# EP 22 - What's Really Coming to Pinball in 2026?

**Source:** Flip n Out Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-04-23  
**Duration:** 59m 6s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://flipnoutpinballpodcast.com/ep-22-whats-really-coming-to-pinball-in-2026

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## Analysis

Greg Bone and Ken Cromwell of Flippin' Out Pinball discuss the state of pinball in 2026 through late April, reflecting on a slower first half compared to late 2025's rapid-fire releases. They speculate on upcoming Stern Pinball (Transformers, Fallout, or AC/DC remaster rumored by mid-June), Jersey Jack Pinball (Sonic the Hedgehog most likely, with Matrix and Ghostbusters as alternatives), and Spooky Pinball (Goonies and Gremlins rumors) announcements, while debating game design philosophy and the appeal of potential remaster titles like Lord of the Rings and Ghostbusters.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] 2026 has been a slow year so far with only Pokemon and Yukon Yeti as confirmed releases through April — _Greg and Ken discussing release pace in early-to-mid 2026; they note American Pinball's Houdini re-release and Circus Voltaire tease but don't count them as major releases_
- [MEDIUM] Stern Pinball has a new cornerstone game coming by mid-June 2026 — _Ken states 'Stern Pinball is coming out with another cornerstone, I would say, end of spring before summertime...by mid-June, I would assume'_
- [MEDIUM] Transformers is the strongest rumor for Stern's next release, with Fallout and AC/DC remaster as secondary possibilities — _Greg: 'Strongest rumor, Transformers...Transformers, Fallout, ACDC, Remastered are kind of the three things that it seems like people are chattering about'_
- [MEDIUM] AC/DC remaster seems strongest among remaster possibilities, though other titles are floating around — _Ken: 'I agree with you, ACDC seems to be the strongest. But then some other ones kind of come up and I'm like, uh'_
- [MEDIUM] Sonic the Hedgehog is the big rumor for Jersey Jack Pinball's next release with Steve Ritchie — _Ken: 'Jersey Jack Pinball, the big rumor is Sonic the Hedgehog, Steve Ritchie'_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky Pinball rumors include Goonies and Gremlins, with reveals toward end of 2026 — _Ken: 'rumor titles that are coming up for Spooky...It's the end of the year...either Goonies...Goonies, Gremlins, people on that. Goonies has just been such a strong rumor'_
- [MEDIUM] Barrels of Fun has also teased Goonies, creating confusion about which manufacturer has the license — _Greg: 'barrels of funds, they tease Goonies sometimes...So it's like, again, I don't...Is there some trolling? Does nobody have Goonies?'_
- [HIGH] Metallica remaster was successful for Stern Pinball — _Ken: 'Metallica remastered seemed like it did very well. It did. Oh, yeah'_
- [HIGH] Ghostbusters Premium was the speaker's first new-in-box game purchase — _Ken: 'That was my first new in box game was Ghostbusters Premium. Man, what a good experience. I remember that. Oh, I can't imagine. Oh, it was pretty amazing.'_
- [MEDIUM] The Ghostbusters flipper gap may have been an oversight in file transmission — _Ken: 'I've heard stories where it was simply an oversight with a file that was sent. And that flipper gap was, uh, was, was larger than it originally should have been.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "I'm a company man, but more so. It's like that's a few hours that I get to hang out with my buddies, talk about business...Our meetings are very therapeutic for me."
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~03:30
> _Reveals Ken's commitment to the business and the importance of team collaboration at Flippin' Out Pinball_

> "2026 so far for me has been the year Pokemon from Stern Pinball. What else has come out this year? Nothing!"
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~13:00
> _Establishes the podcast's main thesis: 2026 has been slow compared to late 2025_

> "That last quarter, I guess...like every two or three weeks, it seemed like something was getting released...we weren't able to get five to seven days off in a row because there was something that was hitting, something that was getting teased."
> — **Greg Bone**, ~15:00
> _Contrasts late 2025's rapid release pace with current slowdown_

> "It would be so fun to see in pinball where it's you almost consider taking a day off of work because you want to be sitting live for a few hours leading up to that reveal."
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~22:00
> _Articulates desire for event-driven reveals similar to Super Bowl coverage; suggests content strategy opportunity_

> "If any other company was going to make like a Ghostbusters, I would like to see JJP throw their hat in the ring...if they compare them and it's a unanimous like Stern's was better, you're fucked."
> — **Greg Bone**, ~65:00
> _Reflects on competitive risk of remaking beloved Stern titles; warns JJP about market expectations_

> "Sonic was Mario Brothers on steroids...Sonic was nuts and just graphically advanced audio advanced...there are people like you, people like me that are interested in Sonic as a theme."
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~45:00
> _Establishes personal connection to Sonic IP and nostalgia factor driving interest in JJP Sonic rumors_

> "I still think that sound in a game is just so underrated because if you didn't do that or you had some other sound...it gets boring. But when you...it adds to the mode like it's almost a toy or a mech within itself."
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~75:00
> _Highlights importance of audio design in pinball gameplay experience; uses Ghostbusters as example_

> "Spooky can do no wrong, knock on wood...they've got their shit together over there...at in Benton, Wisconsin."
> — **Greg Bone**, ~88:00
> _Establishes Spooky Pinball's current market momentum and positive reputation_

> "I wish there was enough money in the hobby to go around for something like that to where that two companies could almost go to head to head on the same theme."
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~93:00
> _Expresses desire for competitive licensing scenario; suggests market size constraints limit IP opportunity_

> "What if the Harry Potter license, they let one company do one movie, so there were eight companies each doing one of the movies? You'd have to collect them all. You'd have to buy eight games."
> — **Ken Cromwell**, ~98:00
> _Proposes novel licensing model that would drive collector FOMO and spread IP across manufacturers_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Greg Bone | person | Co-host of Flippin' Out Pinball podcast; works at Flippin' Out Pinball distribution company; took vacation during this recording but called in for team meeting |
| Ken Cromwell | person | Co-host of Flippin' Out Pinball podcast; part of leadership team at Flippin' Out Pinball; contributed vacation time to attend team meeting; owns lawn business background |
| Zach Meny | person | Referenced as part of Flippin' Out Pinball team during discussion of Tuesday meetings; operates alongside Greg and Ken in business operations |
| Flippin' Out Pinball | company | Pinball distribution and retail company based in Evansville, Indiana; sponsors long-running podcast; operates venues and produces content |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; rumored to have cornerstone release by mid-June 2026; speculation centers on Transformers, Fallout, or AC/DC remaster |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Premium boutique pinball manufacturer; Sonic the Hedgehog rumored as next release; strong rumors also include Matrix and Ghostbusters variants |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Wisconsin-based boutique manufacturer currently viewed as 'hot company'; rumored titles include Goonies and Gremlins with end-of-year reveals expected |
| Barrels of Fun | company | Houston-based boutique manufacturer; has teased Goonies, creating confusion about which manufacturer holds the license |
| American Pinball | company | Manufacturer with 2026 releases including Houdini re-release and Circus Voltaire tease; hosts mentioned but not counted as major releases by podcast |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Legendary pinball designer; joined Jersey Jack Pinball; rumored to be designing Sonic the Hedgehog for JJP |
| George Gomez | person | Chief Creative Officer at Stern; mentioned for making design tweaks to games including Beatles (based on Sea Witch design); potential source for remaster design decisions |
| Jack Danger | person | Stern Pinball designer and streamer; mentioned as content creator whose streams Ken used to watch waiting for gameplay reveals |
| Dwight | person | Code/rules designer who updated Ghostbusters code to address gameplay balance issues; credited with improving game experience |
| Jerry Thompson | person | Audio engineer for Stern's Ghostbusters; praised for exceptional audio design and sound package; influenced Ken's appreciation for pinball audio importance |
| Pokemon Pinball | game | Stern Pinball release in 2026; described as only significant release through April; used as benchmark for slow year |
| Yukon Yeti | game | Released at TPF (Texas Pinball Festival) 2026; one of few confirmed releases in early 2026; seemingly doing well according to hosts |
| Ghostbusters | game | Stern Pinball classic; subject of extensive discussion about potential JJP remaster; has flipper gap issue that may be unfixable without redesign |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | game | Rumored Jersey Jack Pinball title with Steve Ritchie; strong market interest due to nostalgic appeal for Sega Genesis era players; would be impressive licensing for JJP |
| Goonies | game | Strong rumor for Spooky Pinball; also teased by Barrels of Fun, creating confusion about licensing; long-standing community wishlist item |
| Gremlins | game | Rumored Spooky Pinball title alongside Goonies; expected reveal toward end of 2026 |
| Houdini | game | American Pinball re-release in 2026; mentioned but not counted as major release by podcast hosts |
| Circus Voltaire | game | American Pinball tease/confirmation announced in 2026; hosts view as confirmation rather than major reveal |
| Harry Potter | game | Jersey Jack Pinball title; hosts discuss as example of licensing complexity spanning eight movies; propose hypothetical licensing model of splitting movies across manufacturers |
| Lord of the Rings | game | Stern Pinball classic; Ken's top choice for remaster alongside Ghostbusters; hosts discuss potential artistic improvements (vibrant artwork, updated lighting, HQ clips) |

