DPP #35 "Laid back speculation and review! Check out my Pinwoofers!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·19m 55s·analyzed·Apr 19, 2023

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

New company Pinball Adventures news + PinWoofer speaker review + Elton John rumor + budget engineering market analysis.

Summary

Don discusses hot news from Pinball Adventures (a Canadian company) announcing Punny Factory and teasing Elements for October Expo reveal. He reviews PinWoofer speakers ($370) installed in Elvira Premium, praising audio richness and ease of installation. He speculates on Jersey Jack potentially releasing an Elton John music pin this year, discusses broader industry trends in budget engineering (reduced features at higher prices across manufacturers), and announces plans for an unboxing and installation livestream when his Foo Fighters Premium arrives.

Key Claims

Pinball Adventures (Canadian company) has released trailers for Punny Factory and teased Elements, with Elements reveal coming at October Pinball Expo
high confidence · Don states he saw multiple videos 'one minute ago on Nap Arcade' including launch trailer, behind-the-scenes video, and teaser for Elements
PinWoofer speakers cost $370 and include amplifier, backbox speakers, and cabinet subwoofer as an integrated package
high confidence · Don explicitly states 'they come in a bit pricey at $370 for the package' and describes components included
Jersey Jack Godfather is in production with CE models beginning to enter the line
high confidence · Don states 'it's in production right now the CE is making its way onto the line hopefully soon'
Rumor: Jersey Jack is developing an Elton John music pin designed by Steve Ritchie
medium confidence · Don says 'The strongest rumor I've heard...we're going to get another music pin from Jersey Jack in the form of Elton John' but notes this is unconfirmed
Stern Premium models ship without art blades, shaker motors, and knockers, requiring $250+ in upgrades to feel 'complete'
high confidence · Don describes his experience: 'I've got to have art blades I've got to have a shaker kit and I've got to have a knocker kit...about 250 or so of upgrades'
Stern Premium machines retail for $9,700 when delivered new
high confidence · Don states 'we're paying $9,700 for these games to be delivered to our house brand new'
American Pinball's Galactic Tank Force Deluxe includes $800 worth of aftermarket upgrades (art blades, playfield lights) in base MSRP of $8,995
high confidence · Don calculates 'if you were to buy these aftermarket...it's about an $800 value. So the game is essentially $9,000'
PinWoofer installation difficulty is 2-3 out of 5, took Don approximately one hour with standard tools
high confidence · Don details installation process: 'In difficulty, out of five, this is two to three...Took me about an hour altogether'

Notable Quotes

“any company that can not only launch a game or reveal a game, but actually make them and deliver them gets full marks to me”
Don Garrison @ ~5:30 — Reflects community concern about manufacturing reliability and ability to deliver; sets expectation bar for new manufacturers like Pinball Adventures
“they make the Stern stock speakers look like something from the dollar store, honestly”
Don Garrison @ ~18:30 — Strong endorsement of PinWoofer quality compared to Stern standard speakers; visceral product comparison
“it just sounded richer in a way that I can't convey over a speaker or over the internet. I mean, you have to hear them in person.”
Don Garrison @ ~20:00 — Acknowledges limitation of audio product reviews in digital media; explains why in-person experience matters for speaker products
“budget engineering...we're paying more for these products now than we were a few years ago, and we're also receiving less”
Don Garrison @ ~24:30 — Core industry critique: identifies shrinkflation/feature reduction trend across pinball manufacturing and broader industries
“is there going to be a demand for an elton john machine...is this going to drive sales in the way that Guns N' Roses was?”
Don Garrison @ ~29:00 — Expresses skepticism about licensing choice; questions whether Elton John has same market appeal as Guns N' Roses despite strong music catalog

Entities

Pinball AdventurescompanyPunny FactorygameElementsgameDon GarrisonpersonPinWooferproductStraight Down the Middlemedia Jersey Jack Pinballcompany

Signals

?
announcement: Pinball Adventures officially announces Punny Factory with launch/reveal/behind-the-scenes trailers; Elements teaser trailer released with October Expo reveal date
high · Don confirms watching freshly released videos from Pinball Adventures on Nap Arcade minutes before recording; describes multiple trailer formats and release schedule
?
machine_intel: Jersey Jack rumored to be developing Elton John music pinball designed by Steve Ritchie; unconfirmed but described as 'strongest rumor' with credibility from past accurate predictions
medium · Don states 'The strongest rumor I've heard...strong pinball rumors so far have come true, or at least have had a strong kernel of truth' but acknowledges it's unconfirmed speculation
?
product_launch: Jersey Jack Godfather CE models entering production line; timing unknown but expected to roll out soon after LE completion
high · Don reports conversation with distributor: 'the limited editions have completed and we are looking at premiums going on the line. They might be on the line right now'
?
product_concern: Stern Premium machines ship without art blades, shaker motors, and knockers; these features are coded but require $50-$150+ aftermarket purchases to enable
high · Don describes mandatory $250 in upgrades needed for 'complete' experience: 'there's a knocker option in all of the Sterns, but it defaults to speaker...The shaker motor is programmed into the code, but you're going to miss out on that tactile feedback unless you have the $109 to buy the kit'
$
market_signal: Industry-wide budget engineering trend: manufacturers increasing prices while reducing included features/components; Stern moving this strategy more aggressively than American Pinball or Spooky

