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We Are Pinball #33/Bonus Show 20 Inside AMERICAN PINBALL!!! Patreon show UNLOCKED

We Are Pinball (WAP)·podcast_episode·36m 59s·analyzed·May 5, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.040

TL;DR

American Pinball factory visit reveals skeleton crew, mass unsold inventory, and departed key engineers.

Summary

In this Patreon-exclusive WAP episode, hosts Don and Genghis recount an unannounced visit to American Pinball's factory where they discovered significant operational challenges: key personnel including the mechanical engineer and designer have been laid off, only two people remain on the production line, and 80+ Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition machines sit unsold in the warehouse. They played an unreleased new game and found it good, but expressed serious concerns about the company's ability to support future releases, code updates, and customer service without core engineering staff.

Key Claims

  • Zofia Ryan, American Pinball's mechanical engineer, has been fired/departed

    high confidence · Don directly observed her office was vacant during factory visit; her understudy confirmed her absence

  • Ryan McQuaid (designer) and Steve Bowden (rules designer) have left American Pinball

    high confidence · Don states these personnel departures explicitly; only coder and service guy Lloyd remain from design/support team

  • Approximately 80+ Galactic Tank Force Signature Edition machines (MSRP $16,000) are sitting in the warehouse unsold

    high confidence · Don counted '17 rows of galactic tank force signature editions um that were four deep and so 17 times 4 like 80 or something'

  • Only two people are working in the entire American Pinball factory production line, building Hot Wheels machines

    high confidence · Direct observation: 'we go into the factory, and there are a grand total of two people working in the entire factory. And they're putting together some Hot Wheels.'

  • American Pinball's storage docks have been cleared of finished inventory and Polycade stock

    high confidence · Don: 'when you first walk in, you go by the storage docks. And last time I was there, it was full of games that were shipping out. They're all gone now. It was full of polycades. That was all gone.'

  • David Fix's office desk was cleared out, suggesting his departure

    high confidence · Don observed during factory tour: 'he's in a big glass cubicle. And I look over and his desk is cleared off. Most of the stuff is gone from the office already.'

  • American Pinball's new unreleased game is designed to be produced without the designer present

    high confidence · Don: 'Kind of weird to produce a game without the designer there on the line to make sure everything's going right.'

  • The new American Pinball game features a novel playfield mechanism not done before

    medium confidence · Don: 'There is a really cool new mechanism that hasn't been done before as far as like a play field mechanic.'

Notable Quotes

  • “There are a grand total of two people working in the entire factory. And they're putting together some Hot Wheels.”

    Don @ ~mid-show — Direct evidence of severely reduced production capacity at American Pinball

  • “I counted 17 rows of galactic tank force signature editions that were four deep... 80 or something... just like 80 galactic tank forces signature edition $16,000 MSRP with the thermos with like nowhere to go.”

    Don @ ~mid-show — Documents massive unsold inventory of premium signature edition machines

  • “This is no longer a design company, for sure. They don't have anybody that can design anything anymore.”

    Don @ ~mid-show — Summarizes the loss of core engineering capability after key personnel departures

  • “They may continue on as a production facility... maybe another design house that has a game that can bring it to this facility and have it produced.”

    Don @ ~mid-show — Speculates on potential pivot to contract manufacturing model

  • “If you're not doing any more engineering on the play field, you need to be like building these games... get them built, get them QC'd, and get them ready and get them staged.”

    Genghis @ ~late-show — Offers business strategy advice for salvaging the situation

  • “American Pinball never took people's money and didn't deliver games. They didn't take pre-order money for this game, and then they're not making it. They're not thieves.”

    Don @ ~late-show — Defends American Pinball against comparison to Haggis Pinball and Deep Root Pinball on fraud/delivery issues

  • “We ordered GTF and it was like, yeah, we're going to ship GTF and we want them on your locations... we heard nothing. And then when they came out with barbecue, we were like, do you really think we should order more?”

    Genghis @ ~late-show — European distributor's experience of complete communication failure and loss of business relationship

Entities

American PinballcompanyDonpersonGenghispersonKerry HardypersonZofia RyanpersonDavid FixpersonRyan McQuaid

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball experiencing severe operational contraction: key personnel (mechanical engineer, designer, rules designer) departed; only 2 people on production line; mass unsold premium inventory (80+ GTF Signature at $16K MSRP); storage docks cleared; appears to be pivoting from design to potential contract manufacturing.

    high · Direct factory observations by Don: vacant offices, cleared desks, skeleton crew, warehouse inventory audit. Multiple corroborating personnel confirmations.

  • ?

    business_signal: American Pinball inventory liquidation: storage docks previously full of ready-to-ship games now cleared; Polycade stock gone; unclear where inventory went or if being liquidated. Suggests either asset sales or significant business restructuring.

    high · Don: 'when you first walk in, you go by the storage docks. And last time I was there, it was full of games... They're all gone now. It was full of polycades. That was all gone.'

