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Bonus episode! Don and Cengiz talk Spooky!

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·39m 13s·analyzed·Dec 12, 2023
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.040

TL;DR

Don shares hands-on impressions of Spooky's Looney Tunes and TCM pinball games after factory visit.

Summary

Don and Cengiz (Retro Jingo) discuss Spooky Pinball's two new games—Looney Tunes and Texas Chain Saw Massacre—in a 40-minute bonus episode. Don recently visited Spooky's headquarters and played both prototypes, sharing detailed gameplay impressions on playfield design, mechanics, code differences, pricing, manufacturing quality, and artwork. Both games share the same layout but feature completely different insert patterns, mechanisms, modes, and code, representing Spooky's most customized dual release to date.

Key Claims

  • Looney Tunes and Texas Chain Saw Massacre share the same playfield layout and ramps but have completely different insert patterns, mechanisms, skill shots, and code written by separate teams

    high confidence · Don played both games at Spooky HQ and confirmed different insert cuts, different mechanism operation, different skill shots, different modes access and mode gameplay

  • Spooky has doubled production size again with a new larger facility coming online in 2025, all on one level with professional production lines

    high confidence · Don visited the facility and observed the new factory construction; heating system is already on

  • Spooky reduced the price of their top-tier Collector's Edition by approximately $800 compared to Scooby-Doo pricing, while other tiers increased slightly

    high confidence · Don cited Collector's Edition at $9,700 (down from Scooby's higher price) with Bloodsucker edition at $9,000 and Standard at $8,300

  • The games feature a meat grinder mechanism with worm gear auger and diverter on left ramp that Don believes Stern would never approve for production

    high confidence · Don observed 3D-printed/resin prototype parts and expressed skepticism about durability on location machines; expressed belief Stern would not allow such fragile parts

  • Both games feature an upper flipper layout with repeatable shots, including an inner orbit loop similar to Iron Maiden that's not infinitely fast but fair and rejection-free

    high confidence · Don played both games and described the inner orbit feeding into scoop and Vuck, with repeatable shots on right upper flipper without excessive rattle rejections

  • Texas Chain Saw Massacre features a magnet lock mode where the ball gets stuck on the magnet and requires another ball to knock it loose for multiball, similar to Munsters

    high confidence · Don observed and described the magnet behavior during gameplay and compared it to Stern's Munsters implementation

  • Spooky manufactures everything in-house except cabinets: armor cutting/bending, playfield printing, vinyl graphics, acrylic cutting, back glass printing, LED light boards

Notable Quotes

  • “I think you are the only one in the whole industry except Bug and Luke of course that has played both games. And even among them, right.”

    Cengiz (Retro Jingo) @ ~3:45 — Establishes Don's unique access and credibility as first non-manufacturer person to play both games; positions him as authoritative source

  • “Different inserts? Yeah, yeah. So it's not just, you know, cut out a whitewood and then put this graphic on this one, this one on this one. The inserts are cut differently. The game plays differently. The modes are accessed differently.”

    Don @ ~6:30 — Key revelation that games are not reskins but fundamentally different designs with separate insert patterns; challenges industry expectation of dual releases being copy-paste

  • “This is the flowiest layout I've ever seen from Spooky. There were no, you know, no Rick and Morty, you know, just reject shots or something or where everything has to be precise like Alice Cooper.”

    Don @ ~11:45 — Positive gameplay assessment comparing favorably to previous Spooky games; suggests design improvement in shot routing and accessibility

  • “Stern would never make it. But the effect, I don't know how it is when you play, but when I saw it in the video, it looks so cool.”

    Don @ ~27:15 — Notes manufacturing risk with 3D-printed parts on meat grinder mechanism; expresses concern about durability but acknowledges visual appeal; implicit criticism of Stern's risk aversion

  • “And I think that's what they mean by they've been able to bring the price down, but bring their costs down as well, but probably still preserve the same margins.”

    Don @ ~19:45 — Analysis of Spooky's vertical integration strategy enabling price reduction while maintaining profitability

  • “Every time I was on Looney Tunes and I'd start a mode and the cartoon would start, I would giggle to myself and be like, cartoon. Every time.”

    Don @ ~38:20 — Humorous but genuine enthusiasm for Looney Tunes mode experience; demonstrates emotional appeal of full-cartoon integration vs. TCM's clip-and-callout approach

Entities

Spooky PinballcompanyDonpersonCengiz (Retro Jingo)personLooney Tunes (Spooky Pinball)gameTexas Chain Saw Massacre (Spooky Pinball)gameBugpersonLuke Peters (Spooky Luke)personChristopher Franchiperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Questions about manufacturing cost structure given Spooky's vertical integration and production order size (1776 parts per machine) while reducing prices and maintaining quality

    medium · Cengiz: 'I mean yeah so so touring around through the factory one thing that they've done...bring everything in house...they've been able to bring the price down, but bring their costs down as well, but probably still preserve the same margins'

  • ?

