oh that's right the pinball world is on fire right now so we're gonna jump in with a little bit of d-anch word because i think south africa is having a bit of a moment right now i don't want to highlight these guys but it seems like i just dropped one episode recorded some wop and it's been nothing but fire dropping all over the pinball world with rumors and i have some speculation to go along with those rumors, some confirmations, some questions still that persist. Also, some game reviews, because I unboxed two games here this last week. Like, New Pinball Day is fantastic. So, double New Pinball Day is just mind-blowing. So, speaking of getting your mind blown, the feedback from the Avatar unboxing has been incredible so far. I wish I had more time to hype it before we were able to let it go, but internet issues and schedules notwithstanding, we did some fire the other day in the unboxing room so if you haven't already had the I don't know if I'd call it a pleasure but definitely an experience to check out the avatar unboxing and what exactly transpired that's up on YouTube at the Don't Spend a Ball Podcast YouTube channel go check it out and give me that like build my credibility homie help me out also have unboxed and have had some time with D&D that we can go over plus there was a code update for that and if nothing else there's been like five articles on AppArchive that have been dropping just boom boom and one of them is a confirmation of something that i told you about like four months ago or something and it's now being treated as news what's going on you listen in to don episode 178 let's hit into this okay so uh thanks everybody that reached out to the folks that are running pentastic pentastic new england or the pentastic pinball fun fest i think is something that happens within the greater boston region and it's happening next month and i i thought you know why don't i pop over there, but like, you know, budgets being what they are, I'm already traveling all over the places it is, and it's on Box2Games. Maybe if I can get a media credential, then I can bop in for a day, come say hi to everybody, kind of cover the event, see what's new, and then get myself back out without completely breaking the bank. So I had a pleasant conversation with the folks at Pentastic, who followed up my email application with We've Never Heard of You, Are You Sure That You Exist? And I rallied the troops on here, and I'm happy to confirm to everybody that my media credentials have been approved. I've sent over my headshot for them and everything, and everything is complete gravy. Now, I mentioned that this is a Boston area pinball show, and I'll be flying into Logan probably from Chicago. It should be a pretty quick two and a half hour flight, and then I can get right over there. And I've had some pushback, Don. It's not even near there. It's not nearby there. You're crazy, man. It'll take you hours to get over there. It'll take you literally an hour. Okay, so the venue that this is at, I think it's a Holiday Inn or something in Maryland. No, Massachusetts. And it's like 38 miles from the airport. It's an hour with traffic. That's nearby. Guys, I live in the middle of Wisconsin, okay? Chicago's a three-and-a-half-hour drive away. It's about 187-something miles. And that's just like a day trip for me. I need to pick up a game. Boom, I'm going to head over there. If I want to run down to Interium and play a new Stern game, boom, I just go make it happen. My Costcos are 90 minutes away. So you're telling me that this venue is less than a Costco's distance from the airport? That, my friends, is nearby. It might as well be across the street from the economy parking as far as I'm concerned. That is not a problem. I mentioned when I was talking to the guys with Pentastic that, oh, this place is near Six Flags New England, which is kind of by like Springfield-ish area. It's right on the border with Connecticut. And it's like 30 minutes away or something. I'm like, no, it's not even nearby us at all. I don't know if this is like a New England mindset where like, you know, distances are seen as much farther than they are. But I don't know. Even out here in Wisconsin, when I say that I'm going an hour and a half to go to Costco, people tell me, oh, I would have to stay overnight if I made that kind of drive. So maybe distances and my perspective are a little bit different from the average person. Regardless, it looks like I'm popping in on Pentastic New England. And that is amazing. So I want to get into these rumors and such. Let's start with Predator. OK. Okay, myself and Jengas Rodriguez Dennis Romero and I run We Are Pinball, a semi-weekly podcast featuring the two of us jabbering back and forth covering all topics from Data East and Arnold, particularly from him, and, you know, my view on the market, playing new games and things here from the U.S. He brings his European perspective. We mash it all together into some nice hot wop for everybody's faces. Now a few months ago It had come to our attention that Predator Was coming from Pinball Brothers As a follow up to the smash hit Of ABBA's Galactic Universe Adventure I think that's the tagline Regardless of course that makes sense When you think about it These are the folks that well I mean Highway Pinball was the folks That came up with Alien the wide body That amazed and grazed and delayed for days And then finally was released And everybody's got one And then they surprised everybody by releasing a more budget trimmed down version, which really worked, the Ellen Ripley version. Added a cat, added the Ripley character, Sigourney Weaver, to the back glass. Thank you very much for that. Somewhere out there, Lior is between starting making toppers and delivering toppers for this game. I quit paying attention like a year ago to what was going on with the Lior toppers for Alien. Notwithstanding, the game, if played in the right environment, can be some pretty fun times. When you're playing in