Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

DPP #198 "July pinball news updates!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·36m 45s·analyzed·Jul 12, 2025
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

July pinball updates: Jaws 50th, Stern toppers, Star Wars rumors, international games arriving.

Summary

Don discusses July pinball news including Jaws 50th Anniversary release, new Stern topper products with pricing concerns, King Kong topper from Electric Playground, rumors of upcoming Star Wars game, and updates on international games like Alice in Wonderland and Space Hunt arriving in the U.S. market.

Key Claims

  • Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition maintains $9,699 price point despite premium upgrades (powder-coated armor, glitter effects, refreshed artwork)

    high confidence · Don states 'they kept this game at the same $96.99 price tag' and mentions pricing considerations for similar releases

  • Stern's new budget topper base is $500, with acrylic add-on costing approximately $199-200, totaling ~$700

    high confidence · Don discusses specific pricing: 'I saw this thing, and it was $4.99... the acrylic was a completely separate price... like $199 or something'

  • Star Wars is the most commonly rumored next Stern cornerstone game, with speculation about Darth Vader, prequel trilogy, or original trilogy themes

    high confidence · Don states 'The most common rumor of the next game I've heard has been Star Wars' and lists various rumored versions

  • Stern maintains release cadence of mid-year cornerstone (typically May/June) and fall cornerstone (September), with anniversary editions in July

    medium confidence · Don analyzes 2024-2025 release patterns: King Kong in May, Jaws 50th in July, likely X-Men remaster in September

  • Alice in Wonderland from Dutch Pinball is finally arriving in U.S. through distributors like Coin Taker and TEP Pinball

    medium confidence · Don reports 'Alice in Wonderland is finally making its way to the U.S. I saw some dropped at Coin Taker'

  • Space Hunt by Hexa Pinball is being distributed in U.S. through Mad Pinball, with announcement forthcoming

    medium confidence · Don states 'they've finally imported not only a Space Hunt game prototype to the U.S., but they're working on being the distributors'

  • Jaws 50th Anniversary features improved upper playfield compared to Foo Fighters and drop targets instead of stand-ups

    high confidence · Don discusses gameplay specifics: 'it seems to be a little bit easier' than Foo Fighters upper playfield

  • Don conducted social experiment attempting to buy every new Stern release and sell previous one to maintain same collection size, ultimately unsuccessful due to incomplete code at release

Notable Quotes

  • “One thing that really would have put this game up over the top... the upgrade I would have loved to see with this version... is Stern Expression Lighting System. For the cabinet and the play field... If they would have dropped the Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition... with expression lights for $10,500, I mean, come on. We'd all be saying, like, all right, go ahead and take my premium.”

    Don @ ~18:00-24:00 — Core design critique of Jaws 50th - identifies missing feature that would elevate product differentiation and justify premium pricing

  • “The problem we're hitting now is it seems like each one of these releases is getting less and less code at release and taking a little bit more time to fully come to fruition... It's no fun to have a game for a little bit of time and then get it on to something else when you never got to really experience what the full design of the game was eventually going to be.”

    Don @ ~50:00-55:00 — Important signal about Stern game development: rushing releases with incomplete code, affecting collector experience

  • “It seems a little egregious... At this point, maybe offer a bundle option... Maybe for $1,000 you get all the lights and everything and call it the upgrade package.”

    Don @ ~37:00-43:00 — Critique of topper pricing strategy and suggestion for bundled offerings

  • “The most common rumor of the next game I've heard has been Star Wars. Now, what Star Wars it is has been changing all over the place... The leaks coming out of Stern Pinball are like completely sealed. I have heard nothing from anybody regarding this title.”

    Don @ ~59:00-65:00 — Confirms widespread Star Wars rumors while noting Stern's tight control over information; indicates high FOMO anticipation

  • “I think you don't necessarily need to take a risk to get into your home [Space Hunt], but I think you should get into your location, because this would give people a reason to come to that location just to play this game.”

    Don @ ~86:00-92:00 — Operator/location perspective on rarity games as drivers for foot traffic

  • “I would have liked if they would have put in a shooter rod, but that's not the one upgrade that would have put this over the top... Stern Expression Lighting System.”

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyJaws 50th AnniversarygameJawsgameStar WarsgameKing KonggameElectric PlaygroundcompanyAlice in WonderlandgameDutch Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Topper pricing perceived as egregious: $500 base + $199-200 acrylic = ~$700 total, seen as poor value proposition compared to full Stern topper at similar price

    high · Don describes 'seems a little egregious' and questions value; proposes bundling alternative at $1,000 for full lighting package

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern maintaining release cadence of May/June cornerstone, July anniversary edition, September cornerstone, establishing predictable pattern for collector planning

    high · Don analyzes 2024-2025 releases: King Kong (May), Jaws 50th (July), anticipated Star Wars (September), establishing pattern based on Godzilla 70th precedent

