All right, it is finally time. Welcome in. Welcome everybody. Welcome to the Wild Dog Arcade. I am Ed
and I'm Gary.
And yes, tonight is a special night.
Yep. We're going to go through this last year's worth of game releases and kind of talk about them a little bit. talk about our impressions of them. So, there was actually quite a bit this year.
All right.
So, now let's go to the recap. So, what we're going to do is we're going to go to the pin side database here and look and go from earliest release in this year till current. So, we'll kind of go through we're going to go through the machines, give our opinions on it
cuz it is the end of the [clears throat] year. The end of the year,
check out what we what we got to play.
So, even though they announced it
in 2023, it didn't make [music] it to people till spring essentially. So, Evil [clears throat] Dead by Spooky
Evil Dead.
Evil Dead.
Yeah.
So, we did get to play that at at Expo. Um, this year, this year's Expo. So,
you you talked to Dwight uh casual the moment he brought up Pokemon. All he would talk about is how difficult the licensing is.
Yeah, I remember you mentioning that to us uh in person, too. So, that's kind of what we concluded is
maybe maybe try. But yeah, so Evil Dead, you know, a lot of a lot of people have seen like videos [music] and Spooky streaming this game themselves.
Uh, we did enjoy the game a little bit. There's a few things I don't like about the game. Um, the bump sticks were kind of cool. The the Yeah, the reload, the shotgun. Yeah.
So,
great concept for uh something in the machine.
Yeah.
Mode start right there. Um I don't recall what our our challenge was if it was hard for us us to get the shots that we wanted.
What I didn't like is on the left side of the screen it's it's got that drop target bank. Let's see [music] if we can get a good picture here. So on the left side you have that whole floating drop target bank with the uh hand that moves back and forth with that flipper hidden in the sling.
I didn't really like the stuff on the left side. I didn't think it added to gameplay much in my myself. Right.
So,
if I'm not mistaken, wasn't this also a machine that had another button for that flipper or am I thinking of a different
uh Yeah, I think it did. It have Yeah, I think it had another button for
I think it had another button. I remember not liking that either. Yeah,
I mean I know they, you know, we're going back and forth all the time on that, especially if it if we're talking about the P3 U who also had, you know, multiple buttons on there. But it can make it you can make it work. Spooky did it with Rick and Morty successfully with another button.
There's a good picture of that under the sling flipper. So,
yeah, it is a little weird too where it's at. And it does make a fun challenge, of course.
And they did have they do have a lower play field in there. So, a seller.
I've not ever been too huge of a like I don't hate it, but I don't really love it these underplay mini little things.
Yeah. I mean, [sighs] we we kind of experienced that with the Avatar machine also
because I have like three of them in that game. So,
yeah. And it's it's fun at first, but I think it wears [music] off fairly quickly and it doesn't it doesn't feel as satisfying as say if it was an upper play field like on Foo Fighters or something like that. So
it just kind of feels a little too confined generally and and you're like I don't really
it's not really immersing you into the world of Evil Dead. Is that what you're trying to say?
I I you know, you know, there's probably something to do with sellers and stuff because it's Evil Dead, but you know,
groovy flipper. Yeah. The fact that lots of stern leaders had an intimate knowledge of Pokemon licensing gives me confidence that if Pokemon is possible in pinball,
they will make it happen.
They are the ones. Good, good point there. All right.
So, Spooky, as far as like Spooky, I think did a great job with theming on this. So,
yeah, I think overall um again, attention to detail is kind of what I was pointing out earlier with Cobra Kai. This machine as well. I mean, I think that's what really bowled us over to to start with when we saw it come out, this game for the first time. And it was just, wow. Like, if you're familiar with the movies and you like them both, you're definitely going to want to play this game.
Um, and share that experience.
Some of the criticisms is uh um shoot, I'm drawing a blank on the uh actor's name. Uh
oh. Uh Campbell.
Yeah, Bruce Campbell. There was there were some complaints about his voice work being a little flat, a little unexciting [clears throat] in this game. [laughter] So,
okay. I haven't experienced or played it enough to really know
really know. It's, you know, some of the stuff I've just kind of read on the full
sort of like the David DVY uh
oh man, that thing.
So, he has a new show. I don't know if you guys know on on the History Channel. He's I don't know does something with uh aliens or spy things or whatever show on spy tech.
Terrible terrible narrator. He's like phoning it in.
Phoning that sucker in. Anyway, back to Pinball.
But yeah, so Evil Dead. It's a pretty good game. All right.
Yeah. All right. Um, checking out the next game. Is that what we're going to do?
We're going to go back and go to the next game. So, shortly thereafter, we obviously got [music] Dungeons and Dragons. So,
we have it.
That was Stern's first release of 2025. Yeah.
Um,
you know, and as you've seen us, if you watched us play, where's the good
has flown on by?
Image archive.
Mama loves pinball. How's it going?
How you going? How's it going?
We're doing a review of [clears throat] our
2025
for the pins of not just our pins, but the pins that came out this year,
the new pins. So,
flailing dragon here.
Yep. He's moving and got moving in blurry. There's a better shot of him. So, this is the I I picked the premium to look at because it's got, you know, a few more things in it. Mhm.
So, this he moves left and right and up and down and can spit out balls and things like that. So,
yeah, we don't have that one.
Yep.
Basically, it will lock the balls and then he'll spit them out. So,
we didn't think that the pop-up dungeon and that were worth [music] it to far as like buying it. So, that's why we got the pro.
Yep.
So,
um [music] you know, so far I think uh it was a good decision with with with everything.