  • ?

    community_signal: American Pinball's operational collapse is generating concern across distributor and operator community. Comparison to fraud-based manufacturer failures (Haggis, Deep Root) creates lingering reputational risk despite Don's distinction.

    high · Community comparison to Haggis/Deep Root; Don's defensive clarification: 'American pinball never took people's money and didn't deliver games... They're not thieves.' Suggests external narrative threat.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Distributor/operator community sentiment toward American Pinball has shifted sharply negative. European operators report complete communication breakdown regarding GTF orders; lost trust in placing new orders; contrasts sharply with Spooky Pinball's responsive support.

    high · Genghis: 'we ordered GTF... we heard nothing... They just ignored us... we don't really have interest anymore.' Contrasted with Spooky's immediate response to issue reports.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.111

0:00
Oh, we're recording again. It is time for the After Party Show. What an episode number 20, dude. Oh, yeah, baby. It was so juicy. Those 20% was enough. Now it's more intimate. It's WAP private. It's WAP Patreon. It's WAP with people that love this show. It's with people that support this show. It's with people that are positive, that love pinball, that enjoys this. this is awesome and we got three new supporters yeah three new supporters since our show lumber 19 that's like four days ago or something that show was like 55 minutes long so donnie yeah on this one yeah first of all thank you to all our supporters absolutely but uh we need to talk about what the heck is going on at the american pinball all right now the gloves are off this is patreon All right, I'm going to let my hair down. You opened the door. I opened the door. So walked in, myself, Colin Alzheimer, Vic VP, Carrie Hardy were in there. And, like, I initiated this. I walked over there and opened the door, and they followed in with me. And I don't even know if they really – And you're not invited. You are not invited. We didn't say nothing. We stopped by. We were driving by. We just walked in the door, right? So I look over at Zofia Ryan's office. She's their mechanical engineer. She's been fired. She's not there anymore. but right next right next to her office is another um guy who was like her understudy or something so he sees us in there he comes on over hi guys how you doing i'm like hey buddy we're here to see dave man is he around and he said oh yeah he's in a he's in a meeting let me go see if i can go get him real quick and i'm like look we're just stopping by saying hi we got like five minutes no big deal we can come back or whatever and the guys are like jesus let's get out of here like they're feeling uncomfortable, right? And I'm like, no, I don't know. So who was the biggest chicken on your team that day? Well, okay, four of us entered, and then when the guy came back and said, you know, Dave's not available right now, we're like, okay, we'll be back. We'll be back. Four of us left. Two of us went back in, and that was myself and Kerry Hardy.
2:14
The other guys, I was like, he's asking us to come back in. And part of me was like, I should have gotten my truck and just drove away. But I'm like, too far now, man. Let's see how far this goes. So we walk back in there, and the guy's like, no, just wait. Sit down. Wait. And we're like, we've got to be at Stern in 10 minutes, man. We don't have time for this. And then so Ron from American Pinball, he's their sales director, and now I guess he got a promotion. He's the one that comes out. And this is a guy that I've met before, super cool guy. I've met him down at IAPA. I've met him everywhere. He invites me down there. He invited me out to come play barbecue early. He invited me out to come play the new game early. So, like, I know this guy. I'm like, hey, man, how you doing? How's everything going? He's like, good, man. Yeah, we're doing good. We're like, we heard the place is shutting down. He's like, no, man, we're not. We're not shutting down. Everything's okay. Personnel changes. You guys want a tour? And I'm like, hell, yes, we want a tour. And, you know, Mr. Cary Hardy, I don't know if he's, I don't know, I know he's kind of had, like, back and forth words and stuff with America Pinball and like Dave Fix or whatever. So like I'm not sure exactly how comfortable he's feeling, but he's just like he's game. Like let's go, man. So Ron walks us back into the factory for a factory tour. We go right by David Fix's office. It's in a big glass cubicle. And I look over and his desk is cleared off. Most of the stuff is gone from the office already. A couple of the play fields. He had like one of the first prototype Magic Girl play fields like in his office, you know, showing it off. And it was still there. And now I'm wondering, maybe that was property of American Pinball, and it wasn't really Dave's, and he just kept it in his office there. But maybe he had to leave it because it technically belongs to the company since they were involved in doing that Run a Magic Girl or something. But, you know, we briskly walked by, so I didn't point it out, but I'm like, damn, dude, Dave's shit's gone. Gone. Shit.

  • Barrels of Fun Barbecue Challenge costs under $7,000 but lacks value proposition compared to competitors

    high confidence · Community discussion comparing Barbecue Challenge ($7K) unfavorably to Deadpool Pro, Dungeons & Dragons Pro, Eclipse, James Bond Pro, Venom Pro (all similar or lower price points with more gameplay)

  • American Pinball ignored distributor orders for Galactic Tank Force without communication

    high confidence · Genghis (European operator/distributor): 'we ordered GTF and it was like, yeah, we still haven't heard anything from them really? Yeah... They just ignored us.'

    • “Kind of weird to produce a game without the designer there on the line to make sure everything's going right... and what's going to happen after release when there needs to be a code update to fix some bugs that were found later.”

    Don @ ~mid-show — Identifies critical risk of post-release support gaps

  • “I like it less now that I've played it [D&D] because it's not as mysterious anymore, you know, and I'm looking out over the next couple months of some other games being available.”

