# DPP #208 "Big Trouble in Chicago"

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-10-04  
**Duration:** 30m 51s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donspinballpodcast/episodes/DPP-208-Big-Trouble-in-Chicago-e39396k

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## Analysis

Don discusses upcoming Pinball Expo preparations, including homebrew highlights (Big Trouble in Little China), new game reveals (Predator, Star Wars, potential Pinball Legends announcement), and his concerns about Star Wars' gameplay execution. He expresses cautious optimism about Predator and updates on Barrels of Fun's Dune code improvements.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] Big Trouble in Little China is likely owned by Disney, which may limit which manufacturers can produce a commercial version — _Don speculation about licensing constraints; 'I think Disney owns it, which makes it a bit trepidatious. Does that mean only Stern or JJP could get it?'_
- [HIGH] Mud Flaps Pinball creator (Big Trouble homebrew) hired a voice actor from the film and professional artists (Brian Allen, Ricky Martinez) for the project — _Don's detailed breakdown of production team for homebrew_
- [HIGH] Predator pinball has only been made available publicly at Pinball Expo, not at European conferences, tournaments, or to content creators — _Don states: 'this game has not been available publicly anywhere. Not a European conference, not a pinball tournament anywhere. It wasn't sent to content people.'_
- [HIGH] Predator production is being cut off in December due to licensing contract expiration — _Don: 'the license contract is probably running out, and that's why they have a hard cutoff of, like, we're not making any more of these after December'_
- [HIGH] Star Wars pinball has a recurring mechanical issue with the Death Star ramp where shots brick and fail to register — _Don observed this issue at demo, Kickback Bar locations, and in official Stern Factory Friday video showing same problem_
- [MEDIUM] Barrels of Fun's Dune code has been significantly improved since initial release based on player feedback — _Don: 'I'm hearing back from people that are playing it now, especially people that have played it initially, that the code is so much better'_
- [HIGH] Don has a Legend of Zelda homebrew game in progress that will be demoed at Expo by Missing Pin — _Don discusses work-in-progress Zelda homebrew demo at Missing Pin booth_
- [MEDIUM] Star Wars 2017 game left poor community taste despite strong sales due to multiplier manipulation mechanics — _Don's analysis of 2017 Star Wars: 'it left kind of a taste in people's mouth that wasn't great'_

### Notable Quotes

> "Big Trouble in Little China came out. And I remember seeing it when I was a kid, not in the theater, but on television or something. And then when Mortal Kombat hit the arcades in, what, 1992, we all kicked back to, oh, the lightning guy. That's Raiden, man. I mean, the inspiration had to come directly from that coolie hat wearing weirdo."
> — **Don**, N/A
> _Context for Big Trouble in Little China's cultural impact and appeal_

> "I want irrational exuberance. That's what I want to see going into these big purchases. And I'm just not seeing it with Raza. I'm not seeing it with Big Bang Bar."
> — **Don**, N/A
> _Expression of skepticism about Big Bang Bar and 'Pinball Legends' project value proposition_

> "This is a company for which I need to play their product before I buy it. And I even myself said if I was going to buy a Predator, it was going to be because it was on a show floor in front of me, and I just played it and verified that, yes, I want this."
> — **Don**, N/A
> _Don's cautious approach to Pinball Brothers' Predator based on company history_

> "I'm hearing C-3PO call-outs. I get a tilt warning, and all of a sudden Han Solo is talking to me. I hit a ramp, and I guess I started a mode, and now Lando is talking to me. Now there's blue shots I have to hit, and I'm trying to focus on that. but oh, the Death Star mouth just opened."
> — **Don**, N/A
> _Specific critique of Star Wars' chaotic audio and visual feedback design_

> "Damn it, this game is probably fun. I don't know. So I think as soon as I can hit the show floor, maybe even with my vendor wristband, I'm probably just going to run over and play Predator. And if it's good, I'm going to secure one of them."
> — **Don**, N/A
> _Shift to qualified optimism about Predator's potential quality_

> "So I have to watch it in its entirety, but, man, it's just unfortunate that I got to put an awning on the Death Star ramp to keep that ball down so that a good, true shot actually goes in there."
> — **Don**, N/A
> _Specific mechanical solution proposal for Star Wars Death Star ramp bricking issue_

> "You want a Medieval Madness, you'll purchase it back in 2023, and you'll wait two years until you get it, and then you'll post a picture on Facebook about how happy you are to be serviced finally by Chicago Gaming Company."
> — **Don**, N/A
> _Commentary on Chicago Gaming Company's long delivery delays_