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Jaws 50th maintains same $9,699 price despite premium upgrades (glitter, powder-coating, refreshed art), positioning as best-playing version without LE price escalation

    high · Don praises 'they kept this game at the same $96.99 price tag' and notes 'Jaws Premium, which is absolutely like the best-playing version of the game'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Star Wars theme version unknown to community; Stern leaks completely sealed; high FOMO around potential Darth Vader-focused title

    high · Don states 'The leaks coming out of Stern Pinball are like completely sealed. I have heard nothing from anybody' despite widespread rumors

  • $

    market_signal: Space Hunt positioned as location/marquee game driver for premium arcades (Pastime, IO Arcade Madison, Interium) rather than home collector title

    medium · Don recommends Space Hunt for locations 'to give people a reason to come to that location just to play this game' rather than as home investment

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.110

0:00
Oh, we're back after a bit of a hiatus for Don's Pinball Podcast. We'll call this number 198. How are you and your family doing this pinball week? Got a lot to cover, man. Jaws 50th came out, new toppers from Stern. Also, a new topper for King Kong coming. What? Let's go.
0:27
Give me an air horn. Hey. I said give me an air horn. That's right. Ooh, damn, a double drop, deuce. How you guys doing, man? 12 days it's been, I think, since my last episode. What the hell have I been up to that I've been so busy? Besides slanging these Potter shooter wands. Man, I come up with a crazy idea in my mod basement. All of a sudden, everybody wants one. Happy to share. Happy to send them out into the world. And then speaking of sending stuff out into the world, man, Stern just keeps dropping things on us. One of them we were expecting. One of them we weren't. And then I got news and views and ideas on all that, including some other stuff. Let's settle in. Let's tuck into this midsummer night. It's warm. We're playing pinball inside. Go out and touch some grass and then come back and play some more pinball, man. Tell you what I've been playing a lot of. Avatar, Harry Potter, and Evil Dead because I just sold them all and I had to get my last games out. Does this happen to you, dear listener, when you're going to go and sell a game finally? You don't sell a game that you've been religiously playing the hell out of. It's the game that's been sitting there for a while. You love it, but you've got other stuff taking your priority. You don't play it as much. You start looking at the market and you're like, gosh, you know, this game's going for quite a bit here and I think I could probably sell it and then something else has caught my eye, I need to downsize, whatever. And then you're getting over there, you're ready to pull the balls out, lock everything up, put the cotter pin in the cash box and get out the shrink wrap and you're like, well, let me just throw a game on here real quick. And then it ends up being like the best game you've had on it in months, right? That happened to me with Harry Potter, that happened to me with Avatar, Evil Dead, I set a new grand champion. Like I'm yelling upstairs, like Monica, come down here. Look, I'm about to, I did six modes here. Like, it's all I can do to finish four, to finish one complete movie in Evil Dead during one gameplay. That's usually my benchmark of, like, this was one of the best games I've ever had. And I'm there in, like, mode six. I've played, like, all the multiballs twice. Like, I'm on fire. Like, I can't drain. I can't lose. Oh, man. What a game. It always happens to me. Happened to me with Venom. Happened to me with Foo Fighters. Is it just me? Or does that happen there with anybody else? Speaking of new games, let's talk about this. Let's talk about the one that dropped on us. the bomb pop, right? I think it was ridiculing Jaws 50th here when it dropped, saying that it looked like some high top sneakers I would have had in the 1980s, 85, if I had money to afford nice high tops, and I wasn't wearing like stadias from Payless. It looks cool. It looks very 1980s, and I get it. It's red, white, and blue. It's coming out around the 4th of July. It's Americana. Remember, Jaws the movie took place over that 4th of July holiday weekend, right? We gotta keep the beaches open you know i'm not gonna have you open that fish up and have that kid spilling out all over the dock right ruining everybody's holiday so man they went hard on this and they're getting some ridicule about the art on the back box uh even our good friend franchi there like corrected some stuff for them the thing is red white and blue if anything ever could be and i think that's totally fine let's talk about it for just a minute i like that they went with the premium i think there's one thing that really would have put this game up over the top to the point that people would be selling their Jaws machines and buying this one. One thing that could have changed this. One thing that I don't think would have been too difficult for them to pull off. And maybe they even thought about it. Somebody there must have thought about this one change that really would have put this game over the top, but I'll get to it. But first off, this is a premium trim level. I like that they powder-coated the armor. Thank you for doing that. You know, switched out the T-molding, the least you could do. It's a refresh art on the cabinet and the back glass, which is fine. I think the Pro LE back glass is probably my favorite. Outside of that aftermarket one that really shows, like, it looks like Shark Week, man. Like, there's a big, great white coming straight for you. It's the one that I switched out my premium for. I really like that one. But, you know, the regular one was not bad either. And this one's okay. I don't hate it. What I do love is the fact that they powder-coated some wire forms. I know that's not a huge thing, but at least it's something. And they kept this game at the same $96.99 price tag. And to Stern's credit, I thought they were going to raise prices a couple of games ago, and they still haven't. So that's fun. So this late in the game, you're able to get yourself a Jaws Premium, which is absolutely like the best-playing version of the game. It's got the shark moments. It's got the upper play field, which is one of the best ones they've done. I like the one on Foo Fighters. It's just a little hard to get up to. This one seems to be a little bit easier in the fact that if I shoot accurately, the ball will go up there. With Foo Fighters, I have to shoot accurately, and it has to have enough momentum to make it up there. It made it a little bit frustrating, but that was a hell of an upper play field. Harry Potter, I think, definitely has the best upper play field available right now.

