Sometimes I feel like people are watching me, and I'm watching the pinball industry, and I'm talking about it. Got episode number 203 coming up at you for your face, I think that's how it goes. We're going to talk about a little game I came up with in my head, and how it got a little bit away from me, after this. Denisey Beats are always the best way to start a Saturday. How you doing, everybody? Don here back again. 2.03. Let's kick it off. I've been doing some thinking. I came up with this little game, and it's a pinball-themed imagining game. One of the fun things that we all like to do, or at least I do. Did it in Walmart with my thinking. I went through and came up with a theme from each company that if it was released, I wouldn't be surprised. Not necessarily would I be enthused. And so we'll go through that as a fun little thought process. We'll talk about some spooky pinball production updates and also lead off with Stern Pinball, the current big king of the hill there in Chicago, which notably absent of hills, if you've ever been. It does have humidity. It does have good donuts, and it's got plenty of styles of pizza to fist fight each other over. We're a week now after the teaser release from Stern's next Fall of the Empire game. There's no the there. It's a Star Wars theme. We know that. It's been speculated that it has been this. So nobody is surprised, but I think there's a fair bit of enthusiasm. Although you wouldn't tell by Facebook comments. I mean, scrolling around, looking at people that are talking about this, it's like, you know, how excited are you for this next game, one to five? There's a lot of zeros. There's fives, of course. A couple of fours. You know, for people that will just never be 100% committed to anything. A bunch of fence-sitters. But a lot of zeros. Like, come on. Are we really doing Star Wars again? It's been done to death. No game has ever been good that's been Star Wars. And I get that. I get that. I mean, look back in the 1980s of the Nintendo Entertainment System releases, and look at licensed games and how many of them were actually good. I mean, yeah, Batman for the NES was fantastic. but for every Batman there was 10 Back to the Futures these were games that were made that were relying on the strength of the license to put them in the hands of children and not so much the strength of the gameplay man, Sunsoft brought it on freaking Batman, that game was amazing so I think we're a little bit past that now and I'm sure Stern has heard forever while they're sitting there counting money and counting sales from their Star Wars game about how lackluster it was how it was lacking in mechanisms and things I've made it no secret that I'm, number one, a fan of the freaking game. Oh, my God. But I'm also an outlier when it comes to enthusiasm for the game and ingenuity in its layout. And I'll be the first to admit that when I first walked up on it in Madison, Wisconsin, at a random bowling alley right next to a Whitewater and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I was like, hey, this is a Star Wars game, but it looks different from ones that I've played before. It looked absent of anything really interesting as far as mechanisms that are hidden or a play field I have to figure out how to get up to or a subway with a special effect or something. But damn it, I had a great time with it. It was super fun, and I was far from being able to realize what pinball rules were all about and everything. I was just shooting that turnaround, which is really the world's tiniest orbit. And for some reason, I came away from it saying that that was a lot of fun. I don't feel like it should have been, and it kind of was. What the heck? And then we know the story. I went ahead to get myself a premium years later. I learned the rules. I put a rubber band in the left out lane, and then I played that game until I got through the modes and understood the rules and everything. Then I took the training wheels off, and I've been having fun with it ever since. So I do recommend a little bit of cheating if needed just to help you learn a game. Oh, Don, that's not the way to do it. You've got to grind through quarters in the arcade. You sound like an operator right now. Thank you very much. But I had fun learning the game that way, finding out what I was supposed to do, how I could trigger the Death Star shot, and then it was just about, to this day, just practicing that shot so I can get it every once in a while. And with increasing frequency, I am, and I'm still having fun with the game. Also, I learned the multiplier system, which is crucial because it's weird, and no other game really uses a mechanism like this. And if you know how to exploit it, you can blow up billions with minimum effort, and maybe that's a turnoff for some people. For me, I like getting 3 billion points in a game when I walk up fresh in the morning sometimes. It's fun. It's fun when the pieces fall into place. That being said, I'm excited for this license to be revisited. Who wouldn't want this, right? You have Star Wars games that people have been complaining, have been lacking ingenuity, lacking fun and depth and interesting mechanisms, the TIE