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Episode 57: Beetlejuice vs. Pokémon: Theme Monster vs. Mass Appeal

The Flipside Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 9m·analyzed·Apr 13, 2026
91cc419a-736b-4524-a0fd-e2dbea854402
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Community sentiment analysis reveals Beetlejuice excels thematically but has flow concerns; Pokémon offers accessibility.

Summary

Retro Ralph hosts a deep community sentiment analysis comparing Beetlejuice and Pokémon pinball machines, curating hundreds of comments from Pinside, Reddit, and other forums to present aggregated player opinions across theme, gameplay, flow, rules, reliability, and value. The analysis reveals Beetlejuice praised for excellent theme integration and artwork but criticized for stop-and-go flow, problematic scoops, and availability/pricing issues, while Pokémon receives mixed feedback on art style but is positioned as more accessible mass-market appeal. Ralph concludes both games serve different player archetypes and neither is universally dominant.

Key Claims

  • Spooky Pinball production is capped at approximately 1,000 games per year and will likely remain there

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph discussing business constraints and Spooky's production model; stated as analysis of company decision-making

  • Beetlejuice has three scoops that can cause flow issues and occasionally kick straight down the middle

    high confidence · Multiple community comments cited; Ralph confirms observing similar behavior on his copy

  • Evil Dead has superior callouts compared to Beetlejuice, representing some of the best in modern pinball

    high confidence · Retro Ralph's direct opinion and comparison; stated as personal assessment

  • Beetlejuice is more forgiving and longer-playing than a typical tournament game, with ball saves enabled by default

    high confidence · Ralph's gameplay observations and community feedback synthesis

  • Secondary market asking prices for Beetlejuice average $15,500 with premiums of $4,250+ for confirmed preorder spots

    medium confidence · Community comment citing Pinside price history; Ralph acknowledges uncertainty about full context

  • Pokémon pinball features more obvious shot selection than typical Stern designs

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph's direct observation about playfield artwork clarity and shot layout

  • Mode selection in Beetlejuice via left sling/band is not an intuitive or controllable mechanic

    high confidence · Ralph's detailed gameplay critique; identifies this as personal design preference criticism

  • Beetlejuice has a learning curve requiring 8-10 games for average players to master shot placement

    medium confidence · Retro Ralph synthesizing consistent feedback from community and Texas Pinball Festival observations

Notable Quotes

  • “Theme, sound, artwork are excellent on this game. It makes you smile from the moment you hit start.”

    Anonymous Pinside commenter (cited by Retro Ralph) @ N/A — Represents core positive sentiment on Beetlejuice's thematic execution and immediate player engagement

  • “It feels like you're playing the Beetlejuice movie.”

    Anonymous Pinside commenter (cited by Retro Ralph) @ N/A — Indicates successful IP integration and immersive theme execution

  • “Not everything needs tournaments in mind. Some players just want an amazing experience.”

    Anonymous commenter (cited by Retro Ralph) @ N/A — Articulates philosophical divide between tournament-focused and home/casual player expectations

  • “MagnaSave implementation is really cool... it works when it's on. And that's what I want. I want it to save my damn ball.”

    Retro Ralph (responding to community comment) @ N/A — Positive assessment of Beetlejuice's ball-save reliability; contrasts with Fall of the Empire complexity concerns

  • “Doesn't have much consistent flow. Shots feel choppy even if the design is original.”

    Anonymous commenter (cited by Retro Ralph) @ N/A — Represents primary design criticism of Beetlejuice regarding playfield flow and shot sequencing

  • “Three scoops are annoying. It doesn't add any fun. Often it kicks straight down the middle and punishes you.”

    Anonymous commenter (cited by Retro Ralph) @ N/A — Identifies recurring mechanical issue impacting gameplay experience

  • “If you're someone that hasn't gotten their game yet and you're an average player, give it a good 10 games. You'll start to get the shots down and you'll enjoy it.”

    Retro Ralph @ N/A — Sets expectations for Beetlejuice learning curve and player progression

  • “Evil Dead's callouts are some of the best callouts in modern pinball in my opinion, bar none, period. They nailed it. It was like lightning in a bottle.”

Entities

Retro RalphpersonZach MenypersonBug (Spooky Pinball designer)personKale (Electric Bat)personRachelpersonKeith ElwinpersonGeorge GomezpersonSpooky Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Beetlejuice sentiment improves after player learning curve (8-10 games) despite initial difficulty; community perception shifts from mixed-to-positive as players master shots

    high · Ralph synthesizes Texas Pinball Festival feedback: 'their first couple games they weren't like in love with it and then as they played it... they would enjoy it'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Beetlejuice exhibits intentional stop-and-go flow vs. continuous ramp flow; design choice reflects rules depth over accessibility but aligns with movie mode complexity strategy

    high · Multiple comments cite 'choppy' flow; Ralph explains: 'you have to kind of traverse through the playfield on the right or left side' for mode strategy

  • ?

    product_concern: Beetlejuice scoop mechanics exhibit recurring issues: kickouts going straight down middle, ball sticking on worm mouth, power pulse rebounds; some resolution possible via manual power adjustment

    high · Multiple community reports of scoop problems; Ralph confirms worm sticking issue on his copy; community members report success lowering scoop power

  • ?

    design_innovation: Beetlejuice's MagnaSave is praised as intuitive and reliable compared to Fall of the Empire's overly complex interpretation; represents successful mechanical simplicity approach

    high · Community: 'MagnaSave implementation is really cool'; Ralph: 'it just works. It works when it's on. And that's what I want'

  • ?

    code_update: Spooky Pinball maintaining aggressive code release schedule for Beetlejuice; early adopters benefit from incomplete feature set with promise of substantial future content

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.210

0:00
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Flipside Podcast. I'm your host, Retro Ralph, and we are here to talk about Pokemon versus Beetlejuice, but it's not what you think. It's not what you think. So it's going to be interesting. We're going to talk all about what the community is saying about Pokemon and Beetlejuice. And I might chime in with my opinion here and there, of course, because you're going to want to hear from me, too. But this is literally combing for hours and hours and hours on Pinside, Reddit and anywhere else I can find people commenting on either game, what they've said good, what they've said bad, what they don't like, what they do like. So it's going to be really interesting because, you know, most of the community does not hold back. So before we get started, a quick word from our sponsor, Flip N Out Pinball. If you're looking for a used pinball machine or a new pinball machine or you want to get on the list for one of these crazy titles that are rumored for 2026, contact Zach at Flip N Out Pinball. And all the information will be in the description of this video. Or if you're listening, it will be in the description on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. All right, now we're going to dive right into it because I am fired up for this episode because you know what? You can't really get upset with me because this is stuff. This is shit that you've said. Now, it might not be you who's listening to this, but maybe it might be. I'm probably going to leave the names off, but just because I don't feel like I've gotten anybody's permission, although it is publicly posted, but I just thought it'd be fun. So for one thing, obviously these two games hit at around the same time and at least they started shipping to customers around the same time. And people are really excited for different reasons about Pokemon and about Beetlejuice. So I just thought since those seem to be the most polarizing games out there right now, that's what we would talk about in this episode. But instead of me sharing my opinion, it's the community sharing their opinion. But also stay tuned to the end of the episode. I had five voicemails that came in after the voicemail show, so I thought it'd be fun to address those too. So I'm going to try to rip through this part pretty quick. It's going to be fun. I'm not going to spend too much time on each particular topic because I have so much. So I have notes in front of me, but I broke it all down and we're going to go game by game. We're going to start with Beetlejuice. So I have it separated in theme, art, gameplay, flow, rules and code, reliability and mechanisms.

Retro Ralph @ N/A — Establishes Evil Dead as gold standard for pinball callout design; implies Beetlejuice falls short comparatively

  • “It is what it is. But because Spooky's on fire right now, you just got to get in early.”

    Retro Ralph @ N/A — Addresses FOMO dynamics and scarcity-driven market conditions for Spooky games

  • “Everything under the glass feels like magic.”