### Signals

- **[market_signal]** 2026 first half showing significantly slower release cadence compared to late 2025's rapid-fire announcements; only Pokemon and Yukon Yeti counted as major releases through April (confidence: high) — Greg: 'it's kind of a slow year so far...doesn't seem like we've got this rapid fire amount of releases'; Ken: 'Pokemon...What else has come out this year? Nothing!'
- **[rumor_hype]** Strong community speculation about Stern's next cornerstone game; Transformers leading rumor with Fallout and AC/DC remaster as alternatives; expected by mid-June 2026 (confidence: medium) — Greg: 'Strongest rumor, Transformers...Transformers, Fallout, ACDC, Remastered are kind of the three things that it seems like people are chattering about'
- **[rumor_hype]** Sonic the Hedgehog rumored as Jersey Jack Pinball's next release with designer Steve Ritchie; strong community interest due to nostalgic IP appeal; Matrix and Ghostbusters mentioned as alternatives (confidence: medium) — Ken: 'Jersey Jack Pinball, the big rumor is Sonic the Hedgehog, Steve Ritchie...I know there's a lot of interest in Sonic'
- **[rumor_hype]** Goonies and Gremlins rumored for Spooky Pinball with expected reveals toward end of 2026; Spooky currently viewed as 'hot company' with momentum (confidence: medium) — Ken: 'rumor titles that are coming up for Spooky...It's the end of the year...either Goonies...Goonies, Gremlins'
- **[rumor_hype]** Goonies license status unclear; both Spooky and Barrels of Fun rumored to have or tease the title, creating speculation about which manufacturer holds rights or if both will release versions (confidence: medium) — Greg: 'it's weird because barrels of funds, they tease Goonies sometimes...Does nobody have Goonies? What if they both had Goonies?'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Strong community demand for remaster titles (Lord of the Rings, Ghostbusters, Tron); hosts view remasters as strategic opportunity to leverage beloved IP with modern production values (confidence: high) — Ken: 'I've heard people ask for Tron...I would love to see Ghostbusters redone. Ghostbusters 100%...Those are like the holy grails'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Ghostbusters flipper gap design issue acknowledged as potential manufacturing oversight; wider-than-intended gap affects gameplay balance; fixing would require full playfield redesign making game too easy (confidence: medium) — Ken: 'the flipper gap...was simply an oversight with a file that was sent...when you close the flipper gap, Everything else probably geometrically...is no longer going to line up'
- **[content_signal]** Hosts express desire for centralized media release coordination; multiple content creators and manufacturer channels create fragmentation requiring audience to search across platforms (confidence: high) — Ken: 'with so many people in the...content creator space...there's a lot of interviews...released on different channels...I would like to have some of that compartmentalized in one space'
- **[community_signal]** Hosts propose enhanced reveal event format inspired by Super Bowl coverage; multi-hour content rollout, panel discussions, Q&A with design teams; suggests appetite for structured, media-rich announcements (confidence: medium) — Ken: 'it would be neat to have just one big rollout...half a day, like you got off at lunch...just sit there and just pile through this content...like a tailgate for a new release'
- **[product_strategy]** Jersey Jack Pinball avoiding direct competition with Stern on established IPs (e.g., Pirates discontinued); potential JJP Ghostbusters would represent competitive escalation requiring superior execution (confidence: medium) — Greg: 'If JJP gets Ghostbusters...is that propelling the company forward? Is that lacking some originality?...it has to be better...if you don't, you fail miserably'
- **[industry_signal]** Spooky Pinball characterized as 'hot company' with strong execution; positive sentiment contrasts with historical concerns about other boutique manufacturers' consistency (confidence: high) — Greg: 'Spooky can do no wrong, knock on wood...they've got their shit together over there...at in Benton, Wisconsin'
- **[design_philosophy]** Audio design elevated as critical gameplay element, not aesthetic addon; discussed as equivalent to mechanical toys/mechs in terms of player engagement and immersion (confidence: high) — Ken: 'I still think that sound in a game is just so underrated...when you...it adds to the mode like it's almost a toy or a mech within itself'

