# DPP #122 "We got Wicked! How fun is funhouse?"

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-05-12  
**Duration:** 35m 38s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/donspinballpodcast/episodes/DPP-122-We-got-Wicked--How-fun-is-funhouse-e2ji19m

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## Analysis

Don discusses the John Wick pinball release from Stern, reflecting on how gameplay livestreams improved his initial impression of the game's mechanics (car bash toy, weapons crate, drop target). He covers accessory delays, Venom LE scarcity concerns, distributor sales uptick post-livestream, and announces a first-play livestream event at IO Arcade in Madison on May 13th. He also critiques Pinburgh Entertainment's Funhouse remix teaser strategy and expresses skepticism about its market appeal compared to other classic remakes.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] Jack Danger's second ball performance on John Wick during the livestream was impressive enough to have sold at least 200 units — _Don's estimation based on livestream gameplay quality; not quantified sales data_
- [MEDIUM] John Wick is positioned above Venom and roughly at Bond level in terms of gameplay appeal — _Don's comparative assessment after watching livestream gameplay_
- [HIGH] Stern expression light kits are delayed due to supply chain/component limitations — _George Gomez acknowledged the accessory delay issue in recent interview; Don speculates on component bottleneck_
- [MEDIUM] Venom LE production may not reach the full 1,000 unit cap, potentially making it rare — _Don speculates based on Jaws/Venom LE inventory levels; not confirmed_
- [MEDIUM] Distributor sales for John Wick increased noticeably following the Jack Danger livestream — _Jeff from Ed Pinball confirmed to Don that sales went up after the livestream_
- [HIGH] Stern is currently producing Pro and Premium John Wicks; Pros won't run again until August — _Don cites production timeline information from Stern_
- [HIGH] John Wick car is custom-designed by George Gomez and is approximately twice the size Don initially thought — _Don observed in livestream gameplay compared to reveal trailers_
- [MEDIUM] Funhouse remix release timing (same week as John Wick) is poor marketing strategy — _Don's editorial opinion on release scheduling_

### Notable Quotes

> "there was a moment watching that live stream... Jack's second ball, he got a couple of multi-balls in there... it was just like excitement, and he's getting the achievements and things. And I was like, man, this game."
> — **Don**, ~15:00
> _Describes pivotal moment where livestream viewing changed his impression of John Wick_

> "If I was a distributor, I'd really be careful pulling in Venom LEs... especially if I got Venom LEs still new in box."
> — **Don**, ~45:00
> _Speculates on distributor caution regarding LE inventory and potential scarcity_

> "I said it at the time, that second ball that Jack Danger played during that live stream had to sell at least 200 John Wicks. Had to."
> — **Don**, ~50:00
> _Quantifies perceived impact of livestream gameplay on sales_

> "George just come out and be pretty up front with things. Like hey where the heck are the accessories for these games... he's like I know we're really failing at that. It really sucks and we're trying to fix it."
> — **Don**, ~70:00
> _Characterizes George Gomez as transparent about Stern's known production issues_

> "Maybe they're better than I am, and they're going to push me to become better... Shout-out to B. Kong. Welcome to the pinball atmosphere."
> — **Don**, ~60:00
> _Welcomes new content creators (B-Kong) to pinball media space_

> "It's our Comic Con, guys. Come to Pinball Expo... It's the 40th year of Expo."
> — **Don**, ~65:00
> _Promotes Pinball Expo as major community event; notes milestone year_

> "Funhouse with freaking creepy Rudy and his scratchy voice... I just don't see this as compelling for me. I would buy a Cactus Canyon before I buy this."
> — **Don**, ~115:00
> _Expresses skepticism about Funhouse remake's market appeal_

