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Episode 58: The Goonies Pinball Leak Everyone Is Talking About!

The Flipside Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·53m 3s·analyzed·Apr 26, 2026
5d492984-b236-4522-b6a8-2bde5d405772
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Goonies leak confirmed in Beetlejuice code; discussion of Spooky's capacity, JJP's design philosophy, and connected pinball features.

Summary

Retro Ralph discusses the Goonies pinball machine leak discovered in Beetlejuice's source code, confirming long-standing rumors about Spooky Pinball's next title. He explores the implications of the Pin Access integration, compares design philosophies between manufacturers (particularly Jersey Jack vs. Stern), and analyzes Spooky's manufacturing constraints and market positioning as a boutique manufacturer.

Key Claims

  • A Goonies logo (Splash.png file) was discovered hidden in Beetlejuice's source code, stored in a Pin Access folder

    high confidence · Retro Ralph citing reporting by Kineticist, noting the discovery in a Pin Access folder tied to Chris Turner's work

  • Jack Winardi (Jersey Jack CEO) made comments at TPF comparing game design quality and implying Stern games have brick problems

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph paraphrasing Jack's TPF comments about brick shots and designer responsibility

  • Spooky Pinball typically manufactures around 1,000 units per game per year with current capacity constraints

    high confidence · Retro Ralph discussing Spooky's production pipeline and manufacturing limitations

  • Goonies is very likely the next Spooky game, though not officially confirmed

    high confidence · Retro Ralph citing the leaked file as confirmation after long-standing community rumors

  • Harry Potter shipped with more mature code upon release compared to some earlier Jersey Jack titles

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph discussing JJP's code maturity practices and historical issues with wizard modes

  • Fall of the Empire has high shot difficulty and rejection issues despite strong code from Ray Day

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph discussing the game's playability and his personal experience with shot difficulty

  • Stern's Insider Connected requires significant server infrastructure and developer resources, costing the company substantially

    high confidence · Retro Ralph explaining the economics of Insider Connected using AWS cloud infrastructure

  • Chris Turner (Pin Access developer) is open to licensing his technology to other manufacturers

    high confidence · Retro Ralph citing Turner's stated philosophy and past conversations at Pinball Expo

Notable Quotes

  • “If you go up to a game and you're just brick, brick, brick, brick, brick, then that designer didn't make a good game.”

    Jack Winardi (paraphrased by Retro Ralph) @ ~12:30 — Key criticism of Stern's design philosophy; JJP positioning itself as superior designer

  • “Steve's game could have been done two or three months ago. It would have been a good game. We don't want to make good games. We want to make great games.”

    Jack Winardi (paraphrased by Retro Ralph) @ ~13:00 — Reveals JJP's design philosophy prioritizing quality over speed-to-market

  • “If you're playing it on location, if you're playing this thing on location, no one's going to figure that out. They're going to go up to it. They're going to see the light blinking and they're going to hit it once and it's not going to do the thing and it's going to drain and they're going to be pissed.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~25:00 — Critiques Fall of the Empire's Jedi ball save complexity for location players

  • “I'm developing things that are innovative in pinball, and if I can make other companies better too and they want to license my technology, I'm very open to that.”

    Chris Turner (cited by Retro Ralph) @ ~40:00 — Explains Pin Access strategy and Turner's openness to partnerships

  • “Goonies is probably pretty well solidified at this point.”

    Retro Ralph @ ~52:00 — Confidence assessment of the rumor despite lack of official confirmation

Entities

Retro RalphpersonJack WinardipersonChris TurnerpersonMark RitchiepersonEric NierpersonRay DaypersonJohn Borgperson

Signals

  • ?

    leak_detection: Goonies logo (Splash.png) discovered in Beetlejuice source code within Pin Access folder, confirming long-running rumors about Spooky's next title

    high · Kineticist broke the discovery; file location in Pin Access folder suggests intentional development or marketing, though Retro Ralph speculates on whether it was Easter egg or accidental inclusion

  • ?

    announcement: Goonies strongly indicated as Spooky's next major release following Beetlejuice, though not officially confirmed by manufacturer

    high · Leaked source code file combined with months of community rumors; Retro Ralph notes 'Goonies is probably pretty well solidified at this point'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Jack Winardi/JJP publicly criticizing Stern's design philosophy regarding brick shots and player experience, positioning JJP as superior alternative

    medium · Paraphrased comments from TPF event about game quality and design responsibility; Retro Ralph notes Jack 'does take digs at Stern quite a bit'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky Pinball manufacturing capacity appears limited to ~1,000 units per year, constraining ability to expand production despite high demand

    high · Retro Ralph discussing Spooky's typical production runs and inability to manufacture multiple titles simultaneously without capacity investment

  • $

    market_signal: Spooky Pinball experiencing strong collector demand; games selling out; customers required to pre-order sight-unseen for Goonies despite no official confirmation

    high · Retro Ralph noting 'it's becoming damn near impossible to get their games unless you sign up for a list sight unseen' and discussing pre-order requirement for Goonies