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## Transcript

Hey, what's going on Pinball and welcome it's episode 22 that is 022 of Flippin Out Pinball podcast Greg Bone with me today. I am your other host Ken Cromwell and today we've got a very special show for you guys because we have no idea what we're going to talk about. I was gonna say I'm scared Ken. I was like what the hell are we doing now? And after a couple minutes we realized that this is really not the most amazing week to talk about pinball. So I think what we're gonna decide to do is what we're gonna kind of give you our opinions on where the year has gone so far, where we think the year is gonna close out. That should give us a little idea. And look, we know how this goes. It breaks off in the separate conversations almost all the time. So, Greg, I will. Well, as you know, I'm on vacation this week, which is been I thought it'd be this relaxing kind of therapeutic thing. But I realize that I'm kind of bored and I miss work a little bit. I know. So we always have a Tuesday meeting and it lasts for quite some time between the team. And Ken and Zach had mentioned about the meeting. Ken was like, I'll be there. And we're like, oh, you're on vacation, whatever. And sure enough, right before our our eight o'clock meeting, like I get a phone call from Ken and he's he's coming in. He's coming in for the meeting. Merged him right in there. I'm a company man, but more so. It's like that's a few hours that I get to hang out with my buddies, talk about business. I don't know. I love it. Our meetings are very therapeutic for me. Like we're always like we're problem solving. Like we're brainstorming. We all listen to each other. It's I don't know. I look forward to it, too. It's very intriguing. You know, we're presenting problems, issues to each other and everything. I mean, I don't know. It's it's an odd thing. Even though it's work, it doesn't feel like work. No, it doesn't. It's one of the fun parts of the job. And I'm at this point in my life now where I'm trying to assign positive things to each day of the week so that the week goes by quicker. And then it gets me into the weekend. Right. So Monday is just kind of Monday. Monday is a lot of makeup work from the weekend. But Tuesday is our meeting, which, you know, is takes up a lot of time in the morning. Wednesday is my fortnight and bourbon night. So that's that's pretty fun. Thursday is just kind of out there because I'm shuttling kids around Thursday evenings. So it's kind of a terrible day of the week for me. And then Friday, it's like, hey, who's not in a good mood on Friday? I'm going to get on Friday. Fridays can suck, though. Friday is going to be a little rough. People start cramming stuff in on me to try to make up for stuff on the weekend. It's like, oh, I got off work. I got this problem in my game. What do I do, Greg? I can see that. Yeah. Which I understand. Like, hell, you're wanting to be able to play your game. You kind of procrastinated through the week. You got work and everything. Weekend's coming up. You got time to play. Let's get this fixed. Get a lot of correspondence on the weekend, especially with emails. And I was trying to figure out, like, why that happens. But it's just common sense. People are working all week. And then the weekend hits and they're kind of chilling out. And they're like, well, this is the free time I have. And that's when I get a lot of I got a lot more emails on Saturday and Sunday then than I usually would have anticipated. But it's fine because that's what Mondays are for, man. Make it up for the weekends. And a lot of times I'll try to I'll try to touch base on the weekends, but it's hard. It's hard to do that. All right. We are in April. April 22nd is the date of the recording of this podcast. 2026. And I'm thinking about how this year has gone in comparison to last year. And, you know, we don't need to get specific as of what was released by this time in twenty twenty five versus twenty twenty six. But in my eyes, it's it's kind of a little bit of a slow year so far. It's it's taking a while for it to get momentum and not in the sense that we haven't had good games, but in the sense that it just doesn't seem like we've got this rapid fire amount of releases. Well, I think I think a lot of it because I agree with you, too. I think a lot of it, though, I mean, you really think about how that we closed out last year. With games, you know, with Winchester being announced and you had, you know, Beetlejuice being announced, you know, Dune really took back off again, you know, and Star Wars, Fall of the Empire come out like, you know, it was just kind of a whirlwind of a year towards the end, you know, that last quarter, I guess. So, I mean, I think coming off of that, anything's going to feel boring. That's a really good point, because at one point I remember we were thinking like every two or three weeks, it seemed like something was getting released. And we were specifically cognizant of it. Obviously, as a distributor, you know, we're taking calls and orders and whatnot. But even from a podcast perspective, we weren't able to get five to seven days off in a row because there was something that was hitting, something that was getting teased. Yeah, Predator, Jaws 50th, like we had a lot of stuff like right there that was just flying. And it's like you said, I felt like we were on here every week, every few days for a while. Right. So now I'm thinking, all right, obviously, 2026 so far for me has been the year Pokemon from Stern Pinball. What else has come out this year? Nothing! Has that been the only release for the whole... Oh, UConn Yeti's come out this year. That was released at TPF, right? Seemingly doing well. I guess American Pinball had some announcements with... Houdini. The re-release of Houdini and then, yeah, but teasing Circus Voltaire or at least kind of announcing it. It's not out, but I don't know. I don't... See, it's not like a reveal to me. It's just kind of like confirmation of a theme. Yeah, I agree. All that pregame stuff that leads up to the Super Bowl, like that whole day of just generating interest and interviews and content, like to a scale down effect, that would be so fun to see in pinball where it's you almost consider taking a day off of work because you want to be sitting live for a few hours leading up to that reveal. And then you've got the big payoff. It's like it's like, boom. Yeah, because I think a lot of people are still passionate about that. I mean, I used to, you know, obviously I live it, so it's a little different now, but I remember like setting down just like freaking couldn't wait for a Stern stream. You know, I was just waiting for that Jack Danger stream to pop up and to be able to watch that that gameplay reveal or, you know, sitting there glued to my phone at work. Like when I got into pinball, I owned my lawn business and I remember like literally stopping at noon, waiting for a trailer to drop and just sitting in my truck like right there because I wanted to see it, you know. And I'm like you, especially since, you know, we've started really creating content and we've got the featurettes and we've got all this stuff now and all this media. It would be neat to have just one big rollout to where you felt like at least a half a day, like you got off at lunch, you come home, you know, grab you a drink or do something early and just sit there and just pile through this content for this new release. Like, it's fun. Kind of like a tailgate for a new release. Yeah. You know, have the creative team sitting down in like more of a conversational tone, maybe like a panel where you're not really confirming what the theme is, but you're talking about their involvement in the game and what they like. But, you know, again, you're kind of being elusive as to what the theme is, even if, you know, most of the times now the rumors that are within a few weeks of release are true. I've never really seen a company that had a rumored release the day of reveal. It'd be completely something else. Now, you know, we're seeing more and more, you know, recently some some themes that are being teased or not teased, but are being speculated as rumor that, you know, you won't really know for sure until you get a little bit closer. But you don't even need to do that live. You can pre record all this and have it canned and put it out as like a YouTube premiere and then be able to see chat and mantra like that'd be fun, like two, three hours leading into a into a reveal. You're just already engaged and communities getting excited. I'm getting excited. You got little segments, little advertising. Well, and like you said, then throw in, you know, maybe have one or two people from the design team. You do a question and answer that night at 7 p.m. or something to where this chat would flood with that and asking questions and doing stuff. And you pick I mean, they sort of do that on the stream sometimes and stuff, you know, with things where questions get asked and so forth. But, I mean, I think that that would be just an awesome. Like you said, just literally like have it blocked out every like two hours during the day where something is getting released for one whole day. Yeah. And flood. I mean, it'd be awesome, man. I would love to take a Friday evening or something and do that or a Saturday. Oh, man. Could you imagine like getting out on the patio? You got your little you got a little fire pit going. You got your beverage. Maybe you got a cigar and just kind of because I put a TV outside a lot like TV outside and just kind of chill out for a few hours and kind of consume some of that. The thing is now it's and this isn't a bad thing, but with so many people in the I'll say like content creator space, there's a lot of interviews and there's a lot of content that is made that is then released on different channels. Right. And that's great for spreading the word and having that relationship between the manufacturer and the content creator. But, you know, I would argue to a certain extent I would like to have some of that compartmentalized in one space so I just know where it all is. Just do. It's not having to search all these different channels and you know what I mean? You make a media release date. Dude, like, I mean, this is something for us to think about. Like, we're giving away ideas that we're probably going to implement or help implement. Maybe we move this over to Patreon and we've got some Patreon members that we wanted to welcome to the show here. Okay. Or welcome to Patreon as we get later in the show, but go ahead. You know what? We are going to move this bit right here over to Patreon. Yeah, I like it. This is going to be a quick snippet that's going to Patreon. I love it. So