> "Why release a teaser trailer for your remix of Funhaus. We already know Funhaus... Just release the one sheet, man."
> — **Don**, ~105:00
> _Criticizes Pinburgh Entertainment's marketing strategy for Funhouse_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Don | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast; Stern collector planning rotating purchase strategy; planning John Wick first-play livestream at IO Arcade Madison May 13 |
| George Gomez | person | Creative director/product development lead at Stern Pinball; recently gave extensive interview to Flippin' Out With Friends acknowledging accessory delays |
| Jack Danger | person | Pinball designer/personality; delivered impressive second ball performance on John Wick during Stern livestream that Don credits with boosting distributor sales |
| Joel Engelberg | person | Host of Flippin' Out With Friends podcast; conducted recent hour-long interview with George Gomez on John Wick and Stern operations |
| Jeff (Ed Pinball) | person | Distributor/sponsor of Don's Pinball Podcast; confirmed to Don that John Wick sales increased post-livestream |
| B-Kong | person | New pinball content creator emerging from One-Up Arcade community; Don welcomes to pinball media landscape |
| John Wick (Stern Pinball) | game | Newly released Stern Pinball game; features custom car bash toy, weapons crate diverter, pop-up drop target in nightclub; positioned above Venom, comparable to Bond in appeal |
| Venom (Stern Pinball) | game | Previous Stern release; potentially underproduced on LE tier; comparison point for John Wick reception |
| Funhouse Remix (Pinburgh Entertainment) | game | Remake of 1991 Pat Lawlor classic; Brian Allen art variant; Don criticizes release timing (same week as John Wick) and questions market viability |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; currently producing John Wick; acknowledged accessory production delays; known for expression light delays |
| Pinburgh Entertainment | company | Manufacturer of Funhouse remix; Don criticizes teaser release strategy |
| Flippin' Out With Friends | organization | Podcast hosting George Gomez interview; generated thousands of views and industry discussion about John Wick and Stern operations |
| IO Arcade (Madison) | organization | Location hosting Don's first John Wick livestream May 13, 7pm CT; described as having cool Wisconsin pinball scene participants |
| Interium | organization | Location Don may visit briefly on May 13 if premium John Wick is available; scheduling conflict with livestream |
| Pinball Expo | event | 40th anniversary year of major pinball community event; Don considers booth participation |
| Loser Kid Podcast | organization | Featured George Gomez interview; Don plans to listen during upcoming 8-hour drive |
| Pinball Nerds Podcast | organization | Hosted by Orby; planned to feature 'five rads and one bads' commentary on John Wick |
| Expression Lights | product | Stern accessory with significant supply chain delays; Don purchased aftermarket Neon Concert X strips as alternative for Foo Fighters; anticipated for future games |
| Neon Concert X Strips | product | Aftermarket LED lighting alternative from Penn Stadium; Don purchased for Foo Fighters but game subsequently sold before installation |
| One-Up Arcade | organization | Community entering pinball media space; B-Kong emerged from this community |

### Topics

- **Primary:** John Wick Pinball Launch and Reception, Stern Manufacturing Delays and Supply Chain Issues, Pinball Game Mechanics and Design (car bash toy, drop targets, diverters), Livestream Impact on Sales and Community Perception, Limited Edition Production and Scarcity (Venom LE)
- **Secondary:** Pinball Media and Content Creation Landscape, Funhouse Remake and Classic Game Revivals, Pinball Collector Strategy and Game Rotation Purchasing

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.62) — Don is enthusiastically positive about John Wick after livestream and welcomes new community members, but expresses frustration with accessory delays, skepticism about Funhouse viability, and uncertainty about his own purchasing decision given three-tier pricing model. Overall tone is engaged and optimistic about pinball ecosystem despite identified pain points.

### Signals

- **[sentiment_shift]** Positive reception of new content creators (B-Kong) entering pinball media space; Don welcomes expanded community participation (confidence: medium) — Don: 'Maybe they're better than I am... Shout-out to B. Kong. Welcome to the pinball atmosphere. There's plenty of room for everybody'
- **[design_philosophy]** Don expresses skepticism about Funhouse remake's theme appeal compared to alternatives like Cactus Canyon or Whirlwind (confidence: medium) — Don: 'I would buy a Cactus Canyon before I buy this' and questions 'are there, like, big Funhaus fans? Like, people that are just like, that is my dream theme game'
- **[event_signal]** Pinball Expo reaching 40th anniversary milestone with Don considering booth participation (confidence: high) — Don: 'this is the 40th year of Expo... I might even have a booth there. More on that as it develops'
- **[market_signal]** Distributor sales increased noticeably for John Wick following Jack Danger livestream performance (confidence: medium) — Jeff from Ed Pinball confirmed to Don that 'sales went up' after the livestream; Don speculates the performance 'had to sell at least 200 John Wicks'
- **[market_signal]** Pinburgh Entertainment's Funhouse remix teaser strategy criticized as poor timing (simultaneous with John Wick launch) and insufficient product detail (confidence: high) — Don states: 'How do you release a game when Stern's releasing a game?' and criticizes lack of art/specifications: 'Show us what the art's going to look like'
- **[market_signal]** Don expresses uncertainty about three-tier pricing model (Pro/Premium/LE) and whether Premium upgrades justify $3,000 premium cost over Pro (confidence: high) — Don deliberates: 'are they that much compelling than the pro... are they really going to make all 1,000... I just don't know what to do'
- **[product_strategy]** Don purchased aftermarket Neon Concert X LED strips as alternative to delayed Stern expression lights, anticipating future game compatibility (confidence: high) — Don purchased Penn Stadium strips for Foo Fighters installation but game sold before use; holding strips for potential Metallica LE compatibility
- **[product_strategy]** Venom LE may have underproduced on 1,000-unit cap, potentially becoming rare; distributors cautious about inventory (confidence: medium) — Don notes: 'if Venom ends up being one of the most rare games produced' and speculates distributors with unsold Venom/Jaws LEs should be careful pulling new stock
- **[sentiment_shift]** Don's assessment of John Wick improved significantly after watching gameplay livestream compared to initial reveal trailer impressions (confidence: high) — Don stated: 'my impressions initially from the trailers has matured after watching that live stream' and upgraded his perception 'several notches' higher
- **[supply_chain_signal]** Expression light accessories significantly delayed with unknown component bottleneck; George Gomez acknowledged failure to meet expectations (confidence: high) — George acknowledged: 'I know we're really failing at that. It really sucks and we're trying to fix it'; Don speculates on limiting reagent components

