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Live QnA with Turner Pinball

Cary Hardy YouTube Live Streams·video·32m 51s·analyzed·Aug 27, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Turner Pinball Q&A: Merlin's Arcade 80% code-complete, shipping imminent, finesse flipper innovation detailed.

Summary

Turner Pinball's Collier hosts a live Q&A covering Ninja Eclipse code updates, Merlin's Arcade production status (081 code version, ~80% complete), playfield durability comparisons, manufacturing lessons learned, the innovative finesse flipper secondary button mechanic, and plans for increased social media streaming. First eight Merlin's units ready to ship, with four to six per week following; three Merlin's and one Ninja Eclipse confirmed for Expo Chicago.

Key Claims

  • Merlin's Arcade code is at version 081, representing approximately 80% completion of planned features

    high confidence · Collier directly states version number and explains their versioning system where 100 represents 100% of core features

  • Merlin's Arcade will ship with integrated online update capability (not requiring USB like Ninja Eclipse)

    high confidence · Collier confirms WiFi update system will be live at launch; explains Ninja Eclipse required USB for first update due to incomplete implementation at launch

  • Turner's polycarbonate playfield system with baltic birch base resists dimpling better than traditional wooden playfields

    medium confidence · Collier claims no dimpling observed on 100+ Ninja Eclipse games in field; attributes superiority to polycarbonate-over-birch construction; acknowledges heat sensitivity and care requirements

  • Two major recurring issues identified in Ninja Eclipse field deployment: plastic rivets on backflip ramp opto covers breaking (~10 of first 40 units), and castle drop target wedging ball (~10% of units)

    high confidence · Collier documents both issues, solutions implemented (screws instead of rivets, adjusted drop target positioning), and estimates of affected machines

  • FedEx shipping damage concentrated in Florida region, with vertical drop-related playfield hanger bending resolved through support blocks

    medium confidence · Collier references shock sensor triggers (15g, 25g) and geographic pattern of FedEx damage; notes one severe return requiring backbox hinge/metal replacement

  • Finesse flipper secondary button feature provides micro-flip tap-pass capability with resource depletion/recharge mechanic (green-yellow-red GI lanes)

    high confidence · Collier explains feature origin (John Norris concept), demonstrates skepticism overcome by testing, details new software limiting mechanic added post-TPF

  • First eight Merlin's Arcade units ready to ship; production rate of four to six units per week expected to follow

    high confidence · Collier confirms eight units on assembly, six on rotisseries; states rate contingent on Collier's return from COVID recovery

Notable Quotes

  • “if you take care of your game properly, I think that our play field system is going to be a superior play field in terms of longevity and wear than a standard wooden play field”

    Collier (Turner Pinball owner)@ 7:52 — Directly contrasts Turner's polycarbonate-over-birch system against traditional wooden playfields, core value proposition for durability

  • “once we tried it on the game it was just so magical that I was like okay I think we have to do this”

    Collier@ 14:46 — Describes initial skepticism of finesse flipper secondary button feature overcome after testing; explains design decision to include innovation

  • “the modes are all timed and so it's nice to be able to get the ball to the proper flipper using this feature”

    Collier@ 16:00 — Explains game design rationale for finesse flipper mechanic integration; ties feature to core Merlin's Arcade gameplay loop

  • “the phone number on the website brings my cell phone. So like customers that call in, they're like, oh, hey, like it's you. It's like I answer the phone”

    Collier@ 21:21 — Reveals direct customer access model; positions Turner as accessible boutique manufacturer vs. larger competitors

  • “I'm excited about the possibility of a back to the future game I think if that's done well it will be awesome”

    Collier@ 29:26 — Acknowledges rumor of Back to the Future pinball in industry pipeline; expresses enthusiasm contingent on execution quality

  • “my lead developer was deployed in the National Guard. We were down a man”

Entities

CollierpersonTurner PinballcompanyCary HardypersonJohn NorrispersonNinja EclipsegameMerlin's ArcadegameMultimorphiccompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Turner's first eight Merlin's Arcade units entering field deployment immediately post-meeting, with production rate scaling to four to six units per week contingent on lead developer's COVID recovery and completion of testing/boxing

    high · Collier states first eight units 'sitting over there', six on rotisseries, rate scaling 'four to six per week' after Collier's return from COVID recovery

