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Dungeons & Dragons Pro Pinball: Do Dragons Eat Balls?

Wild Dog Arcade·video·17m 40s·analyzed·May 11, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.019

TL;DR

D&D Pro gameplay stream reveals ball-trapping bug and WiFi issues during extended session.

Summary

Wild Dog Arcade streams gameplay of Dungeons & Dragons Pro pinball, encountering significant software and mechanical issues during extended play. A ball becomes mysteriously lodged behind the dragon mechanism, triggering erratic ball-search behavior and WiFi connectivity problems. The hosts discover the ball physically stuck in an unusual location and hypothesize about code bugs and mechanical design quirks.

Key Claims

  • Ball became wedged behind the dragon's ramp mechanism after multiball mode glitched

    high confidence · Wild Dog Arcade hosts discovered the ball visually stuck behind the dragon during physical inspection of the playfield

  • The gelatinous cube multiball mode has rules display clarity issues, with confusing on-screen instructions about shot requirements

    high confidence · Hosts expressed confusion about conflicting on-screen prompts for shot requirements during gelatinous cube multiball activation

  • Code version .89 is currently running on this D&D Pro unit

    high confidence · Host explicitly stated '.89 is the code right now' during service menu inspection

  • The game's ball-search routine continues even when a ball location is uncertain, not recognizing missing balls properly

    medium confidence · Hosts noted the machine kept searching for a ball that may have been lost, continuing the search even after reboot

  • WiFi connectivity issues stem from Stern's use of 2.4 GHz routers with poor range

    medium confidence · Host commentary suggests Sam Stern (speaker's reference) uses 2.4 GHz wifi that fails to reconnect if initial connection attempt fails

Notable Quotes

  • “It's behind the dragon! It's way in there.”

    Wild Dog Arcade host@ 12:32 — Discovery of the mysteriously stuck ball location that became the central focus of the gameplay session

  • “Maybe that's what it was. The dragon ate the ball.”

    Wild Dog Arcade host@ 11:36 — Humorous acknowledgment of the unusual ball-trapping phenomenon behind the dragon mechanism

  • “I don't remember ever reading that in the forums, but now we have video evidence of it. Dragon pooping pinballs. Exactly.”

    Wild Dog Arcade host@ 13:27 — Recognition that this mechanical failure mode may be undocumented in the community

  • “The trough doesn't look full.”

    Wild Dog Arcade host (co-host)@ 5:56 — Physical evidence that at least one ball was unaccounted for in the machine's ball storage

  • “I'm just not seeing where the ball is even. That's why I'm believing if we restart it, it will just forget that it's looking for it because it never was lost to begin with.”

    Wild Dog Arcade host@ 7:49 — Hypothesis about code behavior when ball-tracking becomes corrupted

Entities

Wild Dog ArcadeorganizationStern PinballcompanyDungeons & Dragons ProgameSam SternpersonGary SternpersonGelatinous CubegameTales from the CryptgameAC/DC Pro Vault EditiongameTwilight Zone

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Novel ball-trapping mechanics discovered during extended play; hosts intend to document and share findings with community via video

    high · Hosts stated intent to create video montage and document dragon ball-trapping phenomenon for YouTube; recognition that this is undocumented

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Gelatinous cube multiball mode has confusing on-screen rule text with contradictory shot instructions

    high · Hosts expressed explicit confusion about conflicting screen prompts; one prompt says 'hit teal shots to start' while another says shots are already qualified

  • ?

    product_concern: Scoop ball-return trajectory inconsistency; balls sometimes don't reach sufficient height to trigger gelatinous cube magnet capture

    medium · Host noted that inconsistent ball exit from scoop prevents proper cube magnet engagement

  • ?

    product_concern: Ball-trapping behind dragon mechanism represents undocumented mechanical failure mode; ball becomes physically inaccessible during normal gameplay

    high · Ball discovered wedged behind dragon ramp after multiball mode; hosts note this may be undocumented in community forums

  • ?