    community_signal: Spooky actively incorporates player and operator feedback into game design and code iteration; demonstrates openness to modification and improvement

    high · Don: 'They're open to feedback, too, and they're actively putting in that feedback into the games' and discussion of ramp replacement/service policy

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive community reception to both new games evident in Don and Cengiz's enthusiasm; Looney Tunes particularly noted for broad appeal across casual players and families

    high · Don: 'I couldn't buy one because I had to buy I had to buy two I have to have both of them now' and 'If you have your kid there and let them play it...everybody else, it's nostalgic'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Spooky has implemented angled posts and improved shot routing based on community feedback from previous games (Rick and Morty, Alice Cooper) to reduce rejection shots and improve flow

    high · Don: 'They have been listening...They have even taken that feedback and a lot of the posts and a lot of the standup targets are actually angled. So if a ball does hit the post, it doesn't necessarily come straight down the middle'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.118

0:00
special little bonus episode here of don's pinball podcast coming for you here's the audio recording with a video i just did with jeng as retro jingo on a youtube channel well it was all about our discussion with uh the review and the reveal of spooky pinballs two new games my gameplay impressions in kind of a question and answer format so i'll go ahead and rip the audio and put that up for you it's about 40 minutes of a conversation between a couple of guys with nothing better to do today than talk pinball and just have fun in the hobby. So here, let me present that to you, and then we'll meet back on the back end. Everybody, welcome to Retro Dangle, and my dear friend, Don. It's Don. It's Don from Don's Pinball Podcast. Hello from the frozen wastelands of central Wisconsin. Back to Denmark. Guten tag. Or tag, yeah. Goaften.
0:53
Goaften to you, sir. It's so nice to have you here my friend I have missed you Two, three weeks ago we made the last video About what was it Was it Venom or what did we talk about Last time I don't remember It was something fascinatingly interesting I can remember that I think it was about your Stranger Things Do you have it now? No not yet There was a bit of a parts delay apparently But they started running them last week And so I think within seven days I should have it here in the game room at District on Arcade. Oh, it's going to be awesome. But today it's going to be all about Spooky Pinball's two new games. What? They've got new games? When did that happen? Well, the thing is, my peeps here on my channel, they were like, Retro Jango, everybody else has been making videos, podcasts about these two new games, except you what's going on and i was like you hit me up and you said jengis i'm on my way to spooky i'm gonna play both games and i was like if donald is gonna play both of them then i'm not gonna make no video no nothing not waste time on guessing stuff i'm gonna have the guy that has the best experience i think i think you are the only one in the whole industry except bog and luke of Of course, that's right. Right. Like non-distributor. Yeah. And even among them. Right. So I can just cut to the chase and say that I have a high score on that machine now. That's how few people have played it that I was able to get up there and take the top score. So cool, man. The last four or five days have been just a blur. Like, you know, first we get the soft teaser, then we get the reveal, then we get the featurette. And then all of a sudden I'm invited on down there, dude. It was just amazing. You know, hashtag blessed. How close are you to them? They're three hours south of me, you know, just a trip through the dairy lands. And then, boom, I'm right there at their worldwide headquarters. Oh, man, so cool. So last time you were over there, you talked about their new factory. Yeah, I was there picking up my Scooby-Doo. So not just yet, but they've doubled their production size again. Like, you know, this is a company that started in a room in a building. And then they outgrew that room and they built the shed. And then they built a larger shed. And now they built an even larger facility where they can really stay all on one level and run some professional lines. And so that will be happening in the year. But the building is done and the heat is on, which is important in Wisconsin. You know, it's the American dream, right? They're living the American dream. And this is their hobby and they're making money out of their hobby and they're expanding. I am just so – I hope when they move to the new factory, you will go there and make a live video so we can see. because Spooky is really transparent. Yeah. Really nice guys. I really like them. Absolutely. They're growing organically, and they're hiring their local people. They don't hire a production run, run a game, and then, okay, laid off until the next one. I mean, these people have been with them for several years now. So the whole crew is just like Venom Stern, man. They're leveling up every time they go, and then each release is even better. And they're open to feedback, too, and they're actively putting in that feedback into the games. Yeah. I'm going to talk about that in a couple of minutes. But first, I want to ask you, so you played both games, right? Both of them. Looney Tunes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yeah. Looney and Texas. And you were there together with your wife? Yeah, yeah. They invited us all down there. It was fantastic. So what did your wife think about these games? So first off, just from the release, she's like, Looney Tunes, I got to have it. And so, you know, and in my mind, right, and to preserve my street cred, I'm like, well, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, right? That is the brutal theme. I need to have that to remain masculine in this society. And then I'm like, well, what do I do, man? You know, she likes that game. I like this game. Surely I can't get both, right? Because, you know, from our last experience with Halloween and Ultraman, the gameplay layout was the same for those. But also the inserts were the same. The code was done by the same team. So a lot of it was kind of almost like copy-paste. You know, you hit the three scoops to start a multi-ball in each game. You know, you hit the three drop targets and hit the scoop to start a mode. Like, that was the same for each one. But this time, what they have done is they have a completely different team on one from the other. So, like, even though the layout and the shots and the ramps are similar, the mechanisms operate differently. The skill shots operate differently. The inserts don't match up. They each have individual different insert patterns. And so, yeah. Different inserts? Yeah, yeah. So it's not just, you know, cut out a whitewood and then put this graphic on this one, this one on this one. The inserts are cut differently. The game plays differently. The modes are accessed differently. The modes play differently. You know, with TCM, and we can get into the nuance in a bit, but, you know, when you start a mode in TCM, it's clips from the movie and call-outs. And when you start a mode in Looney Tunes, they're playing the whole cartoon the whole time you're playing the mode. So you're hearing all the – so I was playing Looney Tunes, and my wife was sitting behind me. I started a mode, and she's like, Don, don't drain. I want to watch this cartoon. And I'm like, well, great.

