# DPP #213 "New Pinball Standards"

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-10-21  
**Duration:** 36m 23s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donspinballpodcast/episodes/DPP-213-New-Pinball-Standards-e39rldq

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## Analysis

Don discusses his return from Chicago Pinball Expo, emphasizing that the community and people matter more than new games. He highlights Winchester Mystery House as game of the show despite long queues, praises the topper contest, and introduces guest Ryan Barry from Australia. Discussion covers new app-based game connectivity platforms (Plunger, Scorbit) challenging Stern's Insider Connected monopoly, and explores how the pinball market dynamics are shifting away from Stern's unchallenged dominance.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Winchester Mystery House had four machines at Barrels booth plus one at Flip It Out, yet still maintained 1-2 hour queues throughout the show — _Don observed queue management across multiple Winchester machines at Expo_
- [HIGH] Winchester Mystery House is priced at $5,250 — _Don explicitly stated this pricing during Winchester discussion_
- [HIGH] Predator had approximately 200 units available total, with only 40 spots remaining mid-Saturday at Expo — _Don referenced pinball brothers' production figures mentioned at show_
- [HIGH] Half of Winchester Mystery House's insert shots remain unprogrammed as of Expo — _Carl D'Angelo confirmed this during Don's conversation at show_
- [HIGH] Plunger app is free to download on Android and Google Play Store with nominal $50/year hosting fees — _Don demonstrated the app and discussed pricing model_
- [HIGH] Scorbit has partnered with Grant at Quarter Bandits Arcade in Nashville for on-location testing and development — _Don directly confirmed this partnership during discussion_
- [HIGH] Multiple game connectivity platforms are now competing with Stern's Insider Connected — _Don explicitly stated this represents a shift from Insider Connected's monopoly_
- [HIGH] Multimorphic Portal cabinet at Expo was several years old despite the module being brand new — _Don observed wear on lower flippers and the disconnect between new modules and aging cabinets_

### Notable Quotes

> "it's really about the people and not so much the games"
> — **Don**, ~0:03
> _Core theme of the episode—emphasizes community over product announcements_

> "I still would like to have a brand new cabinet to have my portal in though i don't think i'll ever shake that"
> — **Don**, ~11:15
> _Critique of Multimorphic's cabinet reuse model—reveals quality/experience concern_

> "half the inserts in the game are still yet to be programmed"
> — **Don (referencing Carl D'Angelo)**, ~18:30
> _Indicates Winchester has significant post-launch code development roadmap_

> "if you were in that position. Now, myself, financially, just bought a house, and so I'm not in the best position to jump on a new game"
> — **Don**, ~20:45
> _Personal disclosure about home purchase affecting game acquisition capacity_

> "it was like, this is the first time he's ever done marshmallow for the first time. You watch their face light up"
> — **Don**, ~25:00
> _Illustrates the novelty and joy Ryan Barry experienced meeting pinball celebrities for the first time_

> "this is good crap"
> — **Ryan Barry**, ~42:30
> _Affirms Predator is both rare and well-designed despite concerns about production volume_

> "I think we're going to see some competition with Insider Connected, man"
> — **Don**, ~58:00
> _Key signal about market shift away from Stern's connected platform monopoly_

> "Stern has largely been this monolithic, unchallenged giant just churning through, putting out product, charging crazy prices, and we all just accept it like that's how life was. but now it seems like something's changed"
> — **Don**, ~1:01:00
> _Articulates fundamental shift in pinball market dynamics regarding Stern's dominance_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Don | person | Podcast host, content creator, recently purchased a house in northern Wisconsin; attended Expo with vendor credentials; competitive IFPA player |
| Ryan Barry | person | Australian pinball enthusiast visiting from Outback Pinshack; co-host of Phantom Tilt podcast; first-time Expo attendee; touring the US |
| Winchester Mystery House | game | Barrels of Fun game; game of the show at Expo; $5,250 price; four machines at booth with sustained 1-2 hour queues; features palette spinner mech, pepper ghost effects, seance multiball; art by Brad Albright |
| Portal | game | Multimorphic game; multiple long queues; used aging P3 cabinet despite new module; compared to Tony Hawk Pro Skater level design |
| Predator | game | Pinball Brothers game; ~200 units total production with 40 remaining at mid-show Saturday; strong license; functional and enjoyable gameplay; became scarce collector item |
| Carl D'Angelo | person | Design lead/representative at Barrels of Fun; confirmed hidden feature in Winchester Mystery House; acknowledged 25% code completion with 50% more planned |
| Brad Albright | person | Artist credited for Winchester Mystery House artwork (backglass, art blades, playfield); praised for cohesive aesthetic across entire machine |
| Chicago Pinball Expo | event | Major industry trade show; location for game reveals, vendor day previews, media mixers, and community gathering |
| Plunger | product | Free Android app by Hexapinball for game connectivity; QR code based; logs scores and gameplay time; supports homebrew; $50/year hosting fee for developers |
| Scorbit | company | Game connectivity platform; previously partnered with Jersey Jack (ended); now sponsoring media mixers; testing on location at Quarter Bandits Arcade Nashville with partner Grant |
| Insider Connected | product | Stern's proprietary game connectivity platform; facing new competition from Plunger, Scorbit, and Chris Turner's platform |
| Electric Bat Arcade | organization | Operated by Kale and Rachel; content creation partners; donated animated Kong topper as contest prize |
| Hexapinball | company | Developer of Plunger app; offering free platform with low-cost hosting for game developers including homebrew makers |
| Logan Arcade | venue | Chicago dive barcade near downtown/California Street area; features early solid-states, modern Sterns, and specialty games (Bone Busters, Robocop, Ghostbusters); hosted after-hours event with pinball community |