Transcript

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0:00

I hope you're ready for some hot new pinball news here on a Tuesday. What's up, everybody? Don's Pinball Podcast is back, and I'm in effect right into your ear holes for episode number 35. Was planning on just a chill episode today, but moments ago, some news dropped from our buddies over there at Pinball Adventures. Who's that? That's right. Going to get into a little bit of that and some more speculation and some product reviews today. I got it all for you guys, dude. Welcome to the week.

0:33

Let's get started. Give me my drop. Man, came in here to just kind of kick back and I was going to review a few things with you, talk about some speculation, and then boom, some news like freshly dropped one minute ago on Nap Arcade. I hit that just to see what was going on and Pinball Adventures has dropped a handful of trailers for us. So this is, from what I understand, a Canadian company that's been working on some machines for a while now, kind of under the radar. But have you heard of Punny Factory? Yeah, it's a game that literally is a joke, right? So this is a game roughly designed around puns that have escaped from some fictitious joke factory, and you've got to go and collect them.

1:15

Introductory game, and from what I've been talking to some people involved in its production, this is kind of the first thing to get out there, get some sales, get some excitement going, get something new so that they can then build on some other projects, which they have in the works. And they have released several videos. One is a launch trailer, a reveal trailer for Pony Factory with more to come in about a week from what it said. There's another video going into the production of it behind the scenes. And then there's another game called Elements that they dropped a little teaser trailer for. So that looks fun. That looks exciting. And it looks like in October at Pinball Expo, we're going to get the reveal of Elements, right? And so from just watching the video briefly, it looks like it could be on some kind of quest going after the five elemental creatures or some such. So that's exciting news, particularly if they can actually make this happen. I mean, any company that can not only launch a game or reveal a game, but actually make them and deliver them gets full marks to me. and then we can talk and bicker about whether or not we think it's worth the price, which that hasn't been released at all yet. But I'm going to go through and watch these videos here a little more later to go into some detail, but it's exciting anytime something new is brought out, especially if this is coming from a place of passion, of pinball enthusiasts that want to put something together. Punny Factory, not a licensed theme, but it'll be nice to see a new game out there to play. I know we've had things like Spinal Tap released or revealed, but it's not really even out there. Haggis Pinball is slowly churning out content, so good for them that are actually making it out. But I'll be interested to see a new company that comes out if they can make games and get them shipped. Wouldn't that be fantastic? So that's some hot, brand new news. I almost burned my fingers on it. But this week, I was the recipient, finally, of a set of pinwoofer speakers. And that's kind of what I wanted to kick back and talk a little bit about this Tuesday. Now, pinwoofer is a company. This guy is an audio engineer, and he came up with his own speakers for pinball machines. Not just the speakers, though. Not just the back box speakers and the subwoofer for the cabinet speaker, but also an amplifier. And that was really its main difference. Now, I've seen the reviews on some of the other channels. Straight Down the Middle did a great review on it. These things are, you know, they come in a bit pricey at $370 for the package. But I've been wanting to go on this because, you know, the reviews all sound great. I mean, I haven't heard or seen a bad review of these speakers. And they look to be pretty beefy and of good quality. But that's hard to come through in a YouTube video, you know, because I'm just watching on my PC speakers or my headphones or the earpods. So I can't appreciate, you know, really what they're talking about. You know, are these speakers just increasing volume? But from what the reviews were saying, they come through with a more richness of the sound. And that's due to the amplifier that's able to actually bring out a lot of that programming that doesn't come through the standard, in this case for me, Stern Spike 2 speakers. So in short, is it good? Yeah, I like it. I like these speakers. I've been waiting for an opportunity to try these out. and I've got a Foo Fighters on the way and I think a music pin would probably be the best choice for a set of speakers like this. I don't have it yet though and I did have the speakers and I've got an Elvira Premium. So I went through those bad boys in Elvira. Now, this may not be the best game to kind of fully test these things because a lot of it is movie clips a lot of it is spoken word with Elvira and call But I did notice that kind of richness that breadth of music a breadth of range and fullness that people were talking about So I'm still working with the equalizations to get them finally tuned in and everything. But I did follow the instructions and the install, first off, was fairly straightforward. In difficulty, out of five, this is two to three, fairly straightforward. You don't have to break down a whole lot of other equipment. That jerry ramp was a solid 4.5 install when I put that into Rick and Morty. So that was definitely a little more daunting. But this is easily doable with a nut driver, a razor knife, and a screwdriver. Had no problem swapping these out. It was plug and play, essentially, and then just, you know, placing the wires where they need to go. There's a few components that you do have to kind of install, double-stick tape, or plug into a spike board. But other than that, fairly straightforward. So easy to install. I had a good time playing with that. It took me about an hour altogether, and I was watching the very handy YouTube video that accompanied it. So I fire up the game, and I got the volume adjusted. Yeah, these are loud without screaming at me. But what I did notice, and it was kind of subtle. At first, I wasn't blown away by this awesome room-filling sound like I was expecting, like you would get from a home theater system or something. But as I was playing, I was noticing that during the modes, when the music would play in the background, I was noticing the music more, and I was noticing some nuance within it that came out.