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## Transcript

 I'm ready for more podcast time. Are you ready for more podcast time? It's Saturday night. Let's get in on some dons. Pinball. Pizzod. Kizzast. I think we're up to episode 122. I don't know. Still on the road? But we're recovering from the wick onslaught. Let's get to it. Put the guns away, kids. Pinball is a game. To some, it's a pastime. To others, it's a chance to go shirts versus skins amongst your family members. What's up, everybody? pinball is the game that we play sometimes in our home, sometimes on location, sometimes just an excuse to argue with people online. I'm basking in the afterglow of the WIC release from Stern. I thought it was incredible. Man, what an energetic 48 hours or whatever it's been since we got that release. I guess we're at the tail end of the week now. It's all out there. George Gomez is all doing his interviews everywhere. I haven't listened to the Loser Kids yet. It's on the list. I haven't even gotten to the Pinball Nerds podcast take on it, the five rads and one bads. I did listen to Joel Engelberth, handsome bearded male that he is, his Flip N Out Pinball with Friends podcast. I got through that today. I'm working from the road, man, in between shoveling piles of garbage. I'm watching garbage from the Internet about pinball machines. But I did check that out, so I want to comment on that. But we've had a chance to take it all in now. We've had a chance to take the wick in. Is this going to be another Venom? Is it going to be more of a trajectory like Bond where it comes out and it's a little, oh, okay. And then it's like, well, this code is amazing. Is this like Greg Bone was saying in the pinball show, the second coming of Godzilla? That's like hyperbole of the highest order versus like it's just going to be another Venom. Who knows where this thing is going to land? But I will tell you this, after watching the gameplay live stream, this game jumped several notches in my belt. Now, I don't know where it started to begin with. I don't know what kind of relative scale that I'm measuring this. But definitely a couple notches have been climbed because, man, that was a high-intensity four-player games we were watching. Jack Danger came out there, and there was a moment. There was a moment watching that live stream. I usually don't watch these entire things. I kind of skim through, get a sense of what's going on. but I really want to get out there and play the game in person. But this one, again, maybe it helped because I was at work, sitting around getting paid to watch pinball, but I watched dang near the whole thing. It took me a couple hours here and there to watch it. But there was a point where Jackie Boy came out there, and his first ball was okay. He had an incredible second ball on the John Wick limited edition game that they were playing. I think George Gomez was in on that one. Elliot Iseman, I think, was playing too. and then the Tim Sexton guy, right? So they were just all kicking butt. But his, Jack's second ball, he got a couple of multi-balls in there. I think the Tim Sexton man was there kind of coaching him from the side, and it was just like excitement, and he's getting the achievements and things. And I was like, man, this game. I've seen the layout and everything, but seeing it, not in person, but in a stream format where there was more of a sense of scale, the game looks pretty fun okay so the car was about twice as big as what i had pictured just from the review trailers that reveal trailers that car that comes out that uh it's not really a mustang it's not really a charger just kind of amalgamation of a bunch of um unlicensed vehicle parts thrown together um it's about i thought it was gonna be like a matchbox car i thought you know somebody call american pinball one of their hot wheels has gotten out you know was what i was thinking, but it turns out it's like twice as big as that. It's a custom skull. George talked about it and designed this thing. And it swings out, it drifts there, it functions as a bash toy in a couple of different formations. Plus, it functions as a ball lock, it functions as a diverter. It's a cool piece of tech. It's not the crumbling building from Godzilla. It's not an animatronic dinosaur. It's not even a shark popping up from under the play field, a little peekaboo shark. But it was much cooler than I was led to believe from just the release trailers and everything. You know, I'm not Win Schilling or jump to shill levels of this game like go out and buy one now. I'm just commenting that my impressions initially from the trailers has matured after watching that live stream. Also, the weapons crate, which I thought was like a little Sucret's box or one of those curiously strong mints. Do they still exist? What the hell were they even called? You know, Altoids. The little Altoids tin, which was what I thought it was sized at, it's a little bit bigger than that too. And it looks kind of fun. Who thought bashing an Altoids tin would be a compelling gameplay element for a pinball machine? But gosh dang it if it didn't look like fun to slap that thing around. And then it pops open, and then you can bash up against it, too. Now, the Pro, it's just going to be fixed in one place. It's not going to open and close, whatever. But, like, a little Altoids diverter. Like, it's kind of neat. It's kind of neat. Again, it's not a crumbling building. It's not a Mechagodzilla with a magnet in its belly. You know, I don't want to, like, say that this is the second coming of Godzilla. I think this was a bridge too far there. But this is a heck of a lot better than whatever that dragon tank was in Bond. I think that's more compelling than that. And it functions as a little diverter. It pops up, and then now you can throw a ball down in there. And then it's probably reusing the same VUX system and the same wire form that you see on Bond with the JB-8 or WB-3 or WC Fields or whatever the name of that car was for the ejection ramp. There's a lot of little parts recycled from other games cobbled together to make this game. but you know they all seem to work again I'm not saying that this game is a second coming of Godzilla or even really Foo Fighters even though it's got the ramp from Foo Fighters but it did look a lot better than what I initially thought from just watching the trailer and