fighter on a spring and all that, and so they're going back to the well to hopefully build a game that has those things that we've wanted this whole time. How is that a bad thing? Well, Friday came and went yesterday, and we didn't get a release. Stern seems to follow this pattern of teaser on Tuesday, trailer on a Friday, a conference call in the morning of Monday with dealers, and then the general public gets everything, full trailers and everything on noon, let's say on that Monday. Or some kind of permutation of that is kind of how it's been. So we didn't see anything that Friday. And I wasn't expecting it, to be honest. But then again, I wasn't expecting the teaser when it came out last week either. We've heard through emails that this game would be put together, the LEs, starting in the second half of September, which we are still a full fortnight away from. Fortnight. Two weeks hence from today. So why the trailer so early is the question I have right now. I'm sure over the next two weeks we'll see the official release. We'll see the trailer and everything going into production the later half of the month or whatever. And that's what I was counting on. What I wasn't counting on was this trailer so quick. So what happened? was there another game that was going to be released say this week and they just wanted to get something out there you know all the whole jackwinary way of like no no dollars out of your pocket until you see your next theme it's star wars it's the biggest theme available you know pokemon star wars and harry potter are probably the top three um so was it that kind of move and if so why now i've been hearing some little rumblings and everything like you know there's a surprise announcement coming from a company like a surprise game that no one's expecting is going to be released soon. I don't know who it is. I haven't heard anything else to substantiate that. I've also heard that will be a new game at Expo that will be revealed, and then, you know, speculation points to Big Bang Bar for some reason, which kind of deflates me a bit. It's fun to play a game and things. We'll talk about that here in a little bit. But, like, is there something else? Who else would be, like, in the shoot, as George Gomez would say, to get a game out this next week as an announcement where Stern feels like they need to tell people to keep some money in their pockets for another couple weeks and announce when the next game's coming out. I don't really know who it would be. Hexa Pinball? I talked to them last week, talked about them on the last show. We're expecting a theme reveal at Expo for them, but that's still months away. That wouldn't be anything dropping now. It certainly wouldn't be something you need to guard that dollar in your pants pocket against. Barrels of Fun is right in the middle of Dune. Code is beginning to mature. Games are pumping out. I don't expect an announcement from them until TPF-ish, maybe. I think Dune was supposed to be a TPF release and that got kicked down like another month or so or some such because they were there with Labyrinth last year shout out to David, how you doing? Talk to him today, cool guy So what other company is there? JJP, no, they're the Harry Potter pinball company for at least the next year not expecting for them to release anything and if they do, I don't think it's going to be a showstopper or a Harry Potter line stopper that game is just demolishing Spooky, we know they're November Who does that leave? Turner Pinball? they're still fresh off the heels of Captain Crazy's arcade game, the King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table Pizza Restaurant. Merlin's Arcade, right? That game's shipping out, so shout out to him for that. Ulek Arcade is getting one. DPX, no. They're still trying to get Alice's Shoreside. We're coming up on the deadline for DPX, too. How many people are going to claim their deposits back from the breach? Dutch Pinball, no. I heard that Back to the Future isn't even, like, the art's not done, the layout's not even figured out and finalized yet, so that's years away. Who does that leave? Who does that leave? Barrels? I think it's everybody. What the heck? Somebody's jumping up and down saying I'm a pinball company too, and you forgot about me. The Resurrection of Haggis? I don't know, honestly. So a little strange that they would just pop that off, unless maybe they had something in the marketing literature that said that they had to start the release of a promotion for this game by X date, and so that's what they did. Either way, I'm excited about it. I'm excited about that and Star Wars, I think, will probably do well at Costco, too, amongst the normies, right? The non-magic pinball folk, you know, who I was about three or four years ago, who would have definitely snatched one of these up as soon as I saw it at Costco. I saw one price drop for a little quicker than I was expecting It was which in Costco code means that a manager had set that as a price as a one and it was probably that floor model I don't know why they were getting rid of a floor model so quickly. Maybe it was requiring some maintenance and adjustments, and they just said, just go ahead