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DPP #117 "Pinball Blues! Brother, that's a bad title"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·31m 28s·analyzed·Apr 21, 2024
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

HomePin announces Blues Brothers at $5K with open-source code; Don analyzes P3 ROI and celebrates pinball community creators.

Summary

Don discusses a current lull in pinball news while covering HomePin's Blues Brothers announcement, the underperformance of Spinal Tap, Multimorphic P3 break-even economics (3 modules vs. Stern Pros), and upcoming Stern releases. He also highlights community podcasts, personal game preferences, and a Jaws armor giveaway.

Key Claims

  • HomePin is releasing Blues Brothers pinball machine for under $5,000

    high confidence · Don cites HomePin press release; game announced for casual market targeting non-enthusiasts

  • Blues Brothers code will be open source

    high confidence · Don reports this as marketing point from HomePin, expresses concern about IP control implications

  • Spinal Tap shipped over a year ago at ~$9,000 MSRP and only one unit exists in public (Pinball Hall of Fame, Vegas)

    high confidence · Don researched Pinside; only Joe from Pinball Star distributes HomePin in US; one private owner in Connecticut

  • Multimorphic P3 break-even point is 3 modules ($18,400) vs. 3 Stern Pros ($21,000)

    high confidence · Don ran detailed financial analysis using MSRP pricing; modules include Princess Bride ($11.5K), Weird Al, Final Resistance ($3.4K deposit + $3.4K balance)

  • A used Weird Al P3 machine is available in Visalia, CA for under $8,000

    medium confidence · Don cites active listing; notes this disrupts the break-even math comparison

  • Stern's next release is imminent (weeks away), possibly John Wick, X-Men 97, or Masters of the Universe

    medium confidence · Don speculates; no official confirmation; hints at multiple possibilities

  • HomePin's owner was involved in controversy including employee death and wife litigation in China

    low confidence · Don recalls vague reference from Aussie Pinball Podcast interview (June, one year ago); indicates uncertainty with 'some crap'

  • Fresh Pinball Podcast released two-part interview with George Gomez about Pinball 2000

    high confidence · Don confirms he listened to both episodes; Jeff from Mad Pinball, Corwin, and Angeli Stark brothers as hosts

Notable Quotes

  • “Based on their track record, probably not much.”

    Don @ early_episode — Skepticism about HomePin's ability to deliver on Blues Brothers given Spinal Tap performance

  • “If you were a license holder, I don't know why you would even allow this. But probably what's going to happen is the rudimentary code or whatever is probably going to be done when the game ships, if ever.”

    Don @ mid_episode — Core concern about open-source licensing model; hints at delivery risk

  • “This game was released over a year ago at a price MSRP was around $9,000 which is just laughable now looking at it now... I don't even think this is a product.”

    Don @ mid_episode — Dismissive assessment of Spinal Tap's viability; questions its existence as a real commercial product

  • “I don't like the product, and that's not true. I do like the P3 system that Multimorphic has come up with.”

    Don @ mid_episode — Clarification that criticism is about value/gameplay, not the technology itself

  • “The break-even point, it starts at three modules. And then you're compelled to get more, and then you'll have that kind of manufactured cost savings, I guess.”

    Don @ late_mid_episode — Key finding from financial analysis; suggests P3 becomes economically competitive only at higher commitment levels

  • “I cringe at the graphics. The gameplay is a little weird... I just wish it was more kind of representative of Weird Al as a music pin and not so much the weird cell phone graphics in this museum of natural hilarity.”

    Don @ mid_episode — Specific criticism of Weird Al module design; contrasts with music-pin potential from Jersey Jack

  • “It was just unfortunate the kind of bottom fell out of the market when it did at that time... I think it was just a right product, wrong time kind of situation.”