    Anonymous commenter (cited by Retro Ralph) @ N/A — Represents highest-level positive sentiment on Beetlejuice mechanical execution and overall feel

    • Stern Pinballcompany
    Flip N Out Pinballcompany
    Beetlejuicegame
    Pokémon Pinballgame
    Evil Deadgame
    Godzillagame
    Jawsgame
    Fall of the Empiregame
    Harry Pottergame
    Led Zeppelingame
    Texas Pinball Festivalevent
    Pinsideorganization
    Electric Batcompany

    high · Ralph: 'Spooky seems to be doing the same thing they did with Evil Dead, constant code releases'; notes game 'probably only halfway done'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Beetlejuice secondary market showing significant FOMO-driven premiums; average asking $15,500 vs. MSRP; confirmed preorder spots command $4,250+ premiums

    medium · Community comment: '$15,500 medium asking price' with '$4,250 premium for the spot'; Ralph notes 'if you want one, you're going to pay a lot more than MSRP'

  • $

    market_signal: Spooky Pinball strategically capping production at ~1,000 units annually to maintain annual release cadence; reluctant to expand despite strong demand due to business risk and overhead concerns

    medium · Ralph analysis: 'They can only make as many games as they can a year. They don't have a production capability really more than a thousand games a year'; explains expansion risk rationale

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Beetlejuice positioned as non-tournament, home/casual player experience; Pokémon as mass-market accessible alternative; Stern tends toward tournament-focused design vs. Spooky's entertainment-first approach

    high · Ralph: 'I don't really view it as a tournament game'; contrasts with Stern's 'make their games more with tournament players in mind'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Beetlejuice prioritizes thematic immersion and rule depth over pure accessibility; scoops serve narrative (grave-digging) function; forgiving ball-save design enabled by code philosophy

    high · Ralph: 'modes like Grave Dig where the scoops are acting as a mechanism to dig up Beetlejuice's coffin. So I like that. It's very cool'; notes forgiving design enables exploration

  • ?

    product_concern: Beetlejuice's mode selection via left sling/band mechanic lacks intuitive control; players cannot reliably select desired modes, forced to play sequentially; community views as design flaw

    high · Ralph: 'you can select the modes in Beetlejuice, but it's that left sort of sling and it's not really a hard... easy direct shot. So I don't feel like you really have control'

  • ?

    content_signal: Flipside Pinball utilizing community-sourced sentiment analysis as primary content; aggregating hours of Pinside/Reddit comments to represent collective voice; voicemail segment added for listener engagement

    high · Ralph intro: 'combing for hours and hours and hours on Pinside, Reddit'; announces 'five voicemails that came in after the voicemail show'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Beetlejuice locations may require code tuning for tournament suitability; operator discretion on ball-save adjustment and difficulty settings; Ralph planning to contact operators for deployment strategy

    medium · Ralph: 'I really have to talk to Kale and Rachel and see if they're putting it in tournaments... if they've even set it in any kind of way to maybe make it more suitable for tournaments'

