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Harry Potter - The Good, The Bad, The Muggly.

Dirtypool Pinball·video·56m 16s·analyzed·Jun 5, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Dirtypool reviews Harry Potter pinball: strong mechanics/art, corporate video format misses the mark.

Summary

Dirtypool provides an extended, casual analysis of the newly revealed Harry Potter pinball machine by Jersey Jack Pinball, covering playfield layout, mechanical features, artwork design, and overall impressions. The review praises the game's comprehensive art package, mechanical complexity (particularly the rotating staircase mechanism), and ruleset while critiquing the official marketing video format as corporate and inauthentic. Notable technical observations include the game's three-flipper design, upper Quidditch playfield, and various themed mechanics, alongside discussion of licensing costs and production challenges.

Key Claims

  • Jersey Jack needed to sell approximately 5,000 units to break even on Harry Potter licensing costs

    medium confidence · Discussion of licensing acquisition costs mentioned in pinball community, stated as something discussed but not directly verified from JJP

  • The cabinet artwork tells the story of all eight Harry Potter movies progressing around the cabinet from player start to series finale

    high confidence · Direct quote from Eric (JJP designer) in promotional video shown in stream

  • Mina Lima (MinaLima) is the graphic design studio responsible for all Harry Potter illustrated artwork on the machine

    high confidence · Confirmed from website data and Eric's direct statement in video about commissioning Mina Lima as Harry Potter's official graphic artists

  • The playfield composite shot in promotional materials shows a false impression of actual table layout by cutting/editing the pop bumper visibility

    high confidence · Dirtypool's direct visual analysis of promotional imagery, identifying composite editing techniques

  • Jersey Jack has the best LCD animation and graphic design of any pinball manufacturer

    low confidence · Dirtypool's subjective opinion stated as personal preference, not industry consensus

Notable Quotes

  • “I don't understand the people that are like pooping on it. The fact that they said it looked like a 5-year-old drew it...it's like one of the most revered design studios that are responsible for years and years of Harry Potter evolution.”

    Dirtypool @ early in stream — Defends MinaLima artwork against community criticism, establishing credibility of design team

  • “I want you guys to make art, but I can't tell you what to do. You are the artists for Harry Potter. I have a concept that I hope you can implement, which is to tell the story of the eight movies as you progress around the cabinet.”

    Eric Minor (JJP designer, from video) @ during designer interview segment — Reveals design philosophy behind cabinet artwork and collaboration with MinaLima

  • “This game has everything I wanted to put in one of the greatest games I've ever made in my life. I want every person who walks up to this game to have the best Harry Potter experience.”

    Eric Minor (from video) @ designer interview — Shows Eric's personal investment and ambitions for the title

  • “Like, why didn't they put in this character? Every character is here. Every creature that you love that you drew as a kid, they're here. They're part of this art package. They are part of the rules.”

    Eric Minor (from video) @ designer interview — Demonstrates comprehensive IP integration approach and commitment to fan service

  • “The problem with this is that none of these people are media trained to begin with...as soon as you sit someone down in front of a background and put a camera on them and start having them answer questions about the product that they're making, it has this vibe.”

    Dirtypool @ mid-stream analysis — Critiques format of official Jersey Jack promotional video, argues for more authentic presentation

  • “It's just me. I don't want lights in my face. Don't like it...I don't know, man. That's not the direction I want lights to shine on a pinball machine. I think the playfield should be illuminated, not my face.”

    Dirtypool (agreeing with chat comment) @ playfield LED discussion — Technical criticism of JJP's characteristic LED lighting design philosophy

Entities

Harry PottergameJersey Jack PinballcompanyEric MinorpersonMinaLima / Mina LimacompanyDirtypoolpersonRetro RalphpersonMelodyperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack requires approximately 5,000 unit sales to break even on Harry Potter licensing acquisition costs, indicating substantial IP licensing investment

    medium · Dirtypool stating this figure was discussed in pinball community but sourcing it as community speculation rather than official confirmation

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Eric Minor's philosophy prioritizes comprehensive character/creature inclusion from all eight films integrated into both art package and rules, creating immersive thematic coverage

    high · Direct quotes from Eric about wanting every character present and story progression around cabinet

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Jersey Jack obtained full footage license from all eight Harry Potter films, allowing direct movie scene integration into game during play

    high · Eric's statement about 24 hours of movie content and visual evidence of film footage in promotional materials

  • $

    market_signal: Official 22-minute promotional video format criticized as inauthentic and corporate; format prioritizes talking-head interviews over showing game in action or designer passion

    high · Extended critique from Dirtypool about video length, scripted delivery, media training issues, and comparison to more authentic formats like Jack Danger interviews

  • ?

    design_innovation: Harry Potter features rotating staircase mechanic with three unique entrance paths for ball flow—claimed as first of its kind in pinball by designer

    high · Dirtypool's analysis and Eric's emphasis on iterating this mechanic dozens of times; described as novel feature