> "It could happen to you. It can come true. Isn't that what JoJo Siwa taught us all?"
> — **Don**, N/A
> _Humorous reference to securing limited Predator games at Expo_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Don | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast, organizer of Pinball Expo homebrew topper contest, pinball enthusiast with Legend of Zelda homebrew in progress |
| Pinball Expo | event | Major pinball industry event occurring in two weeks from podcast date, featuring new game reveals and competitions |
| Big Trouble in Little China | game | Homebrew pinball by Mud Flaps Pinball; highly anticipated for Expo with custom voice acting and professional art |
| Mud Flaps Pinball | organization | Independent pinball creator behind Friday the 13th and Big Trouble in Little China homebrews; known for professional-quality builds |
| Predator | game | Pinball Brothers' upcoming commercial game; first public play opportunity at Pinball Expo; limited to ~100 units with December production cutoff |
| Pinball Brothers | company | Commercial pinball manufacturer known for Alien, ABBA, Queen; making Predator with limited transparency and public play testing |
| Star Wars Pinball | game | Recent Stern release with concerns about mechanical Death Star ramp bricking issues and cluttered gameplay design |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer; released Star Wars; earlier 2017 Star Wars game referenced as lesson in simple design over complex themes |
| Dune | game | Barrels of Fun's game with recently improved code; will have multiple units at Expo for purchase and demo |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Pinball manufacturer producing Dune with iterative code improvements post-release |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Manufacturer mentioned in context of upcoming game reveal; Don speculates about announcement window |
| Missing Pin | company | Wisconsin-based pinball accessories company (felt bags, cabinet wraps); will demo Don's Legend of Zelda homebrew at Expo |
| Rob Burke | person | Organizer of Pinball Expo; appears as guest on Don's prior episode |
| Aaron Davis | person | Founder of Fast Pinball; mentioned in context of helping with wiring/tech support for Don's Zelda homebrew |
| Brian Allen | person | Professional pinball artist who contributed art to Big Trouble in Little China homebrew |
| Ricky Martinez | person | Artist credited on Big Trouble in Little China homebrew art blades |
| Kerry Hardy | person | Industry figure expected to announce 'Pinball Legends' project later in broadcast day |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Designer of 2017 Star Wars pinball; credited with fast shot gameplay |
| Brian Savage | person | Associated with Barrels of Fun; doesn't disclose sales figures to Don |
| David Van Ness | person | Associated with Barrels of Fun; doesn't disclose sales figures to Don |
| Kickback Bar | organization | Location where Don played Star Wars and encountered Death Star ramp bricking issues |
| 1UP Lounge | organization | Bellingham, Washington arcade location with Star Wars game order; Don planning makeover project |
| Electric Playground | organization | Topper manufacturer/designer; created toppers for Big Trouble in Little China and King Kong homebrews for Expo contest |
| Pinball Legends | game | Unannounced project to be revealed by Kerry Hardy; unclear if card game, action figures, or commercial machine resurrection |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pinball Expo preparations and expectations, Homebrew pinball game quality and community appeal, Star Wars Pinball mechanical issues and design concerns, Predator pinball marketing, availability, and gameplay potential
- **Secondary:** Barrels of Fun/Dune code improvements and performance, Pinball Legends mystery announcement and community speculation, Big Bang Bar revival and market reception concerns
- **Mentioned:** Pinball pricing tiers and value proposition at $7k-$15k range