    • 2:43
    So then value, value, operator, location. And then I have some like funny ones that I have that are just I mean, they're kind of funny. It's just comments like unhinged comments. They probably don't, you know, either way, I'm like, I don't know if this adds any value, but it's just fun to talk about. Sorry, let's start with theme and art. We're going to go Beetlejuice first and then Pokemon after. And then we'll kind of like, you know, if I can remember what I talked about five minutes ago, then maybe we'll we'll kind of just figure out like who might be the winner here. But very different games for very different audiences, I think. But still, it's fun to do nonetheless. All right. So starting with Beetlejuice, I want to start with theme and art. So this is this is basically a comment from someone on Pinside that will remain nameless. And they said theme, sound, artwork are excellent on this game. It makes you smile from the moment you hit start. So, I mean, I can't really argue with that comment because I do feel like that's true. If you're a Beetlejuice fan, when you hit start, you're going to be pretty excited, especially if you have it at your house because you're going to do the Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. Your game's going to come alive and you're going to be very excited. So this is not gameplay. This is just looking at it and you're like, wow, this is awesome. And I can't refute anything there because the theme is great. Now, the sound I could argue the call outs thing is one missing element. And I literally said call outs about 175 times in my review of Beetlejuice, which a couple of people reminded me of that. So thank you very much. I did know I said it a lot, but I appreciate the extra reinforcement there. All right. So we're going to the next comment. So I have four comments for each section. This one says theme integration is wow. Tons of clips. Awesome light show. Game of the year energy. OK, so another very positive comment for Beetlejuice on the theme and art. But I can't argue that either. There are a ton of clips. There's going to be more coming in. They just had a code drop just recently. So if you bought this game and you're in the later half of the run, you're going to be pretty excited because not only are you going to get to enjoy all the stuff that's out now, you're going to get to enjoy all the subsequent code releases. And I got to admit, Spooky seems to be doing the same thing they did with Evil Dead, constant code releases. So I like that. That is a good thing. The light show, I have had comments where people have said the game can be a little dark. I do think if you were playing this game in an ultra dark room with no other ambient lighting at all, you might find there are modes during the game or points during the game where it is a little dark. So I can't I could I could say that's that's sort of my comments on that. But game of the year energy, I don't know. There's way too many other games coming out this year to say that's a little early to say that. But hey, it's probably going to be on the list for sure. All right. Next comment on theme and art. Beautiful assets all used really well. It feels like you're playing the Beetlejuice movie. Now, that's a good that's a good comment because that's what you want. Right. When someone creates a theme for for a pinball machine and especially a movie franchise, you kind of want to feel like you're playing the movie or playing scenes within that movie. You know, I think there were some complaints about there were some complaints from some people that they felt like on Harry Potter, maybe it was a little frantic and disjointed. I didn't feel that way. I felt like you hit the scoop, you select your movie mode. So I don't know. I don't feel that way. I do have one comment, though, and this is something that they probably can't change. But I like to see this maybe in future spooky releases, unless this is just spooky thing and this is just how they want to roll, which is totally fine. But in my opinion, I really like the idea that you hit a shot or a series of shots and then you can kind of select the modes.
    6:26
    You can, in theory, select the modes in Beetlejuice, but it's that left sort of sling and it's not really a hard it's not really an easy direct shot. So I don't feel like you really have control over the modes. You're just kind of landing on a mode when the ball happens to hit that that upper. It's not really a slingshot in the sense that it doesn't have any mechanism to bounce the ball back. It just has like a band and it hits a switch, which then changes the mode. I don't know if they could do something different in code there, but I don't love that part of the game. If there's any criticism I have about it, I don't love that changing the modes is kind of not like really obvious. Well, it's just not that easy to do. So you kind of just play through the modes as you land on them. So I don't know. Unless someone knows there's a magical way to hit that shot. I haven't found an easy way to hit that shot other than by accident, like it hitting a ricocheting off something else, It's like a slingshot or something like that. So anyways, all right, comment valid. All right.
    7:22
    Okay, this is a negative comment. So this, so there was, so in themes and art, I did three positives, one negative. So it says overdoes the license, repetitive clips, sound effects, and voiceovers start to grind. I don't know what they mean by voiceovers start to grind because there really aren't any call outs unless you turn on the ones that Bug specifically turned off when he shipped it. So, and I don't know how fair it is to say that it's repetitive right now because it may feel a bit repetitive right now, but that's because the whole game isn't complete yet. So, I don't know. I could go either way on this one. I mean, this is obviously this person's opinion, but they're saying that they think they overdid it. I don't know. I don't think so. I disagree with that comment. The only comment I'd say is, yeah, sure, I guess anything in its early days could get repetitive when it's in early code. I mean, it's probably only halfway done. So I think that's an early hot take. I think that's going to be to be determined. Like, will it get old when it's fully baked? I don't know, because I would definitely not say that about Evil Dead. I feel like Evil Dead I can keep playing and having a great time with. So, hey, valid comment, but yeah. All right, we're going to move to gameplay and flow because I want to keep this moving fast. All right, positive comment. This one could be viewed as a positive and a negative maybe. So it says layout is fun, but missing satisfaction. Scoops chop up the flow. Sometimes that helps code. I'm not really sure what that meant then. But I think what he's trying to say is that the layout is fun, but the scoops slow things down. I have heard people complain about the scoops. I don't know. You do hit the scoops pretty often sometimes. Like if you miss a shot, you might hit a scoop by accident. There are definitely modes like Grave Dig where the scoops are acting as a mechanism to like dig up Beetlejuice's coffin. So I like that. It's very cool. Like it's cool to think that a scoop is the digging mechanism. I really think that's kind of neat. I don't know. This is kind of a shared—I feel like some people have this opinion. It's not definitely unanimous that the scoops slow it down, but I feel like it's a valid comment by someone here. All right, next comment. Doesn't have much consistent flow. Shots feel choppy even if the design is original. Okay. I mean, flow-wise, the game isn't like an Elwynn flow monster kind of a game. I think it definitely feels like more of a, you know, kind of trap up, figure out where your next shot's going to be, because a lot of the modes you have to kind of like traverse through the playfield on the right or left side. So I do feel like there's a little bit of stop and go. But I think for a game like this, where the code is deep in the movie modes and things like that, and I'm sure it's going to get deeper, I don't mind that. It's just that kind of game. I mean, there are times where it gets faster paced. Like you can go from that like right ramp to the left ramp and kind of get some flow going there, but it's not like an ultra flowy game. So I get what he's saying there.
    10:21
    And I think, though, the thing with this game, and I've heard this comment consistently, is a lot of people, they struggle with the game at first. They have to find the shots. I kind of think that's a lot of games, but games where the shots are like more open, like Pokemon, I don't think people say I have a hard time finding the shots. I do think with Beetlejuice, and I heard this constantly after my video and from people at Texas Pinball Festival, that their first couple games they weren't like in love with it and then as they played it and then could kind of like get the shots dialed in. So it's not one, and unless you're an exceptional player, I don't think it's one that you jump on and you're just like ripping it right in the beginning. I think you have a little bit of a, there's a little bit of a learning curve. So if you're someone that hasn't gotten their game yet and you're an average player, give it give it like a good 10 games. You'll start to get the shots down and you'll enjoy it. But I don't necessarily view that as a bad thing. It's just it's a little bit more challenging. Some of the shots and the layouts a little unique. So it just takes you a little while to get it going. So valid for that person. I don't necessarily fully agree. I do think you have to just give it a little bit of time, though. I think that's that's very valid. OK, this one's a negative comment. Three scoops are annoying. It doesn't add any fun. Often it kicks straight down the middle and punishes you. So they have done some things. This person is basically saying that there's this reoccurring behavior in the game with the scoops where it's going to go straight down the middle and it's super annoying.
    11:43
    The Juno scoop in the back, I will say sometimes it does pop out and go straight down the middle, but there is a ball save that goes on as soon as that happens. So you're not going to drain straight down the middle and just be out your ball and get screwed. But I did see on a forum somewhere someone said they brought the power down a little bit on that scoop and now it no longer goes straight down the middle. I don't have the exact specifics as to what they said they put the power level to, but that's just something to consider if maybe you have the game and you could try that out and maybe let me know in the comments if that helped. All right, another negative. Upper Flipper feels weak. Almost Led Zeppelin upper Flipper-like. Upper Flipper levels of bad. Um, I don't think the upper flipper feels weak, so I don't have, at least on my copy of the game, it doesn't feel weak, but it takes a little while. That upper play field, it's just, it's okay, like it's not my favorite part of the game. I will say it did take me a little while when you are shooting the left orbit, because the left orbit will rip the ball. As long as you put your flipper down after you hit that shot, it's going to go around the waiting room couch and then it should go right to your flipper and you can time it where you kind of like let it sort of roll back and then rip that shot again. So you can get that flow going, but it's not easy like when you get up on Quidditch on Harry Potter. You can like really start ripping that thing and you could and I've seen players that are even newer to the game start ripping that. So I kind of get what he's saying here, but I don't feel like the flipper is weak, so I'm not an agreement on that one. All right. It's a long player. My first four games took an hour total. Okay. I don't – my games – all right. Maybe this person is exceptionally good. I don't – I did not play for an hour total my first game, so I don't know. Maybe that person's just really, really good at pinball. I didn't have that problem. I was not sitting there for hours. It does – it can sometimes be a long player, But I do appreciate that in this game because there's so many modes to go and explore even currently in the code release now. And I do think it being a little bit more forgiving with the ball saves does help you like get further into the game. So I don't I don't know. I also view this as a home game versus a location game. So for me, if it's a home game and I want I really want to like explore the movie modes and everything, I kind of feel like I'm OK with it being a little bit longer of a player. I think if this was on location, though, I got to talk to Kale at Electric Bat because he's got one on location. I have not been there since they put it on location, but I am curious like how long it's playing and if he changed some of the code settings to make it maybe a little harder. Like maybe he shut off some of those ball saves because there are some ball saves on to make it a bit more forgiving. So I don't know. I'll have to talk to him on that. But my games did not last an hour. So I'll tell you that for anybody that has the game, maybe you can comment. All right. This is another negative one. Way too easy for serious players. Godzilla and Jaws are way better. I don't know. I mean, that's obviously a personal opinion.
