Ep 186 Monster League Hockey

LoserKid Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·55m 48s·analyzed·Jan 12, 2026

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Monster League Hockey homebrew team reveals double-sided hockey machine built from Alvin G Soccer base at Pinball Expo 2025.

Summary

LoserKid Pinball Podcast interviews the Monster League Hockey homebrew team at Pinball Expo 2025, a double-sided head-to-head hockey-themed machine converted from an Alvin G Soccer base. The team discusses their collaborative build process, technical innovations (six LCD screens, RGB lighting, FAST boards with Mission Pinball Framework), and future plans to potentially build another game for Expo 2026.

Key Claims

Brad Albright has done three layouts with art at Pinball Expo shows (Winchester Mystery House, Portal, and Monster League Hockey)
high confidence · Glenn describes Albright's contribution to the exhibition
The playfield can be cut, printed, and cleared and ready to install in 48 hours using UV direct print technology
high confidence · Lonnie describes the UV printing and coating process for the playfield
Monster League Hockey features six LCD screens with a one-to-one flipper-to-LCD ratio (six flippers, six screens)
high confidence · Discussed as a technical first for the machine
The original Alvin G Soccer game had weak flippers that were replaced with stronger ones to make the game faster
high confidence · Team explains the flipper upgrade decision
The team used FAST Pinball boards and Mission Pinball Framework (MPF) running on Python for coding
high confidence · Austin discusses the software stack used
The team previously built the SAW homebrew machine and brought back most of the same crew for Monster League Hockey
high confidence · Glenn mentions 'the whole Saw team back together'
Glenn made roughly $0.05-$0.10 in millions from the Monster League Hockey machine (appears to be joking about no revenue)
medium confidence · Humorous exchange about monetization; unclear if serious
The team is considering bringing either Monster League Hockey or SAW to Pinball Expo 2026
medium confidence · Discussion about future Expo plans with qualified uncertainty

Notable Quotes

“We did SAW last year. Jake asked me if I wanted to do the audio and I said, 'Well, who else is building the game?' He goes, 'I don't know.' I said, 'Well, how about we just get the whole Saw team back together?'”
Glenn @ early — Explains the team formation strategy for Monster League Hockey, showing collaborative intent
“We started with two LCD screens, ended up with six LCD screens. Uh the lights, it just kind of gets there eventually.”
Joe @ mid — Illustrates how scope creep expanded the project organically through idea iteration
“You can actually cut, print, and clear a playfield and have it ready to install in like 48 hours.”
Lonnie @ mid — Demonstrates a significant manufacturing speed advantage with UV direct-print technology
“Making a pinball machine is a different type of feeling, different energy than just showing up and playing tournaments or just showing up and playing game. It's it's a different type like bonding experience, if you will.”
Austin @ late — Captures the community motivation beyond competition or profit
“I am a free agent.”
Glenn @ late — Glenn signals openness to industry opportunities following Monster League Hockey success
“The flipper to LCD ratio is one to one. We got six flippers, six LCD screens. Um I guess that's a first.”
Host @ mid — Highlights a novel technical achievement in homebrew pinball design

Entities

Monster League Hockeygame Glennperson Brad Albrightperson LonniepersonJakepersonAustinpersonJoeperson

Signals

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community_signal: Monster League Hockey team demonstrating structured community resource infrastructure (FAST Slack channel, Ernie's Discord, MPF documentation) enabling non-programmers to participate in homebrew projects
high · Austin discusses availability of support channels and collaborative opportunities for builders without software experience
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event_signal: Monster League Hockey positioned as flagship homebrew exhibition at Pinball Expo 2025, continuing tradition of large-scale community builds (SAW in 2024)
high · Team discussion of bringing game to Expo; described as 'Brad Albright edition' of Expo 2025
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design_philosophy: Scope creep through iterative idea collaboration: team started with two LCD screens but expanded to six through continuous feedback loops
high · Joe: 'We started with two LCD screens, ended up with six LCD screens. Uh the lights, it just kind of gets there eventually.'
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market_signal: Successful team repeating showcase formula: same core group (Glenn, Joe, Austin) built both SAW (Expo 2024) and Monster League Hockey (Expo 2025), suggesting annual homebrew exhibition cycle is becoming established
high · Team discussion about potential Expo 2026 project and explicit mention of bringing 'whole Saw team back together'
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personnel_signal: Glenn publicly identifies as 'free agent' seeking industry opportunities following Monster League Hockey success, signaling potential talent migration from homebrew to commercial sector
medium · Glenn: 'I am a free agent' after discussing desire to get involved in industry through voice work and sound design

