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Ep 117: Building Bonfires with Zizzle and Don Garrison

LoserKid Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 10m·analyzed·Sep 8, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Don Garrison discusses his rapid podcast growth, 10-game collection, Spooky collaboration, and mystery pinball manufacturers.

Summary

Don Garrison from Don's Pinball Podcast joins hosts Josh Roop and Matt Scott Larson to discuss his rapid rise in pinball content creation (66 episodes in under a year), his 10-machine collection, his podcast launch, community mods, and factory visit to Spooky Pinball. The hosts also discuss emerging mystery pinball manufacturers using Fast Pinball boards, the Scooby-Doo widebody reception, and market softening in the pinball industry.

Key Claims

  • Don Garrison started his podcast in January 2026 and has already released 66 episodes

    high confidence · Josh Roop introduces Don and mentions he's at episode 66, with the hosts noting it took them 2 years to reach 100 episodes

  • Don currently owns 10 pinball machines and recently hit 500 followers on his podcast

    high confidence · Don states 'I'm up to 10, which is crazy to say out loud' and Josh congratulates him on hitting 500 followers

  • Spooky Pinball is getting into streaming and was looking to stream a Rick and Morty machine

    high confidence · Don describes streaming with Spooky Pinball on their Twitch channel with his Rick and Morty

  • Spooky Pinball has stated they will not make another run of Rick and Morty but may create something new with the Adult Swim/Warner Bros license if there is demand

    high confidence · Don explains that Spooky indicated they're in good with licensing and would do 'something completely new and different' rather than remake Rick and Morty

  • Scooby-Doo has been well-received on location and performs well with operators

    medium confidence · Don reports 'I've heard that from some operators, yeah. You know, it's a fun game.' regarding Scooby-Doo's location performance

  • A mystery pinball manufacturer is using Fast Pinball boards and revealing game details through partial images

    medium confidence · Hosts discuss seeing a mystery company posting photos of LCD backbox and lockdown bar, with visible wire forms and Fast Pinball circuit boards

  • There are at least two mystery pinball manufacturers that haven't fully revealed themselves yet

    medium confidence · Matt Scott Larson states 'my understanding there's more than one mystery company so this is this is this is a mystery company yes but there's there's another one that hasn't revealed themselves either'

  • The pinball market has softened and is not as hot as the previous cycle

    medium confidence · Matt notes 'the market has deflated. It's softening' and Josh adds context about market dynamics shifting

Notable Quotes

  • “Yeah, so I like listening to the podcasts. I love the speculation, like what game's coming out next? You know, who's the rumor developer? Who's doing the art?”

    Don Garrison @ ~27:30 — Explains the motivation for starting his own podcast and the appeal of pinball community speculation

  • “I decided about six months ago that I would just go ahead and try something. I was going to go on the next four Sterns, kind of no matter what they were.”

    Don Garrison @ ~12:45 — Shows collector strategy of rolling through new Stern releases to test and sell them

  • “If I'm going to either troubleshoot a game or move something, I have to block out about two or three hours because otherwise it just gets gobbled up.”

    Don Garrison @ ~20:00 — Reflects the time commitment required for maintaining a pinball collection

  • “The game that has my 12 year old daughter actually asking to play with me... she's like, come play with me, and she starts screaming when she gets the Captain Cutlass multiball.”

    Don Garrison @ ~38:15 — Describes Scooby-Doo's family-friendly appeal and accessibility compared to other games

  • “Anybody that they work at Stern... they received threats of not putting certain content into a machine... that's when you take fandom to a new level and probably a little over the top.”

    Matt Scott Larson @ ~31:45 — Discusses community behavior going too far with threatening designers about game content

  • “They're holding to their word. They're not making any more. But they've indicated they're in good with the licensing folks... if there's demand and we get a lot of people asking for it, they may just do another Rick and Morty game.”

    Don Garrison @ ~36:00 — Clarifies Spooky's stance on Rick and Morty while leaving open possibility of new Adult Swim IP

  • “I just kind of fell into that cadence... I wanted to get back into some kind of content creation... So I wanted to get back in. I don't know if video was right.”

    Don Garrison — Explains his podcast creation journey and motivation for content creation

Entities

Don GarrisonpersonJosh RooppersonMatt Scott LarsonpersonZach SharpepersonNicolepersonFlip N Out Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    content_signal: Don Garrison's podcast grew from 0 to 66 episodes in roughly 10 months (started January 2026), reaching 500 followers with minimal promotion. Demonstrates strong organic audience interest in pinball speculation and content.

    high · Josh notes Don is 'about halfway to our episode count' after 2 years, and Don started in January and is now at 66 episodes with 500 followers

  • ?

    community_signal: Account of Stern designer receiving threats regarding game content inclusion, leading them to leave community platforms. Indicates potential toxicity in fandom that affects developer engagement.

    medium · Matt describes unnamed Stern employee receiving 'threats of not putting certain content into a machine' and subsequently leaving Pinside/social platforms

  • ?

    product_strategy: Spooky Pinball holding firm on limited production of Rick and Morty despite ongoing demand, explicitly stating no additional runs. However, open to creating entirely new games with same IP (Adult Swim/Warner Bros license).

    high · Don reports Spooky said 'we're holding to our word. We're not making any more' but 'if there's demand... they may just do another Rick and Morty game' using new IP like Blips and Chitz

  • ?

    machine_intel: Unknown pinball manufacturer using Fast Pinball boards posting teaser images of new machine with LCD backbox, copper-colored lockdown bar, and visible wire forms. Possible remake given Fast Pinball choice (Haggis using Fast for Centaur/Fathom).

    medium · Image posted showing 'lockdown bar, a powder-coated lockdown bar that looked like a kind of a copper color' with 'LCD in the back box that was updating' and visible wire forms on flippers

  • $

Topics

Don Garrison's podcast growth and content strategyprimaryPinball collection management and ownership patternsprimaryCommunity mods and custom modifications (drum sticks, toppers, zip ties)secondarySpooky Pinball factory visit and streaming initiativesprimaryScooby-Doo widebody reception and location performanceprimaryRick and Morty licensing constraints and potential for new Adult Swim contentsecondaryMystery pinball manufacturers and Fast Pinball board usageprimaryMarket softening and pinball industry cycle shiftsprimary

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— Overwhelmingly positive episode with genuine enthusiasm about pinball, Don's success, Spooky Pinball collaboration, and community engagement. Some concern noted about market softening and overzealous fan behavior toward designers, but overall tone is celebratory and collaborative.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.210