high confidence · Don recounts 'What if I could buy every new Stern pinball release when it comes out... But the problem we're hitting now is it seems like each one of these releases is getting less and less code at release'

Don @ ~15:00-18:00 — Identifies shooter rod as minor upgrade vs. expression lights as transformative feature

  • “And when you fill up the entire chum line, both sides of the interior of the cabin are just glowing with this red chum to let you know it's ready. How cool of a moment would that be?”

    Don @ ~20:00-23:00 — Detailed vision for thematic integration of lighting system with game mechanics

  • “So, as for what that is, though, I don't know, man. The leaks coming out of Stern Pinball are like completely sealed. I have heard nothing from anybody regarding this title... the cash is staying firmly in my pocket if Jar Jar is making an appearance at all on this thing.”

    Don @ ~65:00-72:00 — Indicates theme preference strongly influences purchase decision; notes Stern information security

    • Space Huntgame
    Hexa Pinballcompany
    Mad Pinballcompany
    Predatorgame
    Donperson
    Harry Pottergame
    Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
    Foo Fightersgame
    Godzilla 70th Anniversarygame
    John Wickgame
    Uncanny X-Mengame
    Metallica Remasteredgame
    Franchiperson
    Mike Vinacoreperson
    Steve Ritchieperson
    Pastime Arcadecompany
    Coin Takercompany
  • $

    market_signal: International games (Alice in Wonderland, Space Hunt, Predator) finally arriving in U.S., with uncertain production numbers affecting future secondary market prices

    medium · Don discusses arrival through distributors and states 'If we only get 25 or 50 games in the US in the next calendar year it may still go for higher'

  • ?

    community_signal: Electric Playground announcing King Kong topper without prior consultation with Don (unlike typical practice), indicating either new product strategy or supply chain constraint

    medium · Don notes unexpected email: 'I was not expecting' and 'normally I get fed a little bit of information' but this time topper announcement came without advance notice

  • ?

    product_strategy: Don identifies Expression Lighting System as missing feature that would justify premium pricing and create FOMO for Jaws 50th; argues $10,500 with expression lights would outsell current edition

    high · Detailed discussion of expression light integration with chum bucket mechanic, cabinet lighting effects, and thematic sonar effects; repeated emphasis that this single feature would transform product differentiation

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern games released with incomplete code, requiring extended play period before reaching intended design state, negatively impacting collector/trader experience

    high · Don's social experiment failure documented: 'each one of these releases is getting less and less code at release and taking a little bit more time to fully come to fruition'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Hexa Pinball preparing sophomore release after Space Hunt distribution established in U.S. market

    medium · Don states 'Hex is getting ready to release another game, and I can't wait to see what their sophomore release is going to be'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Star Wars is most commonly rumored next Stern cornerstone, with multiple theme versions speculated (Darth Vader, prequel trilogy, original trilogy retelling)

    high · Don cites 'most common rumor' and lists various versions: Episode 1-3, Darth Vader solo title, classic trilogy retelling 'in what's going to look like Rush's layout'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Jersey Jack's Harry Potter projection topper underutilized with only single dark mark projection; Don argues projection effects should be more prominent throughout game

    high · Don criticizes single dark mark as 'not animated' and notes 'only comes out when you're battling a Death Eater... that's absolutely the worst time to take your eyes off the play field'