There's a good picture of the pop-up dungeon. [music] So,
pop-up dungeon looks fun. The only the negative to it is it's basically the same shot that you hit in the pro the scoop shot except it just takes the ball and then it spits it back out. It it doesn't do anything like exceptional with that one.
Right. You only had an opportunity to play a few this year but D and D is your favorite. Okay.
Nice.
All right. That's cool. Trooper. I mean for me uh between the two new ones that we have. I do like D and D slightly better but it's because most likely we've had it a little bit longer.
A little bit longer. Yeah.
So I have to get better at King Kong. Oh. Hey, we're playing that tonight, by the way.
Yeah. Yeah. There's new code on King Kong, so after we're done here, we'll be jumping over playing some games.
Yes.
But yeah, [clears throat] you guys have seen it on, you know, seen us playing this one. So
Mhm.
Uh it's good. Uh it's definitely a very The rule set is deep. Um
I think they've got a lot more to stuff to iron out with the code. It's kind of a little chaotic right now as far as like stuff
isn't consistent. [music] Um, and it seems like every time they update a code, they break something, then they got to fix it in the next code. There's a couple of them that are broken in that.
But if you really think about the the [music] sheer depth,
yeah, he's really going deep on on the rules on this game. So, it's definitely very
I admire Stern and [music] uh Dwight for doing that.
Mhm.
So,
um yeah, uh so far so good with our [music] experiences with it and uh more dungeonsing and more dragoning we're going to be doing. Mhm. All right. On to the next bin.
All right. Best game for 2025 must be
Yeah.
Oh, you mean HP Sauce? Is that what you're [music] talking about?
Yeah. All right. So, next one that came out was Portal Multimorphics latest P3 system game. So, this one we got to play it at Expo. I kind of felt it feels the most pinball [music] like of all the games they released so far because they have stuff that
kind of levers out drops down and let gives you some more interact [music] interaction with it. So
that's just all right, Pat. You know, can always uh please everybody, right?
Mhm.
Are the D&D back glasses differing on different editions?
Yeah, they they always do. They're [music] always different. So um
here's Portal. Um the thing that I like the most that that uh really stood out to me, well, [music] there's two things. a the theme because I grew up, you know, playing this game. Um, you know, it was fun game. I think it broke barriers. It did amazing stuff with the game engine that really wasn't meant for that game originally. It was meant for what was it? Halflife, something like that. Anyhow, um, the thing that really struck me was all of the stuff that's kind of further in down the playfield as opposed to way up here where a lot of the P3 modules tend to be like because of the design of the module. that's kind of what you're limited doing,
but uh they went and actually added further [music] things forward. So,
yeah. So, Firewing, this is Portal. It's a multimmorphic P3 system. So, this is the one with the big giant 2/3 playfield screen.
It's based off of a first [music] person video game. Um it's kind of one of the first puzzlers for its kind in terms of its um original theme or the I guess the theme it's based off of. Cuz normally when you think of first person shooter, you just think it's [music] you're just going around going blah blah blah and just blowing everybody up. Whereas this one is all about figuring out
what if I shoot a portal here, am I going to go?
I need to go where do I need to go to? How do I get there?
So it's more of a maze situation than than a combat situation a lot of the times. [music]
Um but yeah, I mean you got uh some hidden features there.
Yeah, the hidden [music] little targets, hidden things. So, uh, yeah. Again, this one felt a little more pinball like because they're they're getting a little more adventurous with stuff that they put down onto the screen.
Oh, we don't know.
We don't know games. How are you doing?
Thank you so much for holy moly. 60 months. Wow.
60 months.
Yeah.
Um, and of course, this is a multimmorphic P3 system, so they have all of the graphics under the playfield or screen, so they can change them and it can interact with the game a lot more actively. which hence [music] the the fake looking tiny screen in there, but that can [music] change because everything that you're seeing on the playfield here is a computer screen.
Yeah. So,
no, it is a bizarre game. Um, and you know, if you go further back and you kind of see what the original video game it's based off of is, it's it's [music] pretty neat. It's pretty cool.
They've done a really really good job of the theming on this to theme it to the world of Portal.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we got a chance to play it a couple of times when we were at the Chicago Pinball Expo and we we really enjoyed our our experience playing it. So, I I highly recommend getting a chance to play if you can
if you can find a P3 system on location. These are not really tailored for
location games because they're they're kind of it's it's got a laser grid detection system [music] that tracks the ball. So, right,
the technology is a little beyond what a lot of operators want. Plus, we've also had pe heard people put them on, took them back off because they break. They're just not They're designed definitely more for the home market. Yeah, because it's got that whole upper module that you can change in and out. So, if you don't have a lot of room for a bunch of pinball machines, but you have that and a closet space where you can put the modules. It's great for the home environment. So,
absolutely. It's your favorite, mama. Nice. Yeah, I think at this point it's our favorite, too. [music] I mean, we played all the different ones. Weird. Uh, even the the [music] was it the one that uh I always mess the name up. It's and stunned by uh you know the total nuclear annihilation guy. What was the name of it?
Resistance. Final resistance. Final resistance.
I got one of the names.
He got it right.
Yeah, it's a it [music] it Yeah, there's just so much so much to try out on this. I like unlocking new characters and being able to play as different characters. I like the dwarf. Oh, we're talking about D and D. Yeah, my son likes the rogue. My daughter likes the wizards. Definitely like the variety. Overall, Dn D has got that. That's absolutely the fun thing about it and why it's so [music] in-depth.
Yeah.
But uh but yeah,
Portal.