Thanks for tuning in to the Loser Kid Pinball Podcast. We are on episode 117. I am Josh Roop. With me, my co-captain as always, Scott Larson. And Scott, it's another beautiful day in pinball land. If you're going to be buying yourself a new machine like Venom or what else has come out recently? Well, okay. So I actually just took down my cactus. Okay. I finally brought my cactus canyon inside nice so that was that was my big move it's been sitting in my garage for a while and I did buy that through Zach and Nicole at flipping out pinball and they are excellent so if you ever need to contact or find that uh scratch that pinball itch contact Zach and Nicole and they've always been easy to work with definitely they are awesome and like I said the easiest way I contact them is through Facebook messenger but you do you whatever works best for you and they've got more employees there so they're they're getting more customer service oriented and it sounds like they're shipping used games now which they weren't doing before yeah they'll pallet them up and they got some sweet deals on that website check out their facebook page is always up to date with the new pins our guest this evening has kind of taken pinball by storm uh this man is recording i swear like a couple times a week he's he's about halfway to our episode count. I know. He's number 66 last I checked. I mean, it took us like two years to get to 100. And so between that, he's like, eh, let's do a podcast. Let's do some streaming. Let's hang out with Spooky. Let's hang out with Pinball Adventures. Man, this man's just slaying it right now. He's doing great. We want to introduce Don of Don's Pinball Podcast. How are you doing, Donald? I am doing fantastically, fantastically fabulous. Thanks so much for the invite. happy to be on and hanging out with you. Do you go by Donald or do you go by Don? I go by Don, Donnie, Donald, Donarino if you're not into the whole thing. Donarino? Yeah. Sounds like a bad symptom from Miralax or something. Donarino. We've all been there. It's all good. Trust me, I'm in the age where I got my colonoscopy and absolutely everybody gets some Donarinos. yeah but it's been fun you guys yeah well thanks for coming on donald yeah i'm just having fun in the pinball hobby i started a podcast this year in january and it's it's just been it's been fun the whole time man okay tell us your story you said it's been about two years how did you get into pinball so i always liked pinball i remember being a kid you know playing in places and restaurants with my dad you know i remember playing fireball back in the day and I distinctly remember him telling me like you know wait for the ball to get to the end of the flipper then hit it and you'll usually get stuff and then ever since then you know just growing up going to arcades at the family entertainment center and I always go to the wall of pinball machines between that and Street Fighter 2 right um and then you know uh my wife we started dating uh she enjoyed pinball too so we'd go and play on locations and then we always used to dream about what it would be great if we could rent a machine for a month or something you know and finally make it happen so now just recently about two and a half years ago we got our first machine a stern uh dark knight we happened across we bought it used from a dealer and then that was my first time like lifting a play field taking the glass off you know it's soldering something you know and so it was just a learning process and then one begets more right yeah yeah so that just you know it's like i was just stumbling around and then i walked into this world of like conventions and new games and, and, you know, different manufacturers and speculation. And then, you know, started listening to podcasts and, and I was like, man, this is just super fun. How can I do more of this? You know, and just looking for a creative outlet, uh, watching YouTube videos and saying, okay, well let's, let's buy some equipment and let's see what happens. Right. And that's really how it started. So how many games do you have now? I'm up to 10, which is crazy to say out loud. But it's just been, you know, there seems to be. There seems to be a year in every pinball, you know, collectors where they go from like one to two and then they immediately go to double digits. It's kind of crazy because it happens to almost every collector. What makes me chuckle is you've got the bug so bad, man. And you travel for work. And for those that aren't watching YouTube right now with us, you've got a big Lebowski sitting behind you in your hotel room. This is accurate, yeah. That is awesome. It's like, I'm going to go do some work, and I'll bring Lebowski with me. Why not? Yeah, yeah. This was a 10-hour drive one way, and I just happened to be passing a place that I occasionally pick up shifts of work at. And so I figured, hey, two birds, one stone. Let's make this trip pay for itself. but I didn't want to leave it out in the truck. So I snuck it in. So did you, do you choose which jobs you're going to take depending on which listings on Pinside you're buying? Basically, yeah. I mean, now I look at shifts and machines and, you know, if I see come across something I like, I'm like Stern Pro, okay. And I calculate how many shifts that would be and then talk to the wife and see if it makes sense. You know, somehow I've convinced myself that any kind of extra work from the side hustle doesn't come from family money and so then it's it's free to play around with i think we've all convinced ourselves of that so you're not in we're all in the same boat here we know how you feel okay so what's your line what's your lineup right now so currently uh left to right i got a godzilla premium modded to the nth degree uh got myself a rush le star wars premium with the hyperspace ramp rick and morty just went out Lebowski's coming in. What else I got? Scooby-Doo just came in with a buttery butter cabinet. I couldn't say no after touching one in person. Iron Maiden Premium is in there. Next to that, I got Elvira Premium, which looks like a 40th anniversary edition, just with some upgrades that I've done to it cosmetically. Foo Premium. Halloween is still kicking around. And then I got a Ultra VP virtual cabinet. Okay. I think that's all of them. That's a pretty solid lineup. Yes, it is. It's funny because you were talking about how you go like you you just we hit double digits i don't think i've actually ever owned double digits i'm at the highest i've ever been in my collection which is eight right now let me tell you yeah i i've been knocking on the uh the the second decade of owning pinball machines right now i'm pushing like 18 or 19 so we'll see if i uh if i if i size it down or if I size it up, I think my wife's voting for sizing it down. This Labor Day actually marks, I want to say this is the 10th year I've been in pinball now. And in that 10 years I've only owned a total of 32 machines. That's actually more than I've owned. You buy and hold on. I do. I'm a hoarder. The whole business of buying and selling machines, I'm totally fine with buying it but i i hate the game of selling games yes and it's just it's totally annoying to me so it's yeah i totally get it let's be honest so like this last couple years it was nice because it seemed like you bought something you didn't want and you could pretty much flip it pretty quick and not care about i mean now it's a slog so i apologize next year's a decade i'm at nine years this year i apologize oh my first game with pinflation you just uh started exaggerating on the length. I know. I know. Amazing Spider-Man. September 2014. It was Labor Day weekend. Crazy, crazy. Anywho. Down memory lane. I don't think there's anything wrong with having, whether you have room for two games or 30, getting to that number and then only getting a new one when something really comes out that's better than your least favorite game and then swapping it out. That way you always maintain that high level of quality. Or at least I'm just saying that to myself that way. The only ones that haven't been high-level quality in my collection are the ones that I got for either free or for a super sweet deal that I turn around and either fixed up and sold or just sold. The free ones usually extract about 100 hours worth of work from you. Or they're just the dumbest thing in the world, and I feel bad for getting it for free because the person's like, I'm done with it. and you pick it up and it's like something like someone installed the flipper coil backwards and it was blowing the the diode on the circuit board yeah and at the flipper and so i had to i had to replace the flipper and or the the diode on the board as well as the flipper and flip the coil around boom got that one for free yeah it's kind of funny how that works anywho don what what's on your hunt next what are you looking for to have a great time at expo that's what i'm looking for okay i do have a venom premium on order okay you know i i decided about six months ago that i would just go ahead and try something i was going to go in on the next four sterns kind of no matter what they were i just get them in play them sell them for what i could when the next one comes out and just maybe have like a rolling spot right so then i could always just for four or five months just have the newest stern and see and everybody told me that you're not going to do that you're going to end up keeping and you're going to have to have more room. And so Foo Fighters surprisingly came out. I thought Venom was going to be the one. And then Foo Fighters turned out to be amazing with a dead post and code that is going to get better. And so I've got that thing powder-coated to look like an LE, and I love it. And Venom's coming, and I'm not ready to get rid of my Foo. So I think people may have been right. But I want to stick to getting a Venom in. I like modding them up, adding the powder coat, the shaker motors, the knockers and things. And then I'll gift it to somebody for a song here when something else comes out. Yeah. See, this is what you should do. You should get four deep. And then that way, the fourth one, when you're getting rid of it, you're getting rid of the Borg, and you're getting a Borg coming in. Or you're getting rid of an Eddie, a Brian Eddy. Elwynn from all the collectors, yeah. Or all the designers. Excuse me. Like always have an Elwynn in the rotation. Yeah. Or you could be like us and just have almost nothing but LL1s. I mean, yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. It's just something about those games, man. I don't know if it's the code. It's the way it plays. I mean, it's all of it. It's like your favorite take. Did you spring for the Rush Topper too? Yes, sir. Yeah, in a moment of weakness, I got the call from my distro that he had some. It's fun. I wish it interacted more with the game or came with a mode like the Godzilla one did. But it's fun watching gears flip around. Yeah. Yeah, I got it. It makes me chuckle. You say it like it's a drug deal. Like, oh, it was a moment of weakness. My dealer called me up, and he knew exactly what I wanted. I got the goods. They tend to call me when I'm out of town on my side hustle. So I'm like, oh, good, fresh money that I haven't allocated to anything. And then, oh, hey, by the way, we have Godzilla toppers