    Genghis @ ~late-show — Shows FOMO wearing off as game library expands (upcoming Evil Dead, others)

  • “They need a businessman as a president, not a pinball guy, but a businessman.”

    Genghis @ ~late-show — Prescriptive diagnosis: leadership lacking business/operational expertise

    • person
    Steve Bowdenperson
    Ronperson
    Lloydperson
    Colin Alzheimerperson
    Vic VPperson
    American Pinball (unreleased game)game
    Galactic Tank Force Signature Editiongame
    Barry O's Barbecue Challengegame
    Hot Wheelsgame
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Legends of Valhallagame
    Evil Deadgame
    Dungeons & Dragonsgame
    Polycadecompany
    Deep Root Pinballcompany
    Haggis Pinballcompany
  • ?

    competitive_signal: Spooky Pinball's operational excellence and customer support contrasted sharply with American Pinball's communication failures. Spooky demonstrates responsive support, rapid issue resolution, and proactive engagement with distributors/operators. American Pinball's silence costs them market share.

    high · Genghis: Spooky 'send me a text... they said you can get this... everything is just in order, super support. That's pro-level support.' vs. American Pinball: 'we're not distros only... Everybody in Scandinavia does visit us... but this company... we just lost all interest.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: American Pinball's game design strategy criticized: Hot Wheels described as 'empty,' 'boring,' 'dinosaur and car on a stick' lacking compelling playfield features. Contrasts unfavorably with Spooky's mechanical innovation (mechanical locks, sling flippers, integrated mechanics).

    high · Community assessment: 'It's a $2,000 game'... 'It has cars on the playfield... there was a dinosaur and a car that was spinning on a stick.' Son's criticism: 'Where is the loop ramp? Where's all the 180 loops? There's nothing in here.'

  • $

    market_signal: American Pinball's GTF Signature Edition ($16K with thermos) commercially failed; approximately 80 units unsold in warehouse. Represents catastrophic failure of premium tier pricing strategy. Barry O's Barbecue (only 1 LE remaining) also appears to have underperformed.

    high · Don's warehouse count: 'I counted uh there was uh 17 rows of galactic tank force signature editions um that were four deep and so 17 times 4 like 80 or something.' Explicit criticism of $6-7K premium tier decision.

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Key American Pinball personnel departures: Zofia Ryan (mechanical engineer), Ryan McQuaid (designer), Steve Bowden (rules designer). Only coder and service technician Lloyd remain. Represents loss of design and mechanical engineering capability.

    high · Don's factory observations and explicit confirmation from Ron during tour that designer/engineer staff have departed.

  • $

    market_signal: Three-tier pricing model perceived as unsustainable: GTF Signature Edition ($16K) sits unsold; Barbecue Challenge ($7K) lacks value vs. competing Pro models (D&D Pro, Deadpool Pro, James Bond Pro at similar/lower price). Market is self-correcting away from premium tiers.

    high · Community comparison: 'You could get a Deadpool Pro... Eclipse... James Bond Pro... for the same price... Who the fuck would you buy the weird meat game?' Genghis: 'This game, when it comes out, it has to cost less than a Stern now.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: American Pinball's new unreleased game nearing completion (still receiving art assets and call-outs) but missing core personnel (designer departed, no mechanical engineer). Release timeline unclear and contingent on contractor rehires.

    high · Don: 'sound like they may be interested in hiring back some of the people that they've lost, maybe on a contract basis. so nothing's for sure right now.' Game currently being completed by remaining coder only.

  • ?

    product_concern: American Pinball's new unreleased game is mechanically sound (uses standard coils, no exotic parts) but at significant operational risk: being completed without designer/mechanical engineer oversight; no clear post-release support structure for code updates or mechanical issues.

    medium · Don: 'I think at the heart of it, it still uses coils, you know, so it's not anything too exotic... The buyers are the test pilots... All the games have something to work out.'

