WAP #37 "Harry Potter is here!!"

We Are Pinball (WAP)·podcast_episode·23m 1s·analyzed·Jun 5, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

WAP celebrates Harry Potter pinball reveal with detailed edition breakdown and design praise.

Summary

WAP hosts celebrate the official reveal of Jersey Jack Pinball's Harry Potter machine, analyzing all three editions (Arcade $10K, Wizard $12K, Collector's $15K) with enthusiastic breakdowns of playfield design, features, mechanics, and specifications. They praise the game's design philosophy, comprehensive feature set, and production quality while noting it's a pre-release discussion based on flyer information rather than hands-on play. The hosts emphasize that all three editions share identical playfield and code, with differentiation in cosmetics, toppers, and armor.

Key Claims

All three Harry Potter editions (Arcade/Wizard/Collector's) have identical playfield and code—differentiation is cosmetic only
high confidence · Host explicitly states: 'all three scroll between them, it's so cool to see that there is like no different on the play field' and 'The gameplay field and the mechanics of the game are the same across all versions.'
Game features four flippers (three full-size plus one mini upper flipper) with each themed after a Harry Potter house
high confidence · Hosts confirm: 'It's a four-flipper game' and 'four flipper game yeah harry potter's hogwarts school has four different houses that you get sorted in and each flipper is themed after a different house'
Arcade Edition includes 400+ playfield RGB LEDs, 48 unique ball paths, and clips from all eight films
high confidence · Direct flyer reading: '400 plus Playfield RGB LEDs' and 'Clips from all eight films'
Collector's Edition playfield includes sparkle/glitter in clear coat (same treatment as Guns N' Roses, Godfather, Toy Story 4)
high confidence · Host states: 'There's going to be a sparkle in the clear coat on the direct print play field, so there'll be some glitter that's thrown into that coating. They've done this on Guns N' Roses. They've done this on Godfather. They did this on Toy Story 4.'
Mark Silk is voice of call-outs and is official Sorting Hat voice in Harry Potter universe across theme parks, toys, and video games
high confidence · Host explains: 'Mark Silk is doing voice call-outs for this game. This is the preeminent call-out voice actor... he is the official voice in the Harry Potter universe for the Sorting Hat outside of the actual films. So in the theme parks, in the toys, in the video games, this man is the voice of the Sorting Hat.'
Designer is Eric Menier, rules/code by Joe Katz, music/audio by David Thiel
high confidence · Flyer credits: 'eric menier on game design joe katz on code... david thiel' and host confirmation 'this is totally eric menier'
Game ships with three spinners
high confidence · Host emphasizes: 'Four flippers, yeah. More to do. Four flippers, three spinners' in comparison to other recent games lacking spinners

Notable Quotes

“They brought it like a newborn baby woman delivering another baby woman. They have delivered upon to this world a game of significant significance.”
Donnie (co-host) @ end of episode — Emphatic closing endorsement of Jersey Jack's Harry Potter delivery and quality
“I love what JJP does... Thank you, JJP. You did it, man. You understood the assignment.”
Jingus (primary host) @ early in discussion — Explicit praise for JJP's understanding of what the community wanted from Harry Potter adaptation
“If this thing magnetically launches in a circle like a little mini Star Wars, I'm buying a collector's edition today.”
Jingus @ discussing Quidditch upper playfield — Expression of excitement contingent on upper playfield mechanics; Star Wars comparison indicates expectation-setting
“How do you even release a game with no spinners? On this 10K arcade version, 400 plus Playfield RGB LEDs.”
Jingus @ mid-episode feature discussion — Implicit criticism of recent competitors (Venom) for lacking spinners; positioning Harry Potter's inclusion as a feature
“At $1,200, you know, it's close. It's got about $1,200 worth of stuff in it, plus the $800 labor fee it would cost you to do it yourself... anybody that would then jump $2,000 for this stuff would probably just go all the way and get some collector's edition.”
Donnie @ Wizard vs Arcade edition comparison — Value analysis suggesting Wizard Edition price ($2K premium) makes weak case for mid-tier unless customer goes all-in to CE
“So for that being my only gripe so far, I think that's pretty good... I would only change one thing, and that's the art of the CE.”
Jingus @ Collector's Edition discussion — Single criticism: preference for movie art over Mia Lima Design Studio book-inspired aesthetic on premium edition
“I've got it on my Avatar CE. I love that. I love that. So, okay. All right. So, awesome... Willy Wonka with all that red under the play field... nothing beats it. It's just magical on that game.”