such case in point the little pocket watch that pops open the blood omen token that's kind of cool I mean I don't feel any better about that than I did when I saw it I will tell you so what jumped several orders of magnitude though is the stinking drop target right so when we're looking at the differences between the pro premium and LE one of the things that's missing on the pro that's on the premium LE is the pop up drop target before that like nightclub area which actually has a pop bumper a bunch of stand up targets and a sling back there so there's like some nice back and forth pop pop pop pop pop pop but you know the drop target pops up and then acts as a kind of a captive ball newton target is there even a term for that like a a drop target that functions as like a little bash Newton ball kind of thing. A Newton target, I'll call it, until somebody can correct me. A similar thing was on that tricky little shot from Guardians of the Galaxy with the orb, where you can lock a ball back there and then bash it around. Although this time, when you bash the ball backwards, it can bounce around the nightclub, because there's a pop bumper and a sling and a bunch of stand-up targets back there. So, like, that was kind of cool. I like that element where you can play, and then you can lock a ball behind something, and then hit that ball with a second ball that you get. Labyrinth does it to great effect behind the forks on the left side of the orbit where the drop target pops up behind it. It traps the ball between the spinner and the forks. And then in the big labyrinth, the David Bowie multiball, you can use your other balls to smash that ball backwards through the spinner, gaining points and jackpots. Super cool. And it's temporary. It can totally drop out from play and just turn back into an orbit. So I kind of like that. Now, a single drop target guarding a nightclub is not a killer mech that's going to make a game, right? Let me get that out of the way. But it's a lot cooler than what I thought it was based on just the reveal trailer. So now that everything's been released, people are commenting about, like, this is the worst turn launch ever. And I'm guilty of this, too. I was caught up in the hype early on. But now that I've seen it all, this game has, whatever my initial impressions were, at 20%. Okay, that's kind of where I'm at. So the game looks cool. The game looks fun to play. Am I ordering one? It remains to be seen. Stay tuned. The idea was I was going to buy this game before it was even released just based on the fact that this was going to be the fourth game of my trend of buying a stern having it selling it when the new one came out and just always having a rotating slot of the newest stern I always wanted to see if that was possible. This is game number four. This is the fourth one I was going to do it with. And, you know, so the hard thing, and I alluded to this before in the last podcast, is the expression lights look so dang cool, right? The art on the LE looks so neat. the back glass on the LE, where they have, you know, it's a printed back glass with, you know, kind of like the mirroring finish that they typically do, and it looks like stained glass. It's not stained glass, but it looks like, you know, it's got a graphic of stained glass, and then there's like a 3D relief on top of it that's gold colored and looks like leading, okay? So it looks just like what a stained, they're not making a stained glass back glass, but it's designed to look like stained glass, but have like a textural, you know, 3D kind of relief on it that looks like gold leading. It looks so cool. It looks cool. Plus, that machine comes with the expression lights. It comes with the expression lights on the backbox. And like the more I look at it and like the art on the side with like John Wick and all the candles and he's holding his freaking nunchucks because he's not allowed to have a gun. I love it. I love the look of that. I even like the Baba Yaga side armor. Even though there's probably not really a metal medallion in that side armor. It's probably just a cutout and that just the graphic that's on the the vinyl decal but you know it it looks cool man and it's like if i get one i want that one you know but then it's got the steep price on it and if i go in as a premium which is what i would typically do i get the cool little little toys and things but like are they that much compelling than the pro i know a lot of people this is already coming out like this is a pro game um you know lower price point uh blood omen token is just a flat plastic but really do you need a pocket watch um you know the car is there the bash car is there it just doesn't come out and drift um you know the drifting is cool the fact that it alters the the shot layout and can trap balls back there is cool but is it like you know justifying the three thousand dollar extra cost for the premium especially if you go in the premium and you don't get the expression lights and you have to wait maybe a year until they come out and then how much is that going to be especially because it's going to come with the backbox lights too that's going to be a 795 kit if you're asking me if it's 500 for the base cabinet expression lights right now, like $49.95, then you're going to have to add another $250 at least for the backbox lights that all interact and everything. So I was like, I just don't know what to do. Fortunately, I don't have to decide right now. The pros and premiums, they're not unlimited. The pros are being made right now for locations and then not run again until August. And then this game is going to be run forever. Do you think they're going to go and rerun more Venoms? I want to see if that happens. I know they're rerunning more Bonds and Star Wars and Deadpools and whatever, but are they actually going to come back? Is there a compelling reason to run more Venoms? What if Venom ends up being one of the most rare games produced? I'll talk about that a little bit. Let me make a note to myself. Venom on location money. I'll talk about that in a second. So, you know, the games won't be limited. If you want to get one by August, you have to order sometime soon. But, you know, if you want to get one later in the year, you'll be able to get it. Premiums, probably the same thing. The limited editions are the only ones that are truly limited. But it's