Transcript

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0:08

That kid is a one girl racing. I'm going to rush it. Really quick run through the rules. You've got saves here. That's how many times your drop target will pop back up. That's your goalie. All right. You got these drop targets. You clear them three times and it starts a power play. It'll lock the ball in there. it'll drop your opponent's goal and for 20 seconds you have a power play where you just got nothing but an open goal. And while that's happening, this diverter opens up and clears the puck just like a defense would in hockey when you're on a power play penalty kill. All right. Um, if you complete enough spins in the bash spinner, it'll fill up your monster meter. Your monster meter's full, you'll start a fight. Whatever progress your opponent has, it's like their health status. So, you've got a full bill of health and your opponent is whatever they're at and you're hitting spinners to take away their health. Winner gets a goal. Then there's cool frenzy which associates to the number of rollovers, drop targets, standups, spinners, and saucers. Each one gets a different letter. You get enough, you start cool frenzy. It is a switch contest for 20 seconds or whoever can get to 200 switches first, I think. And that's the game. And you're scoring goals. You got three one minute periods. And it's a lot of fun. It looks amazing. Glenn, can you tell us It looks amazing. Glenn, can you tell us what your role was with this machine? Um, so starting off, uh, we did SAW last Um, so starting off, uh, we did SAW last year. Jake asked me if I wanted to do the audio and I said, "Well, who else is building and I said, "Well, who else is building the game?" He goes, "I don't know." I said, "Well, how about we just get the whole Saw team back together?" So, I did all the audio. The dream team. The dream team. The dream team. That's right. I did all The dream team. That's right. I did all the audio. I wrote a lot of the call outs. Jake wrote a lot of call outs. Anette did call outs. Um, that's her with the hair you see walking around. I have two characters in the game. One is this guy, Francis. He's a Romanian threehorned goober, whatever that is. Uh, and then I I also have like an announcer voice, just a generic, you know, ESPN hockey a generic, you know, ESPN hockey announcer guy. Cool. Cool. When can you tell us about the artwork When can you tell us about the artwork on this thing? It looks amazing. This is uh Brad Albbright. This is his This is uh Brad Albbright. This is his third layout with art at the show. He did the Winchester Mystery House. He did Portal. And now this. Oh, he's killing it. Oh, he's killing it. So, this is basically Pinball Expo 2025. So, this is basically Pinball Expo 2025. The Brad Albbright edition. at home edition as a homebrew machine. What is original? as a homebrew machine. What is original? What? This was an Alvin G soccer head-to-head game. We did not like the inserts. It had some interesting things about it. We didn't know if the layout was going to be really fun. We put it together original flippers and they were they were weak. The original flippers were weak. The game wasn't a lot of fun. We put brand new flippers in it and had to kind of Frankenstein to get them to work. The bottom of the playfield is absolutely slammed. there's no room under there. And so putting stronger flippers made the game faster and that's what we stuck with. So yeah, um new inserts, all LED RGB lights. Uh we got two large uh LCD screens as well as four small ones. And uh so is the playfield a new brand new playfield that you guys made or is it a reskinned? So we he printed it flat. So, uh, So we he printed it flat. So, uh, Lonnie, uh, with, uh, graphic dimensions, uh, printed it, um, sent it to us, and then we had to cut the bottom in the middle all the way across the middle of the plate field so that it could fold a little bit. And then we have brackets on the side that keep it in that shape to keep that constant uh, uh, angle uh, for both sides so that it's even. But yeah, that's that's that. And he But yeah, that's that's that. And he printed all the plastics. Um, Brad did all the art. Um, Brad did all the art. Yeah. Yeah. So that's that's the game. And so all So that's that's the game. And so all the inserts are brand new, not repurposed from the original game. The original game had a lot of inserts The original game had a lot of inserts that were weird shapes. Jake wanted to have more RGB lights. We also got RGB lighting in the posts that have like eight lights on each post so they can rotate. They can do really cool light shows visually. Uh really helps with the excitement of a hockey arena trying to get that like like here you can see the insert like like here you can see the insert the inserts on the light shows here. They they can rotate around. We got We got multiple lights in these domes. And then you got like three different And then you got like three different four different screens. Wait, wait. Six different screens. The flipper to LCD ratio is one to one. The flipper to LCD ratio is one to one. We got six flippers, six LCD screens. Um I guess that's a first. So that's really cool. You can see your So that's really cool. You can see your side on the opposite side. And then you also have additional screens on the left and right, little mini screens. Yep. Yep. Are we ready to play? Are we ready to play? Yeah. Let's play it.