get over there right now and take a listen to this. So 2026 so far we've seen Pokemon, we've seen Yukon Yeti, we've seen American Pinball, redo Houdini, and tease. I still don't count any Circus Voltaire right now just because it was a kind of a tease. It was a confirmation. We're going to do it. Yeah. There's enough information out there where it's like, you know, so technically we've just had Pokemon and Yukon Yeti to me in a sense. Right. So when does and let's just go down a couple of manufacturers here and see what we think is going to happen. Stern Pinball is coming out with another cornerstone, I would say, end of spring before summertime. Yeah. Strongest rumor, Transformers. Transformers, we've heard as a strong rumor. Don't know what variant of Transformers. Transformers, Fallout, ACDC, Remastered are kind of the three things that it seems like people are chattering about, whether that be on other shows. The remastered is really weird because I again hearing strong fallout very strong Transformers but man like even on our end I still feel it's such a toss-up on what that remastered game is going to be. Because I've heard Metallica remastered seemed like it did very well. It did. Oh, yeah, I'm just saying of what the title is whether it's AC or DC. Yeah, a few things floating around. Again, I agree with you, ACDC seems to be the strongest. But then some other ones kind of come up and I'm like, uh. What would you want to see ideally remastered? I've heard people ask for Tron. Oh, Tron. Would you like to see Tron? Selfishly, man, I would love to see Ghostbusters redone. Ghostbusters 100% and Lord of the Rings. That's probably my two strongest remastered. And yeah, I mean, we think about the complexities of licensing and things like that. But. Those are like the holy grails. Like if you really need to pull out a big dog and really hit hard. Yeah. Oh, I think you remastered Lord of the Rings. Oh, my gosh. Could you imagine that with clips? Yeah, that's great. Audio. Oh, yeah, that would be stunning. And just the updated lighting even vibrant artwork. Yeah, like they just that that would just solidify. It's got to be one of the most popular game still sells for a lot. Yeah, it does. And you do that with all the updates that people have clamored for because it just came out in a weird that clip art era of Stern. You know what I'm saying? Sure. You get good artwork, vibrant art. The game always looks sun faded to me. Like on the play show, it's always sun faded. Right. And I know it's kind of the essence. The film kind of has that. It's a high res, right? So it's just kind of. Yeah. It's like you're like somebody. Yeah, I know what you're saying. Well, and the film has kind of the, you know, the filter they use on the brain effect. Yeah, it has a certain softness to it. I get it. But still, like, I still think that would be a man in Ghostbusters. Ghostbusters is still hot, man. I mean, they're really hot. Like, and I can understand why that they might not want to, you know, like the controversy around particular. Yeah, of course. I mean, that's just that's so very disappointing and disgusting on so many different levels. It is. And we were all into pinball at that point in time. So, I mean, I guess that I can understand the non remastering of that. Yeah. But man, it's still it's still a good it's still such a good game. You know what it would be? I mean, maybe because you've you've seen George Gomez has gone in and he's made slight changes to games when they've, for instance, I think Sea Witch. The first thing was, uh, Beatles is essentially Sea Witch. Yes. George Gomez, he tweaked that design to have a better playing experience for people that had Beatles. So I think one of the issues that people have with Ghostbusters is the flipper gap, which is the distance between the left and right flipper is wider. And I've heard stories where it was simply an oversight with a file that was sent. And that flipper gap was, uh, was, was larger than it originally should have been. Problem is when you close the flipper gap, Everything else probably geometrically on that playfield is no longer going to line up how it would have with the wider flipper gap. So it might be too easy of a game at that point. You think so? Because it's frustrating as hell. I told you I bought the center post kit and it wasn't the one that you drilled into the playfield, but it came off the slings and kind of free floater from the top. I had so much more fun on Ghostbusters with that. And again, I'm not a scoring guy. I just want to get to that because it at the time it was very linear you know and if you want to try to get to certain modes you had to you had to chop some wood It since been changed Dwight updated that code Kudos to Dwight But yeah, I mean, so well, it really does. I mean, those shots are so tight in some of those areas, but it's not. They're tighter than Houdini, but the way that it's laid out in that geometry, they're not overly tough shots to shoot. That was my first new in box game was Ghostbusters Premium. Man, what a good experience. I remember that. Oh, I can't imagine. Oh, it was pretty amazing. What if you were able to, because there's up posts, like could you have like an automatic center post? Yeah, I don't see why you couldn't. It could pop up? Yeah. Or even put in something like the Dungeons and Dragons and just do like some kind of like a ball save cradled mech in there for something that you've coded in for particular things or you hit the action button and get a ball save to make it easier. That way you're not talking with the geometry. Right. So interesting. Interesting. So with the code, you add something where maybe you've got a 30 second center post and when you activate it with the action button, the post comes up and it sticks up. Because there's not really anything in that area that I think takes up a lot of space under the play field there. Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. And that'd be interesting, too, though. For instance, if somebody had the game and they were a novice, you know, you could go into the settings and have that up. And then as you got better, you could you could have it lowered. I don't know, something to consider. But alright, so we don't know what's coming from Stern. There's gonna be another game that's gonna be here, I would say within the next, I don't know, 45 days? May, June. I had to guess. By June? By mid-June? Yeah, by mid-June, I would assume. Jersey Jack Pinball, the big rumor is Sonic the Hedgehog, Steve Ritchie. I know there's a lot of interest in Sonic, and there's this... Yeah, yeah, Sonic the Pinball, Sonic the Hedgehog was one of those things where all three of my kids ended up liking Sonic. I like the hedgehog a lot and we would watch Sonic X all the time, which is like a cartoon, like an anime thing. It's it's it gets really kind of deep and weird. My age demographic was like, you know, I obviously grew up on Nintendo in my very young elementary, early elementary years. But then when when, you know, Sega Genesis dropped and you had that 16 bit and that major jump, you know, I was a huge gamer. I was a huge nerd and that stuff at the time. And that was just life changing. The graphics on that and with Sonic and everything. And so that that is where like even though Nintendo is nostalgic and amazing, like Sega Genesis was that real fond memory because I was just at the perfect age when it came out. And it was so awe inspiring and changed the market for for video game consoles at that time. That was for the Genesis? Sonic the Hedgehog? Yeah. Do I? Yeah. Are you talking about Sega Genesis? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that was like that to me was the corest memory. You know what I'm saying? Even above Nintendo was have in above Mario and everything else was was honestly Sonic. Yeah, my first I mean, I grew up like it's it's that's a solid. It was the first time in a console because my first console I ever got was Atari 2600. And that's just like you're playing big pixels. You know what I mean? And it's funny because at one point, little side story, my I had an emulator that played old Atari 2600. I'm like, hey, let me show you what this game looks like. I plug in the emulator to the TV, and I'm playing the game, and he's watching it, and he's like, when is the game going to start? One of my favorite games was on the Atari 2600. It's a game called Adventure. And essentially you're like a you're like this little square and you get a sword and you kill three dragons. You go to a castle, find the chalice. You got to bring the chalice back to the original castle and you win. That's it. So I'm like, hey, let me show you what this game looks like. I plug in the emulator to the TV and I'm playing the game and he's watching. He's like, when is the game going to start? And I'm like, what are you talking about? I'm like, I'm playing the game right now. Like, that's me. That's the arrow. He's like, Dad. He's like, I thought that was like a weird loading screen. I'm like, no, that's not going to start. That's a game like that's I grew up on that. But then when Nintendo Entertainment System came out, it was like mind blowing. I got that Christmas one year and I was so happy that NES was great. But the first time I really felt like I was getting an arcade quality console where it had advanced graphics was absolutely that Sega Genesis. And with Sonic being like the flagship game console, you know, Mario Brothers is epic. Yes. Sonic was Mario Brothers on steroids and maybe not necessarily for the better for me because I still like the slower paced platform scroller of I think Mario Brothers, Super Mario Brothers, a little bit better. It was slower paced, but Sonic was nuts and just graphically advanced audio advanced. And just like you said, there are people like you, people like me that are interested in Sonic as a theme. So if that is, in fact, what's coming out from JJP, you know, kudos to them, because that's going to be, in my opinion, like two pretty impressive lights. Licenses back to back, Harry Potter, Sonic the Hedgehog. If it's not Sonic the Hedgehog, other rumors we've heard from JJP that has been that had been discussed. Maybe we've heard Matrix. We've heard there was a weird Ghostbusters one floating around for a minute. That's where I want your Ghostbusters. Yeah. What are your thoughts on that? So. We were just talking about how fond we were of Stern Pinball's Ghostbusters and Jersey Jack Pinball. They have a different approach to how they make games and how they present games. And you can argue which company has the better gameplay, which company has the better machine. I think that can fluctuate from title to title. If JJP said, hey, we're doing Ghostbusters, it's going to be based on