# DPP#238 "Rumors from the Buckeye State!"

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-05-02  
**Duration:** 31m 50s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donspinballpodcast/episodes/DPP238-Rumors-from-the-Buckeye-State-e3ipsp1

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## Analysis

Don's Pinball Podcast episode 238 covers several major rumors and first-hand accounts from the pinball industry. Don discusses an unannounced remake debuting at Golden State Pinball Festival (May 15), speculates it could be Tales of the Arabian Nights from Pedretti/Euro Pinball Corp, reports rumors of Pinball Brothers licensing Fifth Element, anticipates a major Pokemon code update from Stern, and shares a detailed hands-on account of playing the newly-arrived Hexa Pinball Zone game, which he found to be in very early/buggy code state.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] An unannounced remake game will debut at Golden State Pinball Festival in Lodi, California on May 15 — _Don citing rumors spreading in Northern California/Nevada region, attributed to 'Pedretti' (Euro Pinball Corp)_
- [MEDIUM] The likely remake is Tales of the Arabian Nights from Pedretti/Euro Pinball Corp — _Don's speculation based on rumor patterns; cites it as #1 guess out of three options (American Pinball, Chicago Gaming, Euro Pinball Corp)_
- [LOW] Pinball Brothers has licensed Fifth Element as their next game — _Don heard from multiple sources after putting out initial inquiry; confirms excitement from underground Fifth Element fans_
- [HIGH] Pokemon from Stern is currently running beta-level code (version 0.7) with a major code update pending — _Don cites Kaneda's mention; describes game as 'beta version' with wizard mode and character modes, awaiting Pokemon Company licensing approvals_
- [HIGH] Hexa Pinball Zone arrived in North Canton, Ohio after being stuck in customs and bounced between operators — _Don's first-hand account of playing the game at Jeff's house in North Canton; notes game was supposed to debut at Texas Pinball Festival but was delayed by customs_
- [HIGH] Hexa Pinball Zone is currently in 'Kappa code' (pre-beta) state with significant bugs including non-functional cannon diverter and silent shot sequences — _Don's detailed hands-on play session; describes audio dropouts, missing callouts, and non-functional mechanics_
- [MEDIUM] Jaws is the best template for movie-themed pinball machines — _Don's opinion based on playing Jaws at a Northeast Ohio location; cites rich asset integration and gameplay flow_
- [HIGH] American Pinball is currently shipping Houdini machines — _Don notes American Pinball is actively getting Houdinis out, making Golden State debut less likely for them_

### Notable Quotes

> "So I've got, I don't know which game it is. I don't know which company's bringing it. But I've got a top three list."
> — **Don**, ~05:20
> _Sets up the mystery of the unreleased remake and Don's analytical approach to rumor identification_

> "Pokemon out right now, it's like playing the beta version of the game...I've downloaded the trial version. I want to now pay for the license and download the full game."
> — **Don**, ~26:15
> _Summarizes community perception of Pokemon as incomplete; high anticipation for code update_

> "Folks, if you are a pinball company and you're looking at making a pinball machine themed after a motion picture, Jaws is the template. That's it right there."
> — **Don**, ~24:50
> _Design philosophy opinion; establishes Jaws as industry standard for movie licensing integration_

> "This is like Kappa code. Like it ain't even up to beta yet, man."
> — **Don**, ~54:00
> _Characterizes Hexa Pinball Zone's code maturity level as severely pre-release_

> "I don't think that it is fair to this game to judge it right now...There's bugs in it, there's problems in it."
> — **Don**, ~53:15
> _Establishes context for cautious assessment despite poor first impression of Hexa Pinball Zone_

> "Wizards World is a building in the middle of like nowhere on the northern outskirts of Fort Wayne, Indiana. And when I say that they have everything like they have everything."
