I guess we're ready to record a podcast. Let's go ahead and do it. Hey, Maestro, episode number 96 of Don's Pinball Podcast. Here for the very special episode. I'm going to spend some time with you here. I've been having a lot of fun this week with my pinball adventure. I have been making my mods, redoing the game room, and also I went down and played this new Jaws game. Let's go. Hit it. Smash. And the drop and the beep. Now we may proceed. So, as I mentioned in the little intro, I played a couple of games today at Jaws Pro, Jaws Premium. Want to tell you all about it. But very first, I'm going to get into how my week has been going. Everybody has been releasing their podcast, so I took a little bit of a step back and just let everybody have the space. I've been churning through some content, appearing on other people's episodes and things. Did you guys listen to Christopher Franchi's super awesome pincast, the double episode? Yours truly did make an appearance in there. Some off-color remarks, but it was all in good fun. Well, I just finished up listening to the second part, and gosh darn it, I can't seem to stay out of my own way. So it seems that inadvertently, through all faults of my own, I may have irritated one Mr. Josh Sharpe from Rothrill's gaming conglomerate. You know, the folks behind a lot of those arcade shooter games that we all like to play. Also, the Pulp Fiction pinball machine that's coming out. So the crux of it is this. I'm known to say stupid things and often times be wrong and I love getting called out because I'm into continuous quality improvement but what I seem to take issue with was the fact that I had mentioned that six months ago Pulp Fiction was supposed to be leaving the factory and it's not let me get this out here first just so I can be clear I get that pinball machines take a lot of work to get a game in a box and leaving the factory I totally get it I was talking to Bug from Spooky Pinball the other day, messaging back and forth and just talking about, you know, not even counting like the licensing and the design and the art aspect, just the amount of parts that need to get into a machine, moving parts and non-moving parts, everything that has to be orchestrated in order to get an actual game in a box to a customer. With everything that's involved, it's a miracle that anything actually ever leaves. and that was the sense, you know, right? When you look at the scale of like trying to put one of these things together. So I get CGC's contract manufacturing these Pulp Fictions. I get they take their time and they have very good build quality. I get it. I get it. The remark that I had made was there was an interview that Mr. Sharp appeared on. I think it was about August or so where he happened to mention that last he had heard there was a SKU that was to be leaving the factory sometime in October. Not that that meant that they were going to be tumbling off the line into trucks and into homes, but that something was coming out. And that's what I was – I believe I was referencing, you know, that something would have been leaving, whether that was the golden sample that's going to be made, whether that was just another prototype, whether it even didn't happen or whatnot. And this is probably why you don't usually see speculation from people until something's like officially official, like HR signed off on it, marketing is good with it, it can go out because things can get misconstrued. So when I mentioned that, you know, I was planning on seeing something leaving maybe October that led me to believe that by November, maybe a little bit more be trickling out. And to date, I still haven't seen anything like that was the crux of kind of what I was getting at. And, you know, this guy, right, is kind of a guy like I don't even want to be on his radar at all. You know, I don't I don't want to be like known to this dude. I mean, dude, what's the raw thrills, man? He's in IFPA tournament directing. He's doing all these big things, right? Like, I don't want to get in this guy's way at all. You know, if I make him nixed with me, you know, next thing I know, I'm going to go down to, you know, one of the big indoor water parks in the Dells. I'm going to scan my card on a Roth Rules machine. And all of a sudden, all my credits are going to be gone. And the buzzer is going to go off and security is going to be there to escort me out of the car. And then, boom, banned from the arcades. Definitely what I don't want. So, you know, I want to, if I did misspeak, I want to walk that back. what I was referencing was an interview and I can't even remember where it appeared. It was a video interview, but he just had to make a comment like, I believe I have heard that a game would be coming out or something out of the factory in August, and then here we are. Back in August it was going to happen. In October that's where I think the six months came in. But I get it. I get it that it's going to take a long time to get these machines made and get them out. And when they're out they're going to be right. He made a very good point in the fact that this is a game that they care very deeply about. It's a game that he's planning on having in his game room for 20 years. So if it turns out that he only has it in his game room for 19 years because it was a little bit of extra time, but when it came out, it was free of issues. It didn't have to wait six months on parts from a factory. It didn't have to set a tech out to repair something. It's worth it. It's worth it, and I totally get it. I agree. When I put my deposit down back in June for this game, I understood that it was going to be a while before it came out. I just wanted to be in the mix somewhere. My only ask, though, would be something like this. For a game like this, you know, that's going into my personal collection, but even if I was an operator, what would really be helpful is to know kind of 90 days to 100 days out, like that kind of window, is it looking likely, less likely that game would be available there? Reason being, you know, I put down my deposit, but when this game is ready to be delivered, ready to be made, put together, whatever, I'm going to get a bill in my email saying, okay, balance due, let's pay this and get your game out to you. And if it's going to be 180 days or greater from now, maybe just let me know, like, hey, the chances of you getting this game in the next 90 days are very low, 180 days maybe probable. That way I can take, you know, funds that I might be sitting on and I can invest them somewhere else, whether it's, you know, in my business, in another game, in taking my family on vacation with the idea knowing that I've got months to make this back, this nest egg or whatever that I would need, or the money on the balance sheet that I have allocated to a pinball machine. You know, maybe another opportunity came up. You know, as the Jurassic Park River Adventure has taught us that time is the ever-flowing river. And as Pocahontas told us, you can never step in the same river twice. So six months from now, you're in a different space and time than you were when you made that decision to put down a deposit for this game, you know, to be coming out. So, you know, maybe there's something new, say an Alice in Wonderland or something. And if we know it's going to be at least 90, more likely 180 days from now until that bill