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DPP #165 "End of year with Phantom Tilt!"

Don's Pinball Podcast (regular feed)·podcast_episode·1h 14m·analyzed·Dec 25, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Don & Ryan discuss Stern updates, D&D rumors, and pinball industry news from Australia.

Summary

Don hosts Phantom Tilt's Ryan Barry on Christmas Day from Western Australia, discussing year-end Stern code updates (Metallica Remastered, Elvira, John Wick), speculation about an upcoming Dungeons & Dragons announcement (teased for December 27th), and the state of recent Stern releases. They also cover Spooky's charitable Evil Dead raffles, regional game availability delays, and upcoming Australian pinball shows.

Key Claims

  • Stern announced code updates for Metallica Remastered, Elvira, and John Wick before Christmas

    high confidence · Don stated Stern released a 'triple drop' of code updates; mentioned by both speakers as recent news

  • Elvira received a new wizard mode as a code update

    high confidence · Don: 'We got an Elvira Wizard mode out of completely nowhere' and noted it can be activated via stand-up sign

  • John Wick code is at version .88 or .9 with 80 new callouts

    high confidence · Don: 'I think we're at .88 or .9 maybe' and '80 callouts though'

  • A Dungeons & Dragons pinball machine is rumored to be designed by Brian Eddy with Dwight Sullivan on code

    medium confidence · Don: 'reportedly rumored to be Dungeons & Dragons, by the great Brian Eddy and the Dwight Sullivan of code'

  • A teaser for the next Stern game is expected around December 27th with a full reveal the following Tuesday

    medium confidence · Don: 'I've heard the 27th as a date floating around' and standard Friday teaser/Tuesday reveal schedule

  • Media day for Stern Pinball is scheduled for January 7th

    high confidence · Don: 'we'll be home for the media day at Stern Pinball on January 7th because that's the date that we've been invited'

  • Metallica Remastered has improved flipper responsiveness, particularly for backhand ramps

    high confidence · Ryan: 'you can backhand the right ramp on the remastered like no problem' and noted flipper feel differences

  • Spooky Pinball is running charitable Evil Dead raffles where three raffles have sold out, with commitment to donate a Scooby-Doo machine if three more sell out

    high confidence · Don detailed three raffles at $130/$200 entries, all sold out instantly; fundraising for children's hospital

Notable Quotes

  • “We got code updates, which I'm learning that I'm completely in love with whenever these drop. So we got a triple drop.”

    Don @ early — Establishes enthusiasm for post-release code updates as a value driver for Stern games

  • “When they start to develop these games like they're developing other games along the same path, we can stop using the F word... Filler. The filler games.”

    Don @ mid — Introduces critical industry terminology about games released to meet production contracts rather than quality standards

  • “I wouldn't mind a quick lock, but really that code. Let me pick a classic character, druid, warrior, thief, whatever my mood is, and let me just progress through that progression tree.”

    Don @ mid — Articulates design philosophy expectations for D&D game regarding character progression systems

  • “you can backhand the right ramp on the remastered like no problem... which is like super fun you know to just know that that I have that shot dialed whenever I need it”

    Ryan @ mid — Indicates measurable gameplay improvements in Metallica Remastered compared to original

  • “This isn't the complicated machine. This isn't the Apple gift card that you've like used a bit of and this still 30.”

    Don @ late — Contrasts Spooky's charitable commitment (physical machine donation) vs. corporate gift card charity approach

  • “I looked in Scooby-Doo and it had the same power supply as the new Metallica. So I don't know that they've completely redesigned and come out with a new source, but just a different one.”

    Ryan @ mid — Provides technical observation about hardware standardization across recent Stern releases

Entities

DonpersonRyan BarrypersonStern PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyBrian EddypersonDwight SullivanpersonMetallica RemasteredgameJohn Wickgame

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Spooky Pinball running highly successful charitable raffles with instant sellouts; conditional promise to donate Scooby-Doo machine if three more raffles sell out

    high · Don: 'these things have been selling out like day one' and 'three more of these. And if these sell out as well... Spooky Pinball is going to then provide and donate'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Venom's Pro version felt incomplete as released; missing spinner and other mechanical features present in Premium/LE versions should have been standard

    high · Don: 'Pro didn't feel like a full game that should have been released'; Ryan added spinner aftermarket and noted placement available in Star Wars and Bond

  • ?

    design_philosophy: John Wick lacks clear progress indicators in Team Wason mode; players cannot determine if they're progressing toward completion or just surviving

    high · Don: 'I still want to see some more Team Wason... I need an audio reference or I need something visual I can track to know, like, alright, am I almost there?'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Growing expectation for companion app integration and character progression systems in modern pinball games

    medium · Extended discussion of D&D game needing character creation in Insider Connected app, limited-time drops, and progression trees similar to RPG systems

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Discussion of 'filler games' — machines released to meet production contracts rather than quality standards, with expectation that better games (like Kong) are coming

    high · Don: 'When they start to develop these games like they're developing other games along the same path, we can stop using the F word... Filler'; referenced multiple times as emerging industry terminology

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.224

0:00
Well, by the look on the wall there, it appears to be Christmas Day, and I feel like I'm filled with good day. Hi, everybody. Don from Down Under, here to record some pinball goodness and happiness on this episode of 165 Let's Get Festive? All right, let's go.
0:26
Give me the hi-hat. Denise Stoyle Get in the blood of you Oh my goodness, hit the music Let's get festive, settle on in Christmas at ground zero it feels like Because dang this Christmas is warm I'm joined in the studio with a very special guest You may know him From the Phantom Tail Pinball Podcast last put out three months ago, but I'm sure there's new content coming as soon as possible. Ryan Barry, how you doing, sir? I'm doing very well. What? There are prawns on the barbie.
1:09
Love it. There's chops sizzling on the grill. Yes. Now, what are you doing in Wisconsin, sir? Just bringing some weather with me.
1:22
Some steamy, steamy 30-degree weather. Just kidding. It is 30 degrees, to be fair, but that's 30 centigrade because we're coming to you from the opposite side of the planet, from Wisconsin, literally as far as you can get from the Cheeseland State and still get reception for a Green Bay Packers show. We're here in Western Australia. Perth, I think, is the major metropolitan area. I think the actual town we're in is some weird aboriginal name like Wollahomborombo or something, I think. Yep, close enough. Close enough. All right, settling in here, I was invited, thank you, for Christmas Town. in Australia where it's currently summertime. The summer solstice just occurred and we're having one heck of a time trying tons of food and snacks and mainly fried pineapple is where I've landed. That was the big one from the last couple of days. The big realization that fried pineapple was a thing and you could get it loaded up with bacon bits and Hawaiian sauce. Oh God, it was so spicy. And so yeah, once I saw that fried pineapple was a thing, then I learned that fried banana is a thing and then it just kind of spiraled from there. We hit up the skate park, and then I stopped to get a bottle of water and attached to the gas station in true American style, the gas station restaurant. What was it, Chicken Place? What was it called? Chicken Treat. Who doesn't want a Chicken Treat, man? So going in there, yeah, fried bananas, I heard, were the specialty of the house. So I went on those, and then I saw that they had the loaded pineapple fritters. So imagine a can of dull pineapple slices cut right open, dropped in funnel cake batter, panko crumb breading, fried golden, but still completely wet inside. Makes no sense. And then, yeah, bacon, of course. Thank you. And then some spicy sriracha Hawaiian-y sauce, I guess they're calling it. It was $4 Australian, like $3 US. Delicious. Still burned my mouth a little bit. Loved it.
Elvira
game
Dungeons & Dragonsgame
X-Mengame
Evil Deadgame
Scooby-Doogame
Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castlegame
Project Pinballorganization
Pinball Collective Silver Ball Showdownevent
James Bond 007game
Venomgame
George Gomezperson
Loser Kid Pinball Podcastmedia
  • ?

    technology_signal: Stern standardizing power supplies across recent releases (Metallica, Scooby-Doo); shift from loud carrier jet-style fans to whisper-quiet units

    medium · Ryan: 'I looked in Scooby-Doo and it had the same power supply as the new Metallica'; X-Men had loud Harrier jet fan, Metallica is whisper quiet

  • $

    market_signal: Geographic supply chain delays for new games to Australia; X-Men and Metallica Remastered not yet available despite December release window

    high · Don: 'X-Men still hasn't made it here where you've been able to play it' and 'Metallica Remastered hasn't showed up over here yet'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Reference to Seth Davis (Spooky CEO) being interviewed on Loser Kid Pinball Podcast regarding company operations

    medium · Don: 'Loser Kid got Seth Davis, CEO, on' but noted he hadn't listened yet due to travel schedule

  • ?

    product_strategy: Code updates being released post-launch as significant value drivers; Metallica Remastered received rebuilt firmware and flipper responsiveness improvements

    high · Don: 'I'm completely in love with whenever these drop'; Ryan noted flipper improvements and smoother orbits on remastered vs original