coming off of the sting of Venom. You know, are we really going to see, are they going to make all 1,000? Now, the LEs are limited to 1,000. They'll never be more than 1,000 numbered units of the limited edition. That doesn't really mean that they'll just make all 1,000. Will Stern do that? The stern just typically go ahead and build all thousand LEs and then just kind of park them. If I was a distributor, I'd really be, you know, especially if I was a distributor that's got Venom LEs still new in box, like unsold and maybe even a couple of Jaws's, I think I'd be careful, you know, pulling in. But then I don't know. I don't know. I'm not a distributor. You know, my finger's not on that pulse. So I reached out to my buddy, friend of the show, Jeff from Ed Pinball. He sponsors the program. He's a cool guy. He's always been supportive of me. We've got a good working relationship. I reached out and I'm like, hey, buddy, how's sales going? He says, fantastic, particularly, and I've heard this from a couple distributors now, after the play live stream with Jack Danger et al., sales went up. Not like, you know, I didn't say through the roof or anything, but sales from whatever they were before are more now based on the strength of that live stream. And I said it at the time, that second ball that Jack Danger played during that live stream had to sell at least 200 John Wicks. Had to. Man, because it was that impressive. That game looked like a lot of fun. I remember watching the Venom gameplay live stream, which was at Comic Con that year. And we were all down on Venom because we're like, this is all we get? This could be a P3 module, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was watching him play it and I'm like, you know, the game does look kind of fun. John Wick looks more fun than Venom does. John Wick has a better licensed theme than Venom does. and John Wick has a heck of a lot better video assets than Venom does. So I would put this game above Venom, maybe right around at a Bond level. Maybe it's not for everybody. Bond's not for me, and I get it. But I get the sense that this will be better than a Venom. We'll see. We'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. But, man, it has been a week, man. We saw pinball personalities going at each other. We saw B-Kong come out here out of nowhere. walking out of his one-up dungeon, just bursting on the scenes. Shout-out to B. Kong. Welcome to the pinball atmosphere. There's plenty of room for everybody. These guys want to get in here. They want to talk about pinball. Hey, hey, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with that? Maybe they're better than I am, and they're going to push me to become better at whatever media circus that this is that I've created. Shout-out to all the new people coming into pinball. No doubt the one-up Arcade community is storming in And trying to comb through all the latest Hottest podcasts Of which, I mean, obviously it has to be at least one of them Welcome Guys, there's snacks in the back Why don't you go grab yourself a Rice Krispie Square Grab a seat on the carpet I'm going to fire up Tails from the Crypt And we're going to go have a little tournament I'll teach you all how to deadflip I'll teach you how to postpass I'll teach you how to drain your balls straight down the middle I'll teach you how to lift a playfield And lick the back glass clean Come on, we're going to get you guys caught up, right? I'm going to give you the education that I didn't receive. I don't want you to suffer like I did entering the pinball world. And we're all going to party at Expo. And this is the 40th year of Expo. You've got to go out there. It's our Comic Con, guys. Come to Pinball Expo. I might even have a booth there. More on that as it develops. But, yeah, it's been a week. It's been a week. We've got a new game. The sun has set on the era of Jaws. It is now the era of John Wick. good, bad, indifferent, neon, neo, noir, whatever they're calling it. I can't wait to play this game. I don't have to wait that long to play this game. Here's some hot news for you. On Monday, March, no, May 13th, like two days from now, I'm going to be at IO Arcade in Madison live streaming John Wick Pro on location thanks to IO Pinball and some of the coolest people in the Wisconsin pinball scene. So I can't wait for that. I'm going to pack up all my stuff, jump in the truck. I'm leaving Ohio, and in the evening I'll be doing a live stream. I don't know exactly what time yet. I'm shooting for 7 p.m. Central time. I will post something on the Facebook page as we get closer so we can hopefully gather some people in there. But you can see Don, the maniac himself, playing John Wick for the first time. I'm not even going to do a practice game. I'm going to set up the cameras. We're going to go live, and I'm going to hit start and log in, and I'm going to play my first ever game of John Wick. It'll be a pro. It'll be at IO. I can't freaking wait, man. So that's happening. So I had announced, I talked before, podcast, live stream, some dang thing, that I wanted to do a meet and greet at Interium on Monday also. If that happens, it's going to be short because time is absolutely on a crutch. I'll text what time I may be there. I might run in. Maybe if they have a John Wick Pro in premium, I might try a game or two on the premium, and then I've got to jet so I can get set up for the live stream at IOM to try to hit 7 p.m. I'm trying to hit 7 p.m. So I will text. But it looks like in the coming weeks I'll be in Chicago quite a bit. So I'll go ahead and post ahead of time where I'm going to be, and then we can maybe intersect and get you some stickers, get you a T-shirt, get you a dap, throw some selfies up there. We'll get some downtime, get you some exposure, and put yourself on the Facebook page. Why not? Why not? That would be fun. That would be fun. So more to come. So George Gomez the man the myth the creative director I forget his title over there at Stern Lord Master Supreme is what he is in my heart So product development man This guy got his fingers in every project Approvals and helping guide the teams and the new guys coming on up We just got an epic news dump, a mag dump of news from George Gomez. I almost called him Josh Engelbrod. Joel Engelberg. Jesus. From his Flip N Out Pinball With Friends. It's an hour long Thousands of people have watched