becomes due, maybe now I can use those funds to go on an Alice in Wonderland, get that in with plans to sell something else, you know, two to three months down the road, and we kind of keep everything going. So the only ask would be every, I don't know, three weeks or so on a blog post or something, just say, hey, update, here's kind of where we're at. for the next quarter to two quarters of the year, we're not guaranteeing anything's coming out. Just so I know, okay, next week I'm not going to get a surprise email like, hey, game's ready, let's go, wire that money, come pick it up. That's all I was saying. I get that it's going to take time, and it's totally fine, I knew that going in. I'm not casting any dispersions, right? I'm sure this guy gets bombarded constantly with people asking like, hey, where's the games? Are they coming out soon? Are they being built now? Can I get it next week? Like, I get it. That's probably every manufacturer is dealing with that. Every distributor is dealing with that. And he's a busy guy. So, you know, rely on the distributor network. You know, just put out, you know, an official blast to the distributor network and let them, you know, convene with the customers. Just keep us in the loop. What I'm trying to avoid is, you know, I go all Mr. Toad something fancy grabs my gaze. And then I go in on that and then find out next week like, oh, shoot, this is due. Let's go sell a pinky toe or something and get it going. That's all I was saying. So, Mr. Sharp, please don't ban me from your games or your arcades. I didn't mean any ill will or to cast aspersions on your production and design process. I totally get that it's going to take time. Can't wait to get the game. It's going to be awesome whenever it does come. Just like a little heads up, like, dude, it's more than six months away. Don't even think about it. I'll get back to you in the springtime with an update or something. That's all. That's all I was saying. That's all I was trying to convey. But thanks for the shout out anyway. How crazy is it, by the way, I mentioned this on a live stream, that one of my favorite pinball podcasts that I will listen to was the super awesome pinball show. And then here they go doing an episode, and now I'm on it. That's still so crazy to me that that's been happening. It's crazy to be listening to the pinball junk drawer, right? And shout out to Foghorn and Craft Brew Sally. Let's hang out. But my name will come up there. My name will come up with Orbital Albert. I'm getting out there into the into the zeitgeist into the aether surrounding the pinball hobby and I'm so fortunate to be doing that it's just weird for me still it's weird for me, it's super fun I love the emails I get from people, I love the messages the random stuff it's all good gravy okay, so I think hopefully I'm back off of the radar with Mr. Sharp and everybody's getting caught up on the other podcast Here's how today went. It started off late last night where I got a little update from a Mr. Knapp.com arcade that he was doing a rundown article on all the Jaws that were out on locations. Ace Goge has them out in California. Cool place. Go check it out if you're in the LA area or Van Nuys. And then Logan's Arcade and Interium both had Jaws pros and premiums. I am off work today on a, what is this, Wednesday that I'm recording this, the 17th? And so I thought, hey, heck it, let's drive into Chicago and let's hit up Interium. I would have hit up Logan, but they didn't open up until later in the day. So at noon, I'm sitting out there at the Woodfield Mall adjacent to the Expo Grounds waiting for Interium. I walk in there, and there she is, Jaws Pro and Jaws Premium. Monica and I were there, and we were there on a mission to go play some dang new pinball machines. Isn't that a great day, the first day you get to go and play a brand-new game, especially a stern with insider connected that first game that you play presuming you do halfway decent you don't know what you're doing but at least you keep the ball going you get like 60 achievements right off the bat man it's just a great feeling it only happens once unless you create a new account um and so that's what i got to experience today so you know monica jumped on the pro i jumped on the premium because i wasn't going to mess around and i just sunk my jaws teeth into this game don what do you think of the game i like it i'm gonna get that right out of the way i i really really like this game is this game as good as godzilla we're gonna have to wait and see do i like this game better than i liked uh bond when i played it yes do i like this game better than foo fighters i do like it better than foo fighters um do i like it better than venom you're darn tooting um basically on how this is shooting now we saw the live stream that keith ellen did um and it was a good introduction but it's you know i i I couldn't get a sense on how it shoots because that man's ability is leagues away from mine and most other humans that are out there. So I watched the Jack Danger stream as well, and I got a little bit more of a sense of how the shots were and everything. But there's nothing that compares to shooting it yourself. And shoot it, I did. Man, I think I managed to straight down the middle my first ball that I played. So let me just take you through my experience with it. Plunge the ball, right? Just full plunge. Let's go. I don't know. Skill shots, we'll mess with those later. What happens? So the ball jumps right up into that horizontal spinner, the reel that's right next to the Sopranos boat that's there. It tends to come around and then will generally go right down the middle, at least on this 10-degree tilted game that I was on. Speaking of tilting, the tilt bob on this was crammed completely home. I mean, you couldn't breathe on this game sideways without a tilt warning. So nudging was not a thing that was going to happen, and if it was, it was super risky. Thankfully, they did have this game, and maybe it's still in the prototype stage, but they did have the ball save turned up pretty liberally. You know, it felt like 90 seconds or so. Like, I was able to go through a few balls straight down the middle just getting the hang of it. So, you know, thanks, Stern, for doing that for me. But, yeah, the ball plunges straight into that reel if you plunge it, you know, full speed. And I do love how the entrances and exits of that reel are set up, so they generally do come back to the flipper if you're carrying some speed going in there. Otherwise, the skill shot is fun. A skill shot has levels. That was kind of cool. I haven't seen this before. So when you play the game, the first skill shot is if you just have it tumble out of the shooter lane and hit the pop bumper as the first hit, that will get you a skill shot. Not too terribly difficult to do especially if you could nudge But then after that you go to the level two skill shot And then that one would be to dribble out of the shooter lane but this time avoid the pop bumper but come down into that little Baywatch lane that's right there. You know, Baywatch had the little shark flipper on the upper right there that was kind of copied here. Works great. You know, no problem on taking a great idea from a game from before and incorporating it in a new way. So I really like that. Talking about the rest of the shots, Let's talk about