# Don's Pinball Podcast Sunday Livestream 9/7/25

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast Live Streams (YouTube)  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-09-08  
**Duration:** 64m 25s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UU6SyldIFs

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## Analysis

Don Daniele discusses upcoming Stern Mania media event with NDA restrictions preventing live content coverage, Star Wars pinball launch expectations, Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade shipping to locations, and his personal game collecting decisions including why he passed on Dune. He also previews plans for a live Star Wars unboxing at Expo and reviews his expanded home collection including recent EM acquisitions.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Stern has imposed NDAs on media at Stern Mania preventing live streaming and content sharing until embargo lift — _Don Daniele, host, discussing Stern Mania attendance rules_
- [HIGH] Merlin's Arcade from Turner Pinball is shipping to locations including You Arcade near Detroit — _Don Daniele reporting on location placements he has verified_
- [MEDIUM] Star Wars pinball code quality and game design are uncertain and Stern should use feedback from previous Star Wars game reception to improve — _Don Daniele speculation based on industry context_
- [MEDIUM] Turner Pinball's Merlin's Arcade has a simple layout and lacks compelling code depth compared to games like Pulp Fiction — _Don Daniele's personal assessment from playing the game_
- [HIGH] Star Wars Premium release is October, giving Don time to unbox at Expo before launch — _Don Daniele directly stating release timeline_
- [HIGH] River City's Arcade in Danville, Virginia has ~200 arcade games and ~190 pinball machines with tiered pricing — _Brian Cause, arcade owner, reporting his venue details_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky price hike that was expected with Kong has not materialized yet — _Don Daniele observation about Spike 3 pricing_
- [MEDIUM] Predator pinball machine may be a strong game based on high-ranked player performance at tournaments — _Don Daniele commenting on third-ranked player's performance_

### Notable Quotes

> "As of right now, there's no permission for Stern to market this new game that they have. Uh, so we have to sign non-disclosure agreements if we want to go in there and play it, which is going to be terrible because part of the fun of doing this is walking in and live streaming."
> — **Don Daniele**, early in stream
> _Reveals Stern's NDA restrictions at media event, expressing frustration about content suppression_

> "Stern could use a banger right now. Although Kong was good, right? I mean, did Kong have anything in it that we didn't enjoy? I guess um you know, I I think it's that whole thing of uh we expected it to be good and it was good, so none of us are really surprised and shocked."
> — **Don Daniele**, mid-stream
> _Reflects on Kong's solid but uninspired reception, setting expectations for Star Wars_

> "Labyrinth was a game that was specifically made for me... But when you look at Dune, it's just it's barren, right? ...the worm is interesting. It's only really one shot up to get at it... And I just don't know. I'm not passionate about Dune like I was with anything Jim Henson."
> — **Don Daniele**, mid-stream
> _Explains his decision to skip Dune despite theme interest, comparing it unfavorably to Labyrinth's design and atmosphere_

> "What he doesn't have is like a huge design team, you know, like there's not a um like a creative like a big creative talent that's there... Turner can build it and Turner can design it... There just needs to be like a Walt Disney there that can bring a a concept of a world to the team."
> — **Don Daniele**, late in stream
> _Identifies Turner Pinball's strength in engineering but weakness in creative direction and worldbuilding_

> "I really want to buy a Turner game. I just need the right one to come out. That's exactly where I'm at."
> — **Don Daniele**, late in stream
> _Expresses interest in Turner's work but conditional on better theming choices_

> "I think if the game had a soundtrack and some modes, you could probably remake that today. You know, should em be remade now? Should we see EM remakes with modes and LCD screens?"
> — **Don Daniele**, late in stream
> _Questions whether classic EM games could be successfully modernized with code and audio enhancements_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Don Daniele | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast, content creator, collector, pinball enthusiast |
| Chris Turner | person | Founder of Turner Pinball, designer/manufacturer, created Merlin's Arcade and Ninja Eclipse |
| Brian Cause | person | Owner of River City's Arcade in Danville, Virginia, arcade operator, livestream guest |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer, releasing Star Wars pinball |
| Turner Pinball | company | Emerging pinball manufacturer, known for Merlin's Arcade and Ninja Eclipse |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer, produces Spike 3 platform games |
| Star Wars (Stern) | game | Upcoming Stern pinball machine, subject of Stern Mania media event and NDA restrictions |
| Merlin's Arcade | game | Turner Pinball's second release, shipping to locations, designed by Chris Turner |
| Dune | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game with desert theme, Don declined to purchase despite interest |
| Labyrinth | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game with Jim Henson IP, Don's favorite recent purchase, positive comparison point |
| Pulp Fiction | game | Referenced as example of simple layout with deep code and compelling callouts |
| Predator | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game, recently demonstrated by high-ranked tournament player |
| Kong | game | Recent Stern release, considered good but unsurprising, reference for Star Wars expectations |
| Looney Tunes | game | Game Don mentioned as recently returned from rental, in his collection |
| Ninja Eclipse | game | Turner Pinball's first release, sold 100 units, didn't resonate with Don thematically |
| You Arcade | venue | Location south of Detroit in dying mall, has Merlin's Arcade and Batman Forever |
| River City's Arcade | venue | Danville, Virginia arcade with ~200 arcade games, ~190 pinballs, open 10 months, owned by Brian Cause |
| Stern Mania | event | Media event at Stern factory in Elk Grove Village starting Sept 9, 2025, with NDA restrictions |
| Expo | event | Upcoming pinball industry event where Don plans Star Wars unboxing and topper contest appearance |
| Pinball Studio | venue | Sterling's themed backyard pinball venue/tournament spot in Richmond Hill, Georgia |
| Jamie Burchill | person | Referenced as Diet Coke drinker, apparent connection to pinball community |
| Russell | person | Don's associate who tested castle mech prototype for custom pinball parts |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Dune, Labyrinth, and Predator |
| American Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer, Don had positive facility visit experience, currently not thriving publicly |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Stern Mania NDA restrictions and media access, Star Wars (Stern) launch expectations and quality uncertainty, Turner Pinball's business trajectory and design philosophy, Don's personal game collecting decisions (Dune vs Labyrinth)
- **Secondary:** Arcade operator business models and location economics, Merlin's Arcade market reception and availability, EM game restoration and LED modernization, Pinball at Expo including unboxing plans

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[product_strategy]** Stern has implemented media NDAs at Stern Mania, preventing live streaming and early content coverage of new Star Wars game release (confidence: high) — Don explicitly states: 'As of right now, there's no permission for Stern to market this new game... we have to sign non-disclosure agreements if we want to go in there and play it'
- **[market_signal]** Don declined to purchase Dune despite interest due to combination of price increase, theme execution, and lack of mechanical charm compared to Labyrinth (confidence: high) — Don: 'it came with a price increase and I was like, Oh gosh... My enthusiasm didn't match the asking price'
- **[product_launch]** Merlin's Arcade is confirmed shipping to multiple location operators, including You Arcade near Detroit (confidence: high) — Don: 'I've seen two of them so far... You arcade over in Michigan. Yeah, it's kind of south of Detroit'
- **[design_philosophy]** Turner Pinball excels in engineering/tech innovation (Spike 3 platform, plug-and-play systems) but lacks creative worldbuilding and design vision compared to established manufacturers (confidence: medium) — Don: 'There just needs to be like a Walt Disney there that can bring a concept of a world to the team and then that's when we're going to see Turner take off'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Kong received solid but uninspired reception—met expectations without generating excitement, potentially lowering bar for Star Wars comparisons (confidence: medium) — Don: 'we expected it to be good and it was good, so none of us are really surprised and shocked like we were in Godzilla days'
- **[operational_signal]** Successful arcade venues employ tiered pricing models: general free play ($10-20) with premium pricing ($5+ surcharge) for boutique pinball games to differentiate and protect high-end machines (confidence: medium) — River City's Arcade: '$20 free play all day... $5 for boutique pins like spooky, jersey, and barrels'
- **[community_signal]** Don planning live Star Wars unboxing at Expo as major content event, combining product showcase with community gathering and gameplay (confidence: high) — Don: 'What if I did a live unboxing at Expo of the new game and then we could all like hang out there and play it?'