it by now We got some cool tasty nuggets Nap Arcade put a nice little bullet list together But it was cool listening and having George just come out And be pretty up front with things Like hey where the heck are the accessories for these games How come they're taking a year to come out And he's like I know we're really failing at that It really sucks and we're trying to fix it So thanks for acknowledging that Stern's just not this faceless company There's people there and there's things that go sideways Right and they're not making 400,000 units where everything is like a fine-tuned machine. I mean, this is furniture they're building, playable electronic furniture, and vendors and supply lines and post-COVID this and that and the other. What the heck is the point? I wish Joel would have asked him, what is the component of the expression light kit that's like the limiting reagent? What is holding these up? Is it like the actual lights? Like we can't find anybody else to get us LEDs? Like, that can't be it. Is it like a control board, a control mechanism, a ballast? I don't know how these things work. You know, like, what is the component that keeps holding up a strip of LED lights? They have to be like high-performance lights or some dang thing. Maybe it's like the little refracting lenses. But they said they're working on that and finding a fix for it. People want these dang things. And with how good they look, I don't blame them. I wanted them, too. I still wanted them for Foo Fighters. I wanted them for Foo Fighters so bad that I bought a set of pin stadiums and put those in the game, which, you know, mind-bending as it was, it still sucks when you have to, like, pull them off every time you lift the play field, which for me is quite often because I'm always putting mods and strange crap in my games. So, like, that was kind of lame. I do like how the expression lasers are flush mounted into a recess in the cabinet. it. I did buy myself a set of those new Neon Concert X strips that Penn Stadium made that go into that recess, but then the problem was I sold my game because it took so long for them to come out that I had to move the game on and get something else. So now I have them new in cardboard tube and I still haven't got to play with them yet. I'm hanging on to them because maybe Metallica will come out with expression lights and I can go get myself a premium and throw them in that and check them out and try them. Those were not free. I paid full price for those and so I'll give you an honest review whenever I get a chance to. But for now, they're just chilling in my closet. So I will say that the Penn Stadium Neo Concert X panels look phenomenal in the cardboard tube they came with in my closet because that's all I've been able to do with them so far. But I'm hopeful that I'll be able to use them at some point. So I don't want to just, like, you know, turn around and sell them for $500. The thing's, like, $700. I mean, come on, man. You know, I don't want to just, like, sell them at a loss and not even get to use them. I want to use the dang things. I wanted to use them on my Foo Fighters, but it just took forever for them to come, man. Maybe they had a supply chain issue as well. Maybe the whole lighting industry is a supply chain issue, and I only know lighting from pinball lights, so that's why I only have a narrow focus of it. We'll see. But Hunger Games was going to be a game that Stern made. I could see that. Hunger Games was huge back in the day. That trilogy, that was like movie of the summer. Was that Lionsgate as well? there's a theme park in Dubai that has a Hunger Games roller coaster and like a little land themed around that I want to say it's like Lionsgate because they work with DreamWorks and stuff there's a DreamWorks area in that park what park is that? it's some movie studios park in Dubai but you know so I've said it before if it's a compelling enough theme to place a theme park land around and rides then it would be compelling enough for pinball because we're talking about themed entertainments to play in but you know maybe it was that they could get the likeness to the uh one of the actors but maybe not the other one and you know if you could get Katniss you couldn't depict her with weapons or something it must have been something that was like you know this is just too much of a restriction we can't make the type of game we want and so they just walked away so it was cool that we heard some of that inside information I thought that was interesting um but just a lot of cool nuggets that came from that I heard there's even more in the loser kid podcast so I'll be listening to that soon. I've got an eight hour drive coming up, so I'm trying to save it for that. But man, it's all I can do to just not jump into Orby's Pinball Nerds podcast to hear the five rads and one bad. And I'm sure he's probably more all over the place than I am. Oh, Orby. What a guy. What a guy. So yeah, so go check out the George interview. You probably already have because thousands of people have by now. But yeah, man, way to land the interview there, Joel. That was great. So yeah, the interior and things coming up, I may run in and run out. And that's only if the premium is there. If it's just the pro, I'll just go and do the live stream so I can get my first I'll probably just go there and skip Interium altogether. If anybody's at Interium, if they have a premium, let me know. I'll stop in for 10 minutes and I'll play a game and then maybe I'll do a Galactic Tank Force and then I've got to bail because I've got to get on the road. But we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens. I just wanted to follow up in case anybody really had their heart set on meeting me at Interium. I'll post if I have a chance to stop by there. Monday is just going to be a cray day for this guy. What else do we have in the news? man lost in the sauce is pendretti's funhouse man how's that gonna do i i honestly i you know i'm not sure it's not priced huge you know i think it's it's priced relatively right the top end machine is ten thousand dollars it does it just come with the the brian allen art though um you know i'm sure it's gonna be great i've heard from people that have seen it when are they releasing this game so we can actually see all the details like why release a teaser trailer for your remix of Funhaus. We