    • 5:40
    But, yeah, I did like the one on Jaws. And also, okay, with that upper play field on Jaws, when you hit that extra shot for the extra wire forms, that's fun times, man. That's fun times. It fills out the game. And I like the drop targets instead of the stand-up targets. I think it's the one to go with. I like that they did this to the premium version. And, hey, they even got into the sparkle powder coating or clear coating again for the play field. We've seen that most recently with Elvira's Blood Red Kiss, 50th, 40th, 70th. How old is Elvira? The Blood Red Kiss version had that cool sparkle glitter in parts of the play field. Also on the back glass, the cabin art looked great. Just looked fantastic. So, you know, I wish it was rad-cowled, but, you know, we're going to get what we can get. So at least they did those things. They powder-coated the rails. They powder-coated the wire forms. And they gave us some glitter in the play field. And the art is fine. Like, it doesn't detract heavily from it. I would have liked if they would have put in a shooter rod, but that's not the one upgrade that would have put this over the top. Here we go. the upgrade I would have loved to see with this version, and I think they even could have charged $10,500 for the 50th anniversary edition if it had this, is Stern Expression Lighting System.
    6:56
    For the cabinet and the play field, think about it. Think about if they would have got a routed cabinet and put this game in it, and then incorporated the expression lights, and you don't even necessarily need to do the ones for the speakers as well, but for an extra $500, charge us $10.50, put them in there, and imagine this. As you're hitting the chum bucket, which hopefully has a KFC bucket of chicken hanging off of it. If not, email me. I'll hook you up. I've got a ton now.
    7:22
    As you're hitting that chum bucket and the waters with those blue LEDs are slowly turning red as you're chumming the waters, imagine if the expression lights were also in concert changing to red as well. And when you fill up the entire chum line, both sides of the interior of the cabin are just glowing with this red chum to let you know it's ready. How cool of a moment would that be? And during regular play, you have waves waving up and down with blue and white trailing lights up and down the insides of it. Sometimes that play field can get a little bit dark, and that would be super cool. Imagine during the night modes, it's all dark, and then some of the lights come on white as if it's the moonlight glittering on the water. and there's this little sparkle that's going on. The whole thing is just kind of like magical, like moonlight kissing the top of the waves at night. That would be a cool moment in the game when the sonar goes off. And on the expression cabinet lightings in the back box, the speakers, you have that cool sonar effect, right? Imagine that up and down the left side of each side of the cabinet, the green lights of the sonar going in concert with that. How cool would that be when the lightings change and flow across the play field for different events and things. It could also work with the Stern Expression Cabinet lighting system as well. Tell me that wouldn't be cool. Tell me that wouldn't have been awesome. If they would have dropped the Jaws 50th Anniversary Edition, looking like a high-top sneaker from the 1980s with expression lights for $10,500, I mean, come on. We'd all be saying, like, all right, go ahead and take my premium, take my pro. I want that one. The LE owners probably wouldn't be dropping that to get this one. but they would be like, oh, oh, I want that. How cool would that have been if there were expression lights in the Jaws 50 or even the option You know what if they just had the routed cabinet and you could buy it with the option to add them later and they could charge you know they probably bump it to for the Jaws cabinet expression lights. And we would buy it and buy that and be like, yes, sir. Because it would be so cool to take that game and just elevate it one extra step. And they had to have thought about this. and then I don't know if they just didn't want to raise the ire of LE owners like how are you going to release this that's probably the reason the other reason is they would have had to pay somebody to code all of those light modes in there maybe it would have been Mike Vinacore again that would have had to do that but regardless I think that would have really been awesome and I think I'd be tripping over myself FOMOing if I knew like I only had this year to purchase and order that machine with the expression lights for JAWS oh that would have been great Oh, that would have been great. Tell me I'm making that up. Tell me online and that wouldn't be amazing. I think that would have been completely awesome. Speaking of overpriced toppers, did you see the toppers that they released? So Stern has like a budget option for you topper fanatics because, you know, for people that collect toppers, you know, the thing we keep saying is we wish there was just a slimmed down budget version, right? So there's a base model, like a base plate that goes on top of your game. with expression light holes in it. So it's got like half of the size of one side of the cabinet's expression lights that sit up on top of the machine. And I get that they're coated with the machine, and that's super cool. And then there's an acrylic that sits in a groove on top that's underlit by LEDs that flashes different colors or whatever with the game. I get it. Initially, I saw this thing, and it was $4.99. And I was thinking like, I get what they're doing.
    10:55
    If you've got a Foo Fighters and the topper is $2,000, here's a $500 option you can get away with. But then I found out that the acrylic was a completely separate price. It was a couple hundred dollars, like $199 or something, to go ahead and get that acrylic and put it on top of a $500 base.
    11:13
    It seems a little egregious. Now, as a product, as something that was designed, I think it's cool to put a box of programmable interactive lights on top of the game. I think that's fine. It just sits there like a black brick, which is kind of weird. And then you would want to put that acrylic in there. But gosh darn it, man.
    11:35