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.45) — Don expresses genuine excitement about Expo and homebrews (Big Trouble, his Zelda game, Predator potential) but significant disappointment with Star Wars' design execution and skepticism about Pinball Legends/Big Bang Bar value. Overall tone is cautiously optimistic but tinged with frustration about market trends.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Pinball Brothers' Predator has received minimal marketing and zero public play testing before Expo despite October timeline suggesting December production cutoff (confidence: high) — Don: 'this game has not been available publicly anywhere...this expo is going to be the first time...gets to play this thing'
- **[community_signal]** Homebrew community producing professional-quality games with significant investment in licensing, art, voice acting; Don highlighting cultural value despite legal liability (confidence: high) — Big Trouble in Little China project with professional artist fees, voice actor, hand-painted elements; Don notes 'this person...can never make this person a dime without attracting every lawyer'
- **[design_philosophy]** Star Wars Pinball criticized as chaotic shooting gallery with poor thematic integration and overstimulation (conflicting audio cues, visual overload) (confidence: high) — Don's detailed critique of simultaneous C-3PO callouts, mode starts, Death Star opens competing for player attention
- **[event_signal]** Pinball Expo (two weeks away) positioned as major industry event with multiple game reveals and first public play of Predator (confidence: high) — Don repeatedly emphasizes Expo timing, mentions final preparations for homebrew topper contest, confirms attendance plans Wednesday-Sunday
- **[leak_detection]** Pinball Legends announcement by Kerry Hardy expected 'later today' but details unclear; teaser image suggests possible card game or action figure product line (confidence: medium) — Don: 'there's one coming, I think, later today, if Kerry Hardy is to be trusted' and notes confusion about what 'Pinball Legends' actually is
- **[market_signal]** Barrels of Fun shipping multiple Dune units to Expo for direct floor sales; confidence in post-release code improvements supporting move to broader availability (confidence: high) — Don: 'they're going to have a fleet of these games at Expo. You'll be able to pick them up from the show floor'
- **[community_signal]** Don announcing expansion of podcast/media footprint via Patreon with secret project reveal; positioning himself as central hub for pinball community content and organization (confidence: high) — Don promotes Patreon ($5 tier) for full reveal of expansion plans and hosting major Expo contest with $1k prizes
- **[market_signal]** Don expresses concern about three-tier pricing model sustainability; $13k+ premium tiers creating friction for players accustomed to lower entry costs (confidence: medium) — Don notes 'sub 10k is where the le's are going to end up' and 'premiums will probably be you know 8500'; he's waiting for later builds or cheaper options
- **[product_concern]** Star Wars Pinball Death Star ramp shot bricking issue appears systemic across multiple locations and units; issue visible in official Stern Factory Friday video (confidence: high) — Don observed at demo, Kickback Bar (two LEs), livestreams; issue confirmed in Stern's own promotional video showing tester struggling to make the shot
- **[sentiment_shift]** Don's assessment of Star Wars shifted from initial optimism to cautious pessimism about long-term appeal due to gameplay execution concerns (confidence: high) — Don ordered game initially but now worried about resale value; considers it potential 'bag' game if Walking Dead/Ghostbusters alternatives emerge
- **[business_signal]** Predator limited to ~100 units with hard December cutoff due to licensing contract expiration; potential for secondary market premium similar to JJP Pirates if game quality is strong (confidence: high) — Don speculates on FOMO scenario: 'what if it stumbles out the gate...turns out it's great...becomes like a vaulted game...it's the next J.J.P. Pirates because they only made 100'
- **[technology_signal]** Emerging pattern of mechanical/design issues on recent Stern releases (Star Wars Death Star ramp, earlier games) raising questions about QA processes (confidence: medium) — Don's observation that Stern Factory Friday video showcases the very problem he experienced, suggesting systemic rather than isolated issue