  • ?

    community_signal: Turner planning to implement structured streaming content (TBD schedule) to increase availability for customer questions and gameplay demonstration; acknowledges social media engagement as weakness requiring investment of founder's time

    high · Collier built streaming rig, commits to consulting with host on scheduling, plans regular streams; admits to minimal social media posting and states personal involvement in forward-facing company communication is necessary

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Turner Pinball emphasizes boutique positioning with direct founder customer service (cell phone access), high-touch manufacturing improvements iteration (applying Ninja Eclipse field lessons to Merlin's design), and innovation focus (finesse flipper as differentiator)

    medium · Collier highlights personal phone availability, describes careful field issue remediation and application to next game, frames finesse flipper as innovative feature requiring consensus-building

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Turner's design approach emphasizes playability and approachability for casual players while maintaining tournament depth, with innovations like finesse flipper mechanic designed to improve game flow and shot execution on timed modes

    high · Collier explicitly states goal: 'deliver a game that shoots really well and is approachable and then also has depth for tournament players'; finesse flipper feature tied to timed mode accessibility requirements

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.099

0:00
Alright, so we'll wait a little bit for everybody to get in here. At least the chat looks to be working on my OBS now. Yesterday it wasn't working. It's like I had the worst time with chat. I honestly think it was a little bit with their Wi-Fi there at barrels for whatever reason. I'm guessing it's blocking something, some port. I don't know. Or it could have just been the worst luck ever. I mean, this is fine, but just definitely on my phone during live streams, it just wasn't working. And what's going on, Jason? Welcome back live here at Turner Pinball in Bernie, Texas. That's right. I still, every time I see the word Bernie, I don't pronounce it Bernie. I go, oh, boy, where in the... And then I'll type it into Google Maps, and it's like, Bernie. I'm like, oh, I try it. Forgot it's pronounced that way. It is a unique spelling and pronunciation.
1:11
All right, let some people trail in here, and they can start asking all the questions and everything, or we can just let some things rip and roll right here while we're at it. So you've got an update coming for Ninja Eclipse. Do you know when that's going to drop? or is it still in the works at this point? Whenever I update the website and put that it's actually released, we've got it out there. Like I said, I had given it to several customers to test, and I think it's good to go. And so, yeah, we'll roll that out as soon as I can update the website and put it on there. And this first update will be a USB update. So when we launched Ninja Eclipse and started rolling it out, the online update capability wasn't fully implemented in our software, but now it is. And so this first one will go over USB, and then any subsequent updates you'll be able to connect to Wi-Fi and then download the updates through the Wi-Fi system. Okay, sweet. It's funny, that was the first question I asked you, and that was honestly the first question that was asked. So how does the Ninja Eclipse code update release? Yeah, so you already asked it.
2:19

  • Three Merlin's Arcade and one Ninja Eclipse confirmed for Expo Chicago

    high confidence · Collier states machine count and notes customer (Zach) bringing his Ninja Eclipse from Allentown

  • Pop bumper assembly redesign (new tuning/wiring system) identified as major manufacturing improvement from Ninja Eclipse to Merlin's

    high confidence · Collier describes original four-pop-bumper installation as 'number one pain point' with spoon switch tuning and LED wiring; new design significantly simplified

  • Bobblehead toys are the most expensive components on Merlin's Arcade due to manufacturing and assembly difficulty

    high confidence · Collier explicitly states bobbleheads are 'probably the most expensive toy on the game' and indicates reluctance to use them on future games due to production burden

    • Collier@ 4:02 — Explains resource constraint impacting Ninja Eclipse update schedule post-launch; provides context for small-team boutique manufacturing challenges

  • “we've got new ideas on how to prevent those things in shipping with Merlin's, which we're using and I think will work well”

    Collier@ 13:26 — Indicates iterative manufacturing improvements applied to second title based on field experience with debut game

  • “I don't think I'd post anything since like, I don't know. I'm trying to encourage him to be a little bit more social guys”

    Cary Hardy (host)@ 20:24 — Highlights Turner's weakness in social media engagement; identifies opportunity for improved community communication

    • Barrels of Funcompany
    Zachperson
    Mad Pinballcompany
    Texas Pinball Festival (TPF)event
    Expo Chicagoevent
    Allentownlocation
    CoolToyperson
    Joelperson
    Back to the Futuregame
  • ?