    14:44
    I don't I would not say it's way too easy. And when I was at Texas Pinball Festival, I was not getting people telling me that they thought the game was too easy. So I don't agree with that one either. All right. Now we're going to move to rules and code. This one's kind of a positive and a negative because they have a little bit of a nitpicky thing in here.
    15:00
    Only nitpick mode call outs could be clearer. You can feel lost sometimes. I would say this is true in the beginning. Also, the callouts aren't really on by default, so you have to put them on if you want them. There's very minimal callouts with it off. So I don't know where this person played it, if they played it at home. I'm not really sure. But I agree that the callouts could be better. I wish it did, especially because here's the problem, is you compare it to Evil Dead, and Evil Dead's callouts are some of the best callouts in modern pinball in my opinion, bar none, period. They are so damn good in that game. They nailed it. It was like lightning in a bottle with Evil Dead. And the crazy thing is, I've said this before on the podcast, this is coming from someone that didn't grow up really as a fan of it. I was actually completely terrified of it. So for me as an adult, I've really enjoyed it. It's made me go back and watch the movies, which as an adult I have more appreciation for because I wasn't a little kid being tortured by my cousin to watch it because to me that was like the scariest thing ever. But you don't get the humor part when you're a kid and you're seeing blood and stuff. You're not quite connecting on the humor part of the movie, especially the second one where it's definitely more funny. All right. OK, this one's a positive factory factory. Factory safe mode exists. Code will ramp difficulty via the right outland gate. I don't even know what he's saying there. Factory safe mode exists. Code will ramp difficulty via the right outland gate. I don't know if he's saying that for the most part, you kind of can't drain drain on the right hand side. I think that's what he's saying. I'm not sure. Anyways, I grabbed a lot of these. I don't know what all of them meant, but I tried to grab as many as I could. Okay, this is another positive. It says, not everything needs tournaments in mind. Some players just want an amazing experience.
    16:58
    That's like what I was saying before. I don't really view this as a tournament game, but I think people on location will want to play it. Absolutely, because it's Beetlejuice. I think Beetlejuice is a very popular IP, but I don't really view it as a tournament game. I think Stern tends to make their games more with tournament players in mind, which is sometimes good and sometimes bad, because I think at home, do you want a game that's going to kick you in the nuts 24-7? I don know Sometimes Maybe if you have a large collection and you know one going to be brutal it nice to have it because you know it like a fast player but this game is not kicking you in the nuts all the time as a matter of fact this game is probably on the it more forgiving in the way that it coded right now so it is a little bit longer of a player and that why I don really view it as a tournament In my opinion it's not a great tournament game. I would have this at a I would absolutely think it's a great location game though I just don't know if this would be one I would put in tournaments very often. I really have to talk to Kale and Rachel and see if they're putting it in tournaments and how long it's playing in tournaments and if they've even set it in any kind of way to maybe make it more suitable for tournaments. All right, but valid comment. All right, reliability and mechs. This person says MagnaSave implementation is really cool.
    18:10
    I agree with this. I like the way this MagnaSave works. It works really good. It is most of the time dead on reliable. And I kind of wish that Fall of the Empire worked like this. I know they're trying to make it all Jedi and everything and all that stuff. I get it. But this Magna Save is really cool and it's just as exciting. I think they made it too complex in Fall of the Empire and I know Ray Day is going to be like, you're an idiot because you can't figure it out. But to me, like it just works. It works when it's on. And that's what I want. I want it to save my damn ball. I don't want it to be like extra difficult to use the MagnaSafe. And maybe that's what Stern had in mind. Like, ooh, it's Jedi. It's the powers and whatever. You know, I don't know. I just I'm with you, dude. I'm with you on that. The freaking MagnaSafe works great on it. All right. This is a negative. It says right scoop power pulsed so hard. It rebounded off the flipper to the scoop. Needed menu tuning. Mine didn't. So I don't know. That's a negative for this person. I didn't have that problem. So I don't know what to tell you on that one. Ball sometimes sticks on the worm mouth. Small, small issue, but real. That is true. Mine does that, too. If you're not dead on accurate with the worm, it will get like stuck on his bottom lip and then it will quickly move the worm and free it up. But that is an actual thing that happens to me, too. So I feel you on that. I don't think there's really a way they could. I did think about this and I did think about bringing this up to bug. It could potentially be fixed if maybe the worm sat a tiny and we're talking about like millimeters or half a millimeter, really, really small. If it sat down just a little bit lower when it's ready for you to shoot it in the mouth, I think it might fix this issue. It does happen from time to time, but if you're dead accurate, it just goes in his mouth and it falls through the hole in his throat or whatever the heck it is. All right, so valid one. That was truly 100% valid. Okay, this is a positive and negative. Scoop kickouts can still go straight down the middle. Ball save helps, but it's a reoccurring quirk. I think they implemented the ball saves via code because it is a problem sometimes, but I have heard that people have lowered their scoop power and it has resolved that issue. So I don't know that maybe that's something that I could play with and report back. Or if someone's watching this or listening to this, maybe you could put in the comments if you've done something like that. OK, we're going to switch gears to value and marketplace.
    20:33
    This is these are mostly all negatives. I didn't really find many positives as people aren't just buying the game. They're buying the confirmed preorder spot. This person was just frustrated because they felt like there weren't enough of them available. I get it. It is what it is. But because Spooky's on this on fire right now, you just got to you just got to get in early. If it's a spooky game that you want, you've got to get on a list and hopefully you'll get it. So it's just the way it is. They can only make as many games as they can a year. They don't have a production capability, really more than a thousand games a year. And they want to be able to make this is them. They want to be able to make a new game every year. So they have to limit it. Otherwise, they're going into the next year and then they won't have a game every year. So I think that most of everybody in the community wants to see Spooky make a game every year. And I think it's this balancing act, guys. Like if you're the company owner, do you expand? Do you do the build it and they will come? Because not every game is guaranteed to be a hit. They are on fire right now, but let's say they expand and they have a dud. Well, now they got all this overhead of this new area. I feel like they feel comfortable with their overhead with a thousand games. And you know what I mean? The staff they have, that's all stuff they have to think about. They have to pay for these people to be there. They have mouths to feed. I think for them right now, a thousand seems like the sweet spot. And I think that's where they're going to stay for the time being. So just know any spooky game is probably going to be hard to get, especially if they keep having these banger IPs. So I don't know. They're saying that's a negative, but I kind of view that as, hey, it's just the way spooky is right now. And, you know, I would be careful, too, if I was the business owner as to how fast I expand because you can't guarantee success forever. Not every game is going to be a banger. All right. It's just not. All right, Spot Math, $4,250 premium for the spot, $7,250 total just to the seller. I don't know. I don't even know what he means by that. I don't know. Whatever.
    22:28
    I think he's just saying, like, look, if I want one, you have to pay a premium to get one. But anyways, all right. Pinside price history, the medium asking price is $15,500, only about 22 public locations. I shouldn't have got into this price value market comment stuff because I don't even know what the hell they're talking about. So we'll just know if you want one, you're going to pay a lot more than MSRP, at least right now. And if that holds, which it probably will, just like Evil Dead's are tough to get, you're going to pay over MSRP if you want one. All right. Operator and location. I only had one comment here. Lighting pops in a dim room, but doesn't flash blind you like some other modern games. Okay, that's cool. All right, now these were some funny miscellaneous ones that I found. This was a positive. While this game I've played, everything under the glass feels like magic. Okay, very positive. I don't know how funny that was. I don't know why I said that was funny, but anyway. Negative. Flippers feel gummed up like I'm fighting the machine for snappier shots. I did not feel this way. I am a big Stern guy, and so I'm all about snappy flippers. I didn't feel like the flippers feel gummed up. So, I mean, that could be just a personal preference thing, or maybe that copy is having some issues that need to be addressed, but I didn't play this thinking I need more power from the flippers or anything like that. I felt like they were really good. All right, positive. Beetlejuice Energy, F the bomb, immediate response. Immediate response. I like it. Okay, that's a weird comment. I don't even know what that really means.