> — **Don**, ~49:20
> _Venue recommendation and description of comprehensive game collection at location_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Don | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast; pinball industry analyst and content creator based in California, currently traveling for work |
| Pedretti | person | Rumored to be associated with Euro Pinball Corp/Planetary; spreading hints about unreleased remake at Golden State Pinball Festival |
| Jeff | person | Owner of Mad Pinball headquarters in North Canton, Ohio; has Hexa Pinball Zone in garage |
| Kaneda | person | Referenced by Don for commentary on Pokemon being in beta/incomplete code state |
| Chris Tucker | person | Actor from Fifth Element; Don notes community would expect his character callouts if Pinball Brothers makes Fifth Element game |
| Golden State Pinball Festival | event | Pinball event in Lodi, California on May 15 where rumored remake debut is expected; features fairgrounds, exhibition hall, and campground with trailers |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major manufacturer; currently shipping Pokemon, Jaws, and other recent titles; anticipating large code update for Pokemon |
| Euro Pinball Corp | company | Italian manufacturer based in Milan; rumored to be developing Tales of the Arabian Nights remake; currently finishing Predator production |
| Pinball Brothers | company | Boutique manufacturer; recently ended Predator production; rumored to be developing Fifth Element as next title |
| American Pinball | company | Manufacturer actively shipping Houdini machines; has Circus Voltaire prototype in circulation |
| Chicago Gaming Company | company | Remake manufacturer; working on Theater of Magic; currently producing Merlin's Purple Potion editions |
| Hexa Pinball | company | European manufacturer shipping Hexa Pinball Zone to North America; game currently in pre-beta code state |
| Pokemon (Stern) | game | Fastest-selling Stern machine; currently version 0.7 with major code update pending Pokemon Company licensing approval |
| Hexa Pinball Zone | game | Recently arrived in Ohio after customs delays; very early code state with non-functional features; scheduled to appear at Pinfest Allentown |
| Tales of the Arabian Nights | game | Classic Williams game; rumored to be remade by Euro Pinball Corp/Pedretti for Golden State Pinball Festival debut |
| Fifth Element | game | Movie IP; rumored to be licensed by Pinball Brothers for upcoming game development |
| Jaws (Stern) | game | Stern title Don played and praised as template for movie-themed pinball with rich assets and gameplay |
| Wizard's World | venue | Pinball location in Fort Wayne, Indiana; northern outskirts; 200+ games including rare titles like Heavy Metal, Supreme, and full Stern library |
| Bomber's Barbecue | venue | Barbecue restaurant with pinball arcade in Crown Point, Indiana; features Harry Potter, Pokemon LE, Jaws, Twilight Zone |
| Mad Pinball | company | Company/operation in North Canton, Ohio where Hexa Pinball Zone is being housed and tested |
| Texas Pinball Festival | event | Event where Hexa Pinball Zone was supposed to make worldwide debut before customs delays |
| Pinfest Allentown | event | Pinball event in Allentown running this weekend (May); Hexa Pinball Zone expected to be on display |
| Flounder Skate Park | venue | Skate park in Valparaiso, Indiana; features 50-foot manual pad with Pennywise beat activation |

### Signals

- **[announcement]** Unannounced game remake expected to debut at Golden State Pinball Festival on May 15; specific title unconfirmed (confidence: medium) — Pedretti/Planetary spreading hints in Northern California region; Don's multi-source confirmation of event
- **[rumor_hype]** Pinball Brothers rumored to have licensed Fifth Element IP for next game; community expressing high excitement (confidence: low) — Don heard from multiple sources; describes 'fervor' among Fifth Element fans; no official confirmation
- **[code_update]** Pokemon (Stern) awaiting major code update; currently in v0.7 beta with wizard mode and character modes; full-game-worth of content pending Pokemon Company licensing approval (confidence: high) — Don's analysis citing delay attributed to licensing; community perception of current state as incomplete; Kaneda reference
- **[product_concern]** Hexa Pinball Zone arrived in very early pre-beta code state with non-functional mechanics, missing audio, and bugs; cannon diverter non-functional; moving targets not operating; audio dropouts throughout (confidence: high) — Don's detailed hands-on play session; describes as 'Kappa code' (pre-beta); notes concerning decision to show/sell game in this state
- **[supply_chain_signal]** Hexa Pinball Zone experienced significant customs delays and operator bouncing; game moved between multiple locations before reaching North Canton; missed Texas Pinball Festival debut (confidence: high) — Don's firsthand account; notes game was 'kicked around the country' between customs operators; comparison to typical Hexag import process suggesting streamlining needed
- **[design_philosophy]** Jaws established as industry template for movie-themed pinball machines; rich asset integration, callouts, and gameplay flow set standard (confidence: high) — Don's direct commentary comparing Evil Dead and other titles; personal play experience and enthusiastic endorsement
- **[venue_signal]** Wizard's World in Fort Wayne, Indiana documented as exceptional pinball venue with 200+ games including rare titles (Heavy Metal, Supreme, full Stern library); well-maintained equipment with toppers (confidence: high) — Don's detailed venue visit and endorsement; second visit; specific game inventory description
- **[product_launch]** Hexa Pinball Zone finally arriving in North America after Texas Pinball Festival cancellation; scheduled for Pinfest Allentown display this weekend (confidence: high) — Don's physical observation; game now in Ohio; current display logistics