    event_signal: Cary Hardy conducting boutique tour visiting Barrels of Fun (previous day), Turner Pinball (current), and Multimorphic (next day) in Texas region; tour generating content and facility access for YouTube audience

    high · Hardy references visiting Barrels for livestream, states plan to hit 'all three' manufacturers in loop visiting Texas facilities, notes Multimorphic tour scheduled for following day

  • $

    market_signal: Zach (customer) purchasing two of Turner's first ten Merlin's Arcade units, with at least one intended for streaming/gameplay content distribution; indicates strong early adoption and community engagement from known content creator

    high · Collier states 'two of the first ten' going to Zach, one likely for streaming; Hardy affirms 'two games already' is significant early order commitment

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Turner's lead developer was deployed with National Guard during Ninja Eclipse post-launch period, constraining update availability; multiple team members (engineer team and Collier) recently affected by COVID, impacting production timing

    high · Collier directly references lead developer deployment explaining no Ninja Eclipse updates until after Merlin's shipment; mentions COVID affecting EE team member, Collier, and likely another team member; recovery timing impacts immediate production schedule

  • ?

    product_strategy: Pop bumper assembly system redesigned as manufacturing improvement from Ninja Eclipse to Merlin's, eliminating spoon switch tuning and LED wiring complexity; identified as 'number one pain point' on debut game

    high · Collier describes Ninja Eclipse pop bumper installation as pain point, states Merlin's has 'figured out a way to make that a lot better', indicating significant design improvement

  • ?

    product_concern: Ninja Eclipse experienced recurring field issues: plastic rivets on backflip ramp opto covers breaking (~10 of first 40 units), castle drop target ball wedging (~10% of deployed units), and FedEx shipping damage (particularly Florida region) causing playfield hanger/backbox hinge bending

    high · Collier documents both mechanical issues with specific percentages, solutions implemented, and shipping damage pattern; one severe damage case requiring backbox replacement

  • ?

    product_strategy: Turner Pinball planned roadmap includes Ninja Eclipse code update (imminent, USB-based), Merlin's Arcade with integrated WiFi updates before end of year, Pin Access game management feature in development, and scheduled streaming content to showcase gameplay

    high · Collier states updates coming 'soon' before end of year, mentions Pin Access progress tracking in development, announces intent to establish regular streaming schedule post-meeting consultation

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Collier acknowledges rumor of Back to the Future pinball game in industry pipeline from unspecified manufacturer; expresses conditional enthusiasm pending quality execution

    medium · Collier states 'I hear' potential Back to the Future game, notes 'Rumored', qualifies enthusiasm with 'if it's done well'; indicates unconfirmed industry gossip rather than insider knowledge

  • ?

    technology_signal: Turner Pinball implementing online update delivery system starting with Merlin's Arcade at launch, transitioning from USB-based updates (Ninja Eclipse post-launch model) to WiFi distribution enabling more rapid code releases

    high · Collier explains Ninja Eclipse lacked complete online update implementation at launch; Merlin's will ship with WiFi capability live; states this enables 'updates to start to happen more rapidly'