- **[design_innovation]** Don is experimenting with LED retrofits in vintage EM games (Lucky Hand), demonstrating collector interest in modernizing classic machines while preserving originality (confidence: high) — Don: 'I redid all the plastics... threw LEDs in it and the thing is like dazzling now... The LEDs are almost too bright'
- **[product_concern]** Merlin's Arcade criticized for lacking deep code and compelling rule structure compared to established titles, despite functional gameplay mechanics (confidence: medium) — Don: 'it's a pretty simple layout of a game and it didn't come with like super compelling code... it didn't have that which could have put it over the top'
- **[market_signal]** Don waiting for secondary market price drops on established games rather than buying new, suggesting price sensitivity among home collectors (confidence: medium) — Don: 'I'm watching the secondary market and if they come down to 7500, I'd probably pick one up'
- **[rumor_hype]** Community speculation about Turner's next licensed game, with Goonies mentioned as potential future release candidate (confidence: low) — Chat member: 'Maybe he's making Goonies.' Don response: 'I would love it, dude. Turner's Goonies. Let's do it.'
- **[venue_signal]** Boutique pinball themed venues and arcades continue to emerge and thrive (River City's Arcade 10 months in, Pinball Studio in Georgia) (confidence: medium) — Multiple new venues mentioned as operating successfully with specialized pinball focus

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## Transcript

And with that dragon fix, we're ready. And it's time. Hello to you and you and you and you and you and everybody over here in the chat. You guys have made it over here. Some audio issues this morning. My god. Let me know if this is actually working. Took me like an hour to figure this out. It was something stupid as it always is. But I'm here. It's Saturday. I'm excited about some pinball and a crack the diet coke. Shout out to Jamie Burchil's favorite drink. Oh yes. And we got some stuff to talk about. I miss Fix too, man. We got to get him on the fixinator. Where's he at? I guess he's still doing uh tournaments and things locally. I should text the guy. Yes, perfect. All right, solid. Celebrating Turner this week because uh Merlin's Arcade is landing at locations. I've seen two of them so far. You arcade over in uh Michigan. Yeah, it's kind of south of Detroit in the in the corpse of a dying mall. There springs forth a pretty awesome pinball arcade for a mall location. They got a Batman Forever and everything. And I think it was the place that I had a decent game on Batman 66. Redeemed itself a bit. So, those are shipping out. I talked to uh Chris the other day. I'm trying to find out if he's got a new game coming soon for TPF again. Of course, last year was Merlin's Arcade. This year, maybe something else. Brian cause I hope fix He went back to get his job at ICE and then it was like a different ICE and now he's in a uniform. Oh my god. Somebody fire up the AI generator. Um I do have uh new shirt designs coming including some secret stuff. The fixes my homeboy shirt will be available. Um but that will be you have to contact me directly to get that. I'm not going to advertise that one. It is amazing. But Turner pinball, Chris Turner, friend of the show, Morance Arcade, Brother getting out two locations, which I dig. I want to play it some more. Um, so having him on location makes sense to me. You know, if I had a if I had a spot that was publicly available, for sure I'd have every one of his games so people could play them. Oh, Ian. Um, Mr. Duck Monday. So, yeah. Uh the other big news, uh starting tomorrow, we're all congealing into Elkrove Village once again for Stern Mania. Um Tuesday the 9th for the Dros, US media types on the 10th, including my plus one Patreon member. Excited about that. We all have to sign NDAs as of now. As of right now, there's no permission for Stern to market this new game that they have. Uh, so we have to sign non-disclosure agreements if we want to go in there and play it, which is going to be terrible because part of the fun of doing this is walking in and live streaming and like showing everything that's going on in the factory for everybody else you that can't be there, which is most of humanity, right? And so if we're not going to be able to do that, um, I don't know. I guess we hang out, we do some interviews, and then like lock down that content until we're allowed to, uh, be embargo lifted. I don't like being under NDA because I like to talk about stuff. And you we didn't break into American Pinball. We knocked on the door. We walked in, announced ourselves, hey, just stopping by and then we got a we got a whole tour. It was great. It was awesome. Um I wish we had more time there. I've always had fun when I've gone to American Pinball and I think that's why we're all bummed um that they're not uh you know thriving in the public eye right now. Not making checks hockey. What? What? So, um I'm I'm excited for this game anyway. It It's going to be launch week regardless. Um, we're just not going to be able to go on record as of yet about our impressions of the game. It's going to be hopefully fairly decent. Um, or it could be more run-of-the-mill. And either way, I think it sells units. So, I mean, where's the onus exactly on making this game? But I would I would hope that this would be a redemption game for Stern. They know the reception. It's just off screen of the the the former Star Wars right over there. One of my favorite games once I learned how to play it. You know, we used to have this thing in coasters where like, you know, your favorite roller coaster might be frowned upon and you were like, "Well, you just have to know how to ride it." And then people would say, "If you need to know how to ride it, it's not a good ride." And and we would argue back and forth forever because that's what we did. But once I learned how to play it, how the multiplier system works, it was fun. It's a fun space battle game. And I I dig it for some reason. And I can't fully capulate as to why, but in their intentions, they should know of the reception and some things to do from the ground up because this is a brand new game. It's not a remaster, not a retrd, not a re-release, but a whole new platform of a game. They should be able to put that magic in there we've been asking for since what 2017 or whatever when this game came out. Okay, Pats Arcade coming in with the fire in the comments. They should have got all the licensing signed before even advertising the game. They probably well they probably had it and they were probably told, "Yeah, you guys will be fine. You're going to have everything by the time we go live. Don't worry about it." And then one thing leads to another. the week is running out. The marketing team was focused on other things and it was on the agenda. It was supposed to be done and then it just didn't happen. You know, Denise from the office probably had the whole uh timeline of everything that should have been approved done that day and they just didn't get to it. It could be as simple as that. Um Kong came out like kind of uh in the middle of the month. Let's see. What's the best analog for this game? I guess X-Men. I don't have the release date for X-Men. I know with Kong we got a trailer and then two days later we had media day and that's probably what was set to happen here and I'm sure they had assurances that this was going to happen. I don't know if I would call it an S show specifically. There's always a chance tomorrow, Monday, that they get approvals. That's my shirt's bunching up. I got a bad camera angle. Um, I think there's always a chance that that comes through and we are able to see trailer prior to launch. We'll see. Uh, either way, I did a show yesterday kind of mentioned this. We're going to know everybody's impressions pretty soon at least. You know, we can't share details, but um I I think the level of excitement will be palpable NDA or not. Like, do we all appear excited or do we all appear dejected? And I think you'll be able to read into that, I guess. But as far as like seeing images and stuff and leaks, I don't know. I'm, you know, I don't know if they're going to make us check our cameras and things of the door or if there's going to be like don't bring them out or if you do bring them out, don't go live and don't post anything until the embargo lifts. My spooky corner. Yeah, I know. Um, I got uh