DPP #239 "New Games, New Sales, New Drama!!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·31m 6s·held·May 10, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Pinball drama, production updates, new game announcements, and market dynamics dominate summer announcements.

Summary

Don discusses major pinball industry developments including drama around a Big Bang Bar remake involving Team Pinball, Pedretti, and Melvin; production timelines for Barrels of Fun (Dune in June, Winchester in September); Stern's upcoming media day for an unconfirmed Transformers title; his decision to sell his Pokemon LE; Jersey Jack Pinball's Sonic the Hedgehog in development; and Spooky Pinball accelerating Beetlejuice production.

Key Claims

Team Pinball invested approximately €90,000 ($110,000 USD) in a Big Bang Bar remake project and was cut off by Pedretti without back-end compensation
high confidence · Don citing Team Pinball's Facebook post claiming they were '90,000 euros in the hole' after Pedretti allegedly ended the partnership
Barrels of Fun will complete all Dune orders by June and Winchester orders by September
high confidence · Don received clarification from Brian stating Dune completion in June and Winchester completion by September
Stern's media day is scheduled for May 20, 2024, with dealer day on May 19
high confidence · Don received email from Zach Sharp confirming Stern Cornerstone media day dates
The Stern Cornerstone title is rumored to be Transformers with mech-loaded gameplay and LE variants featuring Decepticon and Autobot sides
medium confidence · Don stating 'largely rumored to be Elliot Eismin's Return to Glory with Transformers' based on industry speculation
Jersey Jack Pinball is actively building their next game (likely Sonic the Hedgehog) and no longer offering factory tours
high confidence · Don confirming 'Richie's game apparently is being built right now, and they are no longer offering tours'
Pokemon LE prices on Pinside range from $15,500 to $19,000+ with secondary market demand strong
high confidence · Don reporting personal observation of Pokemon LE listings and friend's purchase of $15,000 used copy
Spooky Pinball's Beetlejuice production is accelerating with all 20 Midnight Madness editions shipped within a week
high confidence · Don visiting Spooky factory and observing production pace, confirming Midnight Madness shipment
Don sold his Pokemon LE for $15,500 on Pinside to fund personal financial goals including mortgage paydown and family trips
high confidence · Don directly stating sale listing at $15,500 or best offer; received $10,000 best offer to date

Notable Quotes

“They came clean and said that they were 90,000 euros in the hole... And I guess them on either the software or hardware side, they were going to get paid on the back end by sales of this game.”
Don @ ~0:10:30 — Describes the financial crisis in the Big Bang Bar remake project and broken partnership dynamics
“I think they're doing it now because Pedretti is about to launch Tales of the Arabian Nights at Golden State Pinball Festival this weekend. And what they want is for us to feel sorry for them getting screwed over so we do not go and buy this game from them.”
Don @ ~0:14:15 — Don's theory on Team Pinball's motivation for public disclosure, suggesting competitive sabotage of Tales of the Arabian Nights launch
“The code right now is at Stern.0... there's five things to do. There's like five modes that are in there. And then that's kind of it.”
Don @ ~0:41:00 — Criticism of Pokemon LE's bare-bones launch code, setting expectations for code maturation timeline
“I can make somebody's summer day that missed out and is looking at these $18,000, $17,000, $26,000 sales and is feeling disheartened.”
Don @ ~0:48:30 — Don's rationale for underselling Pokemon LE, framing it as community service while also addressing personal financial needs
“Steve Ridge in his Sonic shoes like two years ago when he started working on this game... Probably it's going to be pretty fun.”
Don @ ~0:53:00 — Evidence for Jersey Jack Pinball's Sonic the Hedgehog project based on long-term designer visibility
“They are no longer offering tours... so that cool I like the fact that the brand new game is on the line being built prior to the unveiling prior to the release.”
Don @ ~0:54:45 — Appreciation for Jersey Jack's pre-release secrecy and game-ready strategy at launch
“I've done nothing but lose money on these top-end machines pretty much this whole time. So that was the reasoning I was thinking.”
Don — Don's frustration with collector market losses motivating his Pokemon LE flip strategy