the WaveRamp, right? That was the one that we were seeing some rattle rejections from in the Elwynn stream. I can tell you that this thing shoots great. I was listening to Jason from the Pinball Party podcast. His concern with this WaveRamp was that it would be, you know, so precise that it would harken back to the Death Star shot on Star Wars Premium, which is very much a very precise shot that rejects all the time but is one of the most super satisfying shots in pinball, especially in my arcade. Well, I can tell you that while some precision is required to hit this shot, it is absolutely hittable and findable. You know, if it takes like 90% skill to hit that Star Wars Death Star shot, this one's like a 50%. Whereas like the Venom Pro Horseshoe is like a 10%, right? So halfway between the Death Star shot and the super easy horseshoe on Venom Pro, that's kind of where this felt. More often than not, if I took my time and hit where I wanted to on the flipper, I was getting up there. I will say, the upper play field, super duper fun, man. Pro or premium, I'm in on a premium here all day if I can find one. This is the game I want to play. Just get that out of the way. But the wave ramp is fun. It's fun for a couple different reasons. So I like it the same reason I like the kind of zigzag shot that's in Deadpool or some of the shots that Jack Danger put into Foo Fighters where the ball kind of crosses midfield and takes its own path and trajectory and goes up to a ramp. This has that feel. You hit the wave ramp, you know, you got that 90-degree turn, very smooth, very orbit-like, and then it goes right into that little half moon that pops up to the upper play field. What I like, and I didn't realize this at first until I watched streams later, is that the right-sided ramp and wire form threads the needle through that wave. So if your ball makes it up 70% of the wave and then falls out, generally it'll fall into that wire form or have a pretty good chance of doing that which will return it back to the right flipper it's a very long winding wire form i love that shot uh feels very good how does the upper play field feel it feels fast man and now you've got this uh little zigzaggy sz turn coming off of the wave ramp to get to that flipper on the upper play field um and i thought that was you know gonna kind of take some time it does not it zigzags right through there i think the only reason they put that in was because the ball was probably coming through there too fast if you really rocketed up that wave ramp. So that would give you at least a chance to grab the ball on that flipper. You got to be watching for it. If the ball goes up there and you don't react right away, I mean, the ball is going to go roll right across and either down the drain or into the other wire form back to the Baywatch flipper. So it's fun. I think technically the horizontal spinner, the ship's wheel on the upper play field is repeatable. I didn't have enough time with it to really get into feeling the nuance of that. Plus, I couldn't nudge without tilting. So I think, you know, once we can kind of back off on the tilt bob a little bit and you can get a little bit of control, that will be a nice repeatable shot. Very satisfying to hit that upper shot that goes around the bow of the orca and then, you know, down the wire form, which 180s back up into that left lane. Man, there's so many cool shots in this game. And the upper play field, man, owns the premium. The other aspect of the premium that I liked over the Pro that I didn't really expect I would like as much as I did are the drop targets. The three bank drop targets that are on the left side of the play field, they are stand-up targets on the Pro. And, man, just the kinetic satisfaction of hitting drop targets and watching them reset, that's super fun. Stand-up targets don't give you any indication on, like, how many shots you have left, you know, without, like, looking, are the inserts lit, are they not? You know, it's fine. Like, the gameplay is going to be relatively the same, but there's something to be said about drop targets. man i love it imagine star wars with the force targets if they weren't drop targets were just stand-ups man it just it just wouldn't be as fun wouldn't be as satisfying you know the stand-up targets tend to just send the ball back at the velocity you sent at it whereas a drop target can kind of absorb that and then roll it back to you so there is some gameplay nuance there i i think the biggest difference that i found with the premium versus the pro that i didn't think really made that much of a difference was actually the peekaboo shark right that moment that the Shark comes up from the bottom of the play field, shows himself. It was fun. Kind of what I was expecting when I first saw pictures of this was kind of a Demogorgon battle, right? Like you build up to it, and then all of a sudden, like, here it is. Here's Jaws, the titular character from the machine. Like, let's battle him. Let's knock his teeth out. Let's put barrels in his mouth and shoot him with harpoons, like something. And it's essentially, you know, from the videos, just looks like this little peekaboo. Shark is there. Hit it with a ball. Shark goes away. Eh. It was a little bit more fun, but I had so much more fun playing with the upper playfield shot, playing with the drop targets. The shark was just some cool other kinetic stuff to happen. Man, I'm just psyched. I'm sold on this premium. How does that right-sided shot feel? The right-sided shot is satisfying. It's hittable. I found it towards the tip of the left flipper to get up there. And then it tends to not be like, if you think of a Foo Fighters, that ramp is very steep to get up to the Area 51 ramp. This one's about half as steep, so most likely when I hit a ball up there, as long as it had some somewhat halfway decent velocity, it would come around and make it to the wire form. So that was satisfying. It didn't rattle. It didn't reject. Every shot felt fair. I liked it. The horizontal reel spinner is very findable. I love the sound it makes. Even when you plunge and you hear like a reel being cast, like that's great. The ship's bell sounds are great. I played both of these games about 10 to 12 times all together for the hour and 15 minutes I was there. A little bit short on time. I would have spent hours there playing it, honestly. But, you know, this is not a review, but really just first impressions. Chum Bucket is fun. I'm glad that Chum Bucket is on the Pro 2. I like chumming the waters there. Oh, the fin. Let's talk about the fin. Is this fun? This is totally fun. I love this mechanism. I love the fin drop target that arcs across the play field. It's not, you know, the Mick on a Stick or whatever the heck. It's not even the Dracula from Monster Bash. This is a cool, I'll tell you what it feels like. I'll tell you what it feels like. Cactus Canyon, okay? You see the four drop targets pop up from the play field for the quick draw event, and then, you know, you're on that last one that's like a hurry up to go get it. It's as satisfying as that. Like, you know, during the gameplay at seemingly random times, I'm sure I would hit something or qualify something, But, you know, the pin would pop up from the in lane to hold my ball there. A little scene would play out and then I would get a prompt, a call out, a very clear call