    That's something like $600 or so for that. Seems a bit sad. I like where the tech is going. But at this point, Stern, at this point, maybe offer a bundle option. And who knows? Maybe they're making and selling these things as fast as they can churn them out. and my opinion is just dog meat and doesn't matter. But I would like it if they would bundle this stuff. So if you get yourself a premium machine that doesn't have any fancy lights or anything, you could get a bundle that included expression lights for the cabinet, the speaker lights, and this space topper or something as a little bit more of a budget option. Maybe for $1,000 you get all the lights and everything and call it the upgrade package. I wouldn't be mad at that. But at this point, if you're spending enough to get that size topper, why not get the regular one? I don't know. It's hard to say.
    12:28
    As a product, though, just on its own, ignoring the cost, I think it's kind of cool. And I'm sure it's going to look better in person. But gosh, what a strange thing. What a strange thing.
    12:41
    There's got to be a way. Listen, I buy a lot of LED strip lights now. And I play around with them. They're sound-activated ones and things. I get part of what you're paying for is the coding that Stern is putting in there to produce these light shows. You know, that's not cheap. That's not free. You don't just plug the lights in and then they go. Like, these are choreographed with the game, you know, and that takes a lot of time and talent to do. And these things aren't built in huge numbers, right? You know, they're not making, you know, 100,000 of these base toppers for everybody where they can really budget engineer and get the price down. Like, you know, they're probably making runs of only several hundred of these. And so individually, like, the cost is going to be high for those. They're going to want to sell these to distributors, and the distributors are going to need a margin as well. And so that's how we end up with this box of light costing $500 and not even come in with the acrylic that goes in there. I'm certain that if the only option or the only component of that acrylic add-on piece is just the acrylic itself, there's going to be third-party people churning those out. So I think the secondary market will help dull the price there a little bit. But as it is, I think it's an interesting product I want to see one in person and see what I think Otherwise, there's a lot of topper options I'll stick with the topper category here For just a moment Because I got an email today I was not expecting From my good friends at the Electric Playground The purveyor of aftermarket toppers Among other things They made that Elton John topper For the old electromechanical game The Brown Dirt Cowboy, Captain Fantastic Of course they've done the topper for Godzilla with the little up down UFO guy motorized in there. The Twilight Zone topper, still my favorite from them as far as after market topper that introduced the rolling marble down the track, which they brought back for the Pulp Fiction topper. Super cool. Lebowski topper. I think I've owned just about all of them at this point, save for Godzilla. Well, they're doing King Kong now and I didn't even know about this. Like, you know, normally I get fed a little bit of information. Hey, Don, what do you think about this idea? What do you think about this idea? And I love that. I'm like, yes, dude, Let me help, man. But unbeknownst to me, they came out with this topper for King Kong. It's not fully revealed yet. It'll be a monkey on an Empire State Building as well as some other acrylic fanciness that they will reveal in probably a soon date. But you can go over to the Electric Playground, electricplayground.com or teppinball.com, and you can sign up for their mailing list, and then they'll let you know when it goes on sale. All I know, all the things that the email said was that this would be a sub-$800 product for King Kong, and looks like it'll be a fun box of lights. And I just got done smearing a $700 box of lights from Stern coming first party, and here's a third-party one that maybe is the same. Perhaps there'll be some motion. Perhaps there'll be some projection effects. I would love to see projection effects embraced more within the pinball machine producer community. I love the fact that when I go to an expo, right, TPF, IAPA, the Pinball Expo, you know, the big shows, you don't ever have to wonder where the Jersey Jack booth is. You just look up at the ceiling, and you can see Elton John's projections, like, from wherever you are, which makes it super convenient to say, oh, that's the pinball area of IAPA. I can see the Elton John projections. More of that. I can't wait to go to IAPA this year and see the big Harry Potter spread and hopefully see some dark marks on the ceiling. Now, I love what they did with the Elton John topper, JJP guys. The screens are good. The projections are great. They're all over the ceiling. It's super fun. You get the Elton lights that light up. Like, there's a lot going on in there, very busy, and very much more than just stacked acrylic plastics, right? And then when it came to Harry Potter, I was like, okay, we're going to see the next evolution of that. I want to see projection effects of wizards and witches projected all over me and, like, snakes and magical charms and stuff. and we got exactly one projection of a dark mark. It's not animated, and it just sits up there, and it only comes out when you're battling a Death Eater, and when you're battling a Death Eater, that's absolutely the worst time to take your eyes off the play field and look up and enjoy this thing. So, like, I feel like it was underutilized. I would have liked to see that make more of an appearance, right? Maybe it will with code. But there's no other projections that are up there. My God, man. You could have loaded the whole back of there with different projections that would go off at different times. celebration fireworks and things, dragons flying across your ceiling, and, like, how cool would that have been? So we'll be able to go to IAPA or Expo or TPF and look up, and occasionally, next to the cool Elton John projections that are just going 24-7, we'll occasionally see a dark mark. It'll probably be 60 feet wide by the time it gets to those high ceilings. But, man, I think we would have forgiven a lot with that topper if there was more projections. Am I wrong? Am I wrong? and imagine if there was projections other ways too like projecting below onto the ground instead of just the LED lights surround me in the world of Harry Potter create a virtual room for me to play this game in so anyway we'll see what happens so King Kong Topper is coming I just got word of it today haven't seen the final design yet maybe somebody will listen to this and sneak me a leaked peek and I can weigh in on it I don't know if I will purchase one of these because like I said I have King Kong sold already and I do have a topper that I'm producing for it. It's going to be a box of glowing lights. It looks like a banana crate. It's got bananas everywhere and like two giant ape hands coming out of it with like the logo of the fictitious Terror Island Banana Company that I came up with to make this backstory for King Kong because King Kong kind of just came out and doesn have really a story of what going on yet Anyway so there is that business What else do I have to talk about So much man I hearing whispers about Stern next game that coming out So I was just looking over the release forecast from 2024, right? We had Jaws at the beginning of the year. That's the January release.