and open another one up out of the box. We'll move that one cheaper and get it out of here. Maybe that specific facility is consolidating and just liquidating. Either way, $3,800, it's about $1,000 off the MSRP, so not bad. And from people I've been talking to, we're all kind of saying the same things. You know, like I know it's a home edition, Don. I know the code can't compete with what's available. I know there's only one speaker in the backbox, but gosh dang it, I still kind of want it though. I'm the same way. You know, given infinite funds, I think I'd for sure have one that would stick it right next to my Star Wars Premium and right next to Follow the Empire, and we'll have a whole Star Wars lineup. So that's what I know about Stern Pinball. The other thing I know is that Enzo Ventrella is coming with me to Stern for the media day, which is happening September 10th, which we'll have a full reveal prior to that. So I don't know. The trailer may drop next week. If they're doing Media Day on the 10th, they're going to have the full trailer and reveal and the George Gomez walking next to a machine telling us all about it kind of video that they've been doing. We'll have that released prior to the 10th. So I think we'll see something in the next week, probably almost certainly for sure. But I was able to bring someone as a plus one to Media Day. Enzo just won the Facebook live stream random chance drawing. Thank you for entering. If you want to get in on one of these media days, it's another perk of being a Patreon member. I put the announcement out to all of them. If you're going to be in the area and could commit to that, you could enter into a drawing, and that's what we did. We got ourselves a winner. If I get more spots, I'll go back to the well and pick somebody else, man. I would love to bring everybody to this thing, and I think that would be fun if that happened. So that's what I know from Big Daddy. What's going on in Benton? I was talking to the boys this morning, the Benton boys, we call them, not the burnt-end boys. of American pinball fame. This went sideways. Talk to Bug and Luke. I wanted to get an idea of where they're at production-wise. I know I've been watching the numbers, and it seems like they've been in the 300s for like six months now when it comes to Evil Dead production. People saying, you know, I just got 297, 315 is here, 348 is here, I'm opening 328. I saw one in the 500s just open up. I think it was in Europe. Now, that may be a little bit out of sequence, but I would not be surprised if I was told that 500 is kind of like where they're at, and they're over halfway now with the Evil Dead production. And so having owned Evil Dead and played it and it's slaying on location, I'm looking forward to the next game, which I've got my deposit dollars in my hand. I'm waiting to just give them to somebody that can insure me a spot because I think this one's going to go quick. As Joe at Pinball Star posted day one, I think it could happen with the deposits. So provided that they were in the 500s now, that gives them a solid, you know, 388 games, 5, 6, 7, 8, yeah, 888, 380, 350 games or so left. If they're doing 80 games a month, then for September, October, November, December, right, 24, 68, that's 420. So sounds like they would finish up right around the end of the year, which is their goal. Talking to the guys, they said, yeah, first couple weeks of January should be the final Evil Dead's leaving the factory, and then they'll be starting on the next game. I asked them about some overlap because we're all anticipating, although they haven't committed anything, anticipating having the reveal of their theme in November, just after Expo, and it seems like that's still the plan. However, I don't think production of the new game would start right then, and I don't think they would co-mingle, you know, just like throw the new game on the line while the Evil Dead's are running out. What they would like to do, they said, is have a chance to just kind of stop production, give everybody the holiday break, finish up the Evil Dead productions, and then have like a training seminar for a couple of days where you just go through and train everybody on the intricacies and putting together of the brand new game and then start into that production. Now, they're in a new production facility. The first games to be made in there were Scooby-Doo, Looney Tunes, and TCM, but they were started in the old factory. Evil Dead is the first title that they've made that was all original that began in the new factory. So I wanted to ask them, like, did you learn things from now having Evil Dead started all in this new line going into the next game? And they said yes. They said QC is mainly the thing that's going to be optimized and the thing that they learned the most from there. And so going forward, they're going to train everybody on the factory floor for how to make this new game and then put it immediately into production so the first games could be rolling out as soon as the end of January. and then here we go off to the races for another spooky year of some sort of theme can't wait to see what it is heard it's a movie theme and i heard it's