the original Ghostbusters. Is that something that you're excited about? Are you like, man, you know, they're making a game that's already been made? Because, I mean, they have been they've made some games that have already been made. And it's like because when you hear Jack talk, he's like. You know, we're not going to put pirates on the line anymore because we're looking to we're looking at making new games, propelling the company forward. If JJP gets Ghostbusters and they make it, is that propelling the company forward? Is that lacking some originality? I don't think it is. Are you in a pissing contest with Stern at that point if you're JJP where it's like, we're going to start one-upping some of these classic titles that you have? But that's exactly what it would have to be. And they would obviously be two different games. So you don't necessarily, like, I still think that there could be no matter how good a JJP Ghostbusters is, I don't think that people, you know, You know, there's still going to be a preference of like, oh, I like the Stern one versus the JJP one. But what they do have to do is they actually it has to be better. Yeah, it has to be better. And then you allow just small preferences, whether it's flow or whatever else. But you have to come out of the gate with that game, because if you don't, you fail miserably because then people will immediately. They're going to compare regardless. But if they compare them and it's a unanimous like Stern's was better, you're fucked. That's dangerous, right? Yeah, it is. It is. Just because it's still such a beloved game from Sterns that you would just have to jam pack. And that's what worries me is it's just like not that they're hit or miss, but they are with some things, you know, like GNR just had that that perfect feel for it. You know, it's jam packed with everything. Then you've got Toy Story 4. It's like, OK, I love the Duke Kaboom rant, but they're kind of and your Bo Peep loops, Greg. I love my Bo Peep Loops. I know you love Bo Peep Loops. The discovery of my Bo Peep Loops is still just one of the greatest moments of my life. It's touching my heart. Yep. But you know what I'm saying? Not that it wasn't that there. I like Toy Story 4, but you know what I'm saying about that. What do I? Yep. You know, like Avatar, not a lot going on in it, but then you take Elton John, like, you know, people love it. Flows good, shoots good, cool stuff going on in there. Even Harry Potter, like I love Harry Potter. It's got a ton going on in there, but it still didn't encompass the theme the way I think some people thought that it should. Well, it's a lot of theme, man. It's eight movies, right? So how do you? Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, yeah, it's hard. It's a very hard one. Like, where do you go with that? So I think that you would just have to have some really cool shit in there, and it would have to be one of their most loaded games. Not from the aspect of shot. You just need cool shit. And it needs to flow. Yeah, I think people expect that. Yeah, especially at the price points, you know, you're at $12, 000, $15, 000 on those games. And, you know, if you look back at the whole catalog of JJP, there's something to be said that's very impressive on all those games. They're all beautiful. Yeah, I mean, they really, really are. And it's like, if any other company was going to make like a Ghostbusters, I would like to see JJP throw their hat in the ring. I don't think we do because again like that original Ghostbusters from Stern is is it's memorable to me and it's impressive. It holds up man. That's when that's you know what that's when Pinball audio really really got me hooked where it's like hey the audio package is very important on a game and that was Jerry Thompson and man the audio on Ghostbusters was just was incredible to me. Oh, so encompassed. This is one of the best audio engineer games I've ever seen. One of the best artwork packages. I mean, that's true. And now that's Zombie Yeti's original art package, like the first time he had his pinball art package. And some will say that it's his it's his best art package to date. It's what they prefer. I don't know that that's true. I do like the Ghostbusters art package a lot from Stern. I don't know if it's his best art package or not. You know, and honestly, you know, with with Jerry's engineering of that, it's just everything was so. It just it pulled you in everything with the siren screaming, you know, and some of it seems easy, but so many people race on the audio these days, you know, of that sign you into the mood. Like when you're hearing that, you're like you're you're pumped up. You're in the movie, man. It's what we've talked before. Like, I still think that sound in a game is just so underrated because if you didn't do that or you had some other sound or you were just playing voice and clips and like, you know, shoot that loop or something like it's it gets boring. But when you like you said, we hear it, like it adds to the mode like it's almost a toy or a mech within itself because it's just audio feedback of what you're doing. And, you know, it's even sound the alarm or like when it's the for the the multiball for the the containment unit and stuff like. Oh, where it's melting down. Yeah, and all that. I mean, it's just... That's so cool. Again, Pinball moment, right? We talk about that. Fucking Ernie Hudson was just amazing in the voice acting, too, with the Scolari brothers and just different stuff. It's like, dude, he was just so good. You know what? If Stern does remake and they re-release Ghostbusters, take the Scolari brothers target out. I hate that pop-up. I can't stand it. I cared less. I mean, they've added something to it, but I mean... And put some more images in the Ecto-goggles. Yes. That was underutilized in my opinion. Very underutilized. Love it. But we're talking about JJP. So yeah, anyways, but I can see a cool topper, right? With the ghost trap in the top opens up and the light comes up and you trap a ghost. They're very good at Toys and Mech. I want a Pirates of the Caribbean, but Ghostbusters. Hmm. I think that's what I'm saying. Like I want something that's just packed. Would you like to see a wide body Ghostbusters or would you like to see a standard by I'm a big wide body pinball guy. I like him. I'm not. I would like to see what you could fit into it. But yeah, I like the Spooky, yeah. Standard. I want to see some flow. I want to see good flow. Sure. I think it calls for flow. Spooky Pinball, rumors, man, hot company, right? Like they got the hot hand right now. It seems like Spooky can do no wrong, knock on wood. I don't want to be the one that that jinxes anybody, but they've got their shit together over there at in Benton, Wisconsin, and rumor titles that are coming up for Spooky, which I guess we'll have a reveal of sorts towards the end of the year. It's the end of the year. And they may start teasing if they haven't already with with either with either Goonies. What else are we hearing from Spooky and talk about Gremlins? Goonies, Gremlins, people on that. Goonies has just been such a strong rumor. Like it's like it's been forever, too. It has. But then it's weird because barrels of funds, they tease Goonies sometimes. Yeah. So it's like, again, I don't, I don't know. It's, it's, it's, I guess, that game is gamesmanship. Is there some trolling? Does nobody have Goonies? What if they both had Goonies? Could you imagine Spooky? Two simultaneous different versions. That would be, that'd be interesting to see. I wish there was enough money in the hobby to go around for something like that to where that two companies could almost go to head to head on the same theme. And, and they would still be fine no matter what somebody chose. You know what I'm saying? I wish there was enough money, enough interest in the hobby, but I think it would be kind of neat. I would like to pick. What if the Harry Potter license, they let one company do one movie, so there were eight companies each doing one of the movies? Yeah. You'd have to collect them all. You'd have to buy eight games. We kind of talked about that early on, how neat it would have been even within JJP if they would have broken it up in the multiple series of games. So then you've got the first couple movies. You know what I'm saying? Well, we thought that would have been cool, too, because you've got three shots at really falling in love with the layout. Because you have three different designers over there. Yeah. So, I mean, yeah. But you know what? He said it gets into competition. Somebody gets pissed off. Like your game is sold better than mine. You jackass. They're sabotaging the parts. It's like, oh, it's a shame your parts didn't come in today. It's like, whatever. My layout might not have been as desired, but at least my game's holding up. Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, it's strong, strong on Goonies, a couple of other things floating around for them. Barrels of Fun, I mean, they're going to be building Winchesters and so forth over this summer and this year. Do you think we see anything at all from them for their next release? I do. I think that it's in their nature where they're going to have to get a game out in their eyes this year. And again, I hope that— You think Fall again around Chicago Expo time, September, October? I don't know. So Winchester was revealed at Expo right in October. So if they can stay at that cadence of once a year and I don know what they planning to do because this is a smaller build as far as numbers go with Winchester in comparison to what Dune was supposed to be But they still have a lot of Winchesters to build They do They do They do And I would assume that they have all of those done I'm not saying that they've told me this, but I assume they'll all be done within the year, like from them being they should be able to make 750 games in a year. How many games was it? No, only five. Oh, 500. That's right, man. Yeah, so even better. Yeah, so they should be in a good spot. So yeah, I could see, I'm thinking of like summer shows. I don't think they, I don't think they would not put themselves in a good position by revealing anything in the next couple months until you're at the end of the production on Winchester because then it just looks like, you know, hey, what are we doing here, guys? Well, and like you said, like I could see it making sense September, October, depending on how far along they are. Now, if they don't feel like that for whatever weird reason, they would be wrapping up Winchesters until into the first of next year, like mid or early spring, then maybe you hold something until January or so. Yeah, I would agree. I don't think because now you're setting this precedent where it's like, all right, if I if I put a deposit down, you're still building the last title that's been out for a year. How long am I waiting for this title? And yes, yeah, you know, it's one of those things that capital. It's not going to hurt Winchester at all. But of course, you see what Winchesters are selling for lately. Oh, yeah, it's gotten. Oh, my gosh. Hey, for those of you that had the foresight, it wasn't the foresight. Nobody had any foresight because the game was just surprised. Actually, I had foresight. I didn't buy a damn game, Greg. So I'm still salty about myself on that. But for those that got a Winchester, man, you're in a good spot. Yes. Open it up and play it. You're still in a great spot. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, hell yes. Easily. But the rumored titles from Barrels of Fun were hearing, what was it, Never Ending Story. I've heard it floated out there. Never Ending Story is one of those movies where when I was young and I was kind of watching it, it was, you know, at the time I was like, oh, my gosh. Yeah, just creepy, man. And I didn't realize how creepy it was at the time, but as I got older, it was just kind of like Wizard of Oz creepy, you know, where it's like, am I going to get picked up by flying monkeys and what the hell's going on with these people? But it's like trees are throwing apples. Yep. Dungeon Crawler Carl. Yeah, Dungeon Crawler Carl. I don't see that being the next one. Even if they have that, I don't see it being the next release. Well, I think what makes sense is, and you were discussing it before, let some of the assets get created and come out from the creators. Yeah, that's why I don't see that being. If they're doing that. What else have I heard from Barrels of Fun? I know, it's kind of been tight-lipped. Goonies I've heard from Barrels of Fun. Yeah, as we mentioned. Because a lot of times somebody will ask to get on an interest list, and if you want to get in an interest list with us for a rumored title, you can email me, Ken at FlippinOutPinball.com. A lot of people would be like, I would like to get Goonies if Spooky does it. I would like to get Ghostbusters if JJP does it. So it's like, just let me know the rumor's title. You don't need to tell me what company does it. We'll call you and if it's like, oh, it's not the company you want, then just pass. You pass. Yeah, just pass. Don't sweat that. Because then it gets really tough. Yeah, I don't know. Like that one's been kind of, I think people are still just obsessed with Winchester and And where Dune was. So I think we'll start to hear a lot more speculation come out of them over the next couple months. Do you think that Dunes go back on the line at some point? And the reason that I ask is that interest level is still high on Dune and there's just none to be had. They're kind of done it, but they do have a few hundred more that they that they have the right to make after their initial announcement of the game. I've had numerous people contact me with games going for twelve to thirteen thousand now. Okay. On Dunes. What was MSRP on Dune? 11-6? Yeah, I think so. Okay. So going a little over now, which, you know, I had talked to a customer the other day and he was asking me my thoughts on it and whether he was overpaying and so forth. And it wouldn't come from us. He was buying from, I guess, an individual, but still wanted my opinion on it. And, you know, the way I kind of explained to him was I told him, I said, well, you know, I said, you pay $13, 000 for that game now. You know, obviously don't have a crystal ball, but $13, 000 in three months might be a good deal because that game is still just rising in popularity or it just might be stagnant at 13 or go back down to 12. You know, you don't really know, but but it does. It's seemingly very popular right now. And I told him, I said, the only thing that could hurt you is if they do rerun that game because they have approximately 300 to still build. It was still a toss up with them. But I think if they start seeing that game command $13, 000, $14, 000 over the next few months, over the end of this year, I think that there is a strong possibility if they put in that parts order and they build those remaining dunes. Yeah, I'll be honest, when Winchester came out and it was in it was in October at Expo and people were asking about Dune, I think at the time, I think I even said on this podcast, I'm like, I don't really think that you'll probably ever see Dune come back on the line ever again. They're just going to be too busy because this was a small, you know, supposed small run with Winchester before they're going to roll into that next game. And this company is just kind of on fire. They're getting ready to propel forward instead of go back and revisiting Dune. Because I mean, in all fairness, at the time, it was an average seller. It wasn't anything that was, you know, taking pinball by storm. But then as people appreciated Winchester and they wanted to go into the back catalog and Dune was the most recent reveal revealed game from Barrels of Fun, people really started appreciating Dune for what it was. Yes. And it's just now you just can't get it. So now that there's that built in kind of demand for it, I think it's great for them to be in a position where if if there is some downtime between games. Yes. Assuming they have parts, which I don't know if they do or if they don't, it'd be nice to be able to do a run of, you know, maybe they can make 300 more. But in between these runs, we're going to throw 100 on the line and we're going to make those over the next month. Well, I think that's great. I would want to be in that position to where that I had a game that, again, if there's some kind of something falls apart between games, you definitely know you can't get parts. You're waiting for molds. You're waiting for something for this new game. Yeah. But you know that you can obtain those dune parts or you've already obtained them and you're setting on them. Then, you know, like I said, you can start building a few of those. Keep the line moving. Because, I mean, I always kind of feel that that's what Stern does. That's why that you you're bringing something back from the vault or you throw a rerun on of, let's just say, Jurassic Park pros out of nowhere. It keeps that line running in between games and depending on how great how your build is going. So I think they're excellent at that. And they have the foresight of scheduling that out a couple months in advance, which is huge. So I think, again, like you said, being in that position for barrels, I don't think it's bad. But if there isn't those lulls, that's the thing. It's like we just – we don't know. I don't think they're going to throw it on the line. I think they're just going to keep rolling with new game, new game, new game, new game. Yeah, yeah. You know, unless they start to get big enough to where they're running simultaneous lines and it makes sense because they've got the employees. They've got the space. They got everything to where that we're cranking out these games at a good pace. We're going to throw Dune on there to sell in between. Your bill of materials is, you know, increasingly high if you're ordering parts in small batches like 50 or 100. So that's the other thing. You know, if they don't already have most of the parts, you might as well just order parts for 300 games and then just spread it out as you can. If you can float that that cash out there, I think they could sell 300 more. I think they could sell 300 more. I really, really do. And I think as more people get their Winchesters, there will be even more people that want to buy Dune. And there will be more people that want to buy their next title. So as far as like brand loyalty goes, and that's a thing for a lot of people, I think they're in a good spot. But, you know, just got to get the Winchesters out. Yep. What else? What other company? Chicago Gaming Company is, you know, so they've got Medieval Madness. We talked about that. If you want to get in on Medieval Madness, you can send us. Your information will get you a deposit in. It's $1, 000. And then those are going to be made within the next few months. They're already on the line. But there's, you know, the rumor was they were going to be making the game with Play Mechanics of Raw Thrills. It was going to be a Mark Ritchie's Halo, another video game theme, which is interesting, right? Because with video games, if we had a year that had Sonic the Hedgehog come out, if we had a year that had Fallout come out, we had Halo come out. I mean, the year of the video games. Exactly, the year of the video games. But no Nintendo video game licenses, unfortunately, because that's where it is. But I don't know, I kind of hope that we see something come out of there. Pulp Fiction was the last and only game that Play Mechanics and Raw Thrills collaborated with CGC. But it's been forever now. Yeah, it has been forever. Hopefully we see some. I have not heard them doing anything else as far as like a rumor goes. No, me neither. Been pretty tight-lipped over there. You know, and it's important to realize, plate mechanics are off-thrills. They're not a pinball company first. They're into video gaming, redemption. And I think when I was talking with Josh Sharpe over there, I mean, that whole pinball thing was a good idea at the time with COVID, some downtime, and they knocked it out of the park. But Mark Ritchie is a pinball designer, so I'm sure it's in his blood to want to have another game come out at some point. He probably has a ton of different designs. He's the brother of Steve Ritchie, for those that might not know. I love Mark, by the way. Yeah, I don't know that I've ever spoken to Mark Ritchie. Oh, Mark's a good guy. You can tell that him and Steve are similar in some ways, but they're strikingly different individuals as well. Yeah, I can see that. I can see that. Yeah, I don't I've never had a conversation. I think I think I met him once at a pinball party. He's a good dude that honestly and I think Zach would agree with this. It was still one of the best teams that we'd ever worked with on doing a video was when we worked with play mechanics on on that Pulp Fiction. I mean, everybody over there, Josh Sharpe, like everybody was just absolutely fantastic. And you got George Petro over there who, who I get what he started play mechanics, I guess George did. Yeah, I think he founded it. Yeah, but I mean, they were all just so amazing. They were all so thrilled about the game. They were all so pleasant to work with. They were accommodating. And the insane thing was, was like the room we were filming in was like partially their office. Yeah, and you got the huge Raw Throws company, we got to see Buck Hunter, and we got to see Halo, we got to see all this stuff out there. But where we were filming was just like their offices. It was tight, cramped, dark, but it was fantastic. We're all on top of each other. And everybody was just so freaking just, just the conversation. Yeah. I mean, it was just so good. Mark and Mark was funny and everybody was just it was one of the best experiences that we'd ever had filming. You know, and the spooky guys are always great, too. I mean, God, there's a big difference when you go in and you're trying to get like a promotional piece done and people are enthusiastic and people are almost fighting for time that they want to talk about the game versus like trying to trying to convince somebody. Could you please go on here and talk about the game? It's like it resonates on camera. You can see a difference. And it puts us at ease. We're just not as stressed if you're working things and we're not having to pull information from you and stuff like that. That makes a world of difference in there. But yeah, I mean, God, I just love those guys over there. So good. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. Well, hopefully we see something else from the team because to your point, that was an amazing featurette that you guys had done at the time. It holds up now. Go back and look at it. Oh, Zach's like, one more thing. Knock the harp on it. Like Zach's editing on that. We had no idea what we were going to do. This was our first featurette and our first trailer and everything to where that we didn't have LCD screen to go off of. We didn't have any kind of animations. We didn't have anything. So it's like, how do you present a game, make a trailer so intriguing without any assets to really go off of? And Zach was just genius on having the slingshot plastics basically talking to each other between Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson. And so, I mean, it was just it was it was so well done that you almost felt like you were watching video clips, but you were watching the pinball machine itself. You're letting the master cook over there, man. Yeah. So it's the way to go. You guys you guys are the best in the business. There's no doubt about it. I when I was when I again when I was working at JJP and you guys came in and did the featurettes like those were such they were fun days because I got to see behind the scenes how you guys set up and everything that goes on in the background. And it was really fun for me to go into Spooky and kind of take a small part in that this time for the Beetlejuice feature, which was cool. But it was fun. Yeah, it's good times. I love it every time. So then we got... Yeah, we're not going to see anything from Turner for a while as they get through their Yukon Yetis. I think they're looking at, what did they say, a two-year time frame to get those done. So you got a little bit of time there. And back with American Pinball, obviously, we should be seeing a reveal and a rollout of Circus Voltaire. When that'll be, I don't know. I was hearing rumors and I guess there was talk maybe of it going on the line or working sometime around June, July. That might be, I don't know, that may be a little overly optimistic in my opinion, but I don't know what they have parts for. I don't know how ready they are. I would assume something more towards the end of the year again. I think Expo time would be perfect for them if they want to do too unless you have a couple games ready for Expo. Yeah, especially if they're going to do the Brian Allen a la carte type package deal and stuff. Sure. It'd be like I would definitely want to revolve it around that so people can kind of see what they're getting. It'd be cool for them if if they had even if they did a tour and they had those games on the line where people could kind of walk through and kind of see them all staged. You know, the new games that'd be that'd be pretty fun. But logistically, it's a great show, you know, in the area in Chicago. So Schaumburg, Illinois is within about 10 miles of just about all the manufacturers in the area. So it's central. It's really nice. I mean, kudos to them if they do get it out earlier and we see a true reveal here in the next couple months. But again, I don't know. I feel that games on the line and stuff no earlier than the fall. Yeah, I think that's pretty safe. Again just outside speculating I would assume Well I so this is something obviously I don feel it on really anybody radar or anything being talked about I mean Pinball Brothers has got to do something I mean, because they basically announced it. I would assume so, right? I mean, they're out of games. They've stopped selling everything. Yeah. So what's next? That's what I'm saying. So like, you've got to, I feel like, reveal something. When was Predator revealed? We'd started the podcast. It was before Jaws. It had to be like July. Was it July? Was it that? July, August when when they dropped Predator? July, August. Let's see. It was nine months ago. So it was it was actually Greg. It was June 19th. OK, that's when our our first impression podcast went up for Predator. So will we see anything June to August? I think we have to. I think that we're yeah, I think they have to at least announce something. They need to keep a little bit of momentum because I mean, Predator Pinball, for the most part, People had positive experience stepping up to the game and playing on it and whatnot. We sold we sold a good amount of Predators. Expo did them a solid, too. That was one of those things to where, again, I know we discussed it, but between that and Dune, those were the two most benefited games at Expo. Yeah. And I think as that company continues to grow and they kind of tighten up their their manufacturing and the quality of build that, you know, they could be a force to be reckoned with. I think the one thing that held Predator back obviously was the exclusion of a lot of the Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know, clips for the movies and the call out and things like that, because, I mean, that's that's kind of the game. And that company, again, if you go back to before it was even Pinball Brothers and it was Highway Pinball, kind of a similar thing where you had Alien, but you didn't have Sigourney Weaver. So that next thing, whatever it's going to be, and I hope it's not a remake, because I think if you start flooding the market with all these remakes, it just kind of lessens the impact of any remake that comes out. Well, not only that, but I think it also hampers enthusiasm. Yeah, I do, too. I was just going to say, I think if there's enough space between remakes, there's enough excitement that kind of gets built up. And as long as it's properly done, it's good. But it's like you're going to start watering them down if everybody's doing remakes. It's the only thing that's tough. I agree. Space those out. Because then you just start pissing people off and it's like, oh, okay, this is nice. I really love that game, but I want something new and fresh. Like, give me something new. Because regardless of their, whether you've changed artwork or you've done this or that and you've done, like, it's still a game that you've played for the most part. I still, I still would, I would really like to see Twilight Zone redone. I mean, oh, Twilight Zone Attack from Mars, I think are your two biggest rerun Attack from Mars. I know we already got a remake, but rerun it. It's still immensely popular. And yeah, easily, I think, Twilight Zone. But yeah, so Pinball Brothers, we'll see. I don't know. I would just like you said, though, I would assume they were going to have to announce or at least hint at their next project here coming up soon. Otherwise, you kind of fall off the face of the earth a little bit. And then it's like you're reestablishing yourself coming back from a long hiatus. And then Pedretti, I would assume, I mean, they've been out of fun houses for a while. I would assume if they're going to hang in there that we're going to see something soon on their end. Pedretti is another company where I think it's remakes, like a lot more remakes coming. Yeah. And I don't know. But it's fine. Like, I don't know. Like, that's the problem. I mean, it's almost like you said, like, I think that stuff was fine when you had CGC that was kind of the remake king and that's who you expected that was going to do your remakes. But then when you start throwing in to where these licenses are going all over the place to where they're. And it's nothing against any of the other companies. No, no. Nobody write us all pissed off crying. But when you start to fan it out and you're going to American Pinball now and then Pedretti's got their hat in the ring on remakes and stuff and potentially somebody else might throw one in there. Like it – it kind of – it waters things down more than normal. I liked it when it was just like everything was kind of held within one company. I know that you can't always do that because they might move on to something else just like when CGC made Pulp Fiction and stuff and helped play mechanics. But I don't know. I like it just sticking with one person. I agree with you. I didn't know what you get because not all companies are the same. Yeah. You knew what you were getting with CGC. Yep. Because… But then the other thing was you knew what to expect with CGC too. And the reason that I'm glad that other companies have a chance at some of these remakes is simply because of just it's a very drawn out process with CGC to kind of get a game on the line and shipped. And, you know, for better or worse, I don't really have the patience to wait like terribly long for games. It's just in my nature not I get anxious and I want to bail. You know, it's like, no, I'm out. I'm out. But I mean, so but I do agree there was a certain like novelty and air that Chicago Gaming Company had when they were the ones that were going to make the remakes. You knew what the quality of build was when the Madness came out. Attack from Mars, Monster Bash. Yes. Funhouse, there could have been a little bit better QC on those games. There could have been just, you know, I would have liked to seen those tightened up a little bit. So, you know, and then when I think people hear remakes and so forth, they think every game is built the same. They're not. That's a really good point. It's like you see, you just kind of brand all remakes as if they come out of the same company. I think so. I think like every tissue company is a Kleenex and it's not exactly. Yeah, I think that that's what goes on in people's heads that they don't they don't take the company as a whole of what they're actually getting. Yeah, I think that's a really good point. I hadn't thought about it that way, but I think that inadvertently