out to say, OK, shoot the fin. And then it was like, let's go. The fin crosses from the left of the arc to the right in a forward motion and does not zigzag back and forth, which would look weird for a shark to swim backwards. They need to swim forwards in order to breathe. So that makes sense. The fin will slowly cross that arc at the end. it will lower on its own, reset itself, and then come back if you get another shot. Otherwise, if it was just a hurry up, it's a hurry up. The shot was findable. Most of the times it got triggered when the ball was stuck in the left-in lane, which was great because it's angled to go right up into there. A few times I would miss the fin, but then it would ricochet off a stand-up target, hit the fin from the back, and that would knock it down too. So it was hittable from both sides. And it was fun just like as I'm playing, as I'm trying to get up to the upper play field, as I'm just exploring the wire form ramps. Maybe I'm trying to hit the shark target or the boat and hit Jaws when he pops up. The fin would just pop up. And then it was like, okay, cool. It's time to go do this now. It was so much fun. It was so much fun. I love the fact that the pins pop up from the inlanes when you're going to start a mode, when you're going to start a multiball. So it gives you a chance to look up at that LCD screen and all the great footage that's in there. People have been making a big deal about nothing. the two characters that are on the play field Brody, I think the sheriff character is not featured there because they didn't get the rights to put him there, so what do I need a third amigo down there on the play field, no I don't you got Quint, you got Richard Dreyfuss what else do you really need, would a third face there really make that much of a difference let me tell you, no it would not you know where his face is, all over the footage on the LCD screen and you get to watch that, I almost had a ball drain because I was so busy watching the LCD screen because it was like playing a scene from Jaws. And I was like, I just want to do this. I just want to sit here and watch Jaws on this machine. Oh, that's right. I'm playing a game. I better go grab my ball. So it was just such a satisfyingly fun experience to play this game for the first time. Now, this is a brand new game. So the hype is real, right? I mean, I was over the moon about Elton John the first time I played it. And so I'm sure there is some first player hype in me and maybe I'm not seeing some of the drawbacks that this game may have yet. But that's why I'm doing a first impression. This is how I felt playing the game. When I got done, I wanted to play it right again. The tilt screen is amazing. You know, it was very easy to tilt on this game. But when you did tilt out, I played the scene where Quint came over with a bat and just bashed the crap out of the radio and the orca. I wasn't mad that I tilted because I got to see this cool scene, you know. The countdown at the end where it matches the numbers and it's just beer cans floating by and then you get to match. Like, that's fun for me. the back plate of the play field back there where you have Amity Harbor and you have the Harbor House and the Amity Billboard there's LEDs behind those so those illuminate lighting plays a huge thing in this game already this is the earliest the code will ever be and already there's that night swimming mode and I haven't seen that in a live stream yet though I didn't watch the deadflip stream in its entirety maybe they got there but playing in an interior where the lights are moderate to mid. When the lights would go down, which is like the blue illuminations on the play field, and it was nighttime, that was super fun. It was fun to play the multiball. It was fun to watch the scene of the girl being drug underneath the waves. Iconic scenes from the film are just integrated great. This code already looks amazing, and I think it may be because this game has been done for a while, and so they've had some time to really put in these scenes. When we were watching live streams, there was some comments that we kept seeing some of the same scenes over and over again on the LCD. I didn't notice that at all while I was playing. My eyes are down on the play field, and then when the ball would stop behind one of the pop-up pins, then you get to go up and watch a scene. It was satisfying, and then boom, you go on. And then in addition to playing the multi-balls, playing the different modes, there's also this side quest game where you can bounty hunt different sharks. I still don't know the code well enough to know what the heck I was doing that triggered it, But a few times, you know, you can flip through and you can, you know, hunt for the Makos or hunt for the other things. And what these modes remind me of is the monster battles from Godzilla. You know, when you're fighting Eberra and you have to hit the spinner so many times. Or you're fighting, you know, Gigan and you have to hit the ramp so many times. This is kind of like an amalgam of all of that. You have the spinner. You've got the ramps. You've got the chum bucket. You've got the pop bumper. And it's like so many hits will qualify it. And then you have to hit the reel to reel in the shark. And then you get the prize, right? and you can either pick an easier shark where there's less things to do to get it or you can pick a harder one and play longer and then try to get a bigger bonus point. It's just really fun and really satisfying. The video mode on this was just so many miles beyond the scream video mode from Venom. When it comes up, you get to choose if you want to play 3D or don't. I played each of them. I didn't think because I have 3D glasses at home, I should have brought them so I could have experienced it. But it was fun. It was satisfying. It was simple. It's what you want from a video mode. I know there's people that aren't really fans of video modes. At least this one does have some skill. It's not just timed button presses. You're trying to go for accuracy. There's three different ways to shoot these harpoons. There's extra harpoons that you can grab. This game harkens back to an actual game from the 80s or one that was in the movie or some such thing. So it's fun. Shoot the sharks. Avoid the divers. It's not really like high risk or anything. It was just like a fun little diversion. for the game. So that's how my experience on Jaws Premium went. I can't wait to play it when I can actually nudge and keep my ball going. But man, it was a good time. Shots are very satisfying. I love that left lane that's over there. You can hit it two different ways. The ball tends to scream right down there back to the flipper. This game also has a right out lane save too. That's awesome. There's a little rubber post in that out lane and you can kind of nudge right off of it and try to bounce it through the gate. Like, that's fun. You don't see those a whole lot often. You know, like, I'm thinking back, like, things like Fathom and stuff would have these. So that's fun. You know, this doesn't have a dead post to save from your left-in lane, but there is a ball save path on the right side. So, like, that's fun. You know, I love the little tiny flipper and how sometimes it automatically just hold balls there This is just a fun game man How do I rank this You know is it better than Maiden