high confidence · Don toured the factory and confirmed in-house manufacturing of all major components; uses their own custom board design with improvements based on Scooby feedback

  • Texas Chain Saw Massacre uses prismatic dual-step powder coating on ramps (base coat plus heated gel plus clear coat) that creates nail-polish-like hardness

    medium confidence · Don described the coating process for the ramps and noted Spooky said customers can unscrew and replace ramp parts if chipping occurs

    • “I made two videos where I said, Spooky, the audio part is so important. you need to concentrate you need but this game okay the audio package the music is so scary it's so well done it's 10 out of 10”

    Don @ ~41:00 — Positive audio design assessment for TCM; implies previous Spooky games had audio quality issues but this one resolved them

  • “You know, the guys have been working on these games for years. They're intimately familiar with every detail of it. And then it's released and then I have no experience on it. So a video like that really kind of tells the story.”

    Don @ ~36:15 — Endorsement of Zach Minney's featurette video production quality and approach; suggests other manufacturers should replicate this style of game reveal

  • “If you have your kid there and let them play it, sure. And then everybody else, it's nostalgic. So it's like the perfect location theme.”

    Don @ ~34:00 — Assessment of Looney Tunes' commercial viability for location operators; suggests broad appeal across demographics

  • “I couldn't buy one because I had to buy I had to buy two I have to have both of them now”

    Don @ ~8:20 — Indicates strong product differentiation between games convinced Don to purchase both despite being torn; validates design approach of making them distinct enough to warrant dual ownership

    • Zach Minney (Flippin' Out Pinball)person
    Monicaperson
    Scooby-Doo (Spooky Pinball)game
    Rick and Morty (Spooky Pinball)game
    Alice Cooper (Spooky Pinball)game
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Pinball Lifecompany
    Foo Fighters (pinball game)game
    Iron Maiden (Jersey Jack Pinball)game
    Munsters (Stern Pinball)game
    Halloween/Ultraman (Spooky Pinball)game
    Pinball Brotherscompany
    Shadow (pinball game)game
    District on Arcadevenue
    Retro Jingo (YouTube channel)media
    Jack Dangerperson

    manufacturing_signal: Spooky's new facility represents complete vertical integration with in-house capability for armor, playfield printing, vinyl graphics, acrylics, back glass, LED boards, and powder coating; facility coming online in 2025

    high · Don: 'they've doubled their production size again...they built an even larger facility where they can really stay all on one level and run some professional lines...The building is done and the heat is on'

  • $

    market_signal: International distribution gap identified; Denmark/Scandinavia has no Spooky distributor despite expressed interest from venue operators; represents potential market expansion opportunity

    medium · Cengiz: 'We have seven locations here, but we have no distros here in Denmark...we're going to contact Spooky. And if they're interested, import their games here'

  • $

    market_signal: Zach Minney's detailed game reveal featurette videos receive praise as superior marketing approach compared to other manufacturers; suggests featurette production quality influences buyer enthusiasm

    medium · Don: 'Zach is a he's a gem in this pinball industry...I really want to watch a Texas Chainsaw movie again...every pinball manufacturers call zach many from flipping out you know him make let him make these'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Christopher Franchi (Spooky artist) involved in fine-tuning Texas Chain Saw Massacre artwork, providing continuity with Spooky's artistic direction

    medium · Don: "There's a little hand touch of Frenchie in this, too. He was involved a little bit in the process here and there, fine-tuning things for him"

  • $

    market_signal: Spooky reduced top-tier (Collector's Edition) pricing by approximately $800 from Scooby-Doo levels while slightly increasing other tiers; positioning under $10k for premium option

    high · Don: 'Collector's edition, 9,700. Bloodsucker edition, 9,000...Standard...8,300' and 'they did bump the price of their top end down about 80 from where uh scooby was'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Looney Tunes and Texas Chain Saw Massacre are not reskins but fully differentiated games with separate insert patterns, different mechanism operation, different skill shots, different code teams, and different mode gameplay despite sharing ramp layout

    high · Don: 'different inserts...different insert patterns. And so, yeah. Different inserts? Yeah, yeah. The inserts are cut differently. The game plays differently. The modes are accessed differently.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Texas Chain Saw Massacre meat grinder mechanism uses 3D-printed/resin prototype parts (not yet injection molded) that Don believes would fail durability standards; expressed skepticism Stern would approve such materials for location machines

    high · Don: 'The one I saw, it looks like it was either resin or 3D printed...My hope is that it's an injection molded part because that's going to be getting a lot of action...Stern would never do that. George Gomez would never give that green light'