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Dungeons & Dragons pinball in development by Brian Eddy and Dwight Sullivan; teaser expected December 27th with full reveal following Tuesday

    medium · Don: 'reportedly rumored to be Dungeons & Dragons' and 'I've heard the 27th as a date floating around'

    • 3:11
    Everyone loved seeing you try the dessert burger, which is really what got you in there. So, yeah, I see this posting on the wall, this advertisement, advertisement for the dessert burger, and my intrigue was definitely peaked, capital P, dot the I. So this was essentially like some funnel cake fries on a sandwich bun with a pineapple fritter, bacon, of course, didn't have cheese, but, like, why not? Some kind of caramel sauce that was on it. And so, like, I had to. How do you not? How do you see dessert burger on the menu and not go get it? What are we doing at county fairs that we are not serving dessert burgers? So it was absolutely exactly what you would expect it to be, like a funnel cake and fried pineapple on a bun.
    3:55
    It was very much too much. Now, if you're eating like a full meal of some chicken treat, right, a couple pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes and French fries, and then you're like, you know what, I'm still kind of hungry after that. I think I'll go for a dessert burger.
    4:08
    No way in hell. I've yet to see a 400-pound Australian walking around, though. So, like, yeah, we would have no restraint at home for that. Plus there's bacon on everything. I love it, man. Proper bacon. Not that English stuff. So, yeah, having a good time. Yeah, yep. Other than food, what's your highlight been from the trip? Gosh, just the environs. Wandering around Queensland, Australia in the, like, bit of a jungle, went up to the Australian Zoo, that Irwin place. Yep. Bindi and Bob, as you call them.
    4:40
    And just, you know, checking out the animals in their environment. I was joking, you know, because we always say this at zoos and things. It's like, who took these koalas out of their native habitat and brought them here? and it's like they're literally in their native habitat. Yeah. So, and they're just like chilling in trees. These little eucalyptus monkeys, man. I think they like, you know, they eat the eucalyptus trees, which I think are toxic, and then like they succumb to poison and nap for 18 hours and then they get up and eat some more. And like, I love it, man. Yeah, they hang around drunk all day, which is pretty much like the people here as well. God, I love it. I don't even know. I'm still trying to characterize Australia. I mean, I was hit with like, it felt like, the weather feels like California. The tropical element and the oceans remind me of Oahu. And the utes remind me of the mullet. And so it's like you just gather all that together and I think you can kind of approximate what's going on. Add in some pineapple fritters, man, and you got down under. Did I miss anything? No, no. I think you summed it up pretty well. I've never felt more at home anywhere else in my life. Like, this is great. That's good. I'm glad that you feel welcomed. Yeah, not only can you not bring in like raw fruits and vegetables, but you can't bring in an ounce of pretension either. They will smack it straight out of you if you try to come through the airport with that. Yeah, you'll get shot down pretty quickly.
    5:56
    Oh, man. Alright. There's pinball stuff going on, which is kind of the reason we decided to get together. Well, the reason we wanted to do this is because we're having a good time. But I was going to cover what little bit of Christmas news stuff is worthy. Stern gave us an early Christmas package. Thank you for the big package, Daddy Stern. We got code updates, which I'm learning that I'm completely in love with whenever these drop. So we got a triple drop. Boom. We got Metallica Remastered, which makes sense. New game. Still getting some code updates and flourishes. We got an Elvira Wizard mode out of completely nowhere. I don't think anybody was sitting there thinking this is a game that's lacking code at all. This is like Lyman's Beast. But there's a new wizard mode in there. You activate it with that stand-up sign, placard thing, whatever. I don't have the game anymore, but I'm probably going to get another one so I can try this out. And then John Wick, thank the Lord we got some code for John Wick. I think we're at .88 or .9 maybe we're approaching. We still don't have what we want. We still haven't found what we're looking for. 80 callouts though. I'll take it. I'll take the win when it comes. Now, I still want to see some more Team Wason, man. You got to give me some kind of progress mode marker or some way to know when I'm in a mode, I'm actually progressing towards something. I think it may be that when you hit enough of these shots, whether that be guiding the VIP or whatever, and it's jumping around, or it's just like that mode where you just hit all the lights or whatever, at some point a scoop will illuminate, and that will end the mode. But I need an audio reference or I need something visual I can track to know, like, alright, am I almost there? Is it like two more shots and then I go for scoopy time? Or am I just shooting shots for 30 shots just trying to survive? I still don't know if the goal with that game is to play the mode until it times out, and then you go into another one. So it's just like, you know, score while you can. But there's got to be some kind of completion to it, right? And, you know, people dog on Wick. You know, it's not Jaws. It's not Godzilla. I don't think anybody's saying it's that. It does shoot well. It is fun to, you know, we should have had more stuff in it, of course. But it doesn't play like a bad game. And I think there's actually, deep in there, under the surface, a game that's like, you know, waiting to come out. way to be fully flourished, right? Not that I'm ever going to get $14,000 for my LE or anything, but have a complete game there because the vibe, I still dig the vibe of that game.
    8:19
    It's a refined, or I should say it's an acquired taste. Okay, yeah. Because when you do have those big games, you start hitting those shots and getting dialed in. It can feel really nice, and you can get some rewarding multi-balls, and getting multi-ball after multi-ball cranking. Yeah, I appreciate any game where I can stage a multi-ball and then start a mode, and then it's like, okay, let's go. Let's trip that multi-ball. Now it's much easier to hit all these shots. Right, with the Galaxy. That gives me good Guardian of the Galaxy vibes, get the mode going. Yeah. And then, you know, I got the LE version, so we get the physical ball lock. A small thing, but makes a huge difference. So I like, you know, stacking the balls in there. But you also have those car modes, too, for multi-balls. There's four of them. They're kind of randomly assigned throughout the day, like which one will start first. That's cool. I dig that. But having those trigger as you're going in modes or between modes as well can just kind of keep that momentum going. And that's what I dig. When it works, like when you're hitting and it's flowing well, yeah, the games are incredible. Like you were talking about the progress and getting some sort of marker about where your progress is at. Some games, I'm lighting up the car, just destroying it. and those multiballs aren't really coming. But, you know, other games I'll just, you know, hit it a few times, and then I'm banging a multiball and cranking some sort of mode. I don't even really understand how I got there, how far into it I am, or what I'm doing to, you know, keep these things stepping along, yeah. Man, Metallica's a great game, and part of it's because, like, I know where I stand, right? You know, I know how many more sparkies I need to hit. I got an idea of how many more, you know, hammer locks I need. The snake, I'm getting a letter every time I put a ball in there. I want to spell it. That's ready to go. And the graveyard drops are perfect because you can just glance up. Oh, they're all gone. Let's go. It's time. It's the master.
    10:15
    I was just playing and then randomly just master. I call out in the back. So cool game. Bring some of that, please. I'm trying to will this into life. Please make Wick a better game than it is because I think it's in there. When they start to develop these games like they're developing other games along the same path, we can stop using the F word. Do you know which word I'm referring to? Uh-uh. Filler. The filler games. That's been the catchphrase over the past couple of weeks. That's so funny. I can't believe we're almost upon time for release of another filler game. So if that's the F word, the E word, right, would be Elwynn. It was essentially the only game that's not a filler game, apparently.
    11:02
    What the hell is a filler game? Isn't every game a filler game? I imagine a game that's not going well, but they have a contract. They've got to get this game launched by a certain date. They've sunk all this money into it, and so it's like, just put it out. But I think when that has happened before and Stern is heading in that direction, they just cancel the project and don't release it. Or George Gomez takes it over and starts from scratch. Or George steps in and just creates magic with my absolute favorite Spike 2 game, James Bond 007.
    11:32
    Well, you've changed your tune, if that's the case. That's not. TV5, what's going on? A little flap? Come on. The shortest wire form ever in pinball to lock balls. I'll tell you what. I'm a Bond fan. Yeah. I like the game. it took me a long time to appreciate it and a lot of plays because it used to kick my ass on tournaments I knew that I was going to get destroyed every time I touched it but when you can rip that super skill shot around and nail that upper left flipper into that little stack of ramps man it feels good it does and mostly because it's a difficult shot and tight shots like that I've had good games on it. I mean, you know, but it's like, you know, just for me personally. I mean, but like I'm a guy that really likes Munsters. I like Elvira. I really like Star Wars. And that's definitely not everybody. Nope. So let me be weird, guys. God, come on. It's still fun whenever I have a hankering to play a blindingly yellow game cabinet. Bond is right there for me.
    12:37