Is it better than Jurassic Park Is it better than Avengers but not as good as Jurassic Park I can't really weigh in on that just yet. Time will tell that. I'll need to play this another 60 times to really know for sure. I can tell you this, though. If this game was available for my distro, I would get myself ordered on one, particularly if tax season wasn't right upon me and I haven't done the taxes yet and need to see, like, what the balance sheets are going to come out like. but anybody that's ordered either the premium or LE, well done. You're going to enjoy it. This game is great. This game is great. I love this game more than Bond, and people love Bond. I'm in like with Bond. It's okay. I got into it on the Facebook forums. I don't know what I waded into, but some people are like, it's as defensive about Bond as they are about their own children. It's like I insulted their mother or something when I was like, yeah, but I just don't really get it. It's like not for me, you know, which, you know, should be okay. But gosh, people think it was like I stepped on their dog or something. They're like, the fangs were coming out of me. What do I think about the Pro? So I went over and I would have been more impressed with the Pro if I would have played that first. Now, fortunately, I think for most people, the first time you play Jaws, it's probably going to be on a location. It's probably going to be soon. It's probably going to be a Pro because that's what's going to be out there. I'm fortunate enough that I live in Chicago adjacent. And so I was able to actually get in on one of these prototype premiums. premiums. But yeah, the pro is fun. The pro has the gameplay. I think Monica actually liked the pro better. One huge thing that the pro has going for it is you can see what the heck is going on that left upper part of the game. The upper play field takes up so much room that the ball, it's almost like Scooby-Doo a bit. You don't know, can't really see where it's going when you hit these shots. Now you learn where they're at. You know, if you shoot that middle shark, it's going to the wave ramp. If you shoot the right, it's going to the 180 ramp back to you. And the left kind of goes up into that wandering back 90 over there on the left side of the play field with the rollovers, switches, and such. But on the pro, it's all laid out for you. You can see the ball go through the entire rampage and everything. And I guess at first look, it's similar to how Foo Fighters handles this without the Area 51 upper play field. The same shot just goes right into the wire form. Wave ramp services it here too. It seems like there's just a lot missing though. You don't have the shark coming up through the boat. The boat doesn't tilt up and get out of the way. There's some kineticness that's missing from there. And the shark is just kind of out in that plastic cage the whole time. The game though shoots the same. The modes and the nuts and bolts of how the gameplay goes is really the same. Now I'm sure there's some nuance that you're losing because you don't have those extra shots in the upper play field. There's a whole ramp that's missing or wire form that's missing but essentially you're getting the same gameplay it's just little things coming off of that premium over to the pro it's like ah i kind of missed the drop targets instead of the stand-up targets it was kind of fun to like you know spend some time hitting the shark when he pops up and watching him go away you know i don't get that um you know when i get the wave ramp i just have to wait for the ball to come back i can't you know try to shoot for that extra little ramp that's up there um the extra wire form is satisfying with that 180 that it has at the end like it's it's giggle worthy man i was giggling playing it it was fun um so there was some missing uh i don't know that i would get the pro myself for home because i do want that fully featured game i will say this um there's definitely more going for this game as a premium as opposed to some of the other games i'm looking at bond where there's not really a whole lot different gameplay wise between the the premium trim levels and the pro I'm thinking Deadpool as well where there's not a whole lot different or something like Turtles where that's preferred or Black Knight Sword and Rage where the Pro is definitely preferred I think this will come down, not as big of a difference I think as Godzilla but there definitely is a lot more that's on the premium LE I think the premium LE home buyers will be very happy with that but I think location operators, I think the Pro is the right way to go lower cost, quicker ROI and unless you're running a higher end curated kind of pin bar type place, I think the Pro would be satisfactory, and that's how it's designed to be. I only played it a handful of times, and I went right back to the Premium as soon as it was available, because it was just so much more fun to watch a shark bounce around. Can I say this also? I did manage to capture this on video. My shark on Premium Jaws ate my ball. It happened. It happened. So here's what happened. And Shark was up, and so I shot up there, got an airball off of something. It wasn't off the flipper or the fin. Somehow it just bounced up there. It triggered the Shark by hitting him and then kind of came to rest on his right side, right? Well, his left because he's facing us. But the right side of the little spongy toy, the ball was sitting there, and I was like, oh, well, would you look at this? And then as soon as I said that, down he went because he was hit. He got triggered. So my ball and Jaws both disappeared at the same time beneath the waves. Boat came down, and I was staring at it in disbelief, fumbling from my phone so I could get my camera. Luckily, I did because a few seconds later when the ball search went off, initially nothing happened, and then here comes Jaws popping up. As he does, my ball was there and then got rejected back to me. So I got some video footage. I put it up on the Facebook site. Go check it out. It's a quick two-second video because as soon as it came, I didn't want to lose my ball, so I stopped recording and just started playing again. But the shark took my ball beneath the waves. And so for me, I'm going to count that as a shark ate my ball. So that was fun. It's possible. It was probably like my third game of Jaws that that happened. Oh, man, I had such a good time with this game. My best score I got was around 200 million points, and that was by doing a couple of the multi-balls, finishing a couple of the modes, just having a good time with the game. Game's fun. Game's fun. The multi-balls seem a little weird. Seemed like there were only two ball multiballs. I don't know if that's just preliminary code. I don't know if that was the settings of this game. It seemed like as I would play them a little bit longer, there was an add a ball. I saw the action button flashing. I have no idea what it did, but I slapped it when it happened. Maybe that was adding a ball. Maybe that was doing something with this life preserver that you get qualified off the stand-up target on the other side of the lane by the Baywatch flipper. All that we're going to figure out later. that'll all factor in into how this game overall ranks within the realm of pinball, particularly L1 machines that'll all come out in the wash