a busy show floor with multitudes of other things to play, I don't think it gets as much attention, but there's a lot of game that's packed in there. Now, we've now seen two games that were designed through the Pinball Brothers, who I guess is now the single pinball orphan, by way of Queen and what's the other one? ABBA, just mentioned that. And then the Funhaus remake, kind of, because like Euro Pinball Corp is all like, you know, one kind of bedfellows or some such. Anyway, so those games have come out. Funhaus is definitely the best of all of them. Queen, I've had some good games on Queen, but not many. And I've had some absolute dog's dinner games on Queen. And ABBA, I want to play more ABBA. I remember playing it a lot at Expo. I wouldn't say that it's a good game. I wouldn't say that it's a great game. I wouldn't say it's a game I'd ever buy. But, like, if I saw one on the side of the road, I'd throw it in the back of the truck. And there's some games I probably wouldn't do that with. So it's not absolutely the worst. but as far as like you know i'm from a company and i'm trying to sell things to make money i don't know how anybody arrived at that decision don it's it's for the european market bull crap man i talked to jeng is dude and he is the european market he unboxes everything brand new when it's over there he's got like the biggest youtube channel for european unboxings he's got a show room in copenhagen denmark and he does not even have an abba he he hasn't he hasn't even asked for one. You know why? Because no customer has asked him for one. Typically, if a game comes out and there's people interested, he'll go ahead and finagle away somehow to fly it overseas if need be just so he can have it in his game room. However, when it comes to ABBA, he hasn't gotten a beat. Nobody's asking for this game because, of course, they're not. It's freaking ABBA. If you're going to go 70s and you're not doing Donna Summer and you not doing Saturday Night Fever and you not doing the Bee Gees what are you doing man What are you doing So reportedly Predator is in the works They did Alien They're going to do Predator. And, of course, people are jumping at the rumor there's going to be some way to connect these games together so you can battle Aliens versus Predator, which, of course, would be amazing. And, of course, I don't think that's going to happen. I mean, come on. These are the people that are putting out ABBA. Do you think they have that much insight? I haven't seen it yet. I haven't seen the creativity from a DeNovo game from the pinball brother, from Pinbro, the dude. So we'll see. Speaking of the dude, 1,500 Lebowskis were made. That was great. Thanks for the update there. Across all versions. That's about 150 games per year. So hopefully they're not still at that pace. Otherwise, we're going to get to the end and there's not going to be any Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I like Dutch pinball. I love these guys. Barry, super cool guy. He'll always be cool in my book. Like, dude sent me a white Russian sculpt when I just emailed him a couple of times, and for that, I'm thankful. I love it. I still have it. I owned a Big Lebowski. I loved it. It's a fantastically fun game. I wouldn't mind it crossing again through the game room at some point. I wanted it from the moment that I first saw a flyer online about it. I managed to get one, had a great time. So I like Dutch Pinball's quality. Love it. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, I don't like it. I think it's beneath Dutch Pinball. Dutch Pinball, I believe, is better than Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Lior's sculpts are amazing. Stumbler's lights and mods in there are amazing, and his toys and such. The Juggalo in the back, I dig it. The gameplay itself, everything basically that came from the John Papaduke portfolio is dragging that game down, and by association, dragging down Dutch Pinball in my eyes. Game looks great. Game could play so much better. I don't know why they even bothered with any of that John Papadookie that they got. Why? Why? It's Alice in Wonderland, man. That's public domain. Just grab the story, grab the characters, come up with your interpretation. That's why Wonderland Amusements is doing a sub-$1,000 game based on that theme, because they can, because there's no licensor to pay. Why in the world would you waste one minute on some old design, except for, like, the raging boner somebody has for John Papadook stuff? I'm of the sneaking suspicion that the games that he was involved with that were great maybe weren't great because of him. This isn't Python Angelo we're talking about. This is the Papa Duke. Come on, man. Come on. There we go. All right, so there's more rumored games to be coming out. We knew about Predator months ago. Predator's coming. Predator's coming April 25th. There'll be a reveal, and then it'll be at, what's this one? Pintastic Allentown? No, Pintastic is the one that's in, what's that? Pinfest in Allentown, Pennsylvania. a show that I have not been to. I know Spooky goes out there every year. I've been to Allentown loads of times. I used to live down the street there, but I never went to the pinball show there or that one that's over in York. That's funny. Central Pennsylvania is weird. Like, I'm living near Hershey, which, of course, is the Hershey Chocolate Capital, and then just down the road is York, Pennsylvania, which is, yes, that's where the York Peppermint Patty gets its name, and then between York and Hershey, there's Reese's Summit, and Reese was another candy maker in that area that the Hershey conglomeration managed to get. So, like, you drive around the middle of Pennsylvania, and it's all Amish folks, fried lard sandwiches, and chocolate references. Dude, it's a wacky place. So, of course, I would love to go back to Allentown and check this out. I will be out of country for May 1st and 2nd when this thing is going off. May 2nd and 3rd is when the show