    • What's going on, Tom? Hey, Chris, how's it going? So, as far as like how far along on code are we looking at with Merlin's Arcade? I mean, is there a number on it or is it just like I don't know how your code system works? So, we kind of do it where it's like the release code for Merlin's is 081. For Ninja, I think we were at 074 or 076. And the way I look at that is like it's kind of like percentage complete. Like if you said like 1-0-0 would be like kind of 100% of the core stuff that we wanted in there is in there. And so that would signify about like 80% of what we want to do right now that we have planned is done. And there's a ton of stuff since TPF. TPF was I think it was like 0-5-4. That was back in March too. So, I mean, that shows you we were only a little bit about halfway where we wanted to be. And it's an estimate, right? We roll the version based on what we feel the percentage is relative to all we want to do with it. And so I would say it's very similar to where Ninja Eclipse was when it launched.
    3:38
    And Merlin's will launch with the update system out of the box, so you won't have to do the USB update. You can, but you don't have to. and then we'll be able to release online updates. And the updates for Ninja and Merlins will start to happen more rapidly now that we have the online update system. Also, after we released Ninja Eclipse and we were coming up on Merlins, my lead developer was deployed in the National Guard. Oh. We were down a man. And so we expected that we wouldn't release any updates for Ninja until we had shipped them all anyway. But anyway, things will start to roll out a little bit faster.
    4:20
    So what are some of the new features in the code update? Vanity Awards, Swords, Ramp, Loops Completed, et cetera? Yes, actually, those are a lot of things. We've got a lot of light updates, some sound updates, and then, yes, the Vanity Awards.
    4:37
    General, like, improvements to the code, suggestions that we got from operators, from home users. kind of like polishing things.
    4:47
    I think it's a good first update to just get a lot of kind of additional cleanup functionality and then also some enhancements to the way the game looks and things when it plays.
    5:03
    Someone's asking what the playfield warranty is. Plastic question mark. The playfield warranty. So I guess it would fall under just our general warranty, which I've tried to align with the other manufacturers in the industry. And so someone just asked me about this the other day. But if you go to turnerpinball.com slash terms, it shows all of our terms and conditions, including our warranty. For home use, we have a one-year warranty on all the things. And then for like arcade or mixed use, it's a 90 day, which I think, again, is in line with what other manufacturers are doing. As far as our play field, I expect that if you treat it properly, like it's going to outlast like the wooden play fields that you see that are dimpling and having all problems right out of the box. I mean, our play fields don't dimple. They're hard to scratch. But I mean, if you take a knife and you take it to a wood play field, it's going to scratch. If you do that to ours, the same thing's going to happen. But, like, you know, ball dimpling in things that you see, like, you open up a brand new whatever. And I see these posts on Pinside or on Patreon all the time where they're like, I just unboxed my game and after the first multi-ball I've got, you know, dimples everywhere. Like, you just won't see that on our games. and so uh the the playfield system we have it's a stack up of a half inch baltic birch with um polycarbonate on top and so the the polycarbonate obviously um the heat expansion characteristics of that are slightly different than wood and so we adhere it down but i mean you you can't take this game and put it out in the sun right you don't want to just like put it outside and i've done this intentionally during our testing um i took a game and i just put it outside the shop and i had a little temperature gauge in there and i would say in in 10 or 15 minutes it was like 140 degrees inside the game yeah and like that plastic will expand and it's it's not good for it i mean you don't want to do that it will come back and i was like when i first saw it i was like oh this is toast like this is not gonna work i brought it inside and like in another 10 minutes it was like totally back to normal i'm like okay interesting but um you really want to keep it in a conditioned space just like any game like i i would say like i would treat a pinball machine like i would like a fine piece of furniture right i mean it's wood it has wood and electrical components obviously also plastic components and it's more expensive than a lot of furniture too you say you think but you know i i don't recommend that you keep it in an unconditioned garage You know, like I keep my games in here, but this is a condition. And that's what we should do with our games. That's how we're going to take care of them. So I think if you take care of your game properly, I think that our play field system is going to be a superior play field in terms of longevity and wear than a standard wooden play field.
    8:07
    Ben asking is art printed on the wood or reverse printed on the poly It reverse printed on the poly And just so you guys know I mean Ninja Eclipse like nothing has changed in our playfield system So we've got, you know, 100 games out in the field. And I would, if you go up to a Ninja Eclipse game at an arcade, if you see one, look at the playfield. And I would bet it looks like it did when we shipped it to them. You won't see any dimpling or scratching or anything. So has there been any common issues with your games or anything since it's been out in the field? Yeah, there's two things that we've seen come up.