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.159

0:00
You guys ready? We're to talk about a bunch of stuff today. All right, let's get this show going. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Flipside Podcast. I'm your host, Retro Ralph, and we're here to talk all about what's going on in this crazy hobby, the pinball community. All right, let's get it started. This is episode number 58, but before we do, a word from our sponsor, Flippin Out Pinball. If you're looking for a new pinball machine or a used pinball machine, go check out Zach at Flippin Out Pinball. All the information is in the video description.
1:10
And that's it. I'm going to let this song play for a little while because I just love this song, man. I get a lot of compliments on this song. It's just a cool... I changed it once. People got triggered. People at the bat were like, dude, what are you doing? What are you doing with the theme song, bro? Like your theme song is good. Keep your theme song. So it's going strong. I like it. It's just got a cool vibe to it.
1:32
All right. Let's get into it. OK, so right now. There's not as much going on right now, right? We're kind of between major releases and, you know, there's something I want to talk about a little bit. And I talked about it on my last on my last episode. This community moves fast. Now, I don't know if the people that are at home playing the games move as quickly as the media does. You know, the media always wants to grab on to the latest thing and talk about the latest thing. And we're going to do a little bit of that here. But.
2:04
You know, there's been a lot of games that came out recently, like people are still getting Beetlejuice is still getting Pokemon, still getting Winchester's Mystery Houses like these games are still going out. Right. They're still being built. So it sucks that we're literally on the cusp of the next Stern game coming out. We're going to talk a little bit about that. But I want to talk about some news that happened recently. But before we do, we need to, you know, we have to like rewind a little bit. There's there's like I said, all these games are kind of hitting the hitting the hitting the street. And so, you know, my hope is that we talk more about those as the code develops, as they get out into the wild a little bit more, Because it's fun to talk about the stuff that people are playing. It's also, I get it, it is also fun. It's exciting because we all love this hobby. Mainly, you know, it just keeps getting new and fresh and things keep coming out, which does keep it interesting. You know, if new games weren't coming out, I'm sure it would get stale after a while. But, you know, you get these games and a lot of them from most of the major manufacturers aren't really code complete or anywhere near code complete. So we have all this time once it actually gets into our game room or we play it on location to see it through its progression of code.
Kineticist
person
Zach Sharpeperson
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Spooky Pinballcompany
Stern Pinballcompany
Beetlejuicegame
Gooniesgame
Harry Pottergame
Evil Deadgame
Sonic the Hedgehoggame
Pokemongame
Fall of the Empiregame
Winchester's Mystery Housegame
Black Knight Sword of Ragegame
Pin Accessproduct
Insider Connectedproduct
The Flipside Pinball Podcastorganization
Pinball Mapproduct
  • ?

    rumor_hype: Pinball community highly excited about Goonies IP as Spooky's next title; strong thematic and gameplay expectations

    high · Retro Ralph noting 'everyone seems to be really excited about Goonies' and that it would be 'a no brainer' given Evil Dead and Beetlejuice precedent

  • ?

    technology_signal: Spooky Pinball potentially integrating Pin Access for online connectivity features on Goonies; suggests alternative to Stern's Insider Connected ecosystem

    high · Goonies logo file located in Pin Access folder; Retro Ralph discussing economics of licensing vs. building proprietary systems; Chris Turner's openness to partnerships

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Fall of the Empire criticized for high shot difficulty and rejection issues creating accessibility barrier for casual/location players despite strong code quality

    high · Retro Ralph detailed critique of shot consistency, rejection mechanics, and player experience; comparison to Beetlejuice's forgiving shot geometry

  • ?

    product_concern: Fall of the Empire's Jedi ball save mechanic overly complex for location players; requires spelling/timing knowledge; inferior to simpler magnet-based systems

    high · Retro Ralph proposing Beetlejuice-style magnet save as superior alternative; noting location players won't understand current system and will drain frustrated

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jersey Jack Pinball philosophy emphasizes design quality and polish over speed-to-market; willing to delay release to perfect gameplay and mechanics

    medium · Paraphrased Jack Winardi comment about making 'great games' not just 'good games'; Retro Ralph noting JJP backed by wealthy investors allowing this approach

  • ?

    code_update: Beetlejuice receiving new code updates with gameplay improvements post-launch; community continues to discover and learn rule mechanics

    high · Retro Ralph noting 'they've been making improvements in things' and discussing learning new rule mechanics like mode selection locks

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community sentiment shifting toward boutique manufacturers (Spooky, JJP) as offering superior design quality and player experience compared to Stern

    medium · Retro Ralph discussing Spooky's risk-taking, toy density, and design innovation; JJP's design philosophy; implicit contrast with Stern's compromises

