back at it post star wars launch how are you doing everybody episode 206 let's get it on and discuss the state of pinball that we find ourselves in here in the year of our lord what is it 2025 still for a few more months let's hit it where's my music let's go podcasting from the worldwide headquarters of Don's Pinball Podcast, home of the WAP, home of the 3D Printer Farm. We're making cool, fun stuff direct to you. But for now, to your ears, how's everybody doing here? What is it, a week after the launch of Star Wars Fall of the Empire? I think for short is what most kids are calling it and LEs as it turns out are available I'm not sure exactly where this game is going to end up but I mean anything is possible look at Kong LE right now we're three months out of release from that game with the amazing looking back glass and that's about it that came specific with the LE but I'm seeing them go for $10,000 right now guys this game isn't even fully coded yet and it's phenomenal We were here last night with the whole crew from the Missing Pin Company, and I had my second best game on Kong ever. And the amazing thing was both my wife was playing and the bearded one, Wes, and they got to bear witness to me having a rare game that was amazing. It was about 350 million points or something. I nearly spelled King Kong. I was waiting for that K letter. But I was going from one multiball to the next to a mode to another mode. It was unstoppable, which is a game that rarely happens, that 1 in 40 or something. And it just so happens that that was the one game we played on it, and everybody was there to bear witness. And, of course, your boy played it off as if this was all routine for me. But I'm sweeping the drop targets. I'm hitting the biplane ramp multiple times in a row, comboing from the left orbit. What the heck? That's such a feel-good shot, and it's so difficult. And for some reason, I was in the zone. somebody, some ethereal spirit from the seventh level of Tortured Underworlds was like working through me as magic. It was fun. It's the reason I play pinball, man. Pinballs are fun. I like to make the blinky lights go. I like to drop the targets. But every so often, it's fun to have that game where it just seems like you cannot drain. And you're hitting shots with intention. Man, it was like I leveled up and I just put a new perk in the skill tree and it's like, let's go, man. So Star Wars did not bowl me over, personally, with the layout. Layout-wise, if I were to break this down like an Excel spreadsheet, I would put this game yes, above Venom, but right around the level of, I think, a John Wick. And part of that is only because Star Wars has two spinners on the orbits, and they're opto-spinners. I'm going to have fun ripping those every single time I hit them, and I'm going to be glad they are there. Thank God. Venom needed a spinner. Venom needed a spinner so bad that I put one in it. It wasn't hooked up to anything, but damn if it doesn't spin. It was like Opto Spinner style. Now, there is room in the left orbit of Venom and a hole in the plastic and some mounting area beneath it to just go into pinball life, pick yourself up a spin target, and just put it in there. So I think there was originally plans for it to be in there, and it was yanked for whatever reason. I would love to see a behind-the-music on Venom at some point because even though it wasn't the best seller, even though the gameplay wasn't super deep, we got a lot of innovations out there that we were seeing going forward, the leveling system in particular, uh, picking a character and having to make differences. Um, but I think there was a couple of things that were just keeping that game from being at least mid mediocrity and a spinner certainly would have helped with that. Um, I think putting some targets like if this game, Venom had the pop bumpers on either side, uh, such that star Wars did rather than hidden underneath with only one exit, which can we say a pop bumper nest where the ball can only exit in one way. what are we doing? What are we doing? We're getting points, but there's no randomness because you know exactly where it's going to feed out of. Regardless, you know, Venom was a game that brought us the fast locks. And Star Wars is a game that would have, I think, benefited from some kind of technology like this. You know, it's been talked to death now and everybody's acknowledged the fact that there's eight shots and a fan layout. The mechanisms there aren't terribly interesting and there's nothing there we haven't seen before and perhaps done even better. again, it's still Star Wars, it's going to be a fun game but it didn't wow me and it seems like it's missing an element such as a hyperspace loop on the premium LE or a little upper playfield area or while not a tilting Mandalorian helmet playfield but something like a fast lock would have been cool what if you could put balls up into the Death Star and rather than storing there, like some Imperial bank account, they would kick over into a fast lock system and pop back out Or get this. How about you shoot that Jabba shot, and as the ball is circling around the drain there, and you're standing staring at everything waiting for something to