    8:47
    These would be the top two issues that I've seen. So one, the backflip ramp, which is kind of towards the middle of the game, there's an opto set on the side of that ramp, and it has opto covers. and the first 40 or 50 games we were shipping those with a plastic rivet in it and the ball can like kind of hit those stand-ups the the light lock targets and jump up and hit those opto covers and after a while it's possible that it'll break that plastic rivet and so we had customers that called and said oh hey like my opto cover came off and so we started using screws for those and then haven't had issues since. But that was like an issue probably, I would say maybe 10 out of the first 40 games or so had. And so I just shipped all those customers the screws. And if you have a game that has rivets on it and you want some screws, I'll send them to you. But kind of a really minor thing, but something that's easy to fix too. And then the other one that we've had that, again, this is probably like, I don't know, it might be 10%, which is pretty high. But there's the castle drop target, and we saw that on some games the ball would get wedged between the drop target and the ball guy to the right of that. And so we saw it. Like, I've never seen it at a show. I mean, we've got, you know, cumulatively thousands of plays at shows, and I've never seen it.
    10:25
    But we got a report of it, and I was like, oh, interesting. Like, what's going on? And then we got another report of it. And basically, if the drop target was installed, and it's literally like a millimeter that can make a difference. Like if it's just shifted to the left ever so slightly, there's just enough space there on the right that the ball can get wedged there. And so what I've told customers that called in with this is like just loosen the screws on the pop. I'm sorry, not pop them for the drop target. Loosen the screws on a drop target. push it as far to the right as it'll go tighten it back down and that's resolved the issues for pretty much everyone that's experienced it but those are the two um kind of big things that we learned with ninja eclipse like really i mean i say big things it's a small thing but like those are the biggest recurring issues that we had the only other thing that we had was um shipping issues and uh we kind of learned how fedex handles games and what we need to do to properly protect for these the biggest thing that we've noticed is like the fedex will um
    11:35
    will just drop the box vertically and like i mean this is not good for any game right it's not like this is not an issue with our games or anything and uh we have shock sensors that we put on the box and there's a 15g and a 25g and i i tell customers hey when you get the game when fedex is dropping it off please look at the shock sensors and like if they're triggered right on the delivery receipt like shock sensor triggered subject to inspection excuse me if you don't write that they say hey it was accepted and you're kind of stuck with it yeah and so anyway we uh we had this happen a couple times where the shock sensors were triggered and the playfield hangers would be the first thing that would bend. And so we had to replace those on a couple games. We'd send that out and the customer can replace it. But then we started shipping with support blocks that go in the back of the cabinet and support the playfield. That kind of resolved that. But if FedEx slams it down so hard that both shock sensors are triggered, like it can actually bend the hinges on the back box yeah and so it's like once you get to that point it's like i mean what can you do you know and and so we've we've even come up with things that we could try to prevent that but it's like if you slam this thing down hard enough like it's a delicate piece of equipment like you can't just slam it down well they don't take care of fedex they just see a box and they forklift and they just drop it down kind of thing and move on to the next one kind of stuff kind of it's interesting because certain areas like FedEx Florida has been bad. I don't know why, but like, that's where we've seen the issues is in Florida. Most of the other ones have been fine. But anyway, I would say, uh, those are the top issues we've seen and we've tried to address all of them. And, um, obviously everything we learned, we carry forward to the next game. And so, um, we've got new ideas on how to prevent those things in shipping with Merlin's, which we're using and I think will work well. Jamie's asking about the finesse flippers like basically how's that been working out for you and is it new feature that you just did yet you were showing me yeah so that's something I guess you can talk about is the finesse flippers and I guess for those that don't know what that is explain to them yeah so the the finesse flip it's a secondary button on the cabinet just above the normal flipper buttons kind of forward I should say of the normal flipper buttons and kind of the standard second button position but if you press that button it will give a micro flip that will allow you to do a tap pass and so as the ball is rolling down the flipper when it gets right towards the end you press that secondary button and it will just micro flip and it will kind of go over to the other side and when we presented this at TPF it's something that John Norris came up with and really wanted to have in a game. I first heard about it from John I was a little skeptical we had tried a secondary button on ninja eclipse at an early version of the game and kind of like got mixed reception on it and decided to take that out but so I was I was skeptical but I said John will try it once we tried it on the game it was just so magical that I was like okay I think we have to do