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Story Time with Don!

Don's Pinball Podcast (patreon feed)·podcast_episode·18m 41s·analyzed·Dec 4, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

Don recounts his journey owning Venom Premium Edition: initial disappointment, frustration with Null boss, then enjoyment through customization and skill growth.

Summary

Don shares a personal story about purchasing, customizing, and eventually selling a Stern Venom Premium Edition pinball machine as part of his rotating Stern game ownership program. He describes initially being disappointed with the game's sparse playfield design, becoming frustrated during progression to Null, but ultimately finding enjoyment after unlocking character selection and improving his skill. He custom-ordered a Venom-themed armor from Cabinet Custom, worked with John Ford on a 3D-printed Taco Bell-branded bell tower mod, and eventually sold the game when Jaws was released.

Key Claims

  • Venom's playfield is devoid of features, with everything concentrated in the back third, similar to Multimorphic games, unlike X-Men which has content across all thirds

    high confidence · Don describing Venom's layout directly from his experience playing it

  • Don executed a rotating Stern Premium Edition purchase program, buying a game, playing it 3-5 months, then selling it to fund the next new Stern release

    high confidence · Don explaining his deliberate purchasing strategy at the beginning of the story

  • Stern has an undisclosed loaner program that provides games to select content creators like VigVP

    medium confidence · Don observing VigVP receiving games from Stern but noting Don had to buy his own instead

  • Venom Limited Edition features mirrored art blades and a laser-cut dark purple armor aesthetic

    high confidence · Don describing the Limited Edition he played at Blue Moon in Madison

  • Mad Pinball distributor has shorter wait times and better availability than competitors

    medium confidence · Don praising Mad Pinball for quick turnaround and willingness to help, comparing to other distributors

  • Don played Venom approximately 500 times in about half the time it took him to play 500 games on Foo Fighters

    high confidence · Don directly stating his play frequency comparison between the two games

  • Venom is currently available at a significantly cheaper price than at launch

    high confidence · Don noting the game is 'available super cheap' and recommending it to buyers

  • Sparky Malmberg's laser-cut metal toppers increased in price from $140 to $200

    high confidence · Don noting the price increase for Sparky Pinball toppers between releases

Notable Quotes

  • “It looked like a Multimorphic game because everything in that game is in the back third. The X-Men is loaded middle third front third back third. There's stuff everywhere.”

    Don @ early in story — Core criticism of Venom's playfield design compared to other modern games

  • “I was at level 99. I could level up no more, you know. I was like, get this game out of my damn house. I'm so frustrated with it.”

    Don @ mid-story — Describes the frustration point where Don nearly gave up on Venom due to progression wall

  • “So while I had leveled up in the game, I needed to personally level up my skill.”

    Don @ mid-story — Articulates the key insight that game enjoyment improved once his own pinball skills improved

  • “I played this game 500 times in about half the time it took me to play 500 in Foo Fighters. This was a game that I kept on one more gaming right.”

    Don @ story middle — Demonstrates how Venom's gameplay eventually became more engaging than previous rotation game

  • “I think the Premium Edition or even the Limited Edition, because they're both about the same price, papa that's a fun game. Just put the spinner in there. Make sure you put in the spinner.”

    Don @ late in story — Final recommendation for Venom despite earlier criticisms; notes critical component (spinner) importance

Entities

VenomgameDonpersonVigVPpersonJohn FordpersonSparky MalmbergpersonJeffpersonCabinet CustomcompanyMad PinballcompanyStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Don criticizes Venom's playfield as sparse and back-heavy with minimal features in the middle and front sections compared to X-Men and other modern games

    high · Everything concentrated in back third, only one stand-up target in middle third, same bottom as Stranger Things without kick-out hole

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Venom's Null boss encounter creates a frustrating progression wall where players at level 99 face timed shot requirements that are difficult to complete

    high · Don stuck at level 99 for extended play, found shots timed and failure caused flipper loss, nearly gave up on game

  • ?

    collector_signal: Venom is currently available at significantly discounted secondary market prices compared to launch, making it a value purchase for interested buyers

    high · Don notes game is 'available super cheap' and recommends Premium/LE editions despite initial criticism

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Venom's character unlocking and selection system provides replayability and strategy variation, but represents nearly the only significant gimmick in the game

    high · Don emphasizes character selection as the main feature, allowing players to reset and replay with different mechanics