Portal. Yeah. Again, it is a P3 system, so the majority of the pinball stuff goes on in kind of the upper part of the playfield just by nature of having the big screen. [music] They they can't put everything on it, but they've tried to do a couple of good things with some [music] things that come down to some ramps that deploy onto the playfield. Portal Multimorphic is the company is the company that makes this. [music]
They sell they have their This is their P3 system. So, it's a cabinet system with the screen. And [music] this what we're looking at here on the screen can actually be changed out to a different game. Y So,
and Weird is one of those games.
Yeah. Weird, you know, Princess Bride. There's a bunch of them you can actually do on this. So, it's basically if you've invested in the P3 system, you can buy the additional modules and change them out and have games. Apparently, it changes out pretty quickly and then you change the code um over to the game. So,
so yeah,
cuz I think what is it Borg Dog that has one of these? I think so.
Uh
or is it TZ?
Trying to remember.
Yeah, I don't remember. Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know if anybody's gotten their port because they're just they're still they're pretty slow. They're pretty slow at shipping. And it's got this one's got a little upper area with another flipper all up in the upper stuff. So
a lot of features in this for sure.
Mhm. So
So there you go.
That was Portal.
P O R T A L.
Yep. All right. So then uh Turner came out with their second game this year.
Merlin Merlin's Arcade.
Excuse me. Merlin Arcade. I always want to call it Merlin's Magic. Thank you. Uh
you know again. You know again
Buck had one. Oh, thank you. Sign out. Okay. So, it's poor dog in the head. The poor. Cool.
Appreciate it. Um, you love Merlin's Pat. So, here's the thing. I Gary and I just don't we just didn't connect with it at all. I don't know what it is. It might be the day. It might [music] be the actual specific machine we played, but we had a couple of things that we didn't feel good about it. One was the theme itself seems [music] disjointed
a little bit. Yeah. You know, if you think of Merlin's arcade, I'm thinking of themed like things from that 17th medieval games or medieval like times or whatever, right? Not like, [music] you know, like
Yeah. and hockey,
air hockey and stuff like this. So, that part was kind of weird. And then the gameplay itself
and then you got a little video game cabinet in there.
So, we kind of like I would have liked to have seen them go all in on the medieval games thing. That's kind of what I was kind of wanting when I saw it. And then when you come over to it, you're kind of like, huh,
this is definitely a very kid [music] kidfriendly thing.
I have a feeling that's probably what they're shooting for, but also, you know, big adults, big kids like us.
Yeah.
Eday game and a pinball. Yeah. Which is kind of kind of neat actually in a in a in a funny kind of way.
Yeah. It's got it's got, you know, [laughter]
Yeah. They got the little Was it foosball?
Foosball guy. spinner guy. So,
you know,
it's kind of all over the the place. That's kind of what I mean. It's just sort of a mish mash of a lot of different things, which can be fun if sort of tied in together quite seamlessly, but it's not. It's not really kind of [music] seamless.
Um,
otherwise it seemed to play all right. The one we were playing was a little tired at at
Yeah, that might have been all it was a little bit on the weak side from being played a lot. So, [music]
so if if we had a chance to play it again, we'll probably have a different opinion though.
Well, it's down at you like, but we just haven't made it down there again.
Oh, really? Cland's got awesome audio.
Cool. We'll have to try it on on the quiet day when we get over there at some point.
I think once you play it again, you'll enjoy it better. The music and the call outs. Okay. All right. Fair enough. We got to give it a better fair shake.
Mhm.
You got it.
All right. And then, of course, shortly about the same time.
Dune.
Dune. Dune. Uh,
was fun. It was fun. Um, we got to play [music] two times. Uh, once at ULIC
and it came out during its like almost uh debut weekend basically.
I guess it was debut weekend when the assets were still not cleared.
Um, and then we got to play it a second time months later over at Chicago [music] and the game code was way better.
Yeah, they really did.
It's breaking up.
The mic is breaking up at times. It says,
"I don't know what to do." Okay.
Maybe it's [music] when you're looking at me talking.
Maybe.
Yeah.
All right.
Um,
thank you, Firewing. We'll see what I can do to fix it as we go on.
Um,
uh, but yeah, they they really really upped the code over the last year. It has. It turned into a pretty fantastic game. You know, we did get a play at at Expo with the latest latest games. So, [music] you can always look there, too. So, you're talking more to your mic. Um but yeah. Yeah.
Um [music] it's the redesign of the pumpupers is cool. Okay. Power just went out in the whole neighborhood over here. Oh, really? Top up.
Oh.
Oh boy. Oh, that's right. California's got problems at the moment. I thought that was only San Francisco. I guess the whole
Yeah, I guess so. So,
um Oh, this is uh
Dune. Yeah, Dune. My barrels of fun. So, so based on based on the latest movies that are out. So
yeah, exactly, Lynn. The spice
it's done. Theming is really good on this. They they've really captured the world because they are using the lighting to treat day and night [music] stuff differently
as you go through different modes. That's kind of what's going on with the back screen, too. That's kind of the neat thing about the girls machines at the moment is each one has this like
second screen.
The second screen that's in the back. So, think think Circus Voltater where they had the DMD down in the back of the playfield, but then they also have the screen up on top. So, you get two different screens that are giving you different pieces of information. So,
I agree on you, mama.
Mhm.
Yeah, it might have been the code thing too when it came out.
Early code was bad. Uh, it was very
rushed. They had to
because a bunch of stuff was coming out right at that time and they they got it out and I think they rushed the production of the game out a little too [music] soon and had to release with very basic code.