    Different strokes, as I say. I do like that left orbit to the ramp. That's fun. But like the Scoop Eject. I'm going to rant on Bond for a minute. The scoop eject is just kind of weird, right? You go into the underwater area. That extra premium little figure under the play field does nothing for me. The scoop just kind of goes up. Sometimes it gets into the pop bumpers, of which there's one coil for two pop bumpers. What are we doing? And then it just kind of goes from there. But that left orbit with the spinner, I do like it. I like the diamond bling when it's spinning, right? I do like the vibrating marital aid that's up there. I appreciate that. You know, that's fun. Mom's little helper. I like that one. See, what happened was I slipped getting into the shower, nurse, and that's why I'm here. You know, it's crazy. One in a million shot. Never happened before. No, that wasn't me in here last week. So that's Bond. I don't know how we got on that. But speaking of filler games, like Bond, this next filler game apparently is going to drop with a teaser as soon as, like, two days, hence this recording. I've heard the 27th as a date floating around. I don't even know where it came from. It just kind of appeared in the ether that we're going to get a teaser, right? So potentially you'll be mid-flight. What day is the 27th? That's a Friday, I think. Yep. And that's usually when the teasers come on Friday and then the reveals come on Tuesdays? Yep. Yeah, so that would line up. And I would be here for the teaser. I'd be home for the reveal. I'll tell you what, though. I'll be home for the media day at Stern Pinball on January 7th because that's the date that we've been invited. to come on by. I don't think there was an NDA about that or anything. So between now and then, we'll get a full reveal on everything. It's in this brand-new game, reportedly rumored to be Dungeons & Dragons, by the great Brian Eddy and the Dwight Sullivan of code. And maybe, and this is probably me just willing again, the spiritual successor to a medieval madness. Maybe. Can it happen? That would be cool. Yeah, what other games has he done? Recently, Stranger Things. Love it. Got it. Shoot up the middle. Hit the Demogorgon. It's got a flap that comes down that activates. It's like now it's shooting time. Otherwise, it folds away. That's kind of cool and innovative. Venom. Yeah. We don't need to talk about Venom. We need to talk about Bruno here. Venom, fun game. Pro didn't feel like a full game that should have been released. If the premium was the pro and then the premium had like even more into it, giant stand-up, Venom that would rise from the something or whatever, or like a line of stand-up targets or a spinner. Can we get a spinner in a game? Can I get a spinner? Yeah, like Metallica, two spinners. Venom, no spinners I put a spinner in Venom You did? Yeah, there's a spot I think there was one in development Like in the same Like same spot as Star Wars Same spot as James Bond There's a hole in the plastic To accommodate it Oh yeah And you just put it right And there's screws right underneath I just had to mount it And then you could put a spinner Right on that left ball guide Can you hook it into anything? I probably could now At the time Like I wouldn't have that expertise But absolutely You could tie it into Like at least a flasher So you got like Some visual strobe or something I'm thinking of like a little score tied into wherever the signal is sending for a sling or something like that. So it's a little score. And it's not like they got, like, who's the guy that played Venom? David Hardy? Brian Hardy? Ed Hardy? Tom Hardy.
    15:52
    Ed Hardy. Only the best shirts in the world ever. You know, so it's not like this was probably a multi-million dollar license. It was Venom and comic book, not even movie or anything. No Spider-Verse. So, you know, they probably could have been a little in the budget there for, like, some coil-activated funness. For one spinner. And a spinner. But then what do you do? Do you release, okay, this is our premium. You pay the premium price and you get the spinner.
    16:17
    Yeah. I mean, it depends how much. I wasn't in that project. I mean, they even released a spinner kit for the Metallica Pro. Oh, did they? The original, yes. So you could retcon it in there. Yes. Yeah. Retroactive continuity is what it stands for. To hook it up, have it scoring everything. Oh. So it can be done. It can be done. All right. So Venom was a fun game, but it was the code that pushed Venom up over the top for me, right? Because obviously this is a back one-third play field game. There's like one stand-up target on the whole game, and the middle third and lower third is just a regular Brian Eddy bottom. Not that he's got a bad bottom, but as bottoms go, we've seen danger rooms and things now as it's being where we're pushing it. So I could have seen more. So hopefully he'll bring some of that heat. I wouldn't mind a quick lock, but really that code. Let me pick a classic character, druid, warrior, thief, whatever my mood is, and let me just progress through that progression tree. You know, every time I log in, I'm gaining more abilities and things. Better battles are available. I felt like I felt locked during Venom. You would play the lower battles, you know, and if you got through them, you know, first time, the next time you got to play that battle was after you went completely through the whole game. beat Null and got to start back over, and then you could play it again. And I think they've now made it so you can reset your scores if you want to play those lower-level guys again. But I hope that they keep that at least available or selectable or something. Well, make it what Dungeons & Dragons is, which is a role-playing game. Yeah. You know, create your character. Yeah. Let's create a character. Let's go choose a class. Yeah. So what if you could log into the Insider Connected app and, like, build your own avatar? That would be bad. customize it in your app, and then it would load in-game. Yep. So that's what would make this, like, actually a pretty compelling purchase and not just a filler, not a filler game. Well, that's where coming in and engaging with the licensor can be a big advantage. You know, they can give you ideas of, you know, what do certain classes do better than other classes? Is that going to make it, you know, that you need to hit more of a particular shot to progress as one class compared to another. Yeah like take your character and finish the warrior class finish the mage class finish the ranger class Yeah And what about this How about limited time drops Like here a treasure quest It active for five days If you complete it, you get to get this little accent for your avatar character. Yeah. Right. Complete this dungeon. Yeah. You get like a little Gary Stern hat or something you can put on your guy or something, right? A little bald cap with some hair on the sides. Like I want something like that so I feel like if I don't have this game, I'm missing out. Sure. Yeah. Then if I do succumb and buy the thing, I'm super happy about it. Or make some desire for people to get out on location and play. Yeah, and then for people that are not there for new in box, they could be like, I don't mind picking this game up down the road a little bit, a little bit of a discount. That way I can have the game, I'll pay the highest price as a first adopter, but then I've got a robust market there to take it when I'm done with it, and we just kind of sisterhood of the traveling D&D game. All right, so hopefully they're thinking along these same lines too. And it's not just like, no, this is all you're getting, and this is filler until Kong comes out. Well, what's the path of least resistance, really? Yeah. Is releasing another game with another set of achievements. I mean, the sound, what you're saying sounds amazing, to have the companion app, you know, create your character, give it a name, and that's who comes up when you log in. Yeah.
    19:49
    Darth Rizzler, the Skull Kingdom Master. That'd be my guy. Skibbity Dwarf Lord. Now, you know, least resistance for Metallica Remastered would have been just kind of put out the same thing coat of paint and stick it out there, but they made a lot of fine-tuning adjustments. Yes. And they rebuilt the code from the ground up. They just poured it over. So I think they went harder than they necessarily needed to, not that I want them to diminish at all, but I'm very happy with what they did there. So I'm hopeful. So you've played the original Metallica a few times over the last couple of days. Some bloke I know has got it in their back garden, yeah. What do you think are the biggest improvements that they made? So, well, first off, just like some of the shots I think have been tightened up a bit, or it's the fact that I'm playing a game that was just made. But, like, you know how your snake's kind of going down the middle occasionally? Occasionally, yeah. Like one out of five times or something. Like I haven't run into that yet on mine that I have. I did have to adjust a couple of ball guides just to get nice, smooth orbits to the flippers. But, like, I haven't had to mess with that much. I'm scoring much better on the new game than I am on this one, and I haven't quite figured that out yet. Is there potential code differences? so I don't know I don't think that it's necessarily code I think um the flippers have a different feel you know okay now that we have like a completely modern stern like you can backhand the the right ramp on the remastered like no problem yeah yeah I was surprised like that yeah you cradle come off just like a quarter of an inch and then boom right up there every time which is like super fun you know to just know that that I have that shot dialed whenever I need it um and you know from what other people said that's never been really a thing with the yeah original one so and I don't know if that's a coil power issue. I don't know if the windings they're using are different or they're using different capacitors in the boards now. This is a SAM system, so we've got SAM spike 1, 2, and now probably it's running on three hardware. Yeah, it's kind of spike 2.5. We've seen little glimpses of some different architecture. The new power supply that doesn't sound like a carrier jet taking off.
    21:48
    This is funny, and I mentioned this. I looked in Scooby-Doo and it had the same power supply as the new Metallica. Oh, really? Yeah. So I don't know that they've completely redesigned and come out with a new source, a new power supply, but just a different one. Spooky Spike 3 system. And so with Stern, I don't know, maybe there was like an Amazon Prime Day sale on those power supplies. You've got to get those Black Friday deals. So they're like, okay, let's take 6 million of them or something. Sure. And so they've just had them and they've been using them and they know about the fan issue and they're like, yeah, but we've got like 2 million of these things left. Maybe they finally eclipsed that supply and they're like, okay, now we can source the ones we really want to use. Let's go for the good ones. Because my X-Men came with a loud Harrier jet. Yeah. But now Metallica is like, whisper quiet. They're going to love it. Love it. So that's fun.
    22:33