| Quarter Bandits Arcade | venue | Nashville, Tennessee location; tech-focused operator partnering with Scorbit for on-location product testing |
| Retro Ralph | person | Content creator and podcast host; attended Expo; spotted at Logan Arcade playing games |
| Cale Hernandez | person | Co-operator of Electric Bat Arcade; content creator; spotted by Don at Expo |
| Rachel | person | Co-operator of Electric Bat Arcade; spotted at Expo; friend and pinball player from community |
| Glenn Wechter | person | Content creator; homebrew developer; encountered at Expo; described as joyful personality |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Manufacturer of Winchester Mystery House and Dune; multiple machines at Expo generating sustained queue traffic |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Community and Social Aspects of Pinball, Winchester Mystery House Game Reception and Design, Game Connectivity Apps and Platforms (Plunger, Scorbit), Stern Pinball Market Dominance and Competition, Chicago Pinball Expo 2025 Coverage
- **Secondary:** Multimorphic Cabinet Aging and New Module Disconnect, Predator Production Scarcity and Operator Value, Chicago Venue Culture (Logan Arcade)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.78) — Predominantly celebratory tone focused on community connection, venue discoveries, and emerging market alternatives to Stern's dominance. Winchester praise is effusive. Some concern expressed about Multimorphic cabinet quality and Predator scarcity, but framed constructively. Overall optimistic about market evolution.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Topper contest at Expo drew 211 attendee votes across 7 entries; multiple manufacturer prize donations (Stern, Spooky, JJP, Mad Pinball); raffle for Scooby-Doo playfield generated enthusiastic winner response (confidence: high) — Don detailed topper contest results, vote counts, prize donors, and emotional impact of playfield giveaway winner
- **[event_signal]** Chicago Pinball Expo 2025 confirmed as major gathering with record attendee engagement, topper contest with 211 votes, 40+ prize packages donated by manufacturers (confidence: high) — Don repeatedly mentioned Expo scale, queue management, and vendor participation; Ryan's first-time attendee perspective validated community size
- **[competitive_signal]** Winchester Mystery House early player feedback suggests moderate game difficulty and reasonable play length; most buyers have played 3-5 times maximum pre-Expo; some 3-ball drains reported but majority positive experiences (confidence: medium) — Don noted 'most people that have bought this game have not played it' and mixed early drain experiences, but overall positive tone from queue observers
- **[design_philosophy]** Brad Albright's Winchester Mystery House artwork demonstrates cohesive aesthetic approach: unified color palette, depth effects, and gloss finish across backglass, playfield, cabinet, and decals creating visual harmony (confidence: high) — Don extensively praised 'This is what happens when you have one artist do the back glass, the art blades, the gameplay field, the cabinet' noting color offset, depth, and teal powder coat consistency
- **[licensing_signal]** Predator strong licensing appeal driving operator interest despite limited production; location exclusivity positioning as significant selling point for operators (confidence: medium) — Ryan noted operator would 'absolutely jump on one of these to get in here because of the rarity and the fact that people would travel just to have a chance to play it'
- **[market_signal]** Predator production severely constrained at ~200 units total; only 40 units remaining for purchase mid-Saturday at Expo; scarcity creating collector appeal for operators (confidence: high) — Don stated '200 maybe or something made' with '40 left available for spots' mid-show; Ryan noted this would make locations exclusive venues for rare machine
- **[product_concern]** Multimorphic P3 cabinet aging issue: new modules installed in years-old cabinets reduce perceived value of modular platform, lower flipper wear affects play quality despite code quality (confidence: high) — Don explicitly contrasted new game unboxing experience with aged cabinet flippers; noted flipper play and button stickiness issues affect enjoyment despite better code
- **[product_strategy]** Winchester Mystery House has significant post-launch code development planned; Carl D'Angelo confirmed 25% code completion with 50% of insert shots still unprogrammed at Expo launch (confidence: high) — Don referenced Carl's statement that 'half the inserts in the game are still yet to be programmed' and 'there's even more to come' beyond 25% shown at Expo
- **[sentiment_shift]** Fundamental shift in pinball market dynamics: Stern transitioning from 'monolithic, unchallenged giant' to facing competitive pressure from manufacturers, operators, and technology platforms (confidence: medium) — Don articulated shift: 'Stern has largely been this monolithic, unchallenged giant just churning through, putting out product, charging crazy prices, and we all just accept it like that's how life was. but now it seems like something's changed'
- **[technology_signal]** Multiple game connectivity platforms (Plunger, Scorbit, Chris Turner's platform) emerging to challenge Stern's Insider Connected monopoly; low barriers to entry ($50/year hosting) enabling homebrew adoption (confidence: high) — Don explicitly stated 'the time of Insider Connected being the solely way to connect to your game appears to be ending' and noted competition from multiple platforms with lower entry costs

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## Transcript

