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We are Pinball Episode 2 Who is your daddy and what does he do?

We Are Pinball (WAP)·podcast_episode·1h 16m·analyzed·Jun 8, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

WAP Episode 2: Community growth, Alice rumors, Jaws accessories, and Don's collection review.

Summary

We Are Pinball Episode 2 features Don and Genghis discussing their rapid community growth (133 Facebook members, 257 listeners in 5 days), upcoming pinball releases including Dutch Pinball's Alice in Wonderland exclusive, Stern accessories for Jaws, and Don's current pinball collection. They address distribution rumors, debate topper pricing strategies, and review Don's machines (Pulp Fiction, Lebowski, Jaws Premium, John Wick LE) with plans to keep or sell each title.

Key Claims

  • Dutch Pinball's Alice in Wonderland exclusive will be limited to ~450 units at ~$14,200, potentially with exclusive topper pushing price to $15,500

    medium confidence · Don speculating on production numbers and pricing for unreleased exclusive game based on market patterns

  • Jaws Premium topper will be priced at $9.99 (under $1,000, not $1,000+) and will feature static design similar to Godzilla topper rather than moving mechanics like Foo Fighters

    medium confidence · Genghis discussing expected Jaws accessory pricing and design based on price point and comparison to other Stern toppers

  • Mike Bernard (artist) is contracted with Stern and won't do art for Dutch Pinball Back to the Future to maintain focus on Stern relationship

    high confidence · Direct conversation with Mike Bernard reported by Don; confirmed artist has Facebook page with 80s-themed artwork

  • We Are Pinball Facebook group reached 133 members and podcast reached 257 listeners within 5-6 days of launching episode 1

    high confidence · Don and Genghis checking analytics in real-time during recording; transparent metrics sharing

  • Zach Minney (Flipping Out Pinball distributor) published three warehouse tour videos disproving dropship rumors

    high confidence · Don referencing specific recent video content showing warehouse, FedEx truck pickups, and game inventory

  • Central Chicago warehouse serves multiple distributors; distributor can access it locally to avoid $300+ shipping costs

    high confidence · Don describing personal experience visiting and picking up games from shared warehouse facility

  • John Wick LE has superior art (stained glass effect backglass) compared to all other recent Stern LEs Don has seen

    medium confidence · Don's subjective opinion after viewing John Wick LE in person and comparing to last 10 Stern releases

  • Iron Maiden must be Premium or LE because Pro version is 'too static' with limited ball lock mechanics

Notable Quotes

  • “all the positive pinball happiness is just welcome so it's so cool man”

    Don @ ~4:30 — Establishes We Are Pinball's community-first philosophy and inclusive approach to content

  • “the only thing that people have to complain about is the one part of it he had nothing to do with”

    Don @ ~9:30 — Defending Mike Bernard's Rush artwork choices on Jaws, suggesting design decisions were imposed on artist

  • “it's like entering the Ark of the Covenant storage facility”

    Don @ ~35:00 — Vivid description of central Chicago distributor warehouse; establishes scale and organized nature of distribution infrastructure

  • “i want to keep it around it's a really cool game it's different than everything else it doesn't play like modern stern”

    Don @ ~42:00 — Pulp Fiction positioned as unique outlier in modern Stern portfolio; plays like arcade rather than traditional pinball

  • “the stained glass effect they did with that back glass man it looks amazing”

    Don @ ~54:00 — John Wick LE backglass art praised as best-looking among recent Stern releases; visual design driving purchasing decision

  • “i can't own a iron maiden pro because it's just too static nothing happens need to be the premium le”

    Don @ ~57:00 — Pro tier design criticism; indicates Pro tier significantly limited compared to Premium/LE for Iron Maiden

  • “you own the topper”

    Genghis @ ~26:00 — Humorous moment about topper design requirements; implies custom back-glass hover shark concept too ambitious

  • “there's a very vocal but small amount of people that are hyping like this will be the greatest thing you have to get in on it or you're lost”

    Genghis @ ~19:00 — Commentary on exclusive game FOMO marketing and secondary market flipping behavior among subset of collectors

Entities

We Are Pinball (WAP)organizationDonpersonGenghispersonMike BernardpersonDutch PinballcompanyStern PinballcompanyZach MinneypersonElectric Playgroundorganization1UP Loungeorganization

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: 1UP Lounge Bellingham establishing pipeline to purchase Don's modded pinball machines after installation and customization

    high · Don mentions 'the 1UP Lounge in Bellington, Washington' purchased Jaws Premium and 'the crew out there, they like what I do to the games, and so they just kind of want to start a pipeline'

  • ?

    community_signal: We Are Pinball establishing Facebook group as community content hub beyond podcast, with members posting original pinball content and sales organically

    high · Hosts note 'people are coming onto the facebook page and just making their own posts...hey here's something i'm doing in pinball' and discussion of games/mods/sales

  • ?

    event_signal: Electric Playground hosting Dutch Pinball representative for live Monday stream discussing Alice in Wonderland game details

    high · Don mentions 'they're going to have um the dude on from dutch and they're going to be talking all about the game' happening 'this week'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Pulp Fiction designed as arcade-style fast-play game (opposite of modern Stern) with shorter game sessions and rapid replay loops encouraging multiple attempts

    medium · Don describes gameplay as 'you start it up you play the play is fast your games aren't terribly long playing' vs Jaws at '30 40 minutes'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Stern positioning Jaws topper as static/limited-feature design (similar to Godzilla) rather than moving/premium design (Foo Fighters level)

    medium · Genghis: 'it's probably going to be a lot more like the Godzilla topper than the Foo Fighter or Black Knight you know so there's not going to be a moving shark on it'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.229

0:00
all right now jing is remember now when we hit record and we start recording our mission 100 is to bring down kaneda take those twippies from him man okay are you ready wait what what we are pinball episode number two jing isn't done what's up from compton to copenhagen coming back into your ear holes what's up my dude oh this is so cool man welcome to WAP everybody, welcome to We Are Pinball episode 2. How are you my dear friend? It's all about love here, we don't care about other content people, we welcome all disparate views. We aren't out to come and get you, if you get your twippies you keep them buddy. Yes, absolutely, we don't have an agenda, we don't have no hate, we don't have nothing against no one, everybody can do all of the stuff they want to do, we're just here to enjoy pinball and have a good time right yeah i mean you gotta you gotta come at it from your own angle and everybody's already cornered the angle of vicious vitriol and attacks so we would just be we would just be posers if we were doing that so we'll show up just like ourselves and we're doing stupendous in the world of pinball absolutely man so there's no hate there's no agenda there's nothing we didn't sit down and say we want to do this to destroy others we got called some names this week and we're popular but we're not gonna say those names back no nothing like that the only thing for me and from don is we love everybody we don't have nothing against no one we just want peace love and pinball play right i mean i don't have time for anything else honestly you know i appreciate it i appreciate how people reach out like don are you good and i'm like dude i'm stupendous i'm down here in florida i just went to the pinball lounge for the first time i played that uh the nba head-to-head linked game for the first time fantastic everything's awesome right now and we got a slew of new games either announced about to be announced new accessories coming out there's so much to keep up with how do you even have time for drama so since since let's drop the drama for now since last episode one yeah a couple of days ago did we get the um metallica vault edition uh no not yet did we get the tron vault edition no no we didn't get a tron vault edition did we get godzilla vault almost and it's somewhere between 100 and zero percent confirmed but can i ask you a question godzilla we can't call that a vault it's not a vault vault is when stern goes into the vault years, years back and reproduces. Godzilla can't be a vault. Godzilla is just... It's still in production. Yeah. Third edition or something. Fourth edition. Something like... It's not a vault, right? It's anniversary art package is what it'll be. They won't sell this officially, but this is a new limited version, a new limited edition. It's just not going to be called that and probably not priced that, but more than a premium.

