# Don's Pinball Podcast Livestream 9/21/25

**Source:** Don's Pinball Podcast Live Streams (YouTube)  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-09-22  
**Duration:** 44m 44s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4RBW4XybuU

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## Analysis

Don discusses the newly unveiled Star Wars pinball machine from Stern, criticizing its generic layout and lack of thematic integration compared to classics like Jaws and King Kong. He details custom modifications he's planning, announces a topper contest at Expo with donated prizes, pitches an ambitious Spooky Pinball midnight release party concept, and covers various Expo announcements including Predator, Walking Dead Remastered timing, and Harry Potter variants.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Star Wars The Pin layout is generic and lacks thematic integration compared to games like Jaws, Godzilla, and King Kong — _Don directly compares playfield elements and design philosophy across multiple games, drawing from his experience and citing feedback from Paris Pinball Addict_
- [MEDIUM] Borg (designer) allegedly had only 20 minutes to design Star Wars, rushed due to work on Metallica Remastered and Walking Dead Remastered — _Don states 'the story I've heard is' — framing this as unverified industry gossip rather than confirmed fact_
- [MEDIUM] Star Wars will probably not outsell the 2017 version and will not achieve Jaws 50th sales numbers — _Don's prediction based on game design assessment and market positioning_
- [MEDIUM] Walking Dead Remastered will launch post-Expo to avoid upstaging Star Wars — _Don cites 'rumors I'm hearing' — unverified but industry-sourced speculation_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky Pinball has a new game trailer shot and ready, with an undisclosed special feature that would 'sell out all the games' — _Don has seen unreleased footage but is not disclosing details; indicates insider knowledge of Spooky's pipeline_
- [HIGH] Harry Potter wire forms cannot be gold-plated because it interferes with electrical conductivity needed for switch registration — _Don explains technical issue from JJP design, citing his personal experience with Harry Potter Collector's Edition discrepancy_
- [MEDIUM] More demand on interested lists for upcoming Spooky game than games available — _Don's assessment based on industry observations and distribution patterns_
- [MEDIUM] Big Bang Theory from Spooky at $10,000+ pricing will struggle to compete with Star Wars, Harry Potter, Walking Dead Remastered, and Pokemon releases — _Don's competitive market analysis and opinion on game viability_
- [LOW] Predator must be at Expo or 'it's dead' — _Don's speculation/wishful thinking about unreleased Stern title showing at event_
- [HIGH] Hacks of Pinball will announce their next theme (followup to Space Hunt) at Expo — _Don confirms upcoming announcement as scheduled event detail_

### Notable Quotes

> "This layout is generic. And if you swap out the Pez Head dispensers with anything else, freaking Ricky Bobby, freaking Serial Monsters, you know, there's there's nothing that screams Star Wars about the layout."
> — **Don (citing Paris Pinball Addict)**, early in stream
> _Core criticism of Star Wars game design; frames major community sentiment about thematic authenticity_

> "the story I've heard is he had 20 minutes and they sent him in the back room. This is what you come out with in 20 minutes."
> — **Don**, mid-stream
> _Unverified but widely circulated industry gossip about designer Borg's constraints; potentially explains design choices_

> "This looks like a uh like next generation home machine. Like if this layout would have came out and it would have been the Star Wars home edition at Costco right now, I'd be like, 'Oh, it looks like a pretty good home edition.'"
> — **Don**, design critique segment
> _Articulates the mismatch between home/casual expectations and premium arcade machine expectations_

> "What if we could all just like camp out at the factory so that midnight, as soon as it hit launch day, they can roll up the metal rollup door. We can hand over our monies and get on the list."
> — **Don**, Spooky segment
> _Introduces novel event concept; shows Don actively collaborating with manufacturers on community engagement_

> "I saw some some cell phone footage of a new feature that nobody's been talking about. And that alone, I think, would sell out all the games."
> — **Don**, Spooky pipeline discussion
> _Signals insider advance knowledge of unreleased Spooky game; builds hype while protecting confidentiality_

> "Predator at Expo, it's got to be. If Predator is not at Expo, it's dead. Dead."
> — **Don**, Expo discussion
> _Expresses community expectation about unreleased Stern title; indicates significance of Expo for major announcements_

> "The two boutiques, man. Which one's better? Depends on your depends on your mood. But both of them make awesome games."
> — **Don**, JJP/Spooky comparison
> _Positions Jersey Jack and Spooky as boutique market leaders; acknowledges different design philosophies appealing to different players_