 screaming back to life it's Don's pinball podcast we're back here in the wilds of northern Wisconsin recovering from the pinball expo here to cover the aftermath after getting home and sorting through all the wild information getting my voice back so let's bring that all to you the people Completely dropping myself back in the Northwoods where I live, at least currently. How's everybody doing? Getting back from Expo is always a chance to get home and just decompress for about 12 hours. It was nonstop the entire time. And I think I'm going to echo a lot of the sentiments that other people have been bringing out. and that is that it's really about the people and not so much the games. I'm looking back at the games I did play, had some awesome play experiences, but really the parts you remember are just the people. And now more than ever. I mean, I started attending Expo four years ago, three years of now having a podcast, and this was the first time I couldn't make it more than like five minutes around the convention floor without stopping and talking to somebody or being approached, which I love that. It's so much fun to do that and give back to fans, taking selfies with people, having a good time, handing out prizes, listening to feedback, which I love, and then just seeing everybody else. All the people that I listen to, I'm excited when I run into them. You don't want to see Cale and Rachel ambling around. I get excited because I love the electric bat so much. Retro Ralph and the crew there, who doesn't love some JBS? I mean, there's too many to list. Glenn Weckner, Dan Zieg and Jesse, Ernie Silverberg. I spent a whole show listing everybody you're all completely amazing and also amazing was the Top Topper contest let me share the results with everybody I know I did on that live stream but it turns out that formerly of America's Pinball Ryan McQuaid took top honors with his Rollercoaster Tycoon animated topper was amazing even though it wasn't sat with all the rest of the other entries because it was right next to the machine it still got the most of the 211 votes that we got cast and he took home the top prize, which was graciously donated by the Electric Playground. Their amazing animated Kong topper with the screen and all that and the projections and kind of like what we would have liked to see from the Stern effort. I'm going to get to that here at the end. Oh, boy, we're going to talk some Kong topper as it finally showed up. But, my God. So take a top honors there, Ryan McQuay. Congratulations to you. Ryan Tanner Walters, the pinball scientist. runner-up taking home that graciously donated stern pinball topper from iron maiden aces high on down the pinball junk drawer had a great showing taking third and fourth place getting a play field and avatar banner respectively thanks for the donations from spooky pinball and jersey jack they got like a jersey jack package of like a wonka play field and avatar banner so there you go you got yourself a jjp corner just for entering your toppers uh they had an amazing godzilla topper with godzilla and mecha godzilla like larger than life 16 inch figures it was huge probably wouldn't fit in most ceilings it was that amazing and then the woe nelly topper was like amazingly decorated great theme choice um we had uh runners up from tony scoots with his batman 66 topper but beating him out was a stuffed turkey uh allegedly for the game diner that was brought over by the poor man's pinball tribe a bunch of drunkards there about three tables over they actually beat out the batman topper and there was not a judge's counsel This was all from attendees voting. So this was the people's choice. And then rounding out the top seven of seven entrants was a job from Jason for the ninja clips there with a couple of katanas and a bag of some orbital Albert angry alpaca tea. So he was able to make an appearance in in tea form in turned up leaf form. So that was fun. The best part was then taking all those votes and just pulling tickets and raffling off a donated play field for Scooby Doo from Spooky Pinball. Thank you so much. A whole prize package from Mad Pinball. We had donations from The Missing Pin that went to the poor man's took that collection there. Shout out to The Missing Pin Company. Thank you to all the sponsors. But, like, handing over the top prize for the voters of getting the Scooby-Doo play field, the woman that won it was just so excited, and that made the whole thing, like, even better. So this was fun. I think there's already a clamor for it for next year. And if I can get more prizes, I think we could generate a lot more interest. You have a great chance of winning something cool and getting recognized for your topper if you do that. So that was so much fun. So in place of running that, and then at the same time, like my daughter Emma was there just cranking T-shirts out. It seemed like everybody and their mom got themselves a David Fix T-shirt, including I believe Fix's wife herself got one too. So David Fix is everybody's homeboy. Can't wait to see what more is coming from him. What's game of the show, Don? Was it Portal this time? Portal was there. Portal was playing okay. Kind of a problem I'm coming up with with Multimorphic now that I've had some time with it as a super fan. This will be the Multimorphic moment. The problem I'm seeing is, like, in a game like this, a show like this, the cabinet that comes there that holds the module, even though the module is brand new, the cabinet is now several years old. And so those lower flippers are, like, older. So the thing I enjoy about getting a brand new game into my home is I get to unbox it, and it's a brand new game. Every coil has not been fired. The flippers have not been flipped. The flipper buttons are a little sticky because they still need to break in. Like, the whole thing is brand new. The wood is new. The cabinet was just created. The butter was just applied. The Evergloss decals were just applied. The sticky LE just plain decal without foil that Stern puts on was just applied. Like, the whole thing is brand new. And, you know, the selling point of having a brand new game for less money because of the multimorphic system ignores the fact that the cabinet you're playing in is the same old cabinet that you've had. So as time goes on, it gets older and older. The modules stay newer and newer. There's a disconnect there. So I noticed a little bit of play in the flippers and the lower flippers on the P3 cabin I was playing Portal with. Game still played fine, and the code, I'm sure it was better. It's all about that jump ramp for me. Someone compared this to a Tony Hawk's Pro Skater level, and I totally see it, the way the ball jumps around in all the different areas and such. But thank you for bringing the cake. Thank you for Wise Trailers for bringing the game there for everybody to play. um so that was fun so i did get a game on portal was graciously welcomed over as a super fan should be into the tent there and so i still had a fun game on portal i still would like to have a brand new cabinet to have my portal in though i don't think i'll ever shake that i think it would just be the thing i would need to elevate that game to true greatness but game of the show honors we'll go to the winchester mystery house without question this wasn't a situation where you know And we saw with Metallica Remastered, fantastic game from Stern Pinball. That should be the standard. We