Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

The Pinball Roundtable - LIVE from Pinball Expo 2025

JBS Show·podcast_episode·42m 10s·analyzed·Oct 20, 2025
Buzzsprout-18039435
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.038

TL;DR

Pinball Expo 2025 live roundtable highlights Winchester sellout, homebrew dominance, and midnight launch speculation.

Summary

Live roundtable from Pinball Expo 2025 featuring Jamie, Rachel, Kale, and Retro Ralph discussing the show floor, standout games (particularly Winchester Mystery House and homebrews), Don's proposed midnight launch event for Beetlejuice, Stern's new $99 home leaderboard service, and the surprising strength of this year's homebrew section, which is described as larger and higher quality than ever before.

Key Claims

  • Winchester Mystery House sold out in 24 hours at Expo

    high confidence · Rachel discussing inability to secure a Winchester, confirming complete sellout

  • David Van Ness (Barrels of Fun founder) refused to do additional Winchester production run despite requests, citing commitment to 525-unit limit

    high confidence · Rachel stating she tried to convince him to produce '526' (one more), with direct quote of his refusal: 'absolutely not I'm not going to go back on my word'

  • Homebrew section represents approximately 25% of Expo floor this year

    medium confidence · Rachel/Kale estimate: 'it feels like, are all homebrews. Yeah. Homebrew is bigger than stern.'

  • Predator homebrew by Pinball Brothers ran flawlessly at Electric Bat Arcade with no game-breaking bugs, only minor glass-off incidents for stuck balls

    high confidence · Ralph: 'It was flawless. We only had to take the glass off a couple of times for some stuck balls. The flippers were nice. No resets, no weird game, no bugs that I could see.'

  • Don proposed a midnight launch event for Beetlejuice involving pre-party at his house, marching to Spooky factory, 11pm start time with police coordination

    high confidence · Don explaining detailed midnight launch concept, waiting on one final approval before confirming date

  • Stern's home leaderboard costs $99/year with early-bird pricing at $80, includes factory tour access and free shipping on accessories

    high confidence · Discussion of $99 pricing with mention of $80 early-bird, factory tour, and merchandise discounts

  • Spooky machines at Expo are selling for $16,000 due to custom modifications by Great American Pinball

    medium confidence · Kale: 'The Spooky, there's a row of Spooky machines, but they're selling for like $16 because they're loaded to the T's... custom armor'

  • Merlin's (Chris Turner homebrew) sold all three units brought to Expo at approximately $9,500 price point

Notable Quotes

  • “Homebrew is bigger than stern... and just the quality of the machines year to year... we're starting to get past that point into just, like, regular, that's cool.”

    Rachel @ early in episode — Marks notable shift in homebrew quality perception from novelty to professional standard

  • “absolutely not I'm not going to go back on my word. My word was to these people that this is going to be limited to 525 and people bought this game sight unseen knowing that it was going to be a true limited to 525 games”

    David Van Ness (paraphrased by Rachel) @ mid-episode — Demonstrates collector-focused scarcity strategy and manufacturer integrity on limited runs

  • “It was flawless. We only had to take the glass off a couple of times for some stuck balls. The flippers were nice. No resets, no weird game, no bugs that I could see.”

    Ralph @ mid-episode — Validates Predator homebrew reliability and addresses prior skepticism about the game

  • “I think there's never been a midnight launch in pinball like we're at GameStop or something... we start marching down the street to the factory... at midnight the roll-up door comes up”

    Don @ mid-episode — Novel community event concept reflecting high anticipation for Beetlejuice release

  • “Your name will be in gold. That is worth it right there... I'm sold now.”

    Retro Ralph @ discussing home leaderboard — Identifies cosmetic/status differentiation as key value driver for $99 leaderboard subscription

  • “How baller is it that Spooky's like, we ain't even coming? I'm going hunting. We ain't going hunting. Dude, the guy went hunting.”

    Jamie @ late episode — Bug/Charlie's absence from Expo (hunting trip) notable given Beetlejuice launch timing uncertainty

  • “It's on brand because it's a secret extra game... But you didn't know about the other one”

    Rachel @ mid-episode — Reveals Van Ness made extra 1 unit beyond promised 525, adding meta-humor about limited edition scarcity

Entities

Jamie VirgilpersonRachelpersonKale HernandezpersonRetro RalphpersonDonpersonDavid Van NesspersonChristopher Franchiperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo 2025 tournament unexpectedly high attendance requiring extended hours (until 3 AM qualifying) and game additions to handle queue times exceeding 1 hour per game

    high · Announcement of 3 AM closing for qualifying; tournament area larger than anticipated with 6+ hour queue expectations

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Significant unresolved confusion/contradiction regarding Bug's Expo attendance status (hunting absence vs. Friday appearance claim), creating uncertainty around Spooky announcements

    medium · Don stating Bug not coming, but chat later claims 'Bug will be here Friday'; hosts debating information reliability with reference to Don's incomplete onboarding

  • ?

    community_signal: Don's proposed midnight launch event for Beetlejuice reflects high community engagement and willingness to organize unconventional release experiences

    medium · Don indicating multiple people interested in booking travel for the event; concept gaining traction despite unprecedented nature in pinball

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Monster League Hockey implementing auto-play attract mode feature using original Alvin G flipper detection mechanism adapted below playfield

    high · Kale describing technical implementation: 'wire forms over the flipper... they took that mechanism and put it underneath the playfield'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball Expo 2025 floor significantly dominated by homebrew section (~25% of floor), representing notable shift in show composition and community focus

    high · Rachel: 'it feels like, are all homebrews. Homebrew is bigger than stern.' Kale confirms quality evolution.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.127