- **[market_signal]** Remake games losing appeal; community FOMO declining as manufacturers rely on remake strategy; Twilight Zone remake demand evaporated despite years of requests (confidence: medium) — Don's commentary: 'remakes have kind of run their course...No one ever brought it...now it's like there's not a lot of...any people care anymore'
- **[competitive_signal]** Competitive pressure evident in manufacturer announcements: American Pinball shipping Houdini, Chicago Gaming producing Merlin editions, Euro Pinball Corp finishing Predator, Hexa delivering Zone; limited bandwidth across industry (confidence: high) — Don's analysis of which manufacturer could announce remake; specific production status citations
- **[gameplay_signal]** Hexa Pinball Zone: decent shot flow/hittability better than Space Hunt; launch button with power meter mechanic interesting but lacks initial interactive feedback; ramps functional but unspectacular; code severely impacts playability perception (confidence: high) — Don's gameplay observations from multiple plays; comparisons to Space Hunt and Spinal Tap; mechanical assessment
- **[content_signal]** Don's cross-platform content creation (podcast, venue visits, detailed commentary) demonstrates media coverage as key signal source for industry rumors and new release tracking (confidence: high) — Episode structure shows multi-source rumor gathering, venue documentation, hands-on previews, and community feedback solicitation

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## Transcript

From my lips to retro Ralph's desert dusty ears, it's Don's Pinball Podcast coming back to you like a hand screeching out from the crypt of the void to grab your cankles and let you know all about what's going on now in pinball. It's 238. I'm fired up. Let's go. Live mixing a pinball podcast is the way to do it. Ladies and gents, ladies and gents, 238. Let's go. It's pinball. It's Saturday. How's your Saturday going? Mine's going fantastically. Coming to you live from the road from the great Buckeye state of Ohio is Don's Pinball Podcast. I've been hearing some pinball rumors throughout this week. They've been dropping left and right. I played a brand new pinball game that for sure you have not. And I will tell you all about that. We'll get that and that and more. I'll tell you all about what I've been doing. I had one day off in the last 14 days here, and I packed a week's worth of fun into it. I'll get into that here a little bit later. But first off, I want to start with something that's kind of been bubbling under the surface, just like a hot pizza. Right. The cheese be bubbling, you know, you got the broiler on trying to brown that Parmesan crust. And this rumor has been that there's going to be this apparently brand new game that nobody's talking about yet. That's going to debut at a pinball show in Lodi, California on the 15th of May in like two weeks. Why isn't anybody talking about this? It's kind of slipped under the rug, man. Like I heard it. And then just as quickly as I heard it, I forgot about it. Well, it's back and I'm hearing a little bit more. Apparently, Planetary is running around the North Central Valley of California or Nevada or wherever the heck they're at, you know, spouting off little bits and stuff like, make sure you're at this Kwanzaa hut in Lodi, California for like the Golden State Pinball Festival. I've been invited to this festival every year by the folks out there. I'm from California. I've been to Lodi. And that's probably why I haven't excited to go back there because it wasn't like the greatest experience. Now, it's been 20 years. I'm sure the area is built up. I'm sure you can't find a home for under a million dollars. And listen, back in the day, you couldn't pay me a million dollars to go live in this part of California. But like, guess what? This is where the frontier is of affordable housing, such as it is in the Golden State. So this Pinball Festival, from what I understand it, I believe it takes place like at a fairgrounds. They have a big exhibition hall and then like a campground. Everybody brings their trailers. You know, the show is well attended. There's a lot of games to play. And then when the show closes for the day, everybody goes out into the trailer park campground and just rages till 3 a.m., right? People plugging in their generators. They've got their games out there. I think, was this the place where they had the two Metallicas hooked up to each other and, like, two people could play and you could tilt out your opponent? Like, it sounds wild. And so, like, of course, like, I want to go. But, like, I think I've spent more days outside of my house than inside it this year. I think that's a fact. Regardless, this new game is supposed to be there. Or Pedretti's dropping the rumors and hints to everybody in the local little geosphere of that location. So apparently it's a remake. And at this point, remakes have kind of run their course. It's hard to get excited about them. We were asking for Twilight Zone for years. No one ever brought it. And now it's like there's not a lot of, I don't think any people care anymore. Nevertheless, it's supposed to be something there. So I've got, I don't know which game it is. I don't know which company's bringing it. But I've got a top three list. I know the first thing to jump to your mind is maybe American Pinball is going to drag out one of those prototype Circus Voltares for everybody to play at Golden State, get hype, and then open the order banks and then try to sell a bunch of these crazy ringmaster creepy guy raising from the playfield games. Was that like one of those playground balls from the ball pit that dude just stuffed under that circular wire for him just to interact with the ball? It was the weirdest thing in a pinball machine. Nevertheless, you know, that was the first thing, you know, I would think of. But I'm not sure that that's going to happen because I don't think American Pinball needs to do that. They're making the Houdinis right now. They're getting them out. I think they could unveil and just bring it to whatever shows next. I don't know that Golden State