    technology_signal: WiFi connectivity using 2.4 GHz routers exhibits poor reconnection behavior; fails to retry connection if initial attempt fails

    medium · Host commentary suggests WiFi stops working after service menu reset and doesn't reconnect automatically

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.053

0:00
You got two balls locked into the cube. Okay, good. Now you get gelatinous cube multi-ball finally. If you hit one of the teal shots. My first one! Yay! A few moments later. Behind the dragon. It's behind the dragon! It's way in the... Exultive. No, wait, where? It's behind the dragon.
0:19
Great. Damn. There. So I'm kind of wanting to... We're about an hour and 20... An hour and 20 minutes in. Okay.
0:43
Oh, crap. I hit the wrong button. Oh, well. More practice. Here we go. I'm not doing that great. So, hey! Watch. Player 2 will end up being the one where I get iceborne. Cool, we'll go back to the abandoned farm and see what happens. What does the red box between the flippers indicate? Oh, the shield. That lets you know how long that shield... Well, first of all, it lets you know if you have a shield, and then second of all, it will tell you how long your shield will last until it is done and used up. And then there's varying amount of times when it will last. I think it will change the amount of how many seconds you have it as you progress through the game.
1:27
But, yeah, that's kind of the deal with that fire wing. No, the photon is a reference to Pat's joke. Oh, oh. It could have been a photon. I was thinking, like, photons and neutrons and stuff like that. Okay.
game
Medieval Madnessgame
Getawaygame
?

technology_signal: Ball-search routine fails to properly track/recover from lost balls; machine continues searching after ball is physically unrecoverable

medium · Machine displayed ball-search behavior even after ball was determined to be wedged; unclear if code recognizes the loss condition