0:00
It's going to be, it should be live now. It's just going to take like maybe 30 seconds. Alright, let's go. Maybe we got a delay. We're live. Oh. We are live, ladies and gentlemen.
0:11
Welcome. Welcome to Pinball Expo 2025. I'm sitting next to my good friends, Rachel Bess, Kale Hernandez, and Retro Ralph. What's up? Howdy. I'm Jamie Virgil, and we are live here at Pinball Expo. We thought, why not go live? And Ralph forgot the most important thing, which is the mixer. This is a true story. And who bailed us out? No other than Don from Don's Pinball Podcast. Came and brought his Rodecaster down for us. Ladies and gentlemen. Pretty cool. Thank you, Don. Let's go, Trash Can Ninja. He's been waiting. I know we're late, but let's just start off. Here we are. What do we think about Expo so far? You just did a woman in pinball seminar. I did. It was great. The expo was great. Winchester is great. So do you think, I know Cale's texting. We'll leave him alone in a second. Do you think it's stealing the show? In my opinion, it is. I think the two things are. I think the homebrew section this year is, I mean, every year it's stronger and stronger. This year it's incredible. It's like a quarter of the floor, it feels like, are all homebrews. Yeah. Homebrew is bigger than stern. and just the quality of the machines year to year. Like, usually it's, that's cool for a homebrew. Right. And I think now we're starting to get past that point into just, like, regular, that's cool. Yeah. For sure.
1:42
I think that was my feeling walking through the homebrew section. Like, that game, Atom, that you hug, you sort of hug it and play it. Yeah. I played it, it was either last year or two years ago, and it's like he made so many improvements in it. like code-wise and just reliability-wise. So it's just stuff like that. Like these guys come to these shows, and they continue to evolve the things they bring. And so like year after year, like the Sonic game and Pokemon, like those games are really solid. Yeah.

medium confidence · Discussion of Chris Turner selling 'all three that he brought to the show' at 'just maybe a hair under 10' ($9.5k)

  • Jack Danger's homebrew machine (from Iron Maiden cabinet) is being rewired with FAST Pinball system and will be playable by end of weekend

    high confidence · Aaron from Fast Pinball helping make it functional: 'Before the end of the show, Aaron from Fast Pinball is going to help him get that thing flipping'

  • Bug from Spooky will be present Friday at Expo despite earlier statements he was absent

    low confidence · Chat message claiming 'Bug will be here Friday' contradicted by Don's earlier statement that Bug is hunting; unresolved confusion about his attendance

  • “He's a new hire he might not... he's not on all the emails he's not in the company discord yet he's not on the slack they don't tell him everything not fully onboarded”

    Jamie @ late episode regarding Don — Acknowledges Don's recent Spooky hire (2025) and incomplete integration into company communications

    • Jack Danger
    person
    Aaronperson
    Bugperson
    Jake Danzigperson
    Randy Martinezperson
    Pinball Expo 2025event
    Winchester Mystery Housegame
    Predatorgame
    Monster League Hockeygame
    Merlin'sgame
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Barrels of Funcompany
    Electric Bat Arcadeorganization
    Fast Pinballcompany
    Pinball Roundtableevent
    Beetlejuicegame
    Marco Specialtiescompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
  • $

    market_signal: Stern positioning home leaderboard as premium subscription service ($99/year) with cosmetic differentiation (gold name) and ancillary perks (factory access, free shipping) as primary value drivers

    high · Ralph sold on 'your name will be in gold' cosmetic element; discussion of multiple pricing tiers and perks structure

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi transitioned from Stern Pinball to Spooky Pinball as artist/designer, representing talent migration from major to boutique manufacturer

    high · Franchi present at Expo with visual art samples, confirmed recent hire context in conversation

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Don recently hired by Spooky Pinball (2025) but not fully onboarded into internal communications (missing from email, Discord, Slack) creating information gaps

    high · Jamie: 'He's a new hire... he's not on all the emails he's not in the company discord yet he's not on the slack they don't tell him everything'

  • $

    market_signal: Custom/modded Spooky machines commanding $16k retail at Expo due to aftermarket enhancements, indicating strong margins on premium positioning

    medium · Kale: 'Spooky machines... selling for like $16 because they're loaded to the T's... fully custom armor'

  • ?

    product_concern: Predator homebrew unexpectedly reliable and polished despite community skepticism, running flawlessly with minimal interventions

    high · Ralph: 'It was flawless... No resets, no weird game, no bugs that I could see.' Crowd enthusiasm sustained until forced closure at midnight.

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Homebrew quality perception shifting from novelty/curiosity to professional standard worthy of direct competition with commercial releases

    high · Rachel: 'we're starting to get past that point into just, like, regular, that's cool' rather than 'that's cool for a homebrew'

  • ?

    business_signal: David Van Ness (Barrels of Fun) deliberately constraining Winchester production to exactly 525 units and refusing rerun requests to maintain FOMO/scarcity narrative and collector trust

    high · Rachel recounts his direct refusal with reasoning about honoring collector commitments: 'people bought this game sight unseen knowing that it was going to be a true limited to 525 games'