> "and that would get you like an inside track. You could try that. That's what I did. That was that was a ton of work."
> — **Don**, distribution strategy discussion
> _Don acknowledges his media influence as pathway to preferred access; reflects on personal investment in community building_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Don | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast; prominent pinball media personality, custom cabinet builder, community organizer |
| Star Wars The Pin | game | Newly unveiled Stern Pinball machine; subject of design critique for generic layout and thematic integration issues |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; released Star Wars The Pin; implied to have designed machine under time/creative constraints |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer; has unreleased game with special features; collaborating with Don on midnight release event concept |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer; makes Harry Potter and Evil Dead; positioned as competitor to Spooky in light show/design quality |
| Paris Pinball Addict | person | Content creator based in France; cited as source of Star Wars layout criticism; collaborates with Don on analysis |
| Borg | person | Pinball designer at Stern; allegedly designed Star Wars under 20-minute time constraint; worked on Metallica Remastered and Walking Dead Remastered |
| Harry Potter | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game; Collector's Edition variant; engineering detail about gold-plated wire forms and conductivity discussed |
| Evil Dead | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game; paired with Harry Potter as boutique offering; described as expensive but beautiful |
| Metallica Remastered | game | Stern remaster; Borg's recent work; context for compressed design timeline on Star Wars |
| Walking Dead Remastered | game | Stern remaster; rumored to launch post-Expo to avoid competing with Star Wars visibility |
| Jaws | game | Referenced as exemplar of thematic playfield design; has signature shark fin, wave ramp, orca upper playfield |
| Godzilla | game | Referenced as exemplar of thematic playfield design; features building structure, ramps, Mecha-Godzilla jump ramp |
| King Kong | game | Referenced as exemplar of thematic playfield design; features biplane ramp, gorilla scream, flippable tram car, banana scoop |
| Predator | game | Unreleased Stern title; Don speculates it must appear at Expo or project is 'dead'; implied major announcement expected |
| Hacks of Pinball | company | Manufacturer; will announce next game (post-Space Hunt) at Expo; Don hopes for jam song theme integration |
| Big Bang Theory | game | Spooky remake; criticized by Don as unnecessary given pricing, production delays, and superior competing releases |
| Pinball Expo | event | Major industry event; venue for game announcements, topper contest, Hacks of Pinball theme reveal, and Predator reveal expectations |
| OneUp Lounge | venue | Location venue; Don verified interest in Star Wars placement; expects good location performance for casual play |
| Morgan | person | Spooky Pinball staff member; working to reduce website crash issues by promoting phone order option for game deposits |
| Jeff | person | Distributor at madpinball.com; recommended as alternative ordering channel for interested buyers to avoid website congestion |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Star Wars The Pin design critique and thematic authenticity, Custom cabinet modifications and topper design philosophy, Spooky Pinball midnight release event concept and community engagement, Pinball Expo announcements and expectations
- **Secondary:** Walking Dead Remastered launch timing and market positioning, Jersey Jack vs Spooky boutique manufacturer competition, Playfield design philosophy across eras (Jaws, Godzilla, King Kong vs Star Wars), Harry Potter Collector's Edition gold-plating and conductivity engineering

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[sentiment_shift]** Shift from pre-announcement anticipation to post-reveal disappointment about generic layout and lack of thematic design integration (confidence: high) — Don's extensive critique citing Paris Pinball Addict and comparative analysis to thematically integrated machines; frames game as 'placeholder'
- **[product_strategy]** Stern appears to be staggering Walking Dead Remastered launch to post-Expo to avoid competing visibility with Star Wars (confidence: medium) — Don cites 'rumors I'm hearing' about post-Expo launch timing for Walking Dead; explicitly states intent to let Star Wars 'stand on its own'
- **[rumor_hype]** High anticipation for Spooky Pinball's unreleased game with alleged game-changing feature; insider hype but details protected (confidence: high) — Don has seen unreleased cell phone footage of feature he won't disclose; claims it alone would 'sell out all the games'
- **[community_signal]** Don proposing novel midnight release party experience for Spooky Pinball game; evolution from simple deposit event to coordinated community gathering (confidence: high) — Detailed pitch including bonfire pre-event, factory march, exclusive collectible badges, custom t-shirts; actively soliciting interest list
- **[market_signal]** Critique of Big Bang Theory release as poor positioning given simultaneous availability of Star Wars, Harry Potter, Walking Dead Remastered, Pokemon, and Spooky releases (confidence: medium) — Don's competitive analysis of release calendar and pricing ($10K+) against superior alternatives; questions viability of remake in crowded market
- **[product_concern]** Significant concern about Star Wars playfield lacking thematic specificity; interchangeable components suggest design compromise or time constraint (confidence: high) — Don's detailed comparison to Jaws, Godzilla, King Kong; quote that swapping Pez dispensers for other themes wouldn't change feel; frames as 'home edition quality'
- **[personnel_signal]** Unverified but credible industry gossip that designer Borg had minimal time (20 minutes) to design Star Wars due to prior commitments (confidence: medium) — Don frames as 'story I've heard'; cites prior work on Metallica Remastered and Walking Dead Remastered as context for timeline pressure
- **[design_philosophy]** Contrast between classic era thematic design (Jaws shark fin, Godzilla buildings, Kong mechanics) and modern generic playfield approach in Star Wars (confidence: high) — Extensive comparative analysis by Don; cites specific mechanical features that 'scream' each theme; frames Star Wars as lacking equivalent integration
- **[venue_signal]** Don verified Star Wars interest with OneUp Lounge location operator; expects strong casual play performance despite design critique (confidence: high) — Don states he 'double checked with the OneUp Lounge' before ordering; expects game will 'kill on location' despite being placeholder design
- **[product_launch]** Jersey Jack offering multiple Harry Potter editions (Collector's, Wizard); Wizard edition preferred for aesthetic reasons (movie graphics, shiny cabinet finish) (confidence: high) — Don compares editions, cites technical reason for silver wire form (gold plating affects conductivity); expresses preference for Wizard edition polish
- **[technology_signal]** Jersey Jack Harry Potter uses unplated wire forms for switch registration (metal contact completes circuit on ball impact); gold plating prevents conductivity (confidence: high) — Don explains technical detail from personal experience with Collector's Edition discrepancy; confirms this is known engineering constraint at JJP
- **[collector_signal]** Proposed midnight release creates collectible exclusivity through numbered/badged games available only to in-person attendees; secondary market value implication (confidence: medium) — Don pitches 'midnight edition' collectible badges as exclusive achievement; explicitly mentions resale value potential for buyers at subsequent events