    Yeah, so I can't wait to see what this reveal is. I'm hopeful because of the code. Yeah, and I think it's theirs to give us a nice early quarter 25 game to play until it's time for Kong. And until it's time for Evil Dead to get delivered. We got a new Evil Dead owner Because I just saw Project Pinball had their third Pinball raffle for this game $130 entries $200 is what it's limited to So you got a 1 in 200 chance of getting Almost free Evil Dead And at the same time it's pretty much price matched So the winner gets a game And then just about the same amount of money Is going to Project Pinball to help fund games Going into children's hospitals I haven't heard but I'm surmising that they're not putting an evil dead in the children's hospital as well well i think those kids are going through enough but i think it's funding them just yeah get something in there and then pay for the maintenance and upkeep and stuff so that's awesome and these things have been selling out like day one every time i get the notification i go back like oh i think this raffle is active let me jump in there boom zero out of 200 entries left you gotta be ready for the drop yeah and so three of these have now sold out instantaneously um so that's three more evil beds that have gone out so today they released or announced, or the last 24 hours, that they're going to do three more of these. And if these sell out as well, like they have been, I mean, less than a day, boom, they're all gone. They're doing the drawing. If three more of these sell out, Spooky Pinball is going to then provide and donate to a children's hospital a brand new in box Spooky Do, Scooby Do Pinball machine. I still do the Spooky Do. On top of it. So yeah, challenge accepted. I'm going to like set an alarm or something so I don't miss one of these raffles. Because yeah, what's wrong with more Evil Dead? man. No, no, it looks, it looks awesome. And those guys doing that, like that, that's a big deal. Yeah. You know, it's not like, uh, you know, you're, you're given a cash prize to charity that you just turn around and claim back on tax. This is a, you know, a machine you given out of the, the goodness of their heart. This isn't, this isn't the, uh, the target gift card. No, yeah, no complicated machine. This isn't the Apple gift card that you've like used a bit of in this still 30. Yeah. Here you go. I'll be re-gifting that to you. There's $5 left on that. Don't say I never gave you nothing. That's the work secret, Santa. We're saving that one. Yeah. So we're in Australia, and so any machine that comes here can't go over road. It's got to come plane or boat, right? So you've got this delay when new games are dropped and released. So X-Men still hasn't made it here where you've been able to play it.
    25:00
    What's the new one? Oh, Metallica Remastered hasn't showed up over here yet. I haven't seen it. Wix are here. Yep. I'm sure they're coming soon, probably. Yeah, they've got to be. I think the idea was that we were going to get X-Men in December sometime, so I guess it's still technically December, but I'm not liking our chances. Oh, man, I can't wait for you to play it. I feel like an asshole because, like, if I play this already. Not at all, no, no. But, yeah, I do travel around a lot, obviously. But I was surprised. I heard yesterday Western Australia is home to three Alice Cooper's Nightmare Castles. That game. I bloody love that game. Yeah. Yeah, and it pumps the music on those games. It's so, so good. Yeah. I love the art and the color palette on that game, too, like that green and blue, like the spider. It's Alice Cooper, right? Yeah, it's not like just Nickelback or Five Figure Death Punch or something.
    25:51
    She had Kroger hair topper put on there. Yeah, that's good. Look at this high score! Can you finish the game?
    26:00
    It's so good. I'm waiting for it. Spooky, make it happen. We all want to be big. Penmo Wizard, here's your replay score.
    26:09
    Avril Lavigne, special guest. Coming soon from American Pinball and our friend. I'm kidding. I kid American Pinball. Yeah, but I was surprised at that. So that's cool that games are coming out here.
    26:24
    And, yeah, hopefully get an X-Men here relatively within the soon timepiece. But, yeah, have you played any other spookies? Like Scooby-Doo, have you played one of those? I haven't played Scooby-Doo. Wide body, a lot of cool shots, and the same color palette as Alice Cooper. I've only played, I think I've only played Alice Cooper. I know that there's a Halloween hanging around. We've had the Texas Chainsaw Massacres and Looney Tunes delivered, and there's a show coming up in January that I'm going to go and play those at. There's going to be a little spooky corner, so there will be a Scooby-Doo there, and I'll be able to knock a few of those off the list and actually give a decent opinion on them. Will that be here in WA? Yes, it is. Yes. Pinball Collective. The Silver Ball Showdown, I want to say it's called. Love it. Yeah. Yep. So a great show if anyone's in Western Australia or traveling over here. Yeah. Just pop on over, man. Yeah. I just have to drive down to Chicago, grab the plane, and then I'm like, I'm here, man. That's it. Yeah. Easy. Easy as that. Easy as fried pineapple pie. Easy as pie.
    27:30
    So that's good. Some interviews have come up. Loser Kid got Seth Davis, CEO, on. Now, I have to choose between listening to pinball podcasts or hanging out on the beach, and so it's been difficult to stay completely up to date with that. So I haven't heard the episode yet, but I did the next best thing, and I went on an app arcade and read the Cliff Notes version. And so the rumors were, and I don't know if we started these or where they came from, but that there was going to be a certain price increase with this next game. We all universally agree it's probably not the right time for that. and it seems like that's not an impending plan because Seth seems to, from what the notes I've read, hinted against having anything completely in the plan for that soon. So we have that to look forward to. Yep. I think it would be hard to find a time where we all don't universally agree that it's not the right time for a price increase. Yeah, and I think for them to just reveal a game and be like, oh, by the way, now they're $14.50 or something, I think I'd build up a bit of a media push and be like, this is our amazing new game that you cannot live without. It's got amazing accessories already coming. There's so much value packed into this now. And you can have it for the small price increase that here it is. I would push it through. I would just bury the lead. Yep.
    28:41
    Like you say, bury it in there somewhere. Yeah, not on a filler title. You don't want to do a price increase on the filler title. You want the one that someone wants and has to have. Yeah. I wonder if they'll put an ape under the plate. I want a Congo.
    28:57
    Sure. But then there's got to be a building in it too. So like what would a King Kong even look like? Would it be like a Congo Jurassic Park jungle game but also have like a Manhattan area? Or would it be like all in the city like Godzilla, you know? Yeah, tough to call. Do we go the Kong Skull Island route? Because I want like that Skull Island stuff but like you have to have a monkey on top of a skyscraper, right? And maybe like he grabs the ball up there and the ball is the woman, you know, and then he fires at it. Either way, banana shooter rod, I think, is the way to go on this. Not a bad idea. All right. I'm going to start prototyping it. I figured, like, lumpy, moldy banana, like half a banana. Oh, God. And then for Aussies, we'll do a banana fritter that you can launch. Yeah. Sounds like a good plan. So hopefully we'll see that. So check out my friends over there at the Loser Kid Podcast. They're going to be called the Winner Kids here pretty soon, landing these interviews. They even landed me early on. Wow. So that was a gift. Wow. Right? For sure. So I thought something that would be fun, here that we're at the ends of the earth, or the ends of the Perth at least. That's the one. And it's the end of the year. We can kind of go through the games that were released this year and just riff on them. Sure. Yeah, that's a fun thing to do. So I've got them here. I've made the order. We can start at the top. In January of last year, or this year, we had three releases, a major one from CERN in Jaws, rumored to be coming. But then we got a double release from Spooky as well, nearly the same time. These games were, I think, teased in December. They came out in January. so TCM, Looney Tunes can't really comment directly on those theme wise what do you think?
    30:30
    theme wise I was immediately off Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I saw it and then I saw gameplay and did a complete one it just looked incredible like the I don't know why but the gameplay and the code that they had and the way that they approached it, you playing as the killer or the family Yeah. You know, it was just the switch that it needed to appeal to way more people. Because typically you're trying to battle the baddie, right? Yeah, if it was a Friday the 13th, I would expect to be battling against Jason, trying to escape constantly. And this is like, oh, no, no, you set the dinner table. You've got the chainsaw. Go get these teenagers. Yep. Oh, okay, okay. So the modes will be, like, the different people.
    31:15
    Yeah, so TCM playing this maniacal family. And, like, you've got to play it with nothing else really around so you can just kind of get into this battle between the narrator but then also like the creepy relatives and stuff. I love this game and it's only getting better for me now. And then it helps that they keep dropping code updates and things. So layout's fun too. So I can't wait for you to play it. Now the layout's just as fun as Looney Tunes but because there's two different coding teams, like they play differently. There's different multiball starts. There's different features in each one. The magnets you use differently. So like it's fun. I can't wait for this January thing to check it out. The Leany Tunes was not as impactful to me just because it looked like a lot of brown and orange kind of mixing in. Where, like, when you change those ramps to purple... Oh, it pops, man. It really gave that contrast that I felt like it needed and made it look much more appealing. So you had TCM there with a lot of contrasting red and browns and sort of crap like that. And, you know, you get that drain the blood mode going. Oh, my God. And so, like, that's the nuance. And that was the good thing of having two different coding teams, right? Because Looney Tunes plays basically, you know, hit these three shots to light the mode, start the mode. Randomly you're assigned a cartoon just like Rick and Morty. And then you play through that mode. And they're all fun. But then, you know, it goes back to, okay, let's go again. You can stack any of the multiballs at any time too. So that's fun. You can bring multiballs into the modes or you can start them independently or you can go from one right into the next one. So you have, like, all this is just kind of going on all at the same time. and it's kind of like one game and you can just choose how you want to... It's like walking into a theme park and you just see which ride you want to go on. Maybe you want to grab a churro on the way to the merry-go-round or something.
    32:57