this and so we ended up putting it on there. As I said, we presented it at TPF. I think people liked it. Some people were like, oh, what is the second button for? And so I would kind of explain. And then once they saw it, they're like, oh, wow, that's really cool. I think some people thought, oh, that'll make the game too easy, but it's totally not the case. But we've added a new thing in the software. The GI on the in lanes down by the flippers now will be illuminated green when you start your ball and when you use the finesse flip button it will like kind of depower that feature and you'll see they'll go yellow and then they'll go red and by the time they go red if you try to use it it just won't do anything hardly and so you can use it up and then you have to wait for it to recharge and so there's a lot of neat things we can do with this feature but I think that John wanted it on this game because it's important for the flow of the game to be able to get the ball to the flipper you need it to make the shot you need because the modes are all timed and so it's nice to be able to get the ball to the proper flipper using this feature and I think it's great once you get the hang of it I'm curious to see if like players start trying to hit that button on other games after they get used to it on Merlin's. Yeah definitely each flipper has particular shots that you need or makes the shot easier For instance like the scoop on this game is one of those where i find it easier to hit with the backhand whereas you can hit it with the forehand i did it earlier twice in a row twice in a row like in there yeah in there and i like i'll never need it yeah what i didn't need the scoop it wasn't lit that's like whatever but uh yeah it's definitely very quick and then since tpf the actual physical multi-ball lock has been turned on but you can still disable that in the settings if you want to so you locations if you don't want something else potentially to go wrong or in your game you can disable that and still have this virtual uh multiball that's my assumption at that point of what that's what that's for that's correct yeah but uh yeah so uh i think someone here was asking about oh yeah was was there any guns in this game asking for a friend any guns i don't think so merlin with a gun that would be uh interesting that would be someone's asking about uh i guess shipping why not ship it flat on its back so i guess this will be a lot of reasons you can give reasons why they don't do this at any manufacturer kind of thing yeah um so shipping it like you just take the legs off and put it down yeah i'm going to assume that's what they're talking about well that's the only other way i would see it feasible to ship i don't want to do it side upside down like i think of a lot of problems like if you drop the machine when it's sitting that way like you could potentially break like the the plate fields horizontal plate field supports also like the the cost for shipping is going to be more because it's going to be like a bigger pallet and so like and then imagine like uh you're shipping these overseas in a container like at least they do not stack and they're tall enough where you can't really stack stuff on them but if it's you know only two feet high yeah they're going to stack yeah and there's going to problems and you have to come up with a whole new boxing solution I I think shipping them vertically is the way to go and I think we've mitigated a lot of the issues and I I don't have a communication line where I can ask other manufacturers like their shipping damage but I see a lot of things posted where a lot have broken glass mm-hmm which is apparently maybe a common thing in shipping like to have them maybe drop your game and it breaks the glass which would be a huge problem. Yeah. Probably a mess to clean up. We have never had a broken glass during shipping, fortunately. And I think that it's because of our glass frame and the way it encapsulates the glass and protects it on all sides. So I think that's good. And I would guess we probably had less shipping damage overall on average. But I can't say that with certainty. But I can tell you that out of all games shipped, we only had to have one returned here for repair and it was one that was like over a 25g drop both sensors triggered and we had to replace like the the hinges for the back box and the metal on the bottom of the back box that actually bent that as well it was pretty severe so we're getting asked about a gameplay i'm guessing they're curious about john norris on gameplay can we uh interesting on the second button pin access progress for machine management and also other loving my game looking forward to the update yeah uh expect something soon um before the end of the year i'll say and uh i i'm actually going to talk to carrie about some stuff but it'll be a little bit of a secret between now and then like they're wanting to know can we see some pin bars so uh maybe maybe sometime soon uh yeah i'm guessing at some point people are wanting to see some gameplay so do you think you might do some streaming with merlin's arcade yes i i got a little streaming rig that i built you might be able to see it over here if i can get it on camera he's got a streaming rig that he's got above tna right there yeah so uh my plan is to do more stuff on social i mean if you look at our facebook page i was just telling you earlier. I don't think I'd post anything since like, I don't know. I'm trying to encourage him to be a little bit more social guys. I really need to be, but again, we're a small team and like, you know, I'm juggling kind of all the different things that we've got going here, which is a lot of stuff. And so I don't, I end up not having time for that. And I also don't want to like, just hire someone else to do social. Cause