    • 6:15
    Do they have a screen up at the topper? Yeah, yeah. No, at the top. No, it's in the back box. So that's all the same. That's the same from Scooby and from their other releases. Narrow body games. They could have a screen up there, just like Elton John, have a screen because of Looney Tunes, you know, on location. It could be a great upgrade, actually. now you got my mod brain turning now that's what i'm thinking right right so you want to buy the texas chainsaw massacre right and your wife monica she wants the other game yeah you can't buy both games you play who would do that yeah only a crazy person absolutely yeah so that was my and then you know uh that was from the reveal and then i saw the featurettes and i'm like whoa So, you know, Looney Tunes was really speaking to me, you know, when I was watching through. And the fact that they've got the full assets, right? It's not like they got Bugs Bunny and then they're doing their custom little animations. Like they got the cartoons. They put them into the game. They got, you know, the voices are quite similar to what was actually on screen before. So, and, you know, there's already six modes that are in there with cartoons. And then this code is still preliminary, you know, so there's still more to come. so i started getting hype on looney tunes after the featurette to be honest oh so what what did you end up with it is it's spooky yeah you have to have the spooky it's hard yeah so so you know but because i was so split between both of them i couldn't buy one i just i couldn't buy one because i had to buy i had to buy two i have to have both of them now you put halloween ultra man next to each other obviously you can tell that they were you know two themes, one playfield. But I'm telling you, for most people that don't already know about it, if you were to walk into a good-sized arcade and TCM was on one side and Looney Tunes was the other, people may not even realize that actually they do share the same layout as far as the ramps and the shots and the ramps and the wireforms. But first of all, congratulations on both games. So cool. Second of all, you said different inserts. Now, Spooky makes everything in-house they print their play fields and all sort of stuff yeah is it only inserts or i'm thinking ramp entrance shots are the same but those are the same different on the ramp exits or something no no there's a ramp the the ramps they got a great design i don't think i would want them to really severely alter that because then one would be a clear favorite um so each one of the ramp shots and you can see this they just put up tcm uh play footage finally that just got approved for release. Each shot is feeding a flipper. So like this is the flowiest layout I've ever seen from Spooky. There were no, you know, no Rick and Morty, you know, just reject shots or something or where everything has to be precise like Alice Cooper. They've even taken that feedback and a lot of the posts and a lot of the standup targets are actually angled. So if a ball does hit the post, it doesn't necessarily come straight down the middle. It'll, you know, something else. So yeah, They have been listening. They have, yeah. They have been listening. So, I need to ask you. So, the first video where we saw two minutes video, three minutes something, two days ago, I saw the upper flippers when they shot the ball everything went just too slow in slow motion just like on the upper play field of Scooby Yeah. But how is it? Is it just like in the video, really slow? Right. Or is it fast in the real deal? So they asked me this. Okay, yeah, they were asking me, like, does this feel like slower? Does it feel fast? It felt fast to me. You know, I mean, you rip a shot through the inner orbit, it zips right around and then drops into a scoop and then comes out of buck back into the outer orbit. Like, it was pretty quick. It's not TNA fast, right? You know, it's not super quick. So let me ask in another way. But it's not as slow as Scooby-Doo's upper play field for sure. Oh, thank God. Yeah. That's right. So one of them flippers, do they have a shot where you can loop and get to the same flipper and loop and get to the same flipper? Yeah. Does one of them have that feature? The jewel feature The jewel flipper is that right upper flipper Because there's so many Both flip upper flippers have multiple shots Out of them but that right upper one You can shoot it into a ramp that feeds directly Back to that flipper so that is repeatable There's also the inner orbit that you can Shoot and it's designed so it goes right Into a scoop Into a subway into a luck that comes Right back into the orbit and comes back to that flipper So yeah The inner orbit is repeatable How many times can you loop that shot? How good you are. It's an infinite loop if you get the timing right.
    11:16
    Okay, that means it's not super fast then. Right, right. It's like Iron Maiden. You can't loop 16 times, you know. Oh, yeah, to go really fast. So the inner loop, the one I like that feeds into that scoop and the Vuck, I mean, it's limited because each time you do get in there, it goes back to the Vuck to release. So, you know, it's not like gaining speed as you're going. The other ones, though, do, you know.
    11:41
    But, you know, the scooby upper play field is pretty open, so the ball can float around. This is a tight maze nest up there. But it doesn't feel like, you know, the whole time I was playing, every shot felt fair. It wasn't like I had a good shot and then it would rattle and then stop and come back like I've seen happen before. You know, if your precision is off just a bit and you get that rattle rejection, I didn't really have that with this. so they have the next question is their left ramp is pretty close to the flippers you know it's placed just like on foo fighters the left ramp entrance i would say i have to look at the layout again but it feels like it's farther back a bit um than foo fighters it is it is more open too it's flared a bit so it's it's easier to hit than that that one fun foo fighters was okay because i really don't like it when it's so close to the flippers because it has got post or targets that you can hit and then yeah straight down the middle did you experience that at the ramp entrance to the left ramp hitting those posts or what they have not with that one because they