    • 2:10
    What's going on, buddy? Oh, man, I'm just trying to hold it together. This is another fantastic expo. And, you know, it's always about the people, and I love hanging out with you guys. It's good to see you again. And a lot of folks that we, a lot of folks we only see once a year. I know. Yeah. That's a lot of fun. But this, this homebrew area. It's crazy, right? Oh, my. I think this is stealing the show. This really is.
    2:43
    The amount of games here, the Mad Max game, Elf. Coming to America. What's the one that your buddy made? What happened to my. No, no, that was me. I did that. Oh, yeah. Crank me back up. You're back up. Yes. Monster League Hockey. Did you guys play at that? Monster League Hockey. Jake Danzig. We might have that at the bat, right? No way, really? Well, I haven't talked to him, but he's local, so it's a possibility. Something that's very cool here, but it's not ready to flip right now. Jack Danger brought his, the Jack Danger homebrew machine. It's right there. It's got the, with the play field up. Yeah. In the Iron Maiden cabinet. So that is basically like, that is the game that got him hired at Stern. That's his CV. That's correct. That's his CV. Yeah. And before the end. 400 pound CV. Yeah. Before the end of the show, Aaron from Fast Pinball is going to help him get that thing flipping so we can actually play it. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They took all the wiring out and put the fast system in it. There you go. Dude, that's going to be so cool. Isn't that cool? Isn't that wild? Yeah. I didn't know that's what we were doing. That was awesome. Unbelievable. What they're doing. To be able to tackle that in one weekend, too, over there they've got some crimping machines. So there's, like, big spools of Molex. It's just really cool to see how you can, like, make stuff instead of, like, by hand where it takes forever. So they can actually achieve something like that in a weekend instead of a month of arthritic hands. Well, thank you to Aaron. Your mic is too low? I'll put it up a little bit. Maybe that's better. How about me? How's mine? Yours should be good. Is mine good? But Craig Hughes said, hey, Craig Hughes. Thanks, Craig. Appreciate that.
    4:29
    It has been just fantastic. Again, I'm only here until tomorrow morning, but I wanted to cram as much in as humanly possible today. I think you did that. And we forgot the damn mixer. So if you're just joining us, it's Ralph's fault, but Don from Don Pinball's podcast is taking care of us. And then thank you to Marco Specialties for hooking us up with this booth here. with fast pinball. The table. The Wi-Fi. And most importantly, the power. Yeah. We need power. Yeah. We needed that. So thank you for them. Let's get to some of your questions. How many Diet Cokes am I in? I'm rocking eight. I'm probably in eight. That's low for you in a day. Those are rookie numbers.
    5:12
    Do you have similar concerns about Winchester a la Dune, says Barlow? So I came into it with those concerns for sure. So that was, like, we came to the show, we got onto the show floor early this morning and got to play it before, you know, the lines were wrapped around the building. And it was so smooth, it really alleviated any of those concerns that we had had. I would, I think this game is fantastic, and I would recommend it. Based on my experience so far this weekend and from talking to others, 100%, this is a killer game. It's great to recommend it. It's great to recommend it, but there's none left. They can't get them. They sold out. Yeah, if you didn't get one, too bad. Rachel's been checking her phone all day from every distributor knowing the man and woman. There's a chance. I have one chance that it could happen, but I'm holding off right now. I sent it to Cale, so we'll see if the guy comes through. So there is a chance. So what you're saying is there's a chance. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, that's great. All right. The seminar was taped. So if you wanted to see the Women in Pinball seminar, you're going to be able to check that out.
    6:24
    Where all seminars are found. Yeah, I think it's Pinball News. Oh, okay. I think it's the Pinball News site. So we're just rocking here. We're going to do an hour. We're not going to do three. We're not going to do you can't see our shorts like we did the last live stream. so you don't have to worry about any of that crap today, right? My legs looked good, though.
    6:45
    I thank you, Rachel, again for the blanket. If anyone didn't watch that, you know, she saved my day with my little skinny legs with my blanket.
    6:56
    What's been your highlight so far, day one, Cale? Well, of course, playing the Winchester Mystery House.
    7:04
    Secondly, I think it has to be that Mothership game. That thing's wild. The one where you have to play it like this. I haven't flipped it yet. It's insane. Just playing something that big.
    7:19
    It's funny watching Rachel play it because there are two sets of buttons you can use. You can actually use the buttons on the machine.
    7:28
    Rachel could barely reach them. But there's also these buttons on a controller which are kind of more reasonable. So it's fun. It's really interesting. Obviously, the flippers are pneumatic. You can hear it. They're like a compressor set up. Yeah, you hear it. It's cool. It's fun. I think it's more fun than Hercules. Definitely. Yeah, I'd say so.
    7:53
    Now, you guys had at the bat, so the three of you got to play it last week, which is Predator. Yeah. And Aaron and Erica from Erica's Pinball Journey have literally been picking up homebrews across America. Yes. and bringing it to Chicago. Right. And check out Erica's pinball journey because she's documenting it. It's really great. But you got to play Predator. I got to play it today here. What are your thoughts on it?
    8:21
    Everybody was blown away. Right? Absolutely blown away. There was a massive long line to play the thing. Ralph was there. Yeah, it took a little while. It took about an hour to get into the queue there. Yeah, and Aaron and Erica were just like, toward the end of the night, they were like, everybody's having so much fun. How about we just leave it here for the night, and then you can pack it up for us? And I was like, yeah, totally cool. I mean, we stayed there until like, what, like 1 o'clock in the morning? Yeah, it was like midnight or something. People couldn't stop playing it. We would have stayed there until 5 a.m. if we wouldn't have just kicked people off. It was like there was that much. And it was flawless. Oh, that's good. We only had to take the glass off a couple of times for some stuck balls. The flippers were nice. No resets, no weird game, no bugs that I could see. Everyone was surprised at how fun it was. Yeah. Awesome. Did you like it? I really did, actually. I had a little bit of low expectations going in, because we all listened to all these people talk about things. No one had really ever played it, so it was kind of like... But we'd played ABBA. Yeah, well, yeah, there was historical reasons to maybe think that way. Yeah. But, no, when I played it, you know, obviously there's the obvious they couldn't license Arnold. So you do see him in the game, you just don't see his head. So there are scenes where, like, you see his arm in a gun or you see him fall back. We don't see him. So he started doing that to me.
