DPP #54 "Venom Teaser! Designer interviews! King of Monsters beaten!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·23m 34s·analyzed·Jul 12, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Venom officially revealed; Haggis Centaur production updates; code updates praised; Jaws design complete.

Summary

Don's Pinball Podcast Episode 54 covers the official reveal of Stern's Venom pinball machine (releasing end of August with Pro/Premium/LE variants at $6,999-$13,000+), a long-form interview with Haggis Pinball's Damien about Centaur production (24 machines/month, 1,000+ LE units), criticism of Centaur's extreme $7,000 trim-level spread, a significant code update for Spooky's Halloween, Keith Elwin's Jaws design completion and next game in CAD phase, and Don's successful completion of Godzilla's King of Monsters boss rush mode.

Key Claims

Venom Pro will cost $6,999, Premium ~$9,799, Limited Edition ~$13,000 with tax/shipping
high confidence · Don, citing distributor conversations; pricing matches Foo Fighters
Venom Pro units will ship end of August; Limited Editions mid-September (~1,000 units); Premiums end of September
high confidence · Don, reporting from distributor/manufacturer communications
Venom was designed by Brian Eddy, not Keith Elwin or Jack Danger
high confidence · Don's observation on game credits/designer lineup
Haggis Pinball makes 24 machines per month and projects Fathom completion by end of year
medium confidence · Damien (Haggis Pinball founder) in Kerry Hardy interview, with Don's note: 'they've said that before and haven't delivered'
Haggis Pinball has 12 employees and produces one machine per day
medium confidence · Damien in Kerry Hardy interview, confirmed by Don
Centaur pricing spans $10,000 (base) to $17,000 (top trim), with $7,000 difference attributed to art blades, acrylic topper, airbrushed leather jacket, and helmet
high confidence · Don's analysis of Centaur trim levels from released videos/specs
Spooky's Halloween code update includes new animations, LCD effects, lighting patterns, and flipper startup effects
high confidence · Don, who installed and played the update on his own machine
Keith Elwin's 'Jaws' design (layout/rules) is complete; he is in CAD phase on the next game after that
medium confidence · Don, citing Keith Elwin interview by Joel Engelberth on Flipping Out with Friends
Jaws is expected February-March release (not 2024, not December slot)
low confidence · Don's speculation: 'I think in February March would be reasonable'

Notable Quotes

“Hosting soon because Venom is a parasitic host on Eddie Brock and the Spider-Man universe.”
Don @ ~5:00 — Clever wordplay on Stern's 'hosting soon' teaser, leveraging Venom's symbiote nature
“I'm not seeing a lot of the raptured fanitude around this game that I've seen from others. I don't know if that's because this is a Brian Eddy game. It is not Keith Elwin's next game.”
Don @ ~20:00 — Notes relatively muted hype for Venom vs. games by marquee designers; hints at designer-driven collector enthusiasm
“You're losing support because you're not keeping us updated, you know?”
Don @ ~35:00 — Criticism of Haggis Pinball's lack of production transparency; argues transparency doesn't require revealing trade secrets
“To say we want to kind of twist the knife on the collector and try to milk the money out of him...What am I missing here?”
Don @ ~42:00 — Skeptical of Centaur's $7,000 trim-level premium; questions value justification
“Every one of them bricked. Every last one did not go in. And I'm like, are you kidding me right now?”
Don @ ~75:00 — Describes difficulty of final scoop shot in Godzilla's King of Monsters mode despite dominant gameplay
“So thank you, Spooky Pinball, for not abandoning us after you made the game.”
Don @ ~52:00 — Praise for post-release code support; acknowledges all 1,250 units are sold but developer continues investing in updates
“What is going on, you guys? I mean, hey, I respect the hustle. If you can get somebody to bitch out $6,000 just so they can say they have that top-end edition and you can get it, man, go get your money, girl.”
Don @ ~43:00 — Mixed sentiment on premium pricing strategy—acknowledges business logic while questioning consumer value perception
“Stern Pinball, their next Cornerstone game will be Marvel's Venom in some form or another.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyVenomgame Brian Eddyperson Keith Elwinperson Haggis PinballcompanyDamienpersonKerry Hardyperson