happen, a fast lock would, boom, put a ball right back into play. How about that? Or a Star Destroyer would fire that ball at you, you know, a la Wrath of the Relentless or something. Something like that. Like a menacing Death Star or Star Destroyer in the background that would fire cannons at you just to keep the gameplay moving. I think that would have elevated this game into stratospheric excellence. Also, can I just say, we heard that the reason that the foil art was not on the LE was due to making snow look a little blue. I think in exchange for the fact that the silver is going to look completely amazing and give the LE owners a feeling like they did really get something that can't be reproduced at Kinko's, a little bit of blue snow would be a small price to pay for that. And given the art team power that is at Stern Pinball right now, I'm sure there was a way to make some foil work. I mean, honestly? Honestly. But that notwithstanding, we have a game that, while it's going to be fun and probably earn well in location, is not shattering any records in terms of innovation or even making us feel overburdened by the amounts of interesting gameplay elements that are in there. Maybe another physical ball lock where you can actually see that you're locking balls, which is always fun, kinetic satisfaction. satisfaction. Otherwise, the Pez helmets, is that really where we're at? I mean, Deadpool had Deadpool in a hammock up on top of the ramp on the left. I mean, at least give me Darth Vader in a hammock with his lightsaber limply in his hand, a drink in his right side. The fall of the Empire is imminent, it's unavoidable, and the dude is just trying to live his best life as everything crumbles around him. He just threw the Emperor into a Death Star hole and he's just chilling, man. Like, give me that Vader on a hammock. Let's have fun with Star Wars. Now, a lot of this I'm not putting directly on the shoulders of Stern Pinball because, of course, they have to answer 100% to the licensor who would take a look at Darth kicked back in a space hammock, and that would be a strong no-go. You think it's hard to sell games in Europe now? How about put Darth Vader in a hammock? That definitely ain't going to happen. We would need to get Hankin back on for an unofficial release or something to do something like that. But hello, mod community, you're out there. Somebody give me Darth Vader in a hammock to replace that helmet, or damn it, I will do it my damn self. So the game's going to be fun. But I think I'll stick to what I said before. The LE package, particularly with the Spike 3 upgrades, that bigger screen, the better audio, all the lights are already in there. You don't need to fuss around putting in expression lights. I think everybody unboxing of LE of Star Wars here in the next couple of weeks is really going to like their game and the way it looks. And everybody that comes over to the house is going to ooh and ah on it, and you're going to turn up the audio and be like, listen, play this. And yes, that is very crisp audio. I totally dig it. And wow, that screen is so big. I can't wait to see what they have next. And then about three months later, maybe shorter if we get a remake sometime soon, and especially if that's in the new Spike 3 fleshed out system, I think that's when that luster will begin to lack for the game. So for the time being Star Wars Ellie is going to look amazing in your lineup because you got the brand newest best Star Wars toy with the cool screen and everything I just don think it has any more legs than the four that came with it out of the box if you get me If Kong can't do it, what is Star Wars going to do it? Has anybody come up with a pejorative name for Star Wars yet? Like Star Wick or something? You know when people were calling John Wick John Woke? Well, I don't agree so much with the sentiment. That was funny. That was funny and that was quick. So that was topical. So Star Woke wouldn't really work. That sounds stupid. But like Star Wick, because it's simple. Star Venom, Venom Star. Can we talk about the video mode in Venom for a second? I was thinking about this the other day. For a game that really needed to be firing on every cylinder, given its lack of pizzazz in the play field and mechanistic-wise, the video mode of Scream, a character that really doesn't even appear in the rest of the game or have any kind of relevance, was just strange. and then just grabbing these guys with your hair back and forth like a possessed zombie version of Willow Smith. I don't know what's going on here, man. But whipping your hair back and forth, while I guess interesting, was probably some bare minimum. I like the idea of video modes, man. Don't get me wrong. But Venom really could have came together if it utilized that Scream character. Maybe, if not as a scope in the game, at least as a gameplay element. As you're playing, Doppelganger will swing out and kind of take your attention away. What if there was a mode where Scream would momentarily take away your game for some hurry-ups or something? Similar to how Stranger Things goes into the upside-down there randomly and then just kind of shifts all of your attention towards hitting ramps or hitting the drop