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Ep 163: 2025 TPF Recap | Harry Potter, Portal, Medieval Madness, Merlin Arcade, Evil Dead, and Dune

LoserKid Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 17m·analyzed·Mar 25, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

TPF recap: Jack's Harry Potter gaffe, Portal hype, and emerging non-Stern alternatives.

Summary

Josh Roop and Scott Larson discuss the Texas Pinball Festival (TPF), focusing on Jersey Jack Pinball's Jack Danger inadvertently announcing Harry Potter during an Avatar panel (seen as a marketing blunder), Portal's strong showing with hands-on play generating referrals, and upcoming games including King Kong, Evil Dead, Dune, and Merlin's Arcade. They address Multimorphic's excellent customer service, Portal's innovative screen mechanics, and the fragmentation of the pinball market between tournament-focused Stern games and entertainment-focused alternatives.

Key Claims

  • Jack Danger announced Harry Potter is coming next during an Avatar panel, telling attendees to save money

    high confidence · Josh and Scott directly reference the panel where Jack said 'Harry Potter's coming next. You're going to want to save your money. If you thought Wizard of Oz was amazing, wait until you see this.'

  • Jersey Jack is clearing inventory with significant price drops on older games (Toy Story 4 with topper for $10k, Guns N' Roses for $9k)

    high confidence · Scott mentions current Facebook ads showing these discounted prices

  • Naps Arcade confirmed that Keith Elwin's next game is King Kong: Myth of the Lost Island

    medium confidence · Josh references Naps Arcade's confirmation and mentions the trademark from Stern

  • The right ramp on Portal's Extended Edition sometimes wouldn't come all the way down at TPF

    high confidence · Josh notes this as feedback from hands-on play, describes it as fixable via coding

  • Zach Mandy mentioned the last half of April and beginning of May have no production scheduled at Stern

    medium confidence · Josh references Zach's statement at the last Pinball Show; uses this to speculate on King Kong announcement timing

  • Multimorphic's customer service responded to Josh's circuit board issue on a Sunday within 20 minutes

    high confidence · Josh provides detailed account of Nick Baldridge's rapid response and support process

  • Portal's Extended Edition extends playfield beyond the back third, making it feel more like a traditional pinball machine

    high confidence · Scott describes this as a 'huge step forward for P3' based on Triple Drain podcast discussion

  • Joe Kamikow announced JJP's Harry Potter on Mother's Day without coordination

    medium confidence · Josh describes this as an 'unforced error,' implying unplanned announcement

Notable Quotes

  • “Harry Potter's coming next. You're going to want to save your money. If you thought Wizard of Oz was amazing, wait until you see this.”

    Jack Danger (Jersey Jack Pinball) @ During TPF Avatar panel discussion — Unscripted announcement of next major JJP title that undermined current Avatar promotion

  • “In tennis, there is a term called unforced errors... this seemed like Jack teed up and then nailed the ball right into the net.”

    Scott Larson @ During Harry Potter gaffe discussion — Metaphorical framing of Jack's announcement as a strategic marketing error

  • “This is one reason why I said it always was challenging with Jersey Jack when they had Pirates of the Caribbean, because the prototype... they still kept sending the prototypes with the triple spinning disc to shows.”

    Josh Roop @ Portal ramp discussion context — Historical comparison of JJP's handling of prototype features and public perception

  • “If you listen to the Triple Drain guys, they were talking also about how the deluxe version or the plus version—it does... extend it down beyond that back third. So it feels a lot more like a typical pinball machine.”

    Scott Larson @ Portal Extended Edition discussion — Comparison of Portal editions and their design implications for P3 platform

  • “I guarantee that if you were an average person who just bought a P3, you would have got the same service.”

    Josh Roop @ Multimorphic customer service discussion — Assessment of Multimorphic's service quality across all customer types

  • “My guess is either this Friday or next Friday we get a teaser trailer for Kong with a full release the Tuesday after, or it's like what they did with Dungeons and Dragons. They do a teaser on Tuesday with a full reveal on Friday.”

    Josh Roop @ King Kong announcement speculation — Prediction of King Kong announcement timing based on production schedule data

  • “When I first heard Jack say 'don't spend a dime,' yeah, you see Harry Potter, I felt like it was a move of desperation.”

Entities

Jack DangerpersonJersey Jack Pinball (JJP)companyMultimorphiccompanyPortal (Pinball)gameKing Kong: Myth of the Lost IslandgameHarry Potter (Pinball)gameAvatar (Pinball)gameStern PinballcompanyBarrels of Fun

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack implementing aggressive inventory clearance strategy with significant discounts while simultaneously announcing next-generation product, creating mixed market messaging

    high · Scott's analysis of startup economics requiring inventory pass-through; specific price reductions listed; Jack's announcement timing during Avatar promotion

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive sentiment toward Multimorphic's customer service quality, with rapid Sunday support response being cited as differentiator in competitive market

    high · Josh's detailed account of Nick Baldridge's response; comparison of Multimorphic team members (Michael Ocean, Ian Harrow, Nick Baldridge, Jerry, Sarah) as exceptionally helpful; note that 'this is the one thing people complain about when it comes to a pinball company'

  • ?

    community_signal: Multimorphic receiving strong positive reception at TPF with hands-on play generating significant Portal referral signups and media engagement

    high · Josh notes 'quite the amount of people that have hit up for the referral program'; Portal generating buzz across Triple Drain and other media

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Portal's right ramp on Extended Edition has mechanical issue (incomplete descent); however, described as minor and correctable via code updates

    high · Josh notes 'right ramp on the Extended Edition sometimes wouldn't come all the way down'; Scott confirms fixable via coding; noted as prototype feedback, not fundamental flaw

  • $

    market_signal: Emerging non-Stern manufacturers (Multimorphic, Barrels of Fun, Turner, American Pinball) beginning to fill entertainment/casual player niche underserved by Stern's tournament-focused design philosophy

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.232

0:00
thanks for tuning into the loser kid pinball podcast we are on episode 163 i am josh rupe with me my co-captain as always scott larson and scott it was pretty amazing weekend there was a ton of games announced there is a bunch that our favorite distributor has on hold if you want any of these games how do you get them well contact zach and nicole many at flipping out pinball i actually ordered two games from them and i also ordered three upgrade kits so i got two medieval madnesses uh the merlin edition and i also got three cactus canyon upgrade kits so they are always there for you just go ahead and reach out um well uh medieval madness may not be available anymore but you know reach out and see what they can do uh but there are lots of plenty of games out there that we can talk about so let's So just ask him at Flippin' Out Pinball. Definitely. And if you're looking for a portal, take $1,000 off on Loser Kid. The way this works, email us here at LoserKidPinballPodcast.com. The only question we're going to ask you is this. For a brand new P3, for any kind of module, it doesn't matter if it's Canon and Goud up to portal, if you say yes, we'll send you on through to Sarah, and she will get you squared away with that new portal game. and one word of advice if you don't qualify don't berate or attack this is this is for new customer like it's basically try to get your foot in the door a new system with a new play field and you know the caveat is this is for this is the complete package you know they're they're trying to help expand their footprint so be nice to them and we'll be nice to you definitely i couldn't put it any better way. Scott, I want to give some updates to our fans, to our, for our friends, for those that have been listening to the podcast for a while now. One person that we met this week was, was pinball pursuit. I want to give a shout out to Cameron and his wife, JM. Very, very nice people live in our neck of the woods here in Utah. If you haven't checked out their content on YouTube, definitely go check it out. It's something different that I haven't seen in pinball yet. And it's cool because it's coming from a perspective of a newcomer coming into pinball. Think Mrs. Pin without the swearing.
2:29
Swearing was kind of fun with Mrs. Pin. True, true. But to get back to Loser Kid, we have switched RSS feeds. We've done this seamlessly, and you probably haven't even noticed. You probably did notice that we accidentally re-uploaded the same episode twice. So our interview with the development crew for the new Portal game got uploaded twice. But that's because one is on the old RSS feed and the new one is on the new RSS feed. What does this mean to you? It really doesn't mean much. It just means that we've switched some stuff. SoundCloud wasn't doing it for us anymore. Zencaster actually does give us RSS feed capabilities. Scott and I were both like, why are we paying for double? let's slim it down to one zen caster does great for us ta-da simple as that right shazam so and youtube doesn't change so ta-da ta-da uh that's that i think that does it for our update on loser kid well and if you want swag you know silverball swag.com slash loser kid you know people are loving the attack for mars jersey and t-shirt well not attack for mars loser kid attacks sorry The loser can't attack. That's right.