    • 3:19
    You know, some of the boutiques are starting to ship it with a little bit more mature code. You know, they kind of do that. You know, JJP, I mean, if you think back at Harry Potter, the code on Harry Potter was pretty good even when it first came out. They tweaked a lot of things, but they did it pretty quickly. And I don't know JJP's deep history, but I do know there were times where people got frustrated that wizard modes weren't even – maybe some games didn't even have wizard modes or things like that. I did want to talk about – I'm jumping around a little bit, but I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about Jersey Jack. Because I feel like Elton John and Harry Potter, maybe even Avatar, were like their games where they came out and there was definitely some momentum building. I think Elton John built momentum and then Harry Potter built a ton of momentum. So people right now are very excited about Jersey Jack and what Jersey Jack is going to do next. And Steve Ritchie teased at TPF that it's going to be Sonic. I mean, he didn't say Sonic, but the rumor for a long time has been Sonic. And I think if it was if it turns out to not be Sonic, I think people will be like, what the heck? Because it's just there's enough evidence out there to kind of say that that's probably going to be Sonic. The thing is, I do feel like there's a little bit of an advantage right now that Jersey Jack has because the momentum is there. I mean, people really love Harry Potter. They love the game. It shoots so nice. Right. It's just one of those experiences that it just shoots beautifully. You know, there isn't a lot of bricking shots. It's just because everything is just sort of like the geometry is really nice. The the ramps are wide enough that, you know, you could you can have a little bit of margin of error and you're still going to hit the shot.
    5:07
    Jack said something really interesting at TPF. It's a little controversial, actually, but Jack does take digs at Stern quite a bit. And historically, I've gone back and watched a lot of his interviews he's done or whatever, and he does. He does these subtle jabs at Stern, and he didn't say Stern exactly, but he made this comment at TPF, and I'm paraphrasing, so it's not exactly how he said it. But it was something like, look, if you go up to a game and you're just brick, brick, brick, brick, brick, then that designer didn't make a good game. And he's like, and we make good games. And so it was a pretty bold thing to say. Steve's game could have been done two or three months ago. It would have been a good game. We don't want to make good games. We want to make great games. So he's tweaking things to make sure they shoot the right way, that ramps work, that when you shoot a ball, you don't get rejected. I mean, the ball should go up the ramp. Other pinball designers say, well, it's pinball. It don't happen all the time. You're going to get rejected on the ramp. It's not going to work. They make an excuse because they're bad designers. He's not a bad designer. And Mark's not a bad designer. And Eric's not a bad designer. They could be other places. Some pinball companies don't even have a designer. You know, when you play that game, you just brick out and shoot everything that's rubber and you don't get any points. We don't want to do that. We want to make something that's a memorable experience that's treasured forever.
    6:35
    And that's what we try to do. But I don't necessarily disagree with them. Like if you get up to a game and there is a process of finding shots, believe me, because when I got my Beetlejuice, this is every and any game really, though, for the most part. I mean, most games you do have to have some time on it. And that's why I try when I do these reviews. And if you go back and watch my Beetlejuice review, I was very like open and transparent about, yeah, I didn't really love it when I first had my first five or six games. It took me like 20 games to really figure out like, OK, especially that shot, if you have played Beetlejuice, the shot where you have to hit the Juno scoop in the back or even the left orbit for that matter. Those two take some practice. The left orbit orbit especially because that left orbit shot when you shoot it goes around the couch. But if you're not really paying attention or it's the first couple times you play, you may be holding that right – I'm sorry. You're holding your right flipper for too long, and it just goes down that scoop that's to the right of the Polaroid camera. And then you're like, what the heck? So it took me a little while to realize like I got to hit that shot and like let off that flipper really fast because then it will go around that around the couch. And you need to go around the couch or sofa, whatever you want to call it, because then you will qualify the lock to lock a ball in the couch. It's stuff like that. Right. So I really do try to give the benefit of the doubt when I play a game and try to really play it a lot before I make an assessment on is this a game I really like or do I feel like it shoots this way or that way? Because it does take a little while with pinball, especially to get into a groove on a game. Of course, that that that goes out the window when you're like an exceptional player. That's just amazing. Right. A player that's amazing can probably get on any game and it and just pick it up really fast. But I think for the most of us that are average to above average players, it's going to take some time. So it was an interesting comment that Jack made because I was like, hmm, that's kind of it's kind of rough that he has. Is he talking about a specific game? You know, because there are some games that came out more recently that had some controversy, right? I think Fall of the Empire, Fall of the Empire is kind of a shame to me in a way because I own it. I have it. I do like it. But I like it mainly because, and this isn't a rip on, I enjoy John Borg games. I really like, one of my favorite games is The Walking Dead. And I bought the remastered version of The Walking Dead. So it's not a knock on Borg, but Fall of the Empire, it's a miss for me. And it's a shame because the code is so damn good. Like, Ray Day did such a good job on the code, but there's things I'm never going to see in that game no matter how many times I play it. Because it's just hard for me. There's a lot of rejections. You're hitting posts instead of the shots. And even though I do find myself now when I play it really trying to massively control the ball and really try to avoid flailing, because if you start flailing in that game, it's just it's down the toilet. You're screwed. Like you're you're hitting you're hitting the pops on the right and left. It's chaotic. You're draining everywhere. But if I was going to say something really quick because I'm talking about that Jack comment because I don't know that he was talking about Fall of the Empire but it makes me think like maybe he was thinking about Fall of the Empire because that's a game that I think for John Borg being a seasoned designer it kind of bums me out because I feel like wow the code that Raid 8 put in that game is so good and it's a shame that the design isn't a little bit more forgiving so it would be a little bit more fun for everybody. So anyways, I know there are people that love the game. I do like the game. I just feel like, oh my gosh, it could have been amazing. Like it could have been amazing. So it's unfortunate. But when he made that comment, I was like, hmm, kind of sound me at my the game I instantly thought about was Fall of the Empire because I watch people play it. And I've gotten lucky in tournaments playing it where I just had some good games. I was really calculated about my shots. But then, you know, and I know Ray Day is going to kill me for this if he listens to this. And it's not his fault, I don't think. I don't think this was his. I don't know. I don't like how the Jedi ball save works. I feel like the Jedi ball save should just be simple. I don't want to spell Jedi. I don't want to do any of that. I don't want to spell letters. I don't want it to be like a pulse and a thing. No, I don't want that. Like it should have just been like how the pro works or how or how like the Magna save works on like Black Knight sort of rage. It should have just been like once it's enabled, screw all the Jedi's letters crap. It should have just been and maybe they can still change this. I don't know. Maybe they're so married to this idea of spelling Jedi and do all this stuff and a pulse versus whatever. I would be totally fine if maybe something qualifies it. And