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## Transcript

 oh let's get back to it it's saturday it's a weekend it's time for some pinball podcastry where are all the podcasts at everybody's probably making their way and their plans final plans for pinball expo in two weeks yours truly included but i'm still gonna podcast Like the explosion of low pan at the end of Big Trouble in Little China. We're back. How are you doing? Scott DiNisi with the intro music. Busy little guy, man. I'm hot off the heels of that trailer for the homebrew of the year. Can we just call it already? Come on. Big Trouble in Little China. We've all wanted it. Great license. I think Disney owns it, which makes it a bit trepidatious. Does that mean only Stern or JJP could get it? Can you imagine a JJP version of that game? But we know Stern, if anybody would get it, and then we'd be in Flat Plastics 3 Rampville. And a bricking Death Star! What's going on? Got a lot of energy today. Here in the new digs, the full reveal of my secret project to expand my empire, my footprint within, swiftly within the arse of pinball, is up on Patreon right now at patreon.com backslash Don's Pinball Podcast. $5 will get you in there. And I revealed all that I've been working up to and what I've been doing. I've referenced it publicly, but if you want to get everything, the straight dirt right now, that's where it is. All questions will be answered. All the answers will be questions, and they're over there. And it's only $5. So what else are you going to do with $5, man? Will that even get you a caramel apple empanada from the 90s throwback menu at Taco Bell? Damn, that's a delicious fried pie. I'm glad they brought it back. And I'm glad it's only back for a limited time. Because I could eat my body weight in caramel apple empanadas. Dude, those fried pies, man. Remember the old ones from McDonald's back in the day when we was kids? There was not anything better than that. Pinball Expo is two weeks away, 14 days. Thanks, Rob Burp, for making the rounds. Got that episode on last. It was the episode prior to this one. Just scroll down the list if you want to listen to that. and some more musings of a madman that are recorded on there. Otherwise, the expo's around the corner. I've got to make final preparations for the homebrew topper contest. Man, I'm telling you, if only three people enter this, y'all are getting some serious prizes, like $1,000 prizes for this thing. We got a topper from Stern Pinball for Iron Maiden. They donated that. Thank you so much. What a bunch of absolute legends. We got the Electric Playground topping not only Big Trouble in Little China, but also their King Kong game. So we've got that to give away. I've got gifts from the missing pin on down. Mod makers have brought stuff by. It's Bedlam. It's night and day. It's cray cray in a good way. Just pick up your TayTay. So here to four, what are we going to see at pinball expo? I was anticipating multiple fun reveals of brand new games. I have never played before at pinball expo and my expectations have dwindled so far. I was hanging on Predator as being the only game that was going to be absolutely brand new to me at Pinball Expo, which made me a sad panda because I love playing amongst nothing else brand new pinball machines that I have never played before. You can never get that experience again. It happens one time. After that, sure, the game may be great, but it's not the first time you've played it where you're discovering all the shots. The first time you make it to the upper play field, the first time you do the multiball, The first time you get the bash toy to explode, the first time you make it to the lower play field. It only happens once, man. There's no other game. Fish Tales can be phenomenal, but it'll never be your first time on Fish Tales again. That happened in 1986 with a girl named Shirley down at the Pigeon Putt over by the Turnpike. But to add to that, we now have the reveal of Big Trouble in Little China, the homebrew of the year. Calling it now ain't no way I'm going to compete with this, and I am going to try. I'm just going to play with this thing. Mud Flaps Pinball. Ramps Road Trip. Are you paying attention? Mud Flaps is the best name for your independent pinball label. I absolutely love it. I want a t-shirt of Mud Flaps. I want stickers. I want to join the campaign. I want the iron-on tote bag. I love that logo. It's so great. So this is the dude, to summarize, that did the Friday the 13th homebrew. Very high professional quality. I mean, this is what brought me into wanting to get more creative within the pinball space was the strength of the homebrewers. I mean, these guys went from, like, you know, flipping plywood to, like, actually making something that looks like it could have been commercial. With assemblage of great talent, he got a voice actor from the film. He got Brian Allen on the art. He got Ricky Martinez on the art blades. He had some dude hand paint low pan on the back glass. I mean, this guy's going all sorts of extra. This stuff is not cheap. Hiring a pinball artist, I have done it just for a logo for a T-shirt, and it was multiple hundreds of dollars. You can do a play field, and they get that play field printed and then clear-coded. Oh, my goodness, man, there's a lot of cash riding up into this for something that can never be available commercially, can never make this person a dime without attracting every lawyer worth an ounce and some even worth a half pint within the vicinity. So we're allowed fair use when it comes to homebrew titles, right? We all kind of – that's the gist that we operate under. I don't think there's any hard and fast rule about that, though, that says that you absolutely will not get sued, harassed, or otherwise mired in legal morasses for doing an enterprising undertaking like this. And I wish that wasn't the case. I wish if you were just there honestly just trying to make something fun for the community, you would have those protections. There's legal precedent, but there's not really any codified law that protects you from this, which sucks. Because, right, this isn't somebody that's cranking off a bunch of Mickey Mouse T-shirts to go make money on the freeway. You know, this isn't somebody with the homemade bootleg Nickelback shirts outside the concert selling for $15, right, you know, instead of the $45 that you're going to pay inside. This is just somebody that's created something fun for the community and wants to show it off. And it looks pretty