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DPP #182 "TPF wrap up. I wanna like Portal!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·39m 45s·analyzed·Mar 24, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

TPF 2026 wrap: Evil Dead sells out, Harry Potter announced, Merlin's Arcade impresses, Blues Brothers panned.

Summary

Don recaps Texas Pinball Festival 2026, covering Medieval Madness's sold-out return, Spooky's Evil Dead sellout (888 units), Jersey Jack's surprise Harry Potter announcement (10-year development, multi-million dollar license), and detailed impressions of numerous games including Merlin's Arcade, Blues Brothers (criticized harshly), Stern's D&D, and a custom D&D mod by Cairo Labs. He expresses frustration with Blues Brothers's $5,000 price point relative to its quality and concludes with cautious optimism about Portal pinball.

Key Claims

  • Medieval Madness thousand-unit run sold out quickly

    high confidence · I guess it's a thousand games. I guess they're already sold out.

  • Spooky Pinball sold out 888 Evil Dead machines during/after TPF

    high confidence · congratulations, Spooky Pinball, on the sellout of 888 Evil Dead Machines

  • Jersey Jack announced Harry Potter as their next game; cost multiple millions for license, 10 years in development, comparable scope to Wizard of Oz

    high confidence · our next game is harry potter it costs multiple millions of dollars for the license works in the works for 10 years will be as loaded as wizard of oz

  • Spooky will have 12 months of production ahead, new game announcement expected November-December

    high confidence · they have a production now that is going to last them about 12 months from the announcement...new game is going to be revealed in like November to December

  • Blues Brothers is a poorly manufactured game at $5,000 MSRP, creator designed it for non-pinball players

    high confidence · The game...it's cheap man. It is cheap...five thousand dollars is what he told me...this is made by somebody who openly has said that it's made for people that do not like pinball at all

  • Guns N' Roses Limited Edition was on show floor for $7,500 (down from $11,000)

    high confidence · Guns N' Roses Limited Edition on the floor for a price of $7,500...it was eleven thousand dollars years ago

  • Merlin's Arcade is priced at $9,000 for LE version, $7,000 arcade version, with significant feature differences

    high confidence · It's $9,000, and it's powder-coated...There's an arcade version for $7,000

  • Cairo Labs created custom D&D mod with hand-painted resin sculpts for ~$500

    high confidence · Around $500 I think is what he's asking for these...resin sculpting these things and then hand painting them

Notable Quotes

  • “our next game is harry potter it costs multiple millions of dollars for the license works in the works for 10 years will be as loaded as wizard of oz”

    Jersey Jack (at TPF seminar) @ ~30 minutes — Surprise announcement of Harry Potter pinball; major IP and development commitment

  • “how can i get out of this how can i get out of this”

    Don (describing Blues Brothers play experience) @ ~45 minutes — Criticism of Blues Brothers lacking 'one more game' appeal

  • “this is made by somebody who openly has said that it's made for people that do not like pinball at all man do you see where you're at”

    Don (to Nitro Pinball sales rep) @ ~48 minutes — Core criticism of Blues Brothers positioning and creator intent

  • “imagine selling this to a customer that's excited about pinball oh i love blues brothers and doesn't realize like how much jank is in this box and you take his five thousand dollars”

    Don @ ~50 minutes — Ethical concern about Blues Brothers pricing relative to quality

  • “i really wanted to love portal. Like I wanted this to be the game that was going to get me over the hill into getting a P3 system”

    Don @ ~140 minutes — Expressed desire to be impressed by Portal pinball on P3 platform

  • “The man with 20 games that already has a Ninja Eclipse is buying this game, and it's going to make a lot of sense in that game room”

    Don (about Merlin's Arcade) @ ~75 minutes — Identification of Merlin's Arcade's target customer demographic

  • “It is absolutely worth a play and tell me what you think man”

    Don (about Blues Brothers) @ ~58 minutes — Acknowledges blues brothers has playability despite harsh criticism

  • “the boys were clearly celebrating...it was good times”

    Don (about Spooky booth at TPF) @ ~36 minutes — Positive sentiment about Spooky team and Evil Dead success

Entities

Jersey Jack PinballcompanyHarry PottergameSpooky PinballcompanyEvil DeadgameMedieval MadnessgameBlues BrothersgameMerlin's Arcadegame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Custom modding community active at TPF; Cairo Labs creating hand-painted resin D&D mods for ~$500 with strong visual quality

    medium · Cairo Labs Kyle creating custom Tiny sculpts with LED lighting, hand-painted, approximately $500

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Merlin's Arcade positioned as niche collector game for well-funded players; expected to be differentiator in game-rich barcades rather than universal appeal title

    medium · The man with 20 games that already has a Ninja Eclipse is buying this game...If you've got that really cool barcade where every game's an LE and you get stuff that's a little rare

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Blues Brothers creator intentionally designed game for non-pinball players, raising ethical concerns about premium pricing for non-enthusiast audience

    high · this is made by somebody who openly has said that it's made for people that do not like pinball at all man

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival 2026 featured numerous game releases and announcements including Medieval Madness return, Evil Dead sellout, and surprise Harry Potter announcement

    high · Entire episode focuses on TPF recap with multiple confirmed announcements and sales figures