Entities

Jersey Jack Pinballcompany Harry PottergameEric MenierpersonJoe Katzperson David ThielpersonMark SilkpersonMia Lima Design StudiocompanyJingusperson

Signals

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community_signal: WAP podcast positioning as voice for tournament players and location operators; celebrating one-year anniversary and expressing appreciation for inclusive design philosophy in Harry Potter tiers
medium · Host emphasizes: 'nobody appreciates tournament players more than WAP here... We are pinball. We might as well be. We are tournament' in context of praising Arcade Edition accessibility
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community_signal: Jersey Jack explicitly designed Arcade Edition ($10K tier) for tournament players and location operators, signaling inclusive pricing strategy
high · Host states: 'I love that they're making Arcade Edition for tournament players, man. For us that puts pinball machines out on locations, tournament players can come out and enjoy these games'
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competitive_signal: Harry Potter positioned favorably vs recent Stern releases through feature comparison (spinners present vs Venom's zero spinners; rich RGB implementation vs Avatar's side lighting)
medium · Host contrasts: 'How do you even release a game with no spinners?' (re: Venom) and notes Harry Potter's 'three spinners' as advantage; compares lighting effects to Avatar CE positively
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design_philosophy: Single production-level criticism: Collector's Edition art direction (book-inspired Mia Lima Design Studio) deviates from movie aesthetic preferred by hosts and potentially some collectors
medium · Host notes: 'They've eschewed the movie art for Mia Lima Design Studio artwork... It looks like a pediatrician's office... This would make sense in a library... I love the movies so much. I would prefer that'
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Topics

Harry Potter machine editions and pricingprimaryPlayfield design, mechanics, and layoutprimaryFeature differentiation between Arcade/Wizard/Collector's editionsprimaryValue proposition and cost-to-feature analysisprimaryDesign team credits and production qualitysecondaryComparison with recent competitor releasessecondaryTournament player accessibility and location operator considerationssecondaryPremium cosmetic features (toppers, armor, lighting, artwork)secondary

Sentiment

positive(0.92)— Hosts express consistent enthusiasm and praise throughout. Only criticism is Collector's Edition artwork aesthetic preference for movie art over book-inspired design. Multiple expressions of excitement, desire to purchase, and endorsement of design philosophy. Comparison to competitors frames Harry Potter favorably (spinners vs Venom's lack thereof). Value analysis is constructive rather than dismissive.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.069