I feel like that's, that's like the forward facing side of the company. Like I really need to manage that. And so anyway, I, I know that I need to invest more time I'm I'm going to try to do that the streaming rig is one of the things and uh Carrie I'll talk to you after all of this and like kind of get your advice on some things about maybe starting something where we do like uh kind of a scheduled stream like where people can join and ask us questions and we can play that game and just play other games and make it just kind of a fun thing that we do to be more available to uh to answer questions and things and um And when I say be more available, just so you guys know, I mean, the phone number on the website brings my cell phone. So like customers that call in, they're like, oh, hey, like it's you. It's like I answer the phone. And so if you ever need anything, like just call anytime. I'm happy to happy to help. And sometimes calling is even better than emailing because like there's just so many things we're juggling all the time. Like email sometimes can get lost. But if you call, I'll be like, OK, just answer it. I think that's one of the things right now I guess we can use the word issue is that the only time that this game has been at a show was at TPF in March so no one else has got their hands on it so it's not fully the case so it did go to Allentown and since Allentown Mad Pinball has had the other game so this is one of the TPF games and the other TPF game is like roaming around somewhere so Mad Pinball's got it at an arcade I can tell you where it is. Okay. I didn't know they were out in the wild. I guess people were wanting to see the game in action because there was no official, I guess, streaming or gameplay of it. So that's definitely something I would look forward to you getting that done so people have a better idea of how the game shoots and explaining the rules to them and everything because most of the content right now is people like me or CoolToy, I think, has done some videos during TPM just kind of showing off the gameplay.
    22:45
    Yeah, we definitely need to do that. And that's in our plan. Kind of like... Pat P says, send it to Joel over there. Yeah, actually, Zach has ordered quite a few games, and so two of the first ten are going to Zach. Oh, so then... I don't know if they're intended for, like, one is for him for streaming. Zach, if you're watching this, reply to my email. I emailed him last week, so I'm like, hey, two games already. It would surprise me if one of those would be for streaming to show off gameplay. I think that would definitely help get it out there, get more people a little more interested to see how the game shoots, hear the call outs, for sure, all that. Yeah, a lot has changed since TPF. And that other game that's out there is like, basically TPF code plus the virtual or the physical ball lock. Now there's like all the mode stacking and like tons of new light shows and the play field itself has changed slightly in terms of improving shot detection and also shot flow. Just some minor tweaks that we made after TPF. John Norris? Hey, John, what's up? Thank you for joining. So John Norris is in the chat. So if you guys have questions specifically for John, maybe about the finesse flip or something, feel free to ask those as well. John, we were just talking about the finesse flip and how cool it is and that new feature that we added with the kind of depleting and recharging of that. So I think people are really going to love it.
    24:16
    Someone mentioned, I guess, another thing. I really want to put low-reflection glass in my game, but the apron is a sticker. Can I buy a spare? Yes, actually, you can. And, yeah, you just put standard glass size. glass size so get AR glass from your favorite manufacturer or vendor and we would just send you another sticker and then you put that on and then you be good to go the legendary edition of Merlin's all comes with AR glass in it so okay yeah so there you go you wouldn't probably have to buy a secondary off the third party class because he's already got it AR glass on it to be boutique tours in two days. Who's next? Tomorrow is Multimorphic up there in Austin. I've never even visited him before. It's kind of cool. I mean, Texas is like a serious place now. Yeah, I was like, I'm just going to make a loop. Hit all three of them up. On all three of them, they accepted the invite, and so here we are. I know that people are curious about what's going on with you because you're not posted on social media.
    25:23
    But at least now they've seen the games. They are being built. They are getting out here in the next week. That is what it sounds like as soon as Collier gets back from having COVID. Oh, COVID. I know. Again, I know, like, one of the guys on the EE team had it, like, last week, and then Collier, and, like, probably one of the Matthews on the team now. So, I don't know. And I warned you before you came. I was like, hey, man, just so you know, like, people are dropping with COVID here. So, I don't know. Anyway, but, yeah, they're ready to go out once we finish testing and boxing. Does What's Brewing have a Merlin arcade yet? No, they don't have one down there yet. I would love for them to get one.
    26:07
    Maybe reach out to them and give them a little nudge. Need Dragon's Lair or Space Ace game? I missed the beginning. What's the ETA on first 20-ish?
    26:21