Entities

DonpersonTeam PinballcompanyPedretticompanyMelvinperson Barrels of FuncompanyZach SharppersonStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack Pinballcompany

Signals

?
industry_signal: Team Pinball publicly disclosed €90k financial loss after being cut off by Pedretti on Big Bang Bar remake; appears strategically timed to undermine Pedretti's Tales of the Arabian Nights launch at Golden State this weekend
high · Don reports Team Pinball's Facebook post detailing investment loss and partnership dissolution; speculates timing is sabotage ahead of competitor's game launch
?
product_launch: Barrels of Fun revised production timeline: Dune complete by June, Winchester by September (approximately 350 units over 3 months July-September)
high · Don received clarification from Brian, contrasting earlier aggregate timeline rumors with specific game-by-game targets
?
announcement: Stern Pinball officially confirmed media day May 20, 2024 (dealer day May 19) for Cornerstone title; NDA required; first public play opportunity at Northwest Pinball Show in June before June 5
high · Don received email from Zach Sharp with official dates, NDA requirement, and first public venue confirmation
?
rumor_hype: Stern Cornerstone widely speculated to be Transformers with mech-heavy gameplay; LE rumored to feature separate Decepticon and Autobot side builds; cartoon-based IP
medium · Don describes as 'largely rumored' and frames as speculation; cites insider chatter but emphasizes lack of official confirmation
?
machine_intel: Jersey Jack Pinball halted factory tours and is building next game (Sonic the Hedgehog) in secret prior to official unveiling; game-ready strategy at launch

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.093

0:00

Dude, it's time to get back out there with the podcast. 239, let's hit it. Well, hello everybody. Don's Pinball Podcast is coming back to you from the ether, from the fog. It's starting to clear and we're seeing a clear path through to how this pinball summer is going to go. Tons to talk about. Let's get into this biscuit right now. Popping fresh. Let's go.