    24:00
    All right. I think that one came from Reddit. Okay, this is actually – did I put his actual full comment? I don't know. Anyways, we'll move on. I don't know. I can't even read my own notes on that one. All right, let's go to the next one. All right. So this is – actually, that was it on Beetlejuice. Oh, I just put key thing to note about Beetlejuice, the three scoops.
    24:29
    Oh, this is someone else's. Oh, this is a straight comment from Reddit that I pulled. All right. Key thing to note about Beetlejuice is that it has three scoops, some with pretty damn mean fast rejects. Think Evil Linda from Evil Dead because of this Beetlejuice has some interesting flow, pretty stop and go, and pretty damn fast if you're not feeding the ramps. The sandworm is incredibly dynamic, very lively, and adds a lot. Meanwhile, for as much time as you spend hitting the camera, I found it to be an incredibly dull mech. Okay, that was my last mechs and toys thing. I don't know. I don't really... I don't know. Overall, I really like this game. None of these comments really shocked me all that much, because if you think about it, you're always going to have split opinions on things. I don't know, my scoops, yeah, sure, you hit them from time to time. There are modes where you have to hit the scoops. So I don't know, I'm not in the whole like scoop gate thing. That's just not my, I find it's perfectly fine. But I mean it seems like overall the sentiment is great theme, great artwork, the gameplay is a little stop and go which I don't necessarily mind because there's interesting modes to get me to be like strategic about where I'm shooting.
    25:47
    But I could see if you're like an Elwin flow monster kind of guy then you might not like it. You know what I mean? You may not like it. It's just it is what it is but that's not necessarily bad. It just means this game might not be for you if you want this massive amount of flow. I don't think you're going to have – there is flow to it, but I don't think you're going to get that Elwin level flow. But, I mean, maybe that – I don't know. I don't view that necessarily as a bad thing. It's just what do you prefer as a player?
    26:13
    But, yeah, all right. We're going to switch gears to Pokemon. So with Pokemon, we're going to do theme and art just like we did the other one. We're going to start with theme and art. Okay, so this is a positive and a negative. Great theme, but the art package disappointed me. I wanted something more stylized. Okay, I've heard a lot of people say they really like the art package. I think the art package is on the playfield. I really like it. I think the art package on the playfield is really cool. It's kind of different from what Stern usually does. It's very obvious what I'm supposed to do. So I view that as a positive. But hey, artwork is going to be always subjective. Some people are going to love it. Some people are going to hate it. Some people are going to be somewhere in the middle. And with a Pokemon, with a theme like Pokemon, you're going to have also people that may have joined or entered the Pokemon universe at different stages. So they might like different art styles. So I mean, or or or, oh, my gosh, I can't believe this wasn't reflected in the art. So I think with any of these big universe type things, you're going to always have someone that's disappointed. But I do like the art package on the play field. I have the premium. I'm not crazy about the cabinet artwork, but it's probably because I look at the LE and go, oh, man, that's the one I want. But I didn't go in on an LE on this one because I really didn't feel like it was going to be a game I really enjoyed that much. And come to find out, I'm kind of enjoying it a lot more than I thought. All right. This is a negative. Art feels basic and phoned in. A big miss for such a huge theme. All right. Well, this guy definitely feels strongly that he does not like the art. I don't know. Me not being a Pokemon like that Pokemon is nostalgic for me. I guess I'm fine with it, but I could see if you were a hardcore fan, you're going to have strong opinions like I said earlier. All right, sound package rules, dramatic soundtrack, Pokedex callouts, and 90s game sound effects. This is great. Okay.
    28:06
    I like the sound package too. Rules, I think, are in development right now, so I wouldn't get so stoked on rules right now. Oh, no, sorry. They said sound package rules. Okay, the sound package is really good. Um, the Pokedex callouts are very awesome. Like when you catch a Pokemon or like when you're about to, it tells you about that Pokemon, which is cool for me not being a big fan because now I'm learning a little bit about Pokemon and I'm kind of finding like a little bit more interest than I thought. So I agree with that. I think the sound package is great. I thought they were talking about rules. He's saying the sound package rules. Sorry. It was just the way it was worded. All right. Next one. Pokemon, Pokemon Day ignored the pinball. Pokemon Day, I ignored the pinball. Maybe bigger cross promotion is coming later. Pokemon Day. I have no idea what that person is saying. We're going to just skip through that one. I don't even know what that person is saying. All right. Gameplay flow. This is where stuff kind of gets interesting. Left orbit launches straight down the middle time after time. Cheap drains shouldn't have shipped it without a fix. So this is something that George Gomez did bring attention to in one of the Stern Enthusiast Facebook groups. He posted something about it when they first started running the location pros and said it's fixed. Now, I don't know how many of those location pros got out with the problem. I know the one electric bat did and they had to fix it by moving the left orbit closer to the wall. And now it doesn't do that. Mine, I got the premium. There's another arcade close by my house, Tilt Games that got the premium. Mine does not do that. My left orbit is fine. It does not go straight down the middle. So even though this one was a negative, I'd say most people probably don't have this problem if you bought the LE and if you got the premium. I think this was just something that plagued the first round of on-location pros. So hopefully this is a fixed one so we can consider that one resolved. At least that's what I have not heard otherwise. Everyone I've talked to said if they ordered the premium, it's been pretty solid. So hopefully that one's just behind us at this point. All right, this one's a positive and a negative. Some say it's smooth everywhere else. The straight down the middle orbit is the headline. Oof. Okay.
    30:19
    Again, I don't know when this comment – okay, this comment was sometime in March. So it's possible that this was an on-location pro. But still, it is an issue. I mean, you've got to hope that – because I bet there are some locations that don't fix it, and that's going to suck because someone's going to come in and have a bad experience. Like if it's an operator that doesn't necessarily take care of his games, I would hope that if you have a barcade or an arcade, arcade bar, whatever, that you are taking care of your games and you would take the time to fix it. But but maybe this person played one of the first pros that hit the hit the hit locations. All right. This is another negative one. Simple fan layout shoots shots feel too easy. Turns into a long playing snooze fest. I hear a lot of people saying it's too easy, but when I go and play it on location so far and I look at people's scores, it's not like people are getting like a decent average to above average players are getting scores that are in like the 150 to 200 million range. I'm not watching people like blow this thing up. So I think when they say easy, once you find the shots, which does not take a long time to find, you can really get into a flow and hit them. And there aren't that many shots. So I guess I could see if someone wanted like if you were going to compare this to like Dune, right, where the shots are kind of complex or even like Winchester's Mystery House. If you like games like that, this may be like too simple for you, right? That's fine. Like I think that's more of a personal opinion on it. But to say it's a snooze fest, I do think you can get through a lot of this code right away. I mean for me to get to a mini wizard mode multiple times on a game I just started to, I just bought that's brand new, that doesn't happen that often. But I do think there's a lot of code coming for this game. They sold way too many of these to not invest in the code. So maybe this person that thinks it's a snooze fest now will change their mind later. I don't know. Or maybe it's just the layout. They view it as too simple. I don't know that I would say easy, though. I do think for someone that's an exceptionally good player, you may find it too easy. But I think for most of us, you'll find it is easier than most games. But I don't know that I would say it's like a super simple game and you're just going to blow the thing up. I think there's enough in there variability with the magnet. And I mean, you can get into danger when you miss a shot. You know, it's not like everyone's 100% accurate. So when you miss a shot, you might find yourself in a dangerous territory and you might drain. So hey, whatever, but valid comment. All right. Approachable and beginner friendly feels like a DMD error family fun throwback. I don't disagree with this. I actually do agree with it. It is very beginner friendly. You know, the Bozo zone or the bash toy in the middle. Once the Meowth Balloon comes down, it's very fun and easy for someone to figure out what you do. I mean, you see it there. It's like, oh, I must bash this. I think most beginning players do understand that. I don't know that a beginning player would know, all right, I hit the ramp three times and then that starts the mode. I don't know if they would think that or know that, but the lights do kind of indicate, like once you hit that ramp several times, I think it just starts blinking. Like, hey, the next shot, you're going to start the mode. But I do think that it is simple enough that someone can go up to it and just have a good time. From Ball One. Now, I can't say that about Beetlejuice. If you took a beginner and put him on Beetlejuice, I don't think they'd have any clue what the hell's going on. That's not necessarily a negative towards Beetlejuice, but I think Beetlejuice is marketed more towards the Pinball Enthusiast collector. So I don't think they were looking to make that game this ultra simple game that is appealing to this wide mass audience. I don't think that was the goal there. So I'm not saying that's good or bad. I just think with Pokemon, they took it upon themselves to say, let's make this a more simple layout. So that beginners will enjoy it. I think that really was the point. And I can't really. I can't really argue with that, because with an IP like this in an arcade, you're going to get kids. And unlike Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which literally just kicks you in the balls multiple times, I think they probably learned their lesson that, hey, when we get these big IPs, this should be fun for someone walking up the first time. So I think they, you know, while that may not appeal to like the exceptional player, I think most people are going to have a good time on it. Anyways. All right. This one is now we're switching to codes and code and rules feels rushed and unfinished. Maybe code updates can save it like the walking dead.
    34:51