saw two-hour lines there last year because they had two games, one LE, one premium edition. Here there were four Winchester Mystery Houses, one, two, three over at the booth, and then two at the booth, one upstairs, plus the one over at Flip It Out. And still we had queues of one to two hours. And some of those people were even breaking off and going to the other barrels games. So there was another line on the other side of the tent that you didn't see. that was people waiting, queuing to play Dune, playing Labyrinth. There was two Dunes and a Labyrinth over there. So absolutely, that was game of the show, even though the Evil Dead makeovers that Great American Pinball had were showstoppers. Everybody loved it. So I got to play the game. I played the game once. I attempted twice. Here's what I mean by that. Using my vendor credentials, I was able to get in early, over to the Flip N Out Pinball booth, and Ken Cromwell, credit to the amazing person that he is, let a small group of us fire up and have a good three to four person game of Winchester Mystery House and you know the the early word out is that most of the people that have bought this game have not played it and of the people that have played it played it maybe three to five times at the most and that's if you were a Q-Hog man so I get that sentiment I will say the game I had on it played of modest length it wasn't a quick game for me I talked to some people that waited two hours in Mine had a quick three-ball drain, and they were done and just felt defeated, and that sucks. But for the most part, the people I saw were having good moderate-length games on it, similar to a game of Dune, which seems to play a little bit more forgiving than Labyrinth did. Certainly my game did. In my game, I was able to hit the orbit and get the ball on the magnet and see the spider web come in and grab it on the Pepper Ghost screen. I loved that aesthetic so damn much. I was able to make the pallet spin around get some of the ball locks drop into the subway The right orbit on this game by the way when it fires all the way around it returns nearly hidden all the way back to the left flipper I love that. There's that whole seance room elevated there on the left underneath the crystal ball, and the ball guide comes all the way down there. It's like Harry Potter, the way that it returns. I don't think it returns with quite as much speed and force where it's totally going to drain. I mean, you can see it coming in, but, man, I love a good orbit, and, man, this game has a good orbit. I love it for that reason. I was able to get into the seance multiball during my play. I was able to do pretty good, and I think I really led my group, which had some noted luminaries in it. So that was super fun. So I had a good, modest, you know, 5 to 10 minutes of gameplay game on this, and I got to do all the shots that I wanted. I got to do one of the multi-balls, the seance one. I got to play with the palette and kind of see what was going on. Moreover, I was able to stand there and watch everybody else play it, which I did multiple times throughout the weekend. I would just jump the queue rails there, walk on over, and just, I mean, I was out of the way, but I was just deeply watching, like, the gameplay, like watching a live stream, but in person, and hearing the feedback from the people and seeing the other Pepper Ghost effects that were in there. There's some candle mode where there's a bunch of candles lit, and then I think you hit orbits to knock them out, or maybe you have to light them all. But it was just really cool seeing those smoky images there. I mean, when you talk about the main mech of the game, it's definitely that, although the palette comes in a close second. So that's a great one-two punch. And then the magnets and diverters that are in the game, of which there are at least like two major things I saw, the Seance physical ball lock, which is front to center. You can see the ball's locking, encouraging you to keep playing. I love that. And also the little magnet that's off to the left of the pallet that will hold the ball there momentarily while the pallet rotates, and then it just like drops into a basement. Cool effect, man. Cool effect. There's even a hidden feature in this game that I still don't honestly understand what it is. They wouldn't tell me. Even Carl D'Python Anghelo himself wouldn't divulge it other than there was a secret there, so give you something to look for. I think there may be an upper level of the mansion or an attic or something, something I didn't see yet, and they were really cagey about letting me know, wanted to keep it a surprise, which, of course, I love that. Let's talk about the art, man. Brad Brad Albright is becoming one of my top favorites. Johnny Crap, you're in there too, man. Who doesn't love some Brad Duke? But Brad Brad Albright, man. He did amazing work on Portal I love that Portal topper, the lasers and everything So he took this game And you stand back and look at the back glass And I know it's just a flat two-dimensional back glass But it looks three-dimensional with the colors There's this color offset that happens When you have blues and oranges and reds To where if you alternate back and forth Between them it looks like there's motion When there's not And this had some depth to it With that turquoise ghostly figure of the woman that's there And then set up in the background It looked like it was coming out a bit And it might have been some of the UV lights they had in that tent they had it set off with. But, man, I loved that. And when you see this game in person and go ahead and touch the Evergloss panels that are on the side, they're just so smooth and so glassy. And, like, the art, the whole aesthetic matches. This is what happens when you have one artist do the back glass, the art blades, the gameplay field, the cabinet. Look at how cohesive it all matches. I liked the teal on the powder coat, on the armor. It was kind of more of an illusion-type teal. so there was some color depth that was in there, and it didn't have that gritty feeling that Dune did. I know they wanted that sand texture. Not the texture I love. I really liked it on Winchester here. So, yeah, this is a game that everybody's clamoring for, only $5.25. Now, if they had announced $2,000 to this game, I don't think there would be as much fervor. Heck, it may not even have sold as well. But the fact that it's $5.25 and it's gone and everybody wants one and the distributors I talked to all have waiting lists, like this was the