0:30

Devastation. Are you in your commute? Are you jogging around your town right now? Am I in your earbuds on a Spirit Airline flight? I don't think that's possible anymore. How much can change in a week, man? Here I am. I was just on a spirit flight, man. People stranded all over the universe about that. Also, a lot of other devastation across the pinball landscape. People going scorched earth. We're going to talk about everything that's going on, but we're going to start with this that dropped in. And this drama that's going on with Pedretti, Team Pinball, and Mr. Melvin, the Netherlands' own J-Pop resurrection extraordinaire. A pinball necromancer, I guess is what we can call this guy. So Big Bang Bar, this rumor that's been going around, does anybody genuinely want this game? Are there more than eight people out there that are like, I want this game to be remade and in my game room. I've played it. I've played a real one. I've played it virtually a ton. It is a game. It was from Capcom. It came out and then barely released and then went away. Legal trouble ensued. It came back again in very limited quantities and then just quietly went away. It was like a $2,500 game or something back in the day. Adjusted for inflation, probably $4,800, right? That's what we're talking about. And then there's this idea that this game is going to be resurrected for $12,000. Now, look, I know this game is going for like $25,000, $30,000 or something, but we said it. It's not a big secret. It's because of its limited availability. Like this thing never really got a chance to come out, right? There weren't 1,200, 2,000, 3,500 units of this thing produced back in the day. So, like, if you want to get a version that, like, wasn't just shoved out in arcade because, listen, this was a commercial game back when it came out. This was meant to be picked up, put in an arcade, get 7,000, 10,000 plays on it, earn some money, and then out in the trash heap it would go. So to find one that was essentially never put on location, or if it was, it was babied and taken well care of, yeah, that's rare. That's rare. That rarity is why this game goes for so much money. If you want to get a good version of it, just like going out and get a good version of Tales of the Arabian Nights or Circus Voltaire or something, they're expensive because of the rarity. So if you go ahead and ruin that by putting a bunch else out there, like is it really going to be that special? Whatever, it's a neat game. I think if somebody can make it, it deserves to exist. If people want it, people could have it. I could play it at a show every now and then, fine. Fine. But dude, I had no idea of like this level of intrigue was behind there. Three different groups of people from what I can put together all had like a very vested interest in this project. And I think they kind of they must have thought the project was was much more important than it actually was. Team Pinball, I guess, made some boards or something or some hardware or converted the old hardware to new hardware. And then like fast boards came in somewhere. I don't pretend to know all the details there. But what I do know is these guys just made a Facebook post this week laying it all out there like, honey, the tea is on. Ding, ding. The pot's going off. Let's sip and nibble on this. So basically what they did is they they came clean and said that they were 90,000 euros in the hole. It's like $110,000 USD, 68,000 pounds sterling or something. A lot of money, a decent chunk of money. And I guess them on either the software or hardware side, they were going to get paid on the back end by sales of this game, which I guess would be service through Pedretti, who builds out in Milan, Italy. And Melvin was also involved in there somewhere. I don't know his involvement. I ran into the guy at a show. I kind of talked to him a little bit, but I don't know him, right? And I don't know that, you know, he's definitely got some special sauce. I know this, he's got a vicious stiff rod for some Papa Duke games because this guy is the Pinball Necromancer. More on that in a second. But essentially, I guess the deal was these guys were all going to be in cahoots, they were going to get this game to production, and then as they sold, they would get their back end. And I don't know really what happened, but it sounds like they got a prototype game, they got it to Pedretti, and then Pedretti just said, I don't think we need you guys. Cut them off, and then I don't know if they're still planning on doing this game. Did Melvin come in because he's the rights holder? Who knows? I don't know. Someone smarter than me figure all this out. But dang, if they didn't post a scathing post on there saying we're 90 grand in the hole, we thought we were friends, but we're not. And I think the whole reason that they're doing this now, I don't think anybody cares about the backstory, the true Hollywood story of Big Bang Bar remake. I think they're doing it now because Pedretti is about to launch Tales of the Arabian Nights at Golden State Pinball Festival this weekend. And what they want is for us to feel sorry for them getting screwed over so we do not go and buy this game from them. They're