oh what's up everybody across the wop nation let's get together it is time for the harry potter release we have got the flyers we've got the images it's all out there available no more speculation across the harry potter nation wop sensation throughout the vibrations jingus buddy what do you think man we got harry potter i'm looking at it it's a new pinball day i'm so happy it's a new pinball day it's father's day i'm so happy new pinball day equals happiness right donnie look at all of the horcruxes this is our one year anniversary for rob also oh number 37 so donnie for we did this for a year and made 37 shows I love that. I love that. Oh, man, WAP is back in rare effect. I'm excited, man. Oh, my Harry Potter tinglings are going off, man. The leaked images, the potato cameras, all that is done. We now have the actual play field to play with. Hor Crux is one through six, I'm assuming, are here on the play field. There's 57,000 different ball paths, 80,000 wire forms. I might be hyperbole-ing a little bit, but I see a damn Patronus staring at me, dude. This is what I wanted. Thank you, JJP. You did it, man. You understood the assignment. There's like one attraction I can make. I've already made that out there. It's not even a game killer for me. Let's go, Harry Potter. Holy crap. Let's go, man. Yeah, so we have the flyers. We're looking at them right now. Three different models, $10,000, $12,000, and $15,000. Right. Arcade Wizard Collectors. Yes. Oh, beautiful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I think we should just start talking about the Arcade Edition. Let's go, man. Let's go. Because I'm loving this. I love that they're making Arcade Edition for tournament players, man. For us that puts pinball machines out on locations, tournament players can come out and enjoy these games because nobody appreciates tournament players more than WAP here. We are pinball. We might as well be. We are tournament. I agree. I agree. I am beyond excited here for this game. Standard wide body. So here's what you get. You get a freaking Patronus and you get a freaking Dementor or something on the apron. And then it just goes from there. You got Gryffindor colors on the left, Flipper and Outlane. You got Slytherin colors on the right. I can totally dig it. It looks like they took some inspiration from what we've seen before when it comes to illustrative efforts on the virtual game, the virtual pinball play field, but incorporated well here. I love what JJP does. So the basics, all three levels, you're getting the JJP build quality cabinet. Hot rails are in there. LCDs are in there. RGBs are in there. You get all of that business. And the gameplay field and the mechanics of the game are the same across all versions. That's the best part about it. That's the best part. I love it. So when we look at these flyers, all three scroll between them, it's so cool to see that there is like no different on the play field and i'm loving that i'm just loving that it's so enjoyable so if we start with the arcade edition it says heroes and villains decal art package black winkle armor printed trans light okay trans dot marquee lighting premium direct print play field seven chrome wire form rams so chrome instead of gold here's what all that here's what all that means you're getting all the same wire form ramps it's just for this version and the wizard they're going to be chrome they're not going to be gold like the fancy one fine that's fine you get you get the you get probably the best art package of all three uh is is what's coming on both the the arcade edition and the wizard which will be coming up next these will be decals right so just the simple stickers that we're all used to uh decal cabinets really good art heroes on one side villains on the other i love that man and then it just comes with standard armor that's fine use it or tear it off and put on some better armor you can do that you don't get a back glass with this version you get a trans light if that's important to you it's two thousand dollars to move up to the next level i don't think that that is a game killer translate marquee lighting means absolutely nothing that just means leds in the backbox whatever and each one of these has a direct print play field i don't even know why they're highlighting that that's literally how you make a play field you print it and then you clear coat it but here it's a feature so well they wanted to fill out the thing that they didn't pull off the quidditch upper play field on this they didn't pull out the tree they didn't pull out the whomping willow they didn't pull out the spinning staircase didn't pull out the portraits they've been pulling nothing you got the tri-wizard wand freaking wire form ramp in the same place as the drumsticks from guns and roses and i love that so much people gonna call it lazy i call it hazy i love it i love it haze me all day glaze me baby glaze me daddy i love that now i have i haven't had time to dissect through all of the shot pass and everything that are in here but what's there looks fine as long as i got code and movie call outs that'll be great i haven't even got to the feature right yet this is just going off the play field i'm excited i don't know if you can tell yeah but it says right here man at the top it says this is totally Eric Meunier it says three entrance 13 exit grand staircase with moving portals this is still we're talking about the arcade 10k edition high flying quick ditch upper play field so we still have the upper play field and when you