just got announced. Yeah, sure, I'll take it. Unbeknownst to you, they actually have your Apple ID, and they know when you're not home, and they're like, oh, he's working right now. They have an air tag on you. Would not surprise me, yeah, at this point. Okay, so you branched out from collector to deciding to do your own pinball podcast. So talk about that. Yeah, so I like listening to the podcast. I love the speculation, like what game's coming out next? You know, who's the rumor developer? Who's doing the art? What do we think is going to be in it? Oh, I heard that, you know, Jaws is going to have, you know, a sixth flipper on the side or some new mechanism. So just, you know, listening to everybody, I just kind of fell into that cadence. And, you know, I kicked it around back and forth. Like, you know, I wanted to be creative and get back into some kind of content creation. I used to do videos back in the day and like the theme park roller coaster hobby. You can look that stuff up on YouTube if you want to see some crazy stuff. So I wanted to get back in. I don't know if video was right. And then I met a guy at work who podcasts about real estate and financial markets. But I just talked to him about the process, and it seemed like something fun to try to do. And then finally, I don't know if it was a New Year's resolution or whatever, but I decided, heck it. I'm going to go in and try it, and we'll just see what happens. If nothing else, I'll have some stickers and some T-shirts, and I can walk around in my own merchandise or something. Nice. We never do that. We never do that. I am that guy. Yeah, but it's just kind of just been steamrolling, you know. I just put content out there and I had no idea if people were going to listen. If I'd have, you know, two people listen or five, I was going to be happy with that. Yeah, people started reaching out and they kind of liked what I did and they gave me suggestions and I just ran with it. And it's, you know, in this hobby, like every four or five days, there's little news nuggets and speculation that drops and then you can just jump on and talk about it. So, yeah, yeah, it's just been fun. I don't know. I put the headphones on, hear my own voice. And it's like, let's go. Well, especially doing a solo podcast, you you are super flexible to actually just jump on and do whatever you want. It's Josh and I have to coordinate schedules. Usually we're like, which day are you free? So, well, and I also want to congratulate you, too, because you just hit 50 followers, correct? Five hundred. I'm sorry. Five hundred. I didn't mean to truncate that at all. Five followers. Good job. Yeah, all five of them. Only four of them are related to. The other three are email addresses I came up with myself. Yeah, it's just been fun. I kind of designed my own take on the mod for Rush that holds the drumsticks, the Neil Hurt edition. And then I decided something fun that I didn't see anybody doing. When I started the podcast, I would just advertise, hey, if anybody wants a set of these mods for free, just send me an address and I'll send them to you. And I sent out like, you know, 10 or 15 sets to people, you know, and I'm like, who's doing free mods? You know, why wouldn't people listen to that? And then it just kind of started. Wait, you have a drum mod for Neil? Yeah, yeah. Well, it's the I got the 3D printer program going and the cat or whatever. And I designed some mounts for the sticks that you can the Neil part edition that you can get from Amazon. And so they screw in pretty easily. They're really little simple mod, but I 3D print them and send them out. Really? Okay, I want to find out more. Sure, yeah. The games people, Hans out in Anaheim, he's selling them for me now. And I think they're on Cointaker also. Okay, nice. So that was fun. It's something I made for myself, and I shared it with everybody else if they wanted it. But, yeah, that was just something fun to do. Then I found out I got artists online to design graphics that I thought were cool, and I started putting them on stickers and sending them out to people if they wanted them. And so I like getting stuff in the mail, so I figured other people would too. So I'm just trying to put back out, you know, things that, you know, do things that I would like to enjoy, you know, or, or, you know, like to have on my water bottle, you know. Didn't you jokingly do like new zip ties for the Godzilla topper as a mod too? Absolutely. So the topper got released. Everybody saw like, oh, look, they took the sculpt from the game and then just zip tied it to the topper. And it was a black zip tie. And I'm like, okay, what I'll do is the Neo Atomic Edition zip tie upgrade mod for the Godzilla topper because I had a fluorescent green zip tie. And I put it on there for $15 and put it on pin side. But I wrote that I would include a free T-shirt with it too, you know. Sure, yeah. They didn't take it down after a couple of days, but got a chuckle. Oh, that's too bad. On my topper. So it's there. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, you have to have it, apparently. yeah so so for listeners of this if you want the atomic neon green godzilla zipper top mod just just email me or someone to show it and they'll get it to me i'll send it out for free i i do have the uh godzilla top so that'd be awesome i was gonna say that i don't know if you saw that godzilla mod that uh stumbler's backing though it's like the atomic breath Godzilla with the lighting up fins. Holy crap. If you could strap that to the top of your topper. I've got it and I'm on a list for a second one to put on the topper to see if it actually works. Nice. Oh, wow. Stumbler does some good stuff. Yeah, I got the neon Tokyo sign. Yeah. I need to get the second one. I got the first one. I still need to get the second one. I'm a little behind. I got the second one. It's sitting right over here. I just need to install it. I need to find time. Yeah. That's one of the hardest commodities to come by around nowadays, you know? I have to find an afternoon to commit to something. If I'm going to either troubleshoot a game or move something, I have to block out about two or three hours because otherwise it just gets gobbled up. There's no way. No way you can do, oh, I'm just going to do this quick pinball thing. It just never happens. Okay, side tangent. He says that, and I don't mind that I'm in the text group, but he has me in the text group with Butch Pill, and they're trying to troubleshoot his cactus canyon. Yeah, sorry about that. I decided not to transition So yeah I tell the story So I finally got my Cactus Canyon downstairs And I couldn the mine shaft just seemed to be not working like it normally does And so I texted Butch. I'm like, Butch, I'm like, hey, what is this like – how do I troubleshoot this? I see like a check this switch, but there's three on the schematics. It shows the same location for three numbers. And so we were texting back and forth. And, yes, sadly, I started on the text thread with Josh. And so probably for about two or three hours, Josh was getting texts back and forth between Butch and me. And, okay, eventually we did figure out what was going on. And Chicago Game Company, they actually are sending out the parts that I need to fix it. That's awesome. So that was really sweet of them. Just solid. Stand behind their product. I mean, I think that's all any of us really asked for, you know. I had a problem with my opto-sensor on my Foo Fighters when I first got it for the Overlord shot. Raven Davidson jumped in the little thread on Facebook. Like, can you do the switch test? And he diagnosed it for me. And yeah, we got it fixed out. It was great. Now, Raymond's great, especially when I have questions on games he's coding. I'm like, hey, Ray, how do you do this? So remind me what game you're coding next. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We don't do that. But I talk about just slipping up. So I got to tell a story, though. I think. Who was it that they work at Stern? I'm not going to say who they are, but they they work on pinball machines like they're actually on the team. and they said it was when they had received threats of not putting certain content into a machine that they were supposedly working on and this person was at a wedding like was like the best person i guess the best man anywho but they uh like yeah i'm done that's what they like ended up jumping off of like pin side and stuff like that because they're just that's when you take fandom to a new level and probably a little over the top yeah just a little too i know you're designing something can i give you some pointers yeah and by the way yeah you put this in there or there'll be problems yeah no that's not it's never an okay thing yeah yeah no ridiculous well don you got to stream with spooky did you just call it bug and was like hey i'm coming to your place like that was so i went down to the louisville pinball expo in march or february last year and i just kind of spent the whole weekend either just kind of hanging out with them at their booth or at the flipping out booth and just going back and forth and we were just you know hanging and talking and we're both from wisconsin you know and i'm only a couple hours north of them and i was like hey you know i'd really like to come down and see the factory sometime you know they talked about where in wisconsin are you i'm in near stevens point Wisconsin is right there in the center along the river. About an hour and a half. By Appleton? Appleton's about an hour and a half. Madison's an hour and a half. Yeah. So you're in the center of everywhere. Right in the middle. My sister lives in Appleton. Oh, awesome. I'll swing by and say hi. Well, next time I come out, I'll have to swing by and play your big old Bowski. Absolutely. Come by. Yeah. The Don Cade is firing on all cylinders, man. It's a V10, man. Oof. Yeah, but I was just talking to him and said, hey, I got this podcast. Maybe I can come down and get an interview or something. They said, sure. So I had my Scooby on order. It was just recently available. So I went down there. They gave me a whole factory tour. They bought me lunch. They let me see their whole works and everything. And then we did what people thought was an awesome interview, too. And I was just asking the questions that I was curious about. And then they said, hey, we should come up and stream sometime because Spooky's just got into streaming on Twitch. and they were looking to stream a Rick and Morty. I had one with a Jerry ramp and yeah, they just, they came on up, but we had a blasty blast. And they hadn't seen it before you streamed, right? Right, right. Like they had, they actually hadn't seen the Jerry ramp. Correct. Yeah. So it was fun watching them, you know, try it out and, and they really liked it, you know? Now they're going to be hitting you up to like, yeah, make it if they ever redo Rick and Morty, they're going to be like, by the way. Oh yeah. That comes up all the time. And people ask them, like, just do another run of Rick and Morty, you know, pull a JP 30th on it and just run them. And they're like, no, we're holding to our word. We're not making any more. But they've got they're they're in good with the licensing folks with Warner Brothers owns Adult Swim and everything. And they said, if there's