Yeah. But
they got and they got kind of roasted for [music] that to begin with.
Yeah, they did. But you know, lesson learned. Yeah, we got to play it a couple times. Firewing. Um you know, we enjoy uh what we played so far and I definitely can't wait to play it again, honestly.
Mhm. All right, on to the next pin. How many more do we got?
Quite a few, actually. We had a pretty big year worth of stuff.
Okay,
so, uh, King Kong.
WHAT WE'RE GOING TO PLAY SOON.
YEAH. YEAH. SO, YEAH, you you guys seen us playing this one a bunch. Um,
the shots are tricky on this game because I am have not played [music] it enough. I my weak point is being consistent on key shots that you have to, you know, do.
And there's a lot of uh like any game, you learn it, you play it a few times, you then you finally figure out your your rhythm and your flow [music] with things. And there there's not as much flow to speak of in this game. It's a very sciency game for him. It's very Yeah, there's things it wants you to do very like you need to do this this shot then this and then here and do this weird this combo shot. So, it is definitely it does definitely take some practice to do this game and the code is developing really nicely. They're doing a good job of that. Yes. Yes, we have the pro. I'm showing you pictures of the premium here that have like additional things on it.
Oh, [music] we we've also threw in some things to make it look like a premium. Yeah, this this on the premium and Ellies, this gong is a mech that actually blocks the ball and rejects it. We added a mod that gives you a swinging gong when you hit it. So, gives you a little bit of that without the
coating in the mech in [music] there.
Yeah, you get that satisfaction and it was a nice thing to feel, but not so nice to have not so nice to have that uh same exactly [music] that same gone. Go ahead and reject everything
right down the middle. Yeah.
Yeah. when when we we did the uh we did the media day with that and I don't know how many times the gong rejected it right down the middle on me and I was like I I can't buy premium because that's just going to that's going to make me want to sell the game [music] like too quickly.
I mean for all I know they might have updated it made it not as uh
aggressive. Yeah.
I think it's got a lot to do with the geometry though where it's aimed when you hit it from one of the flippers when it rejects it goes right towards the middle. So
making a premium for the pro price. Yeah. That's kind of what we did.
Um, in fact, we made our spider look better. I'm not going to lie.
Yeah. I don't The [laughter] blue The blue spider was a bit like garish is a good way to put it for my opinion.
Yeah. I mean, I I guess what I It goes with the coloring.
I was just going to say at least goes with the coloring on the rest of the machine. So, that's probably Gary Stern, by the way. That was funny. I didn't notice that until now.
Oh, Gary Stern. Yeah, he's he's riding down the rap the river in a in an [music] inner tube. So, yeah.
Thought that's fun.
Yeah.
Should have been purple. the spider.
A purple spider. [laughter]
Well, let's see.
Yeah, purple would have probably been better. That would have been better.
Yeah, I agree with you. I bet you it's a little more expensive to make a purple spider purple purple.
It's probably a This is probably a spider mold they bought from China. So,
yeah, we we didn't make it from scratch, but we got a different one. We got a spider and then I got a piece of lex sand and basically put a put a cabinet latch on it so when the ball gets under it the magnetic
force flows through the ball pulls down the spider so it gives a little bit of interaction with it. Again it's not a mech like that's in the premium. So
Oh Stern's on the stand up behind the drops out drop targets as well as yeah I haven't I actually haven't looked behind
I haven't looked hard enough. Yeah
yeah at that. So, Kong,
Kong,
Kong, Kong, Kong, Kong everywhere. He's he's everywhere.
And I do like the the character design of Kong on this game. Um I think they did amazing job with it. It it I wouldn't have uh been as into the machine um if it wasn't for the redesign that they decide to go with. So, hats off.
Yeah, they I'm glad they didn't base it on some of the movies because
like the classics. [music]
The classic movies. Yeah. It's like Yeah. If it was just it was on the old stuff, it would have not appealed to me at all. Yeah,
cuz they would have had to done the art kind of more in that style.
Exactly. Exactly.
But yeah.
All right. Balls. They're in Subways, but not in ours.
Mhm.
Next on the list, what is
Well, that's a homebrew, so we think Okay, then we got Harry Potter. [music] Um, we'll just
we're we're not huge into Harry Potter because of the
JK [clears throat] Rowling unfortunately has doubled down as of late as well and review points.
Um, you can do your [music] research. It's
It's annoying.
Yeah, we did we did play it like once at Expo, but we didn't we're not spending a whole lot of time on this game
just because you're such a bad person. Yeah,
exactly. So we don't want to Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. Lynn.
Yep. Exactly.
Say no more.
Yeah. Unfortunately,
you know, a good game is ruined [clears throat] by her.
Yeah. And it's unfortunate, mama. [music] I agree. Predator. Pimmel Brothers has returned with an improved pin after two or three [snorts] ones that we didn't really basically.
Yeah. They've come out with a much better game over the over Queen and Aba. So,
yes. Uh, I wanted to really like Queen because, you know, Queen's iconic,
a great band. Yeah.
You know, ABA I'm not as into them as much as I used to, but again, it just wasn't that
neither of them was shot that well.
This one shoots a whole lot better. Yes.
Yeah, it does shoot a whole lot better.
Yeah, it's a lot more satisfying. It kind of makes me go back to what I felt like with the alien pin that we had cuz you feel immersed. There's so much there. I love the digital display in the bottom that is, you know, the alien language. Yeah, the alien arm readout and stuff like that. So things
um it played pretty well. The modes were a little weak at expo and then they've been releasing a lot more new modes and codes. I do find the one
niggle I have with the art
is is the lower part [music] of the playfield by the flippers. The red skulls just feel a little out of place.