medium confidence · Don's personal opinion on game design; concerns about Pro version feature limitations vs. Premium/LE

Loser Kid Pinball Podcastorganization
Mad Pinballcompany
Alice in Wonderland (Dutch Pinball)game
Jaws (Stern)game
Pulp Fiction (Stern)game
Lebowski (Stern)game
John Wick LE (Stern)game
Iron Maidengame
Foo Fighters (Stern)game
Godzillagame
Metallica Vault Editiongame
Tron Vault Editiongame
Back to the Future (Dutch Pinball)game
Chicago warehouse consortiumorganization
Retro Djangoperson
Straight Down The Middleorganization
  • ?

    licensing_signal: Pulp Fiction pinball copyright strikes occurring on streams due to licensed movie soundtrack inclusion in game audio

    high · Don: 'it's a hard game to stream because you get copyright strikes because of the songs'

  • $

    market_signal: Exclusive limited production games (Alice at $15k) targeting small collector base willing to flip secondary market, not mass appeal

    medium · Genghis: 'i think there's a very vocal but small amount of people that are hyping like this will be the greatest thing...they're gonna try and flip them'

  • ?

    community_signal: Mike Bernard maintaining exclusive contract relationship with Stern, declining other manufacturer artwork to preserve Stern partnership

    high · Don reports Mike Bernard said 'he's contracted a worker for Stern and now he has got this bond with Stern and he doesn't want to jump up to around with the different companies'

  • $

    market_signal: Jaws Premium topper expected at $9.99 price point despite initial assumption of $1,000+ pricing

    medium · Genghis states 'the price is supposed to be $9.99 so just under $1,000' sarcastically, indicating significant gap between expected and actual pricing

  • ?

    announcement: Dutch Pinball officially released one-sheet concept art for Alice in Wonderland exclusive game with back-running Alice image

    high · Don states 'a couple of days ago it actually got what's it called official released by what are they called dutch dtx dutch pinball exclusive' with 'one seat concept art of alice's adventures in wonderland'

  • ?

    product_concern: Iron Maiden Pro version criticized as 'too static' with insufficient ball lock mechanics compared to Premium/LE; Pro tier design limitation concern

    medium · Don: 'i can't own a iron maiden pro because it's just too static nothing happens need to be the premium le'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Dropship distribution conspiracy theory debunked by Zach Minney's warehouse tour videos showing legitimate FedEx pickup and shipping operations

    high · Don confirms Zach 'shows all the game he has in his warehouse he shows which game that got sold he actually i mean he edits the camera so you can see the fedex truck coming in and picking up the games'