a little more family friendly than evil dead uh and i heard it's also going to have an amazing topper heard damn seen and played and touched the damn thing uh my fingers have been on the buttons man and i can't wait to talk about it uh i i want to remove this lynch from my throat and just gush about this freaking game they always say pay before you play or some such, which is generally a good idea. In this case, through some kind of forest gumping, I've been fortunate enough to be able to do that. I've played it and my deposit money is ready for it. Can't wait to get it. If that helps you decide, I think a lot of people, probably the majority of the ones that are going to be in on this game, are not going to have an opportunity to play it before they order. And by the time you are going to have an opportunity to play it, it's going to be sold out. So I guess Just do your best I will say this These guys seem to be pretty good about setting up factory tours So once this game is released I'll ask them about this Before I commit them to it But maybe there's a chance that there'll be A publicly available game to come out and try If you're going to be spending $10,000 plus or so On a pinball machine Maybe spending $238 for a flight on Spirit To come in and try it out Before you commit Maybe that's a good idea Although when it's announced, it's already going to be for sale, so maybe that point is totally moot. Although, anyway, I can't wait to play the damn thing some more. Holy crap, it's coming soon. That's what's coming up from the spooksters. I did ask them about production for the shooter rods and if they're leaving the factory yet. Haven't heard back on that as I check my messages. No, they're just talking about fast food back and forth and wet willies of all things. My God, these guys, such children, and that's why we love them. Let's get to the crux of this, okay? Um, so what I've been wanting to do was, you know, I was, I was walking around Walmart the other day and it came to me like, for some reason, like all of a sudden brain, you know, I'm looking at like televisions, I'm, I'm trying to go get a frozen pizza. And all of a sudden my brain is like, this is the next theme that'll probably come from barrels of fun. And it wouldn't surprise you. And it's not something that you're asking for, but don't lie to me, Don, you know, you wouldn't be a surprise if this came out. And I don't know why my brain decided to personally hijack and attack me walking through Walmart, but this is the world that I live in. So I decided to go through for fun and come up with a game for each of the major manufacturers and some of the minor ones that if this theme was revealed would not be surprising. Now, this isn't dream themes I want to see. This isn't what I want. I want Batman the Animated Series. I want Pee-Wee's Big Adventure. I want Pee-Wee's Playhouse. I want Minions. I want SpongeBob. Those are the games I want. I want the Muppet Show with Stantler and Waldorf up there on the topper yelling at me. That's what I want. This is what I wouldn't be surprised by. So just for fun, we'll start off with Barrels of Fun. Their next game I hear is rumored to be called Codenamed Red Lobster. I don't know how to read any more into that, other than maybe there's some Cheddar Bay Biscuit Shooter Rod involved. And I think fire up the mod machine. I think we'll start working on it. I don't think this is their next theme. I haven't heard any leaks or rumors on their next theme. But just put yourself in a place that you're scrolling your phone and you get this announcement from Barrels of Fun. Their new theme has been dropped, teaser trailer. How surprised are you if that teaser trailer is for 2009's own film, comic book themed, The Watchmen? Put that out there. Put that in your head. The Watchmen was a film with Dr. Manhattan, right, that giant blue guy. Had a nude scene. It was kind of weird. People talked about it. Starring the comedian, and Rorschach was the main character. And it was kind of like a film noir, gritty kind of take. it was like a graphic novel turned into a film kind of like Sin City I don't know which one came before or after but there was like a vibe back then the late 2000 aughts of this kind of thing and I remember it being pretty big that it existed out there I know people were talking about it I know I didn't see it until probably like three years ago when I finally got around to like oh yeah this was a thing it was pretty popular I'm not doing much right now let's watch it I don't remember anything about it other than visually it was pretty stunning with the blues of the Dr. Manhattan and all that stuff. I don't remember much about the themes. I don't remember if I liked it or not, but I remember that it was popular, and it was popular in kind of the same way that the fifth element was. You mention that, and certain people just pop up and say, yes, dream theme, take my money now. And I'm like, sure, okay, I could see that. So if Barrels of Fun announced through teaser or whatever that Project Codename Red Lobster was the Watchmen And I personally would say okay yeah I think I kind of get it I like to see what it has I want to play it and I not surprised So how that How that Is this fun so far? Is this fun so far? Let's go for another one. This one came to me today, similar way, although this is actually a theme I really, really would like to see. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I'm not so certain. So this is for the P3 Multimorphics system, or Multimorphics P3 system, and it is the theme of Minecraft, okay? I think this is a dynamite, TNT, theme for pinball, honestly. This theme has been going for a decade or more. The game is as popular as it's ever been. It was popular for people in their 20s, 30s, and also like teenagers now, even like younger kids are even into this. My daughter's playing it and watching it on YouTube and things, and she wasn't even alive when this game came out, right? It's all about playing in a virtual sandbox, collecting resources and redistributing them building things, kind of like it's up to you I don't know if there's really even a storyline and if you saw the Minecraft movie recently you could absolutely tell me that there's no damn storyline it's just Jack Black playing in front of a green screen for an hour and a half and it's kind of fun name me another character that was in that film besides Jack Black's character what was his name, like Peter or something who was another character in there I can't remember any of their names, none of them stuck out I know it was just a bunch of goofy people playing around with Jack Black in a Minecraft world, and I kind of liked it. I thought it was fun. We've seen the giant multiplayer, multi-screen Minecraft Dungeons game with the redemption cards and things at every Dave and Buster's and Great Wolf Lodge and Kalahari and the country. So we know that it's earning on location from that license from a video game standpoint. So would the same thing translate to pinball? Would that translate to pinball? I kind of think it would. But walking by a lineup, if you saw a Minecraft game, oh, cool, it's Minecraft. It's a game that you can play by hitting pop bumpers, hitting targets, and that's how you gather resources. And then as you gather enough of them, you can enter a scoop and then go into a menu system, pick which kind of structure you want to build, and then find out how many resources you have and what you can make from it, whether it's a weapon, whether it's a building or something. Maybe you need to collect more diamonds so you can make that diamond sword. Then your shots count for more. You can mine quicker or something. you could have modes where you defend the villagers you attack endermens you explore the mine just some kind of generic themes and then I was like what company would make this I'd love to see it from Stern I think Barrels of Fun could definitely take a crack at it but yeah this is a game that would land on the P3 multi-morphic system of course it would it would be another theme I really really want and then it's on the P3 I wish this was just a stand alone game this machine is 500 pounds I would love to play it I think it would be an incredibly successful module for them If I had myself a P3 And I'd have Portal in it for sure I'd probably have Princess Bride I probably wouldn't have Weird Al Though I love him But I definitely would have the Minecraft module Absolutely And for those folks that are buying multiple P3s Just because they don't want to switch out games I think they'd buy themselves another one Just to have a Minecraft game I think it would be fun Would you be surprised? That's how the game goes Moving on. Stern. Stern Pinball. Let's say, you know, we know the rumored themes are supposed to be coming out. Pokemon's coming. Walking Dead remastered. Maybe an ACDC remastered. Someone mentioned Transformers. Maybe there'll be another home edition for the Costco. And then after that, it's a little nebulous. I don't, I don't really heard anything. So is that when Black Sabbath would be locked in there? God, that would be, that would be a theme that it wouldn't surprise me if, everybody wants Aussie done. By any company. somebody make an Aussie pinball machine Stern would probably be the company to do it because that license is fraught with negotiations that need to happen there's a lot of hands in that pie a lot of open palms if it were and so I could see them navigating that to either come up to okay we'll do Black Sabbath era Aussie you know we can get these license holders easily that we can go for like the Osbournes themselves so I don't think I would be surprised I would be elated I don't think I'd be surprised if Black Sabbath ended up coming out and it came out from Stern Pinball so I guess that's how I'm wording this one not that I wouldn't love Black Sabbath, I would but which company would it come out with? I would be surprised if a boutique picked this up if DPX picked this up, if Barrels of Fun managed to grab it that would definitely surprise me Stern Pinball, I don't think I would be surprised that they were the ones to bring that and then, oh gosh I don't want to wish this, I don't want to manifest it but what if it was like a Led Zeppelin situation where we were able to get this license because we're Stern Pinball. We have a lot of influence, but we were