later my first impressions, very impressed with this game, man I like the premium that it comes with those bigger angled rails, that's fun the quick powder coat job and you're right there with the polar white jaws I love the art on the back glass, seeing it in person, back glass, it's a trans light on the premium, but it's that point of view with the machete and the shark right there I will say when I was looking at the Translite for the Pro, it is that iconic VHS box of the Jaws poster. And as a Translite, it looks okay. As a mirrored back glass, it's going to be phenomenal. So I would say that art looks better for the LE. On the Pro, it's okay. The side of the backbox has a buoy on it. It's got the underwater scene on the cabinet. That's the best thing the Pro has going for it art-wise from what I saw. the premium though it's got that classic Jaws VHS 1980s redrawn style of the movie poster on the backbox on either side so you get that on the premium as well as just like a lot of action on the cabinet graphics and on the back glass man I played Jaws today I got up in the morning it was a three and a half hour drive went to interium was there for about an hour and 15 minutes went and got some lunch and just like I got to play Jaws got to play Dialed In too while I was there shout out to Danny bro, he's selling his Dialed In, what a fun phenomenal game that is, played Elton John and it's still a fun box of lights to shoot, it still looks gorgeous, I'm still just not sure how that code's going to shake out we'll have to wait and see man, after playing those two games and going over to Guns N' Roses that shooter rod is just so so wet dish towel and I know it's because the skill shot is so low there, but like, eh, eh, man, I don't know, I don't like it. Pulp Fiction was there, it was having some problems, it was stuck in an extent boot up, so I didn't get to play that. I went over and played, you know, I went over to the American Pinball Row. Legends of a Hollow was dark for some reason. I couldn't bring myself to play Galactic Tank Force again. Don't tell me this, and maybe it's just the machines that I'm getting, but the shooter rod on Galactic Tank Force feels really stiff, almost like it needs to be oiled and it's not, like it sticks, you know? For you guys that have this at home, is this just an oil thing? Like, does the action of the plunger rod move better with a little drop of some Wesson vegetable oil or something on it? Because this one just like, it's more often than not I find them when I come across a galactic tank force out in the environment, it just feels like it's stiff, like it's a little rough, you know? It needs lubed up a bit. It just hangs up. I don't know. It's not satisfying. I don't like it. I don't like touching it. What else do we got? All right, so recapped Jaws. That was the main thing that I wanted to get through to everybody today. But it's been seven days since I've done an official podcast, well, one of my own. So I do want to touch on a couple of other things that have come up. So Alice in Wonderland is in the news. This is a John Papadiuk game designed. Was it even fully designed? Did you just make the paperwood version? Somebody's making this game. So I had speculated that I thought there was a Dutch involvement, a little Netherlands connection with this game. And the reason I said that was because Magic Girl is being reworked by a Dutch team that kind of put some serviceable code into that game, you know, trying to get it out. So I kind of thought that there was a connection there, and I think I was on to something because I believe it was a super awesome pinball show that was trying to drag it out of Barry from Dutch Pinball that his two projects he has going on are Alice in Wonderland and then Back to the Future. that seems to be all but confirmed at this point though officially uh he is not mentioning anything in person i don't want to be called out by dutch pinball now so i'm not casting dispersions in his way either uh but but here is my speculation i think that the analysis in wonderland will be made in limited uh release maybe a high-end machine something to bridge the gap between the completion of lebowski and the beginning of back to the future which may not be until 2025 and so there may be kind of a limited little boutique run of this Alice in Wonderland Papadude game. This was the guy that did Dog Soccer. He did Totan, Tales of the Arabian Nights, Theater of Magic, Circus Voltaire, Star Wars Episode I. That kind of went sideways there. But then also was working on Raza, Retro Atomic Zombie Adventureland, Alice in Wonderland, Magic Girl, like this dude. So Magic Girl looks amazing. The art looks great. When you see it, you're like, obviously, this is the same guy, the same team that came up with Circus Voltaire because it has, like, that same aesthetic. It just doesn't play very well. There's, like, this massive plastic in the middle of the play field that, like, looks like a – looks like they took some of the spiraling ramps from Tales of the Arabian Nights and just, like, supersized it, like, birthday cake size and dropped it in the middle of the play field. It's weird. You know, I could see where they were going with it. But it's kind of like some fatal flaws in here or something. Some code was thrown in at it, and sometimes it works at Expo, sometimes it doesn't. And that's Magic Girl. Get yourself $45,000 and get one for yourself if you want one. So I'm wondering if there was, like, just some difficulties, some fundamental problems with Magic Girl that kept them from putting that into production. Because shouldn't they be running Magic Girl now? Shouldn't Dutch Pinball be making that game with more robust code, you know, fix the mechanism so they actually work? make some changes, make some tweaks, make the shots easier to hit or at least more satisfying or more reliable, and put that game out is what I would think. There should be enough demand for 500 Magic Girls at $12,000 to $14,000 or something for high-end machine, powder-coated armor, Radcals, mirrored back glass, built-by-Dutch pinball, fantastic cabinet. I would think that that would have been the one, but instead it seems like they stumbled across this Alice in Wonderland. Maybe it's got a much better layout, like a much more, you know, conducive to an actual real-life machine that can be a product for a customer than Magic Girl was, and maybe that's why they're going in this direction. Are we going to see anything at TPF? I do not think so. I think it's going to be later into the summer or fall that we'll actually see, you know, this game in production and available to buy. But I'll be watching. I'll be watching. I think that's very interesting. I was thinking of going through and just doing like an alphabetical, year in preview for 2024. I may still get to that here in a bit. I've just been running non-stop, man. Thank you for bearing with me through all this. What else did I want to get to today? Dutch Pinball's making that. We covered that. Oh, let's do some shout-outs and stuff. Let's do some shout-outs. Just go around the horn of a lot of other different things that are going on. My boy Frank with Cab Customs got a new product out. I'm not sponsored by him at all. He's not sending me a free one. I just want to shout him out This is the guy that does my laser armor or plasma armor or