Looney Tunes back from a rental. It's around the corner. I gotta go grab that. Yeah, Stern Stern could use a banger right now. Although Kong was good, right? I mean, did Kong have anything in it that we didn't enjoy? I guess um you know, I I think it's that whole thing of uh we expected it to be good and it was good, so none of us are really surprised and shocked like we were in Godzilla days. like, man, this is like we weren't expecting this from just this crummy run-of-the-mill license, right? Blink three times if you think the game is awesome. There'll be ways to convey, you know, if we're excited. The whole point of a lot of this for us collectors is we we're trying to understand um is this a game I should go ahead and invest my funds on. You know, it takes a period of time for everybody to build up that money for a pinball purchase. And we never know what's kind of right around the corner, you know, until we get really close to it. And it's like, I have this money here. Do I don't want to go in on Star Wars if I find out it's kind of just mediocre. I should have waited. And then something else gets announced and released and it's like, oh, I wish I would have gotten that, right? So, as much lead time as we can get, and that's why I think the content people help with this. You know, if there is some weird time where this is the game you should go ahead and get now or you know what, this is when you probably should play first, give it some time. Something really cool is about to drop. Um, and in forecasting, you know that Big Bang Bar is coming. Sounds like Pretty is doing it. Um, a game I don't have a lot of lust after because while rare, I don't think it's a great game. Um, I'm happy for people that really want it. Um hopefully it sells well and they make enough to keep going um and do a game like Tales of Arabian Nights that everybody does want. Twilight Zone, one of those. Um you know, but I'm looking at that. Uh we know Squeaky's got a game coming probably December. Um probably it's going to be great. Probably. I'm totally getting one. Is my mic upset? Oh, really? What's going on with the microphone? All right, let me jump on my settings while we all talk here. Should be good. Have you not been able to buy the cup of prototype yet? Not yet. We're trying. Is the mic still bad? All right, going to jump over to the other microphone. This one probably sounds not as good, but let me know if this is working and then we'll jump back to the other one. I think when your neck hits it certain poses. Oh, really? It's a wireless mic, so I don't know. I just switched to my uh my camera. Does this totally suck now? Or we can go with this audio, too. Fine. We'll just keep it. All right. Oh, maybe maybe some neck fat got in there. The mic hole. All right, perfect. We'll keep with this. What the hell are we talking about? Big Bang Bar. No. All right, so our game's good. That's kind of what we need to know, right? So Star Wars is a game. It's a cornerstone from Stern. It's going to be made for the next five years or so. Do we need to get one right now or should we save that money for what's coming in December? And I think that's really what people want to know. Like, is this game good or not? Um, the game's going to be bought by locations. It's going to be available to be played. It's going to be in tournaments. All you It's a Stern release. It's a Cornerstone Stern, right? But I think we all want to know since this is the next Star Wars game. Is this cool? So, we'll see. Put Mike on your hat. I can try that. Good point. That looks like it's of my fishing license. All right, I'll jump back to it. You guys let me know what you think. All right, how we audioing now? I'll keep it up there. I'll put on the spooky boner hat. I wish I had a team, you know? I need a like live stream crew. There's so many moving parts to this. So much stuff to learn to get these things to go off and actually, you know, in a functional manner. Franchie's here. What's up, man? Um, can't wait for the new Christopher Franchi fire. All right, we'll we'll go with that and I'll try to keep my neck out of the mic. I was talking to Chris the other day. I think I had a spooky live stream. Oh, yeah, that's right. Um, I was on it. Oh, Jason Matessich Matto to his friends. Is there still a price hike coming on Spike 3? Probably, but they're not doing it now. We thought it was coming with Kong. I thought for sure with like the actual Spike 3 it would come, but it's still not. I dig that, but then if I read into it, is it because they know this Star Wars game is a turd? It can't be. Come on. So, should I buy the next spooky for my arcade? Uh, I mean, yeah, if you can get one, they're going to go quick. Um, but I think so. If I had an arcade, I would put it in there for sure. Um, and you know, uh, even though I'd be catering to families and everything, I think I'd put it in there. God, it seems like it's taking forever for that reveal, man. Kevin's here. Kev, Kev, good morning. How you doing? Brian Cause, it's been several months now. How's your arcade doing? River City's Arcade. I saw you're giving away a t-shirt on the Facebook group, it looks like. So, they have to like, share, and sub to the River City's Arcade, which you should. Danville, Virginia. I still need to make a hike down there. I've been wanting to get back to Virginia. I used to live right over the hills in West Virginia. Um, and we would go into Rowan Oak all the time. The fall of the empire. Here's here's hoping. Here's hoping, man. [laughter] The fall of the Stern Empire. So, it's a two flipper game. Probably fan layout. It's going to have some sculpts in it. No word on mechanisms. Early word has been temper your expectations and don't expect like the second coming of Godzilla, a crumbling Death Star with balls locked on top of it. Like you lock balls in the trench on the Death Star, then the whole thing descends when it explodes and you get a multiball. We've been open 10 months. Doing good. I do giveaways every few weeks. Cause that's great, man. Um, you know, you went from uh just like lo location route owner to like actual location owner. cause what's your split between um pinball machines and regular arcade games and redemption or do you do redemption games too and run a prize counter and all that or is just claw machines and stuff and which ones are earning for you for me it's simple if this is a new Star Wars has a content of episodes four five six it's a buy if it's in the world of Star Wars with a homegrown story oh my god can you imagine if they did that have 60 games total eight pins $10 free play. $10. Is that like $10 for an hour? That seems ridiculously cheap for 60 games and just 10 bucks. What What else are you doing for revenue though? Are you selling refreshments and t-shirts? And do you have a bouncy house? Because, you know, I I do these mind exercises where I think about like what would my location be like if I had one? Of course, I would want, you know, just like wall- to- wall pinball and, you know, a couple of rhythm games or something. But it's like that's the the pinball fan in me, but if I'm business person trying to make money in the US, you know, what am I going to put in that's actually going to make money? And I look at the successful arcades. We were just in Wisconsin Dells last night. Um, we went to the Wilderness. We went to Great Wolf Lodge and they have very successful arcades. They're ridiculously overpriced. Everything is on card swipe. they can vary the cost of their games on the fly and uh I spent 50 bucks and we we got two plush toys at the end of it and we had fun. We aren't getting Star Wars in Robert Englunds. I have a question. Oh yeah, y'all got done dirty. Don, did you not get a Dune? I didn't get a Dune. Um not to say I don't want Actually, I don't want a Dune. I do. Um, uh, it was hard for me to justify Dune with the price increase and like a like three steps away from a theme that I really liked. Like I was all in on Labyrinth. We saw Labyrinth, all those sculpts, the David Bowie songs, all the Muppet characters, the Jim Henson characters, and I was like enthralled with that game, man. I had to have one. Um, Pinball Studio, you're on time, man. You're on time. We're just hanging out. And so for Labyrinth, like that was like a game that was specifically made for me. Like I was I was ready for it. Um just blown away by like how the art worked and uh how they sculpted that entire village and Ludo popping up. When you look at Dune, it's just it's