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## Transcript

Just like that, we're back again for another Sunday. I missed last week. There was no way I could make it happen. transiting from Texas back to the US of the northern states. Hi everybody, how you doing? It's early and the reason for that today, typically I'll go live 10 o'clock, maybe a little later on a Sunday, but I got to go catch another flight to another part of the country in a couple of hours. So, I still wanted to do the Sunday stream and I want to accommodate people that are early risers on a Sunday before you head off to the bread factory wherever it is that you work. We'll come on in here. Um, I should do a thing where if like if somebody drops me five bucks, we get sexy fix for a full minute. I mean, what do you think? We got to bring back the sexy fix. All right. Too sexy for that early. Let's table him for a little bit till we get a little deeper. But we'll go for an hour. We'll go for 40 minutes. I don't know. 8 o'clock. I gota I got to get out of here, man. I got to get down to the airport. Anybody want to hang out? No hair. Maybe I'll have time to go get a sandwich if I leave early. There's a Pod Belly Subs right by um Orchard Field, better known as O'Hare Airport International. We got a quick two and a half hour flight to some part of the country. See if you guys can guess. It's a US state. It's going to be fun. Where's there a Twinkie factory? Or is that where you're working at, Charles? Charles, you still have my sunglasses? That was the funniest, creepiest thing when that happened. But we're talking pinball. Got any Don Swag on? If you need a shirt, let me know. I'm sending these out. I got one going out today to a winner from I think Bug's live streaming screen from this week. Why am I giving away prizes for somebody else's live stream? Because I'm a giver, that's why. Oh, man. So, I was going to settle in. dude. I was listening to um a ton of content over the last week. a lot about Star Wars, not Florida, opposite as far away from Florida as you can get probably if you were to go north. Um, I was listening to uh a lot of content and even uh Paris Pinball Addict, my homie. He speaks French because he lives in France. I I watch all his stuff. He does really cool live streams, helps me learn French. Um, he's like calling it for what it is, man. This layout is generic. And if you swap out the Pez Head dispensers with anything else, freaking Ricky Bobby, freaking Serial Monsters, you know, there's there's nothing that screams Star Wars about the layout. And I don't know necessarily if there was anything in Rush that screamed Rush layout wise. You know, there wasn't like a real Rush mechanism. Like you shot into the Lord of the Rings time machine, whatever. That could have been a washing machine. That would have been that would have been pretty rush. You know, Rush would have like stacks of washing machines and dryers behind him. Cool story behind that. And it was because their guitar player had like these huge stacks of speakers and amplifiers behind him or amplified speaker stacks and Getty didn't have anything behind him. So, he started putting washerd dryers on stage. Just stupid. Um, so I mean that could have been fun. But is there anything in board games? I guess Kiss had a giant Jean Simmons mouth that screamed Kiss, right? But what do we have that screams Star Wars besides the toys that are in it? I guess besides the Death Star that's in it. I guess that's a mechanism that screams Star Wars. But layoutwise, really nothing layout wise. You know, Jaws had the Jaws shark fin, the wave ramp, um all those shots and the reels up on the upper playfield was the orca. I mean, that's screaming. Um, Jaws. Uh, Godzilla has a huge building. Um, all those ramps, the jump ramp to the Mecca Godzilla. Like, there's there's Godzilla all over there. Uh, what else did I just have here? King Kong, right? King Kong was very Kong. Biplane ramp and all that. Like the same square footage that brought us Kong with a biplane ramp, a screaming gorilla, a flippable tram car that physically locks balls. Um the banana scoop and that jump ramp, the other vuck, um what do we have like the cross the chasm shot back and forth between the left upper flipper and the right upper flipper, right? All of that. the spider stripper pole spider like screaming in the same square footage that we got Kong. We got a fan layout of eight generic shots, couple of Pez dispensers. This looks like a uh like next generation home machine. Like if this layout would have came out and it would have been the Star Wars home edition at Costco right now, I'd be like, "Oh, it looks like a pretty good home edition. There's no jump ramp in it, but it looks pretty good." And so when I saw it unveiled at Stern, I was like, it it was disappointing because I had a lot of potential built into this game, right? It's Star Wars. They're revisiting it. They've heard all the feedback from the 2017 version that it wasn't magical enough or whatever. Played fast, but it was a little unfair. So maybe go with a game that shoots a little safer, but creatively integrates Star Wars. You know, like what if there was a Foo Fighteresque cross field shot weird ball path thing that was like you jumping into the trash compactor shoot right in the Death Star. So, I don't know. People are saying that Borg had put a lot of time and effort into Indiana Hilton Jones and it got rugpulled and then he had to work on Metallica Remastered, had to work on Walking Dead remastered. So, the story I've heard is he had 20 minutes and they sent him in the back room. This is what you come out with in 20 minutes. Now, it would have taken me probably 20 weeks to design something like this because I'm not a pinball designer as seasoned as the Borgmeister, you know. Oh, cool. Star Wars sold out. I mean, it's going to And you know, people say this thing's overpriced for what it is. Get a pro, whatever. I'll say this. three years ago, before I knew the name of a pinball designer, right? Before I I was friends with pinball artists and I was just that guy in Costco looking for fun stuff, I would have saw that Star Wars home edition and I would have put it on my flatbed. If not immediately, I would have sat there and watched it until there was a little bit of a price drop and then I would have sniped it. Sniped it. I would have took that thing home. I played the hell out of it because I wouldn't have known anything about deep code. All I would have known is I'm having fun playing pinball at home. This is amazing. Screen's a little bigger. Spike 3 pie. Roseberry. Roseberry pie is in it. Come on. Um, at least it's made of like real wood and stuff this time, which is cool. But, right, I mean, it's Star Wars. Um, I got one on order and I double checked