  • $

    market_signal: Medieval Madness remake achieved rapid sellout of 1,000-unit production run, suggesting strong collector demand for classic remakes

    high · Don reports: 'I guess it's a thousand games. I guess they're already sold out'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.119

0:00
You're a wizard, Harry. Thanks again, Scott Denisey, for this banging audio intro, man. New year, new speed.
0:41
Oh, scratch that record. Let's get into some Medieval Madness action. So this game is back, finally. I've been hearing rumors about it from IAAPA like two years ago that it was finally going to be run. But we got confirmation. And so in no particular order, here is a recap of everything that I can remember. From the Texas Pinball Festival, leading off with the Merlin edition. Merlin is absolutely having a moment. And his companion cube, the gelatinous cube as well. It seems like everything comes in threes. We got the Merlin edition of this game. We got a Merlin's Arcade. We got, well... You're a wizard, Harry. It's all coming up wizards right now. Dungeons and Dragons as well. It's all relative. Do these guys all live in the same compound and come up with the same ideas? So, Medieval Madness. I guess it's a thousand games. I guess they're already sold out. I guess it's the return of the Royal edition with that same topper. Is it as impressive now as it was three years ago? It seems to be because the things quickly sold out. So congratulations, CGC go print some money and I'll get to work for the next two to three years. Hopefully they'll finish up the run of pulps with their LEs and that will play right into the electric playgrounds, Pulp Fiction topper. I finally got to see the production model. It was out on display. That was actually two of them, which was super cool. Dude, bro that uh did up the uh tony hawk uh pro skater homebrew uh mocked up this cool little button assembly that you could rock up to the wormhole pinball booth that was out in the hallway hit a button and watch this ball come along and sling and see the uh the double tap pop pop of the hand guns uh on the topper so i was out there playing with that for a while uh looks cool the thing's fourteen hundred dollars it's going to go into production soon 300 will be available and it was fun looking at it with the game does a cool little animation when you boot up and it seems like there will be the ability to maybe add some code and some light modes potentially in the future you'll have to flash the arduino board that is in there it's a usb-c cable away or usb-a what's that that thick one that came with printer cables back in the day that's the one you use uh but it's interesting and i also saw the plaque that comes with the game uh so you'll have your double tap edition se if you want one of the 300 so that was super fun to to see uh alec and rob always fun to hang out with you and uh yeah it was some good times so there's some pulp fiction for you a little bit of a cgc connection do you see how everything just seems to be related uh when it comes to pinball let's run down here so we can avoid doing a a hour and a half show wrap up everybody else seems to be doing them right now spooky pinball sold out their evil dead so going into the weekend uh i've been watching the numbers and it seems like about a week ago or so there was still 150 or so left uh we went into the show with 60 59 i think to be precise and i think what happened because they went they went quick uh i think by day two sold out and it was really close by day one uh so what had probably happened was people were like you know what i'm just about sold on this game i'm going to tpf i think i'm gonna actually play it uh before i go ahead and order it just because i'm gonna be there they're still available whatever and then people rocked right up and they were playing the hell out of these games and then as soon as the show started people got their hands on them uh boom they just started going you know 10s and 20s and fives and just going all the way i got down about 25 left and then joe from pinball star walked over with a check for uh for for mid five figures and i just took the whole mess and then from what i understand And he's almost sold out now as well. Jeff and Matt Pinball is completely sold out. So, yeah, congratulations, Spooky Pinball, on the sellout of 888 Evil Dead Machines. And so then the next question that came from everybody is, all right, so where's your next game announcement? And tut-tut there. I appreciate the enthusiasm because I'm there too. I want to see what the next game is. But they have a production now that is going to last them about 12 months from the announcement. So they'll be building these probably through December, maybe carry into January. But the new game is going to be revealed in like November to December, whatever kind of feels right for the guys. That seems to be their canter that they like to release at their timbre. I'm using musical terms. So they'll spend the rest of the year here with everybody in the factory, including Tori. Shout her out. Give that poor girl a Venmo tip, man. She hardly gets any recognition at all for all the tech support that she does at the factory. But the boys were clearly celebrating. We were all having a good time at the spooky booth there. Chris Franchi, of course, is always a joy to be around. Ben Heck, congratulations to you. Hilton, Bug, Spooky Luke, and as they say at Gilligan's Island, and the rest. But, yeah, it was good times. Spooky Pinball went into their seminar and kind of went through the whole development process of Evil Dead. check that out on twitch it's buried somewhere in the feed uh that was the one seminar i did remember to actually get over to um speaking of seminars the jersey jack seminar so i didn't even realize i knew these were a thing but you know for me it seems like a lecture hall and like i'm not about that life so going and sitting in class and when i could go you know be playing a last action hero uh that's kind of what i'd rather be doing so i started here i don't think this was planned at all first off okay uh you're a wizard jersey jack himself on stage of the seminar said our next game is harry potter it costs multiple millions of dollars for the license works in the works for 10 years will be as loaded as wizard of oz and don't spend a dime until you see our game when are we going to see it well there wasn't any of that ready there was no slick trailer done by the straight down the middle guys uh none of that so i think this was just kind of an unscripted you know what uh yolo all right i'm gonna control the narrative here let's effing go this is tpf and congratulations congratulations you i support that man um but i was hearing uh rumors that uh well actually not rumors but news uh as i think i was literally playing carrie hardy's last action hero and somebody's like dude don they just announced harry potter and i'm like sure they did random stranger uh but no apparently that happened and it was so funny um i didn't know like you know okay if you were going to make this like keynote address right and retro ralph did a great video uh highlighting this this aspect this should have been like over the loudspeaker like in 10 minutes the jersey jack seminar will be happening you want to be there um i've seen seminar announcements before where like it's been just packed people in there you know to see what's going on what's like you know uh when they're giving away the game or something you know that you can raffle off at the show like it's packed like it should have been packed to the absolute gills and so there's this uh video uh reel uh floating around of just you know him making the announcement and there's just like one guy that like slow claps like one like that that's it so uh ralph did a cool video where he added on like the fanfare that this thing deserved like this is you know we've been talking about and rumoring about this game coming game one game two games is it going to be hogwarts legacy is it going to be the books is it going to be the full-blown movie, are they going to be voice actors, all that business. And we've been speculating it for so long that this should have been a major announcement given the gravitas that are required, and it absolutely wasn't, which leads me to believe that this may have been an inadvertent, you know what, heck it, let's do it. And do what they did. So, man, there is a juggernaut coming. Otherwise, the Spooky Pinball Booth was, or Spooky, the Jersey Jack Pinball Booth was well attended. And Steve Ritchie was there. And he must be a watch guy because he was wearing like something that would make flavor, Flav blush on his wrist, man. How do I get in on some of that? Ken Cromwell was hanging out there. Jack made an appearance. They all went and did autographs at some point. So it was cool. I even saw Mark Seiden was walking around too at one point. So that's always cool to see him, a designer for Avatar. Avatar is kicking butt. People were enjoying it. Every one of the more modern Jersey Jack games was well represented. No dialed-ins, of course, but everything from GNR forward was present. I even had a good game on Godfather, so there's that. I think Godfather, beautiful game. I don't mind the gameplay. The theme didn't speak to me, but it was absolutely hitting on just about everything else. And it can be available for a good price. Interestingly, I did see Guns N' Roses Limited Edition on the floor for a price of $7,500.