    The first eight are sitting over there. We've got six more on the rotisseries. once those first eight go out it'll be like four to six per week so uh jamie's wanting to know how many is going to be at expo we are bringing three merlins and one of our customers uh the gentleman who was at allentown with merlins is going to bring his ninja eclipse to the show and so we'll have one ninja eclipse and three merlins at expo chicago expo but uh you know after this i think we're only going to have a few more minutes and he's got to do a meeting but i will be getting a lot of footage guys of the inside of the game and what it looks like and everything if you didn't see the tour video that's up on the channel right now so if you want to get a closer look at what we were discussing with the pop bumper uh new innovation basically that he's got in place i'm looking at the wrong camera i'm looking at my web camera here so uh you want to watch the tour video to get a better idea what that looks like but i will be getting a lot of footage from inside the game and everything like that and eventually get a video wall edited and put together so you guys can see that i'll probably even record me getting my ass kicked on this game a little bit so there'll be a little bit of gameplay in there with that collier was here that would definitely be the case with me or game plan i don't know we have uh we're good at building them but we can build a game we just don't know how to play and i can tell you what to shoot but if I can hit it that'd be a miracle what was the what has been the new bottleneck slash pain point with Merlin over Ninja Eclipse that's a good question so um well one thing we are always trying to find ways to like improve the manufacturing process and make things easier to build easier to maintain and so like that is kind of like the pop bumper thing that that would have been the number one pain point would be installing four pop bumpers, tuning them all with the spoon switch, and wiring them all with the LED that goes in the top. But obviously we've figured out a way to make that a lot better. The next thing is the bobbleheads, and I told you about that. The bobbleheads are actually very difficult to manufacture, and the assembly is kind of a pain too and so i i'm sad to say that that bobblehead is probably the most expensive toy on the game it's like oh i told game i'm like no no more bobbleheads so anyway the bobbleheads are a bit of a pain but they're really fun because they bobble around on the platform first so yeah they move a lot they look cool yeah so bird dogs want to know what your dream theme is oh man uh I don't know like if I revealed that it might reveal a future game and so like I maybe I won't tell you what my dream theme is that I might actually manufacture but I will tell you that out of the games that I hear that are coming out potentially from other manufacturers I'm excited about the possibility of a back to the future game I think if that's done well it will be awesome Back to the Future, one of my favorite movies growing up. Rumored.
    29:35
    Like I said, I don't know. This is what I hear. Maybe there will be a Back to the Future game from someone at some point. If it comes out, I'll be excited.
    29:45
    Norrisville Design, next game? John is on our team as an advisor and will be involved in all of our designs. and he's definitely advising on next game. But we also have other folks that we work with that do design, and so it's probably going to be a team effort on our game so that we can deliver a game. Our goal is we want to deliver a game that shoots really well and is approachable and then also has depth for tournament players and really kind of higher-level players. so those are our goals and I think as a team we're able to accomplish that really well Bruno's like I'm in with you on back to the future that's awesome yeah I think a lot of people are yeah yeah if it's done right yeah that's that's the that's the main point kind of thing is like if it's done right yeah all right is there anything else that we can think of that needs to be mentioned or that there's there questions that you think should have been asked or that hasn't been brought up or anything? I mean, I don't know. I mean, we've got a lot of software updates coming out, Ninja Eclipse and then pin access stuff before too long. And then with our online update system, I think things are going to start to roll out more quickly. We'll also start doing the streaming. I'll get Kerry's advice on how we're going to do that and how to schedule it amongst all the other things that go on in pinball on kind of regular schedules but um yeah i would say i'm looking for for ways to to be more available in terms of uh kind of social media type stuff and i will when i start doing it i hope you all will join our channel and start coming onto our stream to ask questions and participate all right all right guys i think we're gonna wrap this up because you've got to get a meeting going on and then during that time i'm gonna go around and get some footage and everything for an upcoming video in regards to this and i might even go fly the drone some more because this is beautiful land out here so you're welcome to have fun yeah go fly between the trees and everything see if i can several customers uh yeah they're saying they enjoy their ninja clips glad you're liking your ninja anyone like uh i never can say that word right actually goji over there in los angeles getting machine i need to play i don't know i i don't recognize that name so yeah i know the arcade i just never say the name right all right guys you are very welcome and uh if you're on patreon then you may get some lives here in a little bit and everything some more behind the scenes and a little up close stuff of what's inside of this game looks like and everything like that but uh on that we're gonna end the stream guys i'll talk to you later love you long time if you like the shirt that i'm wearing it's available on kerryhardy.com one last little thing because people were talking about the shirt a little bit so might as well just throw that in there. Thank you guys. All right. Take care. Take us lazy, guys.