demand and we get a lot of people asking for it, they may just do another Rick and Morty game. You know, they would use that license to do something completely new and different. So if people want that, let them know. Right. Interesting. I get that out there. You know, like a whole game based on blips and chips or something, you know? Oh, yeah. Yeah, the in-universe arcade. Yeah, with the Roy game, but like really expand on that. Man, I got so many ideas. Next thing you know, you're going to be getting up for a job. You're going to be doing, that'll be your side-side hustle. You'll be working for Spooky while also doing all this stuff, too. Let's do it. I'd be down. Ben's an awesome guy. Doing mods for Spooky. Okay, so you said that you have a, now, do you have a Scooby-Doo? Have you played it? Like, I know you've played it. Oh, yes. Okay. I have it. Number 753, Butter Cabinet. The collector's edition is downstairs in the arcade right now. Okay. How is the reception on it? Because I still have yet to play it. Oh, man. So, yeah, I played one of the first ones that came out of the factory. It went on location in Madison because it's nearby. I actually live streamed that just on Facebook. That was fun. And it's great. I mean, seeing it in location and at the expos is one thing, But like getting it in your house, that wide body with all the sculpts that are in there, not just flat plastics, you know, back alley creations, you know, created, you know, like whole castle sculpts and the portcullis and everything. The game plays like it's not a brutal game, like it's a different type of game. Sure. It's an easy rider game. Yeah, it's fine. If you're a tournament player, you could probably play it for hours at a time. But, you know, it's challenging. The theme is really integrated into it. And it's like the game that has my 12 year old daughter actually asking to play with me. So that was pretty revolutionary. You know, she's typically like not really, you know, she's too cool for the Don's pinball arcade downstairs or, you know, playing with dad. But that was one where she's like, come play with me, you know, and she starts screaming when she gets the Captain Cutler multiball. It's like it is fun, you know, so it's a good game to have in my lineup. Like it fits perfectly. I love the theme. The art is on point. It's like, you know, someone took Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castle and just expanded on that idea. Made the shots, you know, more forgiving, more fun, less rejecty, but still kind of keep that aesthetic, but then make it family friendly. I bet it earns pretty well on location, actually. Yeah, I've heard that from some operators, yeah. You know, it's a fun game. I've got it, you know, dialed in now. you know one of the only issues I would notice on location sometimes because it uses the auto launcher sometimes it wouldn't hit right and the ball would rattle and it would lose energy and it would take a couple shots to get up there then mine all I had to do was make sure that the forks were aligned and now it's like the best launching one I've ever played so yeah and then the guys are aware of the issue they're working on it um and so yeah that's really the only only thing I've seen with it otherwise it's been playing great out of the box like we love it awesome and just Getting the Mystery Machine multiball and having the Scooby-Doo theme just come on through Spooky's sound system in your home is fantastic. Dom, I don't want to shortchange you on talking about you, but we do have a list of stuff we want to kind of go over. And I figure let's start at the top of this list and see your thoughts along with ours. Sure. Did you see the new mystery company posting their, what was it, the LCD and? They posted a lockdown bar, a powder-coated lockdown bar that looked like a kind of a copper color. And then they actually had an LCD in the backbox that was updating. It said updating, but you could see a reflection down. Now, it seemed like most of the play field was covered, which I'm sure was intentional. And you can see a little bit of the wire forms. But I love wire forms. I know, Don, on your last podcast, you were talking about the wire forms. And so I'm excited to see the ball because I love just seeing the ball move. Seeing the ball move takes me back to when I first wanted a pinball machine. It was because I watched Sesame Street. and Sesame Street had the, you know, the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Yeah, it had the pinball thing that went around, and I thought, that's the coolest thing ever. And, yeah, that's – it looks really cool. So I'm just curious to see what do you guys think. Do you guys think this is a remake, or do you think it's an original concept? Oh. yeah I didn't think of that take there yeah I saw the backbox innards and I can't make heads or tails of that really but yeah I did go back and see that reflection and you know for me any kind of like vehicle on a track I'm into whether it's a roller coaster a monorail a dark ride log flume or pinball tracks so I just I have no idea I didn't even consider that it could be like an old remake of something from the point company because they don't have a name but they have this exclamation point logo mystery company. Maybe they're just called Mystery Pinball. Maybe. That would be hilarious, actually. You can see wire forms down by the right flip, because it's mirrored. You can see it down by the right flipper, and you can also see one by the upper, sorry, down by the left flipper and in the upper right of the play field. So I'm trying to figure out if there's a if there's an existing game that would have those wire forms well and the other point the other reason it could be a remake if you look at the circuit boards they're fast pinball so that's our friend aaron over at fast pinball it's true yeah and then been using his boards in the haggis games so you know centaur and fathom so it's a good possibility this could be a remake whatever they're showing is i do love that it's an lcd it looks very sternish i feel like that's going to get some bonus points uh down the road and and i think it's going to be easier to accept and uh another thing too my understanding there's more than one mystery company so this is this is this is a mystery company yes but there's there's another one that hasn't revealed themselves either so which is interesting because we've had we had tilt bob reveal back around Pinball Expo, or not Pinball Expo, Texas Pinball Festival. Road trip. Who did Ninja Eclipse? Oh, Turner, right? Yeah, Turner. So they revealed themselves at Expo as well. Pinball, Texas Pinball Festival. TPF. So it's interesting, especially with the market. We can definitely see the market. The bubble may not have burst, but the market has deflated. It's softening. it's softening it's not so it's gonna be interesting to see where this is all heading especially that we know there is a twilight remake coming too that's been kind of well it's been rumored forever so i could have swore someone saw it sent some pictures of them that's been like a long-standing like hey they're gonna make this so yeah yeah they keeps changing yeah who it's gonna be yeah maybe uh pinball circus is that who it was that was making mafia and and then remaking the... Oh, geez. Like the Capcom, the Kingpin. Yeah. Yeah, and I haven't heard anything from that, so I think that one's dead. Well, what's funny is they originally were trying to make Pinball Circus. Right. If you've never seen a Pinball Circus, go to, well, I don't know, BBB or whatever. Maybe, yeah. There's only two or three in the world. One of them is in the Pinball Hall of Fame in Vegas, which wasn't working when I went a couple months ago. The last couple times I've been to the Pinball Hall of Fame, it's been down. But they want to remake Pinball Circus for the mass, and then they decide they're going to make Pinball Mafia. What is it? It's Kingpin. Yes, they're going to make Kingpin to help raise funds so they could make Pinball Circus. Yeah. And we haven't heard much since. Yeah. But, yeah, it's good to see that people are still making pinball, and I hope that when these launch, they do well. My understanding is these mystery companies are, I mean, as you can see from the photos, they're building them to pretty much have them ready. So when they actually do show, they're going to say, hey, these are shipping today, which I think is brilliant. I think that's really the only avenue you can take. Yeah, there are – unless you have a game that people know about. So Cactus Canyon is actually finally – it's coming out. It's a great game. It's a fun game. It's high quality. But it's surprising that people were willing to wait that long. because pinball attention is very short and people move from game to game so quickly. And even, and we talked about this that, or Donna, sorry, Donna, I think you talked about this, that Foo Fighters, it's a great game and they made a ton of them and now people are thinking, okay, well, we're going to move that game and get another one. And so there's a surplus of used games out there, which hasn't been the situation for three years. Yeah, I just personally took a glance at Foo Fighter Premium the other day and I saw there was like 14 of them just on pin side and they were adding to every day. Not because it's a bad game and there's still good updates to come but if Jaws is around the corner or Indiana Jones or any of these AAA titles, people want to make room. So I'm optimistic that by the time the Pulp Fiction LEs come out, People will actually be dumping their pre-order spots for whatever the new thing is, and I can scoop one up. Yeah. Well, and it's just like we were part of that. It was a media blitz from P3 because they were doing another soft relaunch of Final Resistance because it kind of got weighed down with the seven other machines that was released at Texas Pinball Festival. That was nuts. Yeah. Every couple of days, here's another game. Here's another game. So did you get your GTF, though? No, sir. No, no, I didn't go in on that. I was trying to work a deal to trade my Halloween for one, but then it ended up not going through and I'm okay on that for right now. I'm wondering how many, like, it frustrates me when a company I think has the best of intentions but is not producing to the volume that we would hope they would. And American Pinball seems to be falling into that category where it's, we just haven't heard anything from them. Where are the tanks? yeah where are they so yeah I mean there's got to be less than 100 made because I can't think of many arcades that have one on location I think it's a great location game you know it's something you know maybe the home people aren't rushing out to buy them but they would go out and play them on location and if I had one yeah I would totally get one I think it would earn well I don't think David Fix was wrong when he said some places it's out earning Foo Fighters on location but that's probably because everybody has a Foo Fighters at home or a friend, but they don't have a GTF. So, you know, let's play the dang thing. I do like playing it. It frustrates me. But every time I step up, I'm like, all right, I'm really going to enjoy this. I love the lights. I like the music. The art is good. You know, Franchi did a great job