are they are wider than they are on foo fighters now foo fighters has to accommodate that other pathway behind the ramp in this case there's a scoop that's underneath there underneath that plastic which in most pictures is kind of hard to see exactly where it is um but you can shoot right into that scoop and then you know it ejects hits right back to the flipper doesn't come down the middle but i didn't get a lot of like ramp post ejects no oh that's nice so you went ahead and bought both games and these games comes in three versions which versions did you buy oh we're going with you got going with the collector's edition when you see how loaded these games are i mean these have even more than what scooby came with man and um now they did they did bump the price of their top end down about 80 from where uh scooby was yeah the other tiers though i I think they came up a little bit. So everything's a little more compressed there. So if I look at here, I have the prices somewhere. So collector's edition, 9,700.
    13:41
    Bloodsucker edition, 9,000. So the Bloodsucker, that's for Texas Chainsaw. What's the Looney Tunes called? Do you know that? It's also called a Bloodsucker. And so that comes back when they had their fan club membership, their fan club that you could join and then you could either get the the general release or if you were a club member you could get this blood sucker edition and then that name is kind of kept up there while they added this third tier that collector's edition that they have that's their le or you know whatever top tier you'd want to call it um so i yeah i don't know if they want to maybe read our tradition they also have a standard you know for 8300 yeah yeah so if you just need it in your arcade to play and earn that's the one you would want if you are like me and you like powder coated armor and powder coated coin doors and magnets now a magnet panel on the speaker panel speaker lights and custom laser cut things and a topper you know and a shaker and knocker like that's all in there does it have invisi glass also and shaker that i do not believe it does that would that would be something you'd have to upgrade okay but still we're under 10 000 yeah this is a great move we know pinball brothers took a price reduction now spooky with price reduction this is the right way to go and I hope other companies will go this route the thing is usually pinball manufacturers they need to for them to make sense that they need to sell thousands of a theme but they are doing these 888 per machine but all in all it's their order in part for like 1776 i know you are talking about difference on the on the inserts but yeah i don't think they are making a lot of money when you're thinking about all the research design and all sorts of stuff i mean yeah so so touring around through the factory one thing that they've done over the last few years is really bring everything in house like everything. They're cutting their own armor, bending it. They're printing their own playfields. Their cabinets are built off site, but everything else they've got, you know, the vinyl printers for all their stickers, all their graphics, that's all made there. Their acrylics are all cut on site. The back glass is printed. The acrylics are printed. The playfields printed all on the same machine. You know, so they have control over all that. And I think that's what they mean by they've been able to bring the price down, but bring their costs down as well, but probably still preserve the same margins do they use a fast system i it's it's the same system that was on scooby-doo i forget the name of it oh but that's their own right yeah so they they've got a guy that's brilliant that's designing their boards and then they've taken a lot of the feedback from how scooby's been doing and already have made upgrades to that board okay did you look under the play feel how does it look it looks great they're using their um led light boards um and then you know it's not a you know huge mess of wires everything looks like the wire management is manageable um a lot of the parts they use are from pinball life so if one does fail you can just pop it out pop a new one in um and they've been looking at that when we looked at the ramps right yeah the ramps are all powder coated the wire forms are powder coated if they're going to ask you something about that i want to ask you this game yeah did it have some sort of chipping on the ramps because they are painted it didn't now if you were if you're doing the regular black wrinkle powder coat that most games come with i could see that getting beat up um they're going with a prismatic powder product it's a dual step uh powder coat it's their illusion series that they use it's something that i use um and it's got a base coat and then you heat that up the gel melts and then you put a clear coat on it and fire it again so it forms almost like a really hard like a nail polish surface so it's not really brittle like it could you know take a take a beating but what they said is if you do run into any chipping issues you can unscrew the ramp part pull it out put it back in they put the optos on the wire forms so there's no wires attached to the ramp that you'd have to really get into and they said if you do run into a problem contact them and they'll they'll take care of it oh that's nice i mean spooky has great service come on yeah yeah no matter who i'm talking to they're okay they have some issues but they are they give so good support so it's so cool yeah i want to talk to you about the art of these machines because i mean i i have the big my my biggest interest was on the uh texas tensile massacre and the artwork on the cabinet on the back, everything. It's just mind-blowing on the pictures. How is the real deal? How does it look? It looks good. You know, I like the butter cabinet finish. I went forward on Scooby-Doo, but even just the vinyl graphics they have, I mean, I like the finish on them. I like how the art looks. It's got... There's a little hand touch of Frenchie in this, too. He was involved a little bit in the process here and there, fine-tuning things for him. So you can see it kind of shows through. But yeah, Yeah, I like it. Especially, you know, looking at that topper, the acrylic topper that they have. You've got the barn, you've got the windmill in the house, and Leatherface is out there with his chainsaw. And then as you're playing, there's, you know, yeah. Does it have movement on the topper? No, there's nothing moving on the topper, but there are some light shows that do show, you know, like LED blades moving. Monica was able to see that. I didn't notice because I was looking at the play field the whole time.