    Don @ late_episode — Historical perspective on Pinball 2000 failure; suggests market timing vs. product quality issue

Entities

HomePincompanyBlues BrothersgameSpinal TapgameMultimorphic P3productStern PinballcompanyJoe from Pinball StarpersonSpooky PinballcompanyGeorge Gomezperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: HomePin's $9K Spinal Tap pricing at Stern Premium level with inferior quality/feature set indicates pricing misalignment and market confusion

    high · Don: '$9,000 is quite a big ask... Spooky Pinball's top-end editions are in that range, and this just does not measure up at all'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: High activity and enthusiasm in pinball podcast ecosystem; multiple new shows (Fresh Pinball, Phantom Tilt) gaining audience; creators praised for content quality and frequency

    high · Don highlights Albert Agar (Pinball Nerds) doing nearly daily interviews; Fresh Pinball with George Gomez two-parter; Phantom Tilt international engagement

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Don's financial analysis establishes Multimorphic P3 achieves cost parity with Stern Pros at 3-module acquisition threshold, creating inflection point for collector economics

    high · Don calculated: $18.4K for P3 with 3 modules vs. $21K for 3 Stern Pros; break-even at module #3; savings increase with module #4+

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Weird Al P3 module criticized for cringe graphics, museum-of-natural-hilarity aesthetic, and Harvey the Wonder Hamster jingle overuse; Don suggests music-pin approach by Jersey Jack would have been superior

    high · Don: 'I cringe at the graphics... Why couldn't this have been like a music pin that Jersey Jack put out... do it right'

  • ?

    event_signal: Southern Friday Gaming Expo (July, Atlanta) and Pinball Expo (October) are Don's confirmed upcoming travel; considering additional mid-tier events (Louisville Arcade, Pin Brew, Allentown, West Coast events)

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.094

0:00
let's let that beat roll in for a little bit before we get to this number 117 from the dawn get on the winning team right
0:30
Bring the Denise heat. Does it seem like nothing else is going on for anybody else? I've been, I've been busy every day here in the workshop, in the laboratory, cooking up some goodness and even putting out some patron content for everybody out there. So shout out to you. We're here. Let's let's circle the wagons here. Uh, bringing your little camping chairs closer. We get the campfire going. It's a chillax episode right now because we are in some kind of weird lull. It's like all the cycles of all the pinball newsmakers, the movers, the shakers, the blues brothers, right? All the cogs are all in synchrony, and they all hit this low spot right now, probably before we fire up for the rest of the year. I'm hoping we're still waiting for, you know, we're in the eve of a new release from Stern. It's got to be coming up soon. We're just a few weeks from the end of the month, and then we'll be hopefully knee-deep in John Wick and handgun shooter rod modifications and firing balls around with magnets all over a play field that looks like it wouldn't be out of place in the Matrix, but it's coming home to us with the Wick. Or maybe it's X-Men 97. Or maybe it's Masters of the Universe. I honestly don't know. But I'm excited about what the future will bring. In the meantime, we hear from our friend Mike over there at Home Pin has been quite quiet since his launch of Spinal Tap, which I want to talk about for a little bit, get a little bit of a recap there now. But apparently, this guy put out a press release saying that his next game that we've all been clamoring for is going to be Blues Brothers, right? Jake and Elwood, you know, a fun movie with little Danny Aykroyd and the good Belushi brother. And, you know, a seminal film. So somehow somebody holds onto these rights and doesn't really know what to do with them because he signed them over to Home Pin. What's Home Pin going to do? Based on their track record, probably not much. A couple notable points about this, though, and this is what was hyped up. Number one, the price is under $5,000.
2:37

  • “I've had a couple games today where I hit that ramp like 10 times or so... it's just such a great freaking game.”

    Don @ end_episode — Personal endorsement of Jaws as quality game; feedback on upper playfield difficulty

    • Jeff from Mad Pinballperson
    Pinball Hall of Famevenue
    Fresh Pinball Podcastmedia
    Phantom Tilt Podcastmedia
    Albert Agarperson
    Aussie Pinball Podcastmedia
    Princess Bridegame
    Weird Algame
    Final Resistancegame
    Jawsgame
    Cap Customcompany
    Pinball 2000product_line
    John Wickgame
    Labyrinthgame
    Don (host)person

    high · Don: 'I got my room booked. I got the tickets... my next expo. And then for sure Pinball Expo in October... maybe we'll do the B-tier expos next year'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Open-source code release raises IP control concerns for Blues Brothers licensors; Don questions how licensor permits community code modifications without approval

    high · Don: 'If you were a license holder, I don't know why you would even allow this... I would want to have pretty tight approval over every asset'

  • $

    market_signal: Used Weird Al P3 available in Visalia, CA for <$8K disrupts break-even economics analysis; suggests secondary market fluidity and pricing pressure

    medium · Don: 'fully featured Weird Al machine for under $8,000... that would totally ruin the math here. And so for basically $1,000 more than a Stern Pro, you can just walk into a P3'