going to trash their sales, rain on their parade, and all that brouhaha. That's how I see it because that Occam's Razor, this makes the most sense to me. Hey, I'm just here watching all this. Yes, I would play your Big Bang Bar. I would come over to your house and flip with you. We play it in tournaments and stuff, but I'm not going to put this thing in my game room. It just doesn't hold that level of nostalgia for me. I think actually, even though I don't really care for Circus Voltaire a whole lot, it's fun to play on location, but I don't want to have one. I would get two of them before I would get a Big Bang Bar just because it's, I don't know, realistically, realistically, I don't think I want it that much. So what's going to happen now? I don't have confirmation that Pedretti is releasing the game. I heard there's a new game. It's a remake. It's going to be at Golden State this weekend at Lodi, California. If you haven't been to Lodi, you're probably picturing palm trees in California and celebrities. I think if you lean a little bit more like, you know, meth hippie, you'll probably get what Lode is all about. I haven't been there in about 15 years, but we're going to drop back on there. I'll be there in person. We'll talk about that later. But something's about to drop. It would make sense for Pedretti. They've been dragging their feet. No one's buying any ABBAs anymore. They're not buying any Predators anymore. So the Euro Pinball Corp up there in Milan has got to have something to put out, right? And so it would make sense that the rate will do this. Or it's Theater of Magic. One of the two. I don't think Chicago is ready to do something else. They've got a thousand more Medieval Madnesses to make for somebody. So there we go. What about that? This seems like we were going to make this thing and it was going to be great. And I just think the juice definitely wasn't worth the squeeze. I don't think the project was as high profile as I was thinking. I wouldn't invest 90,000 euros into this thing. But that happened. I wanted to talk about it. We'll see what shakes out. And for those of you that were looking forward to a Big Bang Bar remake just to have it because you're just into that. I feel bad for you I hope somebody makes it You know I know Melvin was involved Melvin not with Dutch anymore He now with American Pinball I want Melvin to impress me because so far all I seen him do is bring games back from beyond the grave and they probably games that should have been just put back into the crypt You know what I mean So maybe he's got some level of talent in there. I just haven't seen it yet. So we'll look forward and see if that counts. It's going to be fun this weekend. We'll talk about that more in a bit. Boom! Clarification on my end. I did a live stream on Patreon and I got my eggs scrambled a bit with timelines regarding Barrels of Fun and what they're putting out. We know that they released or unveiled Winchester's Mystery House to spontaneous acclaim back in October. And then we know that they're about 100 deep or so. At least the highest number game that we've seen publicly was something like 100 or 127 or somewhere around there. And so we're looking at the timeline because there's 525 of us that are still sitting there like, hey, you know, you got my mail yet? You got my box. FedEx hasn't sent me anything. When's the game coming, right? And so we know they did that fire sale on Dune. Great marketing strategy. The public's really happy with it. Put a spotlight back on it at the time the code is finally catching up. So yeah, that's cool. I had heard that they had had all their games, they're planning on having them all done by the summer, which seemed aggressive to me. I've been clarified. The Dunes will be done in June is what they're telling me. Like all the Dune orders that they had, plus all the ones from the we're going to stop making this game here pretty soon. Maybe it'll be made in the future if there's demand, but don't hold your horses, don't put all your carrots in one basket thing. So June was when they were going to be done with the Dunes, and then the Winchesters, they're still planning on having them complete by September. So that gives them July, August, and September a solid three months to bang out what will realistically be about 350 games. So is barrels really cooking at greater than 100 games a month? Hey, kudos to them if they're pulling it off with good quality and everything. So I'm hopeful for that. So there's my clarification. It wasn't all the games were going to be done by June. The Dune June is what it was. September, Winchester, that's how I remember it going forward. And with that, then as soon as I got that message, thank you, Brian, thanks for reaching out. That was fantastic. My mind went straight to, okay, so if they're done in September, what's happening in October? We know that Chicago's Pinball Expo is in October. It's up in Schomburg, Illinois. Yeah, almost said Ohio for some reason. It's like the industry show of the year. TPF is like the fan show of the year. This is the industry show of the year. And this is also where Barrels of Fun got their first reveal start with Labyrinth back in, was that 2023?