when I hit the button, the magnet's going to grab a hold of it and Yoda's going to grab it and then it tosses it back up. So if it worked exactly like the Beetlejuice ball save, the Beetlejuice magnet save, I think it would be more enjoyable to play it because the game is hard. So it's like the game's already hard and then figuring out how to use the magnet is hard. And I know I can guarantee you that Ray Day isn't going to message me after this and be like, you're just a moron and you can't figure it out. I think it's too hard. And I'll tell you why, too. If you're playing it on location, if you're playing this thing on location, no one's going to figure that out. They're going to go up to it. They're going to see the light blinking and they're going to they're going to hit it once and it's not going to do the thing and it's going to drain and they're going to be pissed. I just think that was a miss. It just was. But anyway, so when Jack made that comment, I was like, I feel like he said in my mind, at least for me, I immediately thought of Fall of the Empire. And it's kind of a shame. But look, hey, a pinball manufacturer can't have a win every time because now you look at Pokemon and Pokemon was is a great success, which we're going to talk about a little bit later, because I do think that there's so much interesting things going on with Pokemon. And I think people generalize comments sometimes and make it seem like that's how the whole community or everyone that's playing it feels. And it's misleading. I think sometimes I try to like look at what are people saying not only on social media, but also when I go to play on location, because not all location players only play on location. A lot of them do like a lot of them don't own machines at home, but a lot of them also own machines at home. So I feel like sometimes they people separate like tournament players from home players as if like there this line in the sand all the time And I think there a lot of crossover there at least in the local community where I play here in Phoenix Arizona I think there is So anyway, so we'll pivot back to news items for a minute. And I feel like this show is going to be a little sporadic all over the place only because the last couple weeks since my last show, there was like weird news. There was some news, but then also everyone's kind of waiting for the next couple round of games to come out. But the big story was really by the kineticist talking about that there was a file inside the source code for Beetlejuice that was hidden. I think it was called Splash.png, and that Splash.png file happened to be a Goonies logo. Now, when I saw this article, I was like, well, it's a little bit Captain Obvious because, I mean, everyone already knows it's Goonies. Like, it's very well out there. If it happens to be Gremlins instead of Goonies, I'll be shocked. I think everyone is pretty much, like, married to this idea that it's Goonies, and everyone seems to be really excited about Goonies. Now, maybe this is reinforcement of it being Goonies, right? But it makes me wonder, like, did – was this an Easter egg or was this an accident? Because I know, you know, when people are writing software, I could see sometimes someone making a mistake or working on two different lines of code and accidentally putting something in. So I don't know. It's like if it was if it was intentional, then it's kind of brilliant. But at the same time, I don't know. I'm not really opening up the code on my machines to look for Easter eggs. So I do wonder, like, who the heck? I don't know where the source of that was, but like, who does that? I don't know. I don't do that. I don't like I don't like mount the images of pinball machines and look for things. But I mean, it's kind of cool that someone did that. I just wonder, like, what were they doing that they did that, you know, or did someone tip them off that it's there?
    15:13
    I don't know, but it is. I mean, it's it's cool either way, because, of course, now if the community didn't believe.
    15:21
    The content creators that have all been saying this for a while, and I know I know NAPS reported it before, too, Then this definitely got them buzzing because now it's like a piece of evidence. Like why would a random Goonies logo be in the code for Beetlejuice? But it was interesting because it was tied to – it had something to do – like there was – oh, oh, I know why. Okay, this was the thing. So the folder it was in I think was called Pin Access. So I believe Pin Access is Chris Turner's sort of insider-connected thing he's working on. And so that kind of makes it even more interesting because it's like, well, now it's in a folder called Pin Access. So now you got somewhat of a confirmation or at least something that, okay, they wouldn't randomly put the Goonies thing in there. So it's like, all right, well, did they do it intentionally? Was it just a brilliant marketing thing? But then I think to myself, you know, I'm going a little bit all over because my brain gets all scrambled when I think about this because I'm like, well, what could it actually be? Was it a joke? Is it, you know, whatever? So to me, maybe what it really means is that they were playing with pin access. So maybe they're partnering with Turner to get some online connectivity going on going for for Goonies. And maybe there's lines of code that they were working on for Goonies for pin access or or maybe they were going to put pin access on Beetlejuice. And then they decided they didn't have time to do that. Maybe they will later. So I don't know. There's a couple of different scenarios that I can play out in my mind as to how this actually happened. But the pin access thing is interesting because then it gets you thinking about, well, the people, you know, because I think there are people that there's definitely camps of people that believe that, you know, insider connected is critical. Like, I have to have it. There are people that love, they get so mad when they hear that, you know, that noise that you hear when a game is not online, when a Stern game is not online. And I'm one of those people. I really like Insider Connected. I get so excited when I hear achievements. I love the app because the app tracks so many things. It tracks how many games I play. It tracks my top scores. It tracks my average scores. And I find that interesting because I'm always on a quest to get better. I know I'm never going to be this top-tier pinball player, but we all want to get better at the hobby.
    17:40
    It makes it more enjoyable as you progress through a game, and usually you have to get better to progress through a game. So I do think people really – the majority of people really enjoy what Insider Connected has brought to Pinball. So I can totally see why Spooky would go down this path with Pin Access. And I don't know. I've never really looked deeply into Pin Access, so I don't know what – I've never talked to Chris about it. So I don't know how – like what Chris's idea for Pin Access is, if he's going to do achievements and things like that too. But I could see if I'm a boutique, there's a lot of money that I'd have to spend to develop my own version of Insider Connected. So if Chris is well on his way and it's a matter of just spooky licensing that technology from them, I could totally see why someone would do that. Because people toss around that Insider Connected is this thing that Stern doesn't cost Stern money. It costs Stern a lot of money. You have to have software developers developing the badges, developing the achievements. If they do those special things like when they did – what was it called? It was like the pinball race thing, pinball cup. All those things take time for developers to code, and not only that, the other thing that people always forget, it's like there is server infrastructure that needs to be in place to make all this work. And I know Stern doesn't house these servers on site. They use Amazon AWS, as a lot of companies do. But those those resources cost a lot of money. Anybody that works in IT that has things in the cloud knows how expensive the cloud can get. So why I'm saying that is it makes sense to me that Spooky would look at, hey, if someone else is already developing it. And I know Chris has always been – Chris Turner has always been very open about licensing his board system or licensing any of the technology that he develops. And he says, look, I'm developing things that are innovative in pinball, and if I can make other companies better too and they want to license my technology, I'm very open to that. And he's been that way ever since the first time I