is the one that they make or break for Circus Voltaire. Regardless, it's already been announced, though, you know, so it's like it wouldn't have like, oh, my God, did you see this new things out there? They're just like, oh, that's the first place to play it. And if it was going to be there to play from American Pinball, I think they'd already be hyping it up. Like, be sure to check out this game, order it right now. Here's all our distributors. And also, it'll be at the forthcoming Golden State Pinball Festival. Buy your tickets now. Get on down there. So for that reason, I don't think it's them. So that leaves me with, I don't know, like Chicago Gaming Company with Theater of Magic. This has been the other Bally Williams remake that's been, you know, everywhere. It's been more places than Twilight Zone has. And so, I mean, maybe. Now, it's CGC. They're doing another thousand of these Merlin's Purple Potion editions. You know, I don't know that they're ready to release something else, let alone, like, ready to build it. So I'm going to put that as like number two, probably more likely to happen than I think AP would be. But I don't think that's really what's happening. I think what's really what's happening was that words is a Padretti, our friends from northern Indiana, Italy. Same thing are for basically like the geo equivalent portion of like where Gary, Indiana is. That's kind of where Milan, Italy is, where like the Euro Pinball Corp headquarters are. So in Italy's version of Gary, Indiana, these guys are supposedly bolting together the last few of the Predators and then will be changing to. Are you ready for this? Tales of the Damn Arabian Nights of all the games to be rumored to remake. I mean, Twilight Zone is probably the one everybody wants. I mean, outside of Indiana Jones and Adam's family, of course. But I hear, you know, Totan, it looks good. It's the one I would want. Not that I really do. But if I did, of the ones that would generate some hype, this one would be up there. So I'm kind of excited. I think if something does happen, if Planetary is right with all their speculation, I think Theater Tales of the Arabian Nights, I think Pedretti is the one that's doing it. And I think that might be a golden state. Still seems kind of weird. You know, why wouldn't you do the same thing I'm anticipating American Pinball to be doing? And that is coming out and saying, hey, here's our new remake game. Here's the tier levels. Here's how we fix the code. Here's where you can order it. And here's the next show it's going to debut at. I think they would do it that way. I don't think they would just keep everything hush hush and then like, you know, throw a bunch of spotlights at a show with like apologies to show me 1500 people there. And like pull the sheet back and say now introducing Tales of the Arabian Nights. And then like somebody throws confetti in the air or something and blows an air horn. Like, I don't know. I don't know. But maybe, maybe. And I am excited for everybody at the show. Heck, I might even still go out there and get to play a new remake or whatever. But that's what I'm hearing there. So we'll lead off the show with that. Here's another rumor I didn't expect. Here's one I thought was complete BS when I heard it. And it's regarding everybody's favorite solo orphan, the Pinball Brothers. These people just put out, you remember, the Predator without any Predator assets, the wide body game that nobody could get excited about. Even though I think the layout was kind of fun, even though I'm hearing the code is kind of a mess, whatever, whatever's whatever. We know they ended orders on it. We know they ended production on it or is wrapping up production soon. So my guess is if Tales of the Arabian Nights is not currently eating up real estate over there at Euro Pinball Corp in Milan the Gary Indiana of Italy then I think this would be you know they would be next in line And when I tell you this man like this is ridiculous I don't know. Did I have a NAP report on this already? We heard about the Fifth Element being a rumored title from Barrels of Fun, right? Because they had one of the creatures in that Mythbusters guy's warehouse when they did the whole reveal for Labyrinth. And people got like seriously excited. Like this is I didn't know there was so many like underground Fifth Element fans. You know, I know people like like Die Hard. I never really got into it, but I get it. And like Fifth Element, like I've seen it and I like Chris Tucker's character. But I didn't know there was this like fervor behind like, no way they are making my dream pinball theme of Fifth Element. Right. Well, what I'm hearing and it wasn't just from one place either. Like as soon as I put this out there, like, are you guys hearing this? It was like, oh, yeah, dude. Like, yeah, I think that's happening. So did the Pinball Brothers license Fifth Element? Well, if they did, we know they don't have to worry about licensing Bruce because they don't go after the main character from the thing. Because this is your journey through Flotsam Paradise, right? Chris Tucker, Betty Beauty in there and doing movie call outs or something. We have to if they're doing this. So I don't know. Is the Pinball Brother, the dude over there, the one that hung around, are they really doing Fifth Element? Personally, I'm more excited about that, just the prospect of it, than I was for Predator because I wasn't a huge Predator fan or anything. But if they can load a game with Chris Tucker call-outs and then just show images of Bruce, maybe without talking, maybe without, maybe it could be fun. Maybe it could be fun. I know you're dismissing the Pinball Brothers, right? Like these guys haven't made a game that anybody's wanted ever. Queen was garbage. Alien was someone else's design. Predator, Preda don't, right? Remember ABBA. Yeah. ABBA, okay, terrible thing for pinball. Like, don't try to make a viable company and this is what you pick. That being said, tell me you haven't had fun playing ABBA. I know we've all had fun playing ABBA. It's