1:45
Oh. Oh, this is it. There we go. That's my fire breather. Fire breather. Oh, no, it's doing it again.
1:56
What's doing it again? It doesn't catch it, the cube. If it did, but it might have been the way the ball came out of the scoop. Oh, you think that's all it is? If it comes out of the scoop inconsistent, it doesn't get high enough for the magnet to pull it in. Oh, okay.
2:11
Scoop to that, then. Oh, cool, I got up there finally. One stuck. Two more. Ooh. do it count it yes count now it's under the ramp damn it it'll come back down in a moment this happened in like Getaway a lot you go behind the ramp you have to wait for the ramp to release wait for it to fall asleep and unfortunately it's taking a long time to do so whereas Getaway would do it about you'd have to wait about 5-6 seconds sometimes and then it'll just let it up but here we go Oh, it's up there. Oh, now I get a double ball. Cool.
3:06
Oh, nice. Okay, what's happening? You got two balls locked in the cube. Okay, good. Now you get Jalanus Cube multi-ball. Oh, I do?
3:18
Okay, good. Good. If you hit one of the teal shots My first one! Yay! You haven't got it yet, you have to hit the teal shot I had it, he just showed it But it also said you have to hit the teal shots to start it What? Okay Well that seems weird, give me the chivo And then it's like I didn't do it That's like How you doing?
3:42
You mean to tell me that I don't have The slightest multi-ball? You have to knock the ball out You have to hit one of the other shots to qualify it. I have it because it says it on the screen. I am so confused, my friend. But in that screen, it also said hit the teal shot to start it, basically.
4:02
Okay. There was more information there. Too much. Too much information. Because now I'm sitting here with my... A mere scratch. Yeah, now they're fighting you and the balls.
4:16
It lost a ball. So if you remember I know what happened If you remember when it got stuck the first time under this ramp it let go of this ball and then it probably lost track of that one because I had two balls going at the same time at one point. Did the ball drain? Or is it up in there somewhere? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe it's up there, maybe it's not. I love it! The win codes! It's getting busted! These are casual.
4:56
I'm glad you're here. We're finding bugs already. Well, not already. It's about halfway through. We're about halfway through our stream tonight. I know, I broke it! I'm good at doing that. Oh, I know where it's at. Where? There's a diverter in the back.
5:14
It's under that. I think. It goes up. I think I'm ringing. I think it drained. I think it's just... It was just a board the whole game.
5:28
Alright. So make note of that, Stern. If you're watching. What the fuck was that? Oh, it's looking for a ball.
5:42
You might want to just restart the whole thing. It's just going to do it all over again. Well, let's see. I don't know. Is there a ball missing? That's the question.
5:52
Well, we'll find out after we start it. It does look like it. The trough doesn't look full. Oh, you think it's up there? I think it's somewhere. It jumped somewhere.
6:03
Somewhere out there some ball is stuck in the pen. Beneath the pale moonlight. Pale moonlight. I'm just trying to see if I could see the darn thing. You guys remember American Tail, right?
6:22
That's where he's been inspired by. The dragon ate the ball. You know what? Maybe that's what it was. Well, he did this. On the pro, he doesn't eat the ball. No, he doesn't.
6:35
It's weird that it's still doing the ball search, even if we're in... It knows there's a ball missing. Even if it's in demo. I don't remember that being a thing ever.
6:45
Shake it. Maybe. I might be a good idea I did Shake it, shake it, baby, baby, baby, come on I'm not quite sure as to what is going down But I found this funky thing here
7:07
The bottle is locked Now that we found love, what are we gonna do? I'm not making any sense. I'm just singing a song here, sorry. I'm going to go and look from a different perspective.
7:31
It's heavy D, man. Don't you listen to heavy D? I don't remember the lyrics, Tom. Okay. I've probably listened to that song many times.
7:43
I know. But you know what, Max? I didn't really achieve a whole heck of a lot. I was kind of having a difficult time. I'm just not seeing where the ball is even. That's why I'm believing if we restart it, it will just forget that it's looking for it because it never was lost to begin with. That's my hypothesis.
8:03
I'm pretty sure I saw two balls drain when all that went down because I saw one drain a while ago and then the other one drained. So we'll see.
8:14
Yeah. It's a little hard to shake it like a Polaroid picture. It's not as light. I'd have to be Thor to do that. Or Hulk. Excuse me. Probably would be a better match. Hey there, Tonda. How you doing? You got all the references? Woo! All right. yeah I'm I like a lot of rap from that era and New Jack Swing and all sorts of stuff It 90s man It hard not to right Mm Oh yes Max That is a good, accurate picture of us right now.
9:00
I'm not terribly frustrated. It's just more annoyance. I think Gary might be the one that's frustrated because he's been working on this thing.
9:11
For the Windows 98 game? Oh, it's still... What? It's still... It's still loading. It's still booted.
9:21
.89 is the code right now. In case you're playing at home. Close it. It's still going. Oh, there. Service menu.
9:33