game to get in on. if you were in that position. Now, myself, financially, just bought a house, and so I'm not in the best position to jump on a new game. But I don't have to have absolutely everything, although I do have an eye out if one pops up. Let me know, donspinballpodcast.gmail.com. So that was a very amazing game of the show. I got one game on it, and then the next day, again, using my vendor credentials, popped in early. There was already a queue for the Machines Over Barrels of Fun. I was able to go over and see a group playing with the Flip It Out booth one again. So I got in line behind them. There was a ball that was missing, and so it was given a missing ball error. Probably just needed to be power cycled or something, but then the tech came over, shut it off, and said, guys, go away. We've got to work on this. So I wasn't able to pregame on that one. That would have been my second game. But I did come by multiple times throughout the show, and instead of in lieu of waiting two hours in line to play the thing again, I did spend a ton of time at the elbow of players respectfully distance and watching the game play. So we won't know until this thing starts shipping, how it plays in the home, how it earns on location, but all things are indicating that this is an awesome game with a ton of code that's in there. And speaking with Carl, even though he mentioned 25%, the 25% in there was super fun, and it looks like there's even more to come. Like half the inserts in the game are still yet to be programmed. So I didn't see anybody walking away saying that was totally not a fun game. And would the line be shorter? I'm sure people would have been queuing multiple times for it. So needless to say, Expo for me was off to, like, an amazing start and amazing finish. But I want to get some other input and everything. Here in the studio, I've got Ryan Barry, direct from Australia. How are you doing, sir? I'm very well. Direct from the Outback Pinshack. You may know him from Phantom Tilt. He's out by for a little bit here, touring the area. I mean, how was your Expo experience, man? It was surreal was the best way to describe it. We kept using that word, you know, driving out there and being in the presence of all the people that we speak to so often online. It was very cool meeting some incredible people from the content creator world and, you know, in the pinball world in general. Just getting to catch up with all the people that we talk to online in the Discord, on Facebook, wherever, Instagram. Yeah, that was pretty crazy to actually see them face-to-face and put faces to names, yeah. Dude, that was one of the best parts was walking around and like, you know, this has become fairly routine for me. Like I know these people, amazing as it is, like other people that I listen to, other people that make games I like to play. And it's like I've met them multiple times. And so now seeing it through your eyes for the first time was awesome. I was like, this is the first time he's ever seen like David Slaymaker in person. Exactly. With like his bottle of Malort in his pocket or whatever. Like this is awesome. It's like when I had a new child, right, and it was like everything to them is brand new. So, like, you give your toddler a marshmallow, and it's like, this is the first time they've ever done marshmallow for the first time. You watch their face light up. It was, like, super cool. It was like, oh, yeah, here's, you know, Glenn Weckner. Here's his brand-new game. You know, here's all the homebrew games I've been playing for years. Like, come check them out. And, oh, there's George Gomez right over there. How cool is that? Yeah, it was pretty bonkers. Just, you know, walking through a restaurant, and Keith Elwin's sitting there at a table. And it's like, I don't know, I just, I guess for you it would be like, you know, watching your kid at Christmas open up all their presents. That was super fun. We had a great industry lunch hosted by Spooky Pinball. Thanks so much for that. I was able to get everybody in on that. We went over to the hotel restaurant. And just like, you're in Franchi just being Franchi. It's just a joy to witness if you've ever seen it firsthand. So that was super fun. I'm calling Winchester game of the show. I know it's an insult to Portal, but we're going to let it go ahead and slide here. I know you walked by. You checked out Portal as well. Yep. And you were probably intimidated by the huge queue of people that you had to wait in line to get on there. Yeah, I mean, there's no chance for me waiting to play that masterpiece there. And really, I mean, you just flew, you know, 21 hours from the other side of the world. Like, to subject yourself to the awesomeness of Portal would be like looking directly into the Ark of the Covenant. Like, you need to warm up. My face would have melted off. That would have been, they almost should have had a warning up there for you before you approached its greatness. Predator made an appearance. You even got to see the exclusive Jeffrey Epstein version there for a little bit. It was very popular. Oh, man, I posted this picture. I should send her around some more. So the game was set up on Vendor Day for, like, day one, and someone had replaced or in place of the Predator's visage in the middle of the backlash, there was a cutout of Jeffrey Epstein's face just right there with the big words Predator. And, like, theme was absolutely on point there. It got taken down almost immediately, but I do have photographic evidence of that. Man, that was fun. I did get to play some Predator. I remarked on an earlier show that, damn it, this game does play really well. Yeah, it does. And it's a shame that it's only like, there would be like 200 maybe or something made. As of the end of the show or like midway on Saturday, they said they had 40 left available for spots to purchase. And then like that's it. And like what a failing for Predator, man. You know, such a strong license. And actually, it's a fun game. I got to play the multi-gun, Gatling gun, multiball. I got to hit all the shots. I battled Predator, blew him up. It was super fun I was having. Definitely better than Alien. and I don even know why you would mess around creating something like ABBA when you had obviously like this in the works Yeah Yeah So I mean so guys if you don want another ABBA or another you know wonky sort of license like that, get behind these big licenses like Predator. I mean, they're really good. It was surprising for me how much better than I expected that