targets in order to beat off Vecna or some such. So I think there's still some creative code differences that would have helped elevate Lord Venom. But Lord Venom LE, if we're being honest, is sitting around $7,000 right now, one just sold on Pinside. and dang it, I was a little jealous I didn't pick that one up. I would have dropped my spinner back in it and been right back at home in a much more professional design cabinet. I sold my Venom Premium with extra armor on and art blades and all that I think for $8,500 back in the day and now for $1,500 less I could have the LE which looks fire by the way. We're going to keep Venom here as a case study for how to do LEs, right? Okay. The game that was in the box may not have tantalized to the extent that we would have liked, but damn it if that cabinet wasn't pretty, right? The foil art on the outside looked great. The laser-cut armor was fantastic. And here was the first and only time we saw this from Stern Pinball. They took some mirror art blades, or mirror blades, and then they laser-die-cut some art blades and stuck them on top of them and then stuck those into the cabinet. So you had LE-exclusive art blades that were mirrored, and it's done in such a way that it's much easier to do than a mirrored back glass or something. These are just mirror blades off the shelf, and then you just throw some art blades on there that are cut out for the mirroring effect and put them on there. Who is it? Is it Pin Graphics or is it Tilt Graphics or whoever that's doing the mirror blades now? And they charge like $400 or something for them. Correct me if I'm wrong on the price, but when I looked at them, while they do look fire, essentially all you're doing is getting a die-cut art blade stuck on a mirror blade and then you stick it in your cabinet. And it looks amazing, but several hundred dollars of amazing, is a bit of a stretch. Now here we have Star Wars, right? Mirror blades always look great in space-themed games. So what if there was some laser-cut art blades stuck on there, you know, with the hot scene and everything, the AT-AT walkers, the rebels in the base, the giant boob nipple gun, and then you had mirroring behind it, and like that was in there. And then you had sparkle foil with blue snow on the cabinet. I think that would have gave the last little bits to I think I'm really paying for something special here. and oh my god if they would have thrown a damn TIE fighter as a shooter rod or something give me something give me that giant boob nipple cannon from the Battle of Endor give me a probe droid which would have been topical you know something stuck on there just like we saw with Jaws Ali I mean Jaws Ali in the recent times is probably the best package that's come out deals good with that polar armor you got the shark bite in there and that mirroring on the underwater scene looks so phenomenal You mean to tell me that your artist cannot create a compelling snow scene that can be foiled when you saw it on Jaws? And that's an underwater scene, man. Maybe it's because the water was already blue. But there's where we're at right now on this game. I think it's going to come out, and everybody that opens that box and takes that game out is going to love it. It's going to be a stunner for about three months until we get the fully fleshed next game out. But thanks for putting the expression lights in there, by the way. I think that should be available in every game. And I want to speak to the strategy of not allowing that to be used in the pro. At first, I thought it was because Stern had a backlog of cabinets that they must have ordered, you know, thousands. And it's like these cabinets are not routed for expression lights. We're going to do expression lights, but what are we going to do with the cabinets if we switch over to that? Certainly, we're not going to go route them all. That would be hellacious. But then they make all their cabinets down the street. So I don't know that that applies. Now, I get that they want to have a point of difference and a reason to push people into the premium and LE tiers and have those buyers feel like they're getting more value. But what value are you gaining from the lack of an ability to spend $700 for sparkly lights for your machine? I don't know. I kind of think that, I mean, I as a premium owner, I did buy this game. I am getting one. I already have some expression lights I'm going to throw in there that came from another game. I'm going to do something creative with Art Blades, I think, with this one. But the fact that a person that owned a pro would have the ability to put expression lights in their game would not devalue my feeling and mine, I guess, necessarily. Maybe they think differently. Maybe I'm way off base. Let me know. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com is the way to get at the brother here. So what else is going on? Alice in Wonderland are still available in Australia. The game never sold out. It's still top of market. But Alice in Wonderland, a great-looking game. If you're the kind of guy or the kind of collector that wants to have a phenomenal-looking game in the corner of your game room that you never play anyway, this is your game, man. Lior and Stumbler did an incredible job with the lighting in here. Can we make lit armor a standard? It looks so good. You walk up to Alice in Wonderland and you've got that Alice in Wonderland quote that's laser-cut into the side armor. And then you've got the Stumbler lighting package underneath there behind it. The whole thing looks magical, man. And this is another game with a great-looking box where the gameplay inside of it is just kind of mediocre. And it's really, it doesn't serve the rest of the cabinet as phenomenal as it looks. $22,000 Australian or something. So it's still like $15,000 or $18,000 USD. Still seems a bit of a stretch for this game. Good on that guy for trying to get some money, though, from it. and you know Dutch Pinball from what I've experienced with them build quality isn't half bad takes a while to make games and I'm questionable on their themes now they had one that was absolutely incredible with the Big Lebowski and then I don't like this trend of going to these games that were just failed projects to begin with probably with reason and then resurrecting them I think there's better games that deserve to be resurrected from the past like whatever Python Angela was working on at the end there that, like, cost Valley Williams to switch to slot machines altogether. That Adam and Eve game or something. I've seen some pictures of the prototype, and it's mind-blowingly weird. Resurrect that. I'd rather have that than a Big Bang Bar or a, oh, God, a retro-atomic zombie adventure land. Please let those projects stay dead. There's no reason. Magic Girl is great to look at. It's fun to oogle at at expos. You know, let three people buy the existing ones for $40,000, and then let's just end it right there. I don't know that there's a reason to go back and try to make this into an actual playable game. The juice there is definitely not worth what you're going to get squoze out of it. That's a cursed project. Let it stay as a fun novelty and a reason to attend expos. Let some guy have that be the reason that people come over to his house so he can show it off. And if it is remade, it's not going to have the zombie yeti art, which is like 80% of the reason anybody cares about that game to begin with. it not for the 18 pounds of plastic that are inside there with that weird towering rotating ramp situation and the levitating ball mech that doesn work and probably is just flawed design to start with I just think, as I said this before, I think DPX is much better quality of people and game design and ingenuity and as an asset to the industry than this project and these rumored future projects. we'll see what happens who's making big bang bar is that pedretti that's been confirmed right and my friend canada told me i believe that pedretti is personally doing this game um it's another one that i don't know essentially if there's a reason to do this other than hey here's something we could do let's do it although this is the company um well i guess it's pinball brothers that decided to bring abba to market so i guess anything's anything uh we'll see what happens expo is coming up around the corner just a couple of weeks away now i think we're in the four week mark now do you have your hotel reservations how about this if you're looking for on-site hotels i've stated a couple other ones besides the renaissance which i'm sure by now is sold out at least for those special deal price rooms do as soon as expo ends go ahead and grab a reservation for next year from the renaissance just a half you can always cancel it um i always make it for like wednesday through Monday, and then as it gets closer, I cancel maybe the Wednesday, maybe the Thursday, definitely that Monday because there's no reason to stay that long, but at least I have it booked for the price, and then I hang on to it all year. So then if I decide to go to Expo, which of course I am, I'm staying on site, a short walk. If I want to have a spiked yoo-hoo or something, I'm allowed to do that. I don't have to worry about driving. I park once. I don't have to move my car. It's phenomenal. But it sells out, and other people want a hotel close by. So Don, what's your recommendation? And so far it's been to stay across the freeway over by the Woodfield Mall. That's where Interium is located. There's a Cafe Zupa that's over there. There's a metal-themed burger restaurant that I went to recently. What's the name of that? Google it. It's right by Trader Joe's there. There's a ton of business hotels that are all very clean, very nice, very affordable, half the cost of the Renaissance. And, yes, you could walk your drunk, inebriated self across the freeway to Expo. It's technically walking distance. Otherwise, you could drive, and then they generally have plenty of parking, although you may have to hike a little bit. But that's been my go-to. I recently stayed at, I think it's called the Wyndham Garden Inn Hotel, and it's actually on the other side of what looks like some housing projects across a little pond from the Expo Center. So if you go and look at where you would be parking if you showed up midday on a Saturday, way out at the far end of the parking lot, there's a bunch of, I think they're apartments or condos, and