Double Tap (Tony Hawk homebrew topper) priced at $1,400 with 300 units available

high confidence · it's going to go into production soon 300 will be available...the thing's fourteen hundred dollars

  • D&D is a strong recent release from Stern with code/modes by Dwight and Elizabeth

    high confidence · the stellar team of uh dwight and elizabeth on code and modes uh they're gonna they're gonna continue to deliver for us

  • “I'm still not sure if he is, in fact, a pinball company or if he is a technology company that produces pinball machines as a way to showcase that technology”

    Don (about Chris Turner/Turner Pinball) @ ~80 minutes — Questions Turner Pinball's core business identity

  • “congratulations, CGC go print some money and I'll get to work for the next two to three years”

    Don (about Medieval Madness production demand) @ ~15 minutes — Ironic comment on Chicago Gaming's production backlog

    • Chris Turner
    person
    Cairo Labsperson/company
    Chris Franchiperson
    Portalgame
    Texas Pinball Festival 2026event
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    D&D (Dungeons and Dragons)game
    Guns N' Rosesgame
    Donperson
    Nitro Pinballcompany
    Double Tap (Tony Hawk homebrew mod)product
    Retro Ralphperson
    Stern Pinballcompany
    $

    market_signal: Jersey Jack's Harry Potter announcement at TPF was unscripted/informal without proper promotion, underselling the magnitude of the news

    high · there wasn't any of that ready there was no slick trailer done...i think this was just kind of an unscripted you know what uh yolo all right...there's just like one guy that like slow claps

  • $

    market_signal: Secondary market pressure on Jersey Jack games; Guns N' Roses LE down to $7,500 from $11,000 original price

    high · Guns N' Roses Limited Edition on the floor for a price of $7,500...it was eleven thousand dollars years ago

  • $

    market_signal: Blues Brothers priced at $5,000 MSRP despite poor build quality and limited appeal; Don criticizes this as unfair to uninformed customers

    high · five thousand dollars is what he told me...imagine selling this to a customer that's excited about pinball...only for the guy a couple weeks later to realize like how swindled he's been

  • ?

    announcement: Harry Potter pinball officially announced by Jersey Jack at TPF seminar; multi-million dollar license, 10-year development, Wizard of Oz-scale scope

    high · Direct quote from Jersey Jack seminar: 'our next game is harry potter it costs multiple millions of dollars for the license works in the works for 10 years will be as loaded as wizard of oz'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky Pinball has 12-month production backlog; next game announcement delayed to November-December, indicating production constraints

    high · they have a production now that is going to last them about 12 months from the announcement...new game is going to be revealed in like November to December

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Don expresses cautious optimism about Portal pinball but remains unconvinced it will achieve his expectations or justify P3 platform adoption

    medium · I really wanted to love portal...I wanted this to be the game that was going to get me over the hill into getting a P3 system

  • ?

    technology_signal: Turner Pinball's Chris Turner developing custom PCBs and innovative playfield technology garnering industry attention and praise

    medium · printed circuit boards that are underneath the play field were impressing all of the industry pros, of course, when they came over