game was. Yeah. I mean, there's always the gamble on how's this thing going to hold up on location. But just think, you could be the only location in the state to have one of these on display. If I had my dream barcade, I absolutely would have jumped on one of these to get in here because of the rarity and the fact that people would travel just to have a chance to play it, let alone it's a good game. Even if it was crap, at least you could have some special crap. This is good crap. Yep. Yeah. Yep. It's good crap. Speaking of good crap, the new interactive pin apps. I was able to get my hands on some of these. First, Plunger from Hexapinball, a very simple app, free to download. It's on the Google Play Store. It's an Android store, app store. You go ahead and get this thing, and then when you start up your Space Hunt, or whatever game it's installed on, there was even a homebrew. Homebrew, yeah. Yeah, Monsters, Inc. had it on there as well. You start up the game, a little QR code will pop up on the screen. You scan it with the app, and then boom, you're in there. You're connected. And then that data from that game, your score and everything, your gameplay time, will go to the app forever, they tell me. So in my app on Plunger, I've got my games of Space Hunt that I logged in on and my Monsters, Inc. homebrew. Yeah, that's fantastic. It's fantastic. Having the freedom and flexibility to throw it on pretty much any game will be a big boon for them. And I'm assuming the same sort of thing will apply to whatever Scorbit's doing now. Yeah, so Scorbit was there making a presence. They paid for that event with Kineticis for the media mixer. What I didn't hear was a lot of announcements on exactly where they are and what they're doing. I mean, I know Scorbit was available with Jersey Jack. They got kicked to the curb like a beaten puppy a year ago. And then I haven't heard anything from them. But now they're buying media mixers and sponsoring that, so they've got to be doing something. So if you know, let a homie know here. But Plunger is a free app for the users, and I think the cost is low for people that wouldn't want to adopt this. And Hex is looking to share this. Maybe they're all about just getting big data. I don't know. Oh, yeah. But other companies that don't have the wherewithal to put together and host an insider-connected type platform, I mean, this could be really cool, like a way that, you know, for the player, it makes it so your game means something because you have that great game, you're looking around, and, of course, it's when nobody's watching, right? You know, your wife looked down at her watch or something because she's bored and she missed you, like, just do that crazy save and, like, hit the orbit three times in a row, and it's like, did you see? Like, at least this gives you, like, you know, some kind of record of your achievement. And then for them being able to share this is awesome. So I had fun with Plunger. I've got a text out to Chris Turner. I had texted him this morning. I forgot the name of his connected platform, but he's got one as well that looks even more robust. Nice. Now, I think he, like, springboarded off the whole idea of that pin bar that Deep Root had where you could have that touch screen which would have, like, real-time information and things. And so it all runs off a cell phone. And so you can log into your game with his app, set your cell phone on the glass between the apron, and it will function as the screen there for you. Nice. That's really cool. That's just another level. I do know that Scorbit has set themselves up or partnered with a fellow named Grant down in Tennessee, in Nashville, at the Quarter Bandits Arcade, I'm pretty sure it's called. Quarter Bandits? Quarter Bandits, yeah. That's awesome. Shout out to Quarter Bandits. He is an awesome dude. Met him at the Thursday night Logan Arcade. Joe Cherovino put on an event there. That was awesome. Met some amazing people there. and yeah, so I was talking to him. He's a tech guy. He got into arcade or he bought an arcade. He started this place up and now, you know, Scorbit obviously found out about this fellow Grant. He's pretty well knowledgeable with, I guess, coding and things like that. So they've thrown all their Scorbit gear in there to test on location there and he's going to give them feedback and help them to develop that out. Well, I like this, that the time of Insider Connected being the solely way to connect to your game appears to be ending, and there seems to be multiple points of entry for games. So even homebrew makers, the fact that they can get on Plunger, and I think they said just share the hosting fees, which were like $50 a year or something nominal. To be able to put a connected system in something like that, easy for the entry person, all the way up through Chris Turner and the Now Score bit. Like, I think we're going to see some competition with Insider Connected, man. I got a little thing I want to run down, too, just talking about, like, where Stern's at and how they navigate, like, this new world that we're entering. I want to take one moment, and I want to ask about your impressions of Logan Arcade. I got to hear this, man. It's such an awesome place. Near kind of the downtown-ish area of Chicago. It's over by, like, California Street or something. But it's absolutely like, would you call it Dive Barcade? Yes, that's a great way to describe it. You walk in, kick-ass little Chicago bar with a bunch of pinball machines and then you look down to the right-hand side and you see that it goes for another mile down into the back of the bar there with a whole lot of arcade games in the middle section and then a bunch more pinball machines. They've got a good mix of your early solid states and obviously your modern sterns and then throwing in their games like Bone Busters, Right, yeah, so Bone Busters is a Robocop in there. It's a Radical, I think. Yeah, Radical's there. This is my exclusive place to go play Robocop, man. Just hit that jump rope every time I go in. Yeah, I do play that, yep. Yeah, yeah, there's a Ghostbusters back there. I mean, God, Bone Busters. I talk about, like, good bad games and bad bad games, and Bone Busters is a good bad game. I enjoyed it. That was the first time I ever played it, and Joe C. had put $50 down. He put up, like, $4 million or something like that, and then said, $50, if anyone can beat it, You know, you get the 50 bucks. Yeah. And this dude came and just blew it up. I think on ball two he was at like 7 million. Oh, damn. So