    9:50
    We were playing it this morning, Rachel, and he goes, that's Arnold, and it's just an arm. But you could see him, he's there. I mean, you can tell. He goes, that's Arnold. You know what actually impressed me about that game a lot? And I know we've talked about this in the podcast before, but Alan Silvestri is the one that did the original soundtrack, or the orchestra, the music for Predator, Back to the Future, a whole bunch of different movies. But I met the guy that had to do the rest of the music, because there's only a couple of the Alan Silvestri tracks, and they said they were so happy with how well he kind of complimented the Alan Silvestri soundtrack that they didn really have a lot of back and forth They just approved it They were like this is great We love it It sounds awesome So I got to meet him this morning So the musical soundtrack and score to the game is really good too Good Yeah I like it a lot Real quick, because we've got to get Don on here, because it's his stuff, right? So I'll take off for Don. You guys can interview Don. I'll take a break. Okay. Is that alright? Hold on, it's a JBS show. You've got to stick around. I can go off. I don't want to kick anybody off. No, no, I'll go do something. I need a favor for anyone When you see Bug from Spooky tomorrow Tell him you want a midnight release of Beetlejuice He's not here Well, that's going to be difficult Because I think Bug Well, we can ask Let's ask Don that Yeah, let's ask Don Where the hell is Bug? Or where the hell is Beetlejuice? Like, let's just Let's just get it over with Let's just roll it out I mean, he works for them now, right? Can't we just do that? Can't we just ask him? Yeah, come on Let's see what kind of leaking you're going to do here, buddy Dono Hey, Don He's busy chit-chatting. He's busy chit-chatting with his fans. But he did save the day, so thank you so much, Don. I really appreciate it. I can get him in here. Go grab him.
    11:34
    I like having you on the round table. Yeah, it's once a year. We do it at X-Men, right? I absolutely love having you on the round table. You spice up the joint, okay?
    11:47
    He's here. The man is here. The joint spicer. The man who saved the day. You saved the day, dude. In a fine t-shirt, I might add. What happened? Yeah, this electric bat arcade. Can you believe someone... You know that glows in the dark? Can you believe someone left this on the restroom countertop? That's crazy. It's drying out. Ladies and gentlemen, Don from Don's Pinball Podcast saved the day. And Christopher Franchi is rolling up in the front of the table. I wish we could flip the camera around, actually. But Christopher Franchi is right here with his poor daughter, who's been... She's been so sweet. Sweet as pie. The whole time. That's great. I want to hit that vape, Franchi. Whoa. Hit me in the head. Wow, thank you, Franchi. She brought me a present. Can we flip the camera just for a second so they can see Franchi? We should. Hey, Cal.
    12:32
    Hold on. Look, there he is. He's right there. There's Franchi right there. There he is. Yeah. There he is.
    12:45
    All right. I don't know if I fixed it. Did I screw up the camera when I put it back, or are we good? No, no, no, no. It's perfect. Let me know when this is streaming live. It is streaming live. Streaming live right now. Oh, now. I'll stop picking my nose then. Yeah. Now is when that time is. So Franchi got me. I'm not going to take it out of the package because it's a lot. This is a super soft blanket with bats all over it. That is cool. Oh, that's lovely. It's great because I'm always cold. And you got a goodie bag. And I got a Franchi goodie bag. Shout out to Franchi on that one. Oh, my God. He hooks you up. He's always giving us super nice stuff. You know, before Jaws came out, years before Jaws came out, he gave me a Jaws translate that he drew. So it was nice when we got the game to finally put it on the game. And that's the translate we have on there now. I would do that. That's awesome. Hey, Don. So we've got some difficult questions for Don. Really difficult ones, actually. Here's the question. I need a favor from everyone. When you see Bug and Spooky tomorrow, tell them you want a midnight release of Beetlejuice. Why don't you explain why that's not possible because he's not here. That rumor just will not die. So I think this is a great idea, right? There's never been a midnight launch in pinball like we're at GameStop or something. Yeah, they don't have it. Right, or Call of Duty. So the idea is we start with a pre-party at my house. 11 p.m., we start marching down the street to the factory. We hang out out front. make sure the local police know about it so we don't get called on and then at midnight the roll-up door comes up there's the game whatever it is and then we can put down our guaranteed deposits right then and there be the first people to get in play the game it's not going to be madness and then like sales can open at noon that day for everybody else like i think it's a great idea i've got a i got one more person i got to clear it with and then we're ready to go everybody's asking me like when are we doing it they want to buy plane tickets like right now and i'm like i That's actually awesome. I want the date to be 100% before we have people booking travel. Dude, that is really cool, actually. How fun is that? You need a fog machine for when the door rolls up. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, fog that up. Yeah, some nefarious stuff over the loudspeaker, and then boom. So y'all are saying it's a good idea to invite just random, unknown pinball folks over to Well, it's a dog's house. Sure, why not? It's not my house. Yeah, it's Don's. It's fine. It's Don's. Oh, yeah, they'll be social lubricants, so we should be good. Oh, okay. That's where I go. It's all good. Yeah. But, like, there's never been a midnight launch for a Pippo machine. No, I think that's great. I think that's a good idea. It makes no sense, and I love it because of that. That's a good question. That last question is a really good one, actually. And we could all answer this question here. Oh, yeah. What do you think about the all-access $99 a year for home leaderboard, says Apollo Ghana. So I spent probably, so this is really nerdy, but I had a TV in my game room that I had Mason make the artwork for that had all my games and as my scores would change I'd give it to him and he would update it so it cost me more in me paying Mason for graphic design work for my leaderboard I actually really like the idea of having a home leaderboard I don't think that's that bad of a price to ask someone to pay for a year and there's some other perks to it I didn't read through all the perks but there's some other stuff that you get like it's a once a year access to the factory tour and you get some discounts on some merchandise and stuff for free shipping. So there's some other things that they give you. So I think you can go to the factory now, right? Like, I think anybody can. I mean, maybe that's changed recently, but it used to always be like, hey, if they're available, they'll give you a tour. The thing that gets it for me is your name is a different color. So if I go to Electric Bat and I play, I get a Pimp Daddy logo. That is worth it right there. Right? Yeah, I'm sold now. Before, I was like, this is ridiculous, but yeah. It's a different color. Yeah, your name will be in gold. That's Don's pinball podcast that did that. Boom. I don't mind that. I don't know. I don't mind that. You don't mind it? I think it's kind of amateur hour. To charge people for something that they've been clamoring for is home leaderboards. But it takes infrastructure. I understand it takes infrastructure. Then just charge us $5 a month and get it over with. Would you rather pay a monthly fee? No, I wouldn't. So that's $60 a year instead of $99. It should only be $5. But there's a time frame that if you buy it now, it's only $80, and if you wait, it's $100. So there's a transaction fee, a monthly transaction fee. I'm just thinking, like, if I was implementing, for business-wise, it makes much more sense to do a one-time thing. And also for me, like, if I'm paying for Prime, I'm paying for it once a year. I don't want a bill that I'm thinking about all the time. I think a lot of it has to do with, like, they don't host it in-house. It's all Amazon Web Services. So that's, like, imagine how many people are going to be using this thing. It's not going to be, there's going to be a big cost to them to do it, too, and continue to develop it. So I'm, I mean, sure, of course I'd love it to be $59.99, but I'm okay with $100 a year, personally. Well, also, like, the thing about free shipping on accessories, I believe, is what it is. Yeah, I think that's what it is. Sorry, I had that wrong. So that's an interesting choice for people that buy accessories that are currently buying them from dealers.
    18:02
    Yeah. Right. Oh, it's true. That's a direct purchase thing. Okay. So if I need it. Taking the fun out of it, Rachel. No, it's not. I'm kidding. If I need a replacement sticker for my LE armor, I can save on that shipping. That's fantastic. What great value. I love it. It's going to be great. I don't know. The other perks I don't see as really that much value. I'm just more in it for the leaderboard. You want the leaderboard and your name in gold, and that for you, you'd pay $500 for that. Well, I don't know about that. That's a little excessive, but I'll pay $100 for it. Here's another question. With Winchester selling out in 24 hours, what are the chances Van Ness saying, okay, I'll do another run? Zero. Zero, right? The chance is zero. Yeah, not going to happen. He's not going to do it. Not going to happen. No way. Not going to do it. No chance. I can tell you because I've tried to. You tried to get 526. I just wanted one more. I didn't need. I was walking behind her and she goes David one more just one more and see my sales pitch was it's on brand because it's a secret extra game turns out this run had 526 games but you didn't know about the other one and his response was absolutely not I'm not going to go back on my word was to these people that this is going to be limited to 525 and people bought this game sight unseen knowing that it was going to be a true limited to 525 games and I can commend him for that while also silently cursing. It would be on theme to build a game to know where there had no mechanisms in it but you otherwise got it. It was just non-functional.
    19:39
    What's your favorite homebrew? Yeah, that was everyone wants to know. Oh, there's no way to say that. Have you seen Monster League Hockey? Yeah, I know. And I'm looking at the Harry Potter here that looks complete now from last year. Monsters, Inc. is incredible. Did you see Coming to America? Somebody did a homebrew for... I didn't see that one yet. ...frickin' Soul Glow. It's right over there. That has won my heart, so I'm saying that one. Randy Martinez did the art for that. The guy who did, like, Star Wars comic edition. Ridiculous. Those of you that don't know, Don has been heading the topper contest for... Go ahead. It's a homebrew topper contest. Yeah, did you make a homebrew topper? Bring it. Enter it. win some awesome prizes. Voting is live right now. It's all public choice. And when does voting end on that?
    20:24
    Noon on Saturday, because at 1 o'clock is when we're doing the awards. All right. Sweet. And just for voting, you're going to get randomly chosen to win a play field if you're present to win. So you get something just by voting. Look at you. Right? Look at you, Don. Saving the day. Saving the expo. That's a really cool thing.
    20:41
    Do we all go through and say a homebrew? We can. I really like monster hockey. Monster League hockey. I think that taking an Alvin G machine and doing what they did, it's pretty badass. And I got to play an Alvin G a lot, so they did a really good job there. No, I thought it was cool. I had a lot of fun playing that with you The problem is with all these homebrews this year to pick a favorite one is really difficult because there so many good ones And there ones that have been here for years that have evolved into even better games so I know this one's been around for a while, but I really like Sonic, and I really like Pokemon. I know those aren't necessarily brand new ones, but I would also say Monster League Hockey. I had so much fun playing it with you. It felt... It was fun. It was like... Head-to-head joust was obviously an older... I kicked his ass. We're gonna rematch that. Oh, well, hold on. We have the Jamie Ralph tournament that's still been going on, and I just won two additional games, so I think we're