  • $

    market_signal: Spinal Tap extremely limited availability (<2 units known) and failure to expand distribution one year post-launch signals product non-viability

    high · Don research: only Joe from Pinball Star distributes in US; Pinside shows 1 unit in Connecticut, possibly Joe's; one in Vegas Hall of Fame; no expansion in 12+ months

  • ?

    announcement: HomePin officially announces Blues Brothers pinball machine at under $5,000 MSRP targeting casual/family market with open-source code model

    high · Don cites HomePin press release confirming Blues Brothers rights and pricing; targets non-enthusiast buyers (pool table/foosball owners)

  • ?

    product_concern: HomePin owner described as 'completely out of touch with buying and selling developing products' in prior Aussie Pinball Podcast interview; raises competence questions for Blues Brothers delivery

    medium · Don references June interview: 'holy crap, that was some great news... just like how completely out of touch... probably the worst marketing you could possibly do'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Stern's next major release imminent (weeks away); three candidate titles speculated: John Wick, X-Men 97, Masters of the Universe

    medium · Don: 'We're just a few weeks from the end of the month... Or maybe it's X-Men 97. Or maybe it's Masters of the Universe. I honestly don't know.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: P3 Multimorphic LCD screen, LiDAR laser system, and plastic pillbox mechanisms do not meaningfully enhance gameplay for cost premium

    medium · Don: 'the whole screen thing, the LiDAR laser reticular recognition system the plastic pillboxes that pop up and down they do nothing for me... I really wish they would come out with like a... entry level version that didn't have that big LCD screen'