with the OneUp Lounge to make sure that like y'all want this and I think it's going to kill on location. I think it makes sense for them. I would have definitely sidestepped this release and waited um if it was just like for me just to have this game because it's going to take a lot of work to, you know, put Death Star armor on it. Green reflective uh material in the side of the armor. I'm going to do a Death Star that's shooting up the cabinet. I think that fits better, especially for that iconic duel that's on the premium. Um so, Death Star armor shooting up the cabinet. Green laser. Ed Boon. Reflective all the way up. We'll do that. Um, I've got some Foo Fighters expression lights. I'm going to tear the graphic off of them. Throw that in the cabinet. So, there's expression lights. It's essentially a light bar. And then I'm going to see about getting some art blades made that look like lightsabers. So, as the expression lights are going, it's a lightsaber on each side lighting up. Seems like that would make sense. Maybe the licenser didn't approve that and that's why Stern went a different direction with it, but that's what we're doing. And then um I don't know if I can really add anything 3D print wise except I have an idea to take out that Darth Vader helmet and put in something much more cool t like a Star Wars take on Deadpool is what I'm going to do in that spot because it's screaming for something ridiculous from Star Wars and that's what I'm gonna bring. You want ridiculousness? I bring it. Don, do you have a topper plan to make for Star Wars? Yes, I got two ideas really. Um, the first one was the the first thing that came to my mind, which is just an adat collapsed up on top of there, which you have to um exploded side with some lighting effects inside simulating um, you know, electrical sparks and damaged uh, damaged thing. So like up there half buried in the Jon Snow, an addat that's just been taken down that flashes, you know, I think that'd be kind of cool. Um, do you have a buyer for your Star Wars Premium? Yeah, of course. Yeah, I had a buyer before I even I checked to make sure before I ordered it that they they were good to go after the release. They saw the game. So, they're not like, "Well, cuz last time um I was planning on buying an extra X-Men to make over for him and then Metallica got revealed and they're like, "Hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up. Instead, did you buy that X-Men yet?" "No." "Okay, good. Get us some Metallica instead." That was the right idea, man. That Metallica screamed. I got that premium and it looked like an LE man when I was done with it. So, that was my first thought for a topper was just an AT-AT collapsed up on there. Um, otherwise, I'm thinking uh like just kind of a giant Death Star with like, you know, flashing green lights and stuff and then, I don't know, a couple of X- wings or something something Star Wars, you know. Um, or I could do a take on the stern Star Wars topper with the R2 in the uh bridge of the X-wing, but do it more like an actual X-wing and put a couple of droids up there, you know, like a red one and and an R2 like so there's more, you know, or just do like four droids like Mount Rushmore. I don't know. We'll come up with something. Um, speaking of toppers, I forgot to mention this on the last show. I'm doing the topper contest at Expo. It's going to be fun. and Stern Pinball gloriously has donated an Iron Maiden topper. So, I've got that for a winner. I've got a Kong Topper for a winner. I've got the cabinet leg bag from Missing Pin uh as a prize. And I've got some Playfields, too. So, so far at least five people are getting some pretty sweet prizes. And we'll probably do this like like top choice people choice winner. I announce them. They can pick from the available prizes whatever they want. Maybe they have an Iron Maiden. Maybe they've got a Kong. Maybe they want to go get one and resell it and get it some cash. All that is fine. Um, and then we'll go ahead and pull one of the random voters to win a playfield. Um, and then we'll just go down the list. As long as I have prizes, we'll keep pulling. We'll keep going down the list of first place, finisher, second, third, fourth, fifth, and so hopefully everybody can get something. They have some amazing Star Wars diaramas on Etsy. Slap one of them on top of some lights. I mean, honestly, there's so much that you can do, right? You could do a Hoth scene. You could do a Death Star scene. Um, a swampy daba. I wish I had um the ability to really to like get in there and program things that interacted with the game. Like, all that's locked out to me. Plus, I don't have the skill set for it. I can do flashy lights. I can do lights that interact with the game, lights that interact with the sounds pretty easily in a reliable way. The thing is, you know, I don't want to put so much into the topper with motion and animations and things that then the topper costs $1,000. I want to keep my toppers at like4 3.99, $450 right there. You know, you got $2,000, go buy the stern one. You know, you got $800 $1,000, go buy the uh the electric playgrounds toppers um that have some interactivity. At least like Pul Fiction really did. Um, you know, if you just want like a topper that looks good, has lights, and doesn't break the bank, $3.99, $450, I'm your guy. I'll get it to you. Cuz that's what I do for mine. Yeah. I mean, you know, this Stranger Things topper was 650. It interacts with the game. Doesn't do a whole lot. Is flat plastic. Whatever. This one I made for monsters, and I'm planning on adding something in the middle, but it lights up. They're Tesla coils. They glow in the dark. It's cool. My D&D toppers right over here. And for something that I just crafted at home, it looks pretty good. Um, it's interactive. What's up, Matt Frank Mac? How you doing? Shane's here. All right, we're doing good. So, Star Wars. Will it out sell 2017? Probably not. Will it be in production forever? Probably, you know. But is it going to do like Jaws 50th sales? No. Eh, it's a placeholder, you know. I'm I'm just here like, where's Walking Dead? I want to see me some Walking Dead. What else we got? Um, Walking Dead Pokemon. So, I was dogging on a game recently. I forget what it was. Something that was being released and it was like when your options are Oh, like Big Bang Bar and Raza, right? Let's talk about those for a second. um a couple of remakes or like across the finish lines that we I don't think we really need. I'm sure there's somebody out there that's like would love to have a Big Bang Bar for some reason. I think it's an okay game for its era, but for now when you're looking at if that game's more than $10,000 for Big Bang Bar and it's going to take forever to get it and it's being built by Padretti, which like