only able to get eight songs. We weren't able to get Iron Man because that would have cost way too much and too many hands in the pot. So here's basically Led Zeppelin, but it's Black Sabbath. You really like the theme. You really wish the game was better, but are you surprised? Hopefully, I have faith in the team. I think they would really kill it with the game, but would you be surprised? That's the name of the game. Moving on to JJP, I got a little antsy here. I got a bunch of them. I couldn't land on just one. So here's what I did. I was trying to mind my brain for JJP. Of course, it's full of Sonic and Matrix and Top Gun. So I wanted to go for something that isn't just being talked about or speculated nonstop. So what I did is I went to the Internet and I looked up the top films of the 1970s. And I crossed off the one that Stern's already done and the other ones that are rumored to be in production. And which ones that, again, are not dream themes that I'm lusting after. but if they came out from Jersey Jack Pinball, would you not be surprised? So that's where I landed. So I got three here. I got three. Kind of fun. Kind of fun. The first one is probably going to be my official entry into this game. Saturday Night Fever. Okay. Now, I'll give you a second to chuckle. John Travolta's really breakthrough role after, was this after or before he was a sweat hog? Saturday Night Fever, walking up to this 1970s velvet-lined freaking game, bell botter footers on it I don't even know what the freaking Studio 54 shooter rod or something but like a game just of and celebrating the disco era would you be surprised seeing that from Jersey Jack Pinball disco ball right in the middle there disco ball on the freaking topper just shining lights all over your room turning it into like a Donna Summers freak out right would you be surprised not the theme that I'm lusting after but a theme that like okay, I'm not surprised they came out with that. Just kick in tunes of the 70s, man. Rock it out with this. If any game fit the rainbow light bars that Jersey Jack brings, would it not be that one? And then you can pick your disco song and just go to town. Layout would be fun and fast with the new spiky flippers. The new snappy flippers systems, you know. The way they do their playfields. All that business. a layout that is like good enough to have fun with Saturday Night Fever as a theme would you be surprised? Let me know in the comments I got two more though from him these are kind of jokes Godfather Part 2 was also one from the 70s and oh gosh that would be just terrible it wouldn't surprise me and then also Taxi Driver actually which is a theme I haven't heard anybody talk about, super gritty I know people have asked for Scarface This is Pacino, his breakout role. Well, maybe Raging Bull. But, like, Taxi Driver. Like, for the subset of people, like, look at the people that still unironically own Godfather today and have since launch. Those are the people that would have Taxi Driver right next to it and then would debate us for hours on forums of why it's incredible and you just have to appreciate it. And would you not be surprised is the name of the game. I thought that was fun. All right, Spooky was up next as we were rounding around the Chicago area. So I came up with a dual theme that would not surprise me, and that's the dual theme. Man, let me know how this goes. Flintstones and The Shining as a dual theme. You know, this had to have been thought of before. I'm sure these guys have thought of doing Flintstones. They did Scooby-Doo. I think they would do it justice. I actually wouldn't mind more Hanna-Barbera pins. I mean, you could just go ahead and make them for eternity, crank one out every other year, and I'll probably pick it up. Yogi Bear, I think, would also work. But Flintstones, having them done Scooby-Doo, done the Jetsons, it totally fits, and I don't think I would have been surprised. And The Shining, like a classic horror film, which personally I still haven't seen. But I know all the hits and beats of it, the hedge maze, the elevator full of blood, the creepy twin girls, the kid riding his big wheel around on the carpet, Stanley Kubrick-ness, you know, here's Johnny, the improvised shot of like the decade. I think it would work as a machine. And so I know Spooky said they won't ever do a dual theme again. I'm sure they said that before and then have done it. So for my unsurprising dual theme pick from Spooky Pinball, Flintstones and the Shining. Tell me what you guys think. That brings us down to kind of like the rest. We're in the Gilligan's Island area. And the rest, right? So CGC, my brain is just full of Big Bang Bar. That's what I've been hearing. Somebody remaking this Capcom game It supposed to be at Expo probably CGC would make it sure it could be someone else but if CGC announced it like that they were the one that were making these 250 or whatever people are saying Big Bang Bars, I would not be surprised. I think that works. Order now for 2028. Dutch Pinball and DPX. Honestly, just Magic Girl would not surprise me. I'd be like, okay, yeah, I know they've got a super Dutch hard-on for this game for some reason. They've done an incredible