on it. And then, you know, balls start jumping off the wire forms and rolling over the plastics. Yeah. Oh, you have a Strangle You game. Well, speaking of companies trying to move pinball machines. Sure. If that's not a great segue, I don't know what is. Dun, dun, dun. Stern Pinball moved into their new huge factory. And if you have not watched the video on Facebook, this thing is massive. It is crazy to see that they're in a space this big. And I actually got some insider information on this as well. Let's hear it. So I guess it wasn't necessarily Stern's idea to move to the bigger factory. The one that they just left, I guess there is a giant T1 internet line going right next to that building. And some software company that needs access to the fastest speeds of internet you can buy or rent or whatever you want to call it. They approached the landlord and said, hey, we want this building. the landlord said hey the people moving in will pay to help move you and then schwamberg's like we'll help move you too because it's it's money for the city as well because that's a big elk grove elk grove oh elk grove sorry and so it just turned into this like it was a win-win-win for everyone and so i don know how much cern actually paid going into this building but it seems like they were very well taken care of to move to this place And not only that like yeah they have a bigger overhead now Cause obviously you seen how big this place is There's that slight concern, but moving from building to building usually costs you a ton of money. That's why a lot of people don't like to move. It seems like Stern got the better end of the deal on this move. So it's really great to see them getting up. This, this was just crazy random happenstance that happened to him. So, and it's, and I've been told it's only like three or four buildings down from their old building too. So, okay. So here's the, here's the question. Anytime something big happens, what are the possible downsides of moving? You're just, you've got to figure out how to get that line going again and get it efficiently. And I think things break, uh, and moving. I mean, you've got, you've got giant expensive equipment and there's just, you got downtime. You're not producing machines. so I know the last time they moved, they said it would only take a couple weeks. It ended up taking about three full months before they were back to 100% capacity. Granted, like I said, I mean, it's not three buildings. I mean, it's three blocks, but still, it's fairly close to their old building, and so the move isn't as hard on them. They're not moving clear across town. Yeah, they're not moving from Jersey. Yeah, so I guess this has really helped the move as well. I mean, I think the banner year they've been having or banner year and a half has really helped too. Like they were struggling and had to move in the middle of a struggle. Yeah, the one challenge I can think of is anytime you scale up. So that's the big problem in business. You want to have some sort of flexibility to scale up and scale down. And as long as the new company and the new location, because the square footage is enormous, as long as that is a benefit, then great. But what happens when things turn is the increased footprint of their factory going to end up biting them. Because I'm wondering, I doubt they're getting it for the same price. So the rent has to go up. The heating has to go. Everything has to go up with it. But I could be completely wrong on that, but that's my main concern with that. And also moving while you're still selling a lot of games. Yeah. Yeah. My understanding, it's about one and a half times more than what they were paying. Right. I don't. That's just a number that was tossed out. I don't know how accurate that is. But that's a 50 percent increase in your overhead. Anybody who runs a business knows that that's that's substantial. Yeah. Yep. So they have to move more machines to pay for that. Yep. That are developed, you know, more product lines or something. Right. Yeah. Like, you know, I don't know, expression lights, maybe get those out. maybe there's still some demand for those. More toppers. Yeah. Yeah. Or, you know, rent out that space for storage to other companies or something. Have it as a flex. That's true. That's true. I don't understand why they're not producing more accessories. I mean, look at toppers. They're selling them for like a thousand bucks a pop. And the markup on those has to be. Okay. The caveat is I don't know how much it costs them to build it. Okay. But there's no chance that they are not. Right. Okay, there's little chance that they are not making a killing percentage-wise on what the toppers cost to make versus what they sell them for. But the shipping is a lot less. The overhead on is a lot less versus a pinball machine. Obviously, you need to sell the pinball machine to have the accessory. But it just – it seems like – it may not easy money, but it seems like it could be quick – well, easy money. It's certainly a good alternative revenue source. Yes, yes. Certainly, yeah. Yeah, I don't think, like, the volume is quite there like, you know, a Little Tikes play set or something that's about the same size that you can get, you know, injection molded from China and sell tens of thousands of them. Right. But still, yeah, something's got to be said for, like, you know, the demand is there. There shouldn't be a reason that, you know, you could build enough for, you know, enough demand minus one or something, you know. Yeah. or even because expression lighting it's you know it's across all music pins why don't why don't they hit those hard right that seems crazy because that's such a focus on on all of the music pins like if i could i'd put it on my foo fighters but it's a pro so i have i don't have that option right oh that's right they did away with it with the pros yeah yeah i've got some led zeppelin lights in my premium yeah in in your premium oh in your Foo Fighters premium yeah yeah that's funny yeah so i got those early on i saw them pop up on pin side so i snatched them yeah but uh pin stadiums coming out with their own version of it i've got them on order so i was going to try them out and then you're just going to see i have regular pin stadiums on right now which you know i like the effect but i don't like that they kind of hang over into the play field you have to remove them play field i had some in and that was my challenge with black rose because you kind of have to get under the play field a lot on black rose and so it became a little challenging just to to take them on and off and eventually i just put some invisible glass on there and that really helped out so it's yeah i i know they're the new that was a very old version the newer profile i think is much better yeah yeah but still i'm excited about you know the the Penn stadium type tech, but it fits into that groove, you know, so you can't lift the play field, move it around without having to take them off every time. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll try them out and I'll let everybody know what I think. Sounds great. Well, I want to hurry and wish a happy birthday to Scott. He just had his birthday a couple of days ago. Hey, uh, I appreciate everyone reaching out on Facebook and, uh, hitting up our posts with, with his twin, his doppelganger, Colin MacAlpine. Yeah. Colin's a much better player than me. I'm like the troll version of a chimp flipping. Yeah. All you gotta do is get him some platform shoes and some contacts and just, he could, he could enter as you into a tournament and just place the Scott Larson. It's, it's possible, but yeah, no, Colin is, uh, Colin's also one of the nicest guys on the planet just in case you've never ran into him. So yeah, I don't know if you saw that picture of him, but he looked like Fabio before he started being the director over the Texas pinball festival tournament. But apparently he lost all his hair and his height because of being a, be a tournament director. And, and apparently being Italian because isn't Fabio Italian. Something like that too. We must, we must have lost the Italian. Yeah. Nope. 49. Now it's a, I'm solidly in the dad rock demographic. So let's get journey. Let's get, Bon Jovi, let's get Def Leppard, probably be on board with the Motley Crue. That would be challenging. All those 80s glory bands. I thought we were skipping all that because they came out with Foo Fighters and now we're hitting 90s. We're skipping all that. They went back with Led Zeppelin. We're going to have Green Day, we're going to have Lincoln Park. Wu-Tang. Wu-Tang, Beastie Boys. I have a perennial ask for Jimmy Buffett at some point, Margaritaville. I think it would slam. Maybe that's just for me personally. Maybe that'll be my homebrew project, but I would love that. Absolutely. I think with his passing, I saw a ton of pinball people that were like, we're going to miss you. And I was like, maybe this is their sign. I got that volcano at the end of the play field that ejects balls for the multiball down the wire form ramp. I think he would be more well-received than Prince, and Prince was more expensive than the Beatles. Absolutely, yeah. well i'm going to move on expo expectations what we thinking i know that there has been speculation that stern's going to announce a game possible but i'm going to go on the line and say that there's no chance that it's a cornerstone now there's a possibility that it's a vault edition of some sort or just a run of an older things so maybe uh maybe like a vault edition of stranger things or something like that but but uh i i it'll be small whatever if there is announcement it will have a minimal impact on what their schedule is because there's no chance they're going to throw in a a monster release right after venom because venom was released in this in the soft spot of the lineup in that it's a summer release. Typically, they struggle more to sell volume. And Venom is, it's a challenging, it's a challenging sell because it's totally different than anything else in pinball. Because it's more of a, it's more of a video game version of pinball, which they needed to do at some point. But it's so hard to get people to adapt. As Marty has always said, people in pinball are always saying the same thing we want new but but not that and i think that uh the foo fighters are sorry that venom is going through that a little bit in that it is a completely different approach to a game and if it's already struggling to to sell as much as as I would imagine to be considered a success. But maybe this was their test case, right? This is patient zero. They're trying to see if there's something they can do, possibly, and I'm concerned about this, but I know what's got to be coming, like DLC content and kind of microtransactions or whatever, because this is a new way. This is the wave of so many games in the future that if Pinball keeps releasing the same things, eventually the dad rock population is going to get old and die yeah and then where are you going to be so that that that's my take on expo and at least stern's part you guys can run with uh that or you can run with whatever else you want on pinball predictions sure yeah i'll take off on that yeah so i see venom in the code of like this progressive play you know log in go up levels and And then if you