    • And they're saying, you know, again, this guy is marketing games to people that aren't really in the know when it comes to pinball, right? The casual, like casual, casual person. marketing this thing, you know, his name implies home pin, to a family or a guy that would have a basement with a pool table maybe some foosball, maybe in an arcade one-up machine and then maybe he wants a pinball machine but doesn't really know how to go about getting one and then gets somehow suckered into this. So I've got some words and phrases on that. The main thing though that he put out there was, and this is bragging, was that this code for the game you know, the code that operates the rules and everything was going to be open source for reasons. I can only think of one reason why you would do this. And, you know, as a licensor, I don't know why you would even allow this. But probably what's going to happen is the rudimentary code or whatever is probably going to be done when the game ships, if ever. Okay, there's a big if there. And then they're going to rely on the community to flesh out the code, right? You know, if you were just selling like a vanilla platform that was open source, like the Raspberry Pi of pinball, then you can really theme it to whatever you want, right? And so if I was a license holder, I would want to have pretty tight approval over every asset that's going into a game, not put it out there and just expect to, you know, my licenses just be in the hands of the public to do whatever they want with. That seems a little dicey. I don't know how that's going to work out. But probably it would really alleviate you from having a coding team to provide ongoing updates and support like we're used to in all the other pinball machines. But listen to me. I'm talking about pinball as somebody that likes pinball, which is not in the target market for this company from which we heard. If you haven't listened to the Mike from Home Pin interview on the Aussie Pinball Podcast, holy crap, that was some great news last summer. That was in June, one year ago from a couple months from now. Go look that up, man. I was driving around on a vacation and just listening to that in the car on the long drive, and it was just fascinating, man. just like how completely out of touch with uh with buying and selling developing products and putting them out there it's probably the worst marketing you could possibly do with a pinball company but go go check that out if you want to listen so uh open source coding i don't see how a licensor is okay with this at all you know i could put myself in the game for that matter um i don't know what uh coding process homeboy's using um but i i kind of think that uh this is to shield him from any blowback. Hey, this game is a bit broken. Scoring is a bit unbalanced. The response could be, hey, that's okay. You can go ahead and go in and code it however you want. Adjust the scoring however you want. It's open source.
    5:25
    I'm talking about this as if it's a real product. Let's look at Spinal Tap. Spinal Tap was a game, ostensibly, that was released with two flippers, and then late in development a third flipper was added.
    5:35
    I don't even think this is a product. this game was released over a year ago at a price MSRP was around $9,000 which is just laughable now looking at it now Spinal Tap is a theme I think could work in pinball and at least one other person agrees with me because they made a homebrew based on the license the movie is hilarious but I think it was done dirty by Home Pin you got a DMD and an LCD screen and the LCD screen is playing trailers of the film the whole time It's really strange and weird, almost as if the guy doesn't have a coding team behind him to put with this. But $9,000 is quite a big ask that's coming right at the premium level of games that we see from Stern Pinball. Spooky Pinball's top-end editions are in that range, and this just does not measure up at all. And I think that that is okay because it's not really a product. None of these actually exist. There's one in the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, and from the only time I've heard about it reported, There were some issues with it. Now, I'm the kind of guy, I like to play a game before I just totally trash it. I don't want to just go off of videos that I've seen. But this is a game that doesn't really even hardly exist in this dimension that we all currently live in on this planet. There's one location where it's ostensibly available to play for the public, and that's out in Vegas. If it is, if anyone's been there and played it, report back to me. What do you think about it? next time I'm in Vegas, I'm sure I'm going to stop by this place and maybe I'll see if it's working. If it is, I'd love to give it a play, but my hopes aren't very high with it, and I don't know that it has any deep color at all, and I think that's fine because it's not like this thing is for sale anywhere. Joe from Pinball Star seems to be the only US distributor for Home Pin, and looking at Pinside just now, there's one Pinsider that has it in his collection somewhere in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and then I clicked on it, and I think it was, it might have been just Joe from pinball star. So, you know, this thing is not crept out in the last year anywhere. Um, probably there's more Thunderbirds out in existence than there are spinal taps. And now is anybody going to buy a $5,000 blues brothers that needs to be coded? Okay. So, you know, if you didn know any better okay probably but you know the market I would suggest targeting or the price for the consumer would probably be somewhere around to So this would be a product that would be maybe not at Target, but maybe at a Costco, a big box retailer, a Sam's Club or something, a BJ's Warehouse if you're in that particular area of the country where they have those. um you know this would be uh kind of like a higher ticket item that you would see and be like hey i always kind of wanted one of those but never knew where to go get one here's one that's at the costco it's 2200 do i want it i don't know you know places