something that I been getting He out in Europe He ships to the U It comes through I think DHL now and so it only takes a week or so to get product And he's making a lot of side armor through his brand, Side My Rails, I think is what he calls it. So Evil Pinball in Evansville, Indiana, they made some side rails for Toy Story 4. And I was like, hey, man, those look really great. I don't have a Toy Story 4. I was trying to kick ideas to the guy like could you do this could you do this could you do this and then I don't know if he's still around still making things or what but Frank is really filling that niche there so if you want you know not just lollipop armor but like some engraved armor for your game not like every game but like if you have that game you know whether you have one game in your game room or like three or there's that one you really really like and you want to just like you know the market kind of sucks for new games they're pretty expensive Resale prices are down. Maybe you don't want to go out and get a new game. Maybe you want to take a little bit of money and just kind of plus up a game that you already have and really enjoy. So this is a way to do that. I was able to get LE armor printed for my Star Wars. It looks amazing. I was able to get the LE style armor for Venom, and that looked awesome, especially with a powder coat. And so he does all these cool armors. If you want some Mandalorian armor, some Ghostbusters armor or something. I got some Stranger Things armor here. It's got the ABCD alphabet all along the side of it. It's got the kids upside down. The Demogorgon's cut on one side. The kids on the bikes are on the other one. It's just like, you know, it's cool. And it's not like $400, right? So this guy is filling a definite niche. You know, when you want to do something awesome, but you don't want to quite pay first-party prices and deal with the lack of availability of accessories that come from the manufacturers, he's a good way to go, man. Check him out. He's got a Facebook page only, no website. Cab Custom, one word, not customs, just custom. Anyway, he's got a topper. He's doing toppers now. And I'm a topper guy. I like my games to have hats on them. And so he came up as his first product is a Bond topper that looks strikingly similar to the one officially available from the first party dealer, Stern. It looks a little different. It looks a little different. You know, it's not like a carbon copy of it or anything, but definitely inspired in that design, in that aesthetic with the LEDs that go around it. So it does not appear to be, you know, one-to-one interactive with the game in the way that the Stern one is. The Stern one looks pretty cool. I do like that 007 Topper they came out with. It retails for $1,000 if you can get them. You know, it was exclusively included on the Bond 60th, and then they came out with another 500 that they ran. They never said that that was going to be, you know, a limited run. And then they did run them again recently, and they're available if you want to spend $1,000. but let's say you don't want to spend $1,000 but you still like that look and you want to box the lights on top of your bond because you're one of the guys that love it you're not like me you're like you know what I'm getting a bond I'm bolting it I want it to have a hat so he's developed this one you can check it out on his website I shared the post too just because he's such a friendly chap there so the real thing that's going out for this is it's price so for a look that's strikingly similar to what you could get at the $1,000 level for $484 United States dollars delivered in the US from Europe. You can get this topper, dude. That's a heck of a deal. I'm not going to get commission. I'm not sponsored by this guy. I'm not telling you to go and buy it. Go buy what you want. Buy it, don't buy it, whatever. I'm just sharing it because it looked cool. He's been working on this for a while, shooting me photos every now and then, giving him some feedback and stuff. I just want to share it because maybe Maybe there's some people out there that want to get it. It's a cool product. They share it on my Facebook page. Go check it out. You know, me and Frank talk a lot. I'm also making a topper, gargoyle-inspired. I've got the first prototype is out there. Danny's got it. I guess he's liking it. I'm going to make that available here soon. I've already got two orders. Two people have pre-ordered my gargoyle topper, and I haven't even really advertised it or anything yet. But, like, I'm into the homebrew topper scene, and here's a guy that's already making some cool armor for games at really decent prices, and now he's in the Topper game too. So I'm excited to see what's going to come from him. I love when new products like this come out because anything that drives competition will drive innovation as well. And then we as the consumers win by having a plurality of products available and with people competing on price for our business. So that's a win for us, man. It's a win for us and it's a win for creativity. So, you know, go check that out. Who else am I shouting out? Oh, let's shout out the Spinner is Lit podcast folks. I'm talking about Spencer, Dan, and Mark, who very graciously invited me onto their podcast. They do kind of the long-form, you know, monthly podcast. Spinner is Lit is what they're called. I've been checking them out. Well, they invited yours truly on there. We had what seemed like a three-hour-long conversation about everything. Pinball, it was fantastic. I think that's in the editing bay right now and should be released sometime. soon, so watch for that. Go to your podcast tracker, Spinner is Lit. Just search for him. Not special when lit, although you should follow the Ken Cromwell episode-related podcast as well. But Spinner is Lit. Go check that out if you want some more Dauntent or you've exhausted everything else and you want to get into something new or if you've been listening forever, here's a little preview that I'm coming up in there. I was with the guys for the whole time. We had a great discussion, a great time. It was a super awesome week for me, man. I've been going nonstop. Shout out to my boy, Ed. We're going to go hang out tomorrow, dude. Promise. He's here locally. He's got a bunch of cool stuff in his basement. And he's also a homebrew dude, too, man. Ghost in the Shell. Go check it out. Shout out to Jason at Pinball Party Podcast. Man, keep doing what you're doing. He got a new episode that came out. Just listen to it. It's always a good time. And I love to just champion people that are creative in the hobby and just having fun. I'm in awe of that guy's musical talent. Neon Dale, man. Go check it out. I also need to shout out Mad Pinball, who's sold completely through his LEs of Jaws, completely through his premiums of Jaws, that by the time I was like, you know, I think I do want to look about getting one, he's like, man, I'm sorry. They're gone. And right now, they're not being made again until June. But he's got spots for pros and a plethora of other things, too. Email jeff at madpinball.com if you want to get in on a list so you don't miss out on the next run or release or whatever. If you've got something that's rumored to be coming out, if you want to, I don't know if he's got Alice in Wonderland. I think that might be exclusive to