Okay. So does it make you think of like Grimstroker's Dracula with
Yeah, I don't know. It's like it's like I know they were you they in the movie and and stuff like that just right in front of me. I kind of wish they'd had done something different.
Yeah. Like an actual predator head, but I guess the head's back up.
Well, yeah. Not necessarily a predator something else.
I think I think what happened was they originally were trying to put images of like Arnold and the other members of the team there, but they couldn't get the rights to that. So, they had to throw something in there quick.
They got everybody in there other than Arnold, though, which is good.
Yeah.
Who knows? Maybe again, much like the alien pinball machine, we'll eventually get Arnold like we got Sigourney Weaver. So, who knows?
Yeah, [laughter] the the theming and integration looks pretty good. It's very jungly. They've looked they spent some time on toys and [music] little sculpts and things like that.
Yep. The helicopter was in there, too.
Um I think the helicopter moved, right? Or am I thinking of ABA?
You're thinking of Aba. That one I think you I don't know if it did that, but [music] the little blade things,
the little blades from uh the Alien. So yeah, there's good there's a good picture of the display. So it basically g the readout gives you like alien numbers and stuff like that. So
all right,
it was really fun. I really really can't wait to play it again.
Mhm.
It is a fairly dark game similar to that.
Alien. So it's it's well lit in these pictures, but it
you know get pens lights and you'll be fine, right?
Yeah. [laughter]
All right.
Let's see. Is there anything
is there anything else we got to find on this? just the game cabinet stuff on that. So,
pretty good. I'm glad to see him come come back with a better game because if [music] if this one would have been a flop,
I wouldn't scared.
Very scared for that company. So, [music]
so hopefully they'll send more units over all around.
Of course, we get the Jaws, you know, 50th will, you know, came out. So, we know
we played Jaws many of times. I'm sure you at home have as well.
It's basically they [music] changed out some of the coloring on some of the games.
Yeah, I think that's all they did, huh? pretty much pretty much gave it the [music] uh red armor and some of the other minor little things. So
most important thing for Predator, they haven't upgraded the or they have upgraded the electronics and the flippers do not have EOS switches,
end of stroke switches. Yeah. So they basically Yeah, they're actually running that off the fast electronic system now as opposed to their own proprietary boards and control stuff. Mhm.
So that's at least you know that fast will give them support because [music] fast uh barrels of funds using fast stuff. So lots of people are using that their their soft their control boards and things now. So that's a good thing I think for them. So
my mic died
briefly. Let me let me switch you out to a different mic here.
We're going to find a new mic. [music] Thank you for tending and giving me the heads up. I don't know how to take this stupid thing out. It's We got to find another way to get this thing in there [snorts]
cuz the pins are a little temperamental.
All right. Are we
Hopefully that's Hopefully that works.
All right.
Yes, it does work. I hear myself. All right. We're good. So,
thank you.
Huge improvement. Yeah.
Okay. Good. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, as far as like the electronics, but Jaws. Yeah. So, Jaws, uh, you know, we've all seen and played Jaws before. So, how's it going?
Nice nice little update for those big Jaws [music] fans.
Oh, you know, that's true. We have another set of mics that do have that magnet thing. We can just use those from now on. So, have to [music] fiddle with the
the magnets, you know.
Oh, those I doesn't have a three and a half jack that other it's meant for going into like it's meant for hooking to the cell phone.
Oh, [music] well. So, yeah,
that was good thought though. Thank you, Cat.
Uh, okay. Then we did get to go to another media day. So, we uh but there's a couple of more that came out. So, Star Wars Home Edition. So, that they reissued the Star Wars home edition pinball machine that was selling in Costco for a bit. [music] So,
um
I don't think they changed anything, but
they didn't really change anything. They added Insider Connected. Uh that was a big one. Okay.
And I think they upsized the screen a little bit. So, it's a little it's a little bigger screen on on the home edition. [music] So again, this is still a pretty basic pin, basic shooting and stuff like that, you know, hence the name home edition.
Yeah, I can't recall if they improve the buttons or not cuz they didn't like the Jurassic Park buttons.
Yeah, I think they ended up just using [music] more standard buttons on that. So, yeah.
Thank you, Stern.
Yeah, cuz they used really cheap buttons on them and it felt kind [music] of bad.
Yeah.
So,
all right.
Elemental. Elemental is an add-on kit for uh the multiamorphic. So, this is a third party designed uh system. So, this lets the owner, unfortunately, there's not a whole lot of details [music] out there. It basically works with other modules. It's a software pack only. So, it's designed to work with you. Yeah, it'll work on the Princess Bride, Weird, and Cosmic Cart Racing as [music] well. Okay.
So, it's just software package. So, we we haven't got to play any of them. Haven't didn't even see them. So, can't really give you much much information on that. Uh, Medieval Madness got a Merlin's edition released this year. So,
there's Merlin's Magic instead.
That's where you would find Merlin's Magic [music] is Medieval Madness.
Yes, exactly.
Not Merlin's Arcade.
It's again, it's the same same remakes that they they did. So, [music]
um, next up, Star Wars of the Empire. This is the one we got to go again to Stern to do the media day
to see this game in person and play it.
This is the game that all of the pro uh not all but a good chunk of pro players are like this is the baby game. It's the And then it's like that you play it.
Yeah.