like this do have bigger ticket items usually they're like gazebos or something for 4500 um you know but for five thousand dollars you know sitting retail where you would target these customers i don't see it going is this something that would be sold at a billiards distributor you know warehouse like somebody was in there to buy a four thousand dollar pool table and would look at this five thousand dollar pinball machine as a blues brothers got to have it maybe um but i would think you know if you were really honestly thinking about getting a pinball machine you probably would go out to a local pinball arcade and there you would see jaws and deadpool and star wars and mandalorian and you know looney tunes tcm big lebowski these other big themes and think like yeah yeah i think that's what I want. Would you see this as your first game and say, okay, I think I'll drop $5,000 on this without looking at anything else out there? I think the idea is a bit crack-potted. Going off of that Aussie Pinball Podcast with the owner, for sure it is. Were they talking about one of his employees or something was found dead in an apartment and his wife was getting mad at him and suing him in China or some crap? What the heck is even going on, man? do a pinball theme around the guy from Home Pin I want to play that, that game sounds like a lot more intriguing than what they're going to do with Blues Brothers, who's even behind this on development, who's building this, who's designing it who's doing the art, no clue at all are we going to see them ever show up to Expo they were supposed to be there last year but certainly weren't, so I don't know man I don't even know if they showed up on NAP Arcade really but there's that, that's something to talk about this week Yeah, Blues Brothers I mean, I think it could kind of work in pinball Maybe, but it's not even like Yeah, nothing to do with App Arcade about this Yeah, that's fine, keep it off of there, it doesn't need to be up there What's on App Arcade? Ava's gameplay video I haven't even watched this yet Reports are that it's not great I don't know, it looks more compelling than Queen I want to go play it I'm sure we'll at least get to play this game At Expo, maybe even Southern Friday Gaming Expo Wouldn't that be awesome? That's coming up in July down in Atlanta. I got my room booked. I got the tickets I need to go buy. But I'll be there as my next expo. And then for sure Pinball Expo in October. That may be it for the year of expoing for me. Unless something else pops up or something. At some point I would like to get out to some of these other festivals. I know the Pin Brew just happened out in Ohio. I got to get there at some point. I got to get to Allentown. I need to go to the New England Pin Fest. And then there's events on the West Coast. These guys out in Lodi, California have this weird camping Quonset Hut pinball celebration that I need to get out to, so shout out to the guys with the Spinner's Lit Podcast. Yeah, maybe we'll do the B-tier expos next year. The big ones being TPF and Pinball Expo.
    11:25
    So the Friday Gaming Expo seems like it's also a pretty big event, but there's all these lower-tier events. It seemed like they'd be a lot of fun. I did hit up the Louisville Arcade Expo as my first one. That I had a good time there. So, yeah, we'll see what the mid-range ones have to bring. What else do we have to talk about here? Oh, I did something fun. This is definitely pinball related. I've been kicking around this idea in my head about the P3 Multimorphic machine. Now, it has got out there the sense that I don't like the product, and that's not true. I do like the P3 system that Multimorphic has come up with. I like the ingenuity that led to its concept and design. I think it's a fascinating piece of tech.
    12:11
    When it comes down to me, my issue with it and why I don't have one, is just I don't think the game plays are compelling enough to justify the cost for me. It doesn't mean the games aren't fun to play. And if you have one, you're enjoying it. That's not wrong. It's just for me personally and just as a personal thing, You know, for that price, you know, if I had that money to give to Multimorphic, I think it would go sideways somewhere else first. And so I just don't think I'm ever going to be there. Now, maybe some compelling themes come out and I change my mind on the machine. But, you know, the games I've played I have enjoyed for the most part. Some of the downloadable ones really didn't seem that great. And that Cannon Lagoon just made me angry. Like, yeah, I was legitimately mad about that. But Princess Bride, it's fun. I think if it was in a Stern Spike 2 cabinet with more things to do I think that would be fun the game was fun and I don't think it was fun because of the differences that the P3 adds I think it was just the theme was fun and the shots were fun to shoot the whole screen thing, the LiDAR laser reticular recognition system the plastic pillboxes that pop up and down they do nothing for me Um, so like they're there and they're part of why the cost is so high for this machine. And, you know, I really wish they would come out with like a, a, an entry level version that didn't have that big LCD screen, um, and didn't have, uh, you know, some of that laser stuff in the pill boxes. And I think I could just get in with the gameplay cause I think the concept is kind of cool. Anyway, one thing I've always wondered is like, all right, you know, so the whole selling point of this system is that you make the investment into the unit and into your module that it comes with, and then you can get a different module and have a completely different game for half the price of buying a totally separate pinball machine, right? So where's the break-even point on that, I was wondering? If we're just sticking with MSRP and Stern Pros, the Deadpools, the Star Wars, the Foo Fighters and everything, how many machines or how many modules of the P3 would you have to buy before it kind of breaks even and then you start saving money? So I ran the numbers. Now, this is all based off of MSRP of $69.99 for the Stern Pros. Now, if you're in