barren, right? Um you know, there's the rock sculpt in the back, right? Of course, Arachus is a desert planet. Um but there's no like big fortress that's there that you know, you can explore in multi levels or anything. Um, the worm is interesting. It's only really one shot up to get at it. I haven't seen it function as so much as a bash toy. And then it is very slow to kind of come up and take the ball and go down. And I don't know what I would have expected otherwise. Maybe like a more quicker worm reveal. Shoot into it. Worm goes away. It can come back spontaneously and block shots. Um, but I don't know. like I'm not passionate about Dune like I was with anything Jim Henson, dude. And then it came with a price increase and I was like, "Oh gosh." And we didn't have like a topper at launch and it's like I I just don't know. Um Labyrinth was a much easier buy. Plus the time was different too. We were coming out of COVID. Um I was looking at man they're going to launch this game is only a thousand. You know games were still trading higher than MSRP back then. So, it was like, let me get a deposit so I'm safe on this. And I'm glad I had the game. Loved it. I love all the call outs and everything. And that was the part that I haven't experienced with Dune is that same level. Like there's no Marc Silk in Dune like constantly in my ear with funny stuff. Um, there's no bog of eternal stench that is changing the color of your score permanently even on the leaderboard. Like all those little touches were cool. The fire rays that would pop out of the apron. The mad cap mayhem is M Dune's like too serious. Like I feel like you know this is a refined pinball experience sir. You need to be wearing pants to play this game and uh you know this is like you know high class pinball and so it's hard for me to just like jump into that because I'm anything but that. Right. Two claw machines that sell snacks and drinks. I love it. Kev says his local arcade game outside of Nashville. $20 free play all day. All right. With about 200 arcade and 190 pins. Yikes. You can pay an extra $5 for boutique pins like spooky, jersey, and barrels. I like that. I like like have a special coralled area with like the really good games and like those old road shows and things. You can play those on free play. Pants are for suckers. I agree, man. How do we get suckered into that? You can't even tell if I'm wearing pants right now. Labyrinth looked too dark for me and a little confusing like dark like lightwise or dark theme-wise. I will say um it was a little bit frustrating with how tight some of the shots were on Labyrinth and I wasn't ever able to capture all the orbs and get like super deep into the game. Um but like I loved all the little popup characters, all the little mechs everywhere. Ludo coming up out of the the freaking town back there. Little fire raise that would pop up. Um I like that mech where uh the or the gameplay mechanic where you would lock a ball behind the forks and then you could send that ball backwards through the spinner. That was fun. I dug that. Um I like what they're doing with their cabinets. Um their ever gloss, right? Their horizon lights they're calling them. Thunder from down under. I hate that name for a shaker motor. Um, so I think paired with a better theme, a little more of a forgiving layout so a average player like me can advance in the game, I think they'd really have a hit. But it was hard to see a game that seemed to take itself too serious and didn't have like the magical world to explore and then came with a price increase kept me from jumping on Dune day one. Not to say that, you know, I'm not watching the secondary market and, you know, if they come down to 7500, you I'd probably pick one up, especially now that the codes advanced, but I just don't think it's going to capture the same magic that Labyrinth did. But that's okay. Not every game's for every person, right? I know. Uh I know John just unboxed his LA Dune and it was like his wife told him he had to get it because she's totally into it and like that might be like their favorite game, you know? Totally cool. I've gotten the big screen of the arcade. Yes, dude. Welcome to the pinball studio. Everybody come in through the doors, dude. for a uh like like this like a personal shed that you built and you totally themed this thing amazingly. The pinball studio down there um I don't know somewhere. What town is it in? Savannah. I know it's around there. But this but what Sterling did with his backyard shed like new building and turned it into just like this awesome pinball hangout tournament spot. Looks amazing. I need to do an appearance, sir. Last time I've done one of the Arcadia worn a dress accurate. Accurate. That was fun. I haven't done a fun unboxing since Harry Potter. Um I don't think I've done a unboxing. Has anything come out? Kong did. I didn't really do anything special for Kong. Um I don't know when Star Wars I'll actually get it. Richmond Hill, Georgia, get down to the pinball studio. Shout to the out. Post pictures of that place, man. That place is awesome. you should do like weekly live streams from there just walking around. Um, and then uh Star Wars isn't coming out premiumwise until October. I'm going to be at Expo. Um, so probably by Expo, I think I'd have my Star Wars and I could do an unboxing. What if I did a live unboxing at Expo of the new game and then we could all like hang out there and play it? Like I could live stream it from the show floor, unbox the thing, and then we could all play Star Wars at the booth. I think that'd be fun. I think that'd be super fun. I don't know if I'd wear a dress that time. It made sense for Harry Potter. The joke was that it was making a transformation potion, poly juice potion in the Harry Potter universe. Um, and you're supposed to use like powdered rhino horn, but all I could find was Mountain Dew. So, I used that. So, of course, the the potion misfired and instead of becoming like a more powerful wizard, I became Hermione or whatever or some lady in a red wig that I had laying around. All right, I think that'd be fun. And I think timing wise that would line up. Um, and then I can roll on into expo and then we can do a live unboxing. I think that'd be fun. So, maybe we can do that. Bet. Uh, the thumbnail for this episode's the new D and D topper I'm working on. It's right there. Um, I don't know if this is going to become like something available commercially for purchase, but I'm going to make a couple of these and I'm going to bring it to the uh the topper contest that's going on at Expo. Going to be super fun. All right, so we talked about Star Wars. I want to make sure we did that. I want to cover Merlin's Arcade going out. I love it anytime a company takes money for a game, builds the game, ships the game, and the game is out there. And then I can't wait to see what's next from actually Barrels. Um, and what's next from Turner because this will be Merlin is Turner's sophomore release, right? Ninja Clips came out, it sold its 100. That was their first game. Uh then Merlin's came out. It was like already designed by I forget the uh one of those uh pinball designer names. It's escaping me. Someone will have it in chat. Um not Dennis Nordman but like one of those ilk. So then is he going to go with another like Merlin's Arcade planned for Deeproot game or is it going to be something like okay now he's got a license now he's had time to work on it and we're going to see like the Magnum Opus uh from Turner Pinball which is what I would like to see. That's a pretty loose lineup on there. Could fit another game or two. I know. So I got uh Looney Tunes is around the corner. I've got to throw it back in the lineup. Um, I do have I do have more games. I've expanded now. You can't see it. Let's see. At risk of ruining everything, I did expand the lineup down in that direction. So, we got TNG on the end, Black Knight, Pulp Fiction, and uh my Lucky Hand that I picked up. That was a local pickup. Super awesome. So, we have entered the realm of the EM. Got my ring light in the back of Stranger Things. Oh, I'll allow it. Let's talk Predator. Let's That kid number three in the world was ripping that machine, right? Yeah. Like that's the whole thing with Predator. Like this game might be actually super awesome and we haven't had a way to know that. And so yeah, like it looks fun now. It looks at least as fun as Alien, which I think is fine. Um, I can't wait to play them at Expo. So, yeah, it'll be