good. While I haven't dissected the whole layout, I mean, it seems pretty approachable, which if you look at games that seem to do well critically and commercially, they tend to be the things that don't really stray too far outside of, like, that safe this-is-what-we-like zone. I'm talking about Scoop, Orbit, Ramp to Return, Center Bash Toy, maybe another mini Orbit, some kind of physical ball lock, Ramp to Return to the other in lane and the other Orbit, right? That's what we want. Whether you like it or not, that's what you like, because that's what you people buy are games that feel good like that. Now, does every game have to just be Star Wars, seven shots, here it is, break the Death Star? No. There's a lot of creativity that you can do with that. And I think what we're seeing industry leaders pushing for are, yeah, maybe these are shots that you're familiar with. They're approachable. But the shots transform and do different things. Maybe there's a lift ramp. Maybe there's a diverter. Maybe there's a magnet, you know, what have you where like the same shot can do multiple different things That where it really fun And that where the code really comes in that theme integration So I hoping to flip low pan here And I think it probably going to be the longest line at the homebrew section next to checking out the topper selection and voting Because even if you vote, you're entered to win. There will be a drawing of a random voter with a play field. You can leave Chicago Expo with something that you can barely fit in your Hyundai. It's going to be awesome. So this is what I love. I love the topper too, man. Electric Playground went ahead and got him some plastics. It's multiple tiered levels. There's lights there. If they integrate with the game at a bare minimum level, it's an absolute win. Big Trouble in Little China came out. And I remember seeing it when I was a kid, not in the theater, but on television or something. And then when Mortal Kombat hit the arcades in, what, 1992, we all kicked back to, oh, the lightning guy. That's Raiden, man. I mean, the inspiration had to come directly from that coolie hat wearing weirdo. and then like so much other things I think came from Big Trouble in Little China and Bloodsport. I think if you put those two together, a lot of what we then later saw in Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and then fighting games hence then kind of originated and drew a lot of inspiration from there. So, man, imagine Big Trouble in Little China right next to Bloodsport. I was going to say Big Trouble in Little China made by like Stern and then Bloodsport made by JJP, like right next to each other, like boom, sign me up, dude. I want to go play some fighting game pinball machines. Street Fighter deserved better than whatever Gottlieb did to it back in the day, man. But game looks sick. I haven't dissected every single shot that's in it or anything. I'm not going to. I'm just going to go there. I'm going to play the thing as much as I can over the entirety of the weekend, which I think I'll be on site starting on Wednesday. We're doing a full pull with this thing Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Crawl ourselves out of there Sunday. I think Phantom Tilt is going to make an appearance. Excited about that. We'll have Australians in the house. I forget which day exactly they're going to be there, but look for us to be wandering around. I am absolutely 100% not going to be tied to a booth at this expo. I'm going to be social butterflying my way all around there. I really have to take a look at some point, sit down for 10 minutes, and look at the seminar schedule and see if there's any nuggets there I really don't want to miss. My boy from the Missing Pin West will be up there doing one. I want to go check out what he has to say. I want to go see the Franchi and Jack Guarnieri panel or just whatever Franchi's on. Who knows what he's going to say? Spooky Pinball, I don't think they're doing one. Maybe they'll shock us. I would love it if Spooky Pinball would just take the stage and say, not $1 out of your pocket until you see our next game, which is probably coming next month. I don't have any confirmation on that, but I think we're entering the launch window. So there's some exciting things, despite the fact that I've only seen two brand-new game now reveals that we'll see there. That's not the only reveal, though. And actually, it looks like there's one coming, I think, later today, if Kerry Hardy is to be trusted. Although it is October, so I think we should call him Scary Hardy. But that will be coming. And that is something called, what the hell is it called? Pinball Legends. All right. I've got a question. Hand up, teacher. What the hell is Pinball Legends, right? I've seen this teaser picture of somebody, like, with their fist raised or something. Pinball Legends is coming. Like, I don't know what this is. Glorbo? I mean, what is this, man? Is this a deck-building card game? Is this a line of action figures with, like, Rudy and the thing from Circus Voltaire? If it is, pass me by. I'm not interested in that. Is this a pinball machine full of these games? Is this the new label for Dutch Pinball Experience, where they're going to resurrect these old zombie games or games that never really deserved to be games in the first place? but here we pushed it through and made it playable? Is this going to be the pinball legends label? I hope that's not the case, man. Melvin Strikes Me is a talented guy. I would like to see just, you know, throw everything away, get a whitewood, screw some things to it, and come up with something compelling and interesting. It could be an original theme. Man, I don't care about that. Just make a good game, you know. Don't go back to these buzzard of games that were like failed in the 90s and then tried to breathe life into them. Does anybody want this? Does anybody want Big Bang Bar? I'm not sure. Okay. Are there 80 people that want Big Bang Bar? Are there 80? Are there 500? I don't think there's 500. Maybe there's like 35, but I don't know the reasoning behind this. If I was funding an enterprise that was into this, I don't think that that's the game I would pick. Now, I haven't seen supposedly these improvements that have been fostered upon the game formerly known as Big Bang Bar. But then are they even being implemented? I've heard different things. Canada's kind of all over the place on this. I try to follow along when I can from the beardless one whenever he shows up. Maybe