Play it. Play it further into it. You'll get deeper into it and there's a lot more to uncover. So
yeah, th this game it's it's not quite I wouldn't say it's quite a quite a baby game. There's a lot of actually tight shots and they even had to do a fix with one recently. They had the ramp that goes to the Death Star that I guess it was giving too much rejections or something like this and so they [music]
they Stern actually uh had sent something.
I was [snorts] looking for one of these entries that had [music] more pictures on it. So uh it's a fan flipper game so it's designed more
for [music] younger audiences I think is a good way to put it. It's got a lot of the iconic like battle scenes and stuff. They focused on the battles [music] on this. So, it's not a game that we're really interested in, but I can see the market that they want to capture for this one.
Yeah. How's it going, Fire or Zombie Dog, rather?
Uh, now that you played it more, I'm not having as fun much fun with it. Oh, okay. You're terrible at this game.
Yeah.
Uh, SW and SW are both not available in Europe.
Yeah, because of the licensing. I forgot. I still haven't figured that out cuz I they were talking about that right up all the way till the end cuz I guess they were trying to get the rights everywhere and I guess it didn't quite fall
there.
Yeah. So the so this game um there are no
there's no complicated shots in this game because it is a fan layout shot. So but the shot some of the shots are a bit narrow so you have to hit them pretty precise.
Mhm. Um, overall from what I we played, um, all of the different, uh, themes and different scenes that are in, you know, both one, two, and three are in this game. Um, the main the main three that you would always want and you grew up [music] with, uh, are featured heavily in it. Um, so far we've what we played is a lot of fun with all of those.
Of of the three, my favorite art package is actually the [music] LE edition of this game. Um I clean
that bullets dirty.
Looks like Oh, there you go. It It's
How's it going dirty? I didn't even see you come in, dude. [laughter]
Yeah. Yeah. So, it's based on the battle of Battle Hoth, which I kind of like the the snowy scenes and stuff like that. So, this is my favorite of the three art packages and the back glass is kind of really cool. Gameplay is essentially identical. There's a few more bobblehead like things on it, but as far as g gameplay, there's not a whole lot that's different. Sure. Between the [music] the versions of this game.
Yeah. I mean, the easy thing to clown on this game is the heads. [music] You got your Stormtrooper head and your
They're just they're just like stuck on there.
This body member, you know,
and I think the uh the the Millennium Falcon warp [music] ramp, hyperspace ramp moves up and down. That's kind of about it. So, there's not a lot of differences between [music] the Pro and the Premium. I do like the LE artwork on this game better.
That's right. Someone told me to compare this to Metallica. Nope. Still don't like it.
Mhm.
Nothing wrong with that. I mean,
yeah, Metallica can eat you [music] up just like anything else, I suppose. Let's see. 2K for extra body parts and bobbleheads. Yeah, something like that. Yeah, that that game is definitely a pro buy [music] because the pro is my second favorite one because that's the B battle of Hoth or Endor, sorry. So, it's kind [music] of like
the the premium artwork was like just
it looked just like the 2017 Star Wars with Luke and Darth Vader battling on the side. It was like, man, the premium art got shafted on this game.
Yeah, we didn't like it that much. I think a lot of people also felt [music] that way, too. So, it wasn't just us.
Yeah. Yeah. And finally, ladies and gentlemen,
Winchester Mystery House.
Winchester.
So,
we hope to get it soon. We don't know when.
Yeah. Barrels of Fun uh surprised everybody with a very very well-kept secret with Winchester Mystery [music] House. It's designed by Carl D'Python Anghelo of IE Pinball, a really wellrespected and top level [music] player in the in the scene. So, it actually shot very well. We were pleased with the way it shot and it only had like 20 25% code when we got to play it. So,
um
yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh there's there's
I can't say a whole lot other than the one time or two times we got to play it cuz we're supposed to get one soon and it's still kind of
Oh, maybe it's coming, maybe it's not.
Maybe. Yeah. [laughter] Yeah.
Back and forth we go.
I think I I think I a little while ago I read something where they said they were had some parts delays. So either some vendor messed [music] parts up or something and that's kind of thrown their release schedule because originally this was supposed to start shipping in the end of October
and then all through November. It was like November and now we're here at the end of December. They they've shipped like a handful. There's like one in Wisconsin that's going to get on get is putting one on location this weekend. Flipping out got theirs and they've been streaming that. So
uh yeah, this game the integration of this game and the theming is actually topnotch. You might not know Winchester Mystery House if you've [music] never heard of that. You can think of it as a haunted haunted mansion paranormal experience here
with multiple rooms to explore cuz that's exactly what what probably drew them to this theme in the first place was the possibility and differing ways that you can explore uh the Winchester Mystery House.
Beautiful art. Love the gameplay. Yeah, I'm still hoping to win the raffle for owners.
Yeah,
that one I got away. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. That must be the biggest disappointment. Almost nobody will be able to play it
this game
for Oh, maybe he's talking about Pat. Pat, I won Saturday thanks to FOT being picked for the finals.
Oh, Follow the Empire.
Oh, really? Pat. Oh, funny.
Yep. So, it's got a lot of theming that if you've ever seen uh either documentaries on or actually been to the Winchester Mystery House, if you're ever in San Jose, California, definitely go see this place. [music] It's kind of cool to go see.
It's got a lot of iconic stuff like the stained glass window pictured here. you'll see them on in the in the mansion and they really went into detail to try to replicate [music] some of the bits and pieces from it,
right?
It's got some really interesting shots. This mech is cool. This is a kind of a rotating uh rotating shot changer. Basically, it changes the shots and the sound design's very good when it does that. It makes this door creek clunk sound.
Makes you feel like claustrophobic almost because you're like, "Oh my god, everything's now changing now. I got to try to do this." You know? Yep.