like the Vespa motor scooter of pinball machines, right? Like, you don't want your friends to see you on one, but like, you'll knock it around and have a good time on it. And you won't be mad when someone drags her to your house. Am I right? I had an ABBA in my house and damn it if we didn't have a fun time on it. So I think there is potential there. If you can build me something that is a little bit more complex than ABBA, a little wide body that shoots a little better, load it with some Chris Tucker. I might be willing to meet you halfway and at least consider like this being a good idea. I'm excited now, man. This is new Pinball. I want to see it. So when are we going to see this thing? Haven't heard. I have no idea like who brought this rumor out. Who was there asking like, OK, finally, we're done with Predator. What do the Pinball brothers have to bring us next? Jengiz, are you in on this? This guy, man, he won't tell me nothing. His mouth is an iron lint trap, but supposedly he's in cahoots with these folks just trying to see if they can maybe launch things a little bit better next time or push a little bit harder for some assets or work to keep that price under 10,000 euro dollar dues or whatever they have. You know what I mean? So I haven't heard anything of confirmation of this. I haven't heard timing on this. But Fifth Element from Pinball Brothers. Did that get your little tendrils twiggling? Y'all let me know. Let me know down there in the comments. All right. What I think the next game that I'm most excited about, and probably if you were to poll people and they did like they filled in the Scantron bubble sheet, I think the next game release that the most people in Pinball are excited about is actually the code update for Pokemon, right? This game came out from Stern Pinball, Stern Pinball's touting that this is their fastest selling Pinball machine that they have made. Not the greatest in numbers. That still goes to Godzilla. Godzilla hit, probably didn't generate a ton of excitement right away, but as people played it, we all know, we all ordered it, man. Everybody had a Godzilla, and it's still in demand because it's still an incredible game with nuanced gameplay and nice flow and a good mix of a lot of fun mechanisms and spinners and gameplay. And then it's funny as well with the call-outs. You can play it in Japanese. It's kind of a perfect game. Side note, so is Jaws, man. Played that game yesterday up here in Northeast Ohio. And yeah, hell of a game. I walk in, I get a quarter billion points. I caught the Thresher Shark. I'm playing through modes. I'm just having such a great time playing this game with all of its assets. Folks, if you are a pinball company and you're looking at making a pinball machine themed after a motion picture, Jaws is the template. That's it right there. You know, I think Jaws, I think Evil Dead, you know, find the callouts and everything and jam them in there, man. Jaws is just such a just a fun to play game. And I was just playing the pro. I didn't even have the upper play field or anything. I didn't even have the drop targets. And I still had such a great, impressive time on it. Now, Pokemon is no Jaws for sure. But my hope is that it can be loaded with so much of the content from the TV show, the callouts, gameplay moments, fun little things to do, fun hurry ups that can pop up. Uh, leveling systems, catching 182 Pokemon. Like there's so much more to this game. And I think Kaneda was right when he mentioned it, that Pokemon out right now, it's like playing the beta version of the game. A couple of multi balls in there. There's a wizard mode in there. You can play each of the characters modes and that's it, you know? And so like, we've all played it several times now. We're having fun with it. We're ready for more. All right. I've downloaded the trial version. I want to now pay for the license and download the full game. That's what I want. And so because of the delay with the Pokemon Company, I don't think that this code drop is going to be just, you know, OK, we're going from 0.7 to 0.74. I think there's a lot of things that are planned for this game, a lot of things that are already coded in this game, and a lot of things are just waiting for the Lich Pin to be lifted to come on out. And so as soon as I get those approvals, whenever they happen, I think the Stern's going to go over, flip the switch, this thing's going to go out, and, you know, Pokemon machines across the country are suddenly going to go dark, download, And pop up in a magical world of mayhem. So that's why I'm saying that this is a game that's about to drop because it's kind of like a game's worth of code. The reason that I'm calling Pokemon a whole code drop is because right now in that box of lights is a beta version of code. And I feel like there is an entire game's worth of code that's about to come out and drop. So I'm excited for that. The thing is, I don't think we have to wait till June for the next turn Cornerstone release or for Sonic the Hedgehog to get this. This could come any day. Hey, this could come now. This could come 10 minutes from now. This could come 15 minutes from now, 20 minutes from now. Stern, whenever you're ready, you go ahead and drop that guy because I'm going to download. I want to play that stuff. But I think there's so much coming from this. And I've played Stern machines that have had simpler layouts before. Monsters with its simple code, Deadpool, Bond. And they were so richly treated with code that it completely changed the game, literally, of the box of $1,000, $10,000 lights that we all love. And playing pinball. So super excited to see what goes on about that. Maine story time. Hello, everybody. How are you doing? My name's Don. I travel for work. It seems like way too freaking much. I was out in Maine for 10 days. Went up to Quebec several times. I do love me some New Brunswick. I had a good time. I saw some moose. Thankfully, I'm done. 10 grueling days, right? I finished. And then I had one golden day off before another four or five day