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:02
mic on. Like, I'm going to be Let's just be real, everybody. I got the same Jaws shirt on as yesterday. I'm putting the dirty and dirty pool today. Suck it up. It's that day. Guess what? It's freaking Harry Potter day. You know, you all knew it was coming. Here we are. Stinky boy. All right, so here's what we're going to do. I I just pulled this stuff up to make sure that it actually worked except for the mic obviously, but I haven't taken I haven't watched it. I haven't really dove into it. Everybody saw the leaked footage of that tiny little JPEG gif whatever that uh Canada leaked, but here we are. Welcome. Without further ado, let's look at this transphobic game. Dear students, you have been accepted to a special place where every flicker of light holds a mystery waiting to be discovered. Oh, it's Harry Potter to Hogwarts. Oh, the magic relive iconic. I thought this was a sequel to Johnny films and take to the Quidditch pitch to become the ultimate pinpole wizard. Explore the castle and uncover its secrets. Shop Diagon Alley for wizarding win. Brew potent potions in the school dungeons and learn challenging spells that will It's not that I'm not excited aboutourney. I I'll get into it. This table looks good and we're going to talk about that. Danger lurks beyond the school
1:53
grounds. Wands ready. Prepare to I totally agree here. I think that the art package for this is amazing. I I don't understand the people that are like pooping on it. I The fact that they said it looked like a 5-year-old druid or something and it's like one of the most revered design studios that are responsible for, you know, years and years of Harry Potter evolution. magical world of adventure await. Interesting to note here, this I did check this earlier, but this is a composite shot. You can tell uh right here. I don't know why. So, inside of the house here, they did an edit so that you can see the pop bumpers. So, it's it's the back of the playfield and then they cut it out here so you could see the pops through it, which are actually below here. And you can see that there. So, that was actually looking straight down here. I don't know why they did that. It gives a false impression of what the table looks like in a really weird way. Six and a half gigs, huh? That's huge. I mean, they've got what, eight movies worth of footage. What's like Let's What was that? What? What? Oh no. What is this? That's That's not good. What? Oh no. What the [ __ ] is that? Come a hero of

  • “This didn't need to be 22 minutes. Nobody needs to hear him talk about how it needs the ball moving around...There's so many exciting features in this game.”

    Dirtypool @ video critique section — Criticizes length and pacing of official promotional content

    • Quidditch
    game_mechanic
    Pirates of the Caribbeangame
    Guns N' Rosesgame
    Wizard of Ozgame
    Avatarreference
    Protegogame_mechanic
    Golden Trio multiballgame_mechanic
    Death Eatergame_mechanic
  • ?

    announcement: Harry Potter pinball officially revealed with multiple editions (Pro, Premium, Collector's Edition, Wizard, Arcade) and comprehensive feature set including upper Quidditch playfield

    high · Direct analysis of official promotional materials and designer interview video

  • ?

    product_strategy: Harry Potter editions differ primarily in apron design, ramp trim color (gold CE vs silver other models), and topper variants (Quidditch on Wizard Edition); Pro/Premium/CE playfields appear identical

    high · Dirtypool's direct visual comparison of promotional materials showing trim and apron differences

  • ?

    technology_signal: Community member (Melody) initially criticized Harry Potter artwork quality before learning it was designed by MinaLima, suggesting quality perception issues in promotional presentation

    medium · Dirtypool recounts Melody's earlier negative assessment and its revision upon learning designer identity