Scott Larson @ Harry Potter gaffe analysis — Alternative interpretation of Jack's announcement as driven by business pressure rather than enthusiasm

  • “Portal does incorporate some new technology, especially the giant screen that's helping out... There are entertainment aspects of pinball that P3 does better than anybody.”

    Scott Larson @ Portal innovation discussion — Positioning of P3/Multimorphic as alternative to Stern's tournament-focused approach

    • company
    Josh Roopperson
    Scott Larsonperson
    Nick Baldridgeperson
    Texas Pinball Festival (TPF)event
    Triple Drainorganization
    Flippin' Out Pinballcompany
    Keith Elwinperson
    Mark Seidenperson
    Evil Dead (Pinball)game
    Dune (Pinball)game
    Merlin's Arcadegame

    high · Scott's analysis positioning Portal/P3 as alternative; discussion of theme-driven casual players (cousin with Ghostbusters); acknowledgment that 'pinball doesn't always have to be about who can go to PAPA'

  • ?

    community_signal: Jack Danger's unscripted announcement suggests either intentional attention-seeking or process breakdown; raises questions about corporate messaging discipline at Jersey Jack

    medium · Josh and Scott speculate whether announcement was planned or Jack 'being Jack'; note that this isn't first instance of uncontrolled messaging; comparison to Joe Kamikow's Mother's Day announcement

  • ?

    announcement: King Kong: Myth of the Lost Island confirmed as Keith Elwin's next Stern game via Naps Arcade; expected announcement in late April/early May based on production schedule analysis

    high · Josh cites Naps Arcade confirmation of title; Zach Mandy's statement about April/May production gaps; typical 2-week pre-announcement pattern for Stern

  • ?

    product_strategy: Portal availability potentially constrained; referenced as high-demand item with referral program driving pre-orders

    medium · Discussion of referral program and people getting 'off the couch' to secure orders; comparison of Standard vs. Extended Edition availability

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community perception of Jersey Jack's strategy shifting from premium/exclusive to desperate/inventory-clearing, triggered by Harry Potter announcement and price reductions on existing games

    high · Scott describes announcement as 'move of desperation'; Josh notes price drops on multiple games (Toy Story 4, Guns N' Roses); both discuss inventory clearing as business necessity but note unintended negative messaging to consumers

  • ?

    technology_signal: Portal demonstrates significant P3 platform innovation (light bridge mechanics, extended playfield, screen-integrated gameplay) positioning Multimorphic as alternative to tournament-focused Stern design

    high · Multiple discussions of light bridge 'flipper wall' mechanic; Extended Edition extending beyond back third; comparison to Stern's tournament-centric approach