Signals

?
announcement: Stern Pinball officially revealed Venom via teaser video; full details (pricing, specs, availability) coming next Tuesday via distributor call
high · Don confirmed teaser video released, Marvel Cinematic Universe logo branding, 'hosting soon' tagline
?
product_launch: Venom Pro shipping end of August, Limited Edition mid-September (~1,000 units), Premium end of September; subsequent production run possible in December slot
high · Don citing distributor communications; mirrors Stern's typical Cornerstone release cadence
$
market_signal: Venom pricing unchanged from Foo Fighters ($6,999 Pro, ~$9,799 Premium, ~$13,000 LE with tax/shipping); indicates price stability across Marvel IP
high · Don: 'prices have not changed from Foo Fighters is what I'm hearing from the distributors'
$
market_signal: Criticism of extreme premium trim pricing: Centaur ($7,000 gap), American Pinball Galactic Tank Force ($6,000 gap); perceived as value extraction without proportional gameplay/physical upgrades
high · Don detailed analysis of trim components; questions ROI on leather jacket/helmet/acrylic topper vs. $7,000 premium
?
manufacturing_signal: Haggis Pinball produces 24 machines/month (one per day); claims Fathoms completion by year-end (~125–150 units remaining); Don expresses skepticism on transparency ('taken with salt cubes made of salt') and advocates for quarterly production updates
medium · Kerry Hardy interview with Damien; Don's analysis of production timeline vs. total units (250 for Centaur, 150 for Fathoms)

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.071

0:00

Sliding into your Tuesday like a creepy uncle. Sliding into your DMs. It's Don's Pinball Podcast coming back to you. Episode number 54. Welcome, everybody. It's Taco Tuesday. It's two pizzas for one price all over town. But you know what? Snuggle in here and put me in your ear. Straight from my brain into your drain. Open up your ear holes. We've got a lot of things to cover, including the next game from Stern, Mother Grimper Pinball, plus Centaur News. New Halloween code updates. I got all that and more requests from you to me coming up right now.

0:38

It will be. Have you guys heard about that new game, Sturt Binball? You're quite the bully when you want to be, aren't you, Parker? Problem is, Eddie Brock isn't the same guy he once was. Why don't we introduce you to our better half? We call ourselves FNAF. Oh my goodness, your favorite symbiote and mine, Venom, has been released. Well, it's not been released, it's been revealed officially by the folks down there in Chicago, those nutty guys down there. Stern Pinball, their next Cornerstone game will be Marvel's Venom in some form or another. That's all we got. We got a short little teaser video. I was wiping the sleepiness out of my eyes this morning, and I looked over and I saw people making comments already. Watch the video. Quick little teaser. just kind of gives you some images of some enemies that have occurred within the Venom universe, kind of going through what looks like the Marvel Cinematic Universe logo for a movie about to start, and then a Stern pinball. You guys, hosting soon. I love that. That's better than shake it, not stirred, I think. So hosting soon because Venom is a parasitic host on Eddie Brock and the Spider-Man universe. It's coming out, and we have some more news and confirmations that have come out later in the day that I'm going to reveal to you now if you haven't seen them anywhere else. So the day that we're going to get the details will be also a Tuesday, but not this Tuesday. Well, that's fine and everything. So they're going to do the distributor call in the morning, it seems like, on Tuesday, and then later on in Tuesday, these are going to be released. The way Stern really does that, if you pay for their super subscription service, you get first dibs to try to get one of those LEs, the limited editions, straight from the website. Otherwise, it'll be contact your distributor, and you won't have to wait for too terribly long. Now, do you want to play this game? Are you in the greater Los Angeles area? Because down at San Diego Comic-Con, starting on the 20th, you'll be able to play, potentially, Venom on-site. That's been what we've been hearing. Now, I haven't seen any official confirmation, you know, Stern Pinball releasing, hey, everybody, get on down here and get your flipper hands on these grubby buttons. But I would imagine that that would happen. There's also a panel discussion that's scheduled in the official Comic-Con schedule, where they're going to be talking about the development of this game, it seems like. It's called Into the Pinverse with Stern Pinball and a hereto unreleased game, which is now this one. So, we know that. The other thing we know, cash, money, prices. So, prices have not changed from Foo Fighters is what I'm hearing from the distributors that I've been talking to. So that means that a pro Venom will still cost you $6,999.