    • 3:12
    So we should call it the more beautiful LE edition or something. Are you okay? We just got a bomb sound. Is that okay? Oh, man. The fans are blowing us up already, man.
    3:24
    It's hot. What time is it? It's 5 o'clock in Denmark. How about you? 10 a.m. in Orlando, Florida, man. What the hell, yo? What's going on? Last time it was my microphone that was jamming. This time it's something at your place. It's crippling popularity is what it is. before we start on episode two let's share some numbers right so we a couple of days ago we made this facebook group and let's just go in and see after five six days how many people visitors a lot of visitors but official members of the facebook group by today is i thought it was four but it's 133 members on we are pinball facebook group that's so cool welcome everybody it's just i love it that is on the strength of exactly one episode and word of mouth and and a handwritten logo which has now been replaced by a professionally made one oh i love it man and we need to give some we need to give some more numbers and i think we should do this on every episode transparency yeah yeah just show everything and we can actually go into what's it called analytics and for podcasters and check how many lessons we had for the last five days and the magical number of today is 257 listeners that's crazy i swear it was just a couple days ago i happened to check in there it was like at 150 and i'm like where did all these people come from someone i think is awesome man that's amazing i thought there would be like four listeners i thought we should make 10 20 episodes before we hit these numbers and four listeners would be priceless but dang man yeah it's so cool but cool man and a lot a lot of interaction with the listeners they are enjoying what we're doing it's so cool i'm so thankful and we have been talking about this you're so happy so let's just go ahead and do number two yeah yeah well what's really been impressive is that people are coming onto the facebook page and just making their own posts like they have nothing to do with us just like hey here's something i'm doing in pinball and then people are talking about it which is great use for that page but we also made it clear because we are pinball the what page is we are pinball is not about this podcast only it's for everybody it's just to enjoy you know people are showing their game rooms people are you know they're welcome people are sharing their content if people want to sell their mods or games everything is welcome yeah yeah all the positive pinball happiness is just welcome so it's so cool man so since last i talked to mike mr bernard oh yeah the art on jaws from stern um into the art you're also yeah you're also member of his uh facebook group he made so cool art yeah he made rush but you know what i had a long talk with him you know people are angry about the rush drawings in the middle of the playfield, right?
    6:51
    Yeah, some people are angry about that, but that was actually not Mike's idea. That was, you know, something that got dumped on him. The only thing that people have to complain about is the one part of it he had nothing to do with. Yeah, but the rest is cool. I really like it. So I talked to Mike because for the last six months, I mean, if you look at his Facebook page, that's called Mike Bernard Art something. Do you remember his Facebook page name? Yeah, I think that's it. Yeah, okay. He draws a lot of 80s stuff, a lot of, you know, Goonies, a lot of Back to the Future. So I said to him, Mike, are you doing the art package on the upcoming Dutch Back to the Future? And he said, no. He has this. Oh, he's not doing it. You probably just can't say he is. Oh, you guys, you need to go in and check out. When he draws that card, that's DMC. What's it called? The Delirium card. Yeah. Oh, my God. It's so beautiful. And he mixes it up with Ghostbusters. It's so good, man. But he doesn't do the art. And he tells me that he's contracted a worker for Stern. and now he has got this bond with Stern and he doesn't want to jump up to around with the different companies. He just wants to concentrate with Stern for now and I fully understand it. Stern is the big daddy. I understand why he does it, but can you imagine? He does so much Goonies stuff too. Whoever's doing Goonies, man, needs to tap this guy. He just did a full portrait of Mama from Goonies, dude. It's amazing. He puts them on golf discs. He's got his own merch he sells. he sells prints i've got a whole list i gotta show you his 80s prints he gave me they're freaking amazing he did a back to the future logo for balls of steel pinball my boy sterling's tournament group in in uh in georgia um yeah dude this guy's nuts man yeah yeah but yeah he's not doing the art for the upcoming game it is what it is talking about dutch pinball yeah i made a video by i think it's about six months ago now oh it's getting dark can you see me yeah yeah i made a video by about six months ago telling about alice in wonderland a couple of days ago it actually got what's it called official released by what are they called dutch dtx dutch pinball exclusive i think is what the the x is for and then they released a one sheet one seat concept art of alice's adventures in wonderland change the name a little bit there okay and then and we get this just picture of alice from the back running away from us as if she just ran out of a hot topic i i love the vibe i think it's probably the most exciting uh kind of announcement we're waiting on is to see you know all the information about this game so yeah i'm excited about it so you want a picture on the back glass where alice is is running from the hot tub from the back that's the image that they released not that i would be upset with that if i'd be an alternate translate um but no this is an exclusive game i mean six months back it was like it should be 500 and it should cost 15 000 but you know how the people world is now i know exclusive i know for collectors only blah blah blah but 15 000 dollars will you buy it no i i there seems to be some contingent out there i think like you know how like when the water supply around the savannah gets really tight and all the predators come out and they're just fighting over little scraps i think the pinball flippers are eyeing this is like the only thing in the market that they could potentially flip for more money and so i think there's a very vocal but small amount of people that are hyping like this will be the greatest thing you have to get in on it or you're lost you know i'm gonna buy three of them and then they're gonna try and flip them i don't know so listening to you they should maybe produce 300 and sell them for a bit more than 15 000 i mean no i don't think i don't think that would be a good idea so i wouldn't be surprised if it's around 450 that are made and it costs around 14 200 or something um maybe they have an exclusive topper that comes with it that pushes the price to 15.5 and limited to 100 you know i don't know but um i'm interested i really want to see what this thing looks like because all i know is what was made out of craft paper that you know black and white photo and then i've seen some some concepts of the art and that's it you know what i don't know is how much of this game was already done and is being used or was this just kind of like some guy's crazy concept and had to completely be made you know kind of like magic girl was magic girl was a concept but it wasn't a game even now it's still not really a game you know you could shoot around and do stuff but there's not there's not code it doesn't make any sense you know it's beautifully illustrated but it had zombie yeti doing the art so of course it is right i mean the theme doesn't speak to me like at all i don't care about alice in wonderland but to be honest because of those rams are john papadook rams there's just something in me that wants to shoot those rams because i mean when i shoot his games rams like in totem and i love it man so i think it's a try before buy game because it's going to be expensive but do we have room in you know summer 2024 for having these exclusive games for about 15 000 you can see how well the ce version of elton john is but does it really sell for 15 000 today i'm not sure man i think really the main thing that's got going for it is this exclusivity and i think that's why it's coming out now and hasn't been made until now but like part of me is thinking is the reason this thing game was never really made is there some kind of fatal flaw with it you know is it just too half baked of an idea that doesn't work or maybe that's how it started and the dutch folks like really fleshed out the whole thing i think we're going to find out some more on monday on in before the lock the live stream that the electric playground does because they're going to have um the dude on from dutch and they're going to be talking all about the game so excited for that it's this week this week it's gonna be a pretty big release week yeah yeah yeah man yeah everybody go in and check it out it's called electric playground right yeah the electric playground they make the toppers that they made the uh that godzilla topper they got that awesome twilight zone topper where the pinball comes out of the clock around the front which is which is like amazing they just did their lebowski topper i've got to go install mine and so they do a weekly podcast on mondays it's a video and it's alive so you can interact with it and they talk all about mods and pinball and stumbler is on there all the time it's fun if you like mods and such and content yeah nice so more to come yeah the next thing i want to talk to you about now when you're talking about toppers is in a couple of days we will get accessories for jaws topper shooter rod stickers on the sides everything will be released so it's art blade shooter rod and the topper now the the art blades and the shooter rod we've seen before already because they came on the le um and now we got prices too 159 i think for the shooter rod just kind of a lot especially it's a barrel on a stick um but you know there it is you want the official one yeah that's cool yeah but we're going to see about the topper the price is supposed to be $9.99 so just under $1,000 which a lot easier to take than the Foo Fighter topper but tells me it's probably going to be a lot more like the Godzilla topper than the Foo Fighter or Black Knight you know so there's not going to be a moving shark on it is what I'm expecting so it's going to be something like the one from Jurassic Park maybe that cost what 500 so yeah if I was if I was designing this with my limited design ability. I'd probably just take the billboard from Amity and put that up as the topper and put a bunch of blinky lights behind it that flash and synchronize with the modes. And you could have some cool RGB blood washing over the sign. You could have some twinkling night effects when you're in the dark, night swim modes and things. So it could be fun. What the hell, dude? Donnie, that's not acceptable. I know. You own the topper. okay i should met my message alerts you did what nothing nothing okay the only topper