I played their funhouse. I've played their games. They're they're okay, you know, but they they weren't like lighting the world on fire. So, they come up with a big bang bar, right? If it's more than $10,000, which it probably will be, it's coming from Europe. there's going to be tariffs in a world where you've got Star Wars, which will probably have a price fall, where you got Harry Potter, which is definitely going to have price falls soon, where Walking Dead remastered coming out, where Pokemon's coming out, or where Spooky's about to drop some hotness that's going to sell out in 10 seconds. How do you how do you compete, you know, and do numbers with something like a Big Bang Bar? Why bring us that? Where's Tales of the Arabian Knights? Where's Totan? Where's Twilight Zone? make it happen. Do those um and RetroAttomic Zombie Adventure Land looks stupid. The layout looks dumb. It looks dated. It looks like it was a rug pole anyway. It was never like designed to be a game to be played. It was designed to build old people that didn't know any better out of their money. So why why why make that into a game? Why take Magic Girl, which was like a a bunch of failed concepts with a very lovely art package, and try to like force that into a game? Like, if if it was going to be something compelling and interesting and make money for the producer and be enjoyed by the by the citizens for the ages, it would have been done by now. Like, nobody would have dropped the ball on that or somebody else would have picked it up. Nobody has. Literally nobody. In a world, in a timeline where people are making barbecue and GTF, shout out to Enzo. And Magic Girl died. It died for a reason, man. Let it stay dead. Let it be a novelty. Let it be something fun that when we go to expo, we get to play it. Let somebody with too much money pay $40,000 for it and be like, "Look what I got." Right? That's all I'm saying. Why? Why, Raza? Why? Since multiple sources have confirmed the new Star Wars Topper will be backward compatible. Do you think it'll be another run of the R2 topper? No. No. That one was limited to 500. I don't even think Stern at this point would do that again. Um I bet they wish they could have. I bet because I I certainly made a bunch of them. Um no, they'll do something similar. Um, it'll probably be I'm going to guess that it's going to be plastics similar to the Venom topper, similar to the Foo Fighter topper. Maybe we'll get ahead of something in there. It's going to be all assets that are from the style guide from the licenser, so we don't have to worry about approvals. It'll be all things we've seen before. It'll be a lunch box with an LED board. I don't think there'll be any moving elements to it. Um, I don't know that I don't think there'll be a speaker on it. I think it'll just be like some lights and things. The expression light topper that you can see partially here on my Star Wars. These work really good. So, honestly, if it was just this with some plastics around it, um, and it was $1,250. I think that'd be fine. Um, you know, do you want to come out with a $2,000 topper for Star Wars that's backward compatible? Like if you're thinking, "Oh man, there's all these 2017 Star Warses out there. People will buy this topper. Let's make it $2,000 and sell tons of them." Um, but I don't think that would happen. I I think if it came out and it was like $6.99 and it was plastics, I think I think you'd sell a ton of them. So where where's the balance in there? Um, but you'll be able to put that Star Wars back on the 2017 model. So I mean that's fine. That's fine. Um, I'm reworking my R2 topper to tie into the expression lights. So, it'll be still kind of the same basic thing with the R2 up there, but um, it'll have extra lights on it. So, that'll be kind of fun. Should we talk Should we talk spooky or should we talk multimorphic or do you guys want to choose your own adventure? Choose your own donenture for Sunday. I started the multimmorphic minute on my shows. I have a recurring segment. I've been trying to think of something. And what better than the P3, damn it. I love me some Portal. I want to play some Portal. I watched Carrie's video. I saw that they're putting them together and I saw all the boxes that were empty for shipping, but I still haven't seen anybody unbox anything yet. And I don't know what I did with my Extra Portal t-shirt. I've been waiting to give away this Portal T-shirt that I bought. I bought two. one for me because I love it and one to give away because I love you and then I don't know I set it somewhere around here and I've been waiting for them to ship so we can celebrate portal and I can have the thing to give out to somebody. Um but I I it's somewhere. It's probably in my stack of t-shirts in the the print lab. All right, so that was this multimmorphic moment for the live. I'm going to keep it up though because I have a lot of things to say. I've played all their games. All 26. I haven't played all 26. I don't think I've played Bird Bird Catcher. Um I've seen video of it and I don't needed to play it, I don't think. But I played Canon Lagoon. I've played I could talk for two hours on Drained. I have some comments. I'll go that. Okay, you guys ready for this? This is going to be so fun. Um I'm trying to manifest this cool thing we can do in collaboration with Spooky Pinball. They've got a game they're going to release just like they've done every year. They've got a new game they're going to release. It's fire. I've mentioned that before. Not a secret. Loads of interest. Um, you've heard the rumors. And if you don't like the rumored theme, enough people do. So, this one's good. If you don't like this one, you'll like the next one. Um, but we've never had a pinball midnight release ever. And probably for good reason. I mean, these are commercial machines. That's stupid, Don. But I want to do it. I want to do it with Spooky. So, I I I've been manifesting this out there. What if we could all just like camp out at the factory so that midnight, as soon as it hit launch day, they can roll up the metal rollup door. We can hand over our monies and get on the list, right? Then, skip the whole stupid website, the website crashes that happen. A very popular game. You know, for those of us that are local or want to even fly in, we could have a fun little event. We could be out there grilling, hanging out. Maybe we'll bring a game and play it in the driveway. We'll bring our trucks, you know, because it's the country. So, we can hang out in our trucks and then at midnight it's just like a GameStop for the Nintendo Wii release or like a new Call of Duty or something. We can be out there like, I'm excited. Midnight release, let's go drop a deposit. And it's evolved from there. So now what I'm thinking is we start locally in