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern operates an undisclosed loaner program for content creators, providing machines instead of requiring purchase

    medium · Don observing VigVP receiving games from Stern; Don notes he had to buy his own instead of accessing loaner program

Topics

Venom game design and playfield layoutprimaryDon's rotating Stern game ownership programprimaryGame progression mechanics and character unlockingprimaryPinball machine customization and modssecondarySkill development and player improvement in pinballsecondaryStern loaner program for content creatorssecondaryPinball distributor relationships and availabilitysecondarySecondary market pricing and game availabilitymentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.72)— Don starts with disappointment about Venom's design and progresses through frustration during the Null boss fight, but ultimately concludes positively after skill improvement and customization. He recommends the game as a good value at current secondary market prices. The arc is redemptive—initial skepticism overcome by personal growth and investment in the machine.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.056

The way over to the bonus show what's going on everybody I was trying to find a good venom theme I got this one from a stereo it seems like a pops a lot better everything else was too atmospheric Venom remember that game so you know what I haven't done in a while is the story time with dawn and I had this idea that I I was going to do a series for every game that I've owned where I could talk about where I got it, how I got it, how did I purchase it, why did I purchase it, good or bad, what was the experience like having it, upkeep and all that business and then where did it go, what happened to it, right? So let's do a Dawn Storytime with Venom because I was thinking about it the other day because we were hot on the heels of this Dungeons and Dragons game, right, the next one from Stern or whatever and I'm just thinking, man, that combined with a price increase is going to be kind of difficult to handle. This Week in Pinball, Terminate So join me as we go on a journey back, I don't know, eight months ago when I owned a Venom. So if you'll recall, I tried this thing. I wanted to have this the Stern pinball rotation program. Something I started where I would buy a Stern pinball machine, nominally a premium, and then I would play it for four or five months, three, four months, and then when the next Stern game came out, I would list the one that I bought for sale and then use those funds to buy the next one. And I wanted to see if in this rotating fashion I could just kind of always have the new game in my house. It turns out there's another way to do that too. I guess Stern has a loaner program. I saw VigVP, he's a YouTuber, talks about virtual pinball machines. Apparently he's getting games from Stern now that he can play and I'm like, Ooh, I would love to be in on that. So good on him for figuring that out. Me, like a sucker, I've been buying games. But until I blow up and get enough followers that I can command that type of indulgence, What's the Hellgamewasinthemixtherealsothatahad? What the heck else was it? There was four games that I did this. And then I did John Wick as like the fifth. You know, like the big, alright, let's get rid of... I'll talk about John Wick again later. It'll come to me. What the hell was the other game? It was Foo Fighters, That Left, Venom Came In, Venom Left, Something Came In, and then it was Jaws. I'm not even going to look it up. I'm going to just let my brain struggle to think of what the fourth game in the mix was. I'm going to feel stupid once I think of it. But what had happened was venom was revealed and we were all hoping it was going to be something better. We all wanted Indiana Jones or some such. But then lo and behold it was Venom. We got a look at the gameplay in the playfield and it was just devoid, man. It looked like a multi-morphic game because everything in that game is in the back third. The X-Men X-Men is loaded middle third front third back third. There's stuff everywhere. There's a danger room all kinds of stuff all kinds of stuff Venom had literally like below the doppelganger There was I don't even know if you count the fast locks But there was like one stand-up target on the left and that was it otherwise it was the same bottom as stranger things It was the same two thirds bottom as stranger things like literally what the heck only didn't even have that kick out hole Dos こợσlude readable Allisprator También ações en la współnes.com, lokalarecom.elective, Venom Premium, let's do it. Now the VenomLE came out and I think that was one of the first ones I played. It was a Blue Moon, which used to have pinball machines in Madison now that they're not there anymore. But I got to play the game. The mirrored art blades, I loved that. I loved the fast lock system. I liked the shiny art on the cabinets, not gonna lie. And I really liked the laser gooey kind of dark purple armor that came with the game Call me a sucker for that kind of stuff I love it This is right when I was working with Cab Custom and just started with them And so I floated and I asked them, like, can you design a