look at how packed this one looks now I don know if it because of the art but it feels packed Right Donnie Absolutely, man. And look, I can't even tell what this wire form is even doing up there, dude. If this thing magnetically launches in a circle like a little mini Star Wars, I'm buying a collector's edition today. Holy shit. What's a Death Eater pinball firing interactive sculpture? Good question. I have no idea. um mirror of erased to show your heart's desire okay these are all things yeah from the film i'll have to watch featurettes to see how this is all implemented harry ron and her money want three ball lock so that so that's interesting so the triple wand area there is a ball lock physical ball lock i love the three wands up there man give it to me man do they have leds of the tips I love this, man. I love this. And it's a four-flipper game. I love that. Four flippers, yeah. More to do. Four flippers, three spinners. It's got the classic three-flipper design, right? Three full-size flippers on the main gameplay field. And then you have an upper play field with a small mini flipper. I'm totally fine with that. It worked great on Foo Fighters. It worked great on Jaws. It worked great on, I don't know, something else that I can't even think of right now. And one very, very important thing, three spinners. Thank you. Give me them spinners. I love spinners in the ball machine. How much is a freaking spinner, man? Give me spinners. Yeah, what's this like one spinner? Venom had zero spinners. How do you even release a game with no spinners? On this 10K arcade version, 400 plus Playfield RGB LEDs. Woo! Right. Yeah, this thing is going to glow. And 48 unique ball pass. Thank you. Thank you, dear designer. And what they're not listing here, you know, you still get great audio. Oh, it is there at the bottom. You know, Wi-Fi, the camera's on there. Bluetooth is on there. You got an audio jack on the front. So you're getting all of that with this base package without taking off anything. There's no mechanisms missing. There's no per play field missing. There's no flipper missing. Like, it's the complete game, the complete code, the complete experience, 10K. I'm hype on the arcade version, man. And listen to this, dear listener. Clips from all eight films. beautiful call outs design yeah did you see this team did you see eric manier on game design joe katz on code so this won't be a multiple all the time and music david thiel come on hell yes hell yes hell yes and then so and then if this wasn't enough let's jump over to the wizard Hang on, hang on. One more thing. Do not gloss over this, sir. Marc Silk is doing voice call-outs for this game. This is the preeminent call-out voice actor in Hollywood, in the nation, in the galaxy, in this corner of the Milky Way. This is the voice of Bob the Builder. This is the voice of, he probably did one of the Garfields in the movie or something. He did the narration from the topper from Labyrinth. In addition to that, he is the official voice in the Harry Potter universe for the Sorting Hat outside of the actual films. So in the theme parks, in the toys, in the video games, this man is the voice of the Sorting Hat. Hmm, I'm thinking Slytherin or maybe a Gryffindor. That's going to be in there, man. I actually thought the arcade version would have only white RGBs on the side, but as you can see here, it's colorful, so that's cool that that's included also. All right, let's just jump over to the Wizard Edition because you're a wizard, Donnie. All right, all right. You ready for this? Heroes and Villians Radcal. Yes. Radcal art package. So get rid of the decals. Inheim's color-shifting armor. Yeah. So if you're lazy, you don't want to update the armor, you got the color-shifting. Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. And Quidditch 3-depth interactive LED topper. So, yeah, the wizard version has got the topper. Cinematic inner art plates. So, yeah, you got the art plates also. Cool. Again, as you said, direct print play field. Okay. Same. Back glass, full surround lighting. So it has got an RGB strip, as you said. But again, seven chrome wire ramps. So the same. So this is your arcade edition that's already been plussed up. So for $2,000, you're swapping out those decals for rad cows. I love rad cows. They feel good. They're durable. I dig them. You know, if it goes in your lineup, whatever. But it's going to look shiny and nice. uh one step below a butter cabinet from spooky like i love me some rad cows um they've already upgraded the armor for you it's going to be the same size and shape there's not going to be anything funny written in the side of it no laser inscriptions but you get some nice little powder coat you don't have to do it yourself this topper is going to be three layers of plastic uh with two led strips on the bottom shining up at it and it'll blink and change color with the game so like that's cool um and you get a back glass if that matters to you maybe there'll be an extra led strip in there or whatever but i want to ask you donnie yeah looking at the arcade and thinking two thousand dollars more for the wizard edition would you pay those two thousand dollars do you do you feel that much of a difference i mean so yes and no like the back glasses to the trans light i don't know that you'd really notice unless you get up and start touching stuff. The inner art blades are going to be available from anywhere from $70 to $120, depending on if you want Radcal art blades or not. The toppers this would probably be an add