    • 3:15
    Hogwarts. Look at the little Look at the little spinny. That's terrible. Oh no. Become a hero of Oh, that's so funny. Oh, what a That's such a bad topper. What are you doing, Jack? Oh, man. The game The game looks pretty good, but this is terrible. Wow. The wizarding world. Okay, so they're doing the Elton John thing. What's going on, Melody? Thanks for hopping on. What's up, everybody? By the way, magic. Oh, they Oh, let's This is going to be good. What excellent thing are they going to say here? Oh, man. I can't stand these pinball trailers.
    4:21
    [Music] Okay, the game looks good. Let's get the let's let's let's address the transphobia thing and we're going to we're going to assess this game as it is just a pinball machine currently. Everybody knows about JK Rowling and her stance on stuff. If you do not want to buy this game because of that reason, I totally I totally get it. Uh and if you don't because you can separate that and you don't mind financially supporting somebody who probably has enough money to begin with because it doesn't matter, great. With that addressed, let's move on. Uh, I don't know. There was some neat stuff in here. I like the uh rotating What's that pinball effects table that came out like way back in the day that was like a haunted mansion or whatever. This has vibes like that with the rotating quad thing. This guy right here. Um, not that sorcerer's layer. Is that the one? Yeah, I think you're right. Uh, I'm trying to find the mechanic rotating. the ultimate hit films from all eight Harry Potter films. Okay, neither to the Quidditch pitch. So, I get immediate Avatar vibes for this. They've got a lot of these multi-tiered uh rails and and diverters and and whatnot guiding the ball path on a like upper level. What I'm shocked about is that there doesn't seem to be any underplay mechanic the castle and you can see here you could see that rotating for a second here in the bottom and uncover it right there you go you see it's spinning around down here the castle and uncover its secrets shop Diagon Alley playingfield artwork is kind of like what you would expect from a JJP it still has that casino style animation like you're sitting in Vegas like putting money into a casino machine. I wish that I get that that's the Jersey Jack style. That's just like personally I don't I don't click with that so much. But I think it services the the whatever the Harry Potter like IP pretty well. Journey. Absolutely. It's got that like kind of like loop shot Melody's talking about. The I don't know what that playfield on is called, but it's like the the little loopy shot. The one underneath the dementor or whatever the hell this thing is is uh Death Eater. Yeah. See, you can tell I know a whole lot about Harry Potter. Uh that shot looks pretty narrow, which I'm assuming means it's pretty important. Here we go. Uh well, here. Let's pull up. Get out of here, ad. Jesus, Colin, you greedy bastard. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, there is a good shot of the playfield on here. Let's take a look. Here it is. So, this is the CE playfield, the one that people that are collectors are probably going to get. Um, let's go down the notes. It says three entrance, 13 exit grand
    7:18
    staircase. What does that even mean? I'm assuming that this is a digital thing. I do not see anything on the playfield that represents a like 13 exit staircase. Unless they're talking about the rotating mechanic here, which if there were two levels to it and four sides, that would be eight. So, if there's three sides plus an entrance, that would be 18, right? Someone math for me. Can't do that. Uh, it does spins, Joe. You're right. It's the spinny ribs of
    7:48
    Hogwarts. From a playfield layout, this is pretty much everything that I would want, right? You've got your side flipper here. I guess I should probably mark it up on the right thing. You've got your side flipper here. You've got an easily accessible ramp initially on the left side. You've just got a lot of room on the bottom to react to it. It's got your standard drop targets over here. Some sort of spinner and return to the out lane here, including a under flipper shot. It looks like [Applause] um did they did not really push their upcoming online stuff. I'm assuming you're talking about Jersey Jack connects or whatever the uh rumored update is for their digital uh element. Anyways, uh the playfield looks pretty good from a layout. Uh being Eric's stuff, you know, I'm I'm interested. The playfield looks like the difference between the models only changes the apron here. You can see that this apron is different from that one. And other than that, it's pretty much the same except for the trim. Uh who Johnny, was it you yesterday that was talking about this? I cannot stand the LEDs in your face on these Jersey Jack games. Like I don't want lights in my face. Don't like it. Ramps have different trim, too. Let's see. It's nice and gold here and silver here. Okay. Yeah. So, they have gold trim on the on the CE ramps. Um, and it wasn't you, but you agree. Yeah. I just I don't know, man. That's not the direction I want lights to shine on a pinball machine. I think the playfield should be illuminated, not my face. It's just me. Uh, all right. Let's read Let's read what we got here. Rules and Code. It says Harry Potter features a wide selection of term missions, what I guess they don't want to call them modes, but they do refer to it as four multiball modes and side modes. Okay. Shoot the spinner to light the scoop to start a term. So, that looks like that's how you start your modes. I'm not going to read all this. I mean, we're going to get more into it when it plays. And plus, you can actually read it for yourself because you're all grown up. I do want more companies to do this.
    10:07
    that flowchart that is included with your playfield so that you can kind of get a visual map of like what's going on on the pinball machine. Brilliant idea. Thank you the Jersey Jacks. That's excellent. It It not only is a nice like just graphic design way of breaking down what to do on the pinball machine. It gives you something to take a look. Longer video out now. Oh, say Oh, you say that. Let's take a look. Watch a video about Pandora. Can you post the link, Joe? What are you talking about? I only see the official game trailer here and we just watched
    10:49
    look. Oh my god, I cannot type on the split keyboard still. Give your rooms a different look with Hobby Lobby. Add more color with bedding. Bring some new energy with pillows. Hey, guess what everybody? We get to watch ads because I don't know. Whatever. All right, we got 22 minutes of Jersey Jack Pinball to take a look at. It looks like they must have partnered with Retro Ralph. That's cool. Whatever. Good for
    11:21
    him. Let me know if everything sounds good. I'm pretty sure I checked it. All right. So, this is obviously the Pro model or something because it's got the metal silvers. [Music] Was that the alternate topper? Hold on. Hold on
    11:37
    now. Yes, it is. Let's take a look at that. Let's put this in nice slow motion so we can see. Also, sound [Music]
    11:56
    [Music] funny. I'm stretching. Get you a get you a fiddle. We got one more ball loop. Here we go. This is the second topper, I imagine. Thought it was after that [Music] shot. Okay, so it's Quidditch. I know enough about Harry Potter to keep up. Uh I don't know. This topper is not really that much better. What do you What do y'all think? It's definitely different. It obviously comes on the wizard edition based on the fact that it says wizard edition right
    12:43