4:34

And then the premiums will follow then at the end of September. Now, based on sales and based on orders, they'll decide when they're going to do the subsequent run. there was that opening up in December for something. So did they create that hole just so they go back and put more pros and premiums on the line? Probably. So if you want to get in on the first run, start calling now. If you want to try to get an LE straight from Stern, go ahead and do that, but you have to sign up for their subscription service. That really doesn't offer much else that I can see. Or get in with your distributor right now. Otherwise, premiums and pros. Let's see this. Now, I'm not seeing a lot of the raptured fanitude around this game that I've seen from others. I don't know if that's because this is a Brian Eddy game. It is not Keith Elwin's next game. And it's not Jack Danger's next game. So it's not like the hype train behind Venom. Plus, we've kind of known about this game for a while. It's been very strongly rumored. I'm expecting this, though, to play great. I want something that's better than Mandalorian, please. Um, but otherwise I'm unless it totally looks like roasted hot garbage Um, i'm planning on getting one of these, you know, i'll flip it for a few months and then we'll go from there Uh but mod community get ready diddy pinball Come on get something going maybe another roulette wheel for this one All right So that venom That the venom news as we know it now When is it coming At the end of August When can you play it This month Like next week When are we going to have more details? Tuesday. So have your tacos today and subsequent tacos next week. Moving on to Centaur, the two-wheeled wonder, right? The retro release of this 40-year-old game from Haggis Pinball in the frozen tundra of Australia. I don't know my geography of Australia that well. Do they have tundra there? They probably have an animal named a tundra, and it probably has a pouch, I'm guessing. And it's probably the most venomous tundra animal you will ever find. But we have new news and speculation from Centaur. So my friend and yours, Mr. Kerry Hardy, the patron saint of pinball YouTube, he did a long interview over an hour with Damien, the man of the luscious locks from Australia there, from Haggis Pinball, asking him the really hard questions that we've all been wondering. Like, are there employees at this company? What sort of building is this company in? Is this still a company? Where's the games? Is it one a week or what? So we got confirmation and some answers straight from the main and tail guy's mouth about how many employees they have, answer 12. As far as building machines, how many machines are they making in, I don't know, a day? One is what they're telling us. uh on average about 24 machines a month not terrible certainly better than my pinball company is producing um but you know they build a quality machine from what i can tell although i've heard mixed things and little whispers of issues that have popped up name me a pinball game that hasn't i'll wait uh so uh making about 24 games a month they're projecting to be through the production of fathoms by the end of the year is what they just said now they've said that before and haven't delivered so that's where we're a little bit you know we got our sugar cubes made of salt that we're taking this information with but that would mean with uh august september october november december five months left 25 games a month around 125 to 150 games left to make which oh look that's right in the middle of the total number of fathoms right that mermaid game they're very pretty uh you almost like 1960s inspired scuba diving, you know, single level death to divers game, right? We all seen Fathom. We know it. All right. So people that are waiting on Fathom, go ahead and get your orders in for Centaur if you want them. They're supposed to come by the end of the year. Will they? We don't know. The future will tell us, Marty. The future. This is how many they have to make. This is how many they're making. And this is where you're going. Hill Valley 2055. Maybe that will be the date that all the fathoms will be delivered we currently do not know but centaur is scheduled from mr haggis to go into production in january you know we've heard of that uh why doesn't he just you know jump on the live and walk us around the factory well he alluded to that too um and he kind of took to the excuse that it takes a while to make video production that's time away from building games totally understandable but you know it takes no time flipping on the old facebook live and walking around or while you're working you know or you go on a mackers run come back with some quarter pounders or some royales whatever they're known as locally um and then you walk around munch your cheeseburger have some munch and lunch and then look around and show us around the factory so we have an update on oh look here's machines going out here's a bunch waiting for a trailer they almost have a full container uh this one's going out air freight something you know then that would instill the confidence in us i don't think there's any problems with your production schedule one game a gate one game a day, oh, strike that from the record there, one game a day is totally appropriate when the total run is 250, right? You know, so then you will spend the balance of a year, you know, with some issues that crop up getting through your production. That's fine. If it was making 5,000 of these one game a day would be atrocious. So you're not losing support because of how quickly you're building them. You're losing support because you're not keeping us updated, you know? You don't want to buy a game. I want to know roughly ballpark, when can I expect to have this? Is it going to be a year is it going to be two years is it going to be third quarter of next year and then as the quarters go by maybe do it just a quarterly update hey everybody here's where we are here's how many we've made here's how many we have left to go i don't think you're going to lose anything by being transparent at that level he was saying that he wants to keep the numbers close to the vest because that's what everybody does sure stern pinball does that they're not going to release exact numbers of what they're making other than something that's limited but they'll also release