then across from that is this place called the Wyndham Garden Hotel or something. It's okay. I've stayed in much worse. Trust me. I just came back from South Padre Island. So it's definitely serviceable, approachable. It's walking distance for sure. There's plenty of parking. There's some restaurants nearby, but most of the stuff will be over on the other side of the Woodfield Mall. But if you're looking for something that's walking distance and will serve you adequately, and as a bonus it even smells like Indian curry all throughout the hotel which was phenomenal. I felt like I was back in Delhi. Loved it. Staff was super chill and yeah, it's a little bit run down. You can tell that an extended family lives in the hotel but it felt safe. It was close by. They have a free shuttle to the airport and so in a pinch if I needed to go to Expo, I didn't have a place to stay and that place was cheaper than Woodfield. The walk is much closer. Felt safe. Worked good. There's my review. I'd give it 3.2 stars. Okay. The Renaissance, I would get five out of five because it's absolutely phenomenal. It accomplishes everything, and it's right there. But what I would do is pick a room at, say, this Wyndham, use that to crash, and then otherwise hang out at the hotel bars and lounges as if you were staying at the Renaissance anyway. I think that's a way to go. Construction update for Expo. They're building something that they absolutely need, and that is a multi-story parking structure. It's nearly done. The superstructure is finished. It's right next to the hotel. They had this parking lot to the west of the hotel, the immediate west right there. That is gone. That is now a giant parking structure. But it looks like they still haven't laid down the asphalt to enter the facility. And so they've got four weeks to crack this thing open by Expo. And I don't think they're going to make it based on how it looked. I think it will probably be a little bit later in the season. So parking may be a little bit tighter than normal at Expo here, which is another win for the Wyndham because it's walking distance. You don't have to cross the freeway. It is closer than the Woodfield Mall. Put that out there. Go check it out. They're also putting one of those indoor go-karting facilities attached to this as well. So that is nowhere near ready to open yet, but the superstructure, again, is there. So probably Expo 26, the 42nd one or whatever, will be the one where we're all having drunk go-kart battles with the remnants of whatever company still exists by that late date. And maybe we'll be able to pick up a Star Wars LE for $9,000 too by that point. Maybe we'll raffle one off to whoever wins the go-kart championship. But I was recently on site there. I actually stayed at that Wyndham when I went to the Star Wars Media Day event at Stern Pinball. Shout out that day that I was hanging out with Jeff and Corbin from Mad Pinball. Jeff at MadPinball.com. Get yourself on a list. Get yourself a game. Use code WAP. Get yourself some swag. Phenomenal guy. Always fun to hang out. And so I had some time during dealer day when I wasn't technically allowed to go into the factory. So I went over to the Expo Center in anticipation of Pinball Expo. I was so excited for it that I showed up about five to six weeks early, and there was some international packaging and logistics expo going on. So, like, imagine our hobby if we were, like, super interested in layouts of conveyor belts and Amazon warehouses. This was your jam, and it absolutely was jammed. So I happened to be, you know, dressed in semi-professional wear. At least, you know, I looked like I worked at an Office Depot. So I wandered over the show floor and did a quick little live stream. It's available there on Facebook. Met a lot of interesting characters. And, man, the vibes here were as high as they are at Expo. And it was all about, like, new packaging methods for cardboard boxes and, you know, end-to-end point logistical solutions, I guess they call it. And these people were all dressed up, drinking, and having a blast at this freaking Expo. So that was interesting. I even saw the Blues Brothers there, so I looked around for Home Pin to see if I could see them. Jake and Elwood were just walking around the convention floor. Madness. I saw guys in furry hats. What is going on in the world of logistics that I'm missing? Who is my counterpart in this world? Who's doing Don's logistical podcast? Let me meet that guy and buy one of his T-shirts. I looked around because I'm like, where's the Canada of logistics and point-to-point shipping? Because you know he exists. And then it dawned on me, well, he's probably been banned from the International Boxing Expo as well. And he's probably ranting and raving on his Patreon. Can you imagine being on a Patreon listening to logistical podcasters? It's got to exist, right? Our world is like a tangential dimension, which probably has the same characters just redressed in some other bizarre hobby that somebody is probably boring their friends at work with. Listen, the tangent right here, but I think I'd much rather be bored by somebody talking pinball and fun games and innovative themes than it would somebody talking about