can't beat the boss with 10 shots at level 10, you get to level 20 and it's only five or something. But now take that concept of creating a profile, building up levels, and apply it to Pokemon, right? Where you can collect and unlock all 150 Pokemon characters, level up your Squirtle, evolve them. And then when you go arcade to arcade, you can lock in and play your character at your level or whatever. And maybe the whole play field lighting changes to whatever type Pokemon you are. Now, I don't think that's going to be, you know, this November, December release that's announced at Expo. I think there will be something announced. I think, you know, we've heard the rumors that the production schedule in November and into December has been opened up. But we don't know what's filling up in there. You know, the Star Wars and the Bond runs were pushed over to January, February or March. So I think we may see something. But I agree. I don't think it would be a cornerstone. But who knows? You know, it might be, you know, anyway, from a Kapow title to a vault, I think would be the two most likely things. I can guarantee it's not a cornerstone I mean you'd be cutting out the legs out from Venom at this point kill Venom especially if the rumor is Elwin is next I'm curious though if he's going to be able to overcome the winter curse if you don't know what the winter curse is about check out our episode 55 when we talk about the winter curse on there but as far as expo expectations I'm intrigued to see Pinball Adventures I know that they have stated that they're going to have elements there so it's gonna be interesting to see that game and and also uh punny factory i haven't played that yet i hope ryan mcquaid brings his sonic pinball because that that game is awesome that's fun it always had a line and it was funny because i was playing it did you ever play it i did play it yeah okay yeah yeah it's it's actually it's an awesome theme integration game yes definitely it It was certainly on the easier side because it was a homebrew and the ramps were wide open because I could hit them easily without even modifying my shots. That just shows you how easy it was. But it was still like thematically, it was awesome. It felt like a very high-end homebrew that could be modified and transitioned toward a production. You definitely have to tweak the play field to make it more challenging. What a great theme. Do you think Spooky will have something there? I know it's only been 10 months since Scooby-Doo, and they're still producing them, but do you think we start getting some hype for their next game? So I don't think so. Not at Expo. Yeah, no. TPF, more likely. Talking to the guys, I don't know what their next theme is, and I didn't press them too hard on it. I want to be surprised, too. I don't know how many units of Scooby-Doo they've sold, only that it's not sold out. But speculating-wise, they're in the 900s or so with the build. If they sold 1,500 or 1,600 games, they're over halfway. They did claim that. So with them making 26 games a week, I would expect them by March to maybe have something new for the line. I know their new production facility will be going online around that time. So there's potential for TPF or something from Spooky, but I don't think we're going to see anything new announced at Expo. Yeah. It's hard to say anything will be because, I mean, it was hit so hard in March for TPF. The only two I can think of is Stern, you know, might have an announcement there. I mean, for sure, we know Pinball Venture will because they have said we're going to have elements there. They're taking deposits. That just went live. That just did go live. And actually, I'm impressed at their price points. They're high-end $7,000. The low-end's, what, $662? Don't quote me. It includes shipping. Yeah. And so that was kind of a shocker as well. I just was like, huh, it'll be interesting to see. And they're only making 125 of these games. $6,500 for the standard, $7,000 for the night edition. $500 non-refundable deposit is required to place order. I mean, that's what Spooky's doing. So I guess Spooky doesn't do that. I apologize. Some of the distributors for Spooky have been asking for non-refundable deposits. Anywho, it's going to be an interesting expo. I'm glad to at least play Venom there. I haven't seen a Venom out in the wild yet. Are we going to see anything from JJP, do you think? Good question. Here's my speculation, because if there's... So Ellie's of Godfather inbox, you know, looking for buyers, is there a need to run more of those? And then if they're running out of production for the C's, are they going to have a line that needs to have something to go on it? Right. It's a possibility. There's a question about distributors basically not picking up new allotments because you can always sell games as long as distributors are willing to stockpile them. But you have so many games that right now are readily available from multiple distributors, which tells me that distributors are stocked up at least right now. So if they're stocked up, then JJP doesn't want to sit on 100 to 200 games because that's just stuff that they are not going to be moving anytime soon. And so it makes sense for them to get Elton John out there and to see what the demand is on that. And then they could always run more of The Godfather as need demands. Yep, I agree. Well, I want to play a game. I know, Don, this is your first time on our podcast, but we occasionally do what's called segment steal, where we steal someone else's segment from a different show. It kind of is an homage and honor to them. if you haven't listened to slap save pinball i don't know if you can actually find them on podcatchers anymore maybe jason faller it was a wonderful show pretty awesome takes anywho they used to do what was called flip bolt torch if you're not familiar with this game what it is is we pick a year in pinball we go through the list of the pinball machines that were made that year we decide which one we would get just to specifically flip which one we would bolt to the floor and which one we'd we'd torture you could throw off the roof like todd tucky which i gotta say just two seconds weird i was looking at todd tucky's top videos do you know there's only like one video in his top 10 that actually has pinball in it the rest are like arcades and like pachinko machines like a pachinko machine says number one dude video it really weird but him throwing that pinball machine off the roof it wasn a street fighter like what i i recall it being something like that i don want uh now that you say that i gonna have to look it up yeah i don't know which game it was i don't want to say a street fighter though but it just it makes me chuckle like that's really sad that like todd ducky is probably one of the most synonymous names with pinball that i know like whenever i was looking for a pinball machine you type it in and i swear tnt amusement amusements would come up and you would see whatever game and you know todd's hollering at people and but it just it's weird that his top 10 videos pinballs in like one of them and so it was kind of goofy anywho so we're gonna play flip bolt torch we decided on the year we just picked a year at random what year did we pick Scott? We picked a banner year for pinball, my friends. We picked the blockbuster of 2007. Yes. So this is basically the dark days, the wilderness, the lone and dreary wilderness, the wasteland of pinball where it was on life support. So that's where we are. So I'm going to read off this list, and we've decided that – because there's some really obscure games in this year. Okay, are you going to read off the list, or are you going to let us choose? So let me read off the list, and you can choose from the list. Okay. Obviously, the audience, if you want to play along, you can. We'll make a post of this later, or you can post it on this episode's link on our Facebook or Instagram, wherever you want. Just remember, you're picking one to flip, one to bolt, one to torch. Okay, these are the games. So Big Bang Bar, this was the remake. This was Gene Cunningham making the last 191 of these games. By the way, great article if you ever – I think the article was written When Pigs Fly. It was someone who went through the background on the remake of Big Bang Bar. Excellent read. You can find it. Just Google it. Also, Chris Bucci, if you haven't checked him out, he's on YouTube. he did an unboxing of big bang bar when it came out in 2007 he bought one and it's crazy because like gene cunningham dumped i guess it wasn't even a remake let me apologize when capcom went under they only made like 10 big bang bars i want to say yeah well gene cunningham bought up the rights because he there was 191 parts for full machines and so he decided that he was going to make the last 191 and sell them off and supposedly the first of that 191 it's like all gold plated underneath the i can't remember and it's all signed by everyone that worked on it if you ever find this thing i want to see if you have one of these let us know i'd love to see pictures or to play it definitely okay so big bang bar okay dell jr which is nascar remade that's pat lawler family guy which you know then shrek came after that we're including this even though there was only one made good morning america i want it thank you scott we're gonna include these but we're not i don't know there's this okay you know what we can get whatever we want and it's our year right marvel superheroes and pirates of the caribbean at world's end if you've never seen a sizzle you can pick one up for like 300 bucks off of ebay hey by the way you can you can have when are you going to pick up the turtles sizzle that's in my place next time i'm out there okay all right all right spider-man spider-man black suit do we do we combine that as one let's just do spider-man black suit yeah okay and then will of fortunes not really a ton of pinball came out that year big bang bar dell jr family guy good morning america Ultimate Golf Ball Frenzy. Whatever that is. Wow. It says it's a converted game. Solid state electronics. It must be like this conversion was done by High End Pins of Indian Trail, North Carolina. Oh. The game was used in a benefit. Yeah, that's HEP. I didn't realize that was HEP. Yeah, his games are amazing. They are amazing. and but the weird part is is when you click on the flyer yeah mail will actually show it i was going to say it was not showing was it hep yeah high-end pins is he in north carolina yeah he's in north carolina we've been interviewed this man i can't remember where he lives yeah no it was north carolina yeah anywho i guess yeah we could put that one on the list if you want to but i don't know exactly what was it's it's a sports golfing motorcycles transportation the flyer for some and the reason on my end is not working whatsoever. Yeah, mine's taking a while too. Okay, all right. Okay, we're not going to include it just because we can't even see pictures of this thing. Okay, who wants to go first? Josh, you want to go first. I want to go first. I was going to say the guest goes first. They get the honor of doing it. I'll go first. Okay, go ahead, Don. So from this entire list, I've got to pick the three, right? And then what are my options again? Okay, we'll start out with Flip. So which one