    18:39
    This May release last year was John Wick, and then there was a release in September, which was Ultimate, or Ultimate, Uncanny X-Men. Those were the two cornerstones that released kind of mid-year. But remember, we had Godzilla's 70th anniversary edition that came out this time last year in July because the first versions of it were, I think, at Comic-Con, and I also got to play one at the Southern Fright Gaming Expo, which was in July last year. So it seems like they're keeping that same cadence, right? We just got King Kong as, like, the May release or whatever. in July we got an anniversary edition even with Jaws 50th? I'm getting confused. Which means that September coming up two months we'll get another release and that will probably be the next Cornerstone that'll probably be the Star Wars game and then we got Metallica remastered for Expo. Remember this game had just dropped and then the Saturday of Expo was the first time people got to play it right? And so that was right in October. And so if we get another remaster, that could be Walking Dead, so we'll kind of get Borg'd twice here. I think that's a fine thing. So Star Wars is going to be coming out reportedly, and this has been hit. I've heard this the most... Let's see. If we were going mean, median, and mode, this has been the most occurring, so this would have been the mode, I think? Man, I'm trying to think back to my math classes. The most common rumor of the next game I've heard has been Star Wars. Now, what Star Wars it is has been changing all over the place. I've heard it's going to be episode 1, 2, 3, freaking sand gets everywhere, are you a space angel, pod racing, Darth Vader built 3 CPO, kind of crap, all the way up to it's going to be a Darth Vader pin, like just Vader just wrecking havoc on everything, which is like, God, my jollies and my jimmies are completely rustled over that, man. I can't wait to see that. I'd much rather have that over Jar Jar and Boss Nass. I mean, come on. What are we doing? Darth Maul can't carry a whole prequel trilogy. And then I've also heard that it could be classic episode, the classic trilogy, the holy trilogy, episode 456, kind of a retelling of the same universe of Steve Ritchie's Star Wars machine, but in what's going to look like Rush's layout. I mean, I could get really, really behind that. So, as for what that is, though, I don't know, man. The leaks coming out of Stern Pinball are like completely sealed. I have heard nothing from anybody regarding this title, and I'm really excited to see what it's going to be, and then the cash is staying firmly in my pocket if Jar Jar is making an appearance at all on this thing. So I don't know. I'm happy to just follow along and kind of see what ends up getting revealed here from Star Wars. New Pinball is always fun.
    21:32
    Now, I did an experiment last year. I think I kicked this thing off with Foo Fighters with that release. I got this wild idea in my head. What if I could buy every new Stern pinball release when it comes out, and then when the next one is ready, I'll go ahead and sell the one I just got, maybe take a little bit of a loss, roll that money into the next one, and then I'll just keep doing this, and then as I'm going along, I won't end up increasing the collection in size. I'll use essentially the same pool of money, but I'll always have the latest release from Stern. Is that possible? And while it is possible, it's not very fun, or it's not the most fun. Let me say that. Now, if these games were released and they were essentially near code completion of where they were going to be eventually, I think it could work just fine. But the problem we're hitting now is it seems like each one of these releases is getting less and less code at release and taking a little bit more time to fully come to fruition to where they're going to be. And so it's no fun to have a game for a little bit of time and then get it on to something else when you never got to really experience what the full design of the game was eventually going to be. So what had happened is as I was doing this, I got through Venom and into whatever the heck was next. Was it Jaws that was next? I finally slowed down, and I'm like, I've got to keep these games longer. Then they started stacking up, right? So the idea of, like, jumping in on a Star Wars, I don't think, unless it's Darth Vader and the LE looks like his freaking TIE fighter and you're sitting in the cockpit and, like, the shooter rod is his rubber glove grasping your hand, join me and follow the dark side, you know. Unless it's that, I think I might just finally wait on a Stern machine to get more code complete before I end up bringing it in and then only get to enjoy it more, right? You know, so I'm just sharing my experience from that social experiment. I think I got rid of all the games that were part of that. and then now what I'm doing is I'm still rotating them, but then I'm making them over and then getting them out to customers. Oh, bonkers, man, bonkers.
    23:39