that will be acceptable for jaws is a direct copy of the start of the movie back to the future 2 when he looks up at that billboard and they show up the cinema jaws 13 so this jaws head comes out and you know what we need something like that man some hover jaws we need something cool like that hologram coming out yeah hologram on your face man all right all right let's get on it yeah man i mean that would sell for 2000 i would think yeah the shark would still look fake though but yeah yeah i agree yeah yeah i mean if they can sell the other one for 2000 they did sell Foo Fighters for $2,000. They did sell them. They sold to somebody. So I can see that here. It sucked that the only topper that came out officially for Foo Fighters was $2,000. And then, you know, if you buy it, you're kind of like, I feel like I'm forced to and I'm not happy about it. And other people are just like, I'm just going to sit this out. What if they had two versions, right? An unlimited version that was like $750 to $1,000 that was, you know, nice blinky lights, interactive with the game, came with the extra modes or whatever. and then they make a run of 500 truly limited toppers that do a little bit more and then they can charge the higher price for that. So if you're a high-end collector, you're actually getting something that's limited. And for everybody else, there's something that gives you the modes and the interactivity without draining your bank account and costing a third of a Stern Pro. I think that would be a cool way to kind of address the market as I see it. What do you think about on some toppers you get to unlock some extra modes on the game? so yeah um yeah that's well so then the topper functions as not only an accessory but also like you're buying a software license for extra modes you know if they're gonna do that it really needs to come with a lot more than than what the rush topper came with the rush topper came with you know like like a bonus that would spin on the the topper and then award you something and that was the limits of it um the cool boss rush mode that was fun yeah um you know so is that a way of doing like like a hard copy dlc basically yeah i don't know if it's if it's right or wrong um if they weren't doing it does that mean they wouldn't have otherwise done that code i don't know i think i think for the collector that pays 2000 that person really deserves to get an extra mode that that's just how i feel so did you hear me say it sure would be a lot nicer if you got something extra yeah yeah did you hear me saying when you were talking maybe so i talked about it at the end of part one right yeah where where i asked you who is that guy i found out about it i researched okay i know so don was on a show with two guys they talked pinball of course And while Don was talking, one guy was saying, mm-hmm, in the background. And I just fell in love. I was out on my bike and I had my headset on and I could hear this deep bass mm And I just fell in love with it I know who it is You don remember man You made a show with these guys They called oh I so bad with names but it a show called Losers Pinball Losers Oh, Loser Kid. Loser Kids, it must be, because it was two guys. Yeah.
    19:23
    What are they called? Pinball Loser Kids? The Loser Kid Pinball Podcast, yeah. Oh, aren't there two guys there? there's two guys yeah it's called loser kit like one guy yeah yeah so okay yeah you made a show with the loser kit pinball podcast and one of those guys i don't know their names but it was just while you were talking that that show was awesome i loved it man we need something like that over here so while i'm talking you have to say i love it i love it fully recommended everybody go in and listen it's such a good show i enjoyed it man asmr yeah i should have an asmr button on here so just periodically i can hit it and we'll just get that in the background yeah just copy it then you can do that so another thing we talked about on episode one was i asked you do you believe there's a huge warehouse filled with pinball machines we touched on this object right yeah right so that plus on some of my shows on youtube retro django i was talking about uh we were talking about some distro selling like dropship sales where they had a warehouse in chicago and when people ordered they just shipped the games out from there that was out yeah yeah in the air and on the comments few guys said i just ordered a pinball machine and it got sent from some warehouse from chicago it was drop ship okay so that's out in the wild okay people are talking people are talking now Now, I'm going to share something with you guys. All right. Because I know the European model. We have to order these games and have them on our warehouse and ship them out to people. We can't do that dropship show. So, there's a cool guy. There's a distro called Zach Many.
    21:28
    So, for the last three days, he actually made three short business videos. to say to everybody this dropship thing is not a thing because he went in he opened the he showed the cameras to his own warehouse a zach from straight down the middle yeah pinball show out of flipping out that's it yeah so he goes in he shows his warehouse he shows all the game he has in his warehouse he shows which game that got sold he actually i mean he edits the camera so you can see the fedex truck coming in and picking up the games and delivering he shows everything so this rumor with dropship and blah blah blah zach showed three videos showing to everybody it's not that way he does the business. Have you seen those videos? So, yeah, so, so he operates, where he's got his own warehouse, he has things shipped local to him, and then he coordinates shipping, you know, through FedEx, through his corporate account, and, you know, he can do that. I've been in the warehouse in Chicago that is shared by a lot of other distributors, that it all comes out of a central warehouse in Chicago, but, so it's not drop ship directly from Stern to end consumer. What they'll do, at least in my knowledge, who I work with, the distributors will have their order sent really just across town to the warehouse or one of a couple of warehouses in Chicago. And then they get shipped out from there. So who runs that warehouse? Is it Stern that runs it? No, no. It's a shipping company that owns it. And then a bunch of the other distributors all belong to it. You walk into this place and it's like entering the Ark of the Covenant storage facility. It's just like I go there to pick up games because it's local to me. I can get my games quicker if I just go down to the warehouse and pick them up. And I could just ship it myself, avoid 300 bucks. But if you walk in there and it's like, here's a bunch of Fathom Mermaid editions. Here's a bunch of Cactus Canyons with the toppers. Here's a bunch of Redemption machines and just everything in this huge warehouse. It's like I want to go in there and just just rip boxes open and play everything. um you know so i know at least at least a consortium of distributors have all gone in and have their own warehouse in chicago that they ship from um you know but if you're a smaller person you know it doesn't make sense to have everything shipped to you pay for that and then pay to ship it out to a customer when it can just go directly you know from this warehouse but the volume that zach does and and where he lives in the country and warehouse space and everything i'm sure that works out you know pretty favorably for him um and it's nice he's from he's from indiana is that long way to Chicago? Southern Indiana. That's about a four and a half hour drive. I would, four and a half, five, depending on how fast you drive. Southern Illinois would be three and a half hours. He lives down by Holiday World, which is an awesome little theme park in Southern Indiana. Yeah, not exactly a giant metropolis. If U.S. distros has this option, why would I have anything on storage, man? Just drop ship from there then. I gotta imagine that most distributors sell almost exclusively Stern.
    24:46
    You know, some of the smaller pinball companies don't have a ton of distributors. So, you know, if you're distributing for multiple companies, then it may make sense to house everything locally and then you control that supply chain from yourself to the customer. So maybe he just likes having that control. I know I would. I mean, this exclusivity with Stern only, I'm not 100% sure how is it in the US, but here for example um we have a stern distro and that stern distro here in europe can only sell stern games he cannot sell jjp whatever but if you are a sub stern distro yeah then you will you know your margins will be half but then you can sell jjp american pimple whatever whatever whatever that's how it is over here i don't know how is it in the u.s because if your distro that's called mad pinball yeah does he sell other stuff than than stern yeah stern just jack american pinball um yeah then he's a sub distro he's not a stern distro he doesn't make as much money as a real stern distro no i'm pretty sure he deals directly with star i don't think they have that exclusivity out here where okay okay so it's different in the u.s then right right yeah okay okay so stern does it over here in europe they say if you want to sell stern exclusive stern so that's about everything i know about pinball distribution being not a distributor at all so yeah it's okay man so this is episode two yes we're gonna talk about who's your daddy and what does he do that means don for the last year you have bought so many pinball machines we're not going to talk about the games you have sold but we're going to talk about your current pinball setup all your games you have got in your basement right now we're going to go through them dissect them review them i'm going to say sell or keep them okay all right all right so let's just do you remember all the games Absolutely. I got them tattooed on my arm, yeah. Oh, that's nice. We're going to start with Pulp Fiction. Okay, yeah. How long time have you had it now? About, I don't know, four weeks. Oh, four weeks. Okay. Finally just got it. It took a year to get it from when I ordered it. Yeah, and it's not the Ellie.
    27:18