that the games are on the line being made put into boxes so you can speculate You know you're going to get a game from them. They have that track record. For a brand new company, though, it's important that we know kind of where we are. If they all sold out, who cares if you say what number you're at so we can follow the production? I mean, I don't know that there's any kind of industry secret that you need to protect by letting us know, like, hey, we're on game number 75. So if your game's number 115, you have about two to three months to wait. And you can expect to get that letter for final payment. And, you know, it helps us budget. So give us that, buddy. um you know call me talk to me let me know give me some information because i'm still within this space this pinball buying space where i i'm a potential customer of yours you know i like old games too um and centaur does look very fabulous okay um and it always has and i'm sure it's going to play well the other thing though is the value discussion right this is a game that is ten thousand dollars to start with us up to seventeen thousand dollars for the top trim level and why such a spread there guys why seven thousand dollars more for your top end level centaur what does the game have near as i can figure watching the videos that have been released there are art blades okay fine you know decals that go on the inside of the cabinet you know 100 150 sometimes 89 depending on if they foil or not whatever not seven thousand dollars um there an acrylic topper that does have some accoutrement on it looks like someone went to Spencer at the mall and got one of those you know kind of lightning pattern light up things It cool I dig it But like you know those are So you know where the $7,000 coming from? There's an airbrushed leather jacket and a helmet. And I have remarked before that the helmet is probably to protect you from getting a head injury when you get beat up for wearing a Centaur leather jacket out in public, just purely speculation on my part. But wouldn't it be better, instead of charging $7,000 for some stickers, something from Spencer's at the mall, and then the leather jacket and helmet, that you go ahead and put the leather jacket and helmet in your web store? And maybe the people that went in on your limited edition of 50 Centaur high-level games, maybe they get first dibs at going to buy that $250 jacket or whatever it is. But to say we want to kind of twist the knife on the collector and try to milk the money out of him. In fact, we're going to milk enough money out of them that they can go buy a Venom off the line next month in order to get the acrylic topper and the art blades and the leather jacket. I don't know, man. Come on. What am I missing here? I've seen the same thing from our friends over there at American Pinball with their Galaxy Edition, signature edition of Galactic Tank Force, where it looks exactly like the limited edition. But for $6,000 more, it comes with a thermos and a banner and a 3D Translight, whatever that means. I don't see $7,000 of value there. What is going on, you guys? I mean, hey, I respect the hustle. If you can get somebody to bitch out $6,000 just so they can say they have that top-end edition and you can get it, man, go get your money, girl. No hate in the game. But I'm just not seeing – there's not something that I would do, not something that I think a reasonable consumer would do either. So a little strange. So it's a very long interview. So I was in and out throughout the morning as I tried to dry the sleep from my eyes and the sweat from my brow. But there were some nuggets in there, and there's some great FaceTime with Damien, which we all love. Man, I wish I had locks like that. Let's move on to something else. Let's move on to something creepy. Let's move on to the new code update for Spooky Pinballs Halloween. Spooky Pinballs John Comprater's Halloween has a huge code update that just dropped. I was doing a live stream last week, my Friday night-tacular, right? And then here, entering the chat, spooky pinball. This popped in there. Oh, hey, by the way, new code is dropping for Halloween, like, right now. All right, K, bye, love you. And then they're out again. It was the most amazing thing I've seen in a live stream that I have done. So I have since put that code in my machine, and I'm having some difficulty here, friends. If I could be candid, you know, get close to the campfire. Let me speak softly into your ears. I have a problem. I have pinball machines coming in down the road. And they outnumber the number that I have room for now. And so at some point, it's prudent to then take a game that you've loved and let it go to somebody else. And so when I look at my games, the game that I've had the longest, about two years, the game that if I had to sell any of them right now, which one would I sell? It would be Halloween, not because I hate the game, but because there's finite space, you know, unless I start putting things upstairs, which I've already got a hard no from the little woman about. So in order to maintain intestinal integrity of the household, something's got to go. So Halloween has been up on the block to be posted, haven't quite come through yet, but then they come through with this huge code update, man, and I'm playing through this thing. I put it in there, and there's a lot of new content that came through in that game from this. I'm seeing new animations and displays on the LCD screen. I'm seeing new lighting patterns. There's a cool little flipper effect that starts, you know, when you're first starting a game. When the ball is coming up from that subterranean elevator out of the subway, it'll give a couple of flicks, kind of like how the flipper on, you know, Simpsons Pinball Party would do that before it launches out for that upper flipper. You know, just to tell you, like, hey, guy, something's going to be going on down here, and if you don't react, Michael's going to kill you. So that was really cool, seeing that. And then going through the option menu, I saw that there was an option to toggle that on and off, so that's interesting. I had the best game on there that I've ever had. I said a new grand champion, 34,750,000 or so. Had a fantastic playthrough on that game, got the extra ball. I was seeing new animations pop up when you hit the grave site, that grave shot.