he did a Saturday morning show and he explained a little more. Maybe we can dig into that. But I think from what he was saying, there were some improvements made, maybe some refinements, maybe some things that were never completed, which actually were, and then that was passed on to whoever's supposedly working on this project. And then they decided to pass on those improvements and just put it out as it was, which sounds like the biggest misstep since Mrs. Doubtfire fell off the back porch. Correct me if that's not something that actually happened. So I don't know. I can't get warm in my cockles about that particular title. Maybe there will be one there to play. Maybe Rob Burke will drag one up. I've played it virtually, I know at least, and it's fine. It's a fine game from its time as a time capsule. But is this going to be like a $15,500 purchase that I want to make? Hard no. The hardest of the no. The hard seltzer of the no is what I would call that. So I'm wondering if other people are there with me as well. The people I've talked to are kind of like, yeah, I kind of feel the same. It's not worthy of the marquee dollars that this game is probably going to try to market for, despite how great Stumbler and Leor can make the game look. If you finally sculpted and you hand-painted an alien stripper on the pole, I'm still not terribly excited. And that's what I... So apart with this much cash, I could buy a travel trailer. I got to be excited, man, and irrational. I want irrational exuberance. That's what I want to see going into these big purchases. And I'm just not seeing it with Raza. I'm not seeing it with Big Bang Bar. No matter what's put in there, no matter how good the rules were from Mr. Steven Bowden, shout out. I don't know, man. I don't know. It's just kind of where I'm at with that. But I'll tell you what. I'm excited for Expo. It's going to be a blast seeing all my friends and family again, kicking it around there, walking around the show floor trying to find some decent food in the region without having to go over the Woodfield Mall. Great breakfast place, Wildberry Cafe right across the freeway. Check it out. Get there early if you want to do it Saturday or Friday because, like, the place fills up. But if you rope drop that place, the food for breakfast is phenomenal, particularly if you're recovering from lemon drops, as I may possibly be at that point. Shout out, where are the late night parties? Let me know. I'm in expo mode, man. We're two weeks away from this. I've got a couple work days left, and then boom, expo time. I've got my hotel book. I'm excited. I'm excited. It's going to be fun. Missing Pin is going to be there. Missing Pin is a company a local to me in Wisconsin family husbands and wife and they seamstresses and they making pinball accessories particularly things that are going to make your life easier when you moving games I'm talking about like a felt bag to put your legs in securely, protect that powder coating when you need to move it around. Not only that, you don't have to worry about it falling out of that rolled-up Harbor Freight moving blanket that you're probably using right now. He's got that. You can get it monogrammed if you want. He's going to have a pin sack. He's going to have a cabinet wrap. for your backbox so you can fold your backbox down and strap it without having to worry about strapping with the cling wrap which i hate so anybody that moves the machine relatively frequently he'll have some products for you go check them out he also has a game down there he's going to be demoing and shucks i think it may be my legend of zelda homebrew game currently work in progress you know not currently flippable but you can like launch balls the shooter lane works But that will be there just so he can demo it. So go check that out. Look, you put a Legend of Zelda game on a show floor like this, it's going to command a ton of attention. I just wish the thing was actually shooting. But maybe Aaron Lewis. Aaron Lewis, that's the guy from Stained. Aaron Davis from Fast Pinball. Maybe he can come by and help me just, like, wire it up, get the thing flipping. The power supply is in there, man. Anything is possible. Dreams can happen at Expo. So he'll be over by the Stern and Chicago Gaming Company booth. I'm excited to go back to a trade show. I haven't been to one since TPF. So can we make this happen? I'm excited. I'm excited about that. What else do I have? Predator's going to be there. And, like, I had this hunch early on that, you know, just what if, despite, you know, the long tease that killed any enthusiasm we had for this game, the tariff questions, is there Arnold, is there not, all of that, despite all of that, I had this underpinning of, like, what if this is actually a really good game? Because no one's really been able to solidly really contribute their opinion on, but, like, as far as the game, we know the marketing was hot garbage, but, like, is the game good? Because the game may very well be completely awesome. And the fact that, you know, the license contract is probably running out, and that's why they have a hard cutoff of, like, we're not making any more of these after December. And if you're making games, it's October. If you're going to make games through December, you already have those parts purchased. And if your contract is ending, you're not purchasing more parts. And so really we haven't had a good sense enough. Like for Pinball Brothers, right, we know Pinball Brothers. They have made countless pinball game before, right, Alien and ABBA and Queen. Oh, God. So this isn't a company I would necessarily give a full cash deposit to my distributor in anticipation of getting. This is a company for which I need to play their product before I buy it. And I even myself said if I was going to buy a Predator, it was going to be because it was on a show floor in front of me, and I just played it and verified that, yes, I want this. Here's my cash. I need to take this home with me this weekend. I'm not going to give you cash and then play the 6, 8, 24-month waiting game on something like Predator. We're not doing that. You want a Medieval Madness, you'll purchase it back in 2023, and you'll wait two years until you get it, and then you'll post a picture on Facebook about how happy you are to be serviced finally by Chicago Gaming Company. But for something from the Pinball Brothers, I don't think I would be doing that. So we don't need to play it. We need to play it, but this game has not been available