    TCM is more like... It's also mode-based, but it's more like, okay, let's go for this character. Let's like this character's modes. Let's like the meat grinder. I want to get to chasing the teenagers. Now I can drain her blood. Now you're in blood drain mode or now you're torturing Pam mode. It's very much like a more targeted experience. It's interesting how they just took those two projects and just went in totally different directions. Yeah, and they have such different feels that even though I've got both of essentially the same layout game, I don't think anybody could really offer me a price within reason that I would consider right now. I still want to have both of them. Sure. Yeah, and I wasn't expecting that. I was like, I'm going to buy both of these games. This is probably a mistake.
    33:41
    Three months later, I'll keep the one I like. I'll get rid of the other one. And hopefully I don't lose too much money. But it's like still, even now, with Evil Dead and everything else, I sold Scooby-Doo. I didn't sell either of these two. I'm not looking to. Right. But come by my John Wick. Come by my X-Men, Elliot. You're done. Yeah. Yeah, you're ready. They're good. But, you know, I would sell those for sure before these other two.
    34:01
    And then we have Jaws, which, like, I mean, this is, you know, if you want to think of, like, a mainstream release game, like, this is it. Like, if I was looking for a mainstream game release of the year, I think it would be Jaws because I think this game just appeals to everybody. It's an 80s theme done absolutely right. It's stacked with so much code and in-game currency that makes sense. Collecting shark teeth, playing these other like 8-bit graphic modes too. And what's different with these video modes, I don't know if you've played much Jaws. I've played a bit of Jaws, yeah. It didn't click with me straight away. So the theme wasn't something that I had nostalgia for or had a whole lot of experience with before, but struggled a little bit with just understanding the progress of the game and getting my head around it. But throughout the year, playing more and more and more of it, it's become something that I can feel a little bit more confident on and understand, yeah. Did you play the premium LE version too? Yes. Okay. That's the only version. I've only played an LE. Well, that's the one we've got on location. Okay, yeah, because it's got the upper play field, right? That's what everybody thinks, like, you know, the main thing that's up there. It is a lot more fun to hit than just the ramp that comes around. But the shark coming up is, like, such a moment, like, okay, the dynamic's changing now. Shark's there. It's time to hit them. You know that it's definitely time to hit them. Yeah, it's not just a flashing insert. Like, it's time. And then, you know, I installed the Jaws eat the ball thing too. It was phenomenal. That was a moment.
    35:36
    I'm a fan of the movie, too. And if you haven't seen it, it looks like, okay, it's a shark movie. Everybody escaped the shark, big killer shark, whatever. But it's almost like the shark's just there so the movie can happen around it because these characters are hilarious and nuanced and partially insane and partially crazy and fun and weird. That part of it is fun. And then it's a movie that came out of its time. It was like Spielberg's first big movie that he got made. It was plagued with problems, but what they created out of what they faced, it was amazing. And then visiting the Universal backlot where it was filmed too, I've got nostalgia for there. So it was hitting me in like five different ways when this thing came out. And the 500 games that I put through that, having it at home, was just phenomenal. And I love what they've done. The video mode.
    36:27
    Most video modes, gameplay pauses, and then you're just using the flippers to play a video game. And it's like, okay, fine. They can be fun or they can be like Venom where it doesn't make any sense to whip your hair back and forth like Willow Smith. But this game, you're using the pinball machine as a controller to play the video mode. So you've got those lanes in the ocean and there's victims in them. And as you shoot the different lanes on the plague field, your shark moves to that lane. So when you see like, oh, there's people over on this shot, I'm going to hit them over there. Now I'm there. Now I mash the action button to chomp them all up. right? And so it was just the way that they used the pinball lanes as the controller. Yeah there been a lot of video modes and I don think that anything has been as lauded as that Jaws revenge Yeah so that was fun And then here I have John Wick with a currency system of experience points that means nothing Like I don know what to do with these Wick points Help me out But like Jaws you collect Shark Jaws and all these things You can spend that currency to play these modes. Love that. So January, I think January is a win for each one that came off of there. What do you think? Oh, yeah, yeah. It's big time. Big wins. All very positive releases, I feel. Yeah, like if you won a raffle for one of these games, you'd be like, oh, dude, sweet. I'm super excited. Yeah, all right. What's the next one I got here? Okay, so Princess Brac. That also released around this time. Me and this guy have been talking P3 for a while. I've got a whole TED Talk I need to put together on P3 and release at some point because I have opinions, man, about this system.
    37:58
    I love the tech that's behind it. I love what they were able to create. But I just don't think they have a product that is where it should be for mass market acceptance, which is really what I think this platform needs. like everybody to own one so they can then be compelled to like, what if there was major releases from major companies on the system, you know? Yeah. Or what if they came out with like a John Wick version on this game? Like what if the P3 was like a home console, right? And you had, you know, Arcade Street Fighter, Arcade Mortal Kombat, but you also had the Sega Saturn version, you know, or the Super Nintendo version. You know, so what if there were Super Nintendo versions of AAA titles you could play at home on this machine for like less cost? I would love to see that, but I don't see that ever happening. with how things are doing currently. Everyone talks about the advantage of getting the P3 because then you don't have to pay as much for the next module and the next game and all that stuff. But they don't really talk about it. And everyone loves the secondary market and talking about reselling their games. But you don't think that when you sell your P3, you've got to also sell all the modules along with it. And if you're not thinking that they're going to add any value, you get six modules and the actual cabinet all together is going to be a big big purchase for someone to come and take it off your hands and like if you've got a P3 and they come up with a killer game like Final Resistance like Princess Bride which I think is a good game so you're done with that module, you go to sell it every P3 owner is going to have one too so who are you selling this module to? definitely every P3 owner should have Final Resistance but what's the big thing that everyone loves about Final Resistance is that big screen doesn't move you've got all your inserts there because it looks like a normal pinball machine so where's the advantage so that's where if they came out with a Jaws for the P3 system you could have that Jaws playfield on that screen and then get some similar gameplay It wouldn't be one-to-one, but you would get some similar gameplay in that back third. I think that'd be fun, but, I mean, there's no way it's going to happen. And I know for myself, a big draw to Pinball Machines is the artwork. Getting these artists that we know, we've seen their styles, we know who does what differently, and seeing what they do with the theme that they've been given, and all the artwork that they can put across this playfield. Yeah, so Princess Bride You win the raffle, you got one coming Are you like, oh great or oh crap I'm thinking, how much can I resell this for Alright, alright I mean, if I won one in a raffle, I'd be ecstatic about it So maybe that's not a great way to measure But yeah, would you look to keep long term Or would you look to flip, I guess Alright, so we'll call her a flipper I'm going to throw Motorhead in here Just because it's a game that exists And I want it to be a real game I got to play this at a couple different locations It's got the suicide flippers in it. I love it. It's Motorhead in a box, absolutely. So, yeah, I'd be happy with this one. Give me scissor flippers all day long. Scissor me, baby. I love Motorhead. And seeing David Peck there with the spooky guys, his daughter Danielle works with spooky, I thought that this thing was coming. I thought it was imminent, and we're getting Motorhead. I'm all in on an old school single level type game. Just let me in a box. Give me that motorhead. You got fisted.
    41:36
    Game, if I won this in a raffle I'm keeping it and not flipping it. 100%. Speaking of flipping things I'll have a flipping meat on a barbecue. American Pinball's own. The pride of the United States of America. Barrio in a box. I've heard that almost every barbecue restaurant in the United States has one now. At least on order, yeah. Which is pretty impressive.
    41:59
    We're going to fill those orders. Three limiteds left if you want to get them. Get at American Pitbull or your distributor.
    42:06
    Berrio's Sales Challenge released in February, March or so. And it's got bash locks. Yes. They put flippers on the plastic ramps. They've got ketchup posts. Yeah, yeah. You can make your own custom sauce on the ketchup posts. And if you've got a barbecue restaurant or have a friend with a barbecue addiction, I don't know what else to put this one. Well, I don't know what else you're doing other than buying one of those. I'm writing the Craigslist listing right now for when I win the raffle for one of them is where I'm sadly going to put that. But it will be in good company. It will be in good company. Also good company, Chris Turner, Turner Pinball, Ninja Eclipse. That dude is doing it right. He's starting a pinball company, right? He had deep root assets, right? He had some of these Papa Duke assets, and he was like, I'm just going to turn around and put this up. Who would put out a Papa Duke game in this day and age? I will say that he offloaded the right ones. Absolutely. So original theme, hired artist, Brad Duke, guy that did Looney Tunes art, did the art for Ninja Eclipse, original story, and it's fun to play, and it's built incredibly well. Yeah, it looks really cool. They've got an innovative system for getting your glass off. Yeah. I love it. And taking community feedback and actually implementing it. Yeah. Not turning around and going, why don't you leave it up to us? I think we know better than you. He took this game from joke to poke in about six months. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. But, you know, full size, it looks like a regular cabinet. It's got a shooter rod. Bless you, sir. I'm a fan of shooter rods. You know, I think it's moddable. The price came in where it needed to be. So I'm considering it a 2024 release now. Okay. Because if you want to order one, this is actually the product that you're getting. Sold through. All 100 are sold out. People are really happy to get them. And I think it's a proof of concept for Chris Turner. I think it's more than the gameplay itself. That's what this game is. Yeah, that's a successful one. Yeah, 100 games, deposits taken, game being made, given to customers. What more could you ask for? And then he'll have some funding for that pirate game that's coming next. Right. You think that's what it's named? I think it's – well, I don't know for sure. But you did ninjas. You've got to do pirates, man. Surely. We're going to wait around for JJP to bring out Pirates again. Because I don't know. It would sell. But, yeah. So we'll see there. Hopefully there will be a ship and, like, a cannon battle. I love it, man. All right. I can't wait. So I would flip my Barry O. I would keep my Ninja Eclipse. Yep. And I think that the integration with the app is going to be interesting to see what comes. Yeah. So he's also a tech guy, too. So that's the other part that's coming with this. Maybe the pinball machine is the Trojan horse for the game-changing competitor to Stern's Insider Connected. Who knows? Yeah, because I think he's got some ideas that could easily be licensed because it takes a lot to build that online infrastructure for an app like an Insider Connected. I bet, yeah. So I don't think any one company could come up with a direct competitor to it. But if Chris could come up with something compelling, it's easy to use, app-based, pay for games, track your progress, make your home leaderboard, and then could license that technology to other games where they could just kind of sign on to it and then they have it too, I think that's kind of a winning. For sure. I mean, you can still have a superior product and be unsuccessful because you need to get people into your ecosystem, get them invested in the system and get them using it and actually caring about it because there can be, we can say Insider Connected is one thing and Turner's system is another, but everyone's using Insider Connected because they're already there and it's easy to get to. So, yeah, getting people invested in the platform. We had Nintendo versus Sega, right? We had Sony versus Microsoft. Like when it's two big juggernauts competing with each other, like we really kind of win because they've compiled all those resources. You know, when we have, you know, the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis, and then you've got TurboGrafx-16 and CDI and all these other things, like they're not real competitors, you know. So to see every company try to come out with their own form of some kind of insider connectivity, and then you've got a list of all these apps, and they don't all talk to each other, I don't think that's the way to go. I like the binary system here where you've got Stern as the juggernaut, and then everything else coalesced in this other system. I like the fact that competition like that will push them to keep improving. Because the last thing you need is someone sitting back and just being happy with their product, Like not trying to innovate, not trying to improve on it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and then you get like buy-in from everybody else. I could see it. So keeping my Ninja clips.
    46:36
    What are you doing with ABBA? It's being delivered tomorrow. Are you going to unbox it or are you going to list it? Oh, yeah. Look, you know what? I'm going to unbox it. I'm going to play it. I'm going to have people around and play it a couple of times and then I'm selling it on. Yeah. Yeah, that's not for me, man. No way. Dancing Queen? Nope. See her spin on the trampoline? But I know that some people will get a kick out of it. Yeah. There's going to be people that get a kick out of it that sing along. Everybody sings along to ABBA. Yeah. Right? If you're into ABBA and then into ABBA pinball, you know who you are and you've already bought your machine. So for the 12 people that got that, fantastic. Not to skip ahead too far, but just like Avatar, you don't really go into people's houses and they've got the ABBA gold record on the wall, or posters, or you don't see someone with an ABBA shirt on. But you go down the street, you'll probably see eight people with Metallica shirts on. Yeah, or like Nirvana for that point. Exactly, yeah. Yeah, so that would have been great. Layout-wise, I have played this game. I don't hate it. The flippers feel like they have less strength than new JJP, Spooky, Stern. But every shot is hittable, so it wasn't like, you know, on some barbecues when they were first booted up, like you would have trouble getting up some ramps, and that was frustrating. This game is like, you know, the flippers are strong enough proportional to the game. So, like, the whole game is playable and every shot is reachable, but it just doesn't have that feel I'm used to with a modern game. And then, you know, every shot was just like, okay, let's put a ball all the way up the middle into the vertical up kicker to load the helicopter and try to get to that multi-ball. Yeah. I get there's avatars and all these things to collect in it. I didn't get that far into it. I will say at Expo, it was only like one or two people deep to play, so I did play it a lot just because when I would walk by, it's like, oh, let's get some more Abba on. I'm going to give this game as many chances as possible. I think it's fun. I'd play it on location, but I wouldn't keep it in my house. Yeah, and I mean, when you base it around that stage show that they were doing, it's really probably only making sense to the people who have also seen the stage show. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. And the market for like, hey, we're in Vegas or we're in – there's one in the UK for one of these hologram shows is one thing. Oh, let's go to the show after dinner with the whole family since we're all together. But it doesn't translate into let me buy the $10,000, $11,000 pinball machine and bring it home. No. And the art is weird. People have got to realize that these are big purchases. Yeah. We've been in the hobby for a little while. We get desensitized to the prices. but I know that coming in to the hobby and seeing this like for us, you know, $15,000 premium is a big deal. This is like a boat. Yeah, it's a boat. I could buy a boat with that, yeah. Yeah, like a big recreational vehicle, an RV, a caravan or something. And then even then if you do go in on something like that, usually you only have one. You know, you don't have like three boats in your driveway, right, unless you own a marina. Yeah, unless you're like a boat enthusiast or something. so yeah and then the art on ABBA looks like your cousin's airbrushed panel van that they drove in high school it's got like bad vibes like if this was it just needs like a rearing unicorn with like lightning in the background and if they would have stepped in and just owned that ridden by a naked chick with a big fuck off sword it's like heavy metal let's go or like an airbrushed carnival ride you know yeah ABBA the revenge okay see that I would go for 100% Abba the Revenge. Yeah. Oh, my God. What if, okay, what if they take Abba, keep the layout with the helicopter, switch the theme, and that's what Predator's going to be?
    50:20
    Oh, I'm afraid now. I'm closer to liking it, but only because I don't have to listen to Abba music if it's themed as Predator. Yeah, but Predator deserves better. But, you know, they did Alien, and reportedly someone's doing Predator, and it might be them. And, you know, it's got a helicopter in it, but please don't reuse that layout for Predator. Oh, good. I really like Alien, and I love that it's a wide body, and it feels like a wide body. It does, yeah. Whether you just say that that's floaty, I don't know. Maybe I like floaty games. I don't know. Maybe I'm messed up. I warmed up to it the more that I played it. I think atmospherically it does great work. Sure. It's fun to pick the Alien code or the Aliens code, so there's some replay value in there. Yep. For me, for the money, it's a matter of there's probably five other games I would want to have more. But it's not like the last thing I would get. If I wanted, I would hang on to it. And having Alan Ripley in the game now is a big deal. Yeah, the Ripley version. Yeah, yeah. So good on them. Good on them. But how about Weird Decision? Strange. John Wick, also released in the year. Man, that game got a ton of hate right off the gate. Of course, you know, the stipulation of no guns on the heart work. Give me my guns. Or the play field. Give me my nunchucks Give me my boomerang I'll boomerang them Game's fun, hopefully it comes around I'm still hanging on to mine If I had an offer I would sell it But I haven't taken to Pinside and actually put in the effort Of creating an ad to seriously try to move it on Partially because I'm hopeful for code To keep elevating this thing So I'm going to go play the new 80 callouts I dig it I wish there was more interesting things in here Not even like an upper playfield but just like, you know, I don't know, more wire forms or something. It just feels like it's a bit limited, which is like the five or six main major shots that it has. It only has the one drop target, although I think they use it in a unique way to trap the ball back in that nightclub. But it just needs a little bit, like something a little bit more compelling. And I really want to see this game with max code to fairly judge it. It feels like a lot of very okay shots, okay areas of the game, Whereas the games, the big games that we think of have that big hitter, the building in Godzilla. God, that functions as its own diverter. Exactly. Something like that where it's, yeah, okay, we've got the shots, but then you've got this big motherfucker. Two big good ramps, yeah. Now the center shot on Wick feels good because it's very circuitous as it comes back to the flipper. I find it hittable on mine, but it's not definitely not easy to just fire up the middle shot. But you can hit it from either flipper. and on the premium LE that functions as the ball lock diverter goes over there too so it's like just enough when it comes to layout this game really needs code to take it over the finish line Jaws has such a cool layout especially with that left circuitous wire for ball guide path that goes down through the spinner that the layout is already really good and the code just really kicked its ass so yeah I'm keeping WIC I like what we God, I wish there was more in it, but yeah. I think I'm putting it up for sale, but I'm not pushing it. I don't think anybody would blame you. What are you going to do with this Funhouse remake that Pedretti brought out?
    53:38
    I'm taking the Midnight, or what is it, the Midnight Edition or something like that? What's that? The Midnight Train to Georgia?
    53:44