    • 3:43
    The font is surprisingly similar. But as always, we thank Michael Bernard for helping us out on that. He stole the words out of my mouth. I was about to say that. Michael's a great guy, by the way. If you don't follow him, his stuff is hilarious. Recently, he had a – he's like, I got an extra sack at a fast food joint. I can't remember what it was. So he drew like a Garbage Pail Kid on it. He's really huge into Garbage Pail Kids. So if you're either into disc golf stuff, he has all sorts of cool stuff and also in the Garbage Pail Kids. Seriously, if you want that 80s revival, that man is doing it with his artwork. Yeah. And it's amazing. Those Garbage Pail Kids are amazing. Yep. So definitely check out. Was it Michael Bernard Art Community, I want to say, on Facebook? Yeah. You know, that actually does remind me that we did have one correction that we did not get to because we were doing interviews.
    4:41
    We talked, so we are a pinball podcast, but we also do try to maintain journalistic integrity. So if we say something wrong, then we try to correct it. We did get asked to correct. Christopher Franchi has actually not said anything about the license with Back to the Future. And so what we did is we inferred some things based on some information. So we want to keep, we don't want to get anybody in trouble, especially when their job is contingent on being good with licenses. So just to clarify, we don't have any more information on the Back to the Future license. We just highly suspect that it's Dutch and we shall see what will happen then.
    5:30
    Sure. Okay. Whatever Scott says. Well, I'm just saying that we do speculate a lot And we did not want to attribute any erroneous speculation to someone who's employed with licensing and creating things. So this is for fun. We definitely don't want to affect anybody's ability to work within their business. I agree. Yes, 100%. Actually, speaking of speculation, I've been thinking about this. Right, Scott? Go ahead. So we did start up the Patreon, right? This was an opportunity for people that wanted to support us to support us. Also, it's an opportunity for us to give back. We've talked about this once on the podcast before. We talked about these media days that the manufacturers do, and we're giving one of you an opportunity to join us on those media days. The way that you do that is you sign up via our Patreon, and the higher the tier, the first refusal you get. There's only one in the winner kids, so they get to choose whether or not they get to go with us. There will be a small fee. I want to warn of that because I don't want to shock anyone when we do say, hey, by the way, we do have some costs that are incurred with this. But if you want to check that out. But the reason I bring up speculation is. Well, it's the ability to join us. Correct. We cannot pay for your trip.
    6:47
    Exactly. Yes. So one thing is, is there's a lot of speculation going on right now with the next game being Keith Elwin. uh the last pinball show zach many had mentioned that the last half of april and the beginning of may do not have anything in the production schedule interesting and usually when something's on the line and shipping it's because two weeks before they announced it so my speculation is with nap arcades confirmation that ellen's next game is king kong something of mystery island i can't remember exactly perfectly uh because that was what the licensing trademark was from stern my guess is either this friday or next friday we get a teaser trailer for kong with a full release the tuesday after or it's like what they did with dnd they do a teaser on tuesday with a full reveal on friday yeah so either way we we may or may not know more but either way we have a good relationship with stern and we will let you know when we know definitely this is all educated guests this we have no behind the scenes as much as i've been asking and i wouldn't tell you if if we were told because we'd like to keep our relationships nice on the up and up right so uh but that that is my that is my educated guess on our speculation and we'll get more to that a little bit later but let's talk about tpf it just happened this weekend yep um it sounds like people had an insane amount of fun shout out to all of our friends that went i felt bad we didn't go shane told from the nudge cast was down in the tournament was slaying it he was wearing our hat just destroying everyone in the tournament uh the triple drain guys were there carrie hardy was there i mean who else who else eclectic gamers dennis and anthony yeah it just sounded like a party well if you if you looked at all of the pictures that were uploaded by joe i you saw like basically all our friends were playing pinball and we were working this weekend. So yep. So I, I was hoping to be there, but I had to work a Friday night. And so I would have had to fly in Saturday morning and then fly back Sunday night. And I just, right now it's nearly impossible for me to get time off work due to many business related things, uh, not on my part. So it's, uh, it's just hard for me to get off work. And Josh lives, uh, in dinosaur land with the fossils and it's pretty hard to get to transport in and out of there which is exciting though we get a second airplane flying out of earl now i have two different options how amazing is that that's amazing that is amazing um what i noticed you were posting kind of as as announcements were happening this weekend i was trying to help you know help our friends out and relay things going on yeah yeah you were posting so well and i was posting so well that people are like man we wish we were down there with you in texas and we're like me too we're not in texas yeah i really am trying to get to um to expo my my plan is expo because my even my daughter said wait texas weren't we supposed to go as a family like yeah we we couldn't make that happen this year but there's expo which would be fun because we'd take you to a pinball uh you know the pinball manufacturing so yeah and i actually have the time off this year so i am well i'm okay my fall break i have the time off i'm hoping it overlaps with texas pinball festival so i need to double check those i'll have to i'll show you the schedule yeah um okay let's let's talk about i would say the biggest news slash blunder from texas pinball festival oh this is a biggie yeah speaking of your hat uh nice hat by the way yeah i'm wearing i'm wearing my jjp hat uh that eric mignier gave me so thanks eric and uh and you know i actually it was either eric or ken uh both like i know that i was talking to both of them i can't remember exactly who did it but either way thanks eric thanks ken uh being a friend of the show let's say they were both holding it together and handed it to you they could have been absolutely yeah but either way every time we see eric and ken they're always really good to us yes 100 okay jack when harry was on a panel with Mark Seiden, they were talking about Avatar, and someone had asked, when is your next game coming out? And this is when Jack took over the mic and said, Harry Potter's coming next. You're going to want to save your money.
    11:18
    If you thought Wizard of Oz was amazing, wait until you see this. And then apparently he sang happy birthday to someone. Oh, wow. Okay. Interesting. uh what i want to what's what's your thoughts on this scott i just yeah uh um okay in tennis there is a term called unforced errors so this is this is something that you commit when you have full control of the ball and you really should just hit the ball back over the net um this seemed like jack teed up and then nailed the ball right into the net um just a couple of thoughts and and legit we we did reach out to a few people to say what like what was jack thinking like is this was this planned was this like what what's going on um i'm we didn't hear back and that's fine uh but i am guessing that this was jack being jack jack's uh jack's always been kind of a salesman and being able to drum up interest uh and i'm sure he is extremely excited about harry potter because this is something that everybody's been asking for well for about 15 years okay um well you can send the video it took him like 10 years to acquire the license and then there's a big there's a pretty um let's just say a a very good rumor with some some good sources behind it that stern kind of dropped the ball on this and we talked we talked about this that you mean like joe kamikow saying that yeah on mother's day just saying hey by the way um jjps harry potter there it is who um again an unforced error i don't know why that happened either but uh okay so why well one why would he say it i would say he said it because he is super interested he's super excited about it and justifiable excitement because this is going to sell a ton of games the problem though is you still are trying to sell your existing games that are available today you are also at a seminar promoting your current game which is avatar and all that focus really should have been on avatar so i i i i feel bad for mark that mark's there this is his debut game And Mark has it's a solid game, by the way. If you haven't played Avatar, it's a solid game. The theme integration is fantastic. The art is great. The light show Jersey Jack is second to none on light shows. So they're going to make sure that it pops and it pops appropriately. So it takes over the the environment of Pandora. So there's so many things you could be promoting about Pandora and Avatar and your collector's edition topper with the Pepper's Ghost look, and he totally chopped the knees out of it. And so I don't understand from a marketing standpoint why you would do that. Also, it just – you're really undermining the sales of people who would consider buying Avatar because this is an expensive product. Jersey Jack products are all expensive, and you have to justify spending $12,000 to $15,000 on the product. And if you are telegraphing, well, you really want to hold on to the next product. And I know what he means is don't buy other people's games. But the unintended consequence is you're also telegraphing, maybe you shouldn't buy our games. That may not be what he meant, but I guarantee that's what people think. no i totally agree i think that uh what okay from my perspective i know you're saying excitement and whatnot when i first heard jack say don't spend a dime yeah you see harry potter i felt like it was a move of desperation at least from my perspective and i'll say okay go ahead when you see portals out there when you see evil deads out there you hear ellen's next with king kong and you You know he's a threat as is. And you've got barrels of fun who have proven themselves and their game, if it is the rumored Dune, is on the horizon. So I see it as a play of don't buy anyone else's stuff. Wait till you see Harry Potter. Yeah. However, add to that, though, they are trying to clear their inventory out. Yeah. They have been dropping prices. They've been dropping prices on some of their games. yeah if you see the ads right now and all the facebook posts it's like it's like toy story 4 with topper for like 10 grand it's gnr for nine right and so this is now by the way this is a common practice in business like for you to the what you really want on from a business standpoint we've talked about this for you know we talked about the challenge of being a startup because Because the challenge of being a startup is you basically have to have like five years of money and seed money for you to start becoming profitable. Yeah. So you really have to have some money up front just to break even. And then you start taking off. Look at Amazon, by the way. If you really want to know how startups work, look at Amazon. And it started as him selling. Now, Jeff Bezos is a smart guy. I believe he left Princeton. And so it's not like he was a dummy who said, hey, I'm just going to start selling books. Like he knew about business, but they didn't even break even until well past the fifth year.