amount of work getting this half-baked idea of a game to actually be flippable. I played it several times at Expo. I'm very thankful when they do bring it because it is such a rare game. I love the damn art on it. But I think this would be an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland situation where the art was incredible and then they can't use it because Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti) works for Stern and that's never going to happen. And so we don't get the magic girl of our dreams. We get Magic Girls kind of curvaceous areola missing adventures in Amsterdam or something instead. And then we get a game that's not really all that compelling. It's interesting as like a thought project is, you know, like a thought idea. But like as an actual shootable layout I really don't think it works. But that wouldn't surprise me if they go ahead and make it. I'm sure people would buy it. I'm sure it would be full of Stumbler lights and Leor mods and sculpts, which would be amazing. It would be the best part of the game. I really think if they just get those guys involved on an original layout and then just marry it with a compelling theme they'll really have something that'll shake the industry and i'm just afraid it's not going to happen because for some reason they really want to make magic girl be a thing and like they'll probably want to make raza be a thing when it's just just leave in the dustbin let us have the artwork and let's move on and create uh from its inspiration without just wholesale grabbing it but if they decided next year, Magic Girl, we're making $500. You have until the end of the year to cash in your deposit. If it's not made, I would not be surprised. Turner Pinball. Why do I have Raza listed for Turner? Okay, fine. I know Chris Turner has licenses from Deep Root. I don't think he has Raza. I think he wisely divested himself from that and used those funds for hopefully something fun. But if he ended up coming out and said, this is the new game. We went back. We made it work. Here's Raza. Not what I want to see from Turner, but I don't know that I would be surprised necessarily. So I put that down for you. I'm sure – will he come up with an original idea again? Ninja Eclipse, so far, my favorite game. You know, Merlin's Magical Adventure. It shoots well. I like the little bouncing the ball back and forth on the weak flipper button. I think that's super fun. I'd like to see that in every game going forward because it was definitely fun to play with. I just feel like Merlin's Arcade is missing, like, three or four more compelling shots, an extra wire form, some kind of ball interactive mechanism, a better physical ball lock. For me to get excited about it for the price point, I know, I know, man. I love your construction, though, man. Your light boards under the game, phenomenal. You know, the way everything's constructed, I think he's got one of the best cabinets in the game. And so I'm just waiting for those Merlin Arcades to be made, get out in public, hopefully one near me so I can play it. and then I want to see what his next thing is. And if it's Raza, I'll be disappointed and unsurprised. But hopefully that's not it. And I don't think it is because I think he sold that off to somebody else and we'll probably see it from DPX for some reason. For some reason. That left me with one more major pinball company, unless I'm missing something. I think they're called, they're not American Pinball anymore. They're not Funs Up anymore. They're the Orbital Albert Pinball Company. I had to come up with something, And so it would not surprise me if Orbit Pinball, Orbit Old Pinball, whatever they're called in East Palatine, Ohio, if they came out with Mighty Mouse, I don't know that I would be surprised, right? A cartoon show that was popular around the time of Felix the Cat, something nobody's asking for but people would recognize. And I think they would try to build up a case for how this is like, oh, people love this license, man. They were nuts about it in the 40s. You know, Superman was huge, but we got this instead. Would not surprise me. Not what I want to see from them. Want to see them succeed. Want to see them make a compelling game again and release it. But Mighty Mouse was the one that my brain came up with. Let's have some fun with this. If you want to email me some other ideas, maybe we'll rehash this on the next show. Tell me some other themes that would not surprise you if they came from that company and why. And I think we can have some fun times with that. A couple of other pointers to come up. Expo is coming up. It's nearly upon us. I've registered for a table there. I'll have a 10x20 over by the homebrew area running the Top Topper contest, sponsored by Pinball Expo, sponsored by the Electric Playground, who's donating a Kong Topper for the top winner. I'm donating prizes, so I guess I'm sponsoring it too. I'm trying to get Michael Barnard in to do some graphics for me. I need to reach out to Stern Pinball to see if they can kick me down a prize or two. Any other pinball companies within reach, Barrels of Fun, Spooky Pinball, Turner Pinball, everybody, if you've got something