    What's the... It's a good one, yeah. I think they called it. It might have been Midnight. Whatever one Brian Allen put his art on. Yeah, that art is good. That art is good. Plus, that one comes preloaded with the 2.0 code as well. I've played it really good. I love the idea of remakes, taking these classic games that we liked, bringing them out in their original form, but also with newer updated code if that's what you want, LCD screen interactivity. Tweak them a little bit, take all those issues that we heard about for 20 plus years and make changes, make them more reliable, make them easier to work on. Yeah, I dig it. I wish it was a little more seamless to switch between the two modes. Have you come across one of these? Not the remake, no. I've played Funhaus and I've played Funhaus with their 2.0 kit, which I thought was fine. So this one works similarly. You start Alien and you can just flip between Alien and Aliens and just hit start. This one you kind of have to do a soft reset for it to reload. And if you put a coin in and you're like, oh, it's on Funhaus and we switch to the other one, you've got to put coins back in. Those credits don't carry over from Funhaus to Funhaus 2.0. And so that's kind of weird. Too much of a pain in the ass. Yeah, yeah. So it's like, oh, I don't want to switch back and have to reload the whole thing. I'm just going to walk away. Because I've gone and switched modes before and then found out there was already credits on that other mode. Oh, really? Yeah, so somebody put in money. So the credits stay on that mode. Yeah, yeah. Isn't that weird? That's weird, yeah. Come on, guys. Get that together. That's too weird. So if they can overcome that, and maybe I am glad that they redid a funhouse because it's not one of the more – if this was Twilight Zone and it was kind of funky like this, it would kind of make it kind of crap. Yeah. So maybe they've learned from that, and then they can go into more of a seamless transition between 1.0, 2.0 when they do a Whirlwind, or when they do a Whitewater, or when they do a Twilight Zone, or something like we really want.
    55:32
    Funhouse seemed like an okay choice, but there's like a hundred I would have picked over that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I don't know. Unless it's the fact that CGC already has those other ones locked up, so it's like Funhouse is what was available. But I'd like to see Pedretti continue. This was a fun year we had. It was pretty solid. Yeah I think if you went and you just threw the question out to the ether you probably get a lot of people going yeah well shit we didn get fuck all Yeah but we only halfway through this We did get a lot and we got a big broad range Yeah.
    56:04
    And, like, we got this Godzilla 70th, too. This was that anniversary edition that was coming out. Everybody thought, and probably it was going to be another LE. Yeah, oh, yeah, it was. Yeah, absolutely it was, yeah. You know what, though? I've still got the shits on that that wasn't a mirrored back glass. Oh, yeah. Even though it was like, you know, call it a premium, call it whatever the hell you want, but you know they probably had those in the works. Yeah. I bet there's something hanging around. There's a mirrored back glass of that Godzilla 70. The Godzilla blood red kiss. Yeah, they didn't have the stones to go ahead.
    56:38
    Fuck your secondary market. Yeah. Game's cool. You know, it's another way to enjoy the game. It worked really well on blood red kiss. other games have been done black and white before Munsters to great effect to the fact that that was the one that I went and got was the premium Munsters with that black and white now from what I'm told that black and white was handled by the artist in a way to really make it pop as a black and white like a grayscale like it was made as a black and white yeah like from the ground up it was colored and shaded to be that Godzilla may have been more of a click the sepia button and hit print I don't think it's as simple as that but it did come across a little bit more flat And with the red GI illuminations that are sprinkled through there, they cast this kind of pink glow. So it's almost like the Godzilla pink red kiss. It doesn't come through with that deep red that it really needed to be hidden with. But it's still one of the greatest freaking games. And it sounds like they're throwing it in the vault and not going to run up again. So probably a contractually obligated. We already have some art. Let's put this out. Let's just not do the LE. Let's just get these out and make some money and move on. It seems to be how it went. I've been kind of vocal on not really liking black and white art packages because I feel like these artists are employed to create something that, you know, blasts with color and really gets your attention. And just, like you said, with that, you know, it's the same art package and it's just been drained of all its pop and what we love Zombie 84, which is big color, bright, bold. So hopefully the industry has learned from this. So when we do get to the black and white Berrios Barbecue Challenge release, like we'll really have that pop. Yep. Like, yeah, the barbecue sauce and that grayscale will just like hit. You know, yeah. I can't wait. I'm a buyer if that comes out. Yeah. For sure. Especially if there's like a tofu mode. Like you put in a flipper code and then it goes into vegan mode. Vegan mode, yes. Hilarious, right? Yes. I've mentioned that every time I've gone to the American Factory. I'm hoping my words are getting through because I think that would be funny. Like let me put in this code and it's like tumbling barbecue tofu back there. vegetables chopping through the air like fruit ninja playing or something let's not take ourselves too seriously especially a barbecue game what if there was a fruit ninja video mode on barbecue love it all right great idea uh all right so we're heading into the final part of the year this is where the real heavy hitters came um we got x-men yes um that was oh my god the reveal and the initial trailers for that made this place blow up yeah like the or i should say like the pinball world blow up. I was sitting there watching the trailer and then I was texting my dealer like, you got one of them Ellies left? Alright, I'll take one of them in a premium. Let's go.
    59:20
    I love that idea of the destructible wire form. The mechanical diverters I'm really into. I like the way you said that you like the idea of it.
    59:31
    A little bit of tweaking and you can make sure it doesn't just go straight down the middle. Now I've learned to anticipate it. It's kind of like, okay, it broke. Catch the ball. Go. You know, some people's unboxing, you know, the wire forms were bent such that it would really riskily go down the center, and that's unfair. You know, it should be going to the flipper. So you can make little minor adjustments of the end of the wires to make sure it's going where it needs to go. This is a game that needs to be leveled left to right, like, perfectly. Yes. Because a lot of it hangs on that balance, especially catching the ball in the danger room versus, like, having a ball that's uncatchable and just rolls off the flipper. Yeah, that's rough. Yeah, yeah. Because there's a lot of, with the new mode and code we've got for this game, There's bonuses you can build up in the danger room during multi-ball. So you're doing that juggling thing. I love the innovation of this. It's like the opposite of Venom, like as far as you can get. I divide the play fields up into the back third, which is like where most of the things are. But you have a middle third of the game and you have a lower third. And a lot of titles, that lower third is like standard across every release. You don't see anything new or different there. The back third is where everything is at. The middle third, sometimes you get a ramp. You know, like on Foo Fighters, you get the van ramp to the left. Or you get some kind of, on Elvira, made great use of that middle third. You have a Crypt on the right. You've got the Ball Eject Gargoyle on the right side. The left side, you've got the stand-up targets for the lock. You've got the Trunk that's right there. You have another way that you can sneak balls in for a quick lock. So it's all, like, utilized. Venom, the only thing you got in that middle third, aside from Spider Cheeks coming out in the Limited and Premium, was one stand-up target. And so I like the fact that X-Men is absolutely stacked in the lower middle and upper third. It's got cool shots I've never seen before, fun things that are there to do. It was really hampered, I think, with just the ball guide tracking on the launch. Yes. And so that fix was supposed to be out a week ago. I've played the fix at IAPA, and so what they've done is they've found a way to adjust the ball guide in the middle of the ball launching area on the right, and then also put a retention plastic in that back corner to keep air balls from happening because the balls were getting air and losing some momentum coming around that corner. It just surprises me so much that, you know, you went, they went, I'm trying to get my words right here, they went through all this development, all this testing, you know, and even a guy like Jack Danger didn't, like, say, stop, we need to, let's get this right. Yeah. Well, I mean, he made a figure eight work, right? He made the danger room playable, not just feel like a punishment. Yeah. So the fact that if the ball guide wasn't adjusted, you got a little bit of a left flipper hop, and the fact that the balls were plunging all the way around was probably on the list but not a priority. So you think that the time crunch had something to do with it? Absolutely. And if you had that game and we were complaining because that figure eight shot never worked, that would be a problem. Yep. On mine, I got like a 90-plus percent success rate. Good shots go up there. They whip right around that figure eight and come right down. Satisfying every time it happens. Repeatable. And so if they got that right now, we can fix a shooter lane problem. It's not too much of a big deal.
    62:43
    Ship out of plastic to everybody, fine. But it sounded like it had to leapfrog in development. It had to get rushed at the end. Not everything can make it to 100%, and that's probably what happened. I guess, yeah. But, yeah, game's fun, and it's another game that, while I do have it available, I haven't really aggressively made a pin side posting for it and you know spammed it everywhere that I'm selling it so yeah if I keep it for a little bit while the code matures I'm okay with that too sure I'm definitely keeping that if I get it given to me I'm keeping that bad boy it's a hell of a mostly because I'm a yeah X-Men fan and I'm a basic bitch I just fucking love Wolverine yeah you know just like every 90s kid that was just like yeah I want to be Wolverine throw a few knives in between your fingers yeah come on um it's a hell of a pro too yes yeah like yeah you're not missing much there um so and i like this trend like i've heard the next couple pros are coming out with they're going to really be more full featured and less like a star wars pro or a venom bro geez yeah that's that just oh god i had played the venom le yeah first and that's why i think i was a lot higher on it than most people than a lot of people i really enjoyed it i went into this coffee shop that we've got and it was there. Have a crack on it. Good music, good flow. Went to the annual show that we have here and they only had the pro there and it pissed me off with how empty it felt. Right, you're like picking characters and just changing colour. If I came and saw that first, I would have been so dark on it. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, that's for sure. So hopefully X-Men will make sense as far as when you rescue a character it actually changes gameplay and such. A couple more left here. Avatar. Talked about that. Hasn't made it here yet. Nope. All right. Check it out when it does. The Eclipse is most fun. It looks like a lot of fun. It's a beautiful game. The art's cool.