    • 4:08
    Cleaned out. Yeah, we go into the factory, and there are a grand total of two people working in the entire factory.
    4:15
    And they're putting together some Hot Wheels. and there's like no music. It's super quiet and dead. I will say like when you first walk in, you go by the storage docks. And last time I was there, it was full of games that were shipping out. They're all gone now. It was full of polycades. That was all gone. So they've cleared out a lot of inventory. I don't know where it's going, but it went somewhere.
    4:36
    You know, but we go into the factory there, and there's some Hot Wheels on the line. And just like two ladies that are there just kind of slowly screwing things together, like making a game a week at this point. it's a lot of work for just two little ladies um and then we walked by oh my god so i counted uh there was uh 17 rows of galactic tank force signature editions um that were four deep and so 17 times 4 like 80 or something um just like 80 galactic tank forces signature edition 16 000 MSRP with the thermos with like nowhere to go and then right across from it was the very last Barry O's Barbecue Challenge Limited Edition there was only one left in the factory I just got to hug it oh man it's sad Donnie I was walking by with Kerry and I'm like hey Kerry signature, signature, signature, signature rows of them 17,000, 17,000, 17,000 and like they were making 200 of these things and here's 100 of them sitting right here I'm like, oh, God, of course. Who's going to pay $16,000 for Galactic Tank Force's signature when, like, the only thing it comes with is a bunch of graffiti and then a thermos? Get out of here. What the hell kind of bad idea was that? I'll tell you whose bad idea that was. The previous vice president. That's probably why he's not there anymore. I mean, that was a horrible idea. I mean, if I was a board of director and I was in on that decision, I would have said let's not do that. I would have said let's not do barbecue. It's like $6,000, $7,000 jump. For a thermos and graffiti, yeah. I mean, if there should be a trippy awards for the dumbest decision, that should be it. Now, I don't want to bag too hard on Dave because the guy's always been super cool to me. He's a friend.
    6:27
    You know what I mean? What kind of friend am I if I'm not pointing out like, dude, but I don't know. I'm not the one making decisions. I don't run a company.
    6:36
    I guess either it's he. I don't know. Whatever. So all of that happened, right? We're in the factory, and I've got Kerry with me. He's never been there before. And basically I'm getting this sense that there's no one here to tell us no. And so we walk over next. We go into the streaming studio where they did all the filming for the Galactic Tank Force and the promos, the green screen's still there. It's where they stream. There was a barbecue set up. And then right around the corner is, like, the office for the coders that are working on new games so they can sit there and code and put it in the game and test things out and stuff. Are there coders in there? No. Are there people in there? No. I mean, this is like, you know, 1.30 in the afternoon on a weekday. Why would people be at the office?
    7:16
    Wow. No. For what I understand, Ryan McQuaid, the designer of the new game, gone. Steve Bowden, coder, gone. Or no, rules designer, gone. Their coder is still employed. and Lloyd, their service guy in Minnesota, is still employed and Ron is still employed, but their mechanical engineer is gone. So this is no longer a design company, for sure. They don't have anybody that can design anything anymore. Oh, my God. So what I think is happening, and this was alluded to, is that they may continue on as a production facility, right? So they may do contract builds. So, like, with Riot Pinball, they had Legends of Valhalla. Legends, yeah. Yeah, and they took it to American Pinball, and it was released as an American Pinball release, but, like, they had done the design, they had done, I think, the coding. So maybe there's another design house that has a game that can bring it to this facility and have it produced, maybe. So homebrew people that had made the Beavs and Butthead could actually, maybe. Or let's say, you know, there's all of a sudden huge tariffs on international imports, And so maybe there's a Dutch company that's got a game they want to build, and maybe they have it build in the U.S. to avoid terror. I don't know. It's spitballing here. So this is your opportunity to go in and be the president of American Pinball. I mean, I'm looking at my homebrew right now. I can finish it up, take it over there, and get it produced. Yeah, apparently. Be the new David Fix, man. Be the new president of the company. I'm growing the mustache out, man. I just need the hat. I set the hat on. Oh, God. So, on the way out, though, he's like, do you guys want to play the new game? Which I was not expecting at all. Just walking in straight off the street, hey, can I play your new unannounced game? And you had Kerry with you? I had Kerry with me, yeah. And like I had signed an NDA before barbecue you know that I wouldn reveal things before launch Kerry did not do that And we both walked in there and it like here it is Here the new game We fired it up and Carrie like okay let play So, like, just, like, having a moment, man. Like, I'm here with my boy Carrie. We're somehow, like, in the belly of the beast here playing this new game.
    9:31
    This is awesome. Colin, Colin, you should have. So, they were texting me. They're like, dude, we got to get to Stern. We're going to be there in like 10 minutes. I'm like, I know, but like I can't walk out right now. I'm trying, but like I was like, yeah, we should probably go. And Kerry's like, I'm going to play this. You guys. So, yeah, so Colin and Vic. Did Colin like the game? Yeah, he did. He did. Awesome. Which is good. I liked the game, but I want to make sure that it's not just me saying that, you know, because I'm excited. So I like that he played it, and he didn't even get to play a full game. But he was like, yeah, dude, I like it. I'd play it again, and I'm like, sweet.
    10:11