    19:26
    Okay, okay. That sounds good. How about that meat grinder that grinds the ball Yeah so that cool It like a worm gear auger that there Was it in plastic parts or in metal parts What was it made of? So the one I saw, it looks like it was either resin or 3D printed.
    19:50
    But the games I was playing were still prototypes. They haven't gotten the finished sculpts in yet. So my hope is that it's an injection molded part because that's going to be getting a lot of action. And you can see gears that look like they're typical 3D printed ones.
    20:05
    The first thing, when I saw that, the first thing I was like, Stern would never do that. George Comas would never give that green light because that's, you know, parts like that on locations. Oh, my God. Stern would never make it. But the effect, I don't know how it is when you play, but when I saw it in the video, it looks so cool. but it was so cool. Yeah, it's legitimately like a meat grinder there. So there's an auger screw that turns like a worm drive. So as the ball goes in there, it just kind of works its way down and then falls into the subway system. I'm still learning the code to see what shot you have to hit to activate that. But when you hit that left ramp and it's active, there's a diverter that will knock the ball in there.
    20:52
    Oh, okay. Yeah, so the left ramp has a diverter. also the right orbit at the back right side yeah something that lifts up what's that so that was pretty clever so it's that back corner of the orbit that right corner is where it moves and it's on a plunger or a coil that will pop up to allow the ball as it's coming up that right orbit to go back into a buck to get into that upper lock system at the back of the play field and what i thought was you trigger the lock this thing pops up and then you can shoot orbits to get back there but no no no it stays down and then when it's activated there's a switch it rolls over as the ball's coming up at the last second it pops up and that's when your ball gets in there so it's a clever piece of little yeah it's it's it's elegant it's simplicity and you know i didn't see any rejects the whole time i was playing it and then you know the ball pops up there there's a little uh sorter that drops the ball into one of different places um the ball sit back there on meat hooks and then they all release it it was fun it was fun so cool yeah so the um best part about this uh sizzle video was of course the the sanctum oh sorry the sanctum shot you know where the mag did oh oh that that was great yeah i saw that i saw that in the trailer and i'm like is this gonna work and it worked every time i played Yeah, you know, and this is where the code teams approach this thing differently because, you know, the magnet behaves differently in each different game. For TCM, right, you know, the ball will lock there. Now they both throw the ball up into that lock. But TCM has a mode where there's a multi-ball similar to Munsters with Stern where the ball gets stuck on the magnet and then you have to hit it with another ball to knock it loose to start the multi-ball. Yes, that's awesome. Does it have like a totem like you can take the ball and throw it in the other direction? Can it do that? So probably, but I didn't see that coded in here yet. I would see it grab the ball, and then when it's ready, it just releases for a second, fires again, grabs the ball, and throws it straight up into the meat locker. Totally. It's copied from the Shadow, but that's the best part about the game, Shadow. So, welcome. If you want to go find great things from other games and put them in, have at it.
    23:14
    Check parts from Shadow. Check ideas from Totem. Why not? It's so great. I love it. So, can you also hit the door as a bash toy? Yeah. Or don't the magnet grab every time? You can hit the door as a bash toy, and then other times the magnet will be activated. You know, there's modes where you can hit the bash door and then it'll open. Then you can go in to start a multiball. There's other things that... It checks with a switch at the door. Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. So many stuff that can break down.
    23:46
    That's the only thing we can't really say. How is this going to hold up over year two, year three, year ten? That's what we're going to be finding out. Yeah. We have seven locations here, but we have no distros here in Denmark. So I have never been able to buy their games. But, yeah, we talked about this, and we're going to contact Spooky. And if they're interested, import their games here, and we can have it in our showrooms and show their games to these Scandinavian people. Why not? I mean, you know, if you're in a region where people don't have these games on location, so if you had the Looney Tunes in Copenhagen, that's where people are going to go, man. I mean… Every time a pinball release, my brother and I would talk on the phone. We were so excited. and we were both like, oh, Texas Chainsaw. And he was like, we can't put that on our location. I said, no, but think about Looney Tunes. And he was like, oh man, it's so cool. So who, where's the distro? We have no distro. We can't get those games. Nobody's going to walk by Looney Tunes and not throw a dollar into it. If you have your kid there and let them play it, sure. And then everybody else, it's nostalgic. So it's like the perfect location theme. To be honest, I was like, Chainsaw? Awesome. Looney Tunes in the beginning I don't care So I watched Texas and it was Awesome and I think Let me just check out this Looney Tunes First three seconds I fell In love It looked astonishing It's almost better Than Texas After I saw the video And later when Zach's video Now Zach is a he's a gem in this pinball industry because those that 20 minute uh what's his featurette i think yeah yeah oh my god where he interviews the guys and shows us everything those videos i don't i don't understand we we didn't get that with jjp did we this time we got the we got the game players