    right. I'm a huge Harry Potter fan. I have lived and breathed this license since I was a kid. Yeah, it does seem a little small. I do like their as simple or traditional Jersey Jack. They have the best graphic design and the best uh like LCD layout of any game, any pinball company. I don't I don't It's not even close. It's not even remotely close. If you want quality LCD animation and you want excellent themed graphic design between your LCD screen and your playfield, Jersey Jack is bar none. This is my number one dream theme. Full stop. This reminds me a lot of Wizard of Oz, too, with the way that they've quadranted out everything on there. I want every person who walks up to this take it or leave it because neither will fit in my space. Dude, I'm the same way, man. I am like I'm not a topper guy. I could care less about toppers. I think that that you're not For one, I'm barely looking at the screen alone because I'm staring at the pinball playfield. So, you're not going to get me looking twice that far distance up. It just isn't going to happen. And most of my rooms don't have the type of head space needed for it. Like, I can barely fit I don't know where. The Lord of the Rings one, that one came with a topper. I would not have installed that. But here we are. Okay, so that's cool. Look at this mechanic back here. I think that's really neat. Experience they can. Full stop. This game has everything I wanted to put in one of the greatest games I've ever made in my life. I want every person who walks up to this game to have the best Harry Potter experience. Spins quick. I wonder how much that mechanic's going to actually burn out. Word to it. The game looks very well. Harry Potter pinball machine. I would say enchanting. People that really know me well just tell me that I can't do something and dude you haven't even played the game yet. How do you have any basis for that? Jesus Christ. I I turn on my efforts. Look, it's Jack the most excited man in pinball fan is going to be Is he I didn't notice that. Let's not speculate on his people that really know me well just tell me that I can't do something and uh I I turn on my efforts to do it. Somebody that's a Harry Potter fan is gonna be blown away. We designed games for Ed. Let's not speculate on his health, but it definitely is. He could just be nervous if he's not used to doing Talking Heads interviews. You stern. Okay. Wolf man. We got Oh, Eric. Majestic moment. Silence.
    15:08
    Every person who's experienced Harry Potter films has a specific character. So, they obviously have full license of the footage which is nice. It hits. There you go. Jersey Jack rainbow. Spot. When someone looks at a pinball machine and they see all the lights and the color and the art, they look at that and they go, "Oh, that's amazing." What they don't realize is that that there's so many people and it takes thousands of hours of of people in all sorts of disciplines working together to create these things. I didn't want to leave anyone out. I didn't want to leave any fan out. Like, why didn't they put in this charact? Every character is here. every creature that you love that you drew as a kid, they're here. They're part of this art package. They are part of the rules. Their scenes are here in the movies as you're playing. It's all there. And I wouldn't about G&R edition, but other side of the cabinet. So, it really sets up the good versus evil battle that is Harry Potter. The colle
    16:30
    Thank you. How the hell did that happen? I didn't even hit that. Weird. Uh I was saying that they were talking about good versus evil on the left and right. And I think that's neat. I think that they did a good job of quadring out the color on the playfield so that it is both like digestible. like it's not as much of an assault on the sentence s sent senses like uh collector's edition artwork is how much of that flowchart is going to be programmed at release an excellent question doobie based on every other pinball machine that has come out probably not much shot to the moon to see if I can make maybe Jack's trying to set a different trend I would be so stoked if this game came out with like original Harry Potter and it's multiballs if it was just missing a final wizard mode that you had to wait six years for it to get put in like pirates like Eric's other Awesome. Whatever. As Mina Lima. So Joe says it's 70 code. Joe, what do you have to back that up? Mina Lima. They are the graphic artists who've created every Yeah. What is it? Is he plugging artists? There is a graphic arts team known as Mina Lima. Amiraa and Eduardo. They are the team behind Mina Lima. They are the graphic artist. Casual GC. Oh, the website image says it. Casual GC. I think he's got you on that one. Then films insider knowledge based on the available website data published the first three books of the Potter franchise where they illustrated every page and they created papercraft elements on these pages in these books. So you can fold out the Marauders map and you can look at uh the bricks disappearing on Diagon Alley as it folds out. Look at this coffee mug. He had like a giant like whatever bitter beerondon whatever. My sister waited in line to get into Mina Lima store to buy this book and bring it back to me um almost 10 years ago at this point. Yeah. Well, I don't think it's there yet. I think it's coming next week. But I'm making something that them and I showed them the cabinet artwork from the Wizard Edition and I said, "I want you guys to make art, but I can't tell you what to do. You are the artists for Harry Potter. I have a concept that I hope you can implement uh which is to tell the story of the eight movies as you progress around the cabinet. I I think this cabinet artwork is awesome. Starting you're the player movie one. Nobody needs to move up to the back. Go around to the right side elements. If this bugs you, I'm sorry, but I'm just full disagreement on that. If you want it to look like a movie, get one of the other versions. You can have your lame ass Universal presents the back. You see the the finale of the series. You see the Horcruxes concept films all illustrated in a very Joe where I'm guessing that's not in Los Angeles did their books and when it shows up at Ace I will go there and we will do a little camera live stream of it. But uh exactly I know it's going to show but I'm not going out of my way to go together. are able to implement really interesting print techniques to do foiling agree highlighting to make this pop off the page almost like it's an impos I would guarantee that it's going to be with the gold mirroring and just certain elements highlighted and it came together and I am very proud to say that a seamless it's so it's so funny man I came from making these kind of uh featurettes for uh video games for Sony And the talking head stuff is just I wish there was a better format for this. It reeks of being like presented for like stock shareholders as opposed to being like for the people that are actually going to buy the game like is really how we do uh this is cool. And this is also a good shot. Let's take a look full screen of this thing. Patience. When we all do our jobs and we do it right, you look at it and go, "Wow, that looks great." without any understanding of the time because a seamless completion of a project is really how we do it. Yeah. I mean, this is a great angle both for taking a picture of it and also like it's just the the playfield is well populated in in an intelligent way. One of the biggest nothing looks really crammed in. It just takes up the amount of space that you would imagine. 