15:10

But this allows Stern to have a media day and not have to wait and wait until they get the final approval. And sometimes the marketing approval can come in anticipation of the date. So by the time we get to May 20th, the curtain may already be lifted, and then we can go in there and we can be free to talk. So that what the emails that I got said The confirmation that the first game is going to be at in June is the Northwest Pinball Show It in Washington State I believe like south of I think it south of Olympia I think it's like SeaTac area. I haven't been there. I know the fast folks, Aaron Davis and all them will be out there. That'll be the first publicly available place to play it. So we know it will be out prior to June 5th. So I think somewhere in there, you know, the worst case scenario in all likelihood is that we'll have this NDA unveiling, On the 20th, 19th for dealers, 20th for us guys. And then we'll probably have to sit on it for a week and then by then it'll probably be ready to go. All the podcasts will go up and then you can see like should I buy this game now or should I wait? Which brings us to the position that I'm in right now. Many people have had opinions on something that I did yesterday. And it's an idea that started kicking around my head a week ago. I've got myself one of them Pokemon Ellie's. And, you know, I was genuinely excited. I wasn't really looking forward to getting an LE, but of course you get caught up in all that fervor and that hype. Never seen anything like it with a Stern release. And then when I had an opportunity like, hey, here's one, you've got about 15 minutes on this email to reply yes if you want one. I mean, I'm out of town, I'm away from my family, I'm like six days into a 10-day stretch, I'm like I'm wanting something to get excited about. So boom, we sent out the deposit, and then I just received the second of my LEs from flipping out just recently. So I got this brand new game. And I'm playing it. And just like everybody else, the code is very much what I would call bare bones. The code right now is at Stern.0, I think is kind of what it's being known as. And there's, you know, there's five things to do. There's like five modes that are in there. And then that's kind of it. I feel like there's call outs that are missing. I feel there's video assets that are missing. And I don't think this is the fault of Stern. I think they're sitting on code that's finished and ready. It's just got to get through the final approval process and it's going to be a slog. I mean like a James Bond license holder slog. And so that's kind of where we're at. So I was thinking to myself, okay, self, what is this game realistically going to do price-wise going forward? I went over to Pinside. I've had my ear to the community. I have a friend of mine that just picked up a Pokemon LE for $15,000 used from a guy. And, I mean, used, like barely used. I mean, the game's still shipping, I think, right now. So we're talking like under 100 plays. And so for the price to be around $15,000, like not officially out there, but this is what I'm hearing, and then I go to pin side, the cheapest I can see one is $15,500 and it's pending right now, and then it goes up from there, $17,000, $18,000, $19,000. So I'm trying to postulate, okay, we're going to be in a position in about nine months where there's tons of pros, tons of premiums, the fastest selling game Stern Pinball's had, they've released that. And so I think the fervor is going to die down a bit more. Prices will probably settle around $14, maybe $13.5, you know, around there. I don't think this is going to be an LE that drops to $7,000 for sure. And I know that I have the game now, and the game is fun, and I love the assets that are in there. I'm like everybody else. I just want more. And so I've got a decision, right? This game is quite valuable, and it may be too valuable to just keep around, you know, When you look at what they're going for and everything and what else could be done with those funds right now, given the fact that I'm still moving out of two homes, trying to get everything consolidated, starting a new job. I'm technically unemployed this month. I have a lot of good places that the money could probably go to. So I thought I would test the waters and put this game out there. You know, this is a game that realistically is probably going to take about a year to get up to like the .97, 1.0 code and out of the Stern .0 that it's in right now. And so I've got a choice. I can keep the game. Game's fun. I like it. The assets are cool. I love the lights and the LE and everything. My God, man, this thing, the expression lights and the speaker lights, I totally dig it. Even on the outside, the armor feels good. I love the Master Ball shooter. I like the whole package there. The back glass looks great. I like the art in the cabinet. But do I want to go hand in hand down the rose-tinted periwinkle path with Stern on this code for an entire year, just slowly being spoon-fed little bits of code, be on this adventure for a year, have a game that I'm going to get caught up in all the code and then I'm probably going to leave it for a few weeks while I play other stuff more and then kind of come back to it with a code update? Or would it make sense to get this game to somebody for a great price? I put it up at $15,500. It's the cheapest price I could find on Pinside. So I was like, okay, $15,500, and then we can talk about, I'm happy to ship. I'll get you a great shipping rate anywhere in the world. You want this thing to go, I'll sell it if somebody wants it. Maybe I can make somebody's summer day that missed out and is looking at these $18,000, $17,000, $26,000 sales and is feeling disheartened. Maybe I can make their day. And then they