cool. Now, uh, $12,000. I'm glad the price came down. Um, but still like like 12K. Yeah, that's more than I want to spend on one of those. Looking for an EM Abracadabra 2. A mix of all errors. Um, I mean, it's fun having it. I just took my uh my lucky hand. Um, I redid all the plastics. uh read all the rubbers and threw LEDs in it and the thing is like dazzling now. This game was straight out of the 70s. It had been in someone's basement for 40 years. And uh those little incandescent bulbs over 40 years time will cause the plastics to melt and warp and crack. So I I got rid of all the original ones to put all renew one all new ones in there. Um and now like it's popping, man. The LEDs are almost too bright. And I I get that people say that, but um yeah, it's pretty dazzling. I think if the game had a soundtrack and some modes, you could probably remake that today. You know, should should em be remade now? Should we see EM remakes with modes and LCD screens? I just got a Grand Lizard, dude. Awesome. Leaving that house, Jorge, what are you talking about? I never leave the house. Nice lineup looking for Yeah. Uh you think Turner will make another deeproot game? Maybe he's making Goonies. I would love it, dude. Turner's Goonies. Let's do it. I want to see it. Like, I think Turner with a It doesn't have to be Harry Potter, Star Wars, or Pokemon, but just like a good license, fun, familyfriendly, to a tea. I would I would dig it, man. You can be stocked and stoked. Sterling. So, um, yeah. So, I didn't get confirmation yet on if Chris Turner is bringing his new game to, uh, TPF. I'm looking at being there. So, hopefully we'll get to play something. Um, and we'll see. Um, you know, Merlin's Arcade, I don't know if it's doing Ninja Eclipse numbers. So, is he going to like stay on this game for another year and really keep pushing it to get some units made or are they just going to pivot to a new game and then they can still like go back and forth between making them uh depending on how uh demand settles? I really want to buy a Turner game. I just need the right one to come out. That's exactly where I'm at. Um he's saying like his goal is to make a game that I buy and I I want to get one. I want to get one. Um Ninja Eclipse didn't jive with me. The theme or something was a little weird. Um but uh I played the game again recently here in Cleveland. Fun game. Um you know, game's fun. Uh shoots well. I like how you can loop that shot in the back. It needs to have the castle mech castle sculpt in it. I know he sent me the files for it. I printed it up. The thing is it was never um completely finished. Uh so you still have to come up with a way to attach it and there is a way to do that. Um some custom parts need to be engineered to really get it to fit uh to a way that people could just buy it and add it to their games easily without having to, you know, drill into a playfield. Um but I don't have a game here to do test fits on, you know. Um I shipped one to Russell. I went down to his house, you know, we got it to fit in there and then I got some good feedback, but then like I need to engineer some parts and get them in a game and I don't have access to one. There's none around here that I can just pop into and like figure it out so I can get these things out to people. So that's frustrating. Um Merlin's Arcade um is a game. It's very yellow. Um fun to shoot. I want to play it some more. Uh, my enthusiasm didn't match the asking price. So, as of now, I don't have one coming. I wouldn't turn down getting one in the future, but I need a bunch of them to sell so they're out there available used for me down the road. Um, and then uh so yeah, so I'm waiting to see what his next one is. And if it's a licensed theme and I can get behind it, just a modicum, like I'm all in and I'm gonna be like Captain Turner, man. Yeah. I mean, I had fun playing Merlin. Uh, we had some good games on it. Um, you know, it's just it's a pretty simple layout of a game and it didn't come with like super compelling code. You know, like a Pulp Fiction at first glance, very simple, but like deep. The light shows are incredible. The callouts are amazing. They're in your face. They're vulgar. Uh, you know, it's like multiballs. There's two ways for physical locks to happen. There's a Pulp Fiction frenzy that happens. There's characters to collect. Uh there's modes to play through. And like it didn't have it didn't have that which uh which could have put it up over the top. And every time the ball drained, you had to wait for the the figures, the sculpts to talk to each other. Which was cool. Like in an arcade setting, you know, where you're playing this game a couple of times. But at home, I could see myself just sitting there like hitting buttons like, "Come on, come on, come on. I want to keep playing." So forgot to use the extra flipper button. It's kind of cool they put that in there. There's a lot of innovation. We haven't seen the final form of Turner yet. Guy's a smart guy, very clever. Um, really good ingenuity in design. Um, I think what he doesn't have is like a huge design team, you know, like there's not a um like a creative like a big creative talent that's there, you know, like you to make a game come together. Turner can build it and Turner can design it and you know the lightboards and the plug-andplay stuff is all fantastic. You know, that's like his strength. The tech that's there, the app that he's developed, uh the innovations he's put into the cabinet. There just needs to be like a Walt Disney there that can bring a a concept of a world to the team and then that's when we're going to see Turner take off, I think. Um but you know I I think he still has a stack of other designs that he can he can release and you know those things are already done that saves a lot of money you know but you know if he's got programming knowhow and engineering knowhow and electrical software stuff you know those are all things like I don't understand you know if if like he would just go in and do Alice in Wonderland and make a cool compelling design um take bits and pieces from old Bali Williams games. Bring them in along with some new magic and like a singular mech. That's interesting with how he builds cabinets and how he does his design. I think it would be unstoppable, man. We'd all be dying to have it. So hopefully that's what happens. I tried to get him to [laughter] I tried to get him to buy Cuphead, but uh there's no way that's happening unfortunately because dude could take that, put it in his cabinet. it would work great. Um, God, I'm so sad. I want that game to be made. And at this point, it's all hands on deck, man. We're trying to Deadpool this thing. If we can get enough leaks out there, maybe like somebody can be compelled to make it. And I I think for a company like Turner having a game like that that would do like 800 no problem, I think that that'd be perfect for him. Perfect. You know, Spooky's got uh their their dance card is full. They've got like five or six probably killer themes ready to go and and stacked up as far as the eye can see. Man, they just don't have any room to put a new game out. It happens to the best of us. Ster, what's our clock? How long we've been going for? I started late. So stupid. And it was it was operator error 40 minutes. Okay. So, uh yeah. Who's excited for Big Bang Bar? Oh, no. Forget Big Bang Bar. I'm I'm I'm totally enthusiastic about Big Bang Bar compared to this other game that's rumored to be coming out. I'm surprised The Matrix was never made. There's probably a good reason why. I was at AP a couple weeks ago. Cab for Cuphead looked great. Sad the playfield was missing in action. Oh no. Oh no. Yeah, Allan, I'm with you. I think um myself uh you know the guys at Mad Pinball and the reason I love working with Jeff so much is he's passionate and and crazy just like I am. And you know, he's been playing um Space Hunt for like a year now, just cuz went to the company direct and we got a a prototype game imported to the US and now it's touring around arcades um in the Cleveland area, which is great. And he's absolutely the type of person, and that's absolutely the type of team that would go and and if there was a way to just buy that prototype and like get it out so people could play it, we'd be doing it. All right. So, my point I was going to make, my level of enthusiasm for Big Bang Bar overall, terribly low because I don't think the game's that great. It's going to be dated. It's going to feel weird, but my enthusiasm