good with your distributor, you could probably knock a couple hundred bucks off of there, you know, if you always get with me, right? But we'll just, for the S's and G's here, we'll just go with MSRPs. And so here's what we got. So let's say I wanted to go out and I wanted a Stern Pro and I just picked a Star Wars Pro. I'm in for $69.99, right at $7,000. Now, let's say I'm going in with Multimorphic. I want the latest and the greatest. I want Princess Bride, $11,500 for the entry level. Okay, we're staying entry here. We're not going for the fancy swords that are on the outside. That would be a couple thousand dollars more. Let's just stick with the pinball brothers, the Princess Bride. So 11.5, you're definitely ahead with your Star Wars Pro, right? And don't come at me. That game's fun to play. All right, so let's say, okay, all right, fine. You got the Star Wars Pro. So let's go for something a little more appealing to the large masses of everybody. Let's get ourselves a Jaws Pro. It's the new hotness. It's the newest game from Stern. It's amazing. The premium is just even better, but the Pro is still a great, fun game, totally moddable. So $16,999. So we're at $13,998, all right, or $14,000 basically for those two games. Now let's say we go over and we've got our Princess Bride. We're loving it. We want to get another module. The next one we want to get is Weird Al right That right half the price roughly of a Stern Pro And so you be in for with these two modules of Multimorphic versus with two Stern Pros So you're definitely ahead $1,000 and have two full games, one of the best licenses of all time, and the other one, Jaws, like the newest hotness from Elwynn, you're like, cannot be stopped, right? So you're definitely ahead at two. So if you're planning on only buying two modules or only buying two games, you'd be better served, I believe, without the P3 system. Okay, so the next one is where we get there. So you want final resistance, $3,400. You've got to put down a $1,000 deposit now, and then when it's made, $3,400. They're shipping. People are getting them. So you're at $18,400 now for a P3 system with these three modules, right? $18,400. and if you add another $7,000 Stern Pro to your lineup, say you want to get Foo Fighters, Jack Danger's Baby and you don't want to go out and get one used for a little bit cheaper, you want a new one box you're now at $21,000 $20,997 not counting tax, it's just MSRP, so that's the break even point, it's three modules of the P3, you'd come in at $18,500 basically versus $21,000 for three Stern Pros versus the P3 with three modules Now, we've got three certain pros. You've got a rocking collection there. Drop some shaker motors in them. You've got a lineup of three amazing games. Now, if you want to outfit them with toppers, that's on you. But you've got an impressive-looking lineup versus one machine with a module, two other modules on the floor underneath it. It's the space-saving design, but you're essentially saving about $2,500 then at that point. And then that's the point where it starts to pay off for you if you want to go that route. add another module maybe something cool comes out maybe i don't know if they can get the blues brothers still because homepins got that locked up um but let's say they get uh harry and the hendersons and you really want to get that module and it's three thousand five hundred dollars um then from then on you'll start saving money versus having your four stern pros now you know maybe you know practically you get a p3 with a couple modules you get a couple stern pros as well so this is all kind of individual decision based on what you want to do. But if you wanted to know, Don, where's the break-even point for Multimorphic? It starts at three modules. And then you're compelled to get more, and then you'll have that kind of manufactured cost savings, I guess. So I ran the numbers. I thought it was going to be more. I thought you'd have to get four modules before you cross the Rubicon there. But apparently they have it right there at three and three. So I did a little digging. Right now, however, Visalia, California, a town I've frequented a few times, is the gateway to the Sequoia National Park. There is a chum out there that is selling a fully featured Weird Al machine for under $8,000 right now. You can go out there and pick it up locally or even drive it to the San Fernando Valley if you want. And so that would totally ruin the math here. And so for basically $1,000 more than a Stern Pro, you can just walk into a P3 Multimorphic machine with Weird Al. Museum of Natural Hilarity if you want now I love me some Weird Al man in high school as an awkward kid an awkward youth I would take my $20 when I would save it up and I'd go get myself a Weird Al album at least my first two years of high school it was like Weird Al all the time Weird Al and Beavis and Butthead were like my two things so I appreciate the man and his body of work and I think the machine just ain't it I cringe at the graphics The gameplay is a little weird. I like the mechanisms that they have. I just wish it was more kind of representative of Weird Al as a music pin and not so much the weird cell phone graphics in this museum of natural hilarity. And I keep hearing the Harvey the Wonder Hamster as good as it is of a jingle. I don't think I need to hear it every two minutes while I'm playing. So, eh, I love Weird Al too, man. And it's like, you know, dang it. Why couldn't this have been like a music pin that Jersey Jack put out or something, right? You know, like do it right, do it right. So the first part of high school was Weird Alan B. It was in Butthead. The second half of high school was St. Cloud Posse. Yeah, yeah. And ska and ska music. Third Wave Ska was really big in Central California, Northern California where I was living at the time in the 90s. Petaluma was the town. There was a little Phoenix Theater right there. It was a converted movie theater that had skate ramps inside so you could skate while bands were playing. Run DMC played there. Sublime played their final show ever there. I couldn't get the bus to get to make it to that show