    That's the thing. This game is good, and it sounds like they've got everything they need to produce this game now at least. They've got a guy. The one guy that's still on the payroll is finishing up the coding for it because they're still getting in art assets and things that need to be plugged in and call-outs that need to be plugged in. Kind of weird to produce a game without the designer there on the line to make sure everything's going right. and what's going to happen after release when there needs to be a code update to fix some bugs that were found later. I don't know. How about mechanical issues? Then you need the designer to come in and then you need a mechanical engineer to come in. I'm trying to think. I don't think there's any kind of mechanism in this that doesn't have a part that's available.
    10:57
    There is a really cool new mechanism that hasn't been done before as far as like a play field mechanic. But I think at the heart of it, it still uses coils, you know, so it's not anything too exotic. So the buyers are the test pilots. The buyers are the suckers that has to go in and test and find it, you know. All the games have something to work out. I know, I know. So that's what I don't know. Now, it sounds like they may be interested in hiring back some of the people that they've lost, maybe on a contract basis. so nothing's for sure right now. We can't say from this point what's going to happen with this company next. Over the next couple months, they may bring Ryan back to be there for the build. I don't know. That could happen. I have no idea. I'm trying to put myself in a position if I was in charge of this mess that's over there, what would I do?
    11:54
    You have to make sure you have at least the staff there that can mitigate problems as they're coming up. But right now, they need to rescue consumer confidence, right? Yes. Because everybody's looking at them like, fuck you. We're not buying shit from this place. And they've got to turn that around. Yeah, it's $10,000 products, man. You need to have confidence when you buy toys like this. I mean, clock's ticking. They've got to get this game revealed and in front of people so they can play it. How can they reveal it if they have two people building them? I don't know, man. The dumbest thing you can do in 2025 is to reveal a game and say they will be shipped next year or something like that. I mean, that's so stupid. You do what Stern does. Bam. That's it. I mean, look, at this point, if you're not doing any more engineering on the play field, you need to be, like, building these games. Yeah. Now, you can update the code a month later after you've got 70 machines and boxes ready to go. Or have them ready to go in a box as soon as they get code updated. But get them built, get them QC'd, and get them ready and get them staged. And so then you can go in there, put the code in, zip the box up, and get it out. But, Tony, if they release this in a month, who's going to buy it? Who's going to dare buying it? Here's the thing, right? Where is the support? I mean, the distros cannot support if they don't get parts. You've got Evil Dead running out of the factory now. Dungeons & Dragons is about to start running out of the factory. Harry Potter might be coming out of the factory. Dune might be announced.
    13:31
    Alice in Wonderland might start coming out. They just started shipping Pulp Fiction LEs. There's a lot of stuff out there. We were over at Interium talking, and there was a barbecue there, and we're all like, what's the deal with this game? This game costs under $7,000, but you know what else costs under $7,000? Deadpool Pro. Eclipse. James Bond Pro. Like, you could go... Dungeons & Dragons Pro. Yeah. You could get a Dungeons & Dragons Pro right now for the same price of buying a Burials Barbecue Challenge. Why the fuck would you buy the weird meat game when you can get so much more game for the same price, for the same price? I mean, even a Venom Pro is going to be... But Foo Fighters Pro, you can get a Foo Fighters Pro for five grand, and it's going to have way more gameplay. Amazing game, man. Earn more money. Plunge better. Come on. Get the music. You could get a pro Foo Fighters with the topper for the same price as a Berrios Barbecue Challenge. And that's the problem. Not that necessarily Berrios is the worst game ever made. I don't think it is. But it's sure as hell not worth $7,000 in this market. No. I mean, markets, it's adjusting itself. And so that's why if I was in charge, I wouldn't have greenlit that project because, like, no, not for that. $3,000 is money. So this game, when it comes out, it has to cost less than a Stern now. Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. Especially now. Especially now, yeah. But still, I think if they come out with this, everybody knows it's cop head. Can we say it? I don't know. I can't. This next game, we don't know. If they come out with it, they need to serve for like 5,000. But still, people are going to say, what about warranty? What about if it breaks down? What about if I need new parts? Something, something.
    15:33
    I think they should have everything together first. new president, new, new, new, everything new, get the designer back, everything, and have 100 games ready to ship, show the pictures, and then release this game for under a certain pro. That's the way to go. I think they need a consultant, somebody who's got an objective mind of the market that can come in there and help them come up with a roadmap to build some confidence up and get this game out. I'm pushing for it because the game's fun and I want it to exist. Sure. You know, and even if it's only 300, I think, you know, at least the game's out there, you know. Wormhole might get one. You know, the places that have Ace Goge will have one. You know, that cool kid in the neighborhood might have one that already has everything else, you know. So, you know, drag one to Expo every year, drag one to TPF. So, you know, it can be played because I think the game is good. They need a businessman as a president, not a pinball guy, but a businessman. man. That's so important. And they need a guy like, what are you eating, Donnie? I want to eat that too. Okay, Sour Patch Kids layers. You want me to send you some? Man, it looks so beautiful. You're sitting there eating that.
    16:49
    They're delicious, man. Is it gummy yummies? They're Sour Patch Kids, but then they got this softer layer underneath them. I got them in Australia, and I can't stop eating them. I almost ate them with that.