would you solely get to turn around and flip? Oh, Big Bang Bar if I was just looking for a flipping to make money. Yeah, I think so. I don't know if I'd get much for a family guy. I'm right there with you. I would have to. As much as Big Bang Bar is one of those grail pins for people, I just think that that's what you have to do. And I don't think it's a very good game. I think it's rare. I think it's worth a lot. I think it's sought after, but I don't know that it's that engaging. I mean, I've only played it virtually, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. Okay. So the one I am going to buy to flip or pick up is Ultimate Golf Frenzy because it's one of a kind. It's a HEP game, which, you know, if you look at his blog, he is meticulous. And so that game has got to be amazing, better than fresh off the line, and you will find a customer for that one. So I'm definitely picking that one up to flip. Gotcha. Okay. Okay. What game are you bolting to the floor there, Don? One of the Zizzles for sure. Oh, here. No, this is an easy choice for me. Good Morning America is getting bolted to my floor because it's so weird. I've got to have that just to talk about. Oh, man. That back glass? You stole mine. Come on. You stole mine. You stole my Good Morning America. So you can't because I'm already taking it. I already texted Josh Sharpe because he's in the picture. And I said, where is the Good Morning America right now? I was assuming Josh Sharpe came with it. I bowled him too. Yeah, absolutely. No, Josh Sharpe is the topper. He actually comes and he plays with you. The best part, if you have not seen the clip, it's like a minute and a half, and Josh is casually talking to Robin. I don't know her last name. I'm sorry, but she's the host. And he's sitting there flipping, and she keeps asking him questions, and he just casually traps up and turns and talks to her during the interview. Like, you know, he just traps up the ball because obviously you do not want to lose those points on Good Morning America. Yeah. Yeah. You know, when you have a good game going. Absolutely. No, I'm GC it. If I'm bolting a game, I am doing Spider-Man. Okay. A black suit edition, obviously. Actually, I like the other back glass. I actually have the other one. I still love the game. It was time to move on, but I still love that game. But yes, the black suit is, it's a more valuable version, but definitely fun. Yeah. Well, you could go black suit with the original back. That's true. Chrome. All right, Scott, which one are you bolting? No, I'm bolting Good Morning America. I said Josh Sharpe comes as the topper, so I'm taking him. I thought you were joking. No, no, I'm totally loving that. All right, which one are you going Todd Tucky style with and throwing off a roof or lighting on fire, Don? Let's go with between Wheel of Fortune and Family Guy. I think I would check Family Guy just because I don't like that upper pinball play field thing. And it'd probably make a funny noise when it fell. And Wheel of Fortune is weird enough that I might actually want to hang on to it. I'm going to group a few together. So I'm going to chuck off every Zizzle game because there's no chance any of us are playing that for longer than five minutes. And I think we could probably get those more airborne off the roof than actually a standard game. But yeah, man, I really want like family. I have a sore spot with Family Guy just because I bought it because I love Shrek and I thought this would be a great theme. And I bought it and I opened it up and I started playing it. I hadn't played it before. It was early in the hobby. and I knew after the first game that I had made a horrible mistake. It just was not a fun game. I realized I don't like upper playfields. So that's, yeah. I think I'm definitely launching a combination of Family Guy and Marvel Super Heroes and Pirates of the Caribbean at Worlds and Zizzles. Yeah, I think I'm right there with you. I think my, my mom bought a pirates that were pirates. Oh wow. And because, you know, it was like a hundred bucks and she's like, we get a pinball machine. And I was like, that's not a pinball machine. It looks like, it looks like something that should shoot out a, a gumball when you drain. Well, what's funny too, is you could pick it up and shake it and it had no tilt Bob in it. So it was like, you can hit something. You just pick it up, roll around till you get it in the spot and you, boom, you were good to go. You know? Yeah. Yeah. it was just it was rough by the way to answer your question scott you were right one there was a ton of machines they threw off their roof but tnt did throw off a street fighter 2 they threw off uh bad girls oh man that's awesome yeah okay street fighter 2 you can chuck off but yeah a last action hero yeah not not much of a loss what the heck is this one it's a gottlieb racing game it's got like what is this like yeah those are all turds the later got leaves are all turds is it like a mario andretti i i can't tell what the heck it is the problem is they're tossing these off the roof so quickly that right and they're not really like showing pictures of and whatnot yeah okay don you said you played street fighter 2 who was your character oh god Probably just Ryu. Okay. Yeah, throwing fireballs, classic. I mean, yeah. Or Blanca, just because he was off the wall. Yeah. Yeah, you remind me of Jen Ann from Samurai Showdown. Okay. Yeah. Street Fighter II was legit, but I was more Mortal Kombat if I was going to come down between them. Yeah, I was a Street Fighter II guy. So that came out when I was in high school. I probably dumped hundreds of dollars into that game. And I was pretty good at Chun-Li. That was my, yeah. Yeah. I, I, I, I, I stunk at every other one. Yeah. I was really good. I mean, bird kick. Yeah. Yeah. It was a Mario Andretti. Sorry. Yeah. Josh is back. Back to the conversation. Yeah. That's what he threw off. Oh my goodness. Well, what was your guys's takes? We want to definitely know in the comments, whether it be here on YouTube, whether it be on our Facebook, our Instagram. We want to know what you guys I think collectively the pinball community is just going to say, torch all the sizzles. Just throw them in a bonfire. I think they should vault them, to be honest. Good call. I bet Costco would be up for that. They'd be dying to do that all over again. I think we could turn this into something. Absolutely. I agree. Okay, Josh, talk about the hats. Because you posted a link. I did. Don, for coming on we're getting you a hat and i'm bringing it to you at expo but if if you're not on our show you know you you got to get the hat the other way the way to do it right now is i've posted on all of our socials uh i know on facebook it's like our top post but it takes you to a link of where you can enter like it shows you all the new hats that we've done i've got this one here this is a black snapback with the loser kid logo and then it's adjustable in the back where this one's not fitted but then we have our there's a white one the weird part is on the pictures of the white one the logo center it's not going to be center when when you get it it's actually gonna be on the right side yeah unless if you're i'll ask the people that have have ordered it but that's they messed up on the yeah we usually are off center i mean that's the whole point of being loser kid right yep and then the hat that scott is wearing our our traditional 3930 new era that you know that's been around since the beginning 2.0 green green version yep you can still get the 2.0s or we're doing a 3.0 where it's a white hat and then black stitching or a white hat with red stitching i love the uh the 3.0 the black stitching yes looks good it's funny because everyone that has ordered it most of them have been the white or like the grays but everyone that has been on our show because traditionally if you come on our show we usually give you a hat and everyone's gone snapback on that so it's interesting it's kind of weird that it's different so i guess all the pinball people in the industry want snapbacks and everyone that isn't in the industry wants the fitted so but they're nice hats like like we had carrie hardy on a couple episodes ago and yeah he swears by it's the most comfortable hat he's ever owned awesome they're awesome hats. Yes. So if you want a hat, that's the way to get it. You can get all of our swag too on silverballswag.com. Get your shoes. Take pictures with Josh. And actually, it sounds like we're getting a button-up shirt as well. So keep an eye out for that. You know, like my Super Mario Sunshine shirt. So, anyhow. Well, Don, if you want people to get a hold of you or buy your mods, how do you do all that? Yeah, just email me, donspinballpodcasts At gmail.com or follow the Facebook page is a good way to get out to me. Throw you slide into my DMS. If you want, um, I've got a patron available for $5 a month. Also Don's pinball podcast. You want to get there. If you're a $5 a month subscriber, you get free stickers whenever you want. Otherwise I'll send them out to you for five bucks, a whole stack of stickers, uh, shirts I got for 25 shipped in the U S. So just holler at me. Do we'll work a deal. Nice. That's awesome. And if you want to get ahold of us, we are loser kid pinball podcast at gmail.com at loser kid pinball. pinball on all the socials so facebook instagram x uh youtube oh what else is out there twitch twitter i guess twitter is x i apologize anywho if you'll do me a favor though i know a lot of people our content reaches a lot of people i mean we get anywhere from about 6 000 to 12 000 reaches within about a two week to four week period and we only have like 900 people that have liked us on facebook and 100 people on youtube if you're if you're enjoying our content hit the like button hit the follow button uh or the subscribe button wherever it may be we really appreciate it it's kind of funny because like we had martin gonzalez on which he's part of the 99% invisible podcast and we were talking about like they have like over a million followers on on the podcast yeah it's crazy yeah i went looking at ours and we were like 150 yes and i was like Yes. I'm doing thousands and thousands of listens per episode. And we don't even have like 100. We barely have 150 subscribers. We have more, almost more YouTube subscribers in the last nine months than we do as Luger Kid Pinball over the last four years. It's weird. But it does help like the search algorithm. So if you like and follow, that would be great. And don't even just follow us. Follow Don's Pinball Podcast. Dude, it's great content. I know people are loving you. I mean, you're doing something right. So you keep popping up on my feed. I don't know if it's because I like your posts or whatnot. Perfect. I'm just happy to be hanging around with everybody. New episode just dropped tonight, too. So it's dripping hot new content. Nice. We stream Lebowski from the hotel room. Yes. The people in the room next to you are just going to love you all night long. I mean, yeah. I'm thumping the bass, too. I'm not even being nice about it. Well, I appreciate you coming on, Don. and I guess Scott we will see everyone in two weeks right absolutely talk to you later later
  • Chicago Gaming Company is sending out parts and providing support for Cactus Canyon repair issues