    Pinball, man. We're having some fun with it. So we'll wait and see what that is. We'll wait and see what the remaster is, and then would that still leave us one more release for the end of the year? I'm going to go back to my Wikipedia list I was just looking at because we got John Wick, and Jaws, of course, started 2024. John Wick was the mid-release of 2024, And then we got Uncanny X-Men later as the cornerstone there. The next cornerstone wasn't until 2025, that was Dungeons & Dragons. That must have been the January release, then May for King Kong. That makes sense. So it seems like Stern is in this cadence, at least for now, which raises the question, which anniversary will be celebrated next year for, like, a redress and release? It's got to be a popular game, though. I mean, they're not going to do an anniversary version of Venom, although that would be hilarious. What if they added spinners to Venom and expression lights? Oh, my God. Okay, Stern, if you do that, I will get it. In other news, Alice in Wonderland is finally making its way to the U.S. I saw some dropped at Coin Taker. I think TEP Pinball actually got their version of the game. They're doing an add-on topper, I think, for Alice in Wonderland, I heard. So I can't wait to see what enhancements they have for that game. And other than some kind of augmentation for it maybe, Maybe they're going to put cartoon breasts without a nipple on the Cheshire Cat topper. We'll see. We'll see what happens. But I can't wait to see what they do else with that game. I would like to see more Alice in Wonderland out there. Lumberjack Johnny's if you're listening. I think you're the perfect location for an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. So I can go out and play that for a while. This is absolutely the location game I want to play. And I will avidly be watching this game for its valuation to kind of see what it does in the future. If all of the games end up getting made And were out and released And we had 300 in the US and 200 overseas I think then we would see prices Stabilize where they're going to be But now I don't know If we only get 25 or 50 games In the US in the next calendar year It may still go for higher I have no idea Honestly what's going to happen with this game I don't know what's going to happen with Predator I don't know what's going to happen with Space Hunt But I'm excited that those are finally landing here Mad Pinball shared this. I shared it around too. Mad Pinball and, well, I like to say I was helping out, but these guys did all the heavy lifting. They've finally imported not only a Space Hunt game prototype to the U.S., but they're working on being the distributors for this. I think they're going to have some forthcoming information soon. I don't want to spoil the punch bowl, but I think Hexa Pinball's seminal release, what does that word seminal release mean? Medically, I know what that means. and I don't think it's what they think it means. Anyway, this game out of the Bordeaux region of southern France has landed in the U.S., and it looks like Mad Pinball is finally able to distribute them in the U.S., and they're going to have an announcement soon. I think that's it. It's been teased. It's been on the Discord. I'm giving it some air time. More information to come. When I find out, I'll let you know. But, like, I can't wait to see more of Space Hunt in the U.S. on locations. I think this would be a phenomenal game to have at your, you know, kind of premium level location so you can get people in to play this. Because it's rare. There's not that many places that you can go to play this game right now. Certainly not in the U.S. I think Pastime Arcade in Girard, Ohio is the only place I know that has one. Rob Burke had a machine. That's the one, I believe, that was at Pinball Expo. Other than that, like a rarity. So, yes, more Space Hunt, please. Whether it's a great game, whether it's not, I certainly enjoyed it when I played it. I thought it had some flaws, but I had a lot of good time, and it has a kick-ass soundtrack. So this is a great game that I think you don't necessarily need to take a risk to get into your home, but I think you should get into your location, because this would give people a reason to come to that location just to play this game and see what else you have going on So those marquee locations Lumberjack Johnny IO Arcade in Madison Interium I think this would be like a good driver for you. Will it be a tournament darling? Who knows? Will it end up in a lot of homes? Maybe. But it sounds like not only is this game coming to the U.S., but Hex is getting ready to release another game, and I can't wait to see what their sophomore release is going to be. A lot of fun stuff is going on in pinball. this is summertime it's supposed to be like dull no news going on but it's like i'm only halfway through my list of stuff that i just jotted down off the top of my head to talk about uh the kong toppers coming out i was going to review wipe out i got this godly wipe out machine which i'm thoroughly enjoying it was a basement find i've fixed it up now uh my pop bumpers are all working uh the shots are feeling like buttery smooth now i was getting a little bit of clunk i had to design an airball protector for the back right corner off the launch. Now it's coming into that wire form beautifully, and I don't know what to do with this Gottlieb Wipeout. As far as condition, it's absolutely a player's condition game. This hasn't been completely refurbished with a brand-new play field and redone plastics, but I can tell you that everything is working and functional in it. It's a fun game. There's a small bit of burn-in in the dot matrix display in the back, but you only notice that when it's in attract mode. Once you're playing, it seems to all go away. I'm not sure exactly how that works. But, yeah, a fun game. I'm not sure what kind of valuation to put on this. I've seen some being sold at $3,200. I've had offers that I've considered for, like, $2,400. So everything's kind of, like, in between there. So I don't know. If you're interested in a Gottlieb Wipeout that is perfectly playable and functional with every mechanism working and, you know, It's ready to just go into your home and be played. I don't think a reasonable offer would be refused. I seem to be pretty successful when I put games out there for sale, and I'm not trying to drive hard bargains. So if you want a deal, heck, come get yourself a Gottlieb Wipeout. Now that I've had the game for a while, I'm appreciating it for what it is. It is all about that ski lift mechanism in the back and the slalom over on the right. All the other shots are fun, but it's definitely taking up a lot of real estate with that whole conveyor system in the back and everything. I mean, it really ties that theme in, and I love what they did, and it almost reminds me of Whitewater because of all the, like, plastic vacuum-formed mountains and things that are in the back. But, yeah, it's been fun having it. I would consider another game of that era, you know, to bring in. Tell you what, I was over at, I think it's Pinball Planet. I was there last night. It's in Solon, Ohio. No, Parma, Ohio, the other song from the Drew Carey theme song, long. The other town. And last night I played a couple of older games. Gottlieb's. Genesis. I played Genesis. Weird game. Flippers are