    17:24
    And so when you're doing something like that, you typically have to make some compromises. So a lot of times you don't want to sit on old inventory because that costs money. So you're paying money in storage fees. You're paying money in everything. So you really want to have a pass through of probably 90 days, 30 to 90 days on your supply. You definitely don't want to be holding holding on to things for a year. So they're trying to clear out their old inventory and by saying, hey, we're discounting our games. Also, by the way, we have this epic title that's coming out, and you are going to have the – you're going to influence people who are on the fence of buying a super expensive game, and they're going to hold on. so it's not the entire market because we know that the pinball market goes from people who just play at arcades to people who will buy every limited edition and and everywhere in between you have people who buy buy you stuff you have people who buy new pro level markets then you also have the premium level markets the new and the so you see where i'm going with this yeah but But when you say, hey, we're clearing out our inventory, but I don't even know if you want to buy it because we have a great game coming out. Yeah. It completely undermines what you're trying to do as a business.
    18:54
    I totally agree. I just – it was a blunder. I don't know if – I know people have been saying this behind the scenes and whatnot. Jack is getting old. I wonder if it's time to stop having him do discussions. I love Jack to death. I love sitting down with him, talking to him stories. I, some of my favorite pinball memorable stories are sitting down with Jack Um but this isn the first time that Jack has done something of this magnitude i know that like he is the founder and whatnot maybe it time though that be more of a behind the scenes you still need to have your messaging consistent with the goal of the company right and so if and who knows maybe this is a this could just be like one other one other instance where, hey, people are talking about Jersey Jack. They're talking about it, which, hey, in many instances, you want to be relevant. This definitely keeps you relevant. And there is the possibility that people say, hey, they have Harry Potter coming out. Oh, by the way, they've done a really good job of theme integration on Hobbit. They've done a really good job of theme integration on Avatar. Maybe while I'm waiting for that, I'll buy that. So there is a possibility it could go another way too.
    20:16
    I'm hoping it turns out for them. I'm just really concerned by the fallout of it. Same, same. Not much else we can talk about with it besides that. We wish them luck. I know that we've reached out with Ken Cromwell to see if we can have some people on, talk some stuff. We want to talk about Avatar. We've played Avatar. Avatar is a fun game, and it's super immersive, and in keeping with Jersey Jack coding, it has a billion modes in there. So it is a packed game, which is an achievement unto itself. Yeah.
    20:53
    I agree. All right, let's move on to, I would say, maybe one of the highlights of TPF, at least this is what I'm hearing, Portal. People actually got to get their hands on this game. There was the standard and the extended edition down there from Multimorphic.
    21:11
    They had the whole development team down there helping out, coaching people, running through rule sets. If you haven't listened to Triple Drain's most recent episode, I would highly recommend it. They talked about in-depth a lot of these games because they got hands-on. Also, if you haven't subscribed, if you haven't liked, they did have to move RSS feed as well because of – dissolving and so yeah in good ways by the way i mean we're friends with all of the podcasts there so yeah we wish everybody nothing but the best i think they're just figuring it's easier just to go into it's go independent like everybody having their own so you know their own dedicated feed which i think is a smart move definitely and so anywho go check out that episode but they did talk about portal in depth and i think personally the aerial tricks look really cool um the people's i think their only complaint was is that that right ramp on the extended edition sometimes wouldn't come all the way down but right something you can fix in coding i mean it's just it's something that they can they've got a little time to fix so why not it's great to get feedback it's a prototype and remember that it's even the and this isn't a huge issue that they could figure out and it could just be that there's only so much you can do because you have a ramp descending onto a onto a screen right but the screen has a lot of protective stuff and so i'm sure that they'll be able to figure out a better way of implementing it this is one reason why i said it always was challenging with Jersey Jack when they had Pirates of the Caribbean because the the prototype you know they sold so much on hey it has a triple spinning disc which by the way probably didn't do much um for the gameplay it was a cool idea a cool feature but when they announced that they were taking it out they still kept sending the prototypes with the triple spinning disc to shows Yeah, and I thought that was – that didn't help their cause.
    23:21
    This is probably just a little different. This is a ramp fix that Jerry probably gets a lot more into because think about more people play Portal in the last weekend than they have in the entire development cycle. Yeah.
    23:38
    Yep. Well, and one fan of the show, Matt Benzik, he posted on our Facebook. he got to play he absolutely loved it can't wait to get his he's already in on one he said having ian and steven talk about the rules lore and shots between games made the game feel a ton better once i knew what i was doing it's enjoyable to sack two three random people in a line and have conversation about the game what and what they wanted to shoot for the shots felt good there's some challenging ones but it doesn't feel like there's any unfair rejects that could end your ball for just barely missing a shot yeah i mean that's that's pretty high praise when you're doing a layout and stuff too if you listen to the triple gang triple guys a triple drain guys they were talking also about how the deluxe version or the plus version it does you know the extended version it actually does extend it down beyond that that back third so it feels a lot more like a typical pinball machine yeah that is not limited to the back third so this is a this was a huge step forward for um for p3 yep well and even that whole i mean one thing they talked about that they don't think that they've ever been done in pinball before was on the left side if you look back at the the trailer whatever the wall actually becomes like a flipper yeah and there's this trick where the ball there's a light bridge so in the game you can create these bridges of light that you can walk across so you create a light bridge all the way across the play field and when you flip the ball it looks like it hovers across the whole play field to the other side because of some of the tricks they were able to do with that and so just there's some really amazing magical moments in this game and i think p3 has done good in the past like they've been good and i think people have been sitting on the fence like i want to support jerry and sarah because you know we all like the mom and pop businesses we want those see those people succeed to move it into a bigger industrial part of the industry. And I think this game, well, I know. Yeah, this game has pushed. It's getting people off the couch. We've seen quite the amount of people that have hit up for the referral program. And, man, I am so happy we've been able to help so many people.
    25:54
    I'm excited to get more time on it. And I'm pretty close to probably getting one at my house too. So this would be something that we would love to have more access to. And it gives us more experience with it. And this also is a bridge to many options in pinball that isn't serviced by Stern as well. Because Stern, as we know, is the juggernaut in the industry.
    26:22
    However, they tend to focus on tournament-friendly pinball machines. Yeah. Right? and it now we're going to talk about the next game which probably fills a little bit of that niche to say hey pinball doesn't always have to be about uh you know about who can who can go to you know papa or who can do this kind of stuff there are entertainment aspects of pinball that p3 does better than anybody because it does incorporate some new technology especially the giant screen that's helping out yeah so it's uh it's nice to see different aspects of pinball that can be incorporated into the fandom yeah it's it's awesome and i i don't know i just i'm excited um i will one concern that has been brought up multiple times while doing all this is people has been concerned about the uh the quality of the build and the viability of it lasting um i'm i'll be honest at the moment i accidentally blew one of the circuit boards on the playfield on on princess bride playfield um i sent in a message on a sunday just because i i didn't want to forget and i figured they wouldn't answer till monday so i didn't i didn't care uh it didn't need to be right then right it wasn't an emergency sure you were like hey fyi i did something stupid yeah i did something stupid and 20 minutes later nick baldridge reached out he didn't say you did something stupid but he's like well i'm glad you realized what you did uh he actually called me we went through it which i felt really weird bugging someone on a sunday about sure uh just because i don't like to bug people on their weekends um but yeah within we had we had the fix we had it diagnosed in about five minutes yeah um it was a piece of cake he had it ordered on monday because that's when stuff starts shipping out i had the part a week later i installed it got it up and running and he he said okay i need you to do this this and this like it was move some dip switches and do some other stuff it was probably by far one of the easiest repairs i've done on a pinball machine uh it was four screws unplug the old circuit board put the new circuit board in and it was pretty dang easy uh yeah i just i get like there's some wear and tear parts on here that might be a little hard to get to uh but overall the service is great service is great this is the one thing people complain about when it comes to a pinball company they're like if it breaks i want someone to be there to help me fix it right right and even me i wasn't expecting help on a sunday but somehow i got it uh the one thing is is when you're when you buy a p3 you make an account through multimorphic use that account that that count is it gives you access to all the tech documents, gives you access to their contact people. It's amazing the amount of support the system has. And I don't know. Like I said, this has been a pretty cool experiment. I see the P3 off in the corner.