end-to-end point solutions for that last mile of travel for boxes and packages. But here we are in 2025. What else have we got? Oh, hey, guys. I got a new segment. Let me see. Do I have a sound drop? It's time for the Multimorphic Minute. I'm here, Don. I will talk about this. Maybe let's call it the Multimorphic Moment because it might not be a full minute. So the new scavengers are out there watching for the latest landings of the portal module from Multimorphic. And so far to date, we have not seen it. Of course, it made its debut at the Texas Pinball Festival here back there in March, which has been seven months or so hence today, yet nothing has gone out. We did see Sir Kerry Hardy make himself a visit and chat with, I think, two or three of the employees that were on site there. He must have went right at lunchtime when everybody in the factory was out at lunch. but it looked like portals were being bolted together so have any portals made it out yet I've yet to see one unboxing I'm waiting urgently for that because I purchased two of the portal shirts from Brad Brad Albright because I think his art on portal looked amazing I a big Portal fan a big proponent of this game It is perennially game of the show regardless of competition and so I want to be a big Portal booster So I bought myself a T-shirt, and I said, heck it, send me two. So I bought two T-shirts, and the plan was I was going to do a live stream and give away this extra-large Portal T-shirt with Brad Brad Albright's work on it to a member of the public. And I've been sitting on it here next to me on my workbench, waiting for the right time, and it dawned on me, like, to celebrate the shipping and the opening of Portal once it's finally in production, going out to customers, that would be a great time to go ahead and do that. And then here I am, still waiting for that unboxing, man, where it is. This has been your Multimorphic Moment. What else is going on at Pinball, you guys? I was just having fun, man. I'm trying to get caught up on everybody's content, man. Kerry Hardy's been slaying it, of course, doing all his YouTube business and such. Did that tour of Texas. I still need to watch that full video. He visited our friend Chris Turner down at Turner Pinball. Dude is turnering out games, man, because we're seeing his latest Merlin's Arcade game. It went to ULEC Arcade. It went to some others as well. So if you've got a barcade, right, that's in your city, like Tilt in Minneapolis, Electric Bat, you know, the Pinball Palace, One-Up Lounge. What's some of the other ones? What's some of the other ones? Free Play Florida. That's not an arcade. That's an event. What is that one? Next level. Next level. Like, if you've got a pinball destination, Interium, you know, maybe that one would work. Galloping Ghost, something like that. Like, Logan's Arcade, right? If you've got a place that just kind of has everything and is known for having kind of rare and quirky stuff, Merlin's Arcade is absolutely the game that should be there. If you've got a cabin and you have your grandkids over and you want them to have something to play, I think that's another good place for this to be. So I'm glad these games are getting out there, and I'm hoping that we'll see some rumors of what their next follow-up game will be. Will it be licensed? Will it not be? I'll tell you what, when you lift the play field, there'll be the coolest integrated light board that exists in pinball now. Like, you open that game, and aside from some coils, it's just like two massive LED boards where everything's all integrated in there. correct me if I'm wrong but Chris you know all this stuff he understands integrated circuitry much better than I ever will and the things look clean like if the playfield for Merlin's Arcade was on a rotisserie you could flop it over and serve your family lunch on it it's that clean you can eat off the bottom of the playfield probably will void your warranty especially if liquids are involved but damn it if you couldn't do it so that was super fun so thanks Kerry for taking a little tour of Texas I'm not going to leave out barrels of fun either. I'll say this. I was thinking of this the other day. I went to Media Day at Barrels of Fun for Dune and I had a great time there. The only thing I could say negatively about the whole day is I wish I had some more time on Dune itself. They did a great tour of all of us. It's always fun to hang out with David Van Es and the crew down there. They took us out for lunch. We got Mexican food, which in Houston kind of slaps. The whole time I was just thinking, gosh darn it, I've got a flight coming up soon, because I've got to fly up for, I think that was Kong Day I was going to the next day. So I didn't have time to really go back to the factory and hang out and really kind of satiate in this new Dune experience. And when I contrast that with my day at Star Wars at Stern, which I'm very happy I was invited to, I loved it, I had a lovely time, brought one of my Patreon listeners with me, I really want to go back for the next title and the next one after that and the next one after that. But I found that when I was playing Star Wars, I played all three versions. I went into the 15 minutes