talked to him at Pinball Expo years ago. So I like this more for less about the Goonies thing and more about the pin access thing, because I think the Goonies thing we already knew. I mean, props to Kinetisist for breaking it, but I think the pin access thing is the better story because it's like, hmm, what is Spooky doing? Like, what could we see some really cool connected capabilities with achievements and badges and things? Or maybe are they doing something completely different? Because if we think about the connected thing for a minute, even though Goonies is very exciting, if we think about the connected thing for a minute, I think it's still just scratching the surface as to what we could do with connected games. I've talked about this before on other podcasts early on when I first started the podcast. You know, I've always thought it would be cool if you could play head to head against someone that has the same game. Like your game would go dark and then their game would light up. And then if you had a camera, you could kind of see or I don't know, it would take some technology, you know, it would maybe take multiple cameras or things like that in a game. But how cool would it be if you could observe them playing while you're while you're while it's not your ball, like as if you were waiting and playing either in person or on location somewhere with a friend? I think that could be really, really neat. Now, now part of me gets conflicted about that, too, because I don't want that to kill location play because I love location play. And I do think it's interesting because some people try to draw lines in the sand between home players and like location players as if you can't do both of those things. I do both of those things. And a lot of people I know do both of those things. I love the social element of going out to an arcade and also my history with how much I have love and passion for arcade gaming and arcades in general. I want arcades to thrive. And, you know, there was a there was a portion of time before COVID where arcade bars were becoming gigantic and COVID did kill some of them, but it's flourishing again. And I want to see that continue to happen. I think the more people that can discover pinball through locations is great. And also, we can't just keep buying every game. It gets very expensive unless you just have endless resources when it comes to money. So location play should always have a place, I think. And it's cool when you can go on Pinball Map and no matter where you are, you can try to find pinball around you. I realize there are some pinball deserts where people don't have, you know, there's just no major city around them. So those people, it's unfortunate because they probably have to travel longer distances to play on location. But anybody that's near any big metro area, you'd be surprised how much pinball really is out there. So I never want connected to like kill locations. That definitely is not good. But I do think that you can have both. Like you can have cool connected machines and maybe you could even bridge. Like imagine if there is a way for through connected play for like locations to do tournaments against each other. Like I don't I've never seen anybody do that, like where the actual manufacturer's software connects to arcades together and you have arcade versus arcade. That would be really exciting because you can imagine people get really passionate about their players at their local arcade. They know who the best players are. And imagine doing tournaments across arcades like that would be so cool. I don't know of that ever existing unless it was like done via grassroots. But imagine if the software could enable that. I think I don't know. I don't know enough about Scorbit. I've always sort of stayed away from Scorbit because I felt like at my house, Scorbit would be very expensive to deploy. So but I know Scorbit's had a bit of a resurgence lately. So they're starting to do some things. But I know the main topic of this was Goonies. I am very excited about that. And I would say the unfortunate thing about what Spooky has become so popular from a boutique standpoint that it's becoming damn near impossible to get their games unless you sign up for a list sight unseen. Like right now, the way Spooky's trajectory is going, you have to be on a list for Goonies now or else you're probably not going to get Goonies. Now, they haven't confirmed Goonies, obviously, but I think that's it's pretty it's pretty certain that it is going to be Goonies. But the thing is, they've stuck to this 1,000 run, right? It's like 900 something is what Spooky typically does. And I think, I thought at least, Spooky's happy with that 1,000 game run because it allows them to do one game a year and then they can move on to the next one. But they have in the past done more than a thousand of certain games. So I guess it depends on what they feel like they how they want to be motivated on this next title. Like is do they feel like, hey, we're leaving money on the table? Like, why are we doing this? Let's do fifteen hundred. Let's do two thousand. But if they do that in their current manufacturing capacity, unless there's something going on that we don't know about, they're still only going to be able to do a thousand or at least in a year. Right. They can't manufacture more than that in a year. So that would mean that they would have to change their release cycles a little bit because I don't believe they have the capability to make probably two major releases on a line at the same time. I think that would be a struggle for them. And also, you know, let's be let's be honest here. There's cost if they want to expand. So if they want to expand and be able to have more manufacturing capability, they got to go. All right. You know, we do we want to like, you know, I guess I guess how I would say this is they've had two bangers in a row where they've been able to sell out both their games.
    25:28
    But that's not going to be forever, you know, like there's they're going to have something that they do at some point, but they don't they can't predict, although right now they kind of can. It seems like right now people are so into what they're doing that they've they have enough spooky super fans that those fans will just buy anything they make. And right now that thousand game mark is like the sweet spot. But there is risk in expanding because now you've got to you've got to spend capital and hope that the next game continues to be a hit like the ones before it. So it'll be interesting to see. But I with with a title like Goonies, there's there's no way like it's it's it's it's a no brainer. If Evil Dead and Beetlejuice are an example of what Spooky is going to continue to do, then I think if they continue to do that, their formula is working. And the things that I think people are excited about is they like that they putting more toys they taking more chances they taking more risks they doing things that maybe Stern or some of the other manufacturers can But if you look at the other boutiques they doing that too But you almost you know Jersey Jack kind of an interesting one because they have a very different philosophy and they backed by a lot of money So I think with Jersey Jack they and they very bold about it And I sure some of it is lip service I mean not lip service I shouldn say that but they say like oh we don care how much it costs to make Like we don we don build games like that We build them through passion And I do believe from working on the Harry Potter project, it's very obvious everyone over there is extremely passionate. But there is a limit. Like they don't want to lose money, right? So it's not like they're going to go, let's throw everything at it. We don't care what you call it. I mean there's a limit. There's a limit. But they are backed by – yeah, they're backed by some very wealthy people. So I think they look at it and go, what can we do to make it better? And if they need to make a sacrifice where they feel like the game won't be as impactful or as good, they're not going to make that sacrifice. They're going to go, let's put that in the game, you know, within reason, if they feel like they can still make the amount of money. But then Jersey Jack also, unlike Spooky, isn't limiting how many they're going to make of a game. So, yeah. So, anyways, so that was kind of the big news this week was that bit was the thing that Kineticist broke about the Goonies file. I think it's pretty cool. And, obviously, I was kind of looking around, and people are really excited, and they're talking about that. So, it's fun to speculate. But I think I