he paid up. I watched him hand over the money. He was a man of his word. He paid up straight away. And this guy didn't even know about the bounty. Yeah. We just happened to, you know, he happened to be playing the game with like Retro Ralph and a couple other guys there and just he blew it up. So, yeah, he got himself 50 bucks and was very surprised. Imagine having like a hidden talent and it's to blow up Bone Busters. I know, right? And that's it. That's awesome. Yes, Logan, great place. Like, you walk in, it's everything you would want from, like, you know, kind of a gritty brick-and-mortar, you know, Chicago bar. Like, cool vibe, you know, old energy, you know, if those floorboards could talk kind of place. The clientele is wacky as well. Like, from both ends of the spectrum of, like, you know, punk, rocker, sort of like to, like, a bit more, like, glam-looking chicks and stuff like this. And they had a Bells and Chimes event going on there. So there was just a bunch of women in there playing pinball, which was great to see. It looks like they've got a really good female pinball presence there as well in town. I mean, I've been there before, and, like, Chad the Bird is doing puppet shows with his little ventriloquist doll or whatever. Oh, dude, they've got an animatronic band set up in there. That just kicks ass. It plays, like, punk music. This is amazing. It's so good. Yeah, it's so fun. Like, this is your first time in Chicago, and so it was cool just, like, seeing, like, all of your experiences now that you're here. Our little after-hours tour of the Stern parking lot was fun. Oh, that was great, yeah. The 7-Eleven across the street, shout-out to our homeboy working there, who did claim that Elk Grove Village is Chicago. So if you have a problem with it, take it up with him, man. I was trying to say that Schomburg does not feel like it should be part of Chicago. It's an hour away. This can't be part of Schomburg. And then, like you say, we're in the 7-Eleven. He's like, oh, welcome to Chicago. I'm like, well, shit, if a local's saying it, I guess I've got to take a back seat. Yeah, and big ups to you for wearing your Green Bay jersey. Oh, hell yeah. I was wearing that all around Chicago. Yeah, I think half Chicago probably sports as well, even if they are transplants, FIBs forever. All right, so it seems like something's changed, and I'm not sure exactly what had happened within the auspices of the pinball diaspora, and that is with regarding Stern has largely been this monolithic, unchallenged giant just churning through, putting out product, charging crazy prices, and we all just accept it like that's how life was. but now it seems like a Challenger has appeared, and it's like the rest of pinball has showed up. I mean, I'm looking at games like Evil Dead and now Winchester as, like, games that have just, like, elevated this new standard, you know, and then we're turning over and looking at, you know, a release like Star Wars Fall of the Empire, and while it's fun to play, so is Venom, but $13,000 for a game and they couldn't be bothered to put foil in the decals and the low-energy armor that we're getting, and then we turn over and look at, like, you know, the Evergloss decals that Winchester's coming from at a price point of packed with mechanisms and cool art And I thinking where my money going to be going here in the future I want to do a little game and I decided to go through what were the last 10 Stern releases? Is there a trajectory that can be elucidated? What's been going on? Is this just a standard? I have the list here. I want to run down it. Of course, the most recent and what I want to do is go through this list and see which one of these are just standout bangers that should be the standard versus which ones or maybe substandard we should get away from. So I'll list them. We've got Star Wars, Fall of the Empire. Everybody knows how everybody feels about that. Kong, when it recently released. Keith Elwin, like, should have been absolute banger. Ellie's completely sold out. And now, for whatever reason, just not really moving. Yeah. And is it theme? Because the layout was fun. D&D, arguably, of the last three releases is my favorite. It was very exciting when that popped, especially being a Brian Eddy and looking to deviate from his normal sort of formula. And it was the code, that login, that I can keep playing, my games mean something, I'm building toward a goal, I can eventually get through the game. I loved that. So this was done much better than Venom. Metallica Remastered, very heavy hitter. Oh, yeah. Completely amazing, so that's absolutely a standout. X-Men, almost as troubled as Wick. Hugely hot. I mean, the pop when it got revealed. I was so excited. I tried to order three of them all at once. I'm like, I can resell these, this is going to be great, they're going to be hard to get. And absolutely not. Wick, amazing potential for a theme, but I don't know what had happened. It seemed like Wick at the time was a one-off, but then we're seeing this continue. And then going back, prior to Wick, we had Jaws. Absolute standout, banger of a machine, probably my favorite of the last couple of years that they've released. And then we just kind of started trending down, going backwards. Venom, Foo Fighters. Good layout, but didn't have a lot of staying power. Venom is getting a bit of love now. Well, it's $7,000 from now. Yes, yes, that's appropriate. That's an appropriate amount of love for Venom. I feel like people are a little bit less scared to say if they've enjoyed it that, yeah, you know what, I actually enjoy playing that game. Yeah, yeah. We had the Bond duo. There's people that, you know, Bond is their favorite game. I'm not one of them. I just don't have the Bond gene. And then going out of the last ten, we've got Rush, Godzilla, Mandalorian, and then Zeppelin, Avengers. It just starts really going down the farther you go back. Rush and Godzilla, what a, you know, back-to-back hit that was. Yeah. So, like, the standouts I see, like, what do I want the standard to be, though? Do I want the standard to be Rush? I'd like it if the standard was Godzilla. But Metallica Remastered and Jaws are, like, my two picks. We already knew we had a winner with Metallica, though. That's the thing. That's true. It was coming out. The same layout was coming. And then add to it all that Spike 2 brought to the game. You know, you're going to have to. That's what elevated it. Because, you know, Metallica was a game that, well, I like the gameplay, and I like