cool you want to donate, so somebody else can get a prize that enters this thing, I'm all ears, man. And I'm going to be reaching out aggressively here over the next couple weeks. For you people that want to enter, just build yourself a pinball topper. It's got to be homemade. It can look like whatever you want. Really, there's no limits or rules on it. You just have to bring it by, and the public is going to vote on it. And I'm still trying to decide if we're going to have industry folks vote or if I'll make, like, a council of elders that will agree to do this and so there can be, like, a judge's choice thing because I kind of want to have an active role in this. And so we can have a winner for either a judge's choice, industry choice award, and then a winner for people's choice, and then the people that vote, I'll randomly draw them for prizes as well. So the more things I can get, the more winners we can have, and the more fun we can have celebrating the creativity of homebrew toppers, something that I care passionately about, and I'm going to bring some of my creations there as well. So it's going to be fun. It's going to be kicking off at Expo. All you have to do is bring your topper by. the voting and votes will be announced late on Saturday afternoon, maybe 1-2 o'clock. Be present to win a prize or at least be reachable if you've entered. If you're a member of the public and I'm drawing, you've got to be there so I can hand you the play field that I'm going to gift to you. It's going to be super fun. Some people said, well, Don, I'm not going to be there until Friday. Can I still enter? Yes, you can. Go ahead and bring it. Okay. Voting will be going on as long as the show floor is open. So the earlier you get it in, the better your chance to garner votes. But if you've got something devastating, bring it. I mean, most people are going to be there Friday and Saturday, so that's when probably most of the votes will be cast. So if you can't make it until Friday morning, that's fine. Go ahead. If you want to ship it to me, I'll go ahead and bring it. If you have a friend coming that can bring it Thursday, go ahead and do that. But go ahead and enter, man. You have a really good shot of winning something if you just cobble something together and bring it in. Bring in a joke topper if you want. It's just a celebration of being creative in pinball, and I think there's something to learn from how everybody approaches this. Oh, I've got to get Tim Proctor to bring something. My God, this stuff is devastating. But it's going to be fun. Alright, on a personal note, I've got merchandise coming out. I've got new t-shirt designs. The first of which is here. It's the Contra Inspired We Are Pinball logo done by Mark Michael Barnard. He's the artist from Stern that did Jaws. He did Rush. Now he's doing graphics for me because the guy must have to make a rent payment. I don't know, but I love it. And he did a devastating job I'm already slinging these t-shirts out. They're going to across the U.S. I'm sending a shipment out to Australia. So that's been fun. I've got more ordered there, so check those out. And I've got a holiday design for Halloween this year. It's very topical. I'm going to reveal it here in a couple of weeks. Once those supplies come in, we'll be making those. I'm trying on some tote bags, and I'm making some hats as well. So if you want stuff and gear, come check it out. I'm hoping to get some samples up on the website, donspinballpodcast.com, so you can check them out visually. So then when you order stuff, you can actually kind of pick and choose from what you want. It's going to be super fun. I've even floated the idea of bringing my T-shirt printer to Expo so you can pick designs and have things made custom right from the show floor. If that's something that interests you, let me know before I drag this heavy piece of equipment all the way to Expo and man the damn things. It's going to be super fun. Texas Pinball Festival is coming up. It will be upon us as soon as fall hits, it seems like. the hotel rooms already went up for sale and they were up for about an hour this time before immediately selling out so that was nice they must have actually waited until the time to release them before people have noticed they were there a half hour before they were supposed to be released and they could already book them so I think that's why they've been going so quick but that's fun that's what I know going on in pinball email me donspinballpodcast.gmail.com let me know your thoughts let me know your themes let me know if you want to order some stuff I'll send it out to you still making mods basically by demand so I don't get overwhelmed so if you see something or you have an idea, let a killer know. Star Wars will probably be next week. I mean, they've got to release this thing before the media day on the 10th. Myself and Enzo are going to be there. Hopefully some others if I can shake loose some more invites. Email me at donspinballpodcastgmail.com. Go over to the Patreon at patreon.com backslash donspinballpodcast to join in on the fun and the giveaways and the invites and the news and the bonus episodes and the fellowship and the pizza.