    17:01
    Oh my God, so good. Okay. I love Australia. Yeah. Tony, what's that game all the way to the right of you? Yeah, that one. That one? No, no, next to Star Wars. Oh, the other way. That way? Yeah, what's that? That's X-Men, dude. Let me see.
    17:19
    Oh, yeah, now I can see. All right. What's that topper up there, man? Oh, yeah, that's the Sentinel topper. Eyes light up with the GI in the game. Did you make that? Yeah.
    17:33
    It looks awesome. Right? There's a life-size bust of a Sentinel on top of my machine. Oh, looks cool, man. So cool, man. I love building stuff.
    17:45
    All right, Donnie. It was beautiful to hear this insider story. I would have done the same, just walked in there. Just walked right in the fucking door.
    17:57
    Why not, man? Oh, God. I hope this company does. I don't know. I'm a casual observer. I'm not a shareholder. I'm not a shot caller. I'm just going to sit and watch. I'm just a guy who likes to play pinball. They got something really cool there. But, you know, it's not like, you know, Spooky Pinball is not going to come over and build it. You know, they got five of their own projects lined up. They don't have any room for it. You know, Stern is not going to pick it up and run with it. Who else would build this game, you know? Yeah.
    18:27
    I just don want any pinball companies to shut down But I mean for 2024 we all saw how People are comparing this to Haggis and Deep Root, and I think that's wrong. That's wrong. American pinball never took people's money and didn't deliver games. They didn't take pre-order money for this game, and then they're not making it. They're not thieves. They didn't steal. And, you know, they may have had some service issues that have cropped up. They have some design issues with GTF. But, like, you know, if you wanted a game and you gave money, you got your game.
    19:03
    And, you know, for the most part, their games work fine. They're just boring, right? Like Hot Wheels, yeah, it's a tank. It earns money on location. But, like, I don't want to go over and play it that much. I don't know. It's not that compelling. We have Hot Wheels on location. Yeah. Poor best. Oh, it's boring. Yeah. When we got Hot Wheels, my son was so young, so he played with those Hot Wheels cars with those 180 loops and everything. And I was like, son, this is going to be awesome. It has cars on the play field. We unboxed maybe one of the earliest games that came out. And he looked at this play field. He was young back then. He was like, dad, where is the loop ramp? Where's all the 180 loops? There's nothing in here. There was a dinosaur and a car that was spinning on a stick. It was like a $2,000 game. You could probably make an EM version of Hot Wheels.
    20:01
    I have some competition playing guys that are saying, it's the best competition game. Yeah, it's an empty game. Yeah. Yeah, it's an empty game. It's a cheaper game. We are distros for this company. and I'm telling you, when GTF came out, we ordered GTF and it got confirmed, yeah, we're going to ship GTF and we want them on your locations, blah, blah, blah because we have multiple American Pinball games on location, a lot of Legends of the Hells out there and they're holding up their work, they make money people love them we ordered GTF and it was like, yeah, we still haven't heard anything from them really? Yeah And then when they came out with barbecue, I was talking with my bro. I was like, dude, do you want to have this stinky-ass game? And he was like, dude, we ordered GTF. They said, yeah, and we heard nothing. Do you really think we should order more? They just ignored us. So weird. What a weird way to do business, man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's not how you do it. I mean, we're doing business with Spooky now, and you and I, we were talking with the Spooky game, and you mentioned on the drop-down targets of, what's that cartoon game they made? Looney Tunes? Yeah. Yeah, the ball could get stuck. As soon as you said that, I was like, oh, I played the game yesterday. We had the same issue on ours, and you were like, yeah, you can just get it. There's a fix already and blah, blah, blah, and we were done talking on the phone. Short time later, you send me a text. You were like, hey, I just talked with spooky guys, and they said you can get this, blah, blah, blah. Everything is just in order, super support. That's how you do it. That's pro-level support. That's how you do it. This company, American People, we order games as distros.
    22:07
    We heard nothing. What the hell? How are you not – What does that do to your customers? If you're a company and you sell games and someone tries to buy a game and you can't pull that off, there's problems.
    22:19
    And we are not distros only. Distros is one thing. We have multiple locations. That's next level shit. Okay. Distros, they have a web shop. You can go and look at pictures. Us? Everybody in Scandinavia does visit us because we have so many games. They come and check out everything. I mean, it's just so important. I will send the first game to us like J.J.P. They shipped the first game to us by plane. I mean, Stern, first game. I unboxed them. First game that comes out, we get them. I'm on location. But this company, I mean, yeah, we just lost all interest. So, yeah, that's how it goes. Now you can see what happened. Did you got an avatar coming?
    23:04
    Of course. Yeah. Of course. So the reason I haven't unboxed it, that's because we almost bought the collector's edition. Yeah. So Vic VP, he went over to Jersey Jack, and he posted an update. So the CEs are on the line over there, and they're currently going out international right now, Australia, and then now Europe. So, yeah, they should be showing up there, and then hopefully they'll get to making mine soon.
    23:32