floating off into the sky with elton john but we didn't get a sit down here's our thought process behind everything you know you know why not all pinball manufacturers call zach many from flipping out you know him yeah yeah make let him make these and the production value is like you edit videos i edit videos we know how much time you have to put in i don't have that time or the skills but zach's skills. It's Hollywood editing skills, man. There's some clever little edits of how they do the transitions and things and how they let a voice trail off while they go to another scene that really does elevate it. I told this to the guys. They've been working on these games for years. They're intimately familiar with every detail of it. And then it's released and then I have no experience on it. So Bugs there telling me all the code and I have no context to put it on. So a video like that really kind of tells the story and like gets me like to know kind of what i'm getting into what i expect to get from this game you know rather than just you know so i love it and the way he edits the audio with every clip a sound and he just mixes everything and i'm like i want to buy these games it looks so but we can't buy them here but man it's so cool he really is a national treasure and we're lucky to have him.
    27:20
    I love his work. Absolutely, man. I mean, it's just, it's next level. I don't know if he gets free games for that or what he gets, but he really deserves it because after I watch this, I really want to watch a Texas Chainsaw movie again because I watched it like 30 years ago or something. I want to watch it now because I saw how Buck was talking about it when he played the game. Every time he started the mode, He was so excited. I'm going to start this. He was so excited. This guy has been at this game for like two years. He was so excited. I was going back and forth. I'd put two games on Texas, and then I'd go back to Looney Tunes and go back and forth, and it was just a great palate cleanser. But every time I was on Looney Tunes and I'd start a mode and the cartoon would start, I would giggle to myself and be like, cartoon.
    28:10
    Every time. Oh, man. And the Chesmedian devil that turns around there. Yeah. And Texas Chainsaw turning around. I love when the chainsaw is running at idle. Because I'm an audio guy. When Spooky came out with Halloween, I really wanted that game. And then I saw Jack Danger's gameplay video with that. And the music was ding, ding, ding, ding. And the scoop shot was eee all the time. And I made two videos where I said, Spooky, the audio part is so important. you need to concentrate you need but this game okay i saw their texas chainsaw video the music okay the audio package the music is so scary it's so well done it's 10 out of 10 that's the first thing second thing call outs yes that guy he's like you know those new movie trailers one man The narrator, yeah. When he's like, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I'm there, man. I'm running for my life. What the hell Audio part is just awesome Except when box started the game and some sort of hillbilly texas music so there's a cool mode in the game where you're in the gas station right and this is where you go around yeah so as soon as you go in you hear like the ding at the door you're in the you're in the quickie mart and then there's just this like old jukebox country music playing like just creepy in the background and then there's call outs on top of that and like the atmosphere that mode is probably my favorite but people in in in in the u.s you will like country music but us without of u.s we don't get country music like so yeah it's not you're not really supposed to like this music this is what you would expect to be playing in a really creepy place you don't want to be in yeah exactly but yeah that was the only part because uh i i watched his gameplay video two times that was the only part that i wasn't you know scared in the ambience of because rest of the music is it's spooky man yeah yeah dark room oh i i i would really want to have one of these games but there's there's a woman in a freezer that her body creeps up every now and And there's under flipper shots for both of the upper flippers too.
    30:44
    Oh, that's sort of – well, so you're saying different inserts, but at the middle of the play field, a bit to the right, it has got flowers-like inserts. Yeah, so that's – Talk about them. What are they for? I'm not entirely sure yet. I think they may be – I noticed on Looney Tunes there's a similar design, and as I would play a mode, they would light up. So those are probably like the mode indicator lights, you know, but it may not be fully coded yet either. So when I say the inserts are different, they are like it's not a physical copy and paste, but they're very similar in their function. They're just different sizes, different shapes, you know. But the way they're implementing the code, you know, there's two different coding teams on each game, you know. So they're going to develop differently, even though both games are similar, especially with the layout, you know. But the mechanisms operate differently. How was the code? How did it feel? How long is the code in development? So it felt, they say that this is the most complete code that they've had at launch. I believe it because there's multiple modes in there. There's at least some wizard modes already. So there's something to start with. And they're still doing code updates for Ultraman. So I'm not worried about them as a company finishing the code for the game. Yeah. So if this is their starting point, I'm really excited to see, you know, what comes. While I was there, we were finding little issues here and there. and he was texting his coding team and I was there for three hours and the coding team had already come up with an update and we installed it while we were playing.
    32:15
    That's nice, man. Yeah, yeah. There was little parts where you could tell an audio clip was out or an audio clip, like an old asset was put in as a placeholder. But I'm sure in the next few weeks when we start really going into production, we, them,
    32:30