is. Supposedly, Predator is going to be there. Amazing. So I would love to see what coverage occurs from there. And then what do we have? May, June, July, August, September, October for Expo. I'm going to have to wait until Expo to play Predator. I guess that is what it is. Southern Fry Gaming Expo happens in July. We'll see. We'll see if I show back up there again. I went last year or whatever. So Predator, I'm very excited to see what's in it. And number one on my list, and Jenge's for sure, is is Arnold in the game? Do we need to wait for the Arnold Ripley version to come out so we can actually see Dutch in the game? Speaking of Dutch, what else do we got? King Kong had a patent filing from Stern Pinball for Kong Myth of Terror Island. Sounds to be the tagline. I love it. I think it works great. Terror Island. Now, when I heard about King Kong, which was being done as a pinball machine by the fine folks at Stern, my mind initially went to Godzilla because, of course, it did. This is a Keith Elwin game. Godzilla is probably arguably the best game of the modern era that we have. Love it. There's four versions available. Even the pro is loaded and awesome. So continuing on that and following up Jaws and Bond 60th and all the other great games that L1's done, I can't wait to see what Kong is. A license I don't care too deeply about on its own, but I care a bit more than I do with Godzilla. Nevertheless, Godzilla's the best game of the modern era, and Kong could absolutely dethrone it. But my thoughts on first hearing about this was, you know, going back to Kongo. Like, is this going to be a game that takes place on Skull Island, or in this case, Terror Island? where you're in the jungle, the monkey is loose, there's a fort that you need to bash open, release the Kong, seal the gates, all that stuff. The woman gets kidnapped, you get on the ship, you go out in the harbor, like all that business, like the island business of the movie. Or is it going to take place in downtown Manhattan with the monkey climbing the Empire State Building with a woman in his hand and a plane on a stick zooming around it, right? You had to have something like that, I would think. But then how do you marry, within a pinball machine, beneath the glass, both central Manhattan, or lower Manhattan, wherever the Empire State Building is, and also Skull Island, and have that cohesively within the same package? Thank you, Avatar, for that call-out. I don't know. So for my money, I would just do the Jungle Island experience with all the giant centipedes and all the monsters and things and have it take place there. but how do you do possibly a King Kong game without the Eiffel Tower, without the Empire State Building? So I don't know. Maybe there's a little Manhattan corner in the side of the game field there in the back, and maybe the balls can climb up it slowly, and then there's a jump ramp to knock balls off the tower or something to defeat King Kong. That would be awesome, and then the rest of it is Skull Island. I think that would be a healthy compromise. Or you do something crazy like put Empire State Building up on the topper where you can play a scene out up there and have the rest of the island down on the play field. All speculation. I have no idea. But some patent has been filed for King Kong Myth of Terror Island. And I think that's probably, if I was going to do one or the other, I would like to go play on the island and play in the jungle with Big Monkey Man. There's going to be a lot of 3D printed bananas. I can tell you right now what's going to happen. Banana shooter rod, banana start button, banana pop bumper caps, bananas everywhere. Banana wire form liners. I'm excited man I've already got the printers fired up When are we going to see this game? This will probably be like that summer release Like John Wick was last year That June, July, somewhere in there Godzilla 70th debuted At the Southern Fright Gaming Expo Which was in July Also that was the same time that Comic Con was going off So it was like at both of them So we'll see Or was it like a trade show in Las Vegas Either way I think that will be our summertime release from Stern and then they follow that up in the fall with a remaster whether it Walking Dead or Tron or whatever the hell it going to be and then maybe we'll finally see at the end of the year what this Star Wars game from Stern is all going to be like. I like how the rest of the year has kind of fallen into place now. And what else are we going to see here? So Harry Potter is supposed to be coming soon. Everybody's talking about this. Everybody's been rumoring about this game, including people at Jersey Jack Pinball themselves. It's the worst kept secret now at this point. And when are we going to see the damn thing? Well, no time soon. Well, relatively soonish. We're not going to see it at Texas Pinball Festival in a couple weeks. That kind of sucks. But I was just there at Jersey Jack Pinball, and they still have a ton of Avatar CEs on the line. And the rumor had been once the CEs are caught up, then that is when Potter will go on the line, and then Potter will be released when it's financially appropriate and makes a lot of sense. I get that. So they couldn't make this hard date of TPF, so that's not happening. So sometime, is this going to go up against Kong then in May, June, sometime in there? Production-wise, when's it going to come out? If they're waiting until the Avatar CEs are done, and pinball machines are nothing but unanticipated delays, I can't imagine that CEs would be finished until maybe April, and then they can start on this game. And then do you start with the LEs or the CEs? Is there going to be the return of the standard version for operators at all from Jersey Jack? All that remains to be seen. But Potter is on the horizon and will be on its way out. Dungeons & Dragons barely came out. The premiums still haven't really left the factory yet, and already we're on to, like, the next year of 2025.