can take the game on the journey. Obviously, it'll go to somebody that really, really wants this game, loves the theme and everything, and then that would free up some cash for me to do some other things. Maybe I pick up another game. Maybe I use it to close out a mortgage, or maybe I use it to take the family on a little trip or something. We've got some summer trips we'd like to do. There's some cruises I would like to do, and I think I could have this game for a whole year on this code journey, or maybe I could have fun this summer taking the family on some trips, paying down some debt, And then after summer, take a look and see if I can pick it back up then. And I'm gambling, I'm betting that it would be at least the same price as what I sold it for to bring back. So it's kind of like almost like a short sale or something where you borrow a game, you sell it, you keep the cash, and then later on you buy it for less than you sold it for, and then you have a little margin in there. Like a win for once in pinball would be awesome, man. I've done nothing but lose money on these top-end machines pretty much this whole time. So that was the reasoning I was thinking. And I'm doing all this while I'm driving around. So maybe it doesn't make the most financial sense. Maybe once all the games get out there, the code gets better, we start seeing this game go for upwards of $18.20 again. And maybe I was foolish for selling it. Decision I'm making. Maybe I'll take the post down later today and I'll have a change of heart. But for right now, it's on PinSide. It's on my Facebook, Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com. If you have an offer, it's or best offer also. So far, best offer I've got is $10,000. So every game I sell is or best offer. So putting it out there, that's kind of what I was thinking when it happened. I don't know what else the Pinball world is going to bring us soon. We'll get to JJP in a moment. I think that's going to be the big one. But that's what was in on that. So if you're interested, no harsh thing. The worst thing that can happen is I end up just hanging on to Pokemon LE and playing it for a year And playing through all the code and stuff. And that's fine, too. Like, I'm OK with that, too. So just kind of testing the market a little bit here. Boom. Speaking of jumping the line, what else has jumped in the line? I'm getting confirmation from this way, that way and upside down that Sonic the Hedgehog is on the line. We don't know officially that Sonic the Hedgehog from JJP, but I mean, come on. There's been enough innuendo from the people. We saw Steve Ridge in his Sonic shoes like two years ago when he started working on this game. So, like, probably that's what's happening. Probably it's going to be pretty fun. Elton John was a hoot. I like this theme better. 16-bit, Sega Genesis, yes, please bring it. Is it the movie? Who knows? Is it even really happening? Is it actually going to be Van Halen next? Whatever. I'm hearing that whatever the next game is for JJP. What is this, game 9 for them? I've got to count again. Are they up to 13 yet? Regardless, Richie's game apparently is being built right now, and they are no longer offering tours if people ask currently, and that's because they don't have to be a game. I don want people going out there and seeing it So that cool I like the fact that the brand new game is on the line being built prior to the unveiling prior to the release so that when it does release people with the fastest fingers can get in there get an order and run down there and either pick your game up on site or have it shipped out that day That's fun, man. I love when a game is revealed, released, available, and boom, you can get it. And I know Jersey Jack Pinball pretty well by now, and I know that they ship games with some robust code on them. Even the launch code from Avatar was pretty robust. Launch code for Harry Potter had so much in it that most people will never even see it. And then they followed pretty quick with code updates, finalizing everything, get the wizard modes where they need to be and all that business. So that's exciting. So that's exciting. We're having a JJP code off game. It's probably going to deliver it like .95 or something here pretty soon. And I'm hearing it's on the line. So this is exciting, man. We got Stern ready to unveil their game. Heck, they may even be building it right now. Rumored to be Transformers. Can't wait to see what it's going to be like. And when I get back from Golden State, it's going to be time to go play it, man. Super exciting. I have an email out to Stern trying to see if I can once again bring a Patreon member with me that can be local to the Chicago area and check out a media day. I've done that twice so far and it's been just so fun. Just super fun. So if you're on the Patreon, let's make that happen. I just want to get confirmation from Stern that we're good. I don't want you flying out for nothing. But I think we can probably make that happen. They're pretty cool people. They're pretty cool people. You'll have to sign an NDA, which means all the fun that you're having, you have to shut up about it afterwards until it's fully revealed. So you got to be willing to do that as well. And I'll double check and get confirmation. But we'll be able to figure that out here pretty quick. The deadline to RSVP is in about five days. So we have a little bit of time to figure this out. Monday morning I should have confirmation that we'll be good to go. But how fun, man. How fun is this going to be in the lead up to summer, man? We're going to get our Memorial Day grills out. We're going to have a red, white, and blue Mountain Dew drowning everything and like two brand new games that are going to be unveiled and available at