    64:39
    Looks like the shots are a lot of fun. I know a lot of people wanted more toys in it, which is cool. That's fun as well. It's kind of a middle-of-the-road thing, and definitely not something I'd be running after with the price that they are over here. It's crazy. But people that like the theme really love this game. I know a dude that's already got his CE on the way. He loved the Stern avatar. He loves the theme. And I think he's going to have a really good time with it. Yeah. So fun. And another filler for JJP, because we eternally wait for the rerun of Pirates and also Harry Potter. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Well, I mean, going back, the great thing for the Barrier's Barbecue owners is that you can just grab a playfield, up a playfield and slap it on there and you've actually got an Alice in Wonderland. Oh. Yeah. Did you know that? It hadn't occurred to me quite before in just that manner, but now that you say it, I'm going to perpetuate that myth and rumor. Yeah. And it's fine because you don't even have to buy flippers for that upper playfield. No, you don't have to. A couple of magnets, and who cares if they even work because there's no way to even get up there anyway to begin with. So it solves its own problems. Exactly. Yeah, you've got to be in that one mode and then you really can't get up there anyway. Yeah. That's cool. And Jackpot, Alice. Jackpot.
    66:01
    It's a game that came out and pre-orders are gone. I'm pretty sure you can still get them here. If you want one, Australia, they're available. Australian Alice's Adventures in the Outback is here. When are they coming out? Nobody knows. Tell you what did come out, Metallica Remastered, and it's effing awesome. I think it should be. I love this remaster. Please do more of this, Stern. Looks awesome. Yeah, Ghostbusters Tron. Ozzy Guy Reese Cooper on art. Yeah. It's just everything that I had issues with with the original Metallica has fixed it. And I'm fixing this one up for the one-up lounge, and then I'm probably going to turn around and get another one and start over because it's so fun. It's so fun. It's funny with how many people didn't like Dirty Donnie's art on the first one. Yeah. Almost the same amount of people don't like the art on this one. You know, that's fine because what this remaster did was made all the other ones more affordable. True. And so, yeah, go snag yourself a road case, mate. Yep. Grab yourself a road case. All right. And finally, at the end of the year, we got, you know, until the stern last-minute release, was Evil Dead from Spooky Pinball. Yeah. Now, I was introduced to this a little bit early by the guys and did my best to keep it under wraps, but the rumors were out there. I really liked the game that I played. and I'd still have not seen Evil Dead though I was aware of Ash and all that and I was like okay I'll probably get this game just based on the gameplay itself and now that I've seen the movies obviously I get it, the call outs, they're hilarious so I'm really excited about it but I like the way this game played out of the gate and nobody else has really played this yet and this game is over two thirds of the way sold out most of that was immediate and so people are buying this based on just the theme alone Mm-hmm. So... Well, I mean, the theme and the way that they delivered the reveal, you know, you get to see a lot of the shots. You know, you got to see some gameplay. Yeah. And, you know, when a game comes out and you don't have to have some, you know, whatever, a podcaster getting paid to tell everyone how amazing this is and they need to buy it and it's all sold out and all this bullshit and they haven't even played the game yet. Right. You know? Yeah. It says a lot for how much trust they've built up in the community. You know, people know that these games are going to come out, they're going to be full of theme, they're going to be much more reliable, you know, and every time they come out with a new game, they're getting more and more, you know, practice around, like, getting those paths together, getting those issues ironed out really early on, you know, because we've heard it all, you know. Well, we won't put squeakies on location because they're not reliable or anything like that, But I don't think that that is as much of a problem in the last few releases, and I think people need to give it more of a chance. Yeah, I've noticed the thing is Spooky will take a lot more chances than you would see from a Stern. Case in point with Scooby-Doo. You hit that middle ramp to get the upper play field, and there's two of these sculpted plastic glove hands from Captain Cutler up there. Oh, yeah. And they're on little actuators, and they jiggle back and forth and stuff and move. And it's super cool. occasionally one of them will migrate slightly or rotate outward to the right, and then it can form a ball trap there if the ball is coming up the ramp too fast. It will get caught on the edge of that glove. And you have to take the glass off, just pull it back where it needs to be, retighten the bolt or something. It's not a problem at home now that I've recognized it and I've got it tightened back down. But if this was a game I put out on location and that happened and I didn't get back to it for a day or two and there's a ball stuck up there, that game is down. So that would affect reliability there. So it seems to be that you have to know these games a little bit to know which things to go through. And at a place like Electric Bad, it's probably not a problem because they know how these games work and they keep them in optimum condition. But if you're just going to kind of throw it on location and see it on your route once or twice a week, you maybe see more of these problems because of how much they put into them and how much nuance they have. Now that I know where that thing's at, I kept mine tight and it was never an issue before. But that may be where some of it's coming from. But what a huge, huge thing to, well, I'm not saying huge, huge, like it's insane, but it's a big hitter to come out with at the end of the year, and that topper that they've got as well is nuts. That's creepy shit. I thought that Rudy was creepy. Yeah, I was generally terrified a bit the first time I saw it, and that was on a very early prototype. The code wasn't even complete. Now that I've been back to the factory playing their launch code, like I'm seeing all the things that topper's doing, and how it's interactive. And I've seen it from front, back, and side now, so it's got a full metal construction on the sides and back. It's an impressive guy, man. I'm not a topper guy, but that one is pretty, pretty, pretty cool. Yeah, like if this was in your basement, your kid wouldn't want to go downstairs. No. It's terrifying. Yeah, I feel bad for the kids. What's the upgrade worth to that badass topper? $1,400 USD. Right, right. And what does the remastered Metallica top up? 1,000. Wow.
    71:20
    Yeah. It's the full size of the back box, too. Like side to side, front to back, it takes the entire thing up there. Whereas your Metallica is essentially just half the size of the cabinet space that you have. And it says Metallica, which it says on the back box. It does that, doesn't it? Yeah, it does. I mean, give me some, like, the characters or something. Give me some of the band members up there or something. I think of toppers like dioramas, right? Sure, yes. Oh, because if you're going to put the marquee up there, fine, but, like, put some, you know, like, plastics that are lit from underneath around the sides and everything, you know. Throw in a little Pepper's Ghost glass effect or something. I think the Avatar topper was amazing. Even, like, you know, get Lars' drum kit up there. Yeah. Get the guitars sitting on their stands up there or something with some lights up. Go to Spencer's Gifts at the mall and get a little laser projector. They're not expensive, but mount that on top so your ceiling says Metallica. So you can have that even there too. And then the different songs come on. They could have different light shows. That would have made it not hurt to spend that much. Some passion. Yeah. Get some passion into it. Yeah. No, we want it to be brutal and brutalistic. Yeah, and everything. That was 2024. And put it down on paper now. That's an impressive list. Pretty cool. Yeah, and I'm excited about the class of 2025. and I think that's kicking off. Let's officially start it now. So if Dungeons & Dragons comes out, that'll be a 2025 release and then, yeah, we'll just keep going. Love it. Phantom Tilt. Where do they find you? Yeah, you can follow us at Phantom Tilt Pinball and all the social media joints.
    72:52
    We've been pretty quiet over the last couple months with our move. You got into a brand new studio here. It's amazingly impressive. Yeah. Love it. It's been a big year for us and a big year for Pinball. and for you guys coming, a 14-hour flight from L.A. to here. See, you're my connection to the Australian culture over here. There's only a handful of podcasters from here, and that's like my window into what's it like over here, which let me tell you, it's amazing. There's fried pineapple on every corner. Come get it. There's kangaroos literally just wandering around outside. It's the land of the koalas. The beaches are great. I didn't get murdered by a jellyfish. I'm having a great time.
    73:31
    I feel like I'm home in Southern California out here. only everybody's like even more chill if that's possible i'm glad i'm glad that you've enjoyed your time yes and uh we're gonna go and we're gonna have a nice christmas day by the pool um you've bought a little bit of cool weather it's not as hot as we expected it to be as hot as the usual aussie christmas but hopefully we still get get in the pool and have some fun have some drinks all right i think i'm i think i'm ready for both so let's go ahead and do that This has been Don's Pinball Podcast, episode 165? 165. 65. More to come when we get back stateside.
    74:08
    Go ahead and drop an email at donspinballpodcast at gmail.com. Join the Patreon and be a bro. There's so many people over there. Patreon.com backstreet.com. Don's Pinball Podcast. We're on Facebook. We're on Instagram. We're all over the place. Tons of this content I've been filming and everything will be going up soon, so watch the YouTube channel for that. All that and more to your door because it's you that I adore. I don't know. It doesn't really work. All right, later, everybody.
    74:32
    Eat your vegetables.