    • 9:11
    And that's coming from Jersey Jack or their distributor. like you know brand new game unboxed show floor like it was eleven thousand dollars years ago uh 7500 now so a reasonable price for what i think is we're still one of the best uh play uh light shows in pinball had a great game on it man still a good game i've played it a thousand times so i'm not looking to replace another one but i still stand by that that you know it's it's a good looking game uh not not a bad character to keep in your game room there for a little bit you know get yourself a jersey jack with the big screen and everything crank up the volume and play some freaking Guns N' Roses. I still dig the game. All right, that's JJP. Blues Brothers what a bunch of dog garbage this game is Now we knew this from Home Pin after all This is the game that the creator said he created for people that don know anything about pinball And it's not made for people that like pinball. So, mission accomplished. Give this guy a slow clap. So, here's the thing. The game, it's fun enough to play. I mean, it's got this jump ramp that goes into a spinner. It's got some janky mechanisms.
    10:16
    It's cheap, man. It is cheap. The play field looks cheap. It looks like a piece of plastic. from some child's toddler's placemat to spill SpaghettiOs on.
    10:26
    It says Blues Brothers. It plays the theme from Peter Gunn over and over again. It's got the chintziest freaking animated topper I've ever seen. It's like a coat hanger with some dancing Blues Brothers on it, almost like some failed abortion. The whole thing should be aborted, to be quite honest. That's not legal in Texas, so the game persists. Regardless, it's there. It's got one of the jankiest ball guides I've ever seen. There's this, like, what can be described as, like, a little U-turn 180 ball guide in the lower right area just above the flippers, which I guess ostensibly is supposed to feed the in lane but does everything but that. It is so jank with a capital J. My God, go look at this thing.
    11:10
    So Nitro Pinball was the booth that was running in the corner over there. They had the American Pinball lineup, of course. signature edition Galactic Tank Force for $99.95 or something. They had an ABBA over there they were trying to get $10,000 for. That left flipper was getting stuck in an erect position, which was just kind of hilarious. That's a bad game that I have fun playing. Blues Brothers is a bad game that isn't really fun to play. But I did play it three times. And, you know, I had good ball times on it. You know, it's definitely not a drain monster. definitely doesn't have that one more game feel it has that i'm gonna play two balls and i really how can i get out of this how can i get out of this um and it's cheap man it is cheaply built the elwood drop targets in particular you know i was going through trying to drop them twice hit that captive ball to like complete some mode and if you you know manage to hit one of the drop targets like the adjacent one will also fall because it's just in there loose and janky man it's you know it's not it's not at all quality build it's got the worst ball guide i've ever seen in a production game ever and uh so i talked to the nitro guy that was there the sales representative and i'm like how much is this game here because of course it says for sale call for price and it's like you're trying to sell us at a show man how about write the price on a piece of cardboard and stick it to the back glass like every other reasonable human so i don't have to track you down to find out like okay well what's my price for this game five thousand dollars is what he told me to which i responded so you're taking this home with you it sounds like um you know and then he responded with like well that's that's you know the msrp you know just trying to turn it like you know double down and i'm like look dude this is made by somebody who openly has said that it's made for people that do not like pinball at all man do you see where you're at and then he kind of said like okay yeah like i get it like the guys the guys a bit much uh understatement of the year five thousand dollars okay i'm sure there's a used iron maiden pro somewhere for that same price and at this point i would feel like i'd feel full of shame if i was a distributor and i was taking a customer's money for this game um you know if this game was twenty eight hundred dollars then you buyer beware whatever i wouldn't feel as bad but like imagine selling this to a customer that's excited about pinball oh i love blues brothers and doesn't realize like how much jank is in this box and you take his five thousand dollars only for the guy a couple weeks later to realize like how swindled he's been and then like he's gonna look at you like what a piece of crap this guy took five thousand of my dollars and gave me the dog's dinner right here man i'm gonna rant on this for a little bit because it's just that it's it's not fair to charge that much money to like an un it would be an unwitting person that would buy this freaking thing um or the man that just has everything and wants to have something weird and rare you know that guy exists but that guy knows what he's getting that guy knows what he's getting um you know the guy that wants to compliment his thunderbirds and his spinal tap first for reasons you know or whatever no fine okay if you know what you're getting into okay but how they had it marketed there it was sitting next to pulp fiction and it was sitting next to one of the funhouse remakes and it's like my god dude this is not even in the same caliber man it's a joke machine come on come on it was it was fun to flip around and like goof on so i can have fun with a bad game but like don't don't swindle somebody's five thousand dollars for this damn thing so if you happen across one of these in the wild it is absolutely worth a play and tell me what you think man um but i mean going into it of course i knew it was going to be a bad game it lived up to that and it's i still derive some enjoyment from it but like just seeing like the jankiness of everything it was fun to hit the ramp um and i thought at first didn't they copy the stars layout like stars is at least fun to play you know it's brutal it's got that spinner at least this this this is the stars but it doesn't have that spinner it's just wide open on that right orbit like you could just like drop kick the machine and hit that orbit it was craziness it was craziness all right so uh the stern pinball area was represented well with just about everything there they had a decked out venom uh eighty five hundred dollars and you get a venom premium that's just out of the box that has that fourteen hundred dollar topper the four hundred side armor