    29:32
    I've been very happy that Jerry and Sarah and all those down there have agreed to help us better understand the system. And it's been quite the experience so far. I'm pleasantly surprised. granted i am a media content person i'm a content creator they want to keep me happy i i would bet though if you've met nick he's genuinely one of the nicest people on the planet and i guarantee that if you were a an average person who just bought a p3 you would have got the same service well seriously let's go through rank like i did we probably shouldn't rank him but i'm like who's if you're gonna go the nicest guy down at multi-morphic i mean michael ocean's been a gem every time i've talked to him yeah they're nice people yeah like it's good silver ian harrow has been awesome to talk to you've got nick baldridge which is insanely talented on tech work and even built one of the p3 modules for drain i mean it's just like jerry's been awesome sarah has been fantastic i mean i don't i don't know man other companies are good too by the way this is just saying that our experience with this company has been great yes so let's move on so what you're saying is it was a piece of cake so are you promising me in portal though there will be cake okay i gotta admit i went back through it's been years since i played portal yeah i got it for 20 bucks on switch one and two right yeah i went back through and beat them both at the end okay i will say by the way i i'm only partially through so i i know there's a joke about the cake but yeah there's a and i won't spoil the joke about cake but if you beat the game yeah the very end like you know how you go back to the start screen you get a cake your desk oh there you go yeah see there is cake so the cake is not a lie nice yeah okay it's awesome man i love those games uh we breezed through them i actually bought i bought them too for 20 bucks i i i don't have a lot of time i'm chasing kids around a lot and i'm a lot working a lot but you're you're like I'm going to go lay down in the back room at work because, you know, I need sleep. Yeah, I've actually I've already been going through Nights of the Old Republic again. This is not a collector gamers, but it's a game that I play like every couple of years. It's a fun it's a fun story. If you're looking for something on your switch or on your iPad, it's it's a good one, especially if you're a Star Wars fan. okay next um okay this leads right into what i was talking about finding niches in pinball that are not um that are not fully fulfilled by stern and by the way this is not a denigration on stern this stern has absolutely amazing products they typically cater to people who are quite uh quite immersed in the pinball culture anyway right yeah like people occasionally will buy a game based on a theme. Like my cousin, I went up to her house. She has a beautiful house. And I looked downstairs and there was a Ghostbusters. So they buy things on theme, but I guarantee they don't have much in the way of playing or even, I doubt they've even updated the code. I've even told them, hey, I'll just go and update your code.
    32:47
    But the next game that comes out with Turner Pinball is Merlin's Arcade. Now, Josh, I want you to tell me what is your first impression on the theme of Merlin's Arcade?
    33:06
    First impression was, as I was confused, because Merlin Edition Medieval Madness was released, and Merlin's Arcade was released. And they were all released within 24 hours of each other. And I was like, what is going on? Okay. What I will tell you about Merlin's Arcade. Now, if people who have young kids, they're going to see exactly where I'm going with this. Josh, have you ever been to Great Wolf Lodge? No. Okay. Do you know what Great Wolf Lodge is? Yes. Okay, so it's basically – it has like some water slides. It's kind of a water park slash hotel that has some loose theme integration with – but it's catering to kind of the bluey crowd, I guess. So you're thinking of like the younger kids, maybe like you're talking like five-year-olds to maybe 12. OK. OK. And so when I saw the the Merlin's Arcade, I looked at that and I thought, actually, from a theme standpoint, this is exactly where Turner needs to be. You know how we talked about before companies find their audience. They find what they are going for. Stern definitely knows their audience. They know what they're going for. You know, they're going for the the casual to hardcore pinball player. OK, Jersey Jack is going for the elite collector crowd who wants like the prettiest game that has deep code. It's fun. Then you have like CGC that knows what they're what they're shooting for. And Spooky definitely knows who their audience is. Right. So on top of that, now you have Turner Pinball, who's secretly trying to capture that Super Mario Brothers crowd where it's like the Super Mario Pinball where you're like, you know what? This is – it's an okay game. the theme is not too it's very accessible but this is something that everybody can get to and play and have a good time without being completely destroyed on and I would argue that this is where Turner Pinball is trying to find they're trying to find that ground for hey I have a game here that my kids are going to really love and have a good time and it's not going to be as punishing as like a John Borg game right this is not John Borg Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
    35:48
    This is a fun, accessible layout where people are just going to have a good time. What do you think about my assessment?
    35:57
    I think you're spot on-ish from the feedback I heard with the actual play of the game. There's a lot of rattle. I think if you like Deadpool, I think Deadpool kind of gives you an idea of the game isn't like a flow monster it's definitely like no ricochet and react kind of thing i think also um so so when when it comes to kids and stuff like that they might be a little forgiving but if they get frustrated with the game and they feel like they're not accomplishing stuff on the game they might not go up to it anymore um i do see though like the way that it's colored the way that the artwork's done uh just the theme what do you think the theme itself yeah definitely gears towards family towards children um yeah i just i wasn't super impressed by this i feel like ninja eclipse layout was better okay um i find it unique that they had john norris uh do the layout john norris i feel like has some good games in his catalog i actually was a fan of high roller casino which was his last commercial game he did which was for stern uh it's it's just unique it's a different game it's not something you'd see it's not very run-of-the-mill um but you can definitely tell that this is a rehash of golden q he did for sega back in 98 yeah um it's a resurrection game it is absolutely it is absolutely a resurrection game um golden q only had what a handful of them made there wasn't a ton of them produced uh but the thing is is like i just i i didn't get hands on the game those that i did said it was okay uh i think i think turner is going in the right direction with their technology and the way that they're doing stuff i think that's why people bought in on ninja eclipse at expo that's why they were able to sell the rest of them out uh so it's interesting to see where turner is going to go from here i think chris has some good ideas um i in my in my opinion this is a soft a soft a base hit a base hit maybe a base hit especially where 2025 is wrapping up to be an amazing year for themes and the only thing that's going to be holding back these pinball companies are their code and their layout um you've got the themes but the i i would argue i don't think turner is selling too much on layout i think they're selling for theme and this is definitely an accessible theme it's not you know it's not a horror theme that is going to be over the top. You not going to be You have something a little different And so I can totally see this fitting into a you know like a grandpa game room where he's like, I just want a fun thing for my kid, for my grandkids to come over and play. I agree. There are a lot of people who don't really know a lot about code. I had a, I had a Simpsons pinball party for three years before I even knew what modes were because I was not good at pinball. well and here's the thing too is like going the original theme route i think is very very dangerous it is i get that like some of the best games that have ever been made were original themes and attack from mars medieval madness i mean monster bash is a licensed theme because it's universal monsters but still i mean cactus canyon medieval madness is is the holy grail i mean come on it's it it's just a it's a coded version of the holy grail it's come on it's a You mean Monty Python and the Holy Grail? Yeah. Okay. What did you think I was doing? I thought you were talking about the actual Holy Grail of pinball machines. Oh, no, no, no. I'm sorry. Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I mean, it is that. It is. But here's my thing. Yeah. People tend to forget these games were released in the 90s, and they had years upon years. It's a different time. it well and and they people kind of came in and learned about these games and they grew a fan base over years right right and the problem is is if you're starting off in 2025 with an original theme you're going up against portal you're going up now against harry potter which is officially confirmed you're going up against king kong which is a theme for me that i'm like it kind of falls in the godzilla category i would argue l1's the theme king kong l1's the theme l1 is the theme but godzilla and king kong are selling i mean these movies are doing great right now it's a good themed up latch on that i think that we'll put we'll pull a godzilla especially if if it's designed the way i'm hearing i mean it's l1 so you know it's going to be designed well the code's going to be fantastic right out the gate um well i mean i also have a metallica over my shoulder and i would not have paid 13 000 for rock band you know it's okay well okay would you like for a generic rock band oh i guess i get what you're saying i'm like i thought you meant like rock band the video game no no no just just like uh you know just basically like everyone got leave did punk and it was just yeah yeah i would not or bad girls or something yeah yeah so no but you see what i'm saying is like a hundred percent i it's hard to gain traction in this today's environment when you have a ton of themes that are killing it right now And I agree. This is definitely a calculated move by Chris. This seems to be, I agree with you, a base hit that will continue to move the company forward with the anticipation that they probably will transition to themes that are appropriate to the audience they're trying to reach.