already know Funhaus. It came out in 1991, I think. Didn't Pat Lawler do it? I mean, come on. We already know this. You don't have to tease it. Just release the one sheet, man. Give us the flyer. Is it coming with anything new? Is it coming with Rudy's Nightmare Code? Can you switch back and forth between the OG game and the new game? Show us what the art's going to look like. Obviously, you're going to have the original art. And then show us the Brian Allen art, because that's the only thing that they haven't released. When are you making them? How much are they? who do I order them from and what is the difference between the two styles? That's what we need to know. Like there's no reason to tease that unless they're just trying to be like jumping up and down like, hey, guys, we're releasing a game too over here. All you John Wick people, hey, how do you release a game when Stern's releasing a game? Let Stern release it. Either beat them to the punch like Spooky seems to do or wait two weeks and then release your game when there's, you know, there's actually going to be some hype on it because Funhouse is going to be released and it's just going to be like no one's going to care. Now, Rudy is creepy. I went back and played this game on my VP just to get more of a sense of it. Of course, you know, I've played it in the arcades over the years and things, but, you know, I played it. It's okay. It's a pinball machine. It's from that era. There's other ones that are much better. You know, if I was going to pay money to have it in there, are there, like, big Funhaus fans? Like, people that are just like, that is, like, my dream theme game. I love it. I'm so glad they're making another one. Like, I could see that for Tales of the Arabian Nights because of just how magical that game is. But Funhaus with freaking creepy Rudy and his, like, scratchy voice, voiced by Ed Boon of Mortal Kombat fame. Yeah, I just don't see this as – it's not compelling for me. I don't want to buy this game. I would buy a Cactus Canyon before I buy this, and I'm not buying a Cactus Canyon. You know, if you're going to do a game from that era, and if you're me, I would buy Whirlwind first. Whirlwind is just fun. It's got that topper with the fan on it. I have loved that since I was 12 years old, and you know whirlwind's a good time whirlwind's a good time they messed up that 2.0 kit though man i mean you it's whirlwind right so you're doing a 2.0 kit let's see if i'm if i'm uh if we're blue sky concepting how to add a 2.0 kit to a game like whirlwind we go with the storm chaser analogy like you're the storm chaser maybe you have a male character and a female character maybe you can pick if you want to play the male or play the female and they each have different modes that can come up or maybe like they're both in there and you can play like both characters modes and then they come together into like a wizard mode where you're like battling this this tornado storm or trying to survive it you know and you have to hit all the shots before time runs out in order to get all the footage and stuff but instead we're like we're fighting poop monsters as grandmas there's like scarecrows like it's just a like a fever dream of like you know cocaine and diamond tap like what happened. It's so absurd. It's so absurd. And, you know, silliness is always allowed But it just a really weird take Like I don even really want to get involved in it And that 2 kit was like to put this thing in there added an LED screen And then there was people that were selling their Whirlwinds with these kits for, like, way less than, like, the sum of the parts, man. So I don't know. I don't know. I would, you know, I would consider purchasing a brand-new Whirlwind that's all, like, tricked out and, like, mirror finish, you know, Brian Allen art. I don't know. more than I would for a Woody's Funhouse. Woody's Funhouse. Come on, grab your girl. I don't know. Maybe people are going to like Funhouse, but it would be like if they did Roadshow. It's another creepy talking head game that I just, it plays okay. I just don't think I need to spend much time with it. After playing Tales from the Crypt here that I have, game is cool. Game is loaded with mechanisms, stand-up targets, theme, call-outs, fun stuff to do. the modes though are very much of that era they're very simple there's a lot of them but it basically boils down to okay this is the mode where you hit the pop bumpers for extra points you know you get 25 seconds okay this is the mode where you hit the ramps for extra points and you get 25 seconds oh this is the mode where if i shoot up the third spinner i get an extra ball okay and this and it's like a bunch of little tiny mini modes and you know of the era like that was fine and for playing a three to five minute game yeah that's cool like simple rules i get it but i would love to see the modern take on gameplay and rules and mode-based gameplay put into a game like this. I think 2.0 kits are probably an untapped market, but they've got to be done well, and by well, I mean at least average, because Sui and the Grannies is a low-water mark. I don't want to bash the thing because I haven't played it at the 2.0 kit, but what in the actual heck was going on? So if they can do these remakes from this classic era and then have a mode where you can switch back and forth between just like the original game plus have the 2.0 that's one of the things that haggis did that i thought was really great let's do an aside and talk about the saga and the legend of haggis pinball here's what i think haggis is a development house okay um they're they're a development house uh they're designers. They came up with 2.0 code for Mermaid Fathom Edition. They've done that for Centaur's Oblivion Edition. So they have the chops to do that. I've seen the games that they have built and they look like they've replicated the original design and gameplay just fine, at least by my discerning eye. Maybe somebody that has one of these games might pick up some more nuance. But these people can come up with a concept. they can design a game and they can design some interesting modes and according to the Australian accent they can record call outs so I see them as a development house what they cannot do is manufacture they can manufacture but not at any kind of speed other than nearly if you're going slower you can