for the arcade You could purchase for I guessing around is what they would charge for it Hopefully a little bit less And you get a powder coat on there that a couple hundred dollars And then the Radcals, you know, those are an expense and they're already installed for you. So, you know, if it was $1,200, I'd say no way. At $1,200, you know, it's close. It's got about $1,200 worth of stuff in it, plus the $800 labor fee it would cost you to do it yourself. So, like, you know, I guess. But, I mean, honestly, anybody that would then jump $2,000 for this stuff would probably just go all the way and get some collector's edition. That's what I was fishing after. Because on Guns N' Roses Standard Edition, the sides, those lights on the sides, they're just white. And it's just such a letdown when you play Guns N' Roses or some of the other new games with all that light, right? It just came out with Avatar. That light show on the side. it just adds so much to the gameplay so i was like if the arcade edition is just white only on the sides boring stuff boring yes not it's not man red cal instead of normal a little plastic topper instead of no topper the armor i mean it costs nothing to get some new armor there so arcade and wizard i would go with the arcade let's jump over to the maximum edition collector's edition Oh, yes. Do you want to read all that extra stuff? Yes, let's go. All right, here. So here we go. Here we go. Okay. They've eschewed the movie art for Mia Lima Design Studio artwork. I've commented on it before. It looks like a pediatrician's office and all that business. It looks very much book-inspired. This would make sense in a library. This would make sense in a study. The art is good for what it is. I get what they were going for. I love the movies so much. I would prefer that. But you do get the art all over the place. So running down the list, foil Radcals. So, yeah, that art on the side is going to have some foil in it. It's going to be a step above with the foil on a Radcal. I dig it. I dig it. Here's the big thing. The big monster thing is the topper, interactive Hogwarts topper, which I haven't shown an image of it here. That will be in the feature right here to come very shortly. But this is Hogwarts Castle, and there will be some moving elements to it. I don't know if it's strictly like a Duke Caboom thing where Hedgewig and Harry and the freaking Snitch are flying by. I did see where... Two seconds, Tony. I need to stop you now. Two seconds. We just need to tell to the audience, we are recording this before the game has been launched. We have some distro info, so we have distro stuff we're going after. So we haven't seen the featurette yet, right, Tony? Just to be honest and put it out there. Correct, correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, cool, cool, cool. All right. Sorry, buddy. All right. Dark Mark Projector. So if this means what I think it means, and it's going to project that mark in my ceiling. At least it's something. So this is like the big toy you're getting for this big boy money. All right. As far as the armor, the armor's cool. It's laser cut. It's got the Marauder's Map incantation on the side. A gold sparkle armor. That's cool. It's got a gold sparkle on it. Your art blades are foil. Fine. You get gold on your printed back glass. Fine. Here's the thing. Now, so this isn't available in the other versions. There's going to be a sparkle in the clear coat on the direct print play field, so there'll be some glitter that's thrown into that coating. They've done this on Guns N' Roses. They've done this on Godfather. They did this on Toy Story 4. Do you like that? I do when you see it. I love that. It's hard to convey it in images, but when you see it, you're like, oh, yeah, that is kind of nice. That is kind of nice. I love it. Yeah. You get the under cab lighting, the back cab lighting. I dig that. You get the golden snitch shooter rod. Hopefully that's metal and not just plastic. And the wire forms are gold. I love that, of course. Oh, gold in here. It just fits so good. Donnie Sparkle and gold. Yeah. And then you get an action button applique. They throw in some Invisiglass. So you get a signed card, which is stupid. 700 plus RGB LEDs. I wonder if the extra 300 LEDs, where those are coming from. Are they on the play field? Or are these extra 300 on the side rails for the armor and also in the topper, I think is probably what they're talking about. I know where they are. Where they are. They're on the side of the cabinet and on the backside of the cabinet. Oh, that's right. Because there's under cab and back cabinet lighting. Those sneaky bastards. But, Donnie, that gives awesome effect in a dark playroom. I've got it on my Avatar CE. I love that. I love that. So, okay. All right. So, awesome. What's the game with the kids' chocolate factory? Willy Wonka. Yes, yes. Willy Wonka with all that red under the play field and on the back of the play field on the collector's edition, nothing beats it. It's just magical on that game. So, yeah, great welcome. Yeah, so this is good. Of course, like, I would only change one thing, and that's the art of the CE. So for that being my only gripe so far, I think that's pretty good. um other people are warming up to it again i think it's good i get what they were doing with it it's just not what i so they did something donnie how about this player shielding protego make outland save it feels like it's something from gnr gnrc left drain lane fox reborn mini game save what the heck so you have some