Um, let me let's see here. Had one of the in shopping cart. Oh, really? You went to check it out and it was sold out. Holy moly.
Oh, yeah.
Very disappointing production numbers. What's crazy is I'm sure they had no idea that the man suddenly was going to be there. The fear of missing out was strong. Apparently,
sold out in two days. Um, yeah. I mean, yeah, it was a surprise theme and they I think what it was is they weren't sure
enough people would attach get attached to the theme. Yeah.
But I think what made it work really well was it was Carl D'Python Anghelo and he's a good player. He understands shots. So, everybody was like,
"Yeah, it's okay." Now, he's working with barrels of fun. You know, Stern's got Elwin, you know, got some different the people and they're like, I think that's why this one sold out really quick. So, I think they under underappreciated how well it would sell because they were like, it's not a it's not like an A tier theme. The Winchester Mystery House is a little bit like a a theme overlay on a haunted house game really uh in the end. So, you don't really have to know the Winchester [music] to to get the game. You're exploring you're exploring a haunted house and you know,
and by all means, don't look at the Winchester Mystery House movie. It's awful. [music] It's not based off of that. It's loosely based off of the Winchester Mystery House anyway.
Oh, and it this one does have the play the [music] the second playfield screen. This time it's in the Winchester Mystery House and it does there's spirits [music] and ghosts and stuff that happen in there. So,
are they really that Tim? Exactly. Sign out. [laughter]
Yeah.
Yeah. They they really missed the mark on that one, I guess. Right.
But it will be it'll be back up.
We'll back it up.
Oh, we'll back it up.
But it will back it up. Yeah.
Yeah. But yeah, I think I think all in all they knocked this one out of the park and we
really pleased with it. [music]
We we got to play it at Expo and we're really happy we pulled the trigger on it. We just don't know when we're going to get ours.
Yeah.
So,
but that's all right. We got plenty of other games to play in the meantime and [music]
I got to get better King Kong, too.
Yeah. Artwork and theming and sound design's really good on that game.
Oh, yeah. That's another important thing.
Thanks. Thank you, Dirty Pool.
Yes. Yep.
I forgot.
Can't forget that.
Yep.
Not supposed to forget that.
Not supposed to forget that. All right. So, now we're on to
last couple
the last few for the year. So, Walking Dead remastered. So, this is Stern's late this year's announcement where they have remastered just like they did with Metallica.
Yes. And it's a theme that we're not really into. So, we're probably not going to spend a whole lot of time talking about it, but it is has been a game that's been out for a while. Uh, it's been beloved by many. Um, you know, everyone there's a lot of people out there that will swear by this being an awesome fun game, and I'm sure it is. [music]
Just not really for us.
Yeah, [laughter] we didn't I I thought I thought the art on the original was very ugly and I just didn't like looking at it, so I didn't really want to jump in and play it.
This one looks a lot better.
They did bring out some more color in there. They did bring some some more comic booky feel to it with this.
Yeah.
So, we've played the old one. Um, we haven't played the remaster.
Yeah, the remastered. It's
remastered art, some remastered rules, and obviously an LCD screen um on the game. So, just like they did with Metallica, they took Metallica, expanded upon the game a [music] little bit, fixed a few of the issues, and then
did did animations and screens on this.
Yes. Dirty pool day. Uh, sign up. one one game at DPO Expo. Uh, never less than 30 minutes queue. Yeah. Yeah. Sound wizard. I'm going to assume that the Winchester is on it is a non-existent game.
Yep. I I think Pat um the comment about like you didn't think it would be a remaster. I we wouldn't have expected this as a remaster though, but they're actually looking at resale numbers and demand on the secondary market for those games. [music] I am sure they're doing that to decide which remastered games. Like they're not going to remaster a game that prices are in the toilet that nobody really wants to buy.
Like so if there's this one seems to have demand in the pinball community for the original so
Mhm.
Yeah.
Yeah. Still a bruter game. Right round feels a lot nicer though. Well, that's good.
Well, good. Yeah. Some improvements on it then. Yeah.
Yeah. Well, they did that with Metallica. They made a few few more things were a little more robust on that they added expanded on the game. The Metallica one's nice because they added a a bunch of the songs from the latest album on there.
Yeah. Yeah, that was really cool.
This what 72 seasons or whatever it was. Um [music]
that was one of them. Yeah.
Or from the album. That's true. 72 season.
Yeah. They added some modes and stuff for that in the game. So they were able to expand on it.
And then last one announced for the year. So technically this is probably not a 2025 game
technically cuz it's not going to be produced till next year, but Beetlejuice from Spooky.
Oh yeah, good point. They they announced it, but they're they're not making they're not making any of them till next year. [music]
So,
interesting thing about this game is uh Bug from Spooky did a live [music] stream where they were workshopping Final Wizard mode ideas with the audience, which I thought was kind of a cool thing to bring some of the audience participation into the game. It's amazing because not only you're doing that, you're also spreading the word and you're getting uh people [music] to notice the game more and and also feel like they're a part of creating it. I That's That's great. I love that idea. Hats off to Spooky for that one.
Yeah,
he's getting number 68. Mama. Oh, cool. All right. Yeah. I don't know if you like it on Beetlejuice. Yeah,
probably not. I think he I think he had I think he used to have some spooky games on location and they kept breaking. So, I [music] think he got rid of them all. Got it. I can probably answer that question more.
Sure.
So,
yeah. Yeah.
I love the the features on this game. Like, this obviously is a great one to have. Um, the sandworm, [music]
the weird weird colored sandworm. Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. And the adult book.