Cointaker. However, if you want Jersey Jack's Hogwarts rumored game that's coming out, go let him know. Get on a list. I've done that before and that way my name is there when it's released if I want to get it, at least like I'm in the queue somewhere. Go check it out. Jeff at madpinball.com. This dude's fun, man. He's in northern Ohio. and him and the Angely Zac Stark brothers they operate arcades and things around the area they look to get like cool unique stuff these were the guys that got a punny factory and then let me come into their arcade and live stream it and just kind of handed me the keys and said lock up when you leave like it was amazing so we're still in very like lower case preliminary talks for something fantastic that we can hopefully have available can't say anything about it yet but just a lot of projects on the horizon. We just do stuff that's fun for us, and it tends to be stuff that's fun for other people too. So we're going to continue that. I'll talk more to it when I can. What else? I've got things for sale. Stop on by now. Operators are standing by. Everything must go. I've got my Iron Maiden listed on Pinside, $8,700 or best offer. This is an Iron Maiden premium. This is a Don's Pinball podcast edition, so you know it's got a full powder coat. It's got the angled lollipop rails. It's got the chrome-ized coin door inserts. It's got the plastics. It's got the ninja balls. It's got the Titan bands on it. Heck, I even got a topper we can talk about. It's got Flipper Fidelity audio package in it. Like, it's loaded. It's my personal maiden from the most recent run, and only like 300 or so plays, man. But I'm stressed for space here. I've got a lot of stuff coming in. and so I like to make things available. So I've already got some offers. I'm entertaining. But if you're interested in a Don's Pinball Podcast version, already powder-coated, shaker motors in there, you don't have to do nothing to it except plug it in and go crazy with the Iron Maiden music, let me know. I'm considering I've got offers for trades. I've got offers for straight cash. If you can wait a couple weeks, I'll get it to you. So in the meantime, just kicking it around out there, I do have that Iron Maiden Premium available. People are trying to get my Godzilla 2, and I don't know if I'm ready to sell that yet. It's full of Stumbler mods. It's full of Leor mods. It's powder-coated as well. It's got the full DPP overhaul. Someone reached out, too, from the Spokane region. Shout-out to you, homie. Just wanted to see if he can get on my rotation to buy my premiums when I'm done with them, because I'm like, what? West Coast Customs over here, man, just doing like a full overhaul. Not quite exhibit levels. Like I'm not putting a pinball machine in your pinball machine so you can pinball while you pinball or nothing like that. But I do like plussing these things up. It's super fun. Don't even try to buy my Stranger Things. They ain't leaving. People are trying to buy my Star Wars now. Like get off me, dog. But I do have Iron Maiden available, and I would consider for the right offer Godzilla. So if you want like the best version of Godzilla Premium that you will find, I've got it. I've got toppers. What else do I have? I'm making my own mods as well. I've been in the mod dungeon just to have a blast in there so I'm printing up the crypt facades for Elvira you've seen them, they're on Thingiverse if you want to print them yourself or if you don't want to deal with none of that mess and you've got 60 bucks just call your boy Don I got a ton of them, I got them for Blood Red Kiss I got my own interpretation for the other trim levels of Elvira if you're an Elvira fan that game is just amazing Gappa Angry man, the Deadhead Crypt house party, I've been getting better at that game and just having more and more fun like that game is not leaving here at all, Elvira fans around the world rejoice, now I've gotten carried away, I went ahead and made my own roof for the Crypt and I made a wall now too a brick wall for the Crypt it's got red translucent lettering in it that shines through the light from the Crypt the whole thing is insane check out my store on Pinside, check out my post on the Facebook page, but I've got Elvira mods and they're priced to go, man. I am no gouging this thing. I'm just, I'm having fun with my printer. I'm making cool things. The resolution is amazing and I am loving how it's come out. Um, so I, I'm selling the, the, the crypt facades and the roofs right now. They're all in pin side. You can go ahead and buy them as a package if you want. If you already have a crypt facade and you want a roof and you like my design of it, um, go ahead and get that too. Uh, they're, they're all modular, man. You know, buy one, buy them all. Um, I'm going to have the wall up soon. I think I'm in the final version of it. I've got some, uh, some, some test mods that are out there that people are trying out. I just want to make sure that they go in good, they fit flush, no problems. And then I'll list those two. Um, so if you want to wait and buy all three, go do that. If you buy the two and you want the other one later, like you can just add on the difference in the cost and I'll send it right out. Like no problem, man. Um, it looks so fantastically amazing. I just want to share like stuff that I'm doing with everybody else. I'm having fun in pinball. There's so much more news coming. We're going to get another game from Jersey Jack in the next six to seven months. Dutch Pinball's got stuff coming out. There's going to be two more Stern Cornerstone releases, plus who knows what else they're going to redo. Are they bringing back Ghostbusters? DMD? Are they vaulting something else? Probably not. Lord of the Rings, based on what George Gomez was saying. But we might see Metallica either brought back or redone. Are we going to get another road case? Who knows? 2024 is going to be nuts, and I can't wait to see what all happens. from it. And as soon as I hear something different, you'll hear about it probably first on my Patreon. I've been going there first for information. Patreon.com slash Don's Minimal Podcast. $5 will get you in the door. $20 will get you into special Discord. Either way, we'll be doing our next giveaway next month on the 15th, where I pick a lucky Patreon member, whether you're a $5 member or getting double entries for the $10 or $20 level. Last time I gave away a Godzilla banner from Stern, and I got a stack of trans lights I'm looking at and a room full of banners. So there's going to be more fun stuff. just given away. If you listened to Livestream last week and you won one of the three hats that I gave away, those have all gone out. So if you live in Australia and you won that hat, it's on its way across the ocean to you, sir. So I'm so excited about that. Anything else? I think that's enough for a podcast, man. Let's go ahead and cut this in print, and I'm going to get back to working on the arcade. Shout-out to your boy on Facebook, Don's Pinball Podcast. Make sure you follow. I have over 1,000 followers now. Thank you so much from the bottom of my greedy little heart for the followers that I got. Email me at donspinballpodcast at gmail.com. Always happy to see people there. We'll be putting up more YouTube content to come. And just let me know how you're doing, man. Just email me, right? We can talk. Later.