don't know. I know nothing's confirmed. Right. So I can't sit here with with like 100 percent confidence and say that's the game. But I feel like Goonies is probably pretty well solidified at this point. You know, the other the other thing I'll say, since we're on Spooky, I think Beetlejuice continues to gain momentum. They added they they have some new code that dropped. I've been playing that. It's been it's been good. They've been, you know, making improvements in things. I got to learn how the one thing that I was like kind of not loving about the game was That was the way you change your modes. I guess there's a way to lock the mode. I have not figured that out yet. I need to I need to figure out like how you actually do that because that the dayo mode is not that's one I don't love. Actually, the funny thing is it was cool at first and I put in my video. Will this get old after a while? Like, will the dayo mode get old? Because it's like the game's playing for you. So. I think the first couple of times it works as like a gimmick, you know, it's kind of cool. You're like, oh, man, look at the pinball. I don't know, put it in the comments. Is that like something you like? I like it at first. I almost feel like I wish there was a way to... It'd be almost interesting if... I don't know how you'd implement it, but it'd be interesting if there was a way through as you complete modes, you could maybe disable it, right? Or maybe go, all right, I've progressed through the game. You know how they do the spooky tokens on Evil Dead? Maybe there's a way to, like, if you get so many spooky tokens, you can actually make the Deo mode not fight you or something like that. I don't know. I'm sure someone that's really creative with code could come up with something cool that would still make the Deo mode cool. Like, you still see it the first couple of times you play it, maybe. But then it, I don't know, it would scale back somehow.
    29:48
    That is a game, too, that's kind of interesting. Like, it's, you know, we talked about it on the last episode, but it's, there's some people that love it, some people that are lukewarm, and some people that don't like it at all. And that's like, every game is going to have that. But, you know, no game is ever universally loved. There's always something about a game that someone doesn't like. But I also think Spooky might make their games for a different audience sometimes. Like, I think their games are mostly home buyers. Like, it's for your house. So it's meant to give you that experience around that IP.
    30:24
    And when you're playing it, you do kind of notice they have less of a focus on the scoring aspects of the game. I think that's not really where they focus their time and effort. They focus their time and effort on this cool pinball experience that's very theme integrated with the music and the sound and the lighting and everything. Which makes sense because I think you see less spooky games on location. Although you're starting to see them more. I mean, Electric Bat has both Beetlejuice and Evil Dead on the floor, and they do really well. So we'll see. And also I think they've really done a good job of improving their quality over the years. So now they have a – if these games are working better on location, then you'll start to see more of them pop up. But I think historically, like I remember I did a video a really long time ago. It was a video series called Chasing Nostalgia, and we went to this guy David's – he has this like – at a warehouse location with all these arcade games, and he would service the pinball machines at Cobra Arcade Bar, and I remember him telling me like how much of a nightmare it was for him to keep Rick and Morty working at that location. He's like, oh, man, this game's fun and everyone likes it, but everyone loves it because it's Rick and Morty, but it's brutal to keep up. And I know there was other games that by Spooky they were hard. But I think those days are past them, and they seem to be really improving the quality. So Beetlejuice momentum continues to be out there. And the only one bummer is I think you lose a little bit of momentum in the sense that when a large portion of the community knows they can't buy it, they kind of move on. Like they're waiting for something that they know they can actually get. So good on you if you got one. Like I got one. I'm happy with it. I think, you know, that's the rub with Spooky is.
    32:14
    It's so popular and hot right now that if you weren't on the list and if you're not on the list for Goonies now, like you're probably not going to get it. So I don't know. Go go sign up for the next one. I don't know what the next game is from Spooky. I think there's been some there's been several rumors that it could be gremlins or something like that. But I don't I don't know. I haven't I don't feel as confident about those, but they have been brought up several times. So maybe that's it. So I was going to talk a little bit before we before we move on. I did want to talk about that. It's very interesting what's going on. And I know I know the spooky Goonies topic was the main one, but I did want to talk about Pokemon for a minute. So obviously people have been talking about this all over the place. When I go on location, people are enjoying it, but we're at a point where the code is what it is on a Stern game when it launches. It's usually what the technology field would call MVP, like Minimal Viable Product. It's enough to call it a game, and it has enough in it to be able to do some progression, have modes, maybe has a single wizard mode or a mini wizard mode in it. And that's kind of how most Stern games ship. And then, of course, it's a progression over time. But we're like 70 days in almost. I think we might be past 70 days in. And there has not been a single code update. And that's kind of a bummer because people have progressed through the game. Like everyone has seen the mini wizard mode for the most part. And now they're like, okay, I want more. I want achievements. And the thing is, what we're all hearing is that it's really the Pokemon company that's delaying them rolling this out. And I will say when I was out there for Media Day, they showed us the Pokedex inside, at least the early stages of the Pokedex inside, some of the achievements. Like they showed that the stuff is there. So I have no doubt that that code's been developed for a little while now. It's just they can't roll it out until they get approval. So that's kind of like the issue now is you work with some of these big license holders. And, you know, I got to think the Pokemon company, this is like a very, very small project to them where it's big to us because it's like, oh, my gosh, this IP. But it's probably really small when it comes to them and the amount of like money they're making per game. I don't know what it is, but you know what I mean? Like they gotta wait, which is unfortunate. So I feel like people are excited about the game. But the one thing that is interesting, there's this, it's almost like people that are hardcore pinball fans that usually like very intricate and more maybe complex layouts. It's like they don't feel like they should like this game. It's like, well, it's fun. That's the thing. I think it's a really fun game to play because it's forgiving. Like the shots are really forgiving. They're all right in front of you and they're all very makeable. And anybody with like a decent skill level in pinball feels pretty good when they play it. Like it just does. It feels good because the shots are satisfying. It's fast. The orbits are fast. Everything about it is it's really fun. So but it's funny how like I do feel like there are people that are almost frustrated that they like it. It's like, hey, you just like it like it's fine. Just know like it's a little bit of a different game. Yeah, sure. It's an easier layout, which was really smart when it came to Stern because Pokemon is going to bring people into the hobby. And I think it has done that. And I don't know why it's something that we can't just enjoy, like just enjoy it. Like, it's okay. Like, it's okay to like it. I like it. I didn't think I would either. That's the thing. Like, I was thinking I'm not going to buy it. I told everybody that I wasn't going to buy it. And then I ended up getting it. And I'm really enjoying it. But I'm also at that road now where I want more out of it. Because it's very rare to get a new game and feel like I kind of blew through all of it because usually games are more difficult than this game. And I don't want you to think this game is so easy, but it is easier for someone that with a moderate to like a moderate skill level. You're going to get a lot further probably than you would in like Fall of the Empire. You know what I mean? So I don't know. I think they did a good job. It is interesting, though, that there's like this.