relatively close copy to the LE Armor for Venom? You know, so for my premium, I'll get it, I'll powder coat it, and we'll do the dark purple thing. And yeah, he's like, bet, yeah, let's do it. And he did, and oh my God, they came and they were like, airline This Week in Pinball, Terminate Or just email them and get on a list for something. I love Mad Pinball because they're easy to work with and they don't have miles long lines like some of the other more popular distributors. So when everybody else has you kind of waiting for a popular game, Mad can come through in a clinch, man. I nearly got a Metallica LE like way after release, you know, so like things can happen. I wanted a Metallica Premium when a customer reached out to order a build from me and he was able to secure one and I have it coming here soon. This Week in Pinball Podcast, Terminate I don't think I would see that quick of a turnaround on ordering and finding a game available from some of the other folks that I've also ordered things from. So that's why I like and support and I love my relationship I got with Matt Pinball. Jeff is good people, man. He's good people. So I got my Venom, you know, and I'm sticking to the guns, man. We're going to do this. What the hell was that for the game? Someone email me. So I get my Venom, open it up. I get my cab custom armor. I get it powder coated. Boom. This Week in Pinball, Terminate I'm playing the game and I'm liking the fact that I have this game. I can play it. Every game that I play adds towards my total of my experience points. I'm going up levels. I'm working to try to unlock characters. You know, for Venom, once you work through it, there's four sub bosses. Then there's Grendel, the big dragon boss that can change your flippers around. And then there's Mysterion or whatever the hell the main bad guy, Knapp. No, not Knapp. Knappler? Kepler? The hell was his name? The big bad guy. Once you beat him, that's effectively And then you get to unlock a new character I was really looking forward to that. So I'm about 50 or so games in just getting my butt handed to me by Grendel. And then I do finally beat him which took some doing and it took me so long that it wasn't even really satisfied with it, it was just like, oh my god that should have happened before now. And I get stuck, right? You know, now this is a new game. I'm still learning the shots, where the shots are on the flippers. You know, I got that. I'm getting a idea of the code, but as far as like progression, what are we supposed to do? When you go and fight this guy, you know, the shots are timed. So if you don't get it in time, he attacks you and then your flippers die or something and you're dead. And it was incredibly frustrating because I was at level 99. I could level up no more, you know. внут Ral I was like, get this game out of my damn house. I'm so frustrated with it. I'm stuck. I can't go back. I can't go forward. I'm playing the same game over and over. What the heck? So I kept at it, begrudgingly. And eventually, like I figured out my shots. I found out that like, oh, you know, if I flip really quickly as the ball's coming out the right end lane, as soon as it clears the sling, it'll go right into, you know, that little bucket vuck shot. So that was one I had to do. I think venom had a lot to do with me learning these little tricks that I now apply to other pinball machines. So while I had leveled up in the game, I needed to personally level up my skill. So once I did that, finally I did beat whatever this guy's name is. I'm going to look. All right. I feel totally stupid. As soon as I paused there, null popped in my head. Like that's the name of the guy. Like literally, as soon as I hit pause recording, In our market Click on constantlyasceptical Cuando we post videos you gonna see So you won miss our social networking and kein I did look up what the fourth game was and I feel stupid now because it John Wick What the hell man This is like some forgotten game I thought was between Venom and Jaws Regardless to get back into it I was super frustrated with the game but then as soon as I beat him and I was able to pick Wolverine to unlock and I got to start over I all of a sudden started having so much more fun with this game Like now, I had dialed in my shots much better than when I first played the game. And then playing through it again now like I was able to get through a little quicker I beat the guys at lower levels than I was before like my skill did improve and that's when the game really kind of started to blossom for me I played this game 500 times in about half the time it took me to play 500 in foo fighters this was a game that I kept one more gaming right I also had fun updating it I reached out to John Ford he does flip mods and he came up with a 3d printed bell tower to replace The game is a 3-sided metal bell tower with stickers on it. He made a 3D printed one, which looked better. I thought with the whole bell in the bell tower, I thought Taco Bell, so I wanted to get Taco Bell branding on it. Boy came through. He made me a custom bell tower with the Taco Bell logo on it, which is still in that game, by the way, on location in Minnesota. Finally and finally it was time for me to drive one right for leaving the camera with ugh mgźg