harry Potter's you can order one from us, but I sure as hell don't know when you'll get it. Just being honest. Do you know how many sales we lost in the last couple weeks because we say we don't know? Too many. One. Too many. Yeah. I wish it was only one. One is too many. One is too many. You're right. King Kongs, Jaws, Dune. Oh, if you want a Jaws 50th uh bomb pop edition. Mhm. We got some September spots. Yeah. Dune. I can get you one right now. Not a lot of people can say that. Pre-owned games. Go to the Flipping Out Pinball Facebook page for right now. We're going to have them on our website soon. We're just undergoing website. You're finally redoing it. We're going to It's just going to cost me a second mortgage. Dungeons and Dragons Pro, Premium, Metallica Remastered, Uncanny X-Men, The Loved One, John Wick, Godzilla, Jurassic Park, Labyrinth, Avatar, Elton John's, James. But if you want a game, Flipping Out Pinball is going to do everything we can to earn your business. Arcades, everything. Tradeins, everything. Stair climbing, hand trucks, youing name it, we want it. Toppers, accessories. I did get some new accessories and they're selling the King Kong banners. Look at Banner Michael. Yeah. So, if you want one of those, they're like a hundred bucks. Come purchase one. Flipping out media channels. Joel's doing some terrific work over there on the YouTube channel. Gameplay and tutorials, VODs, videos. So, go subscribe. We're trying to get to 10,000. I gave him a goal of 10,000 uh followers by the end of the year and we're at like we're short. We're short, but I still think it can happen. Flipping out pinball podcast with Ken and Greg. They've been on fire. Episodes four and five. Four was about controversial pinball opinions and episode five covering what's missing in modern pinball. So, yeah, a lot of fun stuff. But Joel, Ken, Greg, you know, all these people. I missed you, Dennis. I've been working a lot, but I missed you. People something. The one piece that's not in your empire. Uh, yeah. Well, no, actually, I need them, you said. Yeah, you can't, unfortunately. Uh, the Yeah. Well, I think I need the people to teach us something. Well, actually, to advise us on something. So, they email the pinball showgmail.com. What would we name? What should we name Zach's mod segment? I lean towards the obvious alliteration minis mods where he tears into one on a on a subsequent episode of his choice, but I feel like that also sounds too because there's already like measel mods like they're already alliterations there. So, give us some ideas on what we could call the segment. So, that's really it. I do like that. And always practice safe pinball. And if anyone is going to be the successful successor of the goat, it is none other than the assistant to the goat, myself, Zach Manny. Bye bye bye. Bye bye bye. Step away from the mods, please. _(Acquisition: youtube_mirror_subs, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 971bbed5-fcef-4e32-8b9c-c83347a457ad*