for it is over the moon compared to Retroatomic Zombie Adventure Land. I was looking at the Deeproot images again yesterday, and you know, there's a couple of plastic ramps. It's it it's John Papadiuk junk. Um, I don't even know if it's like a fully fleshed out layout or anything or just a kind of a concept of ideas. We know that the whole idea of the game was to build people out of money, right? Like a criminal level of enterprise. So, they weren't walking in with the vision of let's create this amazing game with everything we can put into it and and get something uh, you know, a creative touchstone out into the ether there and something we'll stand behind and we're very passionate about it. They're passionate about milking people out of money and scamming people, not making a great game. So, while it is, it looks like a game, I don't know that it's why why make it, right? The whole reason for it to exist was to show people that don't know anything about pinball, look, we're making something that the kids are going to think is great and then let let us uh sign up your wire transfers. You know, let's get your money. So, why in the world would you go back this day and age and like resurrect this game? This wasn't like, you know, oh, the the the game that almost was, right? The thing that was going to be, you know, legendary without within the community and like this was what everybody was just so desperate for and it all fell apart at the end, you know, and then here comes uh, you know, DPX swooping in to save this and give it to us as a gift of the pinball public, you know, like he's our patron saint of of failed games. I think it's just a bad idea all around. bad concept, bad art, just like why would you waste time doing this? Unless the whole reason was just to scam people and then they're they're going to come out with this game and and try to plus it up, you know, put Stumbler in there, put Leor in there, and and bring it to the world on a plate for like $15,000. Ridiculous. It seems stupid. whereas Cuphead really was the game that should have been and and was dashed in in the like the final little runup. Um probably because um the dicemech I guess they weren't allowed to use it and they did. But you know what? So what? So what? Rip the dicemech out, put a LCD screen in there and just do it with animations and software. It's not that big of a deal. It was kind of neat, right? But it shouldn't it shouldn't it bog down the whole game just because you had to just you know put a little screen in there instead and show animated dice. You'll get the same effect across you know and um you know maybe the game would have scored you know 88% on the Metacritic analysis and now it'll be an 83% because it doesn't have a problematic bubble but like so what? So what, you know, and then, you know, maybe somebody creates a mech that you can swap in there later on if you really want it, but like it shouldn't sandbag the whole thing, right? So [snorts] yeah, we all want to buy it. I I put my hat in there. I'm like, listen, if I can get it, I I'll pay money. I I want to have it. I want it to exist. I want people to be able to play it. Like that's something that should be resurrected. DPX. Put that out and and I'll run up and put a deposit on one. You know, that's what should be that's what should be resurrected. That's what should should uh be made to see the light of day. The fates may be trying to cut the string. That that's one that Hercules should save. Let Raza die. It's just let it stay dead. Zombie game. Perfect. Leave it in the [ __ ] graveyard. Terrible. Big Bang Bar. If you can get sales and make some money on it and get some more of this game out there, I know it's got a high profile because it was so [snorts] rare for so long, sure, make them, you know, for that matter. Go and uh go and do a 100 run of uh Data East King Kong, too. You know, just so it can be out there. Not because I think it's fantastic, but just so it can exist, people can play it. That's fine. Let Raza stay dead. Save Cuphead. We should do like instead of save Ferris t-shirts with a save Cuphead. Of all the things you could devote your time and energy to, why a crappy Deeproot game? And if it doesn't come in a pin pod, was anybody even going to want it? Yeah, that that's stupid. Stupid Roza. I mean, the idea for Alice was kind of cool, but then I mean, honestly, the part we really loved about Alice was the art, and that's the one part they didn't use. I don't know. Alice is still a pretty game, man. And like I said on my show, if you want to get a game and put it in your game room, you're not really going to play it. You're just going to look at it. It's great, man. It's fantastic. I hope they don't do Magic Girl because they'll have to redo the art of Magic Girl, which was the only part of the game that I liked. That art was great. And of course, they can't use it. So, they're going to have to do another U Magic Girl Missing an Areola. I guess if you're going to do this type of art, maybe pick up a magazine or do some research into what female anatomy looks like. Yeah. And so like I can see the idea, right? If Dutch Pinball, which they're not, but if they were cranking out a cornerstone every year like how Spooky does, like one big big budget, you know, all hands on deck, everything's in there, bringing out like the killer game, and then they would have another subline for a run of like 500 of something. just like something niche uh something that wouldn't do big numbers will be built high-end small numbers. I think it's a great idea. I think the idea behind DPX is phenomenal, but the first effort I I think they're better than that game was. And I still think it's an interesting idea because there's niche themes that maybe you don't want to sell 3,000 of or maybe there's not 3,000 buyers for them, but there's 500 for something really cool, you know, like we just talked about this uh Bug Franchie and Carrie and then myself even joined in on the live stream from this week. Go check it out. talking about themes that they're passionate about, themes that they want to do, but they know if they brought it to market, they wouldn't be huge sellers, but amongst the people that bought them, they'd really love them. So, that's the kind of themes they were looking at. I don't know what the business model for for Dutch is. They made one game in 10 years. Um, maybe they've got a angel investor. I don't know. But I thought, you know, as soon as they wrapped on on Labowski, they should have been positioned to, you know, the next three to six months have their next game drop and be in production right now. And if it's Back to the Future, like as soon as as soon as Labowski wrapped, it should have been turning over the factory and training and then ordering parts and we're running our new game. And like that game should already be out right now and they should be starting to look at what the followup to Back to the Future is, you know, like if if if if they were on that cycle, right? Um but you know, where are they? You know, they opened up a separate factory across the street to run Alice. But why? You got the the main factories empty. Franchie's always a hoot, man. That was a great show. Listen to those guys. Um, I'm sad that PeeWee's Big Adventure, the film, is not licensable. Like, it's just not available. That happens. And that sucks because everybody there seems passionate about it. We would have uh Peewee's Big Adventure, Pinball Machine, in this timeline if it was uh licensable. That's sad. So many cool characters and set pieces in that film. Um, I mean, every time I hear Tequila, right, you want to do the Pee-Wee Herman dance, like that's from that film. um when he goes out and like knocks over everybody's motorcycle like dominoes and then takes off and and hits the billboard like super funny. Large Marge, right, is in that that film. Um the basement of the Alamo like the Alamo has been ridiculed for like since that film came out with there's somebody there every single day that asked to see the basement because of that film. Cultural touch point. Andy, Simone, Paris, Deep in the Heart of Texas. It's just like funny setpiece after funny setpiece. Amazing. Larry, um the uh the magic shop in the beginning, the pet store. This man's a hero. This man's a menace. Um and then, uh you know, going to Hollywood at the end and then getting his film made. I'm a rebel, daddy. God, I love that film. Go watch it now if you haven't seen it. But my god, what a goofy freaking