    Those don't exist yet, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So how is it holding up? Some people say that it gets old fast. What do you think? I don't think so. I think, you know, if it was the only game in your collection, maybe I could see some of that. But there's a lot going on in this game. We all know it shoots really well, and it's got a retro design. But the code is much deeper than a game that would have come out in the 90s. You know, so I'm starting to, and it may be because I'm not the world's greatest pinball player. So I haven't, you know, already completed the entire game, saw all the wizard modes. There's nothing else to discover, you know. But there's at least three different multiballs that I've gone into. and the game plays more like an arcade style game where you know you start it up you play the play is fast your games aren't terribly long playing and you can just you know hit start and play again you're like damn it i almost got those two multi balls i'm gonna push start and i'm gonna do it again you know whereas a game like jaws you play for 30 40 minutes and you're like okay i need a break right so um yeah so so bold fiction you know i i would i want to keep it around it's a really cool game it's different than everything else it doesn't play like modern stern does it's the coolest game in 2024 still it's such a cool game and when you start those songs from movie soundtrack it's a keeper sure it's a hard game to stream because you get copyright strikes because of the songs oh man i love i love the music so what do you think about the audio quality some people have said it was bad how do you feel when you play i think i think it sounds fine to me um you know i you know i don't know uh even when i put in pin woofers um i i get that the sound is better but it's not like you know life alteringly better but maybe i don't have the ear for that it's a cool game man okay that's a keeper let's jump to the next game what do we have next to it lebowski oh man talking about music old games man are you with the sound package too that extra thing you can add yeah who told you about that some guy on the internet from denmark yeah man how is that game holding up because you have had it for some time now yeah yeah uh second or third owner i think um and uh yeah it's it's playing fine you know any kind of new in box issues have been sorted and so i really haven't had any problems with it so no trouble nothing no no it's good you know it's another game that's kind of got that retro-ish style gameplay um but the theme is just so good and the music is so good with it's like an experience of a game to play and when you blow it up man it's fantastic and with the music package oh my god donnie that's a keeper still right still keepers still keepers yeah i need to put that the topper on top of that so yeah that's a cool game all right next game on the line all right so jaws premium jaws premium and new from stern all powder coated white looks better than an le oh man what a fun game too what a fun game um you actually really like that game you do really really like this game i i liked it from when i first started playing it when i first started hearing the clips i love to go swimming through bowling and women it's like it's it's got everything i'd want in jaws it's an adventure and experience it's it's great and it's are you doing something some something special for that game some special mods you're working on so i i built a topper um uh i made my own shooter rod i just copied the le and what other people were doing um and then the powder coat is really the special thing i did with that it had two tones so i did the white on the legs and the armor and then i did this Pacific blue illusion color for the coin door and the speaker panel. So it's got this two-tone thing setting it off. Oh, dude, it's gorgeous. Yeah. But unfortunately, you have already sold that game, right? It was sold before I got it, yeah. I promise you, yeah. The 1UP Lounge in Bellington, Washington. I'm going to be out there next month for the unboxing and unveiling. But, yeah, the crew out there, they like what I do to the games, and so they just kind of want to start a pipeline of when I'm done with them and they're all tricked out. they want to go and put them in their arcade so this will be the first one man yeah and you sold it to buy another game what was that that was uh john wick is coming in and which version it's the le come on it's the le it's not a premium it's the le this time i mean why not yeah you fell in love with that back glass art the the cabinet art god it's it's it's the best looking one i've seen and i've seen you know the last group of l i mean i've seen every le that stern's released the last 10 games either you know on location so i've seen them all in person and this one i think is the best looking one um it's it's the stained glass effect they did with that back glass man it looks amazing amazing i actually want to ask you about john wick yeah because you are one of them that has played all the versions all three i'm gonna ask you yeah i want to ask you because for me it feels like you're getting a lot of pinball for your money if you buy the pro version yeah that opening medallion is missing the car is not moving sideways but it jumps back and forward it's cool but you're missing that ball lock mechanics yeah yes and i can't own a iron maiden pro because it's just too static nothing happens need to be the premium le how is it if we only think about the ball lock le vs pro version is it how is it how is it let's just compare i mean every time you lock a ball physically in that game it's like oh i like that every time you hit the center ramp and it on the pro and it says ball one locked and it's like no it's not you liar it's coming back to my flipper like really fast so if you know it's the kind of thing that if you if you play the premium or le whenever you lock a ball you're going to be very glad that that's there and you're like yes i do like that uh when you get the multi-ball and the balls drop into that nightclub and bounce around like that's fun and it's a cool effect and you know it's not mind-blowing it's not you know the it's not the drake building on godzilla you know it's not a t-rex grabbing the ball and throwing it but like you'll miss it if it's not there yeah yeah all right i would say you know the premiums out on locations now i just played one here locally in florida um you know go play it and see what you think we love to talk about you know okay for this game is the pro better is a pro enough or do i need to get the premium and like some games yeah you do other games oh maybe you can get away with it maybe deadpool doesn't add a lot bond it definitely doesn't add a lot um this game i i want to see how the code is is integrated with that uh drop target as well that the premium has that the pro doesn't um because that's kind of what that does they actually explain what it did on a trailer i don't remember now but that drop target had a really cool function yeah i mean you know it functions as a drop target fine but you can also lock a ball behind it and then you can hit you can hit the target knocking the ball back but it does this other thing too where occasionally the drop target will drop the ball will roll forward then it pops back up throwing the ball backwards into the pop bumper that was cool i don't think they've shown that enough and i don't actually you with the drop target you can actually do a deadpool true ball multi-ball by lock in and then just getting a new ball and probably yeah yeah so cool effect yeah and there's a lot of code coming for this game they showed us a little bit at the factory of kind of some concepts that they're working on but i think this is a game that of course the code's going to help it um you know but i mean you know the market's totally different there where it was two years ago so you know is this you know i think this is a game you know a lot of people just play on location and we'll be fine with it um but either way i like what they're doing with the code with the insider connected with the contracts and so whether you're running to your basement or running the local arcade you know i think that's the wick's gonna be a fun game also what they're doing on the on the elite light show that's cool i mean come on if they integrate something with the lights on the topper also with flashers that blinks up there also with gunshots that's awesome man why not that was it for me i mean i was on the list to get a premium because i can i can powder coat i can put invisiglass in i could put a shaker motor in but you know when it came to okay the expression lights plus the the lights are in the cabinet as well or the back box too so it's like all right that's going to be eight hundred dollars seven 50 800 of an upgrade on top of the shaker motor on top of the invisiglass on top of everything else and i'm like i'm almost you know i'm pretty close to an le at this point yeah i understand man but congratulations with the le the le art package i mean usually i'm not an art guy but oh my god it looks it looks killer on this game man What they did with the foiling effect is really good on here as far as listening. Yeah. Everybody on the tour who saw it, all the people I know in the world that have seen an Ellie. Yeah. Yeah. We all thought the same thing. So go check one out. So when are you getting yours? It's sitting in Chicago right now waiting for me to go back and pick it up. Oh, come on. I know.
    36:56
    Early summer vacation hit right when it was ready to be picked up and I couldn't make both happen at the same time. So I'll have something to unbox when I get back. Yeah. Oh, you have something cool to look forward to. All right. Let's just jump over to the next game in the line. All right. Let's go Black Knight Sword of Rage Pro. The pro version. It's a pro 1.5 is what it is. Did you install the sword mod? No, I'm not putting that thing in my game. Get out of here. I'm going to keep it pristine. No, I don't like the sword mod. I know people dig it. um i think if i had a james bond i'd probably put that wire form mod on but i just i played one with the sword i didn't like it i like everything going to the right flipper some people wanted to stay as the designer intended the game so maybe you're one of those guys i don't know i put the ramp and rick and morty um i probably i put that vuck uh wire form in james bond if i had it have you seen that one yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean that looks cool changes the gameplay dude i'm totally fine with that. I put the roof mod on Godzilla so that the balls drop to the flipper and not straight down the middle for the multi-ball. But I don't know, man. I dig the concept behind the sword. What it is is that left vuck instead of sticking it in the wire form that returns to the right flipper it this this cool um you know laser cut sword rolls the ball straight down to the left flipper so balances the game a little bit better but i don't know i just i like i don't like it you know what i'll tell you what i did do i got a premium apron and i put it in my pro so it's oh i don't like the plastic apron in the pro it just that sucks i don't like it i don't want to look at it get it out of there so that that's a used game you got right yeah yeah i got a used one or how much if you want to share 5500 okay that's nice that's nice i mean they're not for sale that often yeah and this was before we knew they were being rerun you know and still even if i had a rerun version i wouldn't have it yet they haven't built them yet that's coming later uh later in the month you know so i've been having a heck of a time with black so black night yeah you had also been looking for it is it still a keeper yeah man that game's that game's rad what it does it does it great you know and you're complaining about what's in john wick look at what's in black knight there's even less but god it's fun it's the call outs in black knight come on better give me your money more coins more yeah and i'm telling you if you have played black knight 2000 for a month then you will enjoy your black