    I mean I can really argue that there needs to be way more code in this thing It does get repetitive right now So if you own this you will and you a pretty decent player you will get bored because there just not enough in it right now I mean the Pokedex and catching Pokemon is not in Insider Connected yet There no achievements yet There really only like the four modes and then like the battles And then you can get to the mini wizard mode just by playing the four modes So it's early. It's like any Stern game, and I'm not trying to apologize or be a Stern apologist, but it's how it is now. If you buy a Stern game and you're a new inbox buyer, you're going to go through that code progression as it happens, and you just have to know that going into it. Now, do other manufacturers put a little bit more in day one like JJP? Absolutely, they do. Like, JJP's games are more baked from the start than a Stern game. I would argue that, you know, maybe Spooky's, yeah, like, I don't know. I'd say, like, Spooky's Beetlejuice might be further along than Pokemon percentage-wise. So, yeah, I do think Stern tends to bring these things out with what I would call like minimal viable product, right? Like it's playable. There's modes in it, but they're not finished or even close to finished at that point. That's just what it is. I don't think anybody in the community would complain. I mean, they might complain about it, but I mean, that is very much known at this point. But if you're new to the hobby, that may not be something, you know, if you get a new inbox Stern. But maybe if you're new and you're not that good yet or you're learning, you may not even know the difference. So I'm just saying that, but I'm not, again, not trying to apologize for him. It's the, it is the way it is. All right. This is another, another code related one. So this was rules and code, uh, too early on the code, empty feeling play field needs deeper rules and real progression. I don't disagree. I don't disagree with that. Having it for, um, putting, putting, uh, you know, a couple hundred plays on it at this point. I, I agree with that. Uh, I, and I'm not bored with it. I'm still having fun with it, but I, I'm going to get bored with it pretty soon here. If they don't start moving on the code. All right. Achievements feel like bare text on boring backgrounds. Well, there are no achievements. I don't know what you're talking about. Videos rarely match the moment. I don't agree with that. I think they've done a pretty good job with that, and I think that's going to get better. And there are no achievements, so I'm not sure what you mean by achievements feel like bare text on boring backgrounds. So maybe you're playing some version of it that no one else has. So, all right. Let's switch gears to reliability and mechs. All right, orbit guides messed up left versus right entrances. Stern owes a new play field. I don't know what that – by the way, I got to pee. I need to pause this. I'm peeing right now. Well, I'm not peeing on the stream. I got to pee, so I'm going to pause it, and I'm going to continue recording. So I'm sorry. I cannot take it anymore, and I've been squirming in my chair for like 10 minutes. So I will be right back, and we will continue where we left off. All right, we're back. Okay, so sorry about that, guys. All right, we're moving on from rules and code and we're going on to reliability mechs. Orbit guides messed up left and right. We talked about that. Again, I think that's fixed. If you have newer premium or the LE, you should be fine. If not, let me know if you got one shipped to you in the comments that was still messed up, but it shouldn't be. All right, on location complaint, Balbasaur Orbit drained straight down the middle, middle player begged it to be just defective. I don't even know what that comment means. All right, negative, burning smell incident, left flipper coil was pretty toasty even after a swap. Okay, I have not had that problem, but that is interesting. All right, Stern, call Stern after hours, on call exists, warranty questions, need them anyway. I don't know what the heck. Okay, I'm confused by what these really mean. But I mean, hey, here's the thing, guys, whether it be Spooky or whether it be Stern or any of the other manufacturers, sometimes out of the box, things aren't perfect. Sometimes there's problems. These things are all hand built. This is just a general statement on anybody that's getting into pinball or you know this because you've been an owner for a while. There are things that happen, unfortunately. It doesn't happen to everybody, but ultimately, no matter how long you've been in this hobby, you will know that things will break and they have to be fixed. And unfortunately, sometimes they're broken before they get to you. It sucks, but typically it's usually simple stuff, cold solder joint, flipper return springs broken, shit like that. You know, like basic stuff usually, sometimes mechanical things like we saw with Uncanny X-Men. That was a little bit more of a dramatic thing. There was a lot of mechanical things with that game. But hey, it does happen and it happens to all of them. Look at Dune's early release. They had a ton of quality control issues with Dune. I think they've resolved them at this point. So if you're getting a Dune now, you're probably fine. And I'm sure they helped out anybody that was early that had a problem with it. All right, value and market. Stern Game right now just came out. The only thing about that that I'd say is obviously the LEs are going through the roof, and those of you who have been in the hobby for a while know you've got to be careful with the LEs because they used to hold their value quite a bit. We haven't seen that in recent years. We've seen actually the prices dip on those very quickly after they're released. Some people might say that that's title specific and that Pokemon being a little bit of a crossover title where there's other people that are buying in on it that maybe aren't the traditional pinball enthusiast that it's caused the price to really go up and rise up. And we have seen people selling those for well over MSRP. But I would just say, you know, don't look at pinball as this major investment that you're going to make a bunch of your money back. I think in most cases you lose a little bit, but you don't lose your ass on most games. But you just got to be careful with the LEs because in recent years there have been times where I've personally lost my ass on an LE. John Wick was one of them. That was a super bummer. Probably should have just held on to it because I lost quite a bit of money when I sold that one. Anyways, this guy says wait a year and you'll snag it mid fours if you're patient. I don't know about that. I don't know about mid fours. No, I don't think so. I don't know. Maybe. But hey, look, whatever. It is what it is. Like if you want to wait, they're going to make so many of these Pokemons. There will be Pokemons available for resale. The LE is not going to be one that you're going to get a good price on, but maybe if you're looking for a pro. But hey, that's like you don't know, right? You don't have a crystal ball. But historically speaking, the pros you could get under MSRP in the used market, probably in good condition. It's just such a new game that we're not seeing a flood of used ones in the market quite yet. All right. These are some operator location specific comments. This is a person saying operators will love it. It attracts walk-bys who don't normally play pinball. And that's a positive. That's awesome. We need more people in the hobby. I love that. And that is, according to Cale and Rachel at Electric Bat, that is absolutely 100% happening. I know they're just one location, but I got to think that in other bars and arcades across America or the world for that matter, people are looking at it and going, I want to check that out because they're Pokemon fans, not necessarily pinball fans. And hopefully they walk away from that experience and they turn into a pinball fan. And then we have more people in the hobby. I would love that. So I view that one as a positive. All right. It says, pinball fans may be bored after a few games, but that's to be determined.
    42:44
    Yeah, I mean, they might. They might. And I think that's just a testament of where the code is right now or a reflection of where the code is right now. Because I can see myself getting a little bit bored of it, and I said that earlier, if they don't move on the code pretty quickly here. I really want to see more progression in the code, more things to do, more levels of depth. You know, my buddy Sean and I always talk about how you can play King Kong and you can focus on the climb arrows. You know, that's like a side thing you can do. I guess you could argue that catching Pokemon is like the side thing you could do, but it's not like there isn't even that much depth to that yet. And I think there's going to be a lot more depth to the concept of catching Pokemon that will come with future code releases. So we'll see how that goes. But I don't necessarily disagree with the comment. Fresh out of the box pro played perfectly. No orbit issues, fast and satisfying. OK, so this this was a later comment. So that one probably was the pros or I don't know, maybe they had fixed it at that point. So like I said, I think that's resolved at this point. But funny how this comment keeps coming up. So clearly there was a lot of press on that. That's not necessarily good when Stern has a new game and the people already having these kind of issues. But luckily they they resolved it, at least from what I can tell. All right, here's a couple of random ones. This was in the owner's thread. I don't even know what that's saying. Okay, I don't even know what that comment says. Game is going to get all effed up anyways. I just like it to shoot well. Okay, that was an operator comment. All right. I'm indifferent on Pokemon as an IP, buying for software potential and my favorite designers. Okay. Okay, this one is, the more I see of Spike 3, the less impressed I am. I've only heard this comment a couple times. I don't know what people wanted out of Spike 3. Like, maybe this was Stern's fault because they really set, they didn't, they made it sound like it, you know, I mean, even if you look at Star Wars Fall of the Empire, they like marketed Spike 3 specifically. And the funny thing is, is that wasn't even in the Spike 3 cabinet. That wasn't even with the expression lights that they have now, which are the Spike 3 expression lights. That wasn't even with the speaker bezel things they're going to put on eventually. So there's a lot of things that they didn't have in it yet. They still don't have the Bluetooth headphones support. They still don't have the graceful power down thing. So I don't know.
    45:09