    36:35
    I don't know, like this almost this like I don't want to like it because it's like because other people have called it maybe a baby game or something like that. But I think it's I think it's really good. Same with Beetlejuice. They're both really fun games, but obviously both very different games, you know, very, very different games. Like you're going to have a learning curve for Beetlejuice and Beetlejuice plays longer. It's like a longer player. There's a lot more ball saves that they put a lot of ball saves into Beetlejuice. So there's it's forgiving in that way. The shots are probably harder, but they've made it more forgiving on the ball saves. And then the magnet save works really good. And like almost 99% of the time. So it's cool to know that that's there. So but but again, I think they made it for the home player. So, of course, they'd want you to have longer games. You're playing it at your house, you know, so I don't know. But operators operators seem to like both these games because they're both making good money for them. At least the ones around here. You know, I know I know Beetlejuice and Pokemon are making a lot of money for that for people on location, which is great. But I think maybe hardcore players might find that there's a lot more to chew on in Beetlejuice right now and maybe there's a bit more of a learning curve so they're enjoying that more. I don't know. It's interesting. It's interesting. I'm not seeing the debate on like one's better than the other. I don't think that's really where people are talking. I think people are both enjoying this game equally. But obviously with Pokemon being made more for, you know, this maybe making it more beginner friendly is maybe the reason why there's like a little bit of separation. But I think it is funny when I see people being like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I like this. It's like, just like it. Like, it's fine. You're not going to like, you don't have to have, like, not every game needs to be Black Knight sort of raging, like kick you in the balls all the time. Like maybe it's just fun to have a game that you can jump on and just feel like I'm just ripping shots and having a great time, you know, and then and then you and then you have those games in your collection, like Fall of the Empire or Black Knight or something like that, where it's way more of a challenge and you're feeling. But but keep in mind, they may make Pokemon more challenging through code later. And there's other things in it that make it a little bit more challenging. Like when you get certain Pokemon that you catch, it's more shots to actually catch him, catch him. So I'm interested to see what they do there. I'm also very interested to see what they do with Beetlejuice because Spooky, they did a really good job. Evil Dead, I mean, they knocked it out of the frigging park. I still think that Evil Dead is the better of the two games right now, the way they exist right now, but it's kind of an unfair thing because I'm comparing a code complete game to a game that probably has a lot more code yet to be put into it. But right now, the way I see it, Evil Dead is easily the better game right now. But both very fun games. So we'll see. I'm sure I'm excited because I do own Beetlejuice to see where they go with it. I'll obviously stream it as they make code updates. So we'll have more time on the channel talking about Beetlejuice for sure. And the thing is, a lot of people don't have their Beetlejuices yet. So it be fun to show it off more and enjoy it as the second round of people get their game right Because they be making them all the way through probably December So anyways so that was kind of let see I had a couple of things other things I wanted to talk about but I think that was kind of it
    40:01
    Yeah, I didn't really, you know, I kind of thought it'd be fun to just do a short episode because it just wasn't a whole lot of news. But, you know, this is still a 40 minute, believe it or not, we've talked for 40 minutes. So maybe we'll end it here. You know, maybe we'll end it here. I'm excited to see, you know, what's coming. There's obviously we're probably very much on the cusp of Transformers. I think it's going to come sooner than we think. Like, I think we're going to be seeing Transformers. I'm trying to look at the date right now.
    40:29
    I think we're going to see it before May is over. So, which that's crazy because it just seems like everyone's getting their Pokemons now and they're still rolling out there. And then we're going to have Transformers. I keep hearing all this noise about Transformers like, oh, my gosh, it's going to be so good. But it's like I don't know where the source of this is. Like, I have no idea who's saying this stuff, because most of the time, at least from my perspective, I'm not I don't know. I'm not I'm not asking people really either. Like, I know enough then to ask. I'm not going to ask Zach Sharpe. He's not going to tell me anything. And most of my friends I have at Stern are not going to tell me anything. They have they they're not. And rightfully so. Right. Why would they? They're not going to spoil, spoil the news or spoil the excitement, which I actually like because I do like the excitement of what's coming and we all kind of learn it together. But I hope that I can make the media day for it because the things I am hearing is like that. It's it's really good. Like I keep hearing it's really good. It's really good. Oh, my gosh. Wait till everyone sees this thing. You know, I'm hearing that like no real details. As to why it's really good, but just wait till you guys see it. Like there's a lot of that. But again, I don't know who the source of that is. You know, it's just more of this someone somewhere in Stern is talking to someone outside of Stern and that stuff is creeping in to maybe some other media outlets or whatever. And it's being repeated. But I don't know who the source is. So I can't say whether or not that's legitimate or that someone's completely making it up. But let's just let's just assume they're not making it up. The thing that keeps on being repeated is, oh my gosh, this is going to be amazing, this is going to be amazing. And the only thing I have heard, and this does kind of make sense, Elliot Eisman was a mechanical engineer. He's the one that did the design on John Wick. He is doing the design on Transformers. I don't know how much time he had to design John Wick, but he's a mechanical engineer, so he knows how to make mechs. And the one thing that is constant I keep hearing is, oh my gosh, there's some really cool mechs and some things that are really interesting in this game. So that's exciting. That's exciting. And I don't know what they're going to do. There's a lot of angles you could do. And obviously they made a Transformers before, but that was more based on the movies. It wasn't based on G1. It wasn't based on the Generation 1 cartoons. So there's obviously a ton of content there that they can use.
    42:53
    So I'm excited because I grew up with Transformers. I think a lot of us did, so it's exciting. The one thing I will close off on though, I'm in this weird position now where as I've gotten so deep into this hobby, I think about what I might want. Like what do I want? Like what games would I like to see these manufacturers make? And I can't help but live in this weird split place right now where I do like the idea of some of these outlier interesting things because D&D was really cool. I don't think D&D gets enough credit. That was pretty awesome what they did with D&D. You know, and it's like it's weird to me because people talk about, you know, like.
    43:34