    41:39
    So my question to you, I had this thought over the last couple weeks. Okay. Would it be worth it? you know really the market is more home-based than it is location-based but the wonderful part about location-based is it gives people an opportunity to play these games they wouldn't necessarily play otherwise i know that location isn't making bank on these games we've talked to many many many operators and the problem is as they say if we're spending anywhere from seven thousand to twelve thousand dollars on a game it's just hard to justify going on the expensive route do you think it's time that there are certain sponsored locations throughout the nation that essentially get the game on loan i know it gives a disadvantage to the other operators but if you're trying to grow your business and you're trying to grow your market the best selling tool is the machine itself and getting hands on the machine so do you think as we move into the future that there should be sponsored locations that receive a game for a certain amount of time and then it moves on to the next location or gets shipped back and sold as a used unit.
    42:47
    Are you saying like a loaner program from Stern or maybe like a promotional program, I guess? Something like that, similar. This operator will have I mean, obviously Metallica sold units, so it's not something they have to ship out. But if you're having a hard time moving John Wicks, you already got a ton of them sitting in your factory or Venom, you say, hey, Keto's Brewing in Salt Lake City, Utah. We know that you already buy our games. We want you to have a John Wick on location. We will give it to you for a couple months. We will throw some promotion behind you and giveaways and stuff like that to help push this product. You see what I'm saying? Because operators are even getting more and more picky of what they buy to put in their arcade because they don't want to buy a flop. I guess I'll put this as a possibility. Here's the challenge that Stern is having. Stern actually, the only thing they sell directly is a few limited editions. That's true. That they have held off. Yeah.
    43:58
    And they sell those off, and I don't even know how many they have. Do they have 50 of them? 50 out of 500? Or 20 out of 500? Who knows, yeah. So if you have that, then, okay, fine. If you're the main seller of things, so if Stern were also their main distributor, then it would make sense to be able to set up those relationships, to be able to do some creative licensing.
    44:29
    It's hard in a dealer-centric model. And there are a few huge advantages to the dealer model is that the dealer model, it's kind of a small mom and pop option where for the most part, you're dealing with a small business. And so if you have a problem with the flipper or so in Flippin' Out's case, if you have a problem with something, you contact Greg Bone and say, hey, this happened to me when Rush came out. I was like, I don't think that like the optical sensor on the scoop is not working. And so Greg said, OK, let's look at this. And he took out the sensor from his own machine and sent it to me.
    45:14
    I don't know if you're going to get that sort of customer service. And really, if Stern is interested in that level of customer service, that will require to maintain things in the wild. because it's pinball. This is the one why you don't see a lot of pinball machines in the wild is because they are labor intensive. So you're not going to get the return on investment on a complicated game on modern pinball machines. You may have been able to get it on, you know, the old like solid states and the old, like easy to maintain ones. But these machines have outgrown their usefulness on most locations. So you have to have a location that is typically associated with a bar because you're going to make your money off food and beverages. Yeah. I just – like I said, the best way to sell a product is to get hands on the product, right? And I just – it's just – we're just spitballing here because let's be honest. Pinball is – on the economic scale of pinball, pinball is declining in price. really your use market is becoming your biggest competitor when you're trying to sell new product yep um and it depends on how your product is performing where people are saying no i need in the like your biggest selling tool is fomo especially when it comes to your le's or your ces whatever it may be and that's dropping off it's dropping off it's dropping off it's dropping off hard um and and some of these companies aren't making all their le's or their ces or whatever it may be so we're going to start seeing some creative ideas for promotion for marketing and stuff like that just wanted to throw that out there i'm like it's i know it's probably not viable it's not probably not an option whatnot i know that like the stern launch uh the launch parties kind of do this yeah um but where operators are feeling more and more squeezed when it comes to coin drop and stuff like that trying to find unique ways to get the product in people's hands without them having to drop the coin to do so. But like you said, though, Stern is really more of a manufacturer to dealer slash distributor. As long as they sell their products to them. It's not a business to consumer typically. Correct. And so as long as they sell to their distributor, honestly, it doesn't really matter what happens on the back end.
    47:38
    So who knows? Here's another problem, and we've talked about this before. they their current model actually doesn't allow for discounting yeah so you the pro models are the same across all designers across all themes yeah and i know they do weight it a little bit because they try to give everybody the same bill of material yeah and so theoretically the same thing that goes into one machine should cost the same amount that goes into another machine Yeah. So you're banking on, OK, if we spend roughly the same amount per machine, you're going to get a similar product output and product sales. Now, we know that that's not the case because we know that if you look at sales over the last four years, they've been completely dominated by Keith Elwin designs. yeah so we know that that's not exactly the case but what they would probably have to adjust some of their business things and even jersey jack is starting to toy with this with discounting some of the older stuff now stern did a little bit of this with discounting like the discontinued stuff so they discounted um they just kind of turtles they've this kind of zeppelin they discounted rush And so there were ways that they were able to do this. But they would really have to adjust things in order for them to actually do it. Is it something to consider? Absolutely. Any way they can try to motivate more locations to have pinball machines would be huge because people will be exposed to it.
    49:27
    Whether or not that will be worth their investment of effort and time, I don't know. But I would love to figure out more and more ways of getting pinball back into the wild instead of just relying on barcades showing up. Yeah, I agree. All right, let's move. We still got a couple more items here on the list. Speaking of Merlin Edition versus Merlin Arcade, Medieval Madness Remake Merlin Edition was announced.
    50:00
    I'm going to laugh at this. Because the hilarious thing is, so I have right over my right shoulder, if you're watching, I have the Medieval Madness Standard Edition that has the stainless steel everything. And then I upgraded the lighting because they had – it didn't have the upgraded lights before the RGP. It was just standard. so I upgraded to do it myself because they had the Royal Edition, right? So the Royal Edition had the black paint and the fancy lights. And so I was able to buy the lights and retrofit. By the way, it's a huge pain in the rear. It was like six hours to do that. I got the speaker panel and I actually had to change a few things on the speaker panel because the speaker panel that they sold actually didn't have the RGP changing on it. Did I ever tell you this, Josh? No, you didn't. So if you look at Medieval Madness, it changes to the different colors depending on the mode.
    51:10
    And when I looked at the panel, I said, this is weird. And if you looked at the connector, the connector they put on it was only two wires. but if you look at the royal it's four and so i had to swap out some wires and solder them so it would actually do the rgp so i did that and i also got the topper and so it's it's close enough it's still a great thing but my friends who had the the royal edition you know it was black and i played it and i thought was fine but i was like ah mine's good enough but when they came out with this Merlin edition. I'm not kidding you, Josh. This is exactly the same effects that my friend Gary put on his machine, on his LE machine. He powder coated it with this shimmery blue stuff, and he has mirror blades on it. And so it is exactly what he did on his. So this is a perfect combination of the way medieval madness should be done and with the topper combination at $12,000, which is still below an LE. Uh, I think it's great. Uh, I think it's a great presentation. I dominated that. Go ahead and say what you think. Uh, obviously it, it's funny cause like the price came out and I don't think anyone even had long enough to complain about the price before they were sold out. So obviously the price was great on these. Uh, the, the product looks good. I'm going to talk about the ridiculousness of this reveal, okay? Oh, geez. Okay. It makes me chuckle. So those that don't know, Planetary Pinball owns the license for the Ballywilliam games. And then they, you know, sell these licenses so people can create these games. Well, CGC has the license. They're the ones that produce the game. They are licensing the intellectual property to make Medieval Madness. Correct. so was it tuesday tuesday or wednesday um yeah it starts coming down the pipeline that medieval madness is getting ready to be revealed and start selling did they even have one at texas i don't know if they had one at texas uh medieval madness yeah the merlin edition i don't think they did oh they did it yeah they did okay okay remember carrie hardy was watching him set it up oh yeah you're right i apologize so go to carrie hardy by the way friend of the show uh carrie hardy has a a whole thing