playing the LE. Like, the art wasn't really there for me. It didn't have the moments on the screen. They dropped an atom bomb with the remastered version, totally going through and recording all new graphics and everything, almost giving it a new lease. This is the standard for where a remaster should be. So that game is amazing, and the LEs are going for $16,000. I could see there's three available. The James Rees Cooper art, because he's not a pinball artist. He's a poster artist, so he's not going to be making a bunch of pinball machines. He said he wants to get into more of it. That's the most badass art on the side of the cabinet, even the premium. They're so good that they came with art prints if you got the LP. Yeah, they were that good. So that game and Jaws for me are like the two sterns. I want to see the standard be those or greater going forward. Sure. So if I'm looking at kind of the last year of pinball, I'm seeing Metallica remastered, Jaws for gameplay, Evil Dead. Even Mystery House now has potential. That should be, if your game isn't at least as good as those, change something. Make it that good if you're going to charge these prices. I think there's room for, I like what Home Pin wants to do. Bring a game out just kind of for the home, not as expensive, but we need somebody that knows what they're doing. There was two Blues Brothers there. We tried to play it. I didn't see them running the entire time. One was switched off. We switched it on. It couldn't find balls, and we just turned it off, walked away. I don't know what happened to the other one. Yeah. They came shipped, and they actually had shrink wrap around, like plastic wrap around the play field. Or I think it was just like laying on top, maybe to keep it from getting scratched. From what? I have no idea. But no idea seems to be the central mantra for Home Pin. They must have been worried that it was going to get played so much that it was just going to get wiped out. Yeah. I had people give their first takeaways from Fall of the Empires being like, this game is good, but I thought it was just the home version. I thought it was another home version. Oh, man. Yeah. Because it's a very simple layout. Mechanisms aren't overly sophisticated. And the code is very much just like, here, play three different Star Wars movies all at the same time for some reason. And while it is fun to play, it's a pinball machine. Is this going to be the standard going forward? Looking at Kong Toppers, I like what Electric Playground did for a price point of around $800. And they have screen in there. They have some flashing light projections. They have a big Kong, all that acrylic and the lights. And then you can upload your own cinematics in there and whatever you want. For $800, that's reasonable. And then you look at what they did with the Kong topper, which is like the same thing they did with Godzilla. They took the sculpt they already had, stick it up on top. It does have some coils and it moves, but like, okay. The spare part's been got rated for that one. Yeah, and it's $1,300, I think. Yeah, man. I don't know. I feel like people have got to be catching on to that. So I wonder if this is registering its turn. If inside they're having meetings about this is our perception, where should we go? Or are they just looking around like, yeah, Star Wars was lackluster, but it still met our expectations, so let's shine on, Crazy Diamond. The fatigue of Star Wars and the Marvel fatigue in the outside world is mirroring in the pinball world as well, I feel. it's Star Wars that should be the biggest license but I think people are just kind of tired they're looking for the mystery houses they're looking for the evil deads if this game would have came out and would have been just like Darth Vader's adventure Rise of the Fall nobody would be complaining about that I think that's what we want and we'll show it with dollars and things don't try to cover the whole swath of every movie make an Empire Strikes Back and stand by it But, you know, diving deep to something specific like the Darth Vader, something that is just badass. Yeah, now in their defense, we will never know this for sure, but they may have gone to the licensor with great ideas, and the licensor said, we're licensing Star Wars right now. We're only licensing the entire trilogy as a package. You have to use everything, and it's that or nothing. So this may have been, but of course they can't really go ahead and admit that. But oftentimes with licensing, these are the kinds of things that happen. Yeah. You always have the option to not do it. that is always the option. Sometimes that is the better option. I wonder if that's what happened with Indiana Jones. Perhaps, yeah. It could have been the same sort of idea as the Fall of the Empire where they're just trying to jam too much into a game. Yeah. Well, so you're here in Wisconsin for another day or so. Should we go get some cheese? Yes. I need more curds. I'm running a bit low. Yeah. You've been doing the curd gauntlet. I mean, just to date. I mean, I've been trying to give this guy, like, a sense of Wisconsin. Tell me if I did a good job. Yesterday we went to Fleet Farm. We went to Cabela's. We went to Menards. We went to 10 quick trips. We went to Lake Winnebago. Lake Winnebago. I stuck my hand in it. It was still okay. I could feel the sturgeons or whatever in there. The walleye? Oh, it was the walleye, yes. Then I took them to the Dells. We're going back to the Dells for dinner tonight. Super fun. I see you're wearing the flannel and you got your quick trip blaze orange hat. And I got my Menards shirt on as well. Menards shirt. Okay, I'm a happy papa now. I'm winning, guys. I'm winning, Wisconsin. I'm clocking it. And so cheese curds, thumbs up, thumbs down? Oh, a hundred thumbs up, yeah. Cheese curds are the greatest thing to come out of the state of Wisconsin or the United States in general. Perfect. I don't think you'll find an argument there. Let's go get some cheese, sir. Hell yes. All right, thank you, everybody. Let's hit the outro music. All right, it's Don on the Australian contingent. Thanks so much for coming by, buddy. Totally appreciate that. DonSpinballPodcast.gmail.com. Also, patreon.com backslash DonSpinballPodcast. I see you new people joining. I love it. We're going to get caught up on giveaways as soon as I recover from the Con Crud from Expo. From the worldwide headquarters of Don Spinball Podcast, Don out.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: c70cc2a6-d6d3-48cd-b648-b01688ccba1f*