    I mean, others, they ship them by sea. So that will take about two months. Oh, yeah. As soon as they contact us, we're like, put it in the plane. It costs a lot of money to fly them home. Yeah. But we love this hubby. We love this pinball machines. They just fly it home. Next day, it's here. It's still. So every time I open the box, it has got air from the US. It smells so nice. I love it. So when the ships come over to Europe, where do they go? Do they go to the UK or Germany or, you know, is there a central port? See, that's so dumb, man. So a ship comes over. It stops, yeah, in Germany. And then it gets relocated. Those games get taken out from this and put in again and to the next harbor and next harbor and next harbor. Oh, my God, it's just so stupid. Slow, yeah. Yeah, by air, it's just in the plane, 20 hours or something later. We got it. It's in Copenhagen. Yeah, baby. That's worth the money. I got to come out to Copenhagen, dude. Oh, yeah, baby. I would love that, buddy. Is Tivoli open all year?
    24:43
    Tivoli? Yeah. Yeah, but, you know, it's magical in summer, but it's also magical in, you know, around Christmas because we have snow and all those old bulb lights, you know, no LEDs, all that old stuff because Tivoli is like very, very old. Are the rides still operating right now? No, no, it's just open for some weeks at Christmas. But right now it's closed. Okay, all right. Well, let me know when it opens. I'll come on out.
    25:14
    It has to be summer, Ben, because you can – Bakken, you know, you can visit there also. I love Bakken. Listeners, come on a Scandinavian adventure with Don. Do you want to go to Europe? Do you want to go to Denmark? Do you want to go to Bakken and Tivoli? Do you want to hang out with Retro Django in person? Do you want to see the mermaid statue? Do you love Hans Christian Andersen? Do you want to get some heroin? Let's go to Copenhagen. Oh, legit. I don't know anything about drugs.
    25:41
    But dear Patreon listener, actually a couple of weeks ago, Don and I, we talked about doing something Patreon special and just invite people on Patreon to our location in Copenhagen. How fun would that be? We could have a lot of pinball machines, also arcade machines. We could do a WAP day. Yeah, just a WAP day, just coming in. I travel all over the place. I've been to Copenhagen several times. We can combine it with trips to other local stuff too. But it would be fun to just have a WAP day, and then we could live stream it. What the hell is everybody doing in Copenhagen? Hanging out with Jenga is having an awesome time, dude. I'm going to get in on this. Yeah, but I don't know. As I said to you, I don't know if people – because we have American supporters, European supporters. We have Australian supporters. Would they all come in one day? I don't know, man, but it will be, you know, WWF. I will come. We probably have some other people that, you know, just are looking for an excuse, right?
    26:44
    Yeah, there's flights to Europe. If you're near a major airport in the U.S., for sure you can get there. It's not that bad of a flight. You watch some movies. You have some drinks, and you're there. And then we get to hang out in Copenhagen. We can get bikes. We can ride them around. We can go to Aldi. Come on. Yeah, we can hang out with the WAP team, man. All right, so I'll keep kicking that around, but let's see if we can get some interest up because that would be fun for like March or April maybe. Yeah, because, you know, Donnie, when people are writing in our Patreon chat group, it's like they're like close friends because they have the same vision, eyesight, positivity. you know i don't know what's it called in english but i can relate you know yeah yeah we're we should do fun stuff i think a three-day event would be cool fly in have a day fly out we'll go to bach and we go to tivoli we go to your locations we drink beer we go to um um oogala women i don know whatever we meet we meet can we meet all of your girlfriends i mean beautiful skin the navy and goddesses we have up here you know all blonde their skin is milky white and blonde hair and they're so beautiful i mean danish women are some of the most beautiful women in the world. So, along that, it's worth to, yeah, worth the travel, man. But yeah, I have two girlfriends.
    28:16
    I'm so sorry, Donnie. All right, Euro style. What else do you, what else do you want to know, dude? Do I like Dungeons and Dragons? Yes. I was really FOMOing hard going in there and I came out and I'm like, I'm good. I don't need it. So like, I'm surprised you didn't buy it, man. It's like, I like it less now that I've played it because it's not as mysterious anymore, you know, and I'm looking out over the next couple months of some other games being available, and I can kind of be a little more of an asshole and choose. Like, I don't know if I want that one. I could get that one instead. Or maybe this one. But you have Evil Dead just on the stairs. It's a matter of days, maybe.
    28:58
    They said they were going to give me a super early build, so I think that's like, let's go, man. And you really love spooky build. I do. Spooky way to code. Spooky way to shots and layout. Do you like the theme? You don't know the theme that much, but do you like it? I've seen the first movie. I need to go and watch the other one now too. Yeah, dude. I dig it. I got told the second movie is better than the first. That's what I heard too. I'm going to watch it. The third movie, that's not included in this game. The third movie is awesome. Awesome. Now, awesome good. Kerry Hardy just stopped by Spooky, so he's played Evil Dead now, so I got to ask him. And he's somebody that doesn't really like the theme, but he really liked the gameplay. So I think the game's going to be good, man. Yeah. I really like it. And, you know, it's fun to hit the shotgun shells because you have to hit the left one, then you hit the right one, then they pop out, then you hit both of them. You have to hit them both with one ball to just, like, load the shotgun, and then the multi-ball's ready. It's so fun. And then that extra little flipper, the sling flipper, it's on a different button, so you have to, like, catch it. But when you catch the ball, you're like, yes, I got it. And then you can drop the ball. I really like the mechanical locks, you know, that the upper right has got the mechanical – it locks the ball at the backside. I really like that. For the cabin where the little porch swing swings out of the way to let the ball – Yeah, yeah, yeah. Up there, I really like stuff like that. Just like when I played the Looney Tunes, it has got the mechanical lock at the back. Isn't that fun? It's so cool. It's so 90s, you know. They should just include that in all their games. I can't wait. Beautiful. Yeah, I'm going to get this game, and then I can't wait for their next one, and then their next one, and then their next one. I don't know what they are. They haven't told me, but I'm excited for them. I'm excited to get our executive producer level Steve Velveteen here because he just got his TCM. Oh, nice. And he is – yeah, he actually wrote to us. You have to check it out. He wrote a lot of stuff. I know you wasn't home, but he – it seems like he's very happy with the game. So let's include him.