knight three much much more because you will get the soundtrack i mean oh my you need to just find the location if you don't want to buy that game just find the location with a black knight 2000 put in 30 in it and just with high volume yeah just play that game the music will hype you up and then when you come home and play your pro oh my god it's so cool i love it man it's a cool game i love it it's a keeper all right all right next game uh tales from the crypt 12 from the crypt oh we got an old day to ace game yeah my first one god yeah i don't know how to work on these things at all man yeah i got the pinstown board working i had a nevram trip nevram chip pretty much working until it didn't then i had to pop it out um but man those boards scare me dude did you uh so you did you install to the news rom 4.0 yes yes that's in there so that works and what what pins on package did you install it's the pin sound plus or yeah but but but which audio package retro jingo retro jingo audio package oh yeah you can actually they're actually like 10 different audio There's a buzz book. Yeah. But, yeah, cool you installed mine so you're enjoying 80s music. Color DMT, 80s music, Tales from the Crypt, simple code. It's fun. It's so much fun, man. I know that you have a friend that really wants to buy that game from you. Yeah. So when you're done with it, it's sold. It's gone. Yeah, yeah. When do you think? Is it something you want to sell next week or? Oh, probably at the end of the summer. oh you want to keep it that long yeah well whenever he can make it to town again or i i drive out to his state i'll bring it okay okay because brad really wants that game really want and with as long as he's been helping me to pimp this thing out it's it's basically part his anyway so cool man i own that game also really really love it all right next in line i got a gottlieb wipe out i mean this guy has got like 150 200 000 pinball collection and rescued it from a basement all right um yeah this this is a game that belonged to a family and they had it for a decade and they're like we don't play it we we don't even know what this thing's worth and i'm like well here how about this and they're like okay so i took it out of the basement oh man how does it play it plays good all the mechanisms are working um you can tell that that it was owned by a family that lovingly played it and never took the glass off because there's the bolts that are missing that i'm replacing but all the mechanistically it's working okay so did you install new robot kit and all that no no not yet i need to dig into it and tighten everything down um and i need to replace the dmd because there's a lot of burn-in because you know it's been just on in a basement for 10 years yeah it is what this man is a 30 35 years old game so is it a keeper do you want to pimp it up how does it play or do you want to sell it i kind of want to make it shine i want to replace a lot of things that i this would be a fun project to really kind of refresh because the mechanisms all work um you know electronically everything's working and so i think if it just had like a nice beautification package maybe a hard top on the play field it would really look great oh does it have a lot of wear yeah there's wear yeah yeah is it where or or is it just you know residue from the rubber no no areas that the paint's missing um you know where the bulb drops saw out of the wire form on the left okay is it a wire form or plastic I think it's wire but yeah a couple spots by the pop bumper is just a lot of wear and so the art's kind of worn down okay that happens but usually now I know what you paid for this game usually if you clean it up install you know titan rubber and some elodys you can make money on it and yeah cheap a pink true dmd uh color display oh it would look great yeah yeah cost like 200 bucks or something 500 are you kidding me they're like 450 now not pin to dmd oh oh you're talking about the color dmd so pin to dmd doesn't have a package yet for wipeout oh okay if anybody knows the guy and can get him to throw it together i'll pick one up help don man help don we need the uh yeah the package for that game also because i put one in tails and it works great oh my god yeah uh it's on my to buy buy buy list for that game also yeah all right yeah so for now it's a keeper next game on the line what's that we got spooky corner i got uh texas chainsaw massacre i got looney tunes and i got scooby-doo ce wait wait wait wait guys this guy he visited spooky when they released Looney Tunes and Texas Chainsaw. And he couldn't decide which one to get. He really fell in love with Texas, and his lovely wife, Monica, fell in love with the other one, Looney Tunes. And they ended up buying both games. Yeah, I looked at her, and I'm like, I guess both? And she's like, yep. Oh, my God. Easy. Yeah. I mean, that's so cool. I love that story. We're going to talk about it 10 years from now. And I'm still not mad about it either because, like, it's fun to play one and then jump on the other one because they play so different. Oh, that's so cool, man. Different coding teams. So how are they holding up quality-wise first? Fine. I'm not having any problems with them. Oh, perfect. So which one is your favorite?
    45:22
    So I tell people I don't have to decide because I have both, so that's the easy way out. um i tcm really early on was my favorite i think i'm like swinging back towards looney tunes now but okay you know but then i play a couple of texas games i'm like no no this is the game it's so cool all right so both of them are keepers yeah you enjoy them i'm having a i'm having a problem because i've got all these bangers man it's so i i fully understand and next to them their old game which is called scooby-doo where are you the white body butter version from what i got and i'm telling you the butter about the butter i had to the art on the art on scooby-doo looks so great that if any game was to be buttered like that one for sure wow how was that holding up quality wise yes doing good i got it uh i got it weighted and balanced um i think i have to adjust the the right ball guide a little bit because it tends to send balls into the sling. I don't like that. I like them to come to the flipper when they're screaming around that orbit. But yeah, you know, it's a game, like I got the new games in, and so I wasn't playing Scooby-Doo as much. And then lately I've gone back to it and I'm like, dang it, this game's super fun, man. I can play as Fred. He's a pimp. Why not revisiting them? Johnny, you know, on part one, I had these microphone issues and we talked about, I should, you know, get the new mic. yeah i just got a message from the delivery guy he said that he knocked on my front door i didn't open so he's taking the microphone to the station so yeah next next episode it will be better audio quality but yeah yeah jenga's tones will be even better yeah so is it a keeper still oh yeah for sure yeah yeah because i don't if somebody made me an offer i can't think of what they could offer me that i would sell it it'd have to be astronomically big you know because i dig the game man i don't want to sell it that's it then just keep it man and you know you know uh spooky the thing i love about spooky they always just pop up a week before anyone else introduced their new game sales fills up the market and they they go and then they just go quiet and they just build their games they're building games yeah yeah so we don't hear nothing from them for now so i think i mean end of the year maybe they will come up with the next game yeah they tend to release around december january is when they announce and then they start building at the beginning of the year they send everybody in the factory home for christmas and then after new year's they open up and they're like all right let's get back to it and that's usually when they put the new game out yeah so sweet so yeah all right it's a keeper good next game on the line labyrinth labyrinth by barrels of fun took a chance on this one and put a deposit down and then uh yeah it was then at pinball expo man everybody was in love with that game yeah and now you have had it for since i was one of the first ones to get one so it's got to be like six eight months or so um okay yeah it's a long time man game's playing well game's playing well some of the shots are kind of tight um you know especially like the the wire forms and things so you know that's that's making me a better player i guess how about quality wise i've heard good things about barrels yeah yeah there hasn't been any any quality issues there's no you know flipper that dies you know there's no uh vuck that you have to replace the cliffy for um you There's no wire form that rejects that's having a problem. This was a game that was in development for a while and got fine-tuned by – they had a great team.
    49:13
    Bo and Karen's there too working on rules and talking about how to adjust layouts to make it just so. There's hidden magnets in there. There's hidden passages that are all controlled by drop targets. It's fun. It's a fun game. Cool. Atmospheric, yeah. Is it a keeper after eight months? if you get an offer on 10 000 will you sell it probably okay so i've had some people sniffing around that want them for their arcades i've been able to enjoy the crap out of it and my game room is full and something's got a budge that's what i'm talking about i know you're gameful you're filled up there and you're getting your uh john wiggins on the way and at this point at this point i don't care what comes out next like i i don't know where to put the dang thing I mean, next month, maybe we will get this vault we have been talking about. So you need to make room, man. So that's up on the list. So if anyone is interested, they can always reach out at wearepinball69gmail.com. That's our mail address. I didn't believe that wasn't taken.
    50:20