the $200 shooter rod and $100 art blades it was looking good and I rocked up there with the the triple drain guys got in on a game and dang it I took the damn round now Joel had to bow out to go over to the uh some kind of prize contest or something but like I was clear I was having a great ball too and uh and that was good so I got to pay back Tom from uh triple drain uh on our game from uh Metallica remaster from my app where he absolutely almost got to the wizard vote and doubled my score and i did pretty good too like you know 300 million or something um and yeah he just he just killed it so ha every now and then i could play pretty good he even gave me a little fist bump so that felt good to be there and actually you know managed to accomplish something so that's fun uh john wick was there john wick was uh was leaning leaning to port man to the right side and the balls were just kind of draining out it was not level at all which made a game that is actually kind of fun when it's set up properly um and it took all the enjoyment out of it because like you know every every every ball just went right down the middle or down an outlay through no fault of my own uh the topper looks it's it's okay uh it's overpriced yeah we've talked about it you know what you're getting if you get it um you know or whatever uh john wick still not a bad idea and it still has a cool vibe like you know when i was watching other people playing it and watching the screens and animations like they're pretty good what they did i like the light show that's in it um it just it has potential still and i just see i just feel that we haven't seen its full potential is what i'd like to see what i didn't see was the shooter rod i wanted to see the john wick shooter rod was not there at all um fun suppliers and uh marco i think were the people co-doing the both there they had all the stern shooter rods up there to go up and you know play and manhandle with uh but no john wick shooter rod i really wanted to see that they did have that 3d uh affected uh infinity mirror stern sign for 200 look pretty good i saw at some point somebody uh showed a card that they were asking 250 for it and then after i'd seen that i went back to check and it was down back to the 199 msrp so that was a cool move someone was trying to stick people for an extra 50 bucks man uh but you know in the world of pinball and stern wall accessories at 200 bucks 199 not a bad idea it looked pretty good and it comes with an acrylic plate so you can mount it as a topper onto a game how cool is that reasonably i would say uh dnd the big game of the show that's the most recent release from stern plenty of games there and always had people on and people were enjoying it i think it's a good game and i'm holding tight that the team the stellar team of uh dwight and elizabeth on code and modes uh they're gonna continue to deliver for us i can feel it man i can feel it such a much better game that we've seen from a couple of releases from them so i dig that uh i dig that uh also speaking while we're on dnd uh cairo labs this guy kyle i met him um he has made this amazing mod as a sculpted mod that replaces that flat plastic of our tiny's tavern right above the spinner and the center shot for dungeons and dragons and so um how it works is there's a plastic there with the bartender tiny of course this huge guy and uh there's lights there's a light board behind there And it will light up when you get the gelatinous cube multiball, the dragon multiball, and then also when you get into a dungeon. If you light all three of those, then the insert turns blue, and then you can shoot it one more time and go play the tavern brawl, little mini mode. Kind of cool. So he took that idea, made his own light board, and then created a whole sculpt of, like, Tiny sitting there leaning against the hearth with the fire raging with an LED that's in there. The window behind him lights up. And then there's wanted posters that are posted around the back of the tavern. And they all correspond to the different modes that you have to light to do the tavern battle. And they light up and it's interactive and it looks super cool. And there's a list on Pinside. There's a Pinside thread for this. I posted the link on my Facebook page.
    19:21
    He is like resin sculpting these things and then hand painting them. Right, man? It looks phenomenal. Around $500 I think is what he's asking for these. So it's not something that everybody is going to jump at. But, I mean, these are hand painted. You can't get a sculpt like this without spending like $80,000 on tooling. So there's really no other way to get something of this quality other than to resin print it, sculpt it, and pan paint it yourself, which he's done. And the guy done a lot of miniature model painting So it looks really good Go check it out at least I posted a picture of him holding it uh he also made one as a topper too just like i guess for fun which is like even cooler man the thing is four times the size of the one that goes in the game so it's worth it just checking it out of the creativity that this guy made and how quick man the code isn't even 0.9 yet and he already came out with like the mod for this game dude 500 bucks looks awesome so Cairo Labs Kyle you were super awesome thank you buddy uh he gave me a couple of prototype parts he was working with because I was so intrigued that like I want to get into this level and dudes help me out man bros helping bros that's awesome so I'm going to shout him from the rooftops again the Facebook page for Don's Pinball Podcast I just posted that let's go check it out man go check it out what else do we got Merlin's Arcade I feel like I spent half the time just hanging around Chris Turner because he's such a a salty man of the land man I just want to be there all the time he gives me good like mr rogers vibes i totally dig it um and so hanging out with him celebrating his new release of his games merlin's arcade um the triple drain dudes just did a a podcast where they talked all about it and uh they brought up an interesting point that it does look similar and plays a little bit similar to a game uh called eight balls revenge or something no god sharky shootout what is it eight ball deluxe there it is and i get it so So, you know, by the numbers, right, Merlin's Arcade is a game with one ramp, four pop bumpers, a really cool spinner that looks like a foosball, and then nine stand-up targets that all look like billiard balls. It's got three flippers. It's got finesse flippers, which are a feature. And it's got an original story. It's got sculpts, one of which raises and lowers his arms, turns left and right. It's the Merlin guy. And he talks to the other sculpts behind him. As they talk, their eyes and their lights