    I think they're just Spike 3 is a new platform for them. Like most companies that release new platforms, you don't see them exploiting the full capabilities of it till it starts to mature out in the market a bit longer. Like if you think about it like a gaming console, it's usually further toward the end of the cycle of it that they really start to get developers to use it to its fullest capability. I think I don't think it's gonna be that dramatic, but I think now they're kind of figuring out, you know, the things that they can do that Spike 3 will enable them to do. So I don't know. I guess that's just I think some of that might be Stern's own fault when the way they marketed Spike 3 in general. Okay, this was a general comment I pulled. I pulled one on the other one too. Played it on a Saturday for a while. It's an okay game. It's very approachable for all skill levels. There isn't a huge amount in the game yet, so it was kind of just do the same thing over and over. It should get better with new code as it's released. A couple things that were disappointing though. Okay, I mean, I don't necessarily disagree with that. I think it's a really fun game, though, just like Beetlejuice. I think Beetlejuice and Pokemon are both really fun in their own way, very different games in the way that they're laid out, and like the whole, I mean, really, the whole package is way different, very, way different types of games, one being more the collectible pinball enthusiast audience, and I think Pokemon was really geared toward the beginner player, but enough in there that's interesting for someone that's been playing for a while, too. But I do see where someone that was a better player could get bored of it. And like I said, I'm kind of getting there myself. I feel like I've seen everything that the code has right now. So I'm excited for the next couple of code releases. And I hope they do it fairly quickly. And I got to think there's a little bit of pressure on their end to do that just because so many of these are out in the wild now. So I did break it down into positives and negatives. Beetlejuice, I had 11 positives, 10 negatives, 3 mixed. On Pokemon, there were less positives. I had 7 positives, 11 negatives, and 6 in the middle. So that's how many I put together. So yeah, kind of split. I do feel like there's definitely more positives on Beetlejuice than there is positives on Pokemon, but they're pretty close. So, yeah, that I, you know, I kind of feel like both these games serve different audiences, but I do think that both of them are great. Like they're both good, but, but, but I, again, like Beetlejuice, if I look at Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, I think Pinball Enthusiast, but I can't help but agree with like, there's a little bit more stop and go in that. And I think that stop and go is to set up your shots. And I don't think that's necessarily bad where they're like, Pokemon's a faster game. It's just very fast. You know, you're ripping the right and left ramps. You're ripping the orbits. It's just a really quick game, but it lacks code depth right now. Where I'd say Beetlejuice has it beat right now, absolutely with the code depth it's at right now. They just added another mode. We got to get Pokemon in order to get a good comparison going. And again, I don't this wasn't meant to be a this versus that. It's just kind of meant to be a little bit fun to see what the community overall is saying. But it's funny because me talking to people at various arcades and stuff as I'm out in the wild or TPF, there's a lot of – I'm hearing a lot of these same things. Now, I took out the ones that are super negative because there's just no value in them. They'll say things with no real reason why they feel that way, and so I tried to pick reasonable comments. But overall, I feel like the community has been pretty positive. I did have one more – let me see. I did have one more section of stuff. I just don't remember what I put in this. Let me see.
    48:47
    There's a couple of things we could rip through just a couple of them really quick. Oh, this one I did I did agree with. So the Dancing Flippers and Deo mode are jaw-droppingly awesome. And then right below that comment, it was Dancing Flippers, knock it off, not cool. So I'm kind of in the middle of those two on Beetlejuice. I liked that mode when I first played it, but now I'm annoyed because I can't actually get through that mode most of the time. Because the game is playing for me. So I don't love that. That is definitely one that I don't love. Okay, we'll just do a couple more because I think it's fun.
    49:25
    Oh, there's a couple of comments about Spooky Speak not working great. But they did update the code. It works much better now. So I'm not really – nothing really bad about that. All right, let's go to – let's see. I'll go to Pokemon real quick. Let me see. I had a couple more. This person said, if you don't believe me, fight me. Beetlejuice is amazing. But then it said, no, don't. I'm a small and I'm a wimp. Okay, that's funny. It's a great game. So, I mean, both of these games are really fun.
    50:01
    Oh, this person says, the only way I tell if a game is good is from how many beers are left in my fridge. I don't know. Okay. And someone said, how old are the people here on this forum? Adults can't wait 10 days for a proper reveal. That was earlier before Beetlejuice was fully revealed and people were losing their mind. So here's a couple more. I'll just throw a couple more on Pokemon. This game nails what it's like to play Pokemon as a kid. I basically lost my mind. Okay. A toy, a book, a video game, Dave and Buster's vibes, but still very enjoyable. All right. Theme carries it hard. The collecting aspect feels like the point of it.
    50:44
    All right. I mean, I mean, honestly, there's just such so many like fun that there's so many comments. I could go on and on and on. I hopefully you guys thought this show was interesting because I thought it was kind of I don't know. I just thought it was kind of cool to pull actual community comments. Let's see. There's a couple on Pokemon that are kind of, let's see.
    51:03
    Oh, this guy says, this is someone in Pokemon Owners Club trying to defend it. He said, this isn't Facebook Live. Give me thoughts when you're in front of the machine and actually play it. I'd say that for both. Honestly, you got to play them. I'm big on that. I was being pressed on Texas Pinball Festival to get my opinion on Yukon Yeti, but it was when I had only played it like three times and I felt like I had three bad games at first. I'm like, I can't speak about it right now. I didn't get the flow. I didn't get in a groove. I couldn't I hadn't found the shots yet. Funny thing is, had I just used that three games as my basis for it, I would have said I didn't like it. And that's not really fair to the game because that was on me as a player. So I later on, I went back. This was like the night before the last night, I think. And Jamie and I played it a while with some other content creators and I was getting in a groove. I had much better games. I was able to get up to the upper play field and play with that a lot. And then I was like, man, this game shoots really good. But my first couple of games were just bad. And that happens to anybody. This was someone in the Pokemon thread. Wipe the Cheeto dust off your fingers and take it for what it is. Okay. So that's it. I tried to be fair and pull both positive and negative comments. It's interesting what the community said. Let's go to voicemails real quick and then we'll wrap the show up. All right First voicemail is from Xavier Hey Ralph or Retro Ralph as we call you in the Netherlands This is Xavier and I calling to ask about your experience with digital pinball I not heard you talk about it much I heard you mention VPX but not really the apps that are available on like home consoles like Nintendo Switch or Xbox because there a lot of good options Especially ones made by Zen Studios who do Pinball FX. They have a lot of Williams licenses. You used to have Farsight Studio games, the Pinball Arcade, which has a lot of Stern licenses. So I was wondering, do you think those are fun? And also, do you think the reason for Stern or other large manufacturers to not have real digital pinball is because of Stern Insider Connected? Because it's like kind of a bridge between digital and physical. And is that the future? Or is there also like something to be said about having separate realistic digital pinballs?
    53:34
    And also I was wondering the leaderboards on Stern Insider Connected. Do you think that those are fair? Because it's quite easy to modify your play field or to cheat when you have a game at home. Let me know. And I really enjoyed the podcast, man. So see ya.
    53:52
    All right. That was a good one, man. I like that. So digital pinball. I'm using the telephone right now, if you haven't figured that out yet.
    54:00
    I do. I have been playing a bit more of digital pinball lately. I do think it's a great tool. If someone built a VPX cabinet, it's a great tool to learn code rules and just be familiar with a layout. Now, of course, the – what do you call it? The – not the geometry, but the physics aren't always perfect, but I do feel like the VPX physics on some of the games that are out there that people have coded are really good. Some are not as good. It just depends. But I like digital pinball. I don't think it's a replacement for physical pinball, but I do think from an accessibility factor, If that's all you can do and there aren't places to play on location near you, then it's a really good option. Now, why Stern hasn't – Stern used to have that Pinball Everywhere philosophy, I want to say in like 2018 timeframe. I think that's about when it was or maybe 2019. It was around when Stranger Things came out and they were licensing some of their software to some of these other studios to have digital versions based on the real ROM sets. I don't know if they're going to go back to that. I know Jack Danger is someone that would be supportive of that concept and idea. I don't know what they're going to do with it. It's a really good question. I definitely am someone that likes to support digital pinball. I'm going to be doing a little bit more of that just because I do think from an accessibility standpoint, it allows other players to get involved in the hobby. So yeah, good question. I appreciate that one. Let's go on to Jason B. That's all. I wouldn't mind a holdout for the golden version. Hey, and thanks for the bait. By the way, Ralph, you've kind of motivated me to get into this this hobby. In the last three months, I've picked up four machines, Jaws, King Kong, Pokemon and Harry Potter. Hey, thanks for the expensive addiction. I enjoy watching you.
    56:26
    Jason, that's awesome, man. Thank you so much for the support. And as far as – and awesome, congrats on all those games. You got some good games there, so I'm sure you're having a good time. All right, so this Golden Godzilla thing, I don't even really remember where I heard it. It was kind of a passing rumor. I would say right now let's just log it in the rumor status, but I do think that Stern will do it. I just don't know when. So let's – I'll watch this one throughout the year and we'll see what happens if we start hearing rumblings on it. I know that NAP Arcade is all over this one, so he'll probably be the first to report it if we find out that this is actually really happening, but it kind of makes sense. One of their best-selling modern games, why would they not put a version of it on the Spike 3 platform? I think they will, I just don't know when. And so to tell you or guide you to hold out, I don't think I could do that right now because I don't know if this is for certain, but I got to think if you're Stern, it's on their radar as one of their most popular selling games. So stay tuned on that one, but appreciate the support of the podcast. And that was actually a really good question. All right. Next up, Guy Cote. Hey, Ralph. Guy Cody. Sorry, Cody. I just listened to your podcast, your episode where you took all the voicemails and stuff like that. I really liked it a lot, not only because I was one of the ones that called in, but I listened to all your episodes. I really enjoy that one a lot. Not that I don't enjoy the others, too. Anyway, it made me think of another question to ask you if you ever do another episode like that or you want to address it in a future episode. If you can, I don't know if you want to touch this particular topic, but I'll ask it anyway. I would love to know, like have you guys, maybe you and Jamie and Cale or just you, go through manufacturer by manufacturer and tell them, predict what you think their profit margin is on particular games. That is just something that I've just been endlessly fascinated about. Obviously, the manufacturers aren't going to say that, and I don't know if you want to even address that in an episode because I know you're friends with a lot