where he was there filming it while they were setting it up but the point being is is planetary pinball announces for cgc by the way we're remaking merlin they're also a dealer they're also a dealer they're also a dealer it's kind of a weird situation but they also deal for for cgc yeah the evil madness is on the way if you want yours get a hold of us right now and all of a sudden it like opened the floodgates because the rest of the distributors knew but they were holding off till an official announcement they couldn't you can't announce until an official announcement yeah yeah but what do you do when the license holder says hey yeah this is the new medieval madness remake and it's kind of like this whole like what the heck just happened kind of situation and that was probably the biggest news i didn't even realize till like a full 24 hours after the fact the cactus canyon complete yeah had just released as well yeah and it's like uh guys like why did you do that to yourself you cannibalized cactus canyon cells yeah in favor of medieval madness and now now okay cgc okay let's be honest would you rather sell would you rather sell was a thousand that it was that the merlin yeah the merlin was did i don't know how many they sold on that thing well okay they sold they sold through which we learned is different than selling out right yeah they sold through which means they sold to distributors and the distributors all sold out of theirs yeah they sold them through to the end user within like 12 hours it wasn't even i don't i that's being generous in my opinion yeah but here's the thing is like yeah um cgc you take forever i don't think i'm saying anything that's shocking i don't think it's anything offensive they know it they know it we know it when we joked it's funny because like i joked on you had shared some stuff and look it's prep key fan of the show mr macho himself uh he he messages he's like oh 12k i don't think i can afford that i think i'm gonna have to pass and i put look is why put your deposit down for a thousand dollars now you can save up half this year and have the other saved up for next year when they finally actually start shipping these games like it's the reality of the situation like yeah when i got my monster bash i was lucky because i got mine within three months of release and i didn't realize i had mine for almost a year when i was talking to to um the distributor i bought from and said hey what's like what's going on with the le's people aren't getting there's like josh you got to realize because you had the numbered program you were one of the first to get it and then they held off on building them for like a year so it's like oh i did not realize which one was this again made of the monster bash le because i had oh attack from mars yeah the 119 and so i got the number match for monster bash 119 right yeah um which i wish i sold those off but it is what it is anywho it just let's let's be honest here you have now tied up twelve thousand dollars you've done a deposit now people are going to be like okay now i gotta sit on this cash for the next who knows how long for cgc to produce these games and then you're like by the way we did lime and code extended we have cactus kenya's se's that we can ship to you for uh 10.5 is what i saw for for the topper the se and the upgraded kit that's a pretty good deal it's a pretty good deal yeah that's a good deal at least that's what i saw one of them floating around for yeah that's good on my day but no one's gonna buy this now because okay they'll buy the kids If you have a Cactus Canyon, really, $12.50 is not bad. Like you said, it's like a topper.
    57:27
    You're not overextending yourself. And this is interactive. It's new stuff that goes into your game. It's 10 new modes. There is a lot of meat. Yeah, there is a lot to this edition. Cactus was always the almost done game. Yeah. Almost done. What you did is the most expensive product in your inventory is now going to sit because everyone just bought a Medieval Madness remake. So what do you do? Well OK I would argue I don think they cannibalizing much because the people who the people who jumped on the medieval madness bandwagon they weren holding off to say ooh what going to be announced because I have to spend on Cactus Canyon
    58:13
    They weren't spending the money. Okay, but yeah, okay. You're not cannibalizing that sale. The bottom line is they should have – they did – I just pulled up, by the way. Like the interesting thing is they don't have the King of Pain topper, by the way, as a side thing. So right now they just have the color display upgrade.
    58:42
    And so you look at that and you're like, well, okay. So there's – I'm still not seeing it. Is it just 1,000? I'm even on Planetary's website, and I can't even see how many.
    58:57
    I bet Flippin' Out has it with no problem. Why don't you go check out our good people, Zach and Nicole Many, at FlippinOut.com. Yeah, well, I'm just wondering if it said how many, like how many they were making. But, you know, I don't think you're not cannibalizing any of this stuff. It's fine. People are – You 100% are. Okay, let's rewind time. Let's rewind time. Okay, let's say they didn't announce they weren't going to do Medieval Madness, and they made this all about the new Lime and Sheets code. You say, hey, we've got Cactus Canyon sitting in stock right now. If you go right now to your distributor and say, hey, I want a Cactus Canyon. I want the upgrade kit. You have instant sales right there, especially if the game's already made. Okay, I can see your point on that. But I'm wondering how many people are actually – people bought the original Cactus Canyon knowing that they were going to buy the upgrade. I don't know how many people are saying, hey, I didn't buy Cactus Canyon because I was waiting for the code.
    60:02
    Maybe. I think this is another selling tool. Maybe. And I don't think people think – I agree with you. I don't think they're like, oh, well, I really like a Cactus Canyon, but I'm going to sit on it and really think about it until I see the extra code. No, it becomes like a FOMO thing. it becomes this whole thing of like oh crap this is out now this is something that's unique it's different i know that cactus canyon is a good game really it's not a bad price like i'm not like if you weren't in on portal at texas pinball festival evil dead already sold out we'll get out to that in a second what else was there to buy besides merlin's arcade unless you're really holding out for a harry potter like jersey jack told you to do yeah or kong like kong is on the way and like obviously if you're a fan of l1 i mean you're you're like me and you're like well i'll just wait till everything else releases because as soon as l1 releases that's really my where i'm deciding where i'm spending my money sure that's me so so okay now i i went over a very long-winded explanation about how i think this is the perfect edition so what do you think of their choices for medieval madness i think it's beautiful i love the blue i think the upgrade all looks good this is probably one of the best looking editions they've come out with i mean i i i wish i didn't have to pass up on it but when they announced at the same time keith l1's kong's coming out and harry potter my family's huge harry potter fans so i've got to decide what's going on there yeah it becomes a coin toss at this point well not even coin toss because it's like i guess the decision was made for me though because merlin editions we seriously got you and i both got the message i will zach was very nice enough to say i love you guys at loser kid i will give you an opportunity at one of these if you say no it is gone yeah yeah i i paid for it by the way like so i i paid i paid full price and this was uh but i i did and i i ordered one for one of my friends was was looking and he he he's been on the list for two years and i actually picked one up too because i i have rental property and i'm considering putting my old one in that one and keeping the new one yeah but um that's uh it looks great though i mean and i wish that cgc would well in me maybe in planetary pinball like seriously guys you you're sitting on an instant sale. Make 5,000 of these, the standard editions. Price them at $9,000 and you'll get it.
    62:41
    Obviously, they sold out in 12 hours. It means they didn't make enough. There's a demand for them. There's demand.
    62:48
    I know this is a side tangent. The biggest crime in pinball right now is the fact that CGC doesn't want to upscale enough to sell. They could be selling out of these games there should have been no reason they should be making a remake at least once a year i mean they could be on par now you're saying medieval madness because i don't know if because they obviously have cactus canyons waiting around so people can buy those okay monster bash i don't know if there's any just waiting in a warehouse attack from mars i don't know yeah they're also there's no attack from mars in there so i i do understand them saying hey we want to keep this as like an instant buy and and that's smart smart but it's uh they they really should have sold like 3 000 of these standard you could be doing a remake once a year and then the ones that don't sell out yeah do what you need to with them and the ut keep tabs are the ones that sell out in eight hours flat you know i'm saying in fairness i and i will i will always declare that I do not know the nuts and bolts behind the manufacturing. There is a tipping point where it's best if you have a demand for 1,000 things to make 999 versus 1,001. So they obviously are doing something right with selling what they want to produce. so i'll at least give them at least uh at least the benefit of the doubt to say they may be more in tune to what the supply chain are is and what the demand is than we are i just don't understand why they don't make you know 2000 standard editions because they would sell out but my point like they could that's that's the whole point of this exercise is like they don't know if they can't i don't know quality they they have the qualities are amazing but look never making a 30 year old game and made it modern it just they've cgc is on top of their game the only thing they're falling flat on is delivery time okay but why is that my understanding my understanding they don't want to they don't want to increase their production They don't. They're happy with what they're making. I think it's production, and I think there is a level of perfectionism that is expected out, not of us as consumers, but out of that factory from the employers and the president. That's as far in-depth as I will go with it. Sure, but I'm just saying that that is their choice. Their choice is to make that much. yeah but there is no other pinball company outside of stern right now that is poised to grow i don't know i don't know if stern sit their ceiling and they're looking for weight i feel like cgc is poised to grow and i think the problem is they've shot themselves in the foot now because planetary