    high confidence · Josh describes how Chicago Game Company 'actually are sending out the parts that I need to fix it' after troubleshooting help

  • Don designed and 3D printed drum stick mounts for the Rush Neil Peart edition mod

    high confidence · Don explains 'I got the 3D printer program going and I designed some mounts for the sticks that you can get from Amazon' and that Games People Hans in Anaheim sells them

  • @ ~25:30
  • “The market has deflated. It's softening. It's not so it's gonna be interesting to see where this is all heading.”

    Matt Scott Larson @ ~54:20 — Indicates a market shift from the peak pinball boom of recent years

  • Spooky Pinball
    company
    Chicago Gaming Companycompany
    Games People Hanscompany
    Cointakercompany
    Fast Pinballcompany
    Haggis Pinballcompany
    Butch Pillperson
    Raven Davidsonperson
    Stumblerperson
    Benperson
    Back Alley Creationscompany
    Rushgame
    Scooby-Doogame
    Rick and Mortygame
    Godzillagame
    Game of Thronesgame
    Big Lebowskigame
    Mystery Companycompany

    market_signal: Pinball market showing signs of deflation after recent boom. Secondary market flipping becoming difficult, reduced demand for new games, market described as 'softening'.

    medium · Josh notes 'now it's a slog' selling machines after easy flipping in recent years. Matt states 'the market has deflated. It's softening. It's not' with interest in where it's heading given multiple new manufacturers entering

  • ?

    business_signal: Multiple new/emerging pinball manufacturers entering market simultaneously. At least two mystery companies haven't fully revealed themselves yet, plus recent reveals of Tilt Forums and Turner.

    medium · Matt describes Tilt Forums revealing at Texas Pinball Festival, Turner revealing at Pinball Expo for Ninja Eclipse, plus at least two more mystery companies not yet revealed

  • ?

    operational_signal: Chicago Gaming Company proactively providing technical support and replacement parts for Cactus Canyon issues, demonstrating strong customer service and product stand-behind.

    high · Josh reports CGC 'sending out the parts that I need to fix it' after collaborative troubleshooting with Butch Pill, called 'really sweet' and solid product support

  • ?

    technology_signal: Growing ecosystem of 3D-printed mods and custom enhancements being designed by community members and distributed through retail channels. Don's drumstick mounts now sold through Games People Hans and Cointaker.

    high · Don designed Rush Neil Peart drumstick mount mods using 3D printer, given away initially, now sold through Games People Hans and Cointaker

  • ?

    venue_signal: Scooby-Doo widebody performing well on location with operators, attributed to family-friendly theme integration and accessibility for non-hardcore players.

    medium · Don reports 'I've heard that from some operators, yeah' about Scooby-Doo location performance and notes it 'earns well on location'

  • ?

    partnership_signal: Spooky Pinball actively collaborating with content creators (Don) for factory tours, interviews, and streaming partnerships. Expanding Twitch streaming presence.

    high · Don visited Spooky factory, received tour and lunch, did interview, then Spooky came to his location to stream Rick and Morty. Described as collaborative and ongoing relationship.

  • ?

    design_innovation: Mystery manufacturer showing LCD implementation in backbox rather than traditional DMD, described as 'Stern-ish' look that may gain acceptance over time.

    low · Josh notes LCD in mystery machine 'looks very Stern-ish i feel like that's going to get some bonus points uh down the road and and i think it's going to be easier to accept'