publicly anywhere. Not a European conference, not a pinball tournament anywhere. It wasn't sent to content people. They didn't even give one to Cengiz, and he's just across the channel. So this expo is going to be the first time that the biggest market for pinball in the world, in the United States, especially in Chicago, gets to play this thing, and damn it, it might actually be a good game. This game might actually be good, and you come walking away saying, you know what, I know Arnold isn't in the game, but I didn't even really notice when I was playing. I was having fun with the Gatling gun. I was having fun with the multi-balls. The shots were interesting. I mean, they're from Whirlwind, but you know what I mean. A fun game. It does interesting things. Maybe we'll see the topper. Maybe we'll see the sculpts in person and be like, you know what, it does look better in person it plays better in person i kind of like the vibe this game's creating i want to add it to my game room can i get one well there's only like a hundred so um there may be a run on these things how would that be like the total cap to this like weird journey of predator if like it stumbles out the gate hardly ever marketed finally comes out turns out it's great and they're cutting sales off in december because their contracts up like What the heck? And then this becomes like a vaulted game where it's like, oh, man, it's the next J.J.P. Pirates because they only made 100 of them. And it's $17,000 if you want to get one. It's a wide-body Predator game. It's probably fun. Damn it, this game is probably fun. I don't know. So I think as soon as I can hit the show floor, maybe even with my vendor wristband, I'm probably just going to run over and play Predator. And if it's good, I'm going to secure one of them, and I'm not going to worry about it because it could happen. Dreams could happen. It can happen to you. It can come true. Isn't that what JoJo Siwa taught us all? What else do we got to talk about? Star Wars. I'm worried about Star Wars. So, it's a killer license. I mean, you can't ask for anything better. It's another Star Wars game. So, 2017, a Star Wars game came out. Steve Ritchie shot really fast. A lot of people bricked their shots in the left out lane. the code and gameplay were different from anything else that's out there in terms of the multiplier moving the shot around you know you could be playing better than your friend but he's got 4 billion points because he manipulated the multiplier system so like it left kind of a taste in people's mouth that wasn't great maybe a little metallic kind of like me and cilantro and so it wasn't held up in high regard but it did sell very well so the lessons that they taught Stern was you know what make a simple Star Wars game it will sell for years and then when that one slows down make another one copy paste do it again that's the lesson i think they took away from it and that's what we got they had the opportunity to fix a couple of things don't make it such a cheap drain off the plunge and make it more theme integrated of star wars let us go on more of an adventure so it kind of means something even if you don't necessarily get a chance to put a thousand clips into the game maybe you put 90 very good curated clips in there that tell a compelling story. Let us go on a Star Wars adventure of our own design and let each game play a little bit differently. Maybe this time, you know what, I'm having fun up in the Moon of Endor pop bumper area and I'm getting wicked, I'm getting all the Ewoks, you know, we're breaking into the Death Star shield generator, like I'm having fun doing this business. We'll get to the other bit later. Maybe your next game you're focused on Bespin because you just, you know, got to the Bespin upper play field and you're having a good time. Whatever. You know, They kind of missed that chance by essentially just doing the same thing they did before, which was a very simple Star Wars layout crammed with clips of just everything all at once. I was playing it again at Kickback Bar. I talked about that in the last show. I'm hearing C-3PO call-outs. I get a tilt warning, and all of a sudden Han Solo is talking to me. I hit a ramp, and I guess I started a mode, and now Lando is talking to me. Now there's blue shots I have to hit, and I'm trying to focus on that. but oh, the Death Star mouth just opened. Let me try to put a shot up there. Boom I nailed it One in a million goes up the ramp bricks off the entrance Ah dang it Yeah Star Wars frustrating I got one of these games on order because 1UP Lounge in Bellingham Washington likes my made-over games, and I'm all about it. I already have the armor ordered for this game. I'm going to do a makeover for them. I'm just worried that while right now there's a reasonable amount of mediocre hype for this game, like it's lukewarm. It's 6.4 out of 10. You know, people are enjoying it. It's still a brand-new game. once that luster washes off and we get like a walking dead or whatever spooky is working on or maybe predator is good is there still going to be a level of enthusiasm for this i don't want to get stuck with this game um if i wasn't making this game over this is a game i would not be buying now i learned my lesson from wick i learned my lesson from others um the seven thousand dollar le's while probably not imminent i think sub 10k is where the le's are going to end up and they're already fully loaded with the lights and everything premiums will probably be you know 8500 um so like i would totally wait and grab one of those or get a later build or just you know use that money for just i'll wager it on a future prospect like like walking dead might be incredibly amazing uh walking dead might be ghostbusters for all i know with no flipper gap and redone geometry and i don't want to be sitting here holding a bag of star wars if that's the other thing i could have bad. So, I don't know. I'm just trepidatious. And it doesn't help when Stern Pinball puts out a reel like they did on Friday, where they're showing a guy doing final test on one of these games, and he's just sitting there trying to shoot the Death Star and just can't seem to do it. Takes the ball in his hand, rolls it up there, and is having trouble getting up there. Finally shoots it up there, and the shot bricks. And it's like the tagline was something like, you know, the most frustrating thing about working at a pinball company is working at a pinball company. I was like, God, that's the same problem that I had when I