movie. I know you are, but what am I? Francis. So, would would Peeweee work? I would get one. Hell yeah. If I walked up to a show and there was like a line of Pee-Wee Herman pinball machines, I would be all in that. How much is this? How can I get one? And so, what you can get is uh Peewee's Playhouse assets, and you can get the character of Pee-Wee. Um, Peewee Herman came from the Groundlings. a comedy troop in Los Angeles. Um where tons of great people came from there. Um the guy that did Roy Mccclure's voice in the Simpsons came from there. Got killed by his girlfriend. Um Troy Damian Hartin. No. What was What was the guy's name? Somebody help me out. Paging Mr. Herman. Yes. Uh Phil Damian Hartin, right? Came from the Groundlings amongst others. Um Chit, the the character that's tearing up the internet right now. If you haven't seen the Chit show, chiit, go check that out. Do it, lady. So Chit is a groundling. So like all these like famous comedians came from this this improv group called the Groundlings from Los Angeles. So the Pee-Wee character came from that. Cassandra, thank you Cassandra Peterson. Alvara as well. Like these guys are great, man. Like what a troop. Um so the Pee-Wee character came from there there and he would do shows and he had a oneman stage show. He had a couple other characters in there as well. It was the Pee-Wee Herman show and it was very much adult humor, but a lot of those gags like started there, like his childlike personality that was always a little bit demented with adult humor hidden in there. Um, so you could get all that and a lot of the jokes that ended up being in PeeWee's Big Adventure, like this is where they started. This is where they came from. Shoe Mirrors. Um, Captain Carl, Captain Carl, um, came from the PeeWee Herman show, but later, of course, um, was one of the casting characters that was in Peewee's Playhouse. And don't forget, um, not the king of cartoons, who's also phenomenal. But Cowboy Curtis from Peewee's Playhouse was freaking uh, the guy from the Matrix, Lawrence Fishburn, right? I mean, come on. Miss Avon, Miss Steve. Yeah, it was a kid show, but like there was still that subtext of adult humor running through it, man. That buxom neighbor that would come by and it's like all the adults were like, "Dude, and the kids just thought it was just Miss Yvon, right? The flowers, king of cartoons, the door to door salesman. Um, I forget the name of the uh the the the postal carrier, but like all those characters could be in there. Remember the uh was he the lifeguard or the soccer coach? like this uh Latin guy that would come by and he would always be shirtless. Like who was that for? That wasn't for the kids watching. That was for the moms and some of the dads. I think like yeah, all of that in a machine. I could see a lot of teal. Um I can see Franchie doing the art. I've already got it pictured in my head what it would look like. I wonder what it is in that film IP wise that makes it undoable. Um I I think it's whoever owns the license is not interested in licensing it out. to anybody for anything. Um, you know, Franchie made it clear that's why there's no PeeWee's Big Adventure, you know, toys and action figures and all kinds of other crap. Um, because just I don't know who owns it, but they're just like licensing it out is not something they're interested in doing. So, it's just it's just not no one will return your call. It just can't happen. But, I think there's plenty I think Francie's right. And I think there's plenty of other um autrammon that are available and licensable from that character uh to make a pinball machine work to the level of like a big labowski. Oh, Dustin, shut your mouth. Do not put that on him. This would be another great theme that Multimorphic would get. And then ah I think um I think one of our our sweetheart pinball companies went out to get Weird Al at one point and couldn't because they were making that module and it's like that that should have been just like a full machine and done so much better. My problem with it is that uh you know they came up with an original theme and it's like it's weird out dude. Just just draw from his themes, man. Just imagine if the pinball machine just had each little area was themed after a different era of Al and different songs and like and all the modes were integrated there and like an entire cabinet. Instead, it looks like you're looking down at a doctor's office, very sterile, big screen with like him as a Tyrannosaurus sculpture. Uh, they got it from the Alip Palooa album cover which just looked like the Jurassic. It was a parody of the Jurassic Park logo. Um, they made him like a 3D Tyrannosaur skeleton that sings. It plays the same song every time. It's not like a weird owl song. It's just like background music for some reason. And it's like, let me scroll through and pick like a surgeon, eat it, um, UHF and let me play through that, you know? But no, I gotta I gotta go into the sterile museum for some reason. And you know, you you finally get into a mode and you you get to hear the music, but only while that mode's going on. And then, you know, the flippers are on different buttons, so you're trying to figure it out. You end up draining, and then you're back to that same where you started. And then like they they overuse the Harvey, the Wonder Hamster, which should have just been like a specific moment, but it's in there all the damn time. And just the whole thing just came across as like a mess. And it's like this is freaking weird, Al, man. This is one of the greatest licenses that you could get and like this is what you did with it. You know, I would have loved to see like what Stern would have done with that, what Spooky would have done with that, what Barrels would have done with it, what JJP would have done with it. And uh we just we can't now, you know. And then they got Princess Bride, right? Another good film they like. And they just kind of made their little version of it, which is fine. Make your little version, but there should be a full-size version, too. Man, Alan, I would love me some of those Disney afternoon shows. Darkwing Duck was awesome. I love me some gummy bears. Like, to this day, it's still good. Duck Thorn. Love it. We got to get the gummy berry juice. Ducttales would be awesome. The problem is Disney only answers phone calls if they're coming from Stern and sometimes JJP to be honest. Um, yeah, other people are trying to make these games. All right, it's not like everybody just forgot about, you know, Disney themes being amazing. Um, they just they they don't they don't call back is the problem. You can't get through to somebody to start that process of licensing. You know, a company like Disney is separated into divisions. What's up, Jeff? And so you go to this licensing fair in Vegas and you know that Disney division will look at their properties and then look at the market and the climate and what's going on socially and culturally and they'll say these are the three themes that we want to push for licensing in this business year. And so you go to licensing fair and you go there and you're like we want to make the greatest Darkwing duck pinball machine that's ever been made. and they're like that's fine but right now our properties that we are licensing you have Sophia the first um Doc McStuffins and you know something else or something and you you can you we'll talk about doing deals for one of those. So it's not so much like what you can make as a designer that you're passionate about and you have a whole team rallying around you can make the greatest game ever. You're stuck with like okay but here's what's available. So which which one of these do you want to do? and wisely. I think they look at that and say, "We can't really do our vision with one of these themes, so we'll just pass." And I think that's what happens. Yeah. Tell me you wouldn't go over and like the attract mode on DuctTales, firing up that theme song. I'd walk over there, hit start, get some more duck, right? Come on. Come on. Tail spin. I mean, the best game would have like all of these characters in there, and they're all going for like a unified goal. you know, the ducttales people and uh the the tail spin characters that they mash up to go and like defeat somebody. I would like I would like to play a mode where I'm battling Don Carnage, right? It was a cool villain. The Disney Afternoon cartoons had great villains. Don Carnage, remember him? He was like that that fox or coyote