sort of saver at the left side i'll have to go and sit through the featurette to see that but as far as like our first run through of the features of these games um i think that pretty comprehensive i think they brought it and i think whichever version somebody ends up getting i think they going to be happy with it You going to save some money going with the arcade edition You not losing any gameplay You getting a lot of features packed in there and you can always throw a couple of upgrades into it if you want. And if you go collectors, it's already there, and it's probably one of the best collector's edition packages that they've put together. I just need to see the topper. I want to ask you about the shots on layout. Yeah. How do you feel when you look at the game from top view? Yeah. Yeah, there's a lot of there's a lot of you can tell Eric made this game because there's a lot of other little features that have been in other games like the, you know, the outlanes being switched around between, you know, the inlanes, the outlane, the outlanes, the in lane. We saw that on Pirates, you know, so he's bringing that back again. Of course, we have the drumstick ramp up at the top right. And it's apparently a ball lock. So I dig it. That's cool. This looks it's got like this little pot reminds me of Houdini reminds me of theater magic a bit. um yeah i've seen like a lot of like what has worked before in other games cool little throwbacks and they're all put in here i was wondering how they were going to do a narrow body game and have all this in there oh i see the death eater guy he's like a little mechanism there oh he's between the ramps at first look i was like whoa Steve Ritchie inspired on this design because the first thing i was thinking about wow this reminds me no no disrespect no nothing but it just reminds me of no fear look look look at the shots it just just put up there just like a no fear and i love that i guess it's not a fan layout because it has that upper right flipper that shoots up show the shot nice nice nice the shots on layout i haven't played the game yet no feature it nothing is out yet very very early but very intriguing very welcoming i'll definitely want to play this game yeah definitely it looks like it's got to have a strong orbit that's not the nice three bank of drop targets it looks like on the left there beneath that ramp um yeah left ramp look at the left ramp so inviting it's gonna be my favorite shot yeah it's got a lot of a lot of aspects of other games are really like people are saying they're reminded of lord of the rings i'm reminded of totan and bits of it um i like all the little ball paths that are hitting around this looks like such a much more fun place to go and play than godfather does hey i like godfather so yeah donnie i like that they have this blue car i remember it was something something that car could fly or something yeah yeah it looks like it's stuck in the whopping willow up there so that's fun cool it's really well done so at the left side we have the upper ramp upper playfield with that single flipper mini flipper cool but if you look all the way at the back right side the ramp goes very high up so we have the depth that goes all the way up to the ramp shots like that ramps like that are my favorite and it's a pretty much middle shot that goes up there so it's gonna be very very satisfying to shoot again just i just realized something yeah jengis this is a four flipper game yeah harry potter's hogwarts school has four different houses that you get sorted in and each flipper is themed after a different house in the harry potter universe including mine of ravenclaw is the right upper flipper i dig it oh at the middle of the playfield it says one two three four five six yeah i thought it's if it said seven and eight than it was the all eight movies. So that doesn't matter here. I think these may be the horror cruxes or those might be that cluster that's in the middle there, you know, to be determined. Oh, it's a little Gringotts area over here on the right. Oh my God. Can I go play this? There's a sorting hat. This game's shipping today. Like people are receiving them. Guys, as you can hear, this is a very, very early pre-pre-show. We just want to put something out for you and just share our excitement because Don and I, we saw this and we were like, dude, it looks good. Nothing but grainy pictures and all stuff like that. But we're looking forward to more information that will be dropped like in an hour or something. So we're looking forward to it. And I'm telling you, we will be back with another show talking more about Harry Potter right now. Donnie, right now, I'm like, Jersey Jack delivered. How do you feel? They brought it like a newborn baby woman delivering another baby woman. They have delivered upon to this world a game of significant significance, I would say. Cengiz, let's get on with the rest of the day, and then we'll come back when there's more information, and we'll talk even more about this game. I can't wait to go play it. I cannot wait. I cannot wait. Come on, George Jack. See you later, everybody. Oh! We learn with dropping knowledge in your feed. You're waiting on our turn. You're a hairy wizard, Harry. Run away from the whomping. Will Lowe. Hermione, bring me a Diet Coke. Did you change your mind? I am going to buy this game anyway. Spin that disc like that lane. $15,000 is insane. Popping for whites and sounds collide. Living for the silver ball ride. Guys, everybody, I hope you enjoyed this. This was...