tied. We're tied, I think. I think we're tied. I have a question on Monster League. Yeah, with two people playing, if you tilt, who does it count against? Oh, I don't think there's a tilt problem. I don't think there's one in there, yeah. I don't think there were. You know what they're implementing in this thing that I thought was so cool? There's going to be an attract mode where the game plays itself. Yeah, how cool is that? Super cool. Super, super, super cool. How's that going to work? I don't know, but they're telling us all about it. Well, Alvin G, you could play one player because they had wire forms over the flipper, and when it hit that wire form, it knew to flip. Okay. So it was really cool. So then what they did is they took that mechanism. I'm not technical like you guys. And were able to put it underneath the play field and still have that identification that it needs to flip. That's clever. Did anybody play Big Trouble? Because people were asking about it. I didn't get a chance to play it yet. 100%. I did. Yeah. It shoots great. It's got professional art, professional powder coat. Like, it looks like a game that some company made. I mean, it's the guy that did Friday the 13th. I can't remember. Recall his name at the moment. But, like, that was one of the greatest games for him, like, last year for Homebrew. And, like, dude killed it again the next year with, like, a commercially produced ready game, it looks like. I haven't played it yet. I just saw it. I haven't played it. The line is too long. I hit it early. It rubs me. You know, I just can't get it. Jamie doesn't do lines. I hit a line with Jamie to get dancey. You need a vendor badge. I know. When you go to Disney, do you get the Fast Pass or not? 100%. Okay, so I need a Fast Pass. Yes.
    23:05
    I need a Fast Pass. All right, Don. Thank you so much, dude. I appreciate it. Can you get kale? We're only going to try to do one hour because we've got your shit. Yeah, we have your gear. We don't want to keep you. All right, like and subscribe. Like and subscribe to Don's Pinball Podcast. Thank you, Don. And, of course, we are Pinball, which is one of my favorite podcasts, with him and his boy, Genghis. And you cannot beat that. Sorry to kick him out. Was I rude there? Kind of. It's fine. I mean, I've got to keep it moving, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Keep it moving. It's you he's going to be upset about, not me, so it's cool. No, no, no. That was a good move, I think. That was a good move. Someone's taking pictures of us.
    23:40
    Good meeting you early this morning while you were waiting for B-roll. Oh, that was me, yeah. Yeah, thank you. Sorry, thanks for being patient with me as I was, you know, trying to film and stuff. Sorry about that. He has a videographer. Yeah. You've got a team. You're very bougie about this. The rest of us are running around with iPhones. Well, Cale has his Ray-Bans. I am a little bougie. I'm a little bougie. In the bougie scale, Ralph, Cale, and then me and you. I totally agree with you. How close are Cale and I in the bougie? Is there a big distance between him and I? Well, you did forget the equipment. Yeah, I know. That was bad. No, you have us. But here's how un-bougie I am. My iPhone case is gaff-paped together. because I repeat, like, it still takes pictures. It still works. Chris Turner should buy Big Trouble and produce it. What do you think of that? Oh, that would be cool. We played Merlin's today. I did not get a chance. I didn't play it yet. I haven't even seen it. So he sold all three that he brought to the show, which is cool for him. And what are they selling for, 10? I think they might be, like, just maybe a hair under 10. Maybe they're 9.5 or something like that, I think. The show ones, yeah. Okay, I don't know. But it's cool that he sold them. I think that's awesome. Did you see the price of the Spookys? No.
    25:03
    So, you know, Spooky, hey, welcome back, buddy. Thanks for giving up your spot. Did Don tell you what he's working on? Yes. He told us everything. We know they all know now. I have to check out the buy. He has to check out the buy. I can't believe he said what he said. Yeah. The Spooky, there's a row of Spooky machines, but they're selling for like $16 because they're loaded to the T's. With what? They, like, modded them with stuff. I think it's Great American Pinball that did it. Okay. Oh. But Spooky isn't here. No. No, but they customize, like, the armor's all custom. It's, like, a fully custom. How baller is it that Spooky's like, we ain't even coming? I'm going hunting. We ain't going hunting. Dude, the guy went hunting. He went hunting. We're doing something else. We got other stuff.
    25:56
    See you. One, two. Oh, hey, Jamie. It's not a podcast unless I ask something else. It's amateur night. It's amateur hour when Bertelsen is involved. He stepped right on the thing. On the power strip. Sorry about that, guys. I apologize. Jamie did that.
    26:32
    It says Bug will be here Friday. Trashcan, how do you know this? That's not... I don't know. Don just told us he's not going to be here. No, he said he's not coming. He's like hunting or something. No, I think he's hunting, dude. I think he's hunting. Has anyone played Space Hunt? No. No, not yet. There's like four right there. Yeah, I haven't played it yet. Maybe we'll play it when we're done. That's the French game? That's the Frenchie. That was the one that was here last year, but I tried to play it last year and it didn't work. Yes. Okay. Yes. So make it another run. Is there only one portal here? I really want to play portal. There's one portal and one... What's the one before portal?
    27:13
    Weird Al? No. Princess Bride. And the line's too long again. I don't have a fast pass. I want to play it, though. You keep telling me I've got to play a P3. I want to play it. It says bug is coming. he said it on his live stream trash cans telling us we're totally wrong we're wrong all right well we're gonna get don back over here i mean don said he's not coming listen he's a new hire he might not he's not on all the emails he's not in the company discord yet he's not on the slack they don't tell him everything not fully onboarded oh man donnie they're holding out on you man All right, I have to ask Ralph, what is your name on Kaneda's Pass? Why is your name on Kaneda's Pass? So I didn't even know that that was a thing someone told me. Because I've been off Facebook. I've been enjoying the show so much, I haven't even touched my phone. So I haven't even taken pictures. I've just been playing games. So I didn't know that until later in the day. But I think his pass says Kaneda, and then underneath says Retro Ralph. So, yeah. What time is the