stretch up here in Ohio, which is now thankfully almost done. But what did I do with my one day off? I don't waste any time, man. When I'm working a lot and I finally do get a time off, I'll just go home and kickback and sit back and read like I probably should. I jam pack as much fun and flavor in there as I possibly can. So here's my itinerary for my one day off. I don't know. I think it was a Sunday or something. It might have been a Monday. Could have been a Tuesday. It was Wednesday. It was for sure Wednesday. Here's what happened. I boarded a plane at around 5 a from Bangor Maine flew myself to Chicago landed actually got my bag back super quickly got into my car headed on down the road picked up a sandwich and then before I knew it I was off playing some pinball I was down there in Crown Point, Indiana? Yeah, I believe it was Indiana. I crossed over Indiana, went down south below the Indiana equivalent of Milan, Italy, and then went to Crown Point. I played some pinball at this place called, what was it called? It was like pig themed. Bomber's Barbecue. They got two locations. Crown Point was one of them. So I was at a pot belly sandwich getting myself a BLT with some extra pork on it. And then I was like, you know, I got some time to kill here. Is there any pinball nearby? And lo and behold, this barbecue place was just about to throw its doors open. I go in there and these knuckleheads, they got a Harry Potter arcade edition sitting right next to a Pokemon limited edition ready to go. I believe there was a Jaws there, a handful of the typical Sterns, a Twilight Zone at the end. So like I'm like, great. I'll just go play some bonus Twilight Zone, play some Harry Potter, get my photo up there on the machine. Had a fantastic time. Didn't get any of the meat there because I'd already met my meat quota for the week. But I did see some of their food being served. Looked pretty good. You're in the area. Maybe you check it out. I got a text from my homeboy, Ryan. He's like, bro, stop what you're doing. Costco has logo merchandise right now. He showed me some pictures of like a Costco white shirt and a black shirt, a blazing with the Costco logo. And I'm like, bet. So I turned around, headed up to Costco. The one that was there did not have it, but I did pick up some new flip flops. If you want the new Flo Joes for this season, they're over there. $14.99. I grabbed myself. So I'm set for this summer with some brand new flops, man. They're super cushy. All right. So we head out of Costco. Where am I going next? I went over to Valpo, Indiana. Valparaiso, as it's known. So I hit up Havoc. I found it on my maps. It was on the way. Met this dude that owns a shop. Got myself a complete. Built it from scratch. Had a great time. There's a skate park right up the street, Flounder Skate Park, shredded the hell out of that gnar, man. I got caught up with like two months of like missing skating. It's a freaking winter, dude. It was it was a good time. It was a brutal time. I nailed my kickflip, which is what I went there for. And then just, you know, tooled around the bowls and stuff. This was super cool. They built this place to commemorate a local skater from the area. And if you know skateboarding, they had a manual pad there that was a length of like 50 feet or something with sidewalk cuts in it. That when you pull off an Ollie Manual across the whole pad, it goes out to the beat of a Pennywise song. It was so dope. I hit it first try with witnesses. We're just having a great day here in Valpo, Indiana. I wasted like two hours there and then it was heading off east. I had to go to Ohio to work the next day. I was making my way out, just trying to make the most of my day. And I noticed that right between where I'm at and where I'm going is Fort Wayne, Indiana, which I don't know. It's equivalent to Verona, Italy, probably. We're doing Italian and Indiana conversions comparisons. And Fort Wayne, Indiana, as we all should know, is home to Wizards World, one of the greatest location pinball places in the country. I know there's biggies, man. I've been to Next Level. I've been to Interium. I haven't been to that place down near Savannah, Georgia, Pinball Palace. I haven't yet been to Rob Burke's place, but Wizards World put that on the list of like awesome places to go. Oh, I've been to both electric bats also. So like Wizards World is a building in the middle of like nowhere on the northern outskirts of Fort Wayne, Indiana. And when I say that they have everything like they have everything, they don't have any spooky games, but they got everything else, including tons of Sterns from the entire library. If you want to go play Rolling Stones, it's over there. I went over and played Shrek for a while. They got a couple versions of Jurassic Park, lots of EMs, lots of new games, old games, a couple versions of games, lots of LEs on locations. Nearly all of them have the toppers as well. It's one of the few locations I know of that I can just show up and play Heavy Metal. Heavy Metal is like a white label game that Stern put out. The music's incredible. It has the same layout of like the Star Wars Home Edition game that they put out. But the thing is, it's built with, you know, like more substantial materials, not built like a home version. So if you always kind of dug that George Gomez layout, which I have, and you want to play like a full-time version of it or like a full-build version of it, Heavy Metal is the way to go. I think Supreme's the same way, but I still haven't found one of those available to play. But damn it, Heavy Metal is just a fun little game. It's a curiosity in the lineage of Stern. I wouldn't mind having one, but short of that, I like that I can go to Wizard's World and play it. You know, they have their Pokemons there. Everything's got toppers on it. I played a Batman 66, SLE with the topper on location, quarter drop. Like, it's a cool spot, man. It's a cool spot. It's my second time going there. Go check it out. So I went in. I played some Shrek. I played some Batman 66. I played – I had a choice. I