flash. So that is kind of interesting. each shot is a different night of the game and then each one has its own mode and then each one has like a light and a dark version of it so there's a little bit of depth that's in there um you're not going to find upper play fields lower play fields um there is a physical ball lock on the legendary edition that's activated on the ramp by a means of a uh pop-up up post that will act as a diverter knocking the ball off the ramp into a subway this feature was uh It turned off for the show, so it was just virtual lock, which was fine. The ball virtual lock worked fine, and when you did get the multi-ball, it was kind of fun. Rip in the Spinners, man, is the name of the game. And the sound effects, when you hit the billiard ball targets, they make a nice, satisfying billiard ball crashing into another ball effect. So it was fun. It had that one more game feel to it. It's $9,000, and it's powder-coated and comes with a topper. There's an arcade version for $7,000, $69.99, something like that. It'll have flat plastics. It won't have the articulated, sculpted Merlin character. It also won't have that subway diverter for a ball lock. The ball locks will just be virtual on that version. No powder coat, no Invisiglass, no topper on that version. So there you go, two versions, $2,000 apart. I talked about it on either the Patreon or my last show, who I think this is for. The man with 20 games that already has a Ninja Eclipse. is buying this game, and it's going to make a lot of sense in that game room. It is fun to play. It will be fun to have. It's something that's not going to be as ubiquitous as a Stern Pro where just every arcade has it. If you've got that really cool barcade where every game's an LE and you get stuff that's a little rare, and you want to have the only one of these games in your region as a way to kind of draw people in or get some pinball street cred, that's, I think, who this would be for. Someone like me that's really kind of hustling and grinding to try to afford every game and i make you know calculated decisions on what game has to go out so something new can come in it's hard for me to fit something like this into my lineup uh but i kept coming back to play it and it had consistent lines throughout the show so it was fun to play now you know if this thing had like a killer theme on it which may be his next game or the one after that may have you know once he gets some again pinball street cred by building and getting games sold and can show a licensor like, hey, look, this is what I can do. The technology behind his cabinet, the printed circuit boards that are underneath the play field were impressing all of the industry pros, of course, when they came over. So there is some there there to Mr. Chris Turner there down in San Antonio. So good luck to him. I want to see him sell at least 150 of these things over the next year so he can stay busy. And then I want to see what else he's got there in his bag of tricks. I'm sure it's deep. I'm sure it's a deep man. Also, I love the technology that he's bringing. And so I want to see him persist in his ingenuity and in his company. And then, you know, I'm still not sure if he is, in fact, a pinball company or if he is a technology company that produces pinball machines as a way to showcase that technology. Time will tell. But I think this guy is ingenuous enough that he's going to be successful regardless of what he does. And so I'm glad to support my friend there. I think that's cool. So go check out the game. Hopefully it's at Expo. I kind of put it in his ear like it should be there. And he seems to say, you know, we'll find a way to make it there. Will it be at MGC like Ninja Eclipse was last year? Well, it depends on, you know, if Gabe's got himself some frequent flyer points and can bring the game up there. We'll see what can happen. If I can help out at all, I've got a truck. I can drive local. I can deliver games. I can set them up. So, you know, if I can be helpful there, just go ahead and reach out. What else do we have here? Home Brews didn't play. Oh, I didn't play the Home Brews. I walked by there several times. Greatest Showman was out on location again. One of the best looking games, homebrew, revamp, whatever that you could make. It's phenomenal looking. Right next to it, a black and white Addams Family that looked absolutely phenomenal as well and was playable, thank you. Unlike the ones that Great American Pinball brings to Expo where it's like look but don't touch. We're not allowed to play these things. We're trying to get $40,000 from them. Anyway, it wasn't for sale. It was a custom order job that he got. The same guy did The Greatest Showman. And thankfully, he brought it to the show so people could actually play it. It is the best-looking black and white Addams Family I have seen. And I've seen several of these. It actually wasn't the only one at the show. But, man, a lot of love went into that game. And a lot of work. And a custom play field. I think Marco was commissioned to do it. And that's like at least a $1,000 job to get a play field like that made as a one-off. So kudos, man. It looks phenomenal. The plastic's all matched and everything. It looks like it just came out of a factory. We worked back to 1997, and all of a sudden here's a black and white version, and it just looked so good. So good looking. Loved it. So that was great. I didn't get to play the Mad Max game. Man, I love that people are hooking air compressors up to pinball machines. Like, what a dimension, man. It wasn't even the first or the only air compressor game that was there. It was also a really nice restored Bram Stoker's Dracula, which also blew air at your face when you drained, which is just silly and weird and great and was not expected. I watched people play it, and they were not expecting that to happen. And then, boom, blast in the face by pinball. Hell yes. What else did we have? Tony Hawk was back. Looks like there's been some little tweaks to it that were made. Killer theme. Love it. Wish it was a production model, man. And I love the ingenuity from the homebrew section. But we didn't see Saw. we didn't see Friday the 13th. It definitely wasn't as well attended as it was in prior years. I wonder what's going on. What's everybody else doing? A little bit of fatigue and bringing their homebrew games or some such. You know, something was a little bit off with this TPF where it wasn't quite as heavily attended with games as it has been in prior years. And now going into TPF, there was going to be no brand new games there at all. Luckily we got Merlin's arcade and portal. Let's talk. Let's talk some portal here for a little bit. All right. So I, man, I never swear in here, but I really wanted to love portal. Like I