was on site in the demo area, but that was a prototype game. But it was the same problem I had on both of the LEs at Kickback Bar. It's the same problem I saw on a live stream that I think my buddy Ralph was doing. So I have to watch it in its entirety, but, man, it's just unfortunate that I got to put an awning on the Death Star ramp to keep that ball down so that a good, true shot actually goes in there. So I'm a little trepidatious. Now, from what I'm hearing, the premium game will be made this week sometime. Well, this is Saturday, so the coming week. By the time you listen to this, they'll be rolling out. The Factory Friday video looks like it was scrubbed and replaced by one showing decals for the Pro Machine going on cabinets. So it seems to be that they've already switched from LE production to Pro Premium. I'm digging that because that's the game that I have coming. I'm excited about it. I want to explore the code more, really learn the shots. and I want to explore the nuance of this Death Star shot. Like, is it just the games that have been set up on location? Is it something that's happening widespread? I need to hear from the community now that more and more people will be getting their games. You know, if you've got to shoot yourself a Star Wars pro coming, you're probably a smart gentleman. That's not a bad way to go. Let me know. I want to know how everybody's doing with their game, if they're loving it. And I want this to be, we all want a great Star Wars game. I wanted this to be it. I just wanted some more excitement in there rather than just what looks like a shooting gallery of Kenner toys. And maybe that's exactly what they wanted to make. And so they'll say, Don, this is exactly what we wanted to do. And we're happy with it because this is what we set out to make. And, okay, it's not what I had built up in my head. Am I being unreasonable? Let me know. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com is a wonderful way to get at me. What's Barrels of Fun doing? Barrels of Fun is making Dune. They're making Dune's code more complete. I'm hearing back from people that are playing it now, especially people that have played it initially, that the code is so much better. I've yet to be able to drift down to IO Arcade and check out the new, new code, but I'm excited. I know they're going to have a fleet of these games at Expo. You'll be able to pick them up from the show floor and go have your ball-eating worm dreams finally come true. It can happen to you. I like how they do the captive ball behind the pop-up target. They did that on Labyrinth. They're doing it to better effect on Dune. and then there's like some slings in that region too. Boom, boom, boom. Dune plays like a single-level game, even though there's ramps in that Death Mountain area in the upper right. It still feels like very much a single-level, like shoot around, here's a different ball pass. It doesn't overly complicate things. I don't know that I would call it a fan layout. Does it seem like everybody's calling every new game a fan layout? Sure, the shots fan out from the flipper. That's every game. This one's got an upper flipper. You can go. They did interesting things with it, whether it was a scoop under the flipper you can get in there. They're doing good things with using and utilizing different areas of the play field. So I'm interested to kind of revisit Dune like eight months after release and kind of see where it's at. I was trying to speculate like how good of a seller has Dune been. Of course, they don't release official numbers. And although I do speak with Mr. Brian Savage and David David Van Es, you know, they don't disclose those things to me. But they've always been super cool with me. Uh, you know, Labyrinth sold around a thousand. Um, seems like you can go get some scratch and dent cabinets that are left over, but Labyrinth I think has fulfilled its demand. Uh, Dune, where's Dune landing? If you were to tell me, and I don't know the numbers, um, that Dune was sitting around 600, um, as far as like sales numbers, I don't know that I would be surprised giving, you know, that I'm not just seeing the game everywhere and just stream totally everywhere. Uh, so like that wouldn't surprise me. and if that were to happen, I would expect them to need to have their next follow-up game ready to go, which I know these guys have one. I don't know what it is. I haven't really heard very much rumor-wise, but if we saw Dune just miss TPF for release and then was revealed the next month, I think that by TPF this year, we should see what's new from Barrels of Fun, and if I was them, as long as the shop was busy enough to carry through to the spring, I think I would wait and just do a drop at TPF. Just open the show door Friday or Thursday night for early access and just be like, hey, here's our brand new game. You can go watch the reveal trailer right now on your cell phone, or you can walk over here and play it, and we'll walk you through it. We have one of the games over here with the glass off. I will walk you through each of the features that are in here, and then you guys can go nuts for three days. We have 27 of them in boxes ready to go at the factory. Put your order in now. We'll ship it to you by the time you get home from the event. It's already sitting there. I would love it if that was the case. And I think there's a chance to make that happen. So here's to them. And we'll see what's going on with them hopefully here pretty soon. Is there anything else? I think that may be all I have for this Saturday. Be sure to email me at donspinballpodcast.gmail.com. Full reveal of my secret special project is now over on Patreon at patreon.com backslash donspinballpodcast. $5 to get in there. Dude, it's worth it. Be a part of the team. Be a member of the crew. and get yourself some swag. We're doing a giveaway. I need to get caught up, so there'll probably be a double giveaway here pretty soon. Jump on the Facebook group. Follow me on the Discord. Do all the things. I'll talk to you guys when I have more news to share with your brain. Man, Big Trouble Little China looks phenomenal for a homebrew. Can you believe it? Incredible. homebrew of the year. I'm calling it. Grab your homebrew toppers. You got two weeks. Make something and bring it in. Great chance to win a prize. Celebrate the community. It's going to be awesome.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v1)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 997f447a-82fc-45f6-aca3-f96b4abc0cc2*