town at a house at a house party, right? Bonfire in the backyard. It's November. We're hanging out playing some pinball, some pinball person's house. And then at 11:00 p.m. we start marching towards the factory. We get there, we hang out and party. And then they roll up the door and they're like, "You can get your deposits now. It's midnight." Ed Boon. We do that. And then they have one of the games set up right there that we can all come inside and play. So on launch day, you can get your deposit in before the website even opens and get to play the game like right there. And then and here's the other part of this. This has been evolving. So what if when you got your game, if you had ordered at the midnight party, you get the midnight edition of the game with your own collectible badge on there that says midnight edition. It's the only way to get one was to be there or to buy it from somebody. So there's like some extra little exclusivity to the people that put forward the effort to travel to be there on the day. Now I'm feeding this all to the guys and and girls that work at Spooky and I'm like I think this would be fun. And they're like, "Yeah, Don, that's that sounds interesting." And then I've been getting texts and emails from people that have heard this and they're like, "When is it happening? I want in on it." So, I want to come with some overwhelming evidence that people would be enthusiastic about this and would attend this. So, I'll start an interested list. donspinballodcast@gmail.com. Email me if you want to get on a list and if I hear some more traction about this happening, uh, I'll email you back with info. But, would you be interested, internet, donspinballodcast@gmail.com? Would you go to the midnight release party for Spooky's next game? Um, they don't have a date picked yet, but they have some penciled in. I don't want to reveal that because, you know, it's not for sure yet, and I don't want people like buying plane tickets and then we find out it's it's later, you know. But if you want to know as soon as I know that it's happening that it's on and call off of work and get a plane ticket or or drive on in, I think this could be fun. I think this could be fun. It could be fun. It could be silly. And, you know, I'll help out, man. I I'll make midnight launch t-shirts or something. Something. It'll be fun. There'll be food and pinball and you get to play the game first would be the issue. Um, so what do you think? What do you think? Does that track Is that interesting? I I would be interested in this. I live close enough I could drive over though. Would I fly out for it? I mean, it's me probably, but I think it'd be something fun for like like the the spooky Uber fans who also have the means to be able to get there at midnight on a whatever day they do it. I think that'd be fun. What else we do? I had another topic I wanted to talk about. Spooky Midnight Madness. Right. Right. Right. Now, in an ideal world, if you got the Midnight Edition, you would have a Midnight Madness mode in your game that nobody else would have. I don't really know a way to do that because it would have to be a code thing that would cost them money. And then, how do you make sure like certain people have the code, certain other people don't have the code, then, you know, people would be sharing the code. So, I and I say give the Midnight Madness mode to everybody, but do something exclusive to the game, something you can't replicate that that game is stamped a midnight edition. But if you go to sell it, you could say, "I've got a butter cabinet with a topper midnight edition. It's the ultimate one." It's the ultimate one. I think that'd be super fun. I think that'd be super fun. So, topper contest is happening. Bring your homemade topper. Win a prize. Expo's coming up. It's going to be awesome. Hacks of Pinball is going to announce their next theme, their followup to Space Hunt. I hope it has a jam song. Um, but that'll be coming up. They'll be announcing that at Expo. What else do we have? Um, anything else new at Expo? I don't think we're going to see Walking Dead remastered. Rumors I'm hearing is that that game will launch post expo to give Star Wars a chance to stand on its own stand on its own eight legs for its eight shots. It won't get upstaged like X-Men did. At least I I hope there's no shooter lane rattle, right? Dude, Scott, your wife's not wrong. You would be cray cray to go to Benton, Wisconsin in the middle of winter. And it's not like you can go there and pick up the game that day. I mean, it's just a drop off a deposit. Um, you know, you can stay at home, keep your feet nice and toasty, and at 10 a.m. go to the website and put in a deposit. Um, I was talking to Morgan and she's trying to drive traffic away from the website so it doesn't crash. So, you can also order by telephone. So, I think the the phone banks will be open where you could just call in and get your deposit in. Um, a safe thing to do may be to go to your distributor such as Jeff atmadpinball.com
and uh, just get on his list and uh, you know, I don't know, slide him some money or something. Predator at Expo, it's got to be. If Predator is not at Expo, it's dead. Dead. It's got to be there. I think it will be. Um, but yeah, like this is just something fun to do. Um, you know, it's probably not worth the money. It would be cheaper to stay at home and just like keep refreshing the site until you get through or pick up the phone. Um, but it would be good if you do if you are interested in this game, call a distributor or two and get on a list just in case. So, if you're if you're sitting there frustrated and the website is down all day and like the whole internet explodes in the city of Benton, um at least you know you're on a list with a DRO and you can have like a second chance there. But I'm worried. I think there is legitimately by now more demand on interested lists than there will be games available. So, holy crap. Um, another thing you can do is start a podcast and release 200 episodes and spend thousands of dollars traveling around the country covering events and things and then that would get you like an inside track. You could try that. That's what I did. That was that was a ton of work. It would have been easier for me to just get on a list early. How about Midnight Madness exclusive spooky t-shirts? Charles Thomas. That's kind of what I'm thinking. That's what I'm thinking, man. Uh, what if Franchie, what if we could talk him into doing a graphic and then I can get the shirts made and then everybody that shows up at the party, you pick your size, we go ahead and press it up and you get your Midnight Madness shirt hot off the press. get some leverage. I'm I'm excited for Spooky, man. I want to see what the reaction to this. Like, I didn't even see the