be going backwards so I think they should work as a development house take these games design how they're going to be built design the updated code for them, put the little extra LCD screens in the apron and whatnot, and then let somebody else who is just manufacturing, manufacture the games. Because pinball is like two things, right? Maybe even three things. Pinball is design, right? Pinball is design. Pinball is programming. Pinball is manufacturing. And those are like two different businesses, right? The design and the programming part of it can be done really anywhere. You don't need, you know, a 300,000 square foot factory to do that part. You know, you can do that remotely. You know, a consortium of people that can work over Zoom and cobble together codes and ideas and designs and CAD layouts and all that business. One little test workshop to kind of put things together and whitewoods things. You know, run a development studio. And then manufacturing is like just a completely different beast, right? This is like having a bakery and a used car lot and trying to do both things at the same time. And it's like, no, not really. It's really incredible that companies can do that. Stern Pinball can do that, but look at all the resources that they've built up. Look at the teams that they've built up. Look at the money that they're putting into this to come up with things like Insider Connected. And then look at this huge factory that they have. And they have a sub-factory just for cabinetry that they make their cabinets and playfields separately. And then it comes in into an assembly plant. And then there's like a whole marketing division and a whole development division. And it's like a whole Insider Connected division. And then Insider Connected has two different divisions. you know it takes a lot to be able to do that so to boutique it i don't know if it's really worth it spooky pinball made it work but look at how many people have tried and they haven't done it and they they made it work by the seat of their pants man starting at uh you know they had a lot of help from the business incubator that gave them some space to get started uh they built up goodwill within the industry grassroots it and did it like another flight now they do manufacturing they do design they do it all in house they came up the right way and you know they own their own company now you know they're not beholden to shareholders like bless them but like that's not easy you know and um you know you're not churning out fathoms as big as they as big as runs a scooby-doo and you know fathom isn't even your game fathom somebody else's game those design years ago been play tested to heck and it's already you're starting with a working product that somebody else already made. So either figure out the manufacturing and build games that other people design or just be a design company, license out your games, or do private label building or something like that pinball company did with Jetsons and had Spooky build it. You know, heck, design a game and then leverage, I don't know, a company like Spooky or somebody else or American Pinball that can then put your game into production, you know, and you could just be like a development house, right? You know, I think that might work. them working is just a standalone company it obviously it's not working and i i think the the timer's ticking down on that so for everybody else before you go launching a pinball company think do you really need to launch an entire company where you are designing and manufacturing that's like two things to try to tackle um what's going on with tilt bob pinball you know um so bob can build a game he's a home brewer man he built elf that's way better than any game i've ever built he has designed this road trip game which it's just out there it doesn't appear to be compelling theme wise for me there's a plastic cow drop target that's kind of cool I'll wait and see what it's doing but as far as manufacturing that's a whole beast man and your game could be stellar and if you can't pull off at least mediocre manufacturing you're sunk so I don't know I kind of think if I was to go out and do it I'm an ideas guy I would design, I would build a prototype, and then I would find a place to go and manufacture it so I wouldn't have to take on the design part of it and, like, aftermarket maintenance and warranty and something breaks and you have to engineer something and send it out. All your money is going to get tanked. Anyway, this has been a podcast. This has been a week. I'm at the end of it now. It was exciting. I've been out of town this whole week. I got a new game in Tales from the Crypt. We got a new game released from Stern Pinball. Funhouse is out there somewhere And summer hasn't even officially started yet And the Southern Fright Gaming Expo Is going to be coming up soon We're all going to be up to our eyeballs And playing Wix on location What's going to happen to them in the market We're all just going to keep following it But you're going to keep getting podcasts from me Every couple of days Whenever news, reviews, or views that you can't afford to lose Come out And we will bring them Welcome to everybody new in pinball Coming from the B-Conks and the other folks I think there's room in the pool for everybody. Come on, let's play some pinball. I got into this a couple of years ago at this level, and now I know how to dead flip, and I'm playing okay, and now we can help the other people coming on up too, so we can really push this hobby and be able to absorb all these games that are churning out. There are going to be games, Stern Pinball is churning out every week. Where's the saturation point? Are we even close to it yet? Have we already surpassed it? I have no idea, but we will follow that as we follow this hobby. that we like the hobby of the silver ball don's mobile podcast at jim.com is where you can get me also on the facebook page man we're almost at 1300 people on there we're having a fun time on the patreon i can't believe people are still joining it people still joining the patreon chicken buckets are shipping on tuesday if you want to get in on them get on them while you can before i get licensed slam um what else do we got John Wick mods are in development, homie. Later.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: d77c5fcc-6f3a-4a9a-9742-f581862cd395*