16:10

So it's just a lot of cool integration went into there, and they're telling us that there's more to come. So thank you so much, Spooky Pinball, for not abandoning us after you made the game. All these games are sold, 1,250. They were all sold. They're out there. They're not going to make any more of them. But what they're doing is they're coming back and they're adding new code via updates for free from the internet that are putting new content into the game. So thank you for doing that. But it makes my decision even harder. Like, what am I going to do to free up some space here? Now, I can move things around and accommodate. But at some point, it's going to get a little ridiculous if I don't learn how to let go, right? So, you know, I guess it's a good problem to have, right? the game that i have that i would most likely sell is the one that's getting updated very frequently there was a foo fighters update also um just had some bug updates with the overlord and this and this little finger locks and things nothing really noticeable but this halloween code if you have not played halloween recently go seek out one on location and see if it has the newly updated code and go try playing it or better yet if you know somebody that has one in their home environment you can come and play it there like go and play it you know experience this game put a couple of games through there and see some of the new effects and and new lcd uh accoutrement that they put on there um and let me know what you think man because halloween halloween be kicking man i got it on right now i'm looking at the guy over there it's got the pumpkin i put up on there the mini play field i hung on the wall some other stuff i got from the spirits halloween um and I digging Halloween again And now I conflicted Like what do I do with this thing Let move on to a new topic If anybody, I'm going to put this out there. This is a request from Don's Pinball Podcast. If you see or come across a punny factory that is on location, go check it out. Go play it. And then give me your feedback. I've been hearing whisperers of some play field issues. And so there's some photos posted recently. I haven't seen these from anybody else, though. So I'm wondering if there's a widespread problem with some grittiness to the clear coat finish or some of the graphics coming up on some of the inserts. I don't know. The pictures I saw, I was a little bit concerned about. But then talking to other people that I do know that have come across them, they haven't run into similar issues. So, you know, I spoke with the person that had these issues. I spoke a little bit with Andrew of Pinball Adventures. And I'm trying to kind of sort everything else and see, like, how much there is there. So my only request right now, I'm not going to really comment on it, but if you see one out in the wild go play it and if you notice any playfield issues let a brother know man um and i'll just we'll just let's put that out there to pass on let's get to something else the big green man the big green lizard guy the godzilla machine right the got the new topper that unlocked the king of the monsters boss rush timed mode well i am happy to say i have completed it that happened this morning give me some air horn vuvuzela for that man that's awesome so my homeboy and yours uh joel engelberth over there on flipping out with friends he's also one of the triple drain dudes um go pick yourself up one of their t-shirts or their lunch boxes uh but he just did an interview with mr goat mr keith elwyn designer of among other things godzilla and so he's got a great video up there it's over an hour long really talks about keith and going into his process and where he's working now, where his studio at home is, his studio at work, and what goes into the process of designing things. We were able to get some information from there. But the one thing I wanted to comment on is Joel has mentioned that he's been to the same place with this timed mode that I have been, and that is when you have to hit that last shot, which is in the scoop to end the mode, he ran out of time. And that's been my problem too. So this King of Monsters mode, it's a boss rush. You