trailer. The trailer's been shot. I haven't seen it. Um I saw some some cell phone footage of a new feature that nobody's been talking about. And that alone, I think, would sell out all the games. If you just saw this, just this little cell phone clip that I saw, it was so awesome. Um, you know, Jersey Jack has amazing light shows and I think Spooky became number two. It's hard to compete with all the the rainbow that's going on with with Harry Potter. Um, but that's that's where we're at. That's where we're at. The two boutiques, man. Which one's better? Depends on your depends on your mood. But both of them make awesome games. Now, um, Evil Dead and Harry Potter, what a duo. Like, if you have those two, the thing is, Evil Dead is expensive. Um, Harry Potter is going to be cheap cuz they're they're cranking them out. Beautiful game, too. I I think I want a Wizard edition now. I had the collector's edition. I did like the shooter rod. I like the gold wire forms. The uh the Quidditch pitch horseshoe wire form with those little mini balls in it is not gold on the CE though. But on the trailer for the CE, it was. So I thought somebody made a mistake on my game when I got it. You know, Derp the Dragon notwithstanding um my uh upper wire form with the little Quidditch balls, the quaffles, the bludgers, whatever. um it was just silver. It wasn't gold like the rest. And I'm like, what the heck happened? So, it turns out that golding process um affects the wire form's ability to transmit electricity. And so, when you hit the post and the ball goes back, the ball makes a closes a switch um just by virtue of being metal with the the current through the wire form. And that's how it registers that you made that hit. Uh there's no leaf switch or anything back there. they would get beat to crap. So that's how they did it. And when they did it with gold, they were finding that it wasn't registering. So that's why that one wire form is silver. And if that one's going to be silver, might as well have all of them silver. If I can't have everything gold, none of it gold. And I'll just get the wizard edition because it's got the movie graphics that I like on the cabinet and those shiny rad cows. Guys, when I had Avatar collector's edition with the rad cows, like I was always touching the sides there. I loved it. Um, so I like that tactile feeling like yes, I've got a good game. Um, when I had Alviv Blood Red Kiss, I would do the same thing. Whenever I saw an Alvara 40th, I always wanted to run my hand up and down it because I like that that nice smoothness that it had. Um, and then when I go to Star Wars limited edition, it's just a decal like anything else. What's Where's the foil? Where's the foil? Rush had a cool foil embossed kind of thing on it. Matt Frank Mac. Morning, Charles T. That's what's up. Thanks for joining so early, you guys. I know it's early. I gotta get to the airport. I got about 10 minutes and then I I need to hop off here and jump on a plane. Going to Maine today. So, shout out to my maners. Um I don't know what I'm going to do out there. I mean, I know where I'm going. We'll we'll talk about that. A little workrelated thing popped up. Very exciting workrelated thing. Um so, I'm going to go do an on-site. Super fun. I always wanted to travel for business because I like airplanes. I like airports. And I was jealous of people that like their job is they get to fly around and travel all the time. If I was lucky, I flew once a year somewhere if I was lucky. Now it's like every week I'm flying somewhere and I'm here for it. You know, I was just down at Texas for a day. Awesome. Um, now I'm going to uh Maine for two days. Uh, my carbon footprint is almost as big as Taylor Swift. I want to do another round the world flight. That was super fun. Um, in May I went to O'Hare airport and just flew west until I came around the planet again. That was super fun. I want to do that again with some cool stopovers. I had stopovers in Hong Kong, in Singapore, in Delhi, and in Austria, which that's a wild trip to put those four locations together. And it wasn't just go to the airport and jump on another airplane. it was leave the airport, go explore the area, spend the night, get back to the airport the next day, you know? So, I got to do stuff at each stop. And I want to do that again. And I'm thinking like I want to go to Shanghai. Uh I want to go to Vietnam. Um and then I don't I want to go I guess like Dubai or something. I haven't done the Middle East yet. Um maybe Cairo. Cairo would be a fun stopover. just, you know, run out to the pyramids, go to the Pizza Hut, take some photos, get harassed by street vendors, and then GTF out of there, right? I got my uh I have a hotel for Expo and I have a hotel for TPF already. I hope I get to go. I'm definitely going to Expo. Um the schedule for the first part of the year is still in flux. part of why I'm going to Maine to get everything sorted. But I'm hoping over the next four weeks everything's going to solidify and and we're going to have a whole round of announcements of cool things that are happening down podcast. This background will be changing. This background will be changing. A studio will be made. The Dubai Chocolate. I want to go to Dubai. I haven't been to Dubai yet. Um, Saudi Arabia has a Six Flags Park that I guess is open now and they have the world's tallest, fastest roller coaster. I guess I need to go ride it. I know Saudi Arabia is problematic, but you know, is is it so problematic that I I want to skip out on a roller coaster for um you know, maybe there's other ways to raise awareness. I don't know. I don't know the right answer, but I do like roller coasters and I do like travel and I want to go everywhere regardless. If it was safe and I could guarantee I'd actually be able to come back, I would probably go to North Korea for the experience and I don't support that regime at all, but I support the people. I would like to go meet them. What kind of pinball machines do they have in North Korea? You know, if anywhere was perfect for a P3 multimorphic, it's the Hermit Kingdom, right? Because, you know, maybe they don't have a lot of room or budget for a whole lineup of Stern games, but they could get they could get a P3 and then they could just swap out the modules, save space, you know. Um, maybe they could maybe because it's kind of open source, they could come up with their own North Korea approved modules and maybe every household for party members can have a P3 cabinet and then they could have state approved modules in North Korea of pinball. Jeremy says cheese for reasons. All right, I dig it. I'm here for it, man. Jeremy's fun. He's a Wisconsin guy. Me and Jeremy always hang out at uh MGC when I come by the poor man's pinball table. I love the poor man's booth, man. My first