24 hours of movies and turn that into one pinball experience. This game has to cinematic experience and it has to speak to the we're really world items versus specific film content focused areas in a game. For the advanced player, the game will really start to open up once you've learned the rules and the shots. For example, now using the ball, the challenge is can you get a super jacket? Yeah. Oh, for sure. They uh it was in the um Melody after you had mentioned that I by the way I had mentioned this uh earlier uh Melody had sent me uh the trailer one of the early trailers that came out and said that she thought that the artwork was done by novice and and it has Mina Lima's art like studio graphic in that like playing Golden Trio multi question will be can you get the super jackpot one of my key memories of the first movie is the moving staircases and how they go back and forth and from a mechanical point of interview. That was so awesome and I think you guys are really going to enjoy this. That's the guy I want to get on. If I'm going to talk to somebody from Jersey Jack since they reached out, this is the dude that I want feature of the game. I want to talk about this game looks mechanically complex and I think that's probably the most interesting aspect of it. At least personally for me. Three unique ball entrances pass for you to take and I don't know of any other pinball mech that can do that. That's I'm curious what they need to do. What's up, great pyramid? Uh they look if if Jersey Jack wasn't lying about the cost of acquiring the license, uh we were talking about this in the like pinball group talk. They need to sell 5,000 units in order to break their cost for this. So that's a lot doable I imagine, but I don't even know in terms of marketing as well, but like that's an enormous amount of units to have to move of a pinball machine when there is already a lot of competition in the pinball market. You said that's the first time it's ever been done in pinball. It's totally ah do I think these feature ads will be better with a better script or an impassioned interviewee? So that's an excellent question. Uh, in my experience, the problem with this is that none of these people are media trained to begin with. So, the response you're going to get out of them is is already feeling like it's a script moment. And I just there's no way of doing a sitting talking heads. Like, as soon as you sit someone down in front of a background and put a camera on them and start having them answer questions about the product that they're making, it has this vibe. Uh, so I think that there needs to be, look, if this needs to be made and they need to do that for their stockholders or whatever, fine. But there should be a more sincere presentation format for this stuff where it is actually the people like in the spaces that they are working on the game, talking about it in the way that they would talk about a game, not how like imagine when you're having a drink at a bar and you're talking to one of the like they were shooting the [ __ ] about what the game should or shouldn't have to do. Why is my microphone falling down? It's like in my lap. What you doing down there? Oh, not right now. Mr. Microphone, come back up here, silly boy. Yeah. What you doing? I don't want you down there. Hold
    24:08
    Hello. Now, Mr. Mike, we have people over. Get out of here, Borier. Need you on screen. Anyways, uh yeah, like a Jack Danger interview is really great where it just comes off like like a real person talking about what they care about, not some corporate script that somebody was handed, hey, don't say this, don't say that, you know, talk about the cinematic experience. And like that just doesn't resonate with me. Like you tell me, chat, there's 30, 40 of you here right now. When you hear someone like this talk about a pinball experience, are you like tell me more or is your brain kind of like, man, like I don't care. Like, give me something
    24:52
    [Music] sincere. I don't disagree with that. What's up, Colin? By the way, thank you for hopping in. Look at that. We have your website pulled up as the uh platform for taking a look at all this. By the way, Kineticist uh put all this together and it is a great breakdown of the game and also its most necessary media even though it kept popping up with ads that was annoying to get rid of but you know money got against. Uh I don't but I just said I believe that this is a required format for certain company requirements, right? But there needs to be a more sincere delivery of the people that are passionate about Man, I didn't put the Oh man, I messed up. Look at that. That pyramid is not on top. [ __ ] All right, I fixed that now. Sorry about that. There's nothing that's just making me sad now. Look at that. I fixed my frame. Uh drop the hype talk. Exactly. Stick it to from the heart. Like do you don't think I if Eric was like, "Oh my god, Jersey Jack reached out to me and asked me to do Harry Potter and I was like so stressed out because I'm worried about like trying to make a game that is going to appease Harry Potter fans." And like I'm worried cuz my last game didn't get as much like hype, but like I know I could do it cuz I did Pirates and Pirates was a really good big theme. Like just something that was more sincere. and the first time it's ever been they want have to call out from the actors since their children so vocals against Wow. Yeah, that's Yeah, it's true. But that's what they get for picking an IP where the people inside of it are kind of like you know fighting internally about the morals and human rights stance plane. Uh get out of here Ralph. Stop being another plane. Anyways, here shout out to Retro Ralph. There you go. and going in four different directions. There's three. That's awesome. But he should be saying that sincerely in the video instead of talking about a pinball experience and coming into the staircase from the backside is very fun to do. The physics that were involved in that, we iterated this thing dozens and dozens of time times to just ek every ounce of energy we could from the ball and keep it going. uh changing its trajectory completely but continuing along the path that we wanted it to go. Every single variable comes like this didn't need to be 22 minutes. Nobody needs to hear him talk about how it needs the ball moving around knocked it out the park. There's so many exciting features in this game that the world of Harry Potter and the Death Eater coming from making plenty of these. There's a drop target you have to shoot down and then you can load a ball and lock it in there. It's in your face. That's the tight shot we were talking about of the F-14 Yagoff shot that just comes barreling right back down your throat when you're, you know, you're trying to fight someone. In this case, it's a death eater. Flippers freak out a little bit. I'm really proud of the coro shaker motor and the flippers. I realize that's not what that is, but that's kind of neat. It's fun because the versatility of that when it fires out of there and you're not ready for it, it's it's fantastic. This allows players to revisit the world of Hogwarts reimagined through a Jersey Jack Pinball experience.
    28:15
    Okay. A mech that I really enjoy that's subtle uh but to me does exactly theme integration the way I wanted to is the Proego mech. So Proego I don't that's a good question Johnny. I wonder do they have fans? It's you guys own Jersey Jack Games. Where's Pink Ninja when you need him? Are you here Pink Ninja Man? Do they does Jersey Jack ship with fans or is that a does pin Mon have that as an addition in the right out lane that looks like an insert normally but if you have Progo lit and you drain down the right exit the ProGeo mech pops up and saves you shields you from losing dude that's that's a dangerous drinking game sound of its own so as you're playing the game transparent diverter very cool idea by the way that so you are experiencing all of these movie moments as an observer right as the audience experience to them. So you are there with the golden trio as your qualifying golden trio multiball. So Harry, Ron, that's interesting. That upper flipper is black in that shot in the other one. So I'm guessing that's another difference between the pros and version playing Quidditch. And what would a Harry Potter game be without Quidditch? The upper playfield is like a mech in itself with its own ball path, targets, and loops that allow you to combo shots over and over. As you're up there flying around, going up the ramp, going around the orbitine is traveling the entirety of the game, and you need to grab I mean, Retro Ralph is familiar with producing content like this, but usually you have to set up something to tell them to look there as their ey line. They're responding to where Ralph is sitting asking the questions is why they're looking that direction because someone's prompting them off camera and it's like, "Okay, so when you were working on this, they have a script, they read the question, they're like, "Okay, can you tell me a little about about like what Quidditch is like in the game?" And they're like, "Oh, yeah, sure." Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you can't interrupt him and be like, "Hey, you need to look at the camera." So that's that's just game production experience for that. All you have to do is shoot the left ramp and you're in the most intense game of quiddage you've ever been in. You're surprised it's not a wide body. I don't know. I'm kind of glad it's not in this particular case for course of the movies and that personally subjective if there ever was one Harry Potter experience. When I first watched the eight movies, something that stood out that I knew I wanted to put into the game. Wa. Right. Cuz the flippers were super soft on Guns and Roses, right? And then they like re they there was a new driver board or something they released or software update. What was that, dude? Speak up on the G&R thing. curse. And when it comes to pinball, who doesn't like a multiplier? So, I thought if I took the gem curse and turned it into the I haven't seen the homebrew to be honest. Playfield multiplier. It would be a perfect opportunity to bring that really crazy. Do I think he didn't watch the movies? I I don't know. Do you think he pulled a Who's the guy who made uh uh not Armageddon? What the hell was that [Music] movie? Oh my god. God, it was it was it came out around the same time as The Arrival and had like fungus overwhelming people and uh like it was apparently the director didn't read the book at all and just kind of like yoloed it and people were not happy. I don't know how the hell you could make a project and not actually like absorb the source material into the game. I doubt that's it. There was a flipper board up. It's mandatory to play a decent game for sure. The flippers were like my least favorite part of Guns and Roses. probably as you have said and invited me saying that the game is substantially better. Even uh Jamie on his podcast was like Guns and Roses is a amazing home game. You got to give it a second shot. So I I'm willing to take another look at Guns and Roses. I could care less about their music. But again, the playfield layout is that is so that casual players can experience any one of the films. No, no, not the happening. That's that terrible feel like they're different. I can't come over today. They're going to repair my split mini split today finally. So I don't have to bake in my office anymore. We wrapped them in this package of a school year. So your year uh I mean that makes sense. Year at Hogwarts. No, it's not War Z. Annihilation. That's what it was. I remembered. Yeah. Annihilation. So the movie Annihilation, the book is like so different and so fascinating. And I I guess the director it was it's supposed to be a trilogy and he ended up not even reading it and just kind of like [ __ ] whatever yoloed it. Fall semester. What's up YouTube people by the way? What's going on? scenes from the movie and No, I don't disagree, James. I think that you're right that that it gives you more space to put that in there. So, I don't know why they made the decision to not make it a wide body. I just don't think it's I don't think it's a bad decision. I think it's just a different decision. I would love to know why they chose that. That's an excellent interview question. Um, what is it? Indie Indie Retro Arcade is supposedly interviewing interviewing Jack. So, maybe he can ask him that. You start to get into a flow. It just feels fantastic. I don't know, Pat. That's a great question. Wolf man, have you played Elton? How does the new G&R stuff play with films? And then the wizard modes take up the I don't disagree with that melody. So far, that game is pretty great. Five, there is a specific scene called the Hogwarts High. Spooky needs a and get on the map game. Anyways, and you find her on the playfield, you should know what to do. What is this? High Inquisitor from the films of the film. You go through, you play those iconic moments. Uh you're earning great points. If you can combo them together, even better. I really love the combos in the game. When you start to get into a flow, it just feels fantastic. Relive all of these moments from the films. That's how we bundled the first six films and then the wizard modes take up the final two films. When you're playing Order of the Phoenix movie 5, there is I guess that explains why there's one through six on the playfield. Inquisitor and if you know who that is and you find her on the playfield, you should know what to do. The ball lock in the game is the golden trio's wands. So, we went extra like we do. So, they are movie replica one:1 scale. Man, I'm really curious what that spinning staircase mechanic is cuz that seems like it moves a lot. It's spinning constantly during the game as an operator. So, I worked on gain that Stern didn't make that one. And I wanted to make sure that those were serviceable. So, there's actually fiber optics that run the entire length of the wand. It's overmolded around the fiber optic. He still has Elton John. It's great. It's fantastic. Elton John's an amazing game. There's a really fun mechanism on the game. It's the Wamping Willow. The Wamping Willow is present starting in movie 2. This is on the bumper franchise. What other perfect place to put on a pop bumper? Now, the tree is not static. If you think back to Wizard of Oz days, we had a static tree that moved up and down was the bad from Wizard of Oz. But this I wanted. So, it is the case a rubberized. Well, actually, I'm going to be I'm going to be in that area for my MRI. So maybe I can swing there there on the way back before heading over to uh the tree the Beatles tournament early testing we were concerned that the weight of the car would fatigue the system over time. So there's actually stiffening rod that runs the entire length and curls up into the car through the length of the tree to add rigidity in the areas we wanted rigidity but allow the branches themselves to wiggle and look. Okay, this is ex this is so smart on on Jersey Jack. This is the kind of stuff I think that they should be putting in these kind of videos. So, rah rah kudos. They're it's a mechanic that looks like it might be fragile. They're addressing how they mechanically addressed it so that it isn't a problem supposedly and how they resolved that issue. So, they're they're taking a look at their own game, what were some of the problems and challenges that they had to address in it and then putting that into their promo video. animated free motion that happens when it's sitting on the pop bumper and bouncing around. These are concepts that carry through the entire Which Star Wars game are you talking about, James? There's a million. I'm assuming you're talking about Steve Richie Stern one. We have broader strokes that can be used in all of the films. It's a celebration of the Potter franchise as a whole. They gave it a stiff rod. True. [Music]
    36:42
    Audio to me is a third of the gameplay experience. You're feeling the game. You're playing. I would obviously agree with that. But I can tell games have always quality audio. I know exactly what mode you're talking about. The Stern
    36:59