the same time. And heck, your barbecue can even have a Pokemon LE added if you want, 15-5. I mean, come on. I'll ship it to you. Let's do this. Spooky Pinball update. Today, Beetlejuice, I'm finally back. I'm not traveling out of state anymore for work. I've got this month off. I'm enjoying my unemployment currently. And so I've been wandering up to the factory up the street, got back into Beetlejuice. So to date, I had finished the cabinet and I had wired the play field, but I needed to finish the back box, speaker panel, and then the mechs on the play field. And then we can go into final testing and all that business. So I got to get back in there. My back box is built, was built, like with the woods, Screwed together to make it. The whole thing fit together great. I'm under the tutelage of some great people, some great cabinet makers. I've built my speaker panel. Everything in there is now ready to go. I just have to get over when I have a little spot in the schedule, right, because they're cranking through these Beetlejuices. I can't reveal what number they're at. I don't want to misspeak about it. I can't say, like, how many they're making, but I can tell you there is a flurry of damn activity of these games coming off the line, going into boxes every single day. And it looks to me faster than what I've seen before. And it's ramping up. So just buckle up and get ready. I think somebody said they were number 200-something and they got confirmation that their game was shipping. I know all 20 Midnight Madness games have been built, shipped, and are on their way to customers now. Like, that happened in a week. I got this special Midnight Madness magnets in. Oh, my God. It's got my face on one side, Chipotle on the other. Holy crap. So myself and Franchi kind of collaborated a little bit on that. We got it out. Morgan got it ordered. It's on the games. Holy garbage, man. I even delivered one myself to a local friend. I got it unboxed and everything for him. He's super happy with it. So there we go. Beetlejuice update. They're hauling ass out of the factory. And my own personal Beetlejuice will be ready soon. Now, the last thing I want to do is get in there and cause some kind of disruption in the flow. So I'm waiting for a good day when everything is relatively caught up so I can take one of the test rigs and then have them walk me through how to plug everything into the top side. I'm talking plastics. I'm talking wire forms. They're not taking it easy on me. They're making me build all the sub-assemblies as well. So I need to go build the mechanisms and everything, the Beetlejuice lifting part, the whole assembly for the worm, and then put those in, do final testing, marry it into the cabinet, And then my game should finally be ready. They're going to make me box it up. I've been cross-trained on the strapping device, too, to strap the game to the pallet and the box on top and all that business. So it's fun. It's fun to go through this process. And I've already learned one thing. It turns out pinball is hard. It is. It's a lot of work to put these things together. Get on your knees, screw things together like these aren't fully finished cabinets coming in that just get, you know, a leg thrown in a box. And there you go. Like like everything is put together and assembled on site. Like like nothing comes in like pretty much complete. It's just assembly. I mean, you're building games. It was exhausting, man. So the fact that these people go in like day in, day out and crank these things out to the quality they do. It's amazing. It's amazing. I know this is occurring and all these pinball factories and everything. And, you know, I've been in these factories. I've seen this process. But to be actually in there doing it, what an opportunity and what an eye-opening experience. Holy crap. So, yeah, a little golf clap to all you out there professional pinball employees because it's a ton. It's a ton of work. Let me tell you. Okay, let's end with this. Golden State Pinball Festival is coming up this weekend. Today is the 9th as I record. It's Saturday. It's Sunday. Yeah, so 14th, 15th, 16th, somewhere in there, Lodi, California at the fairgrounds. People go out there and camp. I've never been to this event before. I've been invited to it every year with a lot of enthusiasm from the locals. I'm super excited to get back out there and hang out with my Reno crew, my Sacramento crew, my West Coast peeps. This is going to be fun. This is my first pinball show on the West Coast in the state that I'm originally from. So this is going to be fun. There's a little bit of coming home. I'm going to get some Mary's Pizza Shack. I'm going to get some Roundtable Pizza. Roundtable is the company I used to work at. I delivered pizzas for them. I made pizzas for them. I was a scullery maid. I did it all. I love the garlic parmesan twist. If you have a round table near you, go get a Montague's All Meat Marvel on me or in my honor and get yourself some twists, man. Don't go for three. I'm talking to you to get six or nine. Get the ranch cups, go home and have a garlic bread coma, man. They're so delicious. They're so delicious. That's out there. And I was hearing a week or so ago, Don, if you can make it to the show, you should be there. There's going to be a new game. I can't say anything else. And so what I've been able to shake loose from the palm trees that are out there, or should we say the sequoias, since it says more Central Valley, there's a remake that's coming. I think it's going to be from Pedretti. And we're looking at either Theater of Magic or Tales of the Arabian Nights. I'm favoring Tales. We'll see. Some more to report on that. Anything else, you'll hear it as soon as I do, man. Don's Pinball Podcast. We're making magic happen.