    Somebody took that mail address. Some trolls out there. So we need to add the 69. It is what it is. hate mail to wearepinball at gmail.com send your fan mail to wearepinball69 at gmail.com remember the 69 okay wearepinball69 at gmail.com all right so next game on the line five more to go uh elvira blood red kiss that's not for sale right i mean it's beautiful dude come on i i gotta at least have it until i can put a black and white monsters right next to it because i think That's a vault. If they do that, that's a vault. I love that game. And then I had a premium that was made over to look like the 40th anniversary edition. New capital graphics, new powder coat, everything. And I didn't want to sell it. And then a friend of mine just gave me an offer. And I'm like, okay, I'll only sell it if I can get this other one too. And I was able to nag one. So, yeah. So Elvira, House of Horrors is the only game I've owned twice now. get used to it okay you just missed the games and you want to rebuy them it is what it is man that's fine which game did you sell you sell like venom yeah i sold venom premium um that was made over to look awesome that went to any arcade uh yeah foo fighters went to a friend in town um yeah so so and then jaws is going out to the pacific northwest here pretty soon yeah okay that's not that's not a lot of games but yeah you you will rebuy some oh yeah i sold halloween i sold uh rush le i had um yeah don't you want to play rush sometimes that game's layout is cool man i played the hell out of rush when i had it so like i'm i mean i put like over a thousand plays on rush yeah so that game but yeah i really liked that game i really wanted it i got an le it was fantastic sold it and it's it was great experience um i had a rick and morty sold that too so i've sold games do you want to get a rick and morty again some at some point maybe yeah yeah i only i it was part of a trade deal for big lebowski that was the only reason was that an even trade you did there it was an even trade oh man that's a nice trade i'm telling yeah so that's a keeper next game on the line stranger things premium from the new run right yeah yeah yeah i've got a powder coated custom armor um the thing it plays great i got the the upgraded screen material i put on there so the projector really pops yeah yeah it's from stern or what no no so you can get high-end screen projector material And normally it's like $3,000 to get a full-size screen, but they sell samples that you can buy in your house, and they're only like $20 or something. So I bought some samples of that material, and I cut it out and stick it on the ramps. Oh. So does it remove – you know, the more expensive TVs you buy, the black will be black. Yeah. So when you watch it on Stranger Things, the black is gray, right? Yeah. Yeah, so it's got a black – this material does it get darker does it yeah oh yeah it's it's night and day man yeah yeah no it's fantastic even with lights overhead it looks so much better noticeable and so with the lights out it's perfect i've got to keep stranger things at least until i get the uv light kit i'm still on order for one yeah um and you and i know you you're you're pretty much in love with that pin so great great theme also yeah it's like my daughter's favorite pin too so I mean, I can't. Yeah, man. Oh, man. Yeah, it's a good – that's a keeper. All right. A lot of great games you got there. What do you get rid of? That's the problem. Yeah, I mean, I'm going to sell Stranger Things for Funhaus? Come on.
    54:13
    Usually the games you have owned for the longest time, usually they go out. But, yeah, let's take the next game. All right, that's the one I've owned the longest. That's my Godzilla Premium. you cannot sell that i've got a guy that's sending me a he recorded a video of his daughter saying please don we want this game and he sends it to me every day trying to break me down and i know you have modded out that game absolutely yeah i didn't i kind of didn't hold back with this one so if stumbler made it uh it's in there if leor made it it's in there um this is this is the goat i'm gonna make it look as i can does your friend know about the upcoming godzilla yeah yeah and i don't think he's interested he wants mine because it's the best godzilla premium that exists and that's so cool he wants it for a deal and so that's why it's not sold yet oh okay that's something else but you know maybe if the the new one new version, black and white version. I don't know what we should call it. People are selling their premiums for $8,500 with all the mods in them. So it's not like I got a lot of competitive advantage here. And that game is just for sale everywhere, Don. Yeah, yeah. But it's the best game, man. I love that game. The code of Godzilla. Shots and layout. Wow. Perfect. But maybe you will sell it if you get a great, great offer on We are pinball69gmail.com, right? It's not like I'm trying to get $14,000 for it. I mean, just, you know, fair market value is fine.
    55:56
    You know, it's just like you might give me a good offer, and it's like, but I think I want to keep it, you know. So, but I don't know, man. Something's got to break. I need some room. You need some room so you can't even take, you know, trade offers. Yeah, I know, right? Yeah. Yeah, you just need to sell, man. Yeah, it is what it is. all right next game star wars premium yeah you can sell that fuck no that's still a keeper every single time i get the hyperloop ramp i'm like let's go man i got it hooked up to the subwoofer so like it sounds like you're in the theater with a space battle going on and when you blow up the death star it doesn't happen very often because it's a tricky shot but Damn, that's rewarding. Have you had three balls in that Hyperloop at once? I've had two. I've had two, and I came close to getting a third one. But, dude, what? It feels like you have got installed the most powerful Shago motor. If you have three balls in there, it shakes the machine. Yeah, that's crazy what they did with that.
    57:00
    I mean, it's the best theme in the world, I know. But, oh, man. it's like no matter what you do when it's Star Wars people will be let down and you know what I know the code for the game the shots are hittable you know so it just it fun for me right you want to keep it still i do yeah god i got the le armor on it i got the light up panels behind it it lights up and looks like the star destroyer like you're on the bridge fuck dude i've got everything dark i've got the dark black empire powder coat on everything and you've got the topper man only 500 of those guys made honestly the topper doesn't impress me very much but it's like there's only 500 and it's so expensive and i'm like i happened to get one and it's like i mean a whole package man back in covid times people wanted like three thousand dollars for that topper i remember they were selling for 3500 is the highest i heard oh yeah was that the last game do we have anything else that's god no that's it man that's it i got all i got an ultra vp i got a virtual pinball cabinet we're not gonna talk about that don we will lose all the listeners yeah well all right you you guys you guys go ahead and lose i'm gonna go play big bang bar so they're talking about big bang bar remake they're talking about oh my god yeah before you did all this back in early early 2022 we got told, man, January 23 we will get Medieval Madness remakes and everybody was, whoa, so January 2023 we should get the Medieval Madness and here we are, summer 2024 rumors they will remake Medievals. That Royal Edition is still selling for $16,000. Still. Isn't that amazing? Even now, that's incredible.
    58:57
    So if you would have picked one of those up back in the day, geez man do you want to hear something yeah when they made those games before they was called royal they were like silver or gold edition so i was talking to i mean this is 10 years ago i was talking to this guy from planter pinball i think his name was rick or something i don't remember now so i should put in 500 bucks deposit to get the gold version that he should only make thousand of the gold with gold armor right 10 years ago so i sent him 500 bucks and a couple of days later i talked to him and he said he didn't receive the money and i was like what so i sent him 500 more and second time he said yes now i got the money and i was like yes and since then i haven't heard nothing from him oh this guy from yeah this guy from planetary pinball he still owns me a thousand dollars 10 years back what the heck i didn't get anything what is going on but that's not the thing man around same time i was talking to a guy called kevin kulek yeah he was making the predator game and i had direct line to him and i was talking he showed me more stuff than he shared on youtube and i was like you need to send the first game to me I'm a huge Arnold fan. And then he said, yeah, he wants, you know, 500 or 1,000 bucks for what's it called? Deposit. Deposit, yeah. And I was like, how much should the game cost? And he said, 5,000. And I said, you know what? I'm just going to send you 5,000. Here you go. Just send me the first game. Yeah. And then he disappeared. Oh, no.
    60:45
    Oh. But he got so many people's money. I mean, Donnie, that Kevin Kulik guy, I think he changed his name. I mean, oh, my God. It is what it is. So, yeah. So I don't care about the $1,000 I lost to Planetary Pinball, but Kevin's $5,000. I just want that Predator game.
    61:07
    Somebody make it. I'll have to make it myself for you, man. I feel terrible. Oh, I will send you the money ASAP. I'm only going to charge you $4,000. Just go ahead and send it to me now.
    61:19
    Just make sure I get the game, man. Just make sure. But, Donnie, when you and I are talking, now, this is my list. I just want to – let's just use two minutes on normal telephone call, you know. So when we talk over FaceTime, you have great basement. You have got a bar there. It's so cool. But you also have this basketball place in your home.
    61:49
    It's so cool. So when we are talking, your sweet daughter, she's, you know, making some hoops loose with the basket. Can you just install some pinball machines in there? Yeah, if I never want to use it as a basketball arena again. I mean, does your daughter play in there? Yeah, I play in there. Plus, okay, even if she didn't, if I had pinball machines in there, then the kids would play in there, and then all the glass would be busted. Yeah. Are you kidding? What does she want to be when she grows up? I don't know, like a TikTok influencer or whatever the hell these kids want to do now. Okay, because our kids are about the same age. My son, he wants to be an actor. now I have got about 200 family members here in Denmark yeah and for years I wanted to move to US and I was like man 200 family members I can't I can't leave and you know move to US and now my son he's so serious acting acting he wants to be an actor and he has planned when he's old enough he wants to you know take the plane to Hollywood and he can't move without me so maybe in five years uh my son and i will move to the u.s and i would love it so we were talking about he also researched everything with green card and everything and then he tells me that it's like denmark and u.s has got great ally cooperative stuff so when we have you know danish passports it's really easy for us to get you know green card and you know it's very very easy and he had planned everything done he was planning everything we can sell our house our pinball machines everything and you know but a lot of money just moved to the u.s he had planned all of this okay we're talking i'm enjoying his only 13 i'm enjoying this and i'm like sure buddy let's move to the u.s it's the land of people yeah i love it i love it i'm ready so last night we were looking at news and we were talking about how hard it is to come into the u.s we were looking at news from fox or cnn something yeah dude people are just hello i am from egypt they're just walking into the u.s through texas to all the all the states it was like yesterday there was like 4 000 people just walked in and my son was just he was just looking at me he said dad it's not Hard to go to the U.S. He just trespassed. What's going on, man? Yeah. How much time do you have? He looks crazy on the news.
    64:31
    It's hard to sort out because there's so much politics that are behind permanently exploitable underclass of people.
    64:40