weighs in in my decision on where I don't like it to be watered down. And back to our point about the watering down, too, is like when you've got multiple companies holding those license, unless there's something in their deal that's like, OK, you can't release this in 2026. You've got to do this when you've got the license is spread out or let's say, you know, it's a three year license agreement or whatever on there. And you run the risk of, like you said, you're watering everything down because now multiple companies can release remakes in the same year. Whereas when it was just with Chicago Gaming or one individual company, you know that it's going to take them two years to have that game. So you don't really have a risk of it being watered. And if I'm holding the licenses for these, maybe I just make sure that there's not more than one remake coming out a year. Because that would almost be kind of fun. I'd want to protect that branding. Yeah, if there's one remake a year, and I would even say one remake every two years would be fine with me. Because then over 10 years, you got 10 remakes, or 10 years, you got five remakes. I mean, that's fine, but you don't want three remakes coming out in the same year. No. Which you could see. You could see. Yeah. Again, just personal preference. I could see it both ways. Oh, yeah. As far as pinball companies, though, I don't, I mean, Home Pin made Blues Brothers, right? Hexa Pinball made Three Musketeers. They revealed that. But I'm not hearing any other rumors like from any other, I would say, major pinball company. Yeah. A little while to build those. Did you ever play Blues Brothers? P3. Oh, P3. We'd be seeing something. Yeah, multimorphic. We should see something. I don't know what rumors I've heard for them. I don't know. I mean, I could see originally I thought that Dungeon Crawler Carl was going to be a P3 license. And then I don't I don't know that never ending story could end up over there. They've had some pretty nice releases lately, you know, with between Portal, Princess Bride, Weird Al. So they've got they've got good name recognition with the titles. I haven't had a lot of time on playing the P3, so I don't know. I'd like to get it. I feel like they're hitting their stride better than ever. You know, like you said, like Weird Al, they had a string of a couple years there where they were coming out with really good stuff, and then Portal is just huge. Everybody's, that's gotten great feedback. Yeah, Portal did really well. Yeah, I think they keep that momentum with some of these kits. That'd be good for them. I'm just waiting for that real banger freaking title. What would be a good title that you could possibly see for them? Because they utilize a big part of that play field is just a big LCD screen that you can do things graphically that you can never do on a modern day standard pinball machine. So I don't know. I don't know. And you know what? I think that they honestly, I think that it would be nice if they played more into their their favor, because I really wish that they would upgrade everything to 4K. Oh, sure. Yep. And if they're not doing that, I would like to see them maybe stick to some titles that lend itself to a lower resolution. Mm-hmm. And resolution. You know what I'm saying? Maybe a 16-bit type thing. Well, and Portal's a video game theme, so you could go with a bit. And that's, yeah, if you went to 8-bit, 16-bit, I mean, not that you need to limit yourself to that, but I could see that playing well on their platform. Yes. Yeah. So I think just because of that, because if you get anything too modern, I think inevitably, no matter how good your graphics are, it's not going to look crisp and sharp on there. Yeah, I can see that. So I think that that's the I think, you know, that would do them a favor to do that if they're not going to upgrade. Okay. But it's a neat platform. I like it. I haven't played our game recently. And whenever I've been at a pinball show where the P3 multimorphic booth is open, there's just been lines. And you know me and lines, man, they don't mix. So, you know, that's why I end up going to any pinball show and I'm putting multiple games on Raven because that's a good sign. Not a lot of lines on Raven. No, there's not. I just jump right up to it. But it's a good sign when you go to a show and it's like that and you can't get into a game like I mean, yeah, that's it. I mean, that's that really is it. That's our manufacturers. Greg, before we do go, I just wanted to give a quick shout out to a few new Patreon members that we have over at Patreon.com. You can go to patreon.com, type in Flip N Out Pinball Podcast and you can join for free or we've got different membership tiers if you want to get involved with the show in a little bit more of a special way. But we wanted to welcome Eric, Lonnie and Jeff all coming into Patreon. Have some fun here. Listen, when you get into Patreon, first thing you should do, go into the chat, say hello and let everybody know you're there. And guess what? It's not very argumentative over there. It's pretty laid back and fun and like minded, I would say. It's probably the best way to put it. If you're looking for a new pinball machine or arcade machine, you want to come see us, FlippinOutPinball.com. We've got tons of games in stock. Now, if you're looking for a specific game that we don't have in stock or it's a rumored game, you can hit me up again at FlippinOutPinball.com and I'll put you on an interest list. Greg, big business right now for us as far as taking games in and moving games out has been the whole kind of trade in program that you've been running where somebody can take an existing game that they have, they can trade it in towards a new or another used game. And we've got a whole crate system with packing materials to make pickup and delivery of your games very, very easy. But Greg, simplistic. How would somebody initiate that process? Greg. So you just email me over a few things that I need off the bat as I need some good detailed pictures of your game. Please make sure to include one of that shooter lane. That shooter lane is important. Give me the lifetime play count off the game. Now, obviously, some of our older games, that's skewed. Can't get it. But Modern Stern, Modern JJP, Modern Spooky, get me the lifetime play count off of that game. And please include your location. That location matters because of shipping. So put that in there and let me know. Look that game over thoroughly. Get your magnifying glass out. Tell me if there are any ding scratches, mechanical cosmetic issues of any sort, and please note those in there. Once I have that, I can get you your beautiful evaluation. And how would they reach out to you to do this, Greg? Greg at FlipNOutPinball.com. You know what people leave out to sometimes? I apologize, Ken, because I didn't know you're in there. Let me know what game you're trading it in towards. People write me so often and don't include the game that they're looking at trading because that does make a difference. It's very much like trading in a car. Well, I think sometimes people just want to know the Kelley Blue Book value of their game. Yes. But there's no universal value of what the game is. No, no, no, no. What you're trading in it towards, depending on the game, use, new, manufacture, multiple other factors. It can play into the price of your evaluation. So, you know, always let me know that, too. And I would say, too, just from kind of knowing what goes on internally, you had mentioned to make sure that you really kind of go over the game and make sure that there's not any cosmetic imperfections. I can't stress how important that is. And I don't think we've had some games that have come in that maybe weren't as described as they should be. And I think a lot of that is just people not having the ability to notice something or realize that something's important. But because it screws us over because it can like small things can devalue a game significantly, especially if it's a higher end LE or something like that that's more collectible. So. So, yeah, please, please, please note anything that you do fine. Look that game over. Good. It's a quick once over. I mean, just make sure your art blades, front decal, side decals, head, you know, nothing, nothing's on there. No dings, little scrapes or anything. Legs are intact. I would say this. It's like the game that you're trading in, pretend that you just opened it and you bought that game. Yes. And you would note any perfection that you thought that shouldn't have left the factory like that. Let us know in advance. And again, doesn't mean we're not taking the game, but at least it helps with our evaluation. And then look, the person that's going to buy that game, you know, from us, we want to be able to fully disclose everything as well. So it's just, you know, it's it's an honor system. And we hope that you can abide by it because it helps everybody out in the long run. We're very trusting in our customers for better or for worse. Yes, that's that's true. That's true. And I and I will say going back to the interest list really quick, if you want to get on the interest list for anything, I'm fine with it. We're fine with it. We love to do it. But it's like we try to keep everybody at about five titles or less. You know, it's just kind of what we do because a couple of things are going to happen at one. It's going to be impossible to manage, you know, 50, 60 lists with 900 people on it. That's very difficult. But secondly, we want to make sure that the games that you're asking to be on the interest list for are games that you you would you would buy if it came out and you want to add it to your collection. Other than that, brother, I don't know that I have anything else. Good show. I like that. I mean, I know it's things people kind of heard about, but it's it's nice to get out there and discuss what the possibility is of these games and what we could. We'll see you this year. You know what? And if you've got some speculation that you want to share with us, you can share it in the comments. If you're watching us on YouTube, if you're here over on Facebook, come say hello. Let us know what's going on. But we'll have another episode here in the next couple of weeks. We do hear any strong rumors yourself. Let us know. I want that inside. Open it up. Open up the can of worms. We will wrap this one up. Want to appreciate everybody for listening, for supporting the show. Greg Bone, I'm Ken Cromwell. Whatever you do, do not forget to take some time out of your day. Play some pinball. So long, everybody.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v5)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-06-06 | Item ID: fce9eb94-b0d2-4fc3-8a07-1e42f57cd87a*