character, very dashing and air pirate. King Louie was in that, too. And he was running that tiki bar. Fantastic. What a great show. Jeff, what's going on in Canada, man? We're just talking pinball. We just said an hour. I got to get some lunch, dude. We started late today. I was up late working on projects. Got my D and D topper back there. Quick question, Don. In your last podcast, were you and Spooky Fellas texting about a oneeyed wet willie or just a regular wet willie? Good question. I'd be interested in that theme. I mean, that's that's been pervasive. I saw a playfield like three years ago that somebody had been working on and then had to stop. Maybe I'll dig that picture up and share it as I found it again online. Uh, but at one point I know somebody was working on a Goonies and they had an upper play field that had the scales, you know, like when they go into the ship and they they take the gold from the scale and it tips and starts a booby trap. So, I think the gist of how this was supposed to work was you go to the upper play field, the balls would roll off into one side of the scale to lock one ball and then the other one would become available. Then you get both balls locked in the scales and then I think they would dump into a multiball or something, which is an okay idea. Um, but like the layout that I saw didn't look like crazy exciting or anything. Um, and I don't know what happened to that. I don't know who was working on it. Um, I'm not sure what happened to that project, but it ended up petering out. And then every now and then you see like a picture of an old Goony's cabinet somewhere. So, it was a real project at some point. Um, but I don't know uh like who for sure was making it, but um maybe I'll I'll take the photo and I'll drop it in uh Patreon maybe that I found. I came across online somewhere in some forum. It's been it's been out there. If you search around, you might be able to find it. went to play your Jaws the other night. Plans changed. Damn it. Uh Bellingham is about to get my Kong too over here. Um so that'll be happening sometime soon. I've got the Electric Playground is sending me a Kong topper to go test fit and show off which I'm excited about. And then I'll be taking that to Expo. It's going to be the grand prize for the homebrew topper competition. So, if you're going to Expo, cobble together, use your ingenuity, make a pinball topper, bring it in, enter it into the contest. We'll collect votes on it, and then uh see if you can win something. There's a chance I might not be to expo until late Thursday, but um it's not for sure yet, but we're still going to do the topper contest. I'm going have to rely on one of my partners to get it set up Thursday morning, but it's going to be fun. Went to play your Jaws the other day. So, yeah, over in Bellingham, they got a bunch of my games. They're getting more. Um they'll be getting Kong. They've already ordered Star Wars, so that'll be happening. And then we'll see what happens after that. You'd have to have the volume so loud for track mode to call someone to a pin. I'd enter my toteen one, but I can't fly with that. Ah, that's probably a problem. Yeah. Um, you could I mean, you could ship it. I don't know if you can enter remotely, like take photos of it. We'll post a photo and people can vote on it. Maybe we'll do that in the future, but I just thought it'd be fun to um have people bring stuff in and just have a chance to show it off and you know, we'll get some prizes. We'll do some silly voting. But um I entered my one of my my first topper that I made. I entered it two, three years ago, though. It's a homebrew topper contest. I was the only person that entered and at the time it was a table that was set up by the bathrooms, but I brought my freaking Alvirara topper in there and I set it there and uh I won. I think I still have the prize around here somewhere. It's hanging up somewhere. But like it was super cool for me like to actually bring something into expo and like put it out there like I made this you know and then you know it it it functioned for the whole show and then I got a prize and it was like I felt good about it right I didn't have a podcast right I wasn't doing custom versions of machines or anything yet you know just something like I made my first 3D printer it took me forever to make it um I learned a lot about engineering and and designing and making parts parts that now I'm I'm doing some kind of devastating stuff. Um, and who knows where I'm going to end up. I don't even think I'm in the final form yet. There we go. Um, but it was cool to win something. You know, here I am wandering in and there's all these people with these amazing homebrew machines and like I'm entering something that I made like was a kid at the county fair like I grew this pickle. I'm going to enter it and then you get a ribbon and you're like awesome. And so like two years ago, when was that? I gotta look back through my photos. That was like my first expo. It definitely wasn't last year. It It was like probably the year before that. Is this my my third expo or fourth? I don't know. Um yeah, man. Expo Expo's going to be nuts. October's going to be nuts. November is going to be very crazy. Um and then I've only planned out that far. I'm sure it's going to keep getting getting crazy for me. Um, got a an announcement coming out to the end of the month. I'm very excited about the housing project is coming together. Background may be changing. Just saying. We will have a new place to stream from. Um, excited about that. Can almost talk about it. Uh, and then yeah, and then it's going to be November, December. We're going to get new games coming out. We'll know if Star Wars is good or bad. Um, we'll know what Spooky's next game is. We'll be looking forward to Pinball at the Beach and and TPF. Go to Houston in November. I I very highly think there's no way I can pull that off. November's packed. Things are going to get crazy for me over the next couple months. A lot of moving parts. We're We're redesigning kind of everything. very exciting times. But, you know, it's like one thing led to another that led to another to led to several other things. And so, it's going to take a little bit of time for the dust to settle by spring. We're going to be we're going to be we're going to be in a good place by spring. Very excited about it. Still waiting for the pinball the beach to launch for sale. Right. Dead to me. Come on, Jeff. Buddy, brother. Um, I honestly don't think I have any spare time in November. Uh, I'll be in Florida for a bulk of it. Work conference and then I'm hanging out with some Australians that I'll be touring around. Um, so if you want to come meet the Phantom Tilt folks, uh, we'll be in Florida hanging out. It's going to be awesome. And then, uh, you know, big things are coming up. A lot of work shakeups, exciting stuff. Um, got myself a new position, promotion kind of stuff. So, it's all it's all kind of it's all it's all going. Um, so maybe I'll end up with enough room and money for a dune and a Big Bang Bar and hell, even a Raza. Got to do something with all of it. All right, fam. It is time for some food. So, thank you for joining this awesome Sunday live stream. Allan says, "If I'm looking for a home theater in your new place, I'm your guy. Lots of experience and lessons." Allan, I'm gonna put you on my list, man. Because Yes, Dustin. Maybe. Maybe. Mr. Nosy. We'll see. [laughter] Oh, man. I have to I have to pack to head to Chicago, man. Um I know Mad Pinball's going to be in town. and they're going to the uh the DRO show on the 9th. So, I need to hang out down there with those guys. Uh so, if you'll be in Chicago and you want to kick it, grab a pizza or something. Um holler at me. I'll be there in the next couple of days. But yeah, that was fun. We'll do this again next Sunday and and by then we should be able to talk about what the Star Wars game is, what's in it, should you buy one now, which one should you buy? It sounds like regardless of how great this game is, is it good? Is it just mediocre? I think the Ellies are probably selling out. Just just flat out based on just want lists from dros I've talked to. Gumas knows all. All right, man. We'll talk about it. Let's pop over and wrap this up. I'll talk to you guys. We'll do podcast and stuff, but we'll meet again next week. Okay. Thanks for coming by. Really appreciate it. Stay cool.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 9a4ddb72-d4cc-4a3c-b16f-b7f2f44ab5e6*