of the manufacturers, and I wouldn't want you to get yourself in trouble. But anyway, I thought I'd throw that out there to you, and I'm sure there are other listeners out there who would just love to know what you think. Obviously, no one's going to tell you, but what you think the profit margin is per manufacturer on their games. Anyway, thanks, and you're doing a great job. Keep it up. Thanks again. Bye. All right. Thanks, guy. Wow. That would be a tough one to tackle without knowing. Like I literally didn't know you were going to ask that question. I don't pre-screen these. So I would want to put some thought into that. I don't mind talking about it because it'd be fun to speculate. I mean, I guess it would be safe to say the basics would be that the boutique manufacturers are definitely not making the same amount of money as Stern. There's definitely not because I think Stern is a well-oiled machine. They probably have the economies of scale because they're building more of them. So I think they probably get better prices on parts and everything. So by far, no doubt in my mind, Stern makes more money on each game sold than any of these other boutique manufacturers, bar none. I don't even need to have the data to know that. So I think that's probably the basics of it. Now, you could also break it down even further and say, well, how much money does a distributor make when they sell a game? I don't really know that. But, you know, I don't think it's that much, but I got to think the one that's making the most money is the manufacturer. Whatever that transfer price is between the manufacturer and the distributor is obviously some amount under MSRP. But then it's like what Stern's real profit margin is. I have no idea because that's going to be the cost of goods for each game plus the overhead of licensing and all those kinds of things. So it'd probably be pretty complex to try to figure out, but I could take a swag at it. Not on this episode just because it would be a lot to kind of – I would probably noodle on it for 20, 30 minutes before I can come up with something that I think would be even accurate. But I'm going to table that one for next time. It's a really good question, but I will bring it up next podcast because I find that one pretty interesting. All right. Next one's from Chance Hammer.
    60:50
    Hey, Ralph. Chance Hammer here again. I'm just curious, who was the company rumored to be making The Last Dragon? And are there any updates regarding The Last Dragon? Also, did you pull the trigger on Yukon Yeti? Just curious. Okay, Chance. Thanks for the support, man. I appreciate it. So, The Last Dragon was just – I actually just posted that. I don't know if anybody else had said that's an actual rumor of anybody making it. That was just – I was joking around with Barrels of Fun saying, like, they would be the company I could see making The Last Dragon. So I don't know of any confirmed – anything confirmed or even, like, really any valid rumor around The Last Dragon. There's a digital version on VPX of The Last Dragon that's kind of cool that they just recently updated. If you go on YouTube and put VPX Last Dragon and look for videos around the last year or so, there's a pretty cool digital version of The Last Dragon. So someone has made it but in virtual form.
    61:56
    And then you asked if I got Yukon Yeti. I did not pull the trigger on Yukon Yeti. So that's it. It's all I got on that, man. I'm sorry. I don't I really don't think The Last Dragon is any kind of confirmed or even really heavily rumored. I had posted something kind of poking at Barrels of Fun and they kind of commented on the post. So I don't know if they were playing into it to sort of smokescreen people, but I think their next game is probably the never ending story. So, all right, we got one more voicemail and then we'll wrap up the show. Hey Ralph, this is Brian from Madison, Wisconsin. Love the pod. I've got two questions for you. I'm wondering what upgrades did you already do and what ones do you plan for your Pokemon machine? And then also, what are your big hopes for future code for Pokemon? Thanks. All right, that's a good one. That's a very good one. So I have not bought – actually, no, I take that back. I put the Master Ball Shooter Rod on my Pokemon, which I found on Pinside, so it's not legit. Don't tell Stern. But no, it's not legit, but it looks great. They did a really good job. So if you go to Pinside and you look up Pokemon mods, you can find it there. I don't really plan to do any more other than just I did put the expression lights in. I call that more of an accessory than a mod, so it looks awesome. If you have a pro or premium, I highly recommend putting the expression lights on. It does like really make the experience cool.
    63:21
    Art blades I will definitely put on as an accessory when those are available. And then if the topper is really cool and they do some cool topper specific modes,
    63:30
    I may get that too against my better judgment because those things are super expensive, but I probably will do that too. As far as like future, I just hope there's a lot more code depth to it. I mean honestly right now it's pretty shallow. There isn't a lot to do. Again, that's kind of what happens with these Stern releases. They ramp them up over the next six to 12 months. But I hope they go a little faster on this one because I do think I'm getting a little bit bored of it in its current form just because you can kind of rip through most of the code that's there fairly fast. If you're an average to – or an intermediate to slightly better player, you can do it pretty quick. Anyway, so that's all I got. Thank you for that comment, and we're going to get – that's it for the voicemails, and we'll get back to the main microphone, and I'll get off this fake payphone microphone. All right, guys, we're back. All right, that's that's all I had for the show. I thought this would be a fun one. I hopefully you guys enjoy this is definitely a different format. I don't usually just go through comments, but hopefully you guys thought this was pretty cool. I think at the end of the day, both these games serve different audiences, but there's a lot of crossover like there's probably a lot of people that bought Beetlejuice that probably also bought Pokemon, maybe because Pokemon was a was an IP that they really enjoyed. But I am or liked as a kid because of the nostalgia factor. I think there's a lot of work to do on Pokemon. I think there's less work to do on Beetlejuice. There's a good base right now in the code of Beetlejuice. It's a really fun game to play. There are some valid comments in there about the stop and go thing and maybe less flow. But I don't I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It might be just a bad thing for that person or something for you to know if that's if that's not the kind of games you like playing. If you love those ultra flow monster games, then maybe Beetlejuice isn't one you're going to love as much. But for the most part, most of the people I talk to really enjoy it, and I'm excited to see what Spooky does as they progress the code because they did such a spectacular job with Evil Dead that I can't imagine they're not going to give Beetlejuice that same treatment. And I love that they added the Shakespeare Sonora, whatever the heck the name of that song is. They didn't have to do that. That probably cost them some coin to do, and they did it even though those games are sold through. So to me, there's not a lot of motivation for them to do that because it's not really making them more money because they've already sold all the games. But it's something cool like that just shows the passion and dedication that the spooky team has to just continue to make something better, regardless of how it might it might affect their pocketbook. I think that's pretty cool. As far as Pokemon, everyone that plays it seems to really enjoy it and like it. They say it's fun. You do see that repetitive comment about it being easy and approachable. It is. I hate that I ever said that Fall of the Empire was approachable. That was the wrong word to use. That game has very, very, very tight shots. It's a fan layout where a fan layout can be approachable, but not when the shots are as tight as they are in Fall of the Empire. The shots are not tight on Pokemon. They're very accessible. You can have there's a little bit of a margin of error, which sometimes makes a player feel a little bit better. So it's a fun game. If you wanted just a fun game to add to your collection that I believe they'll put a lot of effort behind code wise, I don't think you'd go wrong with this game. But if you're like that ultra, if you like games that are really deep, but really complex layout and design, that's not Pokemon. You know, it's not that right. There aren't there. There is not really a shot in that game that isn't easy to find. Right. There isn't like a oh, my gosh, this shot is so hard. The scoop on the right is easier, you know, easier than most. The orbits are pretty easy. The ramp shots are easy. The middle up, the only shot I'd say, which can be a little bit challenging, is you've got to find that right touch on the flipper when you're shooting that straight, that middle shot to start the Team Rocket multiball and to do jackpots and stuff like that or super jackpots depending on what's going on. That shot's not as easy as it looks, and there's enough stuff in there like the magnet and the stand-up targets and the pop bumper to throw things into chaos if you miss. So that shot, I'd say, is not the easiest shot, but you can still hit it pretty free. Once you figure out where you have to aim on the flipper, you'll get it pretty quickly, but you're not going to hit it every time. I guarantee you you're not going to hit it every time. All right, that is all I have for you guys.
    67:45
    I really hope that you guys enjoyed this show. It was a little different. A little different. The last couple of shows have been a little different. You know, I'm trying to switch things up a little bit. I can't always do the same thing. And I just thought it's a little bit slower news time right now. We're getting a bunch of code updates on games and that's all good. But right now, let's talk about the games that got released, because you know what? When the next game comes out, everyone's going to forget. It's crazy. It's crazy how fast this moves. I really also want to make a conscious effort to make sure that we don't move past the game that you guys are just getting on site. Right. Because Beetlejuice. Yeah, sure. I've had it for a little while and others have. But that game is going to be fresh and new to others. So I want to make sure I keep inserting new content as they make code updates. So you guys feel like I'm not abandoning that game because I'm not. It's in my collections. Probably going to stay in my collection. Same with Pokemon. I want to see this code progress and go through so we can share in the excitement together as Stern and Spooky make improvements. That's all for now, guys. If you like this video, give me a thumbs up. Consider subscribing to the channel. Put your comments below. I want to hear from you. And also, you can leave a voicemail for the show, too, and I'll guarantee play it at the end of the show. As long as you keep it clean, you know, keep it clean, keep it respectful, and I'll play it for you. All right, guys, that's it for now, and we will see you on the flip side. See you, guys. Thank you so much for all the support.
    69:08
    I'm playing you out. I look like a chipmunk. You ever do this? Hey, guys, how's it going? Hey, what's up?
    69:32
    You listen to the book side? Pretty good podcast, right? It's not bad. All right, I'll talk to you guys later. See you, everybody.
    69:42
    Sting lord.