had a choice of playing Heavy Metal or Merlin's Arcade, and I had to do Heavy Metal, and then that was the last of my dollars I had to leave. But I'm going to go back. There's a turnaround location there. That's super cool. So, like, if you're crossing through the area, if you're taking the Illinois or Indiana Turnpike, it's not that far of a detour to dip down and check out Wizard's World. It's, like, just a hall of pinball, super chill vibes. They got a little snack counter. You can go get yourself a drink. There's a change machine. It's a quarter drop. But just a cool place, man. Not huge, but, like, there's 200-plus games in there or something crazy. I love it. I dig it there. So the locals know. The locals know. All right. But the whole mission for the rest of the day was to get my butt out to North Canton, Ohio, because I heard tell of a brand new game that just released, like freshly released, like fresh out the box, fresh out the cell. And I got a chance to play it over at my homie's house. So I headed to the Mad Pinball headquarters in North Canton, Ohio. I'm like, dude, Jeff, is it real? And he's like, it's real. I'm like, Jeff, is it happening? And he's like, it's happening. I roll into the garage of the Angelia State there and boom, there she is. Hexa Pinball Zone right next to Space Hunt, the Three Musketeers. This legendary game that was supposed to be at the Texas Pinball Festival making its worldwide debut and then was locked into customs. I heard more of the story. It wasn't just that it was sitting on a dock in Galveston waiting to get let out. No, this game was getting bounced around from like customs operator to customs operator. It's in Ohio. It's in this state. It's over here. It's over there. Like this game went through hell to try to get here. My hope is that's not how every game imported from Hexag goes. It's got to get more streamlined than that. But luckily, this thing finally made it out the box. It didn't make it in time for even Pinbrew, but like it was fresh out and I got to play the dang thing. And right now, I believe the game is over at Pinfest in Allentown, which is going on this weekend. It's Saturday. It's going on right now. Game should be there. My hope is that it holds up. Don, what do you want to know about this game? All right. I don't think that it is fair to this game to judge it right now. I mean, well, you can judge the layout. You can judge the mechanisms and stuff. But like we talked about beta code being in Pokemon. This is like Kappa code. Like it ain't even up to beta yet, man. And this is you this guy. I don't even know if I can do a first impressions because like like there's bugs in it, like there's there's problems in it. There like one of the modes works The other ones kind of don like audio comes in and out You can tell that there spots where there going to be call outs but it just silence you know like you playing the game and like that little moving ship target it just kind of chilling not moving And when you hit the target like there nothing Like, the score goes up, but there's not, like, sounds. There's not, like, lights with a lot of things. So it's, like, the whole vibe of playing this game is very boring, right? First off, like, that's what I came, you know, I played it maybe five times. I could have played it 30, and I just didn't want to. You know, I'm playing, it shoots okay. It shoots better than Space Hunt, I think. Not the perfect flowing game. It's definitely not an Elwynn. It's a step better than Space Hunt was. All the shots are hittable, so it's not like a complete disaster like Spinal Tap. I don't care if I ever never play that game again. But, you know, the game plays okay as far as you're able to hit the shots and stuff. There is a little bit of jank in the ramp. I think through its customs adventure, a little bit of damage occurred and was repaired. So, again, like it's hard to do a report on how this game is based on this one beaten, battered child that crossed the Atlantic and then got kicked around the country. But there were things I liked about the game. Okay, it's got a launch button, so that's new. Space Hunt had the Spheris shooter rod. But they do that whole gimmick where like you hold the button down to build up a power meter and the more powerful it is, you let go and it shoots. And so me, I walk up and I'm like, I want to play the game, push the button, boom. A ball goes up halfway, the in-lane launch area and just kind of rolls back down the shooter lane. And so I hit it again and it does the same thing and I'm like, what the heck? And then bro in the back is like, dude, hold the button down. Now when you hold the button down, it's got expression type lights with a nice frosted light diffuser on it. They're inside the cabinet just like Stern does, but it's linear. And so when you hold it, this warm yellow glow and this rising crescendo of like music or sounds builds as the lights build on each side. So that's a cool effect. Like that's your strength bar. I dig that. And then when you let go, there's a cannon blast that goes off and then the ball shoots and then it makes it around just fine. But walking up to it, there was nothing interactive to tell me that that's what would happen. The way that I would fix that is simply with code. If you walk up there, just tap the button, just boom, you get full strength plunge, boom, ball goes, launches. I think that would help solve a lot of people's first times playing it, having some questions on why isn't this thing clear in the shooter lane. Okay, so that's that. The ramps, ramps are okay. There's one right up in the middle. There's one to the right that's backhandable. There's one to the left. There's a building that's up there with some drop targets underneath it. When you shoot under, there's like two different ways it can go. One pops up to a very short little horseshoe wire for them and then drops back down. Kind of neat that it's there. It doesn't really do anything kinetically terribly satisfactory. The other one does, of course, a ball return to the left