5:08

it makes like the epic way of legit. Lonnie, can you tell me what you did with Monster League hockey? Monster League hockey. Okay. Monster Monster League hockey. Okay. Monster League hockey. Jake Danzig got a Alvin G soccer through a mutual friend of mine. And so Jake basically hired me out and said, "Tear into this thing, tear it all apart." So I tore it all apart, did CAD files, everything's been recut. It's a It's a new playfield. It's been reprinted. Uh new inserts. It's direct UV printed on our printer and it's also got a special UV coating that's on there that I'm able to do a UV direct print right to the clear coat. You can actually cut, print, and clear a playfield and have it ready to install in like 48 hours. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. Working with Brad Albury, he's Yeah. Working with Brad Albury, he's great. We got templates set up and back and forth and Brad doing his thing and Jake making little tweaks and things and all that. So, are you available to make playfields for other people for higher? Absolutely. Absolutely. We can take a Absolutely. Absolutely. We can take a game that you have. We can do plastics, we can do backlashes, pretty much anything that's on the game, we've already uh been able to do and it's really exciting to work with these guys. I mean, that's that's ideal. If you got a group of friends that get together and brainstorm and everybody had their role, you know, between the programming, electrical, and Glenn making all the noise and everything, it works out really, really well. So, how can people get a hold of you if they wanted to do something like that? My email is graphicdimensions@gmail.com. My website, which is on a holding stage right now, is gdpinball.com. It's been really, really fun. I mean, Jake, Jesse, working with Antonette and Maddie and and Mickey and just all all the whole crew. It's a it's a really really cool thing. Oh my god. Oh my god. Tell me a little bit more about who you Tell me a little bit more about who you are and what you contributed to the game. My name is Joe. Uh I do uh like the physical build, the electrical build, um kind of a little bit of everything. Woodworking, electronics, little bit of programming. Last year we saw you with the saw game, Last year we saw you with the saw game, which was incredible, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. What made you decide to say, "Hell yeah, What made you decide to say, "Hell yeah, let's do another game." We enjoy it. I like hanging out with my We enjoy it. I like hanging out with my friends, you know, making pinball, making friends, you know. So, I got to ask, you guys you know. So, I got to ask, you guys couldn't just keep it simple and make another normal pinball machine. You had to go and make a doublesided pinball machine. Like, how much of a leap in difficulty was that from making saw or was it actually easier because you'd already done one before? It started off a lot simpler. We're just It started off a lot simpler. We're just idea people, so we keep coming up with ideas and bouncing ideas off of people and then it just keeps growing and growing. You know, we started with two LCD screens, ended up with six LCD screens. Uh the lights, it just kind of gets there eventually. So, in the millions, how much money did So, in the millions, how much money did you guys make off of this machine? In the millions, somewhere between In the millions, somewhere between I'm just assuming it's like at least a I'm just assuming it's like at least a million. 05 and 0 10. 10. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Will you make another game for Expo Will you make another game for Expo 2026? Oh, for sure. 2026. Uh I love it. We might put my foot 2026. Uh I love it. We might put my foot in my mouth there, but you might have to just bring Saw back you might have to just bring Saw back next year. We might bring Saw. Yeah, I don't know. We might bring Saw. Yeah, I don't know. Austin, can you tell us what your role Austin, can you tell us what your role was with making Monster League hockey? I did the coding for the game. So, I consulted with Glenn and he came up with the the initial layout of the rules and then the group kind of provided feedback. We modified what needed to be and then I worked on getting the audio in and getting that coded in. Uh, and then the the game rules and how that layers up. So would you say you're the hardest working of all of these folks? Top top four. Top four top four top four the last two weeks. Yes. I think you had the most you had the most work to do. The code was the last thing to get completed. Yeah. Okay. And you guys use the fast Yeah. Okay. And you guys use the fast pinball system for using fast boards. Uh that's what we for using fast boards. Uh that's what we used in a previous project and it's it's it's great. I mean we love them. I think that's what we would probably use in future projects too. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Runs MPF for the software. Runs MPF for the software. Yes. So from a coding perspective, you Yes. So from a coding perspective, you also coded saw, right? Did you have any experience before saw coding a pinball machine? Uh not in pinball machines. Uh in work Uh not in pinball machines. Uh in work outside of pinball, uh work as software engineer. Okay. Um so had experience in that, but we Um so had experience in that, but we wanted to utilize the mission pinball framework which is based off of Python because then it's also something where Eric that can do light shows can jump in without having software experience. So it's a little bit more user friendly to have more of the group involved if they want to put their own stamp within the game. put their own stamp within the game. Gotcha. That's really cool. Gotcha. That's really cool. So let's say someone who knows nothing So let's say someone who knows nothing about coding etc etc. Would you recommend making your own game? Absolutely. You know we had the Absolutely. You know we had the opportunity four friends that made this um so it gave us a little bit of advantage but if you you know want to use fast boards there's a slack channel for that. And then Ernie you know that also is like heavy in the home brerew scene. He has his own Discord channel that also has a ton of people. So, there's tons of resources out there with people with no software experience that can get feedback and input from other people to help them. They can even expand out in terms of collaborating with other people where I think that actually happened on, you know, some of these other games where it was a oneperson project that then became a two or three through the community. So, it's a very supportive community. What are your personal goals with this What are your personal goals with this fun? I think it's different from person to I think it's different from person to person within the group. Me personally, I just enjoy these are my friends outside of making the game. We play pinball together. We hang out together. We do tournaments together. We do a lot of stuff in the hobby together. Even outside the hobby. Uh so I just enjoy that aspect. Making a pinball machine is a different type of feeling, different energy than just showing up and playing tournaments or just showing up and playing game. It's it's a different type like bonding experience, if you will. I would like to get more involved in the I would like to get more involved in the industry. So I'm just making projects. Hopefully they speak for themselves. Whether it's doing voice call outs or characters or songwriting or just sound of design, anything I want to be involved. Yeah. So, what you're saying is you're a free So, what you're saying is you're a free agent. I am a free agent. I am a free agent. You got the jersey, dude. You got the You got the jersey, dude. You got the jersey. So, yeah. This is I've dabbled in a lot of yeah. This is I've dabbled in a lot of homebrews. I hope that it kind of becomes a proof of concept that I can pull the project together and to completion. Now, we know who to call. By the way, Now, we know who to call. By the way, Glenn, personally, from me and Matt, thank you for uh all the contributions and help and suggestions and just creative collaboration uh you shared with us for the show. So, yeah, we had to hug it out. That's yeah, we had to hug it out. That's great, guys. Group. I don't know. I don't know if this is on I don't know. I don't know if this is on camera, but this will work. this will work. Yay. Yay. Excellent. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. [Music] [Applause]