dang it I could have went and saw Bradley Knoll's last concert but I did see Insane Clown Posse there I did see Headboard there several times they were like my band bonded with those guys super cool and then I met Jeff Gershman way before the Giant Bomb stuff and all the GameSpot crap anyway I'm off on a tangent here what the hell was I even talking about oh this dude out in Visalia has got a weird out for $8,000 if you want to go scoop that up go and do it. What else is going on around in pinball now? Fresh Pinball Podcast is now finally on my podcast server that I see. So Jeff from Mad Pinball and Corwin and the Angeli Stark brothers, they've got themselves a pinball podcast and they just landed an interview with George Gomez. They have a two-part episode where they're talking all about Pinball 2000. So while I've been working in the garage today, I've been listening to both of those fantastic stuff. Always great to listen to George as he talks about his time at Bally Williams and making video games and the crush of pinball, especially with Pinball 2000 being innovative where it is. And then really having this kind of resurgence now, Revenge from Mars, Star Wars Episode One. I don't think I would hate myself if I drug one of these home at some point. I would like to see it revisited too because it was interesting mixing the video graphics holographically or at least basically using pinball glare as a feature um you know but uh you know i guess the gameplay on episode one is pretty repetitive i have not put a lot of time on that game but i did play at uh logan's arcade uh revenge from mars a little bit ago and yeah you know it's fun it's compelling it's interesting what they did with that and that's a game i wouldn't mind having and i think it'd be fun to see someone tackle that either homebrew or otherwise to bring that kind of holographic gameplay back. Because I think there's some more that could be milked there. It was just unfortunate the kind of bottom fell out of the market when it did at that time. I don't know if it was responsible for it at all. I think it was just a right product, wrong time kind of situation. What else do we have? Our boys over at Phantom Tilt. Boys. One boy, Ryan and Kimba. They've been on Twitter. They've been doing live streams. They got my box of goodies finally that I sent them and did an unboxing. It was hilarious. I sent them some American snacks, including some moon pies. So for those of us in the U.S., we are very familiar with the marshmallow-y goodness and banana flavoriness of the moon pie. And so if you want to see an Australian give their opinions of what they are the first time, go check them out on the Twitch channel. I also sent them some York peppermint patties, a handful of other Hershey stuff. I'm a Hershey guy. We used to live there in Pennsylvania. I used to work in York at the hospital there. So it's fun for me to kind of share, like, my culture with these guys over there. So I always want to give them a shout-out.
    23:13
    I'll shout-out my boy Albert Agar, too, with the Pinball Nerds podcast. He's been just going hard, man. Like, I've been – it seems like I've been disappeared, and he's been doing a podcast, like, every day almost, different interviews and things, just killing it, just slaying it. So you know always a good time always looking for some new content from him And the spooky guys man Bug Scream and Stream he started it and he been going hard every Thursday And I caught a little bit of the prerecorded episode that they just did and it was great seeing him with his gossamer costume creeping out there. So, Bug, love you. I heard you just had a birthday. Happy birthday, sir. And, you know, thanks for being part of our pinball family that we have here. Dysfunctional though we may be, we are having a good time in pinball. And there's a lot more coming. We're going to have the second Cornerstone release from Stern here soon. I think we'll probably over the next week start hearing more and more about it. Heck, Monday morning they may just be like, hey, here it is. Go call your distributor. Go call Mad Pinball. Go call Jeff at MadPinball.com. Well, don't call him. Email him. Tell him I sent you and go get yourself a game. I've got a spot in line for a premium version of whatever the heck they decide to come out with next. and I will say that if it's Wick or if it's X-Men 97 then I'm totally in I love that John Wick movie I just finally saw it you know and of course like I knew Keanu Reeves had this line of movies where he just goes around and shoots everybody and it's just good fun right and so I watched the movie and it was as described and yeah it was a good time I'm glad I watched it I don't know if I'm going to go sit down and watch the next five of them but yeah I'll play the pinball machine for sure for sure Oh, there is still time to get in on the Jaws pinball armor giveaway that I'm doing, courtesy of Cab Custom and Don's Pinball Podcast.
    25:04
    Entry's been pouring in, man. This has been very popular, and I hope I can do this again in the future. But I've got myself a set of custom laser-cut armor for the Jaws pinball machine, powder-coated polar white, and we're giving them away for free, including shipping. I don't care. All you have to do to enter is you've got to email me. Don't text me a picture of yourself of the Jaws pinball machine. go and get yourself and yourself and a job spin ball machine in the same picture and email it to me now if it's your machine that's going to be great because you can put this armor on your machine but maybe it's in a location and you want to trade it for some credits or something or maybe you just want to put them on your wall or maybe you want to run around like a madman swinging these things like giant katanas it's completely up to you you know put them on a mandalorian if you want to man they look awesome i will say if you want to really complete the look put these on your game, take that lock bar off, undo the screws from the bottom and pull the plastic bits off, take it to your local powder coater and get some Prismatic Powders Polar White on there and it will match and then the