There we go. Oh, we're still at the old menu. But we won't be at the old menu for very long. They're going to update that menu soon. Service menu. Oh, that doesn't... yeah let's hit start well of course it hasn't logged in yet oh okay I'd like to be oh okay there is a wall lost somewhere wow now it's time to let's find the ball like where's Waldo basically Yeah.
10:15
Max, to answer your question, no. I didn't know there was a Windows 98 game. I don't think we've ever lost a ball so much before. We had a Twilight Zone one where it wedged in that one weird spot. Oh, yeah? Yeah, we were like, where's the ball? It like wedged in behind something. Oh. Well, maybe that's what's happened here.
10:36
All right. The magical world of analog games. Hang on. Indoor voices. What? Oh, I'm going to pull the play field up. That's what I was going to do. Oh, okay.
11:04
I guess that is one way of figuring that out. What the actual... Expletive. Let's see. That's your captured ball. That's supposed to be there.
11:25
Nothing's in the cube. Nothing's in the orbit. I don't think it's in the... Maybe the dragon did eat the ball. No.
11:40
Watch out, it likes to snap. What the hell is going on? This is so bizarre. I just noticed the light out. This is out now.
11:54
I mean, it's supposed to be out. That one's also out too. It just doesn't turn on because it's a mood light. Yeah.
12:03
Oh, my goodness. This is a weird puzzle. It's like... You are not worthy. It's got a cover on it back here, so it shouldn't fly out the back. It can't be on the ground, on the bottom of the thing. Let me look down here, just in case.
12:24
I don't see anything in here. Oh, I found it. Where? So, where? It's behind the dragon. It's behind the dragon! It's way in there. It's this pooper. No, wait, where? It's behind the dragon. Yeah. Like I said, in his pooper. Well, if he poops out his neck... Oh, well, I mean, it's only a partial dragon, right? Yeah. Where in the back is it?
12:52
He dead-eated it then! How else would it get back there? Did it go in the mouth? No, it probably fell off his ramp. Oh. When it was all stuck. Oh, weird.
13:05
How would it get there like that, though? I'm going to go back and watch it. There it is again See when it was stuck up and one of the balls came around Oh you think it hit it and then it went down I think it hit the back of this because this was wedged up because there was a ball in there And then it hit it and bounced in Ah, okay.
13:24
Okay. All right, well, that's a new one. That is a new one. I don't remember ever reading that in the forums, but now we have video evidence of it.
13:33
Right, dragon pooping pinballs. Exactly, Firewing. Yeah, see, look how the ball is stuck in the ramp right now. Yeah. Because it's in the up position.
13:44
Huh. Weird, right? Until that ramp drops. So that's what happened originally. That's how it fell to begin with. Well, what happened was... Oh, then it came back around. I think there was a ball wedged under it, and the other one came... You hit it up and around, and it hit the plastic and then bounced backwards. Okay. And fell into where the driver is. I think that's what happened. Okay. Okay Now we know that's a possibility Exactly casual Wow Wish I could have clipped that Don't worry, I will go back and probably Do a video montage of it I kind of want to The next video that I put out on YouTube I kind of want to put it Keep it pinball related Dungeons and Dragons related Of course it's not logging in now Why is it not doing that? That's bizarre You're good at getting balls stuck in different ways. I'll bring this one up to you. I seem to be good at that, too.
14:41
It's always about what happens also, I've noticed, or whoever else is out there. If you hit a ball at a very high rate of speed and a weird angle, chances are you're going to find weird spots to get the ball stuck at. I have a good talent of doing that. Are you just going to restart it or what? Or we could just do it manually. Just sign in like this, right? I don't think it's even connected. the internet. That's Wi-Fi. Well, I'm in the menu right now. I won't do it.
15:16
Congrats on the free D&D premium feature. Yeah. Yeah, too bad the game didn't recognize it. It was mean. Yeah, the Wi-Fi is not. Should have been the Easter egg. Yeah, the Wi-Fi is not running since we reset it. Of course. I don't know why it does that sometimes Stern uses these 2.4 gigahertz things and they don't have very good range so it's just if it doesn't happen to catch it the first try it just gives up I guess we'll see every now and again we'll be on location as well and the machine won't be connected to the internet it's not of it's not like a thing where if it if I don't have a machine connected that means it's a deal-breaker but it is nice to have you know the features on insider connected all right hydrates stretch yeah it's a good time to do all that random record to and around the record thank you max for that some yeah we got some right there all right I remember the plan show to get the game run it first. We'll get that in a second.
16:31
No, now. Now. Just kidding. Alright. It's trying to find it, isn't it? I don't know what it's doing.
16:44
There it goes. It went? Finally it went. Hey you, your shoe's untied. Yep. Just start playing and see if you can log in later if you got a good game going. Your characters will be all reset, so... So once the dragon ate the ball, then all of a sudden Wi-Fi went haywire? Uh, yes. Now we're going to be savages? Yeah. And I'll play with Wi-Fi?
17:12
Is this my mantra? No, that's the Wi-Fi password. We're not savages. Yeah, yeah. What's this, my mantra?
17:21
It's the Wi-Fi password. We're not savages. We'll be right back.