time at Expo, I walked up and I'm like, "What is this vibe and how do I get in on it?" Because like it was just a bunch of random crap on a table, which I I appreciated. Where does North Korea? Oh god. Oh god. Mandatory fun. How sad was it that we got ourselves a weird pinball machine and it was that I I don't even It could multimate. It could have been fine. Could have been fine, but like the direction they went with it was bad, you know? You know, it's like I'm in this museum, which which could have worked as like a portal to different weird songs and stuff, but like you start a mode and then you get into a song and then your ball drains and it's over and it's like I hate that. My daughter will be playing music and we'll kind of be listening in the background and then she'll just like mid song changes to something else and it's like would you stop? you know, you're playing something, whatever. Let it finish, you know, or ask around. You guys mind if I change this? Because, you know, you're kind of like grooving on something and then Ed Boon, it's just changes something else. That's what that game feels like. It's like, okay, finally I'm in a weird owl song. Cool. Amish paradise. I love it. And then it just it cuts to something else or goes back to that lobby music, which is just kind of zany. H Jeremy, I love it. I really wanted to appeal Big Adventure Pinball. Me too, Charles. Me too. And And so does everybody else. I know pinball companies that want to make it. I know pinball artists that want to draw it. I know pinball people that want to code it. I know pinball buyers that want to buy it. But what we don't have is a PeeWee's Big Adventure license holder that wants to license it. Like it's not like it's too expensive. It's like it's just not they're not even interested in doing that. What a way to honor the legacy. Come on. the X1. I would love me some PeeWee's Big Adventure. Hey, let's do a little segment real quick. Whatever happened to Whatever Happened to Predictability? No. Whatever happened uh to Ramp's road trip? Ramp's road trip fell off a cliff. We saw it at Pinball at the Beach. We're almost back to Pinball at the Beach again, and we've seen no hide or hair or mention or anything about Tilt Bob Pinball and what happened. I had heard that that guy, those people who would sell out. Absolutely. I had heard that guy had bought like six figures worth of CNC equipment and everything he needed to do the game in house and build it. And then Rams Roadtrip came out. I've got a translite for Ramps Road Trip to do a giveaway at some point. Um, but Rams Roadtrip kind of came out and then there they got a lot of feedback. I'll try to be very constructive with them. Like, don't don't do any doodoo that's just going to flop on its face. Like, if you're building it, like, here's some good feedback on ways you can really make this a successful product and and really launch your business because a new pinball company, a new boutique has to make those hundred games and get them sold to get themselves some notoriety, experience to level up, and get some working capital for the next game, which should be a license. Um, unless you've got big backers, it's hard to go for a license right away. Uh, so yeah, I don't know what happened, man. I haven't seen any updates. You know, they could reach out. I would I' I'd stop by when I'm there and see what's going on, but I've heard nothing about like, hey, it's coming. Even Alice's Alice in Wonderland, whatever the the the cheap pinball machine's called, uh, they're going to be at Los Angeles Comic Con this month. Uh they'll be at Expo with a workable game. They've got uh Kickstarter backers. So that project's going forward, but Ramps Road Trip seeing nothing about it. And then what up with the rumor about Jay and Silent Bob getting a game? Did we ever find out what company was supposedly doing that? And was it American Pinball? I heard American Pinball has their new game that they still want to release and that they did have at least one other game licensed like in the works. So, I'm thinking that might have been the Jay and Silent Bob game, which I'm here for it, man. We've been saying that American Pinball needed licenses. I wish they wouldn't have blundered the uh uh Masters of the Universe because that could have been fun. So, we'll see. But I think they were the ones that had the uh J and Silent Bob. And then there was one other one, one other project that was just announced. Oh, whoever this Vector Pinball is in Australia that just announced that they're doing Lost in Space. They released the art. Uh half of it looks okay. Half of it looks like a jumbled mess. And they haven't revealed anything playfield wise. I looked at some of their other games though and they're very, very odd. I don't know who these people are. Um, I talked to Enzo last night about it and I think it's like like a pinball person or somebody that like knows pinball and wants to make machines in Australia, which I'm here for it. I'm even here for Lost in Space, Robbie the Robot, but I don't know if it's like an actual product or not. I want to see some more about that. No. No. Maybe one of the Brizzy Festivals. Should we get Sexy Fix in here? Sexy fix. Take us out, buddy. Give us your dance moves. I would love to do a flash mob like this if we could all learn these steps. [laughter] Sexy fix, you complete me. Um, guys, I got to get to the airport. Um, fun Sunday. I know it was early. Thanks for those of you that showed up. Who's texting me? My Discord's blowing up. People are awake. Rob Burke just texted. What's he have to say? All right. So, Tuesday when I get back, I might be doing a a little interview talking with Rob Burke from Pinball Expo. Um, send me some questions. I don't know. We'll talk about when did you why did you decide to do a Pinball Expo? What was it like in the early days? Um, I don't know. And we'll just promote it. Uh, because I want to do that. And the dude got me a booth. So, that's cool. I miss Dragon Fix. Oh, Jeremy, watch this back. Fast forward five minutes and you'll see the dragon fix on there. I should put um Do I have another I want to see if I can put up a picture of the other fix here real quick. I think I can. Oh, here. Let's do this. Let me find I I had another fixie photo. If I could find it real quick, let me throw it up here.
[laughter]
I found this picture of Canada from a long time ago. I don't want to put that one up. He'll get he'll get his feelings hurt. Oh, where's my other I need to make a fix folder. Oh man, I got a bunch of weird photos on here. All right, we'll have to do it next time. I don't know where this photo went. Anyway, y'all be good. We'll talk next time. Be good. Be well.

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: e4fd6697-5f7b-49d3-a748-94f7046ca16d*