whole thing will look awesome. Now, if you're like me, you'll probably want to do the legs and the coin door and the speaker panel and all that business too, but at a bare minimum, go ahead and get that lock bar done. So, we're giving this thing away. We're doing it on April 30th, which is coming up in just another week. Man, where's the time going? We're going to give that away. You have up until April 29th to go ahead and email your boy Don. Don't text me. Okay, I love, well, I mean, text me if you want, but make sure you email as well because I'm taking all the entries and I'm sticking them over into a special email file so they don't get lost so I can go back and populate a legal pad of everybody that entered, and then we're going to do live on Facebook a random drawing, a random number generator. Everybody will be assigned a number, and then whatever that number is, congratulations, you win. give me an address and I will mail these things out to you.
    26:51
    And anybody else, if you're really digging how they look, for about half the cost of what Stern charges for their custom armor, you can get yourself some Cap Custom laser cut awesomeness. I think I've bought four of them, four sets right now. I got the armor for Star Wars. It looks like the LE armor. It's like one-to-one. It matches perfectly. Great recreation. I got the Stranger Things armor with the ABCD alphabet along the side and then the kids in the Demogorgon, and one of them's upside down and one of them's not. Super cool. What else did I get? I got another one.
    27:25
    I'm looking around. I know I got it for Jaws. Did I get it for another? Oh, Venom. Yeah, I got the Venom armor. It looks just like the LE. I sold that game. That's why it's not here. And then I got Jaws here. And I think I'm just going to kind of keep this going. I was buying the lollipop rails for about $70. For twice that cost, you can get custom laser-cut armor that just really just completes the freaking look. Um, he's got some devastating looking Iron Maiden armor right now with a lot of the Egyptian hieroglyphics running the length of it. And if I still had my Iron Maiden, yeah, I would, I would be, I would be putting those on, on for sure. For Sheezy. All right, so that brings us to the end of another episode. It's a week of nothing going on in pinball. And look at this. We were entertained each other for a whole 30 minutes. That's amazing. Don, what are you playing this week? I'm playing the heck out of some Jaws. I'm playing a lot of Labyrinth, and I need to get the code updates into the two spookies so I can jump back in over there. But I've got to say, man, I've owned Jaws since it came out. I got a premium in the first run, and it's just such a great freaking game. The art blades are in there, and of course it looks beautiful with the powder coat and alternate translate, and I redid the T-molding. But regardless, just shooting that upper playfield ramp, I'm getting so much better at it. I've had a couple games today where I hit that ramp like 10 times or so. still a little hard to get the timing right to get that extra little shot that's up there but you know i can actually a couple of times i intentionally hit the flashing radio target when i meant to do it so that was amazing i love the bounty hunt feature and this isn't even fully coded yet you know my jaws has been promised so it'll be shipping out of here this summer but you know anybody else out there like if you're tired of your jaws le at some point and you want a quick sale just give me a call man i think we could put it together i wouldn't mind dragging an home at some point because i just this game is just super duper fun love it all right i got more stuff coming later uh i can't wait to talk about my special project i've been working on it's just it's consuming all my time and i just love it uh you people on patreon you know what i'm talking about because i just did that whole episode for you if you want i listen to it and everything else i've been putting out on patreon uh five dollars a month gets you in the door go check out everything um i'm up over 50 members right now we're building a good community we have a discord over there i'm doing monthly giveaways um we've been doing translates every month i might look at that expanding again maybe getting back into some banner giveaways as we get more people i'm going to add more prizes so you know for five dollars a month for extra bonus content and you're automatically entered into giveaways plus there's free stuff if you remember you get free stickers uh free uh stern badge backers for your games um and whatever else i can think of you know giving out or trying um and then you know i'm always advertising things on there you know i I just did a run of a couple of t-shirts where you got a free shooter rod with them if you ordered. So that's fun and more to come because I love spoiling my Patreon members. That's patreon.com backslash Don's Pinball Podcast. Go check it out. Walk in the door. And if you join at the prestige partner level or above the $10 or $20 a month, you get a bonus entry into the monthly giveaways and the producer level into a private Discord server where we discuss things and you actually have some say over how the podcast is run. So, yeah. we're all having fun here man we're building a good community it's just a cool place to kick back hang out and i like producing all this stuff for you and that five bucks buys me some plays on my local machines and i love it more to come and i can't wait i can't wait it's gonna be july southern pride gaming expo is gonna be here i'm gonna drive down to georgia i'm gonna stop by dollywood on the way i'm gonna hit like six buckies it's gonna be nuts don's gonna podcast at gmail.com how you get a hold of me or on the discord or on the patreon or text me or mail me something. I don't know. Just make sure it's not white powder or explosive, please. It's impossible. Otherwise, more content coming as soon as it drops. Have yourself a great weekend. It's Saturday, man. Let's party. Get the s'mores going. Roast that fire.
    31:23
    Order a pizza. I don't know. You do you, boo.