can start it from a new game, either paid or on home team and free play. you get five minutes, and you get to attack the four main monsters simultaneously, which is fun. You know, you go hit the ramps to score hits against Gigan, while you're also hitting Megalon targets at the same time. Or Thunder Lizard, whatever that other guy's called. You know, as you hit a spinner, that can also be, you know, a target for one of the other monsters. And so you're getting Eberra and one of his compatriots, like, at the same time. So it's fun to play with five minutes and unlimited balls, you know, see if you can kill all the monsters and get all the shots. whichever time remains goes to the second mode and that's when you battle uh gaigan in a multi-ball mode and you have whatever time is left over to hit about 20 different shots on the play field it's fast and it's frantic and it's hard to keep looking up and down and try not to lose the you know the multi-balls um but when you hit them all which whatever time you have left you just have to hit the scoop and and and i was i was killing it man in less than two minutes i had killed all the four monsters. I was just flying through there. My shots were like laser guided missiles, man. And so I had three minutes going into the final mode, got all the shots and I had over a minute left to just hit the dang scoop. And I sent about 20 balls flying straight toward it. Every one of them bricked. Every last one did not go in. And I'm like, are you kidding me right now? I played the best that I'm probably ever going to play in this game. I have a full minute and I can't hit the dang scoop shot. It was killing me. Three seconds left. Boom. I managed to put it straight in there, right down the throat, ending the game, played a little cool scene where Godzilla's hugging onto Jet Jackson, Jet Jaguar. That guy walks off into the sunset, game over. So that was fun. So I did it. So my question is, number one, did I beat Joel Engelberth to beating this mode or not? Or did he do the same thing today of a friendly competition with him? That'd be you'll find to find out about. But the other thing to comment about is the interview with Elwin. It was really, really cool. I watched the whole thing while I was supposed to be working. And there was a lot of cool comments in there. Now, we also found out that Keith Elwin's next game, which I'm going to call Jaws, it's rumored to be Jaws, but we have no confirmation that it's Jaws. So I'm just going to refer to his next game as Jaws. So Jaws is done, as far as his input, the design, the layout. It's over in decoding, where they're doing the rules and things now. so he's got a game finished he is working currently on his next game he's in the cad phase right now um probably you know whitewood and designing shots and things uh for a game to follow up jaws so this man's gonna keep going um so we're expecting that what we don't know is when it's coming out he's been rumored to have said before that he does not have a game coming out this year that would track we got venom coming out in august september there's a block of uh time on the on the build schedule with stern in december that nothing's filled in there that may be where they run the rest of the pros and premiums from the second run of venom um so i don't think we're gonna see jaws drop then but i think in february march would be reasonable we're gonna get our shark on or whatever theme it turns out to be that seems fantastic so go check out joel and flipping out with friends on youtube and uh you know give yourself a watch through that great video and then when you're finished with that there's an hour of damien and his flowing red locks how does he keep his hair so straight i love it man Get at me at DonSpinballPodcast at gmail.com. I got t-shirts. I just got some coasters in too, man. Buy a t-shirt from me for $25 delivered and I will include some coasters for you to set your beverage on. Think of the coffee table. Also, join the Discord. Head over to the Facebook page. Hit like and please follow the Facebook page at DonSpinballPodcast. I'm trying to build to a thousand so I can have a platform to stand with all of my friends. You, the people.