wanted this to be the game that was going to get me over the hill into getting a P3 system. Cause I love the game and I love the idea of a portal pinball machine. You know, the, the stage ball that was in Rick and Morty was such a cool feature. As soon as you shoot that portal, boom, the, the balls like across the play field instantaneously, just like a portal. So I'm like, all right, there's so many branching ball paths from this module. You know, I mean, it was just released online. immediately before the show so there wasn't time to really digest everything so i'm like i'm gonna go in there i'm gonna play this thing first thing and uh you know i want to see like you know balls disappearing and reappearing in different places like it's only a p3 system can do and uh i played it five times i think had some pretty good ball times a couple times that i was there um they had the 10 multimorphic p3 machines and three of them were portal two with the extended and one was just the plain vanilla i played both of the extended ones because i had to wait in line every time to get in there and it was at least three games deep on each one you know if only there was some easy way to switch out one of the other 10 multimorphic machines that were there uh to have like some extra portals you know maybe they could look at the demand and say you know what maybe drained could take a break if only there was a way to just convert one of these things easily by just like swapping a module or something you know maybe maybe bring you know six portals there and then when Lexi Lightspeed needs to take a break because no one's over there playing it, and Portal is 14 people deep. Maybe throw a couple of modules in there. I don't know. I'm just asking questions out loud. Maybe that technology doesn't exist yet, and maybe I'm just being a futurist. Oh, man, I'm getting some daggers right now. I wanted to love this damn game so much. The Iron Maiden ramp was kind of cool where it throws the balls against the back wall. About half the time it seemed to just kind of brick off the wall and fall into the pit of doom it would still count towards a physical ball lock So I guess half the time the ball was a virtual lock I guess All depend on the physics that were going in there. Some really cool ideas in there. I think they may just have needed a little more time baking. I'm not sure. I played it as much as I could. But, you know, every time I went over there, it was 20, 30 minutes to wait to get on it. Because, again, there was only two of them. When they drug a game over to the seminar, there was only, you know, they went from three to two. If only there was some way to get a module into one of those other games that nobody was playing. That would have been something. Maybe I'll drop that as a little note for next time or something. Regardless, I did have fun when I was playing it. I do like how the screen was interactive with things like the turret. You know, when the little robot guy would spin around, there was a turret on the other side. And it would shoot laser beams across the playfield. That was super cool.
    30:41
    The right lower ramp, I mean, it's jank. I think everybody is pretty clear on that. Again, nobody cares what I think. The people that own the P3 system have already purchased this because, of course, they did. If I owned a P3 system, I, of course, would purchase this. I would love to be able to play it some more. It looks like I'm only going to be able to play it at a show as nobody kind of local to me has one of these things. I know there's some folks in the Milwaukee area and Chicago area that do have these. But as far as location, there is one in Madison at a mall, or at least there was at a mall arcade. perhaps they'll get a portal and I can have someplace local which I can you know go and put some time on I would definitely love to do that I'd love to show this game to Monica um I would like to play some more but you know to say that this was a game of the show and over evil dead I I think that that that's uh that's a high ask there you know everything being subjective entitled to your opinion um I wanted to love it I wanted this to be the game that would put me over the edges so I could get a a princess bride because I love that theme so much even though the game playing princess bride is a little bit lacking it's very much a back of the playfield game shooting left-handed it was cool some some cool integrations there uh made some inroad finally with a couple of the uh the the people on the p3 team uh especially well the guy that made drain talked to me for a while and he was he was super nice and he offered to walk me kind of through the whole game and and gosh darn i just didn't have time to commit to drained because um well i i'd played it before uh so you know the 27 stand-up targets and the main feature is this gobble hole right this throwback gobble hole from a from a bygone era and it's like okay a retro game all these stand-up targets and the gobble hole and i go up to play the game and i managed to get the gobble hole out of one of my first shots and it actually kills your ball and then you're dead you lose a ball it's like this is the main feature of the game the main feature of a featureless game and you're not supposed to use it. What a crazy town I'm living in. So I did have some fun over there at the Multimorphic area. I really wanted one of those Portal t-shirts I saw people wearing. They did have t-shirts for sale, but they looked like they were just, it just said P3 on them and they were $30. And I really wanted a Portal shirt, but it doesn't look like they were selling any. I went up to the guys when they were sitting at the table and I asked them about the shirts and they just kind of pointed, they gestured over at the two that were laying there and the $30 handwritten sign and then went back to their phones. And I was like, man, if only, if only. You know, well, it's their world. We're living in it. I really, really wanted to love this game, and I really didn't want to be bored with it. Man, dang it. Dang it, I really wanted to like that game. Well, let me know what you think when you get yourself on a portal. I hope one shows up around here sometime soon, and I would love to go play it again. It's definitely better than Blues Brothers, for sure, by a long shot. It's better than ABBA even.
    33:28