    Games being interesting through code, but talk about a game that they really made interesting through code. Now, I'm not a big D&D. I didn't grow up playing D&D. I never played D&D. So but when I talk to people when I'm when I'm like on location somewhere and they're D&D fans, they get super giddy for D&D because all the the whole universe, all the things in D&D, not all, but a lot of them are there. And so they get really excited about that. And I recently played D&D because I had it in a tournament and I got first place in it, which is great. But I was looking at the code and I was like, man, they did make some changes and I liked it. So, yeah. So, I don't know. We'll see. I don't know what point I was trying to make there. What was I trying to say? See, I'm losing track. I'm losing my thought process. But anyways, it's my birthday tomorrow. I'm really excited about that. Rudy and I are going to do a live stream. Kim and I today for my birthday went to go see the Phoenix Suns game. They're in the playoffs right now. They're down 3-0. But it was still fun to go. Like, I enjoy going to live sporting events. I'm not as much of a basketball fan. I grew up as a major basketball fan, but as I kind of got older, I kind of just watch NFL and that's kind of it. That's my sport that I enjoy watching. So Kim and I on a Sunday and a Monday and a Thursday during football season, we are glued to that TV. We don't miss games. We just love football. We do the whole Sunday ticket thing. We do everything. We want to make sure that we get frustrated because if a local market isn't playing a game we want to see, we're all about the Sunday ticket thing. So anyways, so we were at the basketball game. I was like I was talking to her. I'm like, man, I cannot wait for football season, even though it's like, what, four months away before we get into like the preseason games. So there's a long time, but we get really excited here for football. So but but I did have a we had a blast at the at the basketball game. And unfortunately, it doesn't look like the Phoenix Suns are going to win this series because they're down three zero. And I'm pretty sure, statistically speaking, there's not a lot of teams that come back from a three zero deficit. But I'll still watch the game on Monday. I'll still watch it and see how it goes. But yeah, that's all that I got. So there wasn't a lot going on, but I did think it was interesting enough what was going on with that Goonies news to talk about it. And man, Goonies would be one of those games that I would really like to see. But back to my one thought before I wrap up. I was trying to say, like I hear people talking about, oh, Dungeon Crawler Carl could be a game. And there are a lot of people that discovered it through that rumor and they're listening to the audio and reading the books and they seem to be really excited about that.
    46:15
    And there's a part of me that really likes this idea to do some modern themes too, you know, versus everything being nostalgia. I like nostalgia. Believe me, I had a whole series called Chasing Nostalgia. I love arcade games. Shit, I played the same arcade games for like 30 years all the time through a big span of my life. So I love nostalgia. I went back, I play all the console games. I still do it from time to time. I just don't happen to own all the systems. I kind of do it all on a mister. I love all that. But there's a time there becomes a time where you're like, I kind of want to see something new, like show me something new. And so. But I don't blame the companies from continuing to go down the nostalgia path because nostalgia sells, but you have to pick the right nostalgic properties. Right. And it bums me out that I'm a big John Wick fan. I like the game, but it's I still feel like it has mixed reactions or there's mixed feelings about that game in the community in general. But I feel like the people that have discovered how good of a shooter it can be when it's when it's properly set up really love it. You know, so we'll see what we'll see what maybe we see. I think this year is more than a nostalgia year. Right. With J.J.P., you know, the rumored Sonic the Hedgehog, obviously nostalgia. I'm super pumped for that. Fallout, though, that's going to be based on we think if that's the Elwin game, that's going to be based on the television series. I haven't watched it. So it will be interesting to see how that does, because that technically would be new. It's really not. It's not based on the video game. And I don't know. I'm not old enough to call that like nostalgia. I don't know. When did that game come out? Maybe it is. Maybe someone is nostalgic for the video game. I don't know. But. Yeah, so we'll see. Like I. But what do you guys as a question to you? So would you prefer continued nostalgia stuff or let's start scratching the surface at some of these newer properties, things that we watched and enjoyed? Because I mean, think about it. Stranger Things was a big hit and that wasn't a nostalgia thing. So which I do think that, holy shit, if they did more Stranger Things, like one based on the newer, like a redesigned Stranger Things based on the later half, like the series. I don't know how they would do it because I think the pinball machine was what? Was that seasons like one through three? Maybe. I can't remember which seasons, how far, how far it went. Didn't go that far, really. But imagine that because I think that game came out like 2019 or something or even it was either 2019 or 2020. So it had to be based on just like the first three seasons. So I think that would be cool. And who doesn't friggin like Stranger Things? So it'll be interesting to see if they weave some of this newer stuff or bring new stuff. But I think this year is going to be more the year of nostalgia, especially because we got Back to the Future. They did, you know, you got Turner doing Yukon Yeti, which is kind of the successor to Whitewater. So like, again, kind of nostalgia play.
    49:14
    What else we got coming? We don't really know what's coming from Barrels of Fun, but the latest rumor is He-Man and, you know, potentially never-ending story, both nostalgia, you know, like no. But there's also rumors that Barrels of Vaughn might be doing Dungeon Crawler Carl, which I'm not in that super excited about that yet because I haven't gone and listened to it or read the books. But I'm definitely getting intrigued because the Triple Drain guys are all listening to it. And on their last show, which thank you, by the way, for recording a show. We really did miss you.
    49:53
    They were all hyped about it. So and I and they I was getting this vibe that they feel that it would make a cool pinball machine. So maybe we'll see more of that. But, you know, these companies need to stay afloat. They need to sell X amount of units to make enough revenue to keep going and to be profitable. So it's that risk reward thing, right? Like how many risks do we want to take? And maybe some of these companies, these boutiques get a little worried when they saw John Wick didn't seem to do as good as I as we thought. I don't know. We don't see the sales figures. There's data that gets put out into the world that says it didn't, but I don't know. Did it? It might have sold perfectly fine for Stern, but it didn't sell like Pokemon is selling, that's for sure, right? Because the distributors are like, oh my gosh. You can hear them kind of talking about how well a game is selling, and then you start talking to locations about how it's earning, and it's earning really well. So anyways, that was all I got for you guys. I appreciate all the support. If you're listening to this and it's Sunday, March 26th, then it is my birthday and there will be a live stream on Retro Ralph Live. So if I remember, I'll put the link to that in here, but it's going to be 1130 Pacific time. So if not, watch it in replay. I think we're going to stream Pokemon. Unfortunately, there's no new code. I was kind of prolonging what game we were going to play because I had this hunch maybe the code would come out, but still no code. So hopefully soon. Hopefully Pokemon Company can check their email and they can take a look at this and go, yeah, that all looks really good. Let's approve that. So we'll see. But anyways, guys, let me know in the comments below what you thought of the show. Let me know what you think about themes, new versus nostalgia. I got to say one thing. Can we just be done with the old rock band stuff? Like, let's be done. Like, there's so many music pins that you could do that would fall out of this cycle of old rock and roll. Like, I like old rock and roll, but I'm so done with it. Like, I guess there's still people out there, again, nostalgia play. But come on, man. There's so much good music out there that deserves to be a pinball machine. Can we break the cycle? Jesus, please. I'm done with it. I'm done with it personally. But I don't know. Are you? Are you guys? Do we need more music rock pins in the world? I don't know. I'm good with it. So, hey, I'm going to save some money because if they do KISS or ACDC, I'm good. I don't need those. I can play those on location. I'm good. Anyways, guys, that's it for now. If you enjoyed it, like, comment, subscribe, all that stuff. And we will see you on the flip side. See you guys.
    52:37
    Thank you.