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. Let's get started. Give me my drop. Man, came in here to just kind of kickback 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. 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 Puny 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 kickback 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 backbox 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. And comparing the speakers that came with the Stern machines now versus these very nice, beefy, pinwoofer speakers, I mean, they make the Stern stock speakers look like something from the dollar store, honestly. I couldn't wait to get them out of there once I actually compared them side to side. These speakers have beefy magnets on them. they look well made well designed and they're easy to install um but yeah as i was playing and then you know my wife would play and i'd kind of listen along um we both started noticing like a lot more nuance and and it's hard to describe but like that richness of the audio like um almost as if it was a multi-track recording that you were hearing and you could pick out the individual parts you know you could pick out that back bass track you could pick out some of the um some of the highs there and some of the more you know mid-range effects and things 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. So, you know, at the risk of placing my family at great financial peril, I went ahead and purchased a set of these. And so that's my first, you know, kind of go over review. What I want to do is stick them into Foo Fighters when that comes and really challenge it with some actual studio produced music from a professional music band, you know, something that was, you know, studio mixed and really see how that richness comes out. And that'll be able to give kind of a full review. But in short, I mean, should you buy these? Well, I mean, you know, they are pricey. I would say if you've got a game at home and you've got, you know, one game and that's your game and you love it and you want to have the best version of it possible, then that's what I would put them into. You know, currently I'm busting at the seams with six pinball machines here, and I don't think I'm going to drop $2,000 putting a set of these into every machine, though I think they would all benefit from it. But I think for the right machine in your lineup, one that you're going to have some longevity with, I think it does make sense to go for this if it's affordable to you. And affordable in pinball is a very loaded term given our multi-thousand dollar toppers that we are purchasing for these machines now. But for $370, it is a bit of an investment. Definitely does add quality to it, and I would like to try it in a music pin next. But for now, my Elvira is sounding just rich, I guess is how I would explain it. And this isn't going to come across in a video. I mean, they didn't come across in the reviews that I saw. But that's my first kind of past review of the Pinnwoofer speaker system. I think it's a plus. I definitely like it. And I think it would plus up a machine that you have that you care very much about and plan on having for a while is what I would say. But I think really any machine would benefit from it. moving on I covered the pinball adventures we got punny factor we got elements what's on the horizon now there is talk about Jersey Jack releasing another game this year and well people are you know conjecturing do you think they will do you think they won't I think we got Godfather a bit early in the year in Q1 it's in production right now the CE is making its way onto the line hopefully soon so it can get out to the public and people can actually play it so I guess it's going to depend on the demand for this game. I'm not seeing a lot of the fervor and just great success of Guns N' Roses, where they went ahead and just started churning out thousands of this game and were able to keep the line moving But they don release numbers We not privy to them I guess what going to tell us ultimately if we going to see another Jersey Jack game released this year is going to be as we get through the summer you know how aggressive the distributor ads are. If we start seeing, you know, games loading up on the pin side resale market, you know, indicating that there's kind of like a glut in the market, I think that's when we could kind of expect to see a correlation with, you know, slower production. so that there's not an overabundance of these games. And then, you know, if they need to keep the line moving, we may see the next one. So what are the rumors? The strongest rumor I've heard, and from what I said before in the past, you know, strong pinball rumors so far have come true, or at least have had a strong kernel of truth to them. We're going to get another music pin from Jersey Jack in the form of Elton John. Sir Elton John's pinball machine from Mr. Steve Ritchie, Mr. Black Knight, Mr. Shao Kahn himself. you know at first this seems like a bit of a weird choice i really want jersey jack to kind of just hit one out of the park again like they did with guns and roses like take a great licensed theme that's going to be very popular like you know movie franchise or something and just like make us another pirates of the caribbean a loaded play field um which is tons of things to do where there's large mechanisms in addition to those ball paths especially with the new flippers that system that they have um so is there going to be a demand for an elton john machine uh i I like Sir Elton's music. I mean, I think a lot of his songs have good high energy. It's not all candle in the wind. 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, uh, what do you call them? Uh, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, so more invisible. I've added all those up if you were to buy these aftermarket, and it's about an $800 value. So the game is essentially $9,000, but you're getting $800 of what would be aftermarket upgrades. And I hope American Pinball holds on to this quality where they put these things in there. Spooky Pinball does this too with their CE levels of Scooby-Doo are around $9,000. $9,700, blanking on the price here, but it's right around there. under $10,000, but you get, you know, shakers, art blades, art, custom side rails. I mean, essentially like a top tier level equivalent to, you know, an LE that you would get from Stern. And even then you might not get a knocker, but those are included with Spooky plus good speakers. So I do like that value that I'm seeing it. So we are seeing budget engineering really with every company, but some more than others, you know, but all that being said, you know, Stern's getting away with it. You know, their games are selling like hotcakes. I mean, that's not a barrier, so you cannot fault them for that. But it's just something we're seeing not only in this industry, but really all industries right now. But for me, when I look at, you know, the mods, I need to have R-Blade Shaker Knocker for sure. So moving along, I do have a Foo Fighters ordered. I did get the email. I think premiums will be going on the line. I talked to my distributor buddy, and it looks like the limited editions have completed and we are looking at premiums going on the line. They might be on the line right now for all we know. Um, so I'm hoping that that'll come out in the next two weeks or so. I've got, uh, the, the shaker, the knocker already ordered in my house, ready to go. I've got my pinwheel for speakers. I'm going to be throwing in that Foo Fighters. What I am waiting on is the art blades. Cause I'm still hopeful that we'll get an expression light kit, which does come with the art blades for that. Um, I hope it's not another two year wait, um, or so like it's been with a brush. but I'm hopeful for that otherwise I would have our plates ready to go now do you want to watch an unboxing video of the new Foo Fighters premium when it comes in because homeboy is doing one I'll be posting on the Facebook page once I know when I'm getting this game I think later that day I'm going to go ahead and do a live stream and show the unboxing what it's like to set up one of these games what it's like to play them for the first time and then I'm going to do a video of the install of the shaker motor of the knocker kit of the the pin woofer speakers and then we can Go ahead and fire the whole thing up and try it again. It'll be a long, rambling live stream for you guys to enjoy. So I've gotten some positive feedback when I floated this today. So dang it, I'm going to do it. Give me some air horns. So, I mean, that's kind of – That was not the right button. Let's try this one. So kind of having a low-key Tuesday, I just want to kind of get on and get some of these thoughts out there and off my mind. I want to give a review of the pinwoofer speaker system because I think it's great. I like that rich audio that it does have. I haven't noticed like it bring out a lot of bass drops like I get with the spooky machines, but maybe I don't have it in the right machine yet, you know? So let's wait and see how it does with Foo Fighters and I'll give like a final review on it. But if you've been on the fence, you know, and you've got the 370 and you've got a game that you really think you're going to be keeping around for a while, it is a way to really bring out the full potential of the audio of your game. So, I mean, I'd go ahead and get one, you know, if you're of that persuasion, right? Anything else? Why don't you guys go ahead and hit me up, Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com or even on the Facebook site. I'm on Instagram, y'all, now at Don's Pinball Podcast. So give me a follow there too. I'm uploading content like crazy, just trying to keep this train going. I love everybody that's reached out online. We're having some great conversations and some great fun in the pinball space. So just get your mellow on, get your dinner in the oven, get your TV going, get your Netflix, get your Disney Plus, Let's just ride and let's just vibe, right? Just vibing, fam. All right, be good. Later, guys.