    31:13
    Yeah, and have him on the show and talk about TCM. Hell yeah, man. What I've taken – I can see you're taking something out. Yeah, I think my powder coat is done for – P-O-I-N-C, point coating. My patica's done for Metallica. I'm going to go pick it up.
    31:34
    No, you had the premium, right? Yeah, I got the premium. So I got the cab custom armor on the side with the skeleton horns cut into it. I got a cool skull cut into the hinges on the apron. And I'm just waiting for my cone door, my speaker panel, and the legs, and my shooter rod housing, and the whole thing will be done. And then I got to go ship it out soon. Okay. What a fucking game. That game is so good. The Metallica Remastered. You haven't played it yet?
    32:03
    I haven't. I only have the LE. I have the loser one for $2,000. Go buy a premium to sell, man, and open it up and play it because it's awesome. It's such a good game. It's so good. Or come to Expo, dude. You're coming to Expo, right?
    32:18
    I don't know, man. As I said a minute ago, we need to have the real Belvedere Steve in here. right yeah and then do the show next time so I hope I hope he has the time so let's let's do it that way buddy so yeah go out and pick up your stuff all right yeah I can see you're with your phone now I'll have to run here pretty soon oh yeah this was fun right 30 minutes all right there's your bonus show guys always man oh and you know I got secret info I heard about the Dungeons and Dragons topper do you want to hear about that Absolutely. It's going to be a mimic, right? You know that chest that's a monster that opens up? It's like a treasure chest. But when you go to get into it, it opens up, and it's a monster and tries to eat you. So the mimic, they wanted to put it in the game, but there wasn't room, so they just put it in a little flat plastic. That's one other thing they had to – they wanted to do it, but they wanted to save some money, so it's a flat plastic there on that left shot. So they decided they want to use it, so they're going to put it as the topper, and it's going to be motorized. It'll have a two-step motor on it so the chest can, like, open up and close and stuff. So that's awesome. Is it going to be full size or, like, Metallica topper? I don't know.
    33:35
    I hope it will be full size. I talked to Raymond Davidson, and he's like, look, it's got to be that size so that it fits the scope of what the marquee should be and all that stuff. And it looks better in person. And there actually was one at the Stern factory, but I didn't go look at it. It was tucked around the corner. But I haven't seen one in person. But, yeah, that was funny that we were talking about that.
    33:55
    I mean, the Metallica topper, it looks – I mean, the light show is very good on it. It should have had some plastic around it with, like, more lights and effects and, like, a graveyard or something. It looks really cheap and small. I'm sorry. It does. Wait till you see the Metallica one that I'm making. It's going to be awesome. Yeah.
    34:14
    Remember the T-shirt? WAP guys want T-shirt. All right. I'll order some mediums. I'll get it out to them. And then I was in a tournament. I didn't talk about that. You played a tournament? I played a tournament at Interium in Chicago. There was 105 people, and it was like a real pinball tournament with, like, top-level players. It's in Chicago. There were people in this tournament that designed the games that were in the tournament.
    34:42
    Yeah, Mark Seiden, who did Avatar, was playing in it. Raymond Davidson was in it, and a ton of cool people. I don't know. Some pinball guy won. I came in number 38 out of 105 of professional-level players. I played against Roger Sharp. He was in the tournament, and he was number 44, and I was number 38. So I'm just saying. You're a sick one, 2025. That was amazing. Actually, I went into an actual tournament, 105 people, really good players, and I finished in the top third almost. That's nuts. That's awesome. I just wanted to brag on myself there. Congratulations, buddy. Yeah, thanks, buddy. That's so cool. So are you hooked? Are you going to be a tournament player from now on? So that's the thing, dude. Look, it's me, right? Okay, if I start doing tournaments, I'm going to do every fucking tournament. I'm going to be in Japan. I'm going to be in Australia. I'm going to be in Europe for the French finals. I'm going to be all over the fucking place. And then I'm not going to have time for anything else. So I have to pick and choose what I'm going to do. Right now, I like mods, and I like these games. I like the podcast. I like this podcast. and I like traveling to go hang out. If I add tournaments to that, I'll have to quit my job. You also do Dawn's Customs. Oh, Jesus. Oh, my God. I might end up with a Dungeons & Dragons, actually, because somebody might order a custom from me.
    36:04
    I saw a post on Facebook where somebody wrote, sorry, I don't remember the name, but he wrote, when you get a premium Dungeons & Dragons and you think the game sucks, I want to buy it from you for $7. $7,500. No way. Yeah, not at that price, dude. We have to agree on a price beforehand before I put all the work in making it over. He said, you know, a buyer, when he buys it and he unboxes it, he doesn't like the game. He will just buy it from him for $7,500.
    36:33
    So he's prepared. I can feel the love. All right, my friend. Anything else? No, it's cool. It's cool. So, yeah. See you on episode 21. Hell yeah, dude. More to come, man. I can't wait to see what happens with American. in.
    36:47
    We love our Patreon people, man. Oh, yeah. You must be crazy. I'm gone. I'm not paying for that. You still awful? I call police. That was the rest of that fried rice video. Alright, later, man.