joint open until tonight, the hallway here? I think it's midnight tonight. Okay. So midnight tonight, then we'll go to a little fireside, sit by the hotel, have some cocktails. So check this out. The tournament area, though, so many more people have, they were expecting a smaller crowd this year at the tournament, and it ended up being way, way, way bigger, and they've had to add games. And we were looking at the queue times, and it was like six hours on some games. Now, I heard that because there's multiple copies of every game that the queue times, and it's not an accurate representation, but we're looking at over an hour per game. So they're leaving it open until 3 a.m. this morning for qualifying. So if you all want to stay up and volunteer. The floor closes at 11. So we have 18 minutes. No. Why would they do that? They just made an announcement. I didn't hear it. We didn't hear it. That's a bummer. Yeah, it's okay. We'll get to the bar quicker. All right, we'll get to the bar. What means we get to bed early and get up early? I wish you were here tomorrow. This bums me out so bad, dude. I forgot you're leaving. You're staying. I'm not staying. I am going to this wedding.
    29:27
    Although I'm sad to be leaving my friends here, I'm totally pumped about this wedding, and I can't wait to see my friends at the wedding. You get cake. You know, that's good. Yeah. I get to do both. It's pretty exciting. But I did say this on the last roundtable, Rachel. I don't care what happens or who dies in 2026. I'm not missing Expo.
    29:48
    Okay. So you need to put it on the calendar now. I would love that. Well, I told everyone, listen, be healthy for 2026 because I'm not leaving. You're coming. And you're staying the whole damn time. I'm coming. That's it. Okay. Trash can, I can't. I got a great. So it does close too early, which is. Look, I don't want to talk about another expo while I'm here at this expo, but if I can one day get you to the Houston Arcade Expo.
    30:13
    No, I need to go. You keep talking about it. It does not end. It doesn't end. I can't party until 4 a.m. anymore. I'm just like, I can't. I don't have it in me. I don't. I usually, you know what I do? I usually Irish goodbye. Yeah, and I'll do that around 1130. I support that. You support the Irish goodbye, right? It's a good move. When do you do that? I haven't seen you do that. Well, I don't do it to you guys, but when I'm at Eureka Heights, I'll just Irish my ass out. I did see last night you were roaming because you couldn't find me, and I think you might have Irish goodbye then, but we did see each other and then you stayed. And sometimes we do that at the bat only because there's like 100 people and they're all our friends. Like, I'm not going to say bye to 100 people. Yeah, that's true. So, like, it's never any offense. I wouldn't be offended if you Irish goodbye'd me. Oh, I mean, I totally would if you were me. No, I would never ask goodbye, Rachel. Maybe Ralph. You would. Not Rachel. It's fine. Maybe Cale, too.
    31:12
    Walking Dead. Do we cover that real quick? Yeah. Why do we think Walking Dead? Do we still think that it's coming out? We kind of put the stamp on it. It's not happening, right? It's not happening here this weekend. And, yes, I do think it's on a Spike 3.
    31:28
    I think every game coming out. I don think you going to do spike three spike three spike two Yeah that doesn make any sense You not going to step backwards And I think you know probably Star Wars just came out You don want to step on your own sails You don want to compete with yourself So I think that they're just going to postpone that. They don't want to shit where you eat. They don't want to shit where they eat.
    31:50
    Can we talk about the Death Star shot? Ours works. Okay, so yours works at the bat. And we went to Logan's last night. And I'm not crapping on Logan's because it was fantastic. Good time. And they had their best time. But we played two games on it, four-player games. The second game, all we did. We played a game just trying to hit the Death Star. That's all it was. And guess who got multiball? You did. None of us. Oh, no. None of us did. You got to play the best. So we ran into the mechanical engineer from Stern there. Yeah. And he said that these show games have a fix already implemented in it. And that that fix, if it works, if it stays through the weekend, And then they're going to ship fixed kits to distributors to ship to customers. That's kind of cool, right? So, yeah, that's kind of cool.
    32:37
    I don't know what that kit would be. Ours works 100% out of the box. They were saying you've got to take the whole Death Star apart. And there's, like, I don't know what it looks like inside, but there's some piece of metal and it's curved in a specific way, and this one's curved slightly different. Yeah.
    32:53
    Hey, real quick because they're going to kick us out of here. Let me ask you, tomorrow, when is the AI?
    33:01
    Does anyone have that? No. I got it. Because I know, you know, one of the things I know I'm bummed about missing is the AI with Ian and that crew. I think that might be. I think it's.
    33:18
    Good luck reading that. I think that might be Saturday. Good luck reading this. The Rise of AI and Pinball Art, 11 a.m. Saturday, October 18th, with Ian Jacoby, Brian Allen, Johnny Crap, Colin Alzheimer, and Brad Albright. Great. Yeah, so Zombie Yeti and Franchi are no longer on that panel. They switched it up. They didn't want to get sued or something. I have a panel tomorrow, Jamie. Are you bummed about missing that? No, I am bummed. I was going right from AI to you. So give me a second. Give me a second. I'm trying to steer the ship. You've got a panel tomorrow with Josh. Josh and Scott from Loser Kid. And who else is on there? Joel and Jared. I haven't seen Joel. This is one of the few I haven't seen. Nope. Oh, and then just me. I'm a solo act, technically.
    34:14
    So it's going to be cool. We're going to talk all about content creation, trying to bring new people into content creation, what it takes to do it, what issues, gear, all sorts of stuff. So it'll be fun for someone that is trying to get into pinball streaming or just creating content, no matter what it is, Instagram, TikTok, whatever, want to talk all about it. So it should be fun. People love to hear about gear and how to do it. I think that'll be great. There's so many ways to do it, and you don't have to do it. You don't have to spend a ton of money to start, and I think that's where people trip up. They try to buy all the best stuff, or it's too much money. You just start small and then work your way from there. All you need is a cell phone. Yeah, you got a phone. Yeah, exactly. Anything, Cale, you're looking forward to over the course of the next few days?