    one. Uh, so Bowen and I talked about the Stern Star Wars game and he he made a really good point that what builds the design of a game for a lot of designers is when they come up with a rule or a mechanic that basically defines the game. So for Star in Star Wars, the TIE fighter targets increasing the multiplier is like the mechanic for the game. And that like dictated the rest of the design of the game, which is why I don't think you are seeing the type of Star Wars game that you think that it it should be because that was what they decided was going to be the the thing for that game. And everything is designed around that mechanic. So, you know, similar to like Dune, they designed it around the dayight cycle. I don't know why I'm pointing over here. It's over there. But you know, uh, absolutely. Wolf man, he said that the assets for it was extremely larger than what was their already bigger sound package game being The Hobbit. Um, and it's just one of those concepts that brings the game to life. My audio guys, Dave and Pierce, made wonderful music, and there's over 90 original songs that they made for this game. Dave created these sound effects that ramp and ramp and ramp and ramp. Some of those cubes are probably like 20 or 30 seconds to be fair, but still in the Harry Potter world is is what I was trying to do all the time. But you have hundreds and hundreds of things that you want to tell the player. Edwig's theme, the iconic, what don't you like about it theme song is in this game. And that's not a trivial thing. You press the start button, bang, you hear the thing you expect to hear. That's the start of hopefully your love affair. You hit the button, you want to start. I mean, it reminds me of Lord of the Rings being like the movie poster. To me, the Playfield artwork reeks of studio like intervention where they're just like, "No, it needs to like use the movie assets. It needs to look like this." The characters and their voices. It's all I'm I'm with you, Wolf Man. I totally think the Card's awesome is I think they felt like they knew that they could have a little leeway with the cabinet artwork, but that the playfield artwork was going to have to go too far up the uh too far up the like approval ladder internally. Oh, no. sign outs here. What's up, dude? Denmark in the house. When I hear the music, it all brings the whole game together for me. I just get off my back. I say, "Wow, I can't believe we actually made this game after all this time." We were able to get the stem separated audio from all eight films. So, we have the vocal tracks separated from the sound effect tracks. I was just about to explain this, but we use as much speech as possible. So we so when the film goes to do dubbing they have essentially all of the different elements in the mix right and usually it's set up as a whatever the 71 121 depending on if they're doing atmos or or not and all of the elements are there and set up in a way that they can produce stems for it. So what he's talking about is that they literally just got all of the sound effects layer of a film and they probably went through and cut out all of the different moments that they wanted for sound effects to have movie sound effects in it in addition to the music and the dialogue all separated. That's what that's how stems work. We have all sorts of scenes where we sync up video and audio together, but we also have just hundreds of individual lines said by people in the films that are fun, funny, oneliners that work well with
    40:15
    pinball. I'm just freezing it so we can take a look at the artwork. So Dave, I don't know, man. I don't pinball brothers, where you at? I know they watch my stuff. We've been talking. Send me send me a Predator package and I will put it on the stream. We'll talk about it for a scene and set the tone if it's happy and fun or if it's dark and moody. Dude, if Predator is a banger and Harry Potter is good and Kong has been amazing and Dune is still a work in progress. We jury's out on that currently until they get more code in it. It's a good year for Pinball. Highly energetic, right? That that really brings a game to life. The backgrounds and the sound effects are all very heavily orchestralbased and that's a big rich wonderful pallet to draw from. You just have to get into it. How do you use all the sections of the orchestra? How do you use orchestration to make these things pop? What heavily orchestral based and that's a big scary orchestration that that really brings a game to life. Orchestration is when a person takes the music that a composer has written and then they break it down into sheet music for all of the different players to play for it in the orchestra. I don't know. I don't know what he's talking about. The sound effects are all very heavily orchestral based and that's a big rich wonderful pallet to draw from. You just have to get into it. How do you use all the sections of the orchestra? How do you use orchestration to make these things pop? [Music] It's popped. He said make it pop sound. Here we go. Dude, I completely agree. Melody, if you don't see the boom in that it's it's a huge miss for Predator. This a license. I hope so, Marshall. I have I have Dune. I have been playing it. I've been watching it. They added call outs to it. It has gotten better and it is definitely like it it feels like an experience, but the shot flow on it is just a little weird, man. But I'm I'm waiting for it to get to a better place before I really kind of like absorb it. I'm not streaming it yet, like I said, until I get more modes in it and then we're all going to really experience it. So, if you want to see and all the and the story of good versus evil and the millions of fans all over the world. This target is so cool. Using a clear acrylic as a as a diverter like we need more clear acrylic as as targets in general. That's so cool. You can eliminate it from underneath, have different colors for it games. And this team with with Eric and Joe and Dan and and and everybody sound guys, the artist, they they really were one of the most collaborative teams I've ever had the pleasure of working with. There's a ton of content from all eight of these films. So, get your ass to Hogwarts. Do it now. We just all this magic. Part of the path was how do we show as much of this content as possible? I said it years ago, it's still true today. We don't make games with a calculator. We make them with passion. The game designer gets It's already clouded. They made it look clouded to begin with. All inserts could potentially cloud anyways. I don't know. I think that's who cares about it to making a game. Make it foggy to begin with and you don't have to worry about it. No way this game could have come together if it wasn't for the team. Those guys brought their agame and there was never a conversation where it was, "Hey man, I really need you to do this." "Well, I can't or I don't want to." Every member of this team, more than any other, Predator Topper is just two arms holding each other, said yes. And then right, they always added something extra to make this game and this property that we all care so much about the extra in every element. So, so I've been aware of the Harry Potter um going all the way back to the books long before the movies. And so to have an opportunity to play this game and and revisit those memories while playing this game.
    44:28
    If you're a longtime fan of this franchise, this game is going to make you feel like a kid again. [Applause] [Music] Oh man, am I on top of them? [ __ ]
    44:48
    Uh, I've been modifying this stream a bunch. So, and the live reaction has not gotten so much DLC 15. This game looks great from the perspective. The art package, the flow of the game, but as with any game away for the mid play. So, we drove to Madison, Wisconsin. We got there about 10:00 and there were already 3 or 400 people waiting at Barnes & Noble uh for this book. And as I'm driving us back home, Ashley's in the passenger seat. What is this? And she's reading the first chapter out loud. Oh my god. And that is just a memory that I'll never forget. Describing the Harry Potter pinball machine.
    45:47
    What? What the [ __ ] was that? In the passenger seat and she's reading the first chapter out loud. And that is just a memory that I'll never
    46:13
    forget. That is the kind of manufactured content for these kind of videos that I don't
    46:22
    like. I I don't know. It just it reeks of them talking about in script development. They're like, "Well, we'll put a really emotional moment in at the end where you talk about the first time you experienced Harry Potter and it'll be so emotional and and really tug on people's heartstrings and you throw this like licensed piano music behind it to try to build that
    46:46