    I just don't know enough to really weigh in on it. Let me know what you guys think if you played the Portal game. All right, man. TPF, it was wild. I know I'm forgetting some stuff. What I don't want to forget, though, is to thank all the cool people that just elevated this show. Really, there was two new games there. There was a Medieval Madness re-release, and there was some new code on Cactus Canyon, which I didn't even spend time on because it's Cactus Canyon. I'm sure I can find it any time, any other way. I was having fun with the people, man. The people. Like Jamie at Wormhole, man. What a classic guy. Hosted the Twippies. I hear that's maybe happening again next year. Any excuse to get down to the Wormhole, I am absolutely down for it. The Triple Dream guys, man. Always cool to hang out with you guys. Joel has the best T-shirts or button-up shirts when he goes to these shows. So it's fun to hang out with him and Tom. Tom, fellow Wisconsin guy.
    34:20
    So it was fun to – thanks for letting me hang out with you guys and playing some games with you. Always good to see you. The Eclectic Gamer Pinball Podcast. Dennis Creasel and Tony. I ran into them over at the Multimorphic booth. So that was cool. I forgot to show off my cool watch that I got from AliExpress to Dennis, though. Because somehow I'm becoming a watch guy. But I just want to buy the really cheap knockoff versions of it. So anyway, it was cool to see them. I can't wait for their recap. That should be coming here soon. Who's soon? All the listeners that came out, man. You guys were awesome. I came up with some giveaway stuff, some stickers, some Playfield Jacks and stuff. And I got recognized in my elevator at my hotel across the street, which was super awesome. It's always fun when that happens. I love the feedback that I got from you guys. Thanks. Like I told people, this to me feels like just kind of like this audio diary that I do because I'm just staring and talking to the wall. But then, you know, I don't realize that there's, you know, hundreds of other people out there that listen to this and react to it and enjoy it. Like you, sir, driving in your car right now. Like, yes, Don's got a new podcast up. Fire it up, man. I want to hear some hot takes, man. You know who you are because you're probably smiling and nodding right now. Like, yup, that's me. Hell yeah, brother. Hell yeah. So that just encourages me. Totally dig it. Alec and Robin from the Electric Playground and their associated staff members. Always cool to see you guys and hang out. Hopefully we can see people unboxing some of those Pulp Fiction toppers here pretty soon. there'll be 300 total and that's it barrels of fun thanks for being super cool uh david van asked me and him got went got some pizza we talked life we talked love we talked pinball we talked theme parks it was a good times uh brian savage what's up buddy i'm glad i was able to hook you up with a uh a modification for the jaws pinball machine super cool to see one of my uh koc buckets and a jaws machine at the show like i was a walk by and i'm like wait a minute that's one of mine in this person's game like it's super awesome if nothing else i've made an impact somewhere with a freaking KFC bucket. Something that cracked me up is out there in the ether. Ken Cromwell, Drizzy Jack, always fun to hang out with you, buddy. Thanks for showing me and Monica around the factory the other day, picking up my avatar, recording late at night here. Steve Ritchie, what a legend, man. It was fun seeing everybody playing other people's games and stuff too. I didn't talk to George Gomez, but he was there with Seth Davis and their entourage. And I saw them, you know, just kind of, I wasn't stalking, I swear. um it was fanboying a little bit uh but it was fun to see them go around and cruise and check out like all the games that everybody else had brought you know they weren't just over like at their stuff they were seeing what else was out there and you know if we can cross-pollinate ideas like a good idea over here implemented a new and interesting way over here we're gonna win as pinball players by just having you know the best ideas replicated again and again in machines um you know stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before you and let's release the best games that have ever been made in the history of pinball i totally dig it dwight sullivan hell of a guy always fun hanging out with him uh so that was funamoto uh was running around crazy making keeping the whole thing going especially you know for for seminars and such and the marco labs and stuff like um i didn't see her just like kicking back playing some pinball man just running non-stop to make everything behind the scenes going on and carrie hardy my boy what a legend man uh this dude super cool of course he's a you know youtube rock star and everything but he still makes time for the little people and we hang out he did a patreon hangout as well um which i wasn't able to swing probably because i was playing his damn bright yellow last action hero that was always data easting out man and he's got some cool games over there everybody else i miss brad brad you're awesome man uh thanks for thanks for hanging out and being such a such a bud um brad's friends including the guy that tried to sell me his multi-morphic machine it may still happen man maybe i'm gonna come around on portal i want to love portal so much i want to get a p3 so i can get my portal on and play it at home and i want weird out i want final resistance that game freaking slaps um i just it's like every time i get like hyped and i'm like right there something just knocks me down and it's not on purpose i want to love it dude i want to love it i want to be part of the team i want to get in that click but it's like i can't hardly make any headway there i don't know what it is it's like it's like there's a plexiglass wall that's coming up and it's keeping me from getting to that that back third of the play field you know i'm stuck on the screen man i'm stuck on the screen let me into your world um if you have any comments i love to have them don's pinball podcast at gmail.com is where you can get at me you're a wizard harry man we're gonna have harry potter here soon and then like forget all this tpf talk we'll be talking about like harry potter game it's gonna be here in a matter of weeks i can feel it barrels of fun is going to be dropping and we're going to see Kong and it's all going to drop right on top of each other like a pinball the spot show I can't wait um you know I love the chilled soup I love a vichyssoise like anybody else uh but if you want to get at me don's pinball podcast g1.com is the best way to do that I don't have any outro music here recording from the road from the heart of Wisconsin I mean Florida uh this is Don's Pinball Podcast signing off be good to yourself and each other. The proceeding was a paid advertisement by Don's Pinball Podcast. Be sure to email jeff at mattpinball.com. Not for an evil dead because he is sold out. Joe at Pinball Star may have some more left. For you in the studio, this is reporting live from Don Garrison. This is I Am Florida and goodbye.