strange. I don't know that I would necessarily enjoy one from that era. But I had great games on actually Monopoly and Rollercoaster Tycoon. I walked up to them and I'm like, look at this loller trash. What are we doing? Let me play Monopoly again. It's got that weird spinner or flipper that just spins around in a circle for whatever reason. But I'll tell you what i was having a great game on monopoly that game jumped several spots for me and also roller coaster tycoon i was having a hell of a time with i see a lot of things in there i've seen with other lawler games like his more recent ones uh wonka and toy story um you know and plus you know classic things like no good gophers and all such such and so forth i would consider after having a good experience on wipeout picking up maybe not a monopoly because i don't know that would necessarily hold my attention for all that long. That spinning flipper is just a strange thing. But Roller Coaster Tycoon, I think I would consider picking up one of those, man. Oh, man, how about a trade? Don't tempt me with a trade. I would probably go for it. Don't tempt me with a trade, Lord. But I think I'll keep my eye open for a Roller Coaster Tycoon because that was of that era. A lot of ball pass, a lot of stuff going on. It was kind of fun, and it's a roller coaster theme. So there you go. Covered a little bit of classic games. People are always asking for more of that. So there you go. What else do I have? Oh, my goodness.
    31:50
    Finally, let's talk about Dungeons & Dragons. This was a release that came out from Stern Pinball, Year of Our Lord 2025. It was their January release. This was the game that released in the Jaws window, I believe, if I'm reading this correctly. I got invited down there, got to play it. I really loved what it was doing. I'll tell you what, it was January because the first place we got to play this was at Pinball at the Beach in February. It was the first place in, like, huge, wide public release. So, yeah, game was super fun. I'm having fun with it. I was hoping that the code would be a bit further along by now. I've had the game and I've been able to play through and, you know, beat the final boss there, unlock the bard character. I thought by this time I would be able to play the other boss characters and then unleash the other add-on characters or whatever. But so far hitherto, not able to do that yet. Still waiting on some code updates. So my question is, I've had this game since it came out in January. I've got the LE. I've already done all the powder coating so it all matches. I've done some mods with it. I've just finished up the mod for the other right flasher of the game. I did that mimic chest mod. A lot of people bought those. It looks really cool. I now have one for the right flasher dome too. It's a little arctic scene with like an ice altar that flashes up. It looks pretty cool. I've got essentially my finished prototype there ready now. I need to turn that into a product and get it on the Pinside Shop so people can check it out. But my question is, do I go ahead and sell my D&D LE now? The lowest price I could see one listed for of $11,000 for a Stern LE, not terrible.
    33:30
    You know, I mean, I think if somebody offered me $12,000, I'd sell it right now. I wouldn't even consider it. Eleven I would probably take some time And consider that So do I sell it now And just use that money for some other projects And things maybe in case Star Wars Is amazing Or do I hold out and wait for Dwight To really get this code to where it needs to be Let me know what your thoughts are Give me an email Should I hang on to D&D still It is a fun game At this point I was hoping that the Dragon mechanism and And Worf's voice, you know, Michael Johnson, what the hell is his name? Michael Dorn. I was hoping that he would have more interactivity with the game. He's really there with the dragon multiball. They swung from it being way too easy to way too hard to now it's a little bit easier again. But I want him, I mean, he's the giant dragon. He's taking up one-sixth of the play field.
    34:24
    He would think he would have more to do with the game other than just kind of like bobbing and weaving his head and waiting for dragon multiball. So, like, I still think it's worthwhile holding on to the game until it gets more code complete, just so I can have those other factors there. I would like to play through the rest of the characters and unlock the secret characters and see where they go. I want to see what the topper unlocks in this game. At the same time, though, it's been, you know, six months now. I kind of wouldn't mind having some extra space and extra cash. It's a fun game. It plays differently than other things that are on the market. What do you think? Don's Pitbull Podcast at gmail.com is where you get at me. If you are a Patreon member, you're in luck because before I recorded this, I recorded a whole Patreon show with my first impressions playing with something that is not even announced yet from a major company and giving some impressions. So go listen to that, you lucky Patreon people. If you want to get in on that, patreon.com backslash donspitbullpodcast is where you go. It's $5. Like if you were walking down the subway and there was a busker that was doing some beatbox rapping with his hat out. You toss him five bucks if he gave you a chuckle. Think of me as a mime on the street that you saw and you're like, hey, that was kind of cool what that guy did, that little trick or something. Here's a couple of shuckles for you. Throw five bucks my way, hang out for a month, and then cancel. Just check it out. But there is a brand-new show over there that you may want to go listen to or think about considering getting access to. Otherwise, thank you for the ongoing support. I really appreciate it. I have so much fun doing this and so much fun playing pinball. I can't believe that it's been like a week and a half since we've done one of these. I know we've done some WAP. We've done some live streams. We're having a lot of fun. Patreon giveaways are coming up. What's going on in your pinball world? Let me know.
    36:20
    Back when I know some more things. Send your emails. Send your comments. If you have a moment, head on to Spotify or your favorite podcasting streaming app and give me a rating. Five stars are always appreciated. Helps make the show more discoverable going forward. Be cool to yourself and others and keep having fun with Summer, man.
    36:42
    Swear, if Star Wars is episode one, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do.