    moment." Okay. Describing the Harry Potter machine in one word, I don't think I could do it. Everything in this game was I don't think I could do it. Jack, that's seven words. Come on. Was made for the game. I've brought in other people who aren't passionate about pinball, but are passionate about Potter. And their jaws hit the floor when they saw this. This team cared to the point where I didn't feel alone. Why did it just get louder? They made the best game they possibly could and they never put their pencils down. I love this franchise and what it means to me as a game designer to turn one of the most beloved franch like look I I realize I'm being extra critical on this only because like Jersey Jack is not like an amateur pinball production company. Uh but that was so weird, right? Does that did that was that weird for anyone else? franchises in the world into my form of artwork, which is pinball. We don't want to make just another game. We want to make the best game you will ever play with every one of our titles. And we were able to make it happen. And I really think the pinball world is going to love what we did. See, that's fine. That's what I would expect. You've been waiting. It's okay that he talks about that his artwork is pinball. Like, I mean, that's sincere. Um, the whole drive home thing. Oh, here it
    48:26
    [Music] is. Major Drain, you could not be more on the money. Um, I mean, I think Retro Ralph produced this and I'm not I don't want to I'm not trying to [ __ ] on Ralph's stuff. I don't think that Retro Ralph comes from a background of making this kind of content. And in doing so, I think he did a great job as a not first attempt, but as a as a person who has produced this. Uh, but there were some weird moments in it. But, uh, outside of the the criticism of the talking heads, uh, you know, stuff, also an incredible lack of lower thirds. It's weird. Like, you can tell that they just assume that you would know who these people are. So, normally when you're doing these kind of videos, so a lower third, by the way, if you don't know, see the first. Okay, so this is a lower third here. There's this thing in the bottom left here where it says the person's name and what they're doing. Uh, so they stop doing that completely towards the end after 20 minutes or so. And usually they do it another few times just to bring back a reminder of who this person is. Especially if you're watching this like do you think that people that are into the Harry Potter books are going to know who these pinball designers are? No. So they need to do that. Totally. Melody, it is. It was pretty good. I pretty good. Absolutely. This is the kind of production I would expect from a pinball company like Spooky or something like that. I just think Jersey Jack very informative with a splash of cringe is absolutely I think a perfect assessment of this. So did it create an emotional moment for you to drop 15K? I don't know. Uh celebration that is a that is completely my assessment too. Major Drain. Uh I'm curious to play it. I'm not gonna put any money into it. Uh other than quarters, but I'm not gonna put 15 grand on this. All right. Uh Colin, let's see what else you got going on in your article here. Um again, you should definitely check Colin's article out where he talks about, you know, all the different types of saves and stuff. It has the breakdown of the code and and the uh rule set. Here's some substantially more color graded photos of uh the Playfield artwork.
    50:37
    Pretty cool. Let's full screen this [ __ ] Get out of here.
    50:51
    Add heavily retouched, but that's okay. You can see the uh diffuser that they used on it. It's impossible to shoot pictures of uh pinball machines without that stuff showing up with a reflective ball. Not a criticism, just part of how it is to take photography of shiny
    51:10
    metal. This is very reminiscent of the Hobbit artwork. It seems like uh probably the same artist. I don't know enough about the Jersey Jack Jersey Jack crew to say, but I don't know. I think the Playfield artwork is fine. I think the whole package looks really good. I think this is going to be a very successful pinball machine for them as expected. and as everybody kind of assumed. Um, yeah, I don't know. I don't really have anything else to say about it. That's been my thoughts of it. Uh, before we sign off, I don't know, chat, what else? Anything anything you got to say? Any curiosities? Uh, supposedly I'm going to have somebody from Jersey Jack on in the future. I will probably bunch bump that interview up faster than a Tuesday just to make sure that we get it in now with everybody talking about Harry Potter. Uh, I imagine Jersey Jack will too if they have reached out or responded. I don't know if they have. Let's see. They have not currently. I'm sure that they're very busy with the the launch of the game today. Uh, yeah, but I mean, it's pretty classic to put faces of the actors from whatever franchise. I mean, look at Lord of the Rings is a good example of that, you
    52:34
    You know, you've got the same not that Lord of the Rings is the gold standard for what pinball playfield artwork should be. It is frequently referred to as one of the worst packages of pinball artwork, but that's mostly because of the print quality, not because of uh Did they say how many balls are in the game? That's a fantastic question. Let me search uh this is my favorite moment. I get to search Colin's website for balls. Here we go. Bam. There's at least a three ball lock, four multiballs, and multiball modes. So, they don't it doesn't specify there. Let's see if it specifies here. It says there's 48 unique ball paths. That's a weird metric to include. All films audio package. I'm
    53:24
    not filing this away. Sorry about the alarm everybody. That's letting you know that the ads are coming on Twitch. There's nothing I can do about it. Uh Colin, since you are here, have you seen anything talking about how many balls are in the game? Is it a six ball, a five ball, an eightball? Is it a 13 ball? Is this the return of Apollo Harry Potter? Harry Potter 13. How many balls does D&D have? DNA has eight on the premium and uh LE and six on the Pro, I believe, if I remember correctly. I would go check. By the way, my new uh CPU board came for it, so I should probably repair my D&D and send that dead board back. Blues Brothers looks Dude, don't let's We're not talking about uh what the hell is the name of that company? Home Pen or whatever. That's Yeah, it's not a Sorry, Home Pen.
    54:20
    Uh, Harry Potter 7 goes to the moon. Very true. The the sequel of all of the space films. Uh, Harry Potter Cowboys, also a good one. That is a Space Cowboys reference. I don't know if you remember that film. Uh, all right. You know how we do it. It's time to go raid somebody. Thank you for me bumping the microphone. Thank you for taking your time to hop in here and take a listen to my thoughts on the Harry Potter pinball machine. I'm sure we'll probably have some more uh the Harry Potter coverage uh of stuff. Again, like I said, if they put it at Ace, we'll go play it. If I can get Melody to time it right, maybe we'll all go down there. Wolf man, if you want to swing by, I know you've got an itch to drop on this Potter. Um I am an audio guy. Oh, fantastic. I would love to talk to him, especially since we could talk the same language except for the orchestration Bart. Uh Boots for sure, man. That's one thing I try to do here is keep it real. uh you know how we do. Uh all right, let's go find someone who's not got a lot of people on the internet watching their stream and give some love. Uh yeah, all praise the great pyramid. If you've enjoyed this content, if you're watching on VOD, please consider hitting that follow button and checking it out. Uh yeah, we'll be back with Attack from Mars uh either this weekend or Monday. Um unless my neck really is bugging me and I cannot move a pinball machine and then we might play Kong one more time. I don't know. We'll find out. Anyways, all praise the great pyramid. Thank you so much. Bye. Bye-bye.