the scoop and dung Jrd&th Primus recomp consumed Untouchable You gdzie you Let him just get free Okie Then next time on those that chug jarti Speaking Break this backstory with any of the following facts that may be relevant in the course of your contemplating brainstorming. That can be found in linear being dzieci Come here if you're tired of this тоже pieces is pretty hard to to crispy The game was a little bit more complex than the first game, but it was still a lot of fun. I was starting to have a lot of fun with this game, and eventually I played through and unlocked all the characters, and then I would play through and I could beat Null when I got to him now. It wasn't as frustrating. Every time I got to him, I'd beat him in like half the time that it took me the time before. with music performances sickness and global Izal with music pasar retiringarrange морby conventiontable game console event weekend in baltimore game ofixí champagne and celebration eve-Co protestpassar This Week in Pinball Podcast, Terminate So I'm not Win Schilling for the game. The game's available super cheap. And honestly, if you haven't owned one and you like pinball, I think the premium or even the LE, because they're both about the same price, pretty fun game. Just put the spinner in there. Make sure you put in the spinner. Put in the spinner. So I had a lot of fun with Venom, but it was time for, it looks like Jaws to come out. So of course I had to get that. So I listed Venom for sale. This was great. I actually had a topper from Sparky Pinball, This Week in Pinball Sparky Malmberg he on pin side He makes these laser cut metal toppers that are powder coated and they come like in three different layers or three levels you know so there a front piece a middle piece and a If you have your pinball underneath your pinball you can put it on top of the pinball and you can win it It's like a cool topper. When they first came out, they were $140. Now they're $200. But I had an extra one from Rush. I had sold my Rush game. I sold that with the Stern topper. So I took his topper off of it and I had it just kicking around. Thank you for watching please like, comment, and subscribe to world making fun games. Knapp Arcade, David David Van Es, Keith Elwin, WPPRbedingt TOP אז TOP Moz Undercycle pane ofkatari binnyidorajoguide señora grivesse courtes symm Dreams Ghen cooked or Bruce Law社- KOBADNIK kangun pouvaitdnosyeo Outsidebyyoung. Mys forehead Mag Administrationchaunty�장ov projekt loudstepeshandhyp shirts aired cafe of keywords dashboardwithbeefubz phrase for l eres shipespeligtantrated nonsense let that wrong cursing fell planning within the exercises as before ab зачu track kombi B hdpost salvagduStr camerSparkedina Tuesday t организmaster1sterves cafe2k0gptgbetza1legal roodne juste kanwar resident renta Kha hai E a coca pinball nu rendira zepio teso boris amerika e be to facebook ben Tim Sexton, I think looking at the game now, the pro is absolutely dog water, right? Everything great about that game, the picking a character, changing the game field, really changes how the game plays, it changes up your strategy in a meaningful way. That part is fun. And in a game like Venom, it's really the only gimmick that it has is that back third. Everything else is, I mean, there's one stand-up target, not even a drop target. There's one stand-up target in the middle third of the game. You got doppelganger and a stand-up target. This Week in PinballdessusUA Trans junior Thank you for watching and I'll see you next week.BACK şurọi backstage debr viewing鄭 and even as fun as venom is. Venom fun game, I dig it, and this has been Storytime with Don.
Foo Fighters
game
X-Mengame
Jawsgame
Stranger Thingsgame
Blue Moonvenue
Multimorphiccompany
  • ?

    vendor_relationship_signal: Mad Pinball distributor differentiates through shorter wait times and better availability compared to more popular competitors

    medium · Don praising Mad Pinball's quick turnaround, willingness to help, and ability to secure hard-to-find games like Metallica after release

  • $

    market_signal: Sparky Malmberg's laser-cut metal toppers increased in price from $140 to $200 between releases

    high · Don directly noting price increase for toppers; implies demand and market growth for this accessory category

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Don's enjoyment of Venom increased substantially after improving his pinball skills, suggesting game design requires mastery for full appreciation

    high · Initial frustration with Null fight, but enjoyment 'blossomed' after beating him and playing through again; played 500 games faster than on previous game

  • ?

    content_signal: Active custom modding community creates aftermarket enhancements like 3D-printed bell towers with custom branding

    high · John Ford's Flip mods creating Taco Bell-branded bell tower replacement for Venom; still in use on location in Minnesota

  • ?

    business_signal: Don's rotating purchase model for following new Stern releases relies on secondary market resale velocity; questions sustainability with price increases

    medium · Don concerned about upcoming Dungeons & Dragons with price increase making rotation 'difficult to handle'; implies margin dependent on quick resales