pinball is pushing licenses out to other manufacturers that's why we saw haggis ended up making them available anyway yeah yeah fathom and now pedretti via the pinball company has fun house yeah and possibly more in the pipeline i think actually i think pedretti did announce that they have more licenses in the pipeline i just it boggles my mind when you have such a good product yeah but you're not producing well okay so this gets to another point and we we actually haven't brought this up yet but they're still getting the pulp fiction le's out right yeah and so now one of the big sellers of pulp fiction was the topper right because the topper is really cool now we didn't we didn't we we talked about this behind the scenes but we forgot to bring it up so there is you remember we had the electric playground on yep and they had their version of the attack from mars topper and it's cool looking and it has little like screens on it and you know godzilla has that too sorry i think godzilla is the one with the screens but attack from mars is a cool topper too yep yep and they also have a pulp fiction topper that has it's kind of fun it has like a a ball if you've seen their twilight zone topper which is what brings this up because twilight zone has been the next rumored title to be made some time some time but the electric playground they have a twilight zone topper which is really clever because it has a ball that goes through a you know a trail and they have a their version of the of a pulp fiction-esque topper yeah yeah go take a look at it i i have no idea how how much leeway they had to make it look as close or as close enough um but i do wonder if they paid for a license for this or if they tried to rub up against that copyright line as close as they Well, they could. Okay, we don't know. We haven't talked to the guys over there. We love Rob and Alec, man. They are great dudes. They're awesome. They're great dudes. And they came on ours. And by the way, just so you know, the Attack from Mars topper was officially licensed. But this was an option. So, by the way, guys, go check that out. Or if you're curious, email us and we'll send you to them and we'll figure something out because it's a cool looking topper. Yeah, it really is. It really is. I just joked that when you look at this, some people are complaining because you don't really get a face for Samuel Jackson or John Travolta. Yeah, but you know who it is. Just look at his afro. You know who it is, but that's why I'm like – Look at his afro. Yeah, we either didn't license this and we're rubbing right up against that copyright line or you were going for something very different. How do you license an afro on a wig? I mean, come on. Yeah.
    68:29
    Well, that's what I'm saying besides putting faces on. the one thing that i i my small criticism guys i think the fan the the topper looks fantastic but i wish you would have found a way because if you haven't seen this topper go check it out lecture playground.com uh or google it sorry i don't know if that's the exact i guess we'll find a direct website sorry if you end up somewhere you don't want to be or some kids get in trouble at school that that totally reminds me of you know when they uh when wicked came out oh you hear about this yeah they sent out the toys to say to tell people to go to wicked.com they should have checked to make sure the wicked.com was really where it was supposed to go let's just say it is not a musical website it's not a family-friendly site okay so you've obviously got the guns pointing at you john travolta is holding the one samuel jackson's holding the other and there's a habit trail that comes out of one of the guns and back into the other so when The ball shoots out.
    69:30
    It's not Electric Playground. It's TEPinball.com. But if you Google Electric Playground, you'll get it. Perfect. TEPinball.com. Thank you for that. The Electric Playground. TEP. But it's really cool that they've got lights and sounds synced up with this topper. So it looks like they're actually shooting it out of their guns. You get the bang and everything like that. My only criticism is it comes out one barrel and goes through the habit trail and back in the other gun. So it's like you get this really cool effect and that kind of, I feel like I still think it's cool. I think, but really, but really it's an amazing topper. Like if that's your biggest criticism, then I could be much worse. I think it's cool. Yeah. So I think it'd be too much if you had to have a trails. All right. We got two more things. Let's try and hit this. We're past our hour mark. We are. Yeah. Uh, let's talk about spooky cells out of evil dead. Um, good for them. Yeah. Amazing. It's, Lost 25 units, gone. They have always nailed art, and they've always nailed going both feet in for theme integration.
    70:40
    So if Evil Dead is your bag, it's awesome. It's a great theme integration. So shout out for them. Awesome work, guys. And continue it up because, again, you have found your market, and you're really good at it. if you want one of these, Zach with Flippin' Out can probably get you one. He might have to beg, borrow, and steal. But man, that guy goes to bat for you. So if you want an Evil Dead, this game... So my understanding is for Texas Pinball Festival, it came down to either the Portal or Evil Dead. And it was kind of a personal preference thing. Portal was doing some awesome, unique things. But Evil Dead's theme integration was top-notch. Same with Portals. But I just... For most people, it's a great game. Like Evil Dead, I wish we have played it. We haven't got to have our hands on it yet. It might be one of those things we don't see until Expo. Maybe, yeah. I don't have any time this summer to go to something, but yeah. I will say, and I've said this before and I'll say it again and again, Spooky is doing an amazing job at doing their company. They've done something. They've carved out a slice of the pinball industry pie. I don't feel like they're ever in trouble. They are always selling fairly well, and they've taken care of their customers.
    72:00
    I feel like their build quality is getting better and better. It's continually improving. Absolutely. Continually improving. Do you remember the days when they talked about the hot glue cheese sticks? They would use hot glue to put stuff in, and they'd dangle down, and so you open up the play field. It looks a lot better. It looks so much better. and so it's great to see a company like that growing all right last one barrels of fun we don't have much but they did send out a very interesting letter that i want to talk about go ahead uh i'm going to summarize this pretty quick it says pretty much if you have bought labyrinth whether it's new or used if you own a labyrinth yeah you own a labyrinth new or used you will be if you go to their website and you submit that you own a labyrinth they will put you in for a drawing for their next game given away for free to you so they have one they're going to give away of rumored dune and if you are if you if you win you get a you get a brand new pinball machine and they only have like 13 left is when i was because they had like said it was like the 13th hour because their game's getting ready to release and they only got 13 labyrinths left that's amazing that's amazing that they've been able to do this um and and they're about 18 months out from when they last revealed which was at expo 2023 yep so um yeah i just congrats to barrels of fun i feel like they're doing it right they're doing some unique things to help production and whatnot very very cool so does dune do anything for you scott you know i still haven't seen it yet i know there are people who are just like dune 2 it was like my generation's Empire Strikes Back. It was so good. Um, it's, I, I have a hard time finding time for a two hour movie and when it starts blowing beyond the two hours, then it's hard for me to, to, to get it. Um, I'm looking forward to it. You know, I, I will make a commitment that I will watch it. And next time I will return and report and tell you about how, um, how broad appeal it was. I know It's interesting, though, because Dune, when it came out, there were people who were talking immediate Oscar. Yeah. And I don't know if the Oscars have changed in relevance. It seems like they're focusing on trying to be like an indie film festival award show as opposed to like a mass marketing award show that it used to be.
    74:33
    But it didn't really get anything. so I do want to watch it and see but if you look at the any idea how much Dune took in?
    74:45
    I haven't a clue but I know it did very well I assume you're going to give us a I'm just googling it right now while you're googling that I think that pretty much does it for us yep if you know if you liked what you heard please leave a comment and stuff on our Facebook uh scott do you have a number for us yet i'm almost there almost there almost there okay okay i want to i want to reiterate we are the content creator of this episode if you haven't checked them out yet pinball pursuit uh at pinball pursue on youtube they don't have any socials or anything up yet but check out their content they're doing some pretty cool unique stuff uh and i want to see where they go with it they've only been doing it for about three months now got about 10 episodes up but they're pretty cool to check out okay so according to imdb the worldwide gross of this was 714 million dollars that's pretty good is that both films or just the first one or so that's the second one sorry uh i i oh that's right i just looked at the second one i should probably look at the first one damn i heard the second one was really good though but yeah i don't think i think if it would hit the two billion mark we would have known the second one the second one did better than the first one. The first one was 410 million. That doesn't shock me. Usually sequels do better than the original. Actually, usually there's a drop off. It depends on the movie. Yeah.
    76:12
    Yeah. Alrighty. You got anything else for us, Scott, before we sign off? You know what? I just want to thank everybody who went to Texas. And please, if there was something that you thought of that we missed, please, please bring that up to us again. And thanks again. Thanks again for coming. definitely if you want to get a hold of us we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com if you want that thousand dollar discount on your new p3 portal game also if you just want to write an email or whatever it may be hit us up on all the socials at loser kid pinball whether it be tiktok facebook instagram x threads we're on all of them and we are constantly uh posting to everything as well and there is unique content whether it be on youtube or with our podcast channel or with our socials so please go hit up like subscribe all that jazz scott give us our last words you know what i want i want to know what you guys thought of portal because i haven't played it yet we've interviewed it looks great if you played it please send us and let us know