    34:56
    Saturday, I think it's 6 p.m. I'll have to check the schedule. But the making of D&D. Yeah. That'll be a good one. With Dwight Sullivan and the crew, Brian Eddy. When is Dwight? Hey, Emoto. Emoto, I think, is laughing at us right now. She's laughing at us. She's very amused by this. She's getting a kick out of us.
    35:18
    Oh. Thank you. Thank you, man. Bodo's so sweet. She's the best. Say hello. All right, Bodo's going to come join real quick. And we'll probably close it there.
    35:30
    I like the set y'all chose. Yeah, right? Thank you for helping us out. We had to get permission from Aaron, who gets fast pinball. And he was like, we went up to him. Kale went up to him and said, are you okay? These guys are going to be representing your name. Because they say stupid stuff sometimes. So are you okay with this? Just full disclaimer, we're a bunch of idiots over here. Not Rachel. No, the best. Okay, but me and this potato head. Yeah, boneheads.
    36:00
    Oh, someone asked about Surge and the simulation theory. I can tell you that Cale and Surge, and sometimes John Shoplin and I talk about this in the back room at the Bat after Tuesday Night League quite frequently. I do think at some point Serge can be talked into talking about simulation theory. It's something the three of us read and follow. We all have very strong opinions, and I think you'll hear about it. I think that's captivating, but I've got to go. You guys have got to go, too. You should keep rolling until the security guard kicks you out, so then you get that audio of like, What are you guys doing here? I'll give you that permission to be the degenerates and keep going. We can't hear you. Thanks, Aboda.
    36:47
    All right. Are you taking us home? I think we should go home. I mean, they're kicking us out in ten minutes. What do you think? I ain't fucking leaving.
    36:57
    I love her so much. I love it. I adore her. I love that he's in front of us getting the live stream on his phone listening to it. How far behind are we? All right, ten seconds. Thank you, brother. Hey, buddy.
    37:13
    Hey, we should get Kyle to talk real quick. Let's get Kyle to talk. I think Expo closes at like 2 a.m. tomorrow. Oh, yeah. So it does stay open late, just not on a Thursday.
    37:26
    How? Okay, we're about 15 seconds behind. We're talking to other people. We're not even talking to each other now. But Expo closing at 11 on a Thursday. No, it's not terrible. No, no. I'm putting my foot down. I don't do that very often. It should be midnight at the...
    37:44
    Oh, we got a Super Chat that just came in. Super Chat. I'm keeping that. Super Chat. He can't... I was with someone today. Can you monetize yet?
    37:54
    This isn't our board. We don't know. We're using Don's soundboard, so we don't... You never know. Let's just press one more to see what the purple one. Just press it. Oh, there you go.
    38:08
    All right. Yes. Don's Pinball Podcast. All day. We're all the ladies out there. Welcome to Expo. Ex, Ex, Expo. Yeah.
    38:22
    Short for Expose. Yeah. Okay. How long does it go? How does it go? All right. There we go. Let's just try the green one and then we'll be done.
    38:38
    That one's not that fun. That's not. That's okay. I like that. Oh, this is his intro. That's his intro. Hey, everybody.
    38:46
    Don from Don's Pinball Garage. How are you? That wasn't bad. That was pretty good. Yeah. That wasn't bad. All right. We're getting kicked out of here.
    38:56
    This is perfect. We got the outro music. All right. Expo fans, it looks like we're getting kicked out. This is Don's Pinball Podcast.
    39:03
    Oh, wow. That's way too loud. I could rock that. Yeah. I could rock that. Thank you so much. part nine or ten, we don't count anymore, of the roundtable, joined by the lovely and wonderful Rachel Best. I am Jamie Birchall. I am Retro Rao. And Cale Hernandez. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate you all for joining us here, and again, come to Pinball Expo, go to the homebrew section, support these homebrewers. I need to thank him really quick. We gotta thank, you don't have yours, do you? I left it up there. Alright, I gotta thank VicVP because he made the coolest shirt. He made this custom for me, and he made one for Jamie. But he asked me. And Kale and I. Oh, you got two? Oh, cool. All right. Ours are black. Oh. But look at this. He put my initials like I use on games. He put my name and my logo. This is just cool. It was very thoughtful. So thank you, Vic. I didn't realize he gave them to everybody. Yeah. That's great. But, no, that was really cool.
    40:06
    Anyway, thank you guys so, so much. I'm going to walk around with these two. It is a little strange to walk around with these three people because they get stopped a lot more than I do. I was wondering who the two were, like which one of us, when you're walking around with these two. Mostly you two. I glob onto them like a fucking virus sometimes. I feel bad. Don't you? You're getting stopped a ton this year, buddy. I know. You're a celebrity now. You're a pinball celebrity. It's really weird that imposter syndrome that you were talking about At your meeting today or whatever, seminar or whatever the hell those things are called. All right, let's get out of here. Normally, it's Cale that keeps stretching us out, but you're too quiet tonight. I'm just hanging out. I'm over here hanging out. Can I interrupt real quick? Yeah. My shirt, Jay Adelson, it's a score bet. He came up to me and he says, Chris, I know your desire for high-end fashions. It is the only one that was created that is Gucci. All right. Thank you for letting us know that. We didn't know that. Well, the bar started earlier. The bar, this is great. Let's go to the bar and hang out with that guy. Christopher Wells Graham, everybody. Let's do it. Let's hang out with that dude. Christopher Wells Graham. All right, well, Christopher Wells Graham, thanks for interrupting and not speaking. I don't even know what he said, but I was fine. I had no idea. He wasn't even on a mic, and you probably didn't hear it either. Well, now he's lifting his shirt up and... Oh, wow. Okay. What is he feeling right now? Oh, no, no. What's going on? Ladies and gentlemen, that is... We need that music again. Still going. All right. Don't show it. Nobody wants to see that. What is happening? Thank you so much for Marco's specialty. So let us use the booth and the power and the Internet and all that stuff. Thank you, Marco. Yeah, that was great. I really appreciate you guys. All right. We are literally going to shut down.
    42:00
    Bye.