    For us here in Europe, when we watch the interviews, some people were from Egypt, Vietnam, a lot of people from China. So many people from China. It was just crazy, thousands of people. And then there were a few police people that tried to stop these guys, but they were allowed to just walk in and just stay in the U.S. And then there were some guys, you know, private persons that just made a wall in Texas, and they were, you know, trying to say stop. It was not the police. It was just, you know, people like you and I tried to stop this. But on the news, it looks crazy for us. Do you want to know the truth about what's going on? Let me hear. All right. The United States needs these people coming into the country for sure. Our economy would collapse without them. These are the only people that do jobs that nobody else locally here would take, and we don't want to spend European prices for vegetables. But we don't want these people here legitimately. We want them here illegitimately. So at any second, some politicians whim can come through and they can just round up a bunch of people and just throw them out or whatever and claim that they're solving the problem while while essentially bringing people back in the back door to backfill those positions. OK, that's the reality, like apolitical of what's going on. The United States economy, particularly in the West, is based upon the backs of an exploitable underclass of people. Because if you're here doing the work, but you're not legitimate, then if your wages are stolen, if there's crime against you, you can't go and report it because you're not here legitimately. You'll get found out. So, you know, crime goes unreported. Discrimination goes unreported. Wage theft gets unreported. And it's by design. OK, and then they have just turn the camera on and enrage people and then they'll run down to the border and be a human wall and act like they're doing something without actually solving the problem. So those people have no. What about if they get sick insurance, doctor, dentist? Right. So so we have a law in the United States called EMTALA. It's the Emergency Management, Emergency Medicine Treatment and Labor Act. And that says that you can show up to any emergency room anywhere in the United States and get a medically screening exam done and life-saving care administered to you regardless of your ability to pay, which is the most expensive solution to public health. And so but we're so afraid of the word socialized health care, which would give us better outcomes for less pay that we just perpetuate this system where basically we're just dumping it all ultimately on the taxpayer to deal with because no politician wants to make the stand to actually solve problems. But these illegal people, can they go to the doctor then? Can they use that? Yeah, so this is so fun. I'm glad we're talking about this. Yeah, so you essentially, you're here, you're doing work, you're paying taxes because a lot of these folks have fake or they use somebody else's documentations to get the job. And so out of their payroll, they're paying into Social Security taxes, but they don't get any benefits. So they're taxation, they have no representation, they have no rights. They can drive a car, but not legally because a lot of places they can't get a driver's license. And because you can't get a driver's license, even if you wanted to, you can't pay for car insurance. So now you've got people that are participating in the economy that we need, but they're not legitimate. So they're on the roads. But then if you get into an accident, they're not insured. And they can't get insurance because we won't give them driver's licenses because you need a birth certificate to show that. And some communities and some progressive states have said, you know what, let's give driver's licenses to these people so they can become insured at least and we can track them. And then that becomes a political football and all this business. You know, it goes deep because we just we just watch this on the news. And because if we really want to solve this problem that, you know, OK, people are coming in and they're working these jobs and Americans can't get them. You just have to hold the employers accountable. But by and large, those employers are the biggest donors to local politicians. And so nobody actually wants to solve this problem. We just want to perpetuate it and dangle the carrot. that's the reality that you know people don't like to confront um but that's not you know the political version that's just what's happening you know stuff like this doesn't get shown on when we when we watch news we just watch everybody just walks into the u.s because you know there's war in ukraine yeah and and when u.s military wants to have tanks and blah blah blah to protect when they sail from US the country they go into or what's it called is Denmark we have great cooperation with the US so my son was like he had read about that oh man we have we're so close and we can really just comment in there but okay so it goes much more deeper than what the news is showing us but I'm just I'm thinking well do you have room for all those people it's it's crazy are you have you been to like western colorado or the state of wyoming we have so much room there's so much room and wherever you have higher immigrant populations you have much better food different cultural food man i mean i i grew up in in southern california in los angeles which at one point was mexico all right and then it became the united states and a lot of people that are there they didn't cross the border the border crossed them right oh so they're just like so we stay you know and so it's it's a whole complicated mess with a lot of moving parts to it and so you know anybody that comes out and has a simple solution to it is just posturing because it's it's so complicated so so interwoven into the economy um but yeah if you want to immigrate from denmark i don't think you're going to face much hurdles no i think we can just with Danish transport so we can just come in and yeah I will sell or or I think either I will sell everything I have or I will import so many pinball machines from here to the U.S. that I will destroy the pinball market in U.S. let's see what's gonna happen man can't wait till our kids grow up yeah man yeah I really enjoyed this episode too I had some other things I want to talk about pinball innovation yeah but let's check that out on episode three right three yeah let's do it i love it this time i will pick up my new mic and i hope the audio quality is much much better than last right yeah yeah and for my listeners i don't claim to know everything about politics and if you've got another you know input or viewpoint let me know i'd rather be correct about the situation than feel like my way is the only way, right?
    71:40
    So I hope that's a great political way to put it there. And where can they reach you at? Oh, we are pinballat69.com or Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. I do this other pinball podcast. I'm throwing up episodes all the time. We're on Facebook too as well. Y'all know where I'm at. You find me okay. Yeah, man, absolutely. But feedback, good or bad, let us know, dude. You totally disagree with us? I want to know about it. Every little bit helps me improve. So, yeah, bring it. I'm not afraid of your criticism. No way man, we have different opinions and this is something you are educating a guy from Europe that are just listening to what's going on on the news. I didn't think it was this deep. I just saw every day 4 to 8 thousand people just trespassing into the US and they're allowed to come in and stay. I'm like, what? What? It's not like that here in Denmark. We're like, no way. But here, when people come in, you know, in Denmark, we have so much. This is a social country. We help everybody. If you're sick, if you can't help, you will get everything paid.
    72:49
    What's it called? I think it's called solidarity. It's like we pay 50% of our income, but everybody can go to the dentist. Everybody can go to the doctor. If somebody gets a cancer or something, maximum one month they have to be treated under a month if they have cancer or something. We live like that. And when I come across these issues, I like to look at what the data shows. What are the outcomes? All right. And, you know, health outcomes in a country with socialized medicine is going to be better than it is here. You know, in America, if you've got money and resources, you're doing phenomenally well. Everybody else, you know, especially the working class, we end up getting, you know, kind of downtrodden on, you know. And so nobody wants to pay taxes. Number one. Number two, nobody wants the taxes they do pay to be misused and wasted. And I see a lot of that here, which makes me angry. Of course. If they just don't manage it the proper way, then of course people are – If you're going to tax me, I'm going to be upset. But if you're going to tax me and then waste it, then I'm really mad. But what would happen if a friend of you got cancer and he didn't work? He was unemployed. Or what about what if your child just had leukemia and needs cancer treatments and you can't afford to take time off work? What do you do? families. And you don't have work and you don't have no insurance. What happens to that child in the US? Good question. What happens? You must know it. Can you get help in any way? Yeah. I mean, you can show up to a hospital and get emergency care, but you're going to need longer term care. It's going to be harder. It depends on the state that you live in. If there's even, you know, if there's been funding placed into a Medicaid for children, you know, there's charity hospitals that exist in the U.S. that children and families can go to free of charge, but those are funded by donations.
    74:48
    St. Jude and Shriners Hospitals in the U.S. are those organizations. It's almost like MSF, but for children.
    74:56
    I'd like to live in a country where those places would not even be necessary. Exactly. Let's put those donor child hospitals out of business because there's no need for them. That's what I'd like to I'm telling you. Can we at least have health care for children?
    75:13
    Donnie, I'm telling you here in Denmark, it really works with full health care, free school, free education. It's just free. But, of course, we also pay 40%, 45% in tax. But everybody here has got great cheese.
    75:33
    You know what I mean, right? Everybody's okay. We're okay. I can agree. Yeah. You people are gorgeous. Jesus. Oh, the Danish girls. Oh my God. They don't get me in trouble. Yeah. Everybody go to Denmark. Let's go to Copenhagen. We'll go to Tivoli. Um, yeah. I'll show you what a real rollercoaster is like.
    75:54
    Yeah, man. All right, Donnie. Hit us with the ultra music, buddy. Hit it. Oh yeah. I'm just going to borrow mine. Cause that's the only button I had available. Email us at we are pin boss. six, nine at gmail.com. Talk to Cengiz. Talk to Don. Tell me why I'm wrong. And I want to get better. You're not wrong. It was educational. It was so good, man. See you on the next show, everybody. Bye. All right, later. Bye.