The adult the the the adult uh Yeah. Adult book stories. That's the right way to say that. Uh back there. [laughter] Yeah.
Dante's Inferno. Dante's Inferno. Yeah. Let's see. Is there a good picture of [music] that?
Oh, the quality didn't hold up on location. Okay. So, Gary was right about that.
Ours that, you know, the two that we owned, I would break all the time. So, yeah.
Uh I was fixing them constantly. Oh, there we go. There's the Dante's Inferno. Uh the spinner thing.
Get tickets.
So, the theming is very very very fun.
Yeah. Yeah. The movie was very fun but dark at the same time. This maybe is a little gone a little more towards the fun aspect of it. Sure. a little less on the dark, but you know, you got to have things that reach out.
I think it's a good balance overall because that's how I feel about the movie. It's a good balance of dark and goofy [music] at the same time.
Yeah, exactly. So, I think they did a great job with the theming on this. So, hopefully somebody will end up with one on location nearby so we can go play it cuz we didn't get in on this game. So,
Nope, we got Winchester instead.
We got Winchester. Had to pick one. And we're really, really happy with the
What do you think of the topper on this game, by the way? [laughter]
Isn't that the coolest thing ever? Like I I don't say this I don't talk about toppers a whole lot because as you guys know they're just like little cherries on the top little you know spend a thousand here and make it pretty
man. It it's like if if we had a topper if we bought like one of the stern toppers at like 1,500 bucks each for every one of our games here we'd have another game.
So that's what we would do with that extra money.
Exactly. But then here's this above and beyond created by you by the way. No not you but you know you're also named Gary.
Yeah. Um just it it ties everything together like outstandingly. [music] So can't wait to play it, man.
You chose correct.
Yeah.
Arcade is avoiding sterns and getting old stuff. Oh, okay.
Yeah. Well, I mean after a while they get a bit sy because they do have a lot of similars to play styles and things like that. So yeah, I could understand we we kind of have stern fatigue as well. We have a a lot of Stern games and we're [music] kind of glad we're getting the Barrels of Fun game in here.
You know, we'd love to get some more classic ones if budget ever pops back up. But
yeah, you know,
I mean that the game style I think is what really drew us more to the Stern machines [music] um when we first got the new Rush and then as we played more and more um realized that was more of [music] our speed, more of our style and desire and that's what we kept getting. And so it's exciting to now, you know, give uh another company another shot at uh you know, winning our affection for pinball, I guess.
So, of the games of this year, what, you know, what's your opinion? What's your favorite one? What what what won this year of [music] all these new games?
Um, well, out of everything that we've seen so far, out of all the things that we got a chance to play and everything like that, you know, that's a tough tough call. I I I want to say I want to like reach out and and on a limb and just say the game that we're about to get even though we haven't played it a whole lot.
Yeah. I mean what we did but we did do jump on it two different times and played it and we did really enjoy the game. So [music] I I would agree with you. I think Winchester is the best game.
Yeah.
So I'm just saying not just cuz we bought it but we bought it for that reason of being fun.
Um interestingly enough we pulled the trigger to buy it before we played it. But but but having having a you know having [music] experienced both barrels of fun games and seeing how they build the games and stuff [music] like that and then the fact that Carl D'Python Anghelo was in it involved in it like in the design of the game.
I kind of respect him and his skill and I I think he understands games. Yeah. So I think that for them that was probably a really good choice. That's what made us pull the [music] trigger and then when we got to play it, it reinforced the our things.
Yeah, exactly. So, Turner surprised me this year, Pat.
Uh they took the ball and ran it with the on the second game the big board under instead of wiring the new design of pump bumpers and [music] the music and call outs. So, okay. Oh, for this year. Got it. That's your pick. Okay. All right.
And answer one more question before we go jump and play some King Kong. Lynn's [music] asking late 2026 for a home brerew.
We'll see. We'll see. You're not on a time schedule.
We're not on a time frame. I want to get it right. I want to do that. The big problem is it's similar in a lot of ways to what I do every day at work. [music] So sometimes I just don't want to do the same thing when I come home. So
what?
Yeah.
You don't have the same dedication to pinball 24/7.
I have I have a bucket of mental energy that I use up most every day. That's like design and engineering wise. So, sometimes when I get home, I'm like, I got to do something either physical or something else. Um, this week I actually have uh I have two weeks off. I took some [music] some uh some me time here come at the end of the year. First week I'm going to spend writing book two, writing on book two. I started a little bit of it the other night, but I'm going to focus on that for about a week. Then I'm going to get back into the actual uh I'm going to go back go back into the design into visual pinball because I made some shot adjustments but I hadn't completed them before I export that design out to solid works and start doing the CAD work again.
Got it.
So
Oh god. I know, right?
You mean [screaming] it's so annoying. Oh you
Oh bye. THERE.
Today at the Wild Dog Arcade, we put to [music] 3D print the spacer and spin. If you really like this content, [music] please that LEVEL OF MULTIBALL.
OH MY GOD. Oh my god. That my friends [screaming] were so naughty. Yeah, it was buffet.
Yeah. So, I'm going to go get the beamer and we're going to go drive to Helen back. [laughter]
Whoa. Hey, ask your doctor how Pinball [music] can help you.
You're You're right, Pat. Ed, stop thinking it should be a redeem.
Shotwise. Well, that's I could have had that. Right down the middle, dude.
I saw bounce off your flipper, young man. my first one. Hey,
byebye. [music]
I was I was trying to fart. I was like, "Oh,