flipper. And there is a cannon there. There is a diverter that's there. It was not coded and was not working. So that'll be there at some point. Apparently, it'll do the ACDC thing, load the cannon, go across the play field and shoot the music. There was one song. The one song sounded like an AI version of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, like starting with some orchestral and then you bring in like the guitars. And it was like, fine. And I'm like, did somebody design this or is this AI? And I think that's AI. Now, again, could all be a placeholder, man. The music can always be improved. The code definitely will be improved. I don't even think there's a functional ball search here yet. And so my concern with this game is showing it in this state and then trying to solicit orders based on the strength of how it's playing now. Now, I know that this game is probably already at Allentown and okay, but I think I would have kept it and maybe I would have released this game at Golden State, you know, just to give the team a little bit of time to get a little bit more functional code in there. So the game can really show off. I mean, at least have it so that every mechanism in the game at least does something right. The ship target should do something. You should be able to get in and play with the cannon. When you load the physical ball lock, whether it's two ball or three ball, it should be consistent. When you're in a multiball and one ball drains and then the whole game goes dark is kind of a problem. Look at all the little code things, you know? Like if you invited me in to see your game, it's like pre-production, okay, sign the NDA, come play this, tell me what you think, and I saw this, I'd be like, yeah, that's appropriate, right? Here's my thoughts on what I think you could do to improve it. Thank you so much for letting me come in. But like asking for money based on how this is playing now, I don't think that's going to be in the best interest of sales. You know, when you release a pinball machine in this market, you want it to come out and be a flash and capture like those first two weeks of orders where people are like, there's something brand new. It's exciting. Are you getting one? If I get one, if I order right now, I know I'll be able to get it soon. If I wait, I might have to wait a year if I decide I want it later. The whole FOMO business, right? And I think if anything was an antidote to FOMO Viagra, like this is it, releasing a game that just the code is just not ready. So I played worse games, you know, it's an original theme, so you can't ask for like a ton unless you're putting a ton of effort in it. And it doesn't look like it's really got like a lot of punchy characters, like barely any dialogue, a couple of call outs from this nice lady, which I dug. I just wish there was more of it. So I want to see more from this game. It's a curiosity at this point. Right now I can imagine afternoon, Saturday, probably busiest day of the show. There's probably a line of 20 people waiting to play this thing. The game's probably playing really long or the game is getting stuck. The glass has to come off. Everything's got to reset and then play again. So I think people are going to wait a long time to play this, and I don't think their experience is going to be as good as literally anything else that's already on the floor. Like, you know, if you could turn around and go pick up a Deadpool premium with a topper for $6,000, I don't know why you're coming in and getting this based on this. That's my take. So an early first impression, I think, is appropriate. I don't even think I would call it like a real first impression, let alone a review. But the game is out there. I encourage you to play it. I hope Hexa keeps going so they can bring out something of substance. I love the idea of having games made in Europe for the European market. Poor guys have to pay all these tariffs and stuff from the absolute bombs that we are dropping here in the United States when it comes to awesome, awesome games. So, like, they deserve to have their own homegrown artistic flair style. Not every game has to be made in the same style of a U.S. game. I'd love to see what Japan would do with a pinball machine. I would love to see what a pinball machine concepted and dreamed up and assembled in India looks like. I would love to see that. So let's hope that someday we get to a nice rivalry between the U.S. and Europe as far as strength of games and that will only benefit us, the pinball players, with more complexity and more fun stuff to play. I'm all about it. What else is coming up in the near future? Well, we got Sonic Hedgehog around the corner. We got another Stern release around the corner. When's this Pokemon code coming up? What else is going on, Don? We now have something to say about it. I will bring it straight to you. So thank you, shout out to Retro Ralph, all the podcasters out there across the podcast landscape that make this hobby so interesting and give me, I'm going to go in and out of Macho Man, give me something interesting to listen to when I'm on these long road trips. Guys, I'm heading home to Benton tomorrow. I'm going to go over there and build the crap out of my Beetlejuice and then drag that sucker home and I'm going to be in the undead party just like everybody else. Y'all be cool. You'll hear from me. Oh, Pinball's fun, man. This was great. Email me, donspinballpodcast at gmail.com. Join the Patreon, patreon.com backslash donspinballpodcast. Join the Discord, join the Facebook group, whatever. You can even send me your mail. Send me fun stuff. Mail me a cheeseburger, whatever. It's P.O. Box 92, Benton, Wisconsin, 53803. And it'll go right to me, man. Wrap that cheeseburger up really good if you do send it to me. I don't want to get, like, too rotten. All right, guys. Talk to you later. Be cool. Pinballs. Keep it flippin'.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v5)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-06-06 | Item ID: ca8ed67b-3d54-46a2-8a56-4cc58caf28ac*