in heaven in the closet with it, myself and Enzo, and we just got our fingers all over the game. It was crazy. But when I came back out, I really just wanted to go and play some of the other Stern games that were out there in the lobby. They had a Star Trek Premium, which I absolutely will take an opportunity to play that now. It's one of my favorite games that I still haven't gotten yet. They had a Mustang there that Enzo was playing. And then I was just talking with everybody, and then I noticed something. We had these Star Wars games that were still there, and then I think I wandered over and I played a Foo Fighters just because it was completely decked out and it's in the streaming area. I was more interested in that than I was going through and putting another 10 games through Star Wars. When I contrast that with my time at Barrels of Fun, all I wanted to do was just have more time to play more Dune. So that was a little strange. And I don't know if that speaks to just how excited I was to be there. I had to leave early for work from Stern too as well. But once I played Star Wars, the first two or three games, I managed to interact with all the mechanisms. I think I saw everything that's in there aside from, of course, the Vader modes and what wizard modes may come. And Insider Connected wasn't functioning on the game yet. It was Wi-Fi connected, but I don't think they've launched the awards and everything. It's still a little preliminary. So there's still some more gameplay to discover. But as far as sitting there and repeating the hyperspace ramp, I did it. Putting a ton of balls through Jabba's toilet, I did it. Lighting up the Stormtrooper helmet, did that loads of times. Ripped spinners both ways I couldn't get the magnet mechanism to work I think it may work differently than what I'm used to Once a Black Knight Sword of Rage But I was kind of like Alright, I think I've seen everything there is to see now In this game, I've explored it all What else do you got for me? Is there food? Can I go get a Diet Coke? How about another factory tour with Kyle? That was fun Where's Jack Danger at? I don't want to go fake like I'm going to shake his hand But it's in a sling and he can't do it I didn't do that to the poor guy Man, there's some tall guys over at Stern I think they win the vertically integrated award for corporate pinball at the moment. But I don't know. It's like Star Wars. I love Star Wars. I own Richie's Star Wars. I'm not getting rid of it. And I even mentioned a year ago that they could go ahead and just do another original trilogy machine, and I think that would be okay. I don't feel like they'd be stepping on the theme at all. More Star Wars, please. I'm one of those guys. But the game was there, and I played it, and it was like, okay, I did the Death Star thing. I guess I made the AT-AT collapse. I got the multiball, but I didn't really notice he was even moving. There was no moment where the ball stops and all of a sudden a strobe light goes off and it plays some sound effects and you can see this thing teetering down as it plays the scene on the screen. Didn't see that. Could be fixed with code. Didn't see that. And then what else is there? Just the orbit on the other side. Very simple game. Very cool license. I'm hoping for deep gameplay so it all comes together. But I think that may speak to why we're seeing some people back off from their LE orders. I've even heard of some games going for below MSRP. And this is at launch for Star Wars, which is a dynamite theme as far as licenses go. You don't get much bigger than that. And they've cut the production down by 230 numbers from their 1,000, which, again, I think is a great choice. And it comes on the new Spike 3 platform. And it comes with the $700 expression lights already in there. and it comes with the extra speakers and it comes with the new speaker lights, which are going to cost me several hundred dollars when I go to install them in my premium. What it doesn't come with is like a deep galaxy-sized soul of Star Wars that's in there, compelling gameplay that I want to explore, a larger Death Star. Where the hell are the droids? Why is that a Stormtrooper helmet and not R2 right there and his friends all blinking and lighting? How come they don't exist as, oh, imagine this. If a la Cactus Canyon there was four stand-up targets that would pop up and they would be astromech droids or something. Boop, boop, boop, boop. And you go ahead and hit them all to activate them, and that fixes the hyperdrive, and then everything goes nuts and blows up into a victory multiball. How much fun would that be? How much fun is pinball in general? Go ahead and get at me. You know where to find me. And I'll be back next time for more gritting, cutting information. I think we'll call this episode 206. Thank you for joining. Don's Pinball Podcast at gmail.com is the straight line of communication to me. Go ahead and kick me your thoughts. Also on Patreon, patreon.com backslash donspinballpodcast. Support the show, get entered in drawings, and get fast information and rumor confirmations when they happen. Late-breaking news happens there. Take care of yourself and each other. Let's be cool and go play some pinball.