    I think it'll be ready. On the videos, when we look at the display, when they played Texas Chainsaw, movie clips, the video did tear. Is it called tear? They were not fluid or what's it called? How does it run? Maybe it's just a camera. It could be. I didn't notice any screen flicker or anything. The movie film is from 1974, so there might be some old film artifacts that are there. I don't know. I'd have to have them speak to that. It felt like the operating system, the computer was too slow. You know when you watch an MPEG video file with a too slow computer? Oh, it's like buffering or something. Yeah, something like that. Or the interlaced or something.
    33:17
    Was it just fluid in the real deal? Yeah, it looked fine to me. I didn't notice any. Now, most of the time I'm looking at the play field, but I was watching it when other people were playing, and I didn't get that sense. I didn't notice that. so how excited are they is this game on the line when are you going to get your game these guys are so excited they can finally talk about it I can tell that they've been excited for a while so when I asked them when are you making these in January when you come back from the holidays he said no no they're in production now I went around and toured the factory I didn't see any cabinets assembled or anything but I think what they mean is they're printing back glasses they're cutting armor they're getting acrylics and they're you know in production here they said the rollout's going to be you know a little slow at first just like it usually is where they really check things over three times before they put them out in location they have they have like you know the first 50 machines of each one are kind of allocated already for people that are familiar with spooky so they can report bug issues early in production I'm happy to say I got somehow included in that group now oh yeah oh it's so cool let's go because one thing one thing that spooky is perfect that is game releases for the last three four years before you entered this hobby spooky's team just went in when everybody else was sleeping they released the game they sold all those non-refundable deposits and they were gone. And then all the other soccer scoops should go in and fight about the money. They just come in and, you know... They were the first out last year with Scooby way before we got to March. Galactic Tank Force is in the middle of the pack. It gets lost, you know. When I was talking to them, they said their strategy is they want to have the best game of the year because in the market, that's how you stand out. So, you know, whether they get there or not, and we'll see what the awards say, but that's their measure of success, what their goal is trying to get. They're not just trying to get a game out and then see how it does. They're really trying to go for the best game that they can make. And I think that's why they support it so much and why they put so much into it. So cool. Don, I really hope the best for them and I hope you will get your games as one of the first so we can stream them so we can see what's going on. And I fully understand you not being able to pick one of these games because they're just so awesome man and you know and i'm glad it's not that you have to pick one because no matter how good they are whichever one i got i'd always say you know i kind of wish i would have that other one too or should did i make the right decision but they do play so differently and um you know i'm hype on looney tunes i'm probably going to ask for that one first um you are the only one in the industry that knows how do a play okay you're the only one except spook the team so i believe you i trust you man brother i think i'm so happy you were here again sure buddy 20 minutes and it's like 40 minutes so i'm excited for you for everybody to get to play him too just to see you know make sure i'm not just making it all up man i'm really high i want to go play him again now so so about mid late january they should maybe start shipping games maybe maybe the first ones might start leaving i would think february probably be more likely but we'll see when we get there for sure tpf is going to be awesome there's going to be a bunch of these hopefully so come on out to texas yeah and you will soon get your pulp fiction i don't you tell me i have no way to know how about your venom did you sell it venom sold to last night last night i got a buyer for venom so you know i love it it's on its way out to a new home in minneapolis it'll be on location so go check it out because i i swear it's the best veteran premium in the world with everything that he did one of your fans did he know you did you want an autograph on the back glass or what it's a it's a a new friend a new fan okay okay yeah we're just looking at the banners you are i know you also have the iron maiden you bought it because of my review is that on for sale no no no no no how about the last game on that banner you have got stranger things what's what's up with that that should be i might get a call this week that it's ready to go pick up and i'll head on down to chicago so oh man how about foo fighters it was on sale did you sell that foo fighters is still on so i haven't listed on pin side yet but i'm about to it'll be the next release to go out there's another one that i really just made over and probably put too much money into but i'm gonna have to take whatever the market will bear for it so you know anybody that wants to have probably the best version of it you're gonna find it's autographed by the designer your Foo Fighters is just amazing man I love what you have done with it it's gonna be an easy sale I'm sure about it man I'm sure about it Donnie I'll see you on the next game release or maybe after you play the game I don't know but yeah let's make a video again on the next game release okay love it don't spend more time on the guest gmail.com yeah support this guy have a great day my friend bye thanks everybody bye always a pleasure to hang out with Retro Jango if you're ever in Denmark, Copenhagen area he does run about seven arcades out there we got more content always coming all new developments are always setting up so be sure to email me at donspinballpodcast at gmail.com or go to that Facebook page and hit a follow we're surging up to clear past 830 followers now hoping for a thousand wouldn't that be a great New Year's Eve present tell your friends and more content will be coming. So thanks as always, man. Have yourself a great rest of the week. Happy Monday, everybody.