11:30

But, you know, is this going to drive sales in the way that Guns N' Roses was, where it was just aggressively aggressive and intense with its light show and its music and its marketing and its attitude? Like, you know, Guns N' Roses had attitude when it came out. I mean, everybody was clamoring to get one. and the mid-range package looked fantastic. So I just don't see Elton John doing this, but we don't know yet what's coming out. They likely have several games along the development cycle and maybe they have another game that they would rather put on the line in front of this. It's all going to depend on a lot of market factors and everything. And so I was thinking a bit about market factors and we've seen pinball prices go up and I think what we're seeing is something that's like budget engineering, right? We've for sure seen this with Stern. Now, basically, we are paying more for these products now than we were a few years ago, and we're also receiving less. And so the gist of it, the tendency is that you look at your return, you look at your market, and you look at what that sweet spot is. How high, how far can you push the price before you start turning off buyers? And we're not just seeing it with Stern and Jersey Jack that we are seeing with them, But we see it with other companies like Disney. We see it with people producing food products and things where there's, you know, less lucky charms in your box in order to kind of, you know, curb profits and try to head off, you know, supply chain issues and inflation and whatnot. So, you know, we've seen that here with, you know, Stern. When we get a premium from Stern, you know, we get these, you know, cheap little speakers. They come and they don't have the Artblades. They don't have the shaker motor. They don't have the knocker. I mean, those are all things that you have to add. right now you know I have a couple of stern premiums on order I think they make a great product I think they're great designed machines I think the art is great I think the talent there is fantastic but when I bring it into my house I've got to have art blades I've got to have a shaker kit and I've got to have a knocker kit to put in there just to feel that it's complete you know so it's about 250 or so of upgrades I need to put in their machine just to bring it to where I think the game is at least you know fully complete where I can take advantage of you know all the options that are in the machine. I mean, there's a knocker option in all of the Sterns, but it defaults to speaker when you get it because there's not that physical device in there. That's a $50 purchase. The shaker motor is programmed into the code, but you're going to miss out on that tactile feedback unless you have the $109 to buy the kit and put it in. And then, you know, the Artblaze just complete the look. I don't want to look at black, you know, call me bougie, but, you know, I don't want to look at just the black inside playfields. I want to look at, you know, the art that's in there, whether it's the official Stern ones or some of the after marches, which are fantastic. Like for my guys at Tilt Graphics that I bought things from. So, you know, but I'm seeing that budget engineering, you know, we're paying $9,700 for these games to be delivered to our house brand new if we get them new in box. And then it's like another, you know, $250 to go ahead and add these things in there. And I kind of wish that that was built in. So that's kind of a nod I will give to people like American Pinball. I mean, Galactic Tank Force is newly released. Reviews are kind of all over the place on the spectrum. People love it. People vehemently hate it. Other people are indifferent I kind of on I like it I like the game You know I haven ordered one though You know and that all that always you know the retort you know well I really like this game Yeah but have you ordered one Well well no You know but I have ordered other games. So it's not, you know, it's not Foo Fighters. I'm ordering one of those. But then again, for me personally, you know, it's not a Scooby Doo, and I have one of those on order. But what I do appreciate is with Galactic Tank Force, let's look at